Fan favourite, Julius Joseph is delighted to be back with Guildford Heat for his third consecutive season with the club.
The 6ft 4in forward has been a professional basketball player for over a decade. He played for Manchester Giants, Belgian Euphony Bree, Colfontaine (Belgium) and Scottish Rocks prior to joining Guildford Heat in 2008. He has also played as a forward in both senior rosters of the England National Team and the Great Britain Team.
NBA LOCKOUT
The NBA is currently in a lock out situation, meaning the players and the owners have major disagreements that have not been resolved thus far. As a result all NBA activity, summer league, websites etc is suspended.
The problem arose when the owners said that under the current system 22 out of the 30 teams in the NBA loose money every season. Owners said they lost hundreds of millions in every season of this CBA, ratified in 2005. League officials said 22 of the 30 teams would lose money.
The owner’s new proposal would result in reducing contract lengths and eliminating contract guarantees, as well as reducing player salary costs by about $750 million annually.
2011-2012 isn’t the first time that the NBA has been locked out.
A few years ago, disputes where so serious that half a NBA basketball season was missed resulting in players receiving half a year’s salary.
However, this time around things are very different. NBA players are already making moves to play in Europe – Deron Williams’ agent says the New Jersey Nets point guard will supposedly go to Turkey if the lockout continues, and surely he will make a boatload of cash balling abroad.
Playing basketball in Europe is a new and expanding exciting market. The biggest teams in Europe are willing to paid millions to get players to go play in some of the best leagues outside the NBA.
The NBA could be in danger of losing its NBA star if this lock out isn’t resolved and certainly is in the power is in the players hands. Superstars like Kobe Bryant, Lebron Wade and Dwight Howard, have the power to single-handedly pack an arena and losing them would be a huge loss to many.
The NBA Commissioner Stern said: “The people who stand to have their livings impacted by a shutdown of our industry are going to have a negative view of both sides, I think our fans will tend to have a negative view of why can’t you guys work this thing out.”
Hopefully a solution will be found soon or many will be disappointed and angry.
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MARCH MADNESS
March is one of Americas most exciting months as it brings about the national division one NCAA College Basketball tournament. Its a basketball fans best time of the year with more than 500 colleges bringing that extra bit of intensity in the hope of winning their respective conference (league).
The competition does not stop there. After the conference tournament is completed teams then have a chance of playing in the national tournament. Only 64 teams are selected to the “big dance” (as it is called) and entry is obtained two ways – winning your conference tournament or obtaining a bid to be selected.
Bids are given to the teams with the best record, compared with the strength of their schedule during the coast of the season. The 64 teams are grouped into 4 regions, with one team in every 16 playing in the hope to make the all important final four.
So who are this years favourites…?
Duke, Ohio St, Kansas leads the way, but you can never really guess the winners in this tournament as there are always major upsets. Last year Butler – a relatively unknown college -managed to beat many bigger schools on the way to losing in the final on a last second shot, in an amazing effort.
Butler are back this year and will be looking to repeat their past performance and get back the championship match. The national basketball college tournament always has many tightly contested matches and the excitement never stops. What’s make it even better is that now we can all watch the tournament matches both pass and live online on the NCAA website.
Who am I picking to win it all?
Well it’s always tough to pick a winner, but I have followed Kansas through the season and lead by the Morris twins, I feel like they are destined for glory. The Morris twins are both prospects for entering the NBA draft and both are equally unstoppable. Just recently the efforts of the Jayhawks’ Morris twins Marcus and Markieff – have carried top-seeded Kansas to the last sixteen also called “the Sweet Sixteen” of the NCAA Tournament’s Southwest Regional.
During Kansas’ 73-59 triumph over ninth-seeded Illinois the twins combined for 41 points and 24 rebounds. Marcus was the Big 12 player of the year, but it was Markieff who starred and led the team to victory.
Personally I’m looking forward to the next series of matches and seeing if the Kansas Jay hawks can take the national championship home.
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