1) Washington Wizards- John Wall/PG/Kentucky
Seems to be pretty much the consensus so who am I to argue with the masses….

2) Philadelphia 76ers- Evan Turner/SG/Ohio State
Alot of silly trade talk here but they will be just fine with Turner OR Cousins….they should feel extremely lucky to have this pick….

3) New Jersey Nets- Demarcus Cousins/C/Kentucky
If they pass on Cousins and take Favors they should report to the nearest bridge and jump off but it looks like they might….

4) Minnesota Timberwolves- Derrick Favors/PF/Georgia Tech
Kevin Love is one of the hottest names on the trade block so this is the perfect fit….

5) Sacramento Kings- Wes Johnson/SF/Syracuse
He may not slip this far but could be highly overhyped….

6) Golden State Warriors- Al Farouq Aminu/SF/Wake Forest
Fits the Nelly’s prototype wing player perfectly….another tailor made pick….

7) Detroit Pistons- Cole Aldrich/C/Kansas
This pick would seem to be between Aldrich and Monroe but they are more in need of a center than another 4 man…..

Los Angeles Clippers- Epke Udoh/PF/Baylor
There is no evidence to support this pick except that Udoh is the draft’s hottest name so he will likely rise from the mid-first where he is projected now….

9) Utah Jazz- Greg Monroe/PF/Georgetown
Jerry Sloan proceeds to dance a jig in the town square of Salt Lake City…

10) Indiana Pacers- Ed Davis/PF/North Carolina
The Pacers’ refusal to take anyone with even minor character questions really handcuffs them….this isn’t the first time its happened….

11) New Orleans Hornets- Xavier Henry/SG/Kansas
My super sleeper in the top of the draft….Chris Paul will finally have someone dependable to kick to on the wing…..

12) Memphis Grizzlies- Hassaan Whiteside/C/Marshall
Hoping that either he or Thabeet cash in on their full potential….super bonus for them if they both do…..

13) Toronto Raptors- Patrick Patterson/PF/Kentucky
In need of a replacement for Chris Bosh….this is their concession that they won’t even try to get him back…..

14) Houston Rockets- James Anderson/SG/Oklahoma State
Shooting guard as well as scoring are needs for the Rockets so this works….

15) Milwaukee Bucks- Dontas Motiejunas/SF/Lithuania
Outstanding value as Dontas would be the draft’s biggest slip if he falls from the lottery….Milwaukee also always has eyes for the Euro combo forward….

16) Minnesota Timberwolves- Avery Bradley/SG/Texas
Talk about hooking some potential oozing from their ears….Favors and Bradley could have 2 of the draft’s highest upsides….

17) Chicago Bulls- Daniel Orton/C/Kentucky
Taking a flyer here on the Bulls’ reported interest in Calipari….this would officially start the last stage of LebronMania….

18) Miami Heat- Luke Babbitt/SF/Nevada
The Heat need major help on the wing whether Dwyane Wade stays or not…..

19) Boston Celtics- Gordon Hayward/SF/Butler
Still looking for the next Larry Bird 30 years later I give you the Boston Celtics….but this pick makes sense too as they try to find eventual replacements for their aging stars….

20) San Antonio Spurs- Elliot Williams/SG/Memphis
His good character and similarity to Manu makes him a good fit here….

21) Oklahoma City Thunder- Solomon Alabi/C/Florida State
It has been said that all OKC needs is a presence inside….well here it is congratulations members of the Thunder bandwagon….

22) Portland Trail Blazers- Larry Sanders/PF/VCU
Looking for triple stampsies on their inside post man insurance….

23) Minnesota Timberwolves- Damion James/PF/Texas
The Timberwolves now look at strictly combo forwards with all 354 of their remaining picks…..

24) Atlanta Hawks- Willie Warren/SG/Oklahoma
A big part of this year’s draft is going to be teams insuring huge parts of their team that could potentially leave via free agency….Defense Exhibit A….

25) Memphis Grizzlies- Devin Ebanks/SF/West Virginia
Defense Exhibit B as Rudy Gay is possibly gone from the Grizz….

26) Oklahoma City Thunder- Gani Lawal/PF/Georgia Tech
Keep bringing the beef to the cattle ranch in Oklahoma City……

27) New Jersey Nets- Alexsey Shved/SG/Russia
It is also hard to believe that teams with their head’s in the clouds for a big name free agent won’t try to save some bread by drafting abroad if they aren’t sure……

28) Memphis Grizzlies- Eric Bledsoe/PG/Kentucky
Mike Conley is in the Memphis dog house and Bledsoe is one of the best PG’s out there….good value at this pick…..

29) Orlando Magic- Jarvis Varnado/C/Mississippi State
Outstanding backup for the often foul-strapped Dwight Howard…..

30) Washington Wizards- Nemanja Bjelica/SF/Serbia
This pick becomes a foreign player for sure if the Wizards somehow find a way unload Gilbert Arenas….They now have some free agent clout with the first pick now they just have to dump some garbage salary….

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Kind of an interesting bit of info came out recently — I think on SI.com — about the who the top 3 picks of the next NBA draft will be. The picks were John Wall, Wes Johnson and Evan Turner — with Wall probably being the top choice (something I’ve believed for a long time). But here’s the question I have: If you watched DeMarcus Cousins the last few times he’s been on TV, wouldn’t you be hard-pressed to maybe pull the trigger on him after Wall goes first?

The guys a monster offensively and he’s still learning how to play. His motor seems to be just fine. the thing that really stood out to me about his game against South Carolina was, even though Downey broke his ankles, and he got his shot blocked once, he was the one guy on Kentucky that made a big-time play down the stretch. He plays hard, or at least seems to everytime I watch him.

Now he allegedly popped a fan in South Carolina but hey, I told you he was nasty!

He’s 6′11″, 260 pounds and nasty. How many offensively truly gifted post players are there in the NBA right now? Shoot, how many gifted post players are there in college hoops?

I believe by the time the tournament is over Cousins will crack that top 3.

I always tell everyone my girlfriend is basketball. It is fitting henceforth that this year I get to express my love for my babe on Valentine’s Day when the best in the world are all in same place. The 2010 NBA All-Star Game is February 14 in La Casa de Jerry Jones and here is the NBE All-Star Teams selected by a special panel. All ties were broken by me since it is my big day with the old bird.

Please don’t mistake our list for that of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game as there is just one team with multiple representatives (Phoenix). That’s just the way it worked out though.

Eastern Conference

Starters

F Chris Bosh/Toronto Raptors
F Lebron James/Cleveland Cavaliers
C Dwight Howard/Orlando Magic
G Dwyane Wade/Miami Heat
G Joe Johnson/Atlanta Hawks

Reserves

F Antawn Jamison/Washington Wizards
F David Lee/New York Knicks
F Gerald Wallace/Charlotte Bobcats
C Joakim Noah/Chicago Bulls
C Roy Hibbert/Indiana Pacers
G Brandon Jennings/Milwaukee Bucks
G Rajon Rondo/Boston Celtics

Western Conference

Starters

F Dirk Nowitzki/Dallas Mavericks
F Carmelo Anthony/Denver Nuggets
C Amare Stoudemire/Phoenix Suns
G Kobe Bryant/Los Angeles Lakers
G Steve Nash/Phoenix Suns

Reserves

F Kevin Durant/Oklahoma City Thunder
F Tim Duncan/San Antonio Spurs
C Chris Kaman/Los Angeles Clippers
G Tyreke Evans/Sacramento Kings
G Chris Paul/New Orleans Hornets
G Brandon Roy/Portland Trail Blazers
G Deron Williams/Utah Jazz

Doug’s MVP- Kevin Durant

Slam Dunk Champion- Shannon Brown

3 Point Champion- Danillo Gallinari

Skills Competition Champion- Derrick Rose

Voting Panel

Doug Ferguson- Midwest Editor NBE Basketball Report and Lead Writer, NBE the Association

Paul Hayes- Fantasy Consultant, NBE the Association

Michael Lafreniere- Senior Scout, NBE the Association

Austin Richie- All-State point guard, Lowell (IN) HS

Zach Smart- Senior Writer, NBE the Association

Jared Todd- Writer, Illinoishsbasketball.com

Newt Younger- Contributor, NBE the Association

Is it really “nothing personal?”

Mike D’Antoni claims Nate Robinson’s permanent perch in the D’Antoni
Doghouse during a 14-game span in December was not personal. The
decision to ditch Robinson in the doghouse, to bury him on the bench
while players who’ve done considerably less for the organization ate up
all his minutes, was solely based on D’Antoni trying to refine,
regulate and unravel a winning formula in New York. D’Antoni was simply
going with what works, living by the old cliche “if it ain’t broke,
don’t fix it.”

It still seemed like Nate was being punished for a crime he never
committed. Robinson’s exile was akin some headcase high school player
who stopped going to class suddenly falling out of favor with a
discipline-demanding head coach. In this case, D’Antoni treated the
veteran like a kid with a dicey past who was lucky to get a second
chance.

Nate hadn’t smelt the hardwood since the very beginning of December. He
was relegated to a pure benchwarming role nobody envisioned for the
5-foot-8 sparkplug, waterbug, energy-bleeding guard.

It was at the beggining of last month when D’Antoni had an epiphany.
His self-actualization told him the Knicks without Nate are great.

D’Antoni felt it was time to put his ol’ country-fool foot down. He
chewed Nate out in New Jersey in an angered, redfaced mano y mano
encounter with the little go-go guard.

Robinson knowingly shot the ball on the wrong basket against the Nets,
albeit the shot came after the buzzer sounded. Nonetheless, it made
D’Antoni’s blood boil.

It was certainly a portent of things to come.

Whether it was personal or not (the Knicks’ record without Robinson in
the lineup would indicate they’re the better team without No.2 on the
floor, and D’Antoni seemed to buy into that notion big time), none of
that mattered leading into New Year’s Night.

Nate erupted with a mammoth 41-point slaying, an epic performance which
willed the Knicks to a 112-108 overtime win over Atlanta. He scorched
the nets at a whopping 18-for-24 clip, murking the Hawks from beyond
the arc in the first half and zig-zagging through traffic, threading
the Atlanta D in the second. It was as exhilarating a return
performance anyone could have asked for.

Robinson’s odds-defying performance against the Hawks also etched his
name in record book lure. The lil fella became the first player to come
off the bench and record 40 points and eight assists since “Pistol”
Pete Maravich in 1973.

D’Antoni, you made a mistake dude.

The grumpy game general finally realized it was time to rip the
straightcoat off Nate’s back and utilize the pint-sized, pugnacious
guard’s scoring gifts, along with his supreme spurtability.

Robinson had no idea he was going to play that night, though his
coach
indicated it through the New York media circus. Is that not a sign of
poor coach-toplayer communication? A coach tells the media but doesn’t
divulge aspects at the core of his gameplan to his own player? Let’s
not forget folks, this is the same Rhodes Scholar who spent a year
preaching his vaunted “seven seconds or less” transition game when it
turns out the Knicks are better in half-court sets.

Robinson even thought that D’Antoni, he of the thick southern drawl,
called “Dave” when he in reality he called “Nate” when ushering him
into the ball game. He was thrust into the action without a single hint
he would play. It the end, it didn’t matter.

Despite having not seen any burn in a month, the kid who’s spent his
summers hooping at West Fourth St. in New York City and Rumbrook Park
in Westchester County, N.Y., looked like he hadn’t missed a beat. No
rust evident.

The Knicks, after receiving a spark from Robinson on New Year’s Night,
may have turned a corner.

They beat, battered, blasted, bludgeoned and blew out a half-baked
Pacers team decimated by a spate of injuries, 132-89, last night.

Donnie Walsh would stick by D’Antoni’s decision to doghouse Nate prior
to unleashing him for New Year’s career night.

