As San Antonio made their move to sign Richard Jefferson, Houston quickly retaliated by making up for the departure of Ron Artest. The Rockets made a deal that brought in the young and rising Trevor Ariza. So what did Mark Cuban do? One thing for sure is, he wasn't just sitting at his desk waiting for some superstar to walk into his office begging to play for him. The Mavericks management went straight to work by re-signing the veteran leader Jason Kidd. Check. After days of negotiating, Dallas finally got a trade to work, involving up to four teams, and got themselves one of the best combo forwards in the league. Check mate? With Shawn Marion in the mix of the lineup with, the Mavericks are a huge threat in the West and are tugging at LA's 2009 championship banner. A final effort to bring in big man Marcin Gortat would greatly strengthen the depth of this team and another 50+ win season should be more than expected.
It's been just two season's since Marion had left the Western Conference in a blockbuster trade. He now returns back to the West as he still searches for his first NBA championship.
The Forgotten One
In middle school, he dribble down the floor without any defender challenging his authority. He was the "next big thing".
During his early years of high school, he didn't let his underclassmen label keep him from blossoming early. Maybe a little too early?
He played in the Elite 24 game at Rucker Park as a rising Sophomore (the youngest player ever to participate in the elite 24) and was given the nickname, "Born Ready".
In his Junior year, he was honored a spot on the USA Today's All-USA Boys basketball team as he was the only non senior on the prestigious list.
Colleges all over the world wanted this talent on their roster as coaches and scouts would call him everyday and make visits as well as inviting the future star to their campus.
His name, Lance Stephenson.
At an early age, Lance was given lots ofpublicity and appeared on multiple basketball
magazines as his talent began to be exposed
all over the nation. Can he live up to the hype?
As a member of the class of 2009, this past year was his last chance to shine in high school before announcing where he was going to attend college. The anticipation and excitement continued to build as Lance would hold off his decision. Going beyond the expected announcement date, things started getting out of hand as questions arose and some rumors of him heading overseas to play in Europe were made. As colleges waited, slowly some schools began to withdraw their offers as they would sign other high school players. Stephenson, still waiting on what to do, wanted to take his time as his options began to shorten. A list of 20-30 schools became 10, then 5, and then 2. Memphis and Florida Atlanta were the final two schools that were aiming for the 6'5" wingman.
By now, talk of Lance Stephenson and what he was going to do had died and people moved on. A few days later, the young man announced his decision to go to Cincinnati after he was given a last minute offer by the Big East team that once ran the hardwood with the likes of Kenyon Martin, Jason Maxiell, James White, Ruben Patterson, and Oscar Robertson.
How will his college career end up? A one and done to the NBA? A four year man? Player of the year or bust? It's really hard to tell when you got a guy that is so indecisive.
So should Cincinnati fans be excited to see Lance in a Bearcats uniform? Definitely. With little expectation of seeing this young man sport a black and red uni with a bear claw, the program should look forward to what Lance COULD do. I would just be a little worried about if he'll actually enroll or not? His immaturity level could be a bit absurd at times and he could create overflow of diva issues in the locker room but then again, he may be different. A lot can change when a basketball player moves on to the next level of play. "Born Ready" might not be so ready after all, or maybe his nickname was perfectly assigned by the "great" Bobbito Garcia. We shall see very soon.
"What If?"
Just a few months back, Coach John Calipari shook up the college basketball nation as talks of coaching movements ocurred. The big story was Calipari's possible agreement to coach for the University of Kentucky. After coaching two freshman point guards in the last two seasons that both were drafted within the first four picks of their drafts (Derrick Rose 2008 first overall pick, Tyreke Evans 2009 fourth overall pick), Calipari was only bringing in more fire power as he had the number one recruiting class in the nation with the likes of DeMarcus Cousins and Xavier Henry committing to the big time coach. So with this bright future ahead of him what does he do? He leaves the team and moves on to Kentucky with the possibility of having a very young team that could be in the rebuilding stage.
As Calipari made the decision final, thoughts when in and out of players' heads as they had millions of different scenarios going through their head. His decision not only affected Memphis commitments but other committments as well (Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Maryland, Cincinnati, and more) Here's the breakdown. Calipari's move basically affected six of the top 25 players in the class of 2009.
