Who needs Jerry West when you have Keyon Dooling? The Magic's backup point guard candidly imitates The Logo in the Magic's 112-93 win over the Kings on Sunday.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images
- How about Keyon Dooling? That pose above uncannily resembles the NBA's logo.
- John Denton and Brian Schmitz each have stories about Rashard Lewis' unselfishness; he's perfectly happy deferring to Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu, and he's not concerned with his 18.2 scoring average, which is his lowest in four seasons. You gotta like his attitude. However, he can sometimes defer too often, passing the ball late in the shot clock when he should be the one shooting.
- Yesterday, Schmitz reported on his blog that the Magic will probably extend Otis Smith's contract for another two seasons beyond this one. David Whitley thinks that'd be a good move, and I tend to agree. As much as we Magic fans love to rip on Otis for not takings risks, he's done a decent job of assembling this team. Plus, there's no reason to fire him or let him go. This organization needs stability, and Otis provides that.
- Great news from Tim Povtak's NBA Confidential today, the focus of which is Ron Artest. But the meat of the story is in this excerpt:
Magic General Manager Otis Smith, who understands the importance of perception in a small market like Orlando, has been gently chiding point guard Jameer Nelson about his scraggly beard, so don't be surprised to see it disappear soon [....] Smith just told his own son, Otis, Jr., that both the allowance and the car keys would disappear until he found a razor.
I have no problem with players growing facial hair -- Hell, I emailed Basketbawful last week to nominate Shaq for Worst of the Night for shaving off his mustache -- but Jameer needs to trim his beard. It's a bit scraggly, as this Fernando Medina photograph shows.
- Just a reminder: the latest installment of the Blogger MVP/Rookie of the Year rankings is up at CelticsBlog. Dwight Howard placed 5th, one spot behind Kobe Bryant (who received my first-place vote) and one spot ahead of Steve Nash (who did not appear on my ballot). Thanks to Tom for being so diligent in putting it all together.
- I can't think of any way to relate this video to the Magic, so I won't even try. But head on over to Basketbawful to watch Knicks forward Zach Randolph... well, I don't know how to describe it. But yeah, Basketbawful called it "the worst possession [he's] ever seen," and it's hard to disagree. Even Steve Francis was more prudent with his shot-selection.
Don't forget to check out the game thread for tonight's contest against the Jason Kidd-less Nets.