With the NBA trade deadline right around the corner on February 18th, the rumor mill continues to churn around the association with plenty of talk about who will be moved and who will stay put on their current team. However, a lot more than just trade rumors made the headlines in the NBA this past week. Also, one of the game’s biggest superstars reached another major milestone while a team many thought would be a true contender in the Eastern Conference this season was forced to hold a players-only meeting after they hit a new low point. Here is a look at the latest NBA news and notes from this past week.
LeBron Becomes Youngest To Reach 26K
Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James became the youngest player in NBA history to reach 26,000 points when he topped that mark in Friday’s 114-106 win over the Detroit Pistons. LeBron edged out the previous record holder Kobe Bryant by more than a year as he hit the milestone at 31-years-old and 30 days, compared to Kobe’s previous mark of 32-years-old and 80 days. LeBron currently ranks 17th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list but he is closing in fast on Kevin Garnett for 16th at 26,071 points and should have no problem blowing past that mark this week. Cleveland is still just 2.5 games up on the Toronto Raptors for top spot in the Eastern Conference standings and the next goal for the Cavaliers will be to open some ground on the competition and lock up home court advantage for the playoffs. We’ll see if they can continue to extend their lead in the second half of the season.
Wizards Hold Players-Only Meeting In Midst Of Slump
One team that won’t catch Cleveland in the Eastern Conference standings is the Washington Wizards, which held a players-only meeting after their fifth loss in six games. Washington currently sits 10th in the standings at 21-24. While they managed to bounced back with a big win over the Houston Rockets on the road, the schedule isn’t about to get any easier for them with games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors on the slate. The Eastern Conference looks much tougher than in past years with the Boston Celtics, Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons holding down the final three playoff spots right now and the Wizards are going to be in tough to close the gap and knock one of those teams out in order to reach the postseason.
The Rudy Gay Saga Continues
It seems as though every year at this time Rudy Gay is reported to be on the trade block and that is once again the case this season. There are conflicting rumors about whether the Sacramento Kings are willing to part ways with the veteran wing. The initial reports were that the Kings were willing to trade him for the right price with the expectation that they would be able to land a quality young guard in return but now there has been some chatter that the market isn’t there. That being the case, Sacramento isn’t willing to trade him anymore. Whatever the case, there is bound to be a lot of talk in the NBA news about Gay’s situation and whether or not the Kings will actually move him leading up to the February 18th NBA trade deadline.
Arenas Scammed Strip Club
Former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas was in the NBA news this past week due to some interesting headlines. He had some fun on social media this past week when he made claims that he had scammed a strip club out of $40K with a full description of the events that took place and how the whole episode unfolded. According to Arenas, he ordered “$80,000 worth of ones”, threw “about $40,000 of it too the strippers” and then he “sneak the rest out of the club”. There is still a good chance that Arenas was just trolling. The reality is he will be a lot better off if he did because if he didn’t, then technically he just admitted to fraud in a post that certainly didn’t take long to go viral.
