There still are some impressive names due to hit the free agent market next summer. We all know the Big Three: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
But one individual with some lofty credentials deliberately removed himself from the inevitable, frenzied, open marketplace: two-time Most Valuable Player Steve Nash.
His original, six-year free-agent deal with the Suns – you know the one Mark Cuban wouldn’t give him because of concerns over age, injury, durability and declining productivity – expires at the end of this season. But last summer, Nash and his agent, Bill Duffy, went to management and suggested a two-year extension, running through the 2012 season. The Suns agreed.
Why did he forego the free agent market, in which he participated and from which he cashed in during the summer of 2004?
“The option of waiting until next summer to be a free agent is totally speculative,’’ Nash said. “I don’t know what would have happened or what would be available. Here, I had an opportunity to play with a great group of guys I enjoy, to overcome a disappointing year last year, to turn things around. There’s a lot of reward in that. We may not be the most talented team in the league. We may not be expected to win a championship. But there’s still a lot to play for.”
Few looked at the Suns as one of the league’s more talented teams before the start of the season. Then they opened by matching the best record in franchise history (8-1) with Nash playing to his MVP form of three and four years ago. He’s already had games of 20 assists (Oct. 30 vs. Golden State) and 17 assists (Nov. 8 vs. Washington.) He helped hand the Celtics their first defeat with a double-double (16 points, 12 assists on Nov. 6 in Boston.) He became the Suns’ all-time leader in made three-pointers (Nov. 3 vs. Miami.) Two weeks into the NBA season Nash was leading the league in assists, shooting 54 percent from three-point range and, needless to say, a nearly flawless 93 percent from the line.
“He is still one of the top five point guards in the NBA and he has shown it so far this season. He has been phenomenal,’’ said Suns general manager Steve Kerr.
And with coach Alvin Gentry opening things up again on offense, you have to think Nash’s numbers and effectiveness will continue to impress. That’s good for the Suns, who will have him locked up at reasonable numbers ($11 million per with some deferrals) for the next two years, when he will be 38.
“The number one factor in signing that extension was that he’s 35,’’ Duffy said. “If he was 30, we’d be having an entirely different conversation. We would play it out for sure. But he likes the situation in Phoenix and ownership stepped up.”
They did indeed. Kerr said there was some “public sentiment” last summer urging the Suns to trade Nash. He admitted, “we got a lot of calls about Steve, trade-wise. The two lines of thinking were to either keep Steve and try to rebound from a lousy season, or sell high (trade Nash) and go young.
“To me, there was never a thought of moving him,’’ Kerr continued. “You just don’t move a guy who is that important to the franchise; he’s the face of the franchise. To trade a guy like that, who is still a helluva player, who is the heartbeat of the team, who brings in the fans to watch the team, I’m not going to do that. That’s crazy. He is going to help us.”
Kerr also believes that Nash’s days in Phoenix could go beyond the extension. He sees Nash as a John Stockton clone in terms of taking care of his body and looking for innovative methods to stay fresh. (Stockton played 82 games in his final NBA season, during which he turned 41.) There are summers, for instance, where Nash will rarely pick up a basketball, Duffy said. Instead, he will play soccer, cross-train.
“He definitely has found the fountain of youth,’’ Duffy said.
Kerr said, “Steve is such a freak of nature with his preparation in the offseason. During the season, he sits in a cold tub, like 52 degrees, after every practice and every game. He loads up on fruit. He knows how to take care of his body. Every summer he actively searches for ways to improve his conditioning. It’s plain to me, he’s going to be very successful for the next few years.”
Duffy also said Nash, who was born in South Africa and raised in Canada, has talked about playing overseas when his NBA days are over just for the experience. He said Nash, who has played in international competitions for Canada, could qualify for a British passport by virtue of family being born in England. (Sort of like Chris Kaman ending up playing for Germany in the Olympics.)
But those days are a ways away. Now, Nash’s focus is on the here and now and getting the Suns back to where they have been since he came to Phoenix – among the league’s elite. He’s the only MVP in NBA history to never have appeared in an NBA Finals and, in the minds of most, that is unlikely to change in 2010. Nash’s take? Dismiss him and the Suns at your own peril.
“This is a whole fresh start for us,’’ he said. “We have a lot of new players. Last year was basically a throw-away year with so many things thrown at us. We’re not really sure what to expect going into this season. So we’re just trying to find ourselves and try to be as positive and work as hard as we can everyday to get a little bit better.”
There’s a deadline looming in Rajon Rondo’s mind – and it’s not the one about which most NBA watchers are talking. It’s not about a contract extension for the slick Celtics’ point guard, who is beginning his fourth season in Boston. He claims that doesn’t occupy a single minute of his thinking.
“I gotta get ready for the season,’’ Rondo said. “I haven’t even given it (the extension) a thought.”
His nose did not appear to be growing as he spoke and, in fact, Doc Rivers said he has seen no evidence that a possible extension is consuming his point guard’s thinking. On the contrary, insists the Celtics coach.
“It has not been a distraction for anyone, not for him, not for us,’’ Rivers said. “And he has been sensational (in the preseason.) Look, it’s not exactly revolutionary for an NBA player to be in this position. It happens all the time. Rajon has handled it great and I think it will work out. It usually does. It’s rare when it doesn’t.”
The Celtics have until Oct. 31 to sign Rondo to an extension which would kick in starting with the 2010-11 season. If nothing is done, then Rondo would become a restricted free agent at the end of the 2009-10 season, with the Celtics still holding the right to match any offer. However, there is some risk in letting that scenario unfold because a number of teams have targeted the summer of 2010 for spending on prospective free agents LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. If they all stay put, the money might be redirected elsewhere (to, say, a restricted free agent point guard from Boston.)
Rondo certainly has made a case for a significant raise on the $2.6 million he is due to earn this season, an amount determined by the NBA rookie scale. (It is roughly half of what the Bulls’ second-year point guard, Derrick Rose, will earn this season and some $300,000 less than Jonny Flynn, the Minnesota rookie and No. 6 overall pick in 2009, will earn.) In three years with the Celtics, he has gone from being SebastianTelfair’s backup (with even a DNP-Coach’s Decision along the way) to an almost indispensable member of arguably the best starting five in the NBA, inarguably on one of the handful of NBA teams with legitimate championship aspirations. And he has done it the last two years with no real backup.
