Here's an inside look at the Bucks' rookie, with a focus on his 55-point game against the Golden State Warriors.

While the last few years haven't been very kind, Milwaukee is a proud franchise with a long tradition of winning. Led by Lew Alcindor, they won a championship in 1971, and in the '80s, the team advanced at least as far as the Conference Semifinals in nine of 10 seasons. The team has a nice 1-2 punch now with Jennings and Andrew Bogut, and if Michael Redd can get healthy, this team is a good bet to make the playoffs in the East.

- THE SPORTRESS OF BLOGITUDE (I have to say, I like that name) has the details of a Marv Albert/50 Cent scuffle that happened backstage at a recent taping of "Jimmy Kimmel."

- THE SPORTING BLOG reports that detainees at the Wisconsin National Guard camp over in Iraq are using Brett Favre's shenanigans against the soldiers.

- BLACK SPORTS ONLINE wonders if anyone cares about the concussion problem in the NFL.

- SHUTDOWN CORNER discusses the Jay Cutler and Lovie Smith's decision not to sit down for an interview with Bob Costas in advance of the team's Sunday night game against the Eagles.

- RUMORS & RANTS lists some of the worst calls of all time.

You read that right: Peja Stojakovic. The Hornets are trying to stay competitive without Chris Paul, and Peja's 25-point, 13-rebound effort led New Orleans to a 110-103 win over the Pacific Division-leading Phoenix Suns. He was 7-11 from 3PT range on the night.

The win is especially impressive given David West's off night (6p, 4r, 2-11 shooting), but the Hornets had a balanced attack with four other players in double figures.

Not since the 2001 Playoffs have I been this excited about the Milwaukee Bucks. That was the year George Karl led the so-called "Big Three" -- Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson and Sam Cassell -- to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they faced Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers. They were just a missed Robinson jumper away from making the NBA Finals.

For a small market team to develop into a serious contender, they have to get lucky. Big name free agents generally don't want to play in Milwaukee or any other small market, so they have to acquire their superstar through the draft. The Spurs landed Tim Duncan. The Magic landed Dwight Howard. The Cavs landed LeBron James.

That Bucks team won the first pick in the 1994 lottery (Robinson), swung a draft day trade in 1996 (Allen) and traded for an underrated point guard (Cassell) during the 1998-99 season. Robinson wasn't a franchise player like Duncan, Howard or LeBron, but with Allen and Cassell (along with an up-and-coming reserve named Michael Redd), the Bucks were able to make a run in a watered down Eastern Conference.

This summer, the Bucks got lucky again. While it would have been nice to win the lottery and the right to draft Blake Griffin, the next best thing happened -- they struck gold with the #10 pick. As the draft grew closer, it appeared that the Bucks had zeroed in on Jennings, but as Chris Sheridan writes, they didn't think he'd be there.

"The thing that stood out for me with him was just his quickness -- and his quickness in playing in a slower-tempo game," McKinney said. "And when you watch the Euro game, they play a slower tempo there, and you would think that would be an advantage for the bigger players defending him, yet he was able to handle the pressure and pretty much do what he wanted to do.

"The only question I had at that time was it looked like he had some technical flaws in his shot, minor flaws, and he didn't play a ton of minutes. So I came away from that game with a lot of questions, which is what you do in the scouting process -- instead of making a final evaluation you come away with questions -- and that's how you evaluate him in workouts, and those questions were answered."

They were answered in a workout the Bucks held in mid-June for point guards Ty Lawson, Jonny Flynn, Jeff Teague and Jennings.

"From that workout, in addition to what we saw on the DVDs, he really opened our eyes as to how good he was and how much we weren't able to see in some of the games we saw overseas," McKinney said.

It was also in that workout, general manager John Hammond said, that the Bucks saw a player whose ability to get to the basket and finish was similar to that of Tony Parker.

"We thought he'd go at No. 5, 6 or 7," Hammond said.

