Posted by Ben Golliver

Jazz CEO Greg Miller went off on Karl Malone on his blog. (Getty Images)

Things are getting really real in Utah.

This is a long, complicated and hyper-emotional soap opera, so I'll do my best to distill the key details.

Hall of Fame Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan abruptly retired during the middle of the 2010-2011 season after reportedly getting into a locker room argument with All-Star point guard Deron Williams. Everyone involved was really upset, given Sloan's long tenure as one of the most well-regarded coaches in the league. Williams was traded soon after to the New Jersey Nets.

As things unfolded, Hall of Fame Jazz forward Karl Malone rushed to the defense of Sloan and insinuated that the Jazz hadn't done right by Sloan. He later claimed in a Salt Lake Tribune column that the Jazz also had not offered him tickets to the first game of the post-Sloan era, forcing him to purchase scalped tickets for himself.

This particular claim totally set off Jazz CEO Greg Miller, who wrote on Twitter that Malone was "lying" and then doubled-down on his angst by penning a piercing 1375-word blog post in which he aired decades of grievances and family business. In his post, published on his blog GregInUtah.com, Miller calls Malone "high maintenance," "unreliable," "unstable," and said that he would be unfit to serve as a coach for the Jazz big men.

Miller provided a laundry list of Malone's alleged flakiness and then offered his take on the ticket scandal, writing that Malone was using the situation as a stage to lobby for a job with the Jazz.

A year ago, when Jerry retired, Karl rushed to Salt Lake City. He got in front of every camera he could find at the first game following Jerry’s departure. He positioned himself as an authority on Jerry’s departure by saying something like “the Jerry Sloan I know isn’t a quitter. He left because he didn’t feel wanted.” Karl wasn’t in the locker room during the conversations with me and Jerry. Had he been, he would have seen me (and my mom) do everything possible to convince Jerry to stay. By his own admission Karl hadn’t spoken to Jerry since Jerry left. Karl’s comments on the radio and on national television made an already stressful situation worse. Then in his next breath, on national television, Karl asked me to hire him as a coach.

These are just a few experiences I’ve had with Karl that clearly demonstrate that he can’t be counted on. I am not willing to invite the elements of unreliability and instability into the Jazz organization. It would obviously do more harm than good.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported Malone's response, which was essentially: "Oh yeah? Say it to my face."

"We’ve all become very brave when we’re tweeting, texting, blogging. We just write, press send. I don’t have time for that. Don’t tweet it, don’t blog it, don’t text it, give me a little human element. I’m in town two or three times a month. Until I see [Miller] face to face, there won’t be any more comment about Greg Miller. … He’ll see me again.

The paper also reported a statement from Sloan, which, as you would expect, was total class. Sloan said that the team had his back, tried to get him to stay on as coach and that the family conducts itself with integrity.

Meanwhile, Williams, who had been criticized by Malone, emerged as the smartest person in all of this, telling the Associated Press: "I don't respond to people who talk about themselves in the third person."

Miller would have done well to heed Williams' advice himself. Malone is a legend, sure, but he is human and his personality quirks are well-documented. Family business is family business, and ranting for paragraph after paragraph against a valued former employee is simply never the right move for any business owner. It's one of those ancient axioms: you can't defend your reputation by smearing someone else's. You might feel better after venting but your method will be remembered far longer than your words.

It won't be long until regret sinks in. An apology from Miller -- if not to Malone, then to fans of the team for his expression of emotion -- is the likely next chapter of this story.

Posted by Ben Golliver. 

The ongoing NBA lockout has Shaquille O'Neal stuck in an awkward purgatory between "ruining the Boston Celtics' season" and "getting paid to make fun of Kenny Smith on a full-time basis".

How is O'Neal spending his days now that he's retired from the NBA as a player but not yet able to offer television commentary? By dabbling in Mixed Martial Arts, of course.

O'Neal joined a panel of fringe characters who operate on the margins of society on HDNet's Inside MMA program to discuss who he would like to take on in an MMA fight. Who made up O'Neal's hit list? A bunch of the usual suspect -- retired power forwards -- and one surprise: O'Neal's most recent boss, the President of the Boston Celtics.

"I don't know about this new NBA," O'Neal said. "I'm going to answer that with some old school players. Charles Oakley, definitely. [Charles] Barkley, [Karl] Malone, Xavier McDaniel and I'm going to throw a white guy in there. Who should I pick for a white guy? Not Larry Bird. I'm going to go with Danny Ainge. Because Danny Ainge one time bit Tree Rollins' finger almost off." 

