Harvard graduate. Rags-to-riches basketball phenomenon. Apparel giant? That is the latest audacious accomplishment Jeremy Lin wants to achieve thanks to a reported line of licensed merchandise he’s working with Nike to develop, a line that would specifically outfit Harvard. Read More »

Believe it or not, there were some other significant moves this offseason than what “SportsCenter” would lead you to believe. Steve Nash and Dwight Howard to the Lakers, Deron Williams signing with the Nets and Joe Johnson joining him and even Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan re-signing with the C’s and Spurs, respectively, were stories that we heard about all summer long. As we close in on the 2012-2013 season, it’s time to take a look back at 10 moves that didn’t get enough notice this offseason. Read More »

The 2006 Western Conference Semis between the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs was a series for the ages – Hall of Famers, a seven-game series and gut-wrenching drama. In particular, the Dallas Mavericks had never seen real playoff success until that season. Dirk Nowitzki, as a prelude to his 2011 championship run, poured in 37 points to go along with 15 rebounds in route to the Game 7 win. But the most memorable moment of the series came before that final Game 7 reached overtime, when the Dallas Mavericks were trailing 104-101 in the fourth quarter. Read More »

The Spurs are now officially old. Okay, so their average age (26.9) is actually the lowest of the Tim Duncan era. But Danny Green, Tiago Splitter and Kawhi Leonard are not the Spurs. Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Gregg Popovich and Tony Parker are. Up until today, whenever you talked about age with the Old Reliables, you could always add a “but” at the end. But Tony Parker is still young. Well, he finally hit a milestone today. Parker is now 30 years old. Read More »

There were points in last night’s Spurs win where Devin Harris was truly balling. As we wrote in Smack, he sort of turned his season around in the past five weeks, and at least salvaged a little bit of his pride. In fact, he actually outplayed Tony Parker last night, and also had one of the best chase-down blocks we’ve seen from a point guard. Read More »

Oh, we want to put an asterisk by this so, so bad. But damn, Chris Paul is just too, too good. We can forget that CP and Blake Griffin will probably wake up today with whiplash from all of their flopping and flailing. Paul dropped eight overtime points, cooked half the Grizzlies roster, and finished with 27 points, nine rebounds and seven assists as the Clippers went up 3-1 on Memphis, 101-97. After not having a single second-chance point all game, L.A. had two buckets in a row off misses in overtime, and even with Mike Conley (25 points, seven rebounds, eight dimes) playing the game of his life, the Grizzlies couldn’t finish. Again. … Read More »

There were some spectacularly embarrassing moments this season. From Nick Young and Vince Carter air balling layups to Devin Harris and Brandon Knight getting showers in the crowd, you needed a thick skin to survive these 66 games. Everyone was getting roasted. But upon watching this video, I only have one question: WHERE IS JAVALE MCGEE? Read More »

You see that? That’s what all those people in Boston and Minnesota used to talk about; what all those people in Utah still talk about. Last night, that was Al Jefferson showing his entire skill set, showing why he should be right up there in the discussion with Andrew Bynum and whoever else you think might be the second-best center in the NBA behind Dwight Howard … In a game the Jazz needed to win to clinch the final playoff spot in the West and eliminate the Suns from contention, Jefferson put up 18 points and 16 rebounds to go with four assists and two blocks. Read More »

Saturday morning, things looked pretty good for the Heat: All they had to do was beat the craptastic Wizards at home, and if the Bulls lost to the Mavs in a game that injury-racked Derrick Rose (head, shoulders, knees, toes) probably wouldn’t play in, Miami would be in prime position to snatch the No. 1 playoff seed in the East before the regular season wraps up next week … Saturday evening, it was a different story: D-Rose was cleared to play, and Miami’s plan to give LeBron and Chris Bosh the night off suddenly looked stupid when Dwyane Wade hurt his finger in the opening minutes and never returned. By the end of the night, Chicago had stretched its lead over Miami to 2.5 games, and shrunk the Heat’s margin for error down to zero … Read More »

When a crowd is chanting your name on the road, in part because you dropped 21 points in the first quarter, it doesn’t matter if that road crowd is only “road” in a technical sense. It was only a few miles away, but New Yorkers pretty much took over the Nets’ arena last night and spent the better part of the fourth quarter chanting for their new hero, Carmelo Anthony, in the Knicks’ 104-95 win. ‘Melo had 33 on just 21 shots, and added seven boards and four dimes as New York played one of their most balanced games in a long time. Read More »