It might sound ridiculous to try to compare Aron Baynes, an undrafted reserve with four career starts, to Bill Laimbeer, a four-time All Star and NBA champion. However, the two have more in common than you would expect. Before Laimbeer became the ringleader for the Pistons’ Bad Boys and a namesake for a Super Nintendo videogame, he was an afterthought. Sandwiched in the draft between two players who never appeared in the NBA, Laimbeer – the 65th overall pick in 1979 – was forced to
When the Brooklyn Nets somehow acquired Andrei Kirilenko for the low, low price of $3.18 million for next season (and a player option for roughly the same amount the following season) it was reported that executives around the league were furious, due to what they believed to be foul play, behind the scenes. Owner Mikhail Prokhorov and Kirilenko have ties in Russia, and it was under the assumption that the forward was accommodated in ways that don’t necessarily show in
In any seven-game series, the biggest adjustments by coaches are usually made between Games 1 and 2. Those adjustments – and a sense of urgency – have contributed to some of the best Game 2 showdowns in recent NBA Finals history. As we will do throughout the Finals, we have compiled a list of the five best Game 2’s since 1984, when David Stern became commissioner (and the playoffs went to a 16-team format). In all five games listed below, the team that