A couple of points that have emerged since I published the first part of a talk with the Dallas Mavericks' stat expert Wayne Winston: On his blog, Winston has explained in some more detail why he thinks th
You think the Lakers will retire Shaquille O'Neal's jersey? With bridges burned in Orlando and Miami, not much to show for his time in Phoenix, and twilight years in Cleveland ... O'Neal has the ch
Wayne Winston is a professor at Indiana University and for the last nine years he has been Mark Cuban's stat guru for the Dallas Mavericks. Winston's recently published book "Mathletics," expl
Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: "After missing 43 games last season -- including all of the playoffs -- with various ankle ailments, the prescription for Manu Ginobili's offseason inclu
Frank Isola writes on the New York Daily News' Knicks Knation: The three most important faces inside the gym at Skidmore College today were -- in order of importance -- William Wesley, Danilo Gallinari and
A year ago, Delonte West sought treatment for a mood disorder. Two weeks ago, he was arrested riding around a three-wheeled motorcycle with guns strapped to three parts of his body. A day ago, he said he was ea
The power failed during the Cavaliers' media day, and the Plain Dealer's Brian Windhorst immediately tweeted: "An omen?" A laugh line in most of the U.S., Vince Grzegorek of CleveScene.com kno
What obligation to teams have to their fans to keep them informed about injuries? Zach Lowe of CelticsHub: "As for the state of [Kevin] Garnett's knee toward the end of last season, it's reasonabl
Marcus Thompson II of The Oakland Tribune: "Any hopes the Warriors might have had for a drama-free start to the season were put to rest at Monday's media day. Stephen Jackson stuck by his comments abo
Ian Ayres of the Freakonomics blog has a post about the merit of certain kinds of bribes, and Shaquille O'Neal comes up: I wonder why Shaq and a few other NBA players haven't offered to make modest co
This post will be updated throughout the afternoon. Corey Brewer says that to him, Manu Ginobili is the toughest guy to guard in the NBA. Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo, as quoted by @StackMack on Twitter: &q
Kobe Bryant called Hakeem Olajuwon, and Mark Berman of MyFoxHouston reports on the tutorial that followed: "'He gave me the biggest compliment,' Olajuwon said. '(He said) You are the best
Video of the Heat forward working out. He looks fit. Watching this forces me to realize that something happened over the summer. As he went through all the trials of the Twitter incident, the rehab, and everyth
Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: "Gregg Popovich figured he would cut Duncan's playing time as the season went along, and he did. Duncan's average minutes ended up being lower than any
Marc Stein has traded Manchester, England for Dallas, Texas and is back on the NBA beat. He has this report on the Mavericks' roster adjustments headed into training camp: In one of the last roster moves
LeBron James, would you rather win five titles in other cities, or one title in Cleveland? Ask Ohio's Ron Harper, who never got the one in Cleveland, and would kill for it. Who's pumped up for training
Spurs.com writer Ben Hunt interviewed Richard Jefferson, and the new Spur demonstrated that he's showing up to training camp with his comedic flair intact. Coach Pop told us that you, "would provide h
Michael Beasley talked to the press today for the first time since his elongated rehabilitation saga. He made several points, including: His suicidal sounding tweets were not, he says, anything more than a rea
Many statistical experts feel that NBA coaches are too timid in intentionally fouling when their team is on defense, up three points, in the closing seconds of a game. It's an old coaching question. Now the
In The New York Times, Ken Belson and Richard Sandomir report that the agreed-to price for the Nets appears to be low: "On a macro level, the N.B.A. has a few teams in trouble," Ozanian said, referri
Harvey Araton of The New York Times: "Legal challenges and N.B.A. vetting hurdles remain before 80 percent ownership of the Nets shifts from Bruce C. Ratner to Prokhorov. Then it would take at least two y
As NBA referees are locked out, there is a need for great referees to step in and do their best. Would it make sense to look overseas? Alejandro Sanchez Varela is a FIBA referee from Uruguay, who says FIBA refe
