I don’t like the NCAA Tournament. I don’t like that college basketball’s regular season provides little postseason incentive. I don’t like that the coach is a bigger personality than the players. I don’t like that the games are played on neutral courts. I don’t like that one bad game or bad call or bad break can end a team’s season. I don’t like that “close” becomes a synonym for “well-played.” And I don’t like that poor play determines the outcome much
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
First, the good news. Among rookies, the top four scorers behind Philadelphia’s Michael Carter-Williams all got a recent chance to pad their stats against the sickening 76ers. Now, the bad news. Only one gets another chance this season. In case you haven’t noticed, the Sixers have lost 18 straight games. The last time they won, Time Warner and Comcast hadn’t announced their merger, the Super Bowl hadn’t been played and the greatest single-take shot in television history hadn’t yet aired. [Read more…]
An article on NBA.com crossed paths with former Phoenix Suns point guard and current Sacramento city mayor Kevin Johnson Friday afternoon. What was it about? Retired Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson recalled the tale of his first game against Mayor Johnson back on February 26, 1997. KJ made him cry. [Read more…]
I’m kinda high on what the Charlotte Bobcats did with Ben Gordon. The Bobcats waived Gordon on Sunday, preventing him from appearing in the postseason should he sign with another team. While they may have alienated his agent – not a trifle thing in the business world of the NBA – two things should be pointed out. 1. When teams waive or buy out players at this time of the season, they are essentially establishing a price they are willing to pay
Despite losing to the Washington Wizards 122-103, there is nothing that could of taken the emotion away from the Philadelphia 76ers. After a day that saw the people of the NBA world honor the legacy of Allen Iverson, the respects certainly didn’t end there. Some of the best players that the NBA has to offer continued to express their feelings toward #3, including his own Class of 1996 Draft mates. The Sixers have now lost 13 games in a row, but for
February’s buyout season is becoming more interesting than the trade deadline itself. There’s a case to be made that the goings-on surrounding Danny Granger, Caron Butler, Jimmer Fredette and others could make a bigger impact than all those moves made one week ago. With Granger, Butler and now Jimmer Fredette (as the Kings announced) officially bought out and ancillary players like Beno Udrih, Earl Clark and Shannon Brown finding new teams, it’s time to really ramp up the races for players who
The Orlando Magic came into the season feeling pretty good about the possibility of being a playoff team after drafting Victor Oladipo with the second overall pick in the 2013 draft. With young players like Nikola Vucevic, Tobias Harris and Maurice Harkless all looking to improve from their unexpectedly-solid campaigns from a year ago, they very well could have been a dark horse team in the East – especially with the way things have turned out for the anemic conference. Instead,