According to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander, the NBA has a problem: It’s becoming too much like the NFL. Telander came to this conclusion while watching guards like Jason Terry and Derrick Rose get clobbered trying to take the ball to the rack.

In a recent article, Telander offers a solution to the increasingly physical nature of the NBA – raise the rim six inches. Read More »

Yesterday, the Warriors announced that Mark Jackson will take the reins as the new head coach. Jackson, a former NBA point guard, has gained notoriety in recent years thanks to his position as an NBA analyst for ESPN and ABC. Never one to shy away from having his opinion heard, he’s best known for coining a number of catchphrases that have left some basketball fans scratching their heads.

With Jackson out of the analyst seat and patrolling the sidelines next season, we thought it was a perfect time to reminisce on some of his finer moments as an announcer. Without further ado, here are Jackson’s top five catchphrases: Read More »

Not that we’d need an excuse to reminisce about one of our favorite players, but today’s a special day. So in honor of Allen Iverson turning 36 today, we put together a compilation of Allen’s greatest commercials from throughout his career. Check ‘em out: Read More »

The NBA Draft is simply the most important time of the year for rebuilding franchises. Just ask the Portland Trail Blazers. Whether it is the next Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant, or the next Sam Bowie and Greg Oden, we are out to identify the legitimate prospects from the phony ones. Every week, we will deliver profiles of top prospects and breakdown their game. We will give you player comparisons, ratings, outside opinions on the prospects, and much more. Yesterday we had San Diego State’s Kawhi Leonard, and next up is Colorado shooting guard Alec Burks. Read More »

There are some things I will never quite understand about Avatar. For all of the hype, all of the months/years spent building, all of the insanely futuristic special effects and the mountains upon mountains of money put into the project, the movie was supposed to suck. It told the same story I’ve seen a gazillion times, and did it with weird blue creatures that weren’t nearly as cool as “Two Socks” from Dances With Wolves…not to mention that the scenes where the avatar and his alien lady hooked up got my stomach gurgling. Awkward for more than one reason. Read More »

Allen Iverson was a revolutionary, an NBA star and a cultural icon for basketball off the court as much as he was on it. Still, what made A.I. one of the most remarkable players was his ability to score at will despite standing 6-feet tall and weighing only 165 pounds.

He made his legacy in a game fit for giants, and he did it because he possessed a handle comparable to few. Put that on top of blistering speed and a relentlessness on both ends of the floor and you’ve got The Answer. Read More »

This July, Jimmer Fredette will become the first athlete that hasn’t even played a game in his respective professional sport to participate in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at Lake Tahoe. While there, he’ll compete against the likes of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Aaron Rodgers, Jason Kidd and Jerry Rice, just to name a few. So with much on his mind, I had a chance to speak with Jimmer last week about his golf game, workouts and the upcoming NBA Draft. Read More »

Last week, we showed you the official NBA 2K12 TV spot that premiered before the start of the Game 1. Problem was, all the gameplay footage was from NBA 2K11. Yesterday as part of the annual video game conference E3 in Los Angeles, 2K Sports showed us what the latest iteration looks like with PlayStation Move support. Oh yeah, and Kobe helped out too. (Why he came out to the instrumental of J-Kwon‘s “Tipsy” is beyond me.)

Read More »

Down 2-1, the Mavs are close to the edge, desperate and in Dirk‘s case, aggravated. Nowitzki sounded off on his longtime teammate Jason Terry for the way the sixth man has been shrinking in the clutch. Dirk blamed some of the team’s four quarter issues on Terry being unable to shake free from LeBron‘s D (he’s been guarding him a lot in crunch time). Read More »

Former NBA assist machine and current ESPN NBA analyst Mark Jackson has been named the new head coach of the Golden State Warriors.

Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Jackson’s deal is a guaranteed three-year contract worth upwards of $6 million. We will have more info and analysis on Jackson’s hiring in tomorrow’s SMACK.