Manute Bol lets it fly (Getty Images)

It's about as frustrating a game as you'll come across in the NBA, and in the wake of several superstar departures (departures we referenced earlier on Friday), you're going to see a few of these instances in 2012-13. It's the first time the old team takes on the new team, but in the new team's arena. The old team can ship away its star, and then "welcome" him back a few months later at the home arena with a chorus of boos and underdog's fervor on its side; those are fine. It's when the old team has to visit the new team's arena, with their old superstar lining up for the other side … that's the tough one.

Such was the case in 1993, when a moribund Philadelphia 76ers team traveled to Phoenix to take on the Suns; a team that traded for Charles Barkley during the previous offseason. The Sixers were terrible, they hadn't recouped much of anything in the Barkley transaction, they worked in awful uniforms that don't even boast a retro appeal nearly two decades on, and the Suns rudely welcomed them by storming out of the gates with a 43-29 run during the first quarter. Forty-three points in 12 minutes. It was that sort of night. And that sort of 76er team.

That team, plus Manute Bol. Who started the second half for a 76ers team featuring a roster full of shrugged shoulders, and nearly shot his team all the way back in it with a ridiculous six 3-pointers in the second half. And, because it's late September and absolutely nothing else is going on within the NBA right now, we've decided to revisit that night:

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a game under the .500 mark, 12.5 games out of the division lead and just about out of the running for a wild-card spot in the National League. School has started, the kids need to be in bed by nine, and it's safe to say there aren't a lot of D-Back diehards taking in a Wednesday night contest between the Diamondbacks and the similarly out-of-it San Diego Padres.

So, what better way to bring the fans in than by announcing that Phoenix Suns starting point guard Steve Nash … er, Goran Dragic is going to throw out the first pitch?!?

Dragic, considering he probably had never gripped a baseball nor thrown a sphere so small overhand in his lefty life before Wednesday, did pretty well. A fat one, to be sure, and not a strike; but not bad from 60-feet away.

Eric Gordon asks why they don't just make the whole plane out of the black box. (Getty Images)

Following a frustrating season that saw him miss 57 games with a knee injury and an at-times dicey summer of restricted free agency that saw him very publicly state a preference for signing with the Phoenix Suns, Eric Gordon is preparing for his second season with a New Orleans Hornets team that gave him a four-year, $58 million contract during the offseason. As you might expect, the combination of a return to health, a $58 million contract and the arrival of No. 1 overall draft pick Anthony Davis has Gordon feeling pretty good about the Hornets' chances this season.

Like, really good, apparently. From Rachel Whittaker of the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

And Gordon can't wait to be a leader, though he acknowledged the journey will be a work in progress.

"We have a lot of young talented players who will be very good for us," Gordon said. "This is a long-term process; it's not a year or two where we're going to be a championship caliber of team. I'm just looking forward to being in the playoffs this year and many more years of possibly getting a championship."

On its face, you might think Gordon, who played nine games last year, penciling in a postseason run for the Hornets, who had the worst record in the Western Conference last year, sounds a little bit optimistic. But remember, this year will see the addition of an extra wild-card team on both sides of the playoff bracket, which is sure to create some wild late-season competition in which anything could happen.

Hmm? What's that? That's only in baseball, and we'll have the requisite eight playoff teams in each conference again? Then this "New Orleans in the playoffs" thing will probably come as something of a surprise to the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz and, as Kevin Love just informed the world, Minnesota Timberwolves.

Andrew Bogut tries to block Pau Gasol's trade to the middle of the paint (Getty Images)

The rumble isn't exactly a new one, fans and media have been complaining about the big-market superstar mashups for a few years now, but you get the feeling the noise is going to grow louder and louder throughout the 2012-13 season. Dwight Howard and Steve Nash just joined the Los Angeles Lakers, with one era's best point guard and another era's top center teaming up with the next-generation version of Kobe Bryant and a player in Pau Gasol that is far and away the most talented and versatile big man in the game. If it seems like an embarrassment of riches, it's because it is — possibly overshadowing that other embarrassment of riches, the 2012 champion Miami Heat, along the way.

And fans of just about every other team in the NBA are just left to vent, and complain. Same with coaches, GMs, and apparently starting centers. Starting with starting center Andrew Bogut, who started up on the Lakers in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News' Tim Kawakami:

-Q: You bring up Howard. What'd you think when Dwight and Nash end up in LA?

-BOGUT: (Shakes his head.) The rich get richer. That's generally how it is in the NBA. Grown accustomed to it the last five-six years. The rich get richer and the poor have to kind of scrounge and find other role players to fill it in. That's kind of the way it is.

Channing Frye (Christian Petersen/ Getty)Over the past year, the NBA has dealt with a comparatively high amount of coronary problems. Last December, it was announced that Boston Celtics forward and key reserve Jeff Green would miss the entire season after having surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm. Then, three months later, it came to light that Green's teammate Chris Wilcox would also miss the rest of the season with an enlarged aorta. These were sad stories, obviously, but also happy ones in that team doctors were able to catch the issues before they became more serious.

No one wants to see more of them, though. And so, on Thursday we got more bad news: Suns sharpshooter Channing Frye is out indefinitely due to an enlarged heart. From the Associated Press:

JaVale McGee cruises around Denver in style (via Deadspin).

Four seasons into his NBA career, it is very well established that Denver Nuggets center JaVale McGee is an odd duck. His on-court goofs are legion, but his Twitter account paints a picture of a man who presents everything as a retweet, sends out inspirational comments that are ultimately meaningless, and generally has problems determining what makes him look fun and what makes him look like someone you wouldn't want to leave in a room unattended for fear he would set it on fire by accident.

Not surprisingly McGee loves to ride Segways, the fairly practical vehicle that also turns its riders (or is it drivers?) into goofballs merely by association. Back in 2010, JaVale was photographed riding his Segway through a McDonald's drive-thru. As captured by a Deadspin reader named "Patrick," McGee has now been seen Seggin' (that's street slang) around Denver. The photo is above, but the magic is inside each and every one of us.

It bears noting that back in April, when the Nuggets were on the

Keyon Dooling applauds the end of his personal union headaches (Getty Images).

On Thursday afternoon, the Boston Celtics announced that they had waived veteran combo guard Keyon Dooling, who had re-signed with the club as recently as July 31. Though Dooling was looking at reduced playing time this season, he performed admirably for the Celtics in 2011-12, providing key pressure defense when guard Avery Bradley had to sit during the bulk of their playoff run with a seriously injured shoulder. The return of Bradley and signings of Jason Terry and Courtney Lee indicated that Dooling would not have a huge role with the Celtics, but he was nevertheless a useful player given their needs.

It turns out that the Celtics might not have waived Dooling for purely basketballular reasons. As their official statement notes Dooling wants to focus on his life away from basketball:

Although his overall popularity dipped a bit in his second full season — blame a tendency to flop for that — Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin is still one of the NBA's brightest young players. At a very basic level, his dunks will remain thrilling for the foreseeable future, and his expanding all-around game should keep him relevant. Griffin's not going anywhere, and we're only going to see more of him on the court and on our TVs.

That goes for children, too. As you can see from the video above, Griffin will appear on "Sesame Street" when the landmark premieres its 24th season this Monday. He'll appear with Abby Cadabby, a fairly new character who wasn't around during my own childhood, and face off against a real-life (puppet) chicken in a chicken-noise competition. It's standard "Sesame Street" stuff, I guess, just with a really good basketball player on set. It's good to see they don't change their style for everyone.

Also, Mario Lopez appears briefly at the end of the video.