On Wednesday night, next door to my hometown of Hempstead, NY, I took in the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks battle at Nassau Coliseum. It ended up being an overtime thriller. Ultimately, the game didn’t count for anything, but it may have been a preview of what’s to come when the two teams square off on Nov. 1 when the Knicks will play the Nets in the first ever NBA regular season game in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. As far as
// My favorite David Stern story happened in Las Vegas, on the corner near the footbridge that takes you from the MGM Grand to the New York-New York without having to physically step on “The Strip” as you cross Las Vegas Boulevard. This was back in 2007 when the NBA had its All-Star game in Sin City, a grand experiment that produced one of the momentous All-Star Weekends ever — although what it’ll be remembered for is the unruly crowds it
When we wrote last month that the Western Conference playoff picture would be filled in by the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves, it was assumed that both teams would have their alpha dogs at power forward. Now that Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Love are both out until at least December, that picture could be changing. Nowitzki and Love both are top-10 players whose presence instantly legitimizes their teams as playoff-worthy, regardless of the other 14 players sharing a locker room and airplane with them.
Who are the needles in the haystacks? With NBA training camps opening, nothing excites me more than talking about little-known players and their chances to make their perspective teams. The time to put all other events aside for the next 9 months is about to begin, and I couldn’t be more excited. I have the bug so bad this time of year, I go to local college inter-squad scrimmages. As it relates to the NBA, this is a tremendous time of year
The Houston Rockets have dubbed their 2012-2013 season “The New Age.” It couldn’t be more evidenced than by a ride around town … a glimpse at the media guide … a glance at their pocket calendar. No, they are not promoting Kevin Martin. The guys on that there billboard are Jeremy Lin, of course, along with Chandler Parsons and two of Houston’s warehouse full of rookies, Donatas Montejunas and Royce White. The 2011-12 team that flamed out so badly at the end of
The gulf between the NBA’s haves and have-nots has grown since LeBron James and Miami’s Dream-Three celebrated their NBA championship just a little less than five months ago. The Lakers now have a roster than features five Hall-of-Famers, and the Heat probably do, too. The Knicks probably don’t, but what they do have is one of the deepest frontcourts in the NBA. Knick-haters, you have the option to cease reading from this point forth. Because I am here to tell you that this
Take flopping, please. Happily for the NBA, it’s going away, even if the league will pay a higher cost than it knows from crime-and-punishment headlines, stemming from David Stern’s decision to make it a crime, not a basketball play, punishable by huge fines. How hard would this have been: Tell the referees to make defenders be stationary for a count, not an instant. What’s the hard part? Tie goes to the offensive player, as it does to the runner in baseball. Unfortunately, nothing is easy
Even for hoops addicts, watching NBA preseason games presents a challenge. The baseball playoffs are under way, the college football and NFL seasons are in full swing, and there is this small matter of a presidential election. There is no subscription package for the preseason. League Pass takes a pass until the regular season starts later this month. So the only way you can watch games right now is on NBA TV, which isn’t part of the basic package of a number