Adidas
Yep, the shoe and apparel brand gets #1 on the Stiff List and for good reason. Dan Lewis covered this already today. I will just use this slot to re-emphasize that White Gold Pride, and the unfortunate shortening to White Pride, is NOT a name the Denver Nuggets came up with, it was allegedly Adidas and Adidas alone and someone in their marketing department is a fool.
Ty Lawson
It’s almost painful to keep putting Lawson on the Stiff List but you have to tell it like it is. You might remember, when he was still with the Nuggets, Lawson missed a team practice after the All-Star break in Las Veags due to what he called “travel complications.” Well, Lawson apparently runs into these “complications” quite often as he missed a flight with his new team, the Sacramento Kings, and was late for a shoot around this week. The reason? You guessed it, once again he was out late partying in Vegas.
Derrick Rose trial jurors and judge
No, this isn’t in any way a comment on the verdict that was recently reached in Rose’s civil trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a former girlfriend with two of his friends. The jury came back with a verdict of not liable (terms are a bit different in civil court but essentially this is synonymous with not guilty) after stating they did not find the plaintiff’s account of the events to be believable. However, in my humble opinion, it is poor form for the jurors to take photos with Rose after the trial and for the Judge to add into his closing remarks that he hopes Rose does well, except when playing the Lakers. It’s all pretty harmless but it leaves the door open for questions about whether or not the plaintiff ever got a fair trial and diminishes Rose’s clean slate that he should be given after the conclusion of this trial.
Hoopshype
This one almost slipped through the cracks, but about a month ago Hoopshype put out their season predictions and guess who they have finishing dead last in the Western Conference? Yep, the Nuggets. For reference, the Los Angeles Lakers finished last season in last place in the Western Conference with a total of 17 wins. So essentially Hoopshype is saying that despite no major losses in free agency, despite adding three first round picks and despite another year under the belt of Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Jusuf Nurkic and Nikola Jokic, that all somehow equates to around a 15 game drop in the win column. Color me skeptical.
Tayshaun Prince
What you might also have missed is Prince proclaiming that had the Detroit Pistons drafted Carmelo Anthony they would have won three to four championships at least. Look, no one is going to argue that Melo didn’t have a far better career than the guy the Pistons selected, Darko Milicic, but to imply that adding Melo alone would have equated to multiple additional championships is a bit ridiculous as CBS Spots’ Matt Moore points out in his column. From my persepctive I see two big holes in Prince’s claims. First of all, the San Antonio Spurs were right in the middle of the primes of Tim Dunca, Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker, all of whom are better than anyone on the 2000s Pistons or Melo. Secondly, Melo had some pretty stacked rosters in Denver with Allen Iverson and then Chauncey Billups (who played with Prince on the Pistons) and he never once even made it to the Finals, let alone win one. Slow your roll Tayshaun
