With just over 24 hours until the NBA trade deadline, rumors are swirling and NBA players and GMs are contemplating their futures. Be careful what you put stock into, though. [Read more…]
The All-Star break has come and gone, and the trade deadline is here. (We’ll get to that.) But the biggest story in California this week – the biggest in the NBA, really – came Monday with the death of Lakers owner Jerry Buss. It will have a serious impact on the league’s most important brand, so it makes sense to start there. [Read more…]
There is an old adage that relates to both the sports and business world: “people are your most important asset.” Since it’s no secret that the NBA is a bottom-line league, as Thursday’s trade deadline rapidly approaches these words of wisdom become even more ubiquitous. But that doesn’t make them necessarily true. People are not your most important asset. The RIGHT people are. [Read more…]
We are 48 hours away from the NBA trade deadline. Deals are being discussed, deals are going to happen, and deals are going to fall through. Happens every year. What makes this year different is the new collective bargaining agreement, with harsher luxury tax penalties on the horizon beginning with the 2013-14 season. The luxury tax line is going to act as a hard cap for all but the wealthiest owners – like guys who own gold mines in Siberia. So expect to
Over the All-Star break, news broke that longtime Los Angeles Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss had been hospitalized and was battling cancer. Monday, Dr. Buss passed away. [Heisler on Buss: As owners go, he stands alone] Many NBA players (former and current), owners and personnel sent their regards via Twitter. [Read more…]
LeBron James came into the weekend with the hype he’s built through the monstrous 60 percent, 30-point tear that he’d been on for nearly seven straight games. Kevin Durant dropped (another) 30-spot: It was his third straight 30-point All-Star game. Kobe Bryant made an timely, game-sealing block with the West up 134-126 and under 2:40 seconds to play in the game. Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade each played a well-rounded game. [Read more…]
Dwight Howard is the best center in the NBA. Yes, still. He also is (a) incapable of making an elbow jumper, (b) unreliable at the free-throw line, (c) susceptible to long-term injury, (d) hypersensitive to criticism from teammates and coaches, (e) more interested in becoming the next Bill Murray rather than the next Bill Russell and (f) wondering why no one has handed him the icon status he desperately craves. But the worst thing Howard is – and unlike the items above,
There have been three true NBA dynasties, but only one that is attributable to an owner. Red Auerbach, a coach and general manager, gets all the credit for Boston’s dominance in the 1960s; Michael Jordan merits the same in Chicago for his pair of three-peats with the Bulls, and Jerry Buss, who died Monday at age 80, deserves major props for what he did with the Lakers. [Read more…]