PHILADELPHIA – For nearly five decades, Jerry Colangelo has been pro basketball’s version of Annie Sullivan: a miracle worker. No, he never taught a blind and deaf Helen Keller how to “read.” But he did take over the expansion Phoenix Suns in the late 1960s and build them into a legitimate NBA power, twice winning the Western Conference and coming close to a championship with a team that was almost always respectable. That made him an institution in the Valley of the
The MVP debate is a great one this season, and as I mentioned in my most recent edition of my MVP rankings: This is one season when things could truly go down to the wire. As in Game No. 82. But what about the other end of the spectrum? Who have been the Least Valuable Players? The guys you may never have heard of, or guys whose weaknesses are well-chronicled but particularly acute this season. Those players’ lack of production should not
Following a recent game at Memphis, Los Angeles Lakers rookie guard Jordan Clarkson left quite an impression on Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph. Clarkson scored a season-high 25 points on 12-of-18 shooting and added six assists. He kept the Lakers in the game until the fourth quarter, when the Grizzlies put their defense and talent to work and pulled out a 97-90 win. Afterward, Randolph was blown away. “That young fellow, he’s going to be good,” he said. “I didn’t even know who
Most players around the league have some sort of pregame ritual. They can’t go without it, whether it’s doing something with chalk, eating something, or doing a dance with teammates. The most popular, of course, is the handshake. It’s the most common form of unity among teammates, and players are constantly looking for new material. [Read more…]
With Thursday playing host to a critical Game 4 in the 2014 NBA Finals wherein the Miami Heat trail the San Antonio Spurs 2-1 in the best-of-seven series, a far more important game took place early in the afternoon. The 2014 World Cup. The host nation faced off against Croatia in the opening game of the world’s most anticipated sports tournament. The game, which ended in a 3-1 victory in favor of the Brazil. With many NBA athletes coming from countries all across the
We have reached the point of the season where teams that are out of the playoff race start giving more playing time to their younger players to see what they may have. One of those teams is the Minnesota Timberwolves, who may have something in rookie big man Gorgui Dieng. New Timberwolves GM Flip Saunders spent the offseason loading his roster with veterans such as Kevin Martin, Corey Brewer and Ronny Turiaf in hope of making the playoffs for the first time
Another season marks another chance to feel optimistic about your favorite NBA team’s chances of making some noise. Other than a few brief stretches, Minnesota Timberwolves fans have had trouble finding any reason to be optimistic over the past few years. From injuries to frequent coaching changes to frequent front office switches to Darko Milicic, the Timberwolves have had quite an interesting little decade. This season is a special one. It marks the 10-year anniversary of their 2003-04 run to the Western
