Former USC basketball player DeMar DeRozan on playing in Canada, where the taxes are greater than playing in the United States.
“I think this is one of the best situations for me everything and at the end of the day, that’s something we are figuring out about the tax system and everything else, so right now I am just enjoying it.”
Monthly Archives: June 2009
Tweet Tweet
From Taj Gibson’s twitter: “By reading some of the Bulls fans tweets I can tell they haven’t seen many USC or Pac-10 games”
Camp Talk
Former USC cornerback Terrell Thomas will hold a free football camp tomorrow at Rancho Cucamonga High School from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Steve Smith, Antonio Pierce, Keith Rivers, Dominique Byrd, Gerald Alexander, Malcolm Smith, Josh Pinkard and Kevin Thomas are among the players scheduled to appear.
Money Matters
DeMar DeRozan will make $1.92 million next season and $2.05 million his second season in guaranteed money with the Toronto Raptors. Taj Gibson will make $866,500 next season and $931,400 the following season with the Chicago Bulls.
Ruining Basketball?
Here’s an article on how AAU clubs are responsible for the decline in skills of American basketball players.
McCourt Joins Board
Dodgers owner Jamie McCourt was elected to the USC Board of Trustees.
“She shares with other members of the Trojan Family an enthusiastic ‘we-can-do-better’ spirit,” USC president Steven Sample said.
Hopefully, he wasn’t referring to Manny Ramirez’s “we-can-do-better spirit.”
Pac-10 Prowess
The Pac-10 might not be considered an elite basketball conference but it tied the ACC and Big East for most players selected in the NBA Draft. In the past two years, 21 players were drafted from the Pac-10.
SELECTIONS BY CONFERENCE
1. Pac-10, ACC, Big East: 9
4. Conference USA, Big 12: 4
6. SEC: 3
Gibson On O’Neill
We asked USC forward Taj Gibson about new coach Kevin O’Neill.
“Kevin O’Neill is a great guy,” Gibson said. “I talked to him in his office a couple days ago and he’s a great coach. He told me if I needed any help to let me know. I think he’s a perfect fit to follow Coach (Tim) Floyd.”
Morning Buzz
DeMar DeRozan talks about how happy he was to be drafted by Toronto.
More Gibson
We just talked to Taj Gibson about being selected by the Bulls in the first round.
“The whole draft I was hoping they would take me,” he said. “I just like the (practice) facility and the way they treated me. They know a lot about the game.”