Court Vision: Michael Jordan faces paternity lawsuit
Bobcats owner Michael Jordan is the subject of a new lawsuit. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
• The Associated Press reports that Michael Jordan is being sued by a woman who claims the Bobcats owner is the father of her 16-year-old son.
An Atlanta woman has filed a lawsuit saying basketball Hall of Famer and Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan is the father of her teenage son. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 6 by Pamela Smith in Fulton County Superior Court. It requests Jordan take a paternity test, pay child support and share medical, dental and hospital costs that are not covered by insurance.
The lawsuit also requests the boy's last name be changed to Jordan, and for a judge to order the Georgia Department of Vital Records to issue him a new birth certificate. Publicist Estee Portnoy says Jordan has no comment and calls to Smith's home and office were not immediately returned Friday afternoon.
• We brought you the Heat's "Harlem Shake" video on Thursday. Ethan Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post has some hilarious quotes in reaction to the dance; Shane Battier's takes the cake.
“Whenever I’m tapped for something like that, I go to the horsehead,” Battier said. “It’s undefeated. If you need some weird things, I’m your guy. So I was the ‘horsetronaut.’”
• Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLA.com wrote a feature on Lakers forward Antawn Jamison, adding this left-over quote on Twitter.
Of the $140 million he's made in his career, Jamison joked: "I had a ski-mask on for a couple of years. I was robbing people."
• Nuggets forward Andre Iguodala reflects on growing up in the NBA in this interview with GQ.com.
You were drafted as a 20-year-old and have been in the NBA for a decade now. What is it like for a person to grow up in the NBA?
It can be a gift and it can be a curse. It's really up to you to try to be as responsible as possible with your surroundings. You've got to find the right guys, because you can really go down either road. You hang with the wrong crowd, you get stuck in that situation, where it seems like there's always something bad happening and you don't know why, so you're like, "Why me? Why me?" Or you can try and surround yourself with the good veterans, the good pros, and that's what I tried to do. I think they helped me out tremendously, as far as hanging around with guys like Kevin Ollie and Aaron McKie and Corliss Williamson. Those guys kind of raised me and taught me how to be a pro. They smoothed everything out.
• Bill Simmons runs down the best bargains in the NBA. LeBron James tops his list.
For the purposes of this column: If the NBA operated with an open market like baseball does, and teams could spend whatever they wanted without any real fear of the luxury tax, then LeBron would earn more than four times what he's making right now. You heard me … $75 million per season. That's not a misprint. The Lakers, Knicks and Nets would pay him that without blinking. Think of what you're getting: He drives up your courtside prices, your suite prices, your cable ratings (Miami's jumped 34 percent last season) and your sponsorship packages; he makes you the league's most relevant franchise; he guarantees you 10-12 playoff home games every year; and oh yeah, you might win a few championships, too.
Anyway, in 2009, Forbes valued the Cavaliers at $476 million and the Heat at $364 million. Four years later, they valued the Cavaliers at $434 million … and the Heat at $625 million. Gee, I wonder what changed.
• Matt Moore of CBSSports.com watches tape with Bucks center Larry Sanders to discover the secrets of shot-blocking. In so doing, he found out Sanders' next goal: taking more charges.
"I think that would take me to the next level as a defensive player," Sanders says. "Sometimes I'm able to move my feet and get in front of guys but I'm not able to block the shot. Usually at that point I may pick up a foul, but I'm in position to pick up a foul. I've only taken one charge in my whole career. I think that's something I can develop, which is about foot speed. "
• J.A. Adande gets Brandon Roy to think back on his triumphs in the 2011 playoffs, which feel so long ago given that he lost the 2011-12 season to an unofficial retirement and most of the 2012-13 to ongoing knee issues.
And while he was out, Roy watched replays of the fourth quarter of Game 4 on his iPad ... well, let’s just say more than once.
“It wasn’t the same, because nothing will ever be like that moment,” Roy said. “I mean, fans were cheering, my teammates ... and I really thought I could make every shot.
“Then you hear how the announcers are calling it. That made it a little bit better. When you’re going through it, you don’t quite know what they’re saying about it.”
• Darnell Mayberry at The Oklahomanwraps up the Thunder's trade deadline, which included trading back-up point guard Eric Maynor for a trade exception.
Now the Thunder is maximizing its assets and flexibility in order to maintain its stated goal of sustaining success. That’s the untold story of what went down last week. The Thunder improved its roster without giving up any of its proven commodities, promising prospects or future picks.
By sending Maynor to the Blazers for a trade exception, the Thunder only parted with a player that in all likelihood would have been on the first thing smoking out of here this summer. The exception, meanwhile, allows OKC to add about $2.5 million in salary via trade without having to send back equal money. It’s a move that essentially extends the life of the asset that is Eric Maynor. And the Thunder actually saved money by doing it.
• SB Nation's James Herbert talks to proud father Dell Curry about the 54 points his son, Stephen, dropped on the Knicks this week.
It was amazing. I'm with the Bobcats, we flew in from L.A. yesterday so I got here [Salt Lake City] in time to see the second, third and fourth quarters which were his best. It was unbelievable. I kept waiting for him to cool off or miss and neither one happened [laughs]. It's unbelievable.
When did you start thinking this could be a really special game?
It was late in the third. Second quarter he had a couple of good pull-ups in transition, I thought ‘Okay, he's feeling good, he's on tonight' but with halftime you don't know whether that's going to continue or not. So it was somewhere in the third when I said, ‘Okay, he's got it going and it doesn't matter who's guarding him.' I mean, the pick and roll, you put [Pablo] Prigioni on him, he gets by him. Even [Raymond] Felton, he's a capable defender, he got him in the air a couple of times, drew a foul, so everybody had to ease up because you can't foul him, he's going to make his free throws. He was a very hard guy to guard.
• Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don't Lie thoroughly breaks down the whole "Dennis Rodman goes to North Korea" circus.
