The Association

Vlade Divac Cheats Off The Court, Too

by Brett Edwards

We at The Association make no apologies for the fact that we hate Vlade Divac as a basketball player. His cheating, flopping style of play gave way to the likes of Manu Ginobili and encouraged players everywhere to simply take a dive rather than playing solid defense.

Well, it appears that once you're a cheater, you're always a cheater. It wasn't enough for Vlade to cheat on the basketball court, he now apparently has to cheat off of it by selling counterfeit merchandise. From the Sacramento Bee:

A lawsuit has been filed against former Sacramento Kings star Vlade Divac and his wife Ana Divac for allegedly selling counterfeit Gucci and Fendi products at the L'Image Beauty Boutique, a store they own in the Pavilions shopping center on Fair Oaks Boulevard.

The suit claims that the store - which advertises on its Web site that it sells "high-end skin care lines," "celebrity must-haves" and "treasures, which until now have only been found in Europe, New York and Los Angeles" - was knowingly selling counterfeit products it purchased from a disreputable dealer and sold at exorbitant markups to unsuspecting customers.

What a Eurotrash cocksucker. Seriously, the millions that you made as an NBA player weren't enough, you have to now go and rip off the unsuspecting rednecks people of Sacramento? Careful, Vlade. After dodging the draft in your homeland and now engaging in illegal commerce in the states, you're running out of places to go. Mitch Kupchak was dumb enough to sign you once, but I wouldn't count on it happening again.

[via WBRS Sports Blog]

Spurs Fans Are The NBA's Version Of Raider Fans

by Brett Edwards

"Oh yeah?! At least we have three rings, bitch!"

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the Spurs. In fact, I can't stand them. I acknowledge that they're one of the best teams in the league, I just find their stars and their style of play extremely boring. I also am annoyed by the fact that the Spurs, as a team, bitch about the officiating more than any other team in the league.

That last (fairly innocuous) opinion really pissed off a lot of Spurs fans for some reason. I ended a post over at the FanHouse with that sentiment, and got several angry Spurs fans leaving comments that were all too familiar. Here's a sampling:

Just remember: The Spurs have three things the Mavericks don't have:
1. The Larry O'Brien trophy
2. The Larry O'Brien trophy
3. The Larry O'Brien trophy

To summarize: San Antonio=3 Rings
Dallas=0

All I have to say is who has 3 NBA Titles and Who has none....enough said....

When the Mavs win more than 3 Championship Rings then talk your smack.

I thought to myself, what other team's fans unintelligently argue every topic by pointing out the number of championships that their team has won? The Oakland Raiders! The Spurs fans are acting like Raider fans (read: like retarded people), simply reciting championship statistics (no matter how outdated) as a response to any criticism of their team. What a bunch of morons.

*And by the way, the Spurs only have 2 legitimate championships. 1999 doesn't count. Strike-shortened season, like anyone was even trying.*

Hell, we have an entire photo essay showing what a bunch of crybabies the Spurs are, and yet their fans are still in denial. The league today gave Whiny Tim a vote of confidence by suspending Joey Crawford for that ridiculous technical he gave Timmy on Sunday. As I said at the time, that was a bad call, but it was probably based on years of Timmy's crying, and Crawford probably had all he could take. But regardless of how many photos and videos show the Spurs bitching about the officiating, it's good to know that their fans will continue to remind me that they have won three two championships. Real relevant, losers.

Where's Stern-o?

By Craig Kwasniewski

Let's take a little breather and play a game... Where's Stern-o.

The caption reads, "NBA commissioner David Stern stands during the national anthem before a basketball game between the Orlando Magic and the Sacramento Kings"

Can you find him?

The NBA Players Association needs to find him as they filed two unfair labor practice charges Friday. The two issues covered in the charges are the new basketball and the league's crackdown on player complaints (most commonly known as the Sheed rule).

I'm guessing that Stern will take this all in stride and make sure nothing changes.

