Just passing through

-Will someone please tell me what to make of Scoop's piece on Shaq? It's like he said "someone could really bash Shaq. . . and they'd be totally wrong, but not for the reasons they were bashing him." Begging the question of whether Scoop is or isn't doing what he considers "the unthinkable." Maybe it's that Scoop writes so much, and drops each column on you like it's the end of the world; when he is actually trying to come with something major, it's some chicken little shit (not a pun, not a Native American name).

-Heard someone on Dan Patrick's show claim today that there's a relationship between bad calls that benefit stars and all the fouls they should get but don't (Riley's quote from this morning). Like all the non-travels and jump-steps are necessary to make up for all the times that they get killed in the lane without going to the line. I can't tell if this is totally insane or makes a certain amount of sense; probably depends on whether you think the stars could, in a perfect world, play without resorting to their version of "veteran tricks."