They got back Al Harrington in return for Crawford, a 6-9 big man who can run. He’s apparently loved by GM Donnie Walsh and should slot right into the starting lineup as an undersized center. I’m worried about his rebounding, but he’ll be able to run the pants off other centers in D’Antoni’s fast paced offense.

They didn’t exactly get value in return for Randolph, discounting the cap space that was freed up. Mobley is old and plays little defense, but he can spot up and shoot with the best. Thomas is also old and can’t rebound for a 3/4 - but he can shoot too and thrived with D’Antoni in Phoenix.

The word on the street is that the Knicks wanted ex-Knick Marcus Camby instead of Thomas, but for once the Clippers stood their ground and got the better end of a trade! Camby would have been a much better fit and Knicks fans would have loved to have him back, but alas it was not to be.

Beers’ resident Knicks fanboy, Snoopy, hasn’t weighed in with his thoughts yet, but we can imagine he’s happy to be rid of Randolph and to a lesser degree Crawford as nearly Knicks fans are. Because it means there’s a lot more space to chase free agents like Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in the summer of 2010. If they keep clearing space there may even be enough room to sign two of them!

But nobody is going to want to play on a team of two superstars and 10 dev league players so they’ll have to continue to build a supporting cast.

Right now the team looks like it lacks a little firepower, but in D’Antoni’s system you don’t need a star, just legs that are willing to run and fire up shots. If Chris Duhon and Nate Robinson can distribute the ball, they may just have a chance of being competitive. They did get faster up front and added two more shooters… But they’re definitely a less talented team…

They’re curently in 6th spot in the East with a 7-6 record. This Beer doesn’t think they’ll be able to stay there with Miami, Philly, Toronto and Milwaukee on their tails. Even the hopeless Nets will probably overtake them!

It looks like another post season with no playoff action for the Knicks, but at least they’ll be fun to watch and they finally made a good draft pick in WIlson Chandler.

But probably the best thing is that Snoop will still get his a$$ kicked on NBA live when he tries using the Knicks!

Don’t know what Twitter is? It’s a micro-blogging site where you upload short messages called ‘Tweets’ via the web or sms. You pretty much just keep your ‘followers’ up to date with what you’re doing.

It’s a perfect medium for Shaq, who describes himself as ‘VERY QUOTATIOUS’, to show off just how much of a funny mofo he really is.

Here’s some of his recent Tweets ->

“Just helped a man push his car, schwww im tired”

“I JUST MET KIMBO SLICE, DATS A MEAN DUDE”

“AND NO I WOULD NOT FIGHT HIM, I’M A LOVA NOT A FIGHTA”

“Just fed 1200 peopl , bout to go feed 1,000 more, thanks mom and dad 4 raisn me right“

“On my way to the 1st annual phoenix shaqsgivn dinner, feed 750 families”

“Is the new james bond movie any good”

“Didnt get much sleep last nite, laker loss imsomnia, lol “

“THOSE R NOT TYPOS, JUST SAVN MONEY, MORE U TYPE MORE U PAY, LOL”

“Cant sleep, the lakers embarrassed us, im pissed “

“Dam we got smacked”

“Sittin next to steve nash, tryna get hi to join twitter”

“Just saw the the great phil jackson, gave him a kiss on da cheek”

“Why does shane battier always were that golf masters jacket on the bench, lol”

“Question were is dikembe mutumbo??”

“Stuart scott from espn said greg oden looks 42 , lol dats funny”

“Why is steve francis sittn on the houston rocket bench Thingsdat make u go ummmm”

“ABOUT TO EAT DINNER, I PASSED UP 20 MCDONALDS TODAY. I COULDNT DO IT I’M ON A DIET,BUT MCDONALDS FRIES R THE BEST UM UM UM”

And the photo on this page is one of his Tweets too!

Shaq’s been entertaining us for the last 24 hours, but I set the over/under on how long he will keep Tweeting at 2 weeks. He’s surely going to sick of people replying & annoying him soon… But nevertheless, we think this may just get him over the line as an Honorary Beer…  Fat, Funny, eats fries, misses free throws - he’s got BEERS written all over his big ass.

