Monday Morning Donuts

A-geein' and a-hawin' with Jerry and Jimmy. ... was that really a "missed layup'' by Courtney Lee? ... Cuban and Shaq play Twitter footsie. ... Defending Shawn Bradley. ... Blake Griffin's workout? Let's go to the video. ... and the race to predict J-Kidd's future. ... It's Monday Morning Donuts!

    DONUT 1: Wait a minute. ... Boston has the most legendary newspaper sports staff of all-time? So says SI. I thought DFW could only make that exclusive boast? As I wrote when Gary Cartwright first celebrated himself in print last month: EVERY city with an old, good newspaper thinks it and it alone is the place where hard-drinkin’, award-winnin’ sportswriters resided.

    DONUT 2: TrueHoop offers a roundup of columns on the Lakers’ 101-96 Game 2 win in OT over the Magic. Hey, is it fair to say Courtney Lee “missed a layup’’ before the regulation buzzer? Or was his attempt on a backdoor alley-oop from almost behind the backboard just a little more difficult than “a layup’’?

    DONUT 3: The Spurs site “48 Minutes of Hell’’ with loads of terrific insight from the NBA Combine. …

    DONUT 4: And via Rob, The Sporting News’ visits with a handful of kids who might just be around when the Mavs pick at No. 22.

    DONUT 5: Mark Cuban and Shaq play Twitter footsie – with ample Kimbo Slice references.

    DONUT 6: Meanwhile, speaking of O’Neal: Here’s a very even-handed skewering of the way Big Shaq thinks in such a small way. It answers the question of why Shaq insists on belittling others (the column focuses on D-Howard and Kareem, but I would add that it also applies to everyone from Dampier to Nellie) and it reminds me of an old saying, something about belittling other people to make oneself seem taller.

    DONUT 7: Clippers Blake Griffin works it. Good access offered by the LAC website.

    DONUT 8: You still don’t quite “get’’ Twitter? Here’s a Time/CNN explanation – a damn good one – that should guide you.

    DONUT 9: And now that you get it, c’mon over and check me out.

    DONUT 10: Rumors of Kidd-to-Cleveland? Not ridiculous in the same vein as the Rondo-trade “story (and what a roasting our man David Lord gives that one) but ridiculous in this sense:

    It’s too early. Too early for Kidd to decide, too early for Kidd to decide without visiting with Cuban, too early for Kidd to decide because other teams that might be in play are still in action.

    It won’t stop some outlets from racing to pretend they’ve “broken’’ a story – there seems to be a lot of that going around, eh? – but it’s too early for Jason Kidd to have solidified plans of any sort.

    Some of the same outlets that are "breaking'' the Kidd-to-Cavs story are also breaking Bosh-to-Cavs stories and Shaq-to-Cavs stories.

    It's grab-bag journalism, is all. 

    DONUT 11: Defending Shawn Bradley from the bully Bill Simmons. 

   DONUT 12: Jerry and Jimmy, a-geein’ and a-hawin’ and a-honky-tonkin’ out at the opening of Cowboys Stadium! Why are they there, because that’s where George Strait was? No, they are there because that’s where the money was.