Fred Tedeschi, in 2007 (Getty Images)Chicago Bulls head athletic trainer Fred Tedeschi has won the 2012-13 Joe O’Toole NBA Athletic Trainer of the Year Award. The honor was revealed by the team’s website on Friday.

Fred Tedeschi is the trainer for a team that cleared former Bulls center Omer Asik to play in the 2011 NBA playoffs with a broken leg.

Tedeschi is on the staff of a team that presided over the mishandling of Luol Deng’s infamous absence in the 2013 playoffs, when the Bulls announced Deng’s severe reaction to a spinal tap procedure (one that Deng himself had to personally disclose on Twitter, after the Bulls denied a procedure took place) as “flu-like symptoms.”

Deng also played through the last two months of the season with a fractured thumb, when he was cleared as game-workable, alongside torn ligaments in the same hand.

Fred was also on the staff when center Joakim Noah – who has a history of falling prey to plantar fasciitis due to overuse – averaged 40 minutes a game for the first three months of the season. The Bulls staff also has an Internet connection, which would reveal that Noah runs more during those particular minutes than any other player in the NBA.

Donnie Nelson did not appear to be enjoying his time at the NBA draft lottery (Getty Images)

You’re going to see a whole heck of a lot of this over the next few weeks, leading up to the NBA draft on June 27. The Dallas Mavericks did not plan to be and are not happy to be in the lower 14 picks of the draft, due to their first playoff absence in 12 years, and though the team has a fantastic front office and scouting staff (complete with myriad analytic plans they don’t let anyone in on), this is a thin draft and the Mavericks have their eyes set on bigger and better things than their 13th pick in next month’s draft.

Like Dwight Howard, the free agent center that is looking to embark on a tour of suitors this summer that we’re all already annoyed with. In order to clear up more cap space (the 13th pick is set to make $1.7 million next year) to sign Dwight, the Mavericks are reportedly considering shopping their first rounder. From Eddie Sefko at the Dallas Morning News discussed one option on Thursday:

[Dallas owes] the Oklahoma City Thunder a first-round pick before 2018. That pick is protected through the first 20 picks of the draft. But if the Mavericks don’t convey it by 2017, the Thunder gets the pick no matter when it is in the 2018 draft.

With news jumping out of the bag about the Charlotte Bobcats officially deciding to lose their original team name and glom onto the suddenly available “Hornets” nickname for their franchise in 2014-15, Ben Eagle at Sports Illustrated’s The Point Forward took the next natural step and mused aloud as to whether or not Michael Jordan-owned franchise will go for the full teal reveal.

Then Ben found a video along those revealing lines. It features former Hornets forward Kelly Tripucka modeling the old Charlotte Hornets’ (and now New Orleans Pelicans, because this is all very confusing) team colors and uniform at a 1988 press conference that is, well, somewhat horrifying. Watch:

The NBA has released its last awards of the 2012-13 season, doling out nods for the league’s All-NBA teams on Thursday afternoon.

Los Angeles was well represented as Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant lined the backcourt of the First Team, with Kevin Durant and league MVP LeBron James at the forwards. Tim Duncan, in a surprising but deserved (if inaccurate) vote, finishes that crew off with his first All-NBA nod at the center position. Which is weird, because this is the first time in years that Duncan (who moved over to play with Tiago Splitter in the San Antonio Spurs lineup this season) hasn’t been playing starting center on a routine basis.

New York’s Carmelo Anthony and Clippers forward Blake Griffin head up the forwards list on the Second Team, with Memphis defensive stalwart Marc Gasol at center. San Antonio’s Tony Parker and Oklahoma City guard head up that backcourt, in a voting pool lousy with brilliant All-NBA-worthy guards.

