This is the final edition of the MVP Rankings that will be published from our corporate headquarters in New York this month. As I promised in the preseason, I am heading to Las Vegas to gamble on basketball and write about it on this site, diary style. Wish me luck. I know, I know … they build great big hotels in Vegas because of folks who head out to the desert trying to get rich quick. Myself? Not really trying to get
Advertisement The Western Conference is absolutely nothing like the Eastern Conference when it comes to championship odds. We have what I call a two-horse race in the East versus what I am going to call the six-plus team race in the West. In the 15 previous seasons, only four teams (the Lakers, seven times; the Spurs, five times, the Mavericks, two times; the Thunder, once) have won the Western Conference, which is a similar concept to what the Eastern
NBA referees have had better weeks. On Thursday, the league admitted that Blake Griffin should not have been given a technical foul – his second of the game, resulting in an ejection – in the Christmas matchup between the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors. On Tuesday, the league announced that Dallas forward Shawn Marion should have been called for a foul on his “blocked shot” on Minnesota’s Kevin Love at the end of Monday’s 100-98 win by the Mavericks. [Read
First off, play this video. It is my Christmas present to y’all, and you are guaranteed to laugh at least once while going through this column. And never forget: Laughter kills the blues. You may end up shaking your head, too, because it is an extremely subjective thing to be ranking so many top-tier players who are currently having top-tier seasons. I’ve been saying through the first third of the season that this is a four-man race this NBA season, and the
Not to mislead, there is not a tree competition among NBA players. However, in light of the Christmas season—today being Christmas Eve—a few players, namely Boston Celtics rookie Kelly Olynyk, New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday and Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love, took to Instagram and Twitter to post pictures of their families trees to help spread Holiday cheer. [Read more…]
I know it’s early, but Minnesota’s Kevin Love has an outside chance to do something that’s only been accomplished by three players in NBA history: Lead the league in scoring and rebounding in the same season. Love leads the NBA in rebounding with 13.9 per game and is third in scoring with a 25.9 average. He trails scoring leader Kevin Durant by 2.2 points a game, a substantial margin but one that’s not impossible to overcome with more than two-thirds of
The Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers will square off for the first time tonight in Indianapolis since the Heat defeated the Pacers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals last spring. [Read more…]
The gambling life ain’t easy, folks — which is where today’s tale begins. But by the time you get to the end of today’s column, hopefully you’ll be amused by my personal adventures and enlightened by my leaguewide analysis. We are at the quarter-pole of the NBA season, and trends have emerged. First, to truly appreciate what it means to gamble on the NBA on a daily basis, you had to experience what it was like to bet on the Philadelphia 76ers