But how valued? And how valuable? Those are some of the issues that the Celtics and Rondo’s agent, the estimable Bill Duffy, are trying to hash out by Halloween. The Celtics don’t see this first deadline as all that important, given that they can always re-visit the issue next summer if things don’t work out this week.
“I honestly think that he will be a Celtic for life,” Rivers said of Rondo.
Says Rondo, “You gotta live for the present. I can’t think too much about the future because nothing is guaranteed. You never know what might happen.”
While Rondo’s improvement has been dramatic – last spring, he became the only Celtic other than Larry Bird to have three triple-doubles in the same postseason – he still is only 23 (he turns 24 in February.) If, as Rivers suggests, Rondo is going to be a Celtic lifer, then Rondo might want to think about what a 2011-12 or a 2012-13 Celtics team might look like. Ray Allen, for instance, is in the final year of his contract, although he shows little sign of wearing down. Paul Pierce has two years left on his deal, Kevin Garnett three. All will be well into their 30’s and slowing down when Rondo theoretically would be hitting his prime.
There were rumors this past summer that the Celtics were shopping Rondo, despite his brilliant play in the postseason. The thinking was that Rondo, who can be either high maintenance or simply complex depending on your view, might not handle a big contract the way the Celtics would prefer. Both Rivers and Celtics GM Danny Ainge denied that was the case.
Ainge, after all, was the one who saw something in Rondo, trading a No. 1 pick to Phoenix in 2006 so the Suns would pick the sophomore out of Kentucky at No. 21 overall. And, it was Ainge, with the blessing of ownership, who refused to include Rondo in either the deal for Allen or the deal for Garnett, even if it meant the deal would fall apart. That’s how much the Celtics thought of Rondo back then. (Neither Ainge nor Duffy would comment for this article.)
The sticky part now, potentially, is putting a monetary value on Rondo. The top-flight young point guards in the league (Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Tony Parker) all make more than $11 million a year. Does Rondo deserve to join that elite trio? In all likelihood, this is where Duffy would like to see Rondo land. Or is the next level down (Jameer Nelson, Jose Calderon, Andre Miller, Mo Williams) more indicative of his worth? All of those gents make between $6 million and $9 million per. This probably is where the Celtics would prefer to slot Rondo.
The two gray eminences at the position, Steve Nash and Jason Kidd, both will pocket around $8 million each this year in the first year of new deals signed over the summer.
“The second contract you get is for what you have done in the league, and what you can do, even further down the road,’’ Rondo said.
Rivers has spoken warily in the past of the perils of young players looking for big deals and focused on things other than winning. He does not see Rondo in that category.
“The (second) contract that a player gets will be a good guideline as to where his career is and where it is going,’’ Rivers said. “If you are like Rondo, who will get a big deal, it’s because he has put the work into his game and he’s proven it. It’s good for him.”
Regardless of whether a deal is reached by Saturday, the Celtics’ plan for Rondo to be there, hopefully, in June when they raise another championship banner. And if they do, you can bet that No. 9 on the Celtics will have had a big hand in it.
As we enter Michael-Fest this weekend at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, hagiography is blurring history a little.
Michael Jordan is the “The Best Ever.” ESPN The Magazine says so in a special Hall of Fame issue. The Chicago Bulls website says so. (You’d expect someone else?) Many, many followers of the NBA think that is the case as well.
It’s become unfashionable, bad form and even blasphemous these days to suggest otherwise. Not to diminish or devalue what Jordan did; he is, unquestionably, the greatest player of his time. But of all time?
I recently came across this quote from Bulls executive John Paxson, a former teammate of Jordan’s: “I know I’m biased because I played with him, but in my mind, he’s easily the greatest player to ever play. I don’t know how you can match what he did on the floor or his winning.”
It’s the second sentence, not the first, which calls for a response. Specifically, the last three words: “or his winning.”
Michael Jordan won a lot. He won six NBA titles. He won two Olympic Gold medals. He won an NCAA title. You’d want him on your starting five if the fate of western civilization was on the line. But, Mr. Paxson his “winning” doesn’t come close to matching that of one William Felton Russell. No one’s does.
So, if you define greatness as success, or as achieving your goal constantly above all else and all others, there is no one in the history of American team sports, not just the NBA, who won more than Bill Russell.
This isn’t a case of a Boston bias. In 1980, the Professional Basketball Writers Association named Russell as the greatest player in NBA history. He had retired 11 years earlier after a remarkable record that, in all likelihood, will go unmatched. He played 13 seasons in the NBA and his teams won 11 NBA championships, including eight in a row. It lost in the Finals one year when he was hurt. Nobody, not even Jordan, put up numbers like that.
Russell completely revolutionized the game. Until he came around, the notion that a defensive-oriented center could dominate and control a game was unthinkable. But he did. He did it with a combination of amazing athleticism (he also was a high jumper at the University of San Francisco), timing, jumping ability and, above all else, intelligence. There probably weren’t many games when Russell played that he wasn’t the smartest player on the floor.
There was no model for Bill Russell when he entered the NBA in the 1956-57 season. He wasn’t the logical “Next Player XX.’ He set the mold. The Celtics had a good team when he joined them – as opposed to Jordan, who joined a terrible Chicago team – but it had never so much as advanced to the NBA Finals, even with Hall of Famers like Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman on the roster. Russell changed all that – and in his very first season.
Jordan, too, revolutionized the game in one aspect: no guard had ever led a team to the success the Bulls had in the 1990s. While he seemed to be the logical descendant of Elgin Baylor and Julius Erving, they never matched his success. Jordan won three titles with Luc Longley for goodness sakes.
But back to the winning. Here is a remarkable statistic that cuts right to the chase. Over his basketball career, including college, Olympics and the NBA, Bill Russell participated in 21 games which, for lack of a better term, can be called “winner take all” games. His record in those games: 21-0. In the NBA alone, Russell competed in 11 such games, 10 Game 7’s and one Game 5 in a best-of-fiver. The Celtics won all of them.
Jordan first played in a winner-take-all game in the NBA in 1988, his fourth year in the league, when the Bulls won Game 5 against the Cavs. They won another Game 5 the following year (“The Shot” against the Cavaliers) and then lost in 1990 to the Pistons in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The only other Game 7’s on Jordan’s resume were in 1992 (second round against the Knicks) and 1998 (Eastern Conference Finals against Indiana.) The Bulls won those as well.
