The Weekside: Why Shaq and Scottie Pippen should stay off social media

Around the Association

Boston Celtics

New Celtics forward David Lee bought lots of Mexican food for the staffers in Golden State before he departed.

Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets passed up four first-round picks to keep Frank Kaminsky, according to Zach Lowe of Grantland. This sounds preposterous. Four is way more than one, according to my math. But team exec Curtis Polk offers some King Robert Bartheon-esque perspective that makes you re-think the arithmetic  “You have two minutes to decide: ‘Do I want to do this trade?’ You don’t have a day. You don’t have hours … In fantasy basketball, it sounds great: ‘Oh my God, they could have gotten all those picks.’ But in the real world, I’m not sure it makes us better.”

Chicago Bulls

Reminder.

Houston Rockets

Some say James Harden and his beard should be thrown into the sea. Well, at least he would have friends.

Indiana Pacers

The Pacers best five players include three combo guards and two small forwards, one of whom shattered his leg on national television less than a year ago and is expected to start at power forward despite looking like broom stick who has yardsticks for arms. Good times.

Los Angeles Clippers

Paul Pierce pitches.

Miami Heat

Amare Stoudemire, whose salary has dropped from $20.9 million to $1.5 million, leads Hoop Rumors’ list of players who will make less this year than last. Jeremy Lin ($12.8 million drop), David West ($10.5 million), Andrea Bargnani ($10.1 million), and Deron Williams ($8.9 million) round out the top five. Though their previously high pay rates aren’t entirely due to this fact, it is interesting that four of those guys have played in one of New York’s boroughs.

Milwaukee Bucks

With Houston Rockets’ new point guard Ty Lawson currently in rehab for alcohol abuse, the case of former Bucks forward Vin Baker shows how deeply addiction can derail a life. The four-time All-Star reportedly earned nearly $100 million in gross salary in his career, but is now training to manage a Starbucks in Rhode Island due to what he told Steven Gaither of the Sporting News were bad decisions. “When you make choices and decisions and think that it will never end, and then you get into spending and addiction and more spending, it’s a definite formula for losing. If you don’t have perspective in your personal life and you don’t understand what this $1 million or $15 million means, it will go.”

New Orleans Pelicans

Anthony Davis told TMZ he turned down Dancing With the Stars, via Ball Don’t Lie: “I’ve seen a couple of players on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ or just athletes, not even NBA players. I actually got asked to do it, but I can’t dance, so I don’t want to embarrass myself.”

Orlando Magic

Mr. 540 himself, Victor Oladipo, dropped by ESPN to dunk on fools.

Sacramento Kings

https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/626057686988255233

Usually, it’s the Memphis Grizzlies who are in the mud, but DeMarcus Cousins and Omri Casspi recently took some time out of their day to take a dirt bag.

San Antonio Spurs

Here’s a context-less item from a newspaper that should make you want to read more: “Spurs Jesus then tackled Medina and tried to subdue him, according to the paper. Medina was able to squirm away just as police arrived, reportedly jumping into the river a second time and attempting to hide from officers in a patch of tall grass.”

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