Thursday Bullets

• Zach Lowe of Sports Illustrated does an amazing job culling stories from the making of The Decision. This is Mark Dowley: "LeBron is an exceptionally bright young man. No one is taking advantage of LeBron James. And Maverick Carter is a very bright guy. I’ve done deals with them since and we’ll do deals with them in the future. Everybody can hold their heads up high. The only people who know best about how they felt [about the criticism] are Maverick and LeBron. There is no way they enjoyed a lot of the aftermath. I do know morally and from a socially conscience standpoint, they know they did something good."
• TrueHoop reader David has a suggestion that sounds a little crazy at first, but let it sink in: "Beginning right now and until a deal is reached, proceed with next season (including free agency signings and everything else) under the exact terms of the old CBA with one exception. The exception being that each player only gets 50 percent of his salary payments, with the other 50 percent going into an escrow account. Neither the league nor the players can touch this escrow money until the final CBA deal is done. The split of that money will just be one more thing to be settled as a part of the overall negotiations. Seems like this achieves the purposes of a lockout with none of the drawbacks. Specifically, a lockout puts pressure on both sides to make a deal because it causes both of them to lose money. Like a lockout, neither side is very happy for the duration of this '50 percent Escrow Balling' arrangement since the players are missing half of their paychecks (for the time being) and the owners also can't use that money to cover their losses (for the time being). On the drawback side, a lockout costs both sides revenues from fans, TV stations, etc., 50 percent Escrow Balling allows the sides to earn that revenue first and decide how to split the loot later.
• Nice video look at how NBA players get offensive rebounds.
• Warriors second-round pick Charles Jenkins is not just from New York, he is of it. High school, college -- his whole life in and around the city. Hanging around with him last week, it was clear he gets genuine joy from his big circle of family and friends. What was it going to be like to move across the country to the Bay Area? If his Twitter feed is to be believed, fantastic. After a few days on the West coast, he says he's not ready to go back home.
• A nice little tale of John Wall going out of his way to bond with teammates.
• The Warriors have waived Jeff Adrien. I bet he finds his way into the NBA somewhere next season.
• NBA salaries have stayed even with inflation, while owners have been spending money like crazy, according to one economist's analysis.
• LeBron James hanging out with Bono. Not sure why I'm linking to that, but I bet you'll click it for the same reason.
• Larry Coon parses recently leaked numbers about the profits and losses of the Nets and Hornets: "$41.5 million of the Nets' $49 million operating loss in 2005, and $40.2 million of its $57.4 million in 2006, is there simply to make the books balance. It is part of the purchase price of the team, being expensed each year. This doesn't mean they cooked their books, or that they tried to pull a fast one on the players. It is part of the generally accepted accounting practice to transfer expenses from the acquisition to the profit and loss over a certain time period. However, it's an argument that doesn't hold water in a discussion with Hunter and the players association, who would claim that the Nets didn't really "lose" a combined $106.4 million in those two years, but rather that they lost $7.5 million and $17.2 million, respectively. The Hornets' statements show that despite their hardships, the team would have turned a reasonable operating profit in 2009 had it not been for the interest expense on their crushing debt." More numbers. (And by the way, if the trend holds, all the teams starting with "New" will have their numbers leaked. Can't wait to see the Knicks' particulars.)
• This article includes the phrase "notorious windbag Robert Sarver."
• Stephen Jackson says he thinks the Bobcats were tanking at the end of last season. He's also a samurai.
• Brandon Knight Rider.
• Lockout beards -- been there done that. Here's a suggestion for lockout fingernails, mullet, tattoos etc.
• The Cavaliers and Kings make a trade today, of all days. With CBA talks in full swing, a long day for NBA lawyers, for sure.
• It's only a matter of time before I'm wearing oversized earphones in a video chat you are welcome to join.
• Is it going to say "World Peace" on the back of his jersey? Will Mike Breen call him Metta World Peace on the air?
• Allen Iverson is a Hall of Famer, right?

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/30827/thursday-bullets-214

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