Heard It Through the Grapevine
Posted by Rob Mahoney on February 22, 2010 under The Grapevine | 
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- The new look Mavs have yet to go through a full practice together, and yet they’re still improving. Terrific.
- On Frisco’s current President of Basketball Operations Spud Webb’s performance in the 1986 slam dunk contest: “I totally remember he was like 3-foot-5-inches tall and he did this amazing 180-degree reverse double-pump slam,” Hawks fan Eric Davis said of the 5-foot-7 Webb, who was 4-foot-9 and dunked from the foul line the last time Davis told the story. “Spud really wasn’t much bigger than a basketball. He just blew everybody away in the final round when he rode into the arena on a hamster, ripped off his G.I. Joe doll uniform warm-up pants, threw the ball at the backboard, ran between a small child’s legs, jumped up to Dominique Wilkins’ palm, and springboarded off it to do a 360-degree two-handed dunk.”
- Go here, right now, and play with one of the neatest NBA toys the internet has to offer.
- It’s possible that Zydrunas Ilgauskas may not find his way back to Cleveland after all, despite the fact that he’s negotiating a buyout with the Wizards. Salary cap expert Larry Coon likes Dallas as the dark horse to obtain Z’s services, but Donnie Nelson doesn’t seem to consider it a possibility.
- Josh Howard responds, again, after claiming that he’ll refuse to respond to the allegations that he missed a regular season Mavericks game due to a hangover. Here’s Josh, via Holly MacKenzie of The Score’s Nothing Easy blog: “It makes me wonder. It makes me wonder, what was all of the hard work for, but it was for myself at the end of the day. It’s kind of sad, hearing all of the lies coming out of there. Especially when I’m gone. Why would you want to talk about a guy who did so much for your organization and he’s gone?”
- When J.R. Smith meets James Singleton, and when J.R. Smith’s shot meets James Singleton’s swat. The Mavs-Wiz trade is just a week old, and James has already made quite the impression in Washington.
- Another “fan” of the Mavs’ trade with the Wizards: Jerry Sloan.