Not many people know this, but Utah coach Jerry Sloan doubles as a "nutty scientist" during the off-season, working on top secret things such as weakside help and machines which miniaturize objects. Unfortunately for Jazz fans, Okur just had to be snooping around Sloan's lab while Deron Williams and the boys were playing baseball in the backyard ...

You have no idea how upset I am that I missed the brilliant/scary media day photo festivities. What a horrible week to go on vacation.

TJ Parker (goatee'd, right) had major knee surgery before I got out here to France, so he was confined to his bedroom for the majority of my first few weeks out here. One of our first real meetings finally occurred when it was time for us to take our team photo. TJ was fresh off of his crutches so he was able to participate.

We were all in the locker room with our jerseys on, about to go out for our pictures, when I noticed that TJ still had his ugly, old Chicago Cubs hat on. It wasn't a big deal, I guess. He could take it off and put it away in a matter of three seconds, but something seemed off about the situation. Something made me think that he didn't want to take it off.

Ricardo Greer interrupted my thought process.

"You better get some water on that hair, TJ. You look like that dude from Desperate Housewives regardless."

"I know man, but for 20 G's, you'd do it too," TJ replied.

I was confused until he took off the hat. That's when I saw how awkward he looked. It wasn't that he's an awkward looking guy, it's that clearly he was not designed to have long hair. Horses were not designed to have paws, Shaq was not designed to wear size 10 shoes, and TJ Parker was not designed to have long hair. I'd say anything longer than a half-inch is way too long, personally.

Well, I had to ask why he wouldn't just grab some Wahl hair trimmers and knock that hair level down a notch. He explained to me that his brother, Tony, bet him 15,000 Euros ($22,000) that he couldn't go six months without cutting his hair.

At first I thought that was ridiculous. Then I looked back up at TJ's hair. I realized that if I had millions and millions, I might just pay 20k to see my little brother wear hot pink sunglasses for six months. Considering the fact that TJ looks equally as funny with long hair, and that it should get worse as time goes on, I can absolutely see the laugh value in this bet.

So, I decided that every month I'll post the hair-growth update right here, for everyone's laughing pleasure. TJ doesn't have a problem with it so don't feel bad for laughing. After one month of growth, I decided that Ricardo was right; TJ definitely does look like Carlos from Desperate Housewives.

Rod Benson is a Cal grad and former D-Leaguer who plays for SLUC Nancy, the reigning French league champion. When he's not busy critiquing hair, he blogs one or two times a week on Ball Don't Lie. Read his archive, pay a visit to TooMuchRodBenson.com and always support the Boom Tho movement.

After nine days in glorious Copenhagen and Amsterdam, one would think returning home to a dingy breakfast nook that doubles as an "office" would be a bit of a bummer. But, frankly, I'm happy to be back. Honestly, there's only so much street pølser and psychedelic mushrooms one can eat. (I keed, I keed. STAY IN SCHOOL, KIDS! JUST SAY NO TO DANISH HOTDOGS!)

Now, as I'm sure you can imagine, I had very little connectivity while I was off looking at Van Gogh and Rembrandt masterpieces, so I have almost no idea what happened in the NBA over the last week or so. (Is Jamaal Tinsley still a Pacer? He is? OK, good. How about Rik Smits?) If I repeat anything that KD posted over the last few days, I apologize. I should be back up to speed tomorrow morning if I don't drown in dirty laundry.

But hey, good news: we're something like three weeks away from opening night (!), the preseason and Tyson Chandler's skinny ankle is already rockin' and — WHOA BOY — a thousand team previews. Nice. (Ours are on the way shortly.)

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that it's good to be back, folks. I missed you. Let's blog.

By now you've probably seen this video of Timberwolves rookie Kevin Love throwing in trick shot after trick shot.

(HT: FanHouse)

What hasn't been discussed is why, exactly, Love keeps making these crazy things? Now it's time for you, the reader, to tell us why.

Is it because he's able to get next on a court by his lonesome, make shot after shot, and annoy the hell out of the five waiting to play in back of him? Black Magic? Dirty Ju-Ju? Stolen Laundry? Did I make that last one up? You bet!

Either way, in the comments, tell us why you think Love is so freakishly proficient.

The Suns as we knew them might be dead, dead, dead; and in their place is a team that's normal, normal, normal, and that pains a bit. Quite a bit. Let's stop thinking about it.

Instead, let's think about one of the better blogging communities out there, and not even including a fine MSM blog when it comes to Paul Coro's neck of the woods.

