Eighteen years too late, I watched Pistol: The Birth of a Legend for the first time this summer. Mostly the story of Pete Maravich’s teenage years, partly a ball-handling instructional tape, the movie came to mind when I found out Allen Iverson was signing with the Memphis Grizzlies.

In Pistol, Maravich is a middle-school prodigy playing on a high school varsity team where the coach doesn’t like his style (too “Black”) and the older players don’t like him for being so good so young. Glued to the bench despite his talent, Pete just wants a chance to play, and when he finally gets it, predictably becomes a superstar and leads the team to glory. Ultimately, all that time he spent not playing was a colossal waste of time rooted in old-school values and silly stubbornness. Read More »

With any luck, we won’t have to hear about Ricky Rubio for a long while. Let me start by saying that my reasoning for not drinking the Rubio Kool-Aid has nothing to do with Ricky Rubio the person. Rather, it’s predicated by the second-hand hype he’s received that is based largely on three things: Read More »

We argue. You decide.

STEVE NASH (by Ben York) He’s lost a step. He can’t play defense. He’s old. He’s overpaid. He’s a system point guard.

Blah…blah…blah…

The so-called debate on whether Steve Nash can still play effective and consistent basketball is ridiculous and, frankly, irresponsible. Last season, in the most tumultuous and difficult year of his 13 year career, Nash put up numbers that almost bested his first MVP season in ‘04/05. Read More »

Who would have guessed that the first NBA dude to put Blake Griffin on his ass would be skinny JaVale McGee? Blake finished with 19 points, 10 boards and four steals against the Wizards in yesterday’s Vegas Summer League, but one time he came through the lane with the rock and McGee (19 pts, 7 blks) gave the rookie a good, hard, welcome-to-the-NBA foul. Blake stayed on the ground for a second, but he was OK. Then later in the fourth quarter, McGee caught an alley-oop on Blake’s head and screamed on him. (JaVale is still doing the salute thing whenever he dunks, too.) … Rodrigue Beaubois scored 23 for the Mavs in a game against the Thunder that was just ugly. Read More »

It’s almost comical how much Toronto fans hate Vince Carter and how he keeps gutting their team every time he comes to town. He’s like the NBA’s version of the ultimate wrestling heel; the Million Dollar Man (attitude), Ric Flair (skills) and Bad News Brown (acts like he doesn’t care) all wrapped in one. Getting viciously booed every time he touched the ball or had his name called by the PA announcer last night, Vince dumped 39 points, nine boards and six assists on the Raps, and in the fourth quarter and OT really poured the salt on. Vince scored 12 in a row late in the fourth, and capped that run with a three-pointer to force overtime. In the extra frame, with the score tied and about two seconds left, Lawrence Frank called a brilliant inbounds play that allowed VC to get wide open underneath the basket, and Bobby Simmons hit him with a perfect alley-oop from midcourt that Vince just had to catch and dunk. Backwards. Ballgame. Vince made it hurt even more with the ultra-cocky “Yeah, thought so” look on his face after the dunk, and in the post-game interview said, “I haven’t dunked backwards in six, seven years.” … Read More »