There is NOTHING embarrassing about not being one of the Top Five paid players in the league......especially when you consider LeBron has never played in a Top Five Market. Truth is, in his entire NBA career, LeBron HAS NEVER even been the highest paid player on his team......NEVER!

Because of this, LeBron has only maid $490 million in carrier earnings......truly no good reason to start demanding the max now!

The fact that Lebron has never had the max or been the highest paid salary is indeed embarrassing for the NBA, no way around that. Jordan made $33,000,000.. Kobe was making $29,000,000.. Even Pau Gasol was making more than Lebron! You're right about not being in a top-5 market, but that is the thing, Lebron is such a huge market unto himself that he brings in earnings. Miami Heat were the most popular road team in the NBA for the past four consecutive years, they sold out every single one of their road games and they had the most national TV games! Guess who was the post popular road team in 2009? Yup, Lebron's Cavs ;)

Lebron demanded Max money because its good for the players, it gets things back to the way they used to be. The 2011 CBA tried to destroy what the 1990s brought to the NBA which was a "pay the man" philosophy.

In that regard, I applaud Lebron's decision, its good for ALL the players who want to get their next big contract. When KD or Westbrook go to sign next year best to believe they will remember this ;)

Rockets trade Jeremy Lin to Lakers http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocket...lin/?cmpid=bna

I think its good for everybody..

Lin never got to fully develop in Houston, but to be sure, he has shown he has A LOT of potential talent wise.. Also, he easily thrived under the big lights in New York during Linsanity so he will be fine in the Purple and Gold..

My Laker fan friends don't like it, but I honestly think it can be a good deal. Lin snuck around as top-15 PG even with so restricted minutes in Houston, given the right situation I think he can continue to be good. No, is isn't the best PG in the NBA, but is surely not the worst and has a lot of potential upside if everything goes right. To be sure, Lin's offense was a MILLION times better that Patrick Beverly's...

If you ask me, Houston is like a kid at a birthday party, they just want to keep unwrapping all the next presents, don't spend enough time with the ones they just opened! They wasted Asik and Lin, two players that will definitely be better on their new teams..

Asik was useless with Howard around (On of the reasons I did not want Howard), and Lin is a streaky poor-man's Allen Iverson, all flash and hustle and drives to the basket while his teammates sit around waiting for him to brick one.

Lin is and was and will always be OVERRATED. Just because he had a good month and a half in a shit team NYC, the media (90% of print and Cable TV media is in NYC) sucked his ding dong hard to create a fake news story.

He is a crybaby bitch. Kobe is gonna kill him

Asik would have made a great back up to Dwight, and indeed, even those few minutes they played together were statistically very effective. The problem is Asik wasn't a Rocket mentally. The Rockets never made him feel like an integral player on their roster, so he always felt slighted. Sport is probably more psychological than just talent. Shit, ANY professional athlete has talent, but only when the psychology is right does this talent translate into skill, especially when its a matter of getting 6-9 guys to play together in a mental harmony as a composite unit.


(On of the reasons I did not want Howard), and Lin is a streaky poor-man's Allen Iverson, all flash and hustle and drives to the basket while his teammates sit around waiting for him to brick one.[/quote]


Bullshit, Lin averaged 8 assists per game during a 28 game stretch of Linsanity, with a shit knicks roster at that! Again, simply put, Rockets wasted it. If you thought Lin was going to score like Chris Paul or Steph Curry you're crazy, but if you think he can't make some of the best passes of any of the best PGs in the league you're tripping. Guy is a TRUE PG, and this is a PG league.


No, Dwight is a crybaby bitch, meanwhile Lin (a) handled the spotlight of Linsanity pretty well and (b) handled becoming a third string bench guy pretty well too..

To each his own, but I think Lin will benefit from a change of scenery and a team that fits his style better. The reality is James Harden doesn't need a point guard hence why Beverly's non-existent offense has been working so effectively.

This is an accurate summation of Lin's second tour with the Rockets. SuchFriends is correct that he did have some old school Point Guard in him, but it was usually diminished by his excessive turnovers and poor judgement. In other words, he could have one outstanding game followed by three crappy ones......no consistency of good play.

Rockets are fucked.

