The national media has done a great job of finding excuses for the Boston Celtics, who are facing a Game 7 elimination Saturday night against a Philadelphia 76ers team that really has no business getting this deep into the playoffs. One of the excuses is that the Celtics are without starter Avery Bradley, who is a nice player but isn’t even one of the Big 4 that people talk about.

A source tells WEEI in Boston that Bradley actually underwent surgery on both of his shoulders on Friday and will begin four-month long rehab process that could take place this summer or he can wait until early fall or mid-late winter. It’s believed that he’ll start now.

This news means that Bradley will be questionable for tonight’s Game 7. He’ll most likely be a game-time decision.

Los Angeles Lakers big man Andrew Bynum is clearly one of the best centers in the NBA. He broke out this year in his seventh season with 18.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game. He also made the All-Star team for the first time in his career.

However, he isn’t sure what’s going to happen regarding his future with the Lakers. The team holds a $16.1 million team option that the team has to exercise by the end of June. He was asked about staying with the Lakers after his dismal Game 5 performance that led to elimination against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“I’m not sure,” Bynum said. “It really doesn’t matter to me. I’ll play anywhere. I think for the most part I had a pretty decent season and an OK postseason, so we’ll see.”

At least he didn’t turn into a complete a-hole this time and assault J.J. Barea during the loss like he did last year when their season was going down the toilet.

But, one would have to think that the Lakers will find a way to extend the 24-year old. Talented big men don’t grow on trees in the NBA.

“It’s going to depend on what the team wants to do,” Bynum said of an extension. “I would definitely want to be a Laker. It’s going to be up to the team.”

Philadelphia 76ers power forward Elton Brand will continue to start games versus the Boston Celtics. That’s what Doug Collins said after the team’s come-from-behind Game 4 win. Brand has been completely ineffective and has been pulled early in games.

He’s averaging just 4.7 points and three rebounds per game in just 16 minutes.

Despite his awful numbers, Collins says that he’s the guy to start.

“I just think [Brand] deserves to start,” Collins said. “He’s one of our proudest players. I admire him and respect him to the ultimate. I’m not going to come in here, in a game like [Friday], and not have him in our starting lineup. I’m just not going to do that. I have too much respect for this game, for him, and what he’s done for our team, and what he’s done for this organization.”

Brand has been dealing with a sore neck that he picked up in the first round against the Chicago Bulls.

“I think his neck is bothering him more than he wants to say,” Collins said. “I’ll say that. Watching him in shootaround [Friday], and it’s hard for him to turn his neck.”

You keep starting him, we’ll keep looking for the quick hook.

It’s never easy when you get hurt and can’t help your team, especially during the playoffs. But, it must hurt that much more when your injury was self inflicted and the result of acting like an idiot.

Yep, we’re talking about New York Knicks big man Amar’e Stoudemire. You probably heard that Monday night after another loss to the Miami Heat, he decided to punch a fire extinguisher outside of the locker room. He cut his hand up pretty good, and according to Al Iannazzone from Newsday, he’ll miss Game 3 and most likely the rest of the series against the Heat (let’s be honest, he’s done for the year).

“Amare is seeing a hand specialist right now. He won’t play in Game 3 and a return this series is doubtful,” Iannazzone tweets.

Well done, Amar’e. The good news is that the Knicks seem to play better without him.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Jordan Hill is in a bit of trouble. It would seem that he’s being charged with third-degree felony assault stemming from a February 29th incident when he was still with the Houston Rockets.

He allegedly choked out a family member.

Yikes.

Hill is facing a $10,000 fine and 2-10 years in prison (won’t happen) and will need to return to Houston to face the charges.

The Lakers have released a statement.

“We are aware of the media reports alleging an incident involving Jordan Hill from two months ago when he was a member of the Houston Rockets,” the statement read. “We do not have any details regarding these reports and therefore, as well as due to the personal and legal aspects, it would not be appropriate for us to comment. Any further inquiries regarding this should be directed to Jordan’s representative.”

Stay tuned.

The Golden State Warriors have been a bit stumped all season by the continuing setbacks that Stephen Curry has had with his ankle. Well, now they might truly find out what has been going on.

