The modern-day uptick in team-switching has made for less of the classic rivalries that defined previous eras. But matchups like Zion v Ja and Celtics v Bucks are bursting with promiseThe NBA’s ever-changing nature means that rivalries are fickle. When Philadelphia traded picks with Boston to take Markelle Fultz with the No 1 overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft, and the Celtics selected Jayson Tatum third, the teams’ proximity and prior history had all the makings of a classic. But while Tatum is a perennial All-Star, Fultz soon developed the shooting yips and was quickly shipped to the Magic.The modern-day uptick in team-switching has made for less of the classic rivalries that defined previous eras, such as Magic Johnson’s...
Denied the fairytale ending in 2016, Jackson has finally bowed out in a manner befitting her status in Australian basketballTwo weeks ago, Australia’s Lauren Jackson – perhaps the greatest female basketball player of all time – told me she did not believe in fairytales. No matter. On Saturday, Jackson farewelled her remarkable career in true fairytale fashion. It would be hard to script a more appropriate ending. On home soil, the Opals beat Canada to win the bronze medal – or “rose gold,” as Australian fans like to say – at the Fiba Women’s World Cup. Jackson reprised her form of old, leading the scoring with 30 points, to add a fourth World Cup medal to her tally (alongside four...
The Australian great is back in the Opals squad for the first time in nine years and potentially in with a shot at another World Cup titleThe last time Lauren Jackson pulled on the green and gold and stepped out on court for the Australian Opals, the year was 2013. Kevin Rudd was contesting the election as prime minister, having wrested power from Julia Gillard only months prior. The youngest member of the current Opals squad, Jade Melbourne, was 11 years old. You couldn’t walk down the street without inadvertently buying a frozen yoghurt and the Harlem Shake craze was taking off. The world was a very different place.When news of Jackson’s recall to the Opals squad for the upcoming...
The longtime NBA player has shined in his rookie year as a basketball analyst, but his viral takedown of Chris Russo this week on ESPN’s First Take showed what makes him specialJJ Redick’s emergence as a rising star for ESPN since joining the network as a basketball analyst in October has been one of the more notable stories in US sports media over the past year.The 37-year-old Redick, who launched a popular podcast while he was still a player, spent 15 seasons in the NBA after a decorated four-year stint at Duke, where he was the consensus national college basketball player of the year in 2006. He’s brought the keen insight and deep knowledge of an ex-pro to the broadcasting...
Golden State’s former head coach helped ease the likes of Klay Thompson and Steph Curry into the league. He hasn’t had a top job in the NBA sinceThe Golden State Warriors pretty much owned the Western Conference for half a decade, appearing in five successive NBA finals from 2014 to 2019. Three of those five ended up with Golden State hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy; if it not for a superhuman comeback by the Cavaliers in 2016 or a rash of catastrophic injuries in 2019, they might well have won all five. The fact that they’ve made the postseason this year – they face the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night in the play-in tournament – despite the season-long absence of...