Eric Gordon to become one of the most fearless dunkers in November 2010

Erci Gordon is a frequent participant in the NBA November highlights with his dunks.
He dunked over Tim Duncan & made another jaw-dropping dunk in the game versus Spurs:



Then he dunked in the game vs Utah:

Russia to beat Greece & capture second place in the group

Surprisingly, Russians have beaten Greece & had some great moments during the game:

It was rumored, that the Greeks deliberately lost in the game in order not to face Spain in 1/8 Finals. I'm a bit skeptical about that because the score was close & there were moments that showed that Greece was really trying to score & win, but the irony is that Greece faces Spain anyway.

Best moments & dunks from Sprite Slamdunk Showdown

Former NBA players to participate in Russian Slamdunk Contest

Even former NBA slamdunk champ Gerald Green was there, as well as James White & Pops Mensah-Bonsu. Among other participants there were Russian players Igor Tkachenko and Viatcheslav Zaitsev.

All players showed some very decent dunks.

Ty Lawson Drives, Elevates, and Slams

Charles Barkley vs Dwyane Wade 1 on 1

Unfortunately not in full but anyway interesting

Eastern conference Finals: Will Cavs win?

Cavaliers unexpectedly (unpredictably, rather) lost their Game 1 vs Magic. For some reason Cavaliers were rarely scoring at the end of the third quarter and let Orlando come to the one-basket distance. And the game was won by one basket: Rashard Lewis hit a three-pointer, the game-decisive trey. I think Cavs will even it tonight but the whole series will be tough for the both teams and Cavs will win it either 4-3 or 4-2.

PS If you wanna score when Lebron is near you better dunk. Dwight wasn't dunking at James' high-flying and got blocked. Cortney Lee & Pietrus dunked and that's why they didn't get blocked by Lebron

Funny: Shaq gives Nate Robinson a lift

Shaquille O'neal punches a fan in the face

That's what you get when you pay for expensive tickets

Jamario Moon - inhuman rebound

Jamario proved with this rebound that if he's not from the Moon then he's at least not from the Earth.

NBA Twitter Report: Top NBA players using twitter

We all know that twitter is the most successful Web 2.0 start-up which has surpassed in popularity other social networks.

NBA players have also paid attention to this short messaging service. One of the first NBA players I personally followed were Shaquille O'Neal and Nate Robinson. Among other NBA stars one can found on twitter such players as Jason Richardson, Steve Nash, Paul Pierce, Chris Bosh etc. Of course, there are many chances to come across a fake account when somebody proclaims he's the real Lebron James or D-Wade. Luckily, there is a twitter account with a self-describing name NBAPlayers, whose owner double checks and asks for proof so it's easier for you to be more or less sure that a certain twitter account belong to a respective NBA player.

For that reason I'd recommend to follow NBAPlayers, meanwhile I decided to find out how often NBA players twitter and which ones are most popular.

So, let's begin.

First of all, I summarized in the chart below who is the most fruitful twitterer. Without a surprise I discovered it was Shaq.



Shaq's got more than 1,200 tweets, while Charlie Villanueva, ranked second, got less than 1,000 tweets. You can also notice in the list Eric Snow, who isn't an active player anymore and has become an NBA analyst.

Then, I tried to find out who is the most popular NBA player in the twitter community. No wonder it's Shaq again, though the top list has some significant changes form the first one:



Shaq is again totally unreachable by others with more than 800,000 (!) followers, Paul Pierce has got more than 200,000 (looks like plenty of Boston Celtics fans use twitter), Jason Richardson is ranked 10th with slightly more than 13,000 followers.

Let's now find out who's got most friends on twitter (in other words, following other people's twitter accounts):




Now Shaq has surprisingly not captured the first position giving it up to Paul Pierce while going down to the third one. Jalen Rose is second. It gives me the reasons to suspect that it's not just Paul Pierce writing to his twitter account, because I found a lot of references to his website and other promotion programs. I think people managing his website decided to seriously use twitter as a marketing tool.

As for Shaq, I think he manages his twitter account alone. He doesn't tend to spoil his tweets with ads and that's the reason, imho, why he's ranked as one of the most popular twitterers overall (not only among athletes).

This brief overiew has been prepared with the help of such great web tools as Twitter API, Yahoo Pipes and Google Spreadsheets.

Russian Massmedia: Kobe Bryant to Play in Russia for $40 million

Due to financial crisis it's now not a surprise that basketball players prefer to play in Europe - EUR/USD ratio difference is almost 40% and getting same money but in euros, thus by 40% more is a very attractive prospective.

We all know about Josh Childress, Garbajosa, Arroyo coming back to Europe.