3. (TIE) Black Jesus Disciples and Sons of Steve Nash - Another cop-out, but these blogs are prolific, quite funny, not afraid to rip the team, but prone to ripping for a rip job's sake. Either way, I wanted to get both links up there.

2. The Rising Suns - Been around for a spell, and one of the best. This can be a truly hilarious blog at times without losing the insight.

1. Bright Side of the Sun - A fantastic blog, one of those has-everything stops that really never lets up. Great writing, an intelligent community, funny Photoshop work, just spot-on all around.

If you would like to nominate a specific team blog for selection, let us know right here.

Sun-Sentinel: "Three days after Heat President Pat Riley insisted the potential addition of Livingston was a "dead issue," Riley added the type of tall ballhandler he has coveted since his days guiding Magic Johnson with the Lakers."

ShamSports.com: "Having already waived Stephane Lasme and Bobby Jones earlier this summer, and signing Jason Richards and David Padgett straight after summer league, the Heat kept on playing the signing game, bringing in Eddie Basden, Matt Walsh, Omar Barlett and Tre Kelley for camp.

Since then, the Heat have brought in Shaun Livingston, waiving Kelley to open up the spot. Kelley must have been real bad, because Richards - the other excess point guard on the roster - has suffered a season ending knee injury and won't play this year. Yet somehow the Heat would still rather have him than Kelley."

LA Times: "Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy said that the ball was in Livingston's court, and even though Williams retired, the organization did not make another offer. Instead, the team remained an interested observer with Livingston talking to Portland, Minnesota and Miami."

Peninsula Is Mightier: "I wish it was as simple as sliding the above-depicted player into the Heat lineup. That player would be an ideal fit at an unsettled position and make Miami a significantly better team.

But we're not getting that player. We don't know what player we're getting, but it's not that one. I could guess, but that would be irresponsible and a waste of your time and mine. I can only say that I welcome Livingston to the squad and look forward to seeing what he can do."

Ira Winderman: "But look at it this way: The Heat's 2009 first-round pick will go to Minnesota to complete last October's lamentable acquisition of Ricky Davis. The only way the Heat retains it in 2009 is if it is among the first 10 selections (and even that would require a certain amount of lottery luck). So for a relative pittance, it essentially gets its 2009 first-round pick early, a player who comes with many question marks (just as most draft picks do)."

There's little point in trying to articulate and put into words just how fascinating a prospect Shaun Livingston was during the 2004-05 season. Highlight packages like these miss the point.

Partially because a well-placed tenor solo goes longer toward trying to express just how brilliant this kid's prospects look, but mostly because I've tried, several times, including more than a few times during these recent summer months. You just can't put your fingers around it. 

What we can try, as a poor replacement, is attempt to convince you to give this kid a miss during the 2008-09 season. Sure, the Miami Heat saw fit to sign him for the upcoming term, while the Timberwolves and others saw fit to show interest, but we (the backers, the punters, those in between) have to remember that this kid's rehab is not finished.

As late as 2006-07, his last full season with the Los Angeles Clippers, Livingston was still trying to develop the sort of upper and lower body strength needed to not only become a starting-quality NBA guard (criticisms that have rightfully dogged him since his pre-draft workouts in 2004), but someone who could be counted on to play half an NBA game 65 times over the course of a season.

That was two years ago, and though the Clippers were and are a skinflint organization when it comes to bulking up in the strength and training department, it's going to take more than a change of practice court scenery for Livingston to turn things around.

That doesn't mean that he can't turn it around, or that 82 percent of basketball junkies out there wouldn't give 82 percent of their kidneys to see this kid working at full strength, but it's going to be another season of underwater work and treadmill time. That's just how things are going to flow, so we'd like to ask that we wait a while before presuming that the "finished" label works with Mr. Livingston. Apologies for repeating myself, but partially because it would depress the hell out of your humble narrator, and mainly because it wouldn't be true, even next June.

The Heat needs help at point guard. Mario Chalmers has been so underrated since his June selection by Miami that it's gotten to the point where people have convinced themselves that he'll be a starting-quality NBA point man this year, thereby rendering him overrated. Chalmers can be an All-Star by his third year for all we know, but things have gotten a little out of hand at this point.

Marcus Banks is still trying to throw footballs over mountains, Chris Quinn and his wispy little mustache are still trying to park in the players' parking lot without being asked for ID, and beyond all jokes, that's still a passable enough rotation. Not great, certainly with holes, but not worth fretting terribly over. Not when Dwyane Wade is going to lead the team in assists anyway.

