NBA 2009-2010 Season Thread

LeBron talks about his tumor and the surgery to remove it

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Some of the toughest days for LeBron James over the last year had nothing to do with basketball. It was gut-churning period when he waited to make sure he didn't have cancer.

In his first interview on the subject since surgery to remove a tumor from his jaw area in June, James told The Plain Dealer there were several jittery days last January after he had a biopsy on the growing lump under his right ear.

With the health concerns behind him and Shaquille O'Neal alongside as the season approaches, there's no reason for LeBron James not to be optimistic about his and the Cavaliers' prospects.
"It was a nerve-racking experience but I knew at that point I had to get it done," James said. "I was on edge for those few days, I was lucky the season was going on and we were playing really well so I could concentrate on basketball. My family was nervous."

Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic found a growth on James' parotid gland, which produces saliva. Those sorts of tumors are somewhat rare, on average there's usually around 2,500 cases each year. It represents only about three percent of all discovered tumors and just six percent of tumors found in the head and neck area, according to several medical reference Web sites.
The better news for James was that between 70 and 80 percent of such tumors are benign. That is what the doctors told him, trying to set him at ease. "I was working with some good professionals," James said. "They were telling me they didn't think it was cancer, but we had to be sure, of course."

The news turned out to be good; the mass wasn't cancerous. But if it was allowed to grow it could become malignant and so James made plans to have surgery to remove it as soon as possible after the season ended.

It didn't cause James much pain, unless he was hit directly on the right side of the jaw. It happened a few times when he was fouled driving to the basket. In those instances, James was sometimes slow to get up, leaving some to believe he was milking the hits for the referees' benefit. Some of the time he was just suffering in silence, never discussing the tumor with the media.

The surgery date ended up arriving faster than James wanted. He went under the knife on June 3, just two days after the Cavs were eliminated in the Eastern Conference Finals.
It wasn't an easy or simple procedure.

James was told that the surgery, performed by Dr. Frank Papay at the Cleveland Clinic, would last between two and three hours. It was James' first experience under anesthesia, the first time in his life he'd been put to sleep for a medical procedure, which made him uneasy.
James woke up more than six hours later, the operation taking twice as long as expected. To get the tumor, which by that time was large enough that it raised an obvious bump that fans began noticing when James was at the foul line or doing interviews, Dr. Papay had to make a large incision from the side of James' head and around the bottom and to the back of his ear. That area is filled with nerves and muscles that control the face, making it delicate and time-consuming to perform.

"I wasn't scared," James said, "but I wasn't something I was comfortable with."
There is now a thin, half moon-shaped scar around James' ear, though the surgeons did a good job of hiding it on a face seen by millions on a regular basis. "I have a little bit of a scar, but it's OK, I'm a Chamillionaire," James joked, referring to the rapper who has lyrics about scars.

During the summer it became rather ironic that there was so much media focus involving non-basketball issues with James, but none of it touched on the surgery. There was plenty of discussion of the infamous non-handshake in Orlando and then the so-called "dunkgate" after his Nike camp in Akron when a Xavier University player dunked on him and officials took the videotape. James even got chided for wearing a T-shirt while on vacation in France that read "Check My $tats."

Yet in the dozens of interviews he held around the world promoting his camps, book and documentary, those were featured topics. No one asked about the surgery, which was a defining moment in James' off-season. He couldn't work out for a few weeks, but in the end that actually might have been a good thing.

There was time for rest, and some relief. "I just stayed in bed for a week or so. I could talk and eat but I didn't really want to do much," James said. "I just relaxed and got some of the best sleep I've had in my life."

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Another big change by the NBA... the double rim!!!



It doesn't sound like a big deal but to those that has played with single vs. double rim knows the difference. Then again, these are supposed to be world class athletes so it shouldn't really matter to them, I think it will just show who truly are the pure shooters of the game, which is somewhat good for the game.

those look like the big ones at the carnival that no one can make

Power Rankings: Lakers, Celts open season 1-2

By Marc Stein
ESPN.com




Movement has been minimal this month in the NBA Power Rankings with a relatively quiet October. But that's about to change.

