It’s a good thing NBA media members voted for Gregg Popovich as Coach of the Year. Because if the San Antonio Spurs win the championship, we won’t want to look back at the voting 20 years from now and wonder how the man who pulled off perhaps the greatest single-season coaching job in league history didn’t win the award. I didn’t believe Popovich was the Coach of the Year. I thought the award should have gone to Jeff Hornacek of Phoenix, who
Having been to nine NBA Finals, winner of five, Earvin “Magic” Johnson is more of an expert on what it takes to make it to the promised land than most, save for Bill Russell and Phil Jackson, among only a select few others. With the start of the 2014 NBA Finals just days away, Magic took to Twitter to share some insight into what it is going to take for the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat to win. [Read more…]
The Detroit Pistons named Jeff Bower as Stan Van Gundy’s new general manager, the team announced Tuesday afternoon. Bower served as the Charlotte/New Orleans/OKC Hornets’ GM from 2001 to 2003 and 2005 to 2010 and comes to Detroit after a stint as head coach of Marist College. Bower will report to Van Gundy, who will make the final decisions for Detroit, and his experience as a player personnel guru, talent evaluator and head coach will help ease Van Gundy’s transition into
Fresh off an appearance on L.A. radio, I went on the air in Oklahoma City today, too, and the mood was a lot different.Shocker, eh? As always, I do not have a rooting interest in who wins this series. Like always, I just hope for a good story. Well, today my wishes were answered as folks around the world debated the blown replay and the thrilling final moments of Tuesday night’s Clippers-Thunder game. That was the main topic of discussion in this
Here we are in the critical stage of the second round of the NBA playoffs, and it seems folks would prefer to talk about Donald Sterling, or the many NBA coaching vacancies, rather than the actual game itself. Why is that? Well, the Sterling case long ago crossed over from the sports realm to the mainstream realm, and scandals never fail to overwhelm normalcy. Also, the basketball fans in NBA cities outside of Indianapolis, Miami, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio,
With much of the national discourse centering on Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, the reality of the matter is that a lifetime ban and a $2.5 million fine is the limit to what NBA commissioner Adam Silver is capable of doing. The rest falls on the shoulders of 29 team owners, as they—according to the NBA’s Constitution and By-Laws—must vote with a 3/4’s majority to force the sale of the team. Players, media pundits and people all across the nation
Wednesday is the final night in the NBA regular season. It brings with it a lot of fun and excitement, as all 30 teams are in action. It also features quite of a few games of great import, seeing as there are more than a few teams jockeying for position in the playoffs. More than anything, for a lot of NBA athletes, it brings a moment of reflection: An entire year of hard work is coming to a close. For some, the
This is a tough column to write. It’s the last edition of the Most Improved Player Rankings, and like John Boehner at an eighth grade science fair, I’m about to lose it. I uhh…I just want to tell you all how much you mean to me. (Voice cracks) It’s been another incredible year in this column space. We’ve talked about Ike Manfresca, the Oscars, Seinfeld, the genetic connection between twins, existentialism, John Lennon, Mars Blackmon, and un-seeing the Eastern Conference standings. We even compared every candidate to a character in