Larry Brown Sports

Former Chicago Bulls guard Jay Williams, who played only one season in the NBA after a terrible motorcycle accident nearly cost him his life, recently made waves when he told the New York Times that some of his Bulls teammates use to smoke weed before games.

“I didn’t know how to handle it at first,” Williams said. “I didn’t know how to be around it. Guys were on the bench, trying to kick it to girls in the stands, having ball boys run over. I mean, some guys were high. There were guys smoking weed before games. Guys asking in the middle of the game, ‘Do you smell popcorn?’”

New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler, who played with Williams in Chicago during the 2002-2003 season, refuted the claim on Monday.

“Nah, I don’t know why he would say something like that,” Chandler told the NY Daily News. “I think that’s ridiculous that he would come out and say something like that,” Chandler went on. “I don’t remember that, to be honest with you. And, it’s just unfortunate that he would make that kind of statement about our team.”

Williams made the comments while speaking about what it was like to adjust to life in the NBA as a rookie. While we have no way of knowing if he was being truthful, we do know that he is a college basketball analyst for ESPN. Oftentimes former players who have nothing going for them will make ridiculous claims just to get some attention, but Williams has more going for him than the average NBA player whose career was not very long.

Whether the Bulls were or were not smoking weed before games 10 years ago really doesn’t matter at this point. As this former pitcher and this former offensive lineman would tell you, they wouldn’t be the first professional athletes to play high. It’s not as if the team can be punished for it in any way, so it’s nothing more than an entertaining narrative.

Tyson Chandler and Joakim Noah were among four ejected from the New York Knicks-Chicago Bulls game on Friday night. Chandler and Noah got into it with under five minutes remaining in the game and the Knicks trailing 97-81. The two were fighting for position under the basket and exchanged some pushes before the referees separated them. Double-technicals were handed out on the play.

In addition to Chandler and Noah, Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony and coach Mike Woodson were both tossed from the contest. Melo was ejected after picking up his second technical foul when he slapped at a ball in Noah’s hands a few minutes earlier in the game. Woodson was ejected after receiving his second technical foul less than a minute before the Chandler-Noah incident.

Noah had 15 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists in 41 minutes at the time of his ejection. Chandler had just five points and eight rebounds in 34 minutes, while Anthony had 29 points in the 110-106 loss.

Video via Beyond the Buzzer

When Jeremy Lin first took over for the Knicks last season, things appeared to be going quite well. After struggling mightily to start the year, New York ripped off seven straight wins and became one of the hottest teams in the league when Lin was inserted into the lineup. Despite that success, Tyson Chandler says he didn’t quite have a handle on the offense.

“Baron was hurt and Jeremy was a young point guard who was just learning and figuring out an offense,” Chandler told the NY Post. “It was nothing against them and it was definitely nothing against Baron. Jeremy was a young point guard who was inexperienced, who brought a great light to the organization. But as far as being able to run the offense and putting players in the right position he just wasn’t there. We got some veteran point guards that are capable of doing that.”

Many point guards have succeeded in Mike D’Antoni’s offensive scheme, so perhaps Lin’s high scoring totals and ability to take over games was a direct product of that. He may not have been the best at getting everyone involved, but overall the team seemed to do quite well when he was in the lineup.

In reality, Lin is gone now so Chandler can’t be talking about how much better the team was with him. They have no choice but to move forward, and expressing confidence in the current roster rather than dwelling on the past is probably the right thing to do.

It may frustrate the you-know-what out of Mark Cuban, but most of the players who compete in the Olympics take a great deal of pride in it and enjoy the experience. Of the 12 players on the current Team USA roster, only two are 23 years old or younger. That means if David Stern and many NBA owners had their way, the 2012 team would look totally different.

As you have probably heard, Stern has expressed a desire to make Olympic rosters strictly limited to players who are 23 and under or start an entirely separate World Cup of basketball and have that be the format. Tyson Chandler thinks it is a horrible idea.

“The players definitely have power, because we’re the ones out there playing,” Chandler told Yahoo! Sports on Saturday. “If the players chose not to play because they’ve taken something away from us, then obviously we control it.

“Anyone who has anything to do with it needs to step up and speak about it, because I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. That means one player would be able to come back and play for the Olympics on the squad.”

