Off-season Madness

First, I'm happy to report that Freedarko favorite Yuta Tabuse appears to have found a home with the Toronto Raptors. He'll likely have to beat out a couple other free agents, but the Raptors already have made it known they prefer him to former St. John's star Omar Cook. Cook was part of a legendary class of NYC high school point guards, along with eventual national champion Taliek Brown (UCONN) and the diminutive Andre Barrett (Seton Hall). I'm surprised that none of them has done much of anything in the Association to date, but maybe I shouldn't be. Not all hyped high school players are the truth, especially when they come from the Rotten Apple. Felipe Lopez, anyone?

What's going on in Portland? For some reason, it appears that the Blazers big men have a proclivity for pugilism. First, there was the time Zach Randolph broke Ruben Patterson's eye socket, and then there was that insane fight between Ha Seung Jin and Nedzad Sinanovic earlier this summer, and now we find out that Joel Przybilla is taking boxing lessons? Actually, that's probably a good call.

Finally, I'm not surprised that Shaq helped the Miami Beach police arrest someone, but I think it's pretty cool that the guy he caught was arrested for gay-bashing. First Kanye spoke out on MTV, now Shaq's arresting gay-bashers. Maybe we're finally starting to eradicate homophobia, especially among African-Americans.