Earvin Magic Johnson has earned many great accomplishments over the span of his life; five NBA championships, three league MVP awards, three Finals MVP awards, 12 All Star appearances and induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, just to name a few from his playing days. Now, well into the post-playing stage of his career, he received yet another honor. Sports Illustrated honored him with the of 2014 Sportsman of the Year Legacy Award. The award puts him in
With the NBA season slowly but surely approaching, it’s that time of the year where various well-known sites like ESPN and Sports Illustrated start ranking the players in different ways. While ESPN does a countdown of every player in the league, Sports Illustrated narrows it down and ranks the top 100 players. Thus far, Sports Illustrated has revealed up to the 31st best player in the league, and the player named at the top of that list was Washington Wizards point
What can one write where all has practically been written already? What was once a 100-percent confirmed source has now confirmed itself. LeBron James is leaving the Miami Heat behind and returning to Cleveland to play for the Cavaliers. James made Decision 2.0 known with an Instagram photo and an essay published on Sports Illustrated. [Read more…]
For weeks the talk has been almost exclusively whether or not TNT’s color commentator Steve Kerr would consider, if not outright accept, the vacant coaching job with new President of Basketball Operations Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks. Now, after two underwhelming seasons—failing to win a single postseason game, let alone make the 2014 NBA Playoffs, Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni resigned Wednesday. The move, unexpected as it was, seemed to have been prompted by his displeasure with the
Anyone who follows sports knows that the news du jour on Monday morning was the revelation that longtime NBA journeyman Jason Collins has stepped forward as the first active gay male athlete in a major sports league. He opened up about his sexuality in an article that he wrote himself (with the aid of Franz Lidz) for Sports Illustrated. [Jason Collins reveals he is gay.] Nearly everyone has been caught up in all of the seriousnes over Collins’ announcement—many teammates (former and
“Scintillating Kobe!” Lakers play-by-play analyst Bill MacDonald exclaimed as Bryant weaved in and out of Hornets’ defenders, as he continued to eat away at New Orleans’ 25-point second half lead with bucket after bucket. [Read more…]
When I was a young player growing up, my teammates called me “Mookie.” Partly because my favorite baseball player was Mookie Wilson, but also because my point guard skills at the CYO level apparently reminded my coach of the University of Oklahoma’s Mookie Blaylock. Irony would have it my favorite band, Pearl Jam, once called themselves the same name and even called their first album Ten, which was Blaylock’s number. It just so happened to me mine, too. When I think of the