Disgusting video of Metta “World Peace” winding up and elbowing James Harden of the Oklahoma City Thunder after a fast break dunk.

Artest tries to convince the referees that he unintentionally elbowed Harden as he was celebrating his slam, but replays show that he intentionally wound up his elbow and wailed Harden on the side of his head.

World Peace was ultimately ejected from the game and will likely be suspended. Walking into halftime, Kevin Durant called the play “unfortunate” and “not a basketball play.”

It’s terrible. I don’t know how “World Peace” ever got back into the league. Clearly, he still doesn’t get it, and should be suspended the rest of the season + playoffs.

“What a disgrace.”

Here’s a better angle view of the Manu Ginobili pass from Friday night. Check out the behind the basket camera angle – it really shows just how amazing the pass is. It’s just an overall better video. Enjoy.

In tonight’s Spurs vs. Lakers game, Manu Ginobili was up to his trickery again.

After taking an offensive rebound from Tiago Splitter and the Laker’s defense resetting, Ginobili saw a seam. And that’s all he needed.

Manu took the pass near half-court and in one motion, wound up like a pitcher and fired the basketball to Matt Bonner under the basket for a layup. Amazing.

Despite whipping that pass through five purple and gold jerseys, it’s difficult to see how amazing that pass truly is. I’m sure someone will upload the video from the behind-the-basket perspective.

American college basketball’s leading player Brittney Griner has withdrawn from consideration for the United States women’s Olympic team.

Discuss Women’s Basketball in our forum

The 2.03m center, who led Baylor to the NCAA title earlier this month and was named the Associated Press Player of the Year, was among the leading candidates to fill the 12th and final roster spot in Geno Auriemma’s team but has cited an unspecified family illness and summer school classes as reasons for not being available.

Griner said: “Because of a family illness and my school schedule during the summer, I have told USA Basketball Women’s National Team Director, Carol Callan, that I will be unable to participate this summer with the 2012 USA Basketball Women’s National Team.

Read the rest of this entry »

Iman Shumpert has seen his minutes diminished with the return of Carmelo Anthony and Baron Davis, but in my estimation, the rookie should be getting much more burn.

In his first season, through 35 games, Shumpert is averaging 9.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.9 steals.  His shooting percentage isn’t high, but the 21-year old brings a lot of intangibles to the game.

The 6-5 Shumpert has the long arms, athleticism, and basketball I.Q. that make him invaluable to the Knicks on both ends of the court.  His ability to run the floor, create his own shots and play defense like he wants to are three factors that the Knicks are missing.

You could say that he’s the X-Factor.

X-Factor—Iman Shumpert

By Keith Schlosser, KnicksJournal.com

Though they put forth a valiant effort against the league-leading Bulls, the Knicks were unable to snap what is now a six game losing streak.

Instead, the team will look to take advantage of the week ahead as they attempt to build up some needed momentum. In order to do so, a full team effort is necessary.

Lucky for the Knicks, they possess one of the NBA’s deepest rosters with a strong array of different talent. Of course, the team’s “Big Three” will be relied upon to lead the way. Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire bring explosiveness on offense, while Tyson Chandler serves as anchor of the defense.

That said, the team will surely look down its bench for more positive contributions. Which Knick has the potential to pace his team’s balanced attack as they look to resume their winning ways?

Read the rest of this entry »

It was bound to happen. After Jeremy Lin graced the cover of TIME and Sports Illustrated (twice). Now, the holy grail of basketball respect – the cover of SLAM Magazine.

Lin is featured on the alternate cover – the other featuring Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio.

Here’s what SLAM had to say about their decision to put Lin on the cover, “…he earned himself a SLAM cover pretty much entirely because of how he played in his first seven NBA starts. On the surface, this is insane; generally speaking, SLAM covers are highly coveted and hard as hell to get, the domain of superstars who tend to be really greedy about sharing that space. How does anyone “earn” a cover on the strength of seven games?”

Read the rest of the post here.

Cleveland Cavaliers rookie guard Kyrie Irving has decided not to make himself available for Australia’s 2012 Olympic squad.

The number one overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft was born in Australia while his American father was playing professionally in Melbourne.

He has dual citizenship.

Irving was a leading player for the United States at the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship for Men before attending Duke University for a year and playing for Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski. australia-in-2012-olympics-kyrie-irving-will-not-play-for-australia-in-2012-olympics/#more-8420″ class=”more-link”>

Read the rest of this entry »