NEW YORK – You don’t need a watch to know Father Time has caught up to Kobe Bryant. With that in mind, I asked Bryant what he wants his legacy to be when he retires. “As a talented overachiever,” Bryant replied with a laugh. “I really worked my butt off every single day to make sure I left no stone unturned and try to push it as much as I possibly could.” “My message has been consistent all the time,” Bryant said. “If
NEW YORK –The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows, as Rocky Balboa once said. Just ask New York Knicks coach Derek Fisher. The Knicks were coming off Wednesday’s season-opening 25-point win at Milwaukee. New arrival Derrick Williams scored 24 points. Rookie Kristaps Porzingis shot 12 free throws. Heck, Carmelo Anthony had five assists. One night later, the Knicks laid an egg in their home opener with a 112-101 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. They allowed Atlanta to shoot better than 50 percent
Centers are considered a dying breed in today’s NBA. More teams are playing small ball than ever before with a focus on pushing the tempo and improving floor spacing. Heck, the league even removed the center position from the All-Star ballot in 2012. However, as you will see by the depth in our center rankings and the names not on the list, the demise of the position is a premature misconception. You won’t find two former All-Stars and Defensive Player of the
The youth movement at power forward has arrived in the form of Anthony Davis and Blake Griffin. Derrick Favors, a fellow rising talent who has improved across the board over the past five seasons, missed the cut in our top 10 rankings. However, don’t be surprised if Favors joins the rankings in a year or so from now. At 23, his best basketball is ahead of him and he is just scratching the surface of his ceiling as a player for
While point guard is regularly lauded as the top position in the league in terms of star power and depth, how about some love for the small forwards? Seven small forwards featured on this list participated in Team USA’s minicamp this summer. This list includes two MVPs, a scoring champion, a Defensive Player of the Year, a recently crowned Rookie of the Year, a “Greek Freak” and a Finals MVP. Proven veterans such as Luol Deng and Joe Johnson – as well as
The familiar days of Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade leading the shooting guard rankings are over. In fact, Bryant, Wade and Monta Ellis are the only players over 30 to crack our top 10 rankings at the position. James Harden, Klay Thompson and Jimmy Butler are the new – and younger – top dogs at the position. DeMar DeRozan, Bradley Beal and Khris Middleton are three rising young stars listed that could vault within the top five by next season. Shooting guard is thin
Point guard is the most important and deepest position in the NBA. How deep? Take a look at some of the players not featured in our top 10 rankings at the position. You won’t find Derrick Rose, the league’s youngest MVP four years ago. Over the past three seasons, Rose has missed 185 of a possible 246 games. Asking Rose to return to his MVP form is out of the question. Asking Rose to return to his All-Star form appears bleak, too. How about
There was a train wreck at Penn Station last season. It was known as the New York Knicks, who endured the worst season in franchise history. It happened under the watch of Phil Jackson, one of the franchise’s heroes and a name synonymous with winning in the NBA. Jackson and the Knicks went to work this offseason in the draft and in free agency to get the team back on track. Despite concerns from fans about drafting the next Frederic Weis, the