Chandler "Bing" Parsons goes to Dallas. Asik is gone. Lin will be gone. we re-sign Trevor Ariza, a guy we dumped nearly a decade ago right? We got played by Bosh, and now we are stuck once again with Howard/Harden as our two leaders? shit

The Rockets chose not to match the Mavs offer sheet on Parsons.

If Bosh would have signed with Houston, the Rockets would have matched the Mavs offer sheet and Parsons would be a Rocket today. Because Bosh elected to stay for more money in Miami, the Rockets now view the Parsons offer as not being a good value......especially in future years.

When Houston let Ariza go, he had potential to become a solid player and the Rockets didn't have time to wait. If he can duplicate what he has done over the past two season, the Rockets and their fans will be very happy.

Lin was a wash and I'm happy to see him and his contract go. Not ideal, but the Rockets should have enough room under the cap to pick up any expiring contract at the trade deadline to help fill any needs they may have.

I enjoyed Parsons and hate to see him leave, but it's a little easier to watch him go at 15 million per season.

I know you guys read LeGibrone James' "I'm Coming Home" essay that was written for him by the twenty marketing/spin doctor people he keeps on staff at all times.

Here you can read Chris Bosh's essay, "I'M STAYING HOME."

Actually Chris gave a very good legitimate interview on ESPN worth reading

http://espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miam...ead-miami-heat

What I will miss most about this Heat era was all the sincere FUN those dudes were always having. The trolling the sports media during interview sessions, the video bombing, the endless laughing and joking all the time, I dare say this was one of the most fun teams of all time. Showtime was flashy but never fun. Shaq tried to have fun with Kobe but Kobe was the wet blanket. Jordan and Pippen I don't even think ever had a single fun day in their motherfucking lives.. meanwhile Heat looked like they weren't working at all.

Another reason you couldn't "justify" matching the Mavs offer sheet without Bosh......Parsons would be making more the James Harden. Even though Harden SUCKS at defense, he is a Top Ten All NBA Team member. Parsons production will go up as a member of the Mavericks because more plays will be drawn up for him, but I highly doubt he reaches Top Ten status.

Chris Bosh, human being

is there ever a single day where steve nash, dirk, and mark cuban dont regret that photo shoot. I saw nash on yo mtv raps in 1997 yo, he may be canadian but he was a bball player in the 90, motherfucker was hip enough to know how lame that was, even if dirk was too german and cuban too much of a social outcast, steve knew better, steve knew!
top 10 player not being top paid, now the beard understands lebron.


,thank you, I LOVED this, bosh is probably the most down to earth 2x champion HOFer not named Pau Gasol. If you combine pau's twitter with bosh's off season life you have portrait of what happens when ordinary, thoughtful humans are gifted with an otherworldy talent worth enough to become rich and successful with out necessarily even wanting too

Rockets tip season at Lakers one month from tonight:

Showdown in Memphis tonight:

9-1 vs. 9-1

Rockets? Theyre boring as fuck to watch but they win games (in the regular season)

Beating the Mavs without D. Howard was a nice way to right the ship. James Harden joins Kobe and LeBron as only players to have four 30+ point games this year.

Lebron looks like he misses Eric Spoelstra more than he thought he missed Cleveland

^you're the first one I've heard mention this. I did hear another question if the Cavalier coach was trying to "force" the team to play more of a European style......time + more games played should = improvement!

hassan whiteside, yo. heat are looking to trade norris cole, and i love the dude but i can see it. gets whiteside more minutes.

For the entire Lebron Miami run of greatness everybody and they mama said, "heat need a dominate center to protect the rim." While on surface this looked legit, and in playoff games against bigger teams it passed the eye test. But stats showed small ball was better for that version of Heatles.. lebron and wade averaged almost a block a game between them and bosh was best pick and roll defender in NBA. Further, Lebron and wade both were in top five in points in the paint. Why? Because there was no lumbering and slow big center clogging up the paint in their offense. Their motion offense was too fast and precise for a big center, it simply wouldn't have worked. However Whiteside is different. This kid is HUGE presence protecting the rim, yet is as fast and quick as smaller PFs like what Bosh was asked to do.. sp he is a unique fit in a Spoelstra offensive system, he is big but fast. And the Heat play fast defense relying on traps and quick rotations. Most big centers aren't quick enough. Roy Hibbert is considered the best rim protector in the NBA yet the guy is so slow and off balance that he destroys his own team's offense.. i mean have you seen how long it takes for the guy to get up after falling? Whiteside on other hand is fast and agile.. liking this addition to heat.too bad the guard rotation is absolute trash. With Lebron that team was able to have a aubpar offensive output from Chalmers/Cole as long as like Lakers used D-Fish, they played elite defense. Now? Points are a rare commodity for 2014 Heat and they need real guards who can score

