NBA Western

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Saturday, there are exactly 80 days remaining.

When the NBA completed in merger with the American Basketball Association in 1976, it borrowed a few great things: the slam dunk contest, Dr. J and -- most importantly -- the three-point line. Well, the NBA didn't grab the three-point line right away. It wasn't until the 1979-80 season that the NBA opened the arc for business.

In that premiere '80 season for downtown, the average NBA team took only 227 threes. Last year, Rashard Lewis himself took well more than twice that many (554). The league has come around on the importance of the trey, but it's taken a long time.

American sports leagues have often been fairly criticized for a lack of diversity at the management level. College football famously has problems fixed its incredible lack of blacks among its head coaching ranks, and pro baseball and football have faced the same talk in terms of its front offices.

But a recent study by the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport showed that the NBA is doing it well. Women fill 43 percent of the league's "professional" positions, and the NBA remained the only major American professional sports league with a 'A' grade in both racial and gender diversity. The study also reported that over its history, the NBA has had more than twice as many black head coaches than any other league.

Tempers were flying high following the Denver Nuggets' Game 3 victory on Saturday in Dallas.

While cameras caught Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, shoving a cameraman after the buzzer sounded, Cuban is denying a Denver Post report claiming he approached Nuggets' forward Kenyon Martin's mother, Lydia Moore, after the game and said, "Your son is a punk."

FanHouse contacted Cuban via e-mail on Monday and asked if he ever said that to Moore. "Absolutely not," Cuban replied.

Blake Griffin has been picking up hardware for the past few weeks (the Naismith, AP and CBS player of the year awards spring immediately to mind) and, considering that he announced his decision Tuesday to enter the NBA Draft, it's safe to say he's going to be getting a pretty substantial pay raise as well.

The Rotation is a weekly study on the NBA by one of our All-Star voices. In rotation this week is Tom Ziller.

NBA owners continue to scream bloody apocalypse. The year 2011 marks the doomsday date, with the L-word -- "lock-out" -- graduating from whisper to constant ink. Non-basketball losses and flagging attendance (see update, end of post) make every cent count, and apparently the stars of the show make too many of the dollars. "Two pounds of flesh or stay home," the owners warn.

But David Stern assures you the NBA is fine. Thriving, even. Ratings boom nightly and the league's (to date) soft slip amid global economic Armageddon should reassure those who fret, Stern argues. A $175 $200 million expansion of the league's credit store for franchises -- not a "bail-out," but further proof of the league's health!

Should we believe a commissioner preaching relaxation, or are the owners seizing with (some combination of) fear and blood-lust? Is the NBA really screwed?

With Phoenix on the outside looking in on the Western conference playoff picture, one saving grace for a late season run was the potential return of All-Star Amar'e Stoudemire.

The Arizona Republic reported on Thursday that Stoudemire, who had previously been expected to return for the playoffs, will be out for the remainder of the season with a torn retina.

The Utah Jazz are starting to put things together. In the midst of a stretch in which they've won eight of their last nine, Utah has home victories against the Lakers, Celtics, and Hornets. But not everyone is a believer just yet.

A few of us gathered around the FanHouse Roundtable to discuss Utah's recent surge, and to see if, in the grand scheme of things, it means anything at all. Matt Moore, Tom Ziller, and I get together for some serious Jazz talk, after the jump.

LeBron James made arguably the biggest noise of the entire All Star Weekend during the dunk contest when he told Cheryl Miller that he was "preliminarily" committing to the 2010 Dunk Contest in Dallas. He followed that up the next day by throwing down an absolutely Earth-shattering, off-the-backboard yimyam that got everyone thinking about the future possibilities.

And, lest you think he was bluffing, he confirmed his early entrance to the contest while explaining that the whole process needs to be "cleaned up."

TNT finally ceded to Bill Simmons' demands this year, offering up a game of H-O-R-S-E at the All Star Game festivities. The competitive game is a throw back to every playground and childhood basketball memory. Despite some giving the network a hard time for going this direction, a game of H-O-R-S-E is awesome for everyone.

Well, unless they try to ruin it with corporate sponsorship. Which is what TNT appears set on doing. Because they're not playing H-O-R-S-E anymore; now it's G-E-I-C-O (via FirstCuts).

Each week, Under The Microscope looks at a different player and examines him in the context of a game that week. On Thursday, the Blazers fell to the Mavericks, and we focused on LaMarcus Aldridge. Here's a look at how Aldridge fared. This is part two; you can read part one of this week's UtM here.

The Phrase Is: Strength Without Brutality, Finesse Without Bravado

The Story Of One: Do you ask for more?

LaMarcus Aldridge scored 21 points tonight, added 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 3 steals in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas survived a furious rally by the Blazers at the end to hold off. But if you want to dissect what LaMarcus Aldridge did, you have to ask yourself what you want from a player like him, in Portland. And it's not an easy question to answer.