Posted by Matt Moore

Steve Nash is a competitor. Sure, he's got a wide range of interests and has the maturity not to freak out over the fact he may retire without a ring. But he's got that tiger inside him. You can see it. Just watch him park.

 

Aw, what's with the dance, Steve? Where did that come from? Is that what you auditioned for Chippendales with? Yeesh. 

Posted by Royce Young



UPDATE: Via NBA PR, the league cleared Cuban's appearance and interaction with the Mavericks at the ESPYs prior to the event on the condition no business or CBA talking went on. So there won't be a fine.

The NBA has been very straightforward about its "no contact" policy regarding the lockout. Not only did it scrub NBA.com of the existence of players, but there's been an imposed gag order on owners, coaches and front office personnel regarding contact with players.

It's evidently so serious that acting Portland general manager Chad Buchanan nearly got fined $1 million for just answering "Yeah" to a question about Summer League.

So when Mark Cuban started hugging, fiving and chatting it up with his Maverick players at the ESPYs, naturally you'd have to assume the league might be sending Cuban a bill soon.

"You do have the checks so you can pay the fine," joked Jason Kidd. "It's just a million dollars." I couldn't tell if he was joking or not with that last part though.

Being fined isn't anything new for Cuban, though, who is easily the most tagged owner in league history. He's been fined in the double-digit millions, so adding on another seven-digit fine probably isn't too much for him to blink at. Especially when it came because his team was accepting yet another trophy.

I'm sure he'll pay this one with a smile. That is, if the league does indeed hand him one.

Posted by Royce Young



It's been one year since LeBron James dropped those six famous words that he'd be taking his talents to South Beach. And who better to commemorate that than the one and only DJ Steve Porter with a quality LeBron Remix.

It is a little funny to think that a year ago today, we were all gearing up to find out where LeBron would be playing. The anticipation, chatter and interest was at a ridiculous high. This year though, we're stuck in a lockout and nothing is happening. Way to go, NBA.

Posted by Royce Young



Some are saying the 2010-11 NBA season might've very well been the best in league history. History. What better way to top that off than with a debilitating lockout where players and owners haggle over money? Momentum!

But despite all the depressing lockout stuff, there's no doubt this past season was pretty special. It all started with a wild free agency period that was capped off with a one-hour special and a preseason celebration party in South Beach. It finished in that same place but instead with the Mavericks being the team that took their talents there.

It really was a pretty remarkable season. The NBA grabbed its highest ratings since the Jordan Era, had an amazing All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles, saw the rise of a bundle of young players that will carry the league to great places over the next 10 years and had polarizing teams and figures that had people talking constantly. I don't know that 2010-11 was the best ever, but for sure, it was really darn good.

And what better way to send it off than arbitrarily trying to wrap it all together in a list of 10 neato plays? There's no better way, that's what.

There were some pretty difficult omissions. Like Paul Millsap's 11 points in 28 seconds. Or Emeka Okafor's crazy buzzer-beater. Or that one Brian Cardinal thing he did that one time. Like any top 10, there were some tough cuts and I'm sure you'll disagree. Regardless, here are my top 10 moments from the season and 10 really good reasons why a lockout would totally suck.

10. Touchdown, Wade to LeBron
LeBron was a wide receiver in high school at St. Vincent - St. Mary. But I don't think Dwyane Wade was ever a quarterback. This play is pretty much what people were dreaming about the second LeBron announced he was teaming up with Wade. Two incredibly skilled players with stupid amounts of ability hooking up for a ridiculous play. Hate the Heat all you want, but you know you loved this play.

9. Taj has a moment, or two
It started with one of the ultimate posters of the season. Two hands, right over Dwyane Wade. It was so dirty that even Wade's children were giving him grief over it. Then he went ahead and followed that up with a follow-up finish in punctuate Chicago's Game 1 Eastern Finals win. Every time I watch these two dunks it makes me want to scream like I'm Carlos Boozer.

8. Love sees 30-30
Really, the top Kevin Love highlight from this season is probably his failed high five with Wesley Johnson. But I'll just recognize Love here with his second best moment of the season -- the first 30-30 game in, well, about 30 years. Love humliated the Knicks with a 31-point, 31-rebound effort doing something that no one has done since Moses Malone. Just look at that again: 31 points, 31 rebounds. Love was pretty unreal all season but that is just really outlandish.

7. The game that never ends
With the stakes high, the Thunder and Grizzlies needed 63 minutes of basketball to settle Game 4 of the Western Semifinals. Memphis led the series 2-1 after Oklahoma City blew a big fourth quarter lead in Game 3. What's crazy is that Memphis led by 18 in the first half of this game.

But the Thunder held a seven-point fourth quarter lead and finally lost it after Mike Conley hit an impossible 3 over Kendrick Perkins. Then Grievis Vasquez doubled down on the insanity by dropping another game-tying 3 in the first overtime. Eventually Kevin Durant and the Thunder wore down Memphis and took the game 133-123 and used that to top the Grizzlies in seven to move on to the Western Finals.