According to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, Curry plans to have surgery on the troublesome ankle on Wednesday.

“Warriors @StephenCurry30 will have ankle surgery Wednesday in Van Nuys, CA. Timetable for return to be named after surgery,” Spears tweets.

Photo Caption: Curry’s “raise the roof” defense was a failure for most of the strike-shortened season.

They are calling it “exploratory” for right now, but they’ll know more after they go dig in there. This is big news as the Warriors continue to make their playoff push. They are 17 games back in the division with four games to play, so they’ll need Curry at full strength as soon as possible.

Without Curry, the Warriors have little change of making a deep run this season.

As it is now, most of Philadelphia is tired of Andre Iguodala’s nonsense on the court. He’s paid more than $13 million per year, is a poor jump shooter and makes terrible decisions on a nightly basis. Yes, he’s a phenomenal on-the-ball defender, but after that he’s just a guy with great athleticism and poor basketball instincts.

So, the last thing Sixers fans want to hear now (as their season spirals out of control), is internal bickering or guys calling one another out.

And that’s what Iggie is doing. In a Sports Illustrated piece scheduled for April 9th, Iguodala starts to talk about how he doesn’t understand how great scorers aren’t always great defenders. And then he goes one step too far, and calls out his teammate Lou Williams.

“I learned from being a go-to guy what I didn’t like,” Iguodala says. “Coaches tell you, ‘Get to the hole. Don’t settle for jump shots.’ So when I guard somebody, I want them to settle for jumpers—outside the paint but inside the three-point line—and then use my length to contest late.” Iguodala memorizes where opponents hold the ball before they raise it up. Bryant is the toughest to strip because he cradles the ball by his hip; Lakers forward Metta World Peace might appear to be the easiest, because he puts it in front of his body, but he is trying to draw cheap fouls. “It makes no sense to me why so many good scorers can’t defend,” Iguodala says. “Like Lou Williams. He’s one of the toughest guys to guard in the league, but he can’t guard anybody. I don’t get that.”

Thanks, Iggie! That’s exactly what this team needs right now. Call out your teammate. Brilliant. I don’t know if those guys are best buds and it’s not a big deal, but on the surface it looks like extremely poor decision making.

It’s like his on-court game translated to a media interview.

While I don’t hate many athletes, I admit that something about Chicago Bulls big man Joakim Noah bugs the hell out of me. Is it because he has no offensive skills? Looks like an ugly teenage girl? All of the above?

Sure.

Well, Noah acted like a horse’s behind on Saturday night when he threw the ball at the referee, and he got ejected from the game for it. Was it a bit of a late call? Of course it was. Do you throw the ball at the ref in disgust as a reaction to said late call? Of course you don’t.

Noah probably isn’t facing any suspension time, nor should he. He did something dumb and was ejected for it. Case closed.

What do you think? Check out the video below:

We’ve been covering a lot of NFL activity today (and rightfully so), but the NBA has some stuff going on too. Specifically, a somewhat blockbuster between the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks.

Sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that the trade involves Monta Ellis, Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson.

“Milwaukee and G-State are near deal to send Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson for Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown, sources tell Y!,” he tweets.

The only person who could have made it bigger was Dwight Howard, but sources say that’s not possible because he doesn’t play for either of these teams.

Jackson returns to Golden State where he would have been reunited with Monta Ellis, if Ellis wasn’t included in the deal himself.

Keep a close eye on both of these teams now, as neither have a chance to win anything this year. However, it should shoot attendance into the thousands for both teams.

Ricky Rubio has been off to a very nice start for the Minnesota Timberwolves, after initially being a pain in the ass to get out of Spain. He’s averaging just over 10 points and eight assists and has shown some of the flash that we saw in Europe.

But, the fine times might have to go on hold. Rubio has a knee injury and a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that it could be serious.

“Possible ACL,” the source said. “We’ll know more after the MRI. … There’s a lot of worry right now.”

Rubio collapsed in a heap towards the end of the Wolves’ game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night. It’s a shame because a torn ACL would obviously mean the end of his season and probably the end of the T-Wolves’ season too.

