Michael Jordan hugs Allen Iverson while Stephon Marbury sees a shiny object (Randy Belice/ Getty).

Over the years, basketball fans have become accustomed to considering Michael Jordan as a fairly vindictive and flawed person, not just an unimpeachable legend of the game. From his infamous Hall of Fame induction speech to more intimate profiles, Jordan has come across as someone who holds grudges and isn't afraid to interrupt the rules of polite company if it means getting what he wants. Presumably it's much easier for him to do these things than it is for an average schmoe, because he is the most famous basketball player ever.

Despite this now familiar perspective on Jordan's personal life, it's still somewhat jarring to encounter new details of his everday actions. Such is the case of rapper and actor Bow Wow (formerly Lil Bow Wow), a longtime friend of Jordan's sons. On one occasion, he found out just how invested Jordan is in his relationship with Nike. From a recent interview with Montreality (via For The Win):

'Oh, pardon me, Tyson.' (Ron Hoskins/NBA/Getty Images)

The Indiana Pacers stand just one win away from earning their first trip to the Eastern Conference finals in nine years, just 48 minutes from a rematch with a Miami Heat squad that ousted them from the playoffs in the second round one year ago. All they have to do is follow in the footsteps of the Heat and Memphis Grizzlies by taking care of business and beating Carmelo Anthony and his New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in Game 5 on Thursday night.

Given how easily they've handled New York for most of this series — and the fact that they've already won at the World's Most Famous Arena here in Round 2 — you'd think they'd enter Game 5 bursting with hubris, breathing easily and crowing loudly. Except that's not who these Pacers are and it's not what brought them here; to hear them tell it, according to Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star, they're talking like they're facing the '92 Dream Team:

“We haven’t won anything. We have to be perfect,” Pacers center Roy Hibbert said. “The [Knicks] play extremely well at home. We’re going to have our hands full. They are really an explosive team when at home.” [...]

“It’s going to be 10 times harder, it being in New York,” Pacers swingman Paul George said. “We know how well they play at home, so it’s going to take a great effort, so we’ll see where we’re at.” [...]

“We won in Atlanta, which is a hard place to win, with our backs against the wall, so we know we can win on the road and I think we’re going to take the same mentality to New York and try to close it out there,” Pacers point guard George Hill said. “But like I said, it’s not going to be easy. The [Knicks] play extremely well at home and we’re just going to do the best we can to make it tough for them.” [...]

“We know New York is such an explosive team, such a tenacious team, that we’re not in any shape or form comfortable with what we’re doing and we know we need an extraordinary effort like we had the last couple of games to get a win, and that’s what our focus is,” [Pacers coach Frank] Vogel said.

Kevin Durant during Oklahoma City's final game on Wednesday (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 Oklahoma City Thunder.

Russell Westbrook’s knee injury may have cost his team an NBA title this season, but it could also go a long way towards saving coach and general manager Sam Presti a whole heck of a lot of criticism. To some Oklahoma City Thunder fans, that statement is just piling bad on top of bad.

Scorn for Brooks’ abilities date back two years at this point, and whether they come in the form of complaining about his limited mid-playoff adjustments or overreliance on certain vets, he’s taken quite a bit of heat following two straight five-game finishes to seasons in 2012 and now 2013. Presti, meanwhile, will receive tempered but certain criticism for his choices to ostensibly value contract extensions for Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka over one for Houston Rocket All-Star James Harden.

Both will be back next year, though. Brooks just finished the first year of a four year contract, and Presti has done so well in his first six years with the team that he’s earned several more years of goodwill. Both admirably and staunchly defended themselves (and by extension, the team’s owners) in the wake of the deal that sent James Harden to Houston, allowing for the team’s ownership to skate in the face of paying the luxury tax. On top of that, Westbrook’s season ending injury allows for most to consider the 2012-13 team a once-again championship contender that was just felled by bad luck at the worst possible time.

Klay and Steph have to shoot well enough to merit a postgame chat tonight. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBA/Getty)

The Golden State Warriors will fight to stave off elimination on Thursday when they welcome the San Antonio Spurs to Oracle Arena for Game 6 of their Western Conference semifinals series. After a 109-91 Game 5 rout that saw Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combine for just 13 points on 6 for 22 shooting in 70 total minutes, the lion's share of the questions have focused on how Warriors coach Mark Jackson can get his vaunted backcourt back on track and firing on all cylinders in a bid to extend the series to a deciding seventh game back in San Antonio.

Interestingly enough, just weeks after telling anyone who'd listen just how good and important he thought his sharpshooting duo was, Jackson now seems much more interested in the other end of the floor, according to Carl Steward of the San Jose Mercury News:

"It's not about their shooting," Jackson said flatly. "We didn't play well. We own it, and we move forward. We're disappointed across the board, and it is what it is. Now we make the proper adjustments, because we don't want to put together a similar game." [...]

