Tag: Miami

Rondo enjoying his extended vacation from NBA

Rajon Rondo’s season was cut short last season with a gruesome dislocated left elbow sustained during the Celtics’ playoff series loss to Miami.

The lockout has that he believes will have him readyto return to the Celtics’ lineup once the lockout ends.

“This has been the best summer of my life, really,’’Rondo told the Boston Globe. ”Lockout or not, I’m still going to enjoy my life and do what I do best.’’

Rondo told the Globe he’s not considering playing overseas and will be ready once play begins.

“I hope there’s a season,’’ he said. “I’m looking forward to it and everyone around the league is, even the fans.

“It’s just an extended vacation as far as trying to continue to train and get better. It’s more time for me to work on my game, and that’s how I try to face it in the next couple of weeks or months or whatever we have.

“Right now my focus is to play with the Celtics.’’

The break is coming at a good time for Rondo. And it’s obvious that he can afford an extended work stoppage much more than most workers at the TD Garden who are dealing with fewer work opportunities with the lockout.

12 NBA owners rank among Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans

All is gloom and doom around the NBA this morning with reports that training camps and preseason games will be postponed as the lockout continues.

NBA owners have maintained throughout the negotiations that the league’s financial model is broken. Players, they insist, receive too much of the money generated by the league.

Here’s a little fact that I find interesting after scanning the Forbes 400 of the wealthiest Americans. are NBA owners.

The NBA is represented on the list by the following owners:

No.          Owner                               Team                     Net worth                  Source

23.          Paul Allen                      Portland                   $13.2 B                    Microsoft, investments

60.          Rich Devos                    Orlando                    $5 B                          Amway

75.          Micky Arison               Miami                       $4.2 B                       Carnival Cruises

107.       Stanley Kronke           Denver                      $3.2 B                       Sports, investments

159.        Tom Gores                    Detroit                      $2.5 B                       Private equity

171.        Mark Cuban                  Dallas                        $2.3 B                       Online media

242.        Glen Taylor                  Minnesota               $1.8 B                       Printing

273.        Herbert Simon           Indiana                     $1.6 B                      Real estate

293.        Daniel Gilbert             Cleveland                 $1.5 B                      Quicken Loans

293.        Michael Heisley         Memphis                 $1.5 B                       Manufacturing

293.        Donald Sterling          L.A. Clippers         $1.5 B                       Real estate

309.        Joshua Harris             Philadelphia           $1.45 B                   Leveraged buyouts

Anybody else wonder why these elite businessmen want to get into the NBA if the business is so bad?

Will we ever see an NBA All-Star Game again in San Antonio?

The news that prompted a question about whether the league’s mid-season classic ever would return to San Antonio.

The league traditionally likes to revolve this game around, particularly for franchises with new buildings.

But with the ATT Center open since 2002, we still haven’t seen an All-Star Game there.

Since that opening, we’ve seen the league allow the game to be played in Las Vegas, at the Dallas Cowboys’ Stadium in Arlington and once before in Houston. And it will be heading back to Houston again with a gap of only seven years — shortest span in league history for a single franchise between times hosting All-Star Games.

The ATT Center was suitable for the WNBA All-Star game last month, but apparently might not be good enough — or the league can’t block enough hotel rooms in the busy convention period of late February — to bring another NBA All-Star Game to town when San Antonio’s climate might be at its best of the year.  

And the immediate future doesn’t look bright. The league will have the renovated Madison Square Garden open next year, along the with the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the New Jersey Nets. The league hasn’t had an All-Star Game at the United Center in Chicago, Canseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the Palace at Auburn Hills (Mich.) and the American Airlines Center in Dallas or the American Airlines Arena in Miami.

The only franchises to have failed to host an All-Star Game include Toronto, Memphis and Portland. Oklahoma City hosted two previous All-Star Games when the frachise was in Seattle.

But with 14 different teams (including the joint Laker/Clipper All-Star extravaganzas) hosting the All-Star Game since the Spurs, it might be doubtful if the game is ever coming back.

The NCAA appears to have outgrown the Alamodome for men’s Final Fours after overlooking the facility in its last bidding cycle. And it seems that the NBA has similarly progressed past the ATT Center as well for its spectacle events as well.