J. Michael of CSN Washington: No matter how much player personnel reps for teams warn players of missteps such as this on social media with hot-button issues such as Rice's, they continually happen. A few years ago Kenyon Martin, who later claim his account was hacked, wished his alleged "haters" to "catch full blown AIDS and die." When Michael Vick went through his issue the federal government regarding dog fighting that led to jail time, athletes kept stepping into land mines with comments and social media in defense of Vick and by criticizing him. Despite traveling the globe, a lot of players, especially the young ones such as Paul George (24), aren't as savvy or as informed as you'd think. Social media probably isn't the best place to engage in off-color chatter with friends about sensitive and complex issues such as race, domestic violence, politics or even world peace. ... At least George took responsibility for his comments and didn't claim that his account was hacked. The rule of thumb is if you're not comfortable shouting it in front of a group of mostly strangers, which is what social media is, then it's not a good idea to tweet it.

Michael Pointer of The Indianapolis Star: Katherine Redmond Brown has come to expect the attitude reflected in Paul George's tweets regarding suspended NFL running back Ray Rice on Thursday morning. "Professional and college athletes have a very different culture than the rest of us do," said Redmond, who founded the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes after reaching a settlement with the University of Nebraska due to an attack by a football player and is married to a former NFL running back. "That's what I try to get across." ... Redmond said the best way to change someone's attitude towards domestic violence is to expose them to victims. She shares her story when she speaks to athletes. She says she was attacked by former Nebraska football player Christian Peter during her freshman year at the school in 1991, but waited several months after the attack to notify authorities and no criminal charges were filed. Redmond later filed a Title IX lawsuit against the school and Peter, and reached a settlement in 1997. She started the ACAVA a few months later. Two years ago, she returned to her alma mater — which she graduated from in 3½ years despite battling bulimia — and spoke to the football team. Her husband is a former teammate of Peter's at Nebraska. She said her own story often proves powerful enough, but she will bring along other victims if needed. She suggests the Pacers and other pro teams try the same thing. "I've had (players) come up to me with tears in their eyes and say, 'My sister or my mom went through this,' " she said, " 'and I minimized it.'"

Mark Bradley of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Maybe you believe that Michael Gearon Jr., one of the Atlanta Hawks’ many owners, is waging a campaign to oust Danny Ferry as general manager. Even if we concede that point, we’re left with this: Ferry spoke insensitive words in a business setting about Luol Deng, whom the Hawks were considering for employment. The audio tape obtained by esteemed colleague Chris Vivlamore underscores what Adrian Wojnarowski’s review for Yahoo! Sports of a written transcript of the June conference call suggested: It doesn’t sound as if Ferry was, as the Hawks have maintained, reading from a background report. If that was the entirety of the Hawks’ defense — and by “the Hawks,” we mean in this case CEO Steve Koonin and Ferry, as opposed to the splinter group of Gearon and the team’s other Atlanta-based owners — the audio tape renders it inoperative. Hearing the tape, it’s hard to believe Ferry was speaking words someone else had written. Ergo, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which he remains general manager. ... But I do think Ferry, who a week ago I considered the best GM this franchise has had over the 30 years I’ve worked here, will be leaving soon. I see no way back from this.

Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post: This tourney has been the Manimal's coming-out party. Hello, world. The name recognition might well force him into future all-star consideration. And it will get Faried paid. If center JaVale McGee's salary with the Nuggets is $11.25 million this season, how can Faried possibly be worth a penny less? For Team USA, Faried does all the dirty work, from cleaning the boards to sprinting out on the break. His relentless, happy pursuit of a gold medal makes you proud to be an American. Heck, when a chippy semifinal game, punctuated by Lithuanian center Jonas Valaciunas throwing an elbow at the neck of DeMarcus Cousins, erupted into a heated little tussle during the postgame handshake line, Faried came to the rescue, pulling 67-year-old coach Mike Krzyzewski from the fray. "He's too old for that stuff," Faried said. "I told him: 'Just chill. I've got you, Coach.'" The World Cup championship is one victory away. Sleep easy, America. The Manimal's got your back.

