Larry Bird is entitled to his opinion. I just wish he’d explain it a little more clearly. Bird told Indianapolis Star beat writer Mike Wells that his team went “soft” in Game 5, which is a curious choice of words to say the least. Did Bird want the team’s self-described “smashmouth” style of play to become “smash-face?” Because Udonis Haslem and Dexter Pittman certainly played smash-face basketball, and the opinion here is that both will be sitting out Game 6 in Indiana
MIAMI – Order was restored to AmericanAirlines Arena Tuesday, both on and off the court. Well, order was restored after Miami Heat security and the Miami police handled the potential streaker. Apparently, there might be a $10,000 connection to hip-hop artist Rick Ross, who issued the 10k challenge to anyone bold enough to streak across the court wearing only MMG (Maybach Music Group) T-shirt. Making this streaker story even more bizarre is that supposedly the man was, well, rotund. Plump. Husky. OK,
Before the series between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers began, there was some notable trash-talking on the Pacers side from both the players and coach Frank Vogel – for which the coach promptly was fined $15,000 – calling the Heat floppers and actors of sorts. That’s all well and good, but Pacers forward Danny Granger has taken things to another level on the court. He has constantly gotten in the face of LeBron James often looking ready to brawl –
Linsanity has continued into the offseason as New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin was one of the 13 players chosen for the USA Select Team that train against Team USA in advance of the Olympics. The players were revealed Monday by USA Basketball. The baker’s dozen includes point guards and top overall picks Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers and John Wall of the Washington Wizards. Lin, whose rise from obscurity to stardom earlier this season transcended basketball, missed the playoffs while
Did the Boston Celtics take the bait? After the Celtics easily handled the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 3, reclaiming home-court advantage and the upper hand in their series with a convincing win, Sixers coach Doug Collins tried to plant a seed of overconfidence in Gang Green. “I think they are looking at that other series a little bit,” Collins said. “I think they see Chris Bosh being out (for Miami). They see a tremendous opportunity for themselves.” Whether Boston did or didn’t, it
// It was completely uncharacteristic for Dwyane Wade to snap at his coach the way he did last night. Part of Spoelstra’s job is to remind his players to get back on defense instead of admiring their bricks while the ball is in mid-air, and that seems to be one of the key things that precipitated the public clash between player and coach. As inexcusable as Wade’s outburst was (you don’t show up your coach like that, ever), what about looking
Late yesterday after noon I tweeted a link to our preview column on Thursday night’s games, asking (rhetorically) whether we would see another epic meltdown from LeBron James and the Heat — you know, something resembling going the final 2:41 without scoring a single point, or missing 15 of 16 3-pointers as they had done in Game 2. The tweet was not well received by Heat broadcaster Tony Fiorentino, who was coaching Gus and Ray Williams at Mount Vernon high school
It has now been 22 1/2 months since LeBron James abandoned his home state to take his talents to South Beach. He did so in the hope of winning championships with a better supporting cast. What he didn’t anticipate was how much weaker that supporting cast would become if one of the big three were to miss time due to injury, which is exactly what the Heat are going through right now. Unfortunately for King James, no one is feeling sorry for