Javaris Crittenton's attorney, Brian Steel, says his client plans to surrender to authorities to face murder charges in Atlanta.
Steel says that Crittenton will be leaving Los Angeles and should arrive in Atlanta early Tuesday. He also maintains his client's innocence...
Atlanta police obtained a murder warrant for Crittenton in the Aug. 19 shooting of 22-year-old Jullian Jones. Police say Jones was walking with two men when she was shot and they believe one of the men with her was the target.
Crittenton was, allegedly, in the process of trying to track down the individual or individuals that he thought stole some personal effects...
FOSG's Deidra Dukes and Russ Spencer explain...
((HT: MyFoxAtlanta))
In retrospect, perhaps the former Georgia Tech star and NBA washout shouldn't have announced he was coming back.
The reason....the FBI was there waiting for him before he boarded his flight to Atlanta...and arrested him on the spot.
The Atlanta Journal-Constistution says Crittenton was taken into custody without incident. There is not yet an indication when he will be extradited back to Atlanta.
And no, we have no earthly idea who Jason Sereno is. Though he apparently has access to NBA Basketball player Al Harrington and someone to shoot video interviews for him for his website.
The premise here is pretty simple, and yes, it was posted almost a week ago. But we haven't seen it until now.
Sereno goes to interview Harrington about training to become an MMA fighter. Why Harrington wants to do that, we don't know. The two men talk and Sereno offers to spar with Harrington. One clutch and a right hook later (about 5 sec.) and down goes Sereno.
Now, we don't know if this is a work of some sorts. It could be. But it is kind of funny since Sereno is just basically a schlub who scored a semi-name interview and a shot at YouTube fame.
Your Sparring session from YouTube/JasonSereno.com:
This is just plain sad, mostly because it is someone that we spent time covering and thought much, much better of.
Former NBA basketball player and Georgia Tech star Javaris Crittenton wanted on murder charges in his hometown of Atlanta. Police say Crittenton shot a 23-year old mother of four on August 19th, while driving down the street. According to police, he thought he was shooting at someone he believed had robbed him a few days before.
This really upsets us because Crittenton, who was a High School star at Southwest Atlanta Christian (same school as Dwight Howard) and played one moderately successful year at Georgia Tech was highly regarded in the Atlanta community. He said and did all the right things growing up, though we were aware there was a troubled upbringing in his background. At 6-5, 200 lbs, quick and creative, his future looked bright.
Many believed he went to the NBA far too soon and the proved to be true. After being a 1st round draft pick by the LA Lakers in 2007, he bounced around the NBA and was mostly known for the "Gun" incident with Gilbert Arenas while with the Washington Wizards in 2009.
While covering him, we certainly thought he wasn't mature enough to handle what he was stepping into--the NBA, we never thought it would end for him like this. And yes, while we know you are innocent until proven guilty, the stigma attached to these kind of charges alone will never go away. It is truly a shame to see where he came from, where he was headed and where it appears that he will be ending up. Very sad.
What is that saying...Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it or something like that? It's something that now applies to the life...and driving habits of former NBA star and current Duluth, Georgia resident Ralph Sampson.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the former NBA legend spent his Tuesday night behind bars after trying to go through a drivers license checkpoint with expired tags on his car. And no, that wasn't the only reason he was jailed.
Sampson also had a suspended license because he didn't meet child support obligations and had a 2008 Insurance violation.
Tis a sad, sad state that Mr. Sampson is in. We came across him several times in our time in the A-T-L area and though we did not bother him, he was always amiable and friendly to people who did. He obviously has some issues to deal with and we hope he isn't one of those who are broke after making millions as a pro athlete.
We give you video of the largest man to ever compete in the Slam Dunk contest, circa 1984:
Okay, this is the second slightly scary accusation and lawsuit to surface against now former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal in just a couple of months.
According to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, O'Neal is being sued by a former employee who sided with his ex-wife in the O'Neal's divorce.
