Links on Fire: Vacation Week!

First up, the is-John-Wall-a-max-player question has finally been answered. Thank you, Wizards! The Wizards ponied up to keep Wall in D.C., awarding him with a five-year, $80-million extension. Wall's potential has never been questioned but the "max player" tag has taken on it's own stigma, for better or worse. Still, what options did the Wizards have? Ball Don't Lie takes a look.

There's always a ton of great stuff about LeBron James. My favorite stuff, though, is when people close to him say what he will do two years from now. The latest from inside James' circle is that he is mulling whether or not to throw his name out there are a possible NBPA president. The same report mentions current Bobcats team president Fred Whitfield as another leading candidate.

In honor of our Cardboard friend vacationing, we bring this link where Shawn Kemp blames a sleeping dog for his being late for the team plane. Never let it be said the Reign Man is not a friend of the animals.

Who could have never seen Dwight Howard opting out of his situation for one that he felt suited him better? For a while it looked like Los Angeles did make the most sense for the mercurial big man, though. At least as much sense as anywhere else, right? Who are we kidding...this one's for Ben too. Mike D'Antoni shares his thoughts on Dwight Howard's decision.

No one dislikes Luol Deng. No way. He's talented, efficient and he makes his team better in so many ways. So his struggle at the end of last season -- culminating in a spinal tap during the Playoffs -- was particularly gut wrenching for fans...not to mention him and his team. Deng talked to NBA.com about the struggles he went through at the end of last year and some of the things he's looking forward to next year.

Bill Simmons, at his Grantland best, runs down a bunch of NBA stuff to the tune of Midnight Run. Among the more interesting nuggets the Sports Guy lays out is apparently Chris Paul threatened to sign with Houston if the Clippers didn't bring in Doc Rivers. Did it happen? Didn't it happen? Who knows?

Summer ball is the bomb. Also the bomb? The term, "the bomb." I'm not promising it'll come back, but if it does...you know where you heard it. If the Las Vegas and Orlando summer leagues didn't whet your whistle (here are the top plays from summer league), how about some awesome clips of NBA ballers hoopin' it up around the country? And who better than Nate Robinson and Kyrie Irving to get sick with it in New York?

The most important thing besides the product on the court (apparently more important, sometimes) is the look of said product, namely the uniforms and colors. And now that the New Orleans Pelicans have allowed the Bobcats to reclaim the Hornets name (there is so much criss-cross here, it feels a bit incestuous), they must go about recreating their own brand. On August 1, New Orleans will unveil their new uniforms. The logo and colors look good, in my opinion. New uniforms are always fun. ALWAYS.

Finally, Steve Nash had a mock tryout with Inter Millan (it's a soccer team) and here is some video.