That was Jordan’s time and while the Bulls didn’t dominate the way Russell’s Celtics dominated, they were pretty much unbeatable over an eight-year stretch. (They might well have won in 1994, without Jordan, save for a brutal officiating call against the Knicks in the second round of the playoffs.)
You couldn’t escape Jordan or the Bulls during that span. Cable television, ESPN, sports talk radio – all of that started to emerge or was emerging as the Bulls began their run. By then, of course, the NBA playoffs were televised and the Finals were in prime time.
But who saw Russell all those years, other than the fans at the games? There was scant television coverage. There basically was Johnny Most’s not-to-be-missed accounts from “high above courtside” and the newspaper morgues. That was it.
But they did play the games in the 1950s and 1960s.
Yes, you could argue that Russell benefited from a shorter season, not as much travel, a lighter playoff schedule. All of that is true. But Russell averaged an astonishing 42.3 minutes a game (second only to Wilt Chamberlain’s 45.8.) He battled Wilt, Oscar, Bob Pettit, Elgin and Jerry West on an annual basis. After Russell’s very first playoff game, Dolph Schayes, himself a future Hall of Famer, wondered how much Russell made and whether his team could put together enough cash to pay Russell to stop playing for five years.
I didn’t come to bury Jordan. I came to praise Russell. Michael deserves the accolades and the acclaim, but if the gold standard in sports is winning, and it should be, then no one was greater than Bill Russell. Twenty-nine years ago he was deemed the best in NBA history. Seems like a keeper to me.
The spin coming out of the Twin Cities now is that Ricky Rubio has a chance to grow, mature, develop and play at a high caliber in Europe for the next two years before joining Minnesota in 2011.
What, he couldn’t do that in Minneapolis?
Of course he could and, if Rubio really, really, really wanted to play in the NBA this season, he would be checking out the real estate in Minneapolis-St. Paul today. He has always been described as creative with the ball. He proved this week that he’s pretty creative without the ball as well.
The Timberwolves’ inability to get Rubio into the NBA this season has to be viewed as a major disappointment, president David Kahn’s comments notwithstanding. (At this point, I, like pretty much every NBA writer over the age of, well, never mind, can recall the days when Kahn worked in Portland covering the Blazers for the Oregonian. We all know him and like him.)
Minnesota used the No. 5 pick in the draft and, no sooner than you could say Fran Vazquez, found itself trying to work out a deal to get the kid across the pond. It was Rubio, or those acting on his behalf (more on that later) who, after all, had put his name in for the draft. That would seem to indicate he had an intention to play in the NBA for the 2009-10 season.
Rubio then said a move to Minnesota was too risky and complicated at this time, a somewhat stunning revelation given that he is guaranteed millions of dollars under the NBA’s rookie contract guidelines. As for complications, well, sure, Minneapolis ain’t Barcelona and Hennepin Avenue ain’t no Ramblas. And in two years, that will all still be true.
More to the point, the Euroleague ain’t no NBA and that is why Rubio’s decision doesn’t prepare him any more for entrance into the world’s greatest basketball league. It merely delays the adjustment. Maybe he’ll be better able to handle it at age 20 than he would be now, but that is of little solace to the Timberwolves.
It’s not like Rubio’s presence in a Minnesota uniform this season would magically transform the Timberwolves into a Western Conference power. It wouldn’t. Regardless of where Rubio plays in 2009-10, the Timberwolves are pretty much going to stink. Kahn understands that. Kurt Rambis understands that.
What Rubio’s presence in a Minnesota uniform this season would do is start the adjustment and acclimation process while introducing him to the ways of the NBA. In Minnesota, he would be working with the team’s strength and conditioning coaches on a daily basis. In Minnesota, he would be working with Rambis and the coaches. In Minnesota, he would be getting to know his teammates.
And in Minnesota, he would be getting the introduction to NBA 101, ranging from the travel to the back-to-backs to the long schedule to the nightly competition of the world’s best players. That is maturing, growing up and developing.
None of that will happen in Barcelona, where Rubio will be out of sight and out of mind, thousands of miles from Minnesota. To be sure, much will be expected of the kid from his new team.
By contrast, he would be under zero pressure to produce in Minnesota, where, insightful Timberwolves fans would understand, he would be getting groomed to play in the NBA with no great expectations as a rookie on a bad team.
This is what the Spurs did with Tony Parker, although Parker did not join a bad team. Initially, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich didn’t even want to draft Parker. But he changed his mind after a second workout and Parker, at age 19, came to San Antonio, starting 72 games as a rookie. The rest is history. But do you think Parker would be where he is today had he chosen to stay a couple more years in France rather than work alongside Tim Duncan and David Robinson?
You have to wonder who has Rubio’s ear and who has his best interests at heart. Who stepped in after Kahn had worked out a complicated buyout from DKV Joventut and then proceeded to midwive the deal to Regal Barcelona? If Rubio truly wanted to play in the NBA, why was that not allowed to happen? (It may be possible he doesn’t want to play for Minnesota, which is another story for another day. He has not said as much publicly.)
He has an American agent (the universally loathed Dan Fegan.) He has European representatives. He has family and friends. Yes, it’s going to be more fun for the familia Rubio to have their son around. He will be rock-star famous in Spain whereas he’d be just another rookie in the NBA. He will be amply compensated in Barcelona.
But he will be no closer to being NBA-ready. That only comes from actually playing in the NBA. By staying in Spain he has delayed what Minnesota hopes is the inevitable. But in two years, who knows? The Wolves still hold his rights and he might be attractive trade bait. Or he might decide that Barcelona is just fine.
Either way, it’s not what Minnesota hoped when it made him a lottery pick last June. And the fact that Kahn went to the lengths he did to get Rubio to Minnesota indicates it’s not what Minnesota wanted or expected, either. He did about all he could, but, in the end, it wasn’t enough.
Either you believe him or you don’t. Either Rashard Lewis knew what he was doing or was a hopeless naïf.
You look at the body, and at the body of work, and you think that if Lewis did know what he was doing, then he didn’t do a very good job of doing it. He almost is the anti-Steroid poster boy at 6-10, 230 pounds (or so it’s listed) so, while an obvious candidate for bulking up, it never came to that. And his game logs from the playoffs reveal the good (34 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists in Game 2 of the NBA Finals) and the not-so-good (6 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists in Game 4 of the NBA Finals) only four days apart.
