This week, there was a groundswell for Kevin Love’s inclusion in the MVP conversation. Thanks for joining us in 2012, folks. Love should should have been in it months ago. We know all the names that already comprised the conversation – LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul – with Tony Parker and Dwight Howard on the periphery. Those six candidates differ from Love in two ways. 1. They all play on winning teams. 2. This season, they all couldn’t wash Love’s socks. Yes,
Last week’s winner was Brendan Hoover, who correctly identified The Bernucca List as “active second-round picks who have made an All-Star team.” Brendan answered correctly within 10 minutes of the post in the middle of a weekday morning, which makes one wonder what his PER is at his job. That can be explored at another time. We have a new list below, which has three common denominators. First entirely correct answer gets a mention next week. You can answer
MIAMI – OK, he did it again. LeBron James, the talented and tormented Miami Heat forward, declined to take a late-game shot Friday at Utah. He saw a double-team coming and passed to forward Udonis Haslem, who missed a jumper. The Heat lost, 99-98. You’d be tempted to think it was the All-Star game all over again. It wasn’t. This wasn’t some made-for-TV pickup game. It was a regular-season game. It mattered. Now, the LeBron debate can continue. “At the end of the
In the last week, Kobe Bryant became the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history and Paul Pierce surpassed Larry Bird and now trails only John Havlicek as the leading scorer in Celtics history. Although each achievement was exceptional, such feats are not allowed to stand on their own. Not in sports. When records are set, there is a larger discussion – is that player the greatest of all-time in that sport or for that franchise? And if not, it is absolutely mandatory
Is Paul Pierce part of the Boston Celtics’ all-time team? On Tuesday, Pierce passed Larry Bird on the team’s career scoring list, moving into second place for the most historic franchise in the NBA. He is creeping up on 22,000 career points and still going strong. Pierce has a ways to go to catch Celtics all-time leader John Havlicek, whose total of 26,395 is even more remarkable when you consider he began his career as a sixth man. If Pierce passes Havlicek
Rebuilding the Lakers and Celtics…. Good luck. As the announcers say, It’s Always Special When These Two Teams Meet—at least, if one hasn’t fallen off the world, as the Celtics had in 2007 when Laker fans got “MVP!” chants going for Kobe Bryant in the Derek Jeter Center or FleetCenter or whatever they called it then. It’s still special going into Thursday night’s game in the—uh, TD Banknorth Garden–even if both are old and they’re trying to gum each other to death. If all