There was one current player who O'Neal could see entering the ring.

"Ron Artest, you know you could probably put in there," O'Neal said. "But other than that, I'm not sure."

Here's the video of O'Neal's appearance courtesy of YouTube user HDNetFights.



Hat tip: Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has passed Moses Malone on the NBA's all-time scoring list. Posted by Ben Golliver. 

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant continued his ascent up the NBA's all-time scoring list during Tuesday night's game against the Atlanta Hawks, moving past Hall of Fame center Moses Malone into sixth place. 

Bryant entered the game 12 points behind Malone and notched his 11th, 12th and 13th points at the free throw line, after being fouled while shooting a three-pointer with 2:04 remaining in the second quarter. 

Malone scored 27,409 points in 1,329 games during his career. Bryant reached that mark in his 1,086th game, 243 games faster than Malone. 

Bryant began the 2010-2011 NBA season in 12th place on the all-time list. This year he has passed (in order): John Havlicek (26,395), Dominique Wilkins (26,668), Oscar Robertson (26,710), Hakeem Olajuwon (26,946) and Elvin Hayes (27,313). 

The only active player in front of Bryant is Boston Celtics center Shaquille O'Neal, Bryant's former teammate in Los Angeles. O'Neal is currently in fifth place on the list, roughly 1,100 points ahead of Bryant. Given the distance between those two players, it's a virtual certainty that Bryant will conclude this season in sixth place. The next closest active player? Celtics forward Kevin Garnett, who is 22nd all-time.

The top four scorers in NBA history are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), Michael Jordan (32,292) and Wilt Chamberlain (31,419). Back in January , we took a look at Bryant's career scoring trajectory and how it's likely that he will finish his career no lower than third all-time.

The Lakers defeated the Hawks, 101-87, in Atlanta. Bryant finished with 26 points. 

Posted by Royce Young

Everyone was a bit confused when Jerry Sloan abruptly turned his resignation Thursday. After 23 years at the helm of the Utah Jazz, something just seemed... off.

Fans and media weren't the only ones to feel that way. One of Sloan's most legendary players felt it too. Karl Malone was in Utah and spoke with reporters about Sloan's resignation, via the Salt Lake Tribune.



Malone's money quote: "I will say this: I know my coach. I know my coach. And I know my assistant coach. And I know all these coaches. The coach I know and the man I know have never quit or resigned in anything. That's what I want to say."

When pressed on it, Malone said, "What I said is what I said. I know Jerry Sloan. And the people that know him the closest know that man would never resign or quit if you want to, on nothing. I don't care what it is."

What that necessarily means is up to interpretation. But it's not hard to read between the lines there. Malone is pushing forward the idea that Sloan didn't necessarily make this decision entirely on his own. The Jazz organization wants you to believe nothing was up and that Sloan just got tired. But Malone isn't buying that.

Malone also indicated that he wants to "carry on" Sloan's legacy in terms of coaching. So The Mailman wants to coach at some point. Whether that means professionally or at a different level, that's pretty interesting.

Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan has signed a contract extension through next season. Posted by Ben Golliver. 

If LeBron James is the face of the new NBA, then surely Utah Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan is surely the standard bearer for the old guard, a no-nonsense, straight-talking, eat-dinner-in-the-media-room, by-the-book man who has refused to cede much, if any, ground as the game has evolved over the last few decades. 

So set in his ways, the 68-year-old Sloan would border on being a caricature if he wasn't so pristinely authentic, not to mention intimidating. NBA.com's report on Monday that Sloan has inked a contract extension for next season but sat on the news for weeks just adds to the man, the myth, the legend.  

“I’ve already signed a contract for next year,” he said after shootaround at Arco Arena in preparation for tonight’s game against the Kings. “That’s been since, maybe, around the first of the year. I don’t remember what the date was on it. I never pay any attention to it. They offered it to me and I signed it.”

“I didn’t need an announcement,” Sloan said. “Hell, it’s not a big deal to me. And I don’t know what it does. Either one of us can go the opposite direction. I’ve been around long enough and they’ve been around long enough to know if they want to get rid of me, that’s all they have to do.”

Call that the Un-Decision. He delivers the news as if he's getting his teeth pulled rather than kicking off a summer-long party tour.  

