My friend and hero, Claude Johnson, sent a note reminding me to wish John "Wonder Boy" Isaacs a happy 94th birthday tomorrow (Tuesday).

John Isaacs played pro "basket ball" before it became a compound word, back when the hottest team around was the New Yorks Rens. I'll let Claude tell this part of the story ...

Cleveland Browns legendary quarterback, Otto Graham, played professional basketball. For the Rochester Royals. With Chuck Connors. In 1946.

Otto left basketball for C-town football; Chuck, whose real name is Kevin (he earned the nickname due to a propensity for shouting "chuck it to me" on the court), left basketball for Hollywood.

Of all the stories I have read about James Naismith, inventor of basketball, nothing stands out like the book excerpt I saw this morning.

The good doctor was so enamored of data that he took 19 measurements of every entering freshman male, from height and weight to breadth of shoulders and girth of chest, and added notations about more private bodily regions-which led his daughter, Annie, in remarks made years later to his biographer, to call Papa Jim's records "a mid-Victorian Kinsey Report."

Think of the bball possibilities:

Soldiers barking orders at each other is so 20th Century. That's why the U.S. Army has just awarded a $4 million contract to begin developing "thought helmets" that would harness silent brain waves for secure communication among troops. Ultimately, the Army hopes the project will "lead to direct mental control of military systems by thought alone."

David Lee - Paralympic cycler. Hard to imagine what goes through the mind of someone who lives through a nightmare and comes out the other side only to find themselves right back where they started.

Once your NBA Monopoly game arrives, you might want to start thinking about a pair of these.

"We have consistently communicated our desire to keep Delonte as a member of this basketball team. His tenacity helps us on both ends of the floor and his defensive play certainly reflects how we want to play the game," said Ferry. "Contending teams need areas of strength and need depth. Having Delonte, Mo (Williams) and Daniel (Gibson) certainly creates an advantageous situation for us."

I like to paint murals of the ocean that I see beyond the horizon because I feel in order for us to grow, we gotta know. In order to love the brother man, you gotta know the other man.

One fish two fish, red fish blue fish; knick knack paddy whack, give the dog a bone.

Ding.

Your life-long dream has come true; you're back in your living room with the gold. Now what? If you're Jason Kidd . . .

Cleve Scene says one sure way to keep LB in town past 2010 is to win a title. They have high hopes and offer the following "(completely made up) odds for tasty story lines sure to develop this season":

Over/Under 5,690: The number of times someone speculates that LeBron will leave in 2010.

Over/Under 3: Current players on the roster that will be traded.

...

I wasn't going to mention this but now that Ethanator1088 has posted one of my scariest childhood memories, the story must be told. GB3 and I were heading to the grocery store one day last week. GB3 is beyond kind; I was having a bad pain day so he offered to drive. What I neglected to tell him was that when in a grocery store, I cannot stop myself from dancing in the aisles, pain or no pain.

[Video of Dr J, I mean Dr Chapstick]

During the Olympic Games, LeBron said people don't realize "how fast we are until you get out there on the court with us." And Nike swooshes were everywhere, including the arm of Craig Sager's sadly pedestrian short-sleeved shirt.

So is it Nike that makes you fast? Does the fastest man in the world sport the swoosh? Nope. The feet of Usain "Lightning" Bolt are proudly shod in Pumas.

hat could be better than LeBron in real life? LeBron on the big screen.

Nothing says "the cold war is so over," like watching Bucknell Holden shine on the Russian Olympic team. In Shanghai.

Couldn't shake the "remember to e-mail plot idea to Tom Clancy - American team made up of superstar millionaire ballers plays Russian basketball team led by American ex-Super 10 star in communist China" feeling.

Lots of talk out there about Beijing and the smog problem which got me thinking about the definition and the origin of the word.