Lawsuit Match Game

By Craig Kwasniewski

It's Wednesday night; you're home watching Chucky Atkins throw another alley-oop to Stromile Swift that lands in the 8th row; you're polishing off the 3rd beer of the night, and just before you hit the porn sites… it's time to play everyone's favorite game…

Lawsuit Match Game!!!

Lawsuit Match Game challenges you, the reader, to correctly match past and present athletes from the National Basketball Association with their current lawsuit. Sounds simple, right? Not necessarily so! Behind each one of our models is the correct answer. (Models? In this case there are none. Bro, we’re a non-profit blogsite the best you’ll get is to google porn, which you'll go back to doing in 5 minutes anyway.)

Anyway, match the athlete with the correct offense and you are a winner! (No prizes)

The NBA Athletes:

1. Kobe Bryant

2. Zach Randolph

3. Bruce Bowen

The Offense:

A. Sexual Assault

B. Ankle Assault

C. Assault and Battery

The correct answers are at the end.

Well, did you guess correctly? Okay so the one of them is not an real lawsuit, (but it should be!) one is not surprising at all and one is completely asinine. Though if the fan does get a settlement from Kobe, then I may have a chance to collect from my incident with Sam Cassell. (I'm talking about the elbow, Kobe wasn't charged with sexual assault!)

BTW - Big ups to Gene Rayburn for continually reaching down into his inner soul and finding a way to flirt with Brett Somers by using his (BLANK).

Answers: 1-C, 2-A, 3-B

NBA Coaches Siding With Bobby Knight

by Brett Edwards

Apparently there was an incident involving Bobby Knight popping one of his players in the face the other day. I know, shocking, right? NO WAY Bobby Knight would do anything like that! In case you haven't seen it, check it out here.

Several NBA coaches are actually siding with coach Knight on this one, here are some of the quotes:

George Karl: "In today's world, we can't go away from tough love and tough coaching," Karl said. "All (Knight) was trying to do was get eye contact, which I think is important for young people and young players. I wish more NBA players would make eye contact with the coaches."

Pat Riley: ''It's typical of Bobby Knight hysteria from the media calling for his head,'' Riley said. 'I didn't see anything wrong with that. I do that myself. I never do it in public. It's like a little love tap. My father used to hit me in the face all the time, like 'Wake up.' The player realizes he was just trying to get his attention.''

Isiah Thomas: "I thought it was great."

Isiah later added that effective immediately, he would begin slapping players in the face if they were subbed out for not playing well. He hopes this new tactic will shock and embarrass his team into playing better.

OK, I just made that up. But at this point in the Isiah Thomas reign in New York, would anything surprise you?

A Second Serving of Rodman

by Craig Kwasniewski

Reminding us that Ron Artest isn't the original "crazy guy" playing basketball, the Rodman tour rolls on in England. The Brighton Bears of the British Basketball League have made arrangements with Dennis Rodman for a second appearance on 14 February, yes Valentine's Day.

The Bears sold out their 1,800 seat arena "The Triangle" in Rodman's last appearance on January 28th. Rodman had 4 points and 7 rebounds in the win. That comes out to £5,000 per point for that appearance.

BTW - Check out the photo, is Rodman playing basketball or racing in NASCAR. Gotta love Euro baskeball jerseys and their 1,200 ad logos.

"Rodman agrees to Brighton return" - BBC News

"Rodman to Return" - Brighton Bears Website

My Two Cents

by Craig Kwasniewski

Tonight, I'll play the role of Kent Brockman and give my two cents...

Sportstalk radio and newspaper columnists love the kind of stuff that happened in Chicago the other night. They don't need to research into a story as the events write the story itself. Hey, in music it's very easy to write a love song, but more challenging to write something else. Well I refuse to write a love song by pursuing the Antonio Davis issue.

Just remember there's always two sides to a story. You can believe the initial reports that a drunk/crazy fan was a threat to Davis's wife or you can believe that the wife has a history of confrontation and could have possibly started the whole incident. Not to be too preachy, just look and listen to both sides...