Go sign up if you want to keep up with the Big Tweet - you can follow the Beers too - http://twitter.com/TheBeers

It was a game in which the Lakers were up by more than 20 points only to see the game slip out of their hands and they lost at home to the Celtics.

Don’t worry though, Machine always come back strong. He just needs to keep recharging those batteries!

Here’s the video, introduced by none other than the Machine himself! ->

However today  D Stern finally implemented a rule that the Beers have lived with for a while, No messing with another players makeup. Unfortunately Kevin Garnett wasn’t aware of this rule and made the error of rubbing Andrew Bogut’s makeup under the boards.

You can see in the video Bogey was clearly shocked that Kevin had ruined the look he had created that evening.

Be warned NBA, no messing with other players makeup!

I couldn’t get a hold of Bogey for official comment, but I’m going to guess that he didn’t really think it was worth a suspension… we are a little rougher Down Under.

Snoop

Firstly they managed to piss off the entire city of Seattle by stealing the Sonics from under their grungy coffee drinking noses by using shonky lawyer tactics that Sweat & Sidey would be proud of. Starbucks boss Howard Schultz and Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer both sued them to try and get the team back, but they somehow got out of it by agreeing to fork out another $30 million bucks and letting Seattle keep the team colours and history.

Next they had to pick a new name. The whole world has known they chose “Thunder” a couple of months ago due to numerous leaks of not just the name, but the logo and even pictures of the merchandise sitting in a factory.

It was bad enough that they chose the WNBA-like ‘Thunder’ as a name. But then they chose colouring virtually the same as Wolfie & Nath’s favorite team - the Golden State Warriors - who play in Oak-town (Oakland), and have a lightning bolt in their logo, and whose mascot is named THUNDER!

So now we have the Thunder in Oak-city and Thunder the mascot in Oak-town, both with the same colours, a lightning bolt and shitty teams! Just how are dumb sports fans going to tell them apart?

But the blunders don’t stop there…

Their colours are also very similar to 2nd newest team in the league, the Charlotte Bobcats - also with orange and blue. So the two newest teams in the league are both orange and blue… Very original OKC Blunder!

On the day they are going to announce the name that everyone already knows, fans were able to purchase crappy OKC merchandise in the NBA.com store hours before the announcement of the team name.

And as the final and perhaps best blunder of all, the official story announcing the team name on NBA.com this morning - goes to a blank page, with the title “SEATTLE SUPERSONICS”.

Nice work Blunder, welcome to the most professional and best run sporting league in the world. You make the Beers seem like a well oiled machine…

You can bet on the Blunder to win the NBA title at the Bodog Sportsbook - they’re deservedly the least favored team at 101-1.

1. Grand Final Losers
2. New Season Started
3. Beer of Origin
4. Tally’s Up
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Grand Final Losers>>

So the 7 Shades lost… By a point or two… And we don’t want to talk about it…. The good thing was we found Lucky Beer and Smokey had another adventure.
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New Season has Started >>

We welcomed back Sidey, Sethmore & Reddog this week and both the Imported Beers and the Local Beers started off the new season with a win. Sure, the Imports had a forfeit and the Locals played the worst team in the comp, but a wins a win right? Smokey even got another 3 pointer! As did Sideshow, Pain, House, Sobby and Plow - it was a clean sweep of miraculous shooting for a 30+ point win.

Next week the Locals will have 4 players in Thailand, and the Imports have a bye, so we might need some of you out-of-towners to cover for us this once. BDF is going to make sure we have enough there, so look out for his email. The game’s at 6.00pm against the Cyclones.
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Beer of Origin >>

Thursday August 14 will be the first Beer of Origin game, so make sure you have it free. We’ve got the prime 7:40 timeslot on showcourt one, and will go for drinks somewhere afterward.