Chandler is not the first prominent NBA player to take that stance and he likely won’t be the last. Owners like Cuban want to protect their investments, but a number of players look forward to Olympic play and feel that it is a great way to prepare for the upcoming NBA season. Whether or not the players or owners get their way in the near future remains to be seen.

H/T I Am a GM

One of the issues for athletes that have to sleep in the Olympic Village is the size of the beds. The beds that have been provided in the dormitories in London are best suited for children and jockeys. Don’t believe us? Have a look at them for yourself. If you are more than 5-foot-8, you probably are going to struggle to get a solid night’s sleep in an Olympic Village bed. That is why the USA Basketball team is not staying in the Olympic Village, and those of you who thought they were being babies about it need look no further than the photo above.

Lolo Jones tweeted a picture of Team USA center Tyson Chandler laying in one of the beds on Thursday evening — don’t get any ideas because Jones is still in search of the man of her dreams. Unless Chandler enjoys having his head against a well and everything below his knees hanging off the bed, I don’t think the arrangement would work out. Now do you see why Jamaica ordered a custom bed for Usain Bolt?

H/T Black Sports Online

After Thursday night’s 104-102 loss to the Thunder, Mavericks fans are undoubtedly feeling a bit uneasy.  The season has just begun, but the defending NBA champions have lost their first three games and look like a completely different team than the one that beat the Heat in the Finals last summer.  That’s because they are.  The Mavs lost Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea, and Caron Butler in free agency.  They added veteran Vince Carter but that certainly won’t help with their lack of youth.  Dallas may make a run at Deron Williams and Dwight Howard next season, but their chances of a repeat this season look grim.

Jason Terry, however, does not seem concerned.  In fact, it may have annoyed him a bit when Chandler — now a member of the Knicks — said he saw the Mavericks’ struggles coming this year.

“Our five men were active,” Terry said according to the Dallas Morning News. “Everybody’s talking about Tyson being gone, but the way (our big men) played tonight, we’ll forget about Tyson real soon.”

Terry is referring to the play of centers Brendan Haywood and Ian Mahinmi, who combined for 15 points and seven rebounds and threw down several dunks on the interior Thursday night.  Still, that combined stat line is one that Chandler is more than capable of putting together himself, and I’m sure Terry knows that.

The early struggles of Lamar Odom have also hurt the Mavs.  Odom is likely still getting used to playing for a new team in a new city after becoming so comfortable in Los Angeles.  Terry insists that Odom will “get into a rythm” and be fine going forward.

Chandler’s comments probably rubbed a lot of his former teammates the wrong way, but he was right.  Anyone who looked at the Mavericks roster going into last off-season could see that they weren’t exactly set up perfectly for another run.  As a veteran in the locker room, it is Terry’s job to keep the team’s confidence level up and not let guys pack it in when things aren’t going well.  If Dallas’ struggles continue, his job will get more difficult with each game

Tyson Chandler is one of the players the Dallas Mavericks let walk in free agency. Dallas would have loved to re-sign him, J.J. Barea, and Caron Butler, but they had to spend wisely given the new luxury tax rules. The Mavs could be saving their money to make a run at Dwight Howard and Deron Williams next year, but the approach is hindering them this season; they’ve suffered two blowout losses. Chandler, now with the Knicks, says he saw it coming.

“Yeah, honestly, I kind of saw it coming because when you put a team in a situation where you say, ‘You’re the defending champions but we’re not necessarily trying to repeat.’ When I say that, I’m not saying they don’t have the pieces there — I obviously think very highly of those guys,” Chandler said. “I say that because they offered everybody one-year deals, so they knew nobody was going to necessarily accept that. You’re basically telling all the players in the locker room, ‘We’re playing for free agency next year,’ after a championship.

“You’ve got veteran guys in the locker room. In this time in their career, it’s tough to face that. They’re going through a little lull right now, but I’m hoping for those guys that it turns around because there’s truly good guys in that locker room.”

In the past, Mark Cuban probably would have spent to keep Chandler and Barea, while still making a run at Deron Williams and Dwight Howard. Now that rules have changed, he can’t. Whether they land those two superstars next offseason will help determine if this year’s frugal approach pays off.