Harden game is ugly, like at least half his free throws are cheap shots drawing contact. Take away the refs for a nite guy would look like DJ Augustin yo

Oh, I've seen enough Hardens boring ten free throw attempts a game. Just because a player graduated from the Kobe School of Cheap Freethrows doesn't make it exciting to watch

wins is wins

blame Jordan for that mess.

Wins are wins but if its going to be a bunch of boring freethrows and legitimately questionable calls ill be skipping that game. Kobe was boring. And believe me, before harden became kobe 2.0 i really enjoyed his game.he can handle the ball as goodas anyone, his 3 is destructive, and his pick and roll superb..how ever that is precisely what makes his reliance on cheap freethrows so damned beneath him!

blame Morley and coach McHale. They set the offense plans. They have been working to create a team that relies only on 3 point shots and cheap free throws.

NBA basketball, LeBronBron and all, is going the way of the NHL. It is diluted by too many teams, with at least a dozen each season being interminably awful, and the same 6-8 squads in contention every year. It is a boring spectacle.

NFL football is the only sport where I can watch any team against any team and enjoy it.

As far as NBA and MLB, I can only give a flying fuck about my home teams (astros and rockets) until the Finals/World Series comes around.

The only other sporting competitions I can really get into watching regardless of who is competing are international things like the Olympics and the World Cup.

In 1994-1995 I watched probably 90% of all Rockets games, home and away.

Fuck the Spurs.. also actually for first time in years Nba is wide open. There are literally a DOZEN teams that are legitimately contending

westbrook was fucking nuts last night

Let Westbrook Be Westbrook

Fucking shit Kyrie Irving has the best handling ive ever seen and ive been there watching bball since i was in elementary school and Magic is my alltime favorite player.. and this KID is only 22 fucking years old?? Fucking shit that legitimately scares me.. when i was 22 i wasn't best at shit yo

DeMarcus Cousins had 39 points / 24 rebounds tonight......NO OTHER ACTIVE PLAYER has reached both in a game.

Chris Webber was the last to do it (1/5/01) 51 points / 26 rebounds.

Props to boogie

So be honest Rob, Harden flops are getting stupid ridiculous. It was stupid when KD did it so much that the NBA had to adopt an entirely new (albeit rarely enforced) rule about shooting fouls. The "Kevin Durant Rule" states that for a foul to be considered a shooting foul the player must definitively be in a shooting motion and not simply flailing their arms like KD was apt to do..

This past Thursday night, the Houston Rockets organization celebrated the 20th year of their NBA Championships. It was great seeing Vernon Maxwell, who has done multiple stints of incarceration. On the court that night against Denver, James Harden went off for 50 points:



http://cw39.com/2015/03/19/clutch-ci...r-anniversary/

Charles Jones!

Here is what i want to know.. why did rockets make a big deal of celebrating this in MARCH?? i loved Hakeem era and think he is one of the most underrated players in nba history, he belongs in top 10 ALL TIME and only Shaq bests him at the 5 and only because Shaq was a force of nature, hakeem was the superior "basketball player" and could do things dribbling with a ball that even guards could never do let alone bigs. When i watch Lebron dribble in the post and on the block now i can literally SEE what Hakeem taught him that summer, and know that Hakeem is one of the all time best at "the fundamentals"..

However and again, why March? Whole thing seems like a desperate PR move rather than real effort to celebrate the Hakeem era.. should have at the least saved it for the weekend in April just before the playoffs start. Also i noticed y'all ignored my question about James "Flopping" Harden who needed an embarrassing 25 free throw attempts just to crack 50 points ;)