So as a fourth guard, let's remind ourselves not to rail when he doesn't see but 14 minutes in a month, or can't see the court in a 30-point win or loss. This is still a rebuilding year, those legs (among other body parts) have to work themselves into passable NBA shape, and the guy just turned 23.

There's time. Let's give it to him.

Say this for the Sacramento Kings: we expect them to be in the playoffs.

That, in itself, is huge. We're but a scant few years removed from Eddie Jordan calling Bobby Hurley his opening night starter, Mitch Richmond playing an entire year as trade bait, and a somewhat youthful Anthony Johnson turning into the team's biggest surprise.

What followed that turn happened to be eight consecutive seasons of postseason play, and the establishment (yay!) of expectations. And though the squad appears to be in the midst of a bit of young/old flux at this point, the Kings still seem a step away from playing in May again. When someone or something takes that next step, click over here for the breakdown ...

3. Blog Squad - Don't get turned off by the name (though I almost wrote it as "BLOG SQUAD!", just to be a prat), there is quite a bunch to glean from this site. Specifically the work of Daniel Shapiro, the team's S+T guy, alongside Kings.com beat man Andrew Nicholson and moonlighting Chicago Sky forward Kayte Christensen.

2. Kings Blog and Q&A - Most MSM newspaper blogs rely solely on the work of the typically-overworked beat writer to augment his newspaper work with blog posts featuring, mainly, what didn't fit in his or her gamer or notes column. Some newspaper blogs feature the work of the paper's NBA columnist. I can't think of any other that offer any insight from the paper's general columnist. KB+Q&A eschews tradition, and goes with all three.

Somehow, this one offers the fine work of the Sacramento Bee's sports troika, without seeming like the scribes in question are fighting for space. As important and insightful as it is unorthodox.

1. Sactown Royalty - We already talked a bit about how good Tom Ziller is, and we meant it, so mind the gap between stats-heavy tomes and spot-on team-based analysis, and the second mention.

Not only is TZ's best work included on SR, the site is also home to one of the smarter and funnier hoops communities out there. A major part of le grande blog revolution of 2005, Sactown Royalty shows no sign of letting up.

If you would like to nominate a specific team blog for selection, let us know right here.

I'm more than a little embarrassed at the fact that I whiffed on all these DVDs, it was nice to put another callous on my thumb and watch a few old games, but I typed up years worth of "observations," and none of them are worth your time.

So let's chat. It's been a bit of an interactive day here at BDL, and with camp finally starting, why not drop in for a late afternoon, TGIF-sort of deal? Start at four, and take it until the whistle blows at 5. See you then.

The Lakers are awesome, they might win 70 games this year if everyone stays healthy (and that always happens), and they boast one of the best players of the last 20 years.

Big city, big success, polarizing stars, tall chairs, Chris Mihm, whew. Somebody better be writing this stuff down.

3. The Lakers Nation - An up and comer, kids. Look out.

2. Lakers Blog - They think I'm a hater (and they can't defend that, because while I didn't read that post, I did hit CTRL-F and searched for the word "hater," and found it. Check and mate), but the brothers Kamenetzky run a fabulous MSM blog. Always coming through with the sort of posts I love to write and love to read from others.

1. Forum Blue and Gold - It's a great thing when a team as prominent and important and as successful as the Lakers has a blog that lives up to the franchise's exalted stature. I don't want to sound too breathless in describing Kurt's work, but anyone who's ever read a game preview, or his nuanced (nuance like you wouldn't believe, bro-tha) takes, or the way he turns a phrase and then uses actual evidence to support it ... it's an amazing thing, this site.

We're lucky to have it.

If you would like to nominate a specific team blog for selection, let us know right here.

I really love this. 

Jon from TWolvesBlog.com has put together a series of six-word memoirs regarding his favorite team.

Not sure what a six-word memoir is? We'll let the editors of Not Quite What I Was Planning tell it:

"Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn.'"

That's both incredibly messed-up and very cool. Of course, I could have just said "Hemingway-ish," but I wanted to use six words. Starting with "incredibly." Cut me some slack.

Anyway, Jon wrote his own list, which is a must read. My favorite?

"Mark Madsen: HUSTLE RUN HUSTLE EFFORT FAIL BENCH"

Beautiful. And now it's your turn.

Below is a series of random NBA types, all ready to be six-worded. They can be incredibly lame (Coby Karl: Bangs are fine but not really), or incredibly lame (Michael Redd: You have two hands not one), so let's get to work. Winners gets a John Bryson photograph of Hemingway kicking a beer can that, for whatever reason, has never been scanned and uploaded into the internets.

