The Olympics are always a bit of a wild card given that teams are almost always cobbled together just a matter of weeks before the Opening Ceremonies. The momentum gained from world championships or FIBA’s qualifying tournaments means little when most teams have been disbanded for months. The unheralded players who toil playing overseas the rest of the year add seasoning to the mix as another unknown. Take, for example, Tunisia. How much tape could Coach K have dug up on Makram Ben Romdhane? What hasn’t been a surprise is the U.S. dominance; no matter how many perceived weaknesses the team has, there are more ways to cover up the cracks than any other team can match. What has caught our eye, however, are these five surprises. Read More »

While Brazil wasn’t able to pull out a win against Argentina yesterday, Leandro Barbosa dropped 23 points and Andres Nocioni. I always give Nocioni credit because the man always plays D, but right here there’s no way around it. He got dropped. Maybe now someone will actually sign Barbosa. Read More »

So Team USA has found their groove. It goes something like this: mess around for a few quarters, and then get one of their guys – preferably Carmelo, Durant or Kobe – hot and watch them drop bombs video game-style from the perimeter. It worked against their last few opponents, and they did it again yesterday in their 119-86 shellacking of Australia in the first medal round game. Team USA took an 11-0 Aussie run to the chin to start the second half, and we actually had a somewhat competitive game through three quarters. Then, the Yanks went on a 45-20 run to end the game, and it started with Kobe Bryant … Read More »

If you missed out on the Russia and Brazil heart-pounder earlier this afternoon, you missed out on the best basketball game of the Olympics thus far. Russia pulled it out after a run of potential game-winning shots was finally ended by Vitaly Fridzon. Fridzon banged a triple from the corner as his defender nearly took out his legs, allowing Russia to escape, 75-74.

Leandro Barbosa, who’s a free agent being linked to both the Cavs and Lakers, had one final shot at it. But all he could muster was an off-balance triple attempt off one foot. Read More »

Leandro Barbosa is no longer a Sixth Man of the Year candidate, and his once best-in-the-league jets have slowed considerably, but the man can still get you buckets off the bench. In Indiana last year, he only averaged 8.9 points a game, but that had more to do with a crowded backcourt than anything else. With Brazil currently in the Olympics, a couple of reports have surfaced linking the 6-3 Barbosa to both Cleveland and the Lakers. Read More »

The big names signed on the dotted line – or in Deron Williams‘ case, on the iPad – weeks ago, and the pool of talent is pretty much completely dry. But for contending teams, and even those who are just in the market for a veteran to give them a few good minutes or a few good pre-game speeches, there are still a couple of names available. None of these guys will be making consistently key contributions for a contender, but they’re all still viable NBA players. Read More »

Today brings the news that the Lakers’ point guard of the last half of the season, Ramon Sessions, plans to opt out of his deal with Los Angeles and test his worth in free agency. L.A. got one of the best deals of the trading deadline when they got him from Cleveland for Luke Walton, Jason Kapono and a draft pick. It was expected he’d test the water after he’d played such a strong 23 games with the Lakers. Read More »

Juwan Howard set the tone early. Miami was going to be aggressive, a message sent after Howard needed to be separated from Lance Stephenson in pregame shootaround. The Heat took offense after Stephenson’s choke sign in Game 3 and their own awful play. It just took a quarter and a half for the message to sink in for anyone not named LeBron. Read More »

The Spurs are now officially old. Okay, so their average age (26.9) is actually the lowest of the Tim Duncan era. But Danny Green, Tiago Splitter and Kawhi Leonard are not the Spurs. Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Gregg Popovich and Tony Parker are. Up until today, whenever you talked about age with the Old Reliables, you could always add a “but” at the end. But Tony Parker is still young. Well, he finally hit a milestone today. Parker is now 30 years old. Read More »

Although Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler stole the headlines, my favorite move of the 2011 NBA offseason was the Indiana Pacers signing free agent David West.

It wasn’t because the Pacers are my favorite team – honestly, since it’s no longer my job to watch the NBA every night, I’ve gone back to the neutrality that comes with waiting for the Sonics to return to Seattle – but because West-to-Indy made so much sense on so many levels: Read More »