There were times in the conference semifinals against the Celtics when I wondered if Lewis was even aware there was a series going on. Then there were times when he was an absolute beast, a matchup nightmare for which Doc Rivers never did have an answer.
Frankly, I think it’s hard to make a case for Lewis as a deliberate evil-doer here. Maybe I’m the hopeless naïf – always possible – but if you had to identify a steroids miscreant on the Magic, Lewis wouldn’t even be under consideration. That’s what was so shocking about the revelation: it was the skinny Lewis who got nabbed, “one of the best people in the league,’’ according to Magic coach Stan Van Gundy.
Lewis has owned up to the transgression and he did so in an honest, thoughtful manner. I haven’t had a lot of face time with Lewis over the years, but when I did speak with him, he always was respectful and accommodating. While in Seattle, he was mentored by Ray Allen, as classy an individual as there is in the NBA.
His next NBA season will be cut short by at least 10 games, but this is really the first time that Lewis has been in any kind of hot water with the league. He can’t be blamed for agreeing to the ridiculous contract that Orlando offered him a couple years ago, but you could argue that he might have felt overwhelmed by the deal and the attention that he felt he had to do everything he could to live up to it. (That was A-Rod’s excuse in Texas.)
But Lewis said the banned substance was taken at the end of last season, which would explain the timing of the announcement. He said it came from an over-the-counter purchase of a powdered nutritional supplement and that he wasn’t aware it was in there. As he told the Orlando Sentinel, “I would never, knowingly, put any sort of substance or steroid into my body that is against the rules.”
At least he didn’t say he was blindsided.
And he also knows he’s subject to four random tests a year, all of which, presumably, he had passed in the past.
The NBA isn’t immune to these types of things; far from it. It tackled the drug problem head-on in the 1980s, but PEDs were not part of the dialogue back then. They are now and the NBA’s policy is quite clear: 10-game suspension for a first violation, 25 games for a second, one year for a third and ban for a fourth. The policy also stipulates that if a player comes forward voluntarily and admits to using a PED, there is no penalty.
Lewis may be the most prominent name, but there are others. Darius Miles was suspended for 10 games last season and, like Lewis, said he was unaware he had done anything wrong. Chris Andersen was kicked out of the league for two years, got his life back together, was allowed to return, and played so well he now has a new contract.
Lewis won’t be the last one and, for all we know, he’s not the only one. He just got caught. He made a mistake. He admitted he made a mistake. He apologized for it. He accepted the punishment. He has vowed to be more careful in the future over what he puts into his body. His organization has been supportive while also recognizing it has, as they say, a “teachable moment” before it.
In an utterly informal and unscientific poll, the Orlando Sentinel asked visitors to its web site to decide: was Lewis an innocent dupe or a cheater? Of the first 273 responses, 268 decided he was a dupe. So the fans are on his side. At least those fans.
We’ll have to wait for the memoirs to see what really happened. Did he actually feel any different? Better? Would he have continued using it if he hadn’t got caught? And no matter what he does the rest of his career, there will always be a line referencing the suspension, probably near the top, of any Rashard Lewis biographical web entry.
But, on the whole, Rashard Lewis has been, as Van Gundy said, one of the league’s top citizens over the last decade. In the court of public opinion, that should count for something. A whole career of staying out trouble should trump this one transgression.
Watching Blake Griffin ascend the stage Thursday night at the NBA Draft, don a Los Angeles Clippers hat, shake David Stern’s hand and offer a wondrous smile to the folks in attendance and watching at home, seasoned NBA observers had to think: does this boy have any idea what he’s in for?
It isn’t just the fact that he is now an LA Clipper. That was pretty much a foregone conclusion after the lottery. Even the Clippers aren’t going to trade away the No. 1 pick in a draft that is, well, one player deep. But throw in the fact that Griffin is the No. 1 overall pick and a Clipper and that is a combustible mix, the draft equivalent of hooking Clippers owner Donald Sterling up to a lie detector machine.
You are just waiting for everything to explode.
It’s not Griffin’s fault, to be sure. I suppose his agent could have made a stand, although that tends not to work these days; remember how Dan Fegan said that Yi Jianlian was never going to go to Milwaukee? And the Clippers do reside in Los Angeles, which is not to be confused with, say, Milwaukee or Minneapolis.
But do you think Griffin knows that there is as much space devoted in the Clippers Media Guide to player numbers as there is to playoff history? Do you think he knows that of the last 10 lottery picks the Clippers have made, and they make one just about every year, only three are still on the roster?
And do you think he has any idea about the previous two No. 1 overall picks the Clippers had – and what happened to them? It’s not promising.
Danny Manning was the Blake Griffin of 1988, except even better. He was a 6-foot-10 magician with the ball, drawing comparisons to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. He was coming off a season which saw his college team, the University of Kansas, win the NCAA title. He was as consensus a No. 1 pick as there was – and the Clippers did not flinch in making this pick. It was the right thing to do.
This was, however, before the days of the rookie salary cap and the late, great, Ron Grinker represented Manning. It was a bit of a change for Grinker, whose clientele usually consisted of borderline NBA guys. (He was dubbed the ‘Broadway Danny Rose’ of agents for that reason.) Grinker and Sterling went nose to nose amid threats of holdouts and lines in the sand and, eventually, Manning signed.
Twenty-six games into his rookie year, Manning blew out his right knee, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament. His season was over; so was his team’s. The Clippers were in a stretch where they would go 1-28 in the months of January and February.
Although Manning recovered and played well enough in Los Angeles to be chosen to make two All-Star Game appearances in 1993 and 1994 – the latter coming a few days before he was traded to Atlanta for Dominique Wilkins – it is the knee injury that sticks to his Clipper Days. (You would be hard pressed to find an article from that time that doesn’t mention Manning and Tony Daly, the Clippers’ orthopedist, in the same sentence.) Oh, yes, the the Clippers made the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time with Manning. They lost in the first round both times.
Manning never became the star di tutti that everyone thought he’d be. He picked up a Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1998 with the Suns, a few years after he tore the ACL in his other knee during a practice in Phoenix. He ended up playing for seven teams and it’s safe to say he won’t have to spend any time waiting for the phone call from Springfield. But no one – and I mean, no one- would have dared make that statement on Draft Night 1988.
