February 3, 2010
When the Orlando Magic essentially swapped Hedo Turkoglu for Vince Carter last summer, I loved the move. After watching Orlando advance to the NBA Finals and take the Los Angeles Lakers to a hard-fought six games before Kobe Bryant and the Lakers captured the title, it was clear that the Magic were close to getting a ring. However, the one thing that they lacked was a perimeter player who could command a double-team, and could score in many different ways.
Hedo Turkoglu, for all of his admirable qualities as a player, is not that kind of guy. Vince Carter is, and the fact that the Magic also acquired another sweet-shooting power forward, Ryan Anderson, from the Nets in the trade as well was just a bonus.
I thought that Vince was going to be the missing piece for Orlando, the guy that separated them from the pack and would allow them to take the final step and become NBA Champions. Only that hasn’t happened, at least so far this season. Instead, Vince has found himself becoming a role player, and one with a diminishing role, at that, as the Magic have spent the season struggling to find their identity.
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NBA | Tagged: Allen Iverson, Dwight Howard, Fredric Weis, Hedo Turkoglu, Kobe Bryant, Lawrence Frank, Los Angeles Lakers, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, North Carolina, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Rashard Lewis, Ryan Anderson, Stan Van Gundy, Toronto Raptors, Vince Carter | 
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Posted by tbontemps1
January 22, 2010
The NBA All-Star Game has long been considered the best all-star game in any of the four major sports. Both football and hockey have turned their games into soft, high-scoring affairs that take away the true grit and substance that make both sports so entertaining for fans to watch, while baseball’s all-star game, while entertaining, loses a lot of its appeal in the wake of the way Bud Selig has handled it (increased emphasis on getting everyone in the game, different pitchers just about every inning, the infamous tie a few years ago, the game determining home-field advantage in the World Series).
But the NBA’s game has held up over time. While there is less defense, clearly, in the NBA All-Star Game than in a typical NBA game, basketball is the easiest sport to transition to an showcase setting like All-Star Weekend is without losing the values people enjoy about the game. Because the game isn’t overtly physical, guys can play like they would in a regular NBA game fairly easily, thus making it look much more like a real contest.
And after he was voted into the Eastern Conference’s starting lineup, Allen Iverson still belongs on that stage.
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Leave a Comment » | NBA | Tagged: Allen Iverson, Bud Selig, Cowboys Stadium, Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Memphis Grizzlies, NBA All-Star Game, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Pro Bowl, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Vince Carter, World Series | Permalink
Posted by tbontemps1
January 15, 2010
Now that Gilbert Arenas is in the process of submitting a guilty plea on a felony gun possession charge, things should really start to get interesting.
After weeks of speculation about what they would do next, there is little doubt now, as my friend Adrian Wojnarowski spells out in this column, that the Washington Wizards will attempt to void the tens of millions of dollars remaining on Arenas’ max-level contract. That scenario has two possible outcomes, both with fascinating long-term ramifications for Wizards, Arenas and the league.
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Leave a Comment » | NBA | Tagged: Dwayne Wade, Detroit Pistons, LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets, Washington Capitals, Ron Artest, Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol, Chris Bosh, Caron Butler, Los Angeles Clippers, Gilbert Arenas, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, David Stern, Ernie Grunfeld, Flip Saunders, Antawn Jamison, Washington Wizards, Abe Pollin, Ted Leonsis, Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudamire, Andrea Bargnani, P.J. Carlesimo, Latrell Sprewell, J.J. Hickson, Zydrunas Ilgauskas | Permalink
Posted by tbontemps1
December 7, 2009
It’s funny how quickly things can change.
Early last week, I was thinking about writing a column about how the fortunes of two former high draft picks, Vince Young and Greg Oden, had changed seemingly overnight. After both had become afterthoughts on their respective teams, and had dealt with bouts of depression partially as a result of it, Young and Oden had burst back onto the scene again this year. As each game went by, they began to win more and more skeptics over to their side, caused more people to buy into the fact that they were becoming the players people thought they could be when they were drafted.
While Young had led the Tennessee Titans to several wins in a row before yesterday’s loss to the undefeated Indianapolis Colts, Oden, who doesn’t turn 22 until late January, was beginning to become the center people thought he could be when he was taken by Portland with the top pick in the 2007 draft. He had at least three blocks in five of his last eight games (and two in another), and has scored in double figures in all but one of them. After missing his rookie season after undergoing microfracture surgery in his right knee, it looked like Oden had turned the corner.
But it took less than a week for his fortunes to come crashing back to Earth in the harshest of ways, when he crumpled to the floor in the first quarter of Saturday night’s game against the Houston Rockets and clutched his left knee in agony. For the second time in three seasons, Oden’s season had ended, this time with a fractured left patella.
