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Serge Ibaka really likes Spain. He started his professional career there, speaks the language fluently, became a citizen this summer and helped the team take gold at Eurobasket.

So if he’s going to play anywhere overseas during the lockout, you can bet it’ll be Spain. Via Sportando, two clubs are pursuing Ibaka in Real Madrid and Valencia.

What Real is after though is to sign Ibaka for the future, as they did with Rudy Fernandez. That’s extremely unlikely as Ibaka is very happy in Oklahoma City with the Thunder.

The Thunder have had only two players defect overseas during the lockout with Thabo Sefolosha signing in Turkey with Fenerbache and Byron Mullens signing for a short stint in Greece. Kevin Durant’s name was tossed around a bit during the summer but it’s not looking like he’s going anywhere. KD set a deadline of Oct. 1 to make a decision to go overseas and since it’s Oct. 24 and he hasn’t signed anywhere, I think he’s staying put.

Via The Point Forward

News

Despite Blake Griffin being out for Sunday’s charity game, Oklahoma City is going to see the most star-studded rosters of any NBA pickup game this summer.

Joining a list that already includes Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, John Wall, Amare Stoudemire, Chris Paul, Jeff Green and Rudy Gay, is Kendrick Perkins, James Harden, LaMarcus Aldridge, Damien Wilkins, Jonny Flynn, Jamal Crawford and Michael Beasley.

Desmond Mason said this: “It is going to be a wonderful event that is virtually sold out. Everyone is bummed about Blake, but as it pertains to the quality of players we have, one person does not dictate that. This is an opportunity for our fans to show the world that Oklahoma City is deserving of an All-Star bid in the future. Without the Hornets, Oklahoma City wouldn’t have had the opportunity to secure an NBA franchise and hopefully this event enables the city to be in consideration for future All-Star events.” Read more…

News

Via Marc Stein of ESPN.com, Blake Griffin will miss this Sunday’s charity game in Oklahoma City because of a cut on his right foot that “required a couple stitches.”

Griffin cut his foot while in the ocean, apparently.

Major bummer for a lot of reasons, but it’s a blow to the game that was billed as “The Battle for Mr. Oklahoma” as a head-to-head between Kevin Durant and Griffin. Not that the game doesn’t still have a solid cast (LeBron, Wade, Russell Westbrook, Carmelo, CP3, Amare, John Wall, etc), but Griffin was one of the two headliners. I would imagine he’ll still attend, just not play.

News

Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images

If you had trouble buying the tickets you wanted Monday to the Kevin Durant-Blake Griffin charity basketball game, you weren’t the only one. Ticketmaster issues — surprise! — made ticket sales for the Sunday’s U.S. Fleet Tracking Basketball Invitational a crazy endeavor early Monday afternoon.

“It was out of hand,” said former Thunder player Desmond Mason, who is helping to organize the game. “I had some high-profile friends calling me saying they couldn’t get them.”

Dozens of people were lined up at the Cox Convention Center box office by 11 a.m., but workers there later created a lottery system that gave no preference to those who arrived early. Some people lined up at Homeland stores in the Oklahoma City area to get tickets there. Others spent time in Ticketmaster’s online waiting room.

Many people were told that only the $39 tickets were available after a few short minutes, but that was not the case. Single tickets in all but the courtside price level were still available late Monday, which stood in direct contrast to what many customers were told by the Ticketmaster website and Homeland employees as early as 12:05 p.m. Pairs of tickets remained available in the $89 price level late Monday. Read more…

Commentary, News

Joining Kevin Durant in Oklahoma City’s charity game that will take place Oct. 23 at the Cox Convention Center is a pretty solid list of NBA stars.

So far, the game will feature Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, John Wall, Rudy Gay and former Thunderer Jeff Green, which will be very cool.

A few more players will be added to fill out the rosters over the next week.

