It’s players like incoming Washington freshman Tony Wroten Jr. who have me ready for college basketball. Forget BRI, the lockout, George Cohen and 50/50 splits. College basketball should be extra fresh this year. The powerhouses are back to take the throne, and the talent level – as far as future NBA players – is higher than it’s been in a minute. Wroten Jr. is one of those guys, a 6-4 lead guard who has a chance to be much bigger than his hype. At least he did before. His hype just took a steroid hit, courtesy of his coach at U-Dub, Lorenzo Romar. Read More »
It wasn’t long ago when what was the Pac-10 had teams that ran out rosters with multiple NBA stars-in-the-making. The 2008 NBA Draft class contained 12 players from the Pac-10, and that meant there was the talent and notoriety for the league to send more than half of its teams to the NCAA Tournament.
The UCLA Bruins were the dominating factor, making the Final Four for three consecutive seasons from 2006-08. Kevin Love, Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook beat up on squads with guys like O.J. Mayo and Jerryd Bayless. But since then, those talents have been bleeding into the NBA, leading to a weak reputation and poor postseason showings. Read More »
If you know anything about Seattle, you know that all the hometown kids make it back for the summer. And what does that mean? Crazy action at the annual Jamal Crawford Summer Pro-Am at Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club. In addition to University of Washington stars like Nate Robinson, Isaiah Thomas, Tre Simmons and Donald Watts, incoming freshman star Tony Wroten Jr. went at NBA guys like John Wall and Terrence Williams.
The last time the Clippers and Lakers saw each other, Kobe Bryant took a break from being the hero (albeit not on purpose) while Derek Fisher hit the game-winner to beat the buzzer and break the Clippers’ hearts. Yesterday afternoon, L.A.’s JV squad again gave the varsity its best shot, and this time the underdogs came away with a win. The craziest part? The Clips have reached a point where they don’t even have to play their best to beat the Lakers … Read More »
As far as personalities go, Tony Wroten Jr. is a star in the making. The Garfield High School (Seattle, Wash.) senior guard is one of the Top-20 prep players in the nation, and only brings more attention to himself with his made-for-TV demeanor off the court.
Wroten is scheduled to announce his college decision on Thursday, but before that, he went on Twitter and put one very famous college coach on blast: Read More »
Yesterday afternoon I went up to The Sports Club/LA to watch the kids from the Boost Mobile Elite 24 train and practice before tonight’s game. With 24 of the best high school players in the country, competition sets in when you’re playing in front of the media. Read More »
Are you ready for the dumbest NBA feud since Cheryl Miller and Scot Pollard got into a deathly intense, impromptu pissing contest in the “NBA Gametime” studio a few months ago? This one’s between Shaq and Steve Nash, and it started over Shaq’s reality show that nobody we know is currently watching. As the story goes, sometime last year when they were still teammates, Nash told Shaq about an idea he had for a reality show where he’d take on famous pro athletes in their own sports — a.k.a. the exact same concept of Shaq’s new show. (Which totally sounds like something Nash would do. He might even take a crack at some of those X-Games guys, and could play hockey with no danger of breaking the ice.) Read More »
Trust me. We understand your frustration with the lack of hoop being played since NBA Summer League ended, but this weekend in NYC features two of the best events of the year: Boost Mobile Elite 24 and Nike Tournament of Champions. And it all starts this Friday up at Rucker Park. Read More »
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