Having Kevin Durant on your team is probably good for about 10 extra wins a year strictly based on his talent and his competitive streak. You’re going to win games you shouldn’t only because he’ll get pissed off for some reason or another and start raining Hell on whoever’s guarding him. Read More »

They were the first two games of the NBA Finals, yet Greg Anthony considered them to be closer to Game 7s for Miami. Why? The 2-3-2 format of the Finals, established in 1985, alters the gamesmanship honed over three previous playoff rounds played under a different format. He should know: His 1994 Knicks team was tied, 1-1, going into three straight Finals home games against Houston. The Knicks went 2-1 in Madison Square Garden but lost the series. The format switches, but one thing remains constant: Miami’s Game 2 win in Oklahoma City on Thursday night was impossibly huge to its survival, even with three straight coming up and a history of success there. And also, that they’re going to need one more on the road if they want to win this thing. Read More »

Two guys who have watched this NBA playoffs more closely than almost any other former players are NBA TV analysts Greg Anthony and Steve Smith. From their chairs in the studio, they’ve seen the rise and fall of 14 teams, leaving just two left: Oklahoma City and Miami. On Monday they held court in a Q&A with basketball media about how they see the series shaking out. Read More »

Yeah, that guy we all saw last year wearing No. 6 for Miami in the NBA Finals? That guy wasn’t LeBron James. He was someone else, an impostor, a fake, a poser. LeBron says the real LeBron is back. Should we believe him? James says for the first time since he got to Miami, he’s back to the real him. More alive and ready to go. That’s good to know; We aren’t sure how anyone could deal with the amount of venom he had to take in last year. But still, the whispers about clutch failures, disappointments and lack of heart will only grow louder with each misstep. It’s a full-on disease for him now, and the only way to cure it is to win a championship and do it in a fashion that’ll have people forget about James’ past playoff struggles. Read More »

With the NBA season right around the corner, I caught up with three former players-turned-anaylsts from NBA TV today to preview the upcoming season. Chris Webber, Steve Smith and Greg Anthony broke down questions for an hour on everything from Kwame Brown‘s signing to the effect the lockout will have on young egos. While they disagreed on a number of things, they all seemed to be convinced that Boston’s old vets will actually be helped by the lockout. Read More »

The reactions to the lockout news of the past week have run the gauntlet. No one is happy, and for me, I’m really, really nervous. It’s not that we’re currently in a lockout. It doesn’t burn me up inside that we should have basketball and yet we don’t. I don’t walk around complaining all day, or spit venom at the people I think responsible. I’m more just nervous because players are more aware of what they’re owed than ever before. The owners are still treating them like novices, and it’s becoming increasingly clear the players’ understanding of the business is growing. That could mean a very long standoff. Read More »

We have all witnessed history. On many, many levels. We wake up this morning with UConn as champions of college basketball; the Huskies the last team standing at the end of an absolutely incredible postseason rampage that included winning five Big East Tournament games in five days and then reeling off the six Ws needed to win the NCAA Tournament. That type of run would have been considered unreal for a top-ranked team – the fact that it was put together by a UConn squad that wasn’t even ranked until Week 4 of the season and then entered the Big East Tourney as a No. 9 seed is just absurd. History will remember this Connecticut squad as one of the most unlikely championship teams in college basketball history … Kemba Walker should donate his kicks (Air Jordan 6-17-23) to Springfield. He’s been wearing these ever since the start of the Big East Tournament and hasn’t lost since. After the Big East tourney, he told us he was ready to go get six more Ws … To the game … Read More »

How good of a game will tonight’s NCAA Championship be between UConn and Butler? Lets hope it’s better than the title game 21 years ago when the Runnin’ Rebels slaughtered Duke by 30 points.

This weekend, I watched HBO’s documentary on UNLV and was reminded of how ill they were. Their style, their talent, their attitude – it didn’t matter if the NCAA hated them and everything they stood for. The Rebels repped for Las Vegas and were one of the best college teams ever (their 1991 team was even better and yet somehow didn’t win it all). Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony and Anderson Hunt embarrassed Duke. Watch and be amazed, but pray tonight’s game is closer than this one was.

Read More »

At the age of 12 years old, I saw UNLV absolutely dismantle the Duke Blue Devils in the 1990 national championship game. It was a blowout I would never forget, as was the upset Duke pulled on UNLV the following March in the 1991 national semifinal. Runnin’ Rebels Of UNLV, which debuted this past Saturday evening on HBO, reminds us how Coach Jerry Tarkanian and a university and town never known for basketball, became both a national power and target of the NCAA between the early 1970s until 1992. Read More »

As the official sports drink of the NCAA Tournament, Powerade teamed up with CBS yesterday to offer a last-minute cram session to help all the frantic bracketeers make sense of March Madness. A panel of bracket experts – led by college basketball analyst Greg Anthony – held one-on-one bracket consultations for visitors, while Powerade unveiled its “ION4-Point Performance Ranking System,” a customized ranking system using four key elements essential to teams’ success in the tournament. But if you’re looking for a quick fix, here are the top four bracket tips that Anthony preaches: Read More »