Real life hit the NBA once again yesterday, when reports surfaced that a number of Miami Heat employees — most notably Pat Riley and head coach Erik Spoelstra — accepted pay cuts up to 20% in an effort to prevent further layoffs in the organization. It’s been public knowledge for years that some NBA teams are in financial trouble (Grizzlies, Bobcats, etc.), but Miami usually wasn’t in that group. It’s not like Riley or Spoelstra is starving or anything, but it’s got to be scary for a lot of people around the League. And of course, it kicks off an easy round of “Why can’t Underachieving Player X take a pay cut?” Read More »
REGGIE MILLER (by Austin Burton)
For a long time, Reggie Miller was my favorite basketball player (even above hometown heroes Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp) for the same reason I admired Mike Tyson growing up: Because he wasn’t supposed to be where he was as a prime-time player, an underdog who rose to the top.
You might have forgotten since he’s filled out in his post-playing, TV-talking career, but Reggie was a beanpole. He weighed 185 in his prime, and didn’t make up for it with athleticism and grace like fellow skinny dudes T-Mac or George Gervin. His jumper looked funny, he wasn’t a great ball-handler, and the common joke was that his sister was a better ballplayer. Read More »
With the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony scheduled for this Friday, we wanted to give the true diehard fans of the Dime Magazine community an opportunity to write about the 2009 class. Dime reader Ian Queliz, who has repped his San Antonio Spurs harder than anyone we know, shares his thoughts on David Robinson:
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“The Admiral” is by far the most important Spur to ever put on the uniform — even ahead of Tim Duncan. Why? To put it simply: Without David Robinson, there probably wouldn’t even be a team in San Antonio. Read More »
This may sound bad coming from somebody in my profession, but by the time the NBA Finals rolls around, I’m just about tired of basketball. Having watched multiple NBA games every single day for the previous eight months and writing a column about it every single night (weekends and holidays, too), I’m always secretly hoping whoever wins Game 1 of the Finals can complete a nice, boring sweep so I can watch track and baseball the rest of the summer.
Then around mid-August, I’m ready for the NBA again and ready for my NBA League Pass renewal. That’s when the prospect of watching every pro game goes from “I have to” back to its rightful “I get to.” Read More »
“You will see a team of professionals in the Olympics again, but I don’t think you’ll see another team quite like this. This was a majestic team.” – USA coach Chuck Daly
There will never be a basketball team like the 1992 U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball Team. In the first Olympics to allow NBA players, the Dream Team dismantled the rest of the world, averaging an Olympic record 117.3 points per game and outscoring opponents by an average of 43.8 points on its way to gold. Today, they’ll be formally introduced and honored at the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Chicago. Read More »
Today over on BleacherReport.com, they have a ranking of the 10 most interesting NBA trade rumors of the last 15 years. There’s definitely some good stuff on there: Clyde Drexler for Harold Miner? A deal that would have sent Scottie Pippen to the Celtics so that the Bulls could then draft Tracy McGrady?
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To clarify: Our NBA Fantasy Finals have nothing to do with the stat-driven “fantasy basketball” you play online. We’re taking NBA Finals teams throughout history and pitting them against each other to see what you think would happen. Assume both lineups are healthy, and the older team gets homecourt. Today it’s Reggie vs. Clyde in what sounds like the World Series of Dominoes, but really isn’t …Read More »
To clarify: Our NBA Fantasy Finals have nothing to do with the stat-driven “fantasy basketball” you play online. We’re taking NBA Finals teams throughout history and pitting them against each other to see what you think would happen. Assume both lineups are healthy, and the older team gets homecourt. Today it’s The Dream and The Glide versus J-Kidd and some guys who made a lot of money off of him …Read More »
Not exactly worth getting up at 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday before (if you’re on the West Coast), this Celtics/Bulls series just got a whole lot more interesting. After Chicago sloughed their way through a loss to the Raptors and gave up the 6th seed Wednesday night, nobody would have picked the Bulls to make much of a dent against a healthy, focused Celtics team that’s feeling disrespected with everybody penciling the Cavs into the Finals. But then Thursday morning came around, and with it, the news that Kevin Garnett (knee) could be out for the duration of the playoffs. Read More »
