Making my final nightly perusal of the Reddit front page tonight I came across the following picture, which Redditor vendettaterp found in a friend’s high school yearbook.
It features the best pure scorer in the NBA.
Image: Kevin Durant’s high school yearbook photo and quote (which he’s certainly living up to)
January 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The 25 Best Players in the NBA Right Now
October 19, 2011 By 8 Comments
For Part One of this two-part series, which is inspired by ESPN’s attempt to rank all NBA players from 1-500, click here.
Remember, our goal here is to rank the top 25 players in the NBA right now.
Who needs the NBA? Behold Kevin Durant at Rucker Park
August 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment
So the NBA is locked out and no one knows if there if will be a season next year. Big deal. Get your NBA fix right here by watching Kevin Durant absolutely light it up at the end of a Rucker Park game.
Top 20 NBA Ballers of My Lifetime
June 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Editor’s note: We are currently preparing an article in which a number of MSF writers submitted their top 20 NBA players of all-time. The goal is to see where Dirk falls in the top 20, or if he even makes it at all. Evan decided to narrow his scope a bit and go with the top 20 players of his lifetime. So we are posting his article first, with the mega top 20 article to come. Stay tuned…
Also note that Evan is 22 and says that he really started watching the NBA during the 1997-98 season.
It’s top-20 NBA Players mania around here right now, all thanks to Dirk Nowitzki’s superstar performance in earning his first ring this month. Everyone from announcers to journalists to bloggers are saying Dirk has hit legendary status, maybe even top 20 of all time. I think that sounds a tad high for Dirk, but he now has some serious hardware to reasonably back up the claim to a top-20 spot.
For my own part, I have always thought that the NBA MVP award was the most meaningful of any of the four major sports. Scan the list and you’ll notice every single winner is a Hall of Famer or well on his way to being enshrined. Dirk has his MVP award, he has his Finals MVP award, and most importantly he has his ring.
But is he on par with Larry Bird? Or is that just the most racially convenient historical comparison bandied by most experts?
Honestly, I don’t really know because I never actually saw Larry Bird play. But I have seen plenty of other great players, so for my Top-20 NBA Players list, I decided to restrict myself to those guys I’ve actually seen play. Here is my list with some highly subjective choices, some no doubters, and perhaps one begrudgingly included sharpshooter who burned my New York Knicks many years ago.
It’s time to cut the NBA’s superstar young pups some slack
May 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Things were getting desperate in my household a few months ago. My sister was pregnant and getting ready to have a baby. My wife was starting to get that same itch…
So I pulled out the only trick I could think of: I bought her a puppy.
Now that the desire for something small to love was gone, my wife and I began to try and learn how to raise the little guy. The first day, little Figo (Italian for “cool”) ate some food, drank some water, and then used our kitchen floor as a toilet. A few hours later, he did the same thing in our living room. If you have ever had a puppy, you know this became a common occurrence over the next few weeks.
Every time the little guy did it, I wanted to get angry. But I couldn’t. Why? Because as my father once told me, “You can’t get mad at puppies for acting like dogs.”
Another way of putting would be that “You can’t expect a puppy to behave and obey like his older, more experienced counterparts.”
I have been thinking about this a lot during the NBA Playoffs.
What the Oklahoma City Thunder and Chicago Bulls Need To Do Right Now
May 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Three games into the conference finals, the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder both find themselves staring at 2-1 series deficits.
While the two teams may be in similar holes, there is nothing similar when comparing the two situations.
Funniest picture of the NBA playoffs so far. James Harden, WTF dude?
May 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Russell Westbrook: The Secret is Out!
May 16, 2011 By 4 Comments
I have been in the middle of a recurring argument with one of my friends over the past week or so: Rondo or Westbrook?
My friend is a HUGE Oklahoma City fan, while I am a huge basketball fan in general. I love the Pacers, but when they aren’t playing I enjoy good basketball, especially if it’s being played at the point guard position.
With the Celtics now out of the playoffs and the Thunder moving on to the Western Conference Finals, our argument has centered on Russell Westbrook. And after watching Game 7, it is clear how Westbrook needs to play to be the right fit at the point on this young, talented, up-and-coming Thunder team.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Is There A Storm Brewing in the Western Conference Playoffs?
April 12, 2011 By 1 Comment
The Thunder have proven now that they can run with the big dogs.
They showed us that they had a chance at upsetting any big team last season, when they gave the Lakers a run for their money in the West’s first round. The athleticism, the desire to prove, and the hunger for a chance at an NBA Finals berth — it was all there. You saw it in the eyes of Durant, Westbrook, Harden, head coach Scott Brooks, and former Thunder Jeff Green. It was there.
