C.J. Miles or “Jilla” is supplementing his NBA income by making a guest appearance on the mixtape of former teammate Dee Brown. The tape, “Unwritten”, was supposed to come out last year, but was put on hold until Brown handled some business in Europe.

C.J. Miles has a myspace page, but there’s not a lot going on there. Dee Brown’s website looks pretty good, as it should, with all of Dee’s free time. The mixtape will probably be pushed back indefinitely since Brown is still looking to catch on with a team, and a rapping fringe player doesn’t appeal to NBA squads.

Here’s another track from Dee Brown’s mixtape. C.J. Miles isn’t the only former teammate to rep on “Unwritten”. Check out the open by Derek Fisher.

C.J. Miles, Dee Brown, mixtape, NBA

Now that one of the greatest regular seasons in NBA history is finished it’s time for the 2007-08 playoffs to take us to the next level. Other than Celtics/Hawks, the match-ups should give us entertaining basketball. All of the series won’t go seven games, but the level of competition will be at an all-time high.

I’m only gonna post my first round predictions right now, but my entire NBA Playoffs bracket will be over at Ball Hype. They’re having an NBA Playoffs Pick ‘Em Contest that’s free to enter, and the top prize is an iPod touch. I have the Eastern Conference sticking to the script for the most part, but deciding the Western Conference was painful..

Here are my first round picks:

Eastern Conference:

(1)Boston 4 (8)Atlanta 0: The Hawks can hang their hat on the fact that they made the playoffs. After getting swept out, they should fire Mike Woodson and start getting ready for next season. The Cs will wanna handle their biz and rest for..

(4)Cleveland 4 (5)Washington 3: The best series in the EC’s first round and you know how it goes.. Same two teams, same result. Gilbert trash talking King James isn’t helping the Wizards’ chances. I was probably leaning towards Washington until Gilbert went off.. But if anybody was gonna back it up, it’s Agent Zero.
(2)Detroit 4 (7)Philadelphia 1: I’m a diehard Sixers fan and I’m pulling for the upset but I gotta be real. This squad is too young to do anything but steal a game from the Pistons.. I might pop bottles if they take two games.

Looking to the future, what’s the front office gonna do about beefing up the lineup? They need to add more firepower and size to build on the gains made this season. Andre Iguodala, Andre Miller, Samuel Dalembert, and Thaddeus Young make a good nucleus. Willie Green, Louis Williams, and Reggie Evans should contribute to a nice bench. Even though the Eastern Conference is regarded as weak, things are getting a lot tougher and the Sixers need to plan accordingly.

LeBron’s always in contention, the Bulls will eventually figure it out, the Celtics and Pistons have cores they can count on for a few more years, Washington’s group looks like they’ll be staying together, Miami has D-Wade and Marion as a foundation, Dwight Howard is a force to be reckoned with, the Raptors have better young talent, Indiana should be better next year, and the Hawks look like they’re headed in the right direction. Unless the franchise is content with squeaking in the playoffs and making a first round exit, they need to get aggressive in the offseason.. Elton Brand aggressive.

(3)Orlando 4 (6)Toronto 2: Who is this? Oh yeah, the Orlando Magic.. They haven’t been talked about since Dwight Howard did the Superman dunk, but they quietly won 52 games. Howard, Hedo Turkoglu (should be the Most Improved Player), and Rashard Lewis give the Magic one of the best frontcourts in basketball. They should cruise past the Raptors.

Western Conference:

(1)Los Angeles 4 (8)Denver 3 : Can the Nuggets do what the Warriors did last year and eliminate the number one seed? It would be called an upset, but shouldn’t we expect a team that has two number one overall picks, a second overall pick, and a third (shoulda been second) overall pick in the starting lineup to go deep into the playoffs? I see some 130-121 games and Denver’s inability to get key stops hurting them more than the Lakers inability to get key stops.

(4)Utah 4 (5)Houston 3: Man… If there’s ever a pick I wanted to be wrong about. I think the Jazz are the better team, but for T-Mac’s sanity I wouldn’t mind if the Rockets won the series. Last year, I tried to use The Secret to help Houston and it obviously didn’t work. This year, the Rockets should get Benedict XVI to swing through H-Town and hit ‘em with some Pope Juice.

