Monday Bearded Bellbirds

Good day, children. How's everybody holding up? It hasn't even begun to rain yet up here, but it's getting pretty windy/spooky outside. I'm staring out my window (which looks up onto the street) and wishing I owned some sandbags or something.

But anyway...links!

- The male bearded bellbird has a huge, squiggly, unkempt beard. It's not made of feathers, but of weird, stringy wattles hanging off his chin. He's got a strange, robotic-sounding call, too.

- Jared Zwerling's weekend piece on the longtime friendship between former teammates J.R. Smith and Victor Cruz is worth a look (and news to me).

- Somehow, the Friday Night Knicks curse is mentioned nowhere in this interview.

- Will Leitch's feature on Mike Woodson is excellent, but that layup drill looks treacherous.

- Iman Shumpert preemptively blames his 0-1 start from the field on Hurricane Sandy.

- Man, would it be nice for the Knicks to have both their centers available on opening night. Tyson Chandler, at least, should be ready to scrimmage whenever the Knicks next practice.

- Jason Kidd wasn't the most thrilling subject for Steve Serby's Sunday conversation, but he did address the DUI charge for a moment. There's some Woodson eye injury intel in there, too.

- Our friend Mike Kurylo makes what I believe to be a very sound, practical casee for keeping Amar'e Stoudemire in the starting lineup.

- If your TV works tomorrow, you can watch that Tyson Chandler-Jerry Stackhouse culinary throwdown we heard about a few weeks ago.

- I'm doing SB Nation's NBA Power Rankings column this season, which really isn't something I should be allowed to do.

Those are the links! Be well!