The NBA Finals are a chance for a player to validate his worth during “crunch” time. The center stage brings out the best and worst. The whole world watches your every move, both hoping for you to fail and to succeed. Many factors play into a player’s effectiveness during the Finals: the pressure, the development of the player, the defensive schemes of the opposition, teammates, and your own offensive game plan. Read More »

When you’re a young kid, you expect these sort of things. It’s the first game of the NBA Finals, and Michael Jordan is playing against the annoying Utah Jazz. He’s supposed to make the game-winner right, especially after the regular season MVP choked at the free throw line and blew two straight freebies? Well, eventually you grow up and realize it doesn’t always happen like that. We were all just spoiled. Read More »

According to reports, Karl Malone is returning to the Utah Jazz as a part-time big man coach. Jazz CEO Greg Miller said Wednesday that Malone will work primarily with Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter, the team’s frontcourt of the future. Read More »

The folks at Million Dollar Ballers did it again. Known for their dope t-shirts designs, and affinity for the legends of the NBA, MDB will add another legend to the Playground Collection: Karl Malone, aka “The Mailman.” Read More »

Michael Jordan turns 50 on Sunday, a milestone that marks a half-century of the greatest player ever to play the game. He’s been out of basketball for nearly a decade, but his legend remains whether on sneakers, memories or game tape. Dime explores the greatest aspects of the GOAT’s career for his birthday. Today: Watching MJ drop 44 in person. Read More »

NBA legend Karl Malone made a visit to the NBA TV studios on Tuesday night, and while his analysis came down to stuff like “He’s really good” and “I like the way he plays,” I will give him credit for one thing he pointed out: Utah is deep, talented, and is probably the biggest sleeper in the entire Western Conference. Of course, the Mailman admitted he’s biased. But he’s still right. And while Kevin Love‘s injury might finally put more of a spotlight on the Jazz and their criminally underrated frontline, it also could have a major effect on which teams end up making the playoffs. Read More »

This was originally posted on our basketball video site HouseofHighlights.com the other day, but since we got a great response to it, we thought we’d pop it here as well. Enjoy…

I’m not going to lie, I was laughing my ass off going through these videos. No way Dennis Rodman gets away with any of this stuff if he was playing today. Not a chance.

There’s more out there, but here are Rodman’s Greatest Hits. Read More »

Not since 1999 at Brookline has the chaste golf world let its hair down quite like it did yesterday at Medinah for the Ryder Cup. If you didn’t happen to catch the only tournament that sounds like a college football game, Europe tied a record for largest comeback to beat the U.S., and rallying from a 10-6 hole to win 14.5-13.5. It sent the Euros into a Moet-soaked celebration and the wife of former world No. 1 Luke Donald to tweet, “FYI Sergio gets drunk on 1 beer…” Read More »

Can you imagine what the future generation will be saying about us? They’ll have plenty of ammo with Russell Westbrook‘s clearance rack shirts, Dwyane Wade‘s Dwyane Wade-ness and the overall hipster movement infecting the NBA. Back in the day – the 1980s – there were some questionable fashion choices as well. The high top fade could either be really dope or really bad. Watch this video and decide for yourself who rocked it right. Read More »

It’s the recent and litereally age-old topic that’s dominated, at least for me, the NBA summer stories: How did the the summer of 2012 become such a gold mine for older players? Now that we’re left to track the free agency workouts of Josh Harrellson, July’s blitz can seem so long ago, I realize. But take a long, eight-week look back at some of the biggest winners of free agency: Jason Kidd, Tim Duncan, Ray Allen, Chauncey Billups, Marcus Camby, Kevin Garnett, Grant Hill, Steve Nash and Jason Terry all scored deals, and of the bunch, only Billups’ is for one-year. Is modern medicine that much better since Karl Malone‘s rookie year in 1985, when five players were 35 or older, to last season, when there were 29? Read More »