As we touched on last week, NBA TV’s documentary “The Dream Team” was pretty, pretty, pretty great. While we gave you a look at some of the top plays and what we learned from “The Dream Team,” it’s important to remember that there were two more “Dream Teams” – the 1994 “Dream Team II” and the 1996 “Dream Team III.” Read More »

Upon leaving New York City for All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles, we knew there was a very good possibility that either the Knicks or Nets would pull off a deal, most likely involving Carmelo Anthony. But what transpired last week for both New York teams (yes, the Nets will soon be in Brooklyn) has been nothing short of astounding. Read More »

So with the Brett Favre ending his NFL iron man streak and Cliff Lee signing with the Phillies (which I’m loving, by the way) dominating the headlines lately, I felt a little sports overkill. This all changed when I learned my childhood hardwood idol would be playing and I could catch him online.

That’s right, Allen Iverson, who has had his share of troubles this year, would be playing for his Turkish club team Besiktas for the world to see. This excitement quickly diminished into disappointment upon hearing news of A.I. sitting out because of an ankle injury. Read More »

What was originally billed as a matchup between the No. 1 and No. 2 picks of the 2010 NBA Draft — John Wall and Evan Turner — became the most interesting NBA game of the night for another reason: Wizards/Sixers pitted two teams who don’t know how to close out games trying to close out a game that was a clinic in what NOT to do in crunch time. It was a comedy of bad decision-making, bricked free throws, and brain farts. Read More »

I’d presume every man who grew up with a father figure in his life had a significant chunk of his sports experiences shaped by that father figure. I played football because my Dad played, I wanted to wear #22 because he wore it, and today I still always root for Black coaches and Black quarterbacks thanks to my Dad’s influence.

Another thing I picked up from my Dad: The need for constant variety in sports. Pops hates it when the same teams contend for championships every year. “Mix it up” is one of his favorite phrases, so he likes it when Cincinnati and TCU threaten to crash the BCS bowl party, or the Orlando Magic upset the norm to make the NBA Finals over the boring old Celtics. Read More »

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 »