by Lang Whitaker
QUOTES OF THE DAY
“He’s a hell of a kid.” — Larry Bird, on Marquis Daniels.
THE LINKS…
• LeBron, Carmelo, Dwyane and Bosh all plan to sign shorter contracts than they initially agreed to. Sam pretty much sums up my feelings here.
• Paul Pierce is set to ink an extension to keep him a Celtic through 2011. Anyone who voluntarily ties themself to Danny Ainge for that long needs to have their brain type checked.
• And Drew Gooden might be leaving Cleveland.
• More on the Amare Stoudemire “injury documentary.”
• Congrats to our recent cover man Greg Oden, who just won his second Gatorade National High School Athlete of the Year award.
• SUMMER LEAGUE: Wow. Guess who showed up to play in Long Beach? Penny Hardaway ….. Celts coach Tony Brown got himself ejected from a game for the second year in a row ….. Marty Burns catches up with Andrea Bargnani and raves about the Foye and Roy show ….. Lots of updates from the Vegas league with a Portland slant …..
• The Spurs signed Francisco Elson and Jackie Butler to offer sheets. Like hearing that Elson’s nickname with the Nuggets was “Geico.”
• Is there anyone who actually thinks getting Jeff Foster and Anthony Johnson for Al Harrington would be better than getting Troy Murphy and Mikael Pietrus? I mean besides Billy Knight, of course.
• Flip Saunders says he’s ready to go next season. The alarming part of this article is that he’s described as wearing “designer jeans.”
• Mitch Albom blasts Ben Wallace for leaving Detroit and says he “probably won’t listen to any athlete the same way again.” Zzz…
• I have no idea whether or not Mikael Gelabale can play or not, but he sure looks cool.
• The Toronto Raptors signed Tony Parker. Wait, the other Tony Parker.
• After DeShawn Stevenson‘s agent told the Magic that D-Steve had at least two better offers on the table, the Magic said fine and signed Keith Bogans instead. Whoops.
• Only the Post would use this headline.
• LaSalle’s Steven Smith is playing on two summer league teams.
• Shammond!