Then came 1998, a decade later, and the Clippers again had the No. 1 overall pick. Among the names available that night were Paul Pierce, Mike Bibby, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison and a young, unknown German named Dirk Nowitzki. Confronted with all these possibilities, the Clippers instead selected Michael Olowokandi, from the University of the Pacific, mainly because he was (a) 7-feet tall and (b) full of promise.
Five years later, after playing his final game for the Clippers, Olowokandi was still (a) 7-feet tall and (b) full of promise. A few years later, he was out of the NBA, as Pierce was becoming the MVP of the NBA Finals and the other aforementioned fellows were annual All-Stars or All-NBA selections.
The Clippers weren’t alone in their interest in Olowokandi. He was pleasant chap from across the pond who was appealing because he supposedly was uncorrupted by the AAU culture of American basketball and, thus, open to the possibilities of actually learning. (Read: The anti-Stephon Marbury.) Five seasons in a Clipper uniform, only one of which could be deemed remotely productive, left him with the reputation of, well, a pleasant chap open to learning. He still is that.
But while Carter, Pierce, Nowitzki and Bibby all won awards and/or took their teams into the playoffs, the Clippers remained the Clippers. Their best year with Olowokandi resulted in 39 wins. There were no playoff appearances in five years. More to the point, the Clippers never bothered to re-sign the kid – almost automatic with a No. 1 pick these days, even if your name is Andrew Bogut and you’ve done nothing to deserve am extension – and then let him go to free agency, unrestricted. Kevin McHale, then the Timberwolves’ basketball boss, signed Olowokandi, doing a good deed to his friend and college roomie, agent Bill Duffy.
Hopefully, for the Clippers and Blake Griffin, this will be a different story. But it’s hard to make a case for the kid. The Clippers were bad last year and the Western Conference is brutal.
But just when everyone thought things might be changing for the Clippers, after their wonderful playoff run in 2006, things went south again. Franchise stalwart (and the universally loved) Elton Brand ditched them for the 76ers, with the Clippers crying foul (and worse.) Baron Davis came aboard, supposedly to join Brand, and did . . . absolutely nothing. Injuries decimated the team.
But they won the lottery!
And, for all of you basketball-loving fans out there, the address to send Griffin his condolence cards is:
Blake Griffin
Los Angeles Clippers
1111 So. Figueroa St.
Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90015
You have to wonder what Cleveland coach Mike Brown is really thinking when he goes over the game films of the Cavaliers series against Orlando. My guess is that the NBA Coach of the Year is uttering something along the lines of: “Where did my team go?” (There might be a few other words sprinkled in as well.)
The Magic have put Cleveland on the brink of an unwanted and certainly unanticipated May vacation, leading their Eastern Conference Final series 3-1. Only five percent of the teams in Cleveland’s predicament have managed to win the series.
The Magic could just as easily be chilling in Hooterville, awaiting the Western Conference champion, had not LeBron James hit his spectacular buzzer-beater at the end of Game 2. But the Cavaliers are going to need more than James’ heroics to pull this one out. If it’s not already too late, they’re going to need to return to the style of play they showed over 82 games in the regular season and the first eight of the post-season.
They’re going to need to defend.
That is what champions do. That’s what the Celtics did last year and that’s what the Spurs did in winning their multiple titles. That’s what Cleveland indisputably did over the course of the regular season, when the Cavs were arguably the best defensive team in the league. That’s what Cleveland did in the first two rounds of the playoffs, suffocating the Pistons and the Hawks.
But, as James himself noted after the Game 4 loss to Orlando, “we have broken down in areas that we haven’t broken down in all season.” And, amazingly, “we got to get one stop.”
That wasn’t much of a concern for the Cavs – until they ran into the three-point firing Magic, who are shooting with impunity when not dumping it into Dwight Howard. Orlando thus far has managed to do what no one else has managed to do this season – turn the Cavs into Warriors East on defense.
During the regular season, the Cavs led the NBA in points allowed, surrendering 91.4 a game. That was almost two points ahead of No. 2 San Antonio. Cleveland finished second in defensive field goal percenage at 43.06. (The Celtics were at 43.05.) History has shown that these types of teams, as long as they play a little at the other end, tend to do very well in the postseason.
Cleveland then continued its stranglehold ways against the Pistons and the Hawks. Detroit averaged 78 points a game while shooting 41 percent. Atlanta averaged 78.3 points a game while shooting 38.5 percent. Both the Hawks and Pistons went down in four.
That was Cavs Basketball, version 2008-09. Until now.
Orlando has treated the Cleveland defense as it was some mere impediment at a county fair booth. The Magic are averaging 104 points a game – or 26 more per game than Detroit and Atlanta. The Magic are shooting 49.3 percent from the field and 43 percent from three-point territory. Those are numbers that, if maintained, will make Orlando a very, very tough out.
Cleveland looks confused on defense, which is surprising given that Orlando’s preferred style of play is not exactly a trade secret. The Magic like to go inside-out with players who can score at every position. Howard is a certifiable beast who the Cavs have not decided needs to be double-teamed or not. You can book him now for a double-double; he’s had 26 in 31 playoff games.
Orlando’s titular power forward (Rashard Lewis) is shooting an astonishing 58 percent from three-point territory, his last being the dagger at the end of Game 4. The Magic’s so-called “small” forward is the 6-10 Hedo Turkoglu, who, when’s he on his game, is the Turkish Larry Bird. Both present major mismatch headaches.
Joined by starters Rafer Alston and Courtney Lee, that gives Orlando four outside shooting threats to go with Howard’s inside presence. Reserves Anthony Johnson and Mickael Pietrus also have three-point range. Heck, Stan Van Gundy hasn’t even bothered to use JJ Redick (10 minutes over four games) and shooting is what Redick does.
What can Cleveland do to counteract this? One possibility is the Cavs elect to fight fire with fire and go to a smaller lineup, with James as the power forward and three shooters to spread to floor. That would mean eliminating offensive anchors like Anderson Varejao and Ben Wallace in favor or more scoring. That would also mean that Cleveland is playing to Orlando’s strength.
Putting points on the board hasn’t been Cleveland’s problem, however. Stopping Orlando from putting points on the board has been Cleveland’s problem. Stopping teams is how the Cavs got this far and it’s had to envision Brown throwing the baby out with the bathwater at this point.
And, as Brown noted, the games have been close at the end, despite some wild swings. The first two were decided by one point. Game 4 went into overtime (thanks to a questionable call against Orlando) and was decided by two points. Even Game 3, a 10-point Magic victory, was close.
