Monday morning Hall of Fame head coach and NBA broadcaster Dr. Jack Ramsay, 89, died. The cause of death was immediately known, though he had endured a long battle with cancer and had been recently diagnosed with a marrow syndrome. Ramsay, a permanent fixture around the NBA, began his professional career in Philadelphia with the 76ers as their general manager, taking the team to an title. He later became their head coach, staying with the Sixers for four years. He had later
Believe it or not, there’s someone out there who doesn’t think the Indiana Pacers are coming apart at the seams. “Everybody goes through this,” Spurs guard Tony Parker said last week after San Antonio manhandled Indiana, 103-77, on the Pacers’ home court. “I’m not worried about them. They’ll still make it to the Eastern Conference finals and they’ll still play Miami.” Parker is somewhat right. From time to time, every championship contender has a stretch during a season where they look ordinary.
Media pundits argue all of the time about which athletes contain the “clutch gene.” Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Ray Allen, Tom Brady, John Elway rank among the greats in the respective sports. Even players like Tim Tebow have garnered acclaim for playing big in the clutch moments. Kentucky Wildcats guard Aaron Harrison has proven himself to be a major “clutch” player with ice in his veins. For three games in-a-row heading into the NCAA National Championship game, he has hit the go-ahead three-point
The NCAA College Basketball Tournament is underway. Millions of people had hopes of raking in the cash with Yahoo! and Quicken Loans offering a $1 Billion reward for a perfect bracket. However, most of their hopes have been dashed, thanks in large part to two unlikely upsets. Los Angeles Lakers guard Kent Bazemore is all about it, having played for a mid-major school that made a Cinderella run of its own, stringing along unlikely upsets with Old Dominion from the Colonial Athletic
Some time this June, the NBA will crown a champion for the 2013-14 season. The odds tell us that the champion will have done little to nothing the previous February at the trading deadline. NBA enthusiasts, zealots and, yes, writers obsess and go into circuit overload in the third week of February – this coming week, in case you weren’t paying attention. But if history is any guide, the chances are remote that a team will make a trade which it
Finally. After much anticipation, and to some chagrin, the NBA’s coaches have submitted their list of reserves for the forthcoming 2014 NBA All-Star game in New Orleans, LA. Many of the All-Star reserve selections are expected, though there were a few selections (and snubs) that were unconventional, though deserving. In the Eastern Conference, Chris Bosh [Miami Heat], DeMar DeRozan [Toronto Raptors], Paul Millsap [Atlanta Hawks], John Wall [Washington Wizards], Joe Johnson [Brooklyn Nets], Roy Hibbert [Indiana Pacers] and Joakim Noah [Chicago Bulls] all join
Remember that streak of games hot-shooting LeBron James put together last February? Well, he’s doing it again. Much earlier in the season. And for a longer stretch. And if he keeps it up, it will become historic. Because since the ABA-NBA merger, no wing player or point guard has scored this much while shooting this well. Not Dr. J. Not even Michael Jordan. Yes, really. Through the first month of the season, James is third in the league in scoring at 26.2 points per
So I’ve been playing NBA 2K14 for a few weeks now, and I’m into late January in my Association mode. I’m playing as the Mavericks, for reasons I can’t really explain except by saying I thought playing as Monta Ellis would be fun. And it is. What’s more fun, though, is making minor trades and tweaking players’ minute allotments. Like, I just traded DeJuan Blair for Peyton Siva and Kyle Singler so I could reallocate Blair’s six minutes a game to