Rudy Fernandez won’t be playing in the NBA this year, which means he had to empty his bag of tricks during the Olympics if he was going to use them on a global scale. What better place to pull off one of the worst flops (though effective) in the whole tournament than the gold-medal game against Team USA? In a game where both the Spanish and Americans had legitimate gripes about officiating, Fernandez’s over-the-top way of drawing a foul on Andre Iguodala summed up the night. Read More »

Back in the day, fierce rivalries amongst the baddest big men in the game were warranted, and universally expected. Chuck could talk smack to Karl Malone about how much better he was. Shaq hated on David Robinson, and went out to turn him into a human pinball whenever they matched up. Hakeem went at the Admiral when he felt disrespected during the 1995 Western Conference Finals. And Bill Laimbeer just wanted to cheap shot everybody. It was a different era back then, and most would argue it made for more interesting basketball, more drama. Nowadays, everyone is teaming up, and with so many NBA players first meeting each other at earlier ages and then practically growing up together on the court, rivalries are scarce. As far as big men go, Andrew Bynum is probably the largest wild card, only because of the increasingly weird Andrew Bynum things he does. So we think we’re speaking for most fans when we say thank God for DeMarcus Cousins. Read More »

Once Ricky Rubio took the league by storm in Minnesota, the assist became a theme for the season, and no team was more exciting than the Wolves. On the year, Rubio averaged 8.2 dimes a night, and even after his torn-up knee forced him to sit out the rest of the season, it felt like other guys in the league, everyone from Rajon Rondo to Rudy Fernandez, were trying to out-do him. Check out this awesome video of pretty much every great pass of the season. Read More »

Rudy Fernandez just didn’t work out in the NBA, something that’s easy to understand considering his greatest moment came a few months before he even put on a Trail Blazers uniform in 2008. Fernandez was four years ahead of his time when he did what every Magic fan wishes he could do right about now and dunked right in the mug of Dwight Howard in the 2008 Olympic gold medal game. Though that moment in an eventual U.S. win is a far cry from an exhibition game, today’s U.S. friendly against Spain at 4:30 p.m. ET in Barcelona is the perfect time to reminisce about one of the nastiest dunks ever in Olympic play. Read More »

Fast, and without looking: Who has been the best point guard to play alongside Kobe Bryant ? Time’s up: It’s 38-year-old Steve Nash, and he’s yet to play a minute with the Black Mamba. Oh, but that will change soon. That’s right, Nash is going to be a Laker after agreeing to a sign-and-trade with Phoenix for $25 million on Wednesday. Almost no one was talking about the Lakers being in Nash’s mix of suitors, but Mitch Kupchak pulled the latest in a series moves that have stunned the NBA so far in free agency’s moratorium. Read More »

Rudy Fernandez is leaving on a jet plan out of Denver, his contract ending at the end of June and his heart seemingly made up to return to Spain for at least three seasons. The speedy guard with the knack for throwing alley-oop lobs will sign with Real Madrid as a free agent on a three-year contract. Fernandez had played with Real during the lockout last year, only to return to the Nuggets. Read More »

The NBA’s Rookie of the Year Award had been all but clinched by Kyrie Irving sometime around the midway point of the season. But as great as he was – hitting game-winners, dishing out beastly statlines – he didn’t have the best play from a rookie this season. That went to some cat out in the Western Conference who is already drawing Dennis Rodman comparisons … Read More »

J.R. Smith never found his groove in the playoffs, but during the regular season, he accomplished what no one else in the league did: have two of the 10 best alley-oops of the year. But the best alley-oop of the season could also be a contender for best of all time: Gerald Green‘s mixtape-style finish on a fast break against Houston. Read More »

This year’s shortened NBA schedule came with a label from the beginning: highly concentrated. It’s what happens when 66 games are shoehorned into a season that begins on Christmas Day.

So while the fears from the end of the lockout about how such a packed schedule would fatigue players are still there, it also means the best plays come at a rapid-fire pace. Take, for example, the last weekend of January. On Saturday, Andre Iguodala ripped off a huge slam. A day later, LeBron James jumped over John Lucas to spawn a discussion about its place in dunk history. Two days later, Blake Griffin ripped up that same conversation like a bad first draft with his full-frontal dunk on Kendrick Perkins. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Nick Young makes an unexpected appearance here thanks to his 35 points, three rebounds, two steals and seven three-pointers last night. He shot 71 percent (12-17) from the field, 100 percent (4-4) from the free-throw line and had one turnover. After starting the season on the bench, Young has managed to give his owners reliable value as a scorer and three-point maker. So far in February, he’s averaging top 25 numbers. Read More »