Got some family stuff this morning, so here is an early, abridged version o' Sunday links (which actually works out, because I didn't find much in the way of Wizards news):
- As fate would have it, hours after my "Things developing slowly for Andray Blatche on free agent market" links post hit the interwebs yesterday, ESPN's Mark Stein tweeted that the Heat and Spurs have expressed "exploratory interest" in the former Wizard. [@ESPNSteinLine]
- Could Blatche be a good fit in Miami despite his frequent nonchalant on-court attitude? [Hot Hot Hoops]
- The inaugural game of the Basketball Alumni Legends League (The-BALL) saw ex-D.C. area college stars take down their counterparts from Philly, 113-93. The two teams will play again in the The-BALL's second game tonight at Saint Joseph's University. The D.C. squad includes former Terps John Gilchrist, James Gist and D.J. Strawberry, ex-Hoyas Henry Sims, Austin Freeman, Jason Clark and Chris Wright, George Mason alums Folarin Campbell, Jai Lewis and Will Thomas, plus GW's Tony Taylor and Chris Monroe. [Washington Post]
- One game removed from an historic demolition of Nigeria, yesterday Team USA found itself trailing 82-80 with less than seven minutes to go in its matchup with Lithuania. It took a scoring surge from LeBron James for the Americans to ultimately eek out the victory, 99-94. James, who spent the first three games looking to set up teammates and only scored a combined 20 points, scored another 20 against Lithuania, including nine of Team USA's last 12 points. An odd note on the game, the three of the players who led Lithuania all have local ties -- Linas Kleiza, who played at Montrose Christian, former Wizard Darius Songalia and ex-Terp Sarunas Jasikevicius. [SB Nation | Washington Post | SI | ESPN]
- In barely edging out Lithuania, Team USA might have given future (and stronger) opponents a blueprint for how to beat them. [SB Nation | Yahoo! Sports]
- Here's a roundup of the rest of yesterday's Olympic action. Of note for Wizards fans, Kevin Seraphin finally stayed out of foul trouble and had a nice game for France in a 73-69 win over Tunisia, scoring 10 points, grabbing three rebounds and notching two blocks and two steals in 22 minutes. Meanwhile, Nene only played 11 minutes in Brazil's 98-59 thrashing of China, but in that time he scored six points and hauled in five rebounds to go with two assists and steal, so at least he was effective while on the floor (wonder if that means his ailing foot combined with the final score was the reason for his limited court time). And don't look now, but Russia has had a pretty impressive run to start the Olympics. [ESPN]