Since 1988-1989, Sloan has patrolled the sidelines for the Jazz, overseeing the John Stockton / Karl Malone era and a relatively smooth segueway into the Deron Williams era. With the exception of one year -- 2004-2005 -- Sloan has had his small-market, financially-prudent clug above .500 every single season. That's an amazing feat, a poor man's NBA coaching equivalent of a Cal Ripken Jr. type of accomplishment. 

Sloan rightfully took his place in the NBA's Hall of Fame in 2009 and, perhaps most remarkably, hasn't shown any signs of slowing down.

It’s no guarantee that Kobe Bryant will match or pass Michael Jordan’s six rings, but he should pass Jordan on the NBA’s all-time scoring chart with relative ease. 

Posted by Ben Golliver.

Even at 32 years old, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has plenty of NBA miles ahead of him. This week, he moved into the top 10 on the NBA’s all-time scoring chart, and if he continues scoring at his current rate through the rest of the season, barring injury, he will move into the No. 6 position on the list, passing Hall of Famers Moses Malone, Elvin Hayes, Hakeem Olajuwon and Oscar Robertson in the process.

But Bryant surely won't be content with sixth place. Just like he is chasing Michael Jordan’s six NBA titles, he’s also in hot pursuit of Jordan’s NBA career scoring tally, which at 32,292 points puts MJ in third place all-time, trailing only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) and Karl Malone (36,928).

So what does Kobe need to do to pass Jordan? Let’s take a look.

Since turning 30, Bryant has fallen off his career-high scoring numbers posted in his late-twenties, but he’s still scoring at an exceptional rate. Over the last 2.5 seasons, Bryant is averaging 26.6 points per game, although his number has slipped to 25.2 points so far this season. Even given that slippage, the rate is more than enough for Bryant to reach Jordan in the relatively short-term.

The difference between Jordan's career total and Bryant's total through Tuesday is 5,621 points. That equates to 223 games at his current scoring average of 25.2 points. With 47 games left this season, assuming Bryant plays all of them, Bryant would need to maintain this season’s scoring pace for 176 games, or 2.15 full seasons, after this year. In other words, assuming no further slippage and that Bryant averages 25.2 points for the duration, Bryant would pass Jordan early in the 2013-2014 season.  That season happens to be the last of Bryant’s current contract, when he is scheduled to make $30.5 million dollars at age 35.

That should be considered a best-case scenario, and not particularly likely because scorers universally fall off as they progress through their thirties. For the sake of argument, let’s say Bryant finishes this season scoring 25.2 points, but is only able to average 20 points per game from there on out. It would take Bryant 222 games, equal to 2.7 full seasons, averaging 20 points per game, starting with next season, to reach Jordan’s career mark. In other words, Bryant would still be on pace to pass Jordan in 2013-2014, it would just happen in the spring rather than the fall.

Even if Bryant were to fall off dramatically, to, say, 16 points per game following this season, it would still only take Bryant 277 games, or 3.3 seasons, to pass Jordan. In other words, even with a very conservative estimate, Bryant would pass Jordan in 2014-2015, at age 36. Jordan played until he was 39, in a diminished capacity, and he was still able to average 20 points per game his final season. Surely, by comparison, Bryant will be able to average 16+ at age 36, even with the extra miles caused by his prep-to-pro jump and no mid-career sojourns to play minor league baseball.

What about the impact of health? Through 14 full seasons and the start of this season, Bryant has played in an amazing 91.7% of Los Angeles’s regular season games. At his current scoring rate, he would still pass Jordan in 2013-2014 even if he missed his average of roughly 8 games a season. At 20.0 points per game, missing 8 games a season, he would pass Jordan at the very end of the 2013-2014 season. Playing 75 games per year and scoring 16 points per game, he would pass Jordan in late 2014-2015.

Given the length of his contract, his excellent health and his scoring output to this point, Bryant will almost certainly end his career in third place on the all-time scoring list, at least, and could challenge Jabbar and Malone should he continue playing into his late-30s.  But third place would be good enough to top Jordan, and surely that’s where Bryant wants to be. 

For a more detailed and refined projection of Bryant's career scoring progress, check out this 2009 post from Basketball Prospectus.

LeBron James says he does not expect that he or Dwyane Wade will win the NBA MVP award this season. Posted by Ben Golliver. 