The suit alleges Shaq tried to frame the man by having his computer hacked and leaving images of kiddie porn. And it alleges O'Neal used police officers from the Miami Beach police department to do it.
Read the whole strange tale from the Sun-Sentinel RIGHT HERE
And yes, there is a hearing on a motion to amend the original complaint filed by Shawn Darling Thursday morning.
Ordinarily, this would not be a significant story and dismissed as somewhat of a "Crackpot" complaint. BUT....in light of the suit filed against O'Neal just last month, it needs to be reported.
In the July report in the LA Times, O'Neal is the target of a civil suit accusing him of ordering an attack against one Robert Ross, who claims he had an affair with O'Neal's now ex-wife and it involved an alleged "Sex Tape". The suit also mentions O'Neal recruited members of the 7 Main Street Crips gang to attack and kidnap him. O'Neal has not been charged in the incident, but is named in a follow up suit.
Again, O'Neal hasn't been charged with anything, but the circumstances here have some similarities. And if there is any truth to either of them, they are quite scary.
Yes, we know famous people are often the targets of people who say crazy things looking for a buck. BUT...this is just eeerily coincidental. Two separate suits filed within a month of each other, each accusing Shaquille O'Neal of taking out revenge on someone he believed had some sort of association with his now ex-wife.
You know what we have been saying about the College Football problems of late--"Where there's smoke, there is fire", well, we are beginning to wonder if that claim may apply here.
Here's video of O'Neal's retirement announcement in June.
If Marbury liquidated $75 million, then he probably can afford to pay this back. But is absolutely amazing to us that he was able to own a real estate company worth that much money. Sure, he made more than enough...in theory over his NBA career to pay that back...but how many NBA million-gazillionaires actually have that much money sitting around to pay off debts like that?
Here's Steph, the businessman on FoxBuisness Channel back in March:
Who says David Stern doesn't have a good sense of humor. And after all, isn't the Boy Scout motto "Always be Prepared"?
With that in mind, despite the current NBA Lockout and general view that there will be no season, the league has released their schedule for the upcoming season.
And yes, if you look at the e-mail, the announcement is even sponsored.
We do have to add, they qualified it in the official release by saying "In the event the NBA is able to reach a new collective bargaining agreement with the NBAPA in a timely fashion."
So NBA fan, if you were to be allowed to see your games this year, despite the tension between warring rich people and lawyers, here's what you'd see:
Your season "Would" open with the Champion, Dallas Mavericks squaring off with the Chicago Bulls, followed by the Oklahoma City Thunder playing the L.A Lakers on a T.N.T doubleheader.
Mostly, the release goes on to blather about the games their "T.V Partners" may or may not get to telecast this season. To which we say, "Good for them".
Truly the question is will any of these games actually happen? The answer is, "Who knows?" Much like the beginnings of the NFL Lockout, most everyone is subscribing to the "Sky has fallen" theory, saying they won't play this season and possibly next.
True, the differences here are even more stark than the NFL, the NBA is asking for a pay cut essentially by its players and is pleading poverty. And while we don't necessarily blame the players, the owners are right, the pay scale has gotten way, way out of hand. (Hmmm..., wonder who's fault that is?)
So, you can take this for what it is worth and go check out the website of your favorite NBA team to find out their alleged schedule for the season. And you can then go back to your daily lives complete in the knowledge that you may be looking at a piece of paperwork, that might be worth something one day, because it probably will never happen.
We'll, Comcast is getting out of the Sports ownership business. The mega-conglomorate has an agreement to sell the Philadelphia 76ers to billionaire businessman Josh Harris.
Harris is the primary investor in a leveraged buyout group who will take over the franchise for roughly $280 million, or $50 million less than Forbes values them.
And before the Philly fans start booing, Harris has family ties to the area and part of the agreement states the team will be a long-term tenant at the Wells Fargo Center.
This, we have been aware of for some time, though we didn't know the who it would be part. There's no reason to believe Harris won't be a good owner as we generally think individuals are much better owners than corporations.
