• Somewhat obscure holidays, yeah!
• The biweekly Blogger MVP rankings are up at Hardwood Paroxysm (which a tremendous gamut-running blog). I gave Chris Paul the nod over LeBron.
• Sam Amick talks to equipment manager Rob Pimental.  There is a lot of equipment to deal with.
• Amick rips the Denver TV station which has been covering the Ron Artest rumors and subsequently trying to poke holes in Amick's recent reports.
• A post on some ESPN rumors forthcoming.

• Francisco Garcia, out for the week at least.
• Scott Howard-Cooper talks Ron Artest trade possibilities. Meanwhile Sam Amick talks to folks inside the team, who indicate they've made up their mind on whether to trade or not. I think we can assume which way that decision's gone.
• On his blog, Amick mentions two women were... getting familiar during the segment where radio guy (Jim Kozimor, in this case) talks to TV guys. I missed it (three fast-forward arrows when Peaches invades my picture). Anyone see it?
• Same link, vastly more important: 'Typically, Koz and Grant - who some say haven't spoken unless they absolutely had to in eight years - bend over backwards to avoid conversing during the segment. This time, though, Koz asked Grant a question directly, with Grant remaining silent while Jerry quickly picked up the chatter and the answer after the brief awkward moment. Koz, who broke out laughing as the awkward meter kept rising, ended the segment with a generic parting comment. When he switched back to the radio side, he said, "I'd like to thank Jerry Reynolds for the Crosstalk tonight."' First, Koz verifies the 'Peaches' nickname. Now we find out there's a cold war going on? I need to listen to Koz's show more often.
• It's hard for outsiders to really have a solid grasp of the state of a franchise. (I know those from writing about other franchises.) But this piece on the quasi-rebuild by Brian Spencer at Empty the Bench is spot-freaking-on. The Brad Miller stuff is particularly cogent, especially this line: "Can the Kings make the necessary roster tweaks to become legitimate contenders before Miller's inevitable decline? And if not, should they give thought to also trading him while his value is probably as high as it'll ever be?" Tough decision by the front office, only made tougher by the lack of options behind Miller. (Free 3-Wil?)
• One Rocky Mountain News columnist isn't sold on Ron Artest as an answer for the Nuggets.
• John Krolik has the latest entry in BallHype's Bibliotech series. It's on that seminal 90s hoops book The Last Shot by Darcy Frey.
• (Kelly Dwyer is back. And he is insulting lazy baristas.)

• Brad Miller will play tonight.
• More Joe Kleine, via TrueHoop. Apparently Portland used the unofficially retired Kleine to make a trade work in 2000. Kleine got $1.2 million for doing nothing. Of course, he made about $2.1 million from the Kings over four years... for doing nothing. As a thank you, Kleine sent the Blazers a bunch of ribs and rib products from his restaurant. Which means the Blazers definitely got more bang for the buck than the Kings ever did. (Come on, does he have one more Kleine joke in him? No.)
• Interesting discussion in pookey's diary, if you've missed it. I'll remind everyone to avoid name-calling, of course. Unless you're calling Grant Napear or Kenny Thomas names.
• Jermaine O'Neal says Indiana has ongoing trade talks... going on. I still think he's a candidate for 'tarnished superstar Geoff Petrie wants to save'. He'd be, as an often elite defender, a good counterbalance to both Brad Miller and Spencer Hawes, and I think Mike Bibby'd be a good fit (cap-wise and as a player) for Indiana.
• Kevin Johnson seems to be fixing the problems with his foundation's properties in Oak Park. In other Maloof-friends-in-public-office news, Darrell Steinberg will be the next state Senate President Pro-Tem, and if you've met or followed Steinberg, you smiled when you read that.

