It’s the final edition of the Sixth Man Award Rankings, and we know that fans out there are going to be devastated. I’ve only been writing about the Sixth Man award for six weeks, and like an NBA player coming off the bench, I feel like I’m just starting to find my rhythm, and coach is taking me out again. The season is just too short (said no one ever). In the last edition of the Sixth Man Rankings, we reached our
Welcome back to Sixth Man Madness! It’s the most ill-conceived fake tournament since Most Improved Player Madness, which ended with me declaring that we’d never do this again and then doing it again two years later. Time heals all wounds! This week, we’re taking you through the second round and into our Sweet 16. Like any tournament, this event isn’t just about who the best candidate is, it’s about who’s playing best at the right time. As Nike’s NCAA Tournament warm-up
It’s March. And for those of us basketball junkies, that means it’s the most glorious time of the year. March is filled with sneaker-squeaking, channel-flicking, mini-hoop jamming madness. It’s a time when we fill out brackets until the blood from our paper cuts advances to the Sweet 16. We place an inordinate amount of self-worth into our clicker skills and hear buzzers sounding in our sleep. During media timeouts, we chase down the leftover pizza in the fridge down like LeBron
Dearly Beloved: As we gather together once more in this special column space, we can’t help but daydream about the beautiful matrimony between man and award. It’s wedding season (I don’t know if that’s true or not), so we thought it would be interesting to explore some of the similarities between “sixth men” and best men. It’s not just because they both have the word “man” in them. OK, maybe it is. But still, there are a lot of similarities. [Read more…]
It’s funny how people get so caught up in the chase for history. Every time people see me, they start asking: “Are they going to do it?” “Is it going to happen?” “Who would win if they played today?” Of course, you know what I’m talking about. It involves winning, a Curry and something that hasn’t been done since the mid-1990s. But I mean, it’s almost getting boring now. Everybody knows that Denver Nuggets guard Will Barton can make history by becoming the first player from
Allen Iverson once said he would rather retire than come off the bench. So, I guess he’s not reading this column. And while that certainly hurts (I loved you, A.I.), it’s not going to stop me from practicing my craft here. We talkin’ ’bout practice. PRAC—TICE. Something that you do to get better. Ah, forget it. It takes a special type of player to adapt to coming off the bench. Several guys, who we threw under the bus—er—uh, mentioned in our Most Improved Player Rankings
Some people perform best when there’s not as much pressure. You know, like when they’re not hearing their name and educational history shouted by an overzealous announcer in front of thousands of screaming fans. When they aren’t expected to “dab” or “quan-quan” as they greet their teammates after said introductions. Or when they don’t have to high-five the mascot on their way out to the center court, dap up their homies on the opposing team and listen to confrontational non-sequitors from Joey Crawford before tip-off. Don’t start
With just one more week to go in the NBA season, it’s time for our final round of “Name That Big Man!” [Read more…]