West, a troubled D.C. native, actually signed with the Mavs over the summer and wasn’t a member of the team during their run last season. But the reason he missed the chance meeting with President Obama had nothing to do with that. Though the U.S. Secret Service won’t confirm it, reports are swirling that West was not allowed to join his team because he was arrested for gun possession in 2009, failing a background check of sorts.

“The individual in question was never someone that would not be permitted to attend the event today,” Secret Service agent Edwin Donovan told ABC News. “He is on the list for entry today and was never advised otherwise to my knowledge.”

However West himself seems to believe he was blackballed on the count of the ’09 charges. “That’s what happens when you make bad decisions in your life,” West said over the weekend, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “You can’t go to the White House.”

West is laughing the loss off and keeping the fodder light. “It’s going to be a shame the president isn’t going to get a chance to meet me,” West said. “I’m the president of my house.”

What do you think went down? Did West skip out on President Obama? Or did the White House give him the red light?

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Lamar has been silent since all of the trade rumors about him have begun circulating heavily. Take a look at Kobe’s comments about his friend and teammate Lamar leaving the Lakers in the video below.

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The NBA Finals finally (no pun intended) get under way tonight (May 31st) in Miami. In a rematch of the 2006 championship Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks look to avenge a disheartening loss to Dwyane Wade and the Heat five years ago where they blew a 2-0 series lead and a 13-point 4th quarter lead in Game 3.

Besides Nowitzki and super sixth man Jason Terry for Dallas and Wade and Udonis Haslem for Miami, all the players are different, many new to the NBA Finals stage. 38 year-old Jason Kidd has been to the Finals twice as a member of the New Jersey Nets and LeBron James put his former team on his back en route to the 2007 Finals before getting swept by San Antonio.

I will admit I was the main person saying the Heat would not win a title this year. Since that statement in late October, the Boston Celtics traded away one of the key pieces of their defense in Kendrick Perkins (a major factor in how easily Miami handled the Celtics) the Atlanta Hawks beat Orlando and the only real center in the Eastern Conference in Dwight Howard, the Memphis Grizzlies upset the San Antonio Spurs in the first round and the Lakers got swept out of the postseason by the Dallas Mavericks without a fight  in the Western Conference Semifinals.

I can easily say that the road to the Finals was laid out without any major obstacles for Miami, but that would be a major disservice to how dominant they have been. None of Miami’s playoff series have gone more than five games, something I expected in the first round, but not after that. The way the Heat are playing is something I expected in year two. They have been surprisingly cohesive in dismantling the best defense in the NBA in the Eastern Conference Finals. It seems all the criticism and inability to close games during the regular season has been their training ground. They have gone through the playoff level adversity of Jordan versus the Pistons, and Isiah versus the Celtics in the course of one regular season and are ready to reach their goal way ahead of schedule.

That being said, I am through picking against the Heat. Chris Bosh has found his superstar swagger and Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller have finally arrived after injuries robbed them of precious game time.

Prediction: The Heat will roll out the Derrick Rose defensive strategy on Dirk. They will live with Nowitzki making those unguardable one-legged fadeaway jumpers and run Terry, Kidd and Peja Stojakovich off the three point line. While they have not faced a center like Tyson Chandler so far, Chris Bosh and Joel Anthony should be able to neutralize him. The Mavs will miss Caron Butler, though Butler is not ruling himself out for the series attempting to come back from a snapped patella tendon in his knee that sidelined him since January 1st. Shawn Marion has turned back the clock to his “Matrix” heyday which will help. However, like the Bulls series it will be 3 superstars on 1 which equals too much for Dallas. Heat win one for LeBron in six games, 4-2.

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“We’ve got one of those trophies already,” Nowitzki said of the silver Western Conference Champion trophy. “This is nice for a day, but we set our goals in October to win it all. We haven’t done it yet.”

The Mavs face the winner of the Eastern Conference series between the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls. The Heat lead that series 3 games to 1.

In somewhat related NBA news, the Lakers (who were swept by the Mavericks in their series) hired former Cleveland Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown as their new Coach. He will be replacing Phil Jackson who is retiring after twenty years on the sidelines.

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The two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers bowed out of the 2011 NBA Playoffs and their run at a three peat in stunningly embarrassing fashion: a 122-86 shellacking to the Dallas Mavericks. The beatdown completed a 4-game sweep, the first ever Phil Jackson-coached team to get the broom.

