Martin Luther King Day is more than a day of celebration and reflection for the NBA, which probably has done more positive things for race relations than any other sport in the Civil Rights Era. It also has become the unofficial midway point of the season. By the completion of Monday’s action, more than half of the league’s 30 teams will have played half their games. With that in mind, we present our midseason awards with this reminder from the bookie of hopeless
NEW YORK — Los Angeles Lakers guard Nick Young has been suspended one game without pay for throwing a punch at Phoenix Suns guard Goran Dragic with 7:33 remaining in the second quarter of the Lakers’ 121-114 loss to the Suns on Wednesday, Jan. 15, at US Airways Center, it was announced today by Rod Thorn, President, Basketball Operations. Suns center Alex Len, who was ejected for his Flagrant Foul 2 against Young, has been fined $15,000. Suns forward Marcus Morris
As the great Jerry Seinfeld once said, knowing George Costanza was like taking a walk through the jungle. He didn’t know what he was going to find next, and he was real scared. I feel the same way about this NBA season. All of the injuries – Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Jrue Holiday, Brook Lopez, and now Most Improved Player favorite Eric Bledsoe – have basketball fans treading lightly, hoping not to get eaten by a tarantula or something with
Since training camp opened, there have been five significant trades involving 10 teams, 19 players and seven draft picks. The big winners have been a team that got rid of the highest scorer among the traded players and a team that acquired a player who has yet to play. The big loser has been a team that swears by analytics. Another way to look at it is like this: The biggest trades thus far have been the ones that haven’t been made
Imagine for a second that this column is a talk show. It’s easy if you try. Now, imagine I told you that Isaiah Thomas and Reggie Jackson were going to be on it. Imagine all the people who would watch that show. Yoo-hoo, oooh. You’d be pumped, right? Isiah Lord Thomas. Zeke. One of the greatest basketball players in history. And Reggie Jackson. Mr. October. The man who hit three home runs in a World Series game?! What a show we’ve got for you tonight! You’d be glued
When the season was at hand, a number of distinguished correspondents on this site and many others offered predictions that ranged from serious to absurd. Preseason predictions are a little like Donald Sterling utterances – they’re made to be forgotten. But one I would have remembered if anyone had ventured it was this: After the month of December, Jeff Hornacek will be named Coach of the Month. Now that would have been impressive, particularly since the only handicapping involving the Phoenix Suns was their
Phoenix Suns guard Eric Bledsoe has a sprained right knee and will miss at least a week. The Suns made the announcement Saturday. If Bledsoe sits out just one week, he will miss games Saturday vs. Milwaukee and the first three games of a five-game road trip – Tuesday at Chicago, Wednesday at Minnesota and Friday at Memphis. Bledsoe was a late scratch from Thursday’s home loss to Memphis with the injury, which left at least one NBA gambler unhappy. The Suns are
Advertisement The Western Conference is absolutely nothing like the Eastern Conference when it comes to championship odds. We have what I call a two-horse race in the East versus what I am going to call the six-plus team race in the West. In the 15 previous seasons, only four teams (the Lakers, seven times; the Spurs, five times, the Mavericks, two times; the Thunder, once) have won the Western Conference, which is a similar concept to what the Eastern