NBA Offseason News – September 26
It’s been a pretty quiet offseason so far for the NBA and no one has been happier than commissioner David Stern.
The only real hiccup for the league has been the incident at the rookie seminar involving the No. 2 pick overall, Michael Beasley, Mario Chalmers, who was the point guard for Kansas during its national championship run and Memphis Grizzly rookie Darrell Arthur.
Chalmers and Arthur – a teammates at Kansas – were kicked out of the league’s Rookie Transition Program before it even started after they were cited for having inappropriate guests in their hotel. Marijuana was also smelled in the area. Somehow the NBA’s vaunted security detail that was called to the room missed Beasley who was hiding.
Later it was discovered that Beasley was in the room and he was given the steepest fine of $50,000 see was not cooperative. Chalmers and Arthur got slapped with $20,000 fines and they have to come back to next year’s seminar.
I don’t know much about Chalmers and Arthur – it seems that Bill Self runs a pretty solid program at Kansas – but I do have some thoughts about Beasley and Kansas State.
Have you ever been to Manhattan, Kansas? The thought of Manhattan, Kansas, having the allure of island of Manhattan is like thinking you’re going to get outstanding Manhattan clam chowder from of can.
Beasley grew up just outside Washington D.C. I find it hard to believe that a kid who is used to being near metro area just heading out to the middle of nowhere when there are so many other schools – that are much better in basketball – in more similar areas.
Now I obviously don’t have facts to back up this, but I’m guessing that Beasley had other factors helping make his decision to go to Kansas State apart from its education, which I’m sure is just top notch.
The man that recruited Beasley to Kansas State was Bob Huggins. After Beasley made his commitment to play for the Wildcats, Huggins jumped ship to his alma mater, West Virginia. Again there was never anything proven about anything that Huggins has done, but his programs not always been on the up and up.
While Chalmers and Arthur are certainly at fault, I would be surprised if you hear a lot abut them off the court anytime in the near future or maybe even at all. Beasley, on the other hand, has a better than average chance of making the Miami Heat brass holding their breath every time he leaves the court.
And it’s not like he’s going to the tamest NBA city in the country, he’s going to freaking Miami. It’s Vegas southeast without the gambling. So let’s plop down a 19-year old kid, who is quickly establishing himself as a problem child, in the middle of all that and gee whiz maybe things will come out just fine. Ha!
Maybe I’m wrong on this. It’s quite possible. It happened once in 1992 and I haven’t lived it down since. Of course the opposite could happen. With all the temptations that are in South Beach maybe Beasley will completely shield himself from it and focus completely on basketball. Dwayne Wade could be a great influence on him and it will come out all hunky dorey. My bet is that Beasley gets into a couple of incidents for underage drinking, disorderly conduct, etc. I hope I’m wrong…
After all think about how much shit the Portland Trailblazers got into in what is typically a quiet region. Maybe that’s the problem, when there aren’t mainstream, legal outlets for social activity people with a disposable income and plenty of free time turn to illegal activities.
In Other News …
…As previously mention it’s been a pretty quiet offseason. Last week Darius Miles was suspended by the league for using a banned substance, phentermine, which is a diet drug. Miles grew up in a rough section called East St. Louis and spent some time in Portland so he’s probably going to be behind the 8-ball.
…Had he not wallowed with some bad teams during his career, Shareef Abdur-Rahim may have been considered one of the best players of this era and potential candidate for the Hall of Fame. Potential candidate, not actually getting in.
After an All-America career at Cal, Abdur-Rahim was sent to basketball purgatory, aka Vancouver. He spent five seasons with the Grizzlies, two and a half in Atlanta, a year and a half in Portland and two seasons and six games in Sacramento. Changes those to Los Angeles – the good one, not the Clippers – Boston, San Antonio and Detroit and you might have a different impression of his career.
What should shape your thoughts about his career is that he scored 15,028 points during his career, averaging 18.1 points per game, and grabbed 6,239 rebounds. In 2000 he averaged a double-double with 20.3 ppg. and 10.1 rebounds per game. Two years later he was an NBA All-Star. While there was no one incident that caused his knee problems, that was what ultimately forced him out of the game.
