Category: Basketball


Is LeBron James the best male athlete in the world?

Filed under: Athletics, Basketball, Football by Joshua Mott — Leave a comment
February 19, 2013
LeBron James' ability to improve on his near perfect stats every season continues to confound NBA fans and pundits alike (Image | Getty)

LeBron James’ ability to improve on his near perfect stats every season continues to confound NBA fans and pundits alike (Image | Getty)

“King James” is somewhat of a fitting name for Miami Heat All-Star LeBron James given his recent string of performances. He is blowing the NBA apart, revolutionising what the people conceive possible on the basketball court.

He has always been the prodigy of the NBA – the one – in the Neo sense, but since he finally won his first title last year he has been metaphorically stopping bullets. After cruising through the opening months of the season, James has begun to turn up the heat.

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Three cheers for Kobe Bryant

Filed under: Basketball, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA by Shane Thomas — Leave a comment
February 18, 2013
Kobe Bryant, long notable on Twitter by his absense, is trying to put his arrival on the site to good use (Image | Getty)

Kobe Bryant, long notable on Twitter by his absense, is trying to put his arrival on the site to good use (Image | Getty)

The Los Angeles Lakers are currently in the middle of arguably their worst season for a generation, but there is one piece of heartening news to come from the franchise, and it is a lot more important than whether the Lakers make the NBA playoffs or not.

Star player Kobe Bryant has been a recent addition to the legion of athletes on Twitter. I don’t follow Bryant myself, but – at the time of writing – there are over 1.3 million people who do. It’s no surprise to learn that famous sports stars on Twitter are often used as lightning rods for gentle teasing, or that ghastly word, “banter”.

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One-team players and the three-team deal that killed a contender

Filed under: Basketball, Detroit Pistons, Memphis Grizzlies, NBA, Toronto Raptors by Rob Schatten — Leave a comment
February 1, 2013
Tayshaun Prince (left) and Rudy Gay are two of the three players trading places for the first time (Image | US Presswire)

Tayshaun Prince (left) and Rudy Gay are two of the three players trading places for the first time (Image | US Presswire)

The Memphis Grizzlies have already made one massive step backwards in the trade market since Christmas, by sending Marreese Speights and Josh Selby to Cleveland in return for D-Leaguer Jon Leuer, but this week they all but sealed their departure from the category of “Western Conference elite” by dealing Rudy Gay to Toronto in the biggest trade of the season so far.

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Lakers’ roster changes spark limited enthusiasm

Filed under: Basketball, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA by Rob Schatten — Leave a comment
January 22, 2013
Pau Gasol is on his way to a permanent reserve role as the Lakers seek a more energetic starting five (Image | Getty)

Pau Gasol is on his way to a permanent reserve role as the Lakers seek a more energetic starting five (Image | Getty)

Pau Gasol is finally back to productivity following his struggles with injuries over the past couple weeks. So the obvious response from Laker coach Mike D’Antoni? Bench him.

The All-Star forward is being shuffled out to make room for Earl Clark, averaging five points a game, in a somewhat baffling attempt to provide more energy in the starting five. On first impressions last night, it looked like the wrong call altogether.

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NBA season bringing stars from new rookie class

Filed under: Basketball, Boston Celtics, Charlotte Bobcats, Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, NBA, New Orleans Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings by Rob Schatten — Leave a comment
November 3, 2012

University of Kentucky teammates Anthony Davis (left) and MIchael Kidd-Gilchrist followed up their NCAA crown by becoming the top two overall picks in the 2012 NBA Draft (Image | SMTDaily.com)

There was plenty of pre-season hype surrounding the Draft Class of 2012 when the draft was made back in June. The likes of number one pick Anthony Davis and his new New Orleans teammate Austin Rivers (#10 pick), Charlotte’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (#2), Portland duo Meyers Leonard (#11) and particularly Damian Lillard (#6), and a host of others have already made their mark on the league in the new season.

