If you haven’t heard, this is supposed to be a down year for the Pac-10.
Over the summer the conference lost James Harden, Jordan Hill, DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday, Darren Collison, Taj Gibson, Jeff Pendergraph, Jon Brockman and Chase Budinger to the NBA Draft. Going back to 2008, the Pac-10 also lost O.J. Mayo, Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, the Lopez twins, Jerryd Bayless and Ryan Anderson, all of whom would still been in school today had they not gone pro early. Read More »
No matter how old and inconsistent he gets, apparently Peja Stojakovic will always be able to light up the Suns. In what could have been one of those rock-bottom moments for the Hornets — national TV, no Chris Paul, interim coach, hosting a red-hot opponent who could conceivably drop 130 points on ‘em and get them booed out of their own gym — N.O. showed some heart and pulled off an upset win behind Peja’s 25 points, 13 boards and seven threes. It wasn’t the first time Peja has taken down the Suns on a big stage: Read More »
Jameer Nelson just can’t catch a break. Last February, the Magic’s starting guard hurt his shoulder, causing him to shut it down for the rest of last season and almost the entire playoffs. Just a few weeks into this 2009-10 season, Nelson tore some cartilage in his left knee against the Bobcats on Monday night. Jameer will have surgery on the knee and is expected to miss the next 4-6 weeks. The question now is: how much will Nelson’s absence hurt the Magic in the short and long run? Read More »
While struggling to understand why Matt Harpring was analyzing game tape on NBA TV this past weekend, it got me thinking about the Utah Jazz. Being from Denver, I don’t normally enjoy publicly praising Utah for any of their success. Still, credit due when credit earned. While Brandon Jennings and Ty “Mbenga Banga” Lawson are undoubtedly on top of the PG rookie heap right now, Jazz rook Eric Maynor is right behind them. Read More »
Last night, Deron Williams left the Jazz and returned home to Salt Lake City because of an undisclosed personal reason according to the Deseret News. Details of the matter were not released. Williams will miss tonight’s game in Philadelphia and it’s uncertain if he will play Saturday night at Cleveland. In the past week, several NBA players like Allen Iverson and Al Jefferson have been forced to leave their teams due to personal matters.
During the ‘09 conference finals, Shaq showed up at one of Orlando’s home games against the Cavs, to the chagrin of a lot of people associated with the Magic. Last night Shaq was back in the building; this time wearing a Cavs uniform. Throw in the tension leftover from when Diesel was talking greasy about Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy last year, and you know the fans had a lot of venom toward Big Witness Protection. He played into it, too, doing stuff like leaving his hand in the air extra-long after a free throw. And the crowd was even more pissed when Cleveland walked out with a win … Read More »
The Utah Jazz locker room is a lot more interesting than you think. Although he gives terrible interviews, Deron Williams has no problem running his mouth to C.J. Miles and Ronnie Brewer. Rookie Eric Maynor is getting teased by every media member in the Madison Square Garden locker room for his hot pink Barbie backpack (I’m guessing it’s not by choice). Meanwhile, Carlos Boozer is on his own island sitting in front of the TV watching game film while bobbing his head to his headphones (which are playing Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement”). In the midst of the chaos, Andrei Kirilenko is sitting quietly by himself reading a book and looking sophisticated with his new Jude Law haircut and his legs crossed. I felt bad interrupting him, but did so anyway to get this interview. Read More »
Deron Williams has never been a man of many words. I’ve know this ever since I used to write for UtahJazz.com. But on the court, his game speaks volumes. Williams is having his best year statistically (21.4 ppg, 10.7 apg, 4.9 rpg, 1 spg) but the Jazz are off to their worst start since the 2002-03 season. Coming into yesterday’s game against New York, the Jazz were 2-4. Fortunately for them, they were playing the horrible Knicks and were able to squeeze out a much needed 95-93 victory. I caught up to D-Will for a quick minute before the game. Read More »
Is it possible the West is actually stronger than we all thought? No surprise that the Lakers, Nuggets, Spurs and Blazers have been solid, but not a lot of people expected Houston, Dallas and Phoenix to play so well coming out of the gate … The Suns are arguably the best team in the entire League right now, with Steve Nash putting himself in the mix for a third MVP and doing that thing where he makes fringe NBA players look like All-Stars. Last night Nash added to the resume, putting up 21 points and 20 assists in a come-from-behind win at Philly … Read More »
If you’re purely interested in the best interest of Allen Iverson, you’re glad the Grizzlies had one of their business-as-usual losses against the Clippers last night. Having gone 0-3 since A.I. joined the lineup earlier in the week, for Memphis to win after Iverson had left the team for undisclosed personal reasons — even if it was against the Clips — would have brought up all the same criticisms of Iverson you saw in Detroit and at various points throughout his runs in Philly and Denver. Mainly, that A.I.’s team is better without him, and that certain young stars (i.e. O.J. Mayo in this case) are better off when he’s not in the picture … Instead, the Grizzlies did what they typically do with or without Iverson, putting up a lot of points while giving up even more. Read More »