Nate is infused with a score-in-clusters, shoot until you miss,
heat-check style. He’s an instant energy guy, a high-motor guard who
engineers head-spinning runs and is ready to score the rock as soon as
he falls out of bed in the morning.

A kid who can light up the scoreboard and score buckets by the bundles
when he has the green light has no place pinned on the pine.

Now, yet another sideshow of the D’Antoni era has emerged. D’Antoni,
who was accused of lying to Stephon Marbury about his role with the
team and running him out of town (a move that few were objected to),
was recently ripped by Knicks guard Larry Hughes, who will likely get
his turn to embed bench splinters in his behind.

Hughes, similar to that high school kid who the confrontational coach
wants to make an example out of, was benched for the entire blowout of
the Pacers last night. He was the only Knick who did not suit up, even
with seldom-used rookies Jordan Hill and Marcus Landry playing a
combined 21 minutes. Hughes was outspoken about his unhappines.

Hughes said that D’Antoni’s method of benching Nate for him and then
abruptly switching it up and benching him for Nate was “not a good way
to play the season.”

“I mean, going back and forth. This is my second or third time now,
it’s getting old.”

At least this time D’Antoni, who screamed obscenities at fans who
chanted “put in Marbury!” during his first-ever game as the Knicks head
coach, isn’t benching the player due to a personal grudge.

#19
Name: Eric “Sleepy” Floyd
College: Georgetown
NBA Teams: New Jersey Nets (1982-83, 1994-95)
Golden State Warriors (1983-87)
Houston Rockets (1987-93)
San Antonio Spurs (1993-94)

Our second consecutive player who actually played in Big East Conference games is Georgetown point guard Eric “Sleepy” Floyd. Floyd broke the expectations of the New Jersey Nets by appearing on any “Greatest” list.

After a great career at Georgetown in which he was 15 seconds from a National Title before being Jordaned, the Nets chose Floyd 13th overall in the 1983 Draft. After a first half so bad John Daly could legitimately call it sub-par, they decided it would be cutting their losses to ship off to San Francisco. As a Golden State Warrior Floyd played well under the tutelage of head coach John Bach but achieved All-Star status in 1987 under new coach George Karl.

During this All-Star campaign in which Floyd was averaging a career high 21 points per game he was rewarded by the Warrior organization by being traded again. This time he was dealt to Houston in a somewhat mega-deal for the time in a trade that brought Ralph Sampson to Golden State. Neither player ever returned to the form of their earlier career. Floyd however was far less disappointing than Sampson though playing 5+ steady seasons for the Rockets.

Floyd finished out his career where he started in New Jersey where he made it longer than he did the first time by playing one FULL season. His NBA career was like his college career as he wasn’t suited for superstar life but was dependable as a sometimes 2nd but mostly 3rd option. Just as he came just short at Georgetown he never managed to pull off an NBA title but offered up solid play for over 10 years.

Career Accomplishments: 1987 NBA All-Star
12,260 career points (203rd all-time)
5,175 career assists (45th all-time)
1,120 career steals (91st all-time)

Voters

Doug Ferguson- Lead Writer NBE The Association and Midwest Editor NBE Basketball Report
Paul Hayes- Fantasy Analyst NBE The Association
Sean King- Contributer NBE The Association
Michael LaFreniere- Scout/Analyst NBE The Association
Ray Mernagh- Senior Columnist NBE Basketball Report and College Basketball Editor for the Pittsburgh Sports Report
Zach Smart- Contributor, NBE Basketball Report
Newt Younger- Historian/Consultant, NBE The Association

I have been very vocal about my opposition to coaches in all sports being put on the chopping block without at least three years to implement what they want to do. But its clear when a team blows a 35 point lead with about 18 minutes to go your plan will never work regardless of how long the coach has to put it in place.

