Has John Calipari dropped a hint as to where potential first pick of this year’s NBA Draft Karl-Anthony Towns is going?
And the news is a welcome one for the team that has first dibs.
Via Slam Online:
As Draft night 2015 nears (Thursday, June 25) new mock drafts continue to be generated with surprising alterations. However, it seems that most “experts” continue to agree that Kentucky big man Karl-Anthony Towns will be the first overall selection by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
According to his college coach, John Calipari, that isn’t a problem for Towns. Despite the more “sexy” Lakers holding the No. 2 overall pick, Towns is ready to rock in Minny, if that’s where he winds up.
From Adam Zagoria on Twitter:
Calipari on Towns: “He likes Minnesota. He said from day 1 ‘I’ll go to Minnesota, let’s build a franchise.'”
PARKER REBUILDING FOR EUROBASKET
San Antonio Spurs’ Tony Parker has put the disappointing first round exit in the Playoffs to the Clippers behind him as he prepares for next season.
Parker will work out with France and use the international season, where France are one of the four co-hosts for this year’s Eurobasket to ready himself for the NBA.
Via Express News:
I only took three weeks off,” Parker said. “Very different from last year. Because I played so much, everybody was telling me I needed to rest after we won last year. I felt like I took maybe too much off. My mentality is a lot different. I feel like I have to rebuild my body and make sure I don’t get all the little inflammations, all the little injuries I had. I’m very excited about it. I’ve been working out since June 1 so hopefully it will pay off with Le Bleus and I will be in shape when I come in camp.”
“Just being on the track, lifting with our strength coach. I do some boxing; it’s fun. I never did a fitness program like that before. I talked a lot with Pop (Gregg Popovich) and RC (Buford) about what I can do to make sure I finish my career on a high. And so they know I’m committed, and I’ll do everything I can to be in shape, like Timmy (Tim Duncan). Timmy has been great at the end of his career, changing his preparation. […] I’ll do the same thing.”
Parker skipped last year’s FIBA World Cup, a welcome respite from a grueling schedule in which he played pretty much year-round, with the Spurs and his native France, for four straight years. It mattered little as he missed 14 games, and was frequently limited physically even when available. […] The biggest issue, Parker said, was a nagging hamstring issue that led to a variety of other lower-leg issues. As a result, Parker — who entered the NBA in 2001-02 at 19 — averaged just 14.4 points and 4.9 assists last season, his lowest output since the earliest years of his career. His Player Efficiency Rating also fell for a second straight campaign, from a near career-high 23.0 in 2012-13 to last year’s 15.9, barely above the league average of 15.0. Those struggles carried into the postseason, where Parker averaged 13.0 points and shot 36.3 percent while being soundly outplayed by rival Chris Paul.
TIM DUNCAN LOST $20MILLION DUE TO A FINANCIAL ADVISER
San Antonio Spurs superstar forward Tim Duncan alleges that a dishonest financial adviser led to him blowing over $20 million, and the big fella filed a lawsuit back in January.
Duncan, 39, says the money will not be a determining factor on whether or not he’ll return to the Spurs next season.
Duncan met with the financial adviser during his rookie season in 1998, and was persuaded to invest in hotels, beauty products, sports merchandising and wineries that the adviser owned or in which he had a financial stake according to the lawsuit.
Via Bloomberg:
“Luckily I had a long career and made good money,” the 39-year-old Duncan, who has been paid about $220 million over his career, including about $10 million this past season, said in a telephone interview. “This is a big chunk, but it’s not going to change my life in any way. It’s not going to make any decisions for me.”
In January, Duncan sued his former financial adviser, Charles Banks, accusing him of pushing him into investments despite conflicts of interest that ultimately caused substantial loss. Banks hid his own interest in investment opportunities recommended to the 15-time All-Star, according to the complaint. […] The losses from 2005-2013 were discovered during a review of Duncan’s finances as part of his divorce, the player said.
“I trusted someone to do a job that I hired them to do and they misused my trust and went astray and started using my money,” Duncan said in the phone interview, noting that he’s speaking out to dispel Banks’s assertions that the losses stemmed from a misunderstanding or that he was impatient and wanted out of certain investments. “I want people to understand that the statements he made are absolutely incorrect, that he’s just trying to make himself look good and save his own image when there’s nothing there to save.”
