HOUSTON — Is James Harden capable of being Kevin Durant 2.0 when it comes to post-FIBA growth? Many credited FIBA international play in 2010 with aiding Durant’s evolution into an NBA superstar. Now, fresh off a gold medal in Spain with the U.S. national team, Durant’s former teammate and good friend Harden is hoping to see a similar transformation of his own as he embarks on his third season as a franchise cornerstone, a Big Two alongside Dwight Howard for the Houston Rockets. The theme for
The summer of 2014 is remembered in Houston for what might have been. The most noteworthy names to highly consider forming a “Big 3” with James Harden and Dwight Howard were Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, but former Rocket point guard Kyle Lowry is firmly on that star-studded list as well. In a wonderful feature by Grantland’s Jonathan Abrams on Lowry’s career-long search for trust, Abrams outlines Lowry’s falling out with Houston head coach Kevin McHale in the 2011-12 season and the subsequent
After coming off one of his best seasons ever and winning the Sixth Man of the Year award over Jamal Crawford in 2013, J.R. Smith spiraled down in the wrong direction last season. Due to off-season knee surgery, Smith had no time to work on his game or stay in shape. Consequently, he started the 2013-2014 season comically bad, scoring 11.7 points on just 32.8 percent shooting in November and 12.4 points on 36.8 percent shooting in December. To be fair, Smith
Tuesday brought forth the beginning of the NBA free agency period and, with it, the subsequent Carmelo Anthony World Tour. The tour began with a visit to Chicago to meet with Bulls staff and players. During his stop in the Windy City, he was greeted by coach Tom Thibodeau, who rode with him to the United Center, where they met general manager Gar Forman and executive vice president John Paxson along with Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, Taj Gibson, Joakim Noah
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
Believe it or not, there’s someone out there who doesn’t think the Indiana Pacers are coming apart at the seams. “Everybody goes through this,” Spurs guard Tony Parker said last week after San Antonio manhandled Indiana, 103-77, on the Pacers’ home court. “I’m not worried about them. They’ll still make it to the Eastern Conference finals and they’ll still play Miami.” Parker is somewhat right. From time to time, every championship contender has a stretch during a season where they look ordinary.
Dwight Howard, James Harden and Chandler Parsons are the big-name players, but the Houston Rockets would not be a top-four team in the Western Conference without Patrick Beverley. Houston is 36-16 when Patrick Beverley starts, but they will miss him for at least two weeks (and likely for the duration of the regular season) with a torn meniscus. His replacement is one Jeremy Lin. You remember him, right? Even if Beverley doesn’t have the best offensive and defensive numbers, it doesn’t seem likely that Lin has
This past week, NBA TV released excerpts of an extended interview with LeBron James (airing in its entirety Monday night) in which Steve Smith asked “The King” to name his Mount Rushmore of basketball. James offered a quartet of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson. But it’s really an unfair question, because in addition to those four players, there are at least three more – centers Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell – who are in the