Luol Deng on Thursday evening (Getty Images)

During Thursday night’s Chicago Bulls loss to the Brooklyn Nets, a CSNChicago.com report surfaced that turned Luol Deng’s “he’s sick and missed practice”-diagnosis to something altogether more severe. Aggrey Sam reported that Deng had undergone a spinal tap at a local hospital in order to test for meningitis, which is why Deng was sent home from the United Center prior to Game 6.

Because Taj Gibson looked terribly sick during the contest, and Nate Robinson actually had to throw up into a wastebasket on the Bulls bench, the popular take was that Deng must have had the fluiest-flu of them all, but nothing more than the flu. This was exacerbated after the game by Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, who referred to Deng’s illness as “flu-like symptoms.”

It really upsets me that everyone thinks I would miss a game bc of the flu. I've played a lot of games w the flu in my career.

— Luol Deng (@LuolDeng9) May 3, 2013

On Wed I was taken to the ER and my symptoms indicated I may have meningitis In order to play on Thurs I was ... m.tmi.me/Uagd5 — Luol Deng (@LuolDeng9) May 3, 2013

As a result of the spinal tap I suffered the worst headache I've ever experienced and been the weakest I've ever felt.

— Luol Deng (@LuolDeng9) May 3, 2013

The Grizzlies ruin their ability to play poker forever (via @johnhollinger).

It's become tradition for every NBA playoff team to give its attending fans a t-shirt, towel, or similarly uniform item at each home game. The goal is to create a sea of color coordination, an intimidating front in which every fan's passion multiplies upon everyone else's so that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. The plan works so well that its efficacy can only be communicated via mixed metaphors.

The Memphis Grizzlies have gotten in on the action for Friday night's Game 6 against the Los Angeles Clippers, a potential closeout game that would put the home squad in the second round for the second time in three seasons. While a playoff promotion is not notable in itself, the Grizzlies' particular choice of item is: towels with the slogan "We Don't Bluff." Check out the photo above via their vice president of basketball operations (and former irredeemable stat nerd) John Hollinger.

"We Don't Bluff" isn't just an empty phrase like "Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong" or "Give peace a chance" — it's perhaps the best encapsulation of the philosophy of All-Star power forward Zach Randolph (and by extension the Grizzlies as a whole). Back in November, Z-Bo and Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins had a heated on-court exchanged that was alleged to have carried over into the locker room after the game. In speaking to reporters after the game, Randolph said these words: "Man, I play basketball. I don't worry about all that. Perk's all right. There's a lot of bluffin' going on the court, that's all, you know. And I don't bluff."

Wilson Chandler, in the waning moments of the Nuggets' final game of the season (Getty Images)

With every season that ends, for the playoff teams at least, we felt it right to take a look ahead. TNT already has the rights to "Gone Fishin'," and because we're sure that someone, somewhere, still likes that Wyclef song, we're going with "Gone Till November." And, yes, we know the season starts in October. Today? The Denver Nuggets.

As with all of these season-enders, judging the Denver Nuggets on the basis of the team’s disappointing first round exit seems like a silly exercise. The first round featured a six game sample size against one single team, not the NBA at large, one that the Nuggets took on without one of their best players, and with another pair of crucial Nugget-level stars working through injury.

The swiftness of the exit, though, and the team’s inability to counter what was a pretty consistent and expected Golden State attack leaves the Nuggets prone to criticism. It’s true that a singular game-changing force – in this case Golden State’s ability to get what they wanted on the perimeter – can be sloughed off as a bad matchup not worth obsessing about in the offseason, but this series wasn’t as close as the 4-2 ending suggests. The Warriors handed it to the Nuggets in the postseason, and this should be fresh on everyone’s mind as the team approaches its offseason.

Kobe Bryant apparently doesn't want his mom to sell his stuff. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBA/Getty Images)When news circulated earlier this week that New Jersey-based Goldin Auctions was about to open bidding on a cache of heretofore unavailable Kobe Bryant memorabilia — rare game-worn jerseys, high school trophies and awards, rings commemorating a slew of achievements and more — it seemed like a cool opportunity for collectors. I mean, who wouldn't want to shell out a few shekels bidding on the surfboard Kobe won at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards? That's right: Nobody. Everyone wants those things.

As it turns out, though, it's unlikely that you're going to get your chance to bid on any of the stuff in that 100-plus-item lot — because apparently, Kobe didn't think his mom would actually get rid of it all, and he's not OK with selling it off. From Jane M. Von Bergen of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

For years, Pamela Bryant kept asking her son: Do you still want all this stuff that I'm keeping for you — your old basketball jerseys, your sports awards, your high school trophies?