Neither player was present before practice nor made available to the media to offer any explanations or solutions for what happened in Game 5. In their stead, Jackson poured cold water on their combined shortcomings as the main reason for the loss and spread the blame team-wide.

"We can make it about [Curry and Thompson], but for us, that's not what it's about," the coach said. "It's a four-point game in the third quarter. [The Spurs] shot 72 percent in the first quarter and scored 37 points. That has nothing to do with Klay Thompson or Steph Curry shooting the basketball."

To a certain extent, that's true. But only to a certain extent.

I kind of can't believe it's only been a week since Joakim Noah's ejection in Game 2 of his Chicago Bulls' Eastern Conference semifinals matchup with the Miami Heat. It feels like way more time has passed between Noah getting the gate, a certain upset blonde Heat backer deciding to express her displeasure with the Bulls big man, her middle-finger salute going viral, the world learning her name is Filomena Tobias and the world going on to learn that she has what you might call a complicated backstory. (I guess the playoff schedule has a way of stretching things out.)

Well, if it's seemed like a long time to me, I can only imagine what kind of week it's been for Tobias. After initially saying she didn't want to comment on the incident and that those interested in it "need to get a life," according to her daughter, she's now decided to apologize, sort of, while also taking those of us who've written about it all to task.

In a statement issued to noted basketball resource Jose Lambiet's Gossip Extra by her attorney, Anthony Barbuto, Tobias copped to making an "ill-mannered" gesture, but remains upset by the subsequent "very ugly and despicable intrusion" into her personal and legal history:

It was anyone's guess who would win Phil's Fashion Championship. (Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBA/Getty Images)

Hey, did you know that people like to compare Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant? Fans do it, video editors do it, Kelly Dwyer does it (and Ernie Johnson told me Wednesday night that KD's a "good dude"), Larry Bird does it, and even Jordan himself does it. Seriously, it's basically the absolute favorite thing of everyone who likes basketball. I'm surprised you didn't know that.

One basketball lover, however, has largely been reticent to compare the two legendary shooting guards — Phil Jackson, the man who coached Jordan and Bryant through their respective championship-winning, Hall-of-Fame-securing primes with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. In his forthcoming book "Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success," however, the Zen Master opens up and shares his thoughts on the tale of the tape between two of the greatest players the game has ever seen.

From Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, who got an advance look at "Eleven Rings" and is sharing the wealth:

Cuttino Mobley gives his best 'GET ME OUT OF HERE!'-face (Getty Images)

Cuttino Mobley retired in 2008 at the too-early age of 32 years old. The former Houston Rockets standout was never an All-Star, but he was a solid starting-level shooting guard who mixed sound outside shooting with a point guard’s knowledge of spacing and timing. Mobley was being counted on in 2008 to act as a needed veteran buffer for a New York Knicks team in bad need of outside shooting, but an MRI revealed a heart condition (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) that encouraged the retirement.

At the time, Mobley said that the MRI “basically saved my life,” which flew in the face of a disappointing lawsuit Mobley brought up against the Knicks a few years later. In the suit, Cuttino alleged that the Knicks only asked Mobley to retire in order to realize luxury tax savings (for a roster that was already millions over the luxury tax) and to save money for the 2010 LeBron James-led offseason (completely incorrect in every way).

Years after that suit was sent away, the man they once called “Cat” is back to try and make one more NBA stab. It may be because his medical marijuana efforts have been smoked out, and it might be to spite the Knicks, but we’re guessing it’s mainly because Mobley still feels like he has something to contribute to an NBA team, and because he wants to go out on his own terms. Completely understandable.

'I'm Marc Gasol. I solve problems.' (BDL Illustration)

Marc Gasol didn't have a monster Game 5 against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, finishing making just five of his 13 field-goal attempts and grabbing a non-eye-popping seven rebounds in 41 minutes. But the burly center was there when the Memphis Grizzlies needed him most, with six of his 10 points — including a huge 19-footer with 27 seconds left — and two of his three blocks coming in the fourth quarter. And run back the tape on Kevin Durant's closing-seconds miss — check out which 7-foot-1 Spaniard is lurking just beyond the restricted area, ready to pounce on a drive and influencing Durant into pulling up.

Gasol's Game 5 numbers might not have been stunning, but his performance throughout the Western Conference semifinals was everything Memphis could have asked for and more — 19.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.8 blocks, 2.4 assists and 1.6 steals in 41.9 minutes per game, shooting 48.6 percent from the field and 81.8 percent from the foul line, and anchoring a withering defense that held Durant and the Russell Westbrook-less Thunder to a paltry 94.3 points per 100 possessions, a mark that would've ranked below the Washington Wizards' league-worst offense during the regular season. He was a star, full stop, on both ends of the floor, and is as big a reason as any why the Grizzlies ousted the West's top seed in five games to advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time in franchise history.

But he also knows just how good his Grizzlies are, that they were supposed to beat the wounded Thunder, and that Memphis' job isn't done yet. His postgame choice of pop-culture touchstone to illustrate that knowledge was pretty amazing, according to ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne: