Media Day is in full swing for a number of teams, which means we will be flooded with quotes in the next few days or so about championship desires, expectations of making the playoffs (even if your team has no shot at it) and players claiming they can shoot the ball now. We’ll have plenty of that and more in today’s blog. But first, be sure to check out some news on the knee situation of a couple of very important
With the season only about a month away, many of you will be interested in gearing up for one of the most popular sports games around: fantasy basketball. Our writer Kent Williams (@sheridanfantasy) has been all over the do’s and don’ts for your upcoming drafts, and as a long-time fantasy player myself, I can tell you that he is pretty much on the money with the analysis. If you missed it, be sure to check out the fantasy spin from today:
Since when did going after another player’s “jewels” become the act of frustration or retaliation in basketball? Just two days after watching Carmelo Anthony take a “cheap shot” to the groin from Argentinian guard Facundo Campazzo, we saw another hit to the groin take place on Wednesday when a frustrated Nicolas Batum threw a vicious shot at Juan Carlos Navarro. Check out what went down between France and Spain, along with how Team USA defeated Australia to move onto the semifinals below.
The French went down flagrantly, with a nut shot from Ronny Turiaf on Rudy Fernandez and a felonious foul by Nicolas Batum against Juan Carlos Navarro. France missed 11 consecutive shots before getting a meaningless one with 9 seconds left, and a new chapter of crunch time failure was added to Les Blues’ history book in a 66-59 quarterfinal loss at the Olympics in London. Batum committed an intentional foul that was so flagrant, a hard, long-armed swipe that knocked Navarro to
So we’re all getting a reminder of how things are really day-to-day in the Olympics, eh? A couple days ago, Carmelo Anthony had the new U.S. Olympics scoring record (37) and Team USA was considered unbeatable after they out Dream Teamed the original Dream Team and beat Nigeria by 83. Then we get through Day 4 of the competition, and the world has turned upside down. The single highest-scoring game now belongs to Patty Mills of Australia, who dropped 39 on Great
Russia’s done it with force, Spain with savvy, Team USA with unparalleled athleticism and Brazil with—well, Brazil’s undefeated, too. The South Americans barely snuck by the Aussies in the opener and withstood an indescribably impotent, four-point first quarter to keep Great Britain winless in game two. Thanks to that soft schedule and the even softer touch on Marcelinho Huertas’ floaters, Ruben Magnano’s squad are among the four teams with zeroes in the loss column. The ranks of the undefeated will shrink by
The Olympics is fully underway, which means you’ll be reading plenty of news about NBA players involved in the special event for the foreseeable future. In today’s news, you’ll find LeBron James’ take on Kevin Durant’s role on a team full of superstars, Nicolas Batum’s thoughts on Team USA, Kobe Bryant’s trackback on Dream Team comment along with some player movements. Kevin Durant has tried his best to not be a ball hog on a team full of dominant scorers, but
I am going to give you a Team USA gold-or-not prediction in this column, and I promise you a prediction that goes against the grain. That’s all I’ll say about that … for now. First, I’ll hand over the podium and relay a quote that could be the defining declaration concerning the London Olympics: “Let’s no longer beat about the bush. This summer’s Olympics Games are going to be a catalog of disasters. Not everything that can go wrong will go wrong.