Before heading to Italy, Jennings's resume was already impressive. He was the 2008 Naismith Prep Player of the Year, which is a pretty good indicator of success in the NBA. The previous 12 winners were Kevin Love, Greg Oden, Louis Williams, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Ray Felton, DaJuan Wagner, Gerald Wallace, Donnell Harvey, Al Harrington, Shane Battier and Kobe Bryant. There are three superstars on that list (Kobe, LeBron, Howard) and other than Harvey and Wagner, they're all significant contributors in the NBA.

I remember watching Jennings's draft stock over at NBADraft.net as the 2008-09 college season wore on. He started the year in the top 3-5 of the site's mock drafts, and as reports out of Italy had him struggling to fit in, he slowly dropped into the back half of the top 10. During the pre-draft workout phase, he was in the 10-15 range. It didn't help that the 2009 Draft was heavy on point guards, including Ricky Rubio, Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry, Jonny Flynn, Jeff Teague and Ty Lawson.

Scouts questioned his jumper and his attitude. Thus far, he is getting rave reviews on both counts. He is averaging 24.8 points per game, and is shooting 48% from the field and 56% from long range. Is he going to be a 50%+ 3PT shooter? No, but he's looking like he might settle somewhere in the low- to mid- 40's, and for a guy with his quickness, that would make him very difficult to defend. He's also getting along very well with Bucks head coach Scott Skiles, who has a reputation for being a hard ass.

He's drawing comparisons to other lefties Kenny Anderson, Nick Van Exel and Tiny Archibald. To me, his game is most reminiscent of Allen Iverson's, though right now, Jennings looks like he's going to be a better distance shooter -- Iverson has hit just 31% from 3PT in his career -- and he doesn't seem to dominate the ball as much as AI does.

Not only is Jennings a scorer, but he's a capable playmaker (5.8 apg) and rebounder (4.7 rpg). His assists will likely grow as the Bucks start to get a few more pieces around him. Right now, along with center Andrew Bogut, the team is starting Carlos Delfino, Hakim Warrick and Luc Mbah a Moute. Those aren't exactly marquee names, and the Bucks are still 6-3. Granted, six of the team's nine games have been at home, but that's a good start nonetheless.

Of course, it is early. He's only played nine games, and it's going to be tough for him to keep up this pace. But all signs point to the Bucks striking gold at #10. Hell, the Clippers can keep Blake Griffin. We'll take "Young Money."

Photo from fOTOGLIF

In his first game back from injury, Jamison posted 31 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and a steal in the Wizards' 108-91 drubbing of the Cleveland Cavaliers last night. The line and the win are already impressive, but for Jamison to play this well in his first game back makes it doubly so. It's tough for a player to return from injury and play at a high level since his conditioning and timing usually aren't there, but Jamison didn't have a problem last night.

With the win, the (finally) healthy Wizards advance to 3-7 while the Cavs drop to 8-4. Cleveland was without Shaquille O'Neal and Anderson Varejao due to injury.

…okay, not really. But LeBron did say recently that he could succeed in NFL if he put in the time and Browns head coach Eric Mangini has a helmet waiting for him if he ever wants to give it a try.

From ESPN.com:

"If I put all my time and commitment into it, if I dedicated myself to the game of football, I could be really good," he said Tuesday night, "no matter what team I was on."

Mangini agreed, calling James "a freak athletically" and said the 6-foot-8, 260-pounder could be dangerous at tight end, wide receiver or even outside linebacker.

Quarterback Brady Quinn also heard about James' football fetish. He would love to have a target to throw to like James in the red zone.
"That'd be great," Quinn said. "Tell him to suit up and let us know, we'll get him working. Obviously he's an incredibly talented athlete. If he wants to try to play a little bit now, we'd be more than willing to pick him up."

Browns nose tackle Shaun Rogers isn't convinced James, as great as he is, could step into the NFL and be able to handle the pounding.
"I heard that comment," Rogers said. "I have mixed emotions about that. A great athlete? Yes. A football player? No."

Rogers then looked into TV cameras.

"Yeah LeBron, I said it," he said. "It's a punishing game. I just don't think you can step off the basketball court after not going through this year in and year out and just play football. From that standpoint, I just don't think it's possible. You have to weather and condition your body to take this punishment."

