Despite some obvious rust — seeing as he hasn’t played in an NBA game that counted since January of last year — Stephon Marbury looked alright in his Celtics debut, a home win over the Pacers. Even at less than his best (8 pts, 2 asts, 12 mins), anyone can see how Good Steph will help the C’s as a backup point guard; the problem is that everyone is terrified of what will happen if/when Bad Steph shows up. Last night the new Employee #8 had a few timing issues, and naturally he doesn’t know Boston’s playbook yet. But Tommy Heinsohn brought up a good point; since Steph will often be playing against backup point guards, his adjustment period will be that much easier from here on out … If the Pacers hadn’t played the C’s so close, this would have been a good opportunity for Doc Rivers to get Marbury a lot of minutes. T.J. Ford and Jarrett Jack will make anyone guarding them have to work, between T.J.’s speed, Jack’s strength, and the fact that both of them are always pushing the pace and looking to shoot. As it stands, Steph could only play in spots as Rajon Rondo (17 asts) had to take care of business … Read More »

Anybody who’s followed Don Nelson over the years shouldn’t be surprised anymore by his personnel decisions. Just ask Anthony Morrow: The rags-to-kinda-riches rookie has been a starter dropped 20-plus points and a barely-used backup this season, sometimes going back and forth in the course of a week.

But Nellie’s latest move — benching a healthty Jamal Crawford for no apparent reason — seems even weird for him. Crawford’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, took the issue to the San Francisco Chronicle before tonight’s Warriors/Bobcats game:

“What is the message that Nelson is sending to a young team? ‘Don’t play to win?’” Goodwin said. “What is the message he is sending to the fans who work hard to pay for Warriors tickets in order to see them win?

“Jamal is not injured, and not only is he averaging 19 points per game, but he scored 50 points on the (Bobcats) for a win earlier this season.” Read More »

Courtney Lee‘s road to the show isn’t much different from many other NBA standouts. However, his experience since getting to the League is pretty unique. Like very few other rookies this season, Lee is getting significant burn on one of the NBA’s elite squads. It’s pretty much Lee, J.J. Hickson, Nicolas Batum, and George Hill. Who else can say that they’ve contributed to one of the NBA’s best teams right off the bat in their first season?

Lee also has one other claim to fame in this young season. He says that Superman hasn’t yet crammed on him. Check out the rest of his story right HERE. Read More »

So it’s been a while since we’ve done one of these: The All-Star Weekend got in the way, then last week DimeMag.com had been knocked out of commission pretty much all day Friday. With the All-Star break and the trade deadline in the past, how is the League looking going into the playoff stretch?

1. Los Angeles Lakers (48-10) – Leave it to the L.A. fans to start talking 72 wins … when their team already has 10 losses in February. Really, though, there’s not much to nit-pick with their squad. The defense has slipped since Andrew Bynum got hurt, but the offense has been good enough to compensate. We do need Phil Jackson to do one thing, though: Get Shannon Brown some more PT. That kid is an animal. Maybe one of the highest verticals in the League, and he looks like he’s on that Major League Baseball weight-training plan.

2. Boston Celtics (46-13) – Injuries to Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce were the big stories of the team’s recent six-game West Coast trip (that included the All-Star break), but the real story should have been Rajon Rondo. He went for 17.1 points, 7.5 boards and 8.8 assists while facing a lineup of Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Deron Williams, Steve Nash, Chauncey Billups and Baron Davis. Read More »

If you guys need to know one thing about me, know that I am the biggest Stephon Marbury supporter there is. Because of Steph, I love basketball as much as I do. He’s the first player I followed from high school to the League. I remember his press conference on Eyewitness News (ch. 7.) announcing that he would attend Georgia Tech. Read More »

The sports blog “The Sporting Muse” recently ranked the Top 10 Most Intimidating Players in every major sport – NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA. In doing so, they did one thing that I find to be completely ridiculous – they only picked guys who aren’t playing anymore. Just because guys are still in the League shouldn’t preclude them from being selected. Here’s their list:

Wilt Chamberlain Bill Russell Michael Jordan Read More »

We found this on his personal site Starbury.com. It’s a heartfelt message from Steph, thanks New York City, the Knicks and James Dolan and promises big things in Beantown. Dude seems genuinely excited to be heading north…
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Watching last night’s video tribute to his days in Cincinnati brought a tear to Bob Huggins‘ eyes. Though there were some mixed reactions among the fans, there’s no doubt that Huggy bear put together one of the greatest runs at a single school, bringing the Bearcats program to prominence from 1989-2006. Last night, back in the building where he won the majority of his 616 games (one of four active coaches with over 600 wins), Huggins was honored as one of the greatest coaches in the game today.

Where do you think Bob Huggins ranks among the greatest coaches?

The Yao Ming that showed up for Rockets/Cavs last night was the Yao Ming the Rockets envisioned they were getting back in 2002. On his way to scoring 28 points (13-15 FG), Yao really didn’t have to do much more than be very tall. That’s not a knock on Yao’s skill, but more a knock on the awful defense being played by Zydrunas Ilgauskas and the rest of the Cavs. After Yao inadvertently kicked Ben Wallace (who started out the game guarding him) and broke his leg, Big Z switched over and allowed Yao to pretty much just stand near the rim and get easy dunks. And when Anderson Varejao took his turns, Yao was able to work the baseline and easily shoot over him. Ilgauskas was like a 7-3 version of Wally Szczerbiak; whoever he was on, Rick Adelman had that guy go right at him … On the other end, Yao was only credited with one block, but it was a definite statement. With Houston already up big in the fourth quarter, LeBron spun off Ron Artest along the baseline, but Yao was there and sent his layup packing … Read More »

Yesterday at Madison Square Garden, the Stephon Marbury Era was officially over. The “Marbury” name plate that has been on his locker all year was finally gone. And it looks as though the Steph Era will begin anew in Boston on Friday morning.

One of our favorite websites, Barstoolsports.com, just set the over/under for “First Disastrous Influence on Team” at 10 days. Others are predicting that he’ll be a great addition in Boston’s quest to defend their title.

But if you want to read into Steph’s early comments, you might have to take the under in that Barstool bet. Read More »