However, Harris may not get to find out what it is like for awhile. Yes, the NBA Board of Governor's need to approve the deal, but that is probably a formality. What's more significant is the NBA lockout which may or may not have an impact on his 1st season as an owner.
And despite the Owners pleading poverty and they are losing money, owning a team must not be that bad of an investment. After all, why would someone who makes a living investing, buy something that will be losing money from the minute he takes over?
Ok. We have to admit, as much as we don't care for the over-the-top collective pat on the back that the ESPY's are, they do occasionally do some funny stuff.
Perhaps one of the funniest, and most pointed skits of the night, a commercial for "Lockout Professionals" starring the currently locked out Kevin Love and Blake Griffin.
Yes, it is funny enough to share with everyone else.
Sucks to be considered "Non-essential" personnel in the face of a pro-sports lockout.
That's what Charlotte Bobcats play-by-play guy Scott Lauer is facing after the team decided to lay him off from his position because of the NBA Lockout.
Lauer's been with the team in various positions for seven years.
We suspect Lauer is one of many who'll lose their jobs over the upcoming months as NBA teams look to shed budget while waiting out what will, by every indication, be a long, protracted lockout.
We wish him the best, though he believes he'll return to his job once the league begins playing again. We hope so. There are a lot of unemployed Sports broadcasters in the world these days, the jobs just plain don't exist anymore for these guys.
We don't normally question the authenticity of good, solid reporting, but we have to question this. The website TalkBasket.net, a media partner of the Euroleague is reporting that NBA star Deron Williams, currently playing for the New Jersey Nets is moving. We don't discount the report, but we're skeptical.
The site is reporting Williams will play for a club called Besiktas in Turkey. The say the club will pay him $200,000 per month and the contract will allow him to return to the NBA as soon as the lockout ends.
While we sort of get the logic--Williams would be playing and staying in some form of game shape, we seriously wonder if he'd take the risk knowing he could get hurt over there.
The other reason we are skeptical is that no major outlet has reported this yet. It may be true, but heck, it isn't even a main headline on the TalkBasket.net website. And Williams is one of the NBA Elite players. We aren't saying that since it isn't "Mainstream" that it isn't legit, because quite often, bloggers and sites on the Internets are way ahead of say--the 4-Letter, we just wonder why Williams would do it.
Well, it's official, we now have two professional sports leagues that are now in the midst of labor strife.
As you saw yesterday, the NBA decided it was time to make a stand (albeit kind of against themselves), by locking out the players until a collective bargaining agreement can be reached and lower salaries paid.
We wish them luck with that, for they (the owners) are trying to slay the monster that they built themselves.
And while both sides are saying nice things...at least publicly about each other, it is going to be a long, nasty process here, much worse we believe, than anything the NFL has gone through.
Read a brief summary from the Boston Herald RIGHT HERE
The two sides have agreed to resume negotiating in a couple of weeks, but we are pretty sure it won't change anything. The dysfunctional pay-scale and revenue scale the NBA has been operating under since their last strike in 1998 has exacerbated the problem and neither side is willing to admit it.
Yes, there are solutions. And according to many, they aren't complicated. Mark Heisler of the Los Angeles Times offers up a pretty good one, though we suspect it ain't gonna happen.
When push comes to shove, this still boils down to a couple of things and while we aren't necessarily siding with the players, we place a lot of the blame here on the owners.
In their endless pursuit of an NBA title, many owners just got stupid. They started paying guys who in no way shape or form deserved it, way too much money, thinking they could buy a title. You can't.
Yes, we know, there is plenty of money to go around and we don't fault the players for taking what the owners were willing to offer them. But the players and the players association should be realistic that they are going to have to give in a little in order for this to work. We just have a hard time wrapping our hands around the premise of anyone, never mind a basketball player, being paid $25 million plus a year...to do anything.
We know, the players do have options and can go play overseas, but do they really want to do that? Do they really want to go play in say, Greece, where gunshots and riots sometimes break out during games.
