Official NBA 2012-2013 Season Thread

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Here's further proof that its good to be an NBA player. Chris Paul just tweeted some of the shoes he got for the season. I don't like all of them, but still...

Chris Paul ‏@CP3
A few of the J's that came 2day...these 9's are SICK! #TeamJordan http://instagr.am/p/QA2dT6yjfB/

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WAVY BONE said:
Read earlier that Paul George and Gerald Green have been going AT IT in early Pacers scrimmages so far.
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:pimp: Paul George only going to get better with hard work in the off-season, improved work ethic, continued motivation and hunger, and drive to be the best player on his team.
 
you big dummy said:
The IV's and ******** IX's are :nthat:
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Those IVs are maybe my favorite AJs of all-time. I recently got rid of my 1999 retro black/red 4s because the foam around the air bubble started falling apart. That was a sad, sad day. Seeing them in CP's pic makes me want to pick up another pair.
 
The Choices of James Harden
By: Jonathan Tjarks
Sep 24, 2012 4:20 PM EDT


If the Oklahoma City Thunder can not agree to a contract extension with James Harden before Oct. 31, the 23-year-old shooting guard will become a restricted free agent next summer. After initially struggling with his role in an offense that already featured Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, Harden has blossomed into a bonafide star. The NBA’s reigning sixth man of the year, Harden averaged 19.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists on 49% shooting per-36 minutes in 2012, even with a usage rating of only 21.7.

Eric Gordon, the only other young shooting guard in Harden’s class, signed a four-year $60 million max contract this summer, despite playing in only nine games last season after undergoing knee surgery. Harden would have no trouble finding interested suitors in 2013, including big-market playoff contenders like the Atlanta Hawks and the Dallas Mavericks. However, if Oklahoma City were to match a max contract offer, their payroll would skyrocket at the very same time punitive luxury tax penalties designed to punish such free spending came into place.

Over the next month, Harden and his advisors will have to grapple with one of the oldest dilemmas in free agency, between money and winning. In so doing, they should consider the career paths of Manu Ginobili and Joe Johnson, two of the best shooting guards of the previous generation who had to make a similar decision early in their NBA careers.

Ginobili, another 6’5+ left-handed shooting guard with a well-rounded game, is the player Harden most resembles on the court. Like Harden, he lucked into a great situation at the start of his career, playing with Tim Duncan and Tony Parker for one of the most well-run franchises in the NBA. Ginobili became an All-Star in his third season, but he was content to play a supporting role on three separate championship teams, agreeing to a series of below-market contract extensions while mainly coming off the bench.

Johnson entered the league as a raw 20-year-old out of Arkansas, emerging into his own with the Phoenix Suns in 2004. A massive 6’7, 240 guard with an excellent feel for the game, he was the fourth option on a team with three other All-Stars -- Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion -- that won 62 games and made the Western Conference Finals. With Johnson hobbled due to an eye injury, the Suns lost to the Spurs 4-1, the beginning of a heated rivalry that would see the teams meet in the playoffs three more times in the next five years.

Johnson, however, would not be a part of it. That summer, he agreed to a blockbuster $70 million contract with the Hawks. The Suns, owned by legendary cheapskate Robert Sarver, had no intention of matching the offer, agreeing to a sign-and-trade with Atlanta that sent Boris Diaw and a few first-round picks back. Johnson went on to play in six straight All-Star games for the Hawks, but he hasn’t made it back to a Conference Finals series since.

There’s no way to know whether his presence would have guaranteed a championship with Phoenix, not when the Suns never had an answer for Duncan or Dirk Nowitzki, the two 7’0 who dominated the West for most of the last decade. However, it’s hard to imagine San Antonio racking up three titles if Ginobili had decided to look for greener pastures when his rookie contract was up.

At the same time, as great as he was for both the Spurs and the Argentinian national team, it’s hard to imagine Ginobili having more success than Johnson if he had played in Atlanta. For players viewed so differently in popular perception, it’s remarkable how similar their career statistics are -- 15/4/4 on 45% shooting for Ginobili, 18/4/4 on 44% shooting for Johnson. No shooting guard can single-handedly lift his team to title contention, as Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade found out in the middle of the last decade.

But when their careers are over, Ginobili’s late game heroics in the playoffs will be remembered long after Johnson’s machine-like consistency on good but not great Atlanta teams are forgotten. Neither player rates very high on Basketball Reference’s Hall of Fame probability scores, but Ginobili will likely be enshrined in Springfield while Johnson will not.

Which isn’t to say that Ginobili hasn’t paid a price for his decision to stay with the Spurs. In fact, it’s a mind-bogglingly high one: when Johnson’s latest contract runs out in 2016, he will have made approximately $200 million in his NBA career. Ginobili will have made $95 million when his contract expires at the end of this season, and at the age of 35, he doesn’t have any more big paydays coming up.

Ginobili will probably be financially comfortable for the rest of his life, but you never know, just ask Vince Young. Johnson, meanwhile, is in a far different financial class, what Chris Rock once called “the difference between being rich and being wealthy”. With hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, he will have an innumerable amount of opportunities when his playing career is over to reinvest in his community and leave a legacy that goes far deeper than basketball.

Culture, more than even money, may have made the biggest difference in their decision-making processes. Johnson made the quintessentially American call: at the age of 24, he was eager to test the limits of his own game and prove that he could stand on his own. Ginobili, meanwhile, never left the proverbial nest, comfortable sharing the load with his friends, passing up individual accomplishments to pursue a greater communal goal.

From the outside, there’s no way to say who made the right or the wrong decision, not on a choice that personal. As Harden will soon find out, there are trade-offs to every decision we make in life.
 
laker4lifeman said:
Damn isn't it about to be his 3rd season? :lol:
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If you're talking about Marshon, this will be his 2nd year. That's what had me puzzled when I saw the pic, like this dude ain't a rook anymore. :lol:

One of my favorite pranks was when Donte Greene & Jason Thompson got Bobby Jackson by putting dog food, chocolate syrup, soy sauce, ketchup and mustard on his Benz :smh:

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If I'm Harden and I want to stay with the Thunder.. I sign a 5 year deal, but give myself an opt out after 2...

Gives him the ability to stay in a great situation, and eat his cake as well with the ability to choose his own situation in a couple years if he so chooses..
 
romedadude said:
If you're talking about Marshon, this will be his 2nd year. That's what had me puzzled when I saw the pic, like this dude ain't a rook anymore.
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One of my favorite pranks was when Donte Greene & Jason Thompson got Bobby Jackson by putting dog food, chocolate syrup, soy sauce, ketchup and mustard on his Benz
mean.gif
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they had to stop bobby from putting hands on both of them idiots after this though
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Bigmike23 said:
romedadude said:
If you're talking about Marshon, this will be his 2nd year. That's what had me puzzled when I saw the pic, like this dude ain't a rook anymore.
laugh.gif

One of my favorite pranks was when Donte Greene & Jason Thompson got Bobby Jackson by putting dog food, chocolate syrup, soy sauce, ketchup and mustard on his Benz
mean.gif
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they had to stop bobby from putting hands on both of them after this thought i think
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he was heated 
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Bulls should look to get Harden if he's a free agent next summer

Noah
PF - Ship Boozer elsewhere
Deng
Harden
Rose
 
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