The Knicks improved to 4-0 in Summer League play, surging late to put away the Belinelli-less and Brandan Wright-less Golden State Warriors squad. Game notes:
- Clyde was stylin' with a white, ribbed shirt and a gold chain.
- I had brief excitement when I saw Warriors' assistant coach Keith Smart, thinking that he somehow the "Come And Get With Me" guy. Upon research, I remembered that that was Keith Sweat. Oh well.
- The Warriors have quite an array of characters on their Summer League roster, including Corey "Homicide" Williams, the mohawk'd guard and former "Last Man Standing" champ, Nate Funk, the misleadingly-named white gunner out of Creighton, Brian Cusworth, the stiff 7-footer out of Harvard, and Alpha Bangura, the bearded forward from St. John's whose name sounds like one of the moons of Jupiter.
- Nate Funk, who is absolutely wet from downtown, had a very vocal cheering section in attendance. I guarantee you that they call themselves "The Funky Bunch".
- MSG is running a pretty cool thing where fans vote for their favorite games of the '06-'07 season online, and the network televises the top choices on Thursdays this summer. That's something I'd watch.
- Clyde spoke on his trip to the Hoover Dam and quipped that the dam "ignited Las Vegas". In case you thought Clydeisms were limited to the topic of basketball.
- Dave Hanners reminds me of Barney Gumble.
- Mardy Collins sat in the booth in the second quarter. His headset wasn't working at first, so he sounded as if he was mumbling into his hands. The problem was eventually fixed by Clyde, who exhibited leadership and donated his own headset. I sorta wish now that Mardy was actually an incoherent mumbler. Either way, he's not the most confident speaker.
- Jerry Dupree of Southern Cal is also on the Dubs' summer squad, and I'm not a fan. He put down an alley-oop over Chandler and celebrated like it was the biggest play he'd ever make in an NBA uniform (oh wait...it was). Humpty set Dupree straight with a flagrant foul upside the head next time down the floor.
- Speaking of Humpty, Renaldo turns 23 today (yesterday actually, now that I look at the clock). Happy birthday, dude. Peace and Humptyness forever.
- While discussing Balkman, Gus asked Clyde when his birthday is. Clyde responded, "March". People who don't know Walt might think he was being unspecific, but I'm convinced that he actually celebrates his turning a year older throughout the entire month of March. I'm also pleased that we share a birth month (Clyde's actual D.O.B. is 3/29/1945).
- Renaldo appeared to be doing a lot of talking and directing in the huddle, which is awesome if not a bit unexpected.
- More Clyde: On the topic of Nate Funk, he was uncharacteristically succinct. Of the guard who helped defeat his Salukis in the
NCAAMVC Tournament, Walt simply said, "I hate that kid". - Wilson Chandler played solidly, moving well without the ball and hitting the midrange jumper, but registered the bad sort of hat trick by bricking 3 free-throws in one visit to the line.
- The halftime piece was on the Last Man Standing tournament. It was hosted by Jerome Williams and featured, among other guys, a streetballer in his mid-50's.
- The SummerDubs have both NBA vet and NC State alum Josh Powell and Carlos Powell, who was Renaldo's teammate at South Carolina. This made for a lot of confusion in the booth. Josh, by the way, looks increasingly legit.
- Stephane Lasme is on the Warriors squad as well, but didn't play.
- I realized, after hearing the phrase "whirling dervish" for the millionth time, that I had no idea what a dervish actually was. Here's the definition from my dictionary: "dervish- n.- a member of any of various Muslim orders, dedicated to a life of poverty and chastity: some dervishes practice whirling, howling, etc. as religious acts." So next time you hear someone call Nate Robinson that, they're actually insinuating that he's a chaste and impoverished Muslim, as well as an avid whirler. I kid.
- Ronnie Nunn sat in the booth later in the game and mentioned that refs have a very extensive physical. The test includes weight checks and interestingly, a mobile vision test. Never really thought about that. According to Nunn, refs run about 4 or 5 miles in the course of a game. Guess I can cross officiating off the ol' "possible careers" list.
- Nate Robinson's younger son, Nyale, was in attendance and is adorable. Gus mentioned that he's only 11 months old and can already walk. Word has it he's also got a 36-inch standing vertical.
- GJ described Balkman's play as "gangster". I'm not sure how one plays basketball in a "gangster" manner, but I sure didn't see Balkman knifing anybody or throwing up any hand signals. Maybe I wasn't looking closely enough.
- Nate's stroke looked very nice, and a bit different from his old shooting form. He appears to have added a Nowitzki-esque lean forward and leg kick to his jumper.