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TOMASSON: Plenty of NBA pranks for the memories

By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 15, 2009 at 9:21 p.m.
Updated January 15, 2009 at 9:21 p.m.

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Popcorn Prank played on the Kings' Jason Thompson


Delivery service

Sonny Weems has yet to play in a Nuggets game, but he already has had some assists. Weems is the team's only rookie, but his assigned duties haven't been too hazardous.

"I make sure guys eat on the road after games," said Weems, saying Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin are among those who send him to buy food. "I go to whatever place is open."

Tipoff

NUMBERS GAME

260 pounds is how much Charlotte officials say bloated forward Sean May must get down to before he's activated for games. May, who was at 285 when he entered training camp and now weighs 270, said he hasn't been at 260 since he left North Carolina in 2005.

'EURO' GAINS VALUE

In 2007, while San Antonio was doing a Texas Two Step on the Nuggets in the playoffs, Denver guard J.R. Smith said Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, who had played four years in Italy, was getting away with traveling by doing a "Eurostep."

Lakers coach Phil Jackson, while discussing his belief Miami guard Dwyane Wade gets away with traveling, is the latest to bring up the European import.

"What (Wade's) really been able to do is that pick-up move that the Europeans really have brought in," Jackson said. "We all would consider that a walk move: Pick up the ball, take two steps, that's 2 1/2 steps."

The Lakers have three Europeans, Vladimir Radmanovic, Sasha Vujacic and Pau Gasol, but there was no word from Jackson about whether they've perfected the "Eurostep."

HE SAID IT

"I didn't even know who Dan Issel was."

Rajon Rondo, Boston guard who played two years at Kentucky, on Jodie Meeks this week breaking the Hall of Famer's record at the school for points in a game.

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Jason Thompson found out what can happen when you get lax with the lox.

Thompson, a Sacramento first-year forward, had been remiss in his rookie duties of bringing bagels and toppings to the team's veterans. Thompson then walked out of New Year's Eve practice and got quite a surprise.

Veterans had filled his Escalade with popcorn. Dozens of pounds of it.

Nuggets guard Dahntay Jones knows the feeling. He was perhaps the first victim of the popcorn prank with Memphis in 2003-04 after he slipped up in his rookie chores of delivering doughnuts.

"They filled up my (Range Rover) with popcorn, putting it through the sunroof," Jones said of veterans James Posey, Jason Williams, Lorenzen Wright and Bonzi Wells. "They got the keys out of my locker. I came out of practice, opened my door, and popcorn falls out. I couldn't help but laugh."

Jones laughed despite a $150 cleaning bill. And even that didn't fully do the job.

"The car smelled like popcorn for a month," Jones said. "You'd turn on the heat and little kernels would still come out."

Jones believes Bobby Jackson, who was with the Grizzlies the next season and is now with the Kings, brought the popcorn prank to Sacramento. Regardless, rookie hazing always has been a part of the NBA, with the possible exception of 1946-47, when everybody was a rookie.

When Dallas forward Devean George recently passed through Denver, he recalled some legendary rookie pranks from when he was on the Lakers earlier this decade. George found himself on both ends.

When George was a rookie in 1999-2000, the Lakers played a preseason game in Little Rock, Ark. After a morning shootaround, Shaquille O'Neal and several teammates struck.

"Shaq, Glen Rice, John Salley and Ron Harper, all those guys, taped me to the floor and just left me there," George said. "I couldn't get up. They taped me up pretty good."

The players left. Finally, after 15 minutes, a worker found George and cut him loose.

The Lakers that season had a good supply of duct tape. They were hardly done with George.

"We taped him to a valet cart once in a Sacramento hotel, and we rolled him down the hall and into the elevator and sent him down to the lobby," said then- Lakers forward Rick Fox.

George eventually found himself on the other end of pranks. In 2004-05, actress Lucy Liu was sitting in the front row at the Staples Center and Lakers rookie Tony Bobbitt fibbed to teammates that he knew Liu and she was looking his way.

Lakers veterans, spearheaded by Vlade Divac and George, sprang into action. They had a ballboy bring a note to Bobbitt with a cell phone number that was said to be Liu's but really was Divac's.

A female Lakers employee recorded an outgoing message on Divac's phone. It wasn't long before Bobbitt was leaving voice and text messages for Liu.

Lakers players howled with laughter while reading Bobbitt's attempts at poetry. Messages were sent back that Bobbitt thought were from Liu.

"The whole team got involved," George said. "He said he went on a date with her, and we knew he didn't because it was Vlade's phone he was calling and texting."

Soon, the veterans moved in for the kill. They sent a limousine to take Bobbitt to a restaurant, with Bobbitt thinking it had been sent by Liu for a meeting.

Hidden cameras recorded the entire episode. But while Bobbitt waited at a table with a bottle of champagne for his dream girl, Lakers teammates instead arrived.

"We jumped out, and he said, 'She's coming,' " George said. "We said, 'Quit lying.' It started as a small prank and grew since he had kept lying for three or four weeks. We got the whole thing on DVDs. When guys on other teams came through, they'd say, 'You got one of those DVDs?' We called it 'Bobbitt Gone Wild.' "

As it turned out, that was all Bobbitt was known for in his NBA career. He was waived in November 2004 after playing just two games and never was seen again.

At least Jones, a Denver starter, has bounced back strong after being on the end of a landmark rookie prank. And one figures Thompson, averaging 9.2 points, will be known for much more than popcorn when his playing days are over.

No longer bland

It was a vanilla Wafer on display for the Nuggets last season.

Guard Von Wafer barely played. He averaged a meager 1.3 points before being dealt last February to Portland. But look now. Wafer has been raspberry ripple for Houston.

Thrust into a starting role due to injuries, the fourth-year man has averaged 16.1 points the past seven games. He scored a career-high 23 Tuesday against the Lakers.

"I didn't think we could have predicted he'd be that successful, but we thought he'd be pretty good," said coach George Karl, whose Nuggets play Monday at Houston.

Karl said Wafer, 23, didn't play much in Denver because another offensive-oriented perimeter guy wasn't needed. He also said Wafer's work ethic was inconsistent.

"You can't hang out with a lot of veteran guys and expect to come in late like some of the other guys and come in one minute before practice," Nuggets guard Anthony Carter said of Wafer. But it's surprisingly all coming together for Wafer.

Three-ring circus

After Jodie Meeks scored 54 points Tuesday to break Dan Issel's single-game Kentucky scoring record, the former Nuggets star called his father, Robert.

"The first thing he said was, 'You didn't have the three-point shot,' " Issel said.

Indeed, there was no three-point shot in college when he scored 53 in 1969-70. But Issel is being good-natured about it even though Meeks drilled 10 three-pointers.

"Somebody asked me how many shots I made that would have been three-pointers today, and I told him two," quipped Issel, noting two extra points would have given him 55.

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