But one of the most attractive destinations for NBA players could be Russia. Again, it's not a surprise, since laundrying oil money via proffesional sports is a standrd schemes.

Russian basketball league (It's called Superleague, ha-ha)has an overwhelming amount of foreign players (that's, probably, one of the reasons why Russians failed in Beijing). While European and, soon or already, American stars play games, Russian players sit on benches.

It's also no news anymore that Carlos Delphino will play in Russia (he will be a teammate of Jorge Garbajosa and Milt Palacio - also a former NBA player). Janero Pargo after a very successful season for New Orleans Hornets left NBA for Russia as well. Bostjan Nachbar will start the upcoming season for a Russian club as well (he will join Travis Hansen).

Nenad Krstic has also left New Jersey Nets for a Russina club named Triumph.

As we can see, more and more strong players left NBA to play for Russia. there are no superstars so far, but who knows, esspecially after an interview given by Kobe Bryant to Russian journalists ( after USA Team beat Russian Team in a pre-olympic game).

In reply to a question whether he might follow his NBA colleagues and come to play in Russia Kobe said "I'm ready to play in Russia for $40 million a year". And he was absolutely serious.

So now it doesn't seem so impossible...

Boris Gorentc - story coming to its end

Boris Gorentc announced about finishing his career due to knee injuries. That's how high-flyers and dunkers usually end their careers.
You probably haven't even heard about him. Few people know that he was even signed by Chicago Bulls in 1997 and he had a chance to practice with Michael Jordan (Unfortunately, he was waived a month after being signed thus having not played a single official NBA game).

He was known for his solid skills and excellent leaping ability for a white basketball player. He participated in a Slovenian slamdunk contest versus Marco Milic in 1995. I suggest to watch this video:

HORFORD is HORror for tj FORD

Well, it really looked like he did it unintentionally, but still it was awful to see him do like this: T. J. Ford was about to score on a fast break after he had stolen the ball but the rookie Al Horford hit him in the face from behind. TJ Ford fell down on the floor on his back. Watch:

here or here.

Andrei Kirilenko Swats Yao Ming

"Not in my house!" said Kirilenko and blocked Yao Ming's shot.

Luol Deng insults Yao Ming

This time it's Chicago Bulls' Luol Deng fearlessly dunking in the face of Yao Ming

2 Americans lead Russians to Gold Medals in Eurobasket 2007

Believe it or not, but it's true! Russians win the Eurobasket 2007 beating in the final game the Spanish team (who are the world champions). The Russian national basketball team has been led by J. R. Holden who is an American citizen but was offered russian citizenship and invited to the Russian team.
The head coach is Davit Blatt who is also an American citizen.
The Russian team was an underdog prior to the tournament. Moreover, Russians lost to Spanish team a few games before. But then they became unstoppable. Frenchmen with their leader and 3 time NBA champion Tony Parker were defeated. Then Lithuanian team was also defeated. Even Jasikiavichus was unable to help.

The Spanish team with their leaders Pau Gasol, Calderon, soon-to-be an NBA player Rudy Fernandez was waiting for their turn.

Nobody believed in Russians. But a unique talent of David Blatt, J. R. Holden, NBA players Andrei Kirilenko and Victor Khryapa and their and other Russian players' great desire to win helped them win by one point in the final seconds of the game. That was J. R. Holden who made the game-winning shot!

And Russian basketball team are headed now to Beijing ranking as the champions of Europe.

Watch the highlights of the final seconds of the game:

Basketball Club battling versus the whole country

There is a good article which can be found on the blog of the head coach of CSKA Basketball club (CSKA) Ettore MESSINA. Last year they won the Euroleague championship title which the second strongest championship in the world (after NBA, of course).
As you know last fall CSKA beat Los Angeles Clippers and lost to Philadelphia 76ers.

Ettore MESSINA is famous for his coaching style, intelligence and brilliant quotes. So let me cite his notes on what he thinks of the latest loss to Maccabi (Tel-Aviv):

This year we enter the playoffs in a completely different situation. Last year we weren’t considered favorites due to David Andersen’s injury. When we played against Efes Pilsen, we knew we were facing an opponent we could beat, not that we had to beat. Pressure was high, but not as high as it’s now. Eventually, we managed to perform well under pressure, though the first home game was tight and the away game was extremely tight.

This year the majority of specialists around Europe predict that we defeat Maccabi and advance to Final Four. There are almost no doubts on the subject. Read players’ previews on Euroleague official site and you’ll see that everyone says CSKA will make it to Final Four.

These opinions are based on our good performance in Top 16 and regular season. However, great record does not guarantee the title. Last year Unicaja headed to Top 16 with the best record in regular season, then lost it's first home game and finally did not make it to the playoffs.

