Today was a basketball day. I played 4 games of full court basketball, took an hour rest, and then lifted weights for 35 minutes. By the last rep, my energy was sapped but I did feel good after logging such a thorough workout.

Here was my workout post basketball:

• Smith machine EZ bar curl 3×10 67 lbs
• regular dumbell curls 1×10 12 lbs
• inside grip lat pulldowns 3×10 plate 10
• reverse dumbell curls 1×10 25 lbs, 2×10 30 lbs
• deadlift w/ dumbells 3×10 60 lbs
• incline bench side curls (from fly position with knuckles pointed away from the body) 3×10 25 lbs
• dumbell curls with slight twist 2×10 25 lbs

What to take away from this workout was how you can be completely exhausted, but still muster up strength in other parts of your body. After 4 full court basketball games, I had no more in me. I was so done I walked away from a 5th game because I just couldn’t run up and down the court anymore. Still, I knew if I gathered myself I could get in a good weight session in because my biceps and back weren’t put to the test in basketball.

One activity I do need to increase is my abs/crunches. A strong core is essential to building the rest of your body.

SXC.hu

I missed my morning workout again today.  Same reason - I would have been trying to physically perform at a high level on not very much sleep.  This doesn’t mean I won’t workout tonight though.  I’m going to the area middle school to work on some speed training drills.  I will log these in tomorrow, hopefully along with my morning workout.

I will also be headed to the basketball court tomorrow (if there’s a game - never sure with these guys) in the afternoon.  I doubt lifting weights will have any significant affect on my play.  The main issue I would have is if I ran myself into the ground, but I’ll keep my legs fresh.  As the subjects of weight lifting and basketball clash, the question will inevitably come up, does weight lifting affect your shot?

I would say yes it does - in a positive way.  Now granted, I don’t think it’s optimal for a shooter to lift weights and then go out and expect his shot to be the same later that day but getting stronger will help your touch as long as you remain consistent in integrating basketball and weight lifting.

To keep a positive impact, you need to make sure you don’t just drop basketball for the iron and then come back to basketball a few weeks later.  If you do this, there is a high likelihood the added strength will improve your jump shot.  First, legs are the base of your jumper.  If you can develop a better foundation, you’re less likely to be knocked off balance and you’ll get better elevation on your jump shot.  Also, having stronger arms is going to help you get shots off in more difficult situations where you’re trying to hang longer in the air.

SXC.hu

First off, a hat tip to the Women’s Hoops Blog for this find.

Ain’t this grand? According to an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, season ticket sales for the Storm since the announcement of new ownership for the WNBA franchise, have already exceeded last season’s total. Granted, that has to be a valley since ownership wasn’t solid and the threat of moving was in front of all their fans, but it’s still impressive no matter how you slice it.

Anne Levinson (pictured above), one of the new owners, reflected on the past few weeks.

“It’s been tremendous,” Levinson said. “We’ve been getting cards and handwritten notes and e-mails and phone messages from everyone from little kids to grandparents and dads. I’ve worked on a lot of issues in my day, but this has been very lovely.

“It’s a challenging thing that we’re doing, so it’s nice to see that it’s well received.”

All the changes happening to Seattle recently could indeed spark a renaissance leading back to a title run.

Photo: Joshua Trujillo / Seattle Post-Intelligencer

So as I told you before, it’s official. The newest WNBA franchise finally has a name, colors and logo.

I was thinking it’d be a blue similar to the Atlanta Hawks, but alas, it’s sky blue with red (lightish red for any of you RedVsBlue fans).

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The new Atlanta franchise finally has a name.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, owner Ron Terwilliger confirmed the new name late Tuesday evening.

“It seems to me it’s a really consistent name with Atlanta and its history,” Terwilliger said.

Atlanta City Council president Lisa Borders, an adviser to the team, agreed.

“The name fits Atlanta so well — from the time of Mayor [William] Hartsfield when we were deciding to be a transportation hub, all the way forward to the Olympics being held here, with Martin Luther King in the middle with the civil rights movement,” Borders said.

According to the same article, the official announcement will come on Wednesday, along with a logo and color scheme, which is said to be a combination of red, white and blue.

Some NCAA teams will wear pink jerseys and warmups to promote breast cancer awareness in a set of games next month.

According to ESPN.com, NC State, Rutgers, LSU and Georgia are expected to don the hue on Sunday, Feb. 10 as ESPN prepares its tournament coverage with a dry run.

Fans will be encouraged to donate to the Kay Yow Fund, named after NC State’s head coach, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987 and was informed recently that she had stage four cancer.

All the efforts are part of the Jimmy V Foundation.

Well, looks like the city of Seattle’s basketball outlook just keeps getting better and better.

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that Lauren Jackson will play in the WNBA this season, taking only a short break (five games, apparently) to prepare for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

It was suggested the Australian captain might sit out the WNBA season to devote herself to the Olympic campaign.

But Jackson’s agent Bruce Kaider said a deal had been struck that satisfied Jackson, Basketball Australia and Seattle. Jackson, who is currently playing in the lucrative Russian league for Spartak, will start the WNBA season for Seattle on May 17. She will play until July 12, when she will return to Australia for a training camp.

The Opals will also play a pre-Olympic tournament in China from August 2-5.

After getting word of an ownership group stepping up to attempt to take control of the team and keep the Storm in Washington, this is added good news for new coach Brian Agler.

Now if we can get us a collective bargaining agreement, we might just see if Seattle can mount another playoff run.

(And $500 million.)

One man feels the NBA owes him some respect, some recognition and what I mentioned above (well, I’m not certain about the “N”) and damned if he’s not suing to get it.

Lightning Mitchell (yeah) has filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming the National Basketball Association stole his idea for a women’s basketball league when they created the Women’s National Basketball Association and effectively killed his Women’s Basketball Association.

If you’ve caught your breath from reading all that, here’s the kicker.

Mitchell said he’s waited so long to file the suit because he only recently found out that the person he had been talking to about creating the women’s league is the same person who then launched the WNBA.

So it wasn’t a mental distress as the league grew to what is arguably its greatest success until you found out you’d allegedly been pawned off?

Right.

(Photo Courtesy of MyFoxKC.com)

Tuesday came and went without any new agreement on the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement, which means teams still cannot sign free agents.

The start of the signing period has been pushed back indefinitely while negotiations are hammered out.

It’s still not so bad… yet. There’s still a decent amount of time between now and the end of the college season and draft so teams can gauge their needs. I know nobody wants to think of it yet, though, but this sport cannot have a work stoppage.

Get it done, unions.

Adding to the new faces coming to Los Angeles, the Sparks hired former NBA player Larry Smith as an assistant coach.

Smith shared the floor with Sparks head coach Michael Cooper in the NBDL when the Albuquerque Thunderbirds won the league’s title.

This adds to the list of Lisa Leslie and likely No. 1 draft pick Candace Parker who will be part of the Sparks organization this upcoming WNBA season.