Early betting markets have the Imported Beers as -6.5 point favorites, paying 1.50 for the win. Dirty Cooper is getting some early backers for another MVP award, probably because nobody wants to have to ask him to give it back…

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Tally’s Up >>

Under Herman’s orders, the cartons owed tally is now online at http://www.thebeers.com.au/tally/. It’s up to 16 after the early conservative count was upped by some Beers owning up to owing more. If you’ve had a tech foul or air-balled free throw this year and it’s not on the tally, own up and get it added. House kept it ticking over last night with a nice f-bomb tech.

Herman said he’ll organise a Barbie soon at his place so we can all pay up.

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Going down by a point after having a couple of chances to win is never fun, but it was good to see the Cyclones get a win after we edged them out last time.

We thought we had done well before the game when one of the best referees in town suited up to whistle the game, but unfortunately the dreaded blond mullet man was with him, one of the few “Beer Haters” in existence. We’re not sure if he’s painfully incompetent, or just hates us - probably both.

He had been sucking down his pre-game Hatorade and stunk up an otherwise great game with his usual barrage of missed calls and puzzling decisions. Swallowing his whistle on potential game winning shots was the final straw even for the Cyclones, who apologised after the final buzzer because they felt bad about winning under such circumstances, proving they’re good guys and worthy champs.

But the Beers were the first to admit that we didn’t want it as badly as the 11 deep Cyclones. They out hustled the 7 Shades all night and played defense at an intensity about 10x what the Beers franchise could manage. So congrats Cyclones, we’ll get you next time!

Post game was spent at Georgie’s bar, sampling some of our favorite sponsor’s beverages until Georgie closed up and kicked us out.

Then it was onto Smokey’s ‘Corporate Box’ and Big Fortune at New Farm, where we experienced the wonders of Lucky Beer. It’s shaped like a Buddha - how can it not be good! As you can see from the photo, the Beers were still deeply devastated by the loss… It was then onto the Alibi for cocktails and de-briefing and the rest of a night is a blur. All we know is that Smokey had another adventure and all he could manage to say the next day was ‘Oh Wow’.

The Beers would like to thank their fans, sponsors, and even blond mullet ref for putting up with us. We may have lost the grand final, but we found Lucky Beer - making it a very successful season indeed.

The locally born and bred Beers will take on the Imported Beers for the first ever King Wally Trophy. Named after Honorary Beer, Wally Lewis, the emperor of Lang Park.

Local Beers Captain, Smokey Davis said that it would be a great honour to play for a trophy named after one of Brisbane’s greatest sportsmen, Wally Lewis.

“It will be a great honor to play for a trophy named after one of Brisbane’s greatest sportsmen, Wally Lewis,”, said Davis.

He went on to admit that the King was his childhood hero and is the reason he wears #6 on his back for the Beers.

“The King was my childhood Hero and is the reason I wear number 6 on my back for the Beers”, continued Davis.

There was some conjecture over the eligibility of Beers forward SOBBY #31. Not just whether his S.O.B. nickname stands for Son-of-a-Bitch, but which team he will suit up for in Beer of Origin. Born at Southport and raised on the Sunshine Coast, the Beers board of directors put it to a vote and decided that his median, or average, origin is in fact Brisbane - half way between the two coasts.

The boards final decision is still pending, awaiting word on whether Norwegian Imported Beer, Sin, will take the court again in 2008. If Sin plays, Sobby is a local Beer. If Sin’s agent continues to ignore calls from the Beers head office, then Sobby can choose which team to play for.

“My nickname is from my initials you retards!” were the first words out of #31’s mouth when asked about his Beer of Origin allegiance.

“I’ll play for whoever offers me the best deal. Local, Imported, it doesn’t matter to me. All Beer is good”

A truer word has never been spoken.

BEER of ORIGIN TEAMS

*Emergency Reserves

This month in Beers News…

1. Are you playing next season?
2. Auchenflower grand final next Thursday
3. Beers going international

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NEXT SEASON >>

I need to know who is playing next season at the Auchendome. For those of you that have been out of the loop, we just had one of our most fun seasons ever, with two teams in the same A4 comp on Thursday nights. Both teams made the finals and during the season contested the first ever MEGABOWL.

