Kansas City's Sprint Center hosted a well-reviewed preseason game between the Hawks and Blazers on Friday. The Kansas City Star's Jason Whitlock heralds his town as a great fit for pro ball.

I realize it was just a one-time affair, but I'm surprised Kansas Citians were willing to step out and pay Carl Peterson prices for a nonfootball event, particularly in this brutal economic environment. Friday night brought me one more step closer to believing we would support the NBA.

The gym, again, has received lots of positive reviews from NBA types, and is even seen as a model in the arena negotiations in Sacramento. (Ironic, considering KC's old NBA team is the Kings.) But just how far down the list in Kansas City in terms of NBA expansion or relocation?

Seattle's supposed to be up top; the local politicians, however, have seemed to have taken only a few months to completely forget about the steps they need to take to line up a future franchise. (Basically, they need to plug the penalty Clay Bennett paid to move back into KeyArena in the form of renovations. Hasn't happened.)

San Jose seems like a non-starter given Golden State's proximity, despite the continued preponderance of wealth in Silicon Valley. (Ain't no tech companies crashing last month.) Anaheim might be in a better position than KC: both have ready arenas and a local willingness to develop new funds, and while the O.C. has more local competition in the Clippers and Lakers, there's also a far greater opportunity for corporate connection in massive L.A.

Of course, no teams are looking to move (we'll know more about Sacramento next year; the Grizz have at least four years left in Memphis) and domestic expansion isn't on the table. As such, should K.C. fans get their hopes up? One such fan comments after the jump.

There's a reason that preseason games are played in every major professional sport. Players need the time to work themselves back into game shape after a few months off, and usually need to learn how to play with new players or in a new system. The players aren't the only ones that benefit though. Referees use these games to shake out the cobwebs too, and there were a couple examples of this in last night's preseason opener between the Hawks and the Suns.

Late in the first quarter, the Hawks' Solomon Jones came barreling into the Suns' Louis Amundson (I know. It's pre-season people, work with me here.). It was your typical block/charge situation; it could have gone either way. The initial call was an offensive foul on Jones, but then the lead official called one of those NFL-style conferences, and they all discussed the play for a good minute and a half -- an eternity for the fans in the arena.

Apparently no consensus could be reached, so the official came to the scorer's table and announced the following: "We have a difference of opinion, we're going to jump it up. Personal fouls for both 44 blue and 17 white, no team fouls." I thought this was a pretty odd decision, and one that you would almost never see in a game that counted.

There was one other quirky play of note in the second half, and on this one, I think the officials got it right.

Thanks to the good folks in the Phoenix Suns' communications department, I was courtside for the team's pre-season opener against the Hawks. Being the first game of the pre-season, it was mostly just local media in attendance, who apparently had no interest in Hawks' coach Mike Woodson's post-game remarks. When he came out of the locker room, it was just me, esteemed writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sekou Smith, and a media rep for the Suns that were waiting for him. Needless to say, it was the perfect opportunity to ask the coach a few questions about the game (and frankly, it would have been weird if I didn't.) Here are coach Woodson's (very brief) post-game comments:

Brett Edwards: You left Marvin [Williams] out there longer than usual, were you just trying to get him more work?

Mike Woodson: I was trying to get him more work, and I knew I wasn't going to play Joe [Johnson] and [Mike] Bibby many minutes, so, you gotta have one of those guys on the floor, Marvin, or Josh Smith to go along with the new guys. But Mo [Maurice Evans], Mo would have taken up seven or eight minute that Marvin got coming down the stretch probably, if he hadn't gotten hurt.

BE: What happened to Mo?

MW: He got an elbow (points to above his eye), he needed to get some stitches.

BE: The first half it seemed like you guys took a lot of outside shots, which maybe lead to the low field goal percentage?

MW: Which I don't like.

BE: Yeah, did you talk to them about that at halftime?

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. ESPN The Magazine The Blog, via BDL. Investigating the birth of Nightmare Ant.

2. Third Quarter Collapse. Everyone thinks Hedo Turkoglu could be a great fit on the Lakers. Here's an exhaustive look at possibilities.

