Versatile forward Boris Diaw signed with the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, going from the league’s worst team to one of its best. Diaw was in the final year of his contract when he was bought out by the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday. He joins the Spurs, who are second in the Western Conference and appear intent on chasing another championship. Earlier this month, the Bobcats sat down Diaw, 29, for four games as they made a commitment to their younger players.
By Chris Sheridan And the first pertinent sub-question on that topic: Who will the big guys be? As in big and tall. Dwight Howard is the first name on that list, because like most of the 2008 Redeem Team, he has earned the right to defend the gold medal he won in Beijing. Ditto Chris Bosh. The same goes for Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant, and maybe to a slightly lesser degree to Chris Paul and Deron Williams. You can also set aside
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — Contrary to prior reports, Nenad Krstic does have a buyout clause in his two-year contract with CSKA Moscow, and it’ll cost him $1 million to return to the NBA for the 2012-13 season. Krstic revealed the buyout terms Friday in an exclusive interview with SheridanHoops.com following Serbia’s 87-77 loss to Greece in a classification game at EuroBasket. The loss cost the Serbs a chance to qualify for the 2012 Olympics at next summer’s pre-Olympic tournament in early July. “Actually I
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — The two European Olympic berths will be determined tonight in the EuroBasket semifinals as Macedonia plays Spain and Russia plays France. But first, there is a classification game between Greece and Serbia to determine which of the two teams will make it to next summer’s pre-Olympic qualifier (a.k.a. the FIBA second-chance tournament). Click here to see who is in that field so far. The last time the Serbs and the Greeks met, Nenad Krstic ended up spending the
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — The home team at EuroBasket still has a chance to make it to the Olympics, but it’ll be 10 months before Lithuania knows for sure. Sarunas Jasikevicius’ seventh assist of the afternoon, a pass to wide-open teammate Mantas Kalnietis behind the 3-point line, gave Lithuania a 79-77 lead over Slovenia with 19 seconds remaining. Jaka Lakovic missed a shot inside with 6 seconds remaining, Kalnietis made one of two shots from the foul line with 3.3 seconds remaining, and Slovenia’s last chance
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — This city is the birthplace and/or childhood home of Arvydas Sabonis, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Sarunas Marciulonis and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and by the end of next weekend it will be the metropolis (to use that word loosely) where the latest European champion is crowned. Eight teams have made it to the quarterfinals of EuroBasket, and the do-or-die portion begins Wednesday night with Spain-Slovenia and Macedonia-Lithuania. Thursday’s games are France-Greece and Russia-Serbia, and the semifinals — which will determine which two teams qualify for the 2012 Olympics