Sources say the New Jersey Nets will trade forward Richard Jefferson to the Milwaukee Bucks for Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons. ESPN says the Nets will be able to save $10 million longterm and continue to re-shape their team for the future--possibly with LeBron James in 2010. Further, the Chinese government will be thrilled Yi is in a big media market (that was China's grumble when Yi was drafted last year).......

There's a thin line between being a fan and being obsessed, and Anthony Erskine may have crossed that line on when he went onto the court to meet his idol, LeBron James. During the waning moments of the Cavaliers’ Wednesday win over the Knicks, Erskine evaded security and actually got to shake LeBron’s hand and tell him how much he admired him. For his part, James seemed happy with the incident telling reporters:"It was a......

Cleveland 119 Knicks 105: If you were looking for a game where the Knicks should have beaten a quality opponent, this was it. New York battled Cleveland almost evenly over three quarters and although they ended up out-shooting the Cavs, they did not walk away with the win. That was because the best player on the floor took over the game. LeBron ended up with 50 points and 10 rebounds, scoring almost at will when......

Knicks 108, Cavaliers 90: Maybe it was the anti-Knicks rally earlier in the day. Maybe it was the Cavaliers' looking forward to a night out on the town. For one game, the Knicks masqueraded as a team capable of beating almost anyone. Eddy Curry picked up two fouls and didn't play much of the first half. Stephon Marbury didn't play at all. Coincidence, or Dannon? David Lee dominated the first two quarters with 17 points......

Isiah Thomas thinks he deserves more time. Not that much more, just two weeks, but time to show he can turn this club around. Of course, he has had four years already, but at this point who is counting? Maybe Isiah noticed that the next two weeks contain six games, but only two of those teams currently have winning records. The two-week timeframe came up as Thomas was asked what he would do to a......

Nets 105, Cavaliers 97: Maybe the Nets should wear their road uniforms at home more often. The Nets' last win before Friday came at Cleveland, but that was when the Cavs didn't have LeBron James. Cleveland had its star on the court at Izod Arena, but the Nets had theirs, too. Vince Carter had 32 -- tying a season high -- and James "settled" for 29. Josh Boone put in 15 for New Jersey, though......

Nets 100, Cavaliers 79: With Cleveland's triple-double machine LeBron James on the bench, the Nets' Richard Jefferson played king for a day. Only he's been doing this all season long. Tuesday's totals: 36 points, 11-of-18 shooting, 13-of-15 from the line. Lines don't get much better than that. The Nets don't want to get too cocky, however. Shannon Brown led the way for the short-handed Cavaliers. When someone who average five points stepped up with 20,......

Jay-Z Around Town With a new, critically acclaimed album out and a refocused approach to his craft, Jay-Z took the stage twice this week in the Big Apple. For the relatively intimate events at Hammerstein and The Apollo, there was no shortage of friends and guests out to show support for Hov's return to form. Diddy, Nas, Lil Wayne and...Lebron James (?!?) all made appearances between the two shows. Lebron skipped a game to attend......

Cavaliers 110, Knicks 106: Throughout his tumultuous summer, Isiah Thomas seemed to want to use basketball to shield himself from sexual harassment lawsuit he eventually lost. If he was devoting any amount of energy to preparing his team for its first game against Cleveland, he failed miserably. His team looked out of sorts as it got the season off on the wrong foot. Letting LeBron James score 45 points is understandable. Choosing not to guard......

Cleveland 110 Knicks 106: The good news is the Knicks played a pretty good game on the road against a tough opponent. The bad news is they still lost. Zach Randolph had a nice debut with 21 points and 14 rebounds and Jamal Crawford also had 21, but LeBron James exploded for 41 points. The Knicks stayed in the game to the end and if they had done a little better from the line (11-19)......

Tonight, the Yankees will face off against the Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium, and many hope the Bronx Bombers can avoid the sweep (and mayflies) and claw their way back to winning this first round of playoff games. Since things are so nerve-wracking, we thought some Yankees fans - and even haters - might be find this Village Voice story funny. Found amongst the paperwork that showed how the Yankees were basically billing the city......

SNL is back! Not sure if the exclamation point is necessary, but their 33rd season kicked off this past weekend with some good stuff. LeBron James was host and Kanye West was the musical guest -- West actually showed up in a good sketch, though oddly enough not this musical one. The below is a ballad to the President of Iran called "Iran So Far" delivered by Andy Samberg and Maroon 5's Adam Levine. "You......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: 2007 ESPY Awards (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., ESPN) Jimmy Kimmel co-hosts with basketballer LeBron James this sports awards show which only exists to give ESPN some programming and some overpaid athletes another trophy. Victoria Beckham: Coming to America (Monday, 8:00 p.m., WNBC 4) Thankfully this is a one shot deal since the 6 episode fakeality show deal fell through. The show itself chronicles the Victoria Beckham's move to......

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network." It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......

Yankees 8 Rangers 2: It’s amazing what some pitching can do for you. For the second night in a row and for only the 5th time in 31 games, the Yankee starter pitched seven innings. Tuesday night Andy Pettitte scattered seven hits while striking out four. New York had twelve hits with Alex Rodriguez going deep for his 15th of the year and the slumping Robinson Cano slashing two doubles while making a great relay......