Josh Smith is having a very nice season for the Atlanta Hawks. He’s averaging just over 17 points per game and just under 10 boards. He’s a solid double-double guy if that second stat was in the double digits. Or, if you counted the .8 in 9.8 RPG as a second number. That would make it a double-double too. So, you have options.

But, anyway, apparently he doesn’t want to continue having a nice season for the Hawks. Sources tell the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that Smith wants to be traded to a new team by the March 15th deadline.

He reportedly “believes he needs a fresh start with a franchise where he can better reach his potential on and off the court.”

Smith wanted a trade after last season because of, what he felt like, was unfair criticism by the coaches and media. So yeah, the Atlanta media is just too intense so you’d rather go to Philly, New York or Los Angeles where you can fly under the radar? Okay.

But, while he seemed to let a lot of that go, he’s now upset that the Hawks didn’t do enough to promote him for the All Star game, and that lesser players got in ahead of him. He also supposedly wants to play for a team that is committed to winning a championship. Can’t fault him there.

He’s under contract through 2012-13, so it’s going to be tough to see a deal happening. Only if that new team feels like they can sign him to an extension. Either that or the Hawks would have to take a bag of peanuts in return for him, and I don’t necessarily see that happening.

The NBA All-Star Game is just like other all-star games. It sucks. The competition is poor and no one really seems to care. It’s pretty much an alley hoop/three-point/dunk show. It can be mildly entertaining at times, but at the end of the day, who cares? Everyone is just allowed to waltz through the lane and show off their dunking ability.

That is, until Dwyane Wade put a stop to it. Kobe Bryant drove the lane in the second half on his way to an easy dunk. But, Wade wasn’t having any of it. He smacked down on Kobe’s arms and gave him a hard foul to send him to the line.

He clearly clipped Kobe’s nose because it started bleeding and he needed to get it treated by the physician or bloody nose guy or whatever.

Well now we find out that not only did Kobe get a broken nose, but he also sustained a mild concussion.

Yikes.

He was cleared to fly home, so that’s good news for Lakers fans. But, he’ll still have to pass NBA concussion tests before he can return to the floor.

For what it’s worth, Wade didn’t say anything to him. He didn’t even ask if he was okay while they were out on the floor. It was a late-80′s Detroit Pistons foul and Wade was unapologetic.

LeBron James of the Miami Heat certainly has tons of fans. He also has butt tons of haters, people who will lambaste him no matter what he does. He’s kind of the Barack Obama of the NBA.

But, one of the fairer criticisms of James was during the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks last year. When it came to crunch time, LeBron couldn’t wait to pass the ball off, never seeming to want to take a big shot. That’s a big problem for someone who is supposed to be a superstar.

So, for those wanting more evidence to hate on him in that same vein, they got it Sunday night. Down two points with the clock winding down, LeBron passed up a chance to take the final shot not once, but twice. Here it is:

It is absolutely bizarre. The guy can do everything. He’s one of the most talented players to ever play in the NBA. He can hit just about any shot on the court, and if it’s not there, he can create it. So, why the aversion to shooting late in the game?

Let’s also be clear here that this is an All-Star Game, and who cares about those? They are meaningless and pointless. I watched about 20 minutes of it last night, and that’s because there was absolutely nothing else on television or my DVR that I cared about. But, shouldn’t that make his unwillingness to shoot the ball with the clock running out even more egregious? It’s a game that doesn’t even count and he still won’t take the shot.

I’ll be curious to see if this becomes an issue in the playoffs again this season.

When we last saw do-it-all big man Rasheed Wallace, it was Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals. He retired after that game and agreed on a buyout with the Boston Celtics on the final two years of his contract.

Now, CSNNE.com has learned from league sources that Wallace is set to return to the league. Specifically, they are told that he is going to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers. Andrew Bynum has a creaky knee and they say he’s fine, but is he really? Could this be a little extra insurance in case that knee gives him some issues?

The Lakers only have 14 men on their roster right now, so adding Sheed wouldn’t require them to apply the hatchet to another player. That’s great news for Derek Fisher (I’m kidding, Derek…sort of).