That’s all the Cavs and the city of Cleveland needs: For LeBron hurt playing for a 1-8 Browns team going nowhere fast.

Given how gifted an athlete James is, I could see him succeeding in the NFL if he put in the time. But I agree with Rogers in that he couldn’t just step onto the field this Sunday and have an impact. For starters, he’s never run a pro route and he’s never read a defense. If he was told to just run straight down the field and then look for the ball, I could see him making a play or two. But he’d be lost if he were to start a game without practicing and I could only imagine him getting laid out going across the middle.

The front office for the Cavs would rather die than see this come to fruition, but I would love to see LeBron play for just one game to see how he’d do – even if it were just for a couple of plays.

Of course, that would require Brady Quinn to throw a pass longer than three yards in bounds, which is something I seriously doubt he could handle.

At some point, I'll stop writing these "Oklahoma City is surprising" posts, but I have to say that I was surprised when I saw that the Thunder upset the Heat in Miami. A big reason for the win was Kevin Durant, who posted 32 points, nine rebounds, five assists, one steal and one blocked shot. He hit 11-23 shots, including 1-2 from downtown. He made all nine of his free throws.

With the win, the young Thunder are 6-5 and are currently in the 7th spot in the playoffs in the West, although we obviously have a long way to go. It would be fun to see Oklahoma fighting for a playoff spot at the end of the season.

- THE DAGGER has video of Miami coach Charlie Coles dismantling a reporter who asked a dumb question.

- HUGGING HAROLD REYNOLDS has audio of Magic Johnson responding to Isiah Thomas (who responded to Magic Johnson's book).

- AWFUL ANNOUNCING has video of Terry Bradshaw guaranteeing a Steeler win over the Bengals on Sunday. Oops.

- GUYISM has video of a little girl scoring a goal on her own team in a junior soccer league. It is kind of funny.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS wonders if Jerry Jones looks a little tipsy in a recent photo.

- DEADSPIN has more details about ESPN horndoggery.

Back in 1998, the Milwaukee Bucks drafted a skinny 20 year-old kid out of Germany named Dirk Nowitzki and immediately traded him to the Dallas Mavericks for Robert "Tractor" Traylor and Pat Garrity. The Bucks never had any intention of keeping Nowitzki; at that point, the Mavs were on the forefront of foreign scouting and were the only ones that were willing to draft him that early. Still, for obvious reasons, Bucks fans cringe whenever they hear Dirk's name.

Last night, Nowitzki led the Mavs to a 115-113 overtime win over the suddenly hot Bucks in Milwaukee. Dirk had 32 points (on 12-25 shooting), 11 rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block. He also hit the game-winning buzzer-beater in overtime. Here's a look:

Per NBA.com...

The saga of Allen Iverson and the Memphis Grizzlies lasted less than two months. Monday, the two sides agreed to release the 34 year old from his one-year contract, meaning Iverson will become a free agent when he clears waivers.

Iverson, who'd signed a $3.5 million contract in September, had been away from the team for the past 10 days, taking a leave of absence from the team to deal with what both he and the team called a private family matter. But it also was crystal clear that Iverson was not going to abide by the team's decision that he come off the bench instead of start, and that meant a long-term relationship between the two was ultimately going to be impossible.

Is anyone surprised by this turn of events?

By now, you've probably heard that Bucks rookie Brandon Jennings dropped 55 points on the Golden State Warriors. More importantly, his team won.

Here is his 29-point third quarter in its entirety. It's worth watching.

So much for Jackson's wish to be traded to a contender. He's headed to Charlotte as part of a four-player trade.

In a deal that NBA front-office sources said came together quickly Sunday night and received the needed league approval Monday morning, Golden State sent Jackson and guard Acie Law to the Bobcats in exchange for veteran swingmen Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmanovic.

Let's see -- Jackson has three years left at the tune of $28 million. Radmanovic has one year left for $6.9 million and the other two players (Bell and Law) are free agents after this season. So the Warriors are going to save about $21 million with this move, assuming they don't re-sign either of the incoming players.