Never mind the fact that the Lakers failed to play any defense beyond the 3-point line, allowing the Mavericks to hit 20 3′s tying a playoff record, LaMar Odom and Andrew Bynum decided to play like bush-leaguers as the game was winding down. Bynum’s foul was most egregious because he made no attempt on the ball and did not plan to, and it was against a player half his size in JJ Barea who was in mid-air and could have been seriously hurt the way he crashed to the court. To add insult to the punk move, Barea still made the shot he was attempting.

Bynum, who spoke out earlier in the series about trust issues amongst his fellow teammates (mainly the lack of help when Bynum leaves the man he is guarding to assist on the pick and roll), made no apologies for the foul afterward. While he was clearly frustrated, anger is never an excuse for trying to intentionally hurt another player. That behavior is not what Phil Jackson’s teams are about and not how the Lakers organization has represented themselves throughout their history. That being said, here are my predictions of what will happen to the Lakers this upcoming offseason.

5) Brian Shaw will be new Lakers head coach

Shaw is a former Lakers player who has played with Kobe Bryant and under Phil Jackson during the first title run at the turn of the century. Shaw has bided his time as an assistant under Phil for six years. Shaw was one of the front runners for the vacant Cleveland Cavaliers position before Byron Scott was hired and, most importantly, he has Kobe’s stamp of approval.

4) Kobe will demand changes going forward

While the Lakers have been blown out in elimination games before, most recently in Game 6 of the 2008 Finals against Boston, but never have players reacted in such a classless way. Kobe was visibly disgusted with Bynum’s foul on Barea and repeatedly said that fouls like that “should never happen” during his post game press conference. No one, save for Phil Jackson, is more hurt and humiliated by how the series played out. When asked about what the team needs to do in the offseason to get better, Bryant coldly said “that’s up to Mitch,”  referring to Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak. Let’s not kid ourselves. Similar to when Shaquille O’Neal was sent packing to South Beach, Kupchak and upper management of the Lakers will approach Kobe with any possible changes they will make. Kobe will have final say on everything which is not a good look for a few players to be named later.

3) Phil Jackson will not coach again

As the cameras followed Phil Jackson off of the court after his worst playoff series in 20 years as a coach, even Phil haters had to admit the NBA Finals won’t be the same without seeing Jackson in his booster seat.

Jackson, 65, definitely did not envision getting swept and embarrassed by his players as the way he would end his decorated coaching career. That gives some people reason to believe the Zen master will return to coaching, after taking a year off, to come full circle with the New York Knicks, the team he won a championship with as a player in the 1970′s. I am here to tell you this will not happen. Jackson has happened to inherit ready-made teams in his career (Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen on the Chicago Bulls, Kobe and Shaq on the Lakers and finally Kobe and Gasol) and while the Knicks have two superstars in Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudamire, Jackson’s star players played lockdown defense. Anthony and Stoudamire are not committed to defense at all and are not being held accountable for it. If Mike D’Antoni decides to stop being stubborn and hire a defensive-minded assistant coach that can whip STAT and Melo into shape on the defensive end, MAYBE Phil takes on the challenge after D’Antoni’s contract is up. Remember the last “New York” kid that said coaching the Knicks was his dream job? Larry Brown lasted one season fighting with Stephon Marbury and bolted.

2) Bynum and/or Gasol will be traded

Bynum had a bounce back season in 2010-11 showing the potential that kept the Lakers from including him in any rumored deal for Carmelo Anthony. He was the best player in the playoffs for L.A., but the other players, for whatever reason, failed to get Bynum the ball on a consistent basis. That frustration boiled over (see aforementioned foul) and may have been the final straw in a good, but injury plagued tenure in Tinseltown. The rumors swirling is that Bynum could be dealt straight up for Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard.

Pau Gasol will be on the move after a 2011 playoffs where he never scored his season average (18.8) in points in a single game and only reached his rebounding average (10) once. Add to that the allegation that a teammate’s wife caused his fiancee to dump him being the reason for his poor play and the “Gasoft” tag gets magnified. If the unnamed teammate happens to wear #24, Gasol will definitely be sent packing. This has shades of LeBron James last year in Cleveland letting personal issues with teammates affect his play. Gasol has to be stronger than that. He was the piece that helped Kobe get back to the top three years ago, but there is no defending quitting on the court.

1) Dwight Howard will be the center for the Lakers in 2011-2012 season

Dwight Howard’s teammates in Orlando left him hanging. Because Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson, and Gilbert Arenas, among others, forgot how to shoot , the Magic were bounced in the first round in 5 (!!) games. Howard, who scored 75 points and grabbed 35 rebounds in the first two games of that series, was justifiably upset. The Magic made the Finals in 2009, lost in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2010, and took two steps back in 2011 going out in the first round. Openly speaking about the possibility of playing with Kobe, Howard has fans in Mickey’s backyard nervous. After all they loss one franchise center (Shaq) to L.A. for virtually nothing in 1996, a move which set the franchise back a few years. The aforementioned trade for Bynum would not hurt either team financially and Kobe would be getting the best pivot in the NBA. Howard has no history of injury which immediately makes him a better option than Bynum. Expect bringing Superman to L.A. to be one of those talked about moves (see #4) Lakers brass runs past Kobe.