I live in the Chicago and I will be the first to say that this decision has been a long time coming. If this was a one time thing for Vinny I would be completely on his side as I was when he had his timeout fiasco last season. Everyone makes mistakes. This is more than a mistake though. One has to ask themself “When do I know when a coach needs to go?”. Most of the time it is deeper than the common answer that one will hear. Not in this situation though. The answer is when their team gives up on them and there is no other explanation for what happened last night other than just that.

I am not claiming to be an NBA caliber coach but through coaching moves alone I could hold a lead that big with my reserves. Furthermore, getting beat by Ime Udoka no matter how much you are up is inexcusable.

AP File Photo

In truth I was only watching the Bulls/Kings game because I planned on doing a story about Tyreke Evans vs. Derrick Rose being a battle of the point guard of the future. Who knew I’d be watching a historical event. The Bulls have assistants on their staff (most notably Bernie Bickerstaff) who are very seasoned and prepared (more than Del Negro actually) to lead a young NBA team, at least for the rest of the year.

I’m having visions of a summer not too long ago when the Bulls heavily courted both Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill. Both loved Chicago but weren’t convinced that the Bulls were on the path to becoming a winner. The Bulls lucked out on that one but only through the sheer bad fortune of the players involved. I don’t think lightning will strike twice though. Heck, they even have a punchers chance of acquiring Lebron James for God’s sake. If they think any player in their right mind would want to play for Vinny Del Negro at this point they should be considered among the biggest laughing stocks in pro sports right along side their baseball neighbors the Chicago Cubs.

If this was a horse race we would be seeing who was setting the pace and as is commonplace in these times it is the Boston Celtics. God bless the Celtics for getting another championship and a well-deserved ring for Kevin Garnett, but I hope the Boston fans remember how bad they were a few years ago because those times aren’t that far from being a way of life again.

Anyways some teams have a brand new “my son made the Honor Roll in the NBA” and some are just hoping their parents forgot that its report card day so they can go to Suzie’s party tomorrow night. Here is a look at who gets twenty bucks and who is grounded from using the telephone.

First off we have to have a fun fair. However instead of choosing which teacher we want to see get dunked into the dunk tank, we will see what would the perfect dunk contest be. I’m tired of there being such an awesome thing like the NBA dunk contest their for us and we fill it with such second rate crap every year.

Lebron James
Shannon Brown
Josh Smith
Dwight Howard
Tyrus Thomas
Andre Igoudala

Now that is a real dunk contest!

Player Making the Professor (me) Look Like a Genious- Carmelo Anthony/Denver Nuggets
My favorite player in history was poised for a breakout season and he’s not disappointing. My MVP so far this year as he is leading the league in scoring.

Player Making the Professor Look Dumb- Derrick Rose/Chicago Bulls
My 2nd favorite player in history is having somewhat of a sophmore slump. Its important to note that the Bulls start slow every year because they play twice as many road games in the first half of the year. I’m still having dreams of sugar plums and Derrick Rose to Chris Bosh every night though.

Apple for the Teacher- Rick Adelman/Head Coach/Houston Rockets
Missing two bonafide superstars the Rockets are better than they were last year even. That’s not even counting that they lost Ron Artest. I don’t feel Adelman ever got enough credit for the coaching job he did in Sacramento. He had some good talent but not as much as the Lakers and they were a couple bounces here and there from knocking them off a couple times.

F in Anatomy- Greg Oden/C/Portland Trail Blazers
Something is just wrong with the poor guy’s body. I hope for all the best because he tries hard and he is a great guy but he may have to do it somewhere other than Portland.

Detention- New Jersey Nets Management
For firing the one of the best coaches nobody talks about Lawrence Frank. It is just another thing that makes Bob Knight kind of Godlike that he just groomed some kid that couldn’t play a lick and was just a little nerd like me into an outstanding coach. The bottom line is that I looked at plenty of box scores with 8 guys in it and they were missing Devin Harris just to name a few key guys. Lets combine that with trading the whole rest of what they could call a core away in the off-season and they shouldn’t be surprised they started 0-18. I don’t think Knight himself in all his greatness could have got a win with that team.

