Hey Kahn, it’s time to re-sign Brian Cardinal

The Minnesota Timberwolves made a lot of moves this summer. Their General Manager David Kahn has been questioned time and time again. Kahn has been ridiculed by many for his statements, draft selections and overall management of the franchise.

Kahn has to do one more move before training camp begins in September.

Yep, you guessed it — it’s time to re-sign Brian Cardinal.

The Timberwolves are young — with an average age of 23 years old. Their oldest player is 29 year-old Luke Ridnour, but he looks like he’s barely 17. This team needs a veteran, a great locker-room presence and a guy who looks his age — Cardinal is all of that and more.

Affectionately called “The Custodian,” Cardinal can do more than just clean up a mess with his scrappy play. Cardinal is the type of 10-year veteran that you want in your locker-room and at your practices — hard nosed and if called upon, can still shoot the rock. Most importantly he always hustles and will give you some solid D. These are just a few reasons why Cardinal — even after injuries robbed him of his best years — has managed to stay in the league for a decade.

I don’t even think I need to bring up the fact that Cardinal co-starred in the Timberwolves best viral video campaign.

Cardinal says he hopes to play one more season, and if I was David Kahn, the paperwork would already be faxed over. Why wouldn’t you want to bring in the type of guy that can make an airport of women go Beatlemania — yes, that man is Brian Cardinal.

Minnesota, along with the world deserves one more year of Cardinal, so go to the website (that some die-hard T-Wolves fans put together) and SIGN THE PETITION and tell everyone you know to do the same.

www.BRINGBACKCARDINAL.com

LeBron James couldn’t live up to his own hype in Cleveland

LeBron James pissed off a lot of people last week, there’s no other way to put it. If you’re one of the 100,000 people that live in Miami, well, you’re obviously pretty damn happy. Same goes for front-runners of our universe — the bandwagon is filling up.

The people of Cleveland went into outrage, and rightfully so. They’re allowed to feel betrayed, that’s part of the business in sports. If LeBron is insulted that people raged the streets burning his jersey, he probably shouldn’t have made his announcement on a reality show-esque prime-time ESPN special.

If his announcement came in the middle of the day, via an update on ESPN or one of the other online sports outlets (as all other free-agent updates do), I’m sure the people wouldn’t have hit the streets in the fashion they did. The thing is, LeBron and his team of handlers, they wanted the build-up and they wanted this hype.

It was ridiculous, and that’s why so many people are angry. That’s why people are laughing at him and “witnessing” first hand just another example of how uncomfortable LeBron James is as a person. He’s a puppet and a follower, who craves the attention to validate himself.

We’ve never seen this type of display in all of sports, and hopefully we never have to see it again.

Dan Gilbert is freaking awesome

Tonight LeBron James “shocked” the sports world. He has left Cleveland, his hometown, after seven seasons. James is heading to Miami to team up with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in hopes of championship glory.

LeBron made the announcement on ESPN’s “The Decision” on live TV.

Cleveland Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert, was not happy about James’ decision and the way the superstar went about making it. He made it well known tonight. As unprecendented as James’ decision was in NBA history, never have we seen an owner drop an open letter to fans in the way that Gilbert has tonight.

In the letter, Gilbert refers to James as a “coward” and mocks the James’ “King” and “Witness” monickers. Gilbert also wishes a curse upon the Heat in the letter.

In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:

“I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE”

You can take it to the bank.

That’s not all, this letter was amazing, ridiculous, unlike anything we’ve ever seen from an owner before. Calling James a coward and cursing the Heat’s title hopes was only the half of it.

In other reports, Gilbert also accused James of quitting on the team during this season’s semi-finals series against the Celtics, along with Game 6 during last season’s Eastern Conference Finals series against the Magic.

The battle has just begun, this is awesome. Gilbert is the man. In one night, he may have went from the ‘just the Cavs’ owner’ to the next Mark Cuban, or the greatest owner in the league, or at least the coolest.

Miami it is, time for Cleveland to rebuild

We heard all day that LeBron James would be going to the Miami Heat, but we still weren’t 100% sure. When he made the announcement that he would be heading to Miami tonight on ESPN, it still kind of knocked the wind out of me. I say that as a guy who doesn’t like the Cavaliers, and doesn’t want to see them be successful.

Well, until now.

We all “witnessed” it tonight.

It still came as a shocker. LeBron James will be bringing his act to Miami, since he couldn’t live up to the hype of being a “king” in Cleveland. It’s time to tear down the billboard and time for the Cavs to rebuild their franchise.

More to come…

A star-studded Amar’e celebration

The Knicks announcement of coming to terms with Amar’e Stoudmire sure brought a star-studded cast out to dinner to celebrate in New York City on Monday night. Based on this photo that former Knicks’ guard Allan Houston (who is now the Assistant to the President of Basketball Operations with the Knicks) posted on his website, everyone who is anyone was at the dinner — or at least close to it.

Besides Houston, joining Stoudemire for dinner was Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni, actor/comedian Chris Rock, director Spike Lee, rapper Fat Joe and former Knicks legend John Starks, along with two other guys (but I don’t know who they are, but they’re cool because they’re at this dinner and I’m not).

