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 »

“He’s going to empower players to be as good as you want and he’s going to give you enough rope to hang yourself.”

Chris Webber has earned his keep in broadcasting. He’s smart, fair and usually honest. But he’s never said something before that fit so perfectly. C-Webb knows Rick Adelman as well as any NBA player in the league, perhaps of all time. He paired with Adelman in the summer of 1998, Webber being banished from Washington for reasons that had more to do with his off-the-court issues than anything else, and quickly became the De Niro to Adelman’s Scorsese. Read More »

With the NBA season right around the corner, I caught up with three former players-turned-anaylsts from NBA TV today to preview the upcoming season. Chris Webber, Steve Smith and Greg Anthony broke down questions for an hour on everything from Kwame Brown‘s signing to the effect the lockout will have on young egos. While they disagreed on a number of things, they all seemed to be convinced that Boston’s old vets will actually be helped by the lockout. Read More »

Pistol Pete better be unbeatable. He better be out there throwing in wild hook shots from behind the backboard, and tossing in scoop shots from the three-point line. For all of the eccentric stuff the Pistol did in the NBA, he’ll always be remembered more appropriately for his college theatrics, and the trick shots he mastered so completely (Remember all of those old H-O-R-S-E TV programs). Upon playing the “Legends Showcase” for the first time, and jumping immediately into H-O-R-S-E, I thought Pete Maravich needed to come correct. If the 2K developers didn’t arm him with justice, there would’ve been Hell to pay. Thankfully, the Pistol was at his gun-slinging best. 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 »

The only memories I have of Wayman Tisdale are from his final few years in the NBA when he was just a forgettable role player in Phoenix. I didn’t catch him in his prime during the late 1980s and early ‘90s. I also never realized he was a spectacular musician until sometime around his death in 2009. If we are talking about great NBA musicians, then Tisdale has to be near the top. He had a No. 1 Billboard album, as crazy as that sounds. But if we did that – opened this list up to every ballplayer/artist – it would turn into an impossibility. Read More »

If I wasn’t so out of touch with reality, I probably would’ve started hating on Watch The Throne. Twitter sunk into a listening/slobbering session for nearly 72 hours, and the predictable response from the public came pouring out: -FIRST: this album is incredible!!! #classic -THEN: you serious? Overrated…#goesbacktoplayingBDP -FINALLY: #WTT is growing on me…

From a masterpiece to a failure to somewhere in between, it’s always the same. Read More »

We told y’all about the news earlier this week, but yesterday it became official: Shaq is a part of the squad at TNT and Inside The NBA. He’ll be a full-time analyst. Okay, lets take bets: who’s the first player he takes a shot at? Kobe? D-Wade? Steve Nash? And how often will they play that clip from the Barkley/O’Neal fight from back in the day? Once a show? We’re assuming C-Webb gets the boot, but that’s alright. He’s a better-than-good commentator who was being overshadowed in the studio. Read More »

If this playoff run has shown anything, it’s that the game is changing. Not only are new teams sprouting up to beat back the mentally and physically-spent giants, but there’s a whole new era of players ready to take control.

Earlier this week in Smack, a debate surfaced: who are the best power forwards of this generation? Dirk Nowitzki is a monster right now, Tim Duncan appears to have finally hit the wall and Kevin Garnett may be on his last legs. How does it all fit in? Where do these players rank as they inch closer to finishing the final chapter in their careers? Read More »

As this season nears its end for the Sacramento Kings, leaning halfway out the door on their way to Anaheim, we need a reminder. Once upon a time, a decade or so ago, there was no fanbase more rabid, no love affair between a city and team more pronounced and no basketball more exhilarating than the Kings. Cowbells were in, and on the East Coast, it meant staying up late and getting up early for SportsCenter.

They never did win anything of substance, those Sacramento teams immediately following the second retirement of Michael Jordan. But damn, they had substance. Read More »