Sorry, NBA fan, there is a really good chance you are going to have to survive on a steady diet of College Basketball this year.
Oh, if you want to know how petty this already is, try clicking on any NBA.com or team website, you won't find any mention of any current players...
CBSSports.com gives us David Stern announcing the lockout:
Yes, you heard me right. Although there are some that will say "So what?", this is somewhat of a significant deal. Never mind the fact it would mean 2 professional sports leagues dealing with lockouts at the same time.
The reason for the NBA Lockout is a little different:
The NBA owners and Commissioner David Stern want to clamp down the upward spiraling salaries they keep paying because they are losing money. However, the obvious question there is "Who started the upward spiral?" If an owner offers, say a Joe Johnson (good, not great player) a 6-year, $129 million dollar contract, the player would be insane not to say "Sure, I'll take that".
There are reports and quotes out there saying the league wants to break up the "Superstar" teams, such as the Heat. Uh...no. That, we believe has nothing to do with it. It's about rolling back salary costs.
We don't disagree that the league needs to control costs, the do. But again, who's to blame for it in the first place? And do you really think that even if they succeed in controlling salaries, they won't zoom right back up again in a few years when an owner gets impatient and tries to buy a title?
The league and its players union, headed by Billy Hunter, will meet again today to try and come up with terms at the very least of a collective bargaining agreement. Nobody really believes it will happen. If it doesn't a lockout could effectively start tonight at Midnight est., the time the current agreement expires.
And while we think the lockout will happen and drag on for a month or two, we also believe this won't drag out like the NFL's has. League owners know they have to play games and get butts in seats in order to make money. And unlike the NFL, who has a good 6 months between seasons, the NBA offseason only runs about 3 months.
We give you this story for a reason. Just as the NFL Lockout begins to wind down and we think we can stop talking...and learning legal speak, a new Lockout is about to begin.
TheBasketballJonses give us a look at what your NBA Lockout PR ads could look like. And yes, they are pretty funny.
Yawn. They may not even play this upcoming season. Plus, the draft pool this year wasn't exactly teaming with major stars, but never the less, the NBA held its annual selection show of International and occasional college players.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were obvious big winners, if for no other reason than they had the 1st and 4th picks. They took Duke point guard Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson, a forward from Texas.
NCAA Tourney MVP Kemba Walker went 9th to Charlotte and the big headline grabber was the Sacramento Kings trading with Milwaukee to get the 10th pick which they used on the Jimmer, Jimmer Fredette.
Another interesting tidbit: The Morris twins, Markieff and Marcus went 13th and 14th to Phoenix and Houston respectively.
And yeah, they held a second round too, those picks were guys who will be bench fillers and NBDL players for the most part. The NBA Draft isn't like the other sports, it only lasts two rounds and really, there isn't a ton of drama involve.
We won't go through and grade everyone for the simple fact that if we did, we'd probably have to give every team involved an "Incomplete" since the season may or may not happen and in the NBA more so than the other leagues, you really have to see how they fit in before you can say how successful they can be.
We will have more on this story as we are able to find it out and report it.
PM UPDATE: we have more...
From the Hawks their own selves... "As we have stated for an extended period of time, we engaged an investment banker to assist us in looking for investors for the Atlanta Hawks and Philips Arena operating rights. We have spoken with a number of parties, but at this time, there is no deal in place, nor is there an exclusive negotiating agreement in place. We will have no further comment at this time."
The HQ isn't in a mood to believe Bruce Levenson or any other part of Spirit at present... we don't buy it- pardon the pun...
Maybe the Hawks will be moving to Winnipeg as well... Just a thought...
Were there really that many people who just assumed the Miami Heat won the NBA Championship...even though they didn't?
We, along with most of the free-civilized blogging world showed you the Miami Herald's presumptuous Macy's NBA Championship gear last week, the morning after the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Championship.
