In yesterday’s gold-medal game at the FIBA European Championships, Spain made their opening-round hiccup against Serbia look exactly like what it was — a random hiccup. In a rematch with Serbia, Pau Gasol’s crew waxed the opposition, going up by 15 in the first quarter, making it a 20-piece McNugget by the second quarter, and ultimately winning by 22. Big brother Gasol led the way with 18 points, 11 boards and three blocks, while Rudy Fernandez scored 13 and J.C. Navarro added 12 points. Ricky Rubio had 10 points and one assist. Spain dominated the glass, getting almost as many offensive boards (18) as Serbia had total rebounds (24). Read More »

A couple months ago, one of our writers picked the Wizards to make a return to the playoffs in 2010, slotting them eighth or ninth in the East. A lot of readers thought that was way too low; they had the crew of Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, a returning Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood, new pickups Randy Foye and Mike Miller, and young’uns Andray Blatche, Nick Young and JaVale McGee finishing as high as fourth in the East. Now Jamison is taking it a step further. In yesterday’s Washington Post, Jamison said he believes the Wizards can win a championship next year. Read More »

The Ricky Rubio song-and-dance has turned into the Michael Myers of the NBA offseason; it just won’t stay down. Last week, Rubio was reportedly going to sign a six-year contract with Regal FC Barcelona (Spain) — where he’d be teammates with J.C. Navarro, Terrence Morris, Fran Vasquez, and the immortal Boniface N’Dong — that had a reasonable buyout option in 2011. Bad news for the Wolves, right? Not so fast. The Barcelona deal isn’t official yet, and in the meantime, Minnesota GM David Kahn has flown to Spain AGAIN trying to work something out. At this point, Kahn might as well buy a condo out there and sublease it when he’s not busy trying to convince Rubio to come to America. Read More »