I have been an MVP voter for the past six years, and it remains to be seen whether my departure from the mainstream media will impact my chances of casting a vote for the seventh straight season (When I was the NBA writer at the Associated Press for 10 years prior to my six at ESPN, we were not permitted to vote — the same rule writers at the New York Times have to follow). The guy who sends out the
By Andy Roth Following the San Antonio Spurs’ first-round elimination in the playoffs last season, most NBA observers, including myself, thought their days as championship contenders were behind them. But Gregg Popovich’s team is firmly entrenched atop the Southwest Division with a 7 1/2 game lead over the Dallas Mavericks, and their 36-14 record is the fourth-best in the league. San Antonio has accomplished all this despite the fact that former All-Star Manu Ginobili has missed 29 games, and was the team’s leading
MIAMI — Re-introduce yourself to the Miami Heat, still the NBA’s most hated team, but now they’re hated for a new reason – because it appears they don’t always play hard, because it seems as though they get bored, they coast. Somehow, this group, despite having the NBA’s third-best record at 37-14, is re-defining Heat Hate. Who knew there was an extra flavor of Haterade? “We’re a tale of two teams sometimes,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. And that’s exactly what makes people dislike
In his Hall of Fame career, Larry Brown has coached NBA teams to 1,520 victories in the regular season and playoffs, led ABA teams to 271 victories and college teams to 177 victories. For those counting, Brown has left a basketball game 1,968 times as a winner. That means at his next stop, Brown is very likely to celebrate win No. 2,000 and he made it clear last week that he certainly would like to have a next stop. “I just want
The more I watch the Oklahoma City Thunder rack up wins and inch closer to the league’s best record, the more I question my preseason predictions. Can the Thunder win the NBA title this season? Back in December I said no, although I did have them facing the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. After watching the Thunder cruise to a 40-12 overall record thanks to Sunday’s 92-78 thrashing of the Derrick Rose-less Chicago Bulls, and putting the rest of their season
This week, there was a groundswell for Kevin Love’s inclusion in the MVP conversation. Thanks for joining us in 2012, folks. Love should should have been in it months ago. We know all the names that already comprised the conversation – LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul – with Tony Parker and Dwight Howard on the periphery. Those six candidates differ from Love in two ways. 1. They all play on winning teams. 2. This season, they all couldn’t wash Love’s socks. Yes,
NEW YORK — He sat in his locker stall, upbeat and confident. “Nah, it’s just muscular tightness,” he said. “Now, it feels much better.” Those were amongst the final words Amar’e Stoudemire uttered to the press contingent in the Knicks’ locker room after last Saturday’s 101-79 victory over the Detroit Pistons. On Monday – just two days later – it was revealed that Stoudemire has a bulging disk in his lower back and would miss at least two weeks. That 48-hour period was
TEL AVIV — After yet another exciting game, Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Panathinaikos are set to face off in a do-or-die showdown in Greece next Thursday. Last night, Panathinaikos edged out Maccabi 78-69 in a grind-it-out duel, in which Panathinaikos held a mere three-point lead with two minutes remaining. Taking place in Tel-Aviv’s Nokia Arena, a relatively small gym that holds 11,000 rabid fans, the atmosphere had at least as much intensity as an NBA playoff game. Every possession was a battle,