Welcome to the NBA Down Under Digest, which is a weekly recap of all developments on and off the court, from the best of the best to the worst of the worst.

All of the off-season workings of the NBA will be available every week for your reading enjoyment.

Let’s see what happened this week around the Association!

THIS WEEK IN THE NBA

Andrew Bogut Interview

Andrew Bogut talks with Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News about this years coming season, his injury woes, Dwight Howard and more.

It’s no secret Andrew has had his share of injuries and his rehab has been long, as it’s been almost 8 months since he’s been on the court.

He’s been continuing his rehab at practice with the Warriors,  showing up about an hour and a half to two hours before the rest of his team mates take the court.

Click here to read Andrew’s candid responses to Tim’s questions.

Keneally Wants NBA Matches

No matter what you think of her politics, new head of the NBL Kristina Keneally says she would like to see an NBA presence in Australia.

She believes in a long term approach rather than a one off, but this is welcome news.

She has visions of a Champions League somewhere in the future, much like soccer.

She also speaks of long term partnerships with leagues such as the NBA. In my opinion this is quite forward thinking for Keneally; I didn’t know she had it in her.

Hating The Heat

Doc Rivers says he doesn’t care about west coast basketball, and wants his Celtics to hate the Miami Heat.

In this interview Doc talks about how the Celtics must outthink the Miami Heat and not get into a track meet with them.

I’m not sure, but wasn’t this the game plan last year? It’s true running with the Heat is suicide, but with Boston being a year older,  it’s still going to be tough to match-up with the Heat in a half court game.

Hopefully Doc has more in store for the Heat than getting to the line against them, although Boston did have them in trouble last year, up 3 games to 2 in the conference final until LeBron James said enough is enough.

St Mary’s Gaels Under Investigation

The University of Saint Mary’s in California, which has become a home for Australian basketballers in the U.S., has come under investigation by the NCAA for recruiting violations.

Former Gaels assistant coach David Patrick who left Saint Mary’s to scout for the Houston Rockets, and is now working for the LSU Tigers of the Southeastern Conference has been interviewed by the NCAA.

Coach Patrick is responsible for bringing several Australians to the Gaels, including Patty Mills.

Current head coach Randy Bennett was conspicuously absent on the recruiting trail during the July recruiting period.

It would certainly be a shame to see the Gaels put on probation by the NCAA due to the actions of a coach that hasn’t even been involved in the program for 2 years.

Currently St. Mary’s has 4 Australians on its roster, including 6’9″ forward Mitchell Young.

Luxury Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers are in danger of being whacked by the NBA’s new high powered luxury tax in the 2013-2014 season to the tune of nearly $200 million.

This means that to keep the Lakers together, they will have to pay an additional $72 million above the $128 million they paid this past season.

Now this stuff makes me crazy! Somewhere in a small country I could see a luxury tax for teams, but the argument is that if the Lakers didn’t pay these taxes other teams in the league would fold. I say so what?

There are over 400 billionaires in the U.S. according to Forbes Magazine’s list in March of 2011.

There will always be a billionaire who wants a toy to show off to his pals, whether it’s in Milwaukee or Oakland and whether it loses money or not. This is not the NRL, this is the NBA.

So I find this whole idea of propping up franchises with other people’s money revolting, not to mention it stops players from making more money. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

NBA 2K13′s Mobile Apps

NBA 2K13 has three mobile sim versions, collectively they are called NBA 2K.

2K Sports wants to take players out of the living room and give them the opportunity to play on the bus or during breaks, possibly at the office.

The graphics look particularly good on their new iPad version.

I had to stop playing video games all together some years ago as it was consuming my life. It seems though that I’m really missing out on something.

Thunder Want Derek Fisher

Scott Brooks wants Derek Fisher back for the upcoming season, which I find completely perplexing.

Personally, I thought Fisher was horrible in the playoffs and I watched just about every game.

I can only recall one game where he had an impact, and the last time I checked the Thunder didn’t beat the Miami Heat. If the Oklahoma City Thunder haven’t found a leader now, they never will.

I thought the reason they signed him in the first place was for his leadership, and I’m sorry but he’s too much of a defensive liability for me.

NBA Salaries 

Since we are just weeks away from the opening of training camps, I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at NBA salaries.

This also happens to be one of my favourite pastimes as I’ll probably never see this kind of cash.

I remain hopeful though, if not for my basketball skills, but maybe the lottery, since here in Australia we would get to keep all that fabulous lottery money.

Jeremy Lin’s First Workout

I really don’t understand Jeremy Lin and the couch surfing thing, especially if you are an NBA player that just signed a $25 million dollar contract.

For those of you unfamiliar with this practice, couch surfing is defined by the Urban Dictionary as, “a cheap form of lodging used mainly by college-students or recent college-grads, where one stays on acquaintances’ couches rather than a hotel.”

Anyway, Jeremy Lin has now had his first workout with the Houston Rockets, and as you might expect the media were well represented. Nothing quite like New York, but the men and women with the note pads still flocked to see Houston’s new point guard.

Lin says he is in shape and ready to go!

CP3 Still Won’t Talk Trash

Chris Paul still says he still doesn’t want to talk trash. I really have never understood why players talk trash to begin with. To me it would always be better to let your play on the court do the talking.

As it turns out though some of the greatest players ever were the biggest trash talkers, including Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

As always we would love to hear from you, so please feel free to leave your comments. See you next week!

Photo Credit: Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images