I truly love everything about this video. Setting: 1997 NBA All-Star Game in the Eastern Conference locker room. Watch as Dikembe Mutombo talks trash to Michael Jordan‘s face about how in ‘Dik’s six years in the NBA, MJ has never dunked on him. Mutombo calls in in Scottie Pippen (who is apparently “The Decider” of all things MJ-related) to back him up.

You can guess what happens a few weeks later. Read More »

On this day in 2001, Allen Iverson was presented with his NBA MVP Award before Game 5 of his Sixers’ Eastern Conference Semi-Finals series against Vince Carter and the Toronto Raptors. [Check out A.I., White Chocolate and the 20 Best Crossovers in NBA History]

How did the shortest MVP in NBA history follow up his award presentation? By putting 52 points on the VC and the Raps – his second 50-point performance of the series. Read More »

Let’s all wish a happy birthday to one of the greatest shots in all of basketball history. 15 years ago today, No. 13-seed Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew buried this iconic buzzer beater in Oklahoma City to upset 4-Seed Ole Miss in the first round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament. Read More »

The last NBA Rookie of the Year to make the playoffs in the same season was Amar’e Stoudemire in 2002-03. This is a boring, unremarkable fact. Derrick Rose was next to do it in 2009, but his game won’t be remembered that he took part so much as who he took apart — the defending champion Boston Celtics at home. He dropped an eye-popping 36 points (tying a debut record) and 11 assists on the second-seeded Celtics on the road. Chicago walked away the 105-103 winner. It may be subjective, but doesn’t thinking that it could be a very long time before anyone comes close to Rose’s feat feel like bedrock truth? Caught in summer doldrums thinking about some of the best, recent performances and the chances they’ll be replicated bring me to the rookie’s performance, which was the start to the most entertaining first-round series I’ve ever watched. Read More »

As we showed you earlier today, Kyrie Irving and Kobe Bryant have agreed to play one-on-one for $50,000, which will go to charity. This isn’t the first challenge issued among stars, however. Back in 1990, Magic Johnson was supposed to play Michael Jordan, but that got cancelled. Perhaps the most famous one-on-one challenge was supposed to be between Shaquille O’Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon. The game had a sponsor in Taco Bell, a venue in the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City and was supposed to go down on September 30th, 1995. The “Taco Bell One-On-One Championship,” otherwise known as “The War on the Floor,” was going to be a pay-per-view event available nationwide, but sadly it was cancelled due to Hakeem’s ailing back. Read More »

You’re Cleveland.

It’s May 1, 1988. Your city hasn’t won a pro sports title in 40 years. It’s been a decent season, finishing 42-40, eight games behind the team you’re about to meet in the playoffs’ first round: Chicago. Your reward is a date with league MVP Michael Jordan.

You don’t know it yet, but you’re about to be an answer to a trivia question and another chapter the city’s heartbreak by the lake. Read More »