New Era Radio: Iced Out

On the latest episode of NER...Marcas' new weight loss plan includes buying Stanley Cup Finals tickets. Cacique has no problems with this year's NBA draft lottery results and why are people angry with Diddy now?

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Barkley Clowns Rondo For Being A B.....!

Rajon for some reason doesnt want to show his face after his game with Atlanta series game 1

SHAQ IS NOW A MASON!

We have heard of stories of a secret organization that dates back further than any of us can think of. Organizations that can get Presidents elected, people killed to make way for the greater good....you know that sort of thing. When you hear the term Free Mason, there is a certain chill that comes with it, a secrecy that has not been matched. Well, it looks like "The Great AARP" will get another name after retirement since according to Mediatakeout.com:


Photo provided by Mediatakeout.com

MediaTakeOut.com learned that NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal is now a MASON. He was inducted into Widows Sons Lodge #78, in Boston, MASS. 

Members of the lodge told MediaTakeOut.com that THEIR FORM OF MASONRY has NOTHING to do with the ILLUMINATI. And that they, unlike the Illuminati, do NOT worship the devil.

Thanks for the clarification!

Shaquille O'Neal Announces His Retirement Via Twitter

After 19 seasons in the NBA, Shaquille O'Neal announced via Twitter on Wednesday that he was calling it quits.

"We did it," he said in a video released via his Twitter account. "19 years, baby. I want to thank you very much. That's why I'm telling you first that I'm about to retire."

In what is certain to be a Hall of Fame career, Shaq accumulated a long list of accomplishments, including playing on four NBA title teams and winning three NBA Finals MVP awards. He was named the league's Most Valuable Player in 2000 and appeared in 15 All-Star games.

In recent seasons, injuries and age slowed The Diesel. In the past two seasons, O'Neal played in a combined 90 games (including just 37 games this year with the Boston Celtics) with his scoring and rebounding numbers well below his career averages.

But O'Neal was about much more than just basketball. With his enormous physique and even larger personality, Shaq was about as engaging a personality as the NBA has seen in years. The league and its fans will certainly miss him.

Episode 29: One Love

This week, your faithful hosts honor the passing of Bob Marley. Darryl Howerton from Hoop Magazine stops by to reassure Lakers, Celtics and Spurs fans that the end really isn't near. We wonder what exactly Bernard Hopkins has against Donovan McNabb and why does the Fox News crowd hate Common?

Episode 27: Let's Go Crazy

As we rejoin our favorite NERDs...the guys break try to make some sense of the NFL Lockout (they don't) and run through the top portion of the draft. Oh and Marcas makes Cacique jealous by bragging about going to see Prince for $25.

Episode 24: One Mo' 'Gin

This week the N.E.R.D.'s have the limits of their attention tested by college basketball. KGPE-TV's George Takata stops by to eulogize the Sacramento Kings. Robert Dobucki of HoopsJournal.com helps preview the NBA playoffs. And somewhere, several people are (sorta) having sex with Miley Cyrus right now.

LeBron James scuffles with Jermaine O'Neal

Sunday's game between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat was more than just a late-season matchup between two Eastern Conference powers. The winner would be set up to avoid having to face the suddenly resurgent New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs. So it's no surprise that emotions between the two teams were high.

They boiled over in the second quarter when LeBron James tangled with Jermaine O'Neal. While running the break, James collided with O'Neal and fired the ball at him starting a mini-brouhaha between the sides. O'Neal was charged with a Flagrant 1 while LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Paul Pierce were all hit with technicals.

LeBron finished with 27 points, seven assists and five steals as the Heat crushed the Celtics, 100-77 to grab the second seed. If everything shakes out right, these teams will meet again in the second round of the playoffs, although Boston is looking vulnerable for an upset by the Knicks. But add this in with all of the trash talk going on in the Western Conference between the Lakers, Thunder and Mavericks. Vince McMahon couldn't have created better promotion for the playoffs.

(H/T Jose3030)

Sunday Reading: The NBA Sky Isn't Really Falling

The idea that LeBron James taking his talents to South Beach to pair up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh was the beginning of the end of the NBA as we know it picked up steam again with the great ado that was last week's trade deadline.