I can’t even imagine the dinner that LeBron James gets if he chooses to play in New York. One can assume that in addition to the cast of the Stoudemire dinner, the James’ dinner would feature P. Diddy, 50 Cent, Jerry Seinfield, Kevin James, Abe Vigoda, the entire Yankees team, David Letterman, Patrick Chewing (Ewing can’t make it due to obligations with the Magic) and of course Naked Cowboy.

Even though he’s a prominent New Yorker, I’d have a feeling Jay-Z would be skipping out on that potential dinner.

Stoudemire heading to New York, Knicks go from bad to average

The first few days of NBA free agency have been stories of speculation upon stories of little news at all. Of course there have been the few stories of players who have chosen to re-sign with their teams: Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki have all made the choice to return to the cities that love them most.

As we continue to wait and find out what happens with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, one of the other premiere free agents, Amar’e Stoudemire has made his decision to play for the New York Knicks. Stoudemire has become the first big name player to switch teams, and for New York, they’re obviously excited for two reasons:

1. Their team didn’t get shutout during free agency, and they’ve landed a superb All-Star big man.
2. This could potentially increase the chances of a player like LeBron James coming to New York to team up with Stoudemire.

Though he can’t sign officially until July 8, Stoudemire and the Knicks have made no reservations about making his agreement to join the team official. Stoudemire merchandise is already available on Knicks.com. The deal between Stoudemire and the Knicks is reportedly set to be a five-year deal worth nearly $100 million.

DFW Digs Dirk enough to make a song

One of the most accomplished free agents is Dalls Mavericks’ forward Dirk Nowitzki. A former MVP who led the Mavericks to the 2006 NBA Finals. He’s also scored over 20,000 points in his career. Still going strong, Dirk is one of the league’s top players and a staple in Mavs’ history. By next season, the 32 year-old Nowitzki will be in the league’s top 20 scorers of all-time, but the question is, does Dirk still think he can win a title in Dallas?

Nowitzki made his way back from Germany, (rather than having Mavs’ GM Donnie Nelson come to him) stopping in New York for a dinner with teammate Jason Kidd, and then on to Dallas where he will be greeted by the entire city, which is hosting DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) Digs Dirk Week.

Maverick’s fan Ben Rogers’ even churned out the official “DFW Digs Dirk” theme song. This thing is a whole lot better than a bunch of saps in Cleveland pleading to LeBron, that’s for sure.

Expect Dirk to get a 4-year deal worth close to $100 million. He’ll be back Dallas, no worries.

The Wrath of Kahn: Milicic gets paid

With the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh stealing the free-agent spotlight, as the top players from the 2003 draft class, we almost forgot about Darko Milicic.

Milicic was selected with the No. 2 pick back in 2003. While Wade, James and Bosh have all went on to become superstar players — along with Carmelo Anthony — Milicic has been…well, he’s been Darko — a punchline.

Darko could become a term in the dictionary for “not good,” or “terrible.” Instead Darko is cashing in, yet again, because he is 7-feet tall.

In seven seasons, Darko has played for five NBA teams with career averages of 5.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. Because of these subpar numbers, the Timberwolves decided to sign Darko to a 4-year contract worth a reported $20 million.

That is not a typo.

Timberwolves General Manager David Kahn bascially forfeited the Timberwolves chances in free agency after this signing, leaving them with only around $5 million in cap space left. Kahn is not the league’s most popular GM.

The Timbewolves acquired Milicic from the New York Knicks (where he played in only eight games and publicly vented his frustration) back in February. They donned him a starter, moving Kevin Love to the bench, because the Love-Al Jefferson on the floor combo wasn’t getting it done.

Darko started 18 games for the T-Wolves last season, he averaged 9.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks, during that stretch and the Timbewolves went 1-17.

In seven seasons Darko has made upwards of $36 million, with another $20 million on the way, and a guaranteed 11-year NBA career.

Based on this contract, one would assume that LeBron James is going to sign a deal for six years worth around $2 billion.

And so it begins…

We’ve been hearing about the 2010 free agent class for far too long.

Seriously, this has to be the most overdrawn out, overhyped thing in NBA history. It only got zanier when ESPN had the audacity to put up a ticker counter in honor of LeBron James‘ upcoming free agency, the moment that his Cavaliers lost to the Celtics.

Well, today at 12:01 AM, the counter struck zero.

James is a free agent, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for — well at least people in New York, New Jersey and Chicago. As for people in Cleveland, they’re all crapping their pants right now and probably running around the city frantically.

Of course, LeBron isn’t the only free agent, but if you turn on ESPN, CNN or other outlets, you might get that feeling.

The class is deep, very deep. Other than James, the top players available are Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, Paul Pierce, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Joe Johnson, Amar’e Stoudemire, David Lee, Rudy Gay, Ray Allen and plenty more.

As far as breaking it all down, that’s another post, but let the speculation and rumors continue — the truth is about to come out very soon, and within the next two or three weeks the NBA should look quite different, or maybe not much different at all.

Well, except for Toronto, sorry mates.