Let's all admit it... it's pretty much boring as counting to infinity in the NBA right now.  Most of the big-name free agents (besides Allen Iverson) are signed with one team or another, the Minnesota Timberwolves picked Kurt Rambis as their coach, and even a select number of rookies took part in the recent official rookie photo shoot.  So, here we are pondering what's going to go down in the L... and with that, what we're going to do during our fantasy basketball drafts.

Oh yeah... fantasy basketball, suckas!

Personal story, years ago I broke into the whole internet writing thing through fantasy basketball, even getting a weekly column on SI.com.  I still write about fantasy hoops, not as much as these askewed ramblings on the Barkley's Mouth about the real NBA, but it will always be my thing.  And I've been lucky enough to work with and be in leagues with various colleagues from ESPN, SI, DIME, SLAM, et al.  So, needless to say, I can't wait for fantasy basketball drafts to start popping!!!

Recently, I was lucky enough to participate in probably the first fantasy basketball experts mock draft for the upcoming season hosted by Rotoworld.  Steve "Doctor A" Alexander posted the first three rounds of the mock draft that included writers such as Matt Buser (Yahoo!, Buser Sports), Brian McKitish (ESPN), Tom Carpenter (SI), Sergio Gonzalez (CBS Sports) and others, whom you can click the link to find out.  The person that received the most "I hate you"s during the draft was Give Me The Rock's Patrick Madden, which brings me to...

... myself and Matt Satten from Barkley's Mouth, Nels and Patrick from GMTR, Erik from Points In The Point, and Scott (Sarge) from Waiting For Next Year are joining forces to form the FOUR FINGERS OF FANTASY!  What's that?  A group of fantasy basketball writers from four blogs, getting together and doing up our own NBA Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide!  You can check out the Table of Contents to get an idea of what we're bringing, but let me say that it's going to be GOOOOD.  I've already seen some of the work and our player stat projections and it's CRAZY!

The guide will be available for $7.99 come September 1st and it will be worth it.  The price is about what you'll spend on a magazine, but we will be giving you a lot more information with full eight and nine category projections, our top 250 overall, position rankings, a mock draft and articles galore.  Some other sites charge double, but won't give you as diverse opinions as we will.  Trust us.  Between us, we've all participated in experts leagues and even won them!  Yup, we brought down ESPN, SI, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, and all of the other "big boys" you can think of.  Your $7.99 WILL be well spent.

Former Indiana Pacers superstar, Reggie Miller, is being accused of flirting with another man's fiance. However, not just any man's fiancee, but Alex von Furstenberg's fiancee! Who is Alex von Furstenberg? Good question! After a quick check on the internet, he's Diane von Furstenberg's son. Who is Diane von Furstenberg? Even better question! Using the same internet, she's apparently a big deal in the fashion design world. Anyway, Alex allegedly paid for the above sign flown by plane across the beaches from Malibu to Santa Monica in California. Whatever happened to beating the crap out of a guy? Maybe I'm just not a classy fellow.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have finally found their next head coach in Kurt Rambis, assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers until he signs his new contract with Minny, which is expected to be done today. It's taken the T-Wolves decision-makers, David Kahn and Glen Taylor, some time to replace former T-Wolves heartthrob, Kevin McHale, but with Rambis coming on board the train that goes, "AH-AH-AWOOO!" can he get a bit of revenge versus Kevin McHale?

Background for all the young ones here... Rambis was a solid contributor to four Lakers championships during the 1980s, the famous Showtime crew led by Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy. McHale was a vital cog for three Boston Celtics championship teams, also during the same era, along with Larry Bird and Robert Parish. Rambis and McHale get very acquainted and associated with each other when McHale clotheslined Rambis (see video below) on a fast break during Game 4 of the 1984 NBA Finals, which the Celtics won the title. Hard foul? No doubt. Cheap shot? I would say so since it didn't appear that McHale was going for the ball.

In any case, Rambis will have a chance to get some personal vengeance versus McHale whose tenure with the T-Wolves had started to sour some time ago, but for some reason was still able to hang on to his job, particularly in the last five seasons when the T-Wolves owned a 155-255 record.  But, now he's gone and Rambis can give his own clothesline by getting the team back to winning and playing over .500 ball.  However, it's not going to be an easy job for Rambis as Al Jefferson and Kevin Love are probably the only two players that he can rely on.  The well-chronicled Ricky Rubio saga could last two years when Rubio's contract is over with DKV Joventut, but will Rambis still be around?  Patience and good decisions will lead to success.

Man, my mind is mixing at a million miles per minute.  Is it true?  Nope, just wanted to use some alliteration, but honestly, this whole Rashard Lewis taking a steroid precursor has me thinking that I really shouldn't care about performance enhancing drugs in sports.  I mean, unless it's actually illegal by law, such as the steroids that Barry Bonds took or didn't take or didn't know he took because someone tapped him on his right shoulder and that someone dropped steroids in his drink over his left shoulder, who cares?  Seriously, there's a ton of ways to look at this Shard situation and all of them would be valid to some degree, but how would you objectively judge what's indubitably right?  So, I think I'll just not care anymore.

Straight off the bat, I think Allen Iverson is a ballhog and him being a bad teammate is up for debate considering last season's refusal to come off the pine (disguised as an injury) with the Detroit Pistons.  However, I've never been his teammate, so I couldn't say for sure.  But surely it isn't to the level where Morris Petersen has a job and Iverson doesn't!  Iverson isn't some sort of franchise killer.  C'mon, this is one of the greatest (top 30? 50?) players that ever played the game!  Sure he doesn't want to come off the bench, but he's sort of earned that swagger, which doesn't translate well in a team game, but still!

