“Red’s theory was 10 players, two baskets, 13,000 people, one basketball–and we will decide what is done with that one basketball.” -Bill Russell on Red Auerbach
In professional sports, there really are the Celtics and everybody else. After winning eight straight NBA championships and 11 titles during Bill Russell‘s 13 seasons, the bar was set. No matter how you look at it, it’s truly amazing. Yesterday I was privileged enough to meet the five-time MVP, and talk with him for a couple minutes about his new book, “Red and Me: My Coach, My Lifelong Friend.” As the two driving forces of the Celtics dynasty, Russell spoke on the dynamics of the player-coach relationship with the late, great Red Auerbach. Read More »
We got up with a number of premier high school players, including Harrison Barnes, the No. 1-ranked player in our HighSchoolHoop Top 50, to see how the swine flu has changed they way they live their basketball lives. We were surprised to hear just how seriously high school athletes are taking this whole thing.
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While Rafer Alston was making comments in the Magic locker room about how he has no hard feelings for Eddie House, Boston’s Game 2 standout wasn’t about to make peace with the guy who just smacked him on the back of the head. Maybe Rafer will change his tone after seeing this clip of House calling him out…
As we wrote in Smack last night, this was the coldest dagger in a night full of icy sneers, jumpers and gestures. We’ve seen Kobe throw himself a pass off the board before, but never on this stage, at such an obscure angle, and at such an important time in a game.
THE GOONS ARE OUT. That was the e-mail sent by one of the Dime crew last night during Lakers/Rockets, around the time everybody from typically fiery Kobe and Ron Artest to mild-mannered Derek Fisher to teen heartthrob Luke Walton was issuing chin-checks and techs and getting themselves ejected … With L.A. down 0-1 in the series, Kobe (40 pts, 16-27 FG) came out on a seek-and-destroy mission. Read More »
When LeBron took that momentum-changing charge against Joe Johnsonlast night, he clearly had his feet set, and they were positioned outside of the restricted area. The refs whistled JJ for the charge, correctly. But watching that highlight earlier today, some people in the Dime office suggested that it wouldn’t have mattered if it was actually a block on LBJ because the refs would still have given King James the call.
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Most of the time, being named to the NBA’s All-Defensive Team is like an offensive lineman being named to the NFL’s Pro Bowl; it’s all about reputation. Without enough solid stats to set certain guys apart from the crowd — the difference between Ronnie Brewer‘s 1.7 steals per game and Rafer Alston‘s 1.4 doesn’t justify how much better Brewer is on D — voting is based more on numerically baseless opinion and word-of-mouth. And once you crack the list for the first time, odds are you can run off a string of 3-4 consecutive nods easy. Read More »
Coach Cal got another one today. Over on the re-vamped HighSchoolHoop.com, we’ve been tracking today’s college announcement from Alabama’s Eric Bledsoe, arguably the best PG in the high school class of 2009 not named John Wall.
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