NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Think of Yao and LeBron on the court together for the rest of their careers and your first thought is why would LeBron want to sign with Houston?

But that is not the source of this discussion. The source is from Hoopsworld reporting that a Chinese group is interested in investing in the Cavaliers.

Not when the New World Development Company, representing a group of Chinese investors, is set to buy a 15 percent ownership interest in the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Hong Kong-based group is led by Kenny Huang, a Chinese-born investor who has in the past brokered marketing deals with the Houston Rockets
and New York Yankees.

On the surface, it may be merely the next most logical step in the growing relationship between the NBA and China, where basketball is wildly popular.
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Now that would mean they would be very interested in prying Yao Ming from the Rockets and getting him paired up with LeBron in Cleveland.

Yao Ming is holding his breath for a title

Would it be a good fit? Maybe not, because Yao would have to move away from the basket to open up driving lanes for LeBron and that just does not make sense to me. But marketingwise it is a no brainer. It would create tremendous Chinese interest and don’t think for a minute that the NBA would not love that.

The NBA plans for world domination!
Photo source Newscom

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

A team posing as the Houston Rockets showed up at the Forum for a game 7. It was a testament to fortitude that the Rockets were still in this series at all. Just who were these Rockets, anyway? They were led by Scola and Brooks in scoring.

Who?

You know, Scola and Brooks. Oh, you were probably wondering about that Yao guy and the one named McGrady. Those two were not seen at the scene. It was more up to Battier and Artest. My thoughts exactly, do you want to trust your playoff fortunes to Battier and Artest?

Pau Gasol in the 3 man jumping drill

It did not matter as Pau Gasol and half of Hollywood led the Lakers to a huge 51 - 31 advantage at half and then just coasted to victory. Pau had 21 points and 18 rebounds. Kobe had a slightly off day with 14 points.

With Gasol scoring 21 points and grabbing 18 rebounds, the Lakers looked like the conference’s top-seeded team, not the maddeningly inconsistent one that was pushed to the decisive final game by the undermanned Rockets.

The Lakers dominated the paint on both ends, forcing the Rockets into turnovers and bad shots, and owning the backboards. They had an 8-0 lead a few minutes in and widened it to 25 points on Gasol’s jump hook shortly before halftime.

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Now the Nuggets and Chauncey Billups come into tinsel town on Tuesday. Stay tuned.
Photo source Newscom

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Houston has McGrady go down to injury.
Detroit has Iverson go down to injury.

Enter stage left…Ron Artest.
Enter stage right…Rip Hamilton.

It is the Rip and Ron show. Together they return. Separately they drive their teams to new heights.

Yes, Houston, we have a winner and it is delivered by Ron Artest.
Yes, Detroit, we can beat the Boston’s and Orlando’s as long as we have a big time performance from Rip Hamilton.

Ron Artest?

When the Houston Rockets acquired Ron Artest, you read in this space that he was brought in as a replacement for Tracy McGrady, not as a complementary piece. I wrote that at the time because I believed that Artest was the perfect fit for the Rick Adelman system - a fit that McGrady could never be. Adelman knew that, he communicated it, and GM Daryl Morey made it happen.

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Rip Hamilton?

The Pistons are 2-0 since a back injury took Iverson out of the rotation, and those two wins came over two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference: Orlando and Boston. Hamilton recorded 31 points (11-18FG) and six assists against Orlando, followed by 25 points, nine assists, and six rebounds against Boston. The chemistry that’s been missing is back, and it’s no coincidence that it’s returned as Iverson sits.

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Oh, by the way, the Nuggets came into Detroit tonight and Chauncey Billups put up plenty of daggers for 34 big ones, but Rip had 21 and the Pistons won the game.

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The trade rumor mill is cranked up and some of them are just outstanding. The silly part is they may all come true, because while you are still harping on the Pistons for trading All Star Chauncey Billups for AI, GM Joe D only took him for a free tryout, increased attendance, and a salary of 22 mill that comes off the books. In other words, you don’t know why a team trades for a player.

This rumor you have to love just for the shear unbelievableness. Is that a word? If not, it should be just for this case and this case alone.

Anyway, it looks like the final straw for the little 3 in New Jersey of Kidd, Jefferson, and Carter. Vince was the last one left.

Vince Carter to the Rockets. How messed up can you get? You have body breaking down Yao, gotta have the ball and never will win a playoff Tracey McGrady, and never going to move to Detroit Ron Artest. Now you want to add, gotta also have the ball and never going to win the playoffs Vince Carter to that lineup?

