Yeah, that guy we all saw last year wearing No. 6 for Miami in the NBA Finals? That guy wasn’t LeBron James. He was someone else, an impostor, a fake, a poser. LeBron says the real LeBron is back. Should we believe him? James says for the first time since he got to Miami, he’s back to the real him. More alive and ready to go. That’s good to know; We aren’t sure how anyone could deal with the amount of venom he had to take in last year. But still, the whispers about clutch failures, disappointments and lack of heart will only grow louder with each misstep. It’s a full-on disease for him now, and the only way to cure it is to win a championship and do it in a fashion that’ll have people forget about James’ past playoff struggles. Read More »

With no return date in sight for the 2011-12 NBA season, there are at least 10 current players that wake up every morning during this lockout and check their watch, clock or calendar to see what day it is. Because unless they can channel Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, each 24 hours means their internal NBA clock is ticking closer to the zero. Not everyone can be John Stockton or Karl Malone and play into their 40s. As we saw at the end of last season with Shaquille O’Neal‘s retirement, all good things must come to an end. With that, we evaluate the future of the NBA’s 10 oldest players: Read More »

Kobe Bryant has maintained his spot as the best basketball player in the world because, even as his nagging injuries pile up and he moves into his 30′s, he relies more on his skills and fundamentals than simple athleticism and explosiveness.

Don’t get it mistaken, though: Kobe can still get up every once in a while, even if some analysts and fans talk about his hops like he’s Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Read More »

During the 2000-01 season, Jerry Stackhouse scored at least 20 points in 73 of the 80 games he suited up for. He played at least 40 minutes in over two thirds of those games, and had just two nights all season where he took less than 17 shots. The dude averaged 29.8 points a game – better than Shaq, better than Kobe, better than Vince – and led the entire league in total points. So why doesn’t anyone remember this? Read More »

Ben Wallace had a greater offense this weekend than Tom Brady. On Saturday night, he was reportedly booked on drunken driving charges as well as for the unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon. The police didn’t release his blood alcohol level and Big Ben will be back in court on Oct. 3. The pistol is something we can’t defend, and neither is the driving. But drinking (Wallace says he had four beers) is what happens when you’re part of an organization that seems intent on making itself the most dysfunctional group in all of sports. All of those players seemed like they were wound-up soldiers ready to pop at any second because of the frustration. We can only imagine the amount of stress they were under this year. For his part, Wallace says he was driving from Virginia to Michigan and just forgot that the gun – registered to his wife – was in a backpack in his backseat … Read More »

Anyone remember the 2006 Clippers? The team that came the year after the squad nearly made the Western Conference Finals? Well, if you don’t recall, just as they were supposed to be the next big thing, they fell apart. Management, coaching, the players, everyone butted heads and it wasn’t even a year later before they were out of the playoffs for good. You could make the claim Memphis is eerily similar. Except for one thing: they are determined to keep the ship upright. Read More »

Next up for fantasy basketball discussion: the Detroit Pistons. There’s a good deal to like here from a fantasy perspective – although there’s no first-round stud, there is some decent value in the middle rounds and a few fill-in guys to watch on the waiver wire when need be. With a good number of free agents for the Pistons, fantasy owners should expect things to change in the upcoming season. Read More »

A year lost to the black hole of an NBA lockout doesn’t stop at lost revenues for team owners, nor the lost nights of kicking back with an extra large bag of Doritos to catch a game.

An NBA lockout means some players who live and breathe hoops won’t know what to do with themselves. To be real, the most gifted of NBA players probably don’t have hobbies, and blasting inferior competition in self-organized streetball games can only fulfill that competitive itch so long. Read More »

NBA arenas, chartered flights, five-star hotels and being set financially; all of these things were supposed to happen for Damon Powell. Despite some setbacks, he still finds himself one step closer to his ultimate goal. Read More »

“He’s wasted his talent.” “He’s soft.” “He doesn’t care.” Vince Carter has heard nearly every insult you could ever throw at a player. But none of that takes away from this: He is the greatest dunker this game has ever seen.

With the recent news that Suns coach Alvin Gentry was benching VC in favor of Jared Dudley, some are taking this as a sign that Carter’s career is pretty much over. But in Wednesday night’s loss against the Thunder, Carter went retro, scoring 28 points and giving us a nice baseline reverse. After that, I figured I would make a list similar to the one I did of Kobe Bryant. Here are the 10 greatest dunks of Vince Carter’s career (no dunk contest and no celebrity-game dunks). Read More »