nba-general
The new look NBA brings some intriguing matchups this season along with questions that need to be answered.
How much of an impact will Rudy T. have on Kobe and the Lakers?
Will Kobe Bryant lead the Lakers into the playoffs with his new found supporting cast?
How far will the Heat go after aquiring Shaq?
Will Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson work their Magic in Orlando?
These questions and more can only be answered during this coming NBA season.
by Jonathan Ragus
The Olympics are long over and gone with. But the memory is still intact at how awful American basketball fans felt watching this years Olympic games. There were many things to talk about from doping scandals to a wrestler refusing to fight an Israeli wrestler, only to come into the match overweight. And you’d think with headliners like this that American people would forget all about basketball. But that’s not the case.
by Trevor Freeman
Should the United States not win the Olympic Gold Medal in basketball, blame has to be assigned. Look no further than Larry Brown.
Can US Basketball Recover?
For those of you stuck in the sports desert known as July, here is some heavy duty reading for you. The NBA off-season has been a hectic time for player movement by free agency and trades. I breakdown each and every NBA team and give them their due, regardless if they deserve it or not. So take that much needed break from work and spend some company time catching up on the NBA. The boss might not thank you, but I will.
We are in the midst of an age where young athletes are being showcased, analyzed, and exploited in this country before they are even old enough to vote for its leaders. The national media has ranking systems and publicized opinions before these athletes even reach high school. Sebastian Telfair exemplifies the problem this presents.
“Bassy,” as he is often called, was rated the #1 basketball player in the country for his age before he reached high school. He was also the youngest player ever to attend the prestigious ABCD Camp, which is reserved for the nation’s top prospects. Telfair first turned heads there when he showed up as an incoming high school freshman and performed brilliantly against phenoms older, stronger, and supposedly better. It was then that the mystique of Sebastian Telfair began to take shape.
As Jameer Nelson’s disappointed eyes fell to the floor, his hands enveloping his indisputably adorable son, Jameer Jr., while eight high schoolers climbed the stage and walked to the podium, adorned in their new team’s hat, drafted above the Naismith Player of the Year, the “future” of the NBA climbed into the warm womb of potential with the ominous specter of miscarriage hanging overhead.
Since high schooler Kevin Garnett was drafted high in the 1995 NBA Draft, the face of the NBA Draft has changed dramatically. Scouts look at potential versus what they have accomplished. I’ve taken a humorous look at what will happen if this trend continues.
The year was 1992 in Barcelona, Spain. Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, John Stockton, David Robinson, Karl Malone, and Christian Laettner headed a star-studded cast that easily won gold in the Olympics, finishing without a loss. Too bad players don’t care anymore.
I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable NBA fan. Then a friend asked me to name at least ten players who might go in the first round of the NBA draft. Simple stuff I thought and began to throw some names at him.