6. Indiana starts the third 20 for 20
How does 54 points in a half sound? Pretty good, right? Well, what about 54 in a quarter? That sounds like a pretty good number for an entire game if you're the Butler Bulldogs.

The Pacers started the third quarter against Denver 20-20 and would've had a perfect quarter had Mike Dunleavy not missed with a couple seconds remaining. For a team though to hit 20 consecutive shots? An entire team? If I'm George Karl and the Nuggets, at that point I'm not even guarding them just to see how many in a row they can hit.

5. Reke, from pretty far out
It looked like O.J. Mayo had just hit a nasty backbreaker for Memphis against the Kings. The Grizzlies went up one with 1.5 seconds left and Sacramento didn't have any timeouts left. No bother for Tyreke though as he launched from behind the halfcourt line and drilled a game-winner as time expired.

Still though, the most impressive part of this is the sixth sense from Donte Greene. He's entirely on the court already celebrating before the shot dropped. What would he have done if it had missed? I guess he just knew it wouldn't.

4. Coming back is easy to do for Dallas
Worst thing you can do: Put the Mavericks in a double-digit hole in the fourth quarter. Dallas had already pulled off two impressive comebacks against the Thunder and Lakers, but its Game 2 triumph over the Heat is really what won the Mavs an NBA title. Trailing by 15 points late after a Dwyane Wade 3, the Mavs turned it on with Dirk scoring the team's final nine points in the last two minutes to steal a game in Miami and probably a trophy right out from under LeBron and the Heat.

3. I believe that I just saw a man fly
Don't get in J.R. Smith's way. He won't just dunk over you, he'll dunk through you. With two hands.

2. Durant, Haywood and oh my goodness
Magic Johnson said this was the greatest postseason dunk ever. And considering the circumstances -- Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals -- he might have a point. Durant's Thunder were off to a bit of a slow start against the Mavs and faced falling into an 0-2 hole. But Durant woke up the team by throwing down right over Brendan Haywood.

Durant picked up a technical after the dunk for having some words for Haywood, but if I were the officials, I'd have just kicked Durant and everyone else out, because he basically turned out the lights right there.

1. Blake Griffin



Take your pick. Over Mozgov. Over Gallinari. Over a car. Oops from Baron, oops from Bledsoe, oops from Mo. The 2010-11 regular season was really kind of the season of Griffin and how he took over the world with YouTube highlights. No player has made people buzz quite like Griffin. Night to night, you had no idea what might be coming. When Blake Mania was reaching its peak in January, I think we all thought he might dunk over Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol if Gasol was standing on Bynum's shoulders.

I still don't think we've seen the ultimate Blake Griffin highlight. And when it comes next year, that just means we'll have 2011-12's best moment. If there is one. Oh please for the love of James Naismith, let there be one.

Posted by Royce Young

Dwight Howard appeared on the Spanish talk show El Hormiguero this week and by "appeared" I mean that he appeared to have lost his mind. Must be taking the impending lockout tough, or something. (Howard comes in at 2:37)



Um, does anyone have an explanation for this? It's kind of my job to add some commentary in this space, but uh, what do you say after that? Maybe he's really that stressed out over this contract stuff in Orlando that he's completely lost his mind.

Or maybe he's just being himself. Yep, that's probably it.

Posted by Royce Young



Ricky Rubio was officially introduced to the media today in Minnesota and it's obvious that the young Spaniard is a bit shy.  But it didn't take him long to get somewhere he's a bit more comfortable as he immediately took to the Timberwolves practice gym and got some shots up.

The fact he's actually in Minnesota, actually working out is still kind of surreal. As of a month ago, there was a wonder if we'd ever see Rubio in the NBA. But there he is, working on his jumper in Minnesota.

Which is exactly what he needs to be doing. He has incredible vision and feel for the game, but the one glaring hole in his game is a poor shooting touch. Nothing a little NBA coaching and practicing can't help fix though.

Posted by Royce Young



Not that you should expect anything better from a TMZ reporter stalking athletes and celebrities, but this one thought -- for some reason -- that Greg Oden was LeBron James.

Oden, who has always had one of the most underrated senses of humor around, played the whole thing magnificently. When he was asked if he was a "baller," Oden shook his head and said, "No, I tried, but I'm not any good at it." Please hold all Greg Oden surgery jokes for later. Though Blazer fans all probably just took a shot when Oden said that.

Not the best time to be mistaken for LeBron either. With all the criticism and backlash laid on him after this season and the finals, being Greg Oden might've actually been a little better this time.

Posted by Royce Young



John Wall threw out the first pitch for the Nationals' game on Friday and as the announcer said, it was really more of a bounce pass than anything else. Maybe it went 20 feet. But it skipped nicely off the ground and right into the catcher's mitt.

It's not the worst first pitch of all time but it's definitely on the Mount Rushmore of terrible first pitches I'd say.

Also, it's unconfirmed whether or not Wall did the Dougie after.