Links: Mighty Mouse, Bloggers vs. Mainstream Media, Mike Conley Jr.

There's a short piece on Damon Stoudamire from the Toronto Star today titled Mighty Mouse still flying with Memphis. Stoudamire was drafted by the Toronto Raptors in 1995 and became the Rookie of the Year. Here's a quote from the column:

Whether it was the financial madness of owners in a post-lockout NBA or a watering-down of the on-court product that has allowed him to stay a starter for more than a decade, Stoudamire has easily surpassed his early goals. He's probably made close to $100 million in his career. He's been in the Western Conference final with Portland and will lead an intriguing Memphis team this year while teaching his eventual replacement, Mike Conley, the tricks he learned from Alvin Robertson, Ed Pinckney and John Salley on those early Raptors teams.

I found a very interesting piece on AOL's The Fanhouse today via TrueHoop discussing how some bloggers have garnered press passes to NHL games over the past few seasons. In this post, Eric McErlain (of the great hockey blog Off Wing Opinion) discusses the way he got his start in gaining access "behind the velvet rope" with the Washington Capitals and was accepted without any qualms or labels. However, in this new venture by the New York Islanders, they have purposefully segregated the bloggers from the "regular media" and made it a point to label them, thus ostracizing them. McErlain also touches on the SI.com piece that covered the debut of the "Blog Box", as well as taking some justified shots at anonymous hockey blogger Eklund. Read the whole post to draw your own conclusions. I'll be busy trying to figure out how to acquire a press pass from the Memphis Grizzlies.

Last, but not least, Happy Birthday! to Mike Conley, Jr. He turned 20 today.