The games start counting this week, which means we will be here every Monday for the next 24 weeks to track the ups and downs as we have for the past seven seasons.

The defending champs, as always, start out at No. 1 in our weekly, fully nonautomated pulse check of the league's 30 teams. Boston has moved up to No. 2 ahead of Orlando since the training camp edition of the rankings was published Sept. 25 -- to acknowledge Rashard Lewis' forthcoming 10-game suspension -- and most of the other notable changes (Denver from No. 6 to No. 8, Phoenix from No. 10 to No. 12, Washington from No. 15 to No. 17 and Minnesota from No. 27 to No. 29) are either suspension- or injury-related (J.R. Smith, Robin Lopez, Antawn Jamison and Kevin Love).

2009-10 Power Rankings: Preseason
RANK (LAST WK)\tTEAM\tREC.\tCOMMENT
\t1 (1)\tLakers\t65-17\tGood line from Professor Hollinger: Only team in the West that can beat L.A. is L.A. But that's why we keep bringing up Ariza, because the likelihood of Hollinger's scenario goes way up with Artest in Ariza's spot.

\t2 (3)\tCeltics\t62-20\tLet's assume that everything goes right and the Celts manage to stay healthy. Then what? As one trusted scout recently told the committee (of one): "They are big, long, athletic and very hard to guard."

\t3 (2)\tMagic\t59-23\tThere's never a good time for a 10-game suspension, obviously, but the Magic -- with no less than a dozen guys vying for legit PT -- should handle Rashard Lewis' absence as well as any team in the league could.

\t4 (4)\tCavaliers\t66-16\tThe way last season ended combined with the stress ball this season will be -- given that the Cavs can't prove anything until the playoffs, plus all the LeBron uncertainty -- is why they start out of the top three.

\t5 (5)\tSpurs\t54-28\tThe Spurs, for what it's worth now, are the clear-cut biggest winners of the offseason. How do we know? Because they wouldn't even be in the top five/championship conversation without their summer moves.

\t6 (7)\tMavericks\t50-32\tDallas is deeper than it was when it went to the 2006 Finals. The problem: San Antonio can say the same about its current team and the 2007 title team. The competition at the top is so much deeper now, too.

\t7 (\tTrail Blazers\t54-28\tIf preseason Greg Oden is the new Greg Oden, maybe it won't matter if Andre Miller starts or comes off the bench. Maybe we'll end up wishing we touted Portland as the class of the Northwest Division. Maybe.

\t8 (6)\tNuggets\t54-28\tUnlike Orlando, Denver doesn't have the depth or the reasonable early schedule to downplay J.R. Smith's seven-game suspension to start the season. Game No. 4 at Indiana starts a six-game Eastern swing.

\t9 (9)\tHawks\t47-35\tOne of my eds liked this line, so we're recycling: It's not something you print up on T-shirts, but the Hawks are indeed the clear-cut fourth best team in the East after adding Crawford and Joe Smith and losing little.

\t10 (12)\tJazz\t48-34\tThe cynic in me wonders if the best thing we'll wind up saying about Utah's season is that it has the Knicks' lottery pick. Korver's injury is already sending a here-we-go-again vibe reminiscent of last season.

\t11 (13)\tBulls\t41-41\tMaybe we expect too much to peg Deng for a seamless return from injury to replace Ben Gordon, but there's enough here regardless for modest improvement leading into the pivotal summer of 2010. More than enough.

\t12 (10)\tSuns\t46-36\tJudging by our staff picks, it appears I still like this team better than most. Guess it doesn't come as a huge surprise that this committee will pretty much be last off the ship when it comes to the SS Nash.

\t13 (11)\tHornets\t49-33\tOkafor missed most of his first month in N.O. and doubts persist about CP3 and D-West getting sufficient scoring help from the wings. So brace yourself for the old line about how nothing's easy in the Big Easy for Paul.

