Through his very last timeout huddle with his team, Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks said all the right things. “We’re gonna treat them like they’re the champions,” Brooks instructed his club. “After this game, we’re gonna walk and shake their hands and acknowledge all of them. They beat us fair and square. However hard that hurts, they beat us fair and square. Give them credit.” Yes, Brooks said all the right things. It would have been nice if he had done all
Every year, Jimmy Kimmel on ABC provides entertaining segments on his show (Jimmy Kimmel Live!) with coverage of the NBA Finals, and this year has been no different. Check out Guillermo hysterically butcher the name of every player, call Derek Fisher a 65-year-old and most importantly, his notable interview with LeBron James. For Metta World Peace calling out James Harden, click here. For Jeremy Lin and Roy Hibbert on Jimmy Kimmel, click here. For all blog items, click here. Follow @NBATupark //
The wait is finally over. The Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder will go head-to-head on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. See who America is cheering for in today’s news, although the answer should be obvious. Mike Wise of Washington Post discussed why LeBron James should not be recognized as a villain: “Forget about the ’ball, I’m extremely proud of what he has done,” Walker said. “He’s taken care of his family. He’s staying out of trouble. I
OKLAHOMA CITY — There is an age-old truism pertaining to the NBA Finals that pertains to the question of old age. Young teams rarely, and we mean very rarely, win NBA championships. If the Oklahoma City Thunder somehow manage to emerge from the NBA Finals victorious, they’d be the first team with such a young nucleus to win the title since the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977 — a topic that our Hall of Fame columnist, Mark Heisler, addressed in his column
Somewhere in San Antonio, be it in somebody’s basement or in some large warehouse, are thousands upon thousands of “I Want Some Nasty” t-shirts with bleak futures as dishrags. Turns out the signature phrase of the 2012 NBA Western Conference finals was uttered by Gregg Popovich once again, but this one doesn’t have much of a future as a fashion statement. “We’re in trouble” was what Pop told point guard Tony Parker at the beginning of the fourth quarter, imploring his playmaker
With the Clippers beating the Grizzlies on Sunday, the second round of the playoffs is now in full swing. We hoped for the basketball gods to stop hitting players with the injury bug after watching so many occur in the first round, but those hopes went out the window when Miami’s Chris Bosh suffered an abdominal strain Sunday, leaving him in doubt for at least the rest of the series against Indiana. Here’s hoping we can witness some good old basketball without
NEWS The Atlanta Hawks’ Ivan Johnson and the Denver Nuggets’ Kenneth Faried were today named the NBA Eastern and Western Conference Rookies of the Month, respectively, for games played in April. The Indiana Pacers’ Frank Vogel and the Memphis Grizzlies’ Lionel Hollins today were named the NBA Eastern and Western Conference Coaches of the Month, respectively, for games played in April. Paul Pierce was back at practice for the Boston Celtics on Friday, a day after briefly leaving the regular-season finale with a
The Dallas Mavericks have been living off the glory of their NBA championship all season while simultaneously plotting their salary cap strategy to lure Deron Williams to Dallas next season, and Dwight Howard the year after. Jason Kidd will be elsewhere next season, Brendan Haywood will be amnestied, and a good portion of Dirk Nowitzki’s supporting cast figure to be castoffs if the plan to lure D-Will succeeds. The Thunder? Everybody loved them through March, and then they went 8-7