When the FIBA World Cup’s group stage ended Thursday, eight of the 24 teams went home. Four more went home Saturday, the first day of the knockout stage. One of them was Mexico, which put up little resistance in a loss to Team USA. Chris Sheridan is in Barcelona and was not overly impressed. As the games get tougher, the rotation needs to get shorter. Here’s a roundup of Saturday’s round of 16 games. BARCELONA GAMES Team USA 86, Mexico 63 In a rare mornng EST
It took two months, but one of the top players in the 2015 class of NBA free agency has finally signed a contract. It just isn’t the type of deal that everyone expected him to receive. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, star forward Greg Monroe signed the qualifying offer to remain with the Detroit Pistons through the 2014-15 season. Detroit restricted free agent Greg Monroe has signed the qualifying offer, league source tells Yahoo Sports. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) September 5, 2014 During the
The cool thing about twitter is that at times, you really get a sense of what certain athletes think of situations of others around the league that you would otherwise never hear about. Some may express their opinions outright, while others reveal their thoughts in a more subtle manner – perhaps during a conversation with a friend. The latter form is how we now know that Stephon Marbury – the Michael Jordan of China – thinks the Golden State Warriors mistreated
NBA athletes like to look good while playing in front of large crowds. It makes plenty of sense, as their image is just as much a part of their brand just as the quality of their play is. Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins is bolstering his image with his run with USA Basketball in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup. After five games in the Group Phase, he has averaged 9.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 13.4 minutes of
The group stage of the FIBA World Cup is over, with 16 of the 24 teams moving on and three of them – the United States, Spain and Greece – still unbeaten. But they cannot afford to lose now. The knockout stage begins Saturday, and it’s pretty much the same as the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Win and keep playing. Lose and go home. And being one of the last four teams is something special – in this case,
BARCELONA — From the betcha didn’t realize category … Guess who is the defending FIBA-Americas champion in tomorrow’s USA-Mexico game in the Round of 16 at the World Cup? That would be the team that is a 37 1/2 point underdog — Mexico. One year ago, Mexico pulled off one of the unlikeliest tournament victories in FIBA history by winning the FIBA-Americas tourney in Caracas, Venezuela, as Gustavo Ayon was named the tournament MVP. It was the first time in 40 years
When it comes to posting crazy photos of dead animals after a strong hunting session, no one does it better than Portland Trail Blazers center Chris Kaman. In fact, Kaman is probably one of the only NBA players out there who is publicly proud of the work he gets done in the woods. Sometimes, the photos are downright nasty. [Read more…]
One of the major contributions made by David Stern during his time as NBA commissioner was expanding the appeal of the game globally. As a result of this, China became the second largest market for the game outside of the United States. [Read more…]