The Nets and Rockets have exchanged trade proposals and continue to talk, according to league sources and sources close to the Nets. One scenario has Carter and Josh Boone going to Houston for Ron Artest, Carl Landry and Luther Head.

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If the trade does go through then Ron Artest would be shipped out of town and head back to New Jersey. Why do some teams just think individual talent will win games?

(This story was posted in Hoopsworld)

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Man, today there was this crazy thought rolling through my head. What if the Pistons had kept Chauncey Billups and Iverson had stayed on the Nuggets?

Nowhere to go with that thought, so how about taking a look at how some of this player movement and coaching movement is working out?

Chauncey Billups from Detroit to Denver
Denver is 7 - 3 in their last 10 games and in 1st place

Allen Iverson from Denver to Detroit
Detroit is 4 - 6 and in second place.

Ron Artest from everywhere to Houston
Houston is 7 - 3 and in 1st place

Jermaine O’Neal from Indiana to Toronto
Toronto is 3 - 7 and dead last in the Atlantic Division

Rick Carlisle to coach Dallas
Dallas is 8 - 2 but only in 4th place in the Southwest

Terry Porter to coach Phoenix
Phoenix is 5 -5 and in second place behind the Lakers

Mike D’Antoni to coach the Knicks
3 - 7 and 4th place in the same division as the Celtics

Mo Williams to Cleveland
9 - 1 in the last 10 and first place over the Pistons

This is a fun one
Elton Brand from L.A. Clippers to Philadelphia
Baron Davis from Golden State to L.A. Clippers
Corey Maggette from L.A. Clippers to Golden State

76er’s 4 -6 3rd place
Clip’s 2 - 8 5th place
Warriors 1 - 9 but still in 3rd place

Which just begs the question, what if Chauncey Billups had never left the Pistons?
Photo source Newscom

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Tracy McGrady and Joe Smith playing the little known sport of basketball wrestling

Are the Rockets the most screwed up team in basketball or destined to win the championship?

Huh?

Yeah, you heard me, are they screwed up or going to be winners? Or maybe is it winners or whiners?

And now we get the news that T-Mac is hurt again, both the shoulder and the knee.

“My knee is about 75, 80 percent right now,” McGrady, 29, said. “It took longer than expected. I was expecting to recover 100 percent in four months, but e_SLps the doctor told me it would be six months or even more. My shoulder had, after surgery, kept bothering me. I had another MRI and discovered I have arthritis in there, so I have to have surgery again on my shoulder. That’s something I have to deal with again this season, but my knee should be ready by opening night (Oct. 29).”

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NBA Tracy McGrady factoid - What did T-Mac lead the team in last year? Assists. Surprised? So was your intrepid author.

So Tracy McGrady is going to play with nagging injuries all year and Yao Ming has missed tons of games (over 80) in the last 3 years and then you add Ron Artest to the mix?

So what does Tracy think of Ron Artest?

McGrady said after last season that the Rockets needed one more player to get over the hump. Hello, Ron Artest, whom McGrady described Monday as a godsend and a beast.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a while,” McGrady said. “I know I get criticized a lot for not leading my team out of the playoffs, but it’s hard. When you don’t have those pieces you need to elevate you to the next level, it’s hard. I don’t care how good a player is; it’s really hard.

“If you don’t have that, it’s tough. Now, I have that. We’ll see what happens.”

source

This team should be loads of fun as they either self destruct or bring destruction on the other teams.

Photo source Newscom

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Yao Ming - will the big fella be around for the 2012 Olympics in London?

Yao Ming and the Chinese team were eliminated in the Olympics by Lithuania. It was a quiet exit for the super tall super star. Not quite what the Chinese were envisioning.

Now it looks like Yao may be done as a Chinese National basketball star.

“That is four years away,” Yao said later. “In 2004, I thought that 2008 was far away. Now I look at 2012 (the next Games in London) and maybe it doesn’t look so far. But since 2004, I have had three major surgeries.”
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Don’t get me wrong, China had a great Olympics all around, but Yao was a disappointment.

There were two Chinese athletes that China was really counting on. Yao and Lui Xiang the former world record holding hurdler.

Lui had to remove himself with leg problems that had started months ago.

Much of the Chinese advertising effort was based on Lui Xiang first and then Yao Ming.

Now you have to wonder if either one of them will be in the London Olympics in 2012.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Here Ron Artest thinks he is a Rocket already and leans into take off position

It does not take a rocket scientist to tell if Ron Artest at his best will improve the Houston Rockets. He will.

