TORONTO— Say this for Russell Westbrook: It’s only fitting that someone who embodies Kobe Bryant’s ceaseless competitiveness would take home the MVP award in Bryant’s final All-Star game. Westbrook-ASG Russell Westbrook scored 31 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out five assists to take home his second straight MVP award in a 196-173 win— a record number of points in the game and for the winning team— for the West over the East on Sunday night at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. “That’s
TORONTO– Carmelo Anthony is sick and tired of losing with the Knicks, but not yet tired enough to do something about it. Or so he says. New York stands at 23-32 at the All-Star break, 12th in the Eastern Conference. Unless the Knicks’ fortunes change rather dramatically over the final 27 games of the regular season, Anthony will miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season. “It’s tough,” Anthony told a horde of reporters in the basement of the Sheraton in downtown
In the late 1970s I was a very impressionable teenager desperately trying to be cool. But I didn’t want the charm of James Bond or the street smarts of The Fonz or the dance moves of Tony Manero. Besides, they were all fictional characters from movies and TV shows. I wanted my cool to be real. I wanted to be Darryl Dawkins. Dawkins died Thursday, leaving us way too soon at the age of 58. He claimed to be from the planet Lovetron,
After the Washington Wizards ended a season-high five-game losing streak Saturday with a 37-point victory over the Brooklyn Nets, Marcin Gortat wasn’t quite ready to declare that their earth was back on its axis. “At the end of the day, it was Brooklyn, so we can’t get really excited,” he said. There’s nothing like perspective. And Gortat is right: One win against a plodding, tired team is nothing to get excited about. What the Wizards should be is concerned. Prior to the win
Why do doubts remain about the Atlanta Hawks? The Hawks are 40-8. They have lost twice since Thanksgiving. They have beaten Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Dallas, the LA Clippers, Cleveland again, Portland, the Clippers again, Memphis, Washington, Toronto, Chicago again, Oklahoma City and Portland again. The Hawks just completed the best undefeated month in NBA history, going 17-0 in January. They have won 19 consecutive games, the fifth-longest streak in league annals. They have won 12 straight road games. What seems to be the
The glorious history of NBA All-Star Weekend is littered with bad ideas. Remember 2-Ball? The Wheel of Fortune at the Slam Dunk Contest? The game uniforms that had different colors on the front and back, so you couldn’t tell which players were on which team? This week, however, the NBA announced a change to one of the All-Star Weekend events that is a really good idea. The Rising Stars will pit American players against international players. The Rising Stars has undergone several changes
Whew. What a long weekend? Of course, you may have guessed, the weekend in question was the 2014 NBA All-Star Weekend which culminated in a record breaking, high scoring game Sunday night. Monday afternoon, a day after competing in the East’s 163-155 victory over the West in the All-Star Game, Miami Heat forward LeBron James took to social media to reminisce on how quickly time has flown by since he, teammate Dwyane Wade and New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony came into
Two days removed from a last-second Wednesday night loss to the Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors center Festus Ezeli, like many other NBA athletes, decided to use the All-Star break to travel. His flight, however, may have had some unnecessary stress due to the pilot’s lack of tact. Some time prior to takeoff, the pilot addressed the passengers over the intercom and revealed some rather unsettling news while expressing his expectation to arrive at their destination faster than the time that they