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L.A. was getting all they could handle through two games with New Orleans and the Celtics needed two last second baskets at home to take a 2-0 series lead against the New York Knicks who, were virtually without Chauncey Billups and Amar’e Stoudamire in Game 2. After the first round both Boston and L.A. have moved on after flipping the proverbial switch (or twisting the ankle in Kobe’s case).

The Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder both looked impressive in their series and Atlanta shocked the world by dispatching of Orlando as easily as they did. Up 3-0 on Indiana, the Bulls struggled againsnst the #8 seed. Derrick Rose has been all world in the series, but Chicago will need more production out of everyone else going forward. The Bulls have won the NBA title in every season in which the team won 60 games or more. The 2010-11 Bulls won 62 games. No pressure. As round 2 begins today here are my updated predictions.

Eastern Conference

#1 Chicago Bulls vs #5 Atlanta Hawks

I had Orlando winning this round, but unfortunately Orlando center Dwight Howard was the only player that got off the bus in the series against the Hawks. I was encouraged to see Atlanta adjust their gameplan against Superman, refusing to double team and staying home on the 3-point shooters of the Magic. Jamal Crawford, the leading bench scorer in the playoffs, worked his magic (no pun intended) throwing in dagger 3′s with regularity. Joe Johnson showed the urgency and intensity necessary in the closeout game 5 and Al Horford was a man amongst boys down low. All of that being said, the Bulls are overjoyed that Atlanta took care of Orlando because they have owned the Hawks in the regular season (a blown double-digit lead in ATL notwithstanding). I expect this to continue as Joakim Noah will cancel out Al Horford’s energy. The Hawks will be hurt by the loss of Kirk Hinrich, who pulled his hamstring in Game 5 of the previous series, as he would have been key in containing Derrick Rose defensively. Rose can do his usual damage on offense and get by Atlanta but Carlos Boozer has to come out of the witness protection program and give him some help or Atlanta will make it a tough series.

Prediction: Bulls run wild and win 4-2

#2 Miami Heat vs #3 Boston Celtics

This is the series everyone has been waiting to see. LeBron has already been asked about his alleged quitting against Boston last season and he is saying he takes this series personal (whatever that means). This series is why Pat Riley flashed the rings at LeBron last July. This series is what the Miami Heat team as we know it had been training at military bases for. The Celtics limped into the playoffs as they did last year and looked old in the first two games against the Knicks that had everyone in New York talking upset. Boston showed up to Madison Square Garden and turned back the clock to 2009 becoming the first team to make it to the second round this year in the process. Jermaine O’Neal (not the O’Neal I expected to contribute) must have thought he was back in Indiana the way he held down the middle for Boston on both sides of the ball. They will need him to show up again in this series if Shaquille O’Neal can’t go. These aren’t the Knicks, however. The Heat play defense, and Mario Chalmers will not be on skates and jumping out of the way of Rajon Rondo in the paint (hello, Toney Douglas?). History is on Boston’s side as 8 of the last 9 teams to sweep an opening  round series have gone on to win the conference semifinals. Ray Allen has torched the Heat to a tune of 57% shooting. Wade will need to step up offensively and score more than 12 points a game for the Heat to win. This is the Heat’s Detroit Pistons of 1991, the Piston’s Boston Celtics of 1989 (the Jordan-led Bulls had to overcome Isiah Thomas’ Bad Boys and Thomas had to get by Bird’s Celtics to get to the proverbial “next level”).

Prediction: LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have never beat the Boston Celtics in a playoff series. That ends this year. I am sticking with my upset pick. Heat burn Celtics in 7, 4-3.

Western Conference

#2 Los Angeles Lakers vs #3 Dallas Mavericks

The Lakers struggledwith the upstart Hornets without David West. They cannot afford to take a game off in this series. Jason Kidd is not as fast as Chris Paul, but you can’t call him”Ason” anymore. Kidd has hit some clutch 3′s all year and he can still get his teammates the ball in the right places. Although Kobe brought out the ’97 dunk contest hops in game 5 against Emeka Okafor, it is highly unlikely he will repeat that against the likes of Tyson Chandler and Brendan Heywood. The Mavericks are 15-0 this season when Dirk Nowitzki attempts 10 or more freethrows in a game, but with the Lakers bigs inside Dirk may forget to drive to the basket and settle for jumpshots, not necessarily a bad thing if the shots are falling. Andrew Bynum showed last round why the Lakers refused to entertain including him in Carmelo Anthony trade talks as he was the most consistent player for L.A. against New Orleans.

