What they’re saying in the NBA: Nick Collison on hazing and Scottie Pippen on yoga

Thunder power forward Nick Collison blogged for GQ about rookie hazing: “We make sure our rookies this season — Reggie Jackson and Ryan Reid — wear their pink Justin Bieber and ‘My Little Pony’ backpacks and carry their oversized teddy bears on all road trips. Kendrick Perkins says in Boston they made a rookie go out in a foot of snow and do 100 push-ups in only his spandex shorts.”

The Magic’s erratic play has raised questions about Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy’s future. “My brother [Jeff, former Knicks, Rockets coach] said, ‘Getting fired is not painful. It’s what leads up to it … the losing, the team not playing well.’ It’s true.”

The Magic coach is also taking sleeping pills to overcome insomnia. But when things get difficult, he “vents” with his coaches. “I have them,” Van Gundy said of his assistants. “I don’t need a sports psychologist.”

Scottie Pippen told Esquire about a breakthrough early in his career: “Phil [Jackson] got us into yoga.... [I]t was something that allowed us to calm down after practice, to relax and stop thinking about going to the mall to buy this or that. It’s seldom that you go into a gym and not hear a basketball bouncing or weights dropping. But the lights would dim after practice, and over time it became a sacred place.”

Portland walloped Charlotte, 112-68, Wednesday for the worst loss in Bobcats history. Trail Blazers forward Gerald Wallace scored 23 points against his former team, a year after being traded.

Did Wallace feel sorry for Charlotte? “Not at all. I wanted to keep going. I didn’t even want to come out of the game. It stings. Like I said last year around this time, I felt I was betrayed, I was stabbed in the back.”

— Barry Stavro