While we’ve all been caught up in ‘The Decision,’ the MLB All-Star Game, and general free-agent pratter, one of the biggest challenges facing LeBron James and the Miami Heat has bobbed to the surface. On Monday, NBA Union Director Billy Hunter told ESPN, “I’m preparing for a lockout right now and I haven’t seen anything to change that notion. Hopefully I’ll see something over the next several months.” As ESPN itself is running a column highlighting the 2011 free-agent class, the collective bargaining agreement reached by the players union and owners will expire June 30, 2011. Mr. Hunter’s comments were in response to NBA Commisioner David Stern’s statements at a press conference after meetings for the NBA’s Board of Governor’s. Specifically, that the league lost $370 million last year.

Basically, Billy Hunter disagree’s with the NBA’s assessment. Citing higher ticket sales and television ratings, the player’s union feels that league is doing well, and are also very happy with the way the bargaining agreement is setup. Both sides at this point seem pretty set on  agreeing-to-disagree which doesn’t bode well for the 2012 season. If Wade/LeBron/Bosh don’t get their ring next year, 2012 may be a long year for those three, you know, not playing basketball or nothin’.

Especially when Mr. Billy Hunter is also adding, “As of this moment, it’s full speed ahead for me in preparing the players for a worst-case scenario.”

The commish started off by stating the obvious, deriding LeBron for his poorly thought through “Decision” decision. Stern defended the star’s right to choose whatever team suited him, despite Stern’s hope that LeBron would stay in Cleveland earlier this summer. In a few choice words he cut down Mr. James: “His performance was fine. His honesty and his integrity shine through. But this decision was ill-conceived, badly produced and poorly executed. Those who were interested were given our opinion prior to its airing.”

Being the fair guy David Stern is, he then turned his attention to Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, fining him $100,00 for comments made in the letter he posted on the Cleveland Cavs website after LeBron James’ announced his plans to move to South Beach. Call me crazy, but this seems a bit excessive, but maybe deservedly so; after all, the clown posted his letter using the Comic Sans font. Not a font to use when you want to be taken seriously. To save a little face here, Mr. Gilbert has posted a new letter on the Cavs website thanking fans who have volunteered to help pay $100,00 fine. Mr. Gilbert has declined the offers, but hopes that any fan interested would instead donate the money to the Cleveland Cavaliers Youth Fund. If you’re interested, you can give here. At least the letter gave Dan Gilbert some Cleveland cred considering that he is still partly to blame for LeBron James’ departure by putting a very mediocre team together around him.

Also, the G.O.A.T Michael Jordan made his assessment of the LeBron v. Kobe debate in 2009. Here’s his one word answer:

Espana- 1

Holland- 0

Final in extra time.

This has absolutely nothing to do with basketball, but I also like futbol and feel I should report on the most important soccer game every four years.  Spain defeated Holland in extra time, needing nearly all 120 minutes to topple total football. Spain’s goal came in the 116 minute for Andres Iniesta on a thundering kick crossed past Dutch keeper Maarten Stekelenburg.  Spain relied on what propelled the club to the pinnacle of football: tough defense and time of possession.

Spain controlled 59.3% of touches, a best for the World Cup champion since the stat has been tracked since 1966. The Dutch on the other hand could only complete 69% of its passes – the team has only completed less than 75% twice in the tournament. Along with their 10 game winning streak snapped, and their 25 game unbeaten streak broken, Holland adds another notch of infamy to their history, having lost all three FIFA World Cup  Finals apperances (1974, 1978, 2010). Adding to their disgrace, the Dutch also handidly broke the record for yellow cards in a Finals match from 7 by xxxxad to 14 in this game, including a second for John Heitinga at the 109 minute forcing the Oranje to play shorthanded.

Despite Holland’s shortcomings, they had chances. Two breakaways by Arjen Robben were snuffed at the last second, one of which (a potential foul) drew enough ire out of Robben’s for a yellow card. Still, fate would seem to be against the Dutch. Paul, a common octopus from the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany successfully predicted a Spanish victory. Used to divine match results for all of Germany’s World Cup games, plus the 2010 final, Paul was a perfect 8/8 in predicting the match winners. By placing a tasty snack (usually a mussel) in plastic containers labeled with either team’s flag, the octopus would choose its winner by eating that containers treat. Paul was also used in six of Germany’s Euro 2008 games winning four. That puts ol’e Paul’s career record at an incredible 12/14!  Check out the chart from Wikipedia:

Euro 2008

Opponent	Stage	Date	Prediction	Result	Outcome
Poland	group stage	8 June 2008	Germany	2–0	Correct
Croatia	group stage	12 June 2008	Germany[2][20]	1–2	Incorrect
Austria	group stage	16 June 2008	Germany	1–0	Correct
Portugal	quarter-finals	19 June 2008	Germany	3–2	Correct
Turkey	semi-finals	25 June 2008	Germany	3–2	Correct
Spain	final	29 June 2008	Germany[2]	0–1	Incorrect

World Cup 2010

Opponent	Stage	Date	Prediction	Result	Outcome
Australia	group stage	13 June 2010	Germany[29]	4–0	Correct
Serbia	group stage	18 June 2010	Serbia[29]	0–1	Correct
Ghana	group stage	23 June 2010	Germany[29]	1–0	Correct
England	round of 16	27 June 2010	Germany[30]	4–1	Correct
Argentina	quarter-finals	3 July 2010	Germany[23]	4–0	Correct
Spain	semi-finals	7 July 2010	Spain[31]	0–1	Correct
Uruguay	3rd place play-off	10 July 2010	Germany[32]	3–2	Correct

Results not involving Germany

Teams	Tournament	Stage	Date	Prediction	Result	Outcome
Netherlands vs. Spain	World Cup 2010	final	11 July 2010	Spain[33]	0–1	Correct

It might not even be the regular season yet, but a top-tier has already emerged from the 2008-09 rookie class.  Last night, on Tuesday, that tier furthered their growing resumes.