Actually, this move will strengthen the notion that the Lakers are trying to move Pau Gasol. But, one front-office executive tells CSNNE.com not to buy into all of that. He says this is purely a move for depth.

“His days as a starter in this league are gone,” said the source. “I think he knows that, and so do the Lakers. But think about it. Of the big men that are available, is there one that’s really better? And if he’s gotten himself in shape, adding him becomes a huge get for them.”

We agree. And we aren’t sure why the Philadelphia 76ers didn’t get involved with Sheed either. They are playing f’ing Lavoy Allen and Tony Battie these days.

Well this isn’t good. The New York Knicks are 10-15 and have look like complete dog crap at times this season. And now, things are getting even worse.

Howard Beck of the New York Times says that the Knicks will be without their superstar, Carmelo Anthony, for more than a week due to his strained groin.

“Knicks say Carmelo will be out for 1-2 weeks because of strained right groin. No other tests scheduled,” Beck tweets.

They are only in third place in the division, but they’re eight games back. So, as it is it wasn’t looking like they were making the playoffs. Now, they have to try to gain ground without their best player. Good luck with that.

And if you play fantasy basketball, it’s probably time for you to go on a date soon.

You may or may not have heard about the little incident involving Minnesota Timberwolves big man Kevin Love. On Saturday, Love took umbrage with Luis Scola of the Houston Rockets being on the floor.

So, he decided to stomp on him as they ran back up the floor and the NBA certainly took notice. Love has been suspended for two games without pay, even though he contends that it was an accident.

Yeah right.

Love will be able to come back to play against the Mavericks on Friday night, but will miss the Grizzlies and Kings. Expect Derrick Williams and Michael Beasley to pick up more minutes.

Normally, it’s not a big deal for the Philadelphia 76ers to hear that Spencer Hawes is dealing with some sort of injury. He’s been a marginal player in the past so who really cares?

But, this year has been different. Hawes has been playing very well at center for the 10-3 Sixers and because of their lack of big men, they really need him. He missed some time recently with back issues, but now, according to Sixers PR guy Mike Preston, he’s also dealing with Achilles problems.

“Coach Collins tells media that Evan Turner didn’t participate walking through plays today, Spencer Hawes now dealing w/ left Achilles strain,” Preston tweets.

Hawes is averaging 10.4 ppg and 8.8 rpg, so they can’t afford to have him out for too long. The Sixers next game is against the Nuggets on Wednesday.

One of the big reasons that I can’t stand Andre Iguodala is the fact that he plays so much. He’s being paid way too much and the Philadelphia 76ers think he’s an important part of their team. He’s not, he ruins everything.

But, there is another guy I want the hell off my basketball team and that’s Marreese Speights. The one saving grace that he has over Iguodala is that he never plays. I don’t even think they assigned him an authentic jersey. He’s soft, gutless and oft-injured. Yay.

Well, worry about Speights taking up valuable bench space no more, because he’s been shipped to the Memphis Grizzlies in a three-way deal that also sends guard Xavier Henry to the New Orleans Hornets. The Sixers will get a medium-sized package of assorted Kuerig cups couple second-round picks at some point.

Speights might actually be pressed into action quickly in Memphis. The knee injury to Zach Randolph that everyone was hoping wasn’t that big of a deal? Yeah he’s going to miss up to eight weeks with a torn ligament. And Darrell Arthur is already out for the year following his Achilles injury.

Have fun with Marreese, Memphis!

You may remember the end of last year’s Dallas Mavericks/Los Angeles Lakers playoff series. The Mavs were thoroughly embarrassing the Lakers, already up three games to none and absolutely pounding them in Game 4. So, Lakers big man Andrew Bynum decided that if his team was going to lose, he was going to go out like a thuggish punk.

J.J. Barea drove the lane for the Mavericks and Bynum committed the closest thing to assault as possible during play on a basketball court. It’s here if you don’t remember:

That move got him ejected and earned him a five-game suspension to start the 2011-12 season.

Today, the NBA announced that it has reduced the suspension to four games. Why? Because of the lockout-shortened season. Notice, they didn’t say because what he did wasn’t that bad. No, it’s because of the shortened season.

