The reserves for this month’s NBA All-Star Game in Orlando were announced last night, and while I don’t agree with all of them, I DEFINITELY am not feeling Kenny and Chuck‘s reasoning. Listen, the All-Star selection process is fundamentally flawed as it is. Inevitably it comes down to what you deem worthy – is it wins? numbers? impact? – and inevitably, that’s different for everyone. But I’m sorry: Smith and Barkley were way off last night. Read More »

It’s a misnomer to call Thursday’s picks for the rest of the All-Star squads “reserves” considering their place as some of the world’s best ballers, but we learned who filled out the All-Star rosters last night on TNT. Some experts weren’t thrilled by all the picks, which opens up the annual conversation: Do fans want the big names or should they deserve the best in the moment? A perfect example is LaMarcus Aldridge, who was balling last season in Portland but got cut because he wasn’t a hot name. He got his much-deserved All-Star spot last night. Paul Pierce, Luol Deng and Dirk Nowitzki, though? And no Rondo? Read More »

You may not have heard, but there are reports the NBA is going to tweak the format for the Rookie-Sophomore Game at All-Star Weekend. For the previous few seasons, it was always the rookie class vs. the sophomores and while that seems great in theory, sometimes it didn’t work. Last season, the sophomores had one guy – DeJuan Blair – who put in work inside (and he’s undersized). The rookies had DeMarcus Cousins, Blake Griffin, and even Derrick Favors and Greg Monroe off the bench. So in order to make it a more interesting game, the NBA is reportedly doing something a little different this year. Read More »

He played Shaq, he wore drag, he picked up Cecil and so much more. But in the midst of preparing for all of that, Charles Barkley worked with Saturday Night Live photographer Mary Ellen Matthews on another set of fantastic bumper photos for his third time hosting. Check ‘em out: Read More »

It is pretty rare when an elite superstar, a player at the top of their game, is traded off by a team. Circumstances have to reach a boiling point where the team is not going anywhere or the player sees greener pastures and nothing will stop that fixation. In the NBA today, superstars (and those who think they are superstars) are all built the same. If their team has not won a championship or when they see their friends winning them in a brief amount of time, they see it as a need for a new setting. Read More »

Lost amidst all the trade talk, conspiracies and player movement of the past few weeks, Shaquille O’Neal is still joining the best basketball show on television and is still going to make TNT’s “Inside the NBA” an even more entertaining program. Watching basketball on Thursday nights is great, but we all know how much better TNT makes it. Yesterday, I got my first listen into what a show with O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson will be like. TNT held a media conference call and nearly three quarters of the way through, the three analysts got into a pretty big argument over what Orlando should do with Dwight Howard. Read More »

These are strange times in the NBA. Strange times, indeed. We want to believe this whole fiasco revolving around the Chris Paul-to-the-L.A. Clippers trade is over. But we know, and y’all know, it isn’t. That’s what happens when a league is forced to trade one of its most visible and valuable assets. That’s what happens when there are accusations someone screwed around with the amnesty waiver process to make sure Chauncey Billups ended up a Clipper. That’s what happens when reporters ask a GM from Houston who thought he had a trade done last week, to comment on what exactly happened and the man backs off saying he isn’t allowed to speak on it. Read More »

No one is happy with the owners, least of all the players after the old guys basically told them recently “Here, we’ll give you two slices from this large buffalo chicken pizza, but if you don’t wash the dishes afterwards, next time you might only get the leftover crust.” Tomorrow is the most important day yet in the lockout, a chance for the players to (hopefully) vote and (hopefully… for our own selfish reasons) agree to a deal. If they don’t give the offer any consideration – which seems the most likely case – the sides will split further apart and the cancellations could eat up the majority of this season. Michael Jordan is in the middle of it all – finally – but as we called for him to get more involved, I don’t think the players expected him to do what he did. Read More »

If you’ve been watching NBA TV at all this summer – and I’m sure you have if you’re like me – you must’ve noticed how often they play Game 3 from the 1994 first round series between Phoenix and Golden State. I’ve seen parts of that game probably four or five times. It was Chris Webber’s first taste of the postseason and one of the final bites in the prime of Charles Barkley’s career. C-Webb seemed at times, for all of his Fab Five-ness, a respectful young kid. But he crossed the line with his infamous regular season dunk over the reigning MVP. You know the one: catch it on the break, flick it around the back for no reason other than because he can, and then shove the ball down Barkley’s throat after stepping off his Flight No. 4. Read More »

After recently saying this lockout is a direct cause of all the NBA’s stars running to team up in major markets, Charles Barkley also sat down with azcentral.com to talk hoops and the current lockout. When asked about his thoughts on the owners and NBA commissioner David Stern, Barkley said that Stern was the best commissioner in sports and would do whatever is best for the small market teams. In regards to Amar’e and ‘Melo’s statements about starting their own league, Barkley said that it was one of the stupidest things he’s ever heard. Right up there with New Coke. Read More »