I am a big fan of Kevin Durant’s. He was a pleasure to cover at the 2010 World Championship in Istanbul (even though he confused me with Bill Simmons and thought, incorrectly, that I was the guy at ESPN who predicted Team USA would not win the gold medal). I also like Oklahoma City (cheap gasoline, convenient poker, Sam Presti, the Robert Swift days), and I like the state of Oklahoma, too (my youngest son’s middle name is Cache — pronounced
Tweet of the Day: LeBron James
He is looking for a flag football game against Kevin Durant, who played in one at Oklahoma State. @KingJamesLeBron James RT @KDTrey5: Set it up! My team ready RT @KingJames:@KDTrey5 Team KD35 vs Team King James do I hear? Flag football.(Done deal! Date soon)
Beasley scores 56 in Durant’s exhibition game
My tweeps were chirping at me in the first quarter about a faulty stream on thebasketballchannel.com, but apparently the bandwidth problem was solved in time to show a pretty decent fourth quarter at Kevin Durant’s exhibition game in Oklahoma City last night, won 176-171 in overtime by Durant’s team. Some stat lines: Michael Beasley, 56 points on 25-for-35 shooting — though he disappeared in the fourth quarter when some defense started to get played, according to ESPN.com’s Royce Young. Chris Paul, 25 assists — including
Tweet of the Day: Kevin Durant
@KDTrey5Kevin Durant If you’re not in OKC, you can stream the game [email protected] Game is at 6 CT time #BasketballNeverStops Expected to Play: LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul. Committed to play: Kendrick Perkins, James Harden, Lamarcus Aldridge, Jamal Crawford, Damien Wilkins, Michael Beasley and Jonny Flynn. Possible late additions: Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudamire, Russell Westbrook.
This e-mailer should be a reporter
By Chris Sheridan I got an e-mail from a reader who attended the “City of Brotherly Love vs. Chocolate City” charity game last weekend, and the more I read, the more I wondered why this dude hadn’t chosen journalism as a profession. He has a tremendous eye for detail. His name is Travis Hill, his Twitter is @THillTeev, and here is what he wrote. “I went to the DC-Philly charity basketball game at Coolidge High in Northeast DC Saturday night and it was one of
Bernucca column: Stupid is as stupid does
By Chris Bernucca This NBA lockout is a 12-inch stupid sandwich. The owners have been stupid in believing they could get back in one negotiation everything they have given away over the last 12 years. The players have been stupid in underestimating the backlash from a fickle fan base hit hard by a nationwide economic malaise. And both sides have been extremely stupid in coming close enough to shake hands, then refusing to with the childish insistence of “You first!” It is another in
Stern: Owners will quadruple revenue sharing by Year 4
csprtContainer(); By Chris Sheridan NEW YORK — NBA owners told nearly two dozen players Friday they plan to quadruple their revenue sharing by Year 4 of a new collective bargaining agreement, and commissioner David Stern went so far as to say that one of the three remaining items of contention has effectively been settled. “The three big things are the system, the economics, and revenue sharing, and we’ve taken care of one,” Stern said after the sides met for 4 1/2 hours and agreed to
Who will play for Team USA in 2012?
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