Vancouver Metro Basketball League

By Clint Lomax

The Miami Heat roster seems to be filled out….for now.  Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem are the only remaining members of the 2006 NBA Championship team.  In the next few articles I will write on the new look Miami Heat, I will attempt to make chicken salad out of Chicken….feed.  Below are the rosters from the 2006 Champion Miami Heat and the 2010-2011 Miami “Trice” Heat!

2005-2006                                            2010-2011

————-                                          —————

Dwyane Wade                                  Dwyane Wade

Shaq                                                   Lebron James

Antoine Walker                                Chris Bosh

Jason Williams                                   Udonis Haslem

Udonis Haslem                                  Zydrunas Ilgauskas

James Posey                                      Mike Miller

Gary Payton                                       Mario Chalmers

Alonzo Mourning                             Joel Anthony

Derek Anderson                               Carlos Arroyo

Michael Doleac                                 Eddie House

Shandon Anderson                         Juwan Howard

Wayne Simien                                   James Jones

Jason Kapono                                    Jamaal Magloire

                                                                Shavlik Randolph

                                                                Dexter Pittman

                                                                Jarvis Varnado

                                                                Da’Sean Butler 

                                                                Patrick Beverely

                                                                Kenny Hasbrouck

Udonis Haslem at is a proven low post player on both ends of the floor.  He will always contribute in one way or another.  Mike Miller is a pure shooter plain and simple!  He may not be a lockdown defender, but all he has to be is a decent team defender to make a difference.  With Wade, James, and Chalmers on the floor, Miller will get more open shots than he has in his entire career. 

Zydrunas “Big Z” Ilgauskas at 7’3” is a 13 year vet that can hit the open jumper, get offensive rebounds, and block an occasional shot.  Joel Anthony at 6’9” 245 is reported to have a 40 inch vertical!  If that can translate into 1.5 block shots in 12-15 minutes per game, that would be fantastic!  Don’t expect him to be an Alonzo Mourning clone though!  Carlos Arroyo will be an insurance blanket for Wade and Chalmers.  With a 4.17 assist to turnover ratio, he is a diamond in the rough. 

Eddie House is a pretty big addition if not for anything else but his “Instant Offense”!  Hopefully seven year veteran James Jones will follow his lead and find his 3 point shot this season.  Juwan Howard and Jamaal Magloire are more vital than people think they will be this season.  Low post defense is what the Heat will need to win a championship in the next few years.  Howard can still score around the basket, and both he and Magloire lend an extra 12 fouls to work with when playing vs Centers like Dwight Howard! 

Shavlik Randolph will probably be relegated to the practice squad, but will see about a dozen games this season if injuries and fatigue it the Miami front line.  U of Texas star Dexter “A.K.A. Dex-A-Trim” Pittman at 6’10” 290 lbs will find a place on the 12 man roster.  He is way too big not to!  Short of cursing him with the name “Baby Shaq”, he is nimble on his feet and has soft hands around the basket.  My surprise pick to get about 8-10 minutes a game this season is 6’9” 230 lb Jarvis Varnado of Mississippi State!  Not only is he a lefty, but he led the NCAA in block shots last season.  The more impressive factor in that is that he played in the SEC!  That league is chalked full of big man talent every year.  So I had to give him props for that.  If you can play defense, you will get some minutes in the NBA! 

In my semi professional opinion, Butler, Beverely, and Hasbrouck will not make the team.  The only hope those three have is playing way beyond their ages.  Butler is coming off a knee injury vs Duke in the Final Four.

I will be back to do a comparison breakdown of the two teams in part 2 of this article.  Put your TWO CENTS in now!  So i can incorporate it into the conversation.

Twitter@mjlover23

The Richmond Olympic Oval will host the West Coast Basketball Classic on September 11 and 12. Register to play and learn more at http://www.westcoastclassic.ca

Metro Basketball League, August 04, 2010 (Vancouver, BC ) - BC’s Metro Basketball (www.metroleague.ca) is pumped to partner with Canada Basketball to support KidSport^TM BC for the CANADA vs. CHINA men’s basketball game on Tuesday, August 10th.

