In late April, Doc Rivers could be seen walking out of the Staples Center for the last time of the 2016-17 NBA season. For the sixth year in a row, the Los Angeles Clippers had been eliminated early from the playoffs. For most organizations, this
Nerlens Noel is good…right? Of course! He’s a 23-year-old former top-10 pick who has bounced back from missing his first season with a torn ACL to become a budding defensive force in the NBA. Not really. He can’t stay on the court consistently enough and
You either love him or you hate him. You either know him best as a ball-hogging, team-chemistry destroyer or as one of the most unstoppable scorers to play the game. You either think he’s still a star or an aging, below-average contributor. So that begs
Seventeen. Seventeen minutes is all Dwight Howard could conjure during fourth quarters of a six-game postseason series against the Washington Wizards this spring. Seventy-two minutes possible, 17 played. Two games saw him not even make a final-period appearance for the Atlanta Hawks during their first-round
Pretty much every 2017 NBA free agent you care about has signed a contract—except, for some reason, JaMychal Green and Nerlens Noel. But those are topics for a different day, in a different place. Because right here, right now, in the world of Hardwood Knocks,
If the 1980s saved basketball from sinking into oblivion, the 1990s helped take the game to another stratosphere. Players like Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing formed rivalries and partook in playoff showdowns still revered to this day. But you’d
Fans of the NBA have become numb to LeBron James’ greatness. We no longer see his historic accomplishments for what they truly are. We overlook him at every turn. Last year, for instance, he became just the fifth player in NBA history to average more
About 24 feet from the hoop, the upward trajectory of the orange sphere germinates with a simple flick of the wrist, during which it rotates laces over laces until reaching its zenith and falling gracefully toward the intended target. Mere seconds later, it produces that