Archives › Kurt Helin
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The Club vs. Country debate. You’ll see it this summer first in South Africa, when some major world power soccer club will lose a star player to injury next season when that player gets hurt playing for his country in the World Cup. Is it fair to the club teams that pay these guys millions…
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Amare Stoudemire: "I never had a clue on how fun defense really is because we never played it"
Apr 24, 2010, 1:05 PM EDT
It’s seemed a revelation in the playoffs, but the Suns started playing defense just after the All-Star Break. Seriously. They kept putting up the mountains of points, but from the All-Star Game to the end of the season, the Suns were 12th in defensive efficiency in he league (according to ESPN’s John Hollinger). Not great,…
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Amare Stoudemire: Should he stay or should he go now? He's talking extension with Suns.
Apr 24, 2010, 12:01 PM EDT
We’ve all been sizing up Amare Stoudemire for a new look. Maybe a Heat uniform for next season. Or a Bulls uni. Or maybe a Nets jersey. What about a Suns white and orange jersey? Sure, that’s the team he’s about to opt out from, surrendering $17.5 million for next season to get a long-term…
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Manu Ginobili breaks nose, keeps right on playing, like he's a hockey player
Apr 24, 2010, 10:26 AM EDT
Dirk Nowitzki’s elbows, which earlier this year helped provide Carl Landry a painful reminder about the importance of regular trips to the dentist, now are helping Manu Ginobili get a nose job. Early in the third quarter of game three Friday night, an inadvertent Nowitzki elbow caught Ginobili on the nose and broke it. But…
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NBA Playoffs: Paul Pierce puts the nail in Miami's coffin
Apr 24, 2010, 10:01 AM EDT
This series is now over. They will play another game Sunday, and people in Miami will speak of the 2004 Red Sox, but they shouldn’t. This is done. This shot by Paul Pierce ended it.
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NBA Playoffs: Wade gives last full measure of devotion, then Pierce wins it for Boston
Apr 24, 2010, 9:54 AM EDT
Dwyane Wade has carried the weight of the Miami Heat franchise — and carried underachieving teammates — through 82 games. He carried them through the first two games of their playoff series with the Celtics, averaging 27.5 points per game while nobody else averaged more than 10. He did it again in game three, for…
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You didn’t really think Phil Jackson — make that the recently fined Phil Jackson — was going to let David Stern’s “I should have suspended them to start with” comments go unchallenged, did you? That’s not how Phil works. Here is the transcript from Scott Howard-Cooper at NBA.com’s Sekou Smith’s Hangtime Blog. “I think when…
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New Orleans Hornets sale reaches "impasse," could impact coaching search
Apr 23, 2010, 5:08 PM EDT
They are selling hope in New Orleans. Team personnel are speaking glowingly of the future as the team aggressively goes after name coaches. But a dark cloud has returned over the New Orleans Hornets franchise. The sale of the team, something considered basically a done deal, is now stalled. The Associated Press has he story:…
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NBA Playoffs: Andrei Kirilenko thinks he can be back for game six
Apr 23, 2010, 3:34 PM EDT
It can’t last, can it? The Jazz can’t keep winning with nobody healthy left on the front line, can they? Well, yes they can. Their offensive system is a troublesome match for Denver. Doesn’t mean they wouldn’t mind the help. Andrei Kirilenko wants to be the cavalry. The Russian Cavalry in their Cossack uniforms, but…
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Remember JJ Hickson? That rookie that caught your eye with his energy off the Cavaliers bench? Mike Brown doesn’t seem to. The second half of he season Hickson gave the Cavaliers 10.4 points on 56 percent shooting, pus six boards a game in 23 minutes every game. He was a quality role player off the…
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NBA Playoffs: Is Kevin Durant really a Kobe stopper? Or was Kobe the Kobe stopper?
