Associated Press
The NBA notebook …
CLEVELAND ó Once was too much for the Cleveland Cavaliers. But twice?
The team was outraged last week when guard Mo Williams, who has helped the Cavaliers get off to the best start in their history, was not chosen as a reserve for the NBA All-Star team in a vote by Eastern Conference coaches. LeBron James and his teammates felt Williams belonged and took his omission as disrespectful to him and Cleveland.
On Thursday, Williams was denied again, this time by commissioner David Stern, who picked Boston guard Ray Allen to replace injured Orlando guard Jameer Nelson at next week’s game in Phoenix.
The Cavs found the second rejection of Williams so absurd that they’re making up words to describe their feelings.
“Ben Wallace was right when he called Mo originally being passed over for the All-Star game a shamockery,” Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert said in a tongue-in-cheek e-mail to The Associated Press. “But not naming him as the natural and obvious replacement for the unfortunately injured Jameer Nelson is stupidiculous, idillogical and preposterageous.”
Earlier this week, James called Williams’ initial slight as “a total smack in the face.”
Cleveland will be represented in Arizona by James, who was selected in fan voting, and by coach Mike Brown and his assistants, who will coach the East squad. But the Cavaliers, 23-0 at home, 39-9 overall and leading the Central Division by 121/2 games, feel their play in the first half earned them multiple selections.
“It’s unfortunate that at the end of the day Boston has three guys and Orlando has three guys and we have one,” Brown said after practice on Friday.
“We felt like Mo is a big reason that we are where we are at this point in the season,” guard Daniel Gibson said. “It didn’t just affect him, it affected all of us. We’re just going to continue to use that as motivation. “NO TRIPLE-DOUBLE
NEW YORK ó LeBron James lost his latest triple-double Friday when the NBA determined that one of his rebounds should have been credited to Cleveland teammate Ben Wallace.
James scored a season-high 52 points and had 11 assists Wednesday in the Cavaliers’ 107-102 victory at New York. He was believed to have a triple-double when he grabbed what went down as a 10th rebound with under two seconds left.
If his triple-double had stood, it would have been the first 50-point game in a triple-double since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975.
GRIZZLIES COACHES
MEMPHIS, Tenn. ó Henry Bibby and Damon Stoudamire joined the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday as assistants under new coach Lionel Hollins.
Bibby coached Southern California from 1996 to 2004 and was a member of the New York Knicks’ 1973 NBA championship team. A nine-year pro after starring at UCLA, he spent the last two seasons as an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Stoudamire played for the Grizzlies from 2005-08 and is returning to Memphis for his first NBA coaching job.