NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Hoops Addict. Blogger tries out for D-League team. Blogger gets injured within 30 minutes. Blogger still gets a good story with great video out of it.

2. ESPN.com, via FD. Bill Simmons puts together a great Elgin Baylor column.

3. Rumors and Rants, via BDL. David West vs. a heckler at an Obama rally.

4. Nothing But Net. Our first "I should have stayed retired" joke from Larry Brown is in the books.

5. True Hoop. Abbott wonders, "If there were another Tim Donaghy, would the NBA catch him?" Terrific analys

6. SLAM. That epic Gilbert Arenas interview you've heard about.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Memphis Commercial-Appeal. During practice, Memphis GM Chris Wallace gives Hamed Haddadi a thumbs up, the Iranian equivalent of the middle finger. Eek.

2. Cleveland Scene, via everywhere. Mo Williams will bring his 60-second Q&A show and a love for meat sandwiches to Cleveland.

3. Associated Press. Gerald Wallace is pretty cavalier when it comes to trade rumors: "I said, 'Well, I'm in Alabama with my kids. Call me if I've got to move.' That was it."

4. The Sporting News. The coming revolution in NYC.

5. Newsday. Quentin Richardson is tired of being looked down upon by other players because he's a Knick.

6. Simon on Sports. The season's a month away, but Nets tickets are already half-price.

Late off-season additions are usually either huge busts or genius steals. The Charlotte Bobcats are making a gamble right up that alley by extending an offer sheet to Rockets restricted free agent Carl Landry.

Landry was a vital part of the Rockets' epic 22-game winning streak, and became a fan favorite for his effort and surprising offensive and defensive versatility. But when the offseason came, Landry balked at previous offers by the Rockets for considerable money given his one season of production. On top of that, there were numerous reports that the Rockets had concerns about his right knee, which he's had trouble with throughout his career.

The offer is for $9 million over three years, which puts it in the range that Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey had said he would match, which the Rockets have seven days to do. When I asked Morey in July whether he thought Landry would be back with the Rockets next year, he remained impassive regarding the situation. The fact that that Rockets took so long to resolve the issue could indicate that the injury concern is enough to make Landry's value dubious.

But for a Bobcats' franchise desperately in need of a spark to lift itself out of mediocrity and possibly provide some cushion for the enormous .... ahem ... weight Sean May must carry upon his return, this could be a gamble worth taking.

Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer published some notes on the free throw shooting woes of the Bobcats. Charlotte was #29 in the NBA at 71.4% from the stripe. (Philadelphia shot 70.6%.) The league average was 75.5%. Bonnell notes Emeka Okafor was a particularly egregious foul shooter, and reports Larry Brown has been working with him on technique heavily this fall. Good news.

Henry Abbott of TrueHoop wonders how much all those misses (many by Okafor) hurt Charlotte last season. The impact is substantial enough, a few wins at the least. But this line drew my FT-fanatical interest:

They would have won games that they lost. Several of them. They would have felt confident and proud. They would have likely been fouled less, and gotten cleaner looks.

The goal for Charlotte -- even Okafor, at 57% from the line -- should not be to get fouled less. Drawing fouls, it ain't beautiful. But it's one of most consistently successful strategies you can have.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Newsday. Dwyane Wade on wanting to play for Mike D'Antoni: "I mean, I love offense. Why wouldn't I? I love him. When we're in [Team USA] practice, I love Nate McMillan, but I want to be on Mike D'Antoni's team because Nate is preaching all defense and Mike is preaching all offense."

2. Indy Cornrows. Bill Laimbeer and Larry Bird still don't like each other, as you'll see in this interview, in which Laimbeer destroys Bird for the job he's done in Indiana.

3. Charlotte Observer, via TrueHoop. The best words a mark can read: "The way Gerald Wallace is blocking shots and driving to the rim, it's clear he's regained his explosiveness after a nasty groin pull late last season."

4. The Sporting Blog. Prepare for these five guys to possibly fall off.

5. Wages of Wins Journal. David Berri moderates a blog war. No, really!

6. Ball in Europe. Tony Parker is a PC. ... Calm down Spurs fans, that doesn't mean he's broken.

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

The next player on the list is a special case for me, in that for several years I spent garbage time at ARCO Arena chanting his name. (Also, his decision to retire from the Slam Dunk Contest at age 19 after being jobbed by the judges also earns points. That was a political statement.) But even if you're aren't a mark like me, you can easily appreciate the game of Gerald Wallace.

His two common nicknames make more sense than peanut butter and jelly: "Crash" and "Multiplicity." The latter comes from the surreal box scores Wallace collects: he has 18 career 4x4s -- games in which you tally at least 4 points, rebounds, assists and either blocks or steals. (All these plus two others with 4 blocks and fewer steals.) Maybe the perfect example of Wallace's explosive versatility is legendary January 13, 2006, game against Milwaukee: 21 points, 15 rebounds, 8 steals, 4 assists, 4 blocks.

