This summer, when your favorite team’s owner or GM tells you a certain player is financially out of reach, here’s how you know he is lying. His lips are moving. NBA business is booming, folks. And not just for the so-called big markets. Take a quick look at the conference finals, which feature four teams from middle to small markets collecting millions for every home playoff game. Take a look at the Sacramento Kings, who were just sold for a record $525 million
NEW YORK — After Tyson Chandler and Kenyon Martin fouled out of Game 6 against the Indiana Pacers, a third-string center was needed to match up against Roy Hibbert. Mike Woodson had two at his disposal, Marcus Camby and Amar’e Stoudemire, — or three if you count Earl Barron, who was signed as an insurance policy in case the Knicks needed a center at a moment of desperation. But the call went to rookie Chris Copeland, who turned out to be a
The meeting did not go well. At a hotel restaurant in Memphis in February 2008, Chris Wallace, the general manager of the Grizzlies, was trying to explain to Agusti and Marisa Gasol, the parents of Pau Gasol, why he had just traded their son to the Lakers. Despite the obvious professional upgrade for their son, the parents weren’t all that keen on the move. They lived in Memphis. They had had one son in high school, a roly-poly, 3-point shooting leviathan
After falling 106-99 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semis to the Indiana Pacers, the New York Knicks season has officially ended. Considering the lofty expectations, it couldn’t have been in more disappointing fashion. Of course, J.R. Smith, the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year and First Team All-Twitter, took to the internet to make sure everyone knew where he stood on the season that was: [Read more…]
It seems like every couple years or so, there’s a dilemma about who to select first overall in the NBA draft, and one of the options is almost always a defense-first center with an “unrefined” offensive game. This year’s model is Nerlens Noel, and right now it’s looking like he’ll go No. 1 unless a team with no need for a center lands the No. 1 pick. Our own Joe Kotoch, whose next Mock Draft goes up Tuesday, has already
The evolution of the Memphis Grizzlies franchise since its infant days in Vancouver is really something to marvel at when you consider where they are as of today. They are currently on their 7th head coach in their franchise’s history with Lionel Hollins and are out of the first round for just the second time in their 18-year history. If you parlay that with the fact that Memphis traded their top scorer, Rudy Gay, at the end of January for Ed
Well, the Knicks are done. Kind of anti-climactically, as well, at least compared to previous playoff series against Indiana (see right). Now it’s up to the Pacers, who are kind of like the anti-Heat, to stop the Miami freight train that seems destined to roll right on through to the finals. For all the gory details on just what went wrong in the Knicks’ elimination, I’ll point you over to Chris Sheridan’s latest column and podcast. In the West, we’ve got the
