May 10, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut (12) defends San Antonio Spurs power forward Tim Duncan (21) during the fourth quarter of game three of the second round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Silicon Valley Mercury News:  Andrew Bogut collected 18 rebounds in Golden State’s overtime win yesterday.  Not only is he leading the NBA’s postseason (despite ranking 25th in minutes played), but his 118 rebounds gives him a full 21-rebound lead over second-place (Joakim Noah has 97).

Bogut was slowed after picking up a bunch of first-half fouls for moving screens in the high pick-and-roll, but once he got into the flow of the game in the second half, he made all the difference. His defense frustrated Tim Duncan into a 2-for-12 shooting performance in the second half and overtime.

“He’s a great defender, he’s a great rebounder, he’s a great rim protector. We were missing him,” (Mark) Jackson said. “But he’s played lights out, and he certainly has elevated his game in the postseason.”

Regardless of how Monta Ellis performed after the trade, it was silly to trade Bogut for Ellis. Bogut was a number-one overall pick, a rare gem of a defensive center in a league with few. Ellis was a scoring guard in a league full of scoring guards.  Of course, Bogut asked to be traded.

But saying ‘no’ was a viable option, no?

The Bear Insider:  Luc Mbah a Moute helped his brother, Roger Moute a Bidias, choose California from among several basketball scholarship offers.  Moute a Bidias, on picking Cal’s Golden Bears:

“I just went with my heart and my family was with me on that, too, so that’s why I made the decision.

“My brother did a lot of research and made a lot of calls to kind of back up the way I felt and he and the family feel like it will be a good place for me, too.

“We both feel like it’s a place where I could really evolve as a player and as a person and I’m looking forward to it.” 

The 6’7″, 190 lb. forward picked from a list of schools including Marquette, Cal, Iona, Valparaiso, and George Washington.  When asked about the prospect of bulking up in college,

“I hope to be bigger than my brother. You always hope to pass your your brother. I hope one day I can talk a little smack to him if I pass him up,” said Moute a Bidias, with a chuckle.

CBSSports.com:  Remember when Vivek Ranadive swayed the NBA’s committee on relocation by agreeing to forgo an luxury tax payments in an attempt to keep the Kings in Sacramento?  The tactic paid off as the group voted to recommend Sacramento unanimously.  But now Chris Hansen, chair of Seattle’s group, upped the ante in a desperate attempt to get the NBA’s owners to reconsider when they meet to vote on May 15.

The Hansen-Ballmer agreement to purchase 65 percent of the team from the Maloofs would now be based on a valuation of $550 million, an increase of $25 million. Now, Hansen has sweetened the pot again — increasing the franchise valuation by another $75 million as part of a backup plan to buy 20 percent of the team from the Maloofs if owners formally reject relocation on Wednesday in Dallas.

Oh, and as part of this backup plan, owners are being offered a relocation fee of $115 million — approximately $4 million per owner — in a nearly four-fold increase of the $30 million fee that owners received when the SuperSonics moved from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008, league sources confirmed to CBSSports.com on Sunday.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:  The Bucks interviewed Houston assistant coach J.B. Bickerstaff on Friday.  In his nine seasons as an assistant coach, his teams have averaged 26 wins per season.  Forgive me for being skeptical about an assistant whose teams have won 32% of their games over the course of nine seasons.  Or for having questions about whether a younger assistant — one who got his first job from his dad as a 25-year-old — can be the strong locker room presence reportedly coveted by the Bucks.

(Photo credit: AP/Morry Gash)

Ersan Ilyasova joined the Bucks a year after Andrew Bogut did.  He was a quiet teenager, just 19 years old, who could communicate in four languages: Turkish, Russian, Spanish, and bits of Serbian.  But back in 2006, none of those languages was English, so he had a fair bit of work to do before he could converse with his new teammates.

Lori Nickel profiled Ilyasova’s surprisingly long history with the Bucks in a marvelous piece for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today. (Go and read the whole thing.)  In it, she revealed that Bogut teased Ilyasova as he worked to assimilate himself to the culture of the United States.

The teasing irritated Ilyasova.

He knew exactly three English words: Yes, no and hi. He had no driver’s license.

“It was real tough on me. Different culture, different language,” Ilyasova said.

…

In 2006, Ilyasova worked his way into the Milwaukee rotation. To get acclimated, his Turkish agent drove Ilyasova around and translated for a couple of months.

He averaged 6.1 points and 2.9 rebounds as a rookie with the Bucks and squeezed in English classes at Berlitz three times a week.

“It was really tough for me, sitting in a class all by myself,” Ilyasova said. “The way I really learned the language was watching TV or movies with the subtitles. If you don’t understand, you can read right away.”

But that wasn’t always easy either. The accents and dialect of the actors on TV weren’t always the same as talking to teammates or the locals.

“When you’re talking to the players, it’s like another language. They speak really quick and it’s different,” Ilyasova said.

…

And yet through all of his travels, and being so far from home, Ilyasova likes Milwaukee. He wants to be here. He once endured teasing from Bogut, who called him Borat, the satirical fictional character invented and performed by actor Sacha Baron Cohen.

“And it really ticked him off,” Babcock said. “But Ersan has a great sense of humor.”

Do count me as 100x not surprised that Bogut laid into Ilyasova.  When comparing the two players, it’s plainly evident that one has an unassuming air of grace and humility and the other does not.

One player stayed. One left.

And Milwaukee won.  They got to keep the player who wanted to be in Milwaukee all along — the one who started a family and set down roots, the one who actually likes the city and the team, and the one who can still do things of consequence on a basketball court.