Prediction: the Lakers will get by the Mavericks 4-2.

#4 Oklahoma City Thunder vs #8 Memphis Grizzlies

I’ll admit the Grizzlies know more than I did going into the playoffs. They asked for San Antonio and made sure they got ‘em. In the process they made Tim Duncan look like a shell of himself and kept Richard Jefferson out of the series entirely (did he even play?). They dominated the series so thoroughly that it took two miracle shots by Manu Ginobli and Gary Neal in Game 5 just to force overtime or the series would have ended earlier. Zach Randolph has come a long way from his “jailblazer” (with Portland) and “black hole” (with New York) ways of the past. He has remained a big-game scorer and rebounder, but has passed effectively averaging over 5 assists in the SanAntonio series. While the Grizzlies handled the Thunder in the regular season winning 3 out of 4 games, Kevin Durant is on a mission. I thought he would be derailed by a veteran SanAntonio squad, but Memphis has opened the door for him to have a deep post-season run. The key matchup is Tony Allen against the unstoppable Durant. Allen has become the heart and soul of the team since Rudy Gay went out with his shoulder injury and that playoff experience and toughness gained from his time with Boston will take the Grizzlies far in this series.

Prediction: I will give the Grizzlies a little more credit as they showed me something against SanAntonio. OKC has the bigs to withstand Marc Gasol and Randolph and the five inch height advantage Durant has on Allen will be the difference. Oklahoma wins the series 4-3 in 7 hard fought games to set up a rematch with the Lakers for a chance to go to the Finals.

Check back after Round 2 for my updated predictions of who will make the NBA Finals.

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72

points given up by the New York Knicks to the Dallas Mavericks by HALFTIME of a 127-109 loss on Thursday night (Mar 10th).
The Knicks are an enigma on defense. They can shut down the Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks and Utah Jazz, but give up at least 115 points twice to Cleveland and this matador effort to the Mavs. Head coach Mike D’Antoni has to prove his style of play can win a title.

52

consecutive double-doubles recorded by Minnesota Timberwolves center Kevin Love on Wednesday (Mar 9th) breaking the overall consecutive record set by Moses Malone over two seasons.
Congratulations to Kevin Love. When you consider post ABA/NBA merger Hall Of Fame big men like Karl Malone, David Robinson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar have not come close to that number, Love’s feat is more impressive.

24

points Chris Bosh scored against the Lakers one day after stating publicly that he needed the ball in certain areas of the court (read: low post) to be effective.
Bosh bounced back nicely after the stinker in Portland (3-11 FG, 7 points). Glad he backed up his talk because he might not have gotten the ball again from LeBron if he didn’t produce.

15

baskets made by Carmelo Anthony (including the above game winner against the Memphis Grizzlies on March 9th) in the final 30 seconds to either tie the game or give his team the lead in the past 8 seasons.
The Knicks have their own closer. Only Kobe Bryant, also with 15, has as many since 2003.

8

game winning streak after the NBA All-Star break for the Los Angeles Lakers before falling to Miami 94-88 on Thursday (Mar 10th). That is good for a tie for third on the all-time list of Lakers winning streaks post All-Star Break (the other three Lakers teams went on to the NBA Finals).
The Lakers have flipped the proverbial switch and are locked in for the run to the playoffs. Kobe wanted that win against Miami on Thursday night which is probably why…

2

hours Kobe spent shooting jumpers in America Airlines Arena after the game against the Heat was over.
I am not aware of something like this happening while a player was on the road. Kobe is focused, man.

1

vote of confidence given to Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra by GM Pat Riley. In response to if he was getting rid of Spoelstra this year because of the losing streak Riley said “it ain’t gonna happen.”
Riley is no fool. He knows this team is not built to win this season. Once they get size down low, a point the team will most likely address in the offseason, Spoelstra (a.k.a. Julius Caesar) better watch his back for a slick-haired Brutus.

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VIA ESPN:

The Detroit Pistons are closing in on a resolution in their coaching search after two days of talks with ESPN analyst Avery Johnson.

Sources familiar with the Pistons’ thinking told ESPN.com that Tuesday would be a decisive day in their courting of Johnson, exactly one week removed from the dismissal of Michael Curry.

Pistons president Joe Dumars had his first face-to-face meeting with Johnson at the latter’s Houston-area home Sunday night, which was followed by ongoing discussions between the sides Monday.