Sabres 2 Rangers 1: The Rangers were eight seconds away from winning this game and taking a 3-2 lead in the series when Chris Drury netted the game-tying goal. Up until that point, the Rangers had played a great game, but anyone who watched the final minute of regulation has to wonder why Jaromir Jagr was on the ice? After taking a 1-0 lead with just over three minutes left, the Rangers needed to play......

Cavaliers 96, Nets 91: They ran into a hot team, but at least the Nets can take solace in the play of Mikki Moore, who scored 18 points. LeBron James (19 points and 13 rebounds) proved too much for the Nets defense. Good thing these teams don't swtich divisions. The Nets -- in second place in the Atlantic -- would be last in the Central. Devils 3, Senators 2: Martin Brodeur proved up to the......

Nets 113, Cavaliers 111: The NBA's young stars may be represented by Cleveland's LeBron James and Miami's Dwyane Wade -- though not Denver's Carmelo Anthony, at least for the moment -- but Vince Carter, all of 29, carried the Nets on Wednesday. He scored 38 points, one more than James' 37, as the Nets scrapped past the Cavaliers in their second straight win over a quality team at home. Richard Jefferson and his ankle difficulties......

-Nets 106, Celtics 103: Vince Carter hit two free throws in the game's final seconds to seal the Nets' win and help end a six-game losing streak. The three-point lead Carter's gave the Nets was their largest all game; New Jersey outscored Boston, 30-19, in the fourth quarter. Hassan Adams' 16-point contribution should not be overlooked, and neither should the importance of this victory. November matters little in the NBA season, but the Nets have......

If it weren't for our life as an -ist, we're not sure we'd ever leave our apartment. Fortunately, to fully -ist, one must seek out the new, the fresh, and the unknown. Brand new, or just new to us, that's what we're all about this week. Phillyist keeps it fresh by getting a new motto, learning to prioritize, and taking in an experimental indie rock show. Torontoist does their first post in franglais, gets ready......

This was a victory to savor. Down eleven points in the third quarter, the Knicks rallied to beat Cleveland 92-88 behind some tenacious defense and timely rebounding. The win puts the Knicks an improbable three games out of the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Stephon Marbury played another great game, taking good shots and moving the ball when he wasn’t open. Jamal Crawford, who had missed the last few games due to injury,......

Elliott Wilson, editor-in-chief, XXL magazine...

Tonight marks the end of the NBA regular season. Depending on the results of tonight's Nets/Celtics and Cavs/Raptors games, Jason Kidd will either head off to the playoffs or...to the golf course. The Nets are tied with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavs for the final playoff spot. The Nets own the tiebreaker, so the odds are good that the Nets will live to see another year in the postseason. All of this is......

After an embarrassing drubbing by LeBron James and his scary facemask on national television Saturday, the Knicks ended a 4-game skid and returned to the .500 mark with a 113-105 victory over the Portland Trailblazers on Sunday. While Gothamist isn't sure if Portland fans came en masse to the Garden wearing plaid shirts, 70's Brawny paper towel guy hair, and mustaches, we'd certainly like to think this was the case. The shooting was the story,......

Team USA finally got a breather on Monday and brought up memories of the good ol' days of 1992 as it crushed overmatched Angola 89 - 53 and assured themselves a spot in the quarterfinals of the basketball competition. Tim Duncan led the team in scoring with 15 points in just 13 minutes of playing time. Depending on the results of Monday's late games, the US will play Spain, Argentina or Italy on Thursday. The......

Look out world, Team USA might finally be "getting it". Team USA fought off an early 10 point deficit to take down Australia 89 - 79 yesterday in Men's Olympic basketball action. The vitcory pushed the American's record to 2 - 1 in round robin play. The US got big games from Allen Iverson (16 points in 23 minutes)and Tim Duncan and actually played some team defense for what seems like the first time in......

The US Means Basketball team lost a stunner yesterday to the tiny island of Puerto Rico 92-73, dropping its all time Olympic basketball record to 109-3. It wasn’t the loss itself that was so shocking, never mind that Team USA had beaten Puerto Rico five times in exhibitions since July, it was the manner in which they lost. Puerto Rico held the lead for 33 of the game’s 40 minutes. Larry Brown simply got out-coached.......

Hmmmm…perhaps Tracy McGrady and Jermaine O’Neal were on to something when they cited “security issues” as a reason for not representing their country at the Olympics. Team USA played their final warm up exhibition in Istanbul, Turkey yesterday just hours after two bombs exploded in tourist hotels miles from where the team was staying. Two people were killed and 11 more were injured. Canceling the exhibition game was talked about briefly, but ultimately the game......

Well, we didn't get alot right, but at least we called Sebastian Telfair to the Blazers at 13. Gothamist spent the last week looking up florists in Portland, Orgeon so we could send Blazers GM John Nash a big bouquet of flowers. Because Telfair went early, high school stud Al Jefferson fell to Boston at 15, providing the Celtics with the bruising PF they so desperately needed. Unfortunately, draft night didn't become the trading......

David Amsden, Writer...