The Oscars are over, and since I didn’t watch them or see any of the nominated movies, let’s get this Oscar-themed edition of the Most Improved Player Rankings under way! Because nothing says “balanced sportswriter” like a column full of misinformed pop culture references! The envelopes, please … Best Actor: Anthony Davis. This award goes to the best player in our group, and Davis is the clear choice there. He’s already one of the league’s best big men, and Pelicans fans have already started
We’re nearing the All-Star break, and that means it’s just past halftime in the race for NBA Most Improved Player. So far this season, we’ve discussed Eminem, Seinfeld, the genetic connection between twins, existentialism, John Lennon, Mars Blackmon, and un-seeing the Eastern Conference standings. It’s been a great time, and I think we’ve all learned a lot. I know I have. But now, like middle school gym class, it’s time to separate the men from the boys. So let’s take a look at each candidate,
If you know the difference between a basketball and a bocce ball, you know that upstart Florida Gulf Coast has come out of absolutely nowhere to capture the nation’s attention and become the first 15-seed in NCAA history to advance to the Sweet 16. What does this have to do with the Most Improved Player Rankings? Well, FGCU coach Andy Enfield called his team “the most improved team in the nation.” You know that caught our attention. That. of course, and
It’s March. And for those of us basketball junkies, that means it’s the most glorious month of the year. March is filled with sneaker-squeaking, pizza-scarfing, mini-hoop jamming madness. It’s a time when we fill out brackets until the blood from our paper cuts advance to the Sweet 16. We place an inordinate amount of self-worth into our clicker skills, hear buzzers sounding in our sleep and showcase Usain Bolt speed in media timeout fridge runs. [Read more…]
Here at the Most Improved Player Rankings, we’re known for our hard-hitting journalism. We’ve been told that we make Anderson Cooper look like Ahmad Rashad. Woodward and Bernstein still wonder how we found out about Greivis Vasquez. So in that tradition, I decided to go ahead and interview our top candidate for the Most Improved Player award, Magic big man Nikola Vucevic. It hardly matters that Vucevic told me that he’s never heard of me or the column, or that he responded with
Much like President’s Day or Halloween, the All-Star break is a time for reflection. It’s a time when loved ones gather ’round to watch the greatest basketball players on Earth take part in an exhibition not bound by trivialities such as defense or traveling violations. [Read more…]
Editor’s note: Kels was unavailable to put together the rankings this week (he was last seen building an Igloo somewhere in the woods in northwestern Connecticut). So in his place are Marv Albert, Bill Walton and Clyde Frazier. They were all invited to Kels’ igloo over the weekend to tape the following segment. Below is a transcript. MARV: WEL-come to the MOST IMPROVED Player Rankings, I’m Mahv Albut alongside Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Bill Walton. And Bill, we’ve seen A LOT of entertaining
In case you don’t subscribe to the opinion that this column is one of the five most important literary works of our time, I refer you to Super Bowl XLVII. [Read more…]