While most of the national media attention continues to go to the Chicago Bulls and Derrick Rose, whether or not he will play against the defending champion Miami Heat, quietly the San Antonio Spurs are preparing for their second round series against the upstart Golden State Warriors. Granted, the Spurs have never needed fanfare to get up for a playoff series. And, considering that they boast an impressive 29-0 home record against the Warriors in the Tim Duncan era, internally they
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich will soon become the 12th coach in NBA history to win 900 games. In his recently released book – The History of the San Antonio Spurs – Sheridanhoops.com columnist Jan Hubbard writes about Popovich’s early years and how he incorporated the talents of Tim Duncan into a team led by David Robinson. An excerpt is below. (You can order the book here.) [Read more…]
The NBA trade deadline journalism racket is a tricky minefield to navigate. The business is driven by rumors, many of which are founded in truth, others of which are utterly fictitious. Distinguishing between the two differentiates the good basketball Web sites from the bad sites. But figuring out who is available is not rocket science if you speak to the right people, and I speak to a lot of plugged-in people on a regular basis. Here is the latest they are telling me:
A forgettable season for Cleveland Cavaliers center Anderson Varejao somehow got worse on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Varejao, who has been out with a leg injury, will reportedly miss the rest of the season after developing blood clot in his lower right lung, from NBA.com: [Read more…]
Larry Bird signed David West as a free agent, traded for George Hill, removed the interim tag from Frank Vogel and picked up Leandro Barbosa for next to nothing. And over the longer haul, he finally reaped the rewards of waiting for dead weight to be cleared from the Indiana Pacers’ salary cap, and for drafting Roy Hibbert, Tyler Hansbrough and Paul George in consecutive years. For this, Bird was honored by his peers Wednesday when he was named the NBA’s Executive
We’re gonna go out on a limb and say the artist formerly known as Ron Artest won’t be repeating as winner of the Citizenship Award. But what of the NBA’s other season-ending awards? Our winners are below, replete with the customary snotty remarks. EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR: Indiana’s Larry Bird turned the Pacers into a borderline elite team, with offseason additions David West and George Hill and in-season addition Leandro Barbosa, adding needed playoff experience. He also preserved his cap room for this
I have been an MVP voter for the past six years, and it remains to be seen whether my departure from the mainstream media will impact my chances of casting a vote for the seventh straight season (When I was the NBA writer at the Associated Press for 10 years prior to my six at ESPN, we were not permitted to vote — the same rule writers at the New York Times have to follow). The guy who sends out the
By Andy Roth Following the San Antonio Spurs’ first-round elimination in the playoffs last season, most NBA observers, including myself, thought their days as championship contenders were behind them. But Gregg Popovich’s team is firmly entrenched atop the Southwest Division with a 7 1/2 game lead over the Dallas Mavericks, and their 36-14 record is the fourth-best in the league. San Antonio has accomplished all this despite the fact that former All-Star Manu Ginobili has missed 29 games, and was the team’s leading