And, just like that, it was like things had never changed at all.
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Leave a Comment » | NBA | Tagged: Bill Walton, Brandon Roy, Greg Oden, Houston Rockets, Kevin Durant, Michael Jordan, Mike Conley, Ohio State, Portland Trail Blazers, Sam Bowie, Tennessee Titans, Vince Young | Permalink
Posted by tbontemps1
December 2, 2009
One of the many theories Bill Simmons has created is named after Mike Tyson. The “Tyson Zone”, as Simmons calls it, is reserved for people who reach a point where they become so outrageous and ridiculous that any story about them becomes believable, no matter how strange or bizzare.
The theory may have been named after Tyson – and certainly not without reason – but it’s becoming more and more obvious by the day that the person who personifies the “Tyson Zone” better than anyone else, Tyson included, is Ron Artest.
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Leave a Comment » | NBA | Tagged: Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson, Ron Artest, Trevor Ariza | Permalink
Posted by tbontemps1
November 2, 2009
I must admit I’ve been quite baffled by the way Rajon Rondo’s future with the Celtics has been debated and questioned over the past six months. After the way he performed in the playoffs, when he was, without question, Boston’s best player when they pushed the eventual Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic to seven games (without Kevin Garnett), it looked like the 23-year-old point guard was becoming the face of the team, and the man who would become the team’s best player in the coming years as he became this generations Jason Kidd, with his incredible ability to churn out triple-doubles (after averaging 17 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in the playoffs).
But then, bizarrely, Rondo’s name began being bandied about in trade rumors, and there were questions about whether or not he would be signed to a contract extension by tonight’s midnight deadline, or else he would become a restricted free agent as part of next summer’s free agency bonanza. A quick look at the list of point guards in the NBA, however, proves that Rondo is more than deserving of the five-year, $55 million contract extension he agreed to with the Celtics earlier today, a contract that locks him in as the franchise’s headlining young player.
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Leave a Comment » | NBA | Tagged: Boston Celtics, Chris Paul, Danny Ainge, Deron Williams, Gilbert Arenas, Jason Kidd, Kevin Garnett, Mo Williams, Rajon Rondo, Tony Parker | Permalink
Posted by tbontemps1
August 24, 2009
As the NBA Draft approached last spring, I was one of the biggest Michael Beasley fans out there. After watching him do even better in his freshman season at Kansas State than Kevin Durant did the previous season with Texas, I felt Beasley was poised to have a monster career – especially because of the way the game has shifted to a more wide-open, offense-driven style that is perfectly suited to his talents.
But ever since he was selected second overall by the Miami Heat, I’ve continually grown less and less confident in him. He frequently showed signs of immaturity, and didn’t have nearly the impact that the draft’s top pick, Derrick Rose, did for the Bulls, or that Durant did for Oklahoma City the year before.
Now that, according to a report by my friend Adrian Wojnarowski for Yahoo! Sports, Beasley has checked himself into a rehabilitation facility in Houston (despite his not turning 21 until next January), his career unbelievably could be on the brink of a far too premature ending.
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Leave a Comment » | NBA | Tagged: Carlos Boozer, Dwayne Wade, Miami Heat, Michael Beasley, Pat Riley, Utah Jazz | Permalink
Posted by tbontemps1
July 31, 2009
When the Los Angeles Lakers essentially traded Trevor Ariza for Ron Artest, I felt they set themselves up as the favorites to win the NBA title for the next three years – essentially covering the entirety of Kobe Bryant’s window as a dominant player in the league.
All of that, however, hinged on whether they brought back enigmatic swingman Lamar Odom, long one of the league’s most unique and frustrating talents. What first seemed like a foregone conclusion soon morphed into something else entirely, until the last week has been spent wondering whether he would opt for the beaches of California to stay with the Lakers and Bryant or South Beach to go back to his former team, the Miami Heat, and once again become Dwayne Wade’s sidekick.
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Leave a Comment » | NBA | Tagged: Caron Butler, Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Dwayne Wade, Houston Rockets, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, Pau Gasol, Paul Pierce, Rasheed Wallace, Ray Allen, Richard Jefferson, Ron Artest, San Antonio Spurs, Shaquille O'Neal, Trevor Ariza, Vince Carter | Permalink
Posted by tbontemps1
July 9, 2009
At 24 years old, LeBron James has accomplished more than practically any player his age in the history of the NBA. He is the league’s best player, dragged arguably the worst supporting cast in NBA Finals history into a loss to the Spurs in 2007, and helped lead the Redeem Team to the gold medal last summer in the Beijing Olympics.
But despite all of that, LeBron James still needs to accomplish one more important task: he needs to grow up.
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1 Comment | NBA | Tagged: Cleveland Cavaliers, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Orlando Magic | Permalink
Posted by tbontemps1