John Calipari knows where Nerlens Noel should be selected=

He’s not wrong, but there is always a motive behind anything Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari says that appears on the verge of being self-congratulatory. So when he points out, following the Cleveland Cavaliers’ lottery “win,” that Cavs general manager Chris Grant was a regular at Kentucky games throughout the season, he’s not only giving Grant credit for his doggedness and scouting hustle in prepping to possibly pick Kentucky center Nerlens Noel, he’s also pointing out that the GM behind a rebuilding team with a terrible record likely to get a top pick decided to head to Kentucky over and over and over again. And why?

Because Kentucky has top overall pick-like players, and will every year. And hey kids, if you want to be a top overall pick in the NBA draft, come to Kentucky for the year! Just suggestin’ things, John is.

Here’s Calipari’s quote from his conversation with the Cleveland Plain-Dealer’s Mary Schmitt-Boyer, as tipped to us by Pro Basketball Talk:

"They haven't made mistakes,'' Calipari said in a telephone interview on Wednesday, one day after the Cavs won the lottery to earn the No. 1 pick for the second time in three years. "If they pick him, in all likelihood, history tells you something: It's not a mistake, which means it's good for my kid.

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, not exactly shook after Game 1 (Getty Images)

Much of the noise emanating from the Miami Heat’s Game 1 win over the Indiana Pacers had to do with Pacer coach Frank Vogel’s curious removal of perhaps the best defender on the court, for either team, for two crucial defensive possessions in overtime.

That noise is the correct noise. It’s true that the Miami Heat space the floor expertly, and that LeBron James is just as adept at dishing to an open (ish) Ray Allen or Chris Bosh as he is at covering 24 feet in 2.2 seconds, but that’s not the point. The point is for Chris Bosh or Ray Allen to take the shot. Fabulous options, both, but far better options for the Pacers in that instance than LeBron James and an uncontested lay-up. Hibbert guarded Chris Bosh expertly on the possessions that preceded that embarrassing run for Vogel, and while the center’s presence can’t be counted on to call off a Heat score as a certainty or cinch, it certainly would have given Miami a far tougher look than it had.

If only the Indiana Pacers employed a lengthy, defensive-minded center that could patrol the paint down the stretch of close games.

Wait, what?

[Related: Pacers' Roy Hibbert vows to never sit silently on the bench again]

Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel shockingly decided to remove all-world defender Roy Hibbert from his lineup in his team’s two most crucial possessions of the season on Wednesday night, and the Miami Heat took advantage while winning Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. Two different times, down the stretch of overtime, Heat MVP LeBron James slashed to the rim for easy lay-ins, as Hibbert could only look on from the bench while Vogel went with reserve wing Sam Young to “counter” Miami’s small lineup.

After Pacer All-Star Paul George tied the game following James’ first slash with three clutch free throws to hand the Pacers a one-point lead, LeBron James responded with the spin move and game-winning lay-up over … Sam Young.

Tuesday night’s draft lottery was typical – both a spectacle and spectacularly boring, and you get the feeling that Houston Rocket general manager Daryl Morey was more than happy to sit it out.

Not only did Morey’s Rockets make the playoffs this season for the first time since 2009, but for once Morey doesn’t have a battalion of draft picks he’s hoarding. After owning three draft picks in the 2012 NBA draft, Morey happily sent each of his 2013 first rounders elsewhere via trade. And though he’ll be interviewing prospects for Houston’s No. 34 selection in next month’s draft, the playoff berth and iffy talent level have Morey in a good mood.

As evidenced by his Twitter feed, on Wednesday afternoon. Check these out:

Best draft interview answers ever part 1: player, can you pass a drug test? [grabs table] TODAY?!?

— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) May 22, 2013

More best answers: "anyone who is projected ahead of U that U think U R better than?" ALL OF THEM "Have you ever seen them play?" NEVER — Daryl Morey (@dmorey) May 22, 2013

Best answers: "When did U know there might be an issue?" I was carrying [stolen item] 4someone else-knew something up when we got 2pawn shop

— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) May 22, 2013

More best answers: "who is your agent?" I don't have an agent. "Who is advising you?"