By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
DENVER – They pawed at him, tugged his grey shirtsleeves and hugged his thick legs, boys and girls, about 20 in all, screaming and squealing as one. Chaun-CEE! Chaun-CEE!
It’s been six weeks since the Detroit Pistons sent Chauncey Billups home, and he’s returned yet again to his old Park Hill neighborhood. [...]
By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Chauncey Billups is 6-3, an All-Star guard for the Detroit Pistons. One of his nicknames is “Smooth.”
Kendrick Perkins is 6-10 and 280 pounds of hulking, plodding center for the Boston Celtics. He’s not a bad player, but he’s so nondescript he has no nickname, other than “Perk.” [...]
By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Dave Cowens, former Boston Celtics great and current Detroit Pistons assistant coach, was leaning against a wall in a back hallway trying to bridge the gap between accomplishments.
Detroit had just dispatched Orlando, 91-86, to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the sixth consecutive year. It’s an [...]
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
Why yes, there were suggestions that Avery Johnson was losing his Dallas Mavericks, including the struggling Josh Howard. No more. The Mavs aren’t just listening to the coach, they’re reading him, too.
The trouble is, it appears Howard never made it past the title of Johnson’s new book, “Aspire Higher.”
In perhaps the [...]
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
PHOENIX – Boris Diaw has heard it all from the local hang up-and-listen psychologists. French Pastry. Doris Meow. Phoenix Suns coach Mike D’Antoni, once lamenting Diaw’s expanding waistline, questioned how many croissants his French forward had eaten over the summer.
The criticism has never seemed to hang on Diaw for long. For [...]
By Stan McNeal – SportingNews
This will be the week remembered for six teams in the West reaching 50 wins, for the Hawks securing their grip on a playoff spot and the Warriors losing theirs, and for the long-awaited returns of two superstars, Gilbert Arenas and Elton Brand.
And, most importantly in the Power Poll’s world, as [...]
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
As March gives way to April the New Orleans Hornets cede the top rung of the Powerless Rankings to the Boston Celtics.
The Celtics’ convincing victory over the Hornets on Friday was enough to push them to No. 1, a standing they might not give up through the end of the regular [...]
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey let out a long, exasperated sigh over the telephone Tuesday, as though to say: Are you kidding? Asking Yao Ming to ease back on his Chinese basketball commitments – never mind sit out the Beijing Olympics in August – is a request that’ll go unasked [...]