It has been an eventful year for the NBL. A familiar champion was crowned, Wollongong and Townsville fought for survival and won, Kestelman bought (and likely saved) the league, NBL players became NBA names and in the end, an air of excitement has swept the sport for the first time in years. But even with the NBL’s newfound stability and… Read more →
There is a useful gauge of an NBA franchise’s sanity levels sweeping through the league this off-season. It’s coming in 140-word character limits and occasional grass emojis. The Sacramento Kings were appropriately first on the twitter-block with perhaps the finest collection of passive-aggressive tweets involving DeMarcus Cousins and non-Kings Andre Iguodala and Carmelo Anthony. One hoped the off-season insanity that… Read more →
The year is barely two-thirds of the way through, but already Andrew Bogut is talking Olympic gold and the merits of Swaggy P taking the knee for the Australian cause in Rio. The buzz surrounding the Boomers is very real. And so are their medal aspirations in 2016. Even still, as one NBA scout recently told Downtown, “Australia has a… Read more →
Nostalgia be damned. The Finals flushed out big men with the same velocity that Game of Thrones handles well-read, good-natured people. As Steve Kerr denoted after game five, “It’s just not a series for bigs right now.” Andrew Bogut’s role was reduced to setting screens between Draymond Green and the referees in timeouts. Even David Lee’s mini-revival proved to be… Read more →
The enduring image of the 2007 NBA Finals is Tim Duncan placing his right hand on LeBron James’ shoulder and telling him, “This is gonna be your league in a little while. I appreciate you giving us this year.” Timmaay was right, of course. This has been LeBron’s league for quite some time now, and in the East, he has… Read more →
For everything that he has endured, you can’t help but shake your head in awe of Andrew Bogut during this series. The basketball world has been waiting for Bogut to prove he can stay whole and contribute during the hothouse of the playoffs. That moment has arrived in the form of the Western Conference Finals. Bogut had the most to… Read more →
It’s tough to find a more defining moment from Matthew Dellavedova’s sparkling Game Six performance than the charge he took on Derrick Rose late in the third quarter. Sure, he was a release valve to the Cavs’ offense on a night when Kyrie Irving was hobbled and LeBron James shot 7 for 23. Clearly, the Aussie’s team-leading 19 points stole… Read more →
There’s not much to see on the drives through Maryborough or Cleveland, where the excitement peaks at either the Gold Panning Championships or the National Sports Collectors Convention. But drive slowly… if you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of one of the best underdog stories of the NBA playoffs. You might’ve heard about him. His name is Matthew Dellavedova… Read more →
Just six weeks ago, Randy Wittman seemed to have lost the Wizards’ fan base and its locker room, while the Hawks were the deadly darlings of the NBA. But something strange happened over the last few weeks, where plights have reversed and fortunes shifted. Wittman slid Paul Pierce to the four, was introduced to the whiteboard and Bradley Beal remembered… Read more →
The San Antonio Spurs are defined by their diamonds in the rough. Guys like Danny Green and Patty Mills have extracted NBA careers in Texas. But something struck me just before I watched Blake Griffin and Chris Paul disembowel the Spurs in Game One: Aron Baynes was this year’s 2013-14 Regular Season Patty Mills. The defending champs survived Tiago Splitter’s… Read more →
