NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.* "It amazes me how quickly the question 'Who is the best player in the NBA?' has been rendered moot." -- The Painted Area.
* "(Bleep) that guy, he's walking around rubbing everyone's nose in the deals he's made and even with all those lottery players his team is still not in the playoffs." -- The Oregonian, via TSB.
* "[Gerald] Wallace's true talent is much more valuable to the team than [Boris] Diaw's. What scares me about this little brushup is that Larry Brown probably has never understood that because he doesn't like Wallace's style, and this is just a preliminary indication that Brown wants to move him." -- Rufus on Fire.
* Ridiculously interesting "heat maps" from Obsessionism, photos of a young Mark Cuban squeezing some dames, and when good logos go bad.
