We're still a month away rfom the EuroBasket tournament, but Enes Kanter is already over there getting ready,
Should Kanter make his country's final squad for the EuroBasket, which tips off at the end of August in Lithuania, he and his teammates will fight for a place at the London Games.
"My purpose of coming back to Turkey is the national team," Kanter said.
"I really want to wear the national team jersey because this way, I'll represent Turkey better.
"At the moment, I'm focused neither on the Utah Jazz nor the (NBA) lock-out.
"My sole purpose is to represent Turkey in the best way."
Can we get through August already? Couldn't we contract August? Would anyone miss it really? What I'm really looking forward to though is the first game of the tournament between Russia and Ukraine. It's a good thing the Jazz have so many Euro players so that we have a small bone thrown at us.
Oddly enough, the best part to me of Billy Hunter's email to the players commending Deron Williams and other players heading overseas is the last part,
Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.
It kind of puts an average joe feel to the whole thing knowing that a player has Microsoft Outlook running. What image is blocked as well? Does Hunter have a large pic as part of his email sig? I'd like to see that. Also, it's amazing that the email made it through Outlook's junk mail filter with a subject like RE: Overseas Opportunities. Many a dollar have been lost with emails that start like that.
SI.com released it's top 100 sports tweeters to follow. It's a solid and well-rounded list. Do you know who would vault to the top of that list next year? Fess. Hopefully he'll bite the bullet and sign up. He was close last year when CJ was going to get him going but I think he was dissuaded.
C'mon Fess, I know you're reading. Take the plunge. Depriving the world in such a manner is a crime.
Also, it looks like Deron is back on twitter for those interested. He's @DeronWilliams which was being squatted on. Kyle Korver tweeted it and his #1, Matt Mitnick is following it, so it's legit though it's not verified yet.
Millsap's high school will be honoring him with Paul Millsap day on August 5th. Hopefully they honor him by honoring another alum first for three hours, give Paul 10 minutes, and then bring on someone who just graduated in May.
Without the lockout, we would at least be talking summer league right now. Even without a lockout, between now and the start of the preseason, things would be bleak news-wise. If the lockout ends the season, I can't imagine what the DB will delve into.
So I plead with you; if you have any tips, news, or stories that you think other fans would find interesting, please email me at basketballjohn@gmail.com, hit me up on twitter @slcdunk, or message me on G+ (http://gplus.to/bbj). There's also the SLC Dunk Facebook page but given that it's blocked for most of my day, that's probably the least effective. But still like the page!
Also, if you'd like to prevent DB's with news such as #2 where I talk about Microsoft Outlook on a Utah Jazz site, please send some tips.
If you're interested in certain Jazz news but don't want to write a fanpost on it, let me know and we can get something put up on it.
Thanks again for reading and contributing.