Rajon Rondo made his debut count with the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night against the San Antonio Spurs. The Mavs new point guard scored six points on 3-of-11 shooting and dished out nine assists, adding seven rebounds in a 99-93 victory. It seems like a typical Rondo night. He didn’t score until the third quarter, was well below 40% from the floor, but made all the plays we’ve seen him make in Boston the past eight plus years. [Read more…]
Chicago Bulls big man Pau Gasol has helped the team get off to a quick start, going 4-1 in their first five games. The Spaniard was the key free agent signing the team made over the summer to help solidify an already solid frontcourt with Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson. Gasol had a busy summer. He signed with the Bulls after leaving behind Kobe Bryant in LA, and was also a member of Spain’s National Team that played in the FIBA
Will LeBron James return to Team USA for the 2016 Olympics? Here’s a better question: Will Team USA even need him? Team USA’s global dominance is recalling the days of the original Dream Teams of the 1990s. The Americans steamrolled Serbia, 129-92, in the gold medal game of the 2014 World Cup in Madrid on Sunday, capping a tournament that became a coming-out party for a handful of new international stars. There were questions about the quality of Team USA’s roster following the withdrawal
MADRID — Team USA’s bus was parked in the narrow street outside the Palacio de los Deportes, and a crowd dozens of people deep — folks from Espana, Serbia and America, too — broke into a chant of “M-V-P” for Kyrie Irving as he exited the arena and made his way on board. He heard them, and he let them know that he had heard them. Kenneth Faried got a lot of love, too, and gave some back with that whiter-than-white
MADRID — The Red Foxes dance team held their practice right after Team USA held its practice, and many of the American players stayed around to watch. And why wouldn’t they? The Foxes, from Ukraine, are an extraordinary confluence of genetic brilliance with a ballerina meets pole dancer sexiness. Not one of them is shorter than 6 feet tall. The should call themselves the unicorns. They are a pleasure to watch, and a number of the American players did just that before posing
MADRID – “Until they show us for 40 minutes that they are the better team, I am not going to say they are the better team.” Consider the gauntlet thrown down. The thrower was Serbia coach Sasha Djordjevic. You may never have heard of Djordjevic, but he was a pretty good point guard back in the day. And way back in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics, he played on a Yugoslavia team that was the first squad to play a competitive game
During one of Team USA’s exhibition games prior to the World Cup, international basketball aficionado Fran Fraschilla had a simplistic but telling observation. Fraschilla said that no team at the World Cup will have as many NBA players than Team USA. That is a big advantage. Another big advantage Team USA has it that it can afford to let down for brief stretches of games. Other teams cannot. Lithuania coach Jonas Kaslauskas had firsthand experience with that dynamic in Thursday’s semifinal. After playing
September 11th. It is a day that carries a lot of meaning in America. 13 years ago two hijacked airplanes crashed into the North and South Towers of the Word Trade Center in New York City, a third plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and a fourth plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All told, the nearly 3,000 people died as a result of the attacks. In the years since, the area where the Twin Towers collapsed, known