This was some mighty fine police work down in Gainesville, Florida:

"Do ya think the tall kid with the crazy hair is holdin?"

"Prolly. And look, he's violatin our municipal open container law. The gall of it awl. I bet he's one of them stoned NBA-ers."

"He is too. Ain't that that Noah kid who won us two straight titles?"

"Shore is. We could just write him a ticket for the open container. He ain't doin' nuthin',  just drinking a beer."

"Nahh, let's run him down to the station. I don't want to stay out here 'til shift change."

"Alright. You got yer game on?"

"Let's git 'er done."

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The Charlie Villanueva damage patrol:   With half of Ohio clamoring for the Cleveland Cavs to trade for Michael Redd and Racine Journal Times' Gery Woelfel reporting that, yes, John Hammond is scouting around for trades with Redd's name featured prominently, what does the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel do?

The daily floats Charlie Villanueva trade talk in its Saturday edition (Friday online).

True, Charlie's was the other name mentioned in the "Woelfel World of Sports" report on Hammond's trade discussions, but how can the big name in Woelfel's story be ignored? It should be noted that Charlie's name came up as a player "other teams were interested in" not as a player Hammond was dangling out there, though by telling Woelfel Hammond might as well have dangled him out there.

Here's where I make excuses for the daily and wonder why Charlie V gave JS reporter Charles Gardner this story. With the team in flux this offseason and only Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian on the virtually "untouchable" keeper list, Redd has been smart enough not to talk to reporters. In fact, he's been media silent since fired coach Larry Krystkowiak went public about Redd's season-long disregard for his team -- in story that appeared on JSOnline the day before the Bucks announced the hiring of Scott Skiles (pay no attention to Krystkowiak's pal, Skiles, pulling strings behind the curtain to make that story happen).

Charlie V? Not so smart -- although he did take the opportunity to give JS the obligatory kiss-up-to-the-new-coach quotes. Charlie played at UConn with two of Skiles' Bulls players, Ben Gordon and Luol Deng, who've given Charlie the skinny on his new coach:  "They say he's a good coach. I think he's a very defensive-minded coach; he's a tough coach. It's exciting [for Charlie] for [Skiles] to be with the Bucks. He has won before, and we'll see what he can do this year." Get a media coach, Charlie.

Fans, though not surprised, have been somewhat caught off guard by the Charlie trade talk. How could we not be? Charlie will be a free agent after next season -- unless Hammond offers him an extension -- and his trade value is weirdly undefined at this point in his career. In response to this, Brett at the Bratwurst blog has proposed a number of impossible "dumb" Charlie V trades.

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October 2006, Gordon commits to Indiana  ... And all heck broke loose on the Chicago Sun Times fanblogs. I don't pay too much attention to college basketball unless a Badger or Marquette game is on the toob, or during tournament time, and stories like the Eric Gordon recruitment story are part of the reason.

The fuss between Illinois and Indiana over Gordon, who would only play one year at Indiana before entering the NBA draft, painted the NCAA and the schools in shade after shade of ridiculous. The Alice in Wonderland set-up that the NCAA and the NBA has created for the best young players (the one-year rule) leaves everyone involved looking foolish, including the fans for caring too much about too little.

Gordon reversed his verbal commitment to Illinois to play for Bucks assistant Kelvin Sampson, who had taken the Indiana job in March 2006. Gordon's change of schools occurred when Sampson was barred from leaving the university on recruiting trips or making recruiting calls, sanctions that stemmed from Sampson's "impermissable phone call" violations while coaching at Oklahoma. Investigators later charged that Sampson had made 100 calls during this initial year of sanctions. One has to wonder how many were calls from/to Gordon or Gordon's father. 

The only reason I'm recounting all this is to wonder whether Sampson would still be at Indiana if Gordon hadn't changed his mind -- which was completely within his rights, obviously, as long as his dad said it was OK. The indignation spewed over Eric Gordon's one year of basketball (led by Illinois coach Bruce Weber) was not only an embarassment, it probably put Indiana on edge about Sampson. It certainly didn't help the coach's situation.

There's something very wrong about all of it, but nothing moreso than the realization that the shame felt by the parties involved was probably minimal. Why be embarassed by the ridiculousness of it all when you can just fire the coach?

The Bucks and Gordon?  Sampson being a Milwaukee assistant does have some bearing on whether the Bucks draft Gordon. How could it not? Sampson's not likely keeping his high opinion of Gordon to himself, and Milwaukee becomes the place to be for Gordon -- if he's still available when the Bucks pick 8th. Almost every mock draft out there has Gordon going no later than the Bucks pick. If the Bucks are lucky, Gordon'll be the best player available when the Bucks pick.

The driving factor on whether Gordon becomes a Buck, however, will be what Hammond finds on the trade market. The pick itself and/or the player the Bucks select is on the table and could be in motion -- even if the player in motion is Eric Gordon.