For anyone that was free to sit in front of the television all day, they were in for a treat. Between eight NCAA Tournament games and six NBA contests, there were enough highlights to make sure SportsCenter didn’t feel compelled to show us any B-roll from the NFL lockout negotiations. And if you’re a fan of amazing individual performances, you had eight guys drop 30-plus: Jacob Pullen (38), Jimmer Fredette (34), LeBron James (33), Dwyane Wade (32), David West (32), Shelvin Mack (30), Brandon Knight (30) and Blake Griffin (30). So let’s get started … Read More »

It’s more than just Jordans. eBay’s strongest tie to basketball is not documented footwear, but an infinite inventory of NBA junk, official and otherwise, wearable or not. If it’s old and NBA, it’s worth watching. Keep checking back for the best in vintage NBA memorabilia around. This week, we have a game-worn Mark Price jersey and some Steve Nash kicks. Read More »

Before LeBron lived up to the hype, Brad Daugherty was arguably the greatest player in Cleveland Cavaliers history. After the events of last summer, Daugherty at least reclaimed his spot as the best player whom Cavs fans actually like, as LeBron has become as welcome in Cleveland as Bill was welcome at Beatrix Kiddo’s wedding.

The No. 1 pick of the 1986 NBA Draft, Daugherty played eight seasons with the Cavs before back injuries forced him into retirement at 28 years old. In that time he averaged 19.0 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, making five All-Star Games and finishing his career as the franchise’s all-time leader in total points and rebounds. Read More »

Well, you might have been able to see this coming. First there was the letter – which Dan Gilbert has said on numerous occasions that he does not regret – and now this. When the Cavs owner was asked this week if the franchise would ever consider retiring LeBron‘s No. 23 jersey in Cleveland, he said he hasn’t discussed retiring any player’s jersey during his five years of ownership. Read More »

If Fran Fraschilla said it once, he said it a thousand times: Team USA wasn’t playing against Iran yesterday, they were playing against themselves. (Only without the Jay-Z after-party.) So if that was the case, would we call the 37-point “victory” over the guys in the other uniforms a win or a loss? … Hamed Haddadi and Co. weren’t as terrible as you may have been led to believe, but they still weren’t on Team USA’s level. And yet if you wanted the U.S. to improve during this game, you had to be disappointed. Read More »

We already know the runaway winner of this year’s MVP voting, but through the first few days of the NBA playoffs, the crown for unofficial postseason MVP is still being decided. And right now, Deron Williams is as much a competitor as anybody. Through the first two games of the Nuggets/Jazz series, Deron is averaging 29.5 points and 12.5 assists, shooting 51 percent from the field, 50 percent from three, and 80 percent at the line. Read More »

Welcome to the “extreme” era of sports media. Thanks to an increasing number of outlets having to fight for an decreasing attention span of the audience, we’re not getting an overabundance of extreme arguments: Everything is “the best” or “the worst,” a smash hit or a bust, an all-time epic or an utter disaster. The point is, say something that makes people listen to you and put down the remote or chill on the left-click.

Charles Barkley is good for throwing out those extreme statements. Read More »

Fights, technicals, rim-abusing dunks, explosive rookie debuts, superstars taking over. Except for a game that actually went down to the wire, Day 1 of the NBA playoffs had just about everything you could want … Carmelo Anthony was the MVP of the day, dropping 42 points (18-25 FG) on the Jazz as Denver took the opener of their series. ‘Melo (rocking the Mister Rogers sweater in the post-game presser) only went to the line four times; this was all pull-up jumpers, drives and buckets in the post, plus one scoop shot he put in with crazy English off the glass as the Nuggets were putting the finishing touches on the W late in the fourth quarter. Not having Andrei Kirilenko on defense obviously hurts the Jazz, but we’re not sure anybody short of Ron Artest in his prime could have f’d with ‘Melo yesterday … Read More »

A whole lot of things didn’t make sense about last night’s Grizzlies/Hornets game. It didn’t make sense that Mike Conley (26 pts, 7 asts, 5 stls) was sticking jumpers like Mark Price. It didn’t make sense that Darren Collison (17 pts, 14 asts, 5 stls) and Marcus Thornton (24 pts) kept playing like the best backcourt in the League. It didn’t make sense that Emeka Okafor had one whole rebound. It didn’t make sense that Aaron Gray and Hamed Haddadi guarded each other for about 10 minutes and the sport of basketball wasn’t set back 30 years. But most improbable thing, according to one Hornets’ announcer, was the shot that eventually won Memphis the game … Read More »

During the Phoenix broadcast of last night’s Suns/Cavs game, one of the announcers compared Steve Nash and LeBron as such: “One does it with the brain, the other does it with the brawn. ‘Le-Brawn,’ I guess you could say.” Nevermind that dude almost wandered into Jimmy the Greek territory with that one (it’s strange how people act like Nash isn’t a great athlete, or LBJ only dominates because of his athleticism), but LeBron made the comment look silly anyway when he did his Magic Johnson impersonation and dropped seven assists in the first quarter. Read More »