This season, the Thunder had a slow start and didn’t seem to have shown too much improvement from the former season. That is, until February 22nd came along, and the Thunder front-office pulled a shocker by acquiring longtime Celtics center Kendrick Perkins.
Who is the best of the best in the NBA? Ranking the top 9 NBA superstars right now
March 4, 2011 By 15 Comments
After Carmelo’s Knicks beat LeBron’s Heat on Sunday, I was prepared to hear some overreaction. But when I turned on Mike and Mike the next morning, it’s fair to say that I was more than a little stunned. The conversation focused around one question: “Who would you rather have, Carmelo or LeBron?”
Of course I was appalled.
How could you possibly say the two are comparable? Sure, Carmelo is a great scorer, especially in crunch time, and he was great on Sunday night against the Heat…but better than LeBron? Come on.
Further than that, not only was the question raised, but there actually seemed to be some consensus that people would, in fact, actually take Carmelo over LeBron. In my mind, the madness had to be stopped. I dislike LeBron as much as the next guy, but declaring anything other than the best player in the league is a little ludicrous…right?
NBA Christmas Day 2010 TV Schedule: Heat-Lakers, Bulls-Knicks, Celtics-Magic, and More
December 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment
It’s that time of year again my friends! Christmas season (and Kwanzaa) has arrived, and for some amazing reason, the holiday feeling seems to be a bit stronger than in past years. That can never be a bad thing guys.
Since it’s almost that time, you know what that means, right? My NBA nuts sure do! It means that the NBA is about to dish out another magnificent NBA schedule, just for us on the magical December 25th.
So what’s in store?
Well, courtesy of the fellas at ABC and ESPN, we can watch each and every single game on national television. So don’t worry, while you’ll be enjoying the amazing cranberry sauce, tweeting your butt off, cleaning up the wrappings, or ripping them apart, you’ll be able to have the TV on in the background and enjoy some great NBA action!
Here’s the lineup:
10 Bold Statements for the 2010-11 NBA Season – Part One
October 25, 2010 By 2 Comments
The 2010-11 NBA season is here, and it quite possibly has more hype than any season since Jordan came back in ’96.
The Three Kings, Durantula’s Breakout Party, Kobe’s Last Hurrah, and ‘Melo’s Malcontent have dominated the headlines, but there is so much more to talk about.
Without further ado, I present to you: Ten Bold Statements for 2010-11 – The Year of the Superstar.
Team USA wins Gold, and Golden Torch is Passed to Kevin Durant
September 13, 2010 By 8 Comments
With one of the more entertaining NCAA football weekends in recent memory behind us, I pause to wonder if I should ever write again. As friend after friend of mine responds with sarcasm about my “Football is not Football” argument, I watched in horror as my Colts lost to the lowly Texans.
Fortunately, I have one, and only one, shot at redemption, which is the hope that while most Americans were watching the NFL kickoff its season, I could possibly write about something that most people missed:
Team USA against Turkey in the World Championship Final.
The Decision (“Jerod Picks a New NBA Team Edition”)
July 26, 2010 By 3 Comments
Growing up, I was always loved college basketball and merely just liked the NBA; I did, however, grow to become a pretty big Bulls fan.
I lived in Bloomington, the Pacers weren’t all that great until I got to high school, and Michael Jordan was the most exciting single phenomenon I’d ever seen. Plus, being a Bulls fan was awesome because they were, of course, the best.
Once MJ retired and the Bulls dynasty ended though, my NBA cheering preferences rotated. I cheered pretty hard for the Bullets (then the Wizards) for a while because IU legend Calbert Cheaney played there, and obviously MJ eventually did too.
Then when I lived in Miami I got into the Heat because Dwyane Wade was exciting, I got to go to some games, and they won a title. Then when I moved from Miami and the Heat started to suck I got more into the Cavs because of LeBron. But after LeBron quit on the Cavs during and after the playoffs, I was once again left with an NBA void.
Well, that voids needs to be filled and I’m here to announce my decision for who my new NBA rooting interest will be, and why.
NBA Playoffs Round 1 Watch: Present vs Future
April 16, 2010 By 2 Comments
Hey folks! I know most of you are psyched for this year’s NBA playoffs just like I am and are dying to see an upset, dying to see the superstar showdowns, and can’t wait to see who represents in the Finals.
But before all that, we have to see who can make it out of their conference alive.
I’ll be previewing my own “highlighted” matchups for each round, as well as game follow-ups, highlights, and everything else NBA Playoffs over the next couple of months.
In the first round there is one mano-a-mano matchup between two names we recognize that stands out above the others. One name we’ve heard for years, another we will hear for years to come. One has a slate of four NBA rings in his collection, and the other is salivating to get his first.
I present to you the great matchup of newb vs veteran, all-star vs hall of famer, present vs future…