The other day, Utah Flash owner Brandt Andersen told Salt City Hoops that if he were advising an NBA player, he'd tell them to avoid social media: I love Twitter; I love reading what these guys are s
Joe Fingerhut, a young man from St. Louis, whose dad raised him on loving the Celtics, decided to take his dad to a Celtics/Pacers game for Christmas. As a special treat, Joe wrote all kinds of letters, e-mail
Ian O'Connor of The Record: "A tall, dashing Russian billionaire said to appreciate fast jets and faster women, Mikhail Prokhorov has come rushing to the Nets' rescue, pledging to throw hundreds o
Posted by Kevin Arnovitz Howard Beck revisits 1995, when replacement refs took to the hardwood and the grass was vividly greener for the players: "The games got messy. The players got antsy. They wanted t
Posted by Kevin Arnovitz Yesterday, we made mention of Brett Hainline's swap machine, which uses a player's offensive and defensive efficiency ratings to determine how swapping one player out for anothe
Posted by Kevin Arnovitz The Hoop Doctors have unearthed 10 interesting facts while poring over data from the 2008-09 season. Among the findings: Troy Murphy was assisted on 100% of his 3-pointers made finishi
Jonathan Abrams of The New York Times: "Kevin Durant is one of the N.B.A.'s fastest-rising figures in a league in which a player's star power often develops before his maturity. Yet the 6-foot-9-inch Dura
A Joke The night Michael Jordan was inducted into the Hall of Fame, he ended his induction speech with these words: "One day you might look up and see me playing the game at 50. Don't laugh. Never say
Noah Galuten, writing for L.A. Weekly's Squid Ink blog, interviews Laker trainer Gary Vitti about the food that fuels the Lakers. Galuten, a TrueHoop reader (and creator of an amazing food blog project), ge
Brett at Queen City Hoops blogger has built, from scratch, a trade machinish thing that analyzes a players' offensive and defensive efficiency, and then lets you see how a team's performance would chan
Ramona Shelburne of the Los Angeles Daily News: "Talk about a fast break. If the Internet reports are true -- and nowadays, we use the general term 'Internet reports' when a hot tabloid story star
Who is Steve Nash's nemesis? Does he have one? Is there someone who really gets to that guy? Makes him livid? Isn't he too Canadian for that? Isn't that part of the Nash charm? When he's not smi
The new LeBron James documentary has a new preview online that has a cool use of color and digital effects to depict LeBron James, shooting around, imagining he was back in high school. The bummer about it, how
PN of SuperSonicSoul, a guy who maintains his Sonics blog even though there are no more Sonics, was excited for his six-year-old daughter's soccer team. At their first game, they were going to choose the te
Nate Robinson seems to be using Twitter for advice on rearranging, or not, the letters in his daughter's name. We change the spelling to my lil girls name its now nayvi looks better right or keep it this w
Posted by Jay Aych, The Painted Area Team USA got its redemption with Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008. On Sunday, Team España got its redemption with Eurobasket gold in Katowice, Poland. Pau Gasol: On
The Plain Dealer's Brian Windhorst on Delonte West (who was arrested last week with three guns on him, his dad says it was about personal protection): "West opened himself up to the fans by talking ab
The current NBA referee lockout has been an occasion for many people to vent their terrible feelings about officials. But even those who think the current NBA referees are the worst anywhere are in unison that
Tom Knott of The Washington Times: "David Stern is playing tough with the NBA referees. You could argue it is long past time. The lack of consistent officiating in the NBA is the dynamic that never goes a
John Lucas has been much-discussed lately as a key figure in the Houston-based, collective bargaining agreement-mandated drug rehabilitation of Miami Heat forward Michael Beasley. Lucas, the former NBA player a
Yesterday I blogged a little about Kobe Bryant. To the many Bryant fans who reached out convinced that I had been excessively negative: Ask fans of any celebrity ... if the people "going after" your
After sleepwalking through the preliminary and qualifying rounds, Spain showed up the knockout stage of Eurobasket '09 with a fury. The Painted Area has the full story of the Spaniards' win over France
Tom Knott of The Washington Times: "Judging from his selective trip down memory lane with Mike Jones of The Washington Times, Gilbert Arenas has returned to his old, mercurial, otherworldly self. As it tu
That's what the video is called, and it is, of course, majestic. The first two are amazing. The dunk 1:43 in, in the open court, is worth watching again and again. The dunk 1:15 into the video, on an alley-
Reuters has been reporting on the possibility that billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov might infuse the Nets with the capital they need to become a presence in Brooklyn. A spokesman for Prokhorov's Onexim invest
A suggestion, via Twitter, that a Bryon Russell vs. Michael Jordan match may be in the works. LeBron James is coming to New York ... to promote the movie "More Than a Game." A Nike press release abou
Eurobasket is really heating up. In a few hours France -- the undefeated team starring the remarkable Tony Parker -- will meet Spain, which is everyone's presumed favorite in this game and the tournament.&n
Dan Duggan of the Boston Herald: "After averaging 16.9 points, 9.7 rebounds and 9.8 assists in the Celtics two playoff series, it would be understandable for Rajon Rondo to be looking back on that perform
Steve Nash, Hall of Famer? Hard to argue he isn't grown up yet: Kevin Durant reportedly organized 6:30 am pickup games, which he'd play in before his summer University of Texas class on ... adolescence
France has run the table in the qualifying round. The Painted Area has been following all the action and has this report on Group E: France 71, Greece 69 Tony Parker and France nab the No. 1 seed in the kno
How many times have we heard it? Granted, it's not all that common, but it certainly is a known quantity. NBA players sometimes say, into the microphones of reporters, that they would like to be traded. Kob
Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal: "Less than a week after the Grizzlies introduced Allen Iverson as the most significant free-agent acquisition in franchise history, the 34-year-old guard left Tues
When I was a young Blazer fan, one of my favorite players was center Caldwell Jones. He had been playing forever, including for the Sixers in the 1977 NBA Finals against the Blazers, and exuded a certain kind o
The LeBron James "Shooting Stars" book promotion tour rolls on. Today he was on NPR's Talk of the Nation (which you can listen to online). At one point a high school coach called in, praised James
The owner of the Dallas Mavericks has been chatting on the website of the Dallas Morning News. He fields a lot of questions about the makeup of the Mavericks' roster -- which, naturally, he defends -- and t
You know how Michael Jordan threatened, in his Hall of Fame induction speech, to return to the NBA? Dwight Jaynes: "He's a huge failure in the NBA front office, so I guess his only choice for further
Just a few years ago, I think most basketball fans, and experts of various kinds, tended to have kind things to say about future NBA stars playing NCAA basketball. It made them smarter, or more mature. Boy, has
It's wholly comedic, by now. Look for it, when the Spurs are next on national TV. The sideline reporter pulls Gregg Popovich aside for an NBA-mandated mid-game on-camera interview. And he looks like he want
There were decisive matches at Eurobasket '09 in Poland on Monday. The Painted Area was glued to the action, and has this update: GROUP F: Spain 84, Lithuania 70 Pau Gasol and the Spaniards looked
Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: "Brandon Jennings had a well-publicized taped phone conversation that played on YouTube earlier in the summer, and one of the things Jennings said was that guar
I agree 100% with the eloquent insight from J.A. Adande and others, who say (I paraphrase crudely) of Michael Jordan's speech: What did you expect? He's always combative! We love him for destroying peo
Brian Robinson of Save Our Sonics has been the voice of fans of Seattle basketball. Over the weekend, Robinson posted this on his blog at SonicsCentral.com: I want to thank Gary and Monique Payton for so graci
An impassioned and informed plea for a place that honors NBA achievements above all else.
Scott Cacciola of The Commercial Appeal: "At his press conference, Allen Iverson said he could see himself finishing his career in Memphis. But what was he going to say? I want to prove myself this s
Join us for live coverage from Springfield of the enshrinement of Michael Jordan, John Stockton, David Robinson, Jerry Sloan, C. Vivian Stringer. <a href="http://www.coveritlive.
