This column is soft. Every other week, we talk about the Most Improved Players in the league like we’re a modern-day Little League. We’re always telling everyone how great they are and giving them Fruit Roll-Ups, and letting them draw dinosaurs in the infield dirt during the game because they’re just creative and artistic and they’ll grow out of it and “everybody gets a trophy because look at how much you’ve improved!” Well, I’m sick of it. It’s time to come down hard on
We are back with a long-overdue edition of the Three-Man Weave, taking a look at the NBA All-Star Game starters. What did the fans get right? What did they get wrong? Should Kobe Bryant be part of the All-Star Game? And what does John Malkovich have to do with all of this? Let’s get right to it. 1. Which Eastern Conference player should have been an All-Star starter? [Read more…]
Adam Silver has been commissioner of the NBA for 14 months now. He has been forceful on one issue — the lifetime suspension of Donald Sterling, which led to the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to billionaire Steve Ballmer. It is time for Silver to stand a stand again, and this time it has to do with reformatting the playoffs. I wrote an open letter to Silver about this very issue less than a month ago, and it is certain to
Marc Gasol did not sound like a player who is leaving the Memphis Grizzlies for the New York Knicks – or any other team, for that matter – when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in July. Gasol’s history in the city of Memphis and what he has spent a large portion of his life building with the Grizzlies will almost certainly prove too much to leave behind this offseason. The Grizzlies clinched the playoffs for the fifth straight season and
All-Star Weekend didn’t start out too well for my son, Andrew. On Friday morning, he had an argument with his first serious girlfriend a day before his first serious Valentine’s Day. With that hanging over his head, he had to go to work, where his primary job is to kick mallrats out of the store. And it was the last work day before the All-Star Game and we still hadn’t heard from someone who had said that maybe, just maybe, he
The weekend came, bringing with it the Saturday All-Star festivities, headlined by the Dunk Contest. There was a significant amount of hype for Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Zach LaVine heading into the Sprite All-Star Dunk Contest. Anyone that has seen him play knows that he has freakishly athletic hops. For those who have witnessed his athleticism, it came as no surprise that he would win the contest. [Read more…]
Every team wants a player in the NBA All-Star Game. Just this week, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban complained that the voting system is “absolutely, positively broken” and lobbied for the NBA to provide additional roster spots for reserves who may have been overlooked by the fans. His reasoning was that leading vote-getter Stephen Curry received a mere 1.5 million votes, which is a miniscule total when you consider the global, electronic balloting process. As he often does, Cuban made some good
One is gone for the season;one is barely making a peep as his career closes in Memphis. Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter. Shall we compare them? Of course, there is no comparing anyone to Bryant as an equal … because there is no in in the NBA who is his equal. But when we talk about superstars and what they are, and what they might have been, there is a place for comparing Vince and Kobe. [Read more…]