Asking Kobe Bryant to sit out with an injury just isn’t happening anymore. Some of us want to believe he’s doing it for the fame – “Not even Jordan could play through this!” – but at this point, it doesn’t matter the motives. Mike Brown says he can’t even tell Bryant is injured at practice, and Kobe is promising he will play this weekend. Kobe is Christian Bale and Gary Vitti is Morgan Freeman. So what will happen? We’re not doctors, but NBA 2K12 took a stab at it for us … Read More »
The lockout is just a memory, the NBA is days away from its glorious Christmas Day return, and fantasy basketball preparations are in full swing. But you can’t escape the past. This isn’t a life lesson from the fingers of someone wholly unfit to give you non-fantasy basketball advice – it’s a reminder that suspensions handed down late in the 2010-11 NBA season are going to affect some players’ availabilities in the early going this season. On top of those suspensions are injuries and health conditions that will have implications from the outset of the 2011-12 NBA season. Below is a rundown of early suspensions and injuries, and the players who stand to benefit from those circumstances. Read More »
We all saw this coming. Maybe we thought it’d last for a year or so, perhaps just long enough to film another TV show, but it at least had a shot for that, right? Nope, this was inevitable. Kris Humphries will just have to do what he does for a living: rebound.
Kim Kardashianfiled for divorce today from her new (I guess it’s now ex) hubby Humphries, and HumpDash is officially off. Too bad. We were really starting to like those two. 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 »
Locker room problems? In Oklahoma City? Naaaah. No way. But yet, there are rumors that the Thunder might be having some issues, specifically between Russell Westbrook and Kendrick Perkins. The New York Daily News reports that while Perkins was brought in for his leadership and experience, he constantly went at Westbrook for not being enough of a playmaker and that he wasn’t close to Rajon Rondo in that regard. While it’s true that Westbrook isn’t the passer Rondo is, you’d think Perkins would have more appreciation for his point guard. Would the Thunder be better off with Rondo? We don’t think so. Read More »
First the Lakers with Andrew Bynum and now this? The juggernauts of the West really should’ve just skipped the final few days of the regular season all together. Reports are now surfacing out of San Antonio’s camp that Manu Ginobili is doubtful for the first game of their series against Memphis with a hyperextended right elbow. An MRI yesterday confirmed the injury. During their game against the Suns on the season’s final night, Ginobili was running off a screen and tried to grab a hold of his own man to use his momentum to curl around. The problem was that Grant Hill was right behind him and sort of ran up his back, hitting him in just the right spot so that Manu’s elbow hyperextended. It wasn’t pretty. Read More »
Unless you just came out of NBA regular season hibernation, chances are you saw Charlie Villanueva‘s on-court altercation with Ryan Hollins the other night. Yesterday, the NBA handed Charlie V a five-game suspension without pay for initiating the fight and attempting to escalate it by entering the Cavs’ locker room on two separate occasions following his ejection. That’s not smart. Read More »
And then there were two…days of the regular season left after Monday night. We had known for a few days that the Pacers were set up to be sacrificial lambs for the Bulls in the first round of the NBA playoffs, and that Orlando and Atlanta would begin where they left off last spring. But the real meat – who the Knicks would play and who would have the home-court advantage should Boston and Miami advance – wasn’t decided until Miami survived the Hawks’ second-stringers and the Celtics couldn’t survive Washington’s third-stringers … Read More »
Dwyane Wade once said a three-game Miami losing streak would be treated like the world was collapsing, but even the most staunch Heat hater has to admit this current skid comes with an asterisk. LeBron hurt his ankle late in the loss to the Clippers (though that one was probably a lost cause already), he missed the Denver loss (the second of a back-to-back), and he sat out again last night — plus Chris Bosh hurt his ankle and left in the second half — when the Heat lost to the Bulls … Even if LeBron had played, the story line would have focused on D-Wade and Derrick Rose. Read More »
As much grief as LeBron took for linking up with Dwyane Wade and allegedly costing himself a shot at ever winning a third (or fourth) league MVP trophy, nobody seemed to mention D-Wade might have cost himself a shot at winning his first MVP. This week, however, D3 is looking more valuable than any other player in the NBA … Last night Wade decimated the Rockets for 45 points on 17-of-24 shooting from the field and 10-of-10 from the stripe. He only registered one assist, but that’s because he was too busy serving hot bowls of blood pudding. Read More »
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