Although the Oklahoma City Thunder deserve the gushing praise that has been dispensed on their behalf, it would seem slightly premature to begin measuring for ring sizes. The Thunder are young and exciting. They have the youngest scoring champion in NBA history and he has a superstar guard as a sidekick. The third scorer has improved markedly from last season and unquestionably has star qualities. And none of those three – Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden – has yet to
BARCELONA — Four days ago, this site was the first to publish Team USA’s preliminary roster, 19 names out of which Mike Krzyzewski is expected to whittle another Olympic champion. After winning golds at both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Championships with entirely different dozens, I’m in no position to question how the Jerry Colangelo regime at USA Basketball does business. But the problem with these 19 is that they don’t leave you with much firepower for friendly argument. Sure,
Out of the six games tonight, the best features the Spurs’ visit to the Thunder on NBA-TV as both clubs try to end somewhat shameful streaks. San Antonio remains a perfect 6-0 at home after defeating Denver 121-117 last night, but is still searching for its first road victory of the season. Oklahoma City has had no trouble winning on the road, proving so yesterday with a 98-95 victory over Houston, but are losers of six straight to San Antonio. The Spurs catch
One nice upside of the NBA lockout is that tampering rules are not fully in effect. Yes, team executives cannot talk about other teams or other players or even their own players, but LeBron James is not a member of management and thus is exempt from the rule until the lockout is settled. So call it tampering, or call it recruiting. But whatever the case, James is making the countdown to settlement day all the more interesting. From Ira Winderman of the South Florida