Note to parents that star athletes like Dwyane Wade and Lebron James will always get preferential treatment. Kobe too. Make sure you turn your Market Day forms in by Friday.

NBA.com photo

#20
Name: Otis Thorpe
College: Providence
NBA Teams: Kansas City Kings (1984-85)
Sacramento Kings (1985-88, 1997-98)
Houston Rockets (1988-95)
Portland Trail Blazers (1995)
Detroit Pistons (1995-97)
Vancouver Grizzlies (1997)
Washington Wizards (1998-99)
Miami Heat (1999-2000)
Charlotte Hornets (2000-01)

We can now finally get to a player who was neither played for the Chicago Bulls nor laced them up for the Fighting Irish. Otis Thorpe on the other hand played his college ball in the smallest state in the union at our favorite little catholic school, Providence College. Thorpe is one of the few players in NBA history that can be considered a true journeyman as well as having his face recognized distinctly with a particular franchise.

Thorpe played for eight teams in his 16 seasons in the NBA, most recognizably though were his six as a Houston Rocket. After being drafted 9th overall by the Kansas City Kings in 1984 he played one season in Kansas City and three more for the franchise after they moved to the capital of California. He then moved on to Houston where he proceeded to personify toughness in the NBA. He was an All-Star reserve in 1992 mainly based upon the respect he had among players and coaches as there were many who had more deserving stats. This is something that isn’t seen too often in today’s NBA which is driven by who has the most eye-popping stats and hair-raising dunks.

Thorpe was the muscle behind the most talented defensive frontcourt in NBA History in playing for the championship 1994 Houston Rockets. In his aging days in the association, his had such a winning reputation that he was used as the bait in some of the most notoriously one-sided ripoffs in the history of trades. Teams thought so much of him that they let it happen 3 times and if he wouldn’t have retired, teams probably would’ve came back for more.

After winning the NBA title in 1994 Thorpe was traded the following season at the deadline to Portland for Clyde Drexler along with some other inconsequential pieces (no offense to my facebook friend Tracy Murray). In a “what could have been” move the VANCOUVER Grizzlies thought they were one tough guy away from becoming a contender when they traded away a first round pick to the Detroit Pistons in 1997 for Thorpe. Five years later the gauge of how wrong they were could be determined by the fact that they had to have that pick pried away from them due to the fact that it had been lottery protected for said five years. Even lottery protection wears away its welcome after five years however and they were forced to give it up in 2003 when the Pistons used it to take Darko Milicic. Although this may have actually been a deal for the Grizzlies on its face when one thinks about it more in depth they realize that any other team besides Detroit that year without a doubt takes Carmelo Anthony and irreversibly changes the fortune of their team. One thing I’m for sure of is that any change of fortune for the Grizzlies would be better than their fortune is now or ever. Later that year, the Kings traded Thorpe along with fellow aging star Mitch Richmond to Washington who, in their rush to get rid of the problematic Chris Webber made the Kings consequential for the first time in their history.

When I tabulated the votes for this list I had one major problem with the voting and Otis Thorpe being number 20 was definitely it. Otherwise I was very proud of the voters. However, Thorpe has numbers that you won’t see out of some of the players in the top five and he is a champion.

Career Accomplishments- 1994 NBA Champion (Houston Rockets)

1992 Western Conference All-Star Team

1,257 career games played (18th all-time)

39,822 minutes played (20th all-time)

Played all 82 games 9 times

17,600 career points (61st all-time)

10,370 career rebounds (31st all-time)

3,446 career offensive rebounds (13th all-time)

54.6% career FG shooting (14th all-time)

4,146 career personal fouls (10th all-time)

ZSMART’s Fakest G’s Of The League:

1. Jason “White Chocolate” Williams: The only dude this cat after got after it with was a Chinese fan who told him to get used to having bench splinters instantly inserted in his ass (though not in those words).

JWill responded by verbally ambushing the peaceful man, a Golden State Warriors loyalist who was shocked by no.55’s racist, profanity-laced tirade.

This incident took place back in 2001 when JWILL was getting his NBA teeth cut alongside Chris Webber in SacTown.