Something that sometimes gets lost in the discussion is that Orlando plays defense too. Pretty well, in fact. The Magic were among the top five teams in the league in both points allowed and defensive field goal percentage. Howard is the Defensive Player of the Year.
And ever since Orlando was pistol-whipped by the Celtics in Game 2 of their conference semifinal series – the Magic played like total wimps in that game – it has shown a toughness and a resiliency that now has it on the precipice of what would be a surprising, and network-cringing, victory.
Cleveland still has James, the human embodiment of “anything is possible.’’ He’s averaging a stunning 42.3 points a game in this series and his team is still down 3-1.
But, contrary to what you may see, hear or read, this series has not been All About LeBron. It’s been about the Magic’s ability to play at both ends a little bit better and about Cleveland’s inability to be the defensive team it was and has been all season.
Can we make this one a best-of-nine? Can the Celtics and Bulls keep playing until Kevin Garnett and LuolDeng are healthy again, then do a best-of-seven?
Glen Davis begs to differ.
“We want to end this series. We want to be done with this series,’’ Boston’s self-proclaimed Ticket Stub said after the Celtics exhausting Game 5 victory on Tuesday night.
Sorry, Baby. We want more.
Entertaining doesn’t begin to describe what’s going on between Boston and Chicago in their first-round playoff series. A seemingly mundane matchup between a depleted defending champion and a team going nowhere most of the regular season has turned into a must-see series full of game-winning shots, game-tying shots, physical play, coaching gaffes and everything else you’d want to see in this ‘Where Amazing Happens’ time of year.
Where this one ranks among the all-timers is still anyone’s guess. But we know this much: It’s the greatest Celtics-Bulls playoff series ever (OK, given that the three previous ones were 4-0 Boston, 3-0 Boston and 3-0 Boston, that isn’t saying much) and it already has done what no playoff series in 63 years has ever produced – three overtime games. And there still could be two more to play! (Please, basketball Gods. Two more.)
The Celtics hold the upper hand, 3-2, courtesy of their come-from-behind, 106-104 OT thriller Tuesday night, which could well have gone to a second OT (and who knows what else) had Brad Miller, an 80 percent free-throw shooter, not missed at the line with two ticks left. Or had Miller not missed the rim with his second, an intentional brick, denying the Bulls a chance at a put-back.
The series resumes in Chicago on Thursday night and, well, how about a triple OT game to add spice to the occasion? It’s about the only thing the teams haven’t done in the first five games. You have to think the United Center is going to be at Defcon 5 for this one.
Most NBA observers figured this to be a competitive series, given the Celtics’ absence of the game-changing Garnett and the fact that the Bulls are sort of the anti-Celtics: young, frisky, free-wheeling and callow. But what we’ve witnessed so far has been extraordinary.
ESPN waited one day to re-air Game 4 as an ‘Instant Classic.’ Four of the five games have been decided by a total of 10 points. There have been more than 80 lead changes and more than 45 ties.
There was the Bulls’ surprising OT victory in Game 1, with Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose scoring 36 points in his playoff debut. Only one other player in NBA history had ever scored that many in a playoff debut: LewAlcindor, aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Game 2 brought us the vintage shootout between UConn alums Ray Allen and Ben Gordon, with the Celtics (barely) prevailing.
After a Game 3 stinkbomb by the Bulls, we had a double-OT gem in which both teams seemingly had the game in hand, only to watch as the opponent made big play after big play. Allen hit a big three (when the Bulls should have fouled) sending the game to overtime. Gordon hit a ridiculous three (when the Celtics should have fouled) sending the game to double overtime.
Coming off that one, the bar was pretty high for Game 5. But these teams just keep raising it. Another overtime. A controversial conclusion. And a vow by the loser to return to Boston one more time.
“We will be back,’’ said the Bulls’ Joakim Noah, who, like a lot of players in this series, is opening more than a few eyes. “We have another chance so it’s a learning experience for all of us. Learning experience is not an excuse because I still feel like we can win this series.”
And you know what? They can. This isn’t Atlanta from a year ago, where the Hawks were never once competitive in four blowout first-round losses in Boston and looked shell-shocked on the road. This isn’t even Cleveland from a year ago, where LeBron was MIA in the first two games.
The Bulls have won once in Boston already and they’ve been in position to win all three in Boston. They’re not playing like a group going through their first playoff series under a rookie head coach.
Speaking of the rookie head coach, did Vinny Del Negro once think it might be a good idea to double PaulPierce in OT in Game 5? Ray Allen had fouled out. KG was wearing suit that cost more than a Camry. Del Negro already has taken heat for his use of timeouts in Games and 1 and 2, but why not run someone at Pierce when it’s clear to everyone in the building he’s going to shoot it? (They did it once in the final minute of regulation and Pierce dished it off to Stephon Marbury, who immediately turned to stone.) The Bulls never did when it mattered, however, and Pierce made them pay.
“We talked about coming with different players but they’ve picked us apart a little bit with that on the glass (offensive rebounds) and he hits some tough fadeaway shots with hands in his face,’’ Del Negro said of Pierce. “That’s what great players do, they make big plays. That’s something we’ll talk about again, but we’ve come with double teams, we’ve come with single teams, we’ve come off bigs, we’ve come off littles, and he’s seen it all.”
Pierce put on his 2008 Finals MVP face for the end of Game 5, a face we haven’t seen much in the series. The Celtics have gotten sensational play from Rajon Rondo, who is leading them in scoring, assists and steals in the party of all Coming Out Parties. (Until Kendrick Perkins inhaled 19 rebounds on Tuesday, the 6-foot Rondo, who had 8 in the game, also was leading the team in rebounds.)
He also was the one who clocked Miller at the end of the game, preventing a layup, while the Bulls cried for a flagrant foul call. He played 55 minutes in the double-overtime game and then came back and played 49 more in Game 5, though it seems he’s never not on the floor.
Allen has hit big shots throughout after stumbling through the first six quarters of the series. Pierce has been hesitant, tentative and, it seems at time, maybe a little cooked or even hurt, even as he has been putting up decent numbers. But the Take Charge Pierce had been missing. But there he was at the end in Game 5, hitting the last two Boston hoops in regulation and the last three in OT. As Davis put it, “I think since I’ve been here I’ve seen him do it a million times, so nothing surprises me.”
