In all, seven players from the 2009 draft class received contract extensions, with three – DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday and Taj Gibson – going down to the wire Wednesday night. Two players received maximum extensions – top overall pick Blake Griffin and No. 3 pick James Harden, who had to change cities to get the deal he wanted. By contrast, five 2009 first-round picks became unrestricted free agents before their four-year rookie deal was completed, including No. 2 pick Hasheem Thabeet. And
The last few days before NBA teams have to get down to a 15-man roster probably mean a lot to the players, but they rarely are given a whole lot of attention by all but the most die-hard NBA fans. Still, they can be fun to pay attention to, especially for people who are big fans of the college game and want to keep track of some former college stars in the pros. So the recent news that the Blazers were
Here are this morning’s top NBA news stories: “Lakers planning for Dwight Howard to play Sunday,” by Marc J. Spears from Yahoo! Sports “Taj Gibson of Chicago Bulls hopeful about contract extension,” by Nick Friedell from ESPN.com “LeBron James dismisses Los Angeles Lakers free agency talk,” by Michael Wallace from ESPN.com “Kevin Love ‘disappointed’ by injury, won’t need surgery,” from ESPN.com “MarShon Brooks as Sixth Man? Avery Johnson says ‘We’re not sure yet,'” by Stefan Bondy from the New York Daily News “Vince Carter: You won’t miss Jason Terry; I’ll be
Even for hoops addicts, watching NBA preseason games presents a challenge. The baseball playoffs are under way, the college football and NFL seasons are in full swing, and there is this small matter of a presidential election. There is no subscription package for the preseason. League Pass takes a pass until the regular season starts later this month. So the only way you can watch games right now is on NBA TV, which isn’t part of the basic package of a number
You know the NBA season is inching closer towards us when Power Rankings start to make an appearance. Chris Sheridan published his first Power Rankings of the upcoming season today, so feel free to go there and let him know what you think of how he ranked your team (I wasn’t thrilled about where he put my Warriors). Also, see what we learned about the NBA in the summer of 2012 in Jan Hubbard’s column. In Tuesday’s news, you’ll find out
Linsanity has continued into the offseason as New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin was one of the 13 players chosen for the USA Select Team that train against Team USA in advance of the Olympics. The players were revealed Monday by USA Basketball. The baker’s dozen includes point guards and top overall picks Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers and John Wall of the Washington Wizards. Lin, whose rise from obscurity to stardom earlier this season transcended basketball, missed the playoffs while
When Derrick Rose went down with a torn ACL in Game 1, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said, “We have more than enough to win.” No one doubted him. After all, Chicago was 18-9 this season without Rose and his myriad injuries. And the Bulls were playing the Philadelphia 76ers, quite possibly the weakest of all the postseason teams. Then Joakim Noah went down with a severely sprained ankle in Game 3, and Thibodeau again said, “We have more than enough to win.” Again,
Did you guys hear? Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant is sick and may be questionable for tonight’s contest in Denver! Okay, so no one actually believes Bryant will miss the game in any capacity, including his coach. “If I were a betting guy, which I’m not, I would probably bet that he would play,” Mike Brown said. It’s still big news though, and worth keeping an eye on because he really is “sick as a dog.” Bryant’s Lakers, along with two other teams hoping to eliminate