First Cup: Tuesday

• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "LeBron James still looks back, but only fleetingly. Instead, his primary focus is on bigger and better things for himself and his team. Speaking Monday in his native Akron, Ohio, where he was hosting his annual charity bicycle event, the Miami Heat forward briefly reflected on his team's loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, while also expressing optimism amid the NBA lockout that there would be a 2011-12 season for redemption. He also spoke of a new, Hall of Fame training partner. 'Right now,' he said, 'I've just been focusing on getting better, working on my game every single day. The Dallas Mavericks were a great team and they deserved to win that championship. It's just more motivation coming into this season.' That motivation drove him to spend time this summer with former Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon, working on his post play. The Hall of Fame center also has worked this summer with Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard on that facet. 'You always want to be victorious,' James said, 'but when you're not victorious, it's about how you bounce back.' "
• Staff of the San Francisco Chronicle: "Former Warriors swingman Matt Barnes, who played last season for the Lakers, was suspended from Monday's game in San Francisco's summer basketball league for his role in an on-court altercation Thursday night. On Thursday, playing for Dream Team, Barnes took a swing at East Bay's Dillon Sabia, according to San Francisco Bay Area Pro-Am director Jon Greenberg. 'He has been suspended one game for unsportsmanlike conduct,' Greenberg said via e-mail. 'His actions will not be tolerated, and any further altercations will result in suspension from the league.' Greenberg said he didn't know if Barnes connected. Barnes was quoted in an espn.com report, saying Sabia 'elbowed me and pushed me, so he got one.' Sabia also was suspended for one game, although he would have to serve that in a subsequent season."
• Marc Berman of the New York Post: "Knicks owner James Dolan has attempted to keep some of the Garden traditions safe with his $850 million arena transformation, including the famed pinwheeled ceiling that will go untouched. But the Garden will lose one tradition in this transformation -- the Willis Reed midcourt tunnel. During a private transformation tour yesterday, the midcourt tunnel the Knicks and Rangers have emerged from is history -- replaced by prime-time center-court seats. The Knicks instead will enter the court from the corner, and Dolan will try to create a new tradition, as the players have to pass through the plush Delta Sky360Club, frequented only by elite season-ticket holders. Patrons there can watch the Knicks or Rangers take the stage through plate glass windows. However, the Reed tunnel is already a goner, as the new seats -- Yankee-blue in color -- are in place, encased in plastic wrap. Before Game 7 of the 1970 Finals, an injured Reed dramatically hobbled through the tunnel onto the court minutes before tip-off to spark the Knicks' first championship. The Garden was one of the few places where players enter the arena at midcourt, center stage."
• Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner: "While many NBA players are headed overseas this fall as the NBA lockout intensifies, Wizards guard John Wall is considering heading back to school at Kentucky. But there is a catch. Wildcats coach John Calipari tweeted recently that Wall and two other former Kentucky players, Boston guard Rajon Rondo and Los Angeles Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe, planned to enroll in school if the lockout continues. Wall's adviser and representative Brian Clifton confirmed those intentions but said Wall will become a student again only 'if it's absolutely certain that he can finish the semester.' 'He did very well his freshman year,' Clifton said. 'He's got a high GPA, has done some good work and doesn't want to compromise that by being in and out and only half-heartedly commit to being a student.' Clifton said Wall has some 'other obligations' and there is always a chance the labor impasse is resolved."
• Zach McCann of the Orlando Sentinel: "A Magic fan named Otiga Ogubi, under the twitter handle of @tstreetz77, sent a Twitter message to Howard saying, 'we sell out the Orena and 85% r just there to look good until the playoffs.' Howard agreed, expressing concern about the Amway Center crowd. Howard wrote back, 'that upsets me cuz I don’t wait till the playoffs to play hard. I give y’all my best everynite. Y becuz some people don’t get a chance to be at everygame. And I want them to always remember the nite they saw me play. So. I play for y’all. I feed off the fans. ESP at home. It’s a different atmosphere in the playoffs at the arena. That same atmosphere should be during the season.' If you’re not adept at Twitter-speak, Howard said he plays hard every night because he wants every fan to remember the time he or she saw Howard play. Because he’s bringing his best every night, he wants fans to bring playoff intensity every night. This year, Howard didn’t feel like the fans brought it all the time."
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times: "In the video above, Derrick Caracter gets absolutely posterized by Rockets forward Terrence Williams in a charity game in Louisville this past weekend. To rub salt in the wound, Williams pumps up the already electrified crowd by taking off his jersey and throwing it to the ground. Should Caracter have felt embarrassed, well he deserved it. He responded on his defensive rotation about two seconds too late and didn't use his size one bit to intimidate Williams from driving into the lane. That's hardly the lasting impression Caracter wants to give the Lakers and the general public, an image that's probably incomplete. But that's why players with shaky futures position themselves so they don't end up going viral for all the wrong reasons."
• Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times: "I've heard Milwaukee Bucks management approached Michael Redd before the lockout about returning for another season, although my impeccable sources insist he's going to wind up with one of the Eastern Conference's title contenders."
• Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press: "The NBA world has been abuzz that this week could bring an exodus of players who will play for teams overseas as pessimism grows that the labor woes will not be solved for the season to start on schedule. It might not be the case for Pistons point guard Will Bynum, who once played for Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv. Mark Bartelstein, Bynum's agent, previously said his client would consider an overseas return under the right circumstances, but Bartelstein said Monday that his client did not have a foreign assignment lined up and had no timetable for any decisions. ... The Israeli league begins play in October, which means training camps will begin soon. 'There is no specific deadline,' Bartelstein said. 'If something comes up and it makes sense for Will, we will do it.' "
• Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News: "Robert Horry’s accomplishments in basketball should be clear any time he visits his safe deposit box. When Horry gazes at his seven championship rings — two from Houston, three from the Los Angeles Lakers and two from the Spurs — his value as a key player on those NBA title teams should be indisputable. Apparently, however, Horry isn’t to the bloggers over at the Bleacher Report. Horry is ranked No. 8 among the most overrated players in NBA history in a fancy video production. ... Some of their rationalization about Horry is true, but Horry never was presumed to be the best player on any of his championship teams. Instead, he was one of the most valuable role players in NBA history. He provided clutch shooting, defense, rebounding and passing to all of those championship teams. It’s no coincidence that he has as many championship rings as he does. Instead of calling him one of the NBA’s most overrated players, I think a better case can be made for a spot in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame one day. Horry’s unique talents and championship-caliber play makes him a better fit in the Hall than on the NBA’s overrated list."
• Michael Rand of the Star Tribune: "Remember the 2003-04 Timberwolves? Ah, those were the days. Minnesota finished the regular season 58-24 -- the best record in the Western Conference -- behind a trio lovingly dubbed 'MV3.' At the heart of it was Kevin Garnett, the MVP of the league that year and a man who was at the very top of his game. Complementing him were veterans Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell, a couple of fearless players (particularly Cassell) who could take the late-game heat off of KG. But after a tense seven-game series victory over the Kings, Cassell's back seized up and rendered him almost completely useless during the conference finals. Had he been healthy, there would have been at least a fighting chance for the Wolves to defeat the Lakers. Los Angeles, you'll recall, was loaded up that year with Shaq, Kobe, Gary Payton and Karl Malone. But you'll also recall the Lakers floundered badly in the 2004 finals, losing quite convincingly in five games to Detroit. A full-strength Wolves squad -- one with Cassell bringing the ball up the court and hitting his traditional clutch shots -- very well could have exposed the aging Lakers' flaws before Detroit got to them."
• Lacy J. Banks of the Chicago Sun-Times: "It will be ‘The Chicago Bulls Hall of Fame Show’ at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday in Springfield, Mass. Five men with Bulls ties will be honored. Longtime assistant coach Tex Winter, forward Dennis Rodman and center Artis Gilmore will be among the 10 inductees into the Hall. They join Chris Mullin, Arvydas Sabonis, Tom ‘Satch’ Sanders, Reece ‘Goose’ Tatum, Teresa Edwards, Herb Magee and Tara VanDerveer in the Class of 2011. The two others with Bulls ties who will be honored are play-by-play announcer Jim Durham and publicist Brian McIntyre. Durham and Sports Illustrated writer Alexander Wolff will receive the Curt Gowdy Media Award, and McIntyre will receive the John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. While Winter, Rodman and Gilmore were born elsewhere and started their NBA careers with other teams, Durham and McIntyre are Chicago natives who started their NBA careers with the Bulls. Both say the Hall of Fame wasn’t on their radar."
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: "Jim Morris obviously wasn’t talking about the basketball side of things when he told the IBJ last month that there weren’t any plans to layoff any of their staff because of the NBA’s current lockout. The Pacers recently let scouts Brian Winters, Leonard Perry and Joe Ash go. Winters is a former NBA player and head coach. He’s also got WNBA coaching experience. Winters deserves a lot of credit in the Pacers drafting Paul George with the 10th pick in 2010. Winters scouted George while he was at Fresno State. Ash spent eight years with the Pacers, including part of the time as director of scouting. Perry joined the Pacers as an assistant coach for Rick Carlisle in 2006. The three scouts didn’t get the news from president Larry Bird and general manager David Morway, director of scouting Ryan Carr broke the news to them."

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/31435/first-cup-tuesday-167

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