You've got to be kidding me. It happened again?

Yes, it did. During the second quarter of an eventual 111-102 overtime victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night, Dwight Howard(notes) was whistled for violating the NBA's 10-second rule for free-throw shooters. As Evan Dunlap noted at Orlando Pinstriped Post, it was the second straight night that the Orlando Magic center has run afoul of the almost-never-enforced rule against taking too long at the foul line — Howard got dinged for delaying during the second quarter of the Magic's 78-72 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday — and his third such violation of the season.

Following the first infraction, which came during the Magic's Christmas Day win over the Boston Celtics, legendary NBA coach and broadcaster Hubie Brown said he had "never seen it called in any game that [he'd] ever done in 26 years of doing television." Well, as the saying goes, things come in threes when you take an illegal amount of time to do those

You sure did, Delonte West(notes)! Way to go, pal! You did such a great job. Your teammates and coaches on the Boston Celtics are so proud of you, and so are all of us!

You know what, Delonte? Go into my desk drawer — no, not THAT one, the one on the right; you know never to go into THAT one, right, buddy? — and take out a gold star to put on the Great Job! Board. You deserve it.

What did Delonte accomplish that's got him feeling so pleased? Best caption wins the complete "gold star system" learning experience. Good luck.

In our last adventure: Vinny Del Negro is keeping a close eye on Blake Griffin(notes). Like, really close.

NOTE: There were a lot of strong captions that managed to be phenomenally juvenile without being, y'know, stereotypical and the worst. For that, dear readers, I thank you. You've fortified my faith in humanity.

Winner, Eugene Shin: Through all the cheers and fan noise, you could still hear Ryan Gomes'(notes) heart shattering into a million tiny pieces. Coach

From Section H of the second Comment on the Rules in this year's Official Rules of the National Basketball Association: "Each player when introduced, prior to the game, must be uniformly dressed."

So, nice job avoiding a clear violation, Steve Nash(notes). Getting your teammates together to form a wall just before your Phoenix Suns took on the Chicago Bulls so that you could quickly ditch the practice shorts you mistakenly wore to the floor and don your regulation game kit? That was a smooth move. Making rookie Zabian Dowdell(notes) give up his gear so that you could make it out for tipoff? Likewise, shades of Sade.

Now, wearing the wrong shorts to the court in the first place? Not so smooth. But considering you missed the last two games with flu-like symptoms and flew out to Chicago late Monday night to join your team, we can make like people who didn't want to see your grundies on the bench and look the other way. After all, sometimes it takes a while for your synapses to resume

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Sure, these new coaching methods of Vinny Del Negro's are unorthodox and supremely uncomfortable for Blake Griffin. But hey, at least VDN's finally got some coaching methods, right? That's something.

Let's all be adults here, but let's not all be "adult" here. Best caption wins super awkward losing. Good luck.

In our last adventure: John Wall isn't a big fan of what you just proposed, and he's chosen a pretty juvenile means of expressing it.

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Winner, David: While playing charades, John Wall is asked to describe playing for the Washington Wizards.

Runner-up, Jorge Garcia: "You can just taste the failure in the air."

Second runner-up, Josh H.: John Wall guts out a serious case of "sticky soul patch disorder."

kd_ghThere are a bunch of cool little bits in Jody Genessy's new Deseret News feature on Gordon Hayward. The rookie Utah Jazz swingman has drawn a lot of attention of late as his minutes have increased with the Jazz looking toward the future, and his alma mater making an improbable run to its second consecutive NCAA title game sure hasn't hurt matters. Genessy's piece paints a nice portrait of Hayward's development over the course of his inaugural NBA campaign.

The profile features quotes from teammates and coaches about the former Butler Bulldog's ambitious desire to advance his all-around game, a note on Hayward's improving long-range shooting (he's hitting 44.8 percent of NBA 3-pointers this year, after hitting just 29.4 percent of college-distance long balls last year), jokes about him bench-pressing 600 pounds and loving the Olive Garden — a little something for everyone.

It's also got this neat anecdote from teammate Earl Watson, intended as evidence of rising opinion around the

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A tick over 16 points, 8.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.6 steals a night, and a better-than 2.2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Not bad for a rookie point guard with pretty heinous teammates. Cram that, Colin.

Best caption wins an important life truth. Good luck.

In our last adventure: Reggie Miller likes the cut of your jib, stranger.

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cac_rm_smWinner, Kaifa: "What has one thumb, two squinty eyes, and sees a different game than anybody else?"

Runner-up, Solid as Iraq: During his annual review, Reggie Miller gave himself a confident rating of "one smug thumbs up." Ted Turner and Charles Barkely were less enthusiastic, giving him ratings of "confident moustache twirl" and "confused shrug," respectively.

Second runner-up, Busboys4me: "The older I get, the better I think I was." (NOTE: And the older he gets, the more the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame forgets how good he really was.)

"This is what you don't want to happen to you, is to have someone dunk the basketball on your face."

— Matt Harpring, former stout NBA yeoman, current Root Sports Utah color commentator and deliverer of unbridled truth, after Marcus Thornton went behind the back to hit a streaking Donte Greene for a second-quarter slam.

The dunk came over, rather than directly on, the face of Earl Watson, so I'm not sure Harpring's commentary was necessarily accurate to this particular case. Generally speaking, though, it's right on the money. Go ahead and try to dispute it, armchair arguing aficionados. You will surely fail.

Thornton continued his strong play since joining the Sacramento Kings in the deal that sent Carl Landry to the New Orleans Hornets, finishing with 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in the Kings' 106-97 victory over the Utah Jazz on Sunday. The dunk was Greene's only bucket in 7:29 of floor time, but it was a pretty neat one.

International readers ("Int'l read'rs"): If

"Hey, kid," I called out to my fiancée. "Want to see what it looks like when the Garden goes nuts?"

I'd turned on NBA TV just as Rick Kamla and the boys were readying their toss to New York. Carmelo Anthony(notes) was about to make his debut as a member of the New York Knicks following the much-debated trade that kickstarted the next chapter in my hometown team's history, and I anticipated a mammoth response to the unveiling from the assembled true believers.

I wanted her to see what that looked like.

It's something I saw a lot growing up in the '90s, when Ewing's Knicks made the playoffs every year, advancing to the conference semifinals nine times and going to the NBA finals twice. But it wasn't a frequent sight during Whatever We're Calling This Millennium's First Decade, when the Knicks topped .500 just once and changed coaches seven times. We met during The Whatevers, which made explaining stuff like the way the Garden swells at moments that matter difficult.

Sure, importing