\t14 (17)\t76ers\t41-41\tThe optimistic view for a team on the playoff bubble and a tight budget: If Philly could go 41-41 in the face of all of last season's chaos, Eddie Jordan's arrival should steady the Sixers right into the 45-win range.

\t15 (14)\tRaptors\t33-49\tIf the Raps can overcome their shortcomings on D to get off to a good start, that should hush at least a fraction of the incessant chatter about Bosh's future. If they don't, though, you can probably do the math.

\t16 (16)\tHeat\t43-39\tIf we were ranking the teams in order of which ones will endure the longest regular season, Miami would be a top-five lock with Cleveland, New York and Sacramento. 2010 must feel forever away for D-Wade.

\t17 (15)\tWizards\t19-63\tJamison's shoulder injury means they're still waiting in the nation's capital to see a healthy Arenas/Butler/Jamison trio in a regular-season game again. They've been waiting since -- no joke -- April 1, 2007.

\t18 (18)\tPistons\t39-43\tWhat will keep me tuned in to a Pistons team overloaded with scoring guards but desperately lacking bigs and a set-up man? The sense that they'll make a trade sooner rather than later to address the imbalances.

\t19 (20)\tClippers\t19-63\tEvery time I want to believe my Clippers-versus-Lakers playoff fantasy has a shot -- like after hearing so much about how good Baron Davis looks -- I find myself reading about a new Blake Griffin injury.

\t20 (22)\tRockets\t53-29\tCan the gutty little Rockets hang around No. 8 long enough for T-Mac to come back and drag them into the playoffs? Probably not ... but they won't fall as far in the West as teams like OKC and Memphis are hoping.

\t21 (21)\tThunder\t23-59\tLeave it to Mark Heisler of the L.A. Times to neatly sum up our view that too much is expected from the young Thunder this season. "If this were a 25-and-under league," Heis writes, "you'd really like their chances."

\t22 (19)\tBobcats\t35-47\tThe team that should have signed Allen Iverson? The Bobcats have a glaring lack of scoring punch along with the coach, Larry Brown, who understands AI best, as well as a Grizz-like need for a box-office draw.

\t23 (24)\tPacers\t36-46\tThe good news: Indy has exceeded my downbeat expectations two seasons in a row. The bad news: "Exceeding" expectations meant ninth place in the East both times, which is realistically Indy's ceiling again.

\t24 (23)\tWarriors\t29-53\tSad but true: Until Stephen Jackson is traded, pretty much all you're going to hear out of the Bay Area are Jack stories, no matter how much promise we see from A-Randolph, Steph Curry and Morrow.

\t25 (25)\tNets\t34-48\tWe repeat: If Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov gets approved as the Nets' new owner, you could argue that nothing else in Jersey matters much this season. Or would you rather talk about L-Frank's status?

\t26 (26)\tKnicks\t32-50\tYou know who probably doesn't mind baseball season stretching into November? Can't see the Knicks complaining about being overshadowed for a couple more weeks given how l-o-n-g their season is bound to be.

\t27 (29)\tBucks\t34-48\tThought of one more reason to tune in besides Brandon Jennings' flamboyance and the Redd/Bogut comebacks. With Redd unlikely to opt out of next season's $18.3 million, Milwaukee is bound to shop him.

\t28 (28)\tGrizzlies\t24-58\tJust to clarify: For all of our fascination with the Grizz gambling on AI and Zach, we ask the question as much as you do: Why give Pau away and then trade for Randolph to pay him virtually the same money?

\t29 (27)\tTimberwolves\t24-58\tFirst Kevin Love stops tweeting to appease his bosses, then he goes down with a hand injury. Not the sort of start Minnesota was counting on in its hope that we all stop obsessing about Rubio's absence.

\t30 (30)\tKings\t17-65\tOne of our fave scouts says the Kings -- with a hot-shot rookie (Tyreke Evans) and our fave rook (Omri Casspi) -- will be better than folks think. Last in the West, though, remains their probable destiny.

Blake Griffin out for 6 weeks with stress fracture. Curse of the Clippers strikes again!!!!

Heard that new yesterday, sucks because he was beasting through the pre-season.

