Michael Jordan (Getty Images)

Michael Jordan turns 50 on Sunday. In celebration, we’ve decided to delve into 50 remarkable and hopefully indelible moments from MJ’s storied career.

Top 50 moments: 50-37 • 36-23 • 22-11 • 10-1

Shaquille O'Neal (really) tries to defend No. 45, Michael Jordan, in 1995. (Getty Images)As Michael Jordan turns 50, we’ll all be remembering the great moments of his career in the coming days. You know most of the good stories about Jordan’s life: no, he wasn’t really cut from his varsity basketball team; yes, he really did keep Isiah Thomas off the Dream Team. Here, however, are ten more you might not know:

1. What was Jordan’s childhood nickname?
Growing up, Jordan was called “black cat” by other kids. Tinker Hatfield, the designer of the Air Jordan III, completely unaware of the nickname, patterned the shoe after a black panther’s paw. The third generation of Air Jordans kicked the brand into a higher gear, paving the way for the brand’s continued iconic status, and the Jordan XIII would actually bear the "Black Cat" nickname.

2. Why did Jordan briefly wear #45?
Few athletes get to see their numbers retired by their team, and even fewer return to play once that jersey’s been hoisted to the rafters. When Jordan returned to the NBA in the 1994-95 season (with a two-word

Buss received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 (FilmMagic).

On Thursday afternoon, the NBA world received some bad news. Dr. Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers since 1979, has spent time in intensive care at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as he receives treatment for cancer. Although Dr. Buss has taken on fewer responsibilities in recent seasons, he is still the official owner of one of the NBA's marquee franchises and one of the most successful owners in the history of American sports.

News of Buss' condition was first reported by RadarOnline.com:

MJ said what? In a game of pick-up, LeBron James wouldn't be Jordan's first choice. (Reuters)

OKLAHOMA CITY – LeBron James isn't worried about getting Michael Jordan's approval, which is sure to add more fodder to the LeBron vs. Michael debate that's picked up steam of late due to James' impressive run of 30-point games and a collective media celebration of all things Jordan as his 50th birthday approaches Sunday.

In an interview with NBATV, Jordan said if given a choice, he would pick Kobe Bryant over James. While Jordan said it would be a tough choice, he added that "five beats one every time I look at it," referring to Bryant's five championships with the Los Angeles Lakers versus the one title James won with the Miami Heat last season.

James' response at shootaround Thursday, as the Heat prepare for their showdown with the Thunder:

"It doesn't matter to me. If you take Kobe one and I go second, it doesn't matter. I don't get too involved in what guys say about me or if you take Kobe or if you take LeBron. As long as I'm on the floor and I make plays for my teammates,

John Wall sees the court (Getty Images)

By choice and also as a by-product of limits put on NBA contracts, David Falk’s influence as an agent has dwindled a bit since his mid-1990s heyday. A heyday that saw him work as a representative for a gaggle of stars including Michael Jordan. His clout doesn’t nearly extend to the range it did between 1995 and 1996, when he helped sustain a superstar-friendly 1995 Collective Bargaining Agreement following the 1995 lockout, or signed endless clients to massive deals during the 1996 and 1997 offseasons. Or even in 1999, when he orchestrated several powerful trades to the dismay of general managers who weren’t yet confident dealing in the confines of the 1999 CBA that helped lessen Falk’s power.

[Also: Bobcats eager to trade Ben Gordon after incident with coach]

What he is now, despite a solid list of current clients, is a fan boy. And boy oh boy, does this Washington Wizards fan not like John Wall. From a Mike Wise Washington Post feature that saw Falk stunningly go on record to trash the third-year Wizards point guard:

“You guys are in dreamland. Because this team [stinks] so bad you guys want John Wall to be someone he will never be.

“Before Wall becomes Nene, I would trade him and get rid of him.”

Come on, really?

“I’m serious. He doesn’t have a feel for the game,” Falk said. “He only knows how to play one speed. Magic Johnson had a great feel, a court sense, by the time he was a sophomore in college. Chris Paul had it by the time he was a sophomore in high school."

This is how Kevin Garnett sleeps (Getty Images)

There were some curious turns of phrase from Kevin Garnett on Wednesday night. In the wake of an exhausting 71-69 victory over the Chicago Bulls, one that saw Garnett make a number of clutch plays on both ends down the stretch, the future Hall of Famer and 15-time All-Star appeared to say that this Sunday’s All-Star Game is “definitely my last,” before somewhat backtracking and offering a few vague comments about his future with both the Boston Celtics, and the All-Star game.

[Also: Bobcats eager to trade Ben Gordon after incident with coach]

This could be in reference to a potential summer retirement, an attempt to point out that his days of playing All-Star level ball are over, a hint that Garnett might co-incidentally suffer from “knee tendinitis” in the days leading up to future All-Star games and skip the weekend to rest, or it could just be a slip of the tongue. Either way, it’s worth glomming onto.

WEEI’s Ben Rohrbach has the video:

After being asked to clarify his thoughts, and after the subject of Garnett’s contract (which runs into 2015, if the Celtics decide to pick up KG’s 2014-15 part of the deal) was brought up, Garnett (“realizing he had just set off an alarm,” according to the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy), either tried to hedge, obfuscate, or both. From the Herald:

LeBron James laughs at the rest of basketball (Mike Ehrmann/ Getty).

For several years, LeBron James has been the best player in the NBA, a phenomenally versatile talent capable of dominating a game in multiple ways simultaneously. Yes, last June's championship lent a certain legitimacy to LeBron's career that hadn't previously existed, but it was less a coronation than a validation of qualities we already knew to be present. Simply put, James had been the preeminent basketball talent in the world for several years. We have become accustomed to his greatness, because he reveals it regularly.

Nevertheless, there's a difference between greatness and what LeBron has done over the past six games, and what he might do again on Thursday night when the Miami Heat face the Oklahoma City Thunder in a Finals rematch. As our Dan Devine noted on Wednesday, James has been historically amazing over that stretch, making 66 of 92 shots (71.7 percent) for averages of 30.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg, and 6.5 apg. Beyond the stats, LeBron looks like a player not only with no discernible weaknesses, but nothing that is not a clear strength (except free throws, of course). He scores with an efficiency typically only seen in dominant post players, he rebounds, he throws pinpoint passes, he defends every position at a high level, he makes the proper defensive rotations, he doesn't turn the ball over, etc. ad infinitum.

[Also: Bobcats eager to trade Ben Gordon after incident with coach]

That's not to say that he's reached the height of basketball — history dictates that those achievements can only come in the postseason against the best competition the NBA has to offer. For that matter, I don't mean to suggest that James is now the greatest player ever (whatever that means), or that anyone who doesn't like him is a cretin. Instead, I want to focus on what it's like to watch an athlete whose utter dominance of the field makes the amazing look commonplace.

Hedo Turkoglu presents an imposing figure, hunches over (Fernando Medina/ Getty).

On Wednesday, the NBA announced that it had suspended Orlando Magic forward Hedo Turkoglu 20 games after testing positive for steroids. It's a notable story if only because issues regarding performance-enhancing drugs typically don't enter the NBA's orbit. For the most part, that's the province of other major sports and leagues. However, this announcement brings up important questions about the prevalence of PEDs in basketball.

[Also: Bobcats eager to trade Ben Gordon after incident with coach]

Let's start with the report itself. Not surprisingly, Turkoglu denies that he took steroids on purpose. From Kyle Hightower for the Associated Press: