2013-2014 NBA Thread - IND @ WAS and OKC @ LAC on ESPN

[wavycrocket]

Paul Pierce did quite a bit of chucking in his days as the go to guy in Boston. He was also inefficient, lazy on D, and had only one ECF appearance before the arrival of KG and Ray. Ya'll dont remember Pierce and Toine' crying about not getting enough time in the All star game?

i think yall are missing the point that yo was trying to make earlier. He wasnt saying that Melo was comparable to KG, or even on KG's level, I think he was saying that their situations were similar. Thats all.

 

[flyerthandelta]

@certifiedflyboy ^^^ :x
View media item 651610

 

[wavycrocket]

Just realized Wiggins dad played for the Sixers

Wiggins Dad also did quite a bit of coke back in the day.Was even suspended by the league. Pretty cool how he got himself and family together.

 

[akhi]

 

[lawdog1]

when, where, was this Baby Davis footage and what was behind it...

http://www.tmz.com/2013/11/12/glen-davis-big-baby-motel-travelodge-meltdown-keyboard/

Here you go.

 

[certifiedflyboi23]

what is he doing staying at a Travelodge?

 

[senorroboto2k5]

what is he doing staying at a Travelodge?

Who was he meeting at a Travelodge?

 

[certifiedflyboi23]

*wee-bay gif*

 

[grandtheftbike]

what is he doing staying at a Travelodge?

Who was he meeting at a Travelodge?

Pushaton

 

[noblekane]

He'll be back in 3 pages.

Still batting .000 on your predictions

 

[herbshuttles15]

what is he doing staying at a Travelodge?

Who was he meeting at a Travelodge?

Pushaton

 

[coldcity]

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Ex-Jazz ball boy selling Jordan’s shoes from legendary ‘Flu Game’
NBA • Now 35, Truman has some amazing stories to share.

By Matthew Piper

View media item 651595Courtesy of Preston Truman Michael Jordan sits on the Chicago Bulls bench at the Delta Center during the "Flu Game," in which he led the bulls to a 3-2 NBA Finals lead on June 11, 1997. Seated on the floor at right is former Utah Jazz ballboy Preston Truman.

If it wasn’t the shoes, it might have been the applesauce.

For 15 years, a safe-deposit box in a Davis County bank has housed a pair of size 13’s that could put a dent in the national debt. Yet all it took for Preston Truman to earn the sneakers Michael Jordan wore during his legendary “flu game” was a little courage and some applesauce cups.

The former Jazz ball boy’s tale began in November 1996, with Truman standing slack-jawed while Jordan tied his shoes before a regular-season game.

“Hey,” Jordan called to Chicago Bulls trainer Chip Schaefer. “Where are my graham crackers and applesauce?”

This was, it seems, important.

Schaefer stopped taping another player’s ankle and searched his bag: Graham crackers, but no sauce. So Jordan turned to Truman.

“There will be no autographs for ball boys after the game if I don’t get my applesauce.”

Thus, with 45 minutes until the tip, Truman set off on a reckless dash through the Delta Center. Shouting “I’m looking for applesauce for Michael Jordan,” he came up empty on floors one and two, but on the third floor a woman in a food-storage room gave him an industrial-size can. He procured a spoon and a can opener and sprinted back to present it all to a grinning Jordan.

“You came through,” he said, and asked the ball boy’s name.

The Bulls lost that night, and MJ was slightly sour when, on the way out, he passed a table of items that people were hoping he’d sign. But he saw Truman and stopped to autograph a trading card the 18-year-old had in his pocket. “Maybe I’ll see you in June,” he told him.

—

Well, what do you know?

Truman was assigned to the visitor’s locker room for Games 3, 4 and 5, and he hatched a plan. He wanted shoes — not just Jordans, for which people in the ’90s would camp outside Foot Locker, but Jordan’s. He asked his mom to buy some graham crackers and Seneca Apple Sauce cups, and he had them waiting in MJ’s locker when he walked in.

“You remembered?” Jordan asked. “That’s my guy right there. It’s Preston, right?”

He managed not to squeal. “Yes, sir, I’m here to take care of you.”

Jordan said he appreciated that.

Before one game, when Jordan was sitting on the trainer’s table, a KSL ad came on the TV. Jazz forward Antoine Carr channeled Rod Tidwell from “Jerry Maguire,” imploring Utah celebrities to ask him to “Show me the title!”

MJ looked up.

“He said, ‘I’ll show you the f---ing title,’” Truman says. “It’s moments like that where you sort of pinch yourself.”

The Jazz won twice to even the series 2-2, and Jordan’s food poisoning was evident as doctors and trainers checked his vitals before Game 5. He lay down in a back room with an IV and asked them to turn the lights off as they left.

Truman walked in. He almost turned back when he saw Jordan’s eyes were closed, but His Airness had sensed him and asked that he run some tickets to will call.

First, though, Truman leaned in and whispered — wondering whether this was a remotely sane thing to do — “Are you doing anything with your shoes after the game?”

Jordan looked him in the eye. “Why, you want them?”

“I would be honored,” he said.

—

Maybe his gall inspired MJ. Probably not. Either way, Truman had a better-than-front-row seat to Jordan’s magnum opus.

He was one of the first in the building to know that Jordan would play that night when, as Bulls coach Phil Jackson gathered the team to go onto the court, Jordan finally got up and put on his jersey. He watched Jordan struggle back to the bench during timeouts; he ran Jordan a spoon for three small cups of applesauce at halftime; he heard Jordan tell doctors “F--- no” when they suggested he sit out for a while.

Truman’s parents would later tease him because the broadcast showed him — a lifelong Jazz fan — patting MJ on the shoulder after he wrapped him in a towel.

When Jordan hit the clinching shot and leaned into Scottie Pippen’s arms, barely able to stand, Truman estimates he was 5 feet away.

“I was like, ‘I think I’m going to see this again and again.’ ”

After the game, the shoes were underneath Jordan’s dressing table while Truman went about his work. The ball boy panicked when Charles Barkley stopped by to visit — Bryon Russell had asked for MJ’s shoes earlier in the season, and Gary Payton drew flak in the 1996 Finals for doing the same. But Chuck left without them.

Jordan showered and dressed, and when the equipment manager reached down to pick the shoes up and pack them away, MJ told him to hold it. “Those are his,” he said, pointing to Truman. He later signed both shoes while one of his bodyguards snapped photos. He then rubbed the top of Truman’s head and left.

—

The next season, Truman was working at a Fanzz store when a man came in with a fat envelope stuffed with, he told Truman, $11,000. Just hand over the shoes, he said.

Truman was tempted. He didn’t need money, but he was 19 years old, and it was $11,000. In the end, he decided he couldn’t bear to part with them, and the shoes went to the bank instead.

He’s seen them just a handful of times since, and he recently came to the conclusion that they’re not doing anybody a whole lot of good.

“I’m 35, and 40’s just right around the corner, and it seems like time goes by faster the older you get,” he says. “Maybe it’s just time to get those things out there.”

He reached out to auction houses, which verified that his shoes were the real McCoy by checking that Jordan’s suit in the photos matched what he was seen wearing earlier that night, and that the shoes bore identifiable scuff marks (which luckily they still did, even though Truman at one point narrowly prevented his mom from cleaning them off with a dish rag).

Bidding on the most iconic memorabilia from the most iconic athlete in his most iconic game will begin at $5,000 on Nov. 18 at Grey Flannel Auctions. Similar items have gone for tens of thousands of dollars.

But Truman says that to him, it’s not about the money. He works in sales throughout the valley and leads a comfortable life. He’s just happy to finally tell what he calls, simply, The Applesauce Story.

[/quote]

 

[you big dummy]

^ story


There was a former Utah Jazz ballboy on NT, who had a lot of MJ game worn shoes

 

[coldcity]

^ story


There was a former Utah Jazz ballboy on NT, who had a lot of MJ game worn shoes

that's actually being discussed here right now http://niketalk.com/t/574581/ex-jazz-ball-boy-selling-the-real-flu-game-xiis#post_19098273

Someone on NT was a Jazz ball boy. I remember seeing it in the JB forum YEARS ago.

i remember this too

Did a quick search and his name was nickfairclough

Not sure if he made the move over to the new site but here's the info from old NT:

http://go2page3.blogspot.com/2009/01/interesting-insights-from-former-nba.html

EDIT: looks like he did make the move over so

@nickfairclough any insight to this story? Did you work with the dude in the OP?

 

[grandtheftbike]

he looks like hes about a legit 6'4 without shoes

 

[osh kosh bosh]

For people wondering how Wiggins came to be the undisputed number 1 pick?

Randle is a beast. He’s about 6-foot-8 and likely checks in at around 235 pounds or so. He’s big, strong, athletic and just flat-out dominates every forward he goes up against on the summer circuit. But not Wiggins. Wiggins made Randle look ordinary, as if he was just another Top 100 player. I will confess that I’m a huge Randle fan, but he was outclassed — in every manner.

That quote came about what 8 months ago at the peach jam, from ESPN evaluator.

I watched that game live, it pretty much cemented in my mind Wiggins>Randle, obviously the college season could possibly change things...BUT Wiggns didn't get here off pure hype. He dominated top 10 players in head to head match ups.

 

[herbshuttles15]

If Wiggins doesn't average 20+ people will say he's nothing special. I hate this build someone up then tear them down approach we have for athlete now.

 

[jpzx]

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA
Free agent point guard Kendall Marshall had been a consideration with Jazz and remains on radar elsewhere, league sources tell Yahoo.

 

[awwsome]

For people wondering how Wiggins came to be the undisputed number 1 pick?
That quote came about what 8 months ago at the peach jam, from ESPN evaluator.

I watched that game live, it pretty much cemented in my mind Wiggins>Randle, obviously the college season could possibly change things...BUT Wiggns didn't get here off pure hype. He dominated top 10 players in head to head match ups.

I already brought up this matchup to people who were saying Randle > Wiggins but they didn't wanna hear it. Guys just feel a certain way about the hype he's generated and will not see the light until he's dominating the league in a couple years if all goes correctly

 

[lawdog1]

Kind of a boring night in the NBA tonight. I'll probably check out the Lakers-Pelicans since I have the Lakers' station and I haven't seen the Pelicans play yet this season. But none of the other games look all that interesting.

 

[certifiedflyboi23]

Is wiggins a 2 or 3?

 

[ballinsam23]

If I have the #1 and i'm a GM in a stacked draft, 9/10 i pick a dominant big (w/ no past injury issues) over a scoring SG/SF.

I really don't like Wiggins as the #1 pick. He'll be good no doubt, but franchise changing #1 overall pick? I highly doubt it.

I don't think he makes others around him better and i don't think he can dominate an NBA game CONSISTENTLY. Just doesn't have the "it" factor to me.

 

[buc em]

Wiggins does need to put on some size though. Body wise he's the least ready for the NBA out of Randle, himself and Parker.

 

[jpzx]

I'm more worried about a hurricane hitting Minnesota than New York's chase of Love.

 

[certifiedflyboi23]

I'm more worried about a hurricane hitting Minnesota than New York's chase of Love.

Who is the Hurricane?