Pick the punchline. Either way, Quentin Richardson had been reduced to a joke going into this season. Having been traded four times in the summer of ’09 before finally landing in Miami, Q-Rich was being treated like that not-quite-cute but available girl who’s “friendly” with everybody on your dorm floor: Useful for what you need at the moment (to dump a bad contract, to free up cap space, etc.), but nobody you feel obligated to claim and nobody you wouldn’t dispose of easily. Read More »

Other than Nate Robinson making history as the first three-time champion, there really wasn’t anything memorable about last night’s NBA All-Star dunk contest. It was like one of those comedy movies that’s funny enough to get the job done while you’re in the theater, but 30 minutes after you leave you can’t remember any of the jokes … If there was a signature dunk from Nate, it was probably his last one in the finals, when he threw it off the glass and did a reverse jackknife, then went over to the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and danced with their pom-poms. Read More »

Clearly, the Dallas Mavericks don’t measure up to the Celtics or Sixers in terms of NBA tradition. So that’s why, in contrast to earlier discussions about Paul Pierce and Allen Iverson, I’m going in a different direction with this one.

Last night, Dirk Nowitzki dropped a baseline jumper in the third quarter of Mavs/Lakers to crack the 20,000-point mark for his career. The moment was significant enough that it almost eclipsed the fact that Dallas eventually lost the game; Dirk even (maybe) got a haircut in preparation for the special day. Read More »

Remember when everybody looked at the Celtics’ roster last summer and realized that between KG, ‘Sheed, Pierce, Perk, Eddie House, Scalabrine and Rondo, this could be the most unlikeable NBA team of all-time? As it turns out, those guys have been fine; if anything, the main reason Boston is hard to root for remains good ol’ Tommy Heinsohn … If you turned to NBA TV last night hoping to catch a simple Celtics/Hawks game between two of the best teams in the League, we’re sorry you had to be subjected to Heinsohn’s act. Late in the third, after Doc Rivers had been ejected (stemming from an admittedly weak flagrant call on Big Baby) and the Hawks had cut a double-digit lead down to three, Heinsohn growled, “The officials have officially given this Atlanta team the game.” Never mind that Boston kept leaving Jamal Crawford wide open, they couldn’t do a thing with Joe Johnson (36 pts, 5 threes), and they couldn’t stop turning the ball over. Read More »

At every gym and every park where there’s a basketball court, you’ll find that guy who’s saddled with a team of four bums. Whether he’s a point guard or a big man, a kid or a 40-year-old, you can often find him by his facial expression: Less of a boiling frustration and more of a miffed resignation that’s steadily losing its steam. He’s not mad anymore, just annoyed over something he can’t control; the only reason he’s not cussing the bums out and sucking his teeth every other play is because his teammates are his friends, or it’s just not in his nature to be a jerk. Read More »