Compiled by Chris Bernucca

As promised, our after-school blog links. 

• If you've watched a lot of the Lakers this season (they're only on national TV every other day), then you know Kobe Bryant is playing much more in the post. Michael Jordan, who adopted a similar strategy later in his career, says it's a good idea. And BallerBlogger has the numbers to prove it. 

• Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Both Spurs. Both Facebook addicts. Both injured. You've been warned. 

• Allen Iverson remains unemployed, even though many Knicks were on board with the idea. And Donnie Walsh says Eddy Curry's return has something to do with it. What? 

• Dime has Quentin Richardson talking about being traded four times in seven weeks. 

• My wife has a T-shirt that says "MEXICAN. I am NOT LATINO. Latinos are Anglo-Europeans from Italy. I am NOT HISPANIC. Hispanics are Anglo Europeans from Spain."  Maybe ESPN should have consulted that T-shirt before putting together their Latino player rankings. 

• Kevin Garnett talks about his knee injury. 

• Marc Gasol, franchise player? 

• In the WNBA, another one bites the dust. 

• The Two Man Game has a link to an in-depth magazine piece on Dirk Nowitzki. 

• On the five-year "anniversary" of the Malice at the Palace, a Detroit sportswriter reruns his press-row first-person account. (via Detroit Bad Boys) 

• A list of the non-scorers with the longest careers. 

• No bet Thursday. We clicked with the over in Heat-Hawks and lost with the Cavs on Wednesday, leaving the pile at 565 haffners. Tonight, we like the Rockets and Hawks to clear 203 for 10 units and the Nuggets cover nine points and push Mike Dunleavy closer to unemployment for five units. 

• The Song of the Day. Have a good weekend. 

MORNING NEWS LINKS 

• Howard Beck in the New York Times: "(Allen) Iverson cleared waivers at 6 p.m. Thursday and became an unrestricted free agent. Publicly, Knicks officials continued to say that the matter was under deliberation. However, a person with close ties to the team said a decision had already been made. He placed the chances that the Knicks would sign Iverson at a percent in 'the high 90s' and said a deal could be signed as soon as Friday." 

• Frank Isola in the New York Daily News: James Dolan never played in the NBA, but the chairman of Madison Square Garden has the power to do what few players ever could: Stop Allen Iverson. According to a high-ranking Knicks official, Dolan has reservations about the club signing Iverson, the multi-talented yet controversial guard who became a free agent last night after clearing waivers.

• Peter Vecsey in the New York Post: "In actuality, Iverson quit his last two pit stops. The same stubborn snag — an unbecoming, uncompromising repudiation to accept reservist duty — has served to reinforce the popular perception he’s a bad guy. I know different, as in completely the opposite. During his 10 years as a 76er, never once wasn’t Iverson straight up with me, never once did he lead me astray, as so many other NBA people are inclined to do." 

• Adrian Wojnarowski on Yahoo!: "In the discussion, (Tracy) McGrady challenged (Rick) Adelman to tell him the coach’s plans and timetable for the seven-time All-Star’s eventual return to the roster, sources say. McGrady felt like Adelman had been uncommunicative with him for weeks, and no longer wanted to hear from Rockets general manager Daryl Morey or trainer Keith Jones about the team’s desire to make him wait until next week to take another MRI." 

• Brian Schmitz in the Orlando Sentinel: "(Stan) Van Gundy assembled the players before that shoot-around for the heart-to-heart. He perhaps realized he could be at a coaching crossroads of sorts in Orlando, especially when his star player and co-captain becomes upset. 'Dwight brought it up,' Van Gundy said. 'He thought there was too much negativity. A lot of times you hear things from players, it's their perspective and you understand it and sometimes you don't agree with it.'" 

• Doug Smith in the Toronto Star: "As he sat on a training table in Utah's Energy Solutions Arena on Wednesday night, both knees encased in ice, weary from the road and the losses and the nightly pounding he takes, he explained exactly what drove him to stop that perceived taunting and begin a season better than he ever has. Seems (Chris) Bosh has an ego after all. And it's driving him. 'Every day I turn on the TV and they're talking about guys, especially my draft class, '03 draft class, and this and that,' he said. 'They keep bringing up all these and I never hear my name.'" 

• Charles F. Gardner in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Andrew Bogut's value to the Milwaukee Bucks is evident every time he goes out of the lineup. Now the team will have to cope for two to four weeks without the 7-foot center after he suffered a left leg strain and contusion late in the Bucks' 99-85 victory over New Jersey on Wednesday night." 

• Ramona Shelburne in the Los Angeles Daily News: "While (Ron) Artest says that he's put the incident behind him and rarely thinks about it, he still harbors some bitterness at how the situation unfolded, how it has been subsequently portrayed in the media, and what it cost him financially. 'I don't really care what people think of me,' he said. 'People judge you. Asked what his memories of that night are, and what it cost him, Artest said flatly, 'Just the money.'"

• Elliott Teaford in the Los Angeles Daily News: "It didn't take long for Pau Gasol to begin answering key questions during his long-delayed, much-anticipated season debut Thursday night. Yes, he could run at full speed. Yes, he could jump high enough. Yes, he could shoot and pass and rebound in the exceptional manner the Lakers have grown accustomed to seeing from their 7-foot power forward/center. In fact, he looked every bit as polished as before he strained his right hamstring last month." 

• John Jackson in the Chicago Sun-Times: "Going into the game, (Joakim) Noah was averaging 12.1 points (56.3 percent shooting) and an NBA-best 12.4 rebounds in just 33 minutes -- and his solid play through the early part of the season already had opened some eyes. 'I think he's a little like Sam Lacey, who played with the Kansas City Kings with Nate Archibald,' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said of Noah. 'He could run the court, wasn't really a power body. He was tall and angular and could really play the game.'" 

• Tim Buckley in the Deseret News: "Standing in one of the maze of hallways at the AT&T Center here in San Antonio, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan looked over his glasses and smiled after scratching one off his bucket list. 'Well,' the Jazz coach said, 'it was nice from my standpoint to get a win in this building before I die.'" 

• Jeff McDonald in the San Antonio Express-News: "For the third game in a row, Tim Duncan did his best to spark the Spurs. He scored 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and this fell into a familiar pattern. The Spurs are now 0-4 when Duncan tops 20 points." 

• John Reid on Nola.com: "The Hornets have won two in a row after losing their first two games with (Jeff) Bower as coach, to Portland and Atlanta. In Tuesday’s 110-102 victory against the Los Angeles Clippers, injured point guard Chris Paul gave Bower a game ball to celebrate his victory. On Thursday, the Hornets gave him the desired execution, including holding Suns point guard Steve Nash to 13 points." 

• Paul Coro in the Arizona Republic: "It's easy to tell when Steve Nash does not like the direction of the offense. He stops passing and starts shooting. The Suns were 4 for 18 from the field when Nash had seen enough. On the next three Suns possessions, Nash brought up the ball and took a shot without a pass. He made all three of them, and the Suns were back in the game."