When the NBA Finals tip off Thursday night, each team will have one member of the All-NBA Teams announced Wednesday. The Miami Heat will have forward LeBron James, who was joined on the All-NBA First Team by forward Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City, center Joakim Noah and guards James Harden of Houston and Chris Paul of the LA Clippers. Durant, the NBA MVP, was the lone unanimous choice with 125 votes. James came up one vote shy. The San Antonio Spurs will
2014 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah led all vote getters for the NBA All-Defensive First Team. The NBA released the 2014 All-Defensive teams Monday afternoon. Leading the charge was the 2014 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year and Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, who led all vote getters. He was the only player to get triple-digit votes for the First Team, tallying 105 such votes as well as another 13 Second Team votes
LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard figure to be seeing a lot of each other over the next two weeks. That will be the small forward matchup in the NBA Finals. Just like last year, it should be a good one, because both players were named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team on Monday. Neither the Miami Heat nor the San Antonio Spurs have anyone on the All-Defensive First Team, which was voted on by the media and has Defensive Player of the
We almost got to hear Donald Sterling’s side of the story. Almost. TMZ.com is reporting that Sterling bailed out of a planned interview with ABC News and Barbara Walters, deciding he was not prepared, along with a second interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. The woman at the center of the scandal surrounding him, V. Stiviano, kept up her side of the bargain and sat with the woman once called BabaWaWa. “I think he feels really alone, Now really supported by those around
The Brooklyn Nets sent a message to the Toronto Raptors and Drake. Brooklyn let Toronto know the “dinosaurs” aren’t extinct yet and trolled Drake unlike anyone has ever before. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce turned the clock back to their collective Boston Celtics heydays. Joe Johnson continued to be the offensive catalyst from the wing by drawing double-teams and scoring at will when isolated. Deron Williams responded to heavy criticism by overcoming an ankle injury and playing like a $100 million franchise
NEW YORK – Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, the centerpiece of a defense which held opponents to a league-low 91.8 ppg, is the recipient of the 2013-14 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, the NBA announced today. Noah becomes the first Bulls player since Michael Jordan in 1987-88 to earn the honor. Noah received 555 of a possible 1,125 points, including 100 first-place votes, from a panel of 125 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Indiana’s Roy Hibbert (166
The Wizards made us really, really upset on the final night of the regular season by moving up from sixth place to fifth place, denying us a rematch of last year’s Bulls-Nets series that went seven games and was won by Joakim Noah in his old home borough. Well, I guess it wasn’t the Wizards’ fault. All the Nets needed to do to lock up that matchup (and avoid the Heat in the second round) was beat Cleveland. Instead, they lost
In a break with tradition, I am casting my NBA awards ballot after the 81st game, not the 82nd. It’s a rarity, but this season I will not hem and haw and sleep on it until the afternoon after the final day of the season. You’re welcome. I have been an official NBA postseason awards voter for nearly a decade, and it would have been longer if not for a rule at the Associated Press, where I worked from 1987-2005, forbidding