Tickets, starting at $29, go on sale Monday, Oct. 17, at noon and can be purchased through Ticketmaster.com,coxconventioncenter.com, the Cox Center Box Office, participating Homeland stores or by calling 1-800-745-3000.  A portion of ticket proceeds and auctioned jersey sales will benefit non-profit groups that will be selected by Durant and Griffin.

News

A press conference was held today in Oklahoma City to give a few details on the Kevin Durant charity game. It’s going to be billed as “Blake Griffin vs. Kevin Durant.”

Previously it was reported the game was Oct. 27 but the actual date is Oct. 23. Tickets will start at $29 and go up to as much as $199 for floor seats. Bowl seating with be for $89.  Tickets go on sale Monday at noon at www.coxconventioncenter.com, at Homeland stores and the Cox Center Box Office (800) 745-3000.

Right now, Durant, Griffin and LeBron James are confirmed for the game but Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul also are expected to play. And I’m sure a number of Thunder players will join the action as well.

News

Via NewsOK:

Durant will host an all-star exhibition game featuring LeBron James and former Oklahoma star Blake Griffin at Cox Convention Center, sources told The Oklahoman. The game is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 27. A press conference has been called for 3 p.m. Wednesday in Oklahoma City to release more details on the exhibition.

News

Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images

There will be an NBA season. You can take that to the bank. Or to the grocery store. You can take it somewhere.

But what there won’t be is a first two weeks of the season. Those are canceled. Which totally sucks, but that’s just the reality. The owners are greedy. The players are greedy. Everyone’s got blood on their hands here.

Blame who you want to blame, yell about it to your cab driver, write letters to your congressperson (that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?), but it doesn’t matter. Until the players and owners — very rich people, mind you — can agree on how to split up some $4 billion in revenue, we won’t be seeing basketball.

Two weeks could very well be the tip of the iceberg. Which would really suck. But it starts with two and we know those are gone. What’s out for the Thunder? Read more…

News

After a seven-hour meeting to try and salvage the start of the NBA season, David Stern emerged from a swanky New York hotel and put it simply.

“I’m sorry to report … that the first two weeks of the season have been canceled.”

Ridiculous. Completely, totally, entirely ridiculous.

It’s hard to try and separate emotions from these labor negotiations, but I’ll be honest: I’m furious. Furious that it’s come to this. The fact these two sides can’t get together and figure out a common ground without cancelling games just pisses me off.

But there’s no chance of an 82-game season this year. Gone are at least the first two weeks. It could be more. We’ll see what happens next I guess. Probably just more seven-hour meetings that produce nothing. Awesome.

Bright side for the Thunder? They only had two home games in the opening two weeks and to be honest, they kind of sucked (Indiana and Toronto). But instead of seeing your Thunder in person again Nov. 4 at home, you’ll have to settle for something else. I kind of think we should all show up Nov. 4 to Chesapeake Arena anyway. A demonstration of sorts. I feel the need to do something.

News

Well, that was quick.

Byron Mullens has already left his team in Greece to return to the United States. He tweeted Kevin Durant Sunday, “what’s good I had to come back to the states, can’t be missing anymore team camps. Let me know when the next one is. I’ll be there.”

When Durant asked him, “u quit?” and Mullens replied, “them dudes were on some other stuff over there. Wasn’t worth missing workouts with all y’all.”

What that “other stuff” them dudes were on is up for speculation, but the usual suspects would be his team wasn’t paying on time, he was being treated really strange, the travel sucked, the practices were long, or someone killed a goat during practice.

Or maybe it’s just that Mullens saw his teammates were all working out together and figured he would be doing himself more good being back with them.

News

Via the Sun-Sentinel, rosters for the Heat’s charity All-Star game are set. The game is Sunday at Florida International (Isiah Thomas is hosting) and is going to be streamed online at 6:30 p.m. CT.

Playing for Team LeBron: Chris Bosh, Jamal Crawford, Kevin Durant, Jonny Flynn, Rudy Gay, LeBron, Damon Jones, Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook and Lou Williams.

