Laker fans never have to worry. When the NBA released its revised schedule about a week ago, they made sure the league’s most polarizing franchise was delivered to it’s ever-expanding fan base. Is 29 out of 66 enough? 29 times this season the Lakers will be playing on national TV, which is only about 25 times more than the New Jersey Nets, despite their star point guard and despite their jet ski-riding, womanizing owner (and even those four games got the shaft that is NBA TV). The NBA knows the big names and the big teams will make the most money. Cleveland at Milwaukee in February is for no one outside of the diehards. Read More »

What can one say about the Minnesota Timberwolves that David Kahn already hasn’t? This team has one fantasy monster and a bunch of dudes who aren’t good for much else than rounding out the end of your roster. With timeshares bound to happen at multiple positions, it’ll take a lot of boldness for fantasy owners to draft most of these players. Read More »

Athletes will be athletes. As we saw in Thursday’s Smack, that’s why Oklahoma City guard Nate Robinson is half-seriously considering playing for the NFL, and coaches like Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks are half-seriously thinking about that being a good idea.

It’s the same reason why we always want to imagine LeBron James strapping on the shoulder pads and coming off the edge as a defensive end or repeatedly overpowering any 6-foot-nothing corner for a jump-ball on a fade route. He’s such a good athlete we can’t even decide which position would be a better option. Read More »

On Twitter a couple weeks ago, WFAN Radio’s (New York) Evan Roberts tweeted a suggestion that as part of the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, each team should be allowed to void one bad contract. I thought that was an interesting idea, and did some research, and here is one contract each NBA team would probably like to void: Read More »

You ever spent hours working on a project, then within five minutes it became totally useless? That’s how it was for whoever on the Atlanta Hawks production staff spent their time making fake movie posters hyping the Hawks as “The Road Warriors” because they went into last night’s game in Miami with a 7-2 road record, best in the East. About five minutes into the first quarter, however, before they could even show the graphic, LeBron and D-Wade and Bosh led the Heat on a 14-2 run and built a lead Miami would never lose … This was the game we envisioned when the Heat trio first joined forces. Read More »

It’s officially Back to the Future time for the Hornets. After starting the season winning 11 of their first 12 games and eliminating all of the persistent rumors about Chris Paul leaving, they’ve since lost four out of five and reality is beginning to set in. Last night in Oklahoma City — 24 hours after blowing a 17-point lead in a loss to the Spurs — the Hornets led for much of the second half until a flurry of OKC awesomeness sent N.O. home with another loss … Late in the fourth quarter, the Hornets were up by four before Russell Westbrook (25 pts, 11 asts) hit a foul-line jumper. Read More »

Considering the violent and aggressive nature of football — American football, that is — it’s a wonder you don’t see more incidents like the brawl between Houston Texans receiver Andre Johnson and Tennessee Titans cornerback Cortland Finnegan that stole NFL headlines yesterday. The main reason? Helmets. If you noticed, Johnson and Finnegan didn’t really start throwing blows until they had each ripped off the other’s protective headgear.

NBA players don’t have to worry about breaking their hand on a plastic shell, which automatically makes for more fights in their sport. But for the most part, basketball players can’t fight. Here are the good, the bad and the ugly of some NBA brawls that stick out in my memory: Read More »

In the same week that the Blazers learned Greg Oden will miss the rest of the season due to another knee surgery, the Rockets found out their injury-prone franchise center, Yao Ming, will miss (at least) another two weeks due to a bone bruise in his ankle.

Yao has been out since Nov. 10, when he hurt his ankle early in Houston’s loss to the Wizards. He was originally slated to miss about one week, but now his return date has been pushed back. Read More »

Moving to a new place is never easy. With that in mind, a professional basketball player that gets traded or signs with a new team must be able to adapt to a new environment often on short notice. Whether due to a new coaching style, teammates or playing in a higher altitude (Thanks Denver), some players have a harder time adjusting than others. The following is a list of players that although talented, have had trouble transitioning their talents to their new home. Read More »

The Erick Dampier sweepstakes appear to be coming to an end. After talks with Miami fell apart in September, the next teams to enter into the mix were Milwaukee, Portland, Toronto and Houston. And according to HOOPSWORLD’s Bill Ingram, the Rockets “offered the best financial package, as well as a shot at being a part of a potentially-contending team.” Read More »