The 2014 Basketball World Cup is finally here. And you need to take it seriously, because everyone else does. Thanks to NBC and the other fall-in-line media outlets, most Americans believe the Olympics is the premier international basketball event. Globally, nothing could be further from the truth. With 24 teams and no automatic bid for the host, the World Cup is twice the size of the Olympics. It doesn’t share the spotlight with track or swimming. And most of the players will
The latest version of Team USA that is preparing to defend its title at the World Cup of Basketball in Spain is much bigger than previous editions. But is it better? Previous American squads were built around perimeter players such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kevin Durant, none of whom are here this time around. The stud of this squad appears to be Anthony Davis, who was entering his senior year of high school when the last World Cup was
After Kevin Durant quit (to borrow a phrase from Sheridan) and Paul George’s devastating broken leg, the hosts of the 2014 Basketball World Cup have emerged as legitimate contenders for a gold medal. While Team USA remains the odds-on favorites according to sportsbettinginfo.com to take the gold, despite clearly sending a “B” team, they will have their work cut out for them overcoming a cohesive Spanish team in a potential Gold Medal game. The Spanish national team will be in Group A with France
LAS VEGAS – Day 1 of Team USA’s training camp was point guards. Day 2 is frontcourt bigs. Right now, it seems as though the consensus is condor-like Anthony Davis is the only sure thing to make the 12-man roster going to Spain for the World Cup. After that, everything else is up in the air. The other candidates are power forwards Kenneth Faried and Paul Millsap and centers Andre Drummond and DeMarcus Cousins. And the guy I want to talk about is
BROOKLYN — One season after the Jason Kidd experiment failed in bizarre fashion, the Brooklyn Nets introduced the man the franchise should have hired in the first place. Lionel Hollins isn’t here for power struggles, whether they be with staff members, GM Billy King or ownership. He’s here to coach. “I’m a basketball coach,” Hollins said. “I don’t want to do Billy’s job. I don’t want to do anybody else’s job in the organization but the one that I’m hired to do
2014 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah led all vote getters for the NBA All-Defensive First Team. The NBA released the 2014 All-Defensive teams Monday afternoon. Leading the charge was the 2014 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year and Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, who led all vote getters. He was the only player to get triple-digit votes for the First Team, tallying 105 such votes as well as another 13 Second Team votes
The Oklahoma City Thunder lost to the Memphis Grizzlies 111-105 in overtime in Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs, but they only managed to get that far because of Kevin Durant, who hit the most ridiculous shot of the year in the fourth quarter. With 13.3 seconds left in regulation and down 98-93, Durant found himself in the corner to catch a pass from Russell Westbrook. With Marc Gasol draped all over him, Durant lost balance and was
A certain someone made a bold prediction prior to the season that the Memphis Grizzlies would be facing the Indiana Pacers in the NBA finals. OK, it was me. Which means you can guess which way my prediction is going to go, for better or worse. You do not get to divorce yourself from your preseason predictions unless something crazy happens along the way, such as a team trading away its best player of something similar (that was the case last