Every so often, the teacher becomes the student, and last night in Madison Square Garden, the return of Amar’e Stoudemire was overshadowed by Damian Lillard one-upping the ultimate clutch player, Carmelo Anthony, in winning time. If the NBA ever gets its mind right and puts together a “Rookies Performing Under Pressure 101″ class, they’ll have to bring in Lillard as a guest speaker. Bookended by a Carmelo Anthony triple and a three-point play from ‘Melo courtesy of the dumbest foul of 2013, Lillard (21 points, six assists) hit the biggest shot of the game: a step-back triple in Pablo Prigioni‘s grill. Read More »

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Two months of NBA action is in the books and the good tidings of the New Year is upon us. Both NBA conferences have surprised, inspired and baffled us with various storylines in 2012. Now it’s time to look ahead to some of the more intriguing questions from each conference in 2013. Read More »

So much of the attention paid to Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire this summer was on his training with post guru Hakeem Olajuwon. The pair’s workouts in Houston were dissected for improvements in the back-to-the-basket skillset of Stoudemire, long a forward more comfortable with a two-step running start than a traditional entry pass. It feels like deja vu now, five months later, to watch Stoudemire’s brief, newest workout tape to look for insight into his recovery from left knee surgery. This time, it’s not with a two-time world champion big man, though: It’s with the Erie BayHawks. Read More »

Sometimes we wish the NBA was more like the NFL. In football, you must bring your best effort or you’ll be left looking like Mark Sanchez on Monday Night Football, getting your skills compared to Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite. Read More »

A certain aura illuminates the state of New York now. After millions of homes were mangled by the devastating storm caused by Hurricane Sandy, many lives were depleted of happiness. Souls were deflated. Streams of tears and anguish flooded the streets after Sandy washed away homes with her overpowering winds. Read More »

The Lakers and Pacers tilt last night in L.A. was so bad it was almost comical. There was Dwight Howard missing clutch free throws and laughing about it. There was Joey Crawford making awful calls left and right. There was Indiana fumbling away nearly every opportunity to close the Lakers out. There was Kobe attempting to win the game by himself. In the end, George Hill (19 points) hit one more big shot than Bryant, and Hill’s high underhand shot off the glass that dropped in with .1 seconds left won it for the visitors, 79-77 … Read More »

The Knicks are 7-1 as the toast of the town, and their Jay-Z-owned brothers across the East River, the Nets, are 6-2 and second in the Atlantic Division. That means the Post and Daily News are foaming at the mouth to stir up a little New York rivalry and tout the two teams as legitimate threats to come out of the East this spring. Except, we’re not even through the regular season’s first month, and there are some inconsistencies in what both teams have accomplished thus far. Read More »

So Mike D’Antoni is headed to Hollywood, and the Internet is ablaze trying to determine just how much this helps or hurts the Lakers, everybody’s favorite talking point this season. The Lakers are a superstar team, in a superstar town, and D’Antoni is now a superstar coach, at least that’s what Kupchak and crew are betting on with their three-year deal to bring in the former Knicks and Suns coach. Read More »

Give NBA uber-dork Daryl Morey some credit. The Houston general manager somehow took the Rockets through the final bitter months of the Tracy McGrady era, beyond the retirement of Yao Ming, and even on past the whole Dwight Howard saga. All along, the Rockets stayed competitive. No one’s talking championships in H-Town, but they’re always a solid team, and that’s more than the have-nots in Charlotte, Sacramento and New Orleans can say. Read More »