LeBron James scored 27 points, dished out eight assists and grabbed seven rebounds in Miami’s win over Philadelphia on Wednesday in the Heat’s historic 20th consecutive win. Only three other teams have won at least 20 straight in a single season (the Washington Capitols, who played basketball in the 40’s, won 20 straight spanning two seasons). Two other teams won 19 straight, and all six clubs that won at least 19 in a row had historically great players on their respective
At the Michael Jordan statue outside the United Center How do you rank Michael Jordan’s career achievement list? The answer: It’s nearly impossible. The G.O.A.T., as he’s so often referred to (by those who never saw Wilt Chamberlain play) has done so much for the game that ranking his performances simply doesn’t do justice to his illustrious career. [Read more…]
PHILADELPHIA – “Now wait a minute.” That’s your cue that Harvey Pollack is about to launch into a story. And he’s got a million of them. The man who’s been more symbolic of the NBA than even the logo — since he’s been around since the very beginning – has a mind that never stops. Just ask him one simple question and be prepared for a detailed answer so complete it will make your head spin. [Read more…]
In the history of basketball, it’s only occurred once. The only man to ever shoot over 70% from the field for an entire season is Wilt Chamberlain, who made 5.2-of-7.1 field goal attempts, good for 72.7%, with the Lakers during the 1972-73 season, the finale of a statistically ludicrous 14-year NBA career. [Read more…]
Kareem. Karl. Michael. Wilt. Kobe. Last night against New Orleans, in the middle of an important three game road trip, Bryant made history by hitting the 30,000 career point plateau. [Read more…]
David Stern is disingenuous. How’s that for one of those million-dollar words that the NBA commissioner loves to use when talking to the hoi polloi about basketball? In slapping the San Antonio Spurs with a $250,000 fine for resting their trio of stars in a nationally televised game, Stern said in his customary, quite lawyerly fashion, “The result here is dictated by the totality of the facts in this case.” [Read more…]
When we wrote last month that the Western Conference playoff picture would be filled in by the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves, it was assumed that both teams would have their alpha dogs at power forward. Now that Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Love are both out until at least December, that picture could be changing. Nowitzki and Love both are top-10 players whose presence instantly legitimizes their teams as playoff-worthy, regardless of the other 14 players sharing a locker room and airplane with them.
Having trumped up, er, written more intracity rivalry stories than I care to remember, there are three things I know. 1. They’re really no big deal. So what if the Clippers don’t like the Lakers, who don’t deign to notice the Clippers? The Clips don’t dislike the Lakes any more than the Suns or Warriors do, to say nothing of the Celtics. This isn’t high school. It’s not even USC-UCLA. This is the NBA, where only the Clips would remember if they swept the Lakers,