Great news on the Nathan Jawai front, for both Australian basketball fans and those up in sunny Toronto following the Raptors. After a long wait, one that has excluded Jawai from the 24 games to date in the 2008-09 season, the big man has been cleared to play.

The National Post:

"The Toronto Raptors cleared Jawai to begin physical activity after the club had held him out of such procedings because of worry about his heart. In a routine screening before training camp started in October, the Raptors found a cardiac abnormality in Jawai. The club did not say anything further at the time — or since then — because of doctor-patient confidentiality.

But now Jawai has been given the go-ahead to start practising with the club. Up until now, he took the occassional free throws while the team was conducting practice, but that was the extent of his involvement."

Toronto's Globe & Mail:

"The club and Jawai have chosen not to disclose the nature of the problem, although a report in an Australian newspaper quoting his agent suggested it was an enlarged heart. This is good news for Jawai, who has seemed understandably bored and worried during a long stretch of prescribed rest that doctors used to assess his heart condition. Anything more strenuous that a brisk walk was a no-no and his basketball career was seriously up in the air. All I can offer on the kid's potential is that he's a beast with the feet of a ballet dancer -- to paraphrase Maurizio Gherardini - who was on the radar of a lot of teams before the Raptors acquired him. With my own eyes I can attest that he's a good free throw shooting big and has nice touch from two feet with either hand -- that's all I've ever seen him do. For the team it's a chance that they can get a little more from the O'Neal trade than O'Neal. Let's face it, for the Raptors to progress as an organization, they're going to need their Manu Ginobilli moment, where they find a legit star from an unexpected source. Maybe Jawai is it. Now they can find out, at least."

Doug Smith of The Star:

"Jawai's been out since the first day of training camp after a heart abnormality was discovered during pre-camp medical tests. He was told to rest and not do any basketball-related work for an extended period of time so cardiologists he's seen across North Ameria could determine the significance of the "abnormality."

His final visit to a doctor came Tuesday when he was cleared."

Australia's ABC:

Jawai's friend and former Taipans assistant coach Aaron Fearne says Jawai's relieved that he can finally get back on the court.

"He's had to wait this length of time to get an opportunity to get the OK, to get out there and show the NBA, show the world, show Australia, his family what he can do," he said.

"He's over the moon right now. I don't think you can take the smile off his face."

Clearly Jawai's return will be a slow one. He has been out of action for two months now and it is about nine months since he has played competitive basketball with the Cairns Taipans in the 2007-08 NBL season. Add to this fact the upheaval in Toronto with Sam Mitchell having been axed and the logjam upfront, where Jawai will play behind Bosh, O'Neal, Bargnani and Humphries and we shouldn't expect Jawai to set the world alight.

It is great news for big Nate to just have the chance to step onto an NBA court though.

Occasionally something pops up in the world outside of A Stern Warning that cuts transmission and lately some of those things have popped up.

However the wires have not permanently been detached, this is merely a temporary blip in the system and all will be sorted out shortly... before you know it your regularly scheduled programming will be resumed.

Thank you to those who have checked in to find out what is going on. We'll be rockin'n'rollin' again very soon.

Eddie Jordan, goodbye. PJ Carlesimo, we hardly remember you. Sam Mitchell, join the gang.

After a disappointing start to the season, a season preceeded by lofty expectations, the Toronto Raptors sent 2007 NBA Coach of the Year, Sam Mitchell packing.

Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo named longtime assistant coach Jay Triano interim coach and said Triano “in all likelihood” would stay in place for the remainder for the season. His first game will be Friday in Utah against the Jazz.

After strengthening their frontline in the summer with a trade for center Jermaine O’Neal, the Raptors had hoped to challenge the Boston Celtics in the Atlantic Division. Star forward Chris Bosh has responded with the best season of his career and point guard Jose Calderon is an All-Star candidate, but the Raptors have struggled to an 8-9 record. The team is currently on a three-game trip through the West that began with lopsided losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and Nuggets.

“This team is a lot better than a 8-9 record,” Colangelo said on a conference call early Wednesday evening. “…We feel we were not getting the maximization of this roster we had hoped for.”

Jeff at Pete Marasmitch has a love song for 'Smitch as he walks out the door...

Which coach will be next? There must be a few nervous being passed across the benches. I wonder how Reggie Theus is feeling lately.

