The player who accomplished so much in such short time meets his likely end the same day as the player who did so little given so many chances. Brandon Roy and Darko Milicic entered with similar expectations as top-six picks in the NBA Draft and could quietly drift away just 20 days into this NBA season. Without this timing we’d have almost nothing to tie the two together. Their beginning and end points are neatly tethered together, but the gulf between their careers in between resembles a bell curve and its mirror image. Read More »

Brooklyn’s executives had to be happy with the Nets’ opening night at the Barclays Center. Not only did they get the Wizards, one of the league’s worst teams, but they got them with people like John Wall and Nene out in street clothes. Washington has more injury problems than perhaps everyone outside of their neighbors from Baltimore (the Ravens), so it wasn’t surprising to see Brooklyn open up the new arena (at least basketball-wise) with a 98-88 win behind 18 points and 11 rebounds from Brook Lopez. Read More »

Free Darko has been the joking rallying cry since he was taken No. 2 ahead of, well, a ton of All-Stars. He’s such a bust the list gets even longer when fans start mocking. Darko Milicic, wasn’t he the guy in front of Sam Bowie, who was in front of the GOAT? Read More »

The NBA isn’t done with Darko Milicic yet. The former No. 2 pick and cautionary draft tale is headed to his sixth team when the Boston Celtics sign him next week for the veteran’s minimum, CSNNE.com reported. Read More »

Mark Cuban went through a spell during the Mavs’ championship run in 2011 where he was as quiet as we’ve ever heard him. He made no headlines, said no controversial things and didn’t even get fined by the NBA. He’s making up for lost time this summer. Recently, not only did he say Jason Kidd wouldn’t get his jersey retired in Dallas anytime soon, but also that Dirk Nowitzki has better job security than Barney Stinson. After declaring Dallas nearly traded for Kobe Bryant while Cuban was practicing for Dancing With The Stars, Cuban is now saying he believes his squad is better off without Deron Williams. Read More »

Two years ago, names like James, Wade, Bosh, Johnson and Stoudemire set the NBA offseason on fire and completely revamped what free agency was like. It created a boon of interest in the sport, and the residue effects are still being felt today. Not even last year’s extended lockout could do enough to damper the enthusiasm people have for this time of year, when there are more rumors and trade reports than basketballs being dribbled and dunked. This summer, we don’t have quite the star power of 2010, but we also don’t have the abbreviated offseason from 2011. Now, 2012 kind of feels like the best of both worlds. Read More »

It’s hard to be considered an offseason winner when your No. 1 player and franchise cornerstone recently tore up his knee and won’t be returning until probably March at the earliest. But the Bulls aren’t just going to be one player down next season; They’ve made some huge changes in this offseason. They lost Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver and Omer Asik, among others, and replaced them with Kirk Hinrich, Nate Robinson and Nazr Mohammed. Rose probably means a dozen wins himself, and with the new changes they’ve made, Jeff Van Gundy doesn’t think they’ll even make the playoffs. The Notorious J.V.G. said on ESPN 1000′s “Waddle & Silvy” show that it’ll be a heck of a year if the Bulls can even win half of their games. Read More »

The Minnesota Timberwolves have made multiple additions by subtraction this offseason: Anthony Randolph, Michael Beasley, Darko Milicic, Martell Webster. Kevin Love has no reservations acknowledging this, citing the “bad blood” that previously infested the team. Read More »

Now that Lindecision 2012 is all over, and Jeremy Lin is going to be formerly introduced as a Houston Rocket sometime soon, we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. No, we’re not talking about how, for once, the Knicks resisted the urge to indulge as they have so many times before (even though, for once, there were PLENTY of reasons to do it). We’re talking about how we got here. Lin never wanted to leave New York, and opened up about it to SI.com yesterday. Read More »

Note to self: never ask an NBA star if his team, team A, can beat team B. These guys don’t become the greatest players in the world without having an overflow of confidence, blinders atop their eyes and extreme tunnel vision. If that’s a rule we should all live by, especially those in the sports media who have the access to routinely ask these questions, then an absolute law needs to be this: never ask Michael Jordan whether a team he’s on might lose. Just don’t do it. Well, someone did yesterday, repeating what Kobe Bryant said about the aforementioned Dream Team vs. Team USA argument. What was MJ’s response? Laughter. Read More »