I hope Oscar Robertson was watching Saturday night. I hope he saw Stephen Curry answer his ridiculous, attention-starved musings as definitively as possible. I hope he wasn’t too jaded to see Curry handle the ball in a way Robertson only wished he could. I hope his eyesight still works well enough to see from where Curry was launching – and making – his shots. And I hope Robertson and a number of NBA stars from bygone eras will just shut up and
The good news for the San Antonio Spurs is that Tim Duncan, who had soreness in his right knee, was unable to play Monday night when the second-best team in the NBA lost to the best team by 30 points. The bad news is that to compete with the Golden State Warriors, the Spurs would have needed the 25-year-old Tim Duncan who averaged 25.5 points, 12.7 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and won the 2002 Most Valuable Player award. The 39-year-old Duncan, who
OAKLAND — The Spurs-Warriors showdown had been hyped as the most anticipated regular-season NBA game in decades, possibly ever, but it was remarkable only for its lack of drama. Stephen Curry and his supporting cast overwhelmed the Spurs every which way, 120-90, and the numbers didn’t lie. The Champs never trailed. The score was tied tied for all of 51 seconds. But, ‘c’mon, it was an NBA regular-season game in the dead of January. What did it mean, really? It means Gregg Popovich
This week, while NBA coaches pick the All-Star reserves, the NBA will pick the All-Star coaches. Neither task is as easy. David Blatt’s dismissal as coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers has added a bizarre twist to next month’s All-Star Game in Toronto. The Cavs have the best record in the Eastern Conference, which means their staff was on track to coach the East All-Stars. But Blatt has been replaced by Tyronn Lue, who will coach just five games before the deadline of
This is the time of year when we give out our midseason awards. But before we get to the drudgery of Sixth Man Award and Most Valuable Player, let’s start the festivities with a special award for individual achievement that goes to Rashad Vaughn. Vaughn is a shooting guard for the Milwaukee Bucks and the second-youngest player in the NBA. He is one of the dozens of rookies who have made virtually no impact in their first season. He is averaging 2.5 points
In case you didn’t notice, the transition into a new era for the San Antonio Spurs hit a milestone of sorts this past weekend. For the first time in 1,360 career games, Tim Duncan did not score. Coming off a three-game absence – one for rest and two due to knee soreness – the no-brainer Hall of Famer played just 13 minutes Saturday, missing all three of his shots and failing to get to the line. And it was no coincidence that in
DALLAS – After two months of near invincibility, the rest of the NBA has discovered the Golden State Warriors do in fact have weaknesses – two to be exact. On Dec. 12, the Milwaukee Bucks handed the Warriors their first loss of the season, ending a 24-0 start. How did they do it and what can other teams learn from it? The Warriors were playing the last game of a 12-day, seven-game road trip. They had played the previous night in Boston,
In all likelihood, Luke Walton will be spending All-Star Weekend on vacation in two months. This would be a travesty, and it is time for someone to tell NBA commissioner Adam Silver to prevent a miscarriage of recognition. I will take on the job. As most of you know, the honor of coaching each conference’s All-Star team goes to the coach whose team has the league’s best record prior to the break. Last year, that job fell to Steve Kerr, who was