We’d still have given him the five games because that kind of behavior isn’t tolerable on the court. Punk. We just got pissed off all over again after watching that.

The New Jersey Nets are off to another rip-roaring season, and the season hasn’t even started yet! Not only are they still the Nets, but they just lost their starting center for the foreseeable future.

According to Colin Stephenson of the Newark Star-Ledger, Brook Lopez has a stress fracture in his foot.

“Brook Lopez has a broken bone in his right foot and will have surgery tomorrow,” Stephenson tweets.

The fracture is in the fifth metatarsal and doesn’t sound like much fun. Lopez’ timetable for return is not known at this point.

So, who knows how long it will be before he can get back to the court and start being soft down low again.

And if you play fantasy basketball, it’s time to start looking for new ways to have a social life.

This is just more bad news for the Los Angeles Lakers. Their trade for Chris Paul was vetoed by the commissioner. Then they shipped Lamar Odom out of town and that irritated Kobe Bryant. Then Kobe’s wife filed for divorce (did David Stern step in to block that too?), creating further turmoil for the megastar.

Now, there are more problems for Kobe. Howard Beck of the New York Times says that Kobe has a torn ligament in his shooting wrist.

Photo Caption: Caron Butler absolutely hates playing basketball.

“Kobe Bryant has a torn lunotriquetral ligament in right wrist, according to Lakers. He’ll miss tonight’s Lakers-Clippers preseseason game,” Beck tweets.

This isn’t good. Right now we’re hearing that he’s planning on playing in Sunday’s season opener, but that doesn’t mean he’ll play well. And who knows if it eventually bothers him to the point where he has to shut it down and rest?

A bigger problem is that Kobe is 33-years old and could be piling up nagging injuries. He’s already been dealing with an irreversible knee injury and now he’s got problems with his shooting hand.

Could be a rough year for the Lakeshow. Is this the year the Clippers finally capture L.A.?

Probably not…they’re still the Clippers.

It will be a slightly less happy holiday for Monta Ellis and his Golden State Warriors. Erika Ross Smith filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing Ellis and the Warriors of sexual harassment.

She claims that starting in November 2010 Ellis started texting her several times a day. He would make unwanted advances and – lucky for her – even sent pictures of his genitals.

Great idea! That works ALL THE TIME! Chicks love that stuff! You should make cat calls out of your car too! Then you’ll have twice as many broads at your house!

Seriously, has it really come to this for the Warriors? “I play for the Warriors” doesn’t work any more? That’s really all it should take.

So anyway, when she complained to Warriors management about the inappropriate texts from Ellis, her job title was changed and she was eventually fired.

The Associated Press explains more details about the lawsuit.

The messages included lines such as, “I want to be with you,” and “Hey Sexy,” and proposed sexual encounters, according to the lawsuit.

“On a micro level, my client has endured unwanted harassment, has suffered and continues to suffer emotional distress and trauma,” Smith’s attorney, Burton Boltuch, said at a news conference. “On a macro level, this type of conduct, especially in the sports world, must stop.”

Boltuch said his client rejected Ellis’ advances. Boltuch also showed a photo of what he said was Ellis’ genitalia that the guard allegedly sent to Smith’s cellphone.

We just want to know what the reaction was when Boltuch showed the picture of Monta’s junk. Did people put their hand over their mouth in exasperation and say, “oh my!”? Let’s pretend they did.

Remember when the Los Angeles Lakers traded for New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul? It was a three-team deal that also sent Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol packing. Great deal for everyone, right?

Wrong. The NBA, which owns the New Orleans Hornets (that makes sense, right?), stepped in and vetoed the deal. Just about everyone associated with sports thought it was completely ridiculous. And it was.

So, imagine the ire of the Lakers when they see that CP3 was indeed traded to Los Angeles…but to the Clippers.

And a source tells the Los Angeles Times that the Lakers are absolutely “fuming” over the whole situation, despite the fact that GM Mitch Kupchak hasn’t said much publicly.

“We did the best we can to express our displeasure,” Kupchak said Monday.

