August 19, 2011

Elton Brand helped organize a team workout scheduled for next week in Los Angeles and most of the key Sixers have told him they will attend. Andre Iguodala, Evan Turner, Lou Williams and others will fly in, share a hotel, play and work out together and do what they can to get ready for the season.

Whenever that starts, no one is quite sure.

"I can't wait to see where the guys are at," Brand said. "I've been talking to them all summer. They seem to be in shape already in case we get this thing going."
Brand attended an NBPA meeting this week in Los Angeles where the message from union leaders and superstars like Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce was a simple one: Stick together.

"I can't speak for the owner's side, but on the player's side, there's definitely a sense of urgency to meet and talk," Brand said.
Brand, entering the fourth of a five-year contract, said "it's tough to answer" if the Sixers really will open the season Nov. 2 in Toronto.

"I'll have a better feel closer to training camp," Brand said. "As of now, it doesn't look good. It doesn't look good at all. I don't think we're going to start with a normal training camp because the numbers are so far apart. But I think as training camp gets closer, we'll know more if we have to miss games."

Brand hasn't ruled out playing overseas if the lockout drags into the regular season.

If he went abroad, it's not because he needs the cash.

"If the season starts on Jan. 1, I would love to have a leg up on guys," Brand said. "I wouldn't want anyone to have a leg up on me. That's why it's been, as we're inching closer, it's been in my brain. I want to be in peak physical condition when the season starts."

Kobe Bryant insisted on giving some of the team's playoff bonus to two members of the Lakers' video department whose contracts were not renewed after the season. Chris Bodaken and Patrick O'Keefe split about $65,000 of the Lakers' playoff bonus.

Bodaken started with the Lakers as a ball boy in 1986 and spent the last 10 seasons as their director of video services. O'Keefe was the Lakers' video coordinator for six seasons. They both hope to be re-hired by the team when the NBA lockout ends. For now, they are thankful for Bryant's financial gesture.

"He always looks out for people who are lower on the totem pole," O'Keefe said.

Said Bodaken: "At the end of the day, he told us he was going to take care of us and he did, and that's not how most people in the world operate. He not only talks the talk. He walks it."

The Lakers laid off about 20 employees for cost-cutting reasons before the lockout, which has shown no sign of a resolution since it began July 1. The layoffs included assistant general manager Ronnie Lester, four of the team's five athletic trainers and almost the entire scouting staff.

Playoff teams are given a pool of bonus money by the NBA based on how far they advance in the postseason. It's up to each team to determine how the money is split within the franchise, decisions often made by team captains and handed out as playoff "shares."

Typically, an overwhelming majority of the playoff money goes to players, with team employees sometimes receiving smaller sums.

Last spring the Lakers' playoff pool was $604,000.

Bryant and Derek Fisher, Lakers' captains last season, voted to give some of the playoff money to Bodaken and O'Keefe.

Lakers reserve forward Luke Walton took an extra step after the season by providing individual financial gifts to members of the training staff.

"They're a huge part of our team," said Walton, who did not specify how much he gave. "When they got laid off, this was a way to let them know that we appreciate them. It was something to help them through what was already a tough time."

So, when the local Goodman League hosts the Los Angeles-based Drew League in a friendly exhibition to settle which is the best pro-am in the country on Saturday at Trinity University in the District, fans will marvel at seeing Oklahoma City Thunder teammates Kevin Durant and James Harden going one-on-one, Wizards point guard John Wall teaming up with former Kentucky teammate DeMarcus Cousins and Wizards center JaVale McGee providing highlight dunks for a team from the opposite side of the country.

Rawls, however, will revel in how it all came together. And, how it could possibly lead to more of the same elsewhere. “I’m pumped. To be honest with you, I’m more than excited; I’m ecstatic,” Rawls, the longtime commissioner of the Goodman League, said in a telephone interview. “The game is a long time coming. I didn’t think it was going to happen at first, but it’s here.”

Billed as “Capital Punishment,” the game has garnered some national publicity because of the collection of NBA talent expected to participate — especially with the league’s labor dispute leaving many to wonder when players will return to play meaningful games again. Although games at the Goodman League and Drew League are free to the public, organizers sold tickets ranging from $25 to $60 and they have also created a Web site, www.thebasketballchannel.net, that will stream the game on Ustream for $4.99. ESPN and TNT, which broadcast NBA games, were unwilling to partner with them.

Rawls said the money from Saturday’s game would be used to fund the various charities of each non-profit league and to reimburse the players for their plane tickets and lodging. Nike is a partial sponsor for the event.

Greek team Kavala made a big signing today: Patrick O'Bryant. The big man will replace another former NBA player who left the team for Spain, Cedric Simmons.

O'Bryant was selected with the n 9th overall in the 2006 NBA draft by Golden State Warriors and in NBA he has played 90 games averaging 2.1ppg and 1.5rpg in 5.8 minutes on the court.

Former Bradley product was about to sign a deal in China last summer but then he stayed in USA and played in NBDL with Reno BigHorns averaging 9.3ppg, 6.9rpg, 1.2apg, 1.7bpg in 36 games.