Carmelo Anthony finally willing his way out of Denver? Utah trading Deron Williams to New Jersey before they get Carmelo'd? Chris Paul possibly landing at Madison Square Garden? Dwight Howard possibly taking his Superman act to Los Angeles?

It's unsustainable! It's unfair! It's the death of the NBA! Or is it?

On the same day the new-look Oklahoma City Thunder play the Los Angeles Lakers and the newly-paired Carmar'e (or should it be Amelo?) meet up with The Heatles, there are more than a few people thinking that we need to hold off on the doomsaying.

After all, this isn't totally unprecedented, as Harvey Araton reminds us in the New York Times:

But the concept actually did the league a world of good during the 1980s when Larry Bird’s Celtics and Magic Johnson’s Lakers had star-studded rosters that helped launch the sport into the global marketplace that eventually became Michael Jordan’s celestial airspace.

Araton argues that fans should embrace the idea of stars teaming up, remembering a not-too-distant era when top tier players each wanted Jordanesque billing and consistently had problems co-existing. What it led to was nearly a decade dominance by the Lakers, San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons who were able to build their team around a pair of superstars and a cast of strong role players willing to subjugate their game for the greater cause.

So why should players catch heat for that? According to Dave Hyde of the Miami Sun-Sentinel, they shouldn't. Hyde's opinion isn't a new idea nor is it particularly radical. But it is a deep breath moment in a room full of hyperventilators.

But this fear that players are overstepping their bounds is as overstated as big-market teams suddenly destroying small-market teams. What's happening is dumb, short-sighted, mismanaged, small-market teams are being penalized.

As a fan of one of those dumb, short-sighted, mismanaged, small-market teams (when will my GS-Dubs have their moment in the sun?), I grudgingly have to accept that the franchise has been its own worst enemy for the better part of two decades now. But I also have a hard time believing that if the revenue gap continues to increase amongst the big and small market teams that we'll ever see a real diversity of teams that win championships.

Then again, that's not new either, says the Denver Post's Benjamin Hochman. Since 1980, only eight teams have won NBA titles - a number that might have stood at seven if Jordan hadn't left to play baseball. But Nuggets coach George Karl doesn't think it has to be that way. Karl wonders why a group of well-coached, unselfish role players working as a team couldn't one day hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

"Why can't you win with 10 really good players? Maybe not the top five at their position, maybe not even the top 10 or top 15, but what about a guy at every position in the top 15, top 20? And they play hard and they play as a team. And then you have one of the best benches in the game. Why can't that win a championship?"

That's a wonderfully rosy statement from a guy who has been around professional basketball since debuting with the Spurs in the ABA in 1973. In theory, he's right. Why couldn't 10 really good players compete for a championship? After all, we've seen it work at the high school and college levels. But the NBA isn't college. And it damn sure isn't high school.

To build the type of team Karl envisions takes time, a luxury NBA franchises rarely afford head coaches. Thanks to the resignation of Jerry Sloan in Utah, Gregg Popovich is the NBA's longest tenured coach at 15 seasons in one place. In today's professional sports, that's an eternity. Even if you do keep a coach in place, how do you convince even a core of five players (let alone ten) to stick around?

Nonetheless, all three pieces make an interesting counter balance to the hysteria that followed the trade deadline.

• New York Times - Genius loves company in NBA balance of power
• Miami Sun-Sentinel - Why can teams be selfish and players can't?
• Denver Post - Karl isn't buying superstar blueprint

This could also be something to remember as the NBA's labor fight ramps up during the summer. Initial indications are that the league will do what it can to break the union. LeBron, Kobe and Carmelo have mostly succeeded in building the teams they want to play for. With small market teams crying foul, will that forced autonomy backfire on the next crop of superstars looking for their chance to play amateur GM? Stay tuned.

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Kevin Love Unimpressed With Shawn Kemp's Unimpressededness

Blake Griffin's over-the-car effort to win last weekend's Slam Dunk Contest is still generating conversation. Look no further than Shawn Kemp's criticism of Griffin's dunk, calling it "the weakest dunk in the dunk contest that I've seen in a long time."