Playing for Team Wade: Carmelo Anthony, Caron Butler, Mario Chalmers, Eddy Curry, Wesley Matthews, Chris Paul, Amare Stoudemire, Dwyane Wade, John Wall, Dorell Wright.

Who has the edge here? I’m super-biased, so I would say Team LeBron regardless, but really, it seems a lot better. LeBron, KD, Rondo, Westbrook and Chris Bosh? That’s pretty stinking good. Now Melo, Chris Paul, Amare, Wade and John Wall is solid too, so obviously it’ll be a close game. Eddy Curry will probably be the difference-maker for Team Wade, so look out.

Proceeds from the event will go towards Mary’s Court Foundation, a foundation established in honor of Thomas’ mother, the late Mary Thomas. A portion of those contributions will support FIU’s First Generation Scholarship Fund, which provides financial aid to students who will be the first generation in their families to earn a college degree.

News

By all appearances, there’s reason for optimism on the NBA lockout front. Owners are hedging a bit on their demand for a hard cap, players are pulling back on the BRI split. And best of all? They’re talking. A lot. Two meetings already this week with another Friday and potentially more over the weekend.

And as you see, some heavy hitters are making the trip for Friday’s meeting. Big name players as well as somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 owners. It’s a big, big day in terms of NBA negotiations. If you’re on the side of optimism, you might see it as a chance to push ahead to a deal. If you not, then you might see it as the league and players doing their best to save face with fans by giving the appearance of trying to strike a deal.

Either way, talking is much better than not.

News

I really look forward to NBA 2K12′s ratings every year because it’s kind of the only way to get an actual list with actual numerical values to rank every NBA player. We can all put up our top 100 lists or whatever, but NBA 2K12 actually gives you numbers.

Last season, Kevin Durant was a 91 and Russell Westbrook an 81. I felt like that 91 was a little low for KD. This season, he’s improved, but not by much. Via this grainy video, Durant is a 92 on this year’s game with Westbrook jumping up to an 88.

Durant’s the sixth best player in the game with Westbrook coming in as the 10th. When it gets put that way, the ratings don’t seem low at all. Ahead of KD is LeBron James (98), Dwyane Wade (96), Kobe Bryant (94), Dwight Howard (93) and Chris Paul (93). I can’t really argue too much with that. Read more…

Commentary, News

So much for Space Jam 2: Rise of the Durantula.

Eagle-eyed reader Andrew (or possibly bored-at-work-and-iMDbing everything reader Andrew) sent along a tip to this iMDb page for a movie titled Switch which is set to come out in 2012. It’s starring as you might’ve guessed, one Kevin Wayne Durant. I’m just assuming this is the movie that KD’s supposed to be in. Putting two and two together here, I am.

The director is John Whitesell who has directed such films as Malibu’s Most Wanted, Big Momma’s House 2 and a bunch of TV episodes of “The Cosby’s,” “Law and Order,” “Blossom” and “Coach.” So as you can see, pretty impeccable resume there. Read more…

News

Training camp should be starting in about 15 days. That’s when teams come together, meet the new guys and start rekindling that old chemistry with teammates. It’s time to get in shape, start going over the playbook again and chip off a little of that summer rust.

But because of this whole stupid lockout thing, it doesn’t look like that’ll be happening, at least not on time. But the calendar says September which means it should be time.

And that’s why the Thunder (or I should say, Thunder players) are organizing their own little mini-camp. Via Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Nick Collison, Nazr Mohammed, Eric Maynor, Royal Ivey, Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook and Reggie Jackson will be there.

Missing from the list? Kendrick Perkins, Thabo Sefolosha (who makes his offseason home in Switzerland), Byron Mullens (who is in Greece), Nate Robinson and Serge Ibaka (who is playing for Spain in Eurobasket).

The idea is to be as sharp and as ready as they can possibly be whenever the lockout is lifted and the team can go back to work. You have to wonder who’s running the show though. I’d appoint Nick Collison interim head coach because that’s just makes too much sense. With Royal Ivey as his assistant.

News