Category: NBA

Welcome to another round of NBA Roulette, more commonly known as the
NBA Draft. As always, my crazy friend ‘Neal and I get together and
see if we can predict where each player will land in the first round
using team needs, past tendencies and overall guess work that we like
to refer to as “logic.” It’s a lot like throwing darts while
blindfolded without even knowing if you’re facing the target. As if
it’s not challenging enough, general managers everywhere love messing
with our guesses by trading their selections even as the draft is
going on. Last year, we got five out of 30 picks right, and, here’s
the kicker, we felt pretty good about ourselves. So take everything
we say with a grain of salt, especially because `Neal is at his
caffeinated best during the draft. It’s a sight to behold. Trust me.

Like every year, these picks were all made with the assumption that
every team will select in this order, and that no trades will be
made. Also like every year, I’ll slow dance to Lady in Red with the 8- pound piece of machismo that is my dog if that actually happens. Onto
the picks:

By Gabe Kahn

Every year, about three weeks or so before the NBA draft, certain
players, initially thought to

be high first round picks, suddenly find their stock falling further
than Mike Tyson’s. At the

same time, some eligible players rise to prominence and become the
darlings of the dance,

and we begin to hear words like upside, potential, and athletic,
followed by whispers of

promises.

This phenomenon is a yearly occurrence and is happening as we speak.
Once surefire early

first round picks such as Monta Ellis, Jarret Jack and Chris Taft have
to hope they’ll be

selected in the first round. Channing Frye, Roko Ukic and Yaroslav
Karolev, on the other

hand, are all now being talked about as good shots for the lottery.

For the first time in eleven years, the NBA Finals is coming down to a seventh and deciding game to determine the champions of the NBA.  Yes, it has been quite a while since such drama ensued during the Finals, and hopefully drama is in store for this year’s seventh game.  Coming into the Finals, nobody wanted to see the Pistons and Spurs face off when there was a possibility of the Suns and Heat facing each other in the NBA’s final playoff series, two teams that were very explosive.  That is, unless you consider yourself an NBA purist.  However, with everyone believing this series was destined to be all defense, it was anything but.  

ESPN.com’s Chad “The Insider” Ford is reporting tonight that the NBA and the players’ union are near a collective bargaining agreement that would require draftees to be 19 years old by draft night. To paraphrase Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings: Mamas don’t let your babies grow up with their agemates …

Every year a new NBA Champion is crowned. Every year a Finals’ MVP is named. Every year a city throws a tickertape parade for their championship team. However, every year is not this year in the NBA. In a clash of titans between the last two champions, the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs square off in the finals’ first winner-take-all game since 1994. Will tonight’s game crack the top 5? It’s got some stiff competition; take a look at my list.

Well…I thought I could never be bored to the point of hating television and then last night the NBA finals brought me to my knees.

“It’s alright Tony…Stern promised us we’d win in 7”

Thankfully, it appears that Billy Hunter was good on his promise to make one final phone call to NBA Commissioner David Stern before the June 30th expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

After marathon negotiations on Friday as well as over the weekend, the Players’ Association has come to an agreement with the NBA Owners and struck a deal on a new CBA. At the head of the line to show their appreciation for avoiding the second work stoppage in NBA history is the NBA’s Public Relations staff, thrilled that their services will not be necessary to rebuild the reputation of the league only seven years after having had to do it before.

In the sudden new era of basketball, the NBA as a league finds itself with a huge problem.  They have no more fans.  They seemed to have all left when Michael Jordan left.  With the NBA finding itself with no fans compared to the NFL, the league also finds itself with another problem.  Nothing is there for the league to use to help appeal to those not interested in the league as a whole.  What, do you actually expect the NBA to get high school players, or foreign players whose names are impossible to pronounce to help draw fans in?  Those the NBA is appealing to are those who are in the sixth-grade hoping someday to skip college, and go straight to the league because they think they have got the `ankle-breaking’ moves, or the `hops’ to get there.

Why?

Why does he complain after nearly every call by a referee? Why does he collect more technical fouls than any other player in the league? Why does he hurt his team at times?

So many questions about Rasheed Wallace, but one thing is certain. He is the answer to whether or not the Detroit Pistons will repeat as NBA Champions.

It’s not surprising that many people have become disenchanted with the sports world these days. They’re fed up with the ridiculously over-the-top salaries that athletes receive, fed up with athletes behaving as if they’re above the law, and fed up with their childish antics. Names like the NFL’s Randy Moss, the NBA’s Latrell Sprewell, and MLB’s Barry Bonds come to mind. But it’s time for everyone to relax. Dwyane Wade has arrived.