A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com: The Celtics added some legit NBA talent this offseason via trades (Marcus Thornton, Tyler Zeller), the draft (Marcus Smart, James Young) and free agency (Evan Turner). But of those five players, the biggest surprise may wind up being Thornton for several reasons. For starters, many assume he'll be traded because he's in the final year of his contract and the Celtics have way, way, WAY too many guards to speak of. But as you look at this roster and look at all those guards, keeping Thornton around for a while - OK, at least past Christmas - makes a lot of sense. Reflecting upon last season, one of the biggest problems Boston had was finding someone to score the ball. Jeff Green had his moments as most - including LeBron James - can attest to. Ditto for Avery Bradley who parlayed a strong season shooting the ball into a four-year, $32 million contract this summer. So with a lack of scoring consistency in the starting lineup, the punch delivered by the reserves was just as erratic. It remains to be seen if Thornton is the answer to the Celtics' scoring woes, but one thing we do know. He can only help.

Michael Florek of The Dallas Morning News: Mavericks owner Mark Cuban hasn’t been shy with his opinion that NBA players shouldn’t be playing in international competition. Yet, Chandler Parsons, his new addition, went to the USA basketball training camp this spring and was one of the last players cut from the team that’s currently playing in the FIBA World Cup. It was simply something Parsons wanted to do. According to Parsons, Cuban explained his feelings directly to the forward. “He made that clear to me,” Parsons said. “He did. He’s great. If there’s any issue or any conversation that needs to be had I’m having it with Mark. … He obviously told me how he felt. He told the world how he felt about his guys playing for USA basketball. But at the same time he understood it was something that I was really passionate about and it was something that I really wanted to do. I think I got better going there and I got in shape. Just being able to play against those guys every single day, it’s not often that you get to learn and play and practice with those type of players every single day in the summertime.” When asked whether he would consider playing in international competition in the future, Parsons was noncommittal.

Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: Imagine this: Davidson didn’t record Stephen Curry’s turnovers in 2006-07, and the college didn’t differentiate between the future Warriors point guard’s offensive or defensive rebounds or count his personal fouls through 2008-09. Five years later, that sounds absurd. Everything is charted these days. Every box score number is mandated, advanced statistics are commonplace, and optical analytics are all the rage in the NBA. The evidence of the rising importance of analytics stood out this week, when 11 NBA teams sent 27 representatives to the Sports Analytics Innovation Summit in San Francisco. Of the 27 reps, 12 were at the director level or higher, and Lakers assistant coach Mark Madsen was a mainstay taking notes in the second row.

Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: Jason Kidd said he and his family have enjoyed the Milwaukee summer and early fall weather while learning the city. "It's going to change; we know that," Kidd said. "But it gets cold on the East Coast, no matter where you are. The beauty of coming here, the people have been wonderful. "You hear about the buzz of the Bucks. When you have new ownership that's going to be aggressive about trying to put a contender together and young talent that's going to take the floor, there's a lot of reason to be excited." The couple has sampled several Milwaukee restaurants already, including Screaming Tuna in Walker's Point and Carnevor in the downtown area. And they have received a sampling of Midwestern hospitality that stunned Porschla. "My neighbors baked us brownies," she said. "That's the first time that's ever happened to me."

Chris Fedor of The Plain Dealer: LeBron James and Johnny Manziel were two of the spectators who gathered inside the Capitol Theatre in Cleveland on Thursday night for a private screening of "Survivor's Remorse," a new comedy series from Spring Hill Productions, a company co-owned by James and business partner Maverick Carter. "To be able to do things that we have in our head and to have so many people around us support our ideas, it's a huge stepping stone for us," said James, an Executive Producer for the six-episode series. Set in Atlanta, the show follows a basketball player's rise to stardom after signing a multi-million dollar contract with a professional basketball team.

Mike Sielski of The Philadelphia Inquirer: So on Friday, 76ers power forward Nerlens Noel will pretend to be a greasy-fast Eye-talian tank. Kind of. As part of a feature for NBA TV, Noel plans to emulate Sylvester Stallone’s runs through Philadelphia in the first two “Rocky” films. A camera crew will track Noel as he works out at 11 a.m., goes through a shootaround session at noon, and grabs lunch. Starting between 1 and 1:30, Noel will run at the various spots around the city that Stallone used in his movies’ iconic training sequences, including the Italian Market, Independence Hall, and Kelly Drive. Noel’s “run” will culminate around 3 p.m. at the Art Museum, where 100 to 15 middle-school and high school students will join him as he sprints up the steps. Then everyone will have Papa John’s pizza, since Papa John’s is one of the event’s sponsors. Noel’s plan, according to a person close to him, is to use Friday’s event as a springboard for an annual “Nerlens Noel Rocky Run 5K” to raise money for charity.