We don’t blame the Lakers one bit. This whole thing stinks to high heaven. The NBA needs to find a proper owner for the Hornets pronto and stop acting like that a-hole in your fantasy football league that vetoes trades regardless of whether they are fair or not.

In a move that would surely violate the NBA’s tampering rules, the New Jersey Nets met with Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard in Miami, according to sources. ESPN’s Chris Broussard says that multiple sources told him that the meeting did indeed take place, despite the expected denials from Howard.

“There was no meeting,” Howard said in a Friday afternoon phone call.

Since the Magic didn’t know about the meeting or give Howard permission for the meeting (if it happened, and we tend to think it did), this would violate NBA tampering policy.

Photo Caption: Howard seen here with someone who isn’t Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov. But, if it was Prokhorov, this would be visual evidence that a meeting took place.

But, Howard said it didn’t happen so he can’t possibly be lying.

“Right now,” he said, “my plan is to show up to training camp for the Orlando Magic.”

Uh huh.

The meeting was obviously about a way to get the Magic to trade him to New Jersey. Why he would want to leave Florida and play in the swamplands of New Jersey is anyone’s guess.

We’ll see what happens, but we aren’t buying that there was no meeting at all.

Yesterday, we mentioned that New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul (who Michael Perry scouted at a 76ers game once) wouldn’t sign an extension with the Boston Celtics, thus making a trade unlikely. Well, now we know why.

CP3 wants to play for the New York Knicks and his agent has informed the Hornets of exactly that, according to sources of Yahoo! Sports.

Photo Caption: Chris Paul isn’t related to Ron Paul, but here he points out that while he isn’t suggesting the United States take on Somalia’s model of less government, he would like to see less government programs in our society.

The problem is that the Knicks don’t seem to have the ammunition required to pry Paul loose. So, a third team would almost have to get involved. And, if Paul opts out of his contract after this season, he could earn a contract of four years, $74 million with another team. The Knicks would only be able to offer a four-year, $55.5 million contract. That’s kind of a big difference, Paul would have to be willing to take a huge pay cut.

But, if Paul were to make it to the Knicks somehow, that would give them CP3, Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. Would you rather have those Big 3 or Miami’s Big 3?

There’s been a lot of talk – maybe too much talk – about the possibility of New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul heading to the Boston Celtics in a trade that would include Rajon Rondo. A blockbuster indeed, but according to Chris Broussard of ESPN, you might want to quell the chatter.

A source tells him that Paul has no interest in signing an extension in Boston because it’s too cold and there are too many “micks.” Okay, I completely made up that last part. He didn’t say why he wouldn’t sign.

Photo Caption: No relation to Ron Paul, although there are whispers from several teammates that Chris would prefer smaller government.

“Let all the CP3-to-Boston chatter cease. CP will not sign long-term ext with Celtics, according to source close to situation,” Broussard tweets.

That would pretty much kill any chance of that deal happening. No one is going to make a pre-season blockbuster deal for players that are just going to bounce after a year or two.

You may remember that OTR‘s own Michael Perry actually scouted Paul. Two years ago, he went to a Hornets/Sixers game and called me afterwards. I asked what he thought about Paul’s game, and Perry reported that “he’s good.”

Several people took shots at Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com when he tweeted recently that Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans is out of shape. Specifically, he talked about his weight, hinting that he didn’t exactly share any Thanksgiving stuffing with the rest of the family.

“Sacramento Kings fans wouldn’t be very happy with the shape Tyreke Evans is in if the season started today. At least 20 pounds overweight,” he tweeted.

Well, some people didn’t like that. But, now CowbellKingdom.com writes that they would tend to agree, that Tyreke indeed looks like he got a little lazy during the lockout.

Questions arose on Friday about Evans’ weight when Jonathan Givony of Draft Express tweeted that Evans appeared to be at least 20 pounds bigger. From what I saw, he looked bulkier, heavier with less defined muscle tone. But overweight? I can’t say exactly. We’d need a check of his body fat to make a fair assessment.

Well, he’s got until Christmas to get in shape. There is still time. Lazy bitch.

As you may or may not have noticed, there hasn’t been professional basketball here in North America for quite some time. It’s okay if you didn’t realize it, most people didn’t. But yes, there is an NBA lockout.

