We are about to witness what may be a first in the long history of the NBA. For the first time, four of the league’s flagship franchises could well be out of the playoffs. OK, the Knicks aren’t technically out of the race in the Hindenburg Conference, but they have a lot of ground to make up on Atlanta – four games in the loss column with 13 to play. The Celtics, Lakers and 76ers all are making plans for the
It’s All Phil All The Time in New York these days. No Knicks story can be written without a reference – or more – to Phil Jackson’s imminent ascension as the new Czar of MSG. Jackson, as is his wont, is playing it every so coy and cagey, relishing in the mystery of it all. He knows what he’s doing, right? (OK, he’s getting $12 million, so he got that part right.) But this whole thing runs counter to Jackson’s usual M.O., which
BOSTON — You don’t often hear his name mentioned on the list of potential, difference-making free agents this summer. OK, you never hear it. And that’s OK with Paul Pierce. “I can still play. I can still make a contribution,’’ he said. This is a man whose game may be on the decline, but whose confidence clearly is not. “I’m kind of lost in the shuffle right now,’’ he added. “You don’t hear my name out there. You hear Melo (Carmelo Anthony.)
The general manager of the Houston Rockets wants an overhaul of the NBA draft. The Celtics’ assistant general manager has a proposal to do away with the whole shebang. Even new commish Adam Silver is open to changes. Why? The NBA draft is fine the way it is. Don’t change it. It’s working just fine. If you’re going to change anything, eliminate the ridiculous incentives that prompts kids – most of them not close to being NBA-ready – to enter the draft
Catch that riveting Celtics-Lakers game Friday night? Yeah, neither did I. Talk about a scheduling nightmare. The game featuring the two marquee franchises – as opposed to teams – was the second of ESPN’s Friday Night doubleheader. It featured two teams who have a combined 13 wins over the last two-plus months. With Kobe Bryant and the calcifying-before-our-eyes Steve Nash out, the Lakers’ only discernible attraction was Pau Gasol. The Celtics had Rajon Rondo, whose much-trumpeted comeback from knee surgery has helped
Some time this June, the NBA will crown a champion for the 2013-14 season. The odds tell us that the champion will have done little to nothing the previous February at the trading deadline. NBA enthusiasts, zealots and, yes, writers obsess and go into circuit overload in the third week of February – this coming week, in case you weren’t paying attention. But if history is any guide, the chances are remote that a team will make a trade which it
Watching Jay Leno say his final good-bye last Thursday night as the 22-year-host of “The Tonight Show,’’ I couldn’t help thinking of Tim Duncan. Leno and Duncan are still bringing it, on top of their respective games in their respective vocations. But both also have been told to make way for the next demographic group, er, age-appropriate successors. The departures were involuntarily. Leno is rightfully peeved about being forced to surrender his microphone, leading the ratings in his time period and still
Only three coaches in NBA history have done what Erik Spoelstra is attempting to do in Miami. One is dead. One is approaching 100 while in assisted living in Minnesota. The third is off the grid somewhere, presumably in Montana. The Heat are trying to become only the fourth franchise in NBA history to win three consecutive titles. The Lakers were the last to turn the trick, winning three in a row from 2000-2002. They were coached by Phil Jackson, who also