(6)Phoenix 4 (3)San Antonio 3: Either Shaq or Tim Duncan have appeared in every NBA finals since the Bulls sixth championship in 1998, and 10 of the last 14. They’ve both picked up four rings along the way, but with all of that said, Amare Stoudemire will dominate this series. He’s always a beast against the Spurs in the playoffs and with Shaq giving him more freedom on offense I see Phoenix riding Stat to the second round.

(7)Dallas 4 (2)New Orleans 2: The Mavericks get a chance to play the underdog upset role this postseason. It’s not gonna erase what happened last year, and with the competitiveness of the Western Conference this year, it shouldn’t be surprise if the team with the reigning MVP and Jason Kidd beats a team with no playoff experience.

Follow The NBA Playoffs On The Sphere:
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Tags: NBA, Playoffs, Watch Free Online, Sports

Shaquille O’Neal has missed over 25% of the Miami Heats’ games this season, and he’s gonna miss the all-star game for the first time in 14 years. All of the people that didn’t like Shaq from jump are finally getting their chance to say I told you so… Yes. 16 years and 4 championships later, you finally told us so.. Since Shaq can’t get on the floor with the Heat, he’s helping another one of his teams off the court.

Halcyon Jets Holdings, Inc. has announced the next initiative in its celebrity-driven branding campaign with a “Team Shaq” appearance of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal at the upcoming Supercar Weekend exhibition of spectacular automobiles and vintage race cars, scheduled for this weekend in West Palm, Florida.

Halcyon will host a VIP reception, highlighted by an appearance by Mr. O’Neal, at the Gramercy Court, on the West Palm Beach waterfront. Mr. O’Neal is the force behind Halcyon’s “Team Shaq” sports and entertainment marketing efforts.

I don’t wanna tell Shaq how to spend his time, but with his injuries and the Heat’s play, partying with airline ballers isn’t a good look. At the same time, he’s looking to lose a grip in the divorce so he’s probably trying to pick up all of the loose change he can.

You’ve never heard of Halcyon Jets unless you’re living the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Their website states “Halcyon Jets represents a refreshing, new approach to luxury executive private jet travel“… Which is the exact opposite claim of any airline I can afford to fly. Hopefully I can get my money right one day so I can see what all the hype’s about. If the flights are good enough to make Carlos Boozer write about them, I wanna try it out.

Halcyon Jets team Shaq. Courtesy of 4 Hoteliers

Tags: Shaquille O’Neal, Miami Heat, NBA, Basketball

After being drafted by the Utah Jazz in 1993 it was all downhill for Luther Wright. His first season was bad, I mean really bad.. He averaged 1.3 points and .7 rebounds, and in January 1994 Luther experienced his first manic episode. He entered a mental institution after the season and never suited up for the Jazz again. Wright moved back to his home state of New Jersey where he got caught up in drugs and alcohol. The absolute low point came after Luther had two toes amputated at the hospital while high and crack, and instead of staying off of his feet, he hobbled back to a crackhouse on crutches.

Wright, a man that admits his size had more to do with him playing basketball than his desire, has started to pull himself together. He’s not working but he is engaged and recently learned that 2 of the children he was paying child support for aren’t his.

It was his size, 6′8″ in the 8th grade, that got him into Seton Hall and eventually into the NBA. All too often we deem athletes larger than life, immune to weaknesses, and time after time we are proven wrong. I’m hoping Luther Wright is big and strong enough to pull through this.

At rock bottom, Luther Wright finds salvation. Courtesy of The Desert News via The Newark Star Ledger

Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Brown of the Newark Star Ledger

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Congrats to the Utah Jazz for moving on to the Western conference finals. The Jazz closed their series against Golden State with a 100-87 game five victory. Utah already defeated my Secret team, and now they’ve taken down Cinderella. These are my Utah Jazz highlights from the series:

•  Derek Fisher showing incredible fortitude and heart after everything he’s been through.
• Carlos Boozer opening the eyes of the people that didn’t know about him. He was serving people for the second straight series. 
• Jerry Sloan getting Utah to the Conference finals again. He’s never been coach of the year?!?!
• Deron Williams playing like a vet. Game 5 notwithstanding.
• Mehmet Okur, Paul Millsap, Matt Harpring, and Gordon Giricek playing their roles well.
• Andrei Kirilenko leaving his tears in the first round and causing havoc for Golden State’s offense.

I don’t know anybody that’s not impressed with Utah. When the Jazz got out to the hot start at the beginning of the season, a lot of people didn’t believe they were for real. I was one of those people. The lack of playoff experience from key players had me thinking Utah would flame out in the playoffs regardless of their record. I admit it… I was wrong. Another thing I was wrong about is Utah’s style of play. I didn’t get to see them too much this season so I assumed they were a slow it down, grind it out type of team. They can play that way, but they just proved in the G. State series that they can run up and down the court too.

As far as Golden State is concerned, what can I say? They pulled off the great upset in round 1, but seemed to be out of gas and definitely over matched in round 2. Baron Davis put the league on notice for next season, and Stephen Jackson proved that the Kings have to trade Artest just to put some miles between Jackson and Ron-Ron. The unfortunate thing is, G. State was in game 5 until they started acting like the 3 point line was an alligator infested moat protected by a 12 foot, 100,000 watt electric fence. I couldn’t believe how the Warriors would stop at the line and jack a three whether they were on a fast break or 1 second into the shot clock. The Warriors need to grow up too. All of the complaining, technical fouls, and cheap shots really put G. State’s nice postseason story in an ugly light.

So again, congrats to the Utah Jazz. The winner of the Suns/Spurs series is going to have it’s hands full in the conference finals.

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I hope you didn’t buy an Akili Smith jersey. Thank you Just Call Me Juice

Lindsay Lohan nip slip. Thank you Larry Brown Sports (NSFW)

An unhappy mother’s day in the bay. Thank you Golden State of Mind

Visual proof that the Spurs are a dirty team. Thank you Miss Gossip at AOL Fanhouse

Rapper The Game released from jail. Thank you All Hip Hop

The rich get richer in Utah. Thank you Our Book of Scrap

The real worth of your favorite baseball team. Thank you The Hardball Times

Shaun Livingston is walking again, fiending for snack food. Thank you Yay Sports

Suge Knight is shooting.. a reality tv show. Thank you XXL

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Utah’s Dee Brown is out of the hospital. Thank you B. Shoals at AOL Fanhouse

The most mediocre baseball players of all time. Thank you The Smittblog

The Top 25 Hip Hop albums of all time. Thank you Straight Bangin (scroll down)

Pee your pants for the Brewers. Thank you Pee Your Pants For The Brewers

The Mav’s collapse was predictable. Thank you Hoops Hype (Eddie Johnson blog)

Take a look at these golf babes. Thank you Golf Babes

Freddy Roach got paid to train Oscar De La Hoya but it still cost him. Thank you Max Boxing

Chris Rock, Never Scared, “tired of defending Hip Hop” flashback. Thank you Nobody Smiling (NSFW language)

Yankees pitcher Chien Ming Wang gets his groove on. Thank you Matt at AOL Fanhouse

**UPDATE** I’m not sure how I missed this but The Starting Five has a good and lengthy interview with Dave Zirin. Great stuff in this interview. **UPDATE**

Props to Ball Hype for making this easy to put together.

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Game two between Utah and Golden State was more exciting than game one. Deron Williams picked up 2 fouls right before the game tipped off. Dee Brown, Williams’ back-up, was lost in the first quarter to a neck injury when Mehmet Okur fell on him. The Warriors played their uptempo style, led by the increasingly impressive Baron Davis with help from Richardson, Barnes, Harrington, and Jackson (what the hell is up with Monta Ellis?!?). Carlos Boozer continuesto clown Cleveland with his play, and Andrei Kirilenko looks like a completely different player from round 1. It took overtime to decide the game.. Utah came out on top 127-117.

The Jazz fans are doing their best to be a factor in the series, but who’s idea were those powder blue t-shirts? I kept expecting Roy Williams and the Tarheels to take the floor at some point. I don’t know how it goes down in Utah but pastels are not intimidating. I do know Golden St. can’t wait to get home, back to Oakland, back to the bright yellow tees and the craziness of the Oracle.

The game was great, but that’s not the story. The story is Derek Fisher. D-Fish missed game one and arrived at game two late in the 3rd quarter because he was dealing with a family issue. His 10 month old daughter Tatum was suffering from retinoblastoma, a form of eye cancer that required a combination of surgery and chemotherapy. Tatum had several hours of surgery in New York on Wednesday, and I’m happy to be able to say that the surgery was a success by all accounts. Things went so well that the family travelled back to Utah with baby Tatum Wednesday night.