For every ticket purchased through Metro Basketball for this game, Canada Basketball will donate $5 to KidSport^TM BC.

From grassroots to 10ft hoops, let’s show the love that Vancouver has not only for basketball but for the youth in its community.

By Clint Lomax

Unless you watched the Summer League in Vegas, your response to Jeremy Lin would have been….WHO???  I was saying the same thing till I turned on NBA TV and seen this guy racing down the court and slamming through a one legged power slam!  At 6’3” 200 lbs not only can he shoot, but his vertical is estimated at 30+ inches.  The best thing about this guy is that it looks like he is the complete package!  While everybody is raving about John Wall, DeMar DeRozan, and Ty Lawson, Jeremy Lin has “not so quietly” played his way into the NBA via the NBA Summer League.

Lin becomes the first Taiwanese-American to make the NBA, and the first Asian-American signed by the Golden State Warriors since 1947!  There is a large Asian population in the Bay Area, which will make Lin an instant star!  Please excuse me for all the exclamation points, but this guy is every coach’s dream!  He can shoot, pass, handle the ball without turning it over, plays excellent defense, and among all of these superlatives….He’s a Harvard graduate!  From all accounts, he was an average AAU player in high school but all of his coaches raved about his willingness to learn.  While all the AAU players wanted to play against him because they thought he would be passive and a “pushover” on the court.  As he moved into his senior year in high school he began turning the tables on his opponents.  While Division I schools were not knocking down his door with scholarships, he let his grades get him accepted into one of the most famous Ivy League schools in Harvard.

Lin played his way into the lineup early in his Ivy League career, but his major contributions would come in his junior and senior years.  Lin was the only player in the nation to rank in the top 10 in his conference in every statistical category!  That may not sound like a big deal being in the Ivy League, but it is still Div I basketball.  While he was an All-Ivy League First Team member his junior and senior year, he had some memorable games his senior year that got him invited to the NBA Summer League.  He hit a crazy 3 pointer at the buzzer of a triple OT game vs William and Mary, recorded 15 points 4 assist and 3 steals vs Georgetown, had 17 points 8 rebounds 7 steals 5 assists and 2 blocks vs George Washington, and scored 30 points 9 rebounds 3 assists 3 steals and 2 blocks vs #13 UConn!  To top It off, he was one of 11 finalist for the Bob Cousy Award and was consistently on the honor roll!  He became the first player in the Ivy League to record 1,450 points, 450 rebounds, 400 assists and 200 steals.  In his last two years at Harvard, he averaged 17 points per game while shooting 52% from the field and 37% from the 3 point line.  My favorite stat line from his senior year is that he averaged 1 blocked shot and 2.5 steals per game!

The impressive thing about Lin getting a contract with the Warriors is that he only played a total of 74 minutes in 4 games!  Averaging only 18 minutes a game he averaged 9 points per game and shot 52% from the field and 66% from the 3 point line!  His head to head match up with John Wall was admirable too.  It looks like this guy raises the level of his play depending on the opponent he plays against.  That maybe good or bad, but I like his grit.  This story isn’t over, and I’ll bring you more info on this guy’s path to success as I get it.

Twitter@mjlover23

The Richmond Olympic Oval will host the West Coast Basketball Classic on September 11 and 12. Register to play and learn more at http://www.westcoastclassic.ca

The Canadian Press
July 30, 2010 12:53 a.m.

RICHMOND, B.C. – Kim Smith of Mission, B.C., scored 21 points and Canada’s senior women’s basketball team wrapped up a four-game exhibition series with a 66-39 win over Sweden on Thursday.

Jordan Adams of Overton, N.M., added 11 rebounds for Canada, who finished undefeated in a rare exhibition series on home soil.

Frida Eldebrink led the Swedes with 14 points.

Canada used the four game set as preparation for the 2010 FIBA World Championship for Women, which starts Sept. 23 in the Czech Republic.

“It’s always nice to be playing international competition in our own country in front of our home crowd because we don’t get that very often,” said Canadian captain Teresa Gabriele. “I’ve been playing on the team for 13 years and I’ve probably played in our country a handful of times.”

