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Is DeMarcus Cousins the NBA's greatest ever bad guy? | Hunter Felt

The Sacramento Kings center picked up his 16th technical foul of the season on Monday, the fastest any NBA player has reached that mark since 2006-07, but Rasheed Wallace’s record might be impossible to breakIn Monday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls, with just 1.1 seconds remaining, the Sacramento Kings’ DeMarcus Cousins picked up a technical foul by yelling at an official. With that ill-advised burst of emotion, Cousins set a dubious record: he received his 16th technical of the season earlier than any other player since a 2006-07 NBA rule change, beating Dwight Howard’s previous record by nearly a month.By picking up his 16th tech, Cousins earned himself an automatic suspension for Wednesday’s game against the Boston Celtics plus...

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How Gregg Popovich became the NBA's most fearless political voice

The Spurs head coach is prepared to speak his mind on Donald Trump, and doesn’t go in for niceties. The NBA could do with more like himGregg Popovich didn’t like what he saw happening around him and, per usual, wasn’t afraid to speak up about it. When asked about Donald Trump’s haphazardly implemented travel ban and its chaotic consequences, the San Antonio Spurs head coach blasted the current administration using some of the same terminology he would use to dress down his own team after a particularly embarrassing on-court performance: “We’ll see where this goes. Obviously the rollout today was Keystone Cops-like, by any measure of objectivity. Whether you want to say it’s good or bad is irrelevant. But it...

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The Philadelphia 76ers' bold bet on failure is paying off ahead of schedule

After three years of losing on purpose to stockpile young talent, the surging Sixers’ controversial strategy is finally yielding on-court dividendsThe Philadelphia 76ers won for the seventh time in nine games on Wednesday with a 94-89 victory over the Toronto Raptors, limiting the Eastern Conference’s highest-scoring team to more than 20 points below their season average. The club’s emerging franchise player, the 7ft 2in wunderkind Joel Embiid, finished with 26 points in 26 minutes, including a crucial last-minute blocked shot and a pair of free throws to ice the game. It was a gut-check win over an opponent who’d had their number in 14 straight meetings. “I don’t think it’s a fluke,” said Embiid, Philadelphia’s talismanic first-year center. “We’re competing....

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Warriors show they hold the edge over Cleveland in the NBA's fiercest rivalry | Arielle Retting

Golden State’s emphatic 126-91 victory revealed a shift in the power dynamic – but this is just the start of a tug-of-war that could continue for years to comeWarriors lay waste to Cavaliers in potential NBA finals previewWith three small words, Draymond Green confirmed what we’ve all been wondering about the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.“It’s a rivalry.” Related: See you in June: Warriors lay waste to Cavaliers in potential finals preview Draymond Green: "It's a rivalry" pic.twitter.com/a0bheZsdyiNot. A. Rivalry pic.twitter.com/dIOqcaFSXB Continue reading...

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Derrick Rose's no-show just another sign of the Knicks' dysfunction

The former league MVP’s unexcused absence is a warning to the franchise that their win-now mentality could end up costing them dearlyBy now it’s obvious that the New York Knicks are not, at least primarily, a sports franchise at this point of their existence. They are really more of a long-running dark comedy occasionally interrupted by athletic displays that usually – but by no means always – resemble NBA games. Even by the Knicks’ standards, however, the events of the last few days have been unusual.On Monday night, the Knicks players had to prepare for a game without knowing the status of one of their team-mates. Starting point guard Derrick Rose did not show, and his team’s attempts to contact...

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