NBA Blog

Well, we are less than two days into the free agent moratorium, and several players have already netted themselves some nice pocket change. 

• Jason Kapono turned one stellar free agent season into a hefty payday.  It is rumored that Kapono will ink a 4 year, $24 million deal after the moratorium is lifted.  I guess that means that Morris Peterson (and his penicillin) will be playing elsewhere next season.
• Luke Walton will remain a Laker for an estimated $30 million
• Fabulous Oberto will continue to wear black and silver, but the length of his new deal has not been disclosed.

Hey, I did not say that it was exciting stuff yet, this is only the beginning.  However, in the next few days, you can expect to see Chauncey Billups, Mo Williams, and Vince Carter all agree to deals with their current teams.  Also, continue to scour the newswire, because I expect Kevin Garnett to be a Warrior by the end of the week.  I think Minnesota will cave for Patrick O’Bryant instead of Andris Biedrins, as long as the other pieces are still included in the deal.  Jermaine O’Neal will probably be moving to New Jersey as well.  If the Nets can get O’Neal and be able to unload the soon-to-be always injured Richard Jefferson and Nenad Kristic’s surgically repaired knee, that would be a steal.  O’Neal will be able to anchor that defense and contribute offensively when Vince Carter starts hoisting 27-footers to avoid any contact. 

In other news, Barry Bonds will get the opportunity to start for the National League in the upcoming All Star Game in San Francisco.  I personally am glad to hear this news.  Black cloud or not, Barry Bonds will soon be the all-time homerun record holder.  Sure, he did it in an era where steroids were more important to baseball players than hard cups were, but at this point, I really don’t care.  There are far too many players that I honestly believe took steroids, yet were never tested or found positive.  At this point, I’m acting under the impression that all players during this era took steroids, or none of them did.  Unfortunately, ‘Quantum Leap’ was cancelled a long time ago, so we won’t get Scott Bakula to go back in time to find out which guys took steroids. 

I will just rattle off some names of players (off the top of my head) that I think took steroids.  **Be warned, I have no way of verifying this information.  This is just one man’s ignorant opinion based on chin size, and I spent no more than 7 minutes thinking of names.**

• Barry Bonds
• Jason Giambi
• Jeremy Giambi
• Juan Gonzalez
• Ivan Rodriguez
• Mark McGwire
• Roger Clemens
• Eric Gagne
• Miguel Tejada
• Rafael Palmiero
• Ken Caminetti
• Dean Palmer
• Darren Daulton
• Dave Hollins
• Bud Selig (just checking to see if you were paying attention)
• Albert Belle
• Jason Grimsley
• Guillermo Mota
• J.C. Romero
• Armando Benitez
• Jared Wright, and
• Chris Berman

Boomer Berman had to take steroids, nobody has ballooned like Boomer over the past few years (try 15 years) yet continues to deliver material like it was his first day in the office in 1979.  You cannot keep that pace.  Even Beeno Cook faltered.  I would have also included Keith Jackson, but he was never associated with baseball, and was basically the same size for thirty years.