Why is the trade deadline different from all other nights of the year? It’s not. The West just got tougher. In the East, where there’s no life-or-death importance attached to getting better, the top teams sat this one out while the bad teams—your Knicks and 76ers—dumped, shut down or otherwise disposed of their best players in order to tank more definitively. [Read more…]
Every team wants a player in the NBA All-Star Game. Just this week, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban complained that the voting system is “absolutely, positively broken” and lobbied for the NBA to provide additional roster spots for reserves who may have been overlooked by the fans. His reasoning was that leading vote-getter Stephen Curry received a mere 1.5 million votes, which is a miniscule total when you consider the global, electronic balloting process. As he often does, Cuban made some good
Now that Josh Smith is gone, what does the long-term future hold for Greg Monroe? A rival executive believes he will end up with the New York Knicks. “I could see $48 million for four years. I don’t think he’s a max (contract) guy, but he is pretty good. He might get more based on who is left on the board. I could see New York overpaying him,” the executive told SheridanHoops. Monroe has a trade veto after signing his qualifying offer
It’s been 175 days since New York and Dallas completed a six-player trade that sent Tyson Chandler to the Mavericks and Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert and Shane Larkin to the Knicks. Late in the afternoon on June 25, both teams looked like they upgraded in different ways in Phil Jackson’s first major deal as Knicks president. Dallas needed rim protection and added a familiar face in Chandler, a starter on their 2011 title team. New York needed a competent point guard in
Mark Cuban wants the Dallas Mavericks to become an Eastern Conference team, and he appears to be dead serious about it. Based on how the respective conferences look these days, can you blame him? The West has absolutely demolished the East in the early going with a combined record of 55-23 (!!!). With that kind of differential, it’s no surprise to see that the West has nine teams with a 60 percent or better winning percentage, while the East only has three such
Amid the showers of thanks and gratitude for our nation’s war veterans and those currently serving in the military, a single tweet crossed the wire remembering one of the founding members of the Sugarhill Gang. Henry “Big Bank Hank” Jackson, 57, passed away early Tuesday of complications from cancer. Big Bank Hank, along with Wonder Mike and Master Gee, all of whom hailed from Englewood, New Jersey, were assembled by producer producer Sylvia Robinson. Their 1979 hit, “Rapper’s Delight,” was the
Game 1 of TNT‘s season-opening doubleheader on Tuesday is headlined by the businesslike Spurs receiving and celebrating their championship rings in front of Mark Cuban and in-state rival Dallas. Game 2, on the other hand? That one, appropriately for the network, is all about the drama. [Read more…]
One of the common complaints about the NBA – and a somewhat legitimate one at that – is that there are only a half-dozen teams or so that can truly win the championship. Think about it: Who do you have winning it all this season? Chances are it’s one of the “Fab Five” – Cleveland, Chicago, San Antonio, Oklahoma City or the Los Angeles Clippers. And you’re not off base, either. One of those teams is my pick – our staff’s