NO!!!!

The Mo Cheeks jamboree is kicking the roof through the sky, with Iverson letting it be known at the press conference that he wanted to "kiss Cheeks on the mouth." Philly may be a monstrous place, but they sure do know how to show love.

(Really, do I need to be giving links to this shit? Would you not believe me otherwise?)

Lost in the shuffle, though, has been the possible future path of another once and former Sixer.



No less august a franchise than the Cleveland Cavaliers have asked for permission to speak to Brown about running their front office. Now, I know he's a great teacher of the game, a rebuilding machine, and responsible, through sheer arrogance, for one of the great embarrassment in U.S. Basketball history. But while he may have once been masterminded truly amazing fashion ensembles like



he also presided over one of the most agonizing GM-ing jobs this side of Layden. Seriously, under him the Sixers did not make a single transaction that clearly helped them; acquiring Mutumbo may have allowed them to make the Finals (back when no one was beating Shaq and Kobe), but it practically forced them to resign him for major cash. And the draft under Brown (maybe King had some input, but it's no accident that as soon as Brown left, #2 started turning up second round gems) is nothing short of pathetic.

Brown may have been an effective counterweight to the old NBA, but all he can do is stand in the way of the new thang. We're talking about a guy that refused to play LeBron, Wade, and Amare in the Olympics—three smart, responsible, and breath-taking ballers who were all legit MVP candidates this year. He has his dream team with the Pistons, and the world would be a better place if he were to stay as far away as possible from LeBron's forward progress (if taking that as a pun will make you think about this entry for twenty second longer then sure, I meant it that way).

P.S. Anyone catch Shaq's reality show last night? What little I saw of it proved that , in the same way that calling an athlete "smart" implies "for a jock," watching Shaq and Damon Jones on a Toys 'R' Us shopping spree was entertaining (for two athletes).

NOTE: "smart [for an athlete]" doesn not warrant a NBARS entry, since although white athletes are assumed to be smarter than those belonging to minority, all athletes are assumed to be stupider than, you know, the people who worry about how intelligent athletes are. Mostly it's media folks referring to someone who isn't a total fucking drag to interview: you don't insult my intelligence, I'll go out of my way to acknowledge yours in public. It's all about making each other feel as completely human as possible.