Bleacher Report “I coulda been a contender!”-Terry Malloy, “On the Waterfront” Every fan with an axe to grind can give you a laundry list of reasons why their favorite player would’ve, should’ve, or could’ve become an all-time great. Some reasons are better than others, but most are fanciful. A true “what if” is rare in the NBA landscape. For there to be a reasonable argument that a player’s career would have progressed differently than it did, there are two necessary criteri

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images Expectations were high for Kevin Durant at the beginning of this past 2019/2019 NBA season. Most basketball experts said the Warrior’s three-peat was a sure thing. Maybe it would have been, if not for the team’s horrendous rash of untimely injuries in the postseason. After such a historic run on the Warriors, there is a quite an immense pressure building, almost draping itself over the NBA; Durant’s free 2019 summer agency decision. Will he stay in

Chat Sports The center position is nothing like it used to be. Three pointers, fadeaway jumpers, driving from the top of the key; the game isn’t about seven footers backing down their opponents and dominating the paint anymore. Nikola Jokic, Joel Embid and Karl Anthony Towns are all redeeming the five spot with their utilization of traditional guard skills. While it may seem like this trend started in the last few years, it did not. There was an originator, an OG big man that

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images Just a few days removed from Tiger Woods’ epic comeback at The Masters, the Los Angeles Clippers gave us another bone-chilling magical sports moment. They mounted an impossible 31-point comeback on the road against the heavily favored Golden State Warriors. LA tied the series at one game a piece. Most fans may have already turned off their TV and went to bed when the Warriors erected a 94-63 lead with 7:24 left in the third quarter. It looked like the g

Scoring 50 points is - usually - a pretty rare accomplishment for an NBA player. And yet somehow we’ve seen three already in this young season.Blake Griffin, Steph Curry, and Klay Thompson all notched 50-point games, with Klay turning in an unfathomable 14 threes in the process. Perhaps this is a symptom of the crazy offensive clip teams have been operating at. Or maybe it's simply a fun and exciting anomaly. Either way, we can have some fun predicting who might turn in the n

Getty Images Finally...October! We cheered (or jeered) at our team’s picks in the draft, we checked the free-agent and trade rumor wires hourly, we got a good look at the rookies and sophs in the Summer League, we bought the League Pass, and now it all comes together this month as the NBA season tips off. The league is more popular now than it ever has been. And I’m more excited now than I ever have been for a season to start. However, that excitement comes with an asterisk b

USA Today Let’s briefly go over Phil Jackson’s successful NBA coaching résumé: 11 NBA Championships (most by a coach) 1155-485 coaching record .704 Win/Loss Percentage — highest of any coach with 500+ games coached Four-time NBA All-Star Game head coach 1996 NBA Coach of the Year 11-2 Finals record 20 Playoff appearances It is hard to fathom another coach surpassing this coaching record with a higher winning percentage and 11 championships. I am going to be daring by challeng

Photo Courtesy of OregonLive.com Yesterday the world was shocked to learn of the passing of Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen. Allen had recently announced that his cancer had returned and sadly he succumbed to complications from the disease shortly thereafter. Most of the world knows Allen for his partnership with Bill Gates to create the software giant. But to sports fans, especially those in the Pacific Northwest, Allen is also the owner of the Seattle Seahawk

USA Today I recognize these are not perfect or permanent comparisons, but right now I feel that they fit. You probably feel differently, and I understand. Enjoy. Chill. Close cuts Isiah Thomas and Donovan Mitchell were the most difficult to cut, I see the burgeoning potential, but Mitchell has a ways to go on the court (good things) and off the court (bad things) to get there. We can at least hope Joe Ingles says something wildly inflammatory after a loss and Mitchell unwisel

Star Tribune The Minnesota Timberwolves are preparing for another season as questions remain about Jimmy Butler’s fate, with the all-star guard recently requesting a trade. Butler’s trade demand coincided with a bizarre, if not entertaining, social media beef between Butler, teammate Andrew Wiggins’, Wiggins’ brother Nick and former NBA player turned analyst Stephen Jackson. And though Wiggins and Butler apparently have no intentions of forming their own banana boat crew any

