So much has been made of the trials and tribulations of LeBron James over the course of these NBA playoffs, which is to be expected. When you flame out the way James flamed out in the NBA Finals last June, you are going to be under a microscope — or a Hubble telescope as columnist Tom D’Angelo wrote in this Game 6 column. But how about we take a look at another of the stars in this series, and put him
BOSTON _ Heat forward Shane Battier marvels at the daily scrutiny his teammate LeBron James endures in his everyday life. James can’t make a move on or off the court that is not broken down, streamed and beamed all over the world. Battier often points out that James “is human,” and humans can only take so much. But Battier will have a hard convincing any members of the Boston Celtics that the three-time MVP is anything but superhuman after he scored 45
Tonight, the Boston Celtics will try to become the 16th team in NBA history to come back from an 0-2 deficit to win a playoff series. Yesterday, the Oklahoma City Thunder became the 15th. Here is the list of all the teams that have done it, and below are some interesting notes about the Celtics and Heat. Boston (vs. Los Angeles) 1969 Finals Los Angeles (vs. San Francisco) 1969 Western Division Semifinals Baltimore (vs. New York) 1971 Eastern Conference Finals Portland (vs. Philadelphia) 1977 Finals Chicago (vs. New York) 1993 Eastern Conference Finals Houston (vs. Phoenix) 1994 Western Conference
Somewhere in San Antonio, be it in somebody’s basement or in some large warehouse, are thousands upon thousands of “I Want Some Nasty” t-shirts with bleak futures as dishrags. Turns out the signature phrase of the 2012 NBA Western Conference finals was uttered by Gregg Popovich once again, but this one doesn’t have much of a future as a fashion statement. “We’re in trouble” was what Pop told point guard Tony Parker at the beginning of the fourth quarter, imploring his playmaker
It appears Dwyane Wade's status as an elite NBA guard might be slipping a bit.
(via @Jose3030)
Let’s get a little overly dramatic here, shall we? On what will forever be known as Black Wednesday everywhere from Boston to Brooklyn to Beijing to Barcelona, commissioner David Stern’s referees swallowed their whistles when Rajon Rondo got whacked in the forehead late in overtime, and Stern’s ping-pong ball machine magically delivered the No. 1 pick in the draft to the league-owned New Orleans Hornets — all on the same night Stern sounded as though he endorsed the idea of banning
csprtContainer(); Question: What’s the difference between the NBA and the outfit formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation? Answer: Beats me. Actually, there’s a huge difference between a game highlighting athletic grace and hand-to-hand combat between players assuming heroic or villainous personas: The WWF doesn’t have a ball. Otherwise, it’s getting too close for comfort for the NBA, even if league officials prefer to pull the strings from New York rather than issuing proclamations in the ring like Vince McMahon. These playoffs look less like a