Posts Tagged ‘Alonzo Mourning’

Blogtable: Bobcats Looking For Buzz

May 22, 2013  ·  11:45AM




Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

Week 30: Dwight and D’Antoni | What do the Knicks need? | Bobcats back to Hornets

The Bobcats are changing their names back to the Hornets. Good, bad, odd, something else?

Steve Aschburner, NBA.com: Good. Bobcats is a bad nickname anyway, ill-conceived as a vanity thing for the original owner. Beyond that, teams that relocate never should be permitted to abscond with the nicknames – or the record books – of the franchises they used to be. Too late, of course, for the goofily named Utah Jazz or L.A. Lakers. But by all rights, the expansion team in Minneapolis should have revived the Lakers name there. When George Shinn moved his Charlotte club, it should have become the new Jazz. Same thing if Seattle gets back into the NBA – they’re the SuperSonics. At which point, why should Oklahoma City have any claim on Spencer Haywood, Gus Williams, Slick Watts or Gary Payton? Records, banners and history should stay put (or, retroactively, revert back). Fans in Charlotte surely care about Larry Johnson, Muggsy Bogues and Alonzo Mourning more than those cheering for Pelicans in New Orleans.

Fran Blinebury, NBA.com: Gee, and here I thought Michael Jordan should have changed his own name so everyone might forget that he’s the one who built the Bobcats.

Jeff Caplan, NBA.com: Something else: Yawn. My only prerequisite is that the new Charlotte Hornets retain the NOLA Mardi Gras uniforms. 

Scott Howard-Cooper, NBA.com: Eh. If they’re happy, I’m happy. Not a big deal either way.

John Schuhmann, NBA.com: I had some teal-and-purple Charlotte Hornets gear back in the early 1990s, and “Bobcats” already has a pretty dreadful history, so I’m in favor of the name change. With two different franchises being named the Hornets at one time or another, my historical spreadsheets might get a little confused, though.

Sekou Smith, NBA.com: Good! Anything to get away from the Bobcats era.

Philipp Dornhegge, NBA.com/germany: What’s not to love? The Hornets’ name and logo need to stick in the NBA, and the home of the Hornets apparently wants the name back. I have a good friend from around Charlotte and he told me that most people were never and aren’t to this day able to connect with the Bobcats. The franchise just doesn’t appeal to them. They are in rebuilding mode now, and what better way to start afresh and excite more people than to bring back the Hornets?

Stefanos Triantafyllos, NBA.com/greece: Okayyyyyy…. right. So, we had the Charlotte Hornets. Then they moved to New Orleans. Then another team appeared in Charlotte and was named “the Bobcats.” And now they want to change again to “the Hornets.” And we are back in the 90′s. Are Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson coming back, too? Life goes in circles, after all. As bad as the “Bobcats” sounds like (a really bad choice I ‘m afraid), the real problem is the way the team plays and the fact that they have a 28-120 record over the last two years. “Bad”, whatever you call it, is still “bad.”

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It’s Never Too Soon For Snap Judgment

November 6, 2012  ·  3:43PM

 

Never mind that the playoffs won’t begin for nearly six months. It’s never too soon to leap to conclusions about what we know — or think we know — one week into the 2012-13 regular season.

Knicks: Just when it became fashionable to trade in those blue and orange jerseys for the black and white of Brooklyn, the Knicks roll out their best start in team history, not only going 3-0, but also winning every game by at least 16 points. Nobody’s breaking out the countdown charts until Carmelo Anthony and his buddies run down the historic 72-10 record of the Bulls. But as long as the Knicks keep sharing the ball and the likes of Ronnie Brewer, Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni give big man Tyson Chandler help with their defense on the perimeter, they’re for real. At least until Amar’e Stoudemire comes back to mess with the chemistry. Suddenly the Eastern Conference is about more than sniping between the Heat and Celtics. We all know the real bad blood is N.Y. vs. Miami with Jeff Van Gundy hanging onto Alonzo Mourning’s ankle.

Lakers: The NBA’s combination of longest-running soap opera/situation comedy of the past two decades has always been the ride on the day-to-day roller coaster of the Lakers. It’s part of the DNA of Angelenos to panic anytime their team loses two in a row and this season an 0-3 start hit the hysterical jackpot. Yes, Mike Brown will be under more microscopes than a newly discovered germ at the CDC and, yes, it will matter that soon-to-be-39-year-old Steve Nash is ambulatory for the postseason and it would help if their bench wasn’t paper thin. Still every team in the West outside of the Thunder and Spurs would trade its roster for a confused Dwight Howard and an aging Kobe Bryant. They’re not dead yet, but their breathing is labored.

James Harden: Look, LeBron James already has a shelf full of MVP trophies and is concentrating on chasing down Michael Jordan for his six championships. So wouldn’t it be simpler to just acknowledge right now that The Beard is unstoppable. It was never a secret that Harden was talented and explosive. But popping in 37 and 45 in his first two games with the Rockets and leading the league in scoring at 35.3 has been like scrapping the velvet off a painting of dogs playing poker and to find a Rembrandt hiding underneath. (more…)

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Timberwolves Catch Yet Another Break: Love’s Fractured Hand

October 17, 2012  ·  5:22PM

 

This isn’t even funny anymore.

Actually, the gallows humor around the Timberwolves at various points in their checkered history rarely has packed much humor; it mostly has been used to release frustration, in a laugh, clown, laugh way.

Kevin Love’s broken right hand is Exhibit 459, or at least feels like it. The All-Star power forward suffered a broken right hand during a morning workout before practice Wednesday and is expected to be sidelined six to eight weeks. The team said Love would be examined by a hand specialist in New York for the fractures to the third and fourth metacarpal bones in his shooting hand.

The injury leaves the Wolves without their top two players for the season’s first month and a half, maybe longer. Point guard Ricky Rubio tore the ACL and MCL ligaments in his left knee last March and isn’t expected back from surgery rehab until December or January.

Minnesota’s “all-in” attitude for 2012-13 – hoping to end a streak of eight consecutive seasons missing the playoffs – was dealt a brutal blow. Last spring, after Rubio went down and Love joined him after April 11 (concussion and neck strain), the Wolves finished 5-20, dashing their postseason hopes.

Digging that kind of hole at the start of this season – a 3-12 start, say, by early December – might be too much to overcome to chase even the No. 8 seed.

(more…)

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NBA’s Greatest Games: 1993 Playoffs

October 17, 2011  ·  10:51AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – While we wait for the powers that be to give us back the game we love, we have to stay busy here at the hideout studying the game’s rich history.

Combine our love of NBA history with the treasure trove of footage the good folks in the programming department at NBA TV and you get a fantastic look back at the 1993 playoffs and all its splendor. This two-week celebration of the 1993 playoffs, which kicks off tomorrow (Oct. 18), will include the airing of 21 classic games from one of the most thrilling postseasons the league has seen.

With two games every night from Tuesday through Oct. 28, save for the three games on Oct. 19 and the rest day of Oct. 23, you’ll get a chance to relive each and every moment of these 21 playoff gems in their entirety. The games will be re-aired frequently throughout the fortnight, so keep an eye out, and there is a marathon scheduled for Oct. 29 and 30.

There were plenty of games to choose from during that postseason, particularly for fans of the champion Chicago Bulls. For you 80′s babies and those of you in need of a refresher course, the 1993 playoffs included four first round series that required a fifth and deciding game (it was best-of-five back then), three game-winning shots decided series (Alonzo Mourning finished off the Celtics, Charles Barkley sent the Spurs home and John Paxson‘s 3-point dagger clinched The Finals for the Bulls over Barkley’s Suns) and did we mention Michael Jordan was in the midst of his prime in 1993?

(more…)

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The Age of Shaquarius

June 1, 2011  ·  8:07PM

MIAMI – He was comfortable in his own skin.

This is hard for big men, especially the biggest of the big. People who stand seven feet tall are so unusual, rising above the rest of us, there is never a moment of anonymity. Many know the pain of rejection from those who recoil, or attack, based solely on what they perceive a big man to be.

Shaquille O’Neal owned his size, made it an ally. For within his 7-foot-1, 300-(325-? 350-? 375-? after a while we were all guessing) pound frame was a 12-year-old, laughing and joking and rapping and doing terrible, terrible movies that all had the same theme: don’t fear me. And for most of his 19 NBA seasons, he was the same way in the locker room, buying a truck for Mark Madsen here, inviting Keyon Dooling out for family dinners there. At the beginning of their careers, when they were picked first and second in the 1992 Draft, Shaq and Alonzo Mourning were fierce rivals, bulls in a small pen seeking the same rewards; by 2006, they were Miami Heat teammates and fast friends, winning a championship together under Pat Riley.

He was a proud man and easily wounded by criticism, real and imagined, and this is why he and Kobe Bryant ultimately couldn’t co-exist, because Bryant’s words stung at Shaq’s base – you’re not working hard enough. He was wounded when the Lakers thought an old Vlade Divac could replace a middle-aged Shaq, and it motivated him to a title on South Beach.

(more…)

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Heat-Knicks Series? Wade Can’t Wait!

April 4, 2011  ·  1:03PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – If form holds and the Heat and the Knicks meet up in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, Heat star Dwyane Wade can’t wait.

You know Knicks fans and Heat fans alike will be licking their chops at the prospect of their respective “Big 3s” having the chance to match wits in the postseason.

“It would be great for the game of basketball if Miami and New York play,” Wade told Newsday. “The story lines, the history, the players. There can be a lot talked about. It really brings a lot of excitement to the first round of the playoffs. Both teams would love it.”

But beyond those with a clear rooting interest, the series holds all sorts of interesting subplots that could make for entertaining fare beyond those intimately involved.

(more…)

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Lakers Still Running Things

July 14, 2010  ·  1:48PM

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Posted by Sekou Smith

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – At least Dwyane Wade gets it.

While everyone else is already anointing the Miami Heat as the 2011 NBA champs, the Heat superstar knows that the road to the title still runs through Staples Center.

“The Lakers are the champions and we know the Lakers are very good,” Wade said Wednesday at a golf tournament he co-hosts with Alonzo Mourning. “That’s the team that everyone’s shooting for and they should be. Not the Miami Heat. The Los Angeles Lakers.”

Most of us expect the Heat to be in the championship mix. The way they’ve raised expectations this summer, they better be. And for the sake of the legacies of Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and even Pat Riley, they need to be.

But the favorites?

That distinction belongs to Kobe Bryant and the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.

Thanks D. Wade for reminding us all.

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