James Harden probably would not mind being compared to Babe Ruth. As an avid video game player, he has likely played Madden. I’m not too sure he would welcome a comparison with a billy goat, but since the subject is curses and jinxes, if he knew the humorous history of the Curse of the Billy Goat, he’d probably be OK with the reference. When I first heard the surprising news in October 2012 that the Oklahoma City Thunder had traded a
On first blush, next summer’s free agent market seemed a bit fallow. The biggest names among 2015 unrestricted free agents have been out there for some time – Marc Gasol, Rajon Rondo, DeAndre Jordan, Paul Millsap and Tyson Chandler. A nice collection of players, sure, but nothing like the star power of the potential 2016 free agency market. Greg Monroe joined the fray when he accepted his qualifying offer from the Detroit Pistons. And there are likely opt-outs coming from Goran Dragic,
CLEVELAND – All day, Clevelanders were jubilant and optimistic about the season opener at Quicken Loans Arena. After four long years, LeBron James’ return to the Cavs and his home region would take its next step. For many fans, the previous night’s Bulls blowout win was a sign that the Cavs would be able to show up and run the Knicks off the court. With a city in a 50-year championship drought, the Cavs are clearly enabled to end the streak. Championships
When I first sat down to write this piece, I immediately knew I had a battle between the player and the coach in me. The player in me wants a high motor, energy guy that takes no prisoners and would bite their own grandmother in the neck to win. The coach/general manager side of me wants guys that compete and play the right way, partly by making their teammates better. After 20 years of coaching, I learned rather early that I
NEW YORK – After mixed results while playing for Team USA in the FIBA World Cup this summer (he had one good game, and it was Coach K, not Coach Thibs, who inspired him), Derrick Rose returned to the NBA hardwood for the first time in a regular season game since Nov. 22, 2013. “I think USA Basketball did a great job of making sure that my nerves weren’t too high,” Rose said. “I wasn’t too antsy when I was out
Pau Gasol has everything the Chicago Bulls were missing in the past. Clearly Chicago needs a healthy Derrick Rose to compete for a championship, but Gasol looked every bit of the team’s missing part in Wednesday night’s 104-80 win over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Gasol scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 29 minutes in the win and added a lot to the team that they lacked last year, according to Bulls players and head coach Tom Thibodeau. “He’s
LOS ANGELES — “You can only control what you can control. That’s really tough to process, it’s tough to let that go. But it’s the truth, man.” That was Kobe Bryant at the podium Tuesday night after his Los Angeles Lakers dropped their season opener to the Houston Rockets, a 108-90 home loss that wasn’t as competitive as even the lopsided score might indicate. Small picture, he was speaking specifically about the spirit-crushing injury – a broken right tibia – suffered by
I weighed in with my predictions over the weekend, going big-time chalk on the NBA finalists — Spurs over Cavs — and off the grid, figuratively speaking, with Tom Thibodeau being the coach whose seat could get hottest quickest. Today, our esteemed staff of columnists and staff weigh in with their picks. Most of these guys are vets whose tenured covering the NBA are better counted in decades, not years, so their opinions are culled from their experience, intelligence and what