We’ve seen a few rapper vs. NBA player beefs. J.R. Smith and Joe Budden had themselves a little girl fight over Twitter, and there were recent rumors suggesting Lil Wayne and James Harden were fighting over Trina. But for the most part, the two sides have lived in harmony. Thankfully, the whole Kanye West/Kris Humphries/Kim Kardashian love triangle didn’t pop open and burst because that one actually had the potential to do some damage. Kanye certainly tried to – claiming on Twitter that he had been with Kim K while Humphries was married to her – but when has Kanye ever been anything other than a completely classless fool? When he rhymed in “Theraflu” And I’ll admit, I fell in love with Kim/’Round the same time she had fell in love wit’ him/Well, that’s cool, baby girl, do ya thing/Lucky I ain’t have Jay drop ‘im from the team it was kind of funny, even though it would never go down that way (In reality, Jay-Z owns one percent of the Nets. In his mind, he probably owns 50 percent.). The best thing Humphries could’ve done was just say, “well, that song sucks anyways” because it does. But he waited it out and instead got a shot in yesterday in the midst of signing his two year, $24 million deal to stay with the Nets. The power forward tweeted this: “I’m up at Brooklyn! @S_C_ “lucky I didn’t have Jay drop me from the team” lol!” Not much too it, but he got his point across. As for the actual dollars, we’ve already heard numerous people complaining about how much money he’s getting. But in a sense, it really doesn’t matter. The Nets are capped out as it is, and with the contract being so short, they will still have flexibility moving forward. With old timers like Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan getting massive deals this summer, you can’t really fault Brooklyn for throwing a little cake Humphries’ way. The market value was set, and Hump is still only 27 years old. In the meantime, they add a dude who was thought to be gone to another team this summer, and seeing that he averaged 13.8 points and 11 rebounds a night this year, that’s not a bad thing. Brooklyn could use a little star power – yes, the man is a star – considering their two true superstars (Deron Williams, Joe Johnson) are probably the two most boring great players in the league … Jeremy Lin officially became a Houston Rocket last night, after the Knicks refused to match his three year, $25 million offer sheet with Houston. We were all resigned to that fate once we heard New York was also going after Raymond Felton, but it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. Even Lin is surprised. The dude hired a new agent to maximize his potential earnings in the Big Apple, and had a number of different players say they wanted to come here to assist him. Now everyone is starting over … Keep reading to hear about what new crazy player Denver signed …
Sixers’ coach Doug Collins said yesterday that he hopes and plans on turning Nick Young into a candidate for Most Improved Player this season. Philly fans were ready to be rid of Lou Williams and his awful shot selection, but Young isn’t far behind. He is a career 43 percent shooter who doesn’t pass at all… seriously, as a guard, how do you have a career assist average of 0.9? During his final days with Washington, Young was putting up 15-20 points on the regular, but with a team that actually mattered (L.A. Clippers), his scoring punch fell off to less than 10. It’s hard to say how much scoring the former Wizard golden child will be doing this year, but we’re figuring he won’t lead the Sixers in that category like Williams did … Speaking of the Wizards, they used the amnesty clause to finally – THANKFULLY – get rid of Andray Blatche, who had spent the better part of the last year as both out of shape and unwanted. Actually, he had been working towards this moment for years, doing one stupid thing after another. Whereas Young and JaVale McGee seemed to go through with things to get laughs, Blatche just did stuff that was illegal, not funny and just downright annoying. As any Wizards fan will tell you, the dude has a ton of talent and showed it repeatedly before he was paid. Once he got that money? All he was trying to do was chill. Strangely, over the past five months or so, Washington has made all the right moves: surrounding John Wall with some talented veterans, drafting one of the best prospects and the best fit in the draft, and getting rid of all of the extra weight they’ve been carrying over the previous few seasons. There’s something not right here. They’re due for a terrible signing or trade … In a continuing effort to employ every crazy player in the entire league, the Nuggets set Chris “Birdman” Andersen free and then scooped up Anthony Randolph for three years and $6 million … Other NBA offseason news: the Wolves and Grizzlies have agreed to a deal that’ll swap Wayne Ellington and Dante Cunningham … Minnesota also figures they’ll be able to land restricted free agent Greg Stiemsma … Brooklyn is expected to re-sign Keith Bogans … Orlando draftee Fran Vazquez signed a deal with a new club in Europe, decreasing the chances that we ever see him in the NBA … And the Lakers declined to use their amnesty on Metta World Peace, and are also considered front runners to sign Antawn Jamison and Jermaine O’Neal … We’re out like Lin.
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