Seemingly lost in the shuffle of Brett Favre’s sandy vagina and last night’s All Star Game was a trade between the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets. Just a few days after being slighted by Elton Brand, the Clippers seemingly picked up a steal in acquiring shot-blocking extraordinare Marcus Camby for a future exchange of 2nd round picks. While this move can help offset the loss of Elton Brand, it’s also a questionable use of their salary cap cushion.

For the Nuggets, we know what this trade is all about. With a salary cap situation that would make Isiah Thomas blush, the Nugs are dumping salary in order to make a long term commitment to J.R. Smith, who is a restricted free agent. With Camby gone and Allen Iverson on the chopping block, Denver is ready to commit to rebuilding this team around Smith, Carmelo Anthony and young Linas Kleiza. In the meantime, the Nuggets are without any resemblance of interior defense and will probably allow 130 points a game.

While the fragile Camby is an automatic boost to any defense, I still think the Clippers panicked here. Camby is nearly 35 years old and has a history of injuries longer than Ron Jeremy. With $20 million tied up in Camby for the next two years, the Clippers will be unable to afford a contract offer to restricted free agents Josh Smith, Emeka Okafor, Luol Deng and Andre Igoudala. Smith and Igoudala are likely going to have their contracts matched, but Okafor could have been a very distinct possibility.

In the end, this appears to be typical Clippers. Camby is a hell of a player, but the Clips rushed into this acquisition, essentially wasting all of their salary cap cushion. What looked like such a promising offseason will likely conclude with the Clippers ending up with two older, injury-prone veterans. Nice job, Sterling.

Anyone who needed any more proof that Kobe Bryant is the best player on the best team in the NBA should have watched the Lakers second straight beat down of the Denver Nuggets. The Black Mamba went for 49 last night and, despite an off night from both Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, the Lakers cruised to a 15 point win over Denver at Staples.

Memo to J.R. Smith; don’t run your mouth to Kobe. Smith and Bryant got into it late in the game last night after Kobe had already done him for 46 and the Lakers were shifting to cruise control. The best part about the situation was the bomb that Bryant dropped on Smith during the game after Smith had already gotten a few shots out on Kobe. “Better learn not to talk to me. You shake a tree, a leopard is gonna fall out.” No joke, Kobe. Not only is it a leopard, but the cat is wearing a 24 jersey. Even DeShawn Stephenson is embarrassed for J.R. Smith right now.

Up 2-0 in the series, the Lakers look like the best team in the league and look like they’ve got this one wrapped up. The Nuggets are picking up stupid technical fouls late in games and look more like they should have Thuggets written across their powder blue threads. I thought AI and Melo were gonna give me something better than this mess. I figured two all-star starters could make a series out of the Lakers. Instead, the Lakers are beating Denver at their own offensive game and showing the Nugs a thing or two on how to play defense.

Note to self: Never, ever mess with Carmelo Anthony or anyone he’s ever been associated with. If you mess with Melo himself, you’re likely to receive a sneak attack similar to the one he tried at Madison Square Garden a couple months back. If he’s not the one beating your ass, then someone in his entourage will. That’s what happened at a 7-11 this past month.

On March 18th, Melo and his friend Rahchine Craig were at a 7-11 when they were confronted by a fan, who asked for Anthony’s autograph. Craig told the man no. The man really wanted that autograph, to the point of berating Carmelo. Listen dumbass. If you want an autograph, you should probably ask nicely. If the athlete says no, that should probably end the discussion.

“The victim told Carmelo he is a ‘punk’ and began a verbal argument with the suspect,” the report stated. Craig followed 19-year-old Herrera, of Denver, into the convenience store and “punched, pushed and slammed the victim onto the floor,” the report said.

Maybe Melo and his friend were just hung over after a long night of Irish Car Bombs. Or maybe they’re just a pair of assholes. Either way, Carmelo Anthony’s friends are a bad bunch. This isn’t the first time his crew has gotten into trouble. On one hand, he might need some new friends. But if he finds new friends, who’s going to beat some ass near the Slurpee machine?

I guess Allen Iverson wasn’t kidding when he said he was ready to take a back seat and let someone else lead a team he was on. It’s only one game, so it might be too early to judge, but based off of the Nuggets game last night, things appear to be looking promising in Denver.

Iverson dropped 23 while Carmelo Anthony contributed 28 in a victory for the Nuggets. They were dishing out passes to each other all night, and looked like a solid duo that had been playing together for years. Maybe Iverson finally found what he needed, another threat so he doesn’t have to jack up an insane number of shots every game.

I wasn’t sure I believed The Answer when he said he was ready to step down, and I was very interested to see how he would work with Melo. In one game he nearly completely wiped out any doubts I had about the success they would have. This teaming up should be nothing but good news for the Nuggets and their fans.

I don’t know if the Nuggets have enough to win in the tough Western Conference, but they sure have a start. If Melo and Iverson can keep working this well together they might be able to give some of the better teams in the West a run. At first I wasn’t sure how Camby would be able to hold up throughout the year, but so far so good. Combine them with the underrated J.R. Smith and the Nuggets have pieced together a scary team in Denver. It’s now just a matter of getting a little more out of Nene and playing a little bit better now that everyone is back from suspensions.

It appears the Allen Iverson Philadelphia saga is over. Reports say he’ll be headed to Denver, with confirmation expected later today. The deal looks like this:

Denver Gets:

Allen Iverson

Philadelphia Gets:

Andre Miller

Joe Smith

Two 2007 First Rounders

Possible Scrub to be Named Later

I think it’s a good move for the Nuggets and maybe disappointing for the 76ers. The 76ers were hoping to lure a young talent like Randy Foye or Shaun Livingston away from either the Timberwolves or Clippers. They got neither. Andre Miller is a nice distributer of the ball but who the hell is he going to distribute the ball to? Maybe the 76ers should just tank the season and enter the Greg Oden lottery sweepstakes. The 76ers have a nice collection of draft picks shaping up in what could be a phenomenal draft. Unfortunately for them they couldn’t lure an established youngster alongside those two first rounders.

For the Nuggets, it certainly creates a second scoring option. But that’s the thing, can Iverson be a true “second” scoring option? He’s the league’s leading scorer and he goes to a team with Carmelo Anthony, the NBA’s second leading scorer. Will there be enough shots to go around? That is what will ultimately determine the success of this deal. I have to admire what the Nuggets have done here. They’ve accommodated their young superstar with another star, something the Timberwolves didn’t make a very good effort at. For now, Iverson will be the main attraction in Denver because of Melo’s suspension. But what happens in 15 games could be another story.

David Stern has made a point of trying to crack down on the “thug” image that the NBA has earned. We’ve seen this especially in the dress code he has enforced, not to mention the suspensions for actions he deems inappropriate. After watching the brawl at Madison Square Garden last night, I’m going to go ahead and say it hasn’t quite worked out as he hoped.

I’m as big a fan of brawls as anyone is. I can’t count the number of times I’ve watched the Pistons and Pacers go at it in the Palace. I love when batters charge the mound and when the benches and bullpens clear for slap-boxing at most. Last nights brawl was solid, but it was certainly missing the haymakers of the Pistons fight of two years ago.

The Knicks and Nuggets may not have the powerful fists of Ron Artest or Jermaine O’Neal, but Carmelo did his best impression of those two with his right hook to Mardy Collins. I don’t really have a whole lot to say about this fight other than these players are obviously idiots. I’m just thankful Tank Johnson didn’t show up.