Harlan Schreiber

You can’t help but feel for Julius Randle, whose season ended during the first game of his rookie year.  The timing of such an injury was fairly unprecedented for a top pick.  There have been rookies who missed their entire first season and there have been rookies who missed a lot of the season but going down in game 1?  This seems particularly crushing.  The closest analog I could think of was Stephon Marbury, who sprained his ankle eight minutes into his first game.  Marbury missed the next 18 … [Read more...] about Julius Randle and the One Game Rookies

There is a marked change in the rhetoric that new NBPA President Michelle Roberts has used in discussing the Union’s interests going forward.  The implication of her tone is that the players have been pushed around too much and the NBA will have to give something back after arguably routing the NBPA during the 2011 lockout.  How much of Roberts’ assertions are legitimate and how much is posturing?  Hard to say but let’s take a look at some of her most interesting statements from her recent ESPN … [Read more...] about Michelle Roberts and the NBA: Showdown Looming?

For better or worse, the NBA is typically the most predictable of professional sports leagues.  The best teams usually win and the best teams usually have the superstar players.  Of course, it is not quite that simple.  Detail matters and surprises do happen but in the Eastern Conference the overall story seems clear:  LeBron James and the Cavs are the best team, Chicago is a bona fide contender, and everyone else ranges from decent to whatever it is the 76ers are. This huge gap between … [Read more...] about NBA Preview 2014-15: Eastern Conference

In the dog days of NBA off-season, the mind of the fan tends to wander about basketball history.  Well, the dog days are coming to an end but still I keep thinking about the old Showtime Lakers from the 1980s.  I recently read Jeff Pearlman’s awesome book on the subject, which gave a comprehensive review of this dynsaty and almost all the players (both major and minor).  I can’t recommend the book enough for NBA fans who want to dig deeper into Lakers lore beyond the basics of Magic, Kareem, and … [Read more...] about Showtime Re-Examined

Another FIBA international competition has come and gone and it is clear that the United States has established itself as the best basketball team in the world and that the gap against competition is quite high again.  The question becomes: now what?  Well, that isn’t really the question but the pundits are questioning the utility in even competing with pros in the FIBA Worlds or the Olympics anymore. Yesterday, Adrian Wojnarowski laid out the main arguments against the use of NBA players in … [Read more...] about On International Competition and the NBA