Thursday Knob-billed Ducks

Hello! I am eagerly anticipating the release of the Knicks' schedule, or at least the preseason schedule, but it has not arrived yet. (I am a few hours away from taking a car trip, so expect the schedule in a few hours.) While we wait, we should smell these links, I think:

- Knob-billed ducks...well, they've got big ol' knobs on their bills. The males do, anyway. They make music videos, too! (That's from South Africa, I believe. These guys exist all over Africa and Asia.)

- Metta World Peace things: 1. He won't legally re-change his name, but he might want to be called something else by the time the season starts. 2. Him and family playing cornhole.

- David Vertsberger wrote a good thing requesting more screen-setting from Carmelo Anthony, who works very nicely as a screener.

- Ian Begley bats around a whole bunch o' starting lineup possibilities.

- Via Begley, here's Carmelo Anthony (along with his friends) throwing out a first pitch in Taiwan.

- I went on the Sactown Royalty podcast to talk about Summer League, the Knicks, and as much as I could muster about the Kings.

- Iman Shumpert talks about (and from) his summer camp back home in Oak Park (this is obviously from before Summer League and the trip to China).

- Frank Isola confirms the exact number of J.R. Smith's up-front money in his new contract.

- The Tyson Chandler legs photo is whatever, but J.R.'S response to it was wonderful.

- Not Knicks, but I worked pretty hard to help make this happen, and I think it's worth a look, because Kenny Anderson did something exceptionally brave and my SB Nation compatriots handled it quite well.

Those're the links. What are you eating for dinner?