OKLAHOMA CITY — Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said it best Tuesday when speaking about the Oklahoma City Thunder, saying “they imposed their identity” on Game 1, and the Heat will need to dictate the “force, will and energy” in Game 2 in order to avoid falling behind 0-2 in the NBA Finals. Do you know what I take that to mean? They are going to knock Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on their asses Thursday night, and they will test the
OKLAHOMA CITY — I caught up with NBA commissioner David Stern today at an NBA Cares event held at the Oklahoma City rescue mission to press him on the proposal being discussed to limit the Olympic men’s basketball competition to players 23 and under — an item I first wrote about last week with a similar headline. Here’s the gist of what he said: _ A big part of the reason why the NBA is pushing this discussion is because they want
// All eyes were supposed to be on LeBron James as the NBA Finals began Tuesday night. Would James continue his spectacular postseason? Would he put his disappearing acts in last year’s Finals behind him? Would he finally break through and win his first championship? Those aren’t the questions fans are asking anymore. In fact, after one game, the focus is no longer on James. It is on Kevin Durant, whose 36 points and eight rebounds lifted the Oklahoma City Thunder to
// OKLAHOMA CITY — There comes a time in every viewer’s life when they experience a “Holy Shit” moment with Kevin Durant. Pardon the profanity. But damn, you know? For many of you, this was not the first time Durant made your jaw drop. The guy has been putting together games like this throughout the course of these playoffs (this was his seventh 30-point game), not to mention the past three regular seasons when the guy led the NBA in scoring. But there
The Heat should be fine tonight, as long as none of them had an encounter with “Effie.” “Effie” is a ghost that is said to haunt the Skirvin Hotel, a 101-year-old downtown hotel that was built by an oil baron who, according to legend, kept a mistress named “Effie” on the 10th floor who jumped to her death holding the couple’s baby. When the New York Knicks stayed at the Skirvin a couple years back, Jared Jeffries and Eddy Curry were spooked
Amarillo Slim at the 1974 World Series of Poker
OKLAHOMA CITY — There is an age-old truism pertaining to the NBA Finals that pertains to the question of old age. Young teams rarely, and we mean very rarely, win NBA championships. If the Oklahoma City Thunder somehow manage to emerge from the NBA Finals victorious, they’d be the first team with such a young nucleus to win the title since the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977 — a topic that our Hall of Fame columnist, Mark Heisler, addressed in his column
// Watch the above video for my reasoning. And by the way, I am the only person on the SheridanHoops staff to pick Thunder in 5. For all of our staff’s picks, click here. (Disclaimer: The prediction business is a tricky one. I had Heat in 7 last round, but I also had Spurs in 5.) And back in the day when I was with ESPN, I was the only guy who said there was only a 10 percent chance that LeBron