If they can’t strike an agreement on financial terms and other job parameters by Tuesday, Dumars and Johnson both appear prepared to move on. NBA coaching sources say Dumars, in that scenario, would then turn to Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach John Kuester to replace Curry.

Johnson has been widely regarded as the leading candidate for the position since ex-Pistons coach and current TNT analyst Doug Collins withdrew from consideration last week. That status stems largely from Dumars’ declarations after Curry’s firing about moving forward “with a more experienced coach” and his intent to have that coach in place before the Pistons begin summer-league play in Las Vegas later this week.

Yet it’s believed that Johnson, well aware that the Pistons are looking for their sixth coach as they enter Dumars’ 10th season in charge, is seeking the security of a four-year contract. Such a deal could prove cost-prohibitive for the Pistons after they paid both Flip Saunders and Curry last season and still owe Curry an estimated $5 million over two years. Detroit, though, would share the financial burden in the first two years with the Dallas Mavericks, who still owe Johnson an estimated $8 million over the next two seasons.

Sources familiar with the talks say Sunday’s meeting was positive and that the sides made further progress Monday, but obstacles remain. Dumars dropped a hint to that effect Friday, even before the face-to-face negotiations began, telling the Detroit News that it is “not a given” that Johnson will be hired despite the perception that Collins’ withdrawal opened up a clear path to the job for him.

To read the rest of this exciting story, please click here for more. Share your thoughts below!

VIA ESPN:

Jason Kidd has given the Dallas Mavericks a verbal commitment that he will re-sign with the team Wednesday, according to NBA front-office sources.

Sources told ESPN.com that Kidd, 36, will receive a 3-year, fully-guaranteed contract worth in excess of $25 million.

Kidd elected to stay in Dallas in the face of a hard push from the New York Knicks, who last week offered Kidd the most they could ($19 million over three years).

Signing Kidd for more than one season would have impacted the Knicks’ efforts to amass substantial salary cap space for the summer of 2010, and they’re expected to woo Cleveland’s LeBron James and at least one other top free agent.

In that scenario, pressure on Knicks president Donnie Walsh to trade either Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries — or both — would have increased significantly, but sources say that Walsh and Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni felt that acquiring Kidd would have been worth such hassles because of their confidence in Kidd’s ability to change the Knicks’ culture.

Kidd’s interest in returning to the Atlantic Division was mutual, but the Mavericks were always considered favorites to re-sign him because they could comfortably exceed the Knicks’ max offer of three years at the projected mid-level exception of $5.8 million per year.

Although Kidd initially sent signals that he planned to take the full holiday weekend before making a decision, Dallas began inching closer to a deal on Friday when Kidd and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban met at Cuban’s house.

Wednesday is the first day teams can formally sign free agents to new contracts after the NBA announces the salary cap and luxury tax figures for the 2009-10 season.

Check out these ‘Noisemakers’ and more below:

VIA ESPN:

The Mavericks might not be ready to give up on the Jason Kidd experiment in Dallas.

Team owner Mark Cuban announced via his Twitter feed Tuesday afternoon that he was “getting ready to fly up to NYC for [a] Free Agent meeting at 12:01 [a.m.].” Sources with knowledge of Cuban’s plans confirmed to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein that the meeting is scheduled with Kidd at the first allowable minute of 2009 NBA free agency Wednesday morning.

Cuban’s pitch will precede a Kidd meeting with the Knicks in New York, according to the New York Daily News. Although the unrestricted free agent has indicated in the past that he would give Dallas the first chance to re-sign him, the 35-year-old Kidd likely has other suitors.

The Knicks face the challenge of going after Kidd and trying to sign their own restricted free agents, guard Nate Robinson and forward David Lee.

Kidd averaged 9.0 points and 8.7 assists for a Mavericks team that won 50 games last season. After steamrolling the Spurs in five games in the first round of the playoffs, the Mavs were taken out in five by the Nuggets.

Kidd was acquired by Dallas the year before, but that Mavs team lost in the first round of the playoffs. The Mavericks lost in the Finals in 2005-06 and then won 67 games the following season before bowing out in the first round of the playoffs. Kidd was expected to be the veteran piece to team with Dirk Nowitzki and get them over the hump when the Mavs gave up young point guard Devin Harris in a multiplayer deal with the Nets.

Kidd made more than $21 million last season. At 36, he knows to expect a dip — but how much could be the big difference. Another likely factor will be the length of the contract.

The Lakers and Cavaliers might only offer a one-year deal, dangling their hopes of a title as incentive. Kidd would then be a free agent again in 2010, meaning he’d still have a chance for one last big payday.