Full Court Press: An Introduction

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Collegian Staff
on November 3, 2009 7:48 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Welcome everyone to the first installment of "Full Court Press," the Collegian's home for coverage of the NBA. I'm Tom Kinslow, one of the Penn State Icers beat writers and I'll be your host for all things related to the Association.

I hope to get some great segments in here for all of you to enjoy. We'll talk about award chases, standings, who's hot and who's not, up-and-coming stars, fantasy sports, you name it, we'll have it. I'm hoping to start a weekly podcast with men's basketball reporter Andrew Robinson so be on the lookout for that, hopefully starting next week.

I greatly encourage all of you out there to contact me. If you click my name at the bottom of each post, it'll link you to my e-mail address and I'd love to hear from you. What you like, what you don't like, what you'd like more of, or just asking questions. I'd love to start doing mailbags answering some of your questions so don't hesitate to shoot me an e-mail.

Just so this isn't a hokey introduction, let's get this started off right with some hoops talk.
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First off, Stephon Marbury. *sigh*. Remember when he was relevant? Those were fun times. Now he's reduced to being kicked out of the Knicks home opener for sitting in the wrong seat. So as Marbury was making his not-so-graceful exit from the premises, he decided to stand up and start filming the action on the court, blocking spectators' view.

When is someone going to get Marbury some help? This summer, as Marbury had a public meltdown on his UStream channel, that culminated with him actually eating Vaseline, everyone pointed and laughed. However, at some point, something needs to be done and someone needs to get this man help before it's too late.
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Let's take a quick look at how the Allen Iverson Experiment is going in Memphis. What? He's already tired of playing off the bench? How many minutes has he played this season? 18? Sounds about right.

Iverson made his Grizzlies debut on Saturday night after battling a torn hamstring and scored 11 points on 5/9 shooting. After the game Iverson made his priorities known.

"I had no problems (with the hamstring)," Iverson said . "I had a problem with my butt from sitting on that bench so long. That's the only thing I got a problem with. Yeah, I'll be disappointed (if he's a sub this season)," Iverson said. "I'm not a reserve basketball player. I've never been a reserve all my life and I'm not going to start looking at myself as a reserve. ... To answer the question, 'No, I'm not a bench player. I'm not a sixth man. Go look at my resume and that will show you I'm not a sixth man."

I see this ending well. I just want to know what Memphis GM Chris Wallace was thinking this offseason.

"Okay, we've got an up-and-coming OJ Mayo who's our two-guard of the future, a promising Marc Gasol in the middle and a stud in Rudy Gay. You know what this team needs? Allen Iverson! He won't dominate the ball, he won't complain about his role, he's perfect!"

Combine that with the Zach Randolph acquisition and now you've got to believe that Memphis was banking on David Stern passing the "Two basketballs on the court at the same time" rule. There aren't enough shots for everyone in Memphis and there never will be, so enjoy the chaos.

Why Iverson believed he would get his shots while playing with Gay, Mayo, Gasol and Randolph is beyond me. Then again, he's naive to think he's anything other than a sixth man at this point so nothing's impossible anymore.

If Iverson truly wanted to win a championship and make the necessary sacrifices, as he said he would when he came to my Detroit Pistons, before proceeding to dismantle them last season, he would have shut up and been happy with his role on the bench (both in Detroit and now in Memphis).

But that's not Iverson, it's never been Iverson and it's why no team worth anything signed him this offseason. It's why he's stuck in Memphis, it's why he'll never win a championship and when it's all said and done, "The Answer" will look in the mirror and have none for why he walked away without a ring on his finger.
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That'll do it for today, make sure to check back tomorrow and every day as we take you around the Association.

- Tom Kinslow

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Dave Miniaci is a senior majoring in journalism and is the Daily Collegian's sports chief. He has previously been sports night chief and a sports copy editor. He has also covered men's rugby, men's track and field and field hockey. He is from New Jersey and is a big Devils fan and proud of both, and he doesn't care if you hold that against him.


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Adam Clark is a senior majoring in journalism and is the Daily Collegian's sports editor. He previously covered fraternity and sorority life, crime and courts and was the Collegian's summer 2009 news/sports editor. His favorite athlete died on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 and his favorite football team is coming off the worst six-year stretch in NFL history. He does hold it against Dave Miniaci that he's from New Jersey.


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Dan Rorabaugh is a senior majoring in sports journalism and minoring in English. He is the sports copy desk chief, and was previously a reporter for the men's rugby, men's cross country, men's volleyball, women's soccer, women's basketball and men's lacrosse teams. Last year, the impossible dream happened - one of his favorite teams, the Phillies, won a championship. Now if only the Eagles could catch some of that magic, he might be able to actually find peace with sports.


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Michael Oplinger is a junior majoring in media studies and political science and the Collegian's assistant sports copy desk chief. He previously covered the men's tennis and men's volleyball teams. Even though he enjoyed the Phillies' World Series victory, he misses the days of Jose Mesa and David Bell.


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Eddie Gentile is a senior majoring in journalism and minoring in history. He works on the sports copy desk and previously has covered the women's tennis team, the Lady Icers and the Penn State baseball team. Gentile is your stereotypical Philly fan - he considers every game a loss until they actually win... and even then he'll probably still be moaning. Go birds.


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David Rung is a senior majoring in journalism and minoring in kinesiology. He works on the sports copy desk and previously has covered the women's swimming team and the men's rugby team. Rung isn't as die hard about pro sports as his sports staff brethren from Philly and Pittsburgh, but he does take pride in being a Red Sox fan before the bandwagon started.