It’s not often that I get to write about my local D-League NBA Austin Toros, so I’m taking every opportunity I can get. Here’s Chris Roberts of the Toros making 7-foot-5 Sioux Falls Skyforce player Will Foster look like the 4-foot-11 nobody who plays for nobody with a monster dunk. Just brutal. Go Toros! Keep doing things so I can write about them! (via Reddit)

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The Dallas Mavericks have assigned Lamar Odom to their D-League affiliate, the Texas Legends, on what’s being called a “rehab stint” to “get his legs back under him”. Some view the demotion as a way to remove Khloe Kardashian from the sports landscape like one might remove a clump of cat urine from a rancid litter box, while others see it as a pretty direct “go away forever for that thing you did with the sex swing“.

From Tracking:

Odom is expected to practice with the Texas Legends on Friday afternoon and play Saturday, at home against the Austin Toros. Meanwhile, the Mavs’ big club plays at New Orleans on Friday night. The team has already announced that Odom won’t make the trip.

Odom is in the twilight of his career and has been around the league for 12 years, so he’d be a great fit in Boston. He could end up being sent to Phoenix in exchange for Steve Nash (because Jason Kidd can’t be the wise old point guard forever), or maybe he’ll just get bought out by the Mavs and see how long the Kardashians keep him on their shows when his job is “ex-basketball star”.

Or, you know, best case scenario, he could use his time with the Legends to refocus his life, work on his game, get those legs under him and come back to the league a better, happier player. Yeah, that’s probably not going to happen.

A source told Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas that there’s “a growing feeling in the locker room that Odom might not return at all.”

That’s pretty conservative of them. I would’ve fired dude the second I found out he thought he could get into a sex swing with his underwear on.

I wish more people cared about the NBA Developmental League. To the NBA fan, the D-League is an afterthought. To Austin sports fans, our D-League team (the Austin Toros) are a thing you suddenly realize exists when you’re complaining about how we lost our soccer team to Orlando. Personally, I love the Toros. They play okay basketball! Their mascot is a hip-hop dancing camouflage bull!

Maybe what the D-League needs to help its image are more videos like this one, featuring highlights of the annual NBADL slam dunk contest. LD Williams, Chris Roberts, Zach Andrews and Courtney Eldenson put on a fun, awesome show that managed to obliterate the NBA’s Jumping Over Guys Repeatedly boredom contest and gave us the best Grandmama moment since she helped Eddie Winslow win a basketball game 20 years ago.

And yeah, this contest features someone getting jumped over, too (I kept hoping someone would try to dunk over a 1990 Toyota Corolla), but LD Williams’ dunk at the 0:50 mark single-handedly f**ks up the NBA’s Christmas. Let’s get behind these guys, nerds.

[h/t Cosby Sweaters]

When a prospect for the NBA Draft, or any draft for that matter, is deemed to have “character issues,” there should be some sort of relative scale to determine what sort of issues they have. Do they have Ron Artest’s insanity? JaMarcus Russell’s promethazine codeine induced laziness? Maybe they have Todd Marinovich’s love of heroin, or Michael Vick’s love of animal cruelty. Either way, few prospects came with as many warning labels as Sacramento Kings rookie, DeMarcus Cousins. Despite being considered too immature to play in the NBA by many scouts, the Kings took Cousins fifth overall in last summer’s draft, a decision they may soon regret if they decide to demote him to the NBADL.

The possibility is increasing that the Kings will have serious conversations about sending DeMarcus Cousins, the No. 5 pick in June and projected future starting center, to the NBA Development League. Kicking him out of practice hasn’t changed his sloppy focus, fining him hasn’t improved his attitude and, most recently, pulling him from the opening lineup Thursday against the Bucks for giving a choke sign to the Warriors two nights earlier hasn’t nudged him in the right direction. So, some quality time with the Reno Bighorns becomes a growing thought.
–Hang Time Blog

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