One of the few bright spots in the Indiana Pacers’ slow start has been the encouraging play of second-year center Roy Hibbert. Throughout the preseason and the early part of the regular season, the former Georgetown Hoyas standout has upped all his stats. In his first four games of the ‘09-10 season, Hibbert is averaging 10.8 points, 10.3 rpg and 2.2 bpg. We sat down with Roy a few nights ago, when the Pacers were in town to play the Knicks. Read More »
Contrary to what Chris Webber said last night, the Celtics are not going to win the 2010 championship because they picked up Rasheed Wallace. While ‘Sheed will definitely play a role, Boston isn’t winning jack (or Larry) unless Paul Pierce performs up to Paul Pierce standards. Last night was vintage Truth, as Boston downed the Cavs in the opening game of the new season, a rare home loss for Cleveland. With a little over a minute remaining in the fourth and the Celtics up by four, Pierce (23 pts, 11 rebs) ran a pick-and-roll with KG near midcourt against LeBron and Shaq. Advantage: Boston. Shaq reached, Pierce teached, then stuck a jumper from the top of the key that was essentially the dagger. Read More »
Since Michael Jordan won the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award in the 1984-85 season, the player who received the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy has gone on to great success. Patrick Ewing (1985-86), David Robinson (1989-90) and Shaquille O’Neal (1992-93) are all in the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players, Tim Duncan (1997-98) has won four rings and LeBron James (2003-04) is well, LeBron James. But when you look at the complete list, there’s one name that just doesn’t belong: Mike Miller. Read More »
After an up-and-down couple of weeks that saw them perform up to their potential and down to some lesser competition, Team Spain is right where they’re supposed to be at the FIBA European Championships: playing for the gold medal. In yesterday’s semifinal, Pau Gasol scored 18 points and Rudy Fernandez added 14 and three steals to lead Spain in a blowout win over Greece, while Ricky Rubio continued his underwhelming (at least stats-wise) tourney with a 5-point, 3-assist effort. Spain will face Serbia in the final, the team that upset them on the first day of the tournament. In Serbia’s semifinal, Milos Teodosic dropped 32 points (6 threes), and Nenad Krstic had 18 points to lead them past Slovenia … Read More »
“You will see a team of professionals in the Olympics again, but I don’t think you’ll see another team quite like this. This was a majestic team.” – USA coach Chuck Daly
There will never be a basketball team like the 1992 U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball Team. In the first Olympics to allow NBA players, the Dream Team dismantled the rest of the world, averaging an Olympic record 117.3 points per game and outscoring opponents by an average of 43.8 points on its way to gold. Today, they’ll be formally introduced and honored at the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Chicago. Read More »
Late in overtime of last night’s Eastern Conference Finals Game 4, as Dwight Howard stepped to the free throw line with a chance to potentially put the game on ice, Doug Collins said, “This is when young stars become men.” If that’s true, than young Dwight became a man last night, as he hit those free throws to cap a 27-point, 14-board, 3-block performance and the Magic took a 3-1 stranglehold on the series … As it should be, overtime was a shootout between Dwight and LeBron. Read More »
To clarify: Our NBA Fantasy Finals have nothing to do with the stat-driven “fantasy basketball” you play online. We’re taking NBA Finals teams throughout history and pitting them against each other to see what you think would happen. Assume both lineups are healthy, and the older team gets homecourt. Today it’s Ewing vs. Big Ben in their primes …Read More »
Alonzo Mourning had his #33 retired during halftime of Heat/Magic, the first player in Miami franchise history to get the honor — if you don’t count when the Heat retired #23 for Michael Jordan or #13 for Dan Marino — and the right player to get the honor. After Glen Rice set the foundation and before D-Wade came around, ‘Zo has been the heart of the franchise and was its defining player for a long time … Dikembe Mutombo, Big John Thompson, Riles and Tim Hardaway (towel draped over his shoulder for some reason) were among those in attendance. Read More »
Watching Amir Johnson in his 10 minutes off the bench last night, two things occurred to me: (1) Instead of barely cracking the Pistons’ rotation, the 21-year-old could have been a senior at Louisville this year, and (2) Amir has the tightest waves in the NBA. Read More »
