If you haven’t seen Lance Stephenson’s All-Star video, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with it before we begin this column. I’ll wait. For the rest of you—nice weather we’ve been having, right? Yeah. So, you come here often? I hope so. We’ve got some pretty cool stuff here. It’s a nice website. OK– you’ve seen it? So that was pretty cool, right? It reminded me of the old Michael Jordan-Mars Blackmon commercials. [Read more…]
Martin Luther King Day is more than a day of celebration and reflection for the NBA, which probably has done more positive things for race relations than any other sport in the Civil Rights Era. It also has become the unofficial midway point of the season. By the completion of Monday’s action, more than half of the league’s 30 teams will have played half their games. With that in mind, we present our midseason awards with this reminder from the bookie of hopeless
When you write a column about the NBA’s Most Improved Players, things can get emotional. As you can probably imagine, you start to adopt the guys you write about each week. It’s a common theme for those of us who chronicle the Most Improved Players in the league each season, and everyone I’ve ever met who does it feels the same way. OK, so we’re the only ones who do it. But still. You root for your guys, feel a sense of pride when they
The Bucks have played as badly as Danny Schayes looks in this photo. Just kidding, Danny! The Milwaukee Bucks are terrid. That’s right—they’re so bad, I had to make up a new word to describe them. It’s like that Sonic commercial where they needed to make up words to describe how delicious that chicken sandwich is. (I’m still trying to work “spice-dictive” into a sentence for the first time). Terrid is easier, though. It’s a combination of “terrible” and “horrid,” and
If you’re anything like me, you still can’t shake the Derrick Rose injury. It sticks with you like a gas station burrito, refusing to leave you alone no matter how badly you want to forget it. Every time I turn on League Pass, I’m reminded that one of the most explosive and entertaining players of this era is gone, and his career is probably never going to be the same. It’s pretty depressing. Fortunately, in times like these, we’ve got the Most Improved Player
Give me the beat, Obie! Time to channel Eminem. Guess who’s back. Back again. Dayton’s back. Tell a friend. Guess who’s back … guess who’s back … guess who’s back … I’ve created a monster. ‘Cause nobody wants to see MVP’s no more, they want the Most Improved Player Rankings. Well if you want most improved, this is what I’ll give ya. A little bit of me mixed with some hard Snickers. (They’re stale. But I need the sugar rush). These rankings will jump-start your heart quicker than
Indiana’s Paul George will go for his second consecutive playoff triple-double tomorrow night. Today, he gets to bask in the glory of an award. George, who earned his first All-Star Game berth en route to leading the Pacers to the Central Division crown and the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, is the winner of the 2012-13 NBA Most Improved Player Award. George received 311 of a possible 1,080 points, including 52 first-place votes, from a panel of 120 sportswriters and broadcasters
The 1,230-game NBA regular season ends Wednesday. The following morning, editor-in-chief Chris Sheridan will submit his ballot for the season-ending awards. I don’t have a vote but I am hoping to influence his thought process with my choices, which are below. If not, I am hoping I will make him laugh with my snotty remarks. Let’s get to it. [Read more…]