Last season in what turned out to be a relatively horrible Pistons team, Iverson faced adversity and was confronted with the pressure of replacing Chauncey Billups, a Pistons fan favorite.  It didn't help that the Denver Nuggets, the team Billups was traded to, went on to a successful season, but don't blame Iverson for how crappy the Pistons were.  Nobody liked the coach, Michael Curry, who is now the "ex" coach because apparently Joe Dumars, the guy that hired Curry, didn't like him either after Curry's one season of tenure.  Dumars should have just kept Flip Saunders because the current personnel would love Saunders' offense.  In any case, last season was just a debacle that Iverson played a role in, but didn't create.

However, NBA teams are acting as if he did and I just don't get it.

Recently, Stephon Marbury, the latest internet sensation that makes you cringe with disbelief wondering if this is real or not, did another livechat session while driving around in his car.  Oh, don't worry, Starbury wasn't driving because he's way more responsible than to drive and do a netcast all at once.  However, despite that, Marbury was still able to get into an accident thanks to his driver.  But, you know what, Starbury AKA Mr. Responsible, isn't even worried about it.  He just asked the driver to keep going because the accident that just happened, well, that's just the devil doing his work and he's not going to let that stop him.

We need more Starbury.

To all of the old readers from the pre-Bloguin days, what's up, glad you can join me here!  To all of the new readers, welcome!  I'd tell you all to turn back and leave, but Bloguin actually told me that that would be a bad idea.  Personally, I think reverse psychology works great, but I'll go with the pros' advice.

In any case, I'm glad to be a part of the Bloguin team and looking forward to kicking much butt as we talk about the NBA and all of its glory... and disgrace.  We don't hold back here at BM, much like the man this blog is named after. So, get ready to get smacked in the face with some entertaining and informative stuff that you'll want to keep coming back to and spread the word about... and I'm not being cocky because I think BM has awesome content.  It does, but I'm being cocky because I fill out the front of my underwear quite well.  Actually, substantially well.

Yeah.

Sure, scoring is important.  Afterall, the team with the higher amount of points wins the game, so getting the ball in the basket is a big deal.  However, don't sleep on the defensive side of things as stopping opponents from scoring is just as important, maybe more important, than scoring points yourself.  Below, check out the best individual defenders in the NBA.

10. Kevin Garnett, PF, Boston Celtics - While his offensive numbers have been on the decline since joining the Celtics two years ago, Garnett’s defense still has been right where it needs to be. And the Celtics couldn’t ask for much more from their leader. The same year KG won his first Defensive Player of the Year award just so happened to be the same year he won his first NBA title. After a season cut short by injury, I’m sure his effort will still be there to take Boston back to the top.

Recently, Stephon Marbury, unemployed NBA point guard with a shooting guard’s spirit, did a live chat for 24 hours straight. Yeah, straight. Major props to Starbury for taking the time to interact with his fans and answering any and all questions, however, just like any person that has been unemployed for years and technically qualifies as a vagrant, derelict, and candidate to need a car wash-strong cleaning, Marbury waxes poetic about life and sounding like a tortured soul. He talked about various subjects such as his preference for Bugs Bunny over Mickey Mouse, getting shafted by the New York Knicks, literally taking his heart out and giving it to Los Angeles Lakers exec Jeanie Buss, his desire to build cities around the world, calling Kobe Bryant the best player in the NBA, and not caring about the NBA anymore. Marbury also played some table tennis, swam for the good folks watching and shattered racial stereotypes at the same time, and gave a tour of his house MTV Cribs style. Only without the music and epileptic attack-inducing edits.

In any case, I’ve never been a big fan of Stephon Marbury because I grew up during the days of Kenny Anderson dominating the NY high school scene and when Starbury was coming up, I personally didn’t think he would be as good as Anderson. And when Marbury followed Anderson’s path and played college ball at Georgia Tech, I just thought he was playing himself. But, my bias aside, you have to give Marbury props for doing his live chat, proving that he is kind of nuts, and not caring. But, who isn’t crazy to some degree?

LeBron James, he who obviously tries hard to protect his image, admits that he smoked pot when in high school in his upcoming book, Shooting Stars. And, does it really matter? It's sort of like getting dunked on by a college kid when you're a pro player out of position to truly defend a slam that happens to be in your grill. Just sayin'... big whoop. So, James smoked the Mary Jane while a teenager. Who hasn't tried it once, right? By the way, I am in no way incriminating myself because I honestly have never tried that thing they call the sticky icky. Nope, I only use the word "weed" when speaking as a member of a group in the past tense, such as "We'd love to help every senior citizen if we could, but then we'd never have enough time to help the orphans."

In any case, back to James and Jane. I have to wonder about the timing of this revelation. Sure, it's innocent enough of a tidbit about a book that comes out during the fall, but it's still "shocking" enough to take over the headlines of James and Nike's poor judgment in making a big Yinka Dare stink and having tapes confiscated of LeBron getting faced by Jordan Crawford. Yeah, if there's one thing we know about LeBron and Nike, it's that they're master marketers. However, it's easy to see past this, right? We're not that dumb, are we? This is just LeBron using that rope-a-toke style, high like a butterfly and sting like a hit, and puff, puff, pass the publicity technique, correct? You're not falling for it, are you? I'm certainly not.

Shenanigans, LeBron, shenanigans, sir!