TrueHoop at the Hall of Fame Celebrating Michael Jordan, David Robinson, John Stockton and Jerry Sloan. • MJ talks to Wilbon at length. • MJ: "There will never be another Michael Jordan.&q
An interesting conversation, in which Jordan sounds like someone who is not that far from wanting to play again. They touch on a number of topics. For instance: Jordan says, of players today: "I try not t
TrueHoop at the Hall of Fame Celebrating Michael Jordan, David Robinson, John Stockton and Jerry Sloan. • Self motivation, John Stockton-style. • The power of a good dunk. • The real Micha
Experts on success will tell you, and I think they're right, that the great ones tend to believe in themselves in profound ways. Early in today's Hall of Fame press conference, the extraordinary C. Vivi
An assertion that last night, Peter Vecsey made the worst Hall of Fame speech ever. A good Allen Iverson anecdote and audio of Iverson giving an engaging interview to a Memphis radio station. I'm writing f
Lamell McMorris represents NBA referees in their stalled talks with the NBA. McMorris recently spoke to Brian Berger of Sports Business Radio, and painted a picture of David Stern as trying to send an emphatic
And then there were 12. Eurobasket 2009 begins its second phase and The Painted Area has it all sorted out for you: Can Pau Gasol lift Spain out of its first-round funk? (Photo by Janek Skarzynski/AF
Do you believe in Air? That's the question of the day. And, guess what -- everyone does. Literally, everyone. With a big "A" or a little "a" on "air" it's a basic part of b
John Jackson of the Chicago Sun-Times: "Over the next few days, the tributes to Michael Jordan will be glowing and abundant. And that's precisely as it should be. He is one of the greatest basketball
TrueHoop reader Scott: "I ran a simple evaluation of their current players based on last year's per-minute stats, and it is possible the Grizzlies will play out this season with less than 20 assists p
Tomorrow Michael Jordan will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. There will be speeches, toasts, editorials, museum displays and highlight packages befitting the best basketball player ever. He is a lock be hail
The preliminary round of Eurobasket 2009 is in the books. The Painted Area has watched every second of every game, and tells us who's moving on to the qualifying round. GROUP D: Turkey 87, Poland 69 Had a
Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal: "Who will get more shots: Allen Iverson, Zach Randolph, Rudy Gay or O.J. Mayo? Which player will get in trouble faster: A.I. or Z-Bo? Oh, it's going to be wonde
The 20th Century Motors blog writes: The NBA is the highest level of athletic competition in existence. If you want to see less athletic players with fewer skills make more mistakes and only stay with their te
Words of wisdom, from Kermit Washington to a young college football player, LeGarrette Blount, who is suddenly, like Washington, famous for punching an opponent in the face. Washington, still known mainly for
A Marriage of Convenience, Minus the Marriage The Memphis Grizzlies and Allen Iverson have found each other, in a late-offseason pairing that is guaranteed not to wow basketball analysts. You know how a few day
The Painted Area is following every second of action of Eurobasket 2009 in Poland, and has this report on Day 2's action: GROUP A: Greece 76, Croatia 68 In a battle of Group A heavyweights (and medal con
Michael Lee of The Washington Post: "Michael Jordan has rarely spoken about his final two seasons with the Wizards and declined to be interviewed for this story through a spokesman. Former Washington Spor
Posted by Kevin Arnovitz Last February, TrueHoop featured a piece co-authored by Tracy McGrady and John Prendergast of the Enough Project about their visit to Darfur and Chad. McGrady and Prendergast described
Posted by Kevin Arnovitz An interesting account of what went on in the Pacers' war room the night of the 2001 draft, and how the team landed the then-coveted Jamaal Tinsley. (Hat Tip: Indy Cornrows) The f
Posted by Kevin Arnovitz Kevin Martin & Adam Dunn: What do these two guys have in common? (Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images) There probably isn't a slugger in Major League Baseball more polarizin
The Painted Area is keeping a close eye on all the action in Poland, where Spain took a spill and Turkey came up big in the tournament's first day: GROUP C: Serbia 66, Spain 57 Nenad Krstic: Thundering t
Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: "Bucks forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute delivered a heartfelt message to the campers at the Basketball Without Borders camp in South Africa last week. Mbah a Mo