Radmanovic isn't a bad fit for the Warriors in that he can shoot from long range and can't play any defense. Bell is known as a hard-nosed defender but his best years are behind him.

Jackson has a reputation for being something of a malcontent, and he asked to be traded to a contender (only he goes to a bottom-feeding Charlotte franchise). If you're running the Bobcats, why do you make this deal? What are the odds that this works out?

The Bobcats do get a versatile scorer. Charlotte is last in the league in scoring (82.4 ppg) and shooting percentage (39.4%), so he'll help in the short term, but I don't see how this improves the franchise in the long term. Jackson turns 32 this season, so he'll be 35 when his contract expires, and his deal will drastically reduce the team's cap space in the summers of 2011 and 2012.

Easily the most surprising score from yesterday's action is the Rockets' 101-91 win over the Lakers in Los Angeles. Brooks scored a career-high 33 points (including five three-pointers), while also grabbing six rebounds and dropping four dimes. He said that he was inspired by seeing an NBA championship ring for the first time. (Trevor Ariza received his ring before the game.)

Speaking of Ariza, he posted nine points, eight rebounds, four assists, four steals, two blocked shots and six turnovers. He was statistically outplayed by Ron Artest (22 points, six rebounds, three steals), but his team got the win.

The Rockets advance to 6-4, while the defending champs drop to 7-3 with their second straight loss. The Lakers need Pau Gasol back in a big way.

Are you kidding me? The current frontrunner for the ROY dropped 55 points on the Warriors in a 129-125 win at the Bradley Center. He hit 21-34 from the floor and 7-8 from long range, while also posting five rebounds and five assists on the night. The amazing thing is that he only had 10 points in the first half. He scored 29 in the third quarter, and 16 in the fourth.

He's really been able to flourish with Michael Redd sidelined. He reminds me of a left-handed Allen Iverson. In fact, he's one of five rookies to average 20+ points and 5+ assists per game. The other four? Iverson, LeBron, MJ and Oscar Robinson. That's impressive company (if he can keep it up).

The surprising Bucks are 5-2 on the season, thanks to the rookie and some solid play from Andrew Bogut.

Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee reports that the Kings are considering a trade involving Hornets big man Emeka Okafor.

A source with knowledge of the situation says the Kings are discussing a trade with New Orleans that would send Kenny Thomas to the Hornets and bring center Emeka Okafor to Sacramento.

The deal would be ideal for the Hornets, as Thomas' expiring contract worth $8.7 million is just the kind of contract that would trim their enormous payroll. The question, of course, is whether the Kings see Okafor as a big man solution worth the five years and approximately $64 million left on his deal.

I don't get the Hornets plan of attack for the last year or so. They have the best point guard in the NBA, yet instead of making a clear commitment to spend to build around him, they're slashing salary again. The confusing thing is that they tried to slash salary last year when they negotiated a trade that sent Tyson Chandler to Oklahoma City, only the Thunder sent Chandler back after their doctors had a chance to look him over. Then they turned around this offseason and traded Chandler (who has a short, expensive contract) for Okafor (who has a long, expensive contract). So it looked like the Hornets were willing to make a long-term commitment to build a winner.

Now, after a 3-7 start that has Chris Paul sidelined for a few weeks with a sprained ankle, they're ready to give Okafor away. What kind of signal does this send to Paul? He's signed through 2011-12, but at what point does he become disgruntled? They've already traded away Chandler and fired Byron Scott, and now they're looking to move a sure double-double guy in Okafor. He's not worth his contract, but he's still valuable, and if the Hornets want to get back to competitive, they could really use him manning the middle.

It's not like jettisoning Okafor's salary is going to give the Hornets any immediate salary cap space. They're sitting at almost $72 M for next season and won't have any flexibility until the summer of 2011. Paul is 24, so he has plenty of basketball left to play, but David West is 29, and by the time the Hornets have a chance to be competitive again, he might be 31 or 32 and on the decline.

This is a sad situation. The Hornets looked to be on the cusp of competing for a title a couple of seasons ago and now they're starting a rebuilding process that looks like it's going to take a while.