The news of the morning comes from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, who reports that despite Celtics president Danny Ainge’s statements to the contrary earlier this week, Boston is indeed trying to move Rajon Rondo in a trade to acquire Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets. From a story filed in the pre-dawn hours of this morning by Woj: “The Celtics have relentlessly pursued Paul and have presented the Hornets with as many as eight different scenarios that would bring
Heisler Column: Now watch the stars stampede to big markets
Good news for you little markets … You’ll be making a lot more money! Unfortunately, as far as competing with the big teams, they’ll be them and you’ll still be you for a while, or, possibly, forever, whichever comes last. Whether it was overdue or the owners were due that much, they redressed the economic balance once and for all. Of course, there was a price — and, as usual, it was their non-economic demands that would have leveled the playing field for the
Heisler Column: Morning in Lakerdom: $150 mill profits, Dwight and CP3 too?
LOS ANGELES — What was THAT about? Chris Sheridan and I were both wrong on our predictions that the NBA would start on time (Chris), or by Dec. 1 (me). On the other hand, actual events, which were always going to reveal the real deal, proved our basic premise: The NBA was in far better shape than it claimed, citing $300 million annual losses, making a long work stoppage, as Spock used to say, most illogical (which in Vulcan can mean anything
Who will play for Team USA in 2012?
By Chris Sheridan And the first pertinent sub-question on that topic: Who will the big guys be? As in big and tall. Dwight Howard is the first name on that list, because like most of the 2008 Redeem Team, he has earned the right to defend the gold medal he won in Beijing. Ditto Chris Bosh. The same goes for Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant, and maybe to a slightly lesser degree to Chris Paul and Deron Williams. You can also set aside
Spain wins EuroBasket, but can they beat Team USA
KAUNAS, Lithuania — There is only one thing that is ultimately relevant for Americans about the team that just won EuroBasket: One year from now, will Spain have what it takes to defeat Team USA in the gold medal game of the London Olympics? Because let’s face it, this Spanish team showed it is clearly the second-best team in the world right now, just as they were three years ago in Beijing when they put 107 points on the board (in a
Eurobasket: Navarro’s “masterpiece” puts Spain into 2012 Olympics
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — “He was like a maestro today. He was like a picture in the Louvre or something like that — just beautiful. Juan Carlos, you’ve got to recognize, is one of the artists of European basketball.” It was a DaVinci of a quote that Spanish coach Sergio Scariolo delivered Friday, about as eloquent of an assessment a man could deliver after what he witnessed from his own personal Michelangelo. Juan Carlos Navarro scored 19 points in the third quarter to single-handedly break
Eurobasket: Navarro’s shooting leads Spain past Slovenia
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — He had said it so many times over the course of EuroBasket, Spanish coach Sergio Scariolo was starting to sound like a broken record: “The 3-point shooting will come. It can come at any time, and it will come.” It certainly did, and it came in such a quick blast that a surprisingly close game became a blowout in an instant. Spain made seven 3-pointers on 10 attempts in the third quarter, starting with one by Rudy Fernandez
Eurobasket: Quarterfinal previews
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — This city is the birthplace and/or childhood home of Arvydas Sabonis, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Sarunas Marciulonis and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and by the end of next weekend it will be the metropolis (to use that word loosely) where the latest European champion is crowned. Eight teams have made it to the quarterfinals of EuroBasket, and the do-or-die portion begins Wednesday night with Spain-Slovenia and Macedonia-Lithuania. Thursday’s games are France-Greece and Russia-Serbia, and the semifinals — which will determine which two teams qualify for the 2012 Olympics