SAN ANTONIO — The King has been reduced to a pawn, so we will spare you another column devoted entirely to the troubles and travails of LeBron James. You can find that elsewhere. All you need to know about the king (lower case is intentional) after the Miami Heat’s 36-point blowout loss in Game 3 of the NBA Finals was that he put the blame squarely on his own shoulders and said “I’m not doing my part.” The eunuching of James
NBA TV’s airing of “The Doctor” on Monday night had to be a treat for many young basketball fans who never had the privilege of seeing Julius Erving play, I am not one of those young fans. In fact, here is how old I am. I saw Doc play. In the ABA. With the Virginia Squires. [Read more…]
Where have you gone, LeBron James? Before getting into the search for the Bron who averaged 30-8-8 in February, looking like a full peer of Michael Jordan, I’d like to make clear that I have nothing against the guy. This is important with so many fans who hate Bron, and so many press people who alternate between savaging him when he loses and prostrating themselves before him when he wins. Even if it means savaging him Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday and prostrating
The San Antonio Spurs might be in trouble. On the surface, things appear to be OK. The Spurs have executed their defensive game plan, which is to turn LeBron James into a passer. They have prevented the Miami Heat from turning either game into an extended relay race. And most important, they secured a split of the first two games as the road team, which is practically mandatory in the 2-3-2 format of the NBA Finals. Beneath the surface, however, the Spurs
Manu Ginobili MIAMI — Manu Ginobili walked to the podium and took a look around the room before he sat down. His shoulders slouched a bit, but he tried to remain upbeat. He sighed before he spoke. “After having played a great Game 1, you don’t want to come back and feel like this and perform this like,” he said. “In the second half, they ran us over.” LeBron James—despite a relatively poor showing through the game’s first three quarters—left
The leading men would never admit this, but is there any athlete in the world who is currently in a better position than 37-year-old Tim Duncan? You’ve got to think anyone would like to trade places with him, even LeBron James. And it has nothing to do with Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs having a 1-0 lead in the NBA Finals over James and the Miami Heat. [Read more…]
MIAMI – In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, LeBron James had great numbers – 18 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists for a triple-double. But the most important number for James might have been 12. James played all 12 minutes of the third quarter, which admittedly drained him to some extent before the beginning of the pivotal final period. That was when the San Antonio Spurs overtook the suddenly sloppy Miami Heat and escaped with a 92-88 victory that now has
Every professional sport lives by the famous adage, “Coaches are hired to be fired.” It is well known that when things go south, it is the coach and not the players who get the blame and the ax. In the NBA, with 15 players collectively making somewhere north of $60 million in salary and being almost impossible to replace, it is no wonder that the coach and his assistants are the usual fall guys for poor performance. Few jobs carry so