Chris Kaman breaks his fast. (Image via @ChrisKaman)

Chris Kaman's doing great, guys. He's about to be a free agent, and while the 30-year-old pivot isn't really anyone's idea of a game-changer, he'll be one of the best available centers on the market.

You'd clearly rather have Kevin Garnett for the next couple of years, even at age 36, but young and gifted restricted free agents like Roy Hibbert, Brook Lopez, JaVale McGee and Omer Asik will cost a pretty penny. And among unrestricted types, only Ian Mahinmi (five years younger, light-years more athletic and an emerging talent on both ends) and Spencer Hawes (a pretty similar player to Kaman during his first five seasons) would seem like better multiyear bets at deals above the midlevel exception.

What Kaman was looking at as spoon hit mouth. (Image via @ChrisKaman)Even coming off a relatively nondescript season with the New Orleans Hornets, Kaman has value as a legit 7-footer who can score, has nine years of NBA experience, and can walk, chew gum and foul at the same time. He'll find a job, and a lucrative one, at that. He's secure. And when you're secure, you can just chill out and eat some cereal in a cabin surrounded by more animal heads than seem reasonable, healthy or non-mania-inducing.

Once you've kicked things off with the most important meal of the day, though, you should really go out and have some fun with your offseason. Visit with friends. Take long walks. Hide in caves and then jump out pretending to be a legendary ape-like cryptid who purportedly inhabits the woods of the Pacific Northwest:

Heading into a win-or-go-home Game 6 against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night, Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doug Collins said his team needed point guard Jrue Holiday to ramp up his aggression, get to the basket more frequently and put up more shots to give Philly a chance of extending the series to Game 7. Apparently, the third-year guard listens.

Holiday took 15 shots on Wednesday night, the most of any Sixer, and posted a team-leading 20 points as Philly scored an 82-75 Game 6 win to knot this second-round series at three games apiece. As we discussed Wednesday, though, the key wasn't just that Holiday get his shots up, but where he got them up; after taking just five attempts at the rim in Games 4 and 5 combined, Holiday went 3 for 5 at the tin in Game 6 and 6 for 10 within nine feet of the basket, according to Hoopdata's shot location statistics, meaning that despite having gone 9 for 19 from 3-point range in the series' first five games, he refused to fall in love with his jumper and just continued attacking the paint.

Even when he didn't connect on the bucket, the attacks paid dividends — Holiday attempted (and made) six free throws Wednesday night, one fewer than he'd tried in the first five games combined, and four of his six assists led to baskets at the rim for his teammates. By routinely beating Boston's defense off the bounce and getting into the lane, Holiday was able to generate offense not only for himself, but for the rest of the Sixers, and in a game where both teams struggled with their jumpers — Philly was just 12 for 35 from beyond 10 feet, while Boston was a ghastly 17 for 56 — the team able to produce and convert more up-close opportunities came away with the win.

Shaquille O'Neal on the TNT set on Tuesday (Getty Images)

ESPN's Chris Broussard is reporting the Orlando Magic are likely to discuss their open general manager position with current TNT appear-on-TV'er analyst and former Magic center Shaquille O'Neal. I also just nearly made it to writing 40 words before collapsing into this:

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. LOL. Giggle, hee-hee, LOL.

Though the potential pairing would fly in the face of just about everything we've learned about the NBA, the Orlando Magic, Shaquille O'Neal and actual magic over the last few decades, Broussard insists the meeting could take place soon enough. Charles Barkley, on "The Dan Patrick Show" Thursday morning, even confirmed Shaq had told him he was set to interview. Here's Broussard's scoop, taken from his sources:

Doug Collins isn't mad, he's just disappointed (Getty Images)

Philadelphia 76ers 82, Boston Celtics 75 (series tied, 3-3)

The Boston Celtics' recent history of failing to close out series after series on the road is well-documented, but this is getting a little silly. The Philadelphia 76ers are certainly good enough to beat the Celtics in a series. They're a legitimate conference finals contender, even as an eighth seed considering that end of the bracket (which was designed for the top-seeded Bulls to play a mediocre Eastern team in the second round), and the Sixers are certainly good enough to stand their ground at home with the team's season on the line.

For the Celtics to lose like this, though? Giving up on offensive possessions in the half court once Philly took away an initial option, and refusing to run out after misses? This was disappointing. And unlike other Celtic eras, which would see the team head back home for a deciding Game 7 with a (relatively) younger roster, nothing is guaranteed in Saturday's Game 7. The game starts at 0-0, and the Sixers have all the promise in the world if they keep their wits about them.

Sixers legend Allen Iverson left Philadelphia under not-so-great circumstances twice — first, when he was traded to the Denver Nuggets in December 2006, and then again in 2010 after a short, controversy-filled return to the franchise. Despite those exits, Iverson is still much-loved in Philly. He led the franchise emotionally and on the court for more than a decade, and his toughness (mixed with a lot of frustration, naturally) helped the city identify with him. Simply put, he's the most important Philadelphia athlete of the past 25 years, no matter how often Eagles fans still complain about former quarterback Donovan McNabb.

[ Video: Disguised NBA star's big viral hoops hit]

On Wednesday night, the currently unemployed Iverson returned to the Wells Fargo Center to present the game ball before tip-off of the Sixers' Game 6 win against the Boston Celtics. His initial appearance was brief: He walked out in head-to-toe Sixers apparel (including a jersey with the No. 23 of Louis Williams, the most Iversonian member of the team), presented the ball, shook some hands, gave some hugs, and left the court to watch the game. Through it all, the home crowd gave him a huge ovation.

You can watch video of that above. After the jump, check out the more complicated part of Iverson's evening: an interview with ESPN's Lisa Salters that touched on his desire to play basketball and his difficulty in finding a team that wants him.

Kobe Bryant and Mitch Kupchak sign their marriage certificate in 2004 (Steve Grayson/ WireImage).

With the Los Angeles Lakers out of the playoffs in the second round for the second consecutive season, many fans and analysts have considered how to fix the team's problems given their complicated financial situation. Most people have suggested that they should trade very talented but often marginalized big man Pau Gasol for new players, but even that deal wouldn't give them many options. The fact of the matter is that their cap situation is just not very palatable over the next few seasons.

Due to those issues, some think the franchise should take more drastic measures. Kobe Bryant is set to make more than $58 million over the next two seasons, topping out at $30.4 million in the 2013-14 season — making him the highest-paid player in the league by a wide margin. At that time, Kobe will be 35 years old. And while he's still a superstar, it's hard to imagine any perimeter player that age being worth that kind of money under a restrictive collective bargaining agreement.

So, as difficult as it is to imagine the Lakers without Bryant, Beckley Mason of TrueHoop writes that it might be in their best interest to part ways with Bryant:

Scott Skiles showboats by dribbling with his left hand (Michael Cooper/ Getty).

As now-deposed coach Stan Van Gundy's relationship with Dwight Howard fell apart, reports abounded that the Orlando Magic center had grown tired of SVG's demanding style. That wasn't terribly surprising — hardline coaches can get on players' nerves over time, particularly when there's not a clear progression towards a championship. When the Magic stalled, SVG's time ran out.

If the Magic want to keep Howard in Orlando — which seems unlikely based on at least one report — then they might need to bring in a different kind of coach. With that in mind, it's a little surprising that two of the rumored possibilities are even more intense than Van Gundy.

The first name, which surfaced Tuesday, is Utah Jazz legend Jerry Sloan. He's been nominally retired since abruptly resigning from the Jazz last season, but apparently he wants to get back to the sidelines. From Chris Tomasson for Fox Sports Florida:

Jrue Holiday drives to the basket. (Getty Images)

The second round hasn't been especially kind to Jrue Holiday. After averaging a sterling 18.2 points per game in the Philadelphia 76ers' first-round win over the Chicago Bulls, he's had a rougher go of it in Round 2, averaging just 12.4 points a night on 43.4 percent shooting against the Boston Celtics. He's far from the only Sixer to struggle — his teammates are shooting a combined 41.7 percent from the floor in the series, which Boston leads 3-2 and can close out in Philly in a pivotal Game 6 on Wednesday night — but what's made Holiday's play particularly noteworthy of late is its passivity.

After hitting three of the first four shots he took during Monday's Game 5 and helping Philadelphia jump out to a 27-23 lead after the first quarter, Holiday seemed to recede from view, attempting just two shots in the rest of the game and finishing with a quiet 10 points in Boston's 101-85 win. That Holiday, the team's leading postseason scorer at 15.5 points per game, pulled back when he seemed to have it going gave Doug Collins cause for concern; as the Sixers' head coach told John N. Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the team needs more offensive aggression from its lead guard and leading scorer.

"He's our leading scorer," Collins said after a team film session Tuesday at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. "[...] I've got to have him in the mode of looking to shoot the ball."

In a perfect world for the Sixers, Holiday plays Wednesday night the way he did in Game 2 of the Chicago series, when he finished with 26 points and six assists in a 109-92 rout.

"I have to be more aggressive looking for my shot," Holiday said.

Perhaps too often, Holiday exhibits a reluctance to take over games. He has a pure point guard's mind-set in that he would rather set up his teammates — something Boston guard Rajon Rondo, his counterpart, could very well be the best in the league at doing.

It's true that Holiday can look tentative at times, and that hesitance can spell problems for a Philadelphia team not blessed with very many players who excel at creating good looks, whether for themselves or others. But it's worth noting that it's not exactly as if the Sixers become a high-flying, explosive winning machine when Holiday starts looking for his own offense.