As of late, a lot of former NBA players have pursued some interesting post-hooping careers. Kevin Johnson is the Mayor of Sacramento, Rony Seikaly is a DJ, Todd MacCulloch is a professional pinball player and now Derrick Coleman is the athletics commissioner for Detroit’s public schools. Read More »

I’m doing my best to avoid living in the past, and I still don’t understand why Allen Iverson is sifting through role-player money offers from Lottery teams who all want him to come off the bench. One of the best guards in the League (still) is floundering on the free agent market — a player who just one season ago averaged 26 points, seven assists and two steals a night on a playoff team — and he’s being treated like Jannero Pargo.

To answer the question posed in this morning’s Smack, I think A.I. is the victim of an undeserved bad reputation that festered over time and is finally catching up with him. Read More »

With so much talk about how the ‘09 Finals will define Kobe Bryant’s legacy, no one is talking about what this means for Phil Jackson. Just as a Lakers win allows Kobe to step out of Shaq’s shadow and prove he can win without The Big Tweeter, it also gives Phil 10 championships as a head coach, pushing him ahead of Red Auerbach for the most all-time.

But for both Phil and Kobe, the one player who will play the biggest role in helping them get those all-important rings is the one player they’re both terrified to trust: Lamar Odom. Read More »

Lamar Odom was your playoff MVP last night. In the Lakers’ Game 5 win over the Nuggets, L.O. was all over the place: Applying backcourt pressure to force turnovers, crashing the boards, driving and drawing, hitting threes, dunking on cats — he had his entire game on display, that Derrick Coleman skill-set that everybody’s been expecting him to deliver for so many years, that he doesn’t utilize nearly enough. Odom (19 pts, 14 rebs, 4 blks) hit a huge three that tied the game late in the third quarter, and in the fourth he crammed on Birdman as part of an 11-0 run that opened the door for L.A. to take a 3-2 series lead. Read More »