Back in 1996, Shareef Abdur-Rahim left the University of California after his freshman year to pursue his NBA dreams. He never gave up on his education however, and on Monday the former All-Star big man received his degree in Sociology from Berkeley, with a 3.8 GPA no less.

Congrats ‘Reef. Now that you’ve finished your undergraduate studies, I recommend you and your fellow recent graduate Don Nelson go backpack through Europe this summer. Really take the opportunity to find yourself before you hit the job market, you know?

H/T SB Nation

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Former Suns great Dan Majerle took in a baseball game last night in Arizona, and gave a glimpse at what might have been had he chosen a sport other than basketball growing up:



Majerle has always seemed like a man’s man, and well, there are few things manlier than catching a baseball with your bare hands. Nicely don Dan.

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Bulls fans, your team’s season is over. I know it stings. I’m a Hawks fan, and though my expectations were much lower coming into the postseason, it still hurts when the run is done.

So, in an effort to cheer you up, here is a commercial fan favorite Brian “White Mamba” Scalabrine did recently to let you know how you can save money on your electric bill:

Laughter is the best medicine, right?

H/T Windy Apple (via TBJ)

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This was pretty fun — joined the GameTime pregame show before Wednesday night’s games to break down the season’s best Horry Scale moments, with the scale’s patron saint himself there to critique my grades:



The prevailing thought amongst Robert Horry, Kevin Martin, and Dennis Scott was that I judged too harshly this season, which is amusing because most emails I received from the fans seemed to suggest I was too lenient. Guess you can’t please everyone!

Here is my final ranking of this year’s six Horry Scale recipients – how would you rank them?

6. Derrick Rose beats Milwaukee – This low because I hate seeing a PG of his caliber settle for a long jumper.
5. Luke Ridnour beats Utah – Difficult floater, but no resistance from the Jazz defense.
4. LaMarcus Aldridge beats Dallas – Aldridge sure does make this look easy.
3. Luol Deng beats Toronto – Only tip-in of the season, Bulls trailed by 1.
2. Kevin Love beats L.A. Clippers – Perhaps in hindsight should have graded higher, especially coming in in the city where he played his college ball.
1. Kevin Durant beats Dallas – Set the bar high the first week of the season and was never topped. The ball barely touches the net from almost 30 feet!

Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments.

UPDATE: A reminder folks, the shot has to beat the buzzer to be considered. As great as Jeremy Lin’s shot to beat the Raptors was, there were still tenths of a second left on the clock. Doesn’t qualify. A man’s gotta have a code…

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With his presence not required at Lakers games for at least one more night, Metta World Peace visited Conan Monday night, and of course the topic of his elbow to the dome of James Harden was still on everyone’s mind:



Interesting logic from MWP — if he calls him to apologize, he’s giving up an advantage for the playoffs. Can we get a ruling on this from the old school? Someone get Larry Bird on the phone.

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For those that are new around these parts, the Horry scale examines a game-winning buzzer-beater (GWBB) in the categories of difficulty, game situation (was the team tied or behind at the time), importance (playoff game or garden-variety Clippers-Nets game), and celebration, and give it an overall grade on a scale of 1-5 Robert Horrys.

The Blazers had a tough season, losing many, many players to injury, but at least we know one night ended happily. What’d Horry have to say?

Difficulty

Medium-difficulty shot. Aldridge gets the ball pretty far out on the perimeter with his back to the basket. He gets a nice little shoulder into Brendan Haywood as he makes his move towards the paint, creating some space for a step-back jumper. LA is one of the sweetest shooting big men in the game, so I’m not surprised he cans this one. I know you got bumped a little there Brendan, but a little more effort there on the contest might have been nice.

Game Situation

Tied 97-97 in overtime, the Blazers have just 3.7 seconds left to make something happen. Just enough time to get the ball to Aldridge and let him go to work.

Importance

This game was played on April 6, at which point the Blazers were still very much alive for the 8th spot in the Western Conference playoff race. So yeah, a pretty important win. Unfortunately Aldridge would be lost for the season just a few days later, and Portland would be lottery bound.

Celebration

Grade

2 Horrys. A tie game, a somewhat easy shot (though LA’s smoothness deserves a lot of credit for making it look so) makes this one a little on the pedestrian side. I’ll give it 2 though for the potential playoff implications at the time and for doing it to the (since departed) defending champs on their home court.

What do you think?

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Chris Paul is one of the best point guards in the NBA. I don’t know if his son will follow in his basketball footsteps though — he might be better suited for Saturday Night Live, because he does killer impressions, like this one of Blake Griffin during the postgame news conference after the Clippers’ thrilling win over the Grizzlies:

You’re in LA now, CP3, get that kid in a Groundlings class!

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In case you missed seeing this earlier today, Amar’e Stoudemire tweeted out a picture of his hand, post-surgery and post-fire extinguisher bash:

My goodness. And this man may play basketball on Sunday?

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If you were not aware, Chris Bosh nearly missed Game 3 Thursday night between the Heat and the Knicks due to the birth of his son earlier in the day.

But thanks to the wonders of modern travel and a veeeery understanding wife, Bosh arrived at Madison Square Garden just before tipoff, and showed little rust in adding nine points, 10 rebounds, and this block to the Heat’s dominant win, moving the team within a game of a series sweep of the hapless Knicks.

Via Hot Hot Hoops, here is Bosh with his brand-new son, Jackson, from early Thursday morning:

Congrats, CB1. Speaking as a father to a new son as well, the reflexes you’ve honed as a world-class athlete are going to come in handy at the changing table.

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So maybe this postseason isn’t for the Knicks. But hey, at least someone made Jeremy Lin a replica of his jersey made entirely out of Fruit Roll-Ups. That’s something, right?

From Lin’s Twitter feed, by way of Posting and Toasting:

Given the way this postseason is turning out, I have a feeling someone on the Knicks (A’mare, cough) ends up eating the entire thing while sobbing uncontrollably.

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