The hosts were dominant in the series, opening with 86-38 and 74-38 victories against Chile and winning 72-53 in their other game against Sweden. Canada was particularly aggressive defensively, keeping the opposition’s scores low and creating several turnovers.

“I think defensively we take teams out of the play,” Gabriele said. “We’re not very big. We’re undersized. But we use our physical aggression to take teams out of their offences.”

Canada will hold a training camp in Ontario at the end of August before heading to France and Greece for exhibition games.

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The Richmond Olympic Oval will host the West Coast Basketball Classic on September 11 and 12. Register to play and learn more at http://www.westcoastclassic.ca

The 2nd Annual Kitsfest event in Vancouver is set for August 20-22, 2010 with 12 men’s basketball teams competing for the championship (www.kitsfest.com)

In addition to many of the local streetballers and a few out-of-towners in the line-ups, you’ll see several familiar faces from the  Metro Basketball League here in Vancouver.

Keep an eye out for high flying performances by some of the Metro Basketball League athletes, including:

Andrew Sturgeon
Clayton Crellin
Sherlan John
Clint Lomax
Jason Birring
James Hudson
Mark Starkey
Lonzell Webster
Greg Washington
Jamie Robinson
Jesse Tupper
Tommy Nixon

By Clint Lomax
The year Michael Redd was drafted, Milwaukee’s big 3 at the time (Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson, Sam Cassell) fell one game short of the NBA Finals. This effort gave hope to Bucks fan’s that Milwaukee was back, and ready to contend for a title. Unfortunately for the Bucks, they would only make the playoffs four out of the next eight years. All four of those appearances resulted in first round exits. From his 3rd season in, Michael Redd had improved his scoring in the next 4 years. In the last few years he has been hit by the injury bug, which for some players is unavoidable yet they are labeled unjustly in my opinion. Now that the Bucks have absolutely loaded every gun in their arsenal with young up and coming talent, the question a lot of people are asking is….Do the Bucks still need Michael Redd?

I won’t speculate on that subject because I compare Michael Redd’s situation loosely to the Grant Hill situation in Detroit. I feel that Michael Redd has done everything he can to make the Bucks successful. Yet I’ve heard grumblings that he could not raise his game when it has counted. Even with the slew of talented guards he has played with including: T.J. Ford and Damon Jones 03-04, Mo Williams 04-05 (which I think is a low blow in my personal opinion, ask Lebron James about that), T.J. Ford and Mo Williams 05-06, Mo Williams and Earl Boykins 06-07, Mo Williams, Ramon Sessions, Ivey 07-08, and Luke Ridnour, Ramon Sessions. None of these guards can be attributed to a deep run in the playoffs on any other team in the league (unless you count Mo Williams with Clev’s 2nd round exit).

With that said, let me list some of the players that make up the 2010-2011 Milwaukee Bucks (as of 7-26-10). Drew Gooden, Keyon Dooling by way of free agency. Re-signing John Salmons. Trading for Corey Maggette (GS) and John Brockman (Sac). Getting injured stars Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut back are huge. Not too mention the future all star guard Brandon Jennings with players like Carlos Delfino, Ersan Ilyasova, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (say that three times fast. Plus the three rookies they drafted in Larry Sanders, Darington Hobson (at 6’7” and a lefty), and Keith “Tiny” Gallon (6’9” 300 lbs). Insiders are saying two of these three may help this coming season! (If your are squeemish, don’t look at this next video with Andrew Bogut)!

The main thing keeping them out of the top 5 next season is The Bulls! Orlando, Boston, Miami, and Atlanta are the consensus top 4 in the east right now. The main reason Chicago bumps them from top 5 is that they are not only adding offense, but defense too. Carlos Boozer, C.J. Miles (Utah) and Kyle Korver are key to the Bulls offensive firepower, but signing Ronnie Brewer (Utah) gives them a defensive minded player in the mold of a Raja Bell. Even though the Bulls are thin at center, Noah, Gibson, and Boozer should be productive and a force in the Central Division.

