Posts in ‘2002’

Richard Jefferson getting his swerve on in the Nets’ 104-96 win at Milwaukee
There’s something happening out there in the swamps of New Jersey, as the defending Eastern Conference’s champs have run their record at Continental Airlines Arena to 17-1. They’ve also gone 11-2 since their 96-95 loss at Seattle on December 1st to open [...]

Thankfully for many reasons that I’m not going to get into here. The one reason for my unmitigated delight at the conclusion of another fun-filled Holiday season that I will discuss here is that now that all the shopping (and returning) is finished and all the visits with/from family are done is that I’ll [...]

CWebb shot Sacto to victory over Shaq’s Lakers
It certainly looks that way. For now. And maybe even for the entire season.
Los Angeles has managed only 11 victories in 30 games this season. A team will probably need about 45 wins (a winning percentage of about 55%) to make the playoffs in the [...]

Doug Collins that Jerry Stackhouse plays for his team because I don’t think that he knows #42 is on his squad. How else can one explain the fact that the 39-year old and faded MJ is getting the ball rather than Stack with the Wizards down by 3 to the NBA’s best defensive team, [...]

News & Notes From Around The NBA
Home Court Not Helpful For Hawks
Why would it be? Atlanta is one of the worst basketball cities in the country. The biggest surprise to me about the Hawk’s listless performance against the Suns was the fact that some of the 7,000 gathered in the desolate Philips Arena [...]

LeBron Lighting It Up Against Oak Hill Academy
And I missed it because I was slaving away in the kitchen and watching crappy sit-coms this evening. I didn’t get to watch the already legendary LeBron James drop 31 points and dish out an array of no-look and behind-the-back passes in St. Vincent-St. Mary’s 65-45 spanking [...]

Lakers Drop 44 4th Quarter Points On Mavs In Come From Behind Victory
Actually, calling this a come from behind victory is like calling my girl Sinnamon Love attractive. Both are such complete understatements that neither is accurate. Sinnamon Love is, simply put, a goddess, while the Lakers pulled the basketball equivalent of rising [...]

The Xavier vs. Cincinnati game is my favorite regular season college hoops game due to the intensity and passion that each of these teams brings to this rivalry and the interest that it engenders from Cincinnatians. This is truly a game that the entire city cares about and takes a side in. There [...]

Well, we should get our answer tonight when Nellie’s crew rolls into Smog Angeles in search of their first victory there in nearly 12 years. This nationally televised scrap is the most compelling game of the season up to this point and truly is must-see TV for basketball fans.
If these were last [...]

Mutombo To Miss At Least 2 Months Following Surgery On Right Wrist
Little did I realize that the answer to the Hoops Junkie fantasy hoops question of the week would come seconds after I finished typing out the question, itself. Boy, do I feel stupid!
I also feel relieved to have had this quandary resolved in [...]

What Can You Do With Dikembe?
Mutombo is averaging career lows in points, rebounds, blocked shots, and field goal percentage. Not only is he not playing well, he also isn’t playing all that much. The Nets’ big finger is playing only 25 minutes a game this season, which is also a career low. [...]

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I really feel like I’m missing out on writing about big happenings in the NBA (Shaq’s return, the Jail Blazers, Denver winning 3 in a row, Lee Nailon and Clarence Weatherspoon coming to blows at a Knicks practice) by spending the past week doing my capsule previews of the mid and low-major NCAA conferences. [...]

The MEAC Through the SWAC
14. Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
Storyline: The beat goes on at Hampton. Despite losing their coach, Steve Merfeld, to Evansville and the MEAC’s MVP, Tommy Adams, to graduation, the Pirates are still the team to beat in the MEAC. Will they go 17-1 in conference play again? Probably not but [...]

The Mid-Continent Through the Southland
10. Mid-Continent
Storyline: Like father, like son is the question in the Mid-Con this season, as Scott Drew succeeds his father, Homer, as Valpo’s head coach. The answer to that question will go a long to determining whether Oral Roberts goes to the ball for the first time since 1984 or [...]

The Big Sky through the Southern Conference
7. Big Sky
Storyline: Every game counts in the Big Sky this season where five, count ‘em, five teams have a legitimate shot at winning the conference title and going to the Big Dance. The Big Sky coaches and media say it will be Eastern Washington but Weber [...]

The Horizon League through the Sun Belt
4. The Horizon League
Storyline: The times are a c-h-a-n-g-i-n-g. Butler has owned the Horizon League for the past six seasons but that will change this year, as Bruce Pearl’s Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers are the best team in the Horizon. Of course, Butler will still be in contention [...]

Everything You Need To Know About NCAA Hoops This Season!
Unless you don’t care about the mid and low-majors because you won’t find any talk about the football factories and big corporate conferences that treat college basketball as a vehicle for their enrichment and aggrandizement. You can read about those cartels and greed machines someplace [...]

If there were to be a theme song for the way that the 2002-03 NBA season has started, it would have to be The Talking Heads’ classic “Stop Making Sense” because that’s what has happened so far this season. Almost nothing makes sense, which makes identifying emerging trends quite problematic as they tend, well, [...]

I just finished watching Philly beat the Knicks 93-92 and everything that we need know about this season’s edition of the Knickerbockers happened during the fourth quarter:
1. Spree broke loose for a breakaway dunk that would’ve ignited the crowd and the Knicks but it was negated by Kurt Thomas committing the most asinine offensive [...]

Didn’t You Used To Be In Weezer?
The most compelling moment of this game is likely to unfold out of the view of the cameras. Being that the Knicks are 1-7 and Spree is the team’s most popular player, he’ll enter the game to a thunderous and lengthy several minute standing ovation. That’s when [...]

The Answer Celebrates The Eastern Conference’s Ascendancy
If tonight’s scores are any indication then the answer is: maybe not.
The East swept this evening’s troika of inter-conference match-ups as Philly and Washington held serve against San Antonio and Utah, respectively, while the Magic spanked the youthful Clippers at the Staples Center.
Taken on [...]

Grizzlies Hire Hubie Brown To Replace Sidney Lowe
And the fireworks are about to start.
Hubie Brown is the consummate basketball lifer. You know, the sort of guy that travels around with a basketball in the backseat of his car so that he can find a pick-up game in which to bust out a [...]

Did I make The Fantasy Mistake Of The Year By Trading Away Jamal Mashburn For the Knicks’ Allan Houston?
I felt like I had to make this trade being a New Yorker and having two Nets (KMart & Dikembe) on my team and no Knicks. Of course, being a New Yorker I [...]

That Relief Is Spelled Michael Doleac
It seems that it has. The Knicks are counting on the career 6.2 ppg a scorer to provide a lift in tonight’s “battle” with the Utah Jazz. For those of you that don’t know, this is the same Michael Doleac that one of the worst teams in [...]