A.I. and Philly reunited (and tea time reading)?

So Allen Iverson and the city of Philadelphia may be moving closer to being reunited?

The two sides met for two hours in Dallas Monday afternoon, 76ers geneal manager Ed Stafanksi confirmed via statement.

Stefanski also made clear that as of right now "both parties remain non-commital regarding a final decision" and that the 76ers will "continue to discus internally whether or not to pursue this course."

But if the sides are meeting face-to-face ... aw, it's not even worth speculating about right now.

While you wait for your latest intallment of As The A.I. turns, here's a little more Tea time reading (with a little video link mixed in for good measure) for you to chew on:

Mark Cuban would like to see an age limit for the Olympic basketball team.

Mary Schmitt Boyer details LeBron's criticism of Mike Brown's rotation.

Chris Bosh unveils the trailer to his new Boshumentary, "First Ink."

Tim Buckley notes another milestone for Jazz coach Jerry Sloan (No. 235).

Rick Bonnell highlights the benefits of having Stephen Jackson on your team.

Mark Montieth warns us all to be patient with certain players.

Chris Tomasson shines a light on what George Karl said he wouldn't do before he did it.

Dave D'Alessandro offers up this spot on analysis of the post-Frank Nets.

Joe Freeman believes the Trail Blazers are already worn out after just one month.

Jeff Rabjohns heralds Mike Dunleavy's return as the potential turning point for the Pacers.

-- Posted Nov. 30, 2009, 4:30 p.m. Question or comment? E-mail Sekou

Ask a simple question and there's usually a simple answer to be had, somewhere.

I ventured into the Twitter-verse to find out about all these silly quotes you keep reading and hearing about connected to the Wizards.

I asked a man in the know what was up with all the verbal drama and was quickly reminded that losing is "no fun." Twitter superstar and Washington Post Wizards beat writer Mike Lee doesn't hold back in his breakdown of the team's performance in one of his recent video blogs.

Words accompanied his shirt and tie routine:

"It's one thing for the Wizards (5-10) to have a losing record after the first month of the season. It's another thing that the Wizards have been hammered in almost all of their losses this season. They have lost eight games by double digits this season, with the last embarrassment coming at home against Charlotte -- a team that arrived at Verizon Center with zero road wins.

But the Bobcats made themselves feel right at home on Saturday night, as they never trailed and built a 24-point lead in the second half. A loss like that -- especially after the team had played so well the night before in Miami -- should seriously hurt. And, for some players, I'm sure it did. It was just a little shocking to enter the locker room and see Nick Young playfully arguing with Gilbert Arenas over a shipment of Louis Vuitton shoes near Arenas's locker stall. After a game like that? I know it's early in the season, but you figure some things can wait."

I'm not sure you can illustrate what ails a team any better than that.

Like I said, simple questions usually have simple answers, somewhere out there.

-- Posted Nov. 30, 2009, 3:08 p.m. Question or comment? E-mail Sekou

In the spirit of yet another debt-inducing shopping holiday (I'll give you Black Friday but Cyber Monday? Come on!) it is my pleasure to bring you a themed edition of Hang Time's favorite dunks from around the league in recent days.

Just call it Dunks-R-Us!

First up is this treat from Thunder forward Jeff Green. And yes, that's the entire Bucks frontline that he's cramming through the basket.

Anything you can do Mr. Green, Kevin Durant says he can do better (as he does here on Rockets swingman Trevor Ariza).

Suns All-Star Amare Stoudemire would like for you to know that he's still got the hops to get the job done as well.

Bucks forward Hakim Warrick wanted to make sure you didn't forget about him. He plays in that air up there, too.

Hawks forward Josh Smith can go coast-to-coast, if necessary, to get the job done.

You're probably sick of seeing Shannon Brown of the Lakers sailing over someone for a nasty dunk ... nah, no you're not.

We'll finish up (above) here with a little throwback action from Celtics All-Star Paul Pierce, who pulled the ol' kick-punch dunk out of his hat for Chris Bosh last week.

-- Posted Nov. 30, 2009, 1:15 p.m. Question or comment? E-mail Sekou

Goodbye Lawrence Frank. And hello Tom Barrise?

You knew something had to give with the Nets. So long as the losing streak continued (it's 17 and counting after Sunday's loss to the Lakers), the footing under Frank wasn't safe.

Now that the Eastern Conference's longest tenured coach is none other than the Hawks' Mike Woodson (a coach that has survived a similar fate several times earlier in his stint with the Hawks).

