When Nazr Mohammed lost his mind on Friday night and put LeBron James on the floor with a two-hand shove, we were kind of shocked by the amount of people we heard from on the site/Twitter/Facebook calling ‘Bron an actor, saying he was flopping. Huh? Nazr is a huge, very strong guy, who in the moment was blind with rage – of course he’s strong enough to take down all 6-8, 250 pounds of LeBron when he’s not ready for it. But there it was from fans and Bulls players alike, mocking James for flopping.

So why the skepticism and outrage? Well, you can argue that James has brought it on himself. Some of his work in the flopping department over the years rivals the work of Manu Ginobili and Derek Fisher, the Obi-Wan and Yoda of Flopping [Check out The NBA's Top 20 Flops and Fisher's title as the NBA's Worst Flopper], and it seems to have ramped up in the last two years.

Check out LeBrons 11 Greatest Flops: Read More »

After his display of rage and brute strength last night, Nazr Mohammed took to Twitter to apologize for losing his cool: Read More »

So many questions … Why did Nazr Mohammed decide to swipe at LeBron James at half court? Why did LeBron get a T for peeling Nazr off of him? Why did Nazr then – after being handed a gift of a James technical foul – decide to shove LeBron like that and get himself kicked out in the process?

Watch it here – we can’t wait to hear explanations after the game: Read More »

If last night’s Thunder/Spurs game was a preview of the Western Conference Finals, we’d be more than ok with it. The Manu-less Spurs made the trip to OKC and fought valiantly, but still got a whole facefull of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant buckets. The NBA’s top dynamic duo combined for 52 of the Thunder’s 100 total points in a 100-88 victory. Russ put in 27 (as well as seven boards and seven assists), despite playing 10 minutes less than KD (25, nine boards, six assists) … We’re not going to lie, after Durant dribbled through half the Spurs’ team and then hit San Antonio with a huge dunk, we 100% laughed out loud when TNT was going to commercial showing a replay and Reggie Miller yelled, “Mommmy has some things for daddy to do!” … Read More »

It’s hard to be considered an offseason winner when your No. 1 player and franchise cornerstone recently tore up his knee and won’t be returning until probably March at the earliest. But the Bulls aren’t just going to be one player down next season; They’ve made some huge changes in this offseason. They lost Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver and Omer Asik, among others, and replaced them with Kirk Hinrich, Nate Robinson and Nazr Mohammed. Rose probably means a dozen wins himself, and with the new changes they’ve made, Jeff Van Gundy doesn’t think they’ll even make the playoffs. The Notorious J.V.G. said on ESPN 1000′s “Waddle & Silvy” show that it’ll be a heck of a year if the Bulls can even win half of their games. Read More »

Wherever your turn tonight (or for the next two weeks) you’re going to get hit in the face with Olympic coverage. We challenge you to find a nicer photo than this. Serge Ibaka looks like he just stepped off the set of Shaft. Thank everything for athletes and their Instagramming and Twittering. That photo was courtesy Kevin Durant‘s account, but of course we’ve seen how Team USA rides from Kevin Love‘s account. Don’t forget Deron Williams, too, who basically gave a photo essay of all the cool Olympians out there tonight. Read More »

The Bulls are not making the Rockets wait to find out whether they get center Omer Asik in free agency. If Saturday’s signing of Nazr Mohammed by Chicago wasn’t a clear enough signal, the Bulls have let Asik’s camp know his three year, $25.1 million deal won’t be matched, the Houston Chronicle reports today. Read More »

Much of Spain’s talented roster has spent significant time in the NBA. They know mind games when they see them, and more importantly, they know how to play them. Of course, none of them are as affluent in playing possum as Gregg Popovich or Phil Jackson are. But that’s beside the point. They just have to be somewhat believable, and in an event like the Olympics where so much is on the line in so little time, that can make a Boris Diaw-sized difference. The two best teams in the Olympics square off today at 4:30 ET on ESPN2, and while it’s only an exhibition, it feels like so much more. Read More »

Now that Lindecision 2012 is all over, and Jeremy Lin is going to be formerly introduced as a Houston Rocket sometime soon, we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. No, we’re not talking about how, for once, the Knicks resisted the urge to indulge as they have so many times before (even though, for once, there were PLENTY of reasons to do it). We’re talking about how we got here. Lin never wanted to leave New York, and opened up about it to SI.com yesterday. Read More »

Following the Thunder’s loss in the Finals, Kevin Durant openly expressed his feelings:

“It hurts. It hurts, man. We’re all brothers on this team. It just hurts to go out like this. We made it to the Finals, which was cool for us, but we didn’t want to just make it there. … As a whole, I’m proud of the guys and how we fought all season. … I wouldn’t want to play for anyone else, I wouldn’t want to play for any other city.” Read More »