In a stunning development, Kevin Durant withdrew from Team USA today, explaining he could not accommodate his “responsibilities to the team from both a time and energy standpoint.” The news came as Durant was switching his athletic apparel and sneaker affiliation from Nike to UnderArmour. USA Basketball issued a news release in which Durant explained: “This was an extremely difficult decision as I take great pride in representing our country. I know that I owe it to my USA Basketball teammates
On Tuesday afternoon the San Antonio Spurs did what the San Antonio Spurs do best: make history quietly. The Spurs announced via the team website that they have hired WNBA star Becky Hammon as an assistant coach. While there have been two previous females who have had assistant roles in some capacity with NBA teams — Lisa Boyer with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Natalie Nakase with the Los Angeles Clipper summer league team — Hammon is believed to be the first female hired
The first round of Team USA cuts have been made. Adios John Wall, Bradley Beal and Paul Millsap. The roster now stands at 16. They have to cut it to 12 — and they’ve said they will cut it to 12 before leaving later this month for the World Cup in Spain. They still have four point guards. They are back to having just one power forward. They have four centers, one of whom — Andre Drummond — played horribly in
Mark Cuban has never been one to bite his tongue, and in the wake of the devastating injury to Indiana Pacers star forward Paul George on Friday night, likely ruling him out for the entire 2014-2015 season, Cuban had some words for the public on the makeup of international play, namely the IOC: [Read more…]
Paul George was used to playing in an NBA arena. Unfortunately, the Thomas & Mack Center is not an NBA arena, and it did not have an NBA-type basket stanchion at both ends of the court. Bobby Gonzalez, the former Division I NCAA coach at Seton Hall and Manhattan, was at Friday night’s Team USA scrimmage in Las Vegas when George suffered his gruesome broken leg injury. In this interview with Howard David on ESPNRadio in New York, Gonzalez describes what he
LAS VEGAS – Team USA’s training camp ended disastrously with the gruesome leg fracture suffered by Paul George. Team leaders Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski postponed indefinitely any decisions on the makeup of the roster, which was the right thing to do. For the time being, our thoughts and prayers should be with Paul George and his family. With that being said, the U.S. national team will eventually move forward. And after having been with them for a week, up close and
Paul George suffered a gruesome leg injury Friday night in Team USA’s intrasquad scrimmage when he went up to block a shot and came down against the basket support, his lower right leg buckling beneath him. [Read more…]
This isn’t your child’s game of King of the Hill. No sir. No m’am. This is grown man, elite athlete, basketball “King of the Hill.” A game of one-on-one involving three players. It starts with Player 1 trying to score on Player 2. If he succeeds, Player 2 exits the floor and Player 3 takes over on defense. If Player 2 manages to prevent Player 1 from scoring, Player 1 exits and Player 2 moves to offense to try to score on Player