• Kevin Martin's got a new set of Nikes out there, pictured above. Thanks to The Blowtorch for the heads up.
• Speaking of Martin: Prior to last night, he'd never taken at least 10 FGAs and hit less than two. Actually, only two other times had he ever taken at least 10 FGAs and scored less than 10 points: a 2-10, 9-point game against Minnesota last March, and 2-10, 6-point performance against Seattle in 2006. Kobe Bryant has 11 such games in his career, including one this week.
• Hey look, it's Indiana native Jerry Reynolds rapping Bob Knight on the knuckles! ""I think Bob Knight was a bully to a lot of little people, the office workers, the lesser players." Coach Reynolds was about the exact opposite of Knight.
• Will Brinson tipped me off to USA Today's assessment of the greatest players in franchise history. Worth noting: The Big O narrowly beats Tiny Archibald among the reader vote, and Reynolds' top five omits Oscar Robertson and Mitch Richmond for... Wayne Embry (who was great, but not Big O/Rock great). Peja Stojakovic doesn't even make the ballot. Richmond, Chris Webber and Wayman Tisdale are the only Sacramento-era players on the ballot; Webber was a unanimous first-team all-Kings pick.
• Skeets got to interview Ernie Johnson. Good stuff. Also, Marv Albert will be with TNT through 2016. That's a long-term contract I can get behind.
• No decision on a Kevin Johnson mayoral run as of yet.

• The worst thing about the ridiculous Shaquille O'Neal to Phoenix maelstrom? It is now more difficult to make fun of people for their outlandish trade ideas.
• Even though Super Tuesday's done, your civic duty is not. Vote for Madelynn, and all your wildest dreams will come true.
• So you know, Sam Amick says he didn't press Ron Artest to squawk about moving on; Ron brought it up in the context of a completely different conversation.
• Also, Amick recently broke down the records of eventual #8 seeds.
• Spencer Hawes endorses Mitt Romney. Hey Spence? You might be a few days late on that one.
• From the same link: Brad Miller will be a game-time decision. Could Hawes get the first start of his career, or will Reggie Theus go small?
• Disclaimer: I don't follow American Idol. At all. But this article says this guy will perform at a Kings game this season. Walking punchlines are probably more entertaining than random area drill teams, with no offense to the awesome baton-twirlers and yard-stompers of the greater Sacramento area.
• Eric Pincus of HOOPSWORLD has sources who call Denver and New York "very interested" in Artest. Meanwhile, David Lee is still getting fewer minutes than both Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry while the Knicks have lost six straight and are 20 games under .500.

I swear, I'm going to try to keep up with these Footnotes thingies.

• Our coaching staff has street cred! Marty McNeal gets this gem from Reggie Theus: ""One of the first things I looked at was I wanted guys with street credibility. Guys who, when they walked through the door, players knew they knew what they were talking about. I also looked at guys who were tall. I just think that when you have to look at guys eye-to-eye, if you can do that, the ability to get the message across is more easily accomplished." By this measure, The Game has the edge over Juelz Santana. Sorry, Spencer.
• In case you missed the diary on the subject, the irrepressible J.E. Skeets is the new day-to-day man at Yahoo!'s NBA blog. Skeets is one-third of The Basketball Jones podcast team, which I've blabbered been on several times. As to former Yahoo! NBA blog day-to-day man, the beloved Kelly Dwyer... he'll be back doing the morning 'Behind the Boxscore' posts next Monday, and will have some columns on Yahoo! as well.
• This Ron Artest-to-Denver story out of Denver's Fox TV affiliate makes less than no sense. I have no doubt the reporter talked to someone in Ron's circle -- that someone insists no one's going to trade for Ron knowing he'll want a big payday this summer -- but taking this person from Ron's circle's theories on Geoff Petrie's mindsight is not the correct path to enlightenment. Take this line: "[T]he source intimated their doubt as to whether the Nuggets had enough "names" on their roster (outside of Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson) to validate any talks." Yes, Petrie is after names. Note to source: Thomas, Kenny. Look it up.
• Both Jerry Reynolds and section214 will be happy to know Joe Kleine thinks coaching is hard work. I think it's fair to say everything in Joe Kleine's life is hard work.
• If you're in California, vote. Unless you're evil. Then, don't vote! I'm not one of those guys who would prefer everyone voted no matter their preference. Honestly, I wish you wouldn't vote if you'd be voting for someone other than the person I'm voting for. Does that make me evil? If so, should I not vote? Aaaah, the paradoxes of participatory democracy.
• Cough, T.J. Ford is back, cough cough.
• I'm doing a weekly anti-power rankings for FanHouse.