And for years, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Camden on Thursday, the son, now 34, was content to let it all sit around at the house.

Until ...

Until Pamela Bryant, Kobe Bryant's mother, wanted to auction it off for an expected $1.5 million so she could use the money to buy a house in Nevada.

A-ha. More from Geoff Mulvihill of The Associated Press:

Two unidentified Hawks fans watch Game 5 (Getty Images)

The Indiana Pacers/Atlanta Hawks first round series has been miserable to watch to an almost absurd degree. The teams have traded bouts of excellent play with swoons on both ends of the floor, pairing terrible timing all along the way in a series that has featured five mostly one-sided games. Neither club has explicitly slacked off for long stretches, the effort has been there, but sound decision making and clarity of purpose hasn’t been in long supply for either side.

Befitting this expectancy is the home record for each team: Indiana has taken all three in Indianapolis, while the Hawks took two games in Atlanta, extending the team’s home winning streak over the Pacers to 13 consecutive games.

Because of this streak, Pacer coach Frank Vogel has gone all out in the superstitious realm to guarantee that Friday night’s Game 6 will not be more of the same.

(The previous sentence was brought to you by Opposite Day, because Frank Vogel has just about guaranteed that the Pacers and Hawks will play a terrible Game 6 that will end in yet another Hawks win. Mike Wells at the Indianapolis Star has the story.)

Oprah Winfrey with Jason Collins in Los Angeles. (Chuck Hodes)

Jason Collins capped the whirlwind week that followed his groundbreaking Monday announcement that he is gay by sitting down for an extended chat with Oprah Winfrey set to air Sunday night.

In the interview, which will air during an expanded episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter” on Winfrey's OWN channel, Collins, his twin brother Jarron and several other members of their family will discuss his decision to come out as the first openly gay active male athlete in one of the four major American professional sports. The wide-ranging conversation touches on issues like the global response to Collins' announcement and his hope that coming out will increase dialogue about tolerance and equality for homosexuals in (among other places) the African American community:

David Kahn at the 2010 NBA draft lottery (Getty Images)

When word filtered out on Thursday night that the long-rumored separation between David Kahn and the Minnesota Timberwolves was nigh, many of us giddily rubbed our hands in anticipation of how the outgoing Wolves general manager would somehow make a bad situation worse by talking his way out of it. Kahn has made an NBA career out of insulting others’ intelligence, and in an interview with the Associated Press’ John Krawczynski, he got the ball rolling exactly as you’d expect:

Kahn to AP: "I've taken a lot of bullets for the team and will continue to do so. I'm happy to do it. That's what we're hired to do."

— Jon Krawczynski (@APkrawczynski) May 2, 2013

Martyrdom … engaged!

Not content to sit on that potshot after a disastrous personnel choosing career that left the Timberwolves with the same top two assets (Kevin Love, and Nikola Pekovic, both drafted by Kevin McHale) that were on the team’s books when Kahn entered the fray, David took to the local Star Tribune for a massive four-part interview with Wolves beat writer Jerry Zgoda. The results are expected, sometimes infuriating, with the notable anecdotes too ridiculously to ably paraphrase.

Allow us to introduce you to some of Kahn’s finer, final, moments.

Important horse-racing information. (Getty Images)

I always feel a little dumb this time of year, because as someone who likes sports, I know I'm supposed to care (at least somewhat) about the annual running of the Kentucky Derby, because of tradition and mint juleps and fashion and the elusive Triple Crown and The Sport of Kings, and yet I pretty much never do. This year, though, I've got a slightly more vested interest, because there is a horse in the race that is named Palace Malice, which (as you probably know) has an NBA connection.

Sure, it's an awful NBA connection, relating as it does to the 2004 brawl between the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers that spilled into the stands, set the Pacers organization back for several years and indelibly marked Ron Artest/Metta World Peace and Stephen Jackson as Bad Dudes in the eyes of many NBA fans, but still: it's an NBA connection all the same, and is therefore something I'm interested in. Go, Palace Malice. Run like a fast horse.

It is, of course, worth clarifying that Palace Malice was not named for the infamous brawl, a question the horse addressed on "his" Twitter account:

@simmonsclass My name andnickname for the brawl come from3 stooges short called Malice in the Palace. My mother is named Palace Rumor.

— Palace Malice (@PalaceMalice) May 3, 2013

("... a question the horse addressed on 'his' Twitter account." I love my job.)