Media ninnies continued: Ken Berger (CBS Sports)

Update

Ninny who uses Jordan to criticize 3 King domination viz. "Miami Scheme Machine" recently hails His Airness the "competitive sociopath."

Ninnyworld: Individual sociopaths, okay. Sociopathic triads, not okay.

Hint to @KBerg_CBS: Sociopathy of any kind is unwise. Jordan is a not a sound nor unbiased judge of "competitive" detachment.

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Earlier

Shorter: Berger snarks Riley for comment praising Miller. Fan cites data supporting Riley. Berger goes all Madonna acting Like A Virgin (read insufferable bombastic diva).

KBerg_CBS: Just saw quote from Pat Riley on #NBA TV calling Mike Miller "the finest perimeter shooter in the game." Has he met Ray Allen?

daleja424: Ray Alen career 3pt% equals 39.6, Mike Miller equals 40.5... just thought I would point that out...

KBerg_CBS: Total makes and attempts, pls?

KBerg_CBS: Can't call Miller finest shooter in game as long as Ray Allen is still participating in said game. Period.

Actually we can, so long as Steve Nash and more than two dozen others over the last 3 x seasons who've shot the 3PT rock as well or better than Allen are included. Period.

Otherwise, to answer Berger's question with a question, has Riley met Ray Allen? Couldn't say. Has Berger met his alter ego? One and same.

Reminder to self: the media is not your friend

Reminder to players: the media is never your friend.

NBA Fanhouse misquoting Wade comment in a rush to publish first:

"We’re going to be wearing a bullseye. But that’s what you play for. If we lose a couple in a row this season, it will be like the World Trade (Center) is coming down again."

NBA Fanhouse correcting Wade comment in a rush to cover ass:

"We're going to be wearing a bullseye. But that's what you play for," Wade said. "We enjoy the bullseye. Plus, there's going to be times when we lose 2-3 games in a row, and it seems like the world has crashed down. You all [the media] are going to make it seem like the World Trade is coming down again, but it's [losing] not going to be nothing but a couple basketball games.

So, right on cue, "the media" turns Wade's actual and misquoted comment into, what else? Reality. A PR disaster of 9/11 World Trade Center proportion.

By their clucking account, Wade's prophecy predicting media cluckers would overhype any Heat failure into epic calamity is itself a calamity deserving clucking condemnation not because Wade placed basketball failure exactly where it belongs: "Losing is not going to be nothing but a couple basketball games"-- but because Wade had the audacity to chide media cluckers for  cluckish, flockish, excessive, hysterical, parasitical, predatorial, pathologically hypocritical vindictive chicken$h_t behavior. Go figure.

Howard Beck (New York Times):

Good advice RT @gothamli somehow doesn't make it any better... Don't EVER bring up 9/11 in a sports story no matter what the context is

Steve Aschburner (SI):

Some phrases - "World Trade," "Holocaust," "slavery" - too off-charts grave + disproportionate for use in pop culture, esp. sports. Period.

And, of course, our favorite Fishhead (yeah, that Fishhead):

rule of thumb for sports interviewers and -ees: Use 'Nazis,' 'Slavery,' 'Rape', etc. at own risk.

Right. Because the media always criticizes certain elements when those elements misappropriate, abuse or hijack Shoah, The Holocaust, 9/11, the World Trade Center in response to critics & criticism of certain states, public figures, positions, blocs or constituencies related to those elements regardless of context.

Right?

13 lean and summer league sheen

Per Winderman, Miami's roster current stands at 13 lean (Pittman excepted) with Jones' return. The Heat can add 2 more bodies which may/may not include unnamed others, JWill -- still in limbo after Orlando signed Duhon or, for example, Summer League Heat 'sensation' Kenny Hasbrouck.

Hasbrouck sensational? Yes, 'sensational' -- in the comparative sense of a barely sentient week featuring mostly insensate basketball. Shorter: dull but not quite dead.

Still, dull had its moments as Summer Leagues do.

Of Heat fatbodies, Siler over Pittman hands -- or rather handles -- down for the first annual Ike Austin Summer Sumo Award. Named for the former Heat fatbody who eventually made Miami's roster and more, Siler played hungry as Miami's most reliable big on or off the bench despite averaging 5-less minutes than Pittman.

Hasbrouck was effective and consistent throughout. Consistent is "good" for outsiders looking for a way in. But Hasbrouck could also be just another sparkler, i.e., guys who sizzle in July only to fizzle by October (see Jeremy Richardson, Kasib Powell etc.).

Among perimeter types, was more impressed by Efejuku -- who showed a knack for aggressive, savvy, controlled penetration and a related ability to draw fouls (26 FTAs per 29 FGAs). Also Robinson, a Rasual-Butler type with the nails to make shotclock-expiring Js.

In addition to Siler, I thought Varnado actually had a pretty good week for a big. He didn't average 10 fouls (tho he did manage 8 in the finale v. Cleveland) -- like many of his summer big contemporaries. Showed his stuff/stuffs, e.g. shotblocking, mostly good awareness defending the rim; and also showed more, as in more offense (post moves, ability to finish around the rim @ 56%) and physicality (both ends) than (I) expected.

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Windertweet:

James Jones tells Sun Sentinel he will re-sign with the Heat and be back for 2010-11 season.

Confirmed by Reynolds and Wallace.

VSL: Heat 73-69

Recap by NBA.com:

The Miami Heat held off the Cleveland Cavaliers 73-69 (boxscore) in their final game of the 2010 NBA Summer League on Saturday at COX Pavilion on the campus of UNLV. The game consisted of 10 lead changes and 11 ties. The Heat led by as many as seven in the first half and the Cavs never led by more than three.

Antywane Robinson and Weyinmi Efejuku led the Heat's offense with 15 points and 13 points respectively. The Cavs who suffered their first loss of the tournament were led by Danny Green with 17 points. Both teams struggled offensively, the Cavs hitting just 38.2 percent from the field (26-68) while the Heat connected on 23-56 for 41.1 percent.

The opening half of play featured four different runs, the Heat jumping out to an 8-2 run to open the game with the Cavs quickly answering back with a 7-0 run to take a one point lead. The second quarter opening much the same way with the Heat opening on a 7-0 run and the Cavs answering with a 6-0 run of their own. The Heat held a one-point lead at the half, 36-35 behind Shavilik Randolph's eight points.

The hotly contested third quarter featured two lead changes and five ties. The Heat maintained their lead outscoring the Cavs by one leading 51-49 at the end of three. The Heat were led by Antywane Robinson with five points while the Cavs were led by Tasmin Mitchell with six third quarter points.

The Heat, who finished will return home to Miami tonight while the Cavaliers will play their final game of the 2010 NBA Summer League on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. against the Milwaukee Bucks.