hoot Page 24 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Keep an eye on the Heat, NBA fans
Jimmy Butler has missed 19 games, Kyle Lowry has missed 15, and Bam Adebayo has missed 25. Yet, as the NBA regular season resumes tonight after the All-Star Break, the Miami Heat are in first place in the Eastern Conference. The Heat have the same winning percentage as the second-place Chicago Bulls...
What the hell is going on in New Orleans
When he came into the NBA as a generational talent in 2019, Zion Williamson was thought to be New Orleans’ basketball savior, the player to make The Big Easy one of the marquee stops in the league’s rotation. Now, continued talk about his investment in the Pelicans has hit a climax, with possibly th...
Lakers fans might be upset that Shaq didn’t make ESPN’s 75th anniversary top 10, but is there even a legit argument for him making it?
Shaquille O’Neal is seen by many as the most physically dominant and imposing player the NBA has ever produced. Knowing this, you’d think O’Neal would be a lock as a top 10 all-time player on any list. ESPN recently released its ranking of the top 75 NBA players (76 to be exact) for the league’s 75t...
Even when Michael Jordan turns 75, there will still be no athlete that stops a room like him
Michael Jordan turned 59 years old last week, hasn’t played professional basketball since 2003, hit that game-winning shot against the Utah Jazz nearly 25 years ago, and the NBA still belongs to him....
It’s not Obi Toppin’s fault the ASG dunk contest was lame
Saturday night was not that. But it was fine. Obi Toppin won, deserved to win, and deserved better than having to answer for the shoddy performance of his competition....
The Lakers might want to look into trading Anthony Davis after the season
The Lakers have been on the struggle bus all season long. Now the idea of the team trading Anthony Davis has been broached, and it might make more sense than people think. Stephen A. Smith talked about this on First Take and made some valid points. ...
Coach K’s succession mistake was bigger than choosing Scheyer over Amaker
Hours before Coach K’s dizzy spell sent him to the locker room in Duke’s win over Wake Forest, excerpts from Ian O’Connor’s upcoming book, Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski” detailed a brief power struggle within Duke last year over Coach K’s plans to name his replacement. O’Connor’s in...
Goran Dragić could fall right into the laps of a contender following his buyout from San Antonio
Every year in the NBA, there’s at least one highly sought-after role player traded away at the deadline that has no intention of suiting up for their new team. And many times, that feeling is mutual. This year that guy is Goran Dragić. He was traded from the Toronto Raptors to the San Antonio Spurs,...
The path to an NBA championship is increasingly volatile
Neil Young gets credit for the line, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away,” but Kurt Cobain made it infamous. That dichotomy stuck with me, and it’s impossible not to see it in sports....
Draymond Green’s importance to another Golden State run is even more apparent when he’s not on the court
Draymond Green hasn’t been on the court for the Golden State Warriors since their Jan. 5 loss (aside from the opening tip when Klay Thompson returned) to the Dallas Mavericks. In Green’s absence, the Warriors are 13-8, but in watching the team, it’s clear to see just how important Draymond is to the...
The Phoenix Suns are going bankrupt in the attention economy
Chis Paul is the NBA’s Copernicus. He needs to be the offensive axis, and his arrival placed the Suns near the center of the NBA galaxy. The Western Conference’s heliocentric age began, and we didn’t even know it because everyone has been so eager to babble about the Lakers, Nets, Sixers, and Warrio...
If Lillard and McCollum didn’t work, then why was it so much fun?
I just saw CJ McCollum in Chicago like a week ago. He seemed fine — he had 29 on 13-of-23 from the floor and played well — but the team wasn’t itself anymore. It was a Sunday morning, and I was in bed when my girlfriend asked, “Hey Portland’s playing today. Want to go?”...
The biggest NBA bandwagon fan base at the midseason mark
As someone who is loyal to a fault, people who hop team allegiances never cease to make my brain hemorrhage. I don’t know how the LeBron James cult does it. “He’s my favorite player” is what a child says when they first discover what sports are. Yeah, I loved Penny Hardaway, too, but when I moved to...
Mark Cuban gets sonned by college student over Seth Curry trade
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been pretty successful during his tenure as shot-caller in Big D, winning an NBA championship in 2011 and appearing in another Finals in 2006. Cuban is also a successful businessman and has even become a bit of a television star on the back of his reality tv sho...
Why this Chicago Bulls moment matters
It wasn’t supposed to last this long. When Michael Jordan slightly pushed off Bryon Russell to square up for a 17-foot jump shot with 5.2 seconds left in 1998, the future was a giant question mark. The moment the shot clock expired, the rebuild began. Bulls fans knew the band was broken up. This wou...
Like it or not the Splash Bros are back in full effect
It’d been two and a half years since the world had seen the Splash Brothers together on an NBA court when Klay Thompson made his return to the game earlier this month. Thompson was out 941 days with the torn ACL & Achilles. Now nine games into his comeback, Thompson is averaging 15.8ppg and shooting...
Don’t pick on Austin Reaves you jerks
Austin Reaves’ star is steadily rising as a rookie for the Los Angeles Lakers — for various reasons. ...
Washington’s season has been an utter disappointment
What happened to this being the breakout season for the Washington Wizards? The NBA franchise representing the America’s capital started this season 10-3, appearing to be the D.C. squad ready to bring the franchise to an elusive conference final....
Austin Reaves is confused
Lakers rookie Austin Reaves is making professional basketball look relatable — by being visibly very confused about whatever scheme LeBron James was attempting to communicate to him during last night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets....