As cliche as it sounds, basketball really does produce its own unique, universal language. In any given NBA game, you might see a five-man unit composed of one player who speaks French, another who speaks Spanish, another who speaks German, and two more who speak their own regional dialects of English — and yet they can still communicate fluidly and win games at the sport’s highest level.
Over the weekend, reports surfaced that the Denver Nuggets have placed J.R. Smith on the trading block. While it seems at some point during the past few seasons Denver has made it known that they would take offers for Smith, this time it appears a deal could actually get done. Entering the last year of his current deal that will pay him over $6 million this season, if a trade doesn’t happen before the season, you best believe one will happen before the NBA Trade Deadline. With that in mind, here are the Top 5 destinations for the six-year veteran. Read More »
How exactly do you transform the ugly duckling into Miss America? Well, you follow a number of elaborate steps. First, you make her over. Give her a modern, beautiful look. Next, you teach her how to perform. Practice her etiquette, show her how to walk down the stage, and give her an interesting talent. And lastly, train her into a winner. Teach and instill the values of winning into this project and make her something the whole country will drool over.
This is the exact situation Mikhail Prokhorov, Billy King and Avery Johnson are looking at. How do you make the New Jersey Nets, the ugly duckling of the NBA, a playoff team? Read More »
As we said in Smack, Spain vs. Team USA might be the most entertaining basketball rivalry on the planet right now. If you missed the game, watch through the highlights from yesterday’s game, and make sure you catch Kevin Durant‘s buzzer-beating (and game-saving) block on Rudy Fernandez. If Rudy sticks around in the NBA this season, their first matchup could be interesting.
All things considered, Spain vs. Team USA might be the most entertaining basketball rivalry on the planet right now. They don’t meet up nearly as often as Duke and North Carolina, or have the historical context of Lakers vs. Celtics, and their games don’t get as physical as any given Washington D.C. playground war. But as far as producing consistently close results and quality basketball with emotions on high, USA/Spain is up there with any rivalry out there currently … The last time the two national squads met, Kobe led the U.S. in a gold-medal game thriller in the ’08 Olympics over Pau Gasol‘s Spanish team. With the Lakers’ teammates sitting out this summer, yesterday’s pre-World Championship exhibition was another down-to-the-wire contest … Read More »
Over the last three stops of the Red Bull 2on2 Revolution tour, Philly became a dynasty.
When the tourney made its way to the City of Brotherly Love on July 31, hometown squad “E2” won the crown. The next week in Baltimore, E2 lost in the semifinals to “No Mercy,” another Philly tandem that went on to win the title on unfamiliar turf. And in the tour’s finale yesterday in Washington D.C., No Mercy and E2 battled through some of D.C.’s biggest playground legends, legit pros, and recent college stars to meet up in the championship, where No Mercy — Tyrone “Redz” Hill and DeSean White — claimed the $2,000 check and prizes from Skull Candy, Kicker and Power Balance.
Hands down, D.C. produced the deepest talent pool of any of the five Red Bull tournament stops. Andrew “SpongeBob” Washington, former Florida State star Isaiah Swann, Harlem Globetrotters alumnus Will “Butta Bean” Peters, NBA D-League veteran Mike Mackell, and Omar Weaver — the leading scorer in D.C.’s famed Goodman League — were among the local standouts in action at the district’s Barry Farms Rec Center park. Throw in the collection of D-1 caliber players and overseas pros who came from previous Red Bull cities to compete, and this was the toughest field we’ve seen all summer. Read More »
On paper, a team whose best player is Linas Kleiza shouldn’t get anywhere within 30 points of a squad that features five NBA All-Stars. But that’s why we love the uniqueness and unpredictability of international tournaments like the Olympics and World Championships. In yesterday’s pre-WC exhibition, Kleiza and Team Lithuania gave Team USA all they could handle, taking the lead after a terrible first quarter for the U.S. (3-for-21 shooting, six turnovers) and staying right with them until a costly flagrant/technical foul combo — was Nenad Krstic in the building? — sparked a 17-0 run in the second half that pushed the U.S. to a 16-point W … Read More »
How much does it take to end an NBA career? Crazy enough, a criminal conviction is probably less damaging than a League suspension. When we heard yesterday that Delonte West had been handed a 10-game suspension by the NBA for his Chow Yun Fat impersonation, the first question somebody asked was, “Is his career over?” At first glance, you’d say no way: Delonte is only 27 years old and can be a solid contributor on a good team. And never mind that he pled guilty to riding around strapped like the revolution was about to be televised, but that 10-game suspension is going to make it tough to get back in the NBA. Read More »
Whether it’s Kendrick Perkins in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals or some 12-year-old hothead playing pickup during his lunch break, basketball is by nature a game of emotion, confrontation and, sometimes, anger. So it’s unavoidable that games will sometimes turn into Fight Club scenes, whether it’s the millionaires doing their jobs or the rec-leaguers doing it for pride.
Still, it seems this summer tensions are extra high. Read More »
As the story goes, in March of 2000, Shaq wanted the Clippers to provide him with some extra tickets for friends and family for this Clips home game, which happened to fall on his 28th birthday. The Clippers refused, and Shaq responded with a career-high 61 points and 23 boards.
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