// MIAMI — As Miami Heat owner Micky Arison tip-toed through his team’s locker-room in his black loafers, cigar in mouth and baseball cap covering his soaked hair, an ESPN NBA analyst gave me an excellent piece of advice. “Learn a lesson from me,” he said. “Next time, wear old shoes.” In the locker room, I stepped in a puddle of what was undoubtedly a mixture of Dom Perignon, Moet, and Budweiser—the three types of alcoholic concoctions sprayed in abundance in the
csprtContainer(); MIAMI — They defied the odds and fooled the world. After dropping the first two games of their conference final showdown against the number one seed—a battle- tested team who had been there and done that—they won four straight games and shockingly won the right to play for the NBA’s crown. They tricked us into believing they had a fighting chance to win the whole thing, but after four games, it became obvious that the NBA Finals was a bit of
Game 4 of the NBA Finals is just a couple of hours away, and the main story heading into the game seems to be centered around what Serge Ibaka said about LeBron James and how he responded. Find out what has been said below and see if you agree with James’ reaction to it all. Also, be sure to check out the latest on Phil Jackson’s state of mind. The story of the day is Serge Ibaka’s lame attempt at discrediting
// MIAMI — The old cliché says that you’ve gotta have your heart broken before you can become a champion, and after their 91-85 loss to the Miami Heat in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, the Oklahoma City Thunder may have just proven that they’re no exception to the rule. LeBron James’ Heat are attempting to do what Kobe Bryant’s Lakers did back in 2009—win the NBA Finals the very next year after losing them. Kevin Durant’s Thunder just
Game 2 of the NBA Finals is in the bag, and here we are, left without a basketball game until Sunday night. Luckily, we have news for you to read about, from LeBron James’ clutch play, Russell Westbrook’s demise, Tony Parker’s brawl story and more. An epic battle has taken shape between LeBron James and Kevin Durant, writes Adrian Wojnarowski: “These are the Finals everyone wanted, the moments of truth for Durant and James that shape the sport’s history, that make
Hang tight, folks. There is just one more day left until the best games of the season arrive. Until then, see all the thoughts of the players heading into Game 1 of the NBA Finals, along with other news, including the tragic situation of veteran referee Greg Willard, Metta World Peace’s new role in a movie and much more. All the superstars going into the NBA Finals shared their thoughts today about the matchups. Here are some notable ones: LeBron James downplayed this
Now to let the Young Guns shoot it out. … If you’re going to hear that a lot the next week or two, some of these guns are a lot younger than others. By 2007, when LeBron James and Dwyane Wade had both been in NBA Finals, Kevin Durant had yet to be drafted; Russell Westbrook was an unheralded UCLA freshman who had played nine minutes a game; and James Harden was even less heralded as a high school sophomore. Durant, Westbrook and
So much has been written about the Oklahoma City Thunder throughout these NBA playoffs that it’s difficult to find any new nuggets of information about the team and its city that aren’t already in cyberspace. But I’m going to give it a shot. I had the good fortune of working for the Thunder as its Web site writer from 2008 up until last season’s All-Star break, so I have my share of memories and experiences, both first-hand and from the reporting I