It won’t be a Phil Jackson encore after all. Mike D’Antoni is the new coach of the Lakers. A friend of Kobe Bryant and the perfect choice to revive Steve Nash once his leg heals, he’s also a hero to fantasy owners like me who rode his fast-paced Suns and Knicks teams to a league championship or two. Last night, with interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff calling the shots, Dwight Howard scored 23 points and grabbed 18 rebounds against a Kings team
(This is another in a series of 30 guest columns that will run in October, when optimism reigns supreme across the NBA. The theme will be “Five Reasons to Feel Positive About … ” We encourage you to follow the authors on Twitter and visit their sites. – CS) Two seasons back, the Grizzlies were a Game 7 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder away from making it to the Western Conference finals. To that, they entered the 2011-12 season with
Much like Monday, media day was full of players and teams that felt great about their chances of achieving great things for the upcoming season. Even the players that we’ve come to expect less from have shown up to training camp with notably improved figures in hopes to revive their careers. See who had the most impressive summer and what interesting things were said on Tuesday by a number of players such as Paul George, Rajon Rondo, Luis Scola and
Here are this morning’s top NBA news stories: “Ginobli: Contract no cause for worry,” by Mike Monroe from the San Antonio Express-News “Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan not worried about extension,” by Ryan Wolstat from the Toronto Sun “Knicks’ GM: Felton better value than Lin,” by Marc Berman from the New York Post “Kobe calls the Lakers his most talented team ever,” by Marc J. Spears from Yahoo! Sports “Knicks’ Anthony plans to score less, get teammates more involved,” by Marc Berman from the New York Post “Brooklyn Nets feel
Since when did going after another player’s “jewels” become the act of frustration or retaliation in basketball? Just two days after watching Carmelo Anthony take a “cheap shot” to the groin from Argentinian guard Facundo Campazzo, we saw another hit to the groin take place on Wednesday when a frustrated Nicolas Batum threw a vicious shot at Juan Carlos Navarro. Check out what went down between France and Spain, along with how Team USA defeated Australia to move onto the semifinals below.
Michael Heisley, who moved the Grizzlies from Vancouver to Memphis over 10 years ago, is selling the team to a group owned by communications technology executive Robert J. Pera. The team announced the sale agreement Monday in a news release that did not disclose financial terms, although ESPN.com reported the price to be $350 million. The sale is pending the approval of the NBA Board of Governors, antitrust clearance and other conditions. Heisley, 75, bought the Grizzlies in 2000, when the franchise
Through the first four games of this season’s playoffs, every series had one team that held at least a 3-1 lead. So not many expected any of the series to go to a full seven games, but two of them did, and they turned out to be quite the battles until the very end. The winners of those games turned out to be both Los Angeles teams, who are moving through to the Western Conference semifinals together for the first time ever. Since
