As the fury of NBA free agency slowly dies down as we approach the dog days of August — the dreadfully slow period of the NBA offseason — we’re left with a few big names standing. One of which is Eric Beldsoe, the standout guard for the Phoenix Suns who has had a difficult time navigating restricted free agency. He and his agent, Rich Paul (LeBron’s agent and close friend), have been miles apart on negotiations with the Suns front office. The
You may think that the story today revolves around the AT&T Center and its broken air conditioning in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Perhaps the story is Miami Heat forward LeBron James succumbing to the heat—90 degrees—and falling victim to severe leg cramps only to watch his team give up a two-point lead and lose by 15 to the San Antonio Spurs. Maybe the story is Tim Duncan’s immaculate performance—scoring 21 points on 91-percent shooting. Or, perhaps, they’re all wrong. ESPN’s
2014 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah led all vote getters for the NBA All-Defensive First Team. The NBA released the 2014 All-Defensive teams Monday afternoon. Leading the charge was the 2014 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year and Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, who led all vote getters. He was the only player to get triple-digit votes for the First Team, tallying 105 such votes as well as another 13 Second Team votes
Phoenix Suns point guard Goran Dragic, once [presumably] hailed as Steve Nash’s heir-apparent, made great strides this year, leading his team to 48-34 record—a 23-game improvement from 2012-13, just missing the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. His play was markedly better, improving his scoring from a career average of 9.5 points to 20.3 this year. That’s an impressive amount of growth. His play earned him the NBA Most Improved Player Award. Our own Chris Sheridan broke down Dragic’s performance and
Goran Dragic slashes, drives and penetrates into the lane like no other NBA player, creatively opening up space to create for himself and his Phoenix Suns teammates. That creativity, though, comes with a heavy price: the beating he takes on a nightly basis as he hurtles into and bounces around defenders with his breathtakingly fun to watch forays towards the basket which sweep opponents and fans alike off their feet like a swift and strong gust of wind. Dragic’s offensive game
Monday night Twitter blew up over the Big Sean song “Control” featuring Kendrick Lamar. Though it was Sean’s song, Lamar stole the spotlight spitting venom in two verses meant to put many of Hip Hop’s best rappers on notice while raising the bar of excellence expected of rap MCs. Tuesday, the song was still the subject of many discussions—even among sports circles, garnering TV time in conversation on ESPN’s Numbers Never Lie. The constant hype had to bring about someone’s eventual lyrical response. Enter