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A respectful farewell to David Stern

Filed under: Basketball, International, NBA by Joshua Mott — 1 Comment
October 27, 2012

Quitting | David Stern (right) will step down as commissioner of the NBA 30 years after taking the job. Long-term protégé Adam Silver has already been elected as his successor (Image | Getty)

It is difficult to grasp quite how far the NBA has come in the almost thirty years that David Stern has been at the helm.

Stern became commissioner in 1984, when the league could not even get its championship series televised. Today, the NBA is a $5 billion business with a truly global appeal.

Stern will retire on 1st February 2014, 30 years to the day after he took charge. The 70-year-old commissioner will hand the reigns over to his deputy of six years, Adam Silver.

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GB make history in Olympic send-off

Filed under: Basketball, International, London 2012 Olympics by Rob Schatten — 2 Comments
August 8, 2012

Team GB signed off their first Olympic basketball campaign since 1948 with a moment of history (Image | Getty)

The Olympic basketball quarter-finals are underway today. Russia and Lithuania are first in action, to be followed later today by Spain, France, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and Team USA.

Great Britain are no longer involved in the tournament, but in their final game Tuesday, already confirmed as a ‘dead rubber’ match thanks to Saturday’s depressing collapse against Australia, Team GB carved themselves a little slice of basketballing history – they secured the nation’s first ever win in Olympic basketball.

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Reflecting on Team GB’s loss last night

Filed under: Basketball, International, London 2012 Olympics by Rob Schatten — Leave a comment
August 3, 2012

With 26 points, Luol Deng once again spearheaded Team GB’s offense (Image | Getty)

I knew as soon as the GB-Spain game ended last night that I’d be writing about it as soon as I got back from work this morning. The thing is, now I’m here, I’m not sure how to feel about the game.

Obviously, there’s a massive amount of pride for a collection of players brought together from around the major and minor leagues of European basketball to back up an NBA superstar who, after a couple of years of being international afterthoughts and needing special dispensation just to take up a hosts’ place at the Olympics, scared the crap out of Spain last night. The absolute crap.

And yet, knowing now that the game was so close in the final seconds, there’s a good deal of frustration too.

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Conference Finals proving more competitive than expected

Filed under: Basketball, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, NBA, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs by Rob Schatten — Leave a comment
June 4, 2012

The play of Rajon Rondo in the last three games has been the catalyst behind Boston’s revival (Image | SI.com)

Eight days into the NBA Conference Finals, every team left standing has two wins to their name. No-one saw that coming.

Full credit to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Boston Celtics for achieving what most had assumed was beyond them in making their respective series competitive. The Celtics, in particular, shouldn’t be 2-2 with the Miami Heat after four games if you’d listened to the rumblings during the regular season about how the Big Three were fading lights, and seen their bench crumbling one game at a time as Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox, Jermaine O’Neal and then Avery Bradley were lost for the season.

The Thunder, too, are over-achieving to be level after four. Sure, OKC are full of talent, but the Spurs were on a record-breaking 20-game winning streak spanning the end of the regular season and the playoffs, and boast one of the deepest rosters in recent NBA history.

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“Matchup the game of basketball wants” set to begin in Eastern Conference tonight

Filed under: Basketball, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, NBA, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs by Joshua Mott — Leave a comment
May 28, 2012

LeBron James’ dominant individual performances in the Heat’s recovery against Indiana doesn’t bode well for the Celtics.

So the NBA’s Final Four, as it were, have been decided. In the West it all seemed over before it began with the San Antonio Spurs going unbeaten in their first two series and the Oklahoma City Thunder only conceding one game en route to eliminating the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers.

The East, on the other hand, is where the drama has unfolded. When Derrick Rose went down with a torn Achilles in game one of the Chicago Bulls – Philadelphia 76ers series one could predict that the East was not going to fall into place as foreseen.

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