But surely more surprises await for Game 6. For instance, after moaning about the officiating, Perkins, a human wrecking ball if there ever was one, managed to play 48-plus minutes and never got called for a foul. That’s like watching Hubie Brown on TV and never hearing the phase “off the dribble.” Doc Rivers already has been fined $25,000 for commenting on the officiating.
Both coaches have shrunk their rotations. Mikki Moore never got off the Boston bench in Game 5 and played sparingly in Game 4. And this is one a team desperately in need of big men. Perkins and Davis are going to play till they drop. Ditto for Rondo. Marbury might as well start researching jobs overseas they way he has played so far. For Chicago, Gordon has to stay on the floor, lest his sore hamstring tighten up. Rose and Noah are logging long minutes as well, but they’re young.
The Bulls want to bring this one back to Boston for one final shootout. The Celtics want to end it and go on. But if these teams keep playing the way they’ve been playing, two more games won’t be enough. We know it has to end. We just don’t want it to.
Joakim Noah is finishing up his second season in the NBA – and he still finds one of the hardest parts of his professional life to be saying one simple word: No.
Kendrick Perkins is finishing up his sixth season in the NBA – and, by his own admission, he never said ‘no’ enough early in his career. Now, he does.
“A lot of guys have trouble saying ‘no’ until they figure out that it’s not an insult,’’ Perkins, the Celtics’ center said.
Hitting upon impressionable young players, many of whom have come into substantial amounts of money for the first times in their lives, is nothing new. Managing money – and teaching players to say ‘no’ - is an essential part of the NBA’s transition program for rookies, in which the league imports current players, veteran players and anyone else who can speak to them about what lies ahead.
The players are told they’re about to discover long-lost relatives and newfound friends. They are advised to be wary and careful. Mike Bantom, a former NBA player who runs the transition program, got a chuckle when he was told about Noah’s recent comments, which came in the form of an interview with the Washington Post.
“We tell them all this stuff, but we know it’s never going to register until they actually have to go through it,’’ Bantom said. “What he said to that reporter (sample “it’s hard to say no to somebody that you grew up with your whole life and you know they’re in a situation”) is what we said to him, verbatim. Your inability to say ‘no’ is going to take control of your life if you allow it to. So you better learn.
“But it’s kind of like with your own kids. It won’t register until it actually happens. Hopefully, by then, after what we’ve said, it makes it easier for them,’’ Bantom said.
Perkins heard all the same talk when he attended the transition program. Then he promptly went out and basically ignored all the well-intentioned advice.
“At the beginning, every one I knew had a hand out and I was spending like $200 and $300 a week. That adds up. It got to $11,000 a month. That adds up too,’’ Perkins said. “You have to learn to distance yourself from people, even if that means staying inside at home more. You know, out of sight, out of mind? That first year in the league was tough for me. You’re worried about offending people if you say no. But you eventually learn that you have to do it.”
In Perkins’ case, he was a quiet, Texan who had been raised by his grandparents, unaccustomed to luxuries that are now a part of his life. He entered the NBA right out of high school, even though his prospective college coach, John Calipari, told Perkins he’d be a lottery pick if he went to Memphis for even one year.
Perkins ended up getting drafted No. 27 overall in 2003.
Noah grew up in the spotlight; his father was a professional tennis player and winner of the French Open. Noah also is outgoing, engaging and the kind of individual who might attract the very people the NBA says like to prey on kids.
“I know Joakim. He’s a very personable guy,’’ Bantom said. “We’ve had a number of conversations. At the rookie transition program, we brought in Bill Russell to speak and Joakim asked if he could meet him, personally. So we arranged that. But his personality means he is going to come into contact with more “so-called friends” than a lot of other guys who aren’t as outgoing. You can’t stop living your life. You have to be who you are. But a lot of these guys are 19, 20 years old and we’re asking that they act like mature adults.”
It would be inaccurate to say these problems are limited to the young players, either. They aren’t. Dominique Wilkins for years in the NBA had to deal with an ever-demanding family. Longtime veteran Harvey Catchings got talked into a shaky and ultimately unsuccessful business deal even as his agent pleaded with him not to do it.
Former player agent Steve Kauffman recalled a recent example of a player, who he would not name, who had just retired and whose money was being sought to help finance a hotel deal. Kauffman had several experienced people look at the proposal and every one of them said it looked suspicious. All recommended the player not invest.
But the promoters pushing the product got the ears of the player.
“He spent $250,000,’’ Kauffman said. “And he never saw a dime of it.”
As long as the NBA continues to guarantee large sums of money to unproven players, many of them callow and naïve, there will always be vultures lurking. The league has taken more steps to help the kids, Bantom said, including have representatives in each NBA city.
“They are there to help. But they also are there to be observant because some of these kids might want to ask, but are afraid to do so because it would be embarrassing,’’ Bantom said.
The phrase “Just Say No’’ might sound simplistic; it didn’t work in the drug wars after all. But as the go-to phrase for NBA newcomers, it could and should resonate.
It may take them time, like it did for Perkins, but eventually the message got through to him. Noah should know he’s not alone out there, not only in terms of potentially shady company, but also in terms of others who’ve been there, done that, and can help.
“A lot of guys feel an obligation to have to say ‘yes’ to everyone, but you shouldn’t feel that obligation towards anyone but those who are close to you, important to you,” Perkins said. “Were they there for you when you didn’t have anything? It took me awhile to figure that out.”
Can anyone keep the Lakers from their seemingly pre-ordained return trip to the NBA Finals?
No one in the Western Conference is making the case in the regular season. The Lakers in the West look like the UConn women – a deadbolt lock. But we all know there is the regular season and there is the other season – no one knows that better than the Lakers, by the way – and a few teams out West are at least showing signs that the Lakers’ inevitable march to the Finals won’t be one in which they’re showered with rose petals along the way.
What makes the West so compelling are spots 2-9 because only eight qualify and some decent team is going to get iced. We’ll can concede No. 1 to Los Angeles’ varsity entry; eight games up in the loss column with 21 games left settles that. And that is a major advantage in the playoffs.
Every series starts on your floor (and Phil Jackson has never lost a playoff series after his team wins Game 1) and every series has Game 7, if need be, on your floor. So any team out West hoping to dethrone the current conference champs has that to deal with out of the chute.
We have no idea who will emerge as the other two division champions. Denver looked to be in control of the Northwest, until Utah caught fire. Portland is still hanging around.