The NBA could use a slight image change, and J-WILL has never really been helping the cause. Especially considering he’s a G like I’m a highly-acclaimed broadway singer. Grow up, fake thug.

“A Warriors season-ticket holder is accusing Sacramento’s Jason Williams of shouting racial and anti-gay slurs at him and other fans sitting behind the Kings’ bench during a game Feb. 28 at the Arena in Oakland.”

“In a letter obtained by The Chronicle and addressed to NBA commissioner David Stern, among others, Michael Ching of Santa Clara wrote that Williams called him a “slant-eyed mother –” and said: “I will shoot all you Asian mother–. . . . Do you remember the Vietnam War? I’ll kill y’all just like that.”

“Ching said Williams pretended, with his hands, to shoot a machine gun and imitated the sound the weapon makes.”

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/03/16/SP112930.DTL#ixzz0YwSEnOOJ

Now, we know you like to smoke some trees J-Dub, but so does Asher Roth and every undergrad at Skidmore College.

You don’t see anyone calling them thugs, do you? To paraphrase 50, That Ain’t Gangsta.

2. JR Smith: Buried underneath all the India Ink he’s drenched in, behind all the cold, hard stares is a scholarly kid from St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in New Jersey.

Smith’s solid academic pedigree coupled with his three-point sniping and hops earned him a scholarship to play at North Carolina.

This Fake G passed it up to instantly vault into the upper percentile of the nation’s wealthiest people. Yeah, dude, good for you!

While getting his ass beat by Nate Robinson at Madison Square Garden in 2006, JR had one rotund member of his camp situated in the stands, threatening all the Knicks fans who dare make fun of his precious, emotionally fragile homeboy.

Following the tempers-flaring eruption of a mammoth melee during which Carmelo Anthony sucker snuffed Mardy Collins, Smith–fresh off an ass-beating from the 5-foot-8 Nate–went to the other side of the court to cool off.

The vital member of his so-called entourage tried desperately to get Smith’s attention, but the Freehold, N.J. native was a little too up in his feelings and overwhelmed to respond. Poor baby.

JR Smith’s penchant for unleashing 360 dunks and then staring down the opposing team’s bench before AAU games doesn’t exactly force us to have to pardon his Gangster either. This guy should be wearing an Eagle Scout badge instead of those tats. Don’t portay someone your not, JR. Kids look up to you. When you go around acting like your Tony Fucking Montana when you’re clearly not, well….I think we all see the problem with that.

3. Kobe Bryant: While we always knew Kobe was a quiet country boy, he too often acted out of his nature to try and garner some hood credibility.

See his lyrical verses (or lack of) on the song “Thug Poet,” by Nas. Kobe becomes a rapper overnight and essentially bites off a bunch of lines from the late great BIG and makes a fool of himself.

In addition to this, we all recall Kobe getting his jaw rocked by Chris Childs (a warrior of a player who overcame alcoholism and a rough upbringing and has shown his manhood by making numerous anti-drug and alcohol speeches to young people) against the Knicks and then swinging the way a fifth-grade choir boy does… Stick to the dazzling dunks Kobe, let your game do the talking as you typically do.

We must say, however, the aforementioned incident occurred when Kobe was still young and he has since developed a tougher on the court persona. Still, overnight gangsters are never held in high regard. Fake Thug, no love.

Big Sully’s Picks

1. Kevin Garnett: Getting walloped by Anthony Peeler and relentlessly running his mouth but never backing up his words through action, KG has landed himself on Big Sully’s no.1.

2. Shaq-Talking shit has been the Diesel’s calling card, but the Brad Miller incident pretty much shows this is a big man with a big mouth and a big temper but minimum fighting ability. He has done some great things though, both on the court and off, and Big Sully recognizes this. Still, his anti-Kobe rhymes and other attempts to make himself look like a tough guy keep him at No.2

3. Shawn Bradley–The man who’s been posterized more than Carmen Electra, SB always acted tough but got his ass handed to him on numerous instances.