Michael Beasley, a Rookie of the Year candidate since busting his way through the Summer League, had a 19 point outing in a little over twenty minutes last night against the Memphis Grizzlies.  Beasley is averaging 16.4 points from the Heat’s five exhibition games and his nine points in the fourth quarter last night helped the Heat win its first preseason game since 2006.  At times though, Beasley is being outshined by the Heat’s other big-time rookie Mario Chalmers.  Chalmers quietly played himself to a 7 point, 9 assist, 6 rebound performance last night while Beasley finished the game with no (zero!) rebounds.  Both players finished with five fouls.

In the same game, O.J. Mayo took the helm with Rudy Gay out with a staph infection and posted   28  points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals for the Grizzlies.  Quite the stat line for any NBA player.  In fact, if it weren’t for a slew of fourth quarter turnovers Memphis could have kept this game much closer that the 102 -85 final.

While we’re becoming to expect this from Mayo, a player whose star is rising and rising higher everyday is that of the Chicago Bulls’ point guard Derrick Rose.  Coming off the bench, Rose helped turn a 23 point deficit into a 109-105 victory against the Dallas Mavericks.  He scored 30 points off of 13-18 shooting (72%!) and 4-6 points from the free throw line.  Check this out, Rose is quick, assertive, aggressive, and clutch—a player who can take over a game.  The fans of Chicago are squealing, we haven’t had a player described like this since, well. . .

Technically, Davis has a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his left ring finger and it is being reported that he will wear a splint while the injury heals naturally. While it’s great that he may not miss any playing time, let’s hope that this doesn’t affect his playing abilities. With Baron Davis’ injury history, I always forget that this cat is only 29.

Meanwhile, the Clippers big three: Chris Kaman, Baron Davis, and Marcus Camby have yet to play together in a preseason game. . .

It should be interesting to see how long Williams will be out; ankle sprains can be hard to predict. With severe ankle sprains (which this is not) players can be out a month and upwards. I don’t think you have to rearrange your fantasy plans if you haven’t drafted yet, but it’s sad to see a guy like that go down before even the first game. And in case you were wondering, Deron Williams has only missed four games in the three regular seasons he’s played, two in each of his first years. The Salt Lake Tribune also reported that Korver said Williams intentions were to be back by opening night against Denver: Oct 29.

And from L.A. …

…Tomorrow we’ll get to see the prognosis of Baron Davis’ left hand ring finger which he sprained Friday during a practice. X-Rays were negative and an MRI inconclusive. Today he was seeing a hand specialist and, rumor has it, could be out up to 4-6 weeks if he decides to operate. While Kobe Bryant seemed to magically play unaffected through out half a season, the playoffs, The Finals, and then on to Gold at the Beijing Olympic games with ligaments torn in his right hand, don’t expect this from Davis; he’ll probably opt for surgery. To Davis’ credit, this is a different kind of injury, but given his history could certainly prove to be a lingering problem. Interviewed on Friday in the dressing room he had this to say: “It is what it is. . . It’s hard. It doesn’t feel good. It’s not comfortable, not a comfortable feeling.” You might want to be a little cautious in your fantasy drafting plans…

Yesterday’s game between the Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls was about as interesting as preseason games can be.  As I’m sure you’ve heard, Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz was injured during a three point attempt.  During the descent off the jumper, Williams landed ackwardly on Derrick Rose’s shoe.  X-Rays came back negative, and the Jazz are calling William’s injury an ankle sprain

Deron Williams returned to the game wearing a protective boot and was taken off the court in the arms of two of his teammates.  It was clear that Williams was in a great deal of pain, evidenced by animated grimaces.  While Jerry Sloan and Deron  Williams have chosen not to specifically comment on the injury, it seems that this could sideline Williams for at least a few games.  Let’s hope he can bounce back like Paul Pierce, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Bulls’ PG is causing some excitement…

One of the exciting things about preseason games is watching how the draft picks, especially the number one pick, are progressing.  Derrick Rose finished with only 11 points and 2 assists to three turnovers in forty minutes of playing time, but he showed flashes of greatness.  Rose’s buzzer beating shot at the end of the half was called off and he made some incredible passes, but many were mishandled.  It seems as if the Bulls biggest adjustment won’t be that of new coach Vinny del Negro or waiting for their young players to develop, but in having their veteran players adjust to Derrick Rose’s fast paced style.  At  many points during the game, Bulls players like Luol Deng, Drew Gooden, and most disappointingly Kirk Hinrich seemed surprised when Rose continued to push the tempo.  Second year man Tyrus Thomas seems to have more potential every game, and seems to be developing a good rapport with Rose.  I think he needs to be more patient on his rebounding though.  While he had 14 rebounds, I swear half of those he caught on the floor after jumping for the rebound.

Let’s see those highlights:

—We need some more of this:

—and this (too bad it didn’t count):