With a mix of sadness and pride, I am shuttering SheridanHoops.com — the Web Site I founded in September 2011 and which published daily through five NBA seasons. I come from a family of journalists, and there is a level of disappointment that comes from deep inside me. You only get one or two chances to do something truly dynamic in life, and assembling a crew of veteran NBA writers — mixed in with several younger go-getters to produce quality basketball journalism
In my latest SheridanHoops previews for the upcoming season I have the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks as playoff teams. What about the rest of the league? Can Kobe Bryant carry the Lakers to the playoffs with Steve Nash now out for the season? Is this the year the Chicago Bulls fulfill their potential and reach the NBA Finals? Are the Cleveland Cavaliers the title favorites with LeBron James and Kevin Love joining forces with Kyrie Irving? With that in mind, I joined FOX
Last season began with championship expectations for the Brooklyn Nets, thanks to the headline additions of three future Hall of Fame stars: Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce on the court, and Jason Kidd on the sidelines. However – less than a year later – Kidd has burned his Brooklyn bridge with the Nets, Pierce signed with the Wizards this summer and Garnett is coming off the worst statistical season of his career. Furthermore, key role players such as Shaun Livingston, Andray Blatche
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
The San Antonio Spurs and the organization’s two stalwarts, Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich, are coming off a fifth championship and are poised for another title run next season – provided Duncan doesn’t retire. With five championships in a 15-year period, the Spurs have made a claim to be considered a dynasty. However, some people – most notably Phil Jackson – would disagree because the Spurs haven’t won consecutive titles. Jackson won three consecutive championships on three separate occasions (1991-93, 96-98, 2000-2002).
Masai Ujiri made his first trip to Brooklyn since his infamous remarks about the borough before Game 1 at a fan rally in Toronto. “F*ck Brooklyn,” Ujiri said. (Some of you might not have known exactly what Ujiri said. Now you know.) Sitting courtside at Barclays Center before Game 3, Ujiri spoke with SheridanHoops about the incident and the hostile environment the Raptors would face in Brooklyn going forward. “It wasn’t about Brooklyn, honestly,” Ujiri told SheridanHoops. “I apologized to Brooklyn, I apologized
“I want to be a free agent,” Carmelo Anthony told the New York Observer prior to the season. By publicly saying so, Anthony’s impending free agency became a constant and colossal distraction as large as the Empire State Building and simultaneously induced a chain reaction of numerous rumors during the season. J.R. Smith playfully alluded to the constant media speculation when asked if he would talk to Anthony about his future this summer. “I’m not going to talk to him at all,” Smith
New York’s worst nightmare became a reality when the Knicks were officially eliminated from the playoffs. “The beginning of the season, nobody ever thought we would be in this situation, this position that we’re in right now,” Carmelo Anthony said Sunday. After missing the playoffs for the first time in his career, Anthony appears further from competing for a championship than ever before. As a result, the Chicago Bulls have become New York’s top competition for Anthony’s services this summer. Anthony spoke glowingly of