I remember that and I was worried back in Top 16 when we faced Joventut. Then the pressure went down as we played some very good games, like the one against Olympiacos in Piraeus, and qualified for the playoffs.

This year’s situation reminds me a lot the one I had in Kinder during my last season with that club. It also reminds the situation you had here in Moscow back in 2005 when you hosted Final Four.

In Kinder, we had a totally different team. We had very young players at some positions. We had young Becirovic and other players felt we were cutting down their game time to give more to him. This resulted in an imbalance. Rashard Griffith, our starting center, was recovering from an injury. We were struggling a lot that season. We lost 5 or 6 games by a wide margin.

Now, we’re in a more dangerous situation. As we went smoothly through the season and Maccabi struggled due to fact they changed some key players and the coach, general opinion is that we will win the series.

But it’s not that simple. First of all, when you face Maccabi, you face the whole country. Maccabi is by far the most popular team in Israel. They have the support and faith of their fans. Look at the results of the last three Final Fours and you’ll see this kind of support might be a source of a huge advantage.

Second, they kept some key players with strong personality like Sharp, Burstein and Vujcic who are able to lead the team in difficult moments. They are experienced players who know how to handle the pressure and how to perform in crucial episodes.

The players who replaced Solomon, Baston and Parker are not at that level yet. But they have the potential to explode in big games. Maccabi invested a lot in young players and they are already making a big contribution. For example, Jasaitis, who played for Lietuvos Rytas last season. Spahija liked him so much he took him to Maccabi.

Third, Spahija is one of the best coaches in Europe. I know him since he worked in Italy. He’s an intelligent person, he rarely overreacts and he knows exactly how to prepare the team to win.

Maccabi’s game is very similar to what they had last year. Spahija intelligently kept a great part of the system. For example, transition, pick-and-roll and Vujcic playing in the high post looking for an open man. Spahija also made little adjustments as he had some new players. For example, he has some screening offense for Jasaitis and Sharp who are his best shooters. He created some situations for Bynum, who’s very quick, to attack one-on-one. But the core of the system is there. It makes Sharp, Vujcic and Burstein feel confident in the system. It would have been much more difficult for Spahija to change the system completely.

Of course, Spahija doesn’t have the openness of character Pini Gershon has. Pini could keep the stage by himself. He’s not only the coach with strong personally, but also the person who attracts the spotlight. Everybody is fascinated by his way of dealing with press, fans and players. Pini and Neven have 15 years of difference which is also a factor.

Finally, the most important thing, Maccabi doesn’t feel any pressure. Everybody expects us to win.

I must say I’m extremely concerned about the way we performed in Rostov. I’m not the one who thinks it’s easy for a team to switch the light on and off like that, on call. I never believed to those who say it’s normal to relax a little bit and to lose before such important games, like the ones against Maccabi. I believe in the continuity and in the power of habit. Only a habit of keeping concentration could help you to perform well on a regular basis.

I’ve already said that after our losses to UNICS and Khimki, but I would like to repeat it. Every time this team lost a game, it always bounced back with a good performance. I hope it will be the case this time as well.

For three days before the game against Lokomotiv Rostov we had prepared well. We knew that Rostov is a good team who had already defeated Dynamo. In my opinion, Lokomotiv Rostov and Spartak Saint Petersburg are the most improved teams this year. We knew that this was going to be a difficult game. Probably, we didn’t have little fear of losing inside ourselves that it’s so important to have sometimes. Now, we have some fear of losing.

I expect the series to be extremely difficult. It will be a battle: two good teams playing with their hearts, two strong organizations with solid backgrounds. I do not even rely on the home court advantage as Maccabi is used to play on the road. And, no doubt, they will have fans over here.

This year we will have tough playoffs in Euroleague as well as in Russian championship. In Russian league, all teams have improved their rosters as compared to last year. They got better technically and physically. So we will need an extra portion of mental, physical and technical preparation.

We have to work harder than ever to deserve to go to Final Four this year.

Source: http://sports.ru/blog.html?blogid=377958

Dwyane the Hero: Wade refused to go under the knife

Dwyane Wade has behaved like a man. He refused to undergo a season-ending surgery just in order to help his team clinch the playoff birth. Though chances for Miami Heat to with the championship are, frankly, low.

"He's a warrior. He's a soldier. And these are his guys," Pat Riley said. Though Dwyane Wade's dislocated left shoulder is so fragile there's a risk of aggravating the injury even when he sleeps.

Source: Yahoo! Sports

Shaq Break Dancing

You've probably heard that Shaq had shown some of his dancing skills prior to All Star Game beating easily LeBron James and Dwight Howard in this humorous contest. Let's see how it was: