The rumor about the Phoenix Suns trading Shaquille O’Neal to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Sasha Pavlovic and Ben Wallace is now a reality. The Big Shaqulier is packing his bags once again, and will team with LeBron James to hopefully get the king his first ring like O’Neal did for Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade.

From ESPN.com:

The deal has been agreed to in principle and is expected to be finalized Thursday, according to sources.

Cleveland will send Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic to Phoenix for the future Hall of Famer. Sources said the Suns will also receive the 46th pick in Thursday’s NBA draft and $500,000.

So where does the move leave us? LeBron has a big that can battle Dwight Howard, but Shaq will turn 38 this season and seems to always be in foul trouble. Cleveland’s gonna be tougher but they still need a wingman (somebody like Shawn Marion) to run with LeBron. It’s gonna take more than LeBron and Shaq to get past Boston, Orlando, and the Western champion.

The Dallas Cowboys made the only significant trade deadline move by acquiring wide receiver Roy Williams from the Detroit Lions for first, third, and sixth round picks in the 2009 draft. The trade wasn’t completely one-sided.. The Lions threw in a seventh round draft pick.

Williams is a good player, but I don’t think there’s a receiver in the league worth a first, third, and sixth round pick. Former Cowboy and current member of the NFL Network Deion Sanders didn’t like the trade for numerous reasons.

From NFL.com:

“Don’t like it one bit,” Sanders said. “First of all, it raises your eyebrows when a franchise gives up their best player, their best receiver. There’s a problem there. What’s the problem? I don’t understand. I’ve done my homework, checked on Roy. I don’t think Roy’s the hardest worker inside that Detroit Lion locker room that’s coming over here. Now, is he ready to play second fiddle? Because T.O. is the man in Dallas. Is he ready to do that? Is he losing speed? Can he get deep? What do they need?

“You give up a 1, a 3 and a 6 for Roy Williams when there’s a guy, Chad Johnson, who’s begging to get out of Cincinnati. I’m sure Cincinnati could accept a 1, 3 and 6….

“I smell panic, and there’s no need to panic at this time. Because this is still a good team, but I feel like Jason Garrett may have gone to Jerry Jones [and said], ‘You know what? We need another receiver.’ Tony Romo: ‘You know what? We need another receiver.’ Instead of understanding, well, Jason, they might have caught up to your offense from last year. Tony, get rid of the ball every once in a while. Let’s tell the truth to these guys. Let’s quit pacifying them.”

Deion blew up Roy Williams, Tony Romo, and offensive coordinator Jason Garrett on his way to saying he doesn’t like the deal. I agree with Primetime when he calls it a panic move. The Cowboys have enough serviceable wide receivers plus Jason Witten for the passing game to be fine. All Roy Williams adds to the team is another guy for Terrell Owens to be jealous of.

Manny Ramirez was shipped from the Boston Red Sox to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three team deal that saw Jason Bay land in Beantown. Man-Ram finally got the trade he was seeking, and can be seen is this video leaving Fenway Park for the last time. Manny’s bat will help the Dodgers offense tremendously, but the clubhouse could be a disaster with Jeff Kent and Manny Ramirez sharing space.

Manny Ramirez, Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, Los Angeles Dodgers, video

Props to Big League Stew for this picture of Manny Ramirez and his thoughts on being traded. You gotta give it to Manny, that’s funny. Too bad the Green Bay Packers are reportedly offering Brett Favre $20 million to stay retired because I can already picture Manny Ramirez doing the Lambeau leap.

The Major League Baseball trade deadline is 4 p.m. ET, and my money says the deadline will come and go without Manny Ramirez changing teams.. Even if Manny is trying to talk his way out of Boston.

“The Red Sox don’t deserve a player like me. During my years here, I’ve seen how they [the Red Sox] have mistreated other great players when they didn’t want them to try to turn the fans against them.

“The Red Sox did the same with guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez, and now they do the same with me. Their goal is to paint me as the bad guy. I love Boston fans, but the Red Sox don’t deserve me. I’m not talking about money. Mental peace has no price, and I don’t have peace here.”

That’s some solid “get me the hell outta here” shit talking, but will it do Manny any good? If Ramirez gets traded his on the field situation won’t be better than the one he’s in now. Mental peace is important, and if Manny gets traded he’ll probably be able to start resting his mind at the end of September.

Manny Ramirez, Boston Red Sox, Brett Favre, Green Bay Packers, picture

Ron Artest is on an emailing rampage since installing himself as his own agent. First, Ron sent messages back and forth with Marc Stein of Espn over the weekend. Artest said there’s no love between him and the team, the Maloofs say it’s all good.

If the Kings are looking to move Artest they can scratch the Denver Nuggets from the list of trade partners. Even though Ron was rumored to be headed to the Rocky Mountains at February’s trade deadline he has no interest in playing for the Nuggets now.

Artest exchanged a series of emails with the Rocky Mountain News explaining his stance.

“I cannot play in Denver because they question my drive to finish my career off strong and not embarrass my family,”

“That’s not even an option to be a Nugget,” he wrote. “They let me know how they felt about me already.”

Ron is trying to say or do whatever he can that gets him closer to the Los Angeles Lakers. He would’ve had leverage if he had opted out of his deal. As it is now, Ron Artest is gonna end up on the team that offers the Sacramento Kings the most in return.

Ron Artest, Sacramento Kings, trade talk, Denver Nuggets

I thought the Shaquille O’Neal as a jockey commercial during the Super Bowl was one of the better commercials.. Based on the visual of big ass Shaq riding a horse.. I like to think of Shaq being a jockey as a metaphor. The horse actually represents Dwyane Wade or Steve Nash.. And the finish line represents the NBA championship.. Meaning, the only way Shaq gets the prize is on the back of somebody else.

Check out how the conversation that Steve Nash and Leandro Barbosa will be having whenever Shaq puts on his new Suns uniform:

Tags: Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Nash, Dwyane Wade, Leandro Barbosa, NBA, youtube, commercials, utube

Talk about coming out of nowhere. The Los Angeles Lakers were able to acquire Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies for Kwame Brown’s expiring contract, rookie point guard Javaris Crittenton, and first round draft picks in 2008 and 2010. With a healthy lineup consisting of Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, and Pau Gasol, the Los Angeles Lakers are a really, really legit Western Conference finals team.

Gasol traded to Lakers. Courtesy of the Memphis CommercialAppeal.com

Tags: Pau Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers, Kwame Brown

I was watching NBA Shootaround on Friday night while waiting for the Warriors/Jazz game to get started. Stephen A. Smith dropped some interesting information:

I’ve spoke to several people in the league, believe it or not Kobe does have an abundance of friends in this league contrary to popular belief and they all said to me, you know what, he is completely disgusted and you can’t even measure the level of hostility he’s feeling towards the Lakers organization right now.

Go on…..

Listen to this.. Kobe Bryant, ever since he resigned with the Los Angeles Lakers, according to everything that I’ve heard he wanted Baron Davis before he got traded to Golden State. They didn’t get him. He had an opportunity to, they didn’t get him. He wanted Carlos Boozer because Larry Miller, the owner of the Utah Jazz, was on the outs with Carlos Boozer, they wanted to move him, the Lakers didn’t get him. He wanted Ron Artest, they didn’t get him. And then even when Kwaaameee Broooown was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for his best friend on the team at the time, Caron Butler, he didn’t learn about it until after the trade was consumated. Having spoken to Mitch Kupchak, the general manager for the Los Angeles Lakers in fairness to him, couldn’t reach Kobe earlier in the day, but I’m telling you everything that I’ve been hearing, if you think for one second that he is in love with Los Angeles, he loves winning more than he loves Southern California. He almost went to Chicago in a sign and trade, tried to force a sign and trade before he signed. You understand? He has absolutely no problem leaving if the Los Angeles Lakers, specifically owner Jerry Buss doesn’t get his act together. Do not be surprised at all if this stuff continues if Kobe Bryant some time around next year is asking to be traded.

 Now let’s be real.. Kobe’s not leaving the Lakers. Mitch Kupchak won’t let that happen. Not that he couldn’t let it happen, he has turned the Lakers  from contenders to first round whipping boys of the West elite, but he’s not gonna let Kobe get away. This has all the makings of a well timed leak of information from the Kobe camp. Like Stephen A. said, Kobe did talk about going to Chicago, and there were also the Suns and Clippers rumors when Kobe was a free agent. He didn’t leave then and he’s not leaving now.

The heir apparent to the Laker ownership throne, Jim Buss (son of Jerry) was on AM570 in Los Angeles this week and said not so fast on the Kobe trade talk:

Bryant needs to be aware that any trade involving him would require the other team to surrender its best player. For example, trading Bryant to Cleveland would cost the Cavaliers LeBron James. Any trade would markedly weaken Bryant’s new team, giving him no greater guarantee of a championship than he has with the Lakers.

Well.. That seems to take a little steam out of the Kobe trade talks, but KB can opt out of his deal in two years. He was asked about that in this exit interview and had this to say:

I’ve been a Laker fan my whole life. I hate to even think about me going someplace else.”

Notice he didn’t say “I won’t go someplace else”, he said he would hate to think about it. If the Lakers front office sits on their hands this offseason, I’m sure Kobe won’t mind entertaining the idea of bouncing.

I would bet the house that L.A. is gonna go out this summer and make a huge deal. Jerry West is no longer with Memphis so maybe he can do some consulting.. Teach Mitch how to pull off some of those miracle deals. I don’t know if it’ll be K.G., Jermaine O’neal, Jason Kidd, or any other name we’ve heard over the past few years but something is gonna happen. I would try to hold on to Lamar and Luke Walton (free agent), but I would trade anybody, ANYBODY, anybody else on the roster to become an elite team. Yes even Andrew Bynum. The young fella has shown some flashes but by the time he’s fulfiling his potential (if ever) Kobe will have some serious miles on his body. Mitch Kupchak and the Lakers don’t have that kind of time.

**YBB Kobe Update 5-29-07**

Meet the new Buss. Courtesy of the LA Times

Report Card/Exit Interview: Kobe Bryant. Courtesy of the LA Times

Listen to Kobe’s Exit Interview here.

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