This keeps happening: I watch the Knicks lose, then I switch the channel and marvel at an ex-Knick leading his team. It happened again Monday night, when New York was losing to Dallas on Dirk Nowitzki’s lucky bounce at the buzzer, and one click of the remote control brought me to Clippers-Pelicans, where Jamal Crawford was burying another seven 3-pointers. Crawford was once a Knick. So was David Lee. And Zach Randolph. And Channing Frye. Any of those guys might make a nice
Excuse my venom, but the Adam Silver would be OUT OF HIS MIND if he instituted a new rule establishing a 4-point shot. That is the kind of gimmick the Harlem Globetrotters use to sell tickets, and I’d hate to think of Silver as Abe Saperstein 2.0. Thank goodness the NBA called out ESPN for making up a story “that does not exist.” Rod Thorn seemed to divulge yesterday in an interview with ESPN.com’s Henry Abbott that a 4-point shot is one
The temptation is to stick a fork in the Knicks and pronounce them done. The reality? Even after last night’s double OT loss to the Orlando Magic, New York is 4 1/2 games out of eighth place in the Eastern Conference with 27 games remaining. That is more than enough time for them to put together something resembling a hot streak and gain enough ground to reach the No. 8 seed. [Read more…]
Now you know why we call it the best day of the NBA season. Deals go down, fact triumphs over fiction, Sam Hinkie is outed as a hoarder and Larry Bird wins big at the buzzer. A total of 10 trades were agreed to already today after two deals were made Wednesday on the day before the NBA trading deadline (Steve Blake from the Lakers to the Warriors for Kent Bazemore and MarShon Brooks; and Marcus Thornton from Sacramento to Brooklyn for
We’ve been waiting all season for LeBron James to pull a Kevin Durant and go for 40 or more points, and the wait has ended. Did LeBron’s 42 against Dallas last night earn him some love in these rankings? Well, sort of. IMHO, James is the best player in the NBA. But “best” player does not equate to Most Valuable, as the operative word when determining that award is “valuable.” A year ago, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe felt that Carmelo
If Rajon Rondo is truly available, there is one team where he’d be such a good fit that it might make the Miami Heat the second choice among oddsmakers to win the NBA title. And if Larry Bird can get his hands on Rondo, the Indiana Pacers would be that team. Word was spreading on Twitter yesterday that Celtics GM Danny Ainge was seeking two unprotected first-round draft picks in any deal involving Rondo, and I tweeted my immediate reaction. If #Celtics truly
There are three days left until the trade deadline, the best Thursday of the season, no matter what TNT might say. Folks stay glued to their Twitter feeds awaiting word of who is heading where, with 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET the most riveting two hours of the entire season. This season, with so many weak Eastern Conference teams trying to add a difference maker that would allow them to compete with the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers, and with
All-Star Weekend is over, and the young kids — John Wall and Kyrie Irving — stole the spotlight from their older peers by winning the Slam Dunk title and the All-Star MVP awards. The other “young” guy on prominent display was Adam SIlver, the new commissioner, whose news conference Saturday evening was both balanced and boring. We learned that Silver grew up a Knicks fan, has no plans to expand the league beyond its current 30 teams, and wants to have all