With talk out of Boston getting louder that Rasheed Wallace will retire this summer, we may be witnessing the end of one of the NBA’s all-time greatest coulda-been-greater careers.

For 15 years, we read that same book on ‘Sheed: He could have been … fill in the blank … if he’d wanted to be. Hall of Famer. Best power forward in the League. Franchise superstar. The Black Dirk Nowitzki. The hip-hop generation’s Willis Reed. As nasty as he wanted to be. Read More »

In terms of putting a neat little bow on Kobe Bryant‘s legacy, this one didn’t exactly go as planned. In the days, hours and minutes leading up to Game 7 of the NBA Finals, the biggest topic of debate was what impact a win (or loss) would have on Kobe’s career. So with the Lakers winning their 16th championship as a franchise, Kobe getting the fifth ‘chip of his career, and L.A. its second in a row — albeit marked by Kobe playing one of the worst games of his playoff life — it’s tough to put a definitive period on the end of the sentence … If you only like scoring and offense, Game 7 was ugly. If you appreciate tough defense, cutthroat competition, and two teams willing to give up their bodies and beat the snot out of each other for a championship, Game 7 was beautiful. Read More »

While I missed the majority of Lakers/Celtics Game 6 for my cousin’s high school graduation, everyone I know who watched the game had to come up with something to talk about during L.A.’s cold-blooded beatdown.

During the third quarter, one of my boys texted me: “Best role player ever in the NBA? Pippen?”

Depends on how you define a role player. To me, Scottie Pippen doesn’t count because he was too good. Read More »

As the Lakers head back to L.A. to either win or lose the NBA championship, more than Kobe Bryant‘s legacy is on the line: Pau Gasol, Ron Artest, Andrew Bynum … all of them face career-defining games (or just one game) this week. As does Lamar Odom. Arguably the best all-around talent on the Lakers after Kobe, Odom has averaged 7.6 points and 5.8 rebounds through the first five games against Boston, compared to 14 and 11 per night in the Western Conference Finals. Should the Lakers fall short of a title, the knock on Odom that he often falls short of his potential will only gain credibility. Read More »

My New York people will hate me for this, but you can make a solid argument that Los Angeles is really the Mecca of basketball. The Lakers are one of the most popular pro sports franchises on the planet, UCLA has the most national championships in college history, L.A.’s high school powerhouses regularly crank out NBA players, and the playground scene is alive and thriving at spots like Venice Beach and The Hangar. Read More »

Norm Nixon isn’t walking through this door. Elgin Baylor isn’t walking through this door. Silk Wilkes isn’t walking through this door.

I was born in 1982, and I didn’t begin to understand NBA basketball until sometime around 1988. So before I roll out a list of my all-time favorite Los Angeles Lakers, I should point out that I missed a lot of the “Showtime” era (though ESPN Classic has helped rectify that), and I never watched Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain when they wore purple and gold. Read More »

As an eight-time NBA All-Defensive pick and Defensive P.O.Y. (’87) who won five ‘chips in an era where he guarded the likes of Jordan, Dumars, Iceman and Drexler on a regular basis, Michael Cooper had to be intense.

In his post-playing career, most notable for his title-winning stint coaching the WNBA’s L.A. Sparks, Coop hasn’t changed. In his first season as head coach of the USC women’s team, he made headlines for his intensity following a recent win over crosstown rival UCLA. Read More »

Here’s one straight from the Go Somewhere And Sit Down files: After Michael Jordan jokingly called out Bryon Russell during his H.O.F. speech, of course somebody had to go track down Russell for his reaction. And of course the 38-year-old Russell — who as recently as this summer was talking about trying an NBA comeback — had to go make himself look like the “Can’t let the game go” retired ballplayer, challenging MJ to a battle. “I’ll play his ass right now,” Russell told Yahoo! Sports. “This is a call-out for him to come play me. He can come out here in his private jet and come play. He’s got millions of dollars. He can pay for the jet. He can meet me at the Recreation Center in Calabasas. We can have Mark Jackson do the commentating. We can have Mitch Richmond do the officiating. We can put it on TV and see if Michael’s still got it.” Read More »

From the best (Shaq) to the worst (Russell Westbrook) on down to the weird (Stephon Marbury), NBA players who partake in Twitter are about to get put on blast. David Stern told Yahoo! Sports yesterday that he’s about to issue some restrictions on players using Twitter and other social media, similar to what the NFL has done. “You want to make sure that pop culture doesn’t intrude on what brought us here, which is the game, and that we show the right respect for the game,” Stern said. “We just need to make sure when it’s OK to Tweet and when it’s not OK to Tweet so it at least focuses around the game. It would look unusual for a guy sitting on the bench to pick up his cell phone, and I think we can agree that he probably shouldn’t be writing e-mails. It’s not about Twitter; it’s about the line of communication. That’s what we’re focusing on.” … Read More »

If you’re a Seattle Supersonics fan stuck in NBA purgatory waiting for somebody else’s team to come to town, the story breaking out of Memphis yesterday made you optimistic. If you’re a Grizzlies fan, it just made you shake your head. As reported in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the Grizzlies fired their entire amateur scouting staff, and for the time being will only employ one part-time guy to scout international prospects. Total cost-cutting move (“I prefer a smaller group,” said GM Chris Wallace), although it’s not totally indefensible since Wallace and the coaches can scout college guys … Read More »