Hov's Kings - Retired

[The X]

I love Terrell Brandon

[hova-]

The X, good to hear that. He's and oldschool PG, which is to my liking, too.


Sorry for the lack of updates, but I'm a bit busy right now with a mixture of shit (work) and good things (weather actually rocks). Hope I can post the recap tomorrow.

[hova-]

Mo Williams goes to the basket against Kobe Bryant as the Clipps beat the Lakers.


Despite Kobe's 44, Lakers loose vs Clippers, start off season 0-3

Box Score

LOS ANGELES, OCTOBER 29th (AP) - Eric Gordon scores 30 and Mo Williams adds 25 as new-looking Clippers edge out the Lakers @Staples Center

It wasn't a game that important for the campaign "defend the title" the Lakers started three days ago. One game isn't really crucial in a 82 game season.

It's more about the fact, that it was against the rival. A rival, that never really existed, but has always been "there". Sounds pretty paradoxical. It isn't.

The Clippers and the Lakers are from the same city, the city of Angels. But it would be hard to find two franchises that are more different. The Lakers tied the Celtics' achievement of 17 NBA championships last season, whilst the Clippers had the worst record in the West and only made the Playoffs once in the last 10 years (2006).

After acquiring Stephen Jackson, Mo Williams and Kendrick Perkins, the Clippers felt like they were back on the right track and could finally compete with the Lakers.

Last night, that is what happened. The Clippers were able to grab their second win of the season beating the Lakers 108-102. Even worse for purple-gold, the Lakers dropped to an 0-3 start to the season, the worst since Phil Jackson joined the team in 2000.

The Lakers lost the game in the 2nd and in the fourth quarter, after grabbing a two-point lead after one thanks to Steve Blake's 10 points and 12 points from the "Black Mamba" himself.

The Clippers came out red hot in the 2nd and went on a 8-0 run. Eric Gordon hit two of his three three pointers in the 2nd and the Clippers held the Lakers to 15 points in the quarter.

A big downfall for the Lakers was the fact that Pau Gasol struggled with foul problems for almost the entire game. The Spaniard only played 21 minutes and scored 4 points.

"I was way too aggressive at the beginning. The Clippers went to the basket a lot and I could block a couple of shots, but I also got into foul-trouble by contesting too many attempts", Gasol said self-critically. The 31-year old forward had 6 blocks in the game.

In the 3rd, Kobe Bryant decided to take over the game. He scored 18 of his game-high 44 helping his squad to come as close as one point at the end of the third.

The Clippers however did not panic and used their balanced scoring and durability to outhustle the Lakers.

"They had their starters in for like 40 minutes each, while we had problems to perform well in the end after two games in the last three nights", Phil Jackson said later.

The Lakers were also hampered by their lack of size in the post with Gasol out for half of the game. "We need another big guy down low, let's hope we will find one soon", the Zen master added.

All in all it was Mo Williams hot 2nd half shooting (4-6 from down town) and the hustle and tough defense that helped the Clippers down the Lakers. Blake Griffin had a fast break dunk in the 4th which pretty much sealed the deal. He finished with 16 points, 9 rebounds and a career-high 4 steals.

The Lakers will now have two days off which they will certainly need and will have to try to recover from their tough start, while the Clippers will head to Minneapolis to play the T-Wolves.

phpBB [video]

NOTES: Kobe Bryant shot 19-32 from the field but only went to the free throw line 8 times and missed all his three shots from down town ... the Lakers had a season-high 10 blocks ... the Lakers only shot 2-12 from beyond the arc, the Clippers 8-28 ... Chris Kaman and Andrew Bynum each had a double-double ... Lamar Odom only hit 1-7 shots but had 10 boards ... the Clippers outrebounded the Lakers 50-45 ... three of five Clippers starters played 40+ minutes ... the Clippers only had 12 bench points ... the Lakers now lost against Denver, Utah and the Clippers ...

[Fresh8]

You lost your number 1 fan for another day

[hova-]

Sit, I swear, I played with each team for about the same amount of time and let the CPU finish the last five mins of the game. The Lakers just had a bad start to the season, I'm sure they gonna recover.

[Martti.]

I was a fan and now, even more.

[shadowgrin]

To Sit -

[Axel The Great]

To Sit -

This.

Gasol's foul trouble was the deciding factor of the game. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for the Lakers.

[kibaxx7]

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for the Lakers.

Really don't want to see them winning the title again.

[dare]

[Grandmama Johnson]

Wow, 0-3 for the Lakers. Time to push the panic button?

[hova-]

Cameron Fortson is a believing muslim and prays before every game.


