Monday Bullets

• Argentina's national team has an incredibly special place in modern basketball history, as they proved in winning the FIBA Americas tournament.
• A whole mess of insight into Jerry West on the internet. Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News dips into West's forthcoming autobiography, with unflattering tales of Phil Jackson, Jerry Buss and Kobe Bryant. But mostly Jackson. All that has previous biographer Roland Lazenby tweeting up a storm.
• Have we seen the last of Dirk Nowitzki in a German national team uniform?
• The case for Tamika Catchings as MVP of the WNBA. I once interviewed Catchings and much of her family for a lengthy magazine profile; can't say I've ever written about anyone I admired more.
• Trading Kendrick Perkins was a bet on Glen Davis, more than�a bet on Shaquille O'Neal.
• Who can get Amare Stoudemire to wear a crazy high-fashion suit? Rachel Johnson can.
• Marcus Thornton weighing some big decisions.
• More scuttlebutt and speculation about a possible imminent CBA deal. That link includes (oddly, low in the story -- not where you'd put it, I'd wager, if you had a ton of confidence in the source) word that Derek Fisher has been texting players telling them to get ready for the season. Fisher has since tweeted a denial.
• Ethan Sherwood Strauss on HoopSpeak, talking about the NBA's next national TV deals: "Every time a new league cashes in on the current TV rights boom, the NBA’s theoretical money pile grows. And when I say 'current TV rights boom,' I want to do more than just evoke the idea of 'growth.' I want to shake you by the shoulders, shout into your nostrils, 'NCAA conferences are multiplying their old deals times four! The NHL nearly tripled their previous contract! The games with bouncing objects have struck liquid gold in the Frivolous Distraction Basin and the gushers are springing higher than lost balloons! It’s getting VERY SILLY OUT THERE!'"
• The Rockets have four underwhelming players from the 2009 draft: Hasheem Thabeet, Jordan Hill, Terrence Williams and Jonny Flynn. Interesting question on The Dream Shake: Which of those four is, in your estimation, most likely to succeed?
• How Lithuania gets it done.
• Turkey doesn't get the ball to Enes Kanter much, misses a ton of free throws and loses in crunch time.
• Sixers fans, get to know Nikola Vucevic.
• There were people saying Deron Williams would never really suit up in Europe. There are not those people anymore.
• A look at Impact League rosters and schedules. If I knew everybody was going to play to win, I'd pick Team B as the early favorite.
• Benjamin Golliver of BlazersEdge on Nicolas Batum's play in a fairly meaningless game against Spain: "Even though France took the court with no regard for the game's outcome, it was jarring to see Batum play with so little energy and interest. I'm wracking my brains to come up with the last time I can remember seeing him take it this easy. I'm coming up empty. This doesn't mean much, other than that it serves as a reminder of how thin his margin for error has been on a Portland roster with crowded wing positions and how naturally intense he is as a person and player. This wasn't passivity. This was basketball tourism."
• Andray Blatche doesn't see what the big deal is with lap dance Tuesday.
• If your local NBA arena is closed, NBA players are welcome to hoop in Chris Bosh's driveway.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/31922/monday-bullets-220

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