Now comes this, apparently Marvel comics put out a t-shirt at Miami area Wal-Marts with pictures of the Marvel comics superhero's congratulating the Miami Heat for winning the title. Ooops.
Read the story from the Dallas Morning News RIGHT HERE
Why is it that most of the commercialized world just assumed the Heat would win? And for that matter, why the heck is Marvel printing championship t-shirts--for sale at Wal-Mart? Though for t-shirt and memorabilia collectors like Brother Jon, shirts such as these are the "Holy-Grail", mostly because they shouldn't exist.
For those not aware, NBA Merchandising much like all pro-sports, is supposed to control things like this. Yeah, there were "Heat NBA Champions" t-shirts printed, they print shirts for both teams in the finals. That's how they have the shirts ready right after the game ends. But the loser shirts are burned or sent to a 3rd World Country because the league doesn't want them out. And yet these seem to exist?
This is what a multi-billionaire pro sports team owner should do. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says he will pay for the parade in the city of Dallas to honor his NBA Championship winning team.
Like most cities in America right now, Dallas is struggling with budgets and doesn't really have the money to put on such an event. Dallas city officials though do apparently have a detailed plan of how the parade would go, saying they've been planning on this for years.
With hundreds of thousands possibly attending, it would take thousands of police and hundreds more city workers all on overtime to pull off an event that would go from City Hall to the Mavericks home arena (we don't do sponsors--they got enough pub in the series)
Read more from the Dallas Morning News (non-subscriber story) RIGHT HERE
We say good for Cuban. Although he sometimes does some odd and says some weird things, he pretty much gets it. There should be a rule that pro sports team owners foot the bill for their parades. It's not like they can't afford it. Sure, it is great that fans get to show their civic pride with their team winning, but these days most cities would have a hard time footing a six or seven figure price tag on an event like this.
Here's a story from the folks at WFAA yesterday as the team returned home from Miami:
Haha! This is pretty funny. In a twit pic, a Miami Herald reader points out that the local paper printed Monday's paper a bit too early.
The reason should be obvious in the photo on the right. The Herald was pimping Heat "NBA Champions" gear for sale at the local Macy's store.
We wonder how many papers they pulled back with that ad...if any. And we wonder how pissed off NBA Merchandising is over this. Yes, the shirts you see there were printed, of that we're sure. They do runs with both teams so the shirts and hats are ready as soon as the game ends.
However, the unused items are generally taken to an incinerator and burned. If those got out it would change the memorabilia business in a really, really bad way and the NBA along with the other pro-sports leagues definitely don't want that.
Former NBA Center Dwayne Schintzius is in the battle of his life. The reason: He has leukemia and he's beating it.
Check that.
He's had leukemia since 2009 and he's just about beaten it. Something that only about 25 percent of all people diagnosed with the disease do. Yeah, he lost over 50 pounds, his hair and other things, but he's much stronger now.
Schintzius, for those unfamiliar, is a former 7-foot, 2 inch all-american college center at the University of Florida, who went on to play in the NBA for several years.
And while he didn't necessarily have the reputation as an incredibly hard worker as a basketball player, he's gone a long, long way towards eliminating that image.
A few days ago, he made a surprising public appearance at Tampa's "Sneaker Soiree", with featured speaker Dick Vitale, who spoke about his crusade to help beat cancer. Though it took some cajoling to get him there, we are glad to report he went, and not only was he there, he impressed the heck out all who attended.
Please read his inspiring story from TBO.com RIGHT HERE
We have been familiar with Schintzius from his time at UF and quite honestly, we weren't impressed with his skills, or effort as a basketball player. But after reading this story, we don't have to be.
The reason....he's impressed us oh, so much more as a man. We wish him the best and may he stay cancer free.
Okay, we have to post this related video only because it is very strange. We apologize for it not keeping with the tone of this story, but in it, Schintzius is apparently trying to participate in a viral video commercial for a product of some sorts. Odd, but during his NBA days, Schintzius was considered a bit of an odd dude, and it was before he got sick.
