NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. The Painted Area. Tim Hardaway told SLAM an unnamed NBA player came out to his teammates last year, and things were cool. This is good news ... but why hasn't it made the news?

2. New York Times. Memo to the friends and enemies of Nate Robinson: it seems Chris Duhon is having trouble grasping the D'Antoni offense.

3. Ball Don't Lie. If you aren't reading BDL's team previews, you're really missing out.

4. Rocky Mountain News. Anthony Carter's outdoor hoops experience goes back to playing five-on-five for drug money in Atlanta so that his family could eat. I'm guessing Saturday at Indian Wells will be slightly different.

5. Blazers Edge. Martell Webster, a young promising starter, goes down with the most serious injury in Portland since Oden's microfracture ... and no one misses a beat. Why?

6. Jones on the NBA. A video and text history of the 1990-91 NBA season.

As unintentionally hilarious as it was to see Nate Robinson's summer league jersey retired (ie, nailed to a concrete wall) on Sunday, it was even more awkward to watch a couple of maintenance guys immediately take it down within minutes of the last game's final buzzer. Kudos to Frank Madden of Brew Hoop for the steady hand taking the video. I was standing next to him, but as you can hear in the final five seconds, I was too dumbstruck to do anything but crack wise.

Notes from a trip to the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

That's Nate Robinson's jersey hanging from the wall here at UNLV's Cox Pavilion. The reigning 2007 Vegas Summer League MVP had it retired today during a ceremony at halftime between the Knicks and Timberwolves game. He only appeared in two of New York's five games this year, but he was being honored in part for playing four straight years in the league.

He's the first player in Summer League history to receive the honor ... but for some reason, seeing his jersey hanging there cracks me up. Being named one of the best all-time players in a bunch of games that no one ever remembers seems like a backhanded compliment, no?

In any case, when asked about the ceremony last night, he seemed genuinely enthusiastic. "It's crazy, right? Yeah, it's kind of awesome. First time ever, so I'm glad I could be the first one. It's kind of cool. Maybe I'll set a new trend."

Keep reading for a better view of just how lonesome Robinson's jersey looks.

Hey, at least the Knicks won something, right? (If that joke seems pilfered, it's only because it's a freaking layup.) Nate Robinson made Isiah Thomas proud this morning on the Today show, as he and Meredith Vieira beat Semi-Pro stars Will Ferrell and Woody Harrelson in a game of two-on-two.

The action starts around the 3:45 mark.



No word on whether the 'Bockers are offering Vieira a 10 day or not.

Update: Thanks to Rick in the comments for pointing out the video.

Zach Randolph and Nate Robinson acted like little children themselves during a sideline skirmish last night in Washington. The game went into overtime, but with less than 20 seconds left in regulation the two teammates got into an argument near the team's bench during a time out. From the New York Post's Marc Berman:

Punctuating the verbal jawing, Randolph threw a cup of water at Robinson. Robinson responded by tossing back a towel before they were separated.

Randolph called it "heat of the moment.'' "It was a misunderstanding,'' Randolph said. "Nate and I talked about it.''

Robinson said much the same thing, reading from a script from the P.R. department that closed the locker room an illegal 20 minutes after the game. David Stern has a sign on the locker room doors, saying doors must open after 15 minutes, but the Knicks go by their own rules.

I don't know what's worse, the sniping between teammates or a disgruntled media venting about being forced to wait five minutes -- five whole minutes! -- longer than usual. That this run-in happened between Randolph and Robinson is hardly surprising; they both have a history of turning on their teammates. Randolph famously sucker punched Ruben Patterson back in 2003 while with the Trail Blazers, drawing a two-game suspension and a whopping $100,000 fine, while Robinson jumped a naked Malik Rose in the shower in 2005, ostensibly for welching on a bet.

Of course, as Matt pointed out a few weeks ago, wasn't Stephon Marbury missing the rest of 2007-08 pretty much official/obviously going to happen after he underwent a surgical process that normally sidelines players for two months minimum? Well, if you weren't sure before, you can write it in stone now. Starbury is donecakes for the rest of the year.

Because his ankle surgery 2 1/2 weeks ago was more complex than anticipated, Marbury will not return, according to two people with knowledge of the operation.

The Post has learned that Dr. William Hamilton discovered more damage than the MRI showed - seven bone fragments in the ankle causing Marbury pain. The pieces of bone needed to be removed. That turned a routine 30-minute bone-spur operation into two hours of surgery.

Of course, all of this rather non-surprising news out of the NY comes on the heels of Isiah Thomas stating that the Knicks are preparing to "move on" from the Starbury-Knicks era and focus on bringing in the franchise's next point guard. Besides the fact that it speaks wonders to Zeke's confidence in the four headed-score first monster of Nate Robinson, Mardy Collins, Jamal Crawford and Fred Jones, it begs the question of how the Knicks plan on going about getting this next great point guard.

