TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 12/02/2009
By Henry Abbott Now that the Sixers have re-signed Allen Iverson, a journeyman player who tried out for his hometown Sixers a couple of times -- Kevin Owens -- says he's more excited to watch than ever. But the signing that would push his fandom over the top would be the return of a different departed Sixer. A veteran of the D-League and overseas leagues , Owens knows first-hand the...
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
By Henry Abbott Watch what LeBron James does with this football . If you miss it the first time, don't worry -- they replay it about a dozen times. And it's almost worth watching that many times.
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
By Henry Abbott Brandon Jennings : "Oh yea forgot to till yall I was at the white house, chillin with Obama. He actually know who I am. That's crazy." Charlie Villanueva : "The antibiotics are kicking in, its helping me clear the congestion in my nasal paths. Its kinda nasty but its mainly clogged up with dry blood. I'm glad the surgery went well. Its a matter of healing...
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
By Henry Abbott The owner of the Grizzlies, Michael Heisley, tells Chip Crain of 3 Shades of Blue his version of how Allen Iverson came to have just a three-game stay in a Memphis Grizzlies uniform. Heisley says he surprised by Iverson's complaints about playing time. He says Iverson had come into training camp not in very good shape, and then injured his hamstring. The team then played...
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
By Henry Abbott Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy's book, dropped in late October by a division of Random House, is back with a new title and a new publisher. "Personal Foul: A First-Person Account of the Scandal that Rocked the NBA" is now available for sale online , with a publish date of Dec. 4. It is being sold through CreateSpace, a self-publishing arm of Amazon.com, although...
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
Fernando Medina/NBAE/Getty Images) Michael Jordan has already been called out of retirement once to show Bryon Russell who's boss. By Henry Abbott I was in Chicago in 1994 ... and at this time I had no thoughts of coming back and playing the game of basketball. Bryon Russell came over to me and said, "Why’d you quit? You know I could guard you. If I ever see you in a pair...
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 12/02/2009
By Henry Abbott Ryan at Basketball Geek has created some new power rankings that not only calculate a team's offensive and defensive efficiency per possession , but they also take into account whether the games played were at home or on the road, and of course against whom. They also, by the way, say the Celtics are the mightiest team in the land, followed by the Magic, Lakers, Hawks...
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 12/02/2009
By Henry Abbott Ron Artest has always brought a certain devil-may-care attitude to the court. It's truly admirable. Almost like someone who has been drinking. Now he tells us that in his early years as a Bull ... he actually had been drinking, at least some of the time. Some of the Artest quotes from a story in an upcoming print version of the Sporting News include: "I used to drink...
Supersonicsoul (Free subscription) | 12/01/2009
A few days before Thanksgiving, Henry Abbott of ESPN’s TrueHoop offered up a brief story about Portland guard Brandon Roy’s decision to isolate himself from his team during the national anthem. As the team’s best and most well known player, Roy is ostensibly the leader of the Blazers, and drew criticism from a local Portland newspaper columnist (to whose name and column...
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 12/01/2009
By Henry Abbott Look, it's not the NBDL anymore, OK? It's the D-League. Get it straight. And while it may still be under the radar in most media, the NBA's Developmental League matters. For several reasons: American basketball has a flawed developmental model, which results in ugly scenes like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony getting embarrassed trying to defend the pick and roll against...
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 12/01/2009
By Henry Abbott In the next couple of days I'll write about the movie I saw this evening, which was about a lot of things, including the hatred some people have of the big city New York Knicks and their fans. But of course, intimidating though New York may be, a lot of those fears are unfounded. People are people wherever you go. This video (thanks Peter) it the antidote to the idea...
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 11/30/2009
By Henry Abbott A gunner like that will shoot his team out of games a lot of nights. But when your defense is tentative and his shot is falling, he'll destroy. Here's a nice video, from Dallas, that shows precisely how that can all go wrong .
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 11/30/2009
By Henry Abbott Nate Robinson makes the pass to the open Danilo Gallinari who drains the 3. Yet, somehow, Darko Milicic is credited with the assist .
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 11/30/2009
By Henry Abbott Tiger Woods hurt his face, went to the hospital, and doesn't want to talk about it much with the authorities. The police want to know more, though, and are mounting an investigation to find out what actually happened, even without anyone stepping forward as a victim of whatever crime may or may hot have occurred. Compare that with another ritzy suburban Orlando incident...
TrueHoop (Free subscription) | 11/30/2009
By Henry Abbott The Clippers closed a game against the Grizzlies with 22 straight points, and they pretty much went from getting blown out, to blowing out, in a matter of minutes. Watch and read how it happened . Also, consider that Grizzlies at Clippers in November looks, on the schedule, like one of the worst games of the year. But it turned out to be very exciting. Also worth noting...
