The NBA tends to come full circle. I mean, did we ever think that after the Mavericks watched the Heat celebrate on their home floor that they would come back to South Beach a mere five years later and return the favor? Did we ever think that the great Phil Jackson could have even had a chance to win 12 titles, coaching two different teams in three different decades? But the NBA has been around a long time, and while we may not have anything on a Red Sox–Yankees level, there are several matchups that come back to rear their ugly head, again and again, kind of like a bad Freddy vs. Jason movie. In honor of this week’s Sox-Yanks series, here is one of our favorite rivalries, Knicks vs. Celtics, which has been renewed from decade to decade. Read More »

Time to dust off the kicks and re-lace the ankle braces, your city’s honor awaits you. In one of the more unique concepts in sports competition I’ve come across, The People’s Games is an Olympic-style competition within the confines of the United States. It offers athletes the opportunity to represent their cities in competition against other U.S. cities in various sports to prove once and for all which city boasts the best athletes. 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 »

Seventeen years later, I can’t quite remember her name or even what she looked like. But I’ll never forget what she did for me.

My sixth-grade school librarian, perhaps noticing the kid flipping through the same Sports Illustrated every day until the new issue showed up, cut me a deal: She would give me two old SI issues from the archives in the back room, and when I returned them, she’d give me two more. It was Netflix before its time, no fee. That’s how I learned to be a sports writer. Read More »

This Big Three business is nothing new to the New York Knicks. Matter of fact, in typical Big Apple fashion, the Knicks have done it before and done it extra. In the 1972-73 season they fielded a Big Five of Clyde Frazier, Earl Monroe, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley and Willis Reed. Throw in Jerry Lucas and Phil Jackson, and that’s seven Basketball Hall of Fame members on one roster. Their ’73 NBA championship was the last one for the Knicks franchise.

As today’s Knicks introduce a new Big Three — Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups — I got a chance to speak with two of the originals, Frazier and Monroe, about how they did it and what lies ahead: Read More »

Everyone has heard the name Stan Smith somewhere, but hopefully you’ve heard his name in reference to his accomplishments on the tennis court. If not, it’s likely you’ve seen or owned a pair of the classic adidas Stan Smith tennis shoes that are in their 40th year of production. With highlights that include winning the 1971 US Open, 1972 Wimbledon and a No. 1 overall ranking in the world, he was kind of a big deal. We were able to talk to the man worthy of bearing his name and face on a pair of shoes recently, about everything from playing high school basketball to hanging out with the Lakers to the Duke-Carolina rivalry. Read More »

When we talk “rivalries” in sports, the first question that needs to be asked is the following: Have both teams been competitive during the same established period of time?

The answer, of course, when it comes to the Knicks and Celtics is “No.” We are not talking about Boston vs. New York, which has been dominated by Yankee/Red Sox in terms of a sports rivalry with sprinkles of Jets/Patriots and even Giants/Patriots (Super Bowl XLII) recently mixed in. Read More »

Evidence was building up for Russell Westbrook, if anything, to have a meltdown in crunch time rather than take over last night’s Thunder/Blazers game. Throughout the second half, Wetsbrook was attacking the basket only to miss shots and not get calls. Meanwhile, Andre Miller (16 pts, 11 asts) was kind of busting Westbrook’s ass and picking apart the OKC defense Westbrook was supposed to spearhead. But right when it seemed Westbrook was one more no-call away from a technical foul or a rash of bad decisions, he locked in. Read More »

You knew this was coming: Once D-Wade, LeBron and Bosh essentially formed a super-squad on their own, accusations of tampering and collusion would arise. NBA owners will reportedly meet today to check it out and determine whether there was something shady going on between the three superstars — which Bosh didn’t help when he slipped up and said he and ‘Bron and Wade had been talking about a collaboration for “months.” Rules aside, though, what’s really wrong with players talking about whether they’d like to play together? Read More »

Winning just one championship in New York can transform an athlete into an instant icon. Take for example Earl Monroe. After leaving a small market team in the Baltimore Bullets, Monroe was expected to sign with several franchises, New York not being one of them. Yet he was wooed in a full-court press and defied the prognosticators by signing with the Knicks. Just a few years later, Monroe won a world championship and has been a New York icon ever since.

So with everyone wondering who New York is going to ink, I got up with Allan Houston, who in 1996, signed as a free agent with the Knicks. And just like LeBron James, nobody thought he would leave as well. Read More »