Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com has written a really important piece about mental health in the NBA. The piece’s main subject is Larry Sanders, but it’s this opening passage that I’d like to highlight: “We don’t do a very good job with mental health,” said an NBA team executive as he looked down at the sad contents of his boxed lunch and sighed. “We don’t have any answers, and we’re not doing a good job looking for them.” This was three years ago
It’s been covered time and time again how crazy the trade deadline was, what with half the NBA playing Musical Point Guards and Pat Riley ending up taking home the grand prize, as he so often does. Lost amid all the Phoenix-related insanity was Stan Van Gundy doing his thing and picking up Reggie Jackson for the basketball equivalent of loose change, the Blazers adding someone to their bench who is actually good, and of course, Sam Hinkie picking up a
All-Star Saturday is the best, and this year’s was one to remember. We got the Curry/Thompson showdown in the 3-point shootout, Zach LaVine effectively winning the dunk contest after one dunk, and Chris Bosh’s incredible dominance of the Shooting Stars Challenge. The main event’s Sunday night, and it’ll be fun, for sure. But nobody’s going to put on a Tune Squad jersey. There’ll be plenty more recapping the night (and the weekend) here on Sheridan Hoops coming up, so let’s get to
So, that Warriors/Hawks game. First of all, it lived up to the hype. One of the most fun regular-season games you’re ever going to find. Second of all, go back in time ten years and tell me that in 2015, the Warriors and Hawks would be the consensus two best teams in the NBA and I’d probably assume they’d drafted a pair of generational superstars or something. Greg Oden and O.J. Mayo, probably. It’s incredible how quickly the NBA has changed. Not in
How did nobody see the Hawks coming? I’m not saying anybody should have expected them to have already surpassed last season’s win total, or have the best record in the NBA, or go undefeated in January, or any of the other feats they’ve managed, but still, they’ve been a perennial playoff team, Mike Budenholzer earned raves last season, and Al Horford missed most of last season. Looking back, it seems almost bizarre that nobody looked at them as even being in the
Some of the most iconic basketball moments in history involve guys playing through injuries. Willis Reed in Game 7 of the 1970 Finals. Michael Jordan’s flu game in 1997. Rajon Rondo dislocating his elbow in 2011, then coming back seven minutes later to play point guard one-handed. It’s absolutely not something anyone should ever expect a player to do, but it’s still hard not to admire the commitment of those who do play through their injuries. If LaMarcus Aldridge can go
There are several schools of thought on rebuilding in the NBA. There’s the Sixers’ style, adding “assets” and losing a ton of games as a not-altogether-undesirable byproduct of getting your young players experience, the Knicks’ and Lakers’ style of losing until you’re free of bad contracts, and then there’s the tightrope-walking act of getting better without ever going through a protracted rebuild, like the Suns have done. As difficult as it is (the Suns, the best success story, didn’t even
Very few bad teams have ever gotten as much attention as this year’s Lakers team has. Then again, very few bad teams have ever been the Lakers. The arguments over whether Kobe Bryant should shoot as much as he does have gotten so fierce that they’ve been the impetus for a Twitter user driving all the way to Temecula on Christmas to fight another Twitter user (who never showed). Needless to say, there’s been criticism of both Kobe and coach Byron Scott since