It’s been a great day so far up here at Rucker Park. And because of this wonderful invention by the name of Wi-Fi, we’ve been able to keep y’all in the loop throughout all the action. So besides Austin getting up with Leandro Barbosa for a Q&A, there were tons of NBA guys on the court. Puerto Rico had Carlos Arroyo, Jose Juan Barea and Renaldo Balkman, while Brazil had Barbosa, Anderson Varejao as well as Nene and Tiago Splitter on the bench who sat this one out. Check out some of the pictures after the jump. Read More »

Amidst all the confused looks, raised eyebrows and exasperated questions being asked after the Knicks announced they’d hopped back in bed with Isiah Thomas — the majority sounding much like, “The f*** are they doing?” — my biggest query had nothing to do with potential NCAA violations, NBA conflicts of interest, or what dirty photos Isiah may or may not have on Knicks owner James Dolan:

My question: What does Isiah do so well that the Knicks need him to do this job and nobody else? Read More »

After the Nuggets lost to the Jazz in the first round of the playoffs, there were questions surrounding the future of everyone in Denver. Is it time to blow it up? Can this team ever win? These questions and more were raised. And one interesting idea that surfaced earlier this week was that it’s time for the Nuggets to trade Nene. But for who? It’s known that you don’t trade big for small, and who else is out there that could replace a 6-11, 250-pound bruiser? But I found the perfect trading partner: the Detroit Pistons. It’s time to see what that squad would have looked like with Carmelo Anthony. Read More »

This got kind of buried and lost in this morning’s Smack, so we wanted to bring it up on its own:

Funny story: An Oregon football fan made the road trip for the Ducks’ season opener at Boise State (the game where LaGarrette Blount played Marvin Hagler on homeboy’s chin), and after the team laid an egg, he sent head coach Chip Kelly an invoice for his expenses. And then Kelly actually wrote the dude a check! Has your favorite basketball team ever made you feel like you wanted your money and/or time back? What was the most memorable example? Read More »

Last year the Nuggets finished 54-28, won the Northwest Division and pushed the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. What did they do this offseason? Lose Linas Kleiza to Europe, lose Dahntay Jones to Indiana and lose J.R. Smith to a seven-game suspension. So while the other elite teams in the West reloaded this summer, it’s about time Denver does the same. Read More »

We’ll start with the Twitter-sponsored portion of Smack: Over the weekend Michael Beasley closed his Twitter account after he took some heat (no pun intended) for posting a pic that may or may not have been bags of weed. Nothing too major, but this is the exact kind of thing that kept Beasley from being a surefire #1 overall pick a year ago. No disrespect to Derrick Rose, but you take a lefty power forward with Beasley’s game and Tim Duncan or Blake Griffin‘s personality, and the only thing he needs to worry about is getting a suit to match the team colors of whoever has the top pick. Instead, this is almost like watching the early part of Lamar Odom‘s career replay itself … Ron Artest used Twitter as his bulletin board to spice up the next Lakers/Rockets game. Read More »

Without a doubt, the Nuggets were one of the most fun teams to watch in the NBA last season. Perhaps it’s because Chris “Birdman” Andersen could potentially be my favorite player, or the fact that on any given night J.R. Smith could drop 50. But after they lost Linas Kleiza for nothing yesterday, Nuggets fans should start to get worried. Read More »