3. Chicago Tribune, via Blog-a-Bull. "[Derrick] Rose is having the best training camp of anybody on the team."

4. 48 Minutes of Hell. Joel Kimmel, the guy that does those awesome NBA portraits, has an art book coming out in a few weeks.

5. Ball Don't Lie. One-time European player Dominique Wilkins thinks Josh Childress made a bad move this summer. Of course, 'Nique works for the Hawks ...

6. The Blowtorch. More life lessons with Brad Miller.

Al Horford didn't win rookie of the year. He didn't lead rookies in scoring. And he wasn't the media darling that some other rookies were. But while most of his rookie classmates were at home sipping piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, he was battling the eventual champion Celtics to seven games with the Atlanta Hawks.

Going into his second year, there are even more expectations on the 6-foot-10, 245-pound forward-center from the Dominican Republic. But after seeing how he embraced a leadership role as well as plugged in 10 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game (making him the only rookie to average a double-double), it's hard to bet against the former 3rd overall pick from the University of Florida.

We caught up with Al the other day just as training camp had started to ask him about last season's playoff run, the loss of Josh Childress, and his goals for his sophomore season.

The Arizona Daily Star reports Hawk bench buddy Salim Stoudamire has signed a deal to join the Spurs (via SLAM). I know, I know ... even Roger Mason is bored by this news. But hear me out: Salim can help the Spurs a ton.

The Spurs have been a team which relies on three things on offense: the post play of Tim Duncan, the slashing ability of Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, and potent three-point shooting from a cast of role players. Historically, two of the three most important of those three-bombing role players have been Robert Horry and Brent Barry. Horry retired (or "was forced to retire because no one wants to pay him," if you want to get semantic). Barry plays for the Rockets. Bruce Bowen and Michael Finley remain, but turn 57 and 55 respectively* this year. Ime Udoka and Matt Bonner sit in the sidecar, but Gregg Popovich showed only mild levels of faith in them last year.

The one constant with Stoudamire: dude can shoot. Let's ignore last season, when he only totaled 400 minutes. Look at all seasons, college and pro, when he actually got a shot. Here are his three-point shooting percentages: 45% as a college freshman, 44% as a sophomore, 42% as a junior, 50% as a senior, 38% as a rookie, 36% as a second-year player. The league average is 36%, and the Spurs are accustomed to shooting slightly higher. Salim helps that, yes?

While Mason shot beautifully last season in D.C., his record indicates middling success from long range. Stoudamire shot poorly last season, but his record indicates strong aptitude for the longball. S.A. has made a brilliant hedge here: if Mason can't shoot appropriately well, and Pop needs some bench firepower for the guard position -- Bonner and Udoka aren't guards -- there is an option. He may not quite become Barry for a New Age, but there's an opportunity to hit some big, big shots here. Great move for everyone involved.


* On further review, Bowen actually only turns 37. Finley turns 35.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded NBA Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

At just 20 years old, Lakers star Andrew Bynum is already one of most talented centers in the NBA, and he may even be a future Hall of Famer. But one of his close friends tells us that away from the court, "Drew" takes on another identity: that of being the biggest tech-nerd you can imagine. In this video we hang out at Maurice Evans' home, where Bynum's former Lakers teammate tells us all about his good friend. Mo also reveals why he will never play himself when he's playing an NBA video game.

Watch the behind-the-scenes video after the jump.

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

Once some measure of time passes, Atlanta will have looked like geniuses for the way in which it kept Josh Smith for a pittance. Of course, the situation looked nothing like cunning as it happened; more than anything, the consensus feeling is that Smith shouldn't have inked the $58 million contract offer from Memphis, because the Hawks would be stupid not to match. Any team would be stupid not to match.

That says something about Smith's game, that he is almost universally considered worth more than his five-year, $58 million contract. He's made his name as a shotblocker without peer, and as a dunker of unholy intention. He excels, in fact, at finishing and blocking that those two facets seems to overwhelm his otherwise complete game.