Gasol and Bynum might not play tonight though so the Clips has a chance, MBenga might be starting so the Lakers will have to play real well to pull this one off.

Originally Posted by RFX45

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Heard that new yesterday, sucks because he was beasting through the pre-season.

It's not like we didn't see this coming....

Bill Simmons' Open Letter to Blake Griffin

Season officially starts in 2 hours or so. Interesting first game for the Celtics and Cavs, no undefeated streaks for both of them.

Let's go LAKERS!!!!

Originally Posted by RFX45

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Season officially starts in 2 hours or so. Interesting first game for the Celtics and Cavs, no undefeated streaks for both of them.

Let's go LAKERS!!!!

Cavs looked sick in preseason. But it doesn't matter. Because Kobe is sick.

magic and spurs look to be drastically better on paper. i don't think lebron will stay beyond this year. when shaq is the cure, what's the disease?

Originally Posted by thekunk07

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magic and spurs look to be drastically better on paper. i don't think lebron will stay beyond this year. when shaq is the cure, what's the disease?

Have you noticed the Los Angles Teams Lineups??? Not just the lakers but the CLIPPERS actually have some talent on there....

Gordon
Baron Davis
Camby
Kaman
Al Thornton
Blake Griffin

Building your team around Gordon/Griffin/Thornton isnt a bad thing. Of course the Lakers roster isnt anything to sneeze at. When a 16 ppg player is your 5th scoring option

Kobe
Fish
Artest
Bynum
Gasol
Odom

Originally Posted by Davidko19

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Have you noticed the Los Angles Teams Lineups??? Not just the lakers but the CLIPPERS actually have some talent on there....

Gordon
Baron Davis
Camby
Kaman
Al Thornton
Blake Griffin

Yeah, but they all wear a Clippers jersey which renders any talent and potential null and void. They looked like crap yesterday vs. the Lakers...couldn't stop turning it over. Yes, their overall talent allowed them to keep it close, but they were never really in the game.

BTW, am I the only one that doesn't get all the Spurs hype??? The only reason to be worried about them is the fact that Manu is finally healthy....which, granted, is a legitimate reason to worry.

^ i get the hype. that is the best spurs team they've had in a long time.

Spurs addition of Jefferson is a big deal, along with McDyess. Not many people think McDyess will contribute much but he helped the Detroit last year. He won't be a 20-10 guy but he can still defend and knock that mid-range shot, which will make the Spurs more versatile and adds another option when Duncan rests. As for Jefferson, not much could be said, he can stretch the floor, he is still young and can defend well, it is another person who can create shots, etc... Ratliffe, well he is old but if he could provide 2 blocks a game for 4-5 minutes, I think they will get their moneys worth. Bogans can knock down 3's, he is streaky but 3's are his job and he'll spot up all season long. Blair, their rookie, is being considered a steal at the # he was drafted. I don't know much about so I can;t say much but he might be a future for the company, we'll have to see.

Ginobili is "healthier", Mason is getting better, Parker is healing up and Duncan lost a lot of weight. They will be a problem in the West.

Originally Posted by RFX45

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Spurs addition of Jefferson is a big deal, along with McDyess. Not many people think McDyess will contribute much but he helped the Detroit last year. He won't be a 20-10 guy but he can still defend and knock that mid-range shot, which will make the Spurs more versatile and adds another option when Duncan rests. As for Jefferson, not much could be said, he can stretch the floor, he is still young and can defend well, it is another person who can create shots, etc... Ratliffe, well he is old but if he could provide 2 blocks a game for 4-5 minutes, I think they will get their moneys worth. Bogans can knock down 3's, he is streaky but 3's are his job and he'll spot up all season long. Blair, their rookie, is being considered a steal at the # he was drafted. I don't know much about so I can;t say much but he might be a future for the company, we'll have to see.

Ginobili is "healthier", Mason is getting better, Parker is healing up and Duncan lost a lot of weight. They will be a problem in the West.

Kobe sucks.

Spurs will win.

(I should just put that in my sig)