Been too long since the last MVP rankings, nearly two whole weeks. A lot has been happening during that time, and I have a few stories to tell — new and old, before we get into the latest rankings. This morning’s New York Times brings news that the United and Cuba will restore full diplomatic relations. But wait … no tourism for Americans, and no democracy for Cubans? Hey, you never know what kind of a surprise the Old Gray Lady
So Mark Cuban wants to move his Mavericks, the Spurs, the Rockets and the Pelicans to the Eastern Conference, replacing them in the West with the Bucks, the Bulls, the Pacers and the Pistons. And as he predicted after making that suggestion to New York and Dallas reporters as he did one of his StairMaster workouts Wednesday night, his idea will turn into “headline porn.” As a publisher, I get what he means. If I publish “The 10 Hottest NBA Cheerleaders” it
DeMarcus Cousins has not picked up a single technical foul yet, which means he is on pace to accomplish his self-proclaimed goal of getting whistled for a maximum of five “T”s all season. His team is the surprise of the Western Conference, with all due respect to the conference-leading Grizzlies, Rockets and Warriors, and he is in the top 10 in scoring (23.0 ppg, 9th) and rebounding (11.1, 8th) following a summer in which he went through a much-needed maturation process
I am taking a lot of flack on social media today after I was the only voter to place LeBron James on his Second Team All-NBA ballot, and that’s OK. Everyone has the right to their own opinion. We have been over this before, since I cast my ballot in mid-April, wrote about it and went on the air with CineSport to explain my reasoning. In a nutshell, this is it: There were only two forward spots on the All-NBA ballot. I gave them to the players
I caught some grief from all corners today after news came out that I was the only voter among 125 who had Blake Griffin second, behind Kevin Durant and ahead of LeBron James, in the NBA’s Most Valuable Player voting. Quite frankly, I am stunned I was the only one. Doc Rivers made the case in April that Griffin was the better No. 2 candidate, and that was something I decided, too, over the final two months of the season — a time
No surprise that Kevin Durant is the NBA’s MVP. Should we be surprised that he was not unanimous? That was a question I posed in the latter editions of the MVP rankings I published every Wednesday during the regular season, and in one of the final versions I wrote that some members of the South Florida media would likely vote for LeBron James, denying Durant a unanimous vote. Turns out that six first-place votes were cast for James — but none from South
Wow, you sure can catch a lot of grief when you tell folks you voted LeBron James to 2nd Team All-NBA. I put that word out on Twitter at midweek, and I have been fending off venom ever since. Hey folks: Here’s the explanation. Try to read through it and watch the entire video before tweeting your disgust, OK? Actually, I find the selection quite reasonable. First of all, the All-NBA ballot must include a center, two forwards and two guards on each
In a break with tradition, I am casting my NBA awards ballot after the 81st game, not the 82nd. It’s a rarity, but this season I will not hem and haw and sleep on it until the afternoon after the final day of the season. You’re welcome. I have been an official NBA postseason awards voter for nearly a decade, and it would have been longer if not for a rule at the Associated Press, where I worked from 1987-2005, forbidding