Being Cameron Fortson
www.nba.com/thablog
Posted on October 30th 2011 8:50PM

The story of Cameron Fortson is not really special. In fact, even the player Cameron Fortson has so far not been very special in his career.

Still, it is a story that should be told, a story with a lot of ups & downs, a story that feels good and bad in a way. Tha blog met the youngster from New York who is now playing for the Phialdelphia 76ers in the NBA and had a really good and interesting conversation with the 6-9 forward.

Cameron Fortson grew up in the Ghetto of New York, more precisely in Brooklyn, NY. At the tender age of three months, Cameron's father left the family and Cameron's mother Sheila alone with her three children: Gambia, Razul and the youngest child: Cameron.

Sheila had to hustle hard to feed her kids and never really was around looking after them in the streets of Brooklyn. Cameron noticed early that there was no bright future for him and his fellow homeboys in the ghetto. "Life is what you make of it", his mother told him, but Cameron did not know what he should make of his life - or more - what he could make of his life.

So the pet of the family stopped going to school and made his early experiences of life in the streets, he started with thievery and went over to robbery pretty quickly, all at the age of 10.

"The first thing we stole was a radio, I was like 8 at that time. It got us a hell lotta money", he says with a stoic look on his face.

When his mother suffered from cancer and died, Cameron was only 14 years old. He and his brother and sister moved to their grandma, who lived at Harlem at that time.

"This was when things kinda went out of control", Cameron, who's name derives from his father's origins in Cameroon, says nowadays.

The young kid started dealing with drugs falling deeper and deeper in the suck of delinquency.

In 2005, Cameron got shot in a gang fight after a drug handover. His best friend died during the incident, and Cameron "finally got opened his eyes" as he says today.

The 15-year old went back to school and tried to stay off the streets and rather spent his time on the streetball courts of Harlem.

"I had always been playing, but I was never really good. They called me "hustler" because of my limited skills and my crime background", the now 20-year old says.

But "the hustler" was not only a disrespectful nickname, it also emphasized one aspect of his game, that Fortson is still known for today.

Fortson gives 100% and even more whenever he is on the court. His body is hard like steel and dry like rusk and he never backs off.

Sometimes it can happen that Cameron tends to be too aggressive and he has been sent off the court pretty often during his highschool days - mostly because of hard fouls but at times even because of throwing punches and fighting on the court.

His streetball game and his new academic comittment he was showing after he had stopped crime, led to a place in the highschool squad of the Oak Hill Academy in New York.

"I never really thought he was that talented, but his work-ethic was great and his attitude is almost inhuman. I always say this guy eats his opponent and the better the opponent player is, the better does he taste for him", his former highschool Coach says about Fortson.

In his last year at Oak Hill Academy, Fortson averaged 6 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and an assists and a steal per game. Not really the numbers College scouts are looking for.

His hometown Uni though, the St. John's University of New York decided to give the refined ghetto child an academic scholarship. And they didn't regret.

Fortson, who only stayed one year at St. John's, averaged 12 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks and steals per game helping his underrated team making the NCAA tournament, where they lost against Syracuse in the first round. Fortson had 10 points and 4 steals in that game.

Before declaring for the NBA 2011 draft, Fortson had a setback as he got caught with drugs on the college campus. "I know it was a dumb, bad move, but I cannot ignore my past and I'm afraid that it could catch up with me every now and then", he says. "I'm trying to stay off trouble, but it's tough at times".

The 76ers knew about Fortson's life and his trouble with the law. Still, they decided to draft him with the 17th pick of the 2011 draft, although many experts claim that he would not have been drafted at all.

The Sixers hope that Cameron Fortson can give them toughness and a beasty mentality the young team is lacking. "He can be an a--hole", Sixer GM Ed Stefanski said straight out. "We need such a player, since we don't have such a fierce fighter on our squad. He's also a great defender and reminds me of Scottie Pippen at times".

While Fortson will never be a second Scottie Pippen, simply because of his offensive rawness, it seems like he has found a niche despite being a so called "ghetto kid" and having a crime scene background. It's his hard working attitude that will make him better every year and - maybe - he can be a star in this league one day, just like his big idol Ben Wallace, who took his time to become an All-Star and All Defensive player.

Cameron's story is not a special story in the NBA, where half of the kids come from poor households and ghetto streets, but it's a beautiful story over and over again. The story of Cameron Fortson, good that it has been told.



Fortson is only averaging 5.2 minutes right now in the NBA as he still has to learn to keep up with the pace of the professionals.

[shadowgrin]

Cam Fortson has an ugly signature.

[Houndy]

Gotta agree with Shadow. Nice article

[kibaxx7]

Nice article man! Hopefully one day Cameron will blossom into a nice player, from that story, he deserves it...

[Lamrock]

Love the article. While I prefer to use real rookies, it's always nice to see generics with personality.

[dare]

Love the article, I think Its the same as Caron Butler's story.

[Axel The Great]

Was on the verge of sending you a PM about Fortson, couldn't think of anything for his background though. Still, what the others thought of is loads better than what I had in mind. I hope Cam becomes a solid player in the league.

[hova-]

shadowgrin, the number looks pretty ugly, but I thought it might add some real flavor.

Houndy, thanks.

Thierry •, yeah, would be quite cool, but he could also end up being 10th or 12th man on the team, right now he does not play a lot.

Lamrock, I'd prefer real rookies if I had a PC with cyberfaces etc. I hate how they never look like the real ones on PS3, thus I use generics.

dare, thanks, man. Didn't know Butler was a ghetto kid before making it into the NBA.

Axel., thanks, yeah, some solid ideas from Sit, puttin, Houndy and Valdis made it.

[hova-]

Knicks start off slow, loose Billups in first win of the season

Bad news for the New York Knicks: After falling short in the first two games of the season, the Knicks were able to snatch their first beating the Phoenix Suns 85-87 @Madison Square Garden.

The win however was overshadowed by Chauncey Billup's injury occuring in the 2nd quarter. The 34-year old point guard fell on his arm after driving to the basket and injured his right wrist during the incident.

"Chauncey may miss about a month or maybe even more time", Knicks Coach Mike D'Antoni said after the game.

Number one pick Lance Meredith has also been struggling in his first games as a professional. The 6-11 center is averaging 9.3 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists, but is also only shooting .310% from the field.

"It's a big transition from being physically superior to having to deal with the best athletes in the world", the former NCAA player of the year said.

Pierce's buzzer beater propells Celtics past Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks have yet to win a game this season after falling to 0-3 getting beaten by the Boston Celtics (2-2) last night.

It was once again Paul Pierce who shined in crunch time as he hit a left elbow jumper with time expiring to give the Celtics a 101-100 road win.

Pierce scored 31 points and added 5 assists and 5 rebounds. Kevin Garnett had 27 points and 7 rebounds.

For Boston, it was the 2nd win of the season after beating Chicago and then dropping two games in a row. The Hawks rank last in the South East Division at 0-3 now.

T-Wolves keep rolling, beat Spurs with Love's tip-in

The Minnesota Timberwolves were able to win their third game in a row and stay undefeated as they beat the San Antonio Spurs (0-2).

It was Kevin Love who tipped in a Michael Beasley-miss with 5 secons left on the clock to lift his Wolves to a 87-86 road win.

The Wolves had also beaten the winless Suns (80-115) and the Bucks (93-103) at home before. Michael Beasley is averaging 23.3 points and 7 rebounds so far this season.

Vote your game of the month on NBA.com

Several decent matchups are up for voting as the NBA.com "Game Of The Month" continues in November. Take a look down low at the matches you can vote for.

11/6/2011 New York Knicks (1-2) vs Denver Nuggets (3-1)

Carmelo Anthony heads back to Denver after leaving the Nuggets in the offseason. Without Chauncey Billups, the Knicks hope they can steal a win vs the Nuggets, who were off to a hot start this season winning three straight and loosing only one.

11/12/2011 New York Knicks (1-2) vs Miami Heat (2-0)

Many experts think that the big three in New York can beat the "Miami Thrice" and this Saturday night matchup will be the first chance for the Knicks to prove everybody how good they can be.

11/18/2011 Los Angeles Lakers (0-3) vs Miami Heat (2-0)

The Lakers had an horrid start into the season but you definitely should not miss when Kobe Bryant faces LeBron James @Miami.

11/14/2011 Dallas Mavericks (2-0) vs Oklahoma City Thunder (2-0)

A rematch of last year's Conference semi-finals as the Oklahoma City Thunder and their leader Kevin Durant will host the Kidd-less Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki.

11/24/2011 Boston Celtics (2-2) vs New York Knicks (1-2)

An Atlantic Division showdown will take place @Madison Square Garden when the Knicks host Paul Pierce and the Celtics at the end of November.

[Justine.]

Great article, let's see how Cameron will do in the league. For the game of the month, I'll go for the struggling Lakers versus Heat

[hova-]

Justine., thanks. The poll isn't working for me right now unfortunately.


Everybody will have to vote via posting, because the poll just doesn't work ffs.

[dare]

Lakers vs Heat

[|)e8*]

Knicks celts

[kibaxx7]

It's Knicks-Heat!