The Spurs, Rockets and Hornets all are in contention for the Southwest crown and the Mavericks may be as well if Mark Cuban can find ways to rip them a couple times a week. (It worked against the Spurs at home; then Dallas fell apart the next night in New Orleans.)
But, realistically, which teams can actually make the Lakers break a sweat? As of now, there are probably three, maybe four. I can’t include Denver; any team with Kenyon Martin, Carmelo Anthony and JR Smith makes me too nervous, Chauncey Billups notwithstanding. I can’t include Portland; too young, but look out next year and beyond. Dallas? Nope. Phoenix? Forget it.
That leaves Utah, San Antonio, Houston and, perhaps, the Hornets. All of these teams could do it, but the likelihood, of course, is that none of them will. (The TV folks sure hope that’s the case, especially with the ‘Pass The Remote’ Spurs.)
San Antonio
No team out West has the cachet of the Spurs and their heart, soul and conscience is still there. And no, we’re not talking about Drew Gooden. The Spurs are muddling along (by their own standards, anyway) and waiting for Manu Ginobili to get healthy. If he does, they can beat anyone.
They are not intimidated by the Lakers or by having to win on the road. They’ve added a couple nice pieces this season (Roger Mason has been a pleasant surprise) and they still have the mental toughness that no one outside of LA possesses. And, don’t forget, this is an odd-numbered year and the only odd-numbered year in the last decade that the Spurs didn’t win was 2001.
San Antonio has been on a roll since New Years (20-9) and has shown some signs of late that its trademark, lockdown defense, is coming back. There’s no one that really figured out how to contain Tony Parker and the Fabulous Frenchman is having a terrific season. The Spurs have realigned a bit; Bruce Bowen now comes off the bench and coach Gregg Popovich finally found a use for long-range gunner Matt Bonner.
Gooden’s arrival had some around the league scratching their heads, for he’s not exactly known for his defense (although he does rebound.) But the Celtics would have taken Gooden in a heartbeat had they not had health concerns (Doc Rivers coached Gooden in Orlando.) These guys came within a horrible call last year of knotting the Western Conference Finals at 2-2. Dismiss them at your own peril.
Utah
No team is hotter than the Jazz. And it wasn’t until the team played its 57th game of the season – on Feb. 23 - that coach Jerry Sloan could submit his anticipated starting lineup to the stat crew. When Carlos Boozer played early in the season, either Deron Williams or Mehmet Okur was out. Boozer then went on the shelf for 44 games, but has returned with a vengeance. He had 20 points and 17 rebounds in a recent win over the Rockets.
Sloan has the versatile if occasionally goofy Andrei Kirilenko coming off the bench along with rebounding machine Paul Millsap and sharpshooter Kyle Korver. The Jazz went 20-9 after the All-Star break last season to take the fifth seed in the West. They went into Friday night’s game against Denver – at home – having won nine in a row, eight of them coming after the All-Star break.
They are getting healthy at the right time and if they can stay that way, they have the pieces to not only take the division, but to make things interesting in the playoffs. There’s also the added incentive of winning it for Larry Miller, the longtime Jazz owner who died on Feb. 20. He had his moments, but he had a passion for the Jazz and kept that franchise alive.
Houston
The wild card if, for no other reason, the Knucklehead Factor (read: Ron Artest.) The Rockets definitely don’t seem to mind at all that Tracy McGrady has packed it in for the season and they got rid of another potential disruption in trading away Rafer Alston, who can be a royal pain in the you-know-where (don’t take my word for it, just ask Sam Mitchell.) That’s 40 percent of the regular starting lineup gone and, until losing to red-hot Utah last Wednesday, the Rockets had won eight of nine.
One league exec called Houston “the fly in the ointment” for what looms as their untapped (and unknown) potential. They have Yao Ming and no one else does. Artest can defend, but he’s, well, Artest. Coach Rick Adelman has several outside shooters at his disposal, including Aaron Brooks, who has taken over for Alston.
The short-term goal for Houston is simply to get out of the first round. Yao has never done that. But if they do and get some momentum going, they present some headaches for anyone. If only they could play the playoffs in February; Houston has now gone two straight years without losing a home game in the month.
New Orleans
A couple weeks ago, it looked like the bottom might fall out on the Hornets and they’d be the odd team out in the West. But with Tyson Chandler returning (at least for now) and Chris Paul continuing to dazzle (27 points and 15 assists on Thursday night), New Orleans has won six straight and is back in the picture again.
They still need to get Peja Stojakovic rolling so he can be the much-needed third scorer behind Paul and the most unappreciated good player in the league, David West. But even with a full deck, does New Orleans have enough to overtake the Lakers in a seven-game series without the homecourt advantage?
They had LA beat recently in a game at the Staples Center before a dumb play cost them the victory in overtime. The addition of James Posey may not be statistically significant (or quantifiable), but he is a big guy when the money games are on the line. Just ask the good folks in Boston or Miami.
The Lakers still loom large, however, but, as David Stern likes to say, that’s why they play the games. But if Andrew Bynum comes back healthy, you might ask yourself, ‘why bother?’
There still are some impressive names due to hit the free agent market next summer. We all know the Big Three: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
There’s a deadline looming in Rajon Rondo’s mind – and it’s not the one about which most NBA watchers are talking. It’s not about a contract extension for the slick Celtics’ point guard, who is beginning his fourth season in Boston. He claims that doesn’t occupy a single minute of his thinking.
As we enter Michael-Fest this weekend at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, hagiography is blurring history a little.
The 
Watching Blake Griffin ascend the stage Thursday night at the NBA Draft, don a Los Angeles Clippers hat, shake David Stern’s hand and offer a wondrous smile to the folks in attendance and watching at home, seasoned NBA observers had to think: does this boy have any idea what he’s in for?
You have to wonder what Cleveland coach Mike Brown is really thinking when he goes over the game films of the Cavaliers series against Orlando. My guess is that the NBA Coach of the Year is uttering something along the lines of: “Where did my team go?” (There might be a few other words sprinkled in as well.)
Can we make this one a best-of-nine? Can the Celtics and Bulls keep playing until Kevin Garnett and Luol Deng are healthy again, then do a best-of-seven?
Joakim Noah is finishing up his second season in the NBA – and he still finds one of the hardest parts of his professional life to be saying one simple word: No.
Can anyone keep the Lakers from their seemingly pre-ordained return trip to the NBA Finals?