NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.-- "Shaquille O'Neal didn't just stay an extra day in Dallas because, as he claims, he wanted to visit the Grassy Knoll. We're told the Suns legendary center also stayed behind because he thinks all the grass in Dallas might be greener – and that he is angling with Mavs owner Mark Cuban for an offseason trade to Big D." -- Mike Fisher, DallasBasketball.com
-- "If anyone thinks that these two master self-promoters just accidentally, or candidly, put this information out there for the benefit of their friends, you're an idiot. Cuban's been using his "personal" blog to fight his professional battles, sometimes covertly, for years. What we've got here is an even more aggressive, and disingenuous, form of intervention into the theories snowballing online. So keep getting played, or enjoy other stars' more "pure" updates on what time it is." -- Shoals on TSB, on the role of Twitter in the aforementioned rumor.
-- "On his way back to his office he stopped in front of me and extended his arms like an angel. 'Give me a hug!' I didn't know what to do. Reporters are supposed to remain impartial, and unbiased. Would this violate that space I'm supposed to keep? At the same time, I have the coach, in front of a locker room of players, standing there with his arms extended. So ... I hugged Coach." -- The Oregonian's Jason Quick on Nate McMillan. (Side note: even if you're not a fan of the Blazers, Quick's 3,800-word "Behind the Blazers Locker Room Door" is thoroughly enjoying. Very few beat writers truly exploit the online medium as well as Quick does.)
-- "I'd also like to think that Jordan appreciated the irony of being honored in Detroit, as those knock-down, drag-out playoff series versus the Pistons truly forged him into the championship player he's now known as. Of course, Jordan was already a phenomenal talent. Maybe the best ever. But until he figured how to beat Detroit, he wasn't going to win it all. That rite of passage - something that used to be a standard in the NBA - is an important part of his legacy." -- Ian Casselberry
-- "(Dan Steinberg:) Do you ever think it's silly at all, that what you do for a living is try to put a ball in a basket? (Joakim Noah:) Do I think it's silly? Yeah, I think it's overrated, because people make a big deal out of it. But I mean, at the same time, it's such a big part of the culture. You know? Such a big part of the culture. It's so funny to me, I remember when I was a kid how much I admired basketball players. I think that it's important to have good things to say to the kids, and just help them understand what it took to get here, because nobody had it easy." -- DC Sports Bog (via TrueHoop)
-- passer's remorse (pas'-uhrz ri-mors') noun. An emotional condition whereby a pickup baller experiences an immediate and gut-wrenching sense of regret after making a pass." -- Basketbawful's Pickup Word of the Day
-- "I end with the angle that most would put at the beginning -- the fact that neither Stockton nor Sloan won a championship, Michael Jordan's Bulls having twice ended their title dreams in the Finals in the late 1990s. Both are known for what is so seldom prized in our society -- mind-numbing, grind-it-out consistency without ultimate reward. It is one of the great injustices in sports that Sloan has never been named Coach of the Year, even though he failed to make the playoffs only three times in his first 20 seasons in Utah. (The Jazz are headed to the playoffs in 2008-09 too.) And don't forget that Stockton, who played in the shadow of Magic Johnson (and sometimes Isiah Thomas), was named to the All-NBA first team only twice. That doesn't seem quite enough recognition for a guy who leads two career categories." -- Jack McCullem, Sports Illustrated
