On Jan. 15, 2008, Joakim Noah probably didn’t want to secure Ben Wallace’s comeuppance. As a rookie, he probably didn’t even want to secure Ben Wallace’s job, or get then-Chicago Bulls coach Jim Boylan fired from his gig. What he wanted was for his new team, the disappointing 2007-08 Chicago Bulls, to build upon the momentum they had made in making a strong first-half comeback against the Orlando Magic that night and pull out the win in the second half.

Frustrated at watching vets Wallace and Joe Smith laughing on the bench during what could have been a one-sided first half, he vented in the locker room at halftime — though not in the direction of Wallace or Smith. Wallace, knowing he was the subject of the rant, got in the rookie’s face. Boylan, knowing he should side with his $15 million a year star in Wallace and not a dumb rookie, sided with Big Ben, and Noah (who gave Chicago a double-double in that game in just 23 minutes) was left to take the slings and arrows in front of the press.

And the Bulls lost the game. And Wallace was traded a month later. And Boylan didn’t make it until the next season. And to a lot of us, even with Derrick Rose debuting with the team some nine months after this incident, Joakim Noah remains our favorite Chicago Bull.

This late-game save from Wednesday night, in the closing moments of Chicago’s win over the Detroit Pistons, is one of the reasons why:

(Also, Bulls announcer Stacey King? We know Marco Belinelli is Italian. Not every person wants to be associated with a style of food that at one time -- as in, "centuries ago" -- unique to their home country. Do yourself a favor and come up with "spicy meatball"-type shouts for these players after they make a big move: Jeremy Lin, Eduardo Najera, Steve Nash, or Georgia-born Dwight Howard. Still feel like yelling about meatballs?)

Conventional basketball wisdom dictates that a play cannot be both flashy and smart. By this rationale, the fundamentals are enough to succeed, because the opponent will eventually make a mistake that can be exploited. But this view limits the range of basketball possibility, particularly at the highest levels of the game. Sometimes, a player has to force a risky move to make a possession work.

Denver Nuggets center JaVale McGee has never been considered a heady player — in fact, on Wednesday morning, Jay Busbee noted that his coach said "lazy and crazy isn't going to make it work" in direct reference to him. On Wednesday night, though, McGee showed that he can build upon his athleticism with a little creativity. In the final minute of the third quarter, with Denver already up 78-64 on the Rockets in Houston, McGee took a dribble to his right, let Omer Asik fly by him on a shot fake, and saw an open lane to the basket. Lacking a dribble, JaVale threw the ball high up off the glass, exploded toward the rim, and finished the self-administered alley-oop with his right hand. It was a great, athletic play, and also a smart one. It was everything we've ever wanted JaVale McGee to be. It also helped the Nuggets keep the momentum up in their 105-95 win.

Apparently McGee understood that this play was a little out of the norm, so he finished it up by throwing up a fingerstache on the way back to the defensive end. The man clearly knows what we expect from him, and also clearly loves fingerstaches.

Video via our friends at the Yahoo! Sports Minute. Original video via @cjzero.

Sebastian Telfair celebrates his purchase of the new Norah Jones album (Jonathan Daniel/ Getty).

At this point, most of the NBA is on Twitter. It's a wild world of training updates, questions as to which movies they should go see, and explanations of their Call of Duty prowess. Every so often, though, you also get a picture into the more interesting aspects of NBA life. This feature is your window into that world.

Kendall Marshall calls out some teammates:

2 of my teammates put pics on IG saying "we outchea mobbin at Starbucks" & "early mornin bucks w/ the folks" you can't be hard at starbucks!

— Kendall Marshall (@KButter5) January 23, 2013

Spencer Hawes keeps it in the family

“@sonicsnba: Who is your favorite Sonic of all time?” Steve Hawes! — Spencer Hawes (@spencerhawes00) January 23, 2013

Kim English failed to wear a suit to his own personal draft night (via Instagram).

Every high-level basketball player dreams of the moment when his name gets called at the NBA Draft. These athletes work so hard for so long to achieve in a dream, and over the course of a few seconds there name is called and they belong to an real live professional basketball team. It's the culmination of a lot of things, and that's why draftees can break down and cry even when the circumstances of their selection had been decided days or even weeks before the event itself.

The moment means a lot regardless of where those players happen to be, but it's extra special for those in the building. Players get a special moment on stage, and the commisioner (or deputy commissioner, for second-rounders) officially welcomes him to the NBA fold with a firm handshake (or, in some cases, a hug).

Detroit Pistons rookie shooting guard Kim English, the 44th pick in last June's draft, did not make it to New York for the festivities. However, he recently ran into current deputy commissioner (and future commissioner) Adam Silver at the Pistons' practice in London last week. He asked for a photo and handshake, and Silver obliged.

You can check out the photo above (via TBJ and Zac Dubasik). After the jump, take a look at English's tweet.

A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: The NBA's YouTube channel. Forty points on 16 for 24 shooting against the Boston Celtics at age 20. Let's just watch Kyrie Irving work, one more time, for a couple of minutes, shall we?

PF: Deseret News. Now, that's not to say that Irving can't be defended or contained — as a matter of fact, the Utah Jazz (not exactly the world's most stalwart opposition, ranking 22nd among 30 NBA teams in points allowed per possession, according to NBA.com's stat tool) had some success at doing just that during a recent win. The great David Locke takes a closer look at how the Jazz were able to slow down Kyrie's Cavs in the pick-and-roll game.

SF: HoopChalk. Speaking of pick-and-roll defense: A couple of weeks back, I highlighted Couper Moorhead's awesome breakdown of how Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau short-circuited the Miami Heat's corner-3-loving offense during a recent win. Today, we highlight Dylan Murphy's awesome breakdown of how Thibs beat the Heat on offense, finding a counter to their aggressive pick-and-roll double-teaming D. I guess what I'm trying to say is, the Bulls are definitely going to beat the Heat in the playoffs.

Royce White and the Rockets might finally have found a resolution. (Nick Laham/Getty Images)

At long last, rookie Royce White finally appears to be getting closer to playing professional basketball under the Houston Rockets' umbrella.

It's been more than two weeks since the Rockets suspended White, who has yet to play a minute for Houston this season, without pay for "refusing to provide services" as part of an ongoing dispute between the team and its first-round draft pick over how to address the anxiety disorder from which he suffers. While tension around the anxiety issue began building shortly after Houston chose White with the 16th pick in the 2012 NBA draft when he missed the first few days of training camp, things didn't really boil over until White refused an assignment to the Rockets' D-League affiliate in protest of what he called "unsafe [...] medical decisions" made by "unqualified Rockets front office personnel [who] are not mental health professionals."

The stalemate's been a topic of conversation both nationally, with ESPN's "Outside the Lines" and HBO's "Real Sports" airing recent features on White, and in Houston, where questions about whether the Iowa State product would ever suit up in Rockets red have consistently cropped up on blogs, message boards and local radio. White decided to join one such radio discussion on Wednesday, making a surprise phone call to a local morning show in which he addressed his disagreement with the Rockets — and said that, several months after the saga began, it could be nearing its end.

"Well, actually, you know, we're in the 12th hour of it being over," White told the hosts of the Madd Hatta Morning show on 97.9 FM The Box. "[...] Like, I think any hour now, this whole thing'll be over and I'm gonna be, I'm supposed to be returning to the D-League on February 11. So that was the plan. We'll see if it finally goes through, but the last thing I heard was that that's what we're gonna do, that's what we're planning to do, and we're just waiting on everybody to get the right paperwork and stuff like that."

Hours later, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reported that, according to a "person with knowledge of the plan," the Rockets are "close to making an announcement in which White would return to the team under a written agreement that includes key elements of the protocols that White wanted to have as an addendum to his contract." The add-on reportedly won't give decision-making power over items covered in the protocol to someone outside the organization, as White initially asked for, but still seems to represent the most significant step yet to resolving the ongoing dispute between player and team.

"I won." (Getty Images)

The most recent report from Forbes is to be expected. NBA owners now make 50 percent of the revenue their teams and players bring in, up from the previous 43 percent mark. Two teams have recently been sold, one team is about to be sold, two new very lucrative local TV contracts have hit their stride, apparel sales are on point, and the already-negotiated TV money is the same regardless of whether one or 1 billion tune into tonight’s Golden State Warriors/Los Angeles Clippers game on NBA TV.

As a result, the average NBA team is worth 30 percent more than it was this time last year. That improvement is not a reaction to the lockout, mind you, unlike television ratings or attendance. It isn’t as if valuations were lower this time last year just because the NBA was less than a month into its season. It’s a result of the lockout’s tenets and a wave of good fortune for those wonderful men we know as “NBA owners.” From Forbes:

The New York Knicks are the league’s most valuable team, worth $1.1 billion, reclaiming the crown from the Los Angeles Lakers, who topped last year’s list. The Knicks’ value rose 41%, mainly due to a $980 million renovation of Madison Square Garden that is expected to be completed this summer. The makeover resulted in an NBA-leading $243 million in revenue last season. The Knicks’ operating income of $83 million was the highest in the league for a third straight year. Another plus: better play. In 2012, the Knicks won a playoff game for the first time since 2001.

The Los Angeles Lakers have 41 games to get it right (Getty Images)

Things have gotten so bad with the Los Angeles Lakers that the team’s Next Big Deal rumors have now shifted to All-Star center Dwight Howard. After working through two coaches and dismissing a Hall of Fame-level candidate in Phil Jackson, and making their way through months of rumors about a possible Pau Gasol deal, the crown jewel of the Lakers' 2012 offseason is now up for consideration. Partially because the free agent-to-be is set to become the crown jewel of the 2013 offseason, but also because he’s given the Lakers very little of what they assumed he’d contribute.

This comes mainly because the team can’t fire Mike D’Antoni and expect a quick fix, and because there are likely no takers for the massive final two years and $38.2 million left on Gasol’s contract. With a paucity of options outside of L.A. and a lot of guys talking within it, ESPN Los Angeles reported that off-the-record sources relayed to them the idea that Los Angeles “might be forced to reconsider its position” when it comes to dealing Howard before the Feb. 21 trade deadline, in anticipation of him fleeing as a free agent in July.

And, as one on-the-record source in Kobe Bryant told Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski early Tuesday morning, “this isn’t working.”

No, it isn’t. And every prominent member of this franchise is to blame for the team’s disastrous 17-24 start, and the fact that they’ll need to win 26 out of the next 41 games in order to overtake an eighth-seeded Houston Rockets team that is on pace for 42 wins this year. On some worrying levels it would make sense to deal Howard or Gasol or both, but it would also make more sense to attempt to win 63 percent of your games from here on out by smartly utilizing the players you already have in place.

Here’s what the particulars need to do, starting from the top: