Are the current Oklahoma City Thunder of KD and Russell Westbrook going to suffer the same fate as the early 2000s Kings of Chris Webber and Mike Bibby?

Let’s start with a couple of basics: from the 2000-01 NBA season through the 2004-05 season, the Sacramento Kings won 50 games every year. They never won an NBA title — 2002 was the closest year, and quite honestly, Tim Donaghy… Continue Reading

The 2014 NBA Playoffs are already tied for the most Game 7s ever — and we’re not even done with the first round. (Imagine if Damien Lillard had missed?)

Check this out: five first-round series went to a Game 7 (Hawks-Pacers, Thunder-Grizzlies and Clippers-Warriors yesterday, then Spurs-Mavs and Raptors-Nets today). That’s already tied with the 1994 NBA playoffs for most series to go to 7 — and we’re not even done… Continue Reading

Lest we forget in the midst of all the racism discussions, Donald Sterling is also quite the misogynist too

Donald Sterling is (currently, at least for the next several hours/days) the longest-tenured owner in the NBA; he’s been in that role with the Los Angeles Clippers for 33 years. Normally, that would be a major badge of honor — think of… Continue Reading

Kevin McHale was one of the greatest power forwards ever. Dude has to be looking at LaMarcus Aldridge right now and saying “Well, goddamn.”

I’ve never been to Portland, OR save for about 1 hour in the airport, and I’ve never seen a Blazers game in person (statement 1 would seem to flow directly to statement 2, right?), but I unabashedly love the Blazers and… Continue Reading

Is Jeff Teague going to become a star as the Hawks beat the Pacers in Round 1?

Pretty much all the signs are there, even if you don’t want to admit them/see them: 1. The Hawks won Game 1 of their series vs. the Pacers (the top overall seed in the Eastern Conference), and it wasn’t like it… Continue Reading

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Is Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods or soccer ultimately responsible for the best NIKE ad of all-time?

NIKE isn’t an official sponsor of the next two grand-scale global sporting events — the Winter Olympics, starting tonight, or the World Cup, starting this summer — but it’s really hard to talk about sports and marketing without talking about… Continue Reading

The key to the Adam Silver-led NBA might be a more dramatic rivalry between LeBron James and Kevin Durant

A couple of different and interesting trend lines are converging in the NBA right now. First off, we’re pretty close to Adam Silver as the Commish, which is notable for two reasons: (1) CEO successions usually suck in the modern… Continue Reading

On the glory of Fred Hoiberg

I normally don’t pay attention to college basketball until after the Super Bowl — and I went to a basketball school — but I thought I’d dip a toe in the water here and talk for a second about Fred… Continue Reading