I found this to be a great, inspirational story. Another reason why I will always be a big time Belinelli Fan. Now I know why Marco wore the number 18, which is the holy number of Israel.

A glimpse into the bravery of the past, a Toronto Raptors player shares his family history with ShalomLife.

Shalom Life was in attendance at the Toronto Raptors-LA Lakers game on Sunday, January 24th and was able to speak to Marco Belinelli, the high energy Italian import who was traded to the Raptors in the off season and had just come off a wonderful game in a win against the Lakers.

Belinelli was able to confirm a story which is little known but of great interest to the Jewish community. During the Holocaust, Belinelli's grandparents, who at the time were living in France, risked their own lives to help save those of French Jews. They helped hide and transport them out of France and into safety.

Simply Amazing. Surprising Stern wants to focus on Zach Randolph going to a YMCA and signing autographs but doesn't share stories like these. The NBA, where Amazing happens.

Via: Shalom Life

Hide the Children, it is thou Cohan and Rowell.

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I was watching the Warriors Game on Monday versus the Bulls and I noticed one thing: Monta Ellis has become the point guard of this team. Monta Ellis brings the ball up all 48 minutes of the game, and if he is to become our pseudo-point, he is not doing a good job at it. His Assist Ratio is 15.7. Assist Ratio is the percentage of a player’s possessions that ends in an assist. A good passer is around 25% and great passers are above 30% for example, Steve Nash and Rajon Rondo are each at 38% this year, which is around tops in the league. So, if Monta Ellis is handling the ball, the majority of your team's possessions , your offense is not going to have good or even average ball movement. To no one's surprise, our offense this year has been below average, and for many reasons because Monta Ellis is running our offense.

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Marco Belinelli and Brandan Wright were the first new members to be added to our team after our 'We Believe' Playoff Run. They both were hyped as key contributors to our team. However, these two never got on the floor that season for many reasons. One of the main reasons was Don Nelson's reluctance to play Rookies. They basically had a wasted Rookie Year. I still believe these two have tons of talent(not potential, talent). They have not had a chance to show off this talent as much as they deserve to. In limited playing time, these two did very well.

Belinelli proved to be one of our few facilitators on offense and provided a much needed feisty-effort(or just effort) on defense. Wright proved to be our best low post offensive option with his baby hook which is unblock-able due to his superior length. He also proved to be an average to above average post defender. However, his rebounding was sup-par and with a Coach like Nelson, as a big man, expect to be the only rebounder on the court.

All the hogwash about players rebounding numbers being inflated by being the only big on the floor is not true. It would seem to make it harder to rebound. I.e.... If I am the Center and the power-forward(Maggs, Jackson, Buike) does not box out his man well it might as well be 2, or 3 on 1 in terms of rebounding. Thats why you need GREAT rebounders such as Randolph or Biedrins to make this work. Adequate or Above-Average Rebounders can't do it well enough for it to succeed.

From December 15Th to January 11th Belinelli got extended playing time. He averaged 31.7 minutes per game. This the actual amount of time per game to evaluate a player. With this playing time he averaged 14.5 points  on 43% shooting from the field and 41.2% from 3 and 81% from the line, while having to guard the other teams best player (included likes of Kobe, Pierce, Granger, Redd, and Joe Johnson) and at a time the Warriors were playing without many of their offensive options besides Crawford, Belinelli, and Azubuike.

So how does he look to you all now when you don't look at his stats from the year which is filled with games where he plays 3 or 4 minutes at the beginning and when he first came back from injury. His numbers in the 15 game stretch where he averaged decent minutes are better numbers than Jackson when you consider Jackson played 40 minutes a game.

Are you all still so ready to give up on Marco and Trade him. Your thoughts and criticisms ?

I compiled these stats from Yahoo Sports and used a calculator by adding up amount of shots taken divided by shot attempts in FG, FT, and 3. Added up all the points/minutes and divided by 15(amount of games) to produce the average. If you don't believe me then do it yourself. Please don't say I'm wrong without doing the research yourself.

UPDATE!!!!:Did some more research on his assists and other facts.

His EFG% was 51% so yes he was very efficient.

True Field Goal % was 55%.

His per 36 in scoring was 16.0

His per 36 in rebounding was 4.2

His per 36 assist rate was 5.5 in that stretch. That surely comes out alot better than Jackson if he averaged 40 minutes.

His per 36 turnover rate was around 2.4.

His assist to turnover rate was 2.29/1. Pretty Good Haters.

His per 36 steals ratio was 2.02. Not to mention he was guarding the other teams best players pretty well.