Apr 23, 2010, 2:19 PM EDT
Kevin Durant is being treated like basketball royalty today — he stepped up like a superstar should. With the game on the line, he asked to cover the other team’s best player. He went mano a mano with Kobe Bryant. That takes stones. He deserves the praise. And the Thunder won. That is ultimately how…
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David Stern can see retirement, and probably a little condo in Florida, in his future
Apr 23, 2010, 1:18 PM EDT
When David Stern took over as commissioner of the NBA, Ronald Regan was an active president not an airport. Apple had just introduced the first Macintosh, not the iPad. Footloose was a brand new movie, not a musical. Larry Bird (the player not the team president) would lead his Celtics over Magic Johnson (the player…
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NBA Playoffs Suns-Blazers game 4: Batum re-injures shoulder, likely out
Apr 23, 2010, 11:33 AM EDT
Nicholas Batum did what you are supposed to do for the playoffs — play through it. In game two he injured the shoulder he has had surgery on last year, one that cause caused him to miss 45 games this season, but was able to lift it so he was able to play in game…
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Stan Van Gundy says something logical about MJ, backlash sure to follow
Apr 23, 2010, 11:02 AM EDT
Blasphemer! Blasphemer! The current religion of the NBA is that Michael Jordan is the best player ever. He is THE GOAT. Not up for debate. He won six titles, scored at will, was the best defender ever, lifted the NBA to new heights, cured polio and invented the cell phone. Who would dare question him?…
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Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook earns no bonus points for beating Derek Fisher off the dribble — that’s a gimme — but he does for knifing through the Lakers big men and throwing it down over Lamar Odom. Respect My Authoritah! Our own Matt Moore breaks down exactly how this came about over at Hardwood Paroxysm.…
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Personally, I see nothing wrong with this. I think it’s an improvement to his name. But I could be biased here. ESPNChicago has let us in on an inside joke in the Bulls media circle — coach Vinny Del Negro consistently gets guard Kirk Hinrich’s name wrong. Chicago Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro, long an…
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Drowned out in all the noise in Oklahoma City was another milestone for Kobe Bryant — on a third-quarter 16-foot jumper he passed Jerry West to become the all time leading playoff scorer. Bryant now has 4,465 points scored in the playoffs, putting him eight in front of West. Earlier this season he passed West…
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The name Milwaukee comes from the Algonquian tribe word for “good land.” The Atlanta Hawks Josh Smith would like to disagree with that. Taking the bait from reporters, the Hawks athletic power forward started a little war of words bound to sit poorly with Milwaukee residents, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “There’s pretty much…
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“Even the Amens are loud.” –Lakers coach Phil Jackson’s comment to TNT’s Craig Sager about the crowd at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City after a benediction before the game.
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NBA Playoffs: Oklahoma City plays like veterans and the Lakers fold under pressure, just like we expected
Apr 23, 2010, 3:29 AM EDT
Everyone expected this to be a series of close games, of exciting finishes. In the end, it would be the team with the calm demeanor, the team that played like they seen pressure like this a thousand times and knew how to handle it that was going to win. Oklahoma City, of course. Thursday —…
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Players are complaining about refs, Commissioner David Stern is fining them. Coaches are complaining about the refs, Stern is fining them. I think if he could fine this and other blogs, he would. But in comments to the media before the Lakers/Thunder game, he admitted that Pandora’s Box is open and the toils and sickness…
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John Wall announced what we all knew — he is declaring for the NBA Draft. He will go number one overall (sorry Evan Turner). The only real suspense is who will be his agent, as Associated Press pointed out. “If I get that No. 1 pick, it’s going to be a dream come true,” said…
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Delonte West’s court date for a series of gun and traffic charges has been delayed again. It now is set for July 21, which would be well after the end of the season, which is good news for the Cavaliers in the playoffs. Brian Windhorst had the details at the Cleveland Plain Dealer: After a…
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Caron Bulter was chewing straws — only McDonald’s straws — during games for a decade before he came to Dallas and the league suddenly decided it was suddenly dangerous. Right. Tons of logic there. Regardless, Caron Butler knows his straws. He is a straw Jedi. Do not doubt the man.
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Rasheed Wallace fined for saying referees baited him into a technical
Apr 22, 2010, 6:44 PM EDT
Rasheed Wallace picked up a technical in the Celtics game one win over Miami. Also the sun rises in the east, Hawaii has great beaches and Dane Cook’s 15 minutes are up. (Well, maybe we’re just hopeful on that last one.) But Sheed apparently thought he had too much money and wanted to pay some…