******

In other NBA curiosities, here are Today's Warnings:

• Which super hero is your favourite NBA player?
• Is it time for the Chronicles of Bargnania? He's my boy...
• Sad news that Cuttino Mobley may have to cut his career short.
• The Ballerblogger Fundamentals are a day old but still a little warm.
• How good are the Blazers? Second in the West, six in a row good. If you've been following the box scores the last couple of games, you'd notice that the Spaniard guard coupling is putting up massively positive +/- figures, injecting great fire off the bench. Latest victim: the Wizards.
• Classic video: Barkley and MJ talk about the homeless on Oprah.
• Are the Suns and Rockets dying a slow death?

The NBA All-Star Game of 1989 was one full of stars. It had MJ, it had Sir Charles Barkley, the Mailman, the Human Highlight Film, Clyde the Glide, Zeke and even Kareem. The game did lack a certain Bird and Magic touch, but apart from that, what more could you ask for as an NBA fan?

In the continuing Do You Remember? series, we have video of the top 20 plays of the game. Below the video you will find the game information provided by the youtube uploader. Enjoy the trip back in time...

The Portland Trail Blazers made a real statement with their 101-86 victory over the New Orleans Hornets at the Rose Garden last night. This was about proving that they belong as a playoff team -- one that will make some noise.

In what was a tight game throughout, the Blazers refused to give in to the Hornets and pulled away with a 17-0 run in the third that asserted their dominance and showed great poise.

At one point, Brandon Roy was wrestled on a hard shooting foul by David West. Formerly a player that many considered to be underrated, that play simply made him look like a thug -- an unnecessary action. Take a look at this video courtesy of BustaBucket to get a feel for the play:

Roy led the Blazers on the night with 25 points, 10 assists and six rebounds, as they improved to 11-6 (boxscore).

• What do you get when A Stern Warning collides with Pete Marasmitch? You get this... I was lucky enough to enjoy a sitdown by the fireside with Jeff at the 'Smitch and discuss Andrea Bargnani and how he relates to Wall Street.
• And One gives some love to my main man, Mobs and his story on how High School Musical may save basketball in Australia. Something has to.
• Ballerblogger takes a look back in video time, to Kobe's 62 points in three quarters versus the Mavs in 2005, before he became a team player.
• Downunder, the South Dragons are threatening not to play against the Sydney Spirit in tomorrow night's game, which I think is totally the wrong approach to take. The more support to help the league get through this situation, the better. Clearly Cowan has an ulterior motive here, but still, it's time for everyone to band together. If you are a basketball fan of any persuasion in Sydney this week, you should be getting your hot pants down to the Spirit v Dragons game. A sellout might open some eyes that basketball can exist in Sydney.
• Give Me The Rock has your turkey day look around the NBA fantasy world.

NBA

• Pete Marasmitch has plenty of great content and analysis lately, particularly focussed on input from Spanish coach Raul Jimenez. Check out this video breakdown of how the Boston Celtics close out the end of a quarter, freeing up KG for a shot. As a Blazers fan, I also really enjoyed this recent video analysis of Rudy Fernandez's game and this discussion of how he compares to Juan Carlos Navarro.
• Bust a Bucket has the word on tonight's rematch between the Blazers and Kings. Also check out the quick preview from Blazersedge. However, the reason to check out Bust a Bucket even more than the above, is to check out this remake of a classic Blazers poster.
• The Fundamentals from BallerBlogger are always quality reading.
• Carolyn at And One is giving love to the Aussie handle magazine's LeBron cover. If you want to know what handle is all about you can check out their site here.
• Intentional Foul has a splendiferous post about the Mo's of the NBA... and no, we aren't talking any Mo Williams or Mo Cheeks action here.
• You want all of the NBA news all in one spot? Check out TalkHoops.net and their daily 8 Second Violation.
• This photoshop from a BDL reader will freak out/anger/upset Carolyn and every other Cavs fan.
• Plenty more NBA news at LayUpDrill.com.

NBL

• John Rillie has his usual array of NBL news and links and two great videos: the backroom almost-brawl between Casey Frank and Bakari Hendrix and the only streaker incident in NBL history that I know of. Would love to find out if there have been others. Noone knew how to react!
• Basketball and Everything In Between brings us a great interview with Perth development player, Chris Goulding. Also check out his call to arms to the bloggers of the NBL to promote the sport. He has also started podcasting; give episode one a listen if you haven't.
• Asaspace looks back at Round 10 of the NBL season.
• The Basketball Professor has some news on a potential Brisbane Bullets entry to the future NBL league.

 This guy was born with springs in his feet I believe...from Team Flight Brothers:

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