Enes Kanter Is Unlucky - The Downbeat - #559

Soon.  Here is a sneak preview of the SB Nation mobile app.  Though this demo only shows it for the iPhone, Android is coming shortly after.  There's no target date for its release, though it should be soon.  It's not available in the app store but is being beta tested. 

SBN demo from Mark on Vimeo.

This will be a version 1 release with many more features added in the future.  The biggest features right now are as follows:

1. Customized news feed.  This will allow you to see news from your favorite teams on the main screen
2. Follow StoryStreams.  This allows you to follow stories and updates on SB Nation.
3. Mobile commenting.  Technically you can do this now through the mobile web browser, but this will make it easier.  It doesn't support auto-refreshing yet, but will in the future.

If you have any questions/comments, the dev guys will be checking in on the comments here.  You can also email them at support@sbnation.com. 

Now we just need some NBA games to go with it.

  Several Jazz and non-Jazz members make up the Tribune's 25 most-influential sports list:

No. 3, Kevin O'Connor, Jazz general manager

No. 8, Deron Williams, former Jazz player

No. 9, Greg Miller, Jazz CEO

No. 13, Gail Miller, Jazz owner

No. 15, Randy Rigby, Jazz president

No. 19, Tyrone Corbin, Jazz coach

I don't get having DWill on the list given that he's no longer part of Utah sports.  That trade did reshape the franchise but if we're going on that, then Jerry Sloan should be on this list as well.

   All Kanter wants to do is "to play [the] basketball":

While it feels like yesterday since Utah selected the 19-year-old 6-foot-11, 260-pound center with the third overall pick in June's NBA Draft, it's been two years since Kanter has competed in any meaningful basketball games.

"It's easy for me to say that I am the unluckiest guy ever. I couldn't play in college, and right now there is the lockout. The only thing I can do is just wait," said Kanter, reflecting on his failed college basketball career with the University of Kentucky and head coach John Calipari.

In January, the NCAA denied Kentucky's appeal and ruled Kanter permanently ineligible as a collegiate athlete because he received $30,000 from Fenerbahce Ulker, with whom he played professionally in the Euro League before attending Stoneridge Preparatory School in Simi Valley, California.

That article also states that he won't be able to play in China because they've banned NBA out clauses.  He's going to benefit the most from playing overseas.

  Speaking of unlucky, Coach Corbin was pretty much given a pass for his tenure as the head coach and rightfully so.  I don't think anybody could have done better with what he was given.  We might have to end up giving up a little more of a pass.  If the lockout wipes out games, and  there's no indication that it won't, he's going to have a shortened training camp and a year minus summer league for a team that's chock full of rookies.  He's handling it pretty well though,

There's one item close to Corbin's heart that he can talk about, though, no matter how long the lockout lasts. And the Jazz coach who acknowledged toward the end of a roller-coaster 2010-11 season that he was going a little stir crazy has found solace in the one thing that always supports him, and is indifferent to whether he walks off the court after each contest as a winner or loser.

Corbin has turned the NBA's broken game clock into a personal journey, temporarily pausing the hectic life of the association to reconnect with his family. He recently returned to his South Carolina roots, spending time with his mother while receiving the key to his hometown of Columbia. Corbin also again became a full-time husband to his wife and a father to his children, rather than just being the 48-year-old man alternating Jazz workout clothes with sharp suits and known to most only as "coach Ty."

  Videos of Enes Kanter and Andrei Kirilenko as they get closer to Eurobasket courtesy of moni.

Andrei Kirilenko highlights vs. Lithuania (Aug. 19, 2011) (via jazzfanatical)

Enes Kanter (Turkey) vs. Germany (Aug. 21, 2010) (via jazzfanatical)