NBA

Good morning fellow Outsportsters. During the overnight hours, Cleveland and Phoenix worked out a mega-deal. Shaquille O’Neal has been traded by Phoenix to the Cavaliers in exchange for Sasha Pavlovic and Ben Wallace. This is a straight-up salary dump for the Suns, Pavlovic is probably getting cut within the month and Ben Wallace has made […]

There is not much to say about the Los Angeles Lakers’ 99-86 efficient dispatching of the Orlando Magic in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to give the Lakers their 15th NBA title. Game 5 was a yawner with zero suspense and it was clear the better team won. After three straight thrillers, the Lakers […]

Dwight Howard The NBA Finals are all but over after the Los Angeles Lakers rallied to beat the bumbling Orlando Magic, 99-91, in overtime in Game 4. The Lakers lead the best-of-seven series 3-1, and to win the series the Magic would need to win three in a row, including Games 6 and 7 on […]

The NBA Finals start Thursday in Los Angeles with the Lakers hosting the Orlando Magic in a best-of-seven. I predict it will go seven, with the Lakers winning it all. I am more curious, though, as to how much interest there is in this series. The high-water mark for NBA Finals ratings came in 1998, […]

The NBA conference finals have been incredible so far — four games decided by a total of seven points. Lakers-Nuggets and Cavaliers-Magic each tied at 1-1. The best, though, was the astonishing end to Game 2 between the Cavs and Magic on Friday. Orlando led, 95-93, with one second left and was thisclose to taking […]

We were thrilled to have as our guest on our latest podcast, actor Eric Millegan from Fox’s “Bones.” Eric is a huge and very knowledgable NBA fan (he loves the Portland Trail Blazers, while his partner is a Cleveland Cavaliers fan) and he broke down the first round of the NBA Playoffs for us. Listen […]

San Antonionio Spurs player Manu Ginobili is out for the rest of the NBA regular season and the playoffs. The Spurs guard had scans done on Monday that showed his troubled right ankle has gotten worse. I had been keeping an eye on Ginobili this past season and I picked up his ankle issues. It […]

Charles Barkley at an Arizona jail. In a radio interview on WIP in Philadelphia with Howard Eskin, Charles Barkley was asked about his three days in an Arizona jail (he lived in a tent) for driving under the influence. The conversation strayed to the one thing guys always think about when it comes to discussing […]

It was great to see the positive vibes coming out of the NBA All-Star game over the weekend, thanks in large part to two guys who have been painted as mortal enemies: Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. First, Shaq started it off with his "JabbaWockeeZ" intro (vid after the jump), which was energetic and contemporary. […]

The NBA seems committed to completely destroying what is already a meaningless event in its All-Star Game. Like the other three big leagues, the NBA tries to make it into a big party and surround it with a bunch of nonsense. The latest is a game of H-O-R-S-E that will be played between Kevin Durant, […]

I was at the Wachovia-soon-to-be-Wells-Fargo Center for the 76ers-Knicks game tonight, as was Jimmy Rollins of the 2008 World Series Champion Phillies. (No, not together — he sat courtside while I was, well, not.) With so many people in the sports complex for the finish of the Phillies' parade, the 76ers came up with a […]

It's now official: the Seattle SuperSonics will move to Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 NBA season. A settlement between team owner Clay Bennett and the city was reached, which ends the city's lawsuit attempting to keep the team in Seattle until the team's lease with KeyArena ran out after the 2009-10 season. A judge was […]

The New York Knicks, in the first round of the NBA Draft, selected Italian star forward Danilo Gallinari. Of course, being in New York, he was promptly booed when his name was called Thursday. What’s amusing is that Gallinari’s nickname is “Il Gallo,”or the cock (rooster, not what you were thinking), which has prompted the […]

I did not watch a second of Game 6 of the NBA Finals, but recorded it. After seeing that the Boston Celtics crushed the Los Angeles Lakers, 131-92, I figured I just saved myself two-plus hours. The Celtics won the series, 4-2, and the 39-point margin is the largest ever in a series-clinching NBA Finals […]

As the NBA Finals continue, it’s a good time to remember the 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers, the last pro team from the sports-crazy city to win a title (Joe Guckin did a great job chronicling the city’s sports woes the past 25 years). A whole generation of Philly sports fans have grown up without ever having […]

Twenty-one years after the last time Bird and Magic met in the NBA Finals, the green and yellow will meet in the Finals. It’s been talked about since mid-season when the Lakers got Gasol and they started streaking. One of the things I find nice is that, because these two teams haven’t been there against […]

The San Antonio Spurs beat the New Orleans Hornets, 81-72, to win on the road in Game 7 of their NBA playoff series. It was only the third win by a road win in 25 conference semifinal games. The star of the game was the uber-hot Manu Ginobli (right), who had 26 points for the […]

This year’s NBA playoffs have lacked the drama of the past few years. It’s not that bad basketball is being played (LeBron James’ dunk against the Celtics on Monday was major highlight material). Rather, one need only look at what team is wearing white and you can figure out who will win. Through 16 games […]

The Detroit Pistons finished off their NBA first-round playoff series with a 100-77 rout of the Philadelphia 76ers tonight. The Pistons won the series in 6 games, but it was really two series in one. Most observers expected the Pistons to win in no more than 5 games. However, the Sixers shocked everyone by not […]

It never gets tiring watching Al Horford play basketball. And these day, it’s pretty exciting to watch him and the Atlanta Hawks on the court. The team that most everyone thought would be swept by the Boston Celtics in this first round series upset the Green Machine on Monday, amazingly sending the series back north […]