Antoine Walker

Brent Barry

Larry Brown

LaMarcus Aldridge

Mike D'Antoni

Jamaal Tinsley

The Oklahoma City Thunder are fully operational these days, which means the likely end for a Golden State Warriors mascot that never really made any sense, because Thunder the mascot hardly brought a lot of joy to Mudville. 

On Thursday, Warriors Prez Robert Rowell told this to the AP:

"We're clearly going to do something to accommodate Oklahoma City and not have our mascot named Thunder. For the sake of not making things confusing, we're going to do something. We just have to figure out a good exit strategy." 

Exit strategy? You try to work those into important things, like sneaking out of some miserable dinner party or your girlfriend's ex's art exhibit. But Thunder? Just pull the plug.

We're not going to tell you that the men behind the Thunder suit didn't try their hardest, but the mascot's first appearance came in a season that saw the Warriors lose 14 of its first 15 games, and Latrell Sprewell choke his coach.

Or, choke him out of an initial burst of rage, and then attack him later in a premeditated move. Also, Felton Spencer.

So its 11-year run has hardly been what dreams are made of. Which is why we need a new mascot for the Warriors, and because (for whatever reason) the team has decided that an actual warrior won't work, we're asking you to try this two different ways.

First, is to take the Family Guy approach famously lampooned on South Park a few years ago. Two random descriptions followed by an equally random persona. So, "Bleached-Blonde Bolshevik Panda" or "Albanian Syphilitic Taxi Driver" works. Give it a try.

Secondly, after the three-pronged approach, you can throw out a simple suggestion. "The Lightning" or "The Felton," or my favorite, "The Stig."

We'll list the winners next week, with the top three winning a rubber chicken.

Julian Wright arrives at Hornets camp with two boxes of broke-ass doughnuts. His teammates must love him. 

Michael Beasley only wanted to see a movie. So on Saturday night, he left his new house in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, headed to a nearby theater and tried to get tickets for "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist." Small problem: Word of the Heat first-rounder's presence leaked, and the 19-year-old was quickly mobbed by dozens of people.

Shaun Livingston has never seen the gruesome video of himself grabbing a loose ball near midcourt, dribbling three times, going in for a layup attempt and having his left knee shred on the landing. He doesn't intend to watch it anytime soon, either. "I'm not focusing on the past. I'm just really looking forward," Livingston said.

Tim Donaghy is in prison, and David Stern doesn't want anyone else in the NBA to get in trouble because of gambling. So Stern responded to a report on NBA referees Thursday by vowing to build the "most effective possible system" to monitor illegal activity and preserve the game's integrity. "The best we can do is do the best we can, and that's all we can do.

By Alonzo Mourning with Dan Wetzel A kidney transplant recipient, dedicated charitable worker, man of faith and NBA all-star, Alonzo Mourning has a story worth telling, and worth reading about.

Chris Mihm's role is undefined. He might play significant minutes this season, but he might not.

Oct. 5--UNIVERSITY PARK -- Shooting 3-pointers in the NBA used to be for finesse teams, which was a euphemism for soft teams.

Guess who showed up to training camp? Warriors guard Monta Ellis joined his team for the first time since severely injuring his left ankle last month.

New Orleans Hornets center Tyson Chandler left Sunday's preseason game against the Golden State Warriors with an ankle injury.

With Stephen Jackson working on a contract extension, pretty soon he very well may be the face of the Warriors' franchise.

Jeff McDonald: Duncan and the downward dog? When the doors finally opened and the media was let into the Spurs practice gym Sunday afternoon, we stumbled upon a strange sight.

Nobody had a more inquisitive Suns training camp than guard Raja Bell , whose inquiring mind was emblematic of how much the Suns' inner workings have shifted under new coach Terry Porter .

Published: Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 9:11 p.m. Last Modified: Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 9:22 p.m. Sean May found himself in a tight spot while defending a fastbreak drill Sunday night prior to the Charlotte ...

David West scored 19 points, Hilton Armstrong added 14, and the New Orleans Hornets won their preseason opener, 106-103 over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night.

Ron Artest is the rare NBA player who can lead his team in scoring and the prowess to be a top-notch defender.

Scola did, however, need to regain some conditioning and timing when he reported to training camp last week.

J.J. Hickson knows that he's a rookie. How so? By the fact that he's been made to endure one training camp ritual already - picking up doughnuts for Cavaliers veterans.

By JEFF CAPLAN From the moment he arrived last year as an untapped package of brawn and desire, Brandon Bass' practice routine has never wavered.

Sasha Pavlovic and Wally Szczerbiak are similar players with different approaches vying for the same position.