Results tagged “nba”

If you grew up watching Inside Stuff, you wouldn't have guessed that the NBA was anti-technology; but Wednesday's league-wide ban on its players using Twitter during games suggests otherwise. Does the league not realize that the candor we get from an @THE_REAL_SHAQ gem of prose can never be matched by a Cheryl Miller interview? The NBA sent a memo to teams, saying the policy begins 45 minutes before a game and includes halftime. As for the master of Twitter himself, Shaq has not yet responded, instead just pondering, "what shud i be for halloween?"

The weather outside may be frightful, but that's not going to stop the NBA from tipping off their 2008-2009 season in Union Square. Starting earlier this morning and ending at 7PM, the NBA Tip Off Celebration will feature past NBA stars and current Knicks players. From 12-3PM, former Knicks players John Starks, Charles Smith, Kenny "Sky" Walker, and Clyde Frazier will be on hand with the Knicks City Dancers. Presumably, it will be frowned upon to ask Starks about the 1994 NBA Finals and Smith about the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals. If nostalgia's not your cup of tea, current Knicks players David Lee, Nate Robinson, Malik Rose and Danilo Gallinari will be on hand from 4-6PM. While the first regular season NBA game is tonight, the Knicks and Nets don't start their seasons until tomorrow.

With the $500 million renovation of Madison Square Garden scheduled to be complete by the 2011-2012 season, the Knicks are hoping to finally participate in All-Star Game festivities. Not necessarily with a player, which they haven't had since Allan Houston in 2001, but by hosting the actual NBA All-Star Game in 2012. While Garden officials haven't made an official proposal yet, NBA Commish David Stern told The Times that hosting, "is a very live possibility." Given how Major League Baseball took over NYC earlier this month, it's just a matter of time until the NBA has its turn. Perhaps by 2012, the Knicks can get a player into the actual game.

      

Tonight will be different at Madison Square Garden because for the first time in years, the Knicks will do something and not be booed. While all signs point to the Knicks sticking with the #6 pick, you can be sure that could change because the top of the draft is very fluid. For weeks it has all been about Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley going 1-2, but with Chicago reportedly picking Rose, the Heat are considering a trade or picking OJ Mayo. If they pick Mayo, you can bet the Knicks will try and get to #3 to get Beasley.

The Phoenix Suns' Steve Nash is organizing a mini-soccer match for charity today at 5 p.m. Billed the "Showdown in Chinatown" (the game is at Sara D. Roosevelt Park, at Chrystie and Stanton Streets), other professional athletes expected to attend are soccer players Thierry Henry and Claudio Reyna and the NBA's Jason Kidd, Baron Davis and David Lee, Leandro Barbosa and Raja Belland. And could Nash's former coach and current Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni stop by?

Tonight, the NBA holds its annual draft lottery in Secaucus, NJ to determine the order of the first 14 team picks for the draft on June 26. The lottery, broadcast on ESPN at 8 p.m., utilizes a somewhat complicated formula of team records, probability, and ping-pong balls. How complicated? Check out this explanation (the Wikipedia entry can be helpful).

Is it surprising to anyone that the two signature deals of Isiah Thomas’ tenure as GM have ended in ruins? Eddy Curry has been banished to the end of the bench on most nights, but Isiah has gone even further with Stephon Marbury and barred him from the Garden.

While nothing is done until the players actually change teams, the Nets and Mavericks have agreed again on a trade that will send Jason Kidd to Dallas. After Devean George sabotaged the first deal with his refusal to waive his no-trade clause and Jerry Stackhouse incurred the wrath of the NBA with his comments, it took some creativity on both sides to complete the deal.

From a new NYC sports club bearing his name to the last season at Yankees Stadium, Derek Jeter has a busy year ahead of him. Gothamist asked the Yankees captain about his partnership with 24 Hour Fitness to bringing 24 Hour Fitness - Derek Jeter gyms to the city and his thoughts on the "house that Jeter built."

• Rangers 5, Sabres 1: Five days off, but only 10 seconds to score. Sean Avery got the Blueshirts off to a great start and they finally got the taste of Sunday's overtime loss to Washington out of their mouths. "I don't think we expected that great of a start," said Brendan Shanahan. He has to be telling the truth. Who sits at his locker lacing up his skates and says, "I think we'll score within nine seconds"? No one, that's who.
• Islanders 4, Thrashers 1: The Rangers took 10 seconds to score, but the Islanders denied the Thrashers a goal until 77 seconds remained in this one. Miroslav Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marc-Andre Bergeron and Sean Bergenheim all scored for the Islanders. Don't look now -- actually, it's safe to look -- they've won three straight. Up next: San Jose on Monday. It's at home, so the team won't get lost.
• Devils 3, Senators 2: Jason Kidd was in the NBA's skills challenge, but, even if his trade has fallen through, he still doesn't feel like a true local player. With him as the only such representative in Saturday's NBA festivities -- if not playing defense were a skill, Eddy Curry would have been there -- the Devils had to show off their talent. Arron Asham had as many goals as he has R's in his first name, and Martin Brodeur had 37 times as many saves as he has B's in his last. The Devils won despite finishing a 10-round shootout the night before.