While no one blames Frank totally for the Nets' epic struggles, I think it was a classy move by both Rod Thorn and Kiki Vandeweghe to keep Frank from being saddled with the 0-17 mark on his record.

So it was a symbolic gesture that will only come up when the next poor team bad enough to straddle that 0-for-whatever start is being dissected. I don't care. That they allowed Frank to depart without that one, final humiliating moment to remember him by, speaks volumes. It's hard to know which streak seems more significant now, his 13-0 start or his 0-16 finish?

Where Barrise and the Nets go from here remains one of the most intriguing story lines of this week (hey, it's not always about Allen Iverson all the time around here). The win column would be a great start.

And now, a little morning reading to get Cyber Monday kicked off on the right foot:

***

Bulls' Rose ready for Jennings match up

Derrick Rose isn't ready to relinquish his title as the hottest young point guard in the game to Brandon Jennings just yet.John Jackson of the Sun Times says Rose is ready for tonight's showdown: "Rose will match up with Jennings most of the time -- just like when their teams played AAU games in high school. Rose also got a chance to face Jennings earlier in the season and made one of the key defensive plays when he blocked Jennings' shot in the lane in the final minute.

"You have to make sure you always stay in front of him, contest all his jump shots; it's like that with any other good guard," Rose said. "He can score and so can every guard in the league. You just have to make it difficult for him."

***

Still a hometown hero

Even after being fired Frank remains a hometown hero in his native New Jersey, writes Record columnist Ian O'Connor: "No, Frank didn't bother trying to talk his boss out of it. He kept it professional and thanked Thorn for giving him an opportunity out of his wildest dreams. And yes, those dreams were wild. It's why Frank's firing wasn't a cause for a funeral as much as it was a chance to celebrate his Rudy-like rise out of Teaneck High, where he wasn't talented enough to make the basketball team or smart enough to concede he couldn't become a household NBA name.

Consider where the deposed Nets coach ended up Sunday -- in the headline news right next to the world's most famous athlete, Tiger Woods, who might be the only figure in sports who had a rougher week than Frank. This wasn't supposed to happen. Lawrence Franks aren't supposed to exist."

***

Garnett near perfect and Celtics still have to battle

The Celtics got a near perfect performance from Kevin Garnett but couldn't pull away from the Heat without some help from the youngsters, per Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: "Kevin Garnett, in his finest offensive performance of the early season, shot 11-of-12 for 24 points, including the night's big shot - a game-sealing 20-footer with 38.7 seconds left. But the Celtics once again had to scrap for everything. Beyond Garnett, this victory wouldn't have been possible without a significant contribution from the Celtics' youth.

Rajon Rondo (13 points, 11 assists) and Kendrick Perkins (14 points, 13 rebounds) both held this one together. "They are maturing," said coach Doc Rivers. "They just understand their roles. We are a very good team when each guy understands his role and accepts it, and plays inside of his role. We become an average team when guys step out of their roles. I felt that as a group in the first half we did that, and I thought in the fourth quarter that we got it back."

***

All this AI to Philly talk is just that, talk

Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News warns us all to pump the brakes on this idea that the 76ers will add A.I. to their mix: "Coach Eddie Jordan admitted that Iverson's name had come up in conversations, but said so had the names of a lot of free agents. "He's intriguing to talk about in the media with friends with fans with your mom and your sister, but now we're really concentrating on playing tonight. I have not been oversaturated with Allen Iverson," Jordan said.

"In my mind or in conversation with our front office, it's like any other free agent out there. We've talked about a number of people and I know he's the most intriguing one, but there's equal responsibility with doing your due diligence with anybody that's out there. "You can't hide, he's a guy like anybody else out there we've talked about -- Antonio Daniels we've talked about, Jerry Stackhouse, we've talked about any free agent that's out there. He's just one of them that we've talked about."

***

"Kid Canada" did it to the home team again

Nobody comes home like Steve Nash, as my man Michael Grange of the Globe and Mail makes perfectly clear here: "Two stars; two dressing rooms; two athletes at different stages of their careers on teams heading in different directions. The Air Canada Centre is Chris Bosh's home court, his place of work since he broke into the NBA as a gangly rookie in 2003. But once a year, it feels like he's the visitor -- coinciding with the annual appearance by Steve Nash, the Phoenix Suns star point guard from Victoria.

Nash authored the Suns' casual 113-94 blowout of the Raptors yesterday afternoon in front of 17,721 fans who greeted Nash warmly and enthusiastically even as he was enjoying his 12th consecutive win over Toronto. Does Nash take his citizenship seriously? Apparently. He hasn't been dressed and on the losing end of a game -- home or away -- to Canada's NBA team since Nov. 2, 2001, when he was still with the Dallas Mavericks, a streak of 17 games over eight seasons."