That other nickname -- "Crash" -- comes from Wallace's propensity to bash himself head-first into any center or crowd of men or tall building he comes about. It's a trait which has earned him several concussions, the last of which last season forced Wallace to retire from the power forward position. That relates to this next note, which is that in 2007-08, Crash changed completely.

This offseason, NBA FanHouse will address important questions about the league. It will be a Summer of Answers. First up: the biggest draft bust of the decade.

The new millennium has brought no shortage of pitiful draft selections. We limited our selections to the top-10 overall in each draft class, and took into account the quality of the players left on the board (but ruled out odd non-basketball injures -- Jay Williams, Dajuan Wagner and the like). We start with those draft choices not quite terrible enough to make the top ... err, bottom five.

Marvin Williams, Atlanta. The rubbery forward went #2 in a draft which featured two max contract point guard, Deron Williams and Chris Paul. Williams has become some version of the projection his potential screamed of, but he'll never catch up to Deron or CP. Painfully bad choice by the Hawks, all things considered.

Adam Morrison, Charlotte and Shelden Williams, Atlanta. It's a little early to write off class of '06 products, sure, but consensus rates the Ammo and Shel picks as ... awful. With Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay and Vladimir Veremeenko all on the board, the Cats and Hawks have little excuse.

Marcus Fizer, Chicago. The 2000 draft was historically bad, but Fizer at #4 still stinks. Mike Miller went one choice later, and decent players who are, you know, still in the league -- Joel Pryzbilla, Hedo Turkoglu -- went later.

Luke Jackson, Cleveland. Hmm, Jackson seems conspicuous in his absence from this summer's '04 revival madness. Luke earns his spot among the top busts of the Oughts based on those taken after him -- Andris Biedrins, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, Kevin Martin. Think LeBron could use any of those guys?

The incredibly too-quick fall of Larry Brown has been less mystery than curiosity. The bizarre departure from Detroit followed by the season from Hell in New York explain why L.B. became nearly untouchable in the NBA. But in a league of interminable chances, watching Brown twist in the wind as all sorts of struggling teams went with other options until MJ in Charlotte came calling ... that was weird.

Might Brown's abominable job with the 2004 Olympic team deserve more blame for the coach's castigation? Marc J. Spears indirectly makes that case in a Boston Globe feature on the 2008 team.

Along with being young and inexperienced, Team USA was mired with drama and immense pressure to win. Brown suspended [Allen] Iverson, [LeBron] James, and [Amare] Stoudemire during an exhibition game against Puerto Rico in Jacksonville, Fla., after they were late to a meeting. [Carmelo] Anthony acknowledged the incident was "the beginning" of the troubles for the 2004 team.

"We had a meeting and they were like three to five minutes late," Anthony said. "Coach Brown said they couldn't play. We were kind of shocked. A.I. can't play. Amare can't play. LeBron can't play. We thought it was hurting our team. So to start off like that, you could say it carried over."

Coaches in the NBA rarely get away with angering their stars -- hell, even nice-guy Dwight Howard probably had a major part in getting rid of Brian Hill last summer. So, even in an international competition, pissing off some of the brightest young superstars in the league is not a good idea. What role the Athens disaster had in Brown's downfall is unknown -- it preceded the Detroit drama. But it has certainly has shaped our new image of the legendary coach, and it's limited his relevancy going forward.

Even a scantily clad barbie doll reading from a teleprompter could tell you that the Charlotte Bobcats needed Emeka Okafor. Okafor may not be the franchise player they've always dreamed of, but his production is solid, he's a hard worker, and every second his contract dispute wore on, the more discombobulated the Charlotte front office looked. If you don't make contact with the people who work for you, who you depend on, you're risking the value of your franchise.

Apparently somebody in Charlotte woke up and realized that because Marc Stein's got the goods on Okafor's new 6 year, $72 million dollar deal. The $12 million annually puts him on par with the Bucks' Andrew Bogut, and cements Okafor as the center piece of the Bobcats' frontcourt for the future. In the end, it may have been a matter of the Charlotte front office realizing that if you wake up one day and you don't have your guy that can consistently put in rebounds, block shots, put backs, and solid defense, you're not going to compete. That kind of talent doesn't just grow on trees.

Surprise, surprise. Emeka Okafor and the Bobcats can't find a sweet spot in contract negotiations, and Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports 'Meka is pulling the old Luol Deng one-two: work out a sign-and-trade, give me the salary I want, or I'm signing the qualifying offer and bouncing next summer.

Bonnell reports the Bobcats have offered Okafor less money than they offered last summer. 'Meka, of course, played well this season and didn't get hurt. He's young. He's one of the better big-man defenders in the world. I'm not really understanding Charlotte's strategy here, I must say.

I noted a year ago how teams were becoming savvy to the inherent advantages of NBA restricted free agency for the franchises. It didn't take long for the players to strike back -- listening to Euroleague offers, dropping ultimatums, demanding trades. I think this suggestion has been made before with regards to established stars seeking a ring, that all the disgruntleds get together and run the table. (Boston basically did this last year.) But seriously: take Okafor, Deng, Josh Smith, Josh Childress and Ben Gordon. That's an All-Star team in two years! Make it happen, Grizzlies!