Thrashers 4, Devils 3 (SO): John Madden put the Devils up a goal with 8:45 remaining, but with 18 seconds to go, Atlanta's Marian Hossa got the equalizer. The teams went 10 rounds in a shootout before the Thrashers emerged on top. Eighteen seconds away from two points, and instead the Devils settle for one. This was the second straight overtime game for the Devils, who also play Saturday.

Jason Kidd trade rumors are hardly new, but this time, they're probably for real. Nets President Rod Thorn and the guard have made no secret of the seemingly obvious incentives for both parties to want a deal before the Feb. 21 NBA trading deadline. Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter, the younger parts of the Big Three, have expensive contracts.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an aircraft fire at JFK terminal 4 in Queens, a robbery on Central Park West in Manhattan, and a missing child on Pennsylvania Ave. in Brooklyn.
• Surf cams (permanently installed cameras monitoring surf conditions) are a great way to notify surfers of conditions, until one realizes that surfers don't want conditions notified for fear of crowds.
• No matter what you've ever seen in the movies, crashing the guard rails on a bridge to land on the highway below will end with your fatality.

That’s right Knicks fans, it was four years ago today that Isiah Thomas came to town and boldly stated, "My only goal is to win the N.B.A. championship. In my mind, everything else is failure."

Sonics 117, Knicks 110: Knicks fans deserve a lot of credit. No one's pointing out how hard it is to chant "Fire Isiah." That phrase has a ton of vowel sounds. They held off for part of this game, but at the end, the result was the same. Zach Randolph is the only self-respecting Knick, though Jamal Crawford has been putting up better numbers with Stephon Marbury still out. The sum of the parts is...

The New York Knicks are the most entertaining team in the NBA. Not because of the team's play on the court, but because of the soap-opera-like drama that takes place off the court. During Knicks practice yesterday, Isiah Thomas said that he's not walking away from the team he created. "If there's one thing that I hope all of you know about me, or will learn about me, I fight 'til I die. It's not...

It’s your fault. You may have thought that forking over a huge amount of money for a ticket gave you the right to boo the Knicks, but the coach disagrees. In a season that takes one bizarre turn after another, the latest tops them all, Isiah told the fans that the Knicks are losing because they boo. "We're missing layups because you're booing,” Isiah told some fans during last night’s loss. Right! Perhaps fans are...

Mavericks 99, Knicks 89: Are James Dolan and Isiah Thomas watching the same team the fans are? More boos were heard in Madison Square Garden during the latest Knicks debacle. But James Dolan and Isiah Thomas don't seem to hear them -- or feel the "Fire Isiah" chants are justified. What more evidence do they need? A loss to the Mavericks, the team that finished with the best record in the NBA last season, wouldn't...

76ers 101, Knicks 90: Under most circumstances, losing to one of the worst teams in the NBA would be of concern to the Knicks. But with the death of guard Stephon Marbury's father, it doesn't seem so bad. Marbury played for the first half and scored two points but didn't come back out for the second half. Jamal Crawford had his second straight excellent game, but the Knicks frontcourt couldn't contain Samuel Delambert. The two...

We talked to someone who was at the Knicks game in Boston Thursday night and he told us he saw something he'd never seen at a sporting event before––a fan ripping off his team's jersey and throwing it onto the court in disgust. The Boston crowd loved it. The gesture came as the Knicks were trailing the Celtics by 50 points in what would come as the team's second-worst scoring performance in the history of...

While the NBA season is less than a month old, you wouldn't know it from the amount of press the Knicks have received so far. Between the well-publicized scandals and a tumultuous 8-game losing streak, there hasn't been much good to report on. But The Observer offers a glimpse into why the media often seems to take so much pleasure in reporting on the team's embarrassing demise. Turns out, The Garden doesn't think too fondly...

Knicks 85 Chicago 78: Seriously, that isn’t a misprint, the Knicks won the game! Afterwards, while the fans stormed the court and the tickertape rained down, Isiah Thomas took a minute to point out that everyone was wrong about him and that this triumph was his vindication. Ok, it didn’t quite happen that way, but based on some of the reaction you had to assume that the Knicks had actually won a big game, rather...

A day after the NY Post served up a Thanksgiving day front page cover of Knicks president and coach Isiah Thomas as a turkey, the embattled Thomas proclaimed he would stay in his job, saying, "I don't foresee there being any changes this year." Which the Post calls "LOAD OF BULL?" But really, if there's one thing that the Post and Daily News must have been thankful for, it's having such a spectacularly poorly managed...

Islanders 2, Rangers 1: For all the success the Rangers have had against the rest of the league, they still can't solve the Islanders. Five-game winning streak? Poof! Rick DiPietro made 18 saves and the Islanders won for the third time in three games between the two clubs. Ruslan Fedotenko and Josef Vasicek each scored in the second period, and Michal Rozsival scored a short-handed goal for the Rangers. He now has seven goals...