***

Arenas could use a pick me up, anyone seen Tony Robbins?

The Wizards' superstar can't seem to channel his more aggressive alter ego, Agent Zero, per my man Mike Jones of the Washington Times: "Though many factors have contributed to the Wizards' rocky start, the erratic play of Gilbert Arenas has had the greatest impact on the offensive struggles. Saunders has said repeatedly the key to success for his offense is for Arenas to be aggressive. When the guard attacks the basket, it frees up his teammates and also creates opportunities for him. But aside from the season-opening win over Dallas, when he had 29 points and nine assists, Arenas has yet to show an ability or willingness to do so.

Saunders on Saturday admitted he is confused by the lack of aggression Arenas has shown and was left to conclude that the two years of inactivity and the rigorous early stretch may have started to catch up with the guard. "I read this stuff a lot where Gil wants to be [the leader]. But we're not doing anything to hold him back," Saunders said. "I think he's going through a process right now. He's not shooting the ball well; a lot of times he's not quick getting on balance. I think back-to-backs maybe he struggles a little bit. ..."

***

A second career for Spoelstra?

When he's done coaching in the NBA, in about 50 years, Heat coach Erik might have another career calling. Maybe even as a workout guru for aging athletes after the work of Heat veterans Jermaine O'Neal and Quentin Richardson, according to Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel: "The results, Spoelstra said, have been tangible. "You can see it, that he's had more pep to his step than he had last year," he said [of O'Neal]. "He's more athletic. He's quicker on his jumps."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers said he is impressed with Spoelstra's resculpting of veterans such as O'Neal, 31, and forward Quentin Richardson, 29. "I think Erik has done an amazing job with veteran players," Rivers said, "and convincing them, at this point in their career, that they have to get into great shape. And they've done that."

***

The high [basketball] IQ club meets in Oklahoma City

Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoma examines the myths and realities surrounding the basketball IQ debate: "Nearly half the Thunder's roster at one point has been tagged with the term. You couldn't find a scouting report on rookie James Harden that didn't possess the phrase in the weeks leading up to the June draft. Shaun Livingston, Kyle Weaver, Kevin Ollie, Nick Collison and Jeff Green are among Harden's teammates who also have had the label attached to their names.

"We have a good IQ team," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "I'm happy with our guys. Their level of IQ is pretty good." But the term is widely overused, Brooks said. "Absolutely. It's like 'Guys work hard,' or 'This guy's a winner,'" Brooks said. "I've been on teams where guys don't work hard but they're known as hard workers. No one wants to tell the truth because it'll hurt people's feelings."

***

Wilkins pumps life into Timberwolves

Damien Wilkins didn't waste any time seizing his moment, writes John Shipley of the Pioneer Press: "You don't have to be a Latin scholar to know what the tattoo on Damien Wilkins' back means. "Carpe diem," he said. "Seize the day. I try." Wilkins certainly did Sunday, getting a rare chance to start for the Timberwolves and putting up a double-double in Minnesota's 106-100 victory over the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center. He finished with 15 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.

Coach Kurt Rambis started Wilkins because he thought he could slow down Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony, and though Anthony finished with a game-high 32 points, he scored 19 of them in the first quarter. "Starting means a lot to anybody in this league, especially when you need a win like we did," Wilkins said. "(Rambis) believed that with that lineup on the floor, we had a chance to win. I didn't want to prove him wrong. I wanted to make him proud."

***

More than just numbers

Chucky Atkins proved that sometimes it's not just flashy statistics that make the difference, writes Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News. Sometimes leadership is important, too: "Atkins had two points and one assist in 19 minutes. But he seemed to calm things down when needed, encouraged when necessary and cheered when the Pistons were rolling. "I tip my hat off to him," Pistons coach John Kuester said. "He did a wonderful job for us and kept that energy up. "He's going to be a coach in this league someday."

Atkins was quick to credit others for the Sunday's victory: Stuckey's offense, the Pistons' big men, the points off the bench from Bynum. Typically, Atkins didn't credit Atkins.

"My role is to, regardless of what I do, whether I come off the bench or starting, is just to be an energy guy and a mentor to these younger guys," Atkins said. "Today I was able to start. I wanted to come out and set the tone for our team defensively, get out and make some things happen. Obviously I didn't play a lot of minutes all year, so I was a little out of rhythm. But it felt good and guys responded really well."

-- Posted Nov. 30, 2009, 10:03 a.m. Question or comment? E-mail Sekou

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