After as astoundingly entertaining slam dunk contest on All-Star Saturday, the NBA was again reminded that sometimes the best response to criticism is to ignore it. After the performances of Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon, it is doubtful anyone will suggest the contest should be eliminated, or even slightly altered. But that could change as soon as next year. LaVine and Gordon established a standard that seems impossibly high to top. So if the next slam dunk is not as good as
Less than 48 hours and one unrelated storybook ending separated the two scenes involving Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson. One was warm and fuzzy, perhaps only because the aging warrior was no longer a threat. The second was sad and unpromising, with the evidence suggesting the aging warrior is no longer a threat. On Saturday night, the Spurs celebrated the career of Bryant, who was visiting San Antonio for the final time as a player. It was touching tribute to an
For those gentlemen – and who knows, maybe ladies, too – who aspire to one day reach the pinnacle of the basketball coaching profession, be advised that institutions you hope to work for may not be run in the most rational manner. And I’m reasonably certain that Jeff Hornacek, Lionel Hollins, David Blatt and Kevin McHale would agree with me. Hornacek just became the latest NBA head coach to lose his job, although compared to others, the Phoenix Suns looked positively patient.
The good news for the San Antonio Spurs is that Tim Duncan, who had soreness in his right knee, was unable to play Monday night when the second-best team in the NBA lost to the best team by 30 points. The bad news is that to compete with the Golden State Warriors, the Spurs would have needed the 25-year-old Tim Duncan who averaged 25.5 points, 12.7 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and won the 2002 Most Valuable Player award. The 39-year-old Duncan, who
After the rather meek events of Monday’s showcase game, we can safely say the current NBA season has become sadly boring. All the elements of something monumental seemed in place with another matchup between the Cavaliers and Warriors, this time in Cleveland. Still aggravated that injuries left them shorthanded in their NBA Finals loss last season, the Cavs had even more motivation because of their loss on Christmas Day in Oakland. Also, the once-perfect Warriors had shockingly been defeated two times in their
Seldom has a team with a nine-game winning streak, 16 victories in its last 17 games and an overall record of 34-6 generated so little excitement. That’s outside of San Antonio, of course. Spurs fans are aware as any of the Ripleys-Believe-It-Or-Not 36-2 start of the Golden State Warriors, but they have every reason to be excited and optimistic about their chances to win a sixth NBA title. The Warriors are defending champions, but the Spurs are only a year removed from winning
When I think about how fantasy sports has evolved since I first began playing almost 30 years ago, I feel a little like Alexander Graham Bell might feel if he were to see an iPhone. No fantasy services existed at the time, so the stats for our first league were kept by hand. The NBA season was 24 weeks long so the first few years, we had eight pay periods and each ran three weeks. The thought of a daily league
DALLAS – After two months of near invincibility, the rest of the NBA has discovered the Golden State Warriors do in fact have weaknesses – two to be exact. On Dec. 12, the Milwaukee Bucks handed the Warriors their first loss of the season, ending a 24-0 start. How did they do it and what can other teams learn from it? The Warriors were playing the last game of a 12-day, seven-game road trip. They had played the previous night in Boston,