Apology to Boris Diaw

Sorry, Boris. From now on we will make an effort to be there for your games. We live in Cali, and we don't have League Pass, so that means following along on the NBA.com play-by-play. But we'll do it. Last night we weren't there for you and you spent 24 minutes wondering where your biggest fan was. Couple of boards, more turnovers than assists, one point. Honnnney. We'll be there for you from now on.

We were somewhat following along on the mobile ESPN tip, but our focus was in the Oracle Arena for the Warriors-Pacers game. It was a heart-breaking loss for the Dubs, but the highlight of the night was running into the good guys at Golden State of Mind (four of the five of them, anyway). They were gracious enough to stop to sign autographs for us. Loved them! They even posed and let us snap a portrait. Check out their full recap of the game to see the full picture.

Blazers knife found at Portland gun fight

We at SunsGossip "watched" Sunday's Suns-Blazers match via the NBA.com play-by-play, so we don't have much insight into how the 119-101 game actually went down. But dammmnn the Suns came out SNIPING! Amare was 8 for 9 from the field and old boy Boris was 7 for 8. Plus Raja Bell made 7 of his 12 three-pointers, helping him to a game-high 30 points (that's surely a season-high for Ra-Ra too). What!

Something got lost in the translation of "sniper" for Diaw.

Hope everyone had a good holiday or regular weekend. We at SunsGossip spent the time eating cranberry sauce and collards, reading "Seven Seconds or Less," watching the Suns beat the Nets on mute at a sports bar, and scouting future (W)NBA stars at a high school tournament. (For real, this one shortie was a little female Iverson -- she even wore the number 3.)

Miss SunsGossip talks to Boris Diaw about "the quote"

The SunsGossip crew was at the Warriors-Suns game last night for the Suns' first road win of the season. (And it was a 113-110 nail-biter!) After the game we noticed our boy Boris Diaw doing a TV interview on the court. The SunsGossip crew ran down towards the floor but three security guards swooped in to restrain us because we didn't have floor passes.

We retreated. We took a twenty-second timeout to reset. And then we ran a sick play on those fools. LaTowna darted to the right and drew Guard #1 deep into the fifth row. Oakland Gurl started kicking game to Guard #2 to divert his attention. And then Sir J.O. set a screen and Miss SunsGossip blew past Guard #3 and ran to the court. Guard #4 materialized out of nowhere and launched a surprise "LET'S GO" attack, but Miss SunsGossip was unstoppable.

The resulting conversation with Bobo was memorialized in audio form. Boris' end of the discussion is hard to hear because old girl Guard #4 started pulling us back and Boris' handlers were tugging him away towards the locker room. But Mr. Diaw was gracious enough to deliver a super-smooth answer to our somewhat out-of-pocket question. The topic was Jack McCallum's new book "Seven Seconds or Less" in which Boris is quoted as saying "I do not date American women. I have them." Jason at lowpost and Henry at TrueHoop first broke the story -- and our heart.

Boris' response? Well, you can take it with a grain of pastry salt, but the fact that he even responded to our maniacal screaming gets him clear out of the doghouse. We still got love for you, Boris! We'll see you March 29th when the Suns come back to Golden State, but we'll be sure to cop a scalped media pass so we can have a civilized conversation.

[We have a clearer copy of the audio, but Atma Brother #1 from Golden State of Mind hacked in and performed some sabotage on the upload. You might need to follow along with the transcript. ]


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Miss SunsGossip: Boris!

Guard #4: Keep it moving, let's go!

Miss SG: Boris! Boris! BORIS!!!

Guard #4: [physically restraining Miss SG] LET'S GO!

Miss SG: Boris -- let me holla at you! Ay, why did you say -- in the book -- why did you say you don't date American women, you only have them? What was that about?

Boris Diaw: I didn't say that!

Miss SG: That's what it said in that Jack McCallum book.

Boris: Ah no, he's lying.

Miss SG: He's lying? Ok, that's good to know.

Boris: No, no, no. I meant "date" like not "dating." Like friends who only date and not somebody else.

Miss SG: [unconvinced/confused] Okaaay... Thank you!

Boris: [smiling and waving] You're welcome.

Miss SG: [heart melting]

SunsGossip Exposed!

We never thought that as part of our NBA Bloggers Exposed series (see Lucas, GSoM, Mutoni) we would have to expose SunsGossip! But resident blogger guru Jason Gurney over at lowpost.net insisted on putting Miss SunsGossip on Front Street with a scandalous exposé interview.

It wasn't really fair how Jason came at us with the hard-hitting questions after his lobs over home plate to TrueHoop's Henry Abbott last week, but we tried our best to answer coherently. (Just kidding, JG, thanks for the love!)

Read at your own risk -- not everyone likes to see how the sausages are made...

He's just Dunny from the block

We at SunsGossip missed the Suns' overtime heartbreaker at Utah last night because we were busy watching the Warriors clean up the Sonics. The reason we went over to the Oracle/Arena was to scout out the locker rooms and press areas so we'd know where to bum-rush Raja Bell and the gang after tomorrow's Phoenix game at Golden State. But bonus points to the Warriors for dishing out a nice game for us to watch as well!

One of the highlights was in the first quarter: the Sonics' Nick Collison takes a jump shot and white boy Mike Dunleavy -- who the crowd lightweight booed all night for his awful shooting -- comes completely out of pocket for an ill block. This thumbtack picture only pinpricks the story. For the full recap (and full picture), thunder over to Golden State of Mind.

Saturday Sloppy-Seconds

No meaning to the title, just clowning Howie's Thursday Thumbtacks.

