THROUGH THE WIRE: NEWS (08/04/10)

Lorenzen Wright who tragically died last week was memorialized in his hometown on Wednesday. Hundreds of friends, family, fans and mourners gathered at The Grizzilies Fedex Forum for Lorenzen's memorial service and funeral. Our thoughts are with Lorenzen's friends and family. May he rest in peace.



Ladies and Gentleman, It's official, Shaquille O'Neal will now be known as 'The Big Cactus'. The 'Most Dominant Ever' will join the most successful NBA franchise of all-time, the Boston Celtics. This will be the sixth team for the 15 time All-Star and if the Celtics look as good on the floor as they do on paper he may be the first player to win rings with both of the NBA's most storied franchises and rivals. Either way the next time the Boston Celtics face the LA Lakers things will be real interesting. Shaq may not be the player he once was but he still plays at a very, very high level and while Kendrick Perkins is out for the rest of the year O'Neal will have the chance to prove he's 'The Daddy'. With so many star players on so many of the top teams in the league this year the Playoffs are going to be something real special.



The marquee games for this NBA season have been announced. To tip things off for the 2010/2011 campaign the Lakers will host the Rockets, while the Heat face off with the Celtics. The biggest draw however will be what fans get to unwrap on Christmas Day, as the Lakers play the Heat. Again Christmas Day will showcase the continued epic duels between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, but of course this year Wade and Bosh are added to this mix, matching up with Gasol, Odom and Artest. This will be the first time the Lakers and Heat have faced off on Christmas Day since Shaquille O'Neal was a Miami Heat player (Now 3 teams ago) and the Shaq, Kobe rivalry was fierce. With Shaq in Boston now however fans will get to watch a couple of corvettes chasing each other round the court.

In other news, Ben Wallace has re-signed with the Detroit Pistons inking a two year deal to keep him with the team he won a Championship with.

Delonte West however was waived by the Minnesota Timberwolves due to his $4.6 mill contract only being guaranteed for $500, 000 if he was waived by Wednesday. The NBA will play preseason games this year in China.



The Houston Rockets led by China's own Yao Ming will face the New Jersey Nets in preseason games in both Beijing and Guangzhou this October. The aforementioned game will be played at the new Guangzhou International Sports Arena, which is a state of the art stadium. The other game will be played at the Wukesong Arena another hi-tech stadium which housed the 2008 Beijing Olympics. One guy who wont be playing is Chinese favourite Yi Jianlian who was traded to the Wizards this June. So maybe Washington will find itself with an invite East next year.