With the NBA set to announce its All-Star starters tomorrow, this is the time of year where blaming the game’s fans for ultimately meaningless travesties is at its peak. You’ll see what I mean once Yao Ming‘s name is revealed as the Western Conference starting center.

NBA fans are safe from blame, though, when it comes to the League’s regular-season awards. If we end up with the wrong MVP or Coach of the Year, that falls on the media members who vote. The idea is that those of us who cover the League for a living are more objective and know what we’re talking about, that we’re not going to reduce things to a popularity contest. Read More »

It’s the never-ending NBA dilemma: Young teams don’t win championships, but old teams don’t have bright futures. So how do you balance the roster if you want to win now and keep winning later? … The Spurs may be figuring it out. In last night’s win over the Knicks, we saw the old San Antonio regime mesh with the new: Tim Duncan (21 points, 16 rebounds, 5 blocks) turned in a throwback performance and dominated Amar’e Stoudemire (18 points, 15 rebounds, 4 steals). Those numbers might not show it, but Duncan and DeJuan Blair (18 points, 13 rebounds) had STAT flustered the entire game … Read More »

Remember the guy in the “Quitness” video who accused LeBron James of waiting “until the last week of free agency” to make his Decision — when the truth was LBJ actually ended his process the first day he could legally sign a contract?

That guy must hate Carmelo Anthony right now. While the basketball world waits for ‘Melo to either get traded or stay in Denver for the rest of the season, the drawn-out process is visibly affecting the rest of the League. Read More »

As much pain as Ben Wallace‘s swollen ankle may have caused him while sitting at home Tuesday, his eyes would have been hurting more had he watched League Pass last night. Big Ben, Gary Payton, Bruce Bowen, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Mookie Blaylock — anybody who’s ever made a living shutting down NBA scorers would have cringed at some of the comical “defense” on display … In Denver, the Suns showed up for about 15 minutes before the Nuggets started shooting holes in their D like a game of Duck Hunt. Read More »

There was an interesting — if not all that surprising — statistic relayed by the Portland announcers during Sunday night’s Blazers/Heat game: Dwyane Wade is the NBA’s 2nd-leading scorer in fast break points among guards (I’d assume Monta Ellis is first), while LeBron James is No. 1 in fast break points among forwards. I’m not sure who leads the League in transition scoring for centers, but it’s probably not Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

This was before Wade dumped 34 points on Portland, and LeBron scored 44 while putting the overtime victory to bed. Read More »

No one knows whether or not the San Antonio Spurs really care about the regular season, and the strange events that took place at Madison Square Garden last night didn’t give us any better indication. After hanging within striking distance of the Knicks throughout the second half, the Spurs found themselves down by 10 with three minutes left after Ray Felton (28 pts, 7 asts) went berserker in crunch time. That’s when Gregg Popovich pulled all of his starters — bringing in Chris Quinn, Gary Neal, Ime Udoka, Matt Bonner and Tiago Splitter to replace Tony Parker (26 pts), Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, Tim Duncan and DeJuan Blair. Read More »

In his first nine months as majority owner of an NBA franchise, Michael Jordan has been through a few years’ worth of experiences:

He watched his Charlotte Bobcats make their first-ever playoff appearance, then watched them suffer their first-ever postseason series sweep. In free agency he re-signed a promising future building block (Tyrus Thomas), then let a potential All-Star point guard walk (Ray Felton). Now he has helped facilitate the departure of his team’s head coach, Larry Brown, meaning Jordan’s next big task will be hiring a replacement. Read More »

The season wasn’t supposed to go this way for the Charlotte Bobcats. Coming off the franchise’s first-ever playoff appearance last spring, there was an excitement surrounding the ‘Cats for 2010-11. New majority owner Michael Jordan was in office, star forward Gerald Wallace was a certified NBA All-Star, and swingman Stephen Jackson spent the summer getting in the best shape of his career and embracing his role as team leader.

The Bobcats were supposed to be good — or at least interesting. Read More »

This was one of those nights in the sports industry that becomes hard to talk about without sounding like a braggart and a name-dropper.

For last night’s Knicks/Celtics game at Madison Square Garden, I used my media credential to go behind the scenes and visit both locker rooms. When it was time for tip-off, I used my invite to a luxury suite — where I was part of a select group brought in to celebrate the launch of KnicksNow.com, the team’s new interactive social media website — to watch the game from the rich-people seats with rich-people amenities. And then after the game, maybe the best of the NBA season so far, I used my media pass again to access the locker rooms and catch the aftermath of an instant classic. Here’s how it all went down: Read More »

Paul Pierce said it wasn’t a rivalry. He never said it wasn’t a big stage or a big game. Putting the exclamation point on the most highly-anticipated Knicks/Celtics matchup in at least a decade, Pierce snapped New York’s eight-game win streak and stretched Boston’s win streak to 11 by hitting the game-winning jumper with 0.4 seconds left in Madison Square Garden. And after the shot — going to his right, two-dribble pull-up slightly fading away, as predictable as payday — Pierce took a bow for the road crowd … It wasn’t over at that point, though. Read More »