Why should Kevin Durant’s broken foot occasion any surprise? The five-time NBA scoring champ has been a three-time league leader in minutes played. And he’s averaged another 42 minutes a game over 73 playoff games since 2010 – the equivalent of another full season. And his summers? Busy, busy, busy. There was the [...]
Thursday’s official launch of March Madness brought into focus exactly what is going on in the NBA. All afternoon on TV, I watched a bunch of kids learning how to play. Then that evening, I went to the Phoenix Suns-New Orleans Pelicans game – and watched a bunch of kids who STILL don’t know [...]
For the second time in three days, an NBA team was penalized for a rare violation, having too many (six) men on the court. With all the Suits on the bench, how could this happen? Where the hell were the number guys?
1. Has a verbal exchange in Minnesota with Phoenix coach Jeff Hornacek after getting a technical;
2. Calls out fans after 101-74 blow-out home loss to San Antonio;
3. Makes a dumb flagrant foul at Miami (taking down former teammate Goran Dragic) and gets ejected;
4. Against Golden State, he opens by sinking a [...]
James Harden was the best player in the NBA before the All-Star break -- and he still is the best player in the NBA.
It’s that time of the year. Some players are legitimately hurt and, if their teams are doing well, will come back as soon as possible. Teams doing poorly and with no chance for a post-season prize, well, those players will have longer recovery periods and more missed practices and missed games. That’s the [...]
The San Antonio Spurs won the Alpha award for “best analytics organization” at last weekend’s MIT Sloan Sport Analytic Conference in Boston. Afterward, coach Gregg Popovich expressed surprise there was such a conference or such an award. As for analytics, Pop said, “There’s a use for it. But we don’t walk in every day and [...]
The other day, Phoenix coach Jeff Hornacek opined: “If you are out there just relying on your athletic ability, it is tough to talk because you don’t even know what is going on.” Eric Bledsoe, his star and nominal team leader, responded: “I keep hearing everybody telling me I need to talk more. [...]