NBA Lockout Talks Put On Hold; Kobe Bryant Disses Kwame Brown

Remember how David Stern said that if a deal wasn’t reached by Monday that the first two weeks of the regular season would be cancelled? Well, we’re pretty much there. CBSSports.com reported yesterday that the players reached out about a meeting Monday, but the NBA refused because the players would not prematurely agree on a 50/50 split of the basketball related income. A union source told Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski: “This just confirms what we suspected all along: The NBA was never serious about negotiating until guys missed checks.” So now we’re at a stalemate: Both sides know what they want, and yet neither one will cross that line in the sand. Someone needs to make the first move. The lockout went from being mildly annoying to now we are legitimately pissed. The first two weeks of the season are nearly 100 percent gone. If someone doesn’t make a move soon, then we will be looking at a repeat of 1999 (at best). But we guess we all should’ve seen this coming … Derrick Rose and John Calipari are still paying for their one year together at Memphis. Why? In order to avoid a potential lawsuit from three attorneys who claim to represent “certain ticket holders,” the coach and star player agreed at some point last year to pay a settlement total of $100,000. Calipari also agreed to donate his bonus ($232,000) to the U of M scholarship fund while Rose is set to make some sort of charitable donation as well. The attorneys, representing the ticket holders, claim that because of the NCAA violations that season, their tickets are no longer as valuable as they should be … If you like watching Skylar Diggins (and we know you do), then let us show you how she works out … Kobe Bryant does not do well with hidden cameras. Back in the day, the “parking lot” video nearly took over a whole offseason. Now, Bryant’s gone off on another teammate. This time it’s Kwame Brown. The one redeeming thing about the video is nothing Bryant really says is false. It’s all true, and Kobe even admits this is all stuff he’d say right to Brown’s face. But still, you make fun of one of your former teammates because he can’t catch the ball? Pretty low, and Kobe is legit laughing at him. The stuff he says about Brown, if true, is kinda sad. Bryant told a story from just before the Pau Gasol trade. Kwame knew he was open in a game against Detroit, wide open, and yet in the huddle, he was asking Bryant not to pass to him. Huh? This is the same guy who was once a No. 1 overall pick and he didn’t even believe he could catch a pass? That’s bad. Confidence is a fickle thing. But for Brown, there had to be something much more intense going on inside of him to fall apart mentally like that. Michael Jordan may still haunt his dreams … Adam Morrison is an easy target: big-time college player who basically became a bust in the NBA, the weird hair and the eccentric 1970s psychedelic personality, and the whole crying incident. So while it’s not breaking news to see Morrison get tossed from a game with his Serbian team, Red Star Belgrade, it’s still funny to watch. In one frame, Morrison looks like either Conan the Barbarian or Luis Scola. In the next, he’s crying. Some things never change … Are you ready for the game at FIU tonight? Nine All-Stars will be going at it. We’ll see Dwyane Wade and LeBron James go head-to-head. The game is sold out, and even CBS is televising it to the local crowd. Other than that, it’s just another stop on an offseason circuit where we’ve seen standout performances all over the country … Who wants a free copy of NBA 2K12? We have you covered … Damon Jones told InsideHoops.com that he’s serious about making an NBA comeback. Do you think he has anything left? … And the Minnesota Lynx won their sixth consecutive postseason game, this one ending in a WNBA championship. In their 73-67 title-clinching win over the Atlanta Dream, Seimone Augustus had 16 and Maya Moore added 15 as Atlanta was swept in the Finals for the second consecutive season … We’re out like Blake Griffin wearing thongs.