LOS ANGELES — And so, Dwight Howard winds up with the Lakers… just as we said he would! Of course, we said that in the spring of 2011, after All-Star Weekend when Dwight was asked which player here he’d most like to play with, and he answered “Kobe Bryant.” In the 18 months since, we said a bunch of other things: He was going to the Nets with Deron Williams. He was going to the Mavericks with Deron Williams. He was going to Houston. He wasn’t staying
Here’s an update for all of you who want to gag upon hearing another Dwight Howard scenario: Tough luck. A source told Sheridan Hoops that trade talks involving Howard, which the Orlando Magic just put on hold, could go on all summer – of 2013. The Magic seemed ready to take the best current offer – such as the Brooklyn Nets’ package headed by Brook Lopez – but are now determined to draw out the process in hope of getting better offers. ESPN’s Chris
No, this U.S. team isn’t as good as the Dream Team, or even the 2008 team, which five of them played on. Not that there’s any way of demonstrating it, not even the press’s fave, asking Dream Teamers and awaiting the laughter. Of course, the Dreamers had a huge edge, aside from all those centers and power forwards the 2012ers are so light on. The Dreamers were famous. Leaving out out the incomparable Michael Jordan, the 2012ers’ Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kevin Durant
A funny thing happened on L.A.’s way to oblivion…. Actually, the L.A. teams didn’t go anywhere, even if they wrote them off as the new backwater of the West and whatever other insults and Skid Row photos they threw into their dumb stories. OK, I was the one who did the backwater story a while back. OK, it was just two days back—or put another way, just before the Lakers got Steve Nash–becoming even older and slower (their starters will be 38-34-32-32-25) but
Skid Row, downtown Los Angeles Meanwhile, along the old, deserted, weed-infested, beer bottle-strewn route into the setting sun…. Welcome to L.A., backwater of the West, with the road to the Finals now running through towns in Oklahoma and Texas, far from the glitter of Staples Center. Wait, you’re not talking about the Lakers and Clippers, home of four starting West All-Stars, are you? OK, backwater might be a bit much, but stay tuned. Whatever it is, it bears less and less
The year the NBA got over the hump, even if it didn’t initially look like it was possible … Let’s just say it was a good time for a memorable postseason, with the improbable rise of the precocious Thunder, until going up 1-0 over the Heat, which didn’t turn out to be comprised of choking, mercenary divas, after all. Otherwise, the 2011-12 season would have gone down as the one when the NBA locked the players out until Christmas, then jammed 66
LeBron, the re-canonization…. I know, they never used to do such a thing as re-canonizations. But then, they didn’t used to do un-canonizations, either. These days, you don’t have to perform miracles to be put on a pedestal, the world’s second-favorite trick, even if it just hauled you off your pedestal, which is, of course, the world’s favorite trick. If one crummy NBA title was all LeBron James needed, what was the big deal? He figured to bag one soon enough, as runaway choice
Now to let the Young Guns shoot it out. … If you’re going to hear that a lot the next week or two, some of these guns are a lot younger than others. By 2007, when LeBron James and Dwyane Wade had both been in NBA Finals, Kevin Durant had yet to be drafted; Russell Westbrook was an unheralded UCLA freshman who had played nine minutes a game; and James Harden was even less heralded as a high school sophomore. Durant, Westbrook and