Posted by Royce Young

And now for your latest installment of "Famous NBA player does awkward dance in another country." This time, brought to you by Dwight Howard and some Mongolian children.



Three things that make this video worth watching:

1) Dwight Howard's tiny hat.

2) The awkwardly small amount of applause at the end.

3) It's Dwight Howard dancing with small Mongolian children in Mongolia. Do I really have to sell you on more than that?

Via BDL

By Matt Moore

NBA players are making as many stops in China each summer as they can. It's a still-untapped market for sponsorships, branding, business opportunities, and Nike has pumped a world of money into the country. So you see a lot of weird things, like pandas and the like. You also see a lot of silly things, like this "dance-off" with Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony against a group of kids in Beiijing. 

 

Not much of a dance-off, right? At least Chris Paul got on the floor at the end there. But turning your backs on the dudes? That's just cold. I mean, not "forcing a trade from the franchise who drafted you and built their dreams around you" cold, but pretty chilly.

(HT: NESN) 

Posted by Royce Young



LeBron's already got a bit of a reputation for freezing in big moments. For locking up and not being able to function well enough to complete the task. So his performance at a Spain pool as he stood on a high dive terrified of jumping shouldn't exactly shock you.

The crowd is begging him -- "jump! jump! jump!" they chant -- and the announcer is egging him on. "Come on LeBron! Jump!" And yet LeBron stands there awkwardly peering over the board at the pool below as if there are circling sharks in it.

I don't blame LeBron though because you know what was going through LeBron's mind as he was balking there. "How much did I make last year? And how much will I lose if I pull a Greg Louganis here? Yeah, I don't think so you guys."

Finally, after someone steps up and shows him how it's done (his diving equivalent of Dwyane Wade, maybe?), LeBron steps up and executes a perfect... well, fall. What a moment.

Yep, this is the lockout.

Via TBJ

Posted by Royce Young

You may have heard, but Nets forward Kris Humphries married some chick named Kim Kardashian over the weekend. It was lovely, or that's what people are saying. There's honestly not a lot more to say about this, because it was a wedding that featured a marginal NBA player and a reality TV star that is famous simply because she's famous -- or something -- so let's just take you to the video of it and leave it there.

By Matt Moore

Everybody says Kobe scored 45 points in Drew League this week. Except the Drew League. They say 43. Also, it turns out he called up, said he wanted to get in because Kevin Durant and LeBron James had already played, but the league was over, so they set up a special game for him at 2 o'clock on a Tuesday, then Bryant delayed it at the last minute. Such a cooperative guy, that Kobe Bryant. 

But the other thing Kobe Bryant is? A terrific basketball player. As is evidenced by this game in which he scored 43 points. Here are all of them. 




Kobe obviously felt like working on the spin move. I understand this isn't an organized game, but if you were on a team playing Kobe Bryant, wouldn't you bring a double? I'd bring a double. But then you don't get these highlights and a guady scoring total, which is what Drew League is really about. Anyway, it's a nice reminder of what we'll be missing come October.

(HT: PBT)

Posted by Royce Young

We've all been taking in some pretty spectacular performances from pro-ams and pickup games this summer. Kevin Durant's 66 at Rucker is the highlight, but there's Dwight Howard's coast-to-coast dunk, John Wall's multiple standout games, Brandon Jennings humiliating opponents and more.

But not everything at these events has been all good. In fact, as Inside Hoops called it, this might be the worst shooting performance ever. And I'm having a hard time disagreeing.



Now obviously this wasn't an NBA player but instead some regular dude trying to win a shooting contest. I feel bad piling on, but my tally has him going 0-8 from something like one foot away. Not excellent. It's the anti-Durant video. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Well, we now have KD's Rucker video's opposite.

It's impressive in a "Wow that was an incredible car crash" way. It makes you laugh, it makes you feel bad for laughing and then it makes you laugh some more. It looks like the guy was a good sport about it though. Which is good, because now my laughing is a little more guilt-free.

Posted by Royce Young

I guess Dwight Howard's been working out with Stan Van Gundy a little lately. Because somebody's got some handles.

At an event recently, Howard, being the character he is, found himself playing point guard. And instead of just dribbling up and dishing off, Howard decided to go all Derrick Rose on everyone and fly coast-to-coast for a furious dunk. Howard's been spending quite a bit of time practicing in the post, specifically working with Hakeem Olajuwon. Well, maybe he's had it wrong all along. Maybe he should've been working with Magic Johnson.



But here's the thing about Howard's move: It was pretty stinking good. A little dribble hesitation, stutter-step and a good bolt to the basket. I'm not going to sit here and say that Howard needs to actually explore this part of his game in the NBA, but then again, why not? It's sort of a gag thing for big men to bring the ball up and pretend to be John Stockton, but if Erick Dampier or Roy Hibbert is on him at the top of the key, couldn't Howard use his handle and first step to get to the bucket? Or is that totally unreasonable?

Clearly the defense in this specific situation wasn't near as intense as it would be in an NBA game, but if a 6-11 guy with the power and leaping ability of Howard can put the ball on the floor effectively, shouldn't that be something the Magic take advantage of? He wants to be a complete player? Keep working that post stuff and after that, polish up the point skills too.

Then you'll have a real Superman.

By Matt Moore

Terrence Williams is largely headed the way of Gerald Green. An exciting young talent that for whatever reason can't find time on the floor, mostly attributable to attitude and basketball intelligence reasons. But he's entertaining every second of it. For example, take this video taken from this weekend at one of the Pro-Ams. There are dunks, we've seen those. And there are celebrations. And then there's this. 

 

That's the basketball version of "Not to put too fine a point on it, but... SHAZAM!" Point taken, T-Will.

Oh, and the unfortunate soul who just got yammed on is the Lakers' Derrick Caracter. That'll make for a nice summer memory for him.