Heard It Through the Grapevine

Posted by Rob Mahoney on June 2, 2010 under The Grapevine | Read the First Comment

• Caron Butler was on the Scott Van Pelt Show, where he shot the breeze on the nature of NBA stardom, Kobe Bryant traveling with him to his hometown of Racine, Wisconsin for ribs, and a few Mavs topics (via ESPN Dallas).
• Speaking of Caron, you can now follow him on Twitter at @realtuffjuice.
• Wang Zhizhi listed Britney Spears, N*SYNC, and the Backstreet Boys as his favorite artists for his NBA.com profile. That is all.
• Rodrigue Beaubois made the Team for NBA Hipsters, Dirk Nowitzki was righteous even in defeat, and Caron Butler is apparently a member of Team Edward; there’s lots of fun to be had with Shoals and Ziller in their playoff retrospective.
• Chad Ford says there’s a 10% chance that Dirk ends up on the Phoenix Suns this summer (and a 15-20% chance that Dirk leaves the Mavs). That number seems awfully high to me, but then again Ford was put on the spot with a specific, numerical question in the middle of a chat. My guess of 1.854% probably wouldn’t be any more or less accurate, since dumbing these things down to a percentage is pretty ridiculous. Still, for what it’s worth, there are basketball brains out there that think this is a legit possibility. I still don’t see it.
• ESPN’s Free Agent Slot Machine is nothing more than a neat little distraction, but for what it’s worth, I wasn’t able to get LeBron to wind up on the Mavs in what was probably over 100 spins (though Nick Taylor was, on his fifth roll of the dice). Dallas also isn’t even listed as a possible destination for Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, or Joe Johnson according to ESPN’s experts, leaving James as the only big-name free agent the Mavs have a shot at.