I’m on record as strongly disapproving of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh taking advantage of Florida’s tax laws to stack a team. I know some guys are okay with it, but then again some guys are okay with baseball stars illegally using performance enhancing drugs as well. A lot of fans just don’t get it. But when James, Wade and Bosh chose to take a shortcut to glory, they likewise chose, no matter how many...

When the Utah Jazz used drafted Gordon Haywood at #9, Jazz fans booed. I personally think Haywood was a great pick, and wrote about it here. However, when I talked with the boo birds on comment boards throughout the Internet, not only do they insist Hayward was a bad pick, but … Virtually every Jazz fan denies having booed the selection of John Stockton when he was drafted. One fan in particular said he was there and he knows first...

It's not just that Shaq wants another ring, he wants at least as many rings as Kobe, and obviously becoming a Laker again isn't going to do that for Shaq. Then again, what better way to retire than on top, and defeating your former teammates in the process: LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Zyndruna Ilgauskas? Surely THAT has to be as good as matching Kobe in ring count!

Loyalty is an interesting topic. David Robinson assured the San Antonio Spurs that he’d be a Spur for life, and gave them the financial head room to keep Tim Duncan. And this year Manu Ginobli didn’t even test his worth in the free agent market, he just re-signed, and remains one of the NBA’s best bargains. Likewise Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant re-signed this year, and Derek Fisher signed for less than he was offered by the...

LeBron will certainly get his championships, but he won’t really EARN them. Not like Michael Jordan earned his. Or not like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird earned theirs, facing worthy nemesises in a battle that wrenched from both sides every bit of possible effort, heart, blood, sweat and tears to earn an NBA championship.

Jazz fans MISTAKENLY believe they lost to the Lakers in the 2010 playoffs because the Jazz lacked size. That's not really the case. Against the Jazz, Pau Gasol averaged 23.5 points, and Andrew Bynum averaged 7.8 points. That's not exactly domination. While Gordon Hayward obviously doesn't meet the Jazz's need for a top quality center, Hayward has a tremendous upside Jazz fans should be excited about.

People need to quit bashing Sloan for their imaginary perception of him, and wake up to what he's done in reality. Seriously, if the Jazz were to let go of Jerry Sloan today, and if Phil Jackson and Doc Rivers were to retire this summer like they are both talking about doing... You can bet both the Lakers and the Celtics would give serious thought to hiring Jerry Sloan as their new head coach.

The Internet has been inundated by bitter Celtics fans declaring an NBA conspiracy handed the Finals to the Lakers. One fan wrote that he is not going to ever spend his hard earned money on the NBA again. Sigh. I'm going to guess his "hard earned money" isn't earned by analyzing basketball.

Question: which team lead all teams in the 2010 NBA playoffs in free throw attempts? Answer: the Boston Celtics. In fact, they had 40 more free throw attempts than the Lakers through the playoffs. Here are some other post game 7 observations. In the regular season, the Lakers committed the 3rd fewest fouls in the NBA, while the Celtics were among the worst fouling teams in the nba… 22nd out of 30 teams to be specific. Despite ...

Never underestimate the heart of a champion, nor their legs apparently. This was supposed to be the year LeBron James and Kobe Bryant would finally meet in the NBA Finals. It was supposed to be the year all those hard playoff games caught up with Kobe, and as his greatness ebbed, LeBron’s era would be ushered in with his first NBA championship, just as Michael Jordan‘s first championship came over Magic Johnson in 1991. And...

A study reported in the Wall Street Journal (of all places) found that the Boston Celtics whine about 48% of the fouls called against them. However Los Angeles hardly live up to their name (“the angels” in Spanish) either. The Lakers complained after 36% of the fouls called on them. The David Biderman’s very interesting article says they looked at every foul in the series that wasn’t intentional, tracked the...

In the past decade of NBA Finals match ups, the team with the most rebounds has always become the NBA's champions.

After game 1 of the 2010 Western Conference Finals, Amare Stoudemire famously said Lamar Odom had a lucky game. They’ve been giving Amare a hard time for that, but it’s starting to look now like maybe Amare was right. And while he was at it, maybe Amare should have called out Pau Gasol, Ron Artest, Andrew Bynum, Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown and Luke Walton. According to TNT analysts Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Reggie...

One of the remarkable things about the NBA's Final Four this year, is both the East and the West feature match ups between (1) a team with a dominate player surrounded by a "supporting cast," (Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant) and (2) a team with solid players all around, including the bench.

All this senseless Boozer bashing is going to drive one of the NBA's premier power forwards out of Utah. So far, Carlos Boozer has out rebounded everyone else in the 2010 playoffs! And in the regular season, Carlos had more double doubles than LeBron James, Pau Gasol, Chris Bosh, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Durrant and Amare Stoudemire. Who can Utah get that is better than Booze?

Carlos Boozer had a tough game 4 against the Lakers for sure, but the Jazz SHOULD have been beaten inside. Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum have a significant edge on Boozer, Paul Milsap and Kyrylo Fesenko. How do Derron Williams, Wesley Matthews and Kyle Kover justify losing outside game to the likes of Shannon Brown, Jordan Farmar and Derek Fisher? Just look at the shot chart for that disastrous 2nd quarter: the Jazz missed EVERY...

Chicago‘s long rap sheet for dirty politics added a chapter in the sports section yesterday when the Bulls announced they had fired head coach Vinny Del Negro. Chicago Bulls owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, once served on the Board of Directors of the now bankrupt and defunct Lehman Brothers, and is the recipient of the 2009 Sports Lawyers Award of Excellence. Neither of those distinctions makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside… But the...

The old television show, Hee Haw, used to have a popular sketch called “Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me.” Basically, 4 cast members dressed as hill billies would sit around singing humorous tales of how unlucky they were. One line from the chorus went, “If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.” The poor Springfield Armor may be tempted to take that song up as their theme song for this...

It is 39.8 miles from the David O. McKay Events Center in Orem, Utah to the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. For a fan, that journey takes 45 minutes (if you drive the speed limit). For a Utah Flash basketball player trying to work his way into the NBA, that journey can take most of a young lifetime. I invited a young high school basketball player I know to attend last night’s game between the Utah Flash and the Idaho...

On January 25, 2010, the Utah Flash hosted the Maine Red Claws. The Red Claws ended up thumping the Flash handily, but I thought the way this game played out provides some excellent insights on winning and on losing. Here is the scoring by quarter: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total Red Claws 29 15 27 36 107 Utah Flash 22 24 12 26 84 Check out the points scored by each team in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Wow, huh? A game like basketball has...