By now, we all know that Phil Jackson is looking to make some major changes within the New York Knicks organization. He has fired Mike Woodson and his coaching staff, is making internal changes (or at least trying to do so with some resistance from Jim Dolan), has already stated that he will move forward with or without Carmelo Anthony, and will soon hire a new coach. Whether he’s doing everything correctly remains to be seen, but at the very least,
UCONN upset Kentucky Monday night in the National Championship game, defeating the wildcats 60-54 in an up-and-down game that they led buzzer-to-buzzer. There were big shots and highlight plays made all night by NBA level talent. The game could have gone either way until UCONN wrapped things up with just under two minutes to play. The presentation, broadcast and atmosphere were A-plus. Shabazz Nappier and Ryan Boatright were phenomenal. Kentucky’s heralded freshman class flashed NBA talent. Especially James young. It was the second fantastic title
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
Tuesday night’s showdown between the Knicks and Lakers was a bit one-sided. The New York Knicks, who had been surging towards the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with a recent string of eight straight wins, have (seemingly) fallen flat on their faces. If their recent fourth-quarter collapse against the hapless (and Kyrie Irving-less) Cleveland Cavaliers wasn’t bad enough, they travelled to Los Angeles for a shellacking at the hands of the short-handed Lakers. [Read more…]
We are about to witness what may be a first in the long history of the NBA. For the first time, four of the league’s flagship franchises could well be out of the playoffs. OK, the Knicks aren’t technically out of the race in the Hindenburg Conference, but they have a lot of ground to make up on Atlanta – four games in the loss column with 13 to play. The Celtics, Lakers and 76ers all are making plans for the
Phil Jackson won’t be awful as president of the New York Knicks. He certainly won’t be as bad as Isiah Thomas was in running the club. And he will almost certainly be better than David Kahn, Bryan Colangelo, Joe Dumars, Otis Smith and Geoff Petrie have been in recent years. But Phil Jackson isn’t Isiah Thomas, or David Kahn, or Bryan Colangelo. He’s Phil Jackson, with a reputation of all things basketball that he touches turning to gold. And that’s exactly what
It was a day of surprises in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls beat a healthy Miami Heat team, the Oklahoma City Thunder fell to the Los Angeles Lakers but most surprising of all: Jodie Meeks scored 42. Yes, you read that correctly. The Lakers guard made 11-of-18 field goals and was red-hot from the free-throw line, hitting all 14 of his attempts. Somewhere near the bottom of all the game reports will be mention of Kevin Durant, he had a pretty good game,
I went on the radio in Phoenix this morning and played party-pooper, because I don’t think qualifying for the playoffs is such a grand goal. It is a nice goal, don’t get me wrong, especially for an overachieving team like the Suns. But the ultimate goal is to win a championship, and if the Phoenix Suns could have acquired Pau Gasol from the Los Angeles Lakers for the insurance-covered contract of Emeka Okafor, along with a first-round draft pick, they should