The Cleveland Cavaliers put the Boston Celtics out of their misery tonight. (And I do so like the idea of the Celtics being stomped into a greasy little green spot on their home floor. Can we do this every year?) And up next, the Cavs and LeBron James against the Golden State Warriors in the […]

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The NBA has become a bit unbalanced. Twenty-eight teams can do all the coaching, scouting, planning and plotting, building and rebuilding they want … and it will not change a basic, unalterable reality: They have no chance against the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Which ought to make for a fascinating championship series, […]

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Tonight is the night. The night when the ping-pong balls land and it is determined who drafts in the top three of the NBA lottery. In a matter of minutes the Los Angeles Lakers have a chance to go No. 1 or No. 2 or No. 3 in next month’s talent-heavy NBA draft … or […]

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The NBA is a fairly big attraction, in France, a nation which also has produced the greatest number of foreign players in the league, about a dozen. The New York Times today has drawn a link between a Franco-American wannabe baller — who did heavily accented commentary for French television for much of two decades […]

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Perhaps you have been following the great debates over who should win the Most Valuable Player race in the NBA. The 2016-17 competition is about as hot as it gets. People of intelligence and good will can make a case for at least four players, and that is leaving Stephen Curry, the two-time defending MVP […]

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While slogging through the hills of northern Spain, it was easy to lose track of stories he or she thought were important, before. And after. Top of the list on the sports side, for me … is the Lakers’ ridiculous five-game winning streak that cost them a chance to have the second-best position in the […]

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Yes, I was a Gonzaga partisan, in the NCAA final. I tend to pull for the West Coast team, if one is available, and Gonzaga qualifies because it plays in the Pacific time zone. Alas, it a ragged, herky-jerky and poorly officiated game (44 fouls!?!) ended at North Carolina 70, Gonzaga 65 — at about […]

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We return to the Wayback Machine of NCAA basketball today, recalling two close calls between my journalism self and the Final Four. It is the one annual sports event I regret never covering in my 40 years in print journalism. To be sure, there were other big events staged annually that I never covered. The […]

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On March 27, 1939, the University of Oregon won the first NCAA basketball championship — actually, the first NCAA team championship of any sort — 46-33 over Ohio State. That has been mentioned a time or two this week as the Ducks prepare for their Final Four game Saturday with North Carolina — 1939 being […]

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If you would have told me, in January of 1974, that UCLA’s basketball team needed to have its 88-game winning streak broken, as well as its run of seven consecutive NCAA championships … I might have punched you. UCLA winning seemingly “forever” was good because … well, because I was pulling for them. And so […]

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