Miami Heat foward LeBron James surely understood that a price would have to be paid for his decision to forsake being a franchise player on a championship contender in Cleveland to become one of 2.5 franchise players on the Miami Heat.

James has already paid a huge public relations toll since "The Decision," but he noted on Saturday that he understands that he compromised his ability to take home hardware as well.

The Sun-Sentinel reports that James acknowledged that both he and teammate Dwyane Wade will not win the NBA MVP award this season. "When we decided to come together, our MVP chances went out the window," James told reporters.

James is the 2-time defending NBA MVP, while Wade has never won the award, although he was named NBA Finals MVP when the Heat won the title in 2006.

ESPN.com adds that James said he believes the MVP award is for individual performance.

"I think they classify it as an individual award. They look at it like the less help you have, the more numbers you have then the better chance for you to win that award."

"I don't know how you classify the MVP thing," James said. "Do you classify it as most valuable to his team, if you take that person off his team how do they play? Or is it how is he playing numbers wise? I don't know."

James is correct: neither he nor Wade will be a finalist for the MVP award this season, and the fact that he understands this and seems to accept it is a refreshingly honest and self-aware turn.

Remembering back a decade, though, the presence of a fellow superstar didn't stop Shaquille O'Neal from winning the 2000 MVP, and it also didn't stop Karl Malone from winning the 1999 MVP, Michael Jordan from winning five MVP awards and Magic Johnson from winning three MVP awards. History has proven that superstar-laden teams can be led by an MVP.

But the nature of "The Decision" and the way it was handled have poisoned James' and Wade's chances, at least in the short term.  Is it impossible to imagine James or Wade winning an MVP two or three years from now, should the Heat win a title or two? Not at all. 

Posted by Royce Young

• An excellent breakdown of True Shooting Percentage by Ben Q. Rock of Orlando Pinstriped Post.

• An extremely smart look at Tim Duncan v. Karl Malone in the greatest power forward of all-time discussion: "When you look at Karl Malone’s stats compared to Tim Duncan it is hard to make the case that Duncan is a better player that Malone. Why? Because it is hard to make the case that many players are better than Karl Malone by looking at the stats. He is 2nd all time in career points and 3rd all time in win shares (an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player) with more win shares than everyone but Kareem and Wilt. Tim Duncan would need 6 more years of his average production to equal Malone. As it currently stands he is still isn’t within shouting distance of the Mailman. However, any Duncan supporter might bring up the fact that of course Malone’s career numbers would be better because he played 19 seasons."

• New uniforms everywhere! The Wolves got a refresh, the Jazz added some green and yellow, the Cavs changed their lettering and the Clippers made some minor tweaks. Utah is definitely the winner here. Those new uniforms are absolutely excellent.

• JaVale McGee makes a common statement: "Reporters who never played the game of basketball or never succeeded in it… Shouldn’t b able to report on it #FACT"

• Adonal Foyle is retiring.

• Tyreke Evans will speak about his reckless driving experience and being stopped at gunpoint to a class of teen and preteens.

• Scott Carefoot for The Basketball Jones on why you shouldn't sleep on Blake Griffin: "He’s not just a great dunker, of course, or else he wouldn’t have been the first overall pick. He’s also a highly productive rebounder, he’s a very good ballhandler for his size, and everybody who knows him claims he has a great attitude and work ethic. Plus, he’s had a full season to study the pro game from the sidelines so he should be prepared for the speed and flow of the NBA when he returns to the court."

• Quite a breakdown in NBA financing from Sham Sports. It's like, pretty incredible.

• Sam Amick of Fanhouse talked with Ron Artest: "I'm always hungry. That's the good thing about me. Every year I'm hungry. That's the good thing about me is I don't have to get any more motivated. There's nothing anybody can do to motivate me. I'm already there 100 percent. ... That's the good thing about being me. I'm going to work hard every day." Hey, what's the good thing about him?

• An interview with new Laker addition Matt Barnes from Warriors World.

• Big Baby Davis says he's ready to grow up and change: "This is the year of finally hitting that line of maturity, of finally becoming that player that I knew I could be." Throughout my career, my three years being here, it's been up and down. When I play, you've seen glimpses, like, 'Wow, this guy could start. Or come off the bench.' Glimpses up and down. But this is the year of Glen becoming that whole player that 10 years down the road, eight years down the road, will hopefully be an All-Star."