No, seriously. How are they going to pick up a point guard in a trade? Because last time we checked, they don't really have a whole lot to offer, despite the general attractiveness of a five million a year James Jones whining from the end of your bench. Or, you know, Jared Jeffries' kind of hard nosed defense ... at only 5.6 mil a year! Frankly, the list goes on extensively and also pretty much points directly towards the Knicks inability to sign anyone via free agency as well. Or they could just swap David Lee for Javaris Crittenton so people will stop complaining about the quality of the Pau Gasol trade.

Even scouring the box score, it's hard to figure out how New York destroyed the Pistons by 24 points on Sunday. Only Zach Randolph went ballistic; only Tayshaun Prince was truly horrendous (though Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace were hardly sterling).

In November, this could've been the dominant victory Isiah Thomas needed to justify his thug, to give a glowing indication of what could be. In January, as the team's been outscored an average of more than 7 points a game and already has 26 losses... the triumph lacks gravity. Just ask Knicks fans.

A timeout coincided with the Dallas Cowboys' final drive in their 21-17 loss to the New York Giants, so the MSG staff played the football game on the overhead scoreboard - with some fans even chanting "DEFENSE!'' while watching.

Play resumed with Dallas facing fourth down, but the staff opted to keep showing the football game, even as Knicks center Eddy Curry was shooting free throws. With Nate Robinson motioning for the crowd to quiet down, Curry missed both shots - though few fans seemed to care because they were too busy watching the Cowboys' drive, which ended with Giants cornerback R.W. McQuarters intercepting a pass in the end zone.

The Knicks stomp a championship contender at MSG, and the biggest cheers of the night come for the Giants. Ah, Isiah. What you hath wrought.

I don't know why, but sometimes I find little anecdotes like this more amusing than actual analysis:

Nate Robinson had seen enough, and he wanted out - away from the chaos, the congestion and the cameras. His locker stall, squeezed between those of Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph, was prime territory for reporters staking out the Knicks' burly big men. The nightly swarm had become intolerable.

Last week, Robinson got his wish, migrating to the other side of the room, in a locker swap with the rookie Wilson Chandler.

That's from the New York Times in an article that goes on to analyze whether the on-court pairing of Randolph and Curry will ever mesh. It's a legitimate question, but I'm more curious in the circumstances surrounding NateRob's locker swap. Did money exchange hands? Or bartering, say, in exchange for immunity from any more rookie hazing? Or was the switch an example of rookie hazing in itself?

I've been in NBA locker rooms after games, and I've been in the often difficult/impossible position of trying to maneuver my way into a scrum of reporters surrounding a star player without overtly invading the space of another's player's adjacent locker. There's etiquette involved: if you're not going to care enough about a player to ask what he thinks about the game, the least you can do is give him room to put on his (free) socks. And while the pint-sized Robinson doesn't take up much physical space, I'm guessing getting stepped on and then ignored was too much for his ego to handle.

When the Suns traded away the rights to Nate Robinson on draft night, it immediately looked like a mistake. The team badly needed a back-up for Steve Nash, Leandro Barbosa had yet to emerge, and Robinson had up-tempo bench player written all over him.

Three years later, no one's saying the Suns messed up. Robinson, while talented, is best-known for his role in the MSG brawl and his questionable 2006 Dunk Contest crown. However, it's possible that one of Isiah's offseason moves could make a difference for Robinson:

His dynamic physical skills - incredible athleticism, a textbook jump shot - have never been questioned. The concern about Robinson has always involved the mental side. Not just when to pass, when to shoot and how to get through a screen, but how to control himself and how to focus and how to take his game preparation seriously.

The absence of Steve Francis might help. Robinson often was Francis' sidekick last season and he allowed himself to get caught up in antics before games and on the bench during games.

There's also talk of his maturity in the summer league, and as a caveat, his ability to spew the right thing at the drop of a hat. Still, with Stephon Marbury supposedly gone in two years, this is Robinson's chance to show he's a real part of the Knicks' future.

The Knicks currently have 17 players under contract, two more than they will be allowed to carry into the regular season, so it's clear they're going to do some kind of move. If Isiah Thomas has his way, his next move will make as big of a splash as his recent trade for Zach Randolph. From the New York Post:

If the Knicks are to land forward Ron Artest in a trade this summer - one of their remaining summer goals - they will have to package a couple of prospects.

The one young Knick who could seal the deal is David Lee, as Isiah Thomas ponders whether to make him available for the former Defensive Player of the Year who carries lots of baggage. Lee could be packaged with either Jared Jeffries or Malik Rose to make the deal work under collective bargaining agreement mathematics.

A starting front-court of Artest, Randolph and Eddy Curry would be off the charts, both in terms of talent and off-the-court craziness. Giving up Lee would be a very steep price, especially on the heels of dealing Channing Frye (another talented, young and most importantly, cheap big man), but if it allowed Thomas to unload Jeffries, who still has four years and $25 million left on his contract, it might be something worth considering. And if Thomas was somehow able to convince the Kings to leave Lee out of the talks but instead include a guy like Nate Robinson, well, all the better.