WHERE WAS BLAKE? This year’s dunk contest set itself up for an inevitable disappointment when the league’s preeminent smashing machine decided not to come through for the fans. Last year, despite what you thought of Griffin’s winning performance, he created excitement, a buzz. This year there was none of that, and we were left with some average guys trying to uncover drama by dunking over small celebrities and turning off all the lights. Read More »

One of the most amazing/mind-boggling/semi-ridiculous aspects of the Sixers‘ resurgence is the fact that Spencer Hawes has arguably been our best, most consistent player.

This is not an exaggeration.

In his second season with the Sixers, he’s averaging 12.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, almost two blocks per game, and is shooting more than 62% from the floor even though he takes a lot of 15-footers. He’s been aggressive on both ends of the floor, he’s hustling his ass off and is playing with a bizarre sense of self-confidence. Spencer’s play has been nothing short of a revelation, especially coming off a season in Philly where he did zero.

So where did this come from? Read More »

After leading Washington to back-to-back conference titles in the Pac-10 Tournament the last two seasons, Isaiah Thomas decided the time was right to test his talents on another level: the NBA. During his time in Seattle, the 5-9 guard was nothing short of an offensive force. Averaging 16.8 points and 6.1 assists per game last season, Zeke was able to navigate UW to a Sweet Sixteen appearance in the NCAA Tournament. And as the kid embarks on his journey away from college and into the pros, we wanted to give him his own space, and voice, to roam. In his sixth installment, follow along with Isaiah on his journey as a member of the Sacramento Kings… Read More »

Watching Shawn Kemp in the 1998 NBA Playoffs was like seeing a ghost. Over the course of that season, his first in Cleveland after being shipped out of Seattle, Kemp’s star dimmed considerably. Between his production suffering, his weight gains and Cleveland becoming the J. Cole of NBA teams, slightly boring and monotone, he went from being one of the league’s biggest stars to one of the league’s biggest stars. Whereas he was once playing on NBC every week, Kemp was stuck in a city whose basketball team had one major problem: nobody cared about them. Read More »

The battle of the beast. Yesterday we brought you an epic Who’s Better between healthy versions of Grant Hill, Penny Hardaway and Tracy McGrady. Today, it’s another old school vs. new school edition, the original and the evolution: Shawn Kemp vs. Amar’e Stoudemire. These are two of the most athletically gifted players we’ve ever seen, and as power forwards, we can’t help but compare them. Read More »

The best ever? That’s hard to do. Even with a limitless library like YouTube, it’s virtually impossible to make a list of the best alley-oops of all-time and not miss a couple. All of the NBA’s greatest players have their most popular highlights, but what about the average or no-name players? Some of them have great alley-oops too, but you’ll be lucky to find them anywhere, much less remember them.

When a video was posted last week, it became painfully obvious pretty quickly that it was missing a few. So I figured I’d make the REAL top 10 list. No gimmicks. No timetables. Just straight raw ferociousness. Read More »

David Stern says he doesn’t think the entire season will be lost, explaining there’s too much at stake, too much to lose. We want to believe him, but we’ve heard the song before. While many outsiders are assuming a mass flood of players going to Europe and China would put enormous pressure on Stern and the NBA, the commish isn’t worried. He told Bill Simmons: “All that stuff is better to read about than to actually do.” Ouch … Read More »

With the threat of an entire year without basketball looming, we’ve started to bemoan the eventual disasters of collateral damage that this labor dispute will cause. Players leaving to play overseas, a lost year on the end of Tim Duncan‘s career and an entire October of actually having to watch baseball (oh wait, the NFL is back. Deliver us from evil!)

One of the most common myths of the last lockout was that Shawn Kemp, veritable NBA superstar and Krispy Kreme aficionado, was one of the players most physically damaged by the lockout. The Internet has been buzzing with the question: “Who will get fat after the NBA lockout?” Read More »

The league starts and finishes another day of the dreaded lockout today, which saw a glimmer of hope as the NFL rebooted up to normal. However, just like last week, our foreign friends are continuing to try to lure superstars onto courts far away from home. Amar’e Stoudemire is the newest big-time attraction on the overseas market. The Knickerbocker big man’s phone is attracting calls from all sorts of places, including Israel, Turkey, China and Spain. Read More »

So maybe there was a WNBA logo at midcourt. And maybe the crowd of just over 5,000 was about one-fourth of what you’d get on a good night at Staples Center or Madison Square Garden. And maybe the only certified All-Star on either roster was sitting on the bench in street clothes, cradling his 2-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son in his arms instead of a basketball.

But none of those images could dim the fantasy that, for now at least, the NBA was back in Seattle. Read More »