Facebook is about to go public with its IPO, which has everyone in a buy/sell mood and streaming “The Social Network” soundtrack on Spotify. It leads to conversations about how big the company can become. If you’re a hoops fan looking for a steal, it’s time now, at nearly a third of the way through the season, to see what teams you should invest your hopes in and who to sell off quick while you still can.

I don’t know anything about tech stocks but here’s who you believe in and what teams, if bought too aggressively, could ruin your portfolio. Read More »

Forget Steve Nash and Baron Davis. Jeremy Lin is taking over NYC. The Knicks survived New Jersey 99-92, and it was their popular bench warmer who had the city juiced. Deron Williams (21 points, 11 assists), the former best point guard in the world, was getting worked over by Lin (25 points, five rebounds, seven assists) down the stretch. Jumpers. Pick-n-rolls Everything was out of wack for New York. Carmelo (3-for-15) couldn’t make a shot, and Amar’e Stoudemire wasn’t much better, but Lin was pulling out reverses, and after a three-point play, Tyson Chandler was doing the Brandy Reed celebration from back in the day … Read More »

There’s no grander stage than Madison Square Garden, and Derrick Rose shined like stars should in NYC as Chicago bounced the Knicks, 105-102. The basics first: 32 points, 13 assists. What left you gasping: a blow-by Toney Douglas dunk in the third, a deke of Tyson Chandler at the rim a little later. The capper, however, was a layup where he avoided Chandler, Amar’e Stoudemire and Jared Jeffries driving through the lane while playing hide-and-seek with the ball around his head. Read More »

Ranking the NBA from worst to first…

30. Charlotte Bobcats (3-19) Last Week: 29, -1 The worst team in the league. Bar none. Nine straight losses. Their only bright spot in all of this is Kemba Walker. In his last five games, he’s averaging 15.2 points, seven rebounds and five assists a game and had the first triple-double in his rookie class. Your turn, Ricky and Kyrie. Read More »

No position in the NBA is as loaded as the power forward spot. True centers are dead. Two guards are top heavy. Small forwards all want to be two guards. And point guards that can actually run teams are outnumbered by athletes playing the spot. But look on almost every decent NBA roster, and you’ll find one of their best players is a power forward. Look at Pau Gasol. He’s been one of the 10 best players in the NBA for three years, and yet this season he might not even make the All-Star Game because there is so much competition. Read More »

Well that was quick. How many of you predicted Chris Kaman wouldn’t last long in New Orleans after the Clippers packed him up in a box and shipped him out cross country? It’s not that we thought he wouldn’t like it there. He probably loves it, and could’ve taken over Aaron Gray’s resident spot on the roster as the big, wild outdoorsman. But the Hornets are destroying and rebuilding like we’re back in 2001 listening to Stillmatic. Kaman is only 29 and was an All-Star just two seasons ago. But he refused to accept a diminished role. Playing 20 minutes a game in the Bayou wasn’t going to keep him happy. Now, he’ll be someone else’s treasure. Read More »

All things being equal, the NBA’s best sixth men would rather be starting, of course. On other teams, there’s a chance they certainly would be. You don’t have to look much further than Jason Terry. He’s been the second-best player on a championship team and one of the fourth quarter shoulders the Dallas Mavericks have leaned on for the past eight seasons. Is he good enough to start? Of course. Even though his numbers are down this year (13.9 points, 41 percent shooting), Terry’s been hitting big jumpers and spot up threes for the past decade. As a starter, he’d be a nice player. As a bench player, he became a staple of what it means to be a great sixth man. Read More »

Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Danilo Gallinari can all stretch out and smile. They have extensions, and won’t be going into next summer having to deal with offer sheets and money and teams vying for their services and their own teams pulling them back in. After back-n-forth rumors that nearly escalated to JoePa levels these last few days about Love, it’s official. He has agreed to a four-year, $62 million extension to stay in Minnesota. It wasn’t the max extension Rose and Westbrook both received. Reports are saying the Wolves wanted to save the “designated player” status for Ricky Rubio (in the new CBA, teams are allowed one designated player contract, which can run for five seasons). But Love will be in Minnesota, for at least until 2015, when he can opt out for an even bigger deal. Read More »

Paul George was ashamed. He had to be. Garbage time, everyone ready to go home, just waiting on those seconds to peel off the clock and then he gets dropped. This was probably the first time in recorded history that a player went on Twitter after the fact and tried defending himself. Paul, just admit it. The rook got you. Norris Cole dabbled the salt shaker on you and you went stumbling five feet backwards. Read More »

As we wrote in Smack, Rudy Gay had the whole arena booing last night out of embarrassment. Yes, Portland went on to win – and were beating up the Grizzlies on the boards all night – but when Gay went off in the second quarter for a facial on Gerald Wallace and Raymond Felton, and then followed it up immediately with a windmill, you’d have thought he punked the whole arena. Rudy’s shoulder is definitely 100 percent now. Hit the jump for the evidence. Read More »