If you're looking for a full discussion of what's happening at Eurobasket 2009 over the next couple of weeks, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better source than the The Painted Area. TPA has rolled
Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: "It is nearly impossible to overstate the impact David Maurice Robinson had on the sports landscape of South Texas, but it is simple to try. Imagine San Antoni
By Alfredo R. Berrios ESPNdeportes.com SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The Brazilian Golden Boys. Brazil won the gold medal at the FIBA Americas Championship by defeating Puerto Rico 61-60 Sunday. Leandro Barbosa sc
By Alfredo R. Berrios ESPNdeportes.com SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Brazil will face Puerto Rico in the final match of the FIBA Americas Championship on Sunday while Canada and Argentina will play to determine the
By Alfredo R. Berrios ESPNdeportes.com SAN JUAN -- Canada defeated the Dominican Republic 80-76 and grabbed the final berth for the 2010 FIBA World Championship. The field is now complete as Canada joins Argen
Posted by Kevin Arnovitz Kevin Pelton writes that Bruce Bowen's legacy is a complicated one -- charitable spirit, borderline dirty player, hopeful symbol for the undrafted and, of course ... I would
Posted by Kevin Arnovitz From Chris Sheridan: The waiting and wondering is finally over for restricted free agent Ramon Sessions, who agreed Friday to sign a four-year, $16 million offer sheet with the Minnesot
Posted by Kevin Arnovitz Where do you begin to write the history of pro sports and social media? That's debatable, but for me it was a day in 2007 when I read Curt Schilling's personal breakdown of his
Posted by Kevin Arnovitz Ben Golliver of Blazers Edge has assembled an incredible slide show of The Oregonian's special sections published by the paper over the years. Eric Musselman, on his Twitter
Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: "Bruce Bowen may have been dirty to the other 29 franchises, but not to league officials. By 2007, after he'd irritated Steve Nash and LeBron James, the op
By Alfredo R. Berrios ESPNdeportes.com SAN JUAN -- Argentina won its fifth straight game at the FIBA Americas Championship and became the third team to book a ticket to the 2010 FIBA World Championship after d
A smart early attempt at making an equation that predicts how swapping one player for another would affect a team's winning percentage. The equation (which passed the small retroactive test of predicting th
Kevin Durant on Twitter from Hong Kong: "Everytime sum1 ask me who i play for and i say Oklahoma city they say 'if u work hard, maybe u will be a pro' Nobody knows about us yet..YET" (Via Dai
The book is about LeBron James and the success and friendship he enjoyed in high school. It's called "Shooting Stars," (excerpted here) and was written by LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger. A press
Terry Foster of The Detroit News: "Michael Jordan will go into the Hall of Fame next week (Sept. 10-12) as perhaps the greatest and most marketable player of all-time, but he won't go in as a friend o
By Alfredo R. Berrios ESPNdeportes.com SAN JUAN -- Uruguay's 83-77 loss against Panama not only awarded the Panamanians their first victory in the quarterfinal round but also guaranteed Puerto Rico's t
If you want a course in how NBA offenses work, step one is to set aside an hour to really dig into this amazing post with a zillion diagrams and 21 custom videos. Hats off. Can you imagine Derrick Rose with a
Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "With Ricky Rubio, the 2009-2010 Wolves would have won few games and drawn few fans. Without Rubio, the 2009-2010 Wolves will win few games and draw few fans. R
By Alfredo R. Berrios ESPNdeportes.com SAN JUAN -- Call it the "Clash of the Caribbean Titans”. The coach for the Dominican Republic is viewing Wednesday's game against Puerto Rico as the one wh
Ricky Rubio will not play in Minnesota this year. According to several reports and a statement from DKV Joventut, he will instead play for Regal Barcelona, which has negotiated for his rights. ESPN's Chris
When the Derrick Rose SAT story was all the rage, I reached out to Sonny Vaccaro, legendary insider of basketball, summer camps and the basketball shoe industry. Vaccaro was reportedly an influential force in R
Michael Grange of the Globe and Mail: "Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh has never felt better about being in Toronto, a city he's worked in for six NBA seasons but in some ways is just getting to know.
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