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Unnamed sources have it that with Barry Hall being lured by Danny Green's management team, Mundine's camp are making offers to have Hall fight Sonny Bill Williams in January in a $1million winner take all showcase in Sydney.
Possible venues are Parramatta Stadium, Acer Arena and the Sydney Football Stadium. The teams are hoping for early January, maybe even New Year's Day which would delight the marketers.
Green's team would not only jump at the chance, they would look to tie in a re-match deal to take place on the undercard for what they hope will be Green/Mundine 2 later in the year.
SBW will need to take time out from his French rugby duties, but the $1million would be too tempting.
Barry v SBW - I'd pay to see that.
Rufus T. Firefly
Did anybody notice how much time Adam Morrison spent standing on the edge of the court in today's game 2? For the much of the second and third quarters Morrison was actually on the edge of the court in street clothes.
Okay, so he was just cheerleading, but I would have hated to have paid $800 for a second row seat behind the Laker bench, hoping to get a great view of an NBA finals game, and instead seeing the back of Morrison's head and back.
Look, if you're not good enough to make the 12 for the finals squad, just take a seat and shut up.
Everybody wants all players to be great team-mates, which means supporting your guys when you aren't on the floor. But if you aren't dressed for the big dance, stay off the dance floor.
I've always hated coaches prowling the sidelines, especailly when you think that Phil Jackson and KC Jones have 11 titles between them and they hardly ever stand up. If your team can't perform unless you're calling every single pass and shot, maybe you should coach them a little better.
And one final thought on Morrison - if the Laker's do win, which seems more a case of when not if, then Morrison will get a championship ring as a contracted member of the squad. He better not appear on some half-arsed talk show proudly wearing a ring he had no part in winning.
It's time to add six seconds back to the shot clock, to allow the NBA to move forward to a much greater test of will amongst great athletes.
Since the shot clock was reduced in 1980 to 24 seconds from 30, shooting percentages have slipped, offenses have gotten more basic, and individual play now has a far greater role in a what was a much more dynamic team sport.
I'm not for a moment saying that I don't think that today's stars wouldn't be stars with a 30 second shot clock. But today's coaches and point guards and centres would definitely have a much stronger role to play. And small forwards and shooting guards would be less effective. No, I'm not going to get into hating on Kobe. He's a great player and still would be with more time on the shot clock, but he would have to improve his passing.
I don't know if anybody's noticed, but these days March Madness is a far more interesting sporting tournament than the NBA post season. And the NCAA uses a 35 second shot clock. I can't remember ever looking at an offensive sequence in a college game and thinking "I wish these guys would hurry up and shoot."
Instead I watch college ball and think that it's great that the point guards have time to set up a legitimate flex, or brush double screen or picket fence. And in college every basket counts. Much more so than the NBA.
So you're thinking I want lower scoring games? No, I want better scoring games. So the scores will drop with a 30, rather than a 24? So what. It will be better shooting, with better passing and better offensive composition. Do we really need more 126-118 games? I'll take an 87-85 game with every basket contested every time.
With a 24 second clock, the guard has eight seconds to get over half way, then 16 seconds to get a shot away. But nobody is going to run an offense that has the shot taken with less than five seconds on the clock. That leaves 11 seconds to get a good shot away. That's no where near long enough. It also means most plays are going to be three pass plays. Three passes isn't enough time to asess the defense's weaknesses and dribble, and then get the best shot off.
With a 30, you would have time to do all that, and you might even have time to reset and run another option if the first one is closed down.
We don't need more shooting, we need better shooting. Make every basket count.
Larry Erving
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