The X-factor in all of this is how will Bogut and Redd mesh with this new infusion of talent? Also how will Scott Skiles attack with his new batch of toys. My homeboy Sherlan John (Co-Founder of Moult Athletic) was the first one to alert me of the Bucks potential resurgence! He has also adopted the Bucks battle cry from the previous playoffs…..”FEAR THE DEER”! LOL! That is classic!

I’m also on Twitter @mjlover23

The Richmond Olympic Oval will host the West Coast Basketball Classic on September 11 and 12. Register to play and learn more at http://www.westcoastclassic.ca

By Clint Lomax

Many people are called “Giants” for the great things that they do. Manute Bol was not only one of those people at 7’7”, he was more like a super hero! His humanitarian efforts in his home of Sudan are not nearly as publized as they should have been. I’d say in some ways understated! In his ten year NBA career, he donated the MAJORITY of his $5.8 million salary to his home land ($3.8 million est. which is about 65%). Unheard of in this age of mega millionaires that for the most part help a lot of people, but not nearly to the extent of Manute’s magnitude.

Manute was born in 1962 in Sudan, son of a Dinka tribal chief. His height was attributed to his dad being 6’8”, and his mom being 6’10”! One of the famous stories of his youth was killing a lion with a spear while tending to cattle. He was discovered while playing in Sudan for a few teams, and was convinced to come to the U.S. in hopes of a professional basketball career. After running into trouble at his first attempt at playing collegiately, but landed at Division II University of Bridgeport. Once established at Bridgeport…the legend of Manute Bol began!

Drafted by the Washington Bullets in the second round of the 1985 NBA draft, he led the league in blocked shots with 397. Not only did he set the rookie record for blocks in a season, but set a career high 5 blocks per game. He still holds the record for second and seventh most most blocks in NBA history! He was traded to the Golden State Warriors in 1988, and that is when his 3 point barrage started! While leading the lead in blocks with 345, he shot a career high 91 3 pointers! The more miraculous achievement is that he made 20 of them! The feat is not memorable for a guy that height shooting 3s. It was the sight of his signature “catapult” delivery, and then the unbelievable feat of his attempts going in!

His more famous teammates in Charles Barkley and Chris Mullin had nothing but the utmost respect for the gentle giant. Bol and Barkley constantly played pranks on each other while Bol was in Philly. “It was an honor and a pleasure to play with Manute. He was a wonderful guy,” said Barkley. “Man, I remember every moment with him,” Mullin said. “Every moment was an event with Manute.” “He’d been through so much in the course of his lifetime. He had seen so much. He taught me a lot about life, just listening to him and his stories and what he’d been through.”

Life after the NBA found him signing a one day contract in the Central Hockey League, eventhough he couldn’t skate. He also signed on to fight William “The Refrigerator” Perry on the Celebrity Boxing show. All in the name of fundraising for his war-torn country of Sudan. Misfortune followed him in 2004 when his neck was broken in a car accident. Plagued by liver disease for several years, he finally lost is battle to the illness on June 19th of this year.

His contributions not only to the game of basketball and his teammates, but to his country is immeasurable. We should all strive to be as selfless as Manute Bol. The world would be a better place.

R.I.P. Manute Bol
October 16, 1962 – June 19, 2010

The Vancouver Metro League got a mention on Asa Rehman’s ‘Point Forum” blog on www.cknw.com. Check it out.

Vancouver Basketball.ca is proud to welcome Clint Lomax to our staff as a writer and contributor to the website. Lomax plays in the Metro League as a member of this season’s championship squad SWAT. Clint spent 10 years playing in the Seattle Semi-Pro as well is a graduate of Garfield High School, one of Seattle’s top High School basketball programs.

Look for regular columns from Clint about all things basketball.

Check out his debut column here.

Smacktalk Sports Episode 5 – State of the Game: Basketball Edition

Check out the Vancouver Metro League’s Andrew ‘Soda’ Wadden’s ‘Smacktalk Sports’ latest podcast featuring an interview with the Metro League’s Mark Starkey and audio clips from last week’s championship game between SWAT & Heart, Hustle & Soul.