Derek’s flight landed in Salt Lake City and he was whisked to the game, led by a police escort. He didn’t get a chance to warm-up or anything.. He entered the arena to a standing ovation and went directly to the scorers’ table to check in.

Fisher played great defense down the stretch of the game, and scored all 5 of his points in the extra session. He didn’t have the statistical game of his career but his presence was bigger than anything that happened on the court. Derek couldn’t put the experience into words after the game:

“I don’t know how I got through this tonight. I really don’t. My daughter’s doing very well. We had a successful operation in New York and I flew back, got off the plane, came to the game. I’m speechless.”

I don’t know how he got through it either. If you didn’t feel for Fish watching his post game interview then you’re a robot or completely heartless. It was a tremendous and special moment.

I hope this puts to rest all of the speculation about why Fisher missed game one. I can check a number of things through my blog stats. I can see how many views an individual post gets, I can see what sites link to my blog. I can also check what search engine terms people use to find my site. I was disappointed by these:

• Derek Fisher suspended
• Derek Fisher marriages problems
• Derek Fisher arrest

I hope the people that were expecting the worst of a genuinely good guy feel like jackasses now. The truth is out, the verdict is in, Derek Fisher is a MAN.

Thoughts and prayers to the Fisher family.

Pure Hollywood. Courtesy of ESPN.com True Hoop

Retinoblastoma. Courtesy of Web MD

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While the Eastern Conference has Detroit rolling Chicago and the who cares fest of New Jersey and Cleveland, the Western Conference is getting busy. The Suns/Spurs series is being billed as the NBA championship, and Golden State v. Utah got off to an electrifying start.

The Warriors began game 1 in Utah like they ended game 6 in Oakland… Ripping and running, shooting 3s, and getting their And1 on. The Jazz were able to weather the storm even though they trailed by 3, 66-63, at the half. The point guards in this series, Baron Davis and Deron Williams, are giving me flashbacks of Tim Hardaway and John Stockton. Carlos Boozer was a beast down low for Utah (17pts, 20rbds), and Stephen Jackson, well, he’s being Stephen Jackson(16pts, 4ast, 3stls, 12 scowls).

The tempo of the game was up to say the least. Even though both teams were dedicated to pushing the rock there was a little defense played. Kirilenko had 7 blocks and 0 cries while Andris Biedrins had 2 blocks and 3 steals. The most amazing part of the game was Al Harrington’s re-emergence as a member of the Warriors. Harrington carried the Warriors in the 1st quarter with 3 3pt shots, and I was surprised he didn’t get a little more time on the floor.

If the Western Conference can give us 12 more games like the first two of the semis, it’ll more than make up for the Leastern side. While I’m dissing the East, would any of you be surprised if the Pistons won it all? I wouldn’t.

If you missed the Jazz/Warriors game, and you didn’t get a chance to see the highlights, watch the video below for a recap. Utah’s the one in all black.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYxB4iQWOJ8&mode=related&search=]

The actual game was just like that. The two teams went toe to toe and traded blows right down to the end.

This next scrap didn’t work out so well for Jazz fans.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfqHZsz270Q]

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I’m not even a real Rockets fan and my stomach is in knots. Houston had the perfect opportunity to shutdown this series and they let it slip right through their hands.. Literally.. Turnover after turnover.. Bad shot after bad shot. It was like they said “hey we could win now, but let’s wait till we get home and share this with the fans”. At least that’s what I’m hoping they were thinking.

I tried to be as positive as possible about game 6 and I thought it was working… 75-74, Utah in the lead, Houston has the ball with 8:15 left in the game.. Things were looking really good. Then Kirilenko decided to wake up. Andrei blocked a Juwan Howard gimme layup, forced a T-Mac turnover, and blocked a McGrady drive to the basket. Even with all of that, the Rockets were still in good position down 77-76, 4:45 left in the game… Little did I know, Utah would go on a 17-6 run to close the game. So close. So frustrating.

Game 7. I don’t care what Tracy says, this is the biggest game of his career. This is his latest attempt to move on to the 2nd round so this has to be the most important game for him. Before this series started McGrady said it’s all on him. I’m gonna stick with that. Tracy, do this for you. Do it for Houston… And positively do it for my blog. A game 7 at home with the chance to shake off your playoff demons is all the motivation you need.

Rockets and Jazz game 6 play by play. Thank you ESPN.com

The Law of Attraction and the Houston Rockets. Thank me

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