As long as we have enough players, we’ll have two teams in the same comp again, and will most likely have a draft of some kind to split them up evenly.

We’re also getting new uniforms, so I need to know 2 things from everyone.

1. Do you want to play next season on Thurday nights?
2. What name/number do you want on your new uniform? If you are not playing next season, let me know if you still want a set of uniforms - we’re all getting 2 sets each - home & away colours. They’ll be very similar to the current maroon & black set and shouldn’t cost more than about $50 all up because we get them at cost. If you want to change your current number, check out this page to see what’s available >> http://www.thebeers.com.au/roster/

Brown, Sidey, Seth, Harry, Rhino - come and play again - we miss you guys! It doesn’t matter if you can’t play every week.
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BEERS GRAND FINAL NEXT THURSDAY >>

The 7 Shades of Amber team made it to the GF which is on next Thursday at 6:30pm on Auchenflower court two. We’re playing the same team we beat in the GF last season - the Cyclones - but they are a little tougher this season and beat us in the first semi last week. It should be a good game.

Come watch and join us for victory/consolation Beers at the Regatta afterward.
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BEERS GOING INTERNATIONAL >>

July 26, 2008 is the day that the Beers will play their first international match, going up against Phuket’s Prince of Songkla University in Thailand. Smokey, Sidey, Pig, Snoop, Plow, UK recruit, Tim, and anyone else we can recruit on Patong Beach will be donning the green & gold strip and chasing Manuschai Phadung and his speedy Thai mates all over the court in what will no doubt be some hot, sticky conditions. Look out for pictures and stories on the website.

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Remember - please get back to me about next season and your new uniform.

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Captain Smokey Davis had his team at the stadium early to warm up, but at the other end of the court, the cellar dwelling Saints Boys were nowhere to be found… It looked like there wouldn’t be a game at all.

As the game clock started ticking down, a bag of uniforms was dumped on the Saints Boys bench and any able-bodied male in the stadium was invited to don a uniform and take on the Beers. We ended up playing one regular Saints Boy and 5 ring-ins from a grade above. Suddenly the perfect record wasn’t as much of a sure thing as the 7SoA had thought!

When faced with adversity, the 7SoA did what any Beers team would have done - came out of the blocks strong, then crumbled.

Plow led by example, setting a new Beers record for shots attempted - and missed. He would have been at least 2 from 15 and 0% from the charity stripe - shooting seems to be something that fat Plow did better than the Shadow. Write that down kids - eating pies makes you a better shooter.

Airlie Beach Beer, DC, fell over in the middle of the court just for the hell of it. Everyone threw passes straight to the other team. The Beers were replicating the Lakers in the finals and lost their lead in the 4th quarter. Unlike the Lakers, the 7SoA didn’t have creepy old Jack Nicholson on the sidelines tuning cheerleaders to keep our spirits up.

The only thing keeping us in the game was Smokey and his pretty new shoes pulling in every rebound.

With the clock winding down, the Shades went to their go-to play - the hail mary full court touchdown pass with Snoopy as wide receiver. Snoopy completed the play and luckily the 7SoA scraped through with a 2 point win, and their undefeated record intact.

Up on court 4, the Heavy Beers defeated Kickstarz to seal third place and a spot in the finals next week against the Beers most fierce B Grade rivals - the Klowns - aka Footclan. 7SoA will take on the Cyclones for the chance to advance to the championship game.

Game Notes:

• Herman received his slab of XXXX prior to the game for backing the Celtics to win the NBA finals. He then shot an airball free throw during the game to owe the team another slab.
• The latest Adventure concept was discussed and it was decided ‘Beer of Origin’ will become a regular feature on the Beers annual calendar. Brisbane born Beers against imported Beers, Beer on Beer action. It will take place each year in the week of State of Origin 3.
• Snoopy and Plow announced that the white uniform design has been approved and a maroon or black design will be completed this week ready to order for next season.