Rivals #1 John Wall had plenty of schools in consideration, including hometown favorite North Carolina. With Calipari's sweet talking recruiting skills, the new Kentucky coach lured Mr. Wall to wear a Wildcats uniform in a last minute recruiting attempt. (Wall was previously interested in going to Memphis to play for Cal)
Rivals #2 DeMarcus Cousins was the top recruit in Memphis' 2009 recruiting class. After Coach Calipari said his goodbyes, so did DeMarcus, as the 6'9" power forward followed the man that recruited him in the first place.
Rivals #8 Xavier Henry finally committed to Memphis after plenty of talk had him going to Kansas for sure. After Henry surprised the nation with his choice of school, Coach Cal's departure left him speechless as he decommitted and found his new home in Lawrence Kansas. (Xavier Henry's older brother CJ Henry transferred over to Kansas from Memphis as well, due to the coaching situation.)
Rivals #11 Lance Stephenson had it all planned out as it looked like he was going to join Coach Self and the Rock Chalk Jayhawk. Holding off his decision until the deadline was his plan but things didn't turn out exactly how he wanted it to. When Xavier Henry (who basically plays the same position as Lance) made the big move by changing his mind and going to Kansas, Lance lost Kansas' interest as they withdrew their offer. Not knowing what direction to go to, he had choices such as St. John's, Maryland, and Memphis. With time passing by, teams could not wait and when Lance finally made his decision, he landed in the laps of the Cincinnati basketball program. Something, no one suspected of happening.
Rivals #17 Latavious Williams was one of the last to make his college decision. With plenty of schools showing interest, it wasn't until Cal, Cousins, and Henry departed Memphis that Williams decided upon attending Memphis. With the recruiting class rank dropping, Williams quickly chose Memphis and helped the program find some hope in their 2009 recruiting class.
Rivals #23 Eric Bledsoe was another one of those last minute "cats" that was slowly drawn in by the great recruiting genius, Coach John Calipari. After moving the Kentucky, Calipari didn't waste any time and worked his recruiting game on the young guard, Eric Bledsoe and successfully made a positive result out of it. (Before Kentucky, Bledsoe was highly interested in Memphis and Alabama)
So you can see that the move that Cal pulled affected a lot of schools in their recruiting. Some in positive ways and most in negative ways.
Coach Calipari has quickly suited up in a fresh blueKentucky outfit. Looks good, Cal. I heard a lot of
coaches are out to take you down though. Better
be ready.
Now let's go back to Cal's Memphis days. Let's say Coach Cal was very excited for the 2009-10 season with his new incoming class and a chance to build a fresh new lineup and possibly a championship caliber team. How would it affect the decisions of these six elite players?
John Wall might be headed for Memphis to play for Calipari or maybe he chooses to play for his childhood team, the Tarheels. Let's say he ends up going to his roots and committs to UNC. Roy 1 Cal 0
DeMarcus Cousins was committed to Memphis and had no plans of decommitting. Looking forward to playing for Calipari, Cousins was ready to help the Tigers make another run for the Final Four. Memphis 1 Cal 1
Xavier Henry had plenty of trouble making his final decision but after finally going with Memphis, Cal had a lot of fire power that was coming in to help the Memphis program. Memphis 1 Kansas 0
Lance Stephenson seemed to be headed to Kansas as the Jayhawks were still looking for their wingman. With plenty of opportunities awaiting Lance in Kansas, the decision was more than convincing. Kansas 1 Cincinnati 0
Latavious Williams didn't know where exactly to go just yet. He looked to be leaning toward Georgetown but Memphis was definitely in the picture. With too much talent headed for Memphis, Latavious might have been better off going to Georgetown. George town 1 Memphis 0
Eric Bledsoe definitely had a south team on his mind. Going about trying to finalize the destination of his home, it seemed as if he was headed to Memphis and Alabama. With Memphis just losing their start point guard to the draft, the position seemed very vulnerable and Bledsoe would have been a great fit. Memphis 1 Kentucky 0
But Calipari ditched the Memphis program and fled for Lexington. Out of all these losers, you definitely have to feel for Memphis. They literally lost a whole starting lineup of players. It's not so great to be a Tiger. With the mess Coach Cal left trailing behind him, he better produce a national championship team after causing so many players to move around. The pressure's on, Coach.
-Jason C
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