Clutch sharpshooter Reggie Miller is among four first-time finalists for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The list of 12 finalists for the 2012 Hall class was announced Friday at All-Star Weekend in Orlando, Fla. Now an analyst for TNT, Miller did not make the list of finalists a year ago, when Dennis Rodman was inducted. Other first-timers among the 12 finalists announced Friday at All-Star Weekend in Orlando, Fla. are former NBA coach Bill Fitch, current Louisville coach Rick Pitino
Notes from around the NBA
According to a source, the NBA is hoping to add Lin to its All-Star lineup by having him participate in the Haier Shooting Stars competition during All-Star Saturday night. The competition features one current NBA player, one current WNBA player and one TNT on-air talent and legend on each team. Lin would be the obvious choice, especially since he has become an overnight sensation. He is 5-0 as a starter and the Knicks have won six straight games since Lin became
Tonight’s best game: Miami at Indiana
The Miami Heat can join some very exclusive company Tuesday night. The Heat complete the 20th set of back-to-back-to-back games when they visit the Indiana Pacers in the NBA’s best game. They can become just the third team to win all three – and the first to do it entirely on the road. Previously, only the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder have gone 3-for-3 over the most unforgiving portion of their schedule. The Bulls beat Detroit, won at Minnesota and defeated
Saturday night’s all right for fightin’
Guys were losing their cool all over the league Saturday night. Coaches, players, winners, losers – it didn’t matter. Things got out of control in Utah, Minnesota and Indiana, and fines and suspensions should be coming. Let’s start in Salt Lake City, where Lakers coach Mike Brown totally lost it in the fourth quarter of a 96-87 loss to the Jazz. LA trailed, 72-68, and Pau Gasol had possession at the top of the circle. Utah guard Earl Watson came from his blind
D’moralized Knicks lose again; Heat, Pacers win big
My first job out of college was as a baseball dictationist at the AP. Being a know-it-all twentysomething, I would invariably do something stupid about once a week. And when I did, an old salt of a newsman named Dick Joyce – who called everyone “Mersh” – would turn to me and say, “Uh, Mersh, where you workin’ next week?” It might be time to ask Mike D’Antoni the same question. The embattled coach of the New York Knicks watched his team lose
Knicks find a team they can beat; Celtics gag but don’t choke
// // Carmelo Anthony returned, and the Knicks finally won a game. Forgive the cynical New York media if it wasn’t that impressed. The Knicks were back home and hosting the Detroit Pistons, who would have trouble winning games if they played in the Big Ten Conference instead of the Central Division. In a season of awful performances, this one may have been the worst. Detroit established season “highs” for points allowed and margin of defeat, which is saying something when you
Sheridan on Lakers/Clippers, contract extensions, and the Nuggets & Pacers
csprtContainer(); The Bulls suffered their first home loss, the Lakers & Clippers scuffled in LA, Kevin Love got paid — but Eric Gordon didn’t. CineSport’s Noah Coslov & Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops.com discuss the latest NBA news.
Lakers avenge earlier loss to Clippers, and we now have a rivalry
Circle your calendars: April 4. We can definitely call it a rivalry now, this thing the Clippers and Lakers have going between them. That might have been the Game of the Season last night on the one month anniversary of the start of the NBA season, a chippy, physical, psychodramatic 96-91 victory by the Lakers over their co-tenants at the Staples Center. No blood was spilled, but there was pushing, shoving, wrestling, cursing, six technical fouls, a flagrant, an ejection … and