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True Hoop

ESPN.com presents True Hoop by Henry Abbott

Different people fall in different places on the green spectrum.

You might visit one house where it would be totally normal to turn your car off so as not to idle and waste gas, or to spend some serious time sorting recyclables. Other times you'll find yourself at some kind of event where buses are idling all day, and there is only one kind of garbage for everything to be taken to the landfill together.

There are some food spreads where things have been bought locally, and seasonally, with an eye on fuel consumption. Other times you'll see a whole buffet where everything has clearly been trucked in from Chile or China or wherever it was cheapest of most convenient.

In some places, people bring their own coffee cup into the store to get a refill. In others, you get a different, new plastic cup every time you need a cop of joe.

In every one of these examples, the NBA has been, in my experience, just about as un-green as any organization I have exposure to.

I care deeply about the environment, but this reality does not bother me all that much. I suspect that a lot of companies do a lot of flag-waving on this topic, but aren't any better. In a way, the NBA's honest old-school approach at least makes clear they haven't gotten to this yet.

And I understand that a lot of the NBA's consumption has to do with the hard facts of the business. When you're flying large numbers of rich people around the country to perform in enormous climate-con

The Many Faces of Derrick RoseYesterday

Kevin Arnovitz watched Derrick Rose very closely last night, and here's what he noticed.

Two of my favorite recent pieces of basketball writing come by way of Basketball Prospectus. The first is Kevin Pelton's examination of the Lakers' pressure defense; the second is Anthony Macri's profile of Derrick Rose. The Bulls and Lakers faced off last night in Los Angeles, which gave us a nice opportunity to look at Rose's tool box against that nasty early-season Lakers' defense. How did Rose respond to the Lakers' stifling pressure? What kind of shots was he able to work for himself and his teammates?

Let's take a look at Rose's weaponry:

The Triple Threat [1st, 11:15] On the Bulls' first possession of the game, they run a high screen and roll for Rose and Drew Gooden. Gooden forces the action with a dribble-drive from the top of the circle against a recovering Pau Gasol, then kicks the ball out to Rose on the right wing.

Rose catches and sees Fisher cheating. Faced up against Fisher, Rose sizes up his options: Does he hit Luol Deng at the top of the arc? (The Lakers have collapsed in the paint on Gooden) Does he shoot over Fisher? Or does he put it on the floor?

Wednesday BulletsYesterday

One of Mark Cuban's lawyers talks, explains that anyone can be told valuable information. Acting on it is only insider trading under special circumstances that may or may not have been met in this incident.
When NBA players drive to the hole, they often yell. Sometimes it is an effort to make the referees think they got fouled, when in fact they did not. That's the basis of a story that is on the front page of The New York Times. Not the first sports page, but page A1, nestled in there with appointments to the new administration and talk of bailing out GM.
Not often you hear NBA coaches talk about "truth." I like that.
Watch Donovan McNabb playing basketball then (lively legs!) and now (lively mouth!).
When this referee calls a game this season, home teams are 9-0. I really doubt that means anything, but I'm kind of glad that people are our there are using public information to mind the store.
Jay-Z says LeBron James will come to the Nets only if they put the best offer forward,

Greg Oden Arrived?Yesterday

There you go, America.

Greg Oden -- the man who was projected as a top overall draft pick since he was a junior in high school -- has arrived. Took just 12 shots, but managed 22 points and 10 rebounds.

It's in all kinds of stories as his coming out party; his big night, or his arrival.

If you look only at the box score, Oden has arrived and the rest of the Blazers somehow let him down against a lesser Golden State team.

But I watched that game, and I can tell you that the thing that's letting everyone down is the box score.

Even as a Blazer fan who is steadfastly over the moon about this young man (he will crush you) it is flat wrong to say that the Blazers held him back last night. The opposite is true.

Here's what I saw: After a slow start, the Blazers were rolling. Honestly, it was just so obviously Portland's night. They had better players at nearly every position, and they were hunting turnovers on defense, while putting the right pieces in place on offense.

Then Greg Oden checked in.

Big, strong, and moving awkwardly.
(Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

At this early stage of his career, he might move more awkwardly than any professional athlete I have ever seen. I don't expect that to last. In college he was generally graceful and athletic, and he still is that while moving in

First Cup: WednesdayYesterday

Marcus Thompson II of the Contra Costa Times: "OK, so undrafted rookie guard Anthony Morrow is no fluke. Not because he followed Saturday's record-breaking 37-point performance with a game-high 25 points on Tuesday in the Warriors' 111-106 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers at Oracle Arena. But because he is changing the way the Warriors play basketball. Morrow was a game-changer in leading the Warriors (5-6) to their first winning streak of the season. But he also convinced his coach and his teammates that the Warriors are simply better when he is on the floor, when he is getting the ball. 'I told the squad in practice yesterday that I think this is the way that we're going to have to play to max out what we have,' Warriors coach Don Nelson said. 'To be the best team we can be, the smaller lineup seems the way to go, and Anthony Morrow kind of made that happen. I gave him an opportunity to fit in with a small team and he made the whole thing work.'"
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: '"He's the real deal,' Don Nelson said after Morrow made 8 of 12 shots, 4 of 5 from three, and scored his 25 points very, very efficiently in 36 huge minutes. ... Here's what's happening: Morrow is now the main man at the 2, which has totally energized the Warriors o