"Even odds, Trevor Ariza gets ejected from a game before Ron Artest does"

If I had given you this bet before the season started would you take it? Of course you would.

But just last night, Trevor Ariza was booted from the Rocket-Raptors game for throwing an elbow at DeMar Derozan. It was following a steal by DeRozan, and Ariza threw a chicken wing at the back of his head. He missed, but the refs caught it and ejected Ariza. Ariza was obviously frustrated, as he was 0-9 with one point at the time.

Now, this is not to pile on Ariza. I really, really like him as a player, and from what I read of him as a person.

This is more a defense of Ron Artest, and all the dimwits who see him as a troublemaker.

If Ron had done this last night, do you know how many "I told you so" type of posts and comments and columns we would have seen? About 2,142 of them, give or take a hundred.

So if you were one of those worried about Ron Artest based on his past, maybe you should comment down here and apologize for not realizing that Ariza would be the first to cause trouble. I know that the season is yet to be over, but Trevor has taken first blood, and he might even get a suspension.

I didn't bring it up, the Cleveland Plain Dealer did.

I haven't totally tired of this subject, especially with the playoffs so far off, and the Lakers with few problems to complain about.

The Plain Dealer sports writers wrote a book called LeBron James: The Making of an MVP, and they published an excerpt of their book here.

Inevitably, a book like this must make a comparison to Kobe, and as you can guess by the title, the authors found it justified to shit on Kobe in order to make Lebron look better in contrast (my bold added):

Why even bring LeBron into this discussion?

Because he won his first MVP award at the age of 24. Most players don't peak until their late 20s. Johnson and Bird were not awarded their first MVPs until they were 27. Jordan? His came at 25.

By the age of 24, LeBron had 24 triple-doubles, with four more in the playoffs, compared to two for Jordan.

What about Kobe Bryant? He has won only one MVP award, that being in 2008 at the age of 29. More importantly, the guy doesn't pass -- a career average of 4.6 assists. Certainly not an embarrassing total, but Jordan is at 5.3. Bird was 6.3 assists from his forward spot. LeBron, by the end of his sixth season had a career average of 6.7 assists.

For Bryant, the numbers remain at 25.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and those 4.6 assists. There is a sense that Bryant often is a "bailout passer," meaning he gives up the ball only when he's in trouble -- being double- or tripled-teamed. Nearly every time he catches the ball, the first thing that crosses his mind is "shoot it."

What makes LeBron different is he can do everything, and is doing it at a younger age than nearly anyone has done it before. He also is doing it at a historic pace.

Like I've said before, I'm only a little bit tired of this conversation, and the scoreboard is so far in Kobe's favor, it's risible, but I think I could talk about this till the cows come home, sit down for dinner, and eat.

I don't like it when people crap on Lebron to make Kobe look good (though I admit I've done it in the past, and I feel dirty afterwards). So I promise to be on better behavior in the future, because I see how pathetic it looks from the other side to put down a great player in order to praise another one.

Are you tired of the Kobe-Lebron comparisons? Eh, maybe a little bit. It's like, leave these guys alone and let them be who they be! ... But after the demolition of the Nets, things are slow round Lakers Nation. Just waiting for the tough road games to start to see what we have here with this year's team.

So here's another Kobe-Lebron comparison for you to digest. It's really a guilty pleasure, sorry in advance to Cavs/Lebron fans who will take this personally, I ain't mad atcha. It really is low brow to be picking on Lebron talking in the third person. All in good fun.

IF I didn't know better, I'd say that Charley Rosen was a super-troll!

Please click through to the article at Fox Sports, as I this was so juicy I had to copy and paste the whole section,so give Uncle Charley some clicks at :

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/10443134/Heat-need-more-than-Wade-to-thrive

Straight shooting

Because of his gigantic talents, his overwhelming power, his freight-train speed, his resounding dunks and his chase-down blocks of breakaways, most NBA watchers believe LeBron James to be the best player in the league.

While conceding LBJ's gargantuan upside, I humbly beg to disagree. By my lights, the honor belongs to Kobe Bryant.

Here's why:

LeBron's pregame hijinx are just another notch against him compared to Kobe. ( / Getty Images)

It's never too early to speculate if you love basketball!

Who will be a first time All-Star selection this year?

Here's my short list, in order of likelihood from most likely to long shot:

Josh Smith

Kevin Durant

Andrew Bynum

Andrea Bargnani

Derrick Rose

Brandon Jennings

Discuss.

Update : Notable Reader Submissions - Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo, Andrew Bogut

You gotta love skimming over this column from Feb.13, 2009 after a game like this ... and grinning smugly.

People often say that Kobe Bryant has no weaknesses to his game, but that’s not really true. Before the game, Battier was given his special package of information. "He’s the only player we give it to," Morey says. "We can give him this fire hose of data and let him sift. Most players are like golfers. You don’t want them swinging while they’re thinking." The data essentially broke down the floor into many discrete zones and calculated the odds of Bryant making shots from different places on the court, under different degrees of defensive pressure, in different relationships to other players — how well he scored off screens, off pick-and-rolls, off catch-and-shoots and so on. Battier learns a lot from studying the data on the superstars he is usually assigned to guard.

and

The reason the Rockets insist that Battier guard Bryant is his gift for encouraging him into his zones of lowest efficiency. The effect of doing this is astonishing: Bryant doesn’t merely help his team less when Battier guards him than when someone else does. When Bryant is in the game and Battier is on him, the Lakers’ offense is worse than if the N.B.A.’s best player had taken the night off. “The Lakers’ offense should obviously be better with Kobe in,” Morey says. “But if Shane is on him, it isn’t.” A player whom Morey describes as “a marginal N.B.A. athlete” not only guards one of the greatest — and smartest — offensive threats ever to play the game. He renders him a detriment to his team.

15-30. 41 points, 11-15 FT, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 win

Savor it ... for now. Because rest assured Kobe will have a bad game someday with Battier guarding him, and we'll have to hear about it all over again, even though it will have less to do with Battier's D and more to do with Kobe simply having an off night.

In case you haven't heard, the news is that Sasha is cuddling up to Maria. I know, big deal.

But it's totally X an O's basketball related. I only give you the hard news. Sasha, for his part, is being coy, and neither confirming or denying the rumor. The Machine don't kissy-poo and tell.

via www.vujacic.net,

via catatanlasya.files.wordpress.com

Tim Donaghy's book was pulled by the publisher because of "potential liabilities". This means the NBA will sue the pants off of them if it ever makes it to the book shelf.

But that hasn't stopped Deadspin from publishing excerpts of it on its site, titling it "The Book the NBA Doesn't Want You Read".  It's juicy, with tales of refs betting on who will call the first foul, and ref sessions on how to officiate Kobe - Raja Bell matchups.  Here's one tidbit:

If a player of Kobe's stature collides with the likes of Raja Bell, the call will almost always go for Kobe and against Bell. As part of our ongoing training and game preparation, NBA referees regularly receive game-action video tape from the league office. Over the years, I have reviewed many recorded hours of video involving Raja Bell. The footage I analyzed usually illustrated fouls being called against Bell, rarely for him. The message was subtle but clear — call fouls against the star stopper because he's hurting the game.

Or, maybe the message is that Raja Bell fouls Kobe a lot more than Kobe fouls Raja Bell.

There's also some damning statements about the Sacramento-Lakers playoff series. You can attack the messenger's credibility, but if you believe a shred of what he says, you will not watch basketball in the same way again.

Read the rest here and discuss.