So far in his NBA career, Griffin has taken to just playing his game and not responding to any comments, criticisms or hard fouls from opponents. In this instance, it's Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves coming to Griffin's defense via Twitter:

Kemp does know a thing or two about putting on a show in the dunk contest. However, it's hard to disagree with Love since the last time most of us saw the Reign Man, he'd grown into a rather large thunderstorm. Although with Michael Jordan working out and rumors that Rasheed Wallace might be back in a Celtics uniform, maybe Kemp might consider putting down the burgers and picking up some weights.

Magic Johnson & Larry Bird...On Broadway!

It's probably fitting that on Michael Jordan's birthday, two of the NBA's other icons - Magic Johnson and Larry Bird are reportedly having their careers once again remembered.

According to a report on ChicagoTribune.com, Fran Kirmser and Tony Ponturo - the men who produced "Lombardi" - are working on a new show to be titled "Magic/Bird". The production is slated to open on Broadway in 2012 with an assist from David Stern.

Just as "Lombardi" was produced with the help of National Football League, "Magic/Bird" will have the backing of the National Basketball Association. Bird and Johnson will also participate in Simonson's new project, scheduled to debut on Broadway in 2012.

Because the two careers have been so inextricably linked since their respective days in college, it's nearly impossible to tell the story of one without the other. It's also a story that has been told (very well) many times over. That leads us to wonder how Kirmser and Ponturo will approach their lives this time around - especially in a medium that doesn't lend itself to the ballet of basketball.

More than likely it will focus heavily on the off-court relationship between the two, presumably with video of their on-court exploits thrown in. Like many complex athlete stories, it would be best to center the narrative around one particular event. "Lombardi" dealt with a week in the life of the great Packers coach. "Magic/Bird" could deal with an NBA Finals series or the 1992 Summer Olympics.

The obvious response is to make a joke about the train wreck that has been "Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark". But people have been falling all over themselves to do that already...

So we'll go to the next question instead...who should play Magic and Larry? Derek Luke has been an early popular Internet choice, but I'm going with Morris Chestnut to play Magic. As for Larry...somebody get me Jesse Eisenberg and a bottle of bleach!

(H/T Kurt Helin & Ball Don't Lie)

NER Playlist: Ray Allen Got Game

Generally the Playlist is reserved for an athlete who has veered over to the music side of things - often times with hilarious results. But in honor of Ray Allen breaking the NBA's all-time record for career 3-pointers made (check the podcast for our argument over whether it makes him a Hall of Famer), it seemed only right that today's entry come from the movie that featured Allen's star turn.

Not to mention that there's never really a bad time for a little Public Enemy.

Congratulations, Jesus Shuttlesworth Ray Allen! No doubt, you got game.

Episode #16: Jerry Sloan v. Deron Williams - The Brouha In Utah!

The NERDs (New Era Radio Dudes) argue Jerry Sloan v. D-Will, Ray Allen v. Paul Pierce and Nicki Minaj v. Fergie...and Marcas takes on the Turtle Diet (the animal, not the Entourage'r)

182 Minutes of Fun Is A Penalty In The NHL

I think the whole team was involved..this was the most penalty minutes given this year. The Teams combined for 182 minutes in penalties.

Tuesday's Birthday Shout-Out: Walter McCarty Gets Smooth

For all of the jokes made the past few years about Urban Meyer's almost creepy attachment to Tim Tebow, we've all forgotten about long-running partnership between Rick Pitino and his protege Walter McCarty.

From Kentucky to Boston to Louisville, McCarty was never too far away from the man who recruited him to help win a national championship in 1996. Unfortunately, the two of them could never duplicate that magic anywhere else.

Not that their time in Beantown was all bad. The pair made a cameo in Spike Lee's "He Got Game". Then Walter decided to step out on his own. In 2003, McCarty dropped an R&B album called "Moment for Love".

Actually, it's not bad. Sampling from 112's "Peaches and Cream", McCarty sounds a bit like he could be a backup singer for any one of a number of R&B groups. And considering it was recorded in the days before Auto-Tune ruined ruled the world, it's a quality effort.

McCarty showed off some of those vocal skills before an NBA event, singing the National Anthem prior to the start of All-Star Saturday, one night before the 2006 All-Star Game. Now that he's an assistant coach for the Pacers, maybe he can team up for a duet with Jim Nabors for the start of the Indianapolis 500 at the end of May. I can guarantee that he'll be available.