It was just a little over a year ago when the lockout forced a group of NBA rotation players overseas in search of employment. The Chinese Basketball Association opened their doors to a handful of players under the condition that those players finish out their contracts in the league no matter when the lockout ended. Guys like J.R. Smith, Wilson Chandler and Kenyon Martin all came “home” after stints in the CBL and joined playoff contending teams to finish out the season last March. Read More »

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Every year, NBA players, owners, coaches and general managers donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity. Not all of their philanthropy is voluntary. In the NBA, it’s a fineable offense to wear a headband upside down, to publicly criticize an official, or to execute a chin-up on the rim. As you can imagine, some of these things happen quite frequently. Read More »

The Warriors don’t expect anyone to simply run through them this year. Defensively, they plan on being playoff-worthy, and once Andrew Bogut gets back into the lineup, they should have the personnel to do it. We’re still in the preseason, so you have to take everything with a grain of “This doesn’t really matter,” but going into last night, Golden State had held opponents to 39 percent from the field (No. 1 in the league), and only 92 points a night (No. 6). Read More »

When he was smashing on cats’ heads back at Oak Hill, we doubt Josh Smith thought he’d one day have to play his way into a contract. Alas, that’s where he’s now at with Atlanta, the only NBA home he’s ever known. New GM Danny Ferry is running a tight financial ship – you can ask Joe Johnson about that – and giving Smith a new deal doesn’t totally make sense for him, at least right now. Read More »

This weekend on Twitter, Dwight Howard told his followers he planned to take over Andrew Bynum‘s spot in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar‘s Post Science 101 class as soon as doctors cleared him to resume basketball activity. Kareem says that’s cool… once he meets Howard. Yep, Dwight is taking up residence as a Laker pretty quickly, making plans with Abdul-Jabbar without even actually meeting him (UPDATE: The two were able to finally sit down this weekend and discuss working together. Howard tweeted a picture of the two of them with the words: “…For many years to come.” *Cuts to Laker fans fist pumping and screaming*). If they are ever able to get in the gym at the same time – and Kareem says he’d love to teach Howard – we’ll be curious to see how they work together. Howard improved a little bit under the tutelage of Hakeem Olajuwon. Hopefully, Kareem can further the process … Read More »

Yesterday, we dropped some footage of Chris Brown tearing up The Goodman Roundball Classic, which was recently held at Wise High School in Maryland. Now, thanks to our friends at The Mars Reel, we’re getting highlights of the whole game. Josh Selby, one of the standouts of last summer’s lockout basketball, is back again, and surprisingly so is Gilbert Arenas. Read More »

The Gilbert Arenas era might officially be over. He had one final shot last year in Memphis, and things never really took off, averaging 4.2 points in 17 regular season games before scoring all of four points in Memphis’ seven-game opening round loss to the Clippers. Now, he’s selling the mansion that once helped illustrate just how eccentric and crazy he was. Yes, the one where he used to host paintball outings, the one where he played famous pranks on some of his teammates, the house with the massive pool grotto in the back, the fish tanks and that one ridiculous picture of Gilbert Arenas, the president of the United States. And he’s selling it all for $3.5 million. That’s a lot, but it’s not quite MJ money. His time in the NBA is probably at an end, but perhaps the very biggest Agent Zero fan will find the money to buy the former All-Star guard’s biggest memorabilia yet. Read More »

So let’s say you’re Dwight Howard. You’re stuck in no man’s land, having destroyed your reputation almost beyond repair – seriously, will anyone look at the big man the same way again? This Dwightmare will follow him for the rest of his career. At least The Decision was a one-time deal – and you might actually have to suit up with the Orlando Magic come Halloween. If you needed a recipe for “How to create a PR disaster” then seeing Howard and the Magic trying to work out this marriage through the first half of 2012-13 will be it. How Orlando hasn’t moved on yet, we have no clue. There’s one rule that goes with trading superstars in the NBA, and it’s this: you never get equal value. Holding out only makes it worse. Read More »

We had a joke all lined up. With Big Baby rumbling to 23 points and 12 rebounds, and with Dwight Howard in an injury/depressed/look at me funk, Orlando was setting themselves up. In his last three games before last night, Davis was averaging 21.3 points, 11 rebounds and 50 percent from the floor. For once, he WAS more useful than Howard. But somehow after hurting his lower back enough to be stretched out by the team’s physical therapist at midcourt before the third quarter, and with his shot not falling, Dwight didn’t give up. He did work. Read More »