Throw up a big "W"! (That's a "W" for the Suns' Nash-less win last night against the Sixers...keep your pants on GSoM.) Highlights included Amare's dance moves (Lucas is working on video), crazy Marcus Banks and-one layups, and Boris Diaw being crowned the greatest high post player in the league (yes, Bill Walton was calling the game). By the way, when googling for a cite to the Walton quote, we uncovered this old Jones on the NBA post featuring Boris praise by our favorite Diaw-hater. (And commentary by a pre-blog Lucas.) Fascinating. Final highlight came at the very end of the game when Boris threw up an unneeded three-point shot at the buzzer (he missed). We think he was just trying to help Lucas out with his fantasy stats.

In other news, loyal reader Wayne has been keeping us on top of the ongoing missing-persons search for Suns dancer Uyen (aka Winnie). After getting chosen to continue with the Suns dance team for her third season, she mysteriously disappeared from the Suns.com dancer page. SunsGossip has confirmed that Uyen has been absent from the line-up at games as well. Keep your head up Wayne, maybe she'll come back!

Suns better not make any roster changes

Otherwise we'll have to get everyone posed for another picture. It was time to update the SunsGossip header. Amare changed his number and is no longer an invalid. Nash's hair has grown out a bit. And Boris has put on a few pounds....just kidding! Stop with the fat jokes, fools. Homeboy looks just fine to us. Nous t'aimons, Boris!

Old:

Nzew!

Clippers need to sign Darrell Bailey

We at SunsGossip were again privileged to travel to see a game – this time Clippers-Hornets in Los Angeles. Well, the Clippers won (92-76) so we have to give them that. But what a sorry game entertainment-wise. For real, no spirit at all. Clippers fans wouldn’t put two hands together for a clap if they thought it would bring Mark Jackson back.

To be fair, the game was a matinee and was somewhat ugly. And the Clippers seem to stick to the fundamentals, not really running tons of crowd-pleasing plays. And the Hornets could have been better – Chris Paul was more like a “comma” than the “exclamation mark” some people led us to believe we could expect.

But the biggest problem is Clippers spirit. The dancers were pretty corny and the music was garbage. And the Clippers have no mascot! Someone in attendance informed us that the Lakers don’t have a mascot either. Say what? In fact, the L.A. fans seemed baffled when we at SunsGossip told them about the Phoenix Suns Gorilla, Thunder at Golden State, Philly’s Hip-Hop and others. Surely a giant furry version of a clipper ship would get fools amped. Somebody get on that.

Alternatively, the Clippers could just anoint Darrell Bailey as their official mascot. As usual, the loyal season-ticket holder was decked out in his trademark red-and-blue duds and was leading crazy high-pitched cheers from his seat. SunsGossip caught up with him outside the Staples Center for a quick photo-op before he headed back to church. Preach, Clipper Darrell! (That may or may not be Nate in the background.)

Lucas is a carnie

Our esteemed colleague Mr. Lucas over at The Rising Suns is hosting the latest Carnival of the NBA. Thirty-seven points to whoever can identify the NBA player whose merry-go-round appears in this picture.

Suns send in a specialist

The Suns have been struggling and we at SunsGossip wanted to help. So, through a combination of good fortune and mad connects, SunsGossip was able to get a flight to Phoenix to see the sold-out Suns-Mavs game tonight!

We're trying hard to contain our excitement, but frankly we'd have better luck training fleas not to jump. We haven't been this amped since the launch of RajaBell.com! Oh wait.

With SunsGossip in the house (and a hopefully healthy Nash) maybe our boys will be able to pull out the win. Although either way we are going to be heated if we don't get to see Raja on the floor. Someone lend him a rib!

The game will be broadcast on TNT, so make sure to look for us on the tellie.

LeBron on Duncan

Stoudemire is starting in tonight's game against the Spurs. We at SunsGossip are hoping for some highlight-worthy dunks on Timmy, but according to Howie, the LeBron one from the other day will be the best one for months. Peep game:



Shout out to our boy Atma Brother #1!

Fans want more fines for Sarver

No word yet if Robert Sarver has signed the Need4Sheed petition, but he was fined $25k for last week’s sideline meltdown (Lucas has video). He also announced today that as long as project Zero Tolerance is in effect, he will be matching all of his fine amounts with donations to a fund that will send several lucky Suns fans on safari with Boris Diaw during the offseason.

Boris has ventured on various safari adventures over the past few years, the most recent being last summer’s trip to South Africa. You can view more photos from Diaw’s trip on Suns.com, but you know SunsGossip has your exclusives! P.S. no cracks about our dear Diaw’s weight please, he has reportedly dropped six pounds in the last week.

Game time: Clippers-Suns

Shout out to our boy Nate for alerting us to the fact that we actually do have the Clippers-Suns game on TV tonight. We're happy to see that Boris is starting again -- D'Antoni was probably just trying to get him a little fired up by not giving him the start last night against the Jazz. We'll also be looking to see if we can spot Jalen Rose in the house. The self-proclaimed "Rose that grew from concrete" promises to be a perfect fit for the Suns -- case in point, he has his own website which is "relaunching soon." Mmmmhmmmm.

Update: 5:22 to go in the third quarter and Diaw just got an offensive foul for "sticking out his hind quarters." Ooh boy.

Update2: Did we just see Sam Cassell put his mouthguard in his mouth after taking it out of his sock?

Update3: Great minds think alike!

Suns are "Lovin It"

As coaches often do, Mike D’Antoni treated his winning team to McDonald’s after last night’s game. It was Happy Meals all around for the team that beat the Clippers 112-104 in their home opener. Pictured here are Marcus Banks, Amare Stoudemire, and Boris Diaw -- who logged 15 points and a handful of boards, a much better performance than his heavy effort against the Lakers Tuesday. Steve Nash, as always, had jokes.