Artest wanted to be reunited with Coach Rick Adelman. Rick was his coach in Sacramento when Ron started playing there.

So the trade was made…

A source close to the Kings said Tuesday a trade has been agreed upon sending Ron Artest to Houston for former Sacramento point guard Bobby Jackson, first-round draft pick Donte Greene, next season’s first-round pick and cash considerations of approximately $1 million.

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Like a lot of NBA trades, one team is clearing out the trash or reducing salary cap or trying to get younger while the other team is picking up an aging NBA star. That is what we will call Ron Artest, an aging NBA star. Please don’t snicker.

The other NBA teams will have to perk up and pay attention to the Rockets. With Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, and Ron Artest in the starting lineup, the Houston Rockets will be a team to contend with in the playoffs. That is right, the playoffs.

Now that brash prediction does not hold if Ron Artest once again self destructs.

To keep Ron from self destructing will be Coach Rick Adelman’s job.

When Artest, a mercurial small forward, was traded to the Kings from Indiana in January 2006, he flourished under Adelman. The Kings went 26-14 down the stretch with Artest after starting 18-24, then pushed the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs to six games in a competitive first-round playoff series.

As recently as this summer, Artest had shared his admiration for Adelman, saying he wished his free-agency year had come that season because of his ability to play well under the veteran coach. It is an ideal reunion for Artest, who decided not to opt out of his contract by the June 30 deadline and almost immediately expressed regret for doing so.

By the way, Donte Green, the 6′10″ forward going to Sacramento, appears to have a bright future as a scoring forward. We will have to keep our eyes on his career.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

China wants a very tall well known man as the “Face of the Olympics”.

Who could be better than Yao Ming?

Yao Ming looms big for the Chinese Olympic team and the Olympics!

Image details: 2008 Stankovic Continental Champions Cup - Day 1 served by picapp.com

Everyone loves Yao. Top it off; Yao is a great player as well.

It appeared that leg injuries would keep Yao out of the Olympics and the Chinese Olympic organizers were worried. This Olympics is very important to the Chinese. They want to show the world that they have arrived, that they are the power and the place to be in the world.

The injury has caused major concern among China’s Olympic organizers expecting him to become the face of the games and his return was certain to help them sleep easier. Yao is considered a leading candidate to carry the Olympic torch on its final leg into Beijing’s grandiose new National Stadium.

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Yao played last Thursday against the Serbia squad.

Even Yao expects a lot out of Yao.

Xue Zhen, basketball editor for leading newspaper Titan Sports, said Yao’s appearance at the Stankovic Cup served as a massive confidence booster, even if his form wasn’t 100 percent.

“This is Yao’s Olympic mission,” Xue said. “His presence is extraordinarily powerful, and the team is built around him.

“Without Yao, China will become a totally different team.”

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Joe Dumars opened the doors to all trade offers. The Pistons are slightly over the salary cap, so a trade of one of their veteran starters appears to be very doable.

So what are the rumors?

The two strongest deal with the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets.

Tracy McGrady can’t believe he could go to a winning team like the Pistons!

Image details: Utah Jazz v Houston Rockets, Game 2 served by picapp.com

Houston Rockets

Let’s start with the Rockets. Tracy McGrady said he wanted to win, so going to the Pistons would be fine with him. Let’s be clear though, Tracy was just speaking off handedly, he has no problem returning to the Rockets to play with Yao Ming.

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith reported on ESPN late Tuesday night that he spoke with McGrady and that McGrady wouldn’t mind a trade to Detroit.

Said Smith: “It’s certainly not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination. It’s not as if Houston and Detroit has even talked yet. But is Detroit interested? Definitely.

“Is Tracy McGrady interested? Yes he is. I spoke to Tracy McGrady earlier. His basic thing is he’s very happy in Houston but he wants to win. So whatever is a winning situation for him is something he is more than willing to entertain.”

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Golden State Warriors

The other deal being talked about is picking up the Golden State Warriors center Andris Biedrins. This could happen if Ronny Turief does end up with Golden State. The deal would involve Chauncey Billups.

The 6-11 Biedrins was the No. 11 overall pick in 2004. The 22-year-old started 59 of 76 games last season, averaging 10.5 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.24 blocks, shooting 62.6 percent from the floor.

The Warriors might be willing to make a trade once their deal for Ronny Turiaf has been completed. Golden State made a four-year, $17 million offer to the restricted free agent Turiaf of the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers have until Thursday to match the offer or they will lose Turiaf, a 6-foot-10 forward who averaged 6.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per game last season.
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