We’re going to need another photoshoot with Andrew Bynum soon. That picture of him in L.A. is getting old real fast. You’d think after getting dissed by the best franchise in the NBA (that’s a fact, even Laker haters can’t really deny it), Bynum might be a tad angry right now, especially considering the day-to-day mood swings he seems to go through. Nope. He’s elated. Now, he’s an hour from home, he’s playing in a conference that he should dominate, and most of all, he’s going to get all the shots he wants. There were questions in L.A. about how much Bynum really loved the game, and whether he was just in it to put up big numbers and make lots of money. People are going to question when you refuse to pass out of double teams, and when you wait months to get surgery in the offseason (he’s doing it AGAIN this summer). Plus, when you say things like, as told by @HPBasketball, “It’s going to be a lot more exciting and a lot more fun to know that everything’s going to be run through me” at your inaugural press conference with a new team, who can really blame anyone for questioning your motives? That’s about as big of a WOW statement as a player can make. We always preach about lifting the P.C. cover from press conference answers, but damn, that statement goes beyond that. If you’re a Sixer fan, at least you can say this: there’s absolutely no way Bynum leaves next summer for another team. It’s not happening. He has everything he’d want in Philly … Derrick Rose told Comcast SportsNet Chicago recently that his recovery is two to three weeks ahead of schedule, and that he’ll be back next year with his near 40-inch vertical putting people through the rim again. Okay, we made the last part up (it’s just our hope), but we’re hopeful because Rose sounds so hopeful. He says when he found out the knee was all torn up, it was the closest thing to death he had ever dealt with, and adidas is attempting to quell any fears anyone has about his recovery by documenting it every step of the way. The Return Of D Rose will be a multi-episode intimate journey with Rose as he makes his way back to star status … We’ve found someone who loves winning more than Kobe. It’s… his wife. Vanessa has been silent for literally years – Bryant used to forbid any magazine/journalists from even talking to her. She stayed out of the limelight. But recently, she spoke with New York Magazine, and actually said she didn’t think she could be with anybody that can’t win championships. Hilarious. “If you’re sacrificing time away from my family and myself for the benefit of winning championships, then winning a championship should happen every single year.” That’s an actual quote from her. At least her motivations are in the right spot. And she picked the right husband, too. Imagine if in the beginning she had somehow ended up with someone like say, Carmelo? … And we found out yesterday that Joe Johnson is indeed selling his Atlanta home. This is terrible news. Remember our Dime 70 feature on his otherwordly sneaker closet with the fingerprint system? It looks like he’ll have to re-do it once he finds a new place (probably somewhere around New York City). A small part of us just died. We’re actually kind of pissed about this … Keep reading to hear about what Michael Jordan said about this Olympic Team …
Did you catch that NBA 2K13 is going to include the Dream Team and this summer’s gold medal team? Finally, you’ll be able to settle the debate for yourself (Sort of. Video games are notorious crap shoots. We still remember dropping 105 with Ben Gordon in a regular game with our boys in 2K9.). While it’s a cool addition, they weren’t able to come to an agreement with Scottie Pippen, so he won’t be with the ’92 team. Plus-one for Team USA. Michael Jordan once kept Isiah Thomas off the team. Now, he’s been one upped by 2K Sports holding back Pippen … Jordan was also in the news talking MORE about this debate that’s sort of taken over the NBA summer. He told Sam Amick of SI.com that he doesn’t believe the Dream Team would have any problem with the current squad. Why? His answer to every question was that they were just a better all-around team. Jordan’s basketball opinion is basically void at this point considering how quickly he’s run two different franchises into the ground, but what if we switched the rules up a little bit? The 2016 Olympics may feature a 3-on-3 tournament. If you took LeBron, KD and Kobe and matched them up with the top three players from ’92 (maybe Jordan, Barkley and Pippen?), would we have a game? … And major props goes out to Thomas Lake. Since you probably don’t know who he is, Lake is apparently an SI writer who bailed Pop Herring, Michael Jordan‘s old high school coach, out of jail. Unless you’ve been reading the Internet with blinders over the past year, you’ve probably heard Herring’s life is all screwed up now by a pretty bad disease (paranoid schizophrenia). Like extremely screwed up. MJ doesn’t really owe the man anything – well, he could be kinder and stop bringing his name up in every major basketball celebration so he can proclaim “That’s the guy that cut me!” and then have everyone in attendance boo as a severely ill man just has to sit, watch and take it – but it would be cool if he could do something to help him out. Anything. It’s been 18 years since the two last saw each other … We’re out like Pippen.
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