Photo courtesy of Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images For the first time since the SuperSonics franchise moved to Oklahoma City a decade ago, Seattle will soon get a brief, yet spicy, taste of NBA action. On October 5th, the Warriors will return to Seattle for the first time since the SuperSonics left. Their pre-season contest against the Sacramento Kings will be the last event ever held at Seattle’s KeyArena before it undergoes demolition and massive renovations. Warriors forward and

Photo courtesy of DocumentaryTube One of the biggest arguments NBA fans use to support Michael Jordan’s status as the greatest basketball player of all time is his NBA Finals record. It is certainly impressive, as he lost none of his six NBA Finals series. His six championships were won in two three-peats; the first from 1991 to 1993 and the second from 1996 to 1998. Some people argue Jordan could have won some extra chips had he not retired for a second time in 1998, or if h

Photo Courtesy: USA Today The player pool in the NBA has never been as talented as it is in this day and age. Players are more skilled now, as they possess extra abilities that people who played their same position about ten or fifteen years ago did not. Modern offensive and defensive game plans demand players who can stretch the floor and guard multiple positions. One-dimensional players have disappeared from the NBA landscape in favor of do-it-all guards, forwards, and bigs

Photo Courtesy: USA Today In the NBA’s “golden era” of the ‘60s and ‘70s, the blueprint for success was having a dominant big man. Transcendent stars like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ruled the league. Even in the 1980s, while the Celtics and Lakers dominated the decade, franchises sought out the next great big man as centers monopolized the top of the draft. The Houston Rockets selected centers in consecutive years: Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwo

On July 1, 2016, the Los Angeles Lakers kicked off free agency and essentially set the center market by signing Timofey Mozgov to a 4 year, $64 million contract. After the market was set, more center signings followed. Ian Mahinmi signed for 4 years and $64 million with the Washington Wizards. Bismack Biyombo signed for 4 years and $72 million with the Orlando Magic. Joakim Noah signed with the New York Knicks for $72 million. Even Miles Plumlee managed to get a huge 4-year

The Memphis Grizzlies enjoyed a successful seven year run during the Grit n’ Grind Era. The Grizzlies were a team that seemed to have a real connection with the identity of their city. Ask people in Memphis about Tony Allen and Zach Randolph and they will speak of them as legends, when many others that follow the league might tell you that Tony Allen couldn’t shoot and Zach Randolph wasn’t efficient offensively. That was the connection that they held with the people of Memphi

Throughout history, there have been many royal families and monarchies. In each of those cases, there is one man at the top that is referred to as the King. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word “king” as “a male monarch of a major territorial unit; especially : one whose position is hereditary and who rules for life.” This term is really meant to be the honor of all honors. Yet, we throw it around in sports like anyone can be King. If you are the “King” of a sport

Sometimes I go down internet rabbit holes. The most unassuming YouTube clip will send my mind racing, and before I know it, I’ve watched two hours’ worth of Saturday morning cartoon theme songs from my childhood. My biggest rabbit hole guilty pleasure is old Sports Illustrated covers. I like the idea of trying to decipher what was happening in sports at the time a particular cover was taken. While recently trolling some friends over the topic of LeBron James versus Michael Jo

Introduced in the 1979-80 NBA regular season, the three-point field goal has since impacted the strategy of the game by leaps and bounds. The most relevant case for this claim is teams saving space on their rosters for a three-point specialist (i.e. Rashard Lewis, Steve Novak, James Jones). However, the unexpected occurs when someone like a Shaquille O’Neal, who made a career in the paint, decides to launch one from 23 feet extended out from the basket. The shot worth three p

5. Larry Bird 24.3 PPG 10 TRB 6.3 APG 3x MVP 12x NBA All-Star 3x NBA Champion 2x NBA Finals MVP 9x All-NBA First Team 1x All-NBA Second Team 3x All-NBA Defensive Second Team NBA Rookie of the Year 3x Gold Medalist “Larry Legend,” Larry Bird was seen by most as the greatest small forward to ever play before LeBron James stole his throne. Bird only played in the league for 13 years due to an assortment of injuries by how hard he played. Bird played with hunger and grit, if ther