But, it looks like it will end as there seems to be an agreement that will allow the teams to play a 66-game schedule that starts on Christmas Day.

“We expect our labor relations committee to endorse this deal, this tentative agreement, and we expect our Board of Governors, at a meeting we will call after that, to endorse the deal,” commissioner David Stern said Saturday news conference. “And we expect that a collective bargaining agreement will arise out of this deal as well.”

Billy Hunter, the executive director of the NBA Players Union, thinks that this will all get resolved in a few days.

“I think it was the ability of the parties to decide it was necessary to compromise and to try to put this thing back together some kind of way and to be able to put an end to the litigation and everything it entails,” Hunter said. “And we just thought that rather than try to pursue this in court, it was in both of our interests to try to reach a resolution.”

So…yay. Basketball is back.

Earlier this week, the 76ers’ new ownership group Apollo Global Management, headed by Joshua Harris, David Blitzer, Will Smith, and Carlton, decided enough was enough with their roided-up rabbit of a mascot.  Its a decision that has already caused massive internet waves throughout the 76ers communities.

Massive internet waves?  Yes, and the biggest question is what should the next 76ers mascot be?  Currently, the task of coming up with Hip Hop’s successor is on the shoulders of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop (the Muppets) and Raymond Entertainment Group (the Phillie Phanatic).

PHOTO CAPTION:  Hip Hop was known for his blue flip flops

But what about the fans?  The dedicated souls who can be seen at the Wells Fargo Center sitting next to all those empty seats.  Can’t they have a say?  They were the ones who had to put up with watching a bunny for nearly ten years.  And mind you, this bunny couldn’t jump unless he had assistance from a trampoline.  So, technically it was handicapped bunny.

I say, yes, the fans should have a say, so I reached out to all fifty fans and gathered some ideas for the 76ers, just in case the brilliant minds of the two hired firms couldn’t come up with anything.

Brickman:  A big foam brick who comes out during the breaks to propel himself (via cannon or trampoline) at the basketball hoop, only to either slam against the backboard and/or rim.

Turnover:  A big foam apple turnover dessert who comes out during breaks to show off his impressive dribbling/passing skills, only to either dribble off his foot or lose control of the basketball and then throw it into the crowd as a souvenir.

Side note:  Turnover will always be wearing an Andre Iguodala jersey.  Needless to say, so will Brickman.  But only because Andre’s the captain and not for any identifying reasons.

Seats:  A big, empty folding chair who comes out during breaks to give away free tickets.  One lucky fan will be able to sit on Seats during the 4th quarter if he is the only one sitting in the section that is called.

Rimmie:  A big, iron rim who comes out during breaks attempting to have a big inflatable ball, which falls from the rafters, land inside his rim head for two points.  Many inflatable balls fall, but every single one hits the side of the rim to the sound of a “clang” over the arena’s speakers.

Side note:  Brickman and Rimmie sometimes come on the court together and continuously run into each other.  This doesn’t symbolize anything, its just good fun and the kids love it.

Big Shot:  Bring back the mascot who entertained the courts before Hip Hop; however, this time Big Shot brings his wife Missy Big Shot.  Guess which one of them more accurately depicts the past few Sixers seasons?

Any other ideas?

Phoenix Suns restricted free agent Aaron Brooks has now signed with another team. The Suns probably don’t care too much, however, because that team is in China.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, he has signed a deal with Guangdong in the country of the currency manipulators.

“Phoenix restricted free agent Aaron Brooks has reached agreement on a deal with Guangdong in China, sources tell Y! Sports,” Wojo tweets.

Photo Caption: Frustrated by U.S. zone defenses, Brooks takes his ball and goes to China.

Brooks can’t return to the NBA until the Chinese season runs out, but who really cares? The players dissolved the union just like the NFLPA did and are planning on filing an anti-trust lawsuit, also just like the NFLPA did.

It’s getting ugly for the NBA and no one really cares.

Getting back to the original story, it’s not known at this time if Brooks really is planning on playing in China, or if this is an elaborate ruse by the United States to poke China in the eye by actually sending over former New Orleans Saints QB Aaron Brooks.