Just got out of practice and Mitchell said that he’s going to start Rasho Nesterovic tomorrow night against the Philadelphia 76ers in place of Andrea Bargnani. I’ll have more on this in tomorrow’s paper but Mitchell went out of his way to stress that it’ s more about getting more production out of Rasho than any problems with Andrea. The thinking is Nesterovic will help set the defensive tone and perhaps leave a few more touches for Bosh, Kapono and Parker. Then, when Mitchell goes to his bench, Bargnani can be more of a first option with the second unit and is a better fit than trying to play Nesterovic and Humphries together.
I’m probably going to take tomorrow off as I’ve got a wicked stack of expenses to wade through. In the meantime here’s a few links for pleasure, though I’m negotiating the possibility of a guest blog. We’ll see.
A special note about this item on cishoops.ca. It’s a mention of a tribute RMC is having on Friday for Kevin Dulude, who starred at the military college – and I mean starred – ending up the OUA’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder. And no, he was not a good player on a bad team, as the Paladins finished second in the OUA East in his fourth year. And now he’s a an officer in the Canadian forces. Can anyone out there put me in touch with this guy? I remember following his game, but now that he’s a captain in the military, I’d love to hear his story.
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Also congratulations to thebasketballjones.net, who posted their 200th podcast the other day. I’m a big fan of consistency.
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Does Michael Jordan have a movie coming out? A new shoe line? Probably. He’s sitting down with his son Jeff for an interview with Matt Lauer on the Today Show on NBC that airs Friday at 7 a.m. Here’s an excerpt, from :
MICHAEL AND JEFF JORDAN ON BASKETBALL EXPECTATIONS:
MATT LAUER: Michael, let's talk a little bit of expectations. My dad wanted me to exceed what he had achieved, whether it was success-wise or financially. And the fact of the matter is it's going to be very, very hard for Jeff. Have you sat down and had talks about expectations with him?
MICHAEL JORDAN: Oh, yeah. We-- we do it all the time, you know? The thing that we have tried to tell Jeff is that you set your own expectations, you know? And if you're happy, that's all that matters. You're never going to make everybody happy.
MATT LAUER: But-- but how do you make that work in reality, Jeff? Because he's exact-- the theory's a great theory. But you know the first time you're introduced in the arena over here in a game for the Illini and they say, "Number 13, Jeff Jordan," the room's going to stop for a second.
JEFFREY JORDAN: Right.
MATT LAUER: And the crowd's going to go, "Here we go." And if you hit your first shot, it's going To be loud in there.
JEFFREY JORDAN: Right.
MATT LAUER: You throw up an air ball on your first shot, it's going to get really quiet.
JEFFREY JORDAN: Right.
MATT LAUER: How are you going to deal with that?
JEFFREY JORDAN: I guess the way I've been dealing with it since, you know, since high school is just you got to put it aside. Since I was young and playing basketball, every time I had a problem with expectations or-- you know, people looking up and, you know, thinking I'm supposed to be somebody I'm not, I always came to my parents first.
JORDAN ON HIS DIVORCE:
MATT LAUER: Hard for you to-- to break that news?
