Eight days into the NBA season is always a good time for overreaction. It’s not that it’s too early to make observations — e.g., I don’t think it’s going out on a limb to predict a monster year for Carmelo Anthony right now — but it is too early to put the tombstone on some players who aren’t starting out so hot.
Players like Russell Westbrook. Over the summer, I was the main one leading the charge in the Dime office over Westbrook, insisting he’d blow up this year like Deron Williams blew up in his second pro season. Read More »
The first bromance moment caught on national television was when Zeke and Magic met on court before Game 6 of the 1988 Finals and exchanged a kiss showing their deep friendship. In memory of that relationship, which effectively ended last week, I have compiled a list of bromances from the NBA. For those of you unfamiliar with the term the definition is as follows. Bromance (n.) is a close but non-sexual relationship between two men; see also: Man-Crush; related words: Pause. Read More »
The Ricky Rubio song-and-dance has turned into the Michael Myers of the NBA offseason; it just won’t stay down. Last week, Rubio was reportedly going to sign a six-year contract with Regal FC Barcelona (Spain) — where he’d be teammates with J.C. Navarro, Terrence Morris, Fran Vasquez, and the immortal Boniface N’Dong — that had a reasonable buyout option in 2011. Bad news for the Wolves, right? Not so fast. The Barcelona deal isn’t official yet, and in the meantime, Minnesota GM David Kahn has flown to Spain AGAIN trying to work something out. At this point, Kahn might as well buy a condo out there and sublease it when he’s not busy trying to convince Rubio to come to America. Read More »
We dropped a video of this yesterday, but you have to check out the cut from the Team Flight Brothers. Keep in mind that Guy Dupuy is 6-3 and TDub is 5-9 and these two are dunking over groups of people and then going through-the-legs or around-the-back. Ridiculous.
In pretty much every sport — NBA, Major League Baseball, college football/hoops, boxing, gambling, competitive eating, etc. — optimism is at its highest before the real games start. The same holds true for the NBA. But when we previewed the Pacific Division yesterday, even the preseason optimism couldn’t hide one fact: This is the worst division in the League. All due respect to the reigning champs, but after the Lakers, the Pacific consists of four Lottery teams (Suns, Clippers, Warriors, Kings) who could all easily make an encore appearance at the event that Mike Dunleavy Sr. probably thinks is a mandatory spring-time BBQ with some co-workers … And yet, the Pacific can still be one of the more entertaining divisions out there. Read More »
Even more than in last week’s Orlando summer league, we’re seeing a trend develop in Vegas: The star rookies aren’t just getting the green light to fire away, they’re having the entire offense run through them. Guys like Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry and DeMar DeRozan are getting 20-plus shots a day, and consider these are shorter games where almost everyone else on the court is trying to earn an NBA job … In yesterday’s big head-to-head matchup, Steph and Tyreke were like Allen Iverson and Steve Francis circa 2001: Curry put up 29 points (8-22 FG, 10-11 FT) and six boards, while Evans had 25 points (8-19 FG, 7-12 FT), 10 boards and five assists. Read More »
At least for now, Amar’e Stoudemire isn’t going anywhere. Yesterday morning we mentioned a rumored trade proposal that would send Amar’e to Minnesota for Al Jefferson and the #6 pick in next week’s Draft, and while follow-up reports now say that a discussion did take place between the Suns and Wolves, apparently Minnesota said no. We know the Suns are always trying to save a buck, and Amar’e was up for grabs earlier this year when he wasn’t working out with then-coach Terry Porter, but trading him now doesn’t even make sense. Read More »
Alright, so maybe we were getting spoiled by the consistently awesome awesomeness of these NBA conference finals. Before yesterday, it had been down-to-the-wire games and 40-point efforts from Kobe and LeBron in between dominant performances by ‘Melo and Dwight. But last night, the Nuggets simply laid the hammer down on L.A. for the first outright blowout of this round, coming one point shy of a 20-piecing in another dominant performance on their home floor … On paper, there’s no way the Nuggets should have dominated this game. Read More »
