Archives › Rob Mahoney
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Norris Cole works out with LeBron James, gets introduction to Heat culture
Sep 8, 2011, 1:48 PM EDT
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The lockout has added upheaval to every phase of the NBA’s off-season, but the process has been particularly tumultuous for incoming rookies. The lucky rooks have been able to establish some kind of contact with their team (preliminary conversations with coaches or general managers, introductory press conferences, etc.), but there are plenty of other first-year…
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Welcome back to an ongoing series here at PBT, in which we examine the post-lockout course of action of every team in the league. Kurt kicked things off yesterday with a look at the Lakers’ preseason plans, and today we’ll dive into the docket sitting in front of the WORLD* CHAMPION Dallas Mavericks. Tomorrow you…
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Bargnani and Gallinari central figures in mini arms race between Italian clubs
Sep 1, 2011, 4:36 PM EDT
If the Pau Gasol trade proved anything it’s that the owners and operators of basketball teams are, occasionally to a fault, reactionary thinkers. Once the dominoes begin falling, some GMs just can’t help themselves, and before they know it they’ve traded a successful offensive system and a versatile two-way player for an aging Shaquille O’Neal.…
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The ‘Summer of Ron’ continues: Artest guarantees a championship for L.A.
Sep 1, 2011, 3:15 PM EDT
With the lockout having deprived the NBA world of summer league and a proper free agency period, fringe stories have all but taken over the scene. The overseas inklings of any relevant NBA player have become news, and while that’s certainly pertinent information if the lockout ends up costing the league games, it’s not exactly…
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DeJuan Blair may play in Russia, perceived injury risks be damned
Aug 31, 2011, 6:41 PM EDT
Among the flood of reported signings, flirtations, explorations, and interest between overseas clubs and NBA players, DeJuan Blair‘s name and news don’t create much of a ripple. He’s no Deron Williams, after all; Blair isn’t even a steady NBA regular at this point in his career, having squandered some of the opportunity given him as…
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The lockout drags on, but today NBA fans are given the slightest reason for optimism. Representatives for the NBA players and owners met today for a six-hour bargaining session, and though dialogue in itself isn’t enough to bring back the league we all know and love, the fact that meetings are going on at all…
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Luke Walton with a reminder: it’s not always fun to be an epitomic overpaid NBA player
Aug 27, 2011, 11:00 AM EDT
There are obviously worse things than being paid millions of dollars to play professional basketball, so many in fact that the experiences of NBA players are often discounted on the basis of their privilege. This, for the most part, is understandable; those who have much have less theoretical reason to complain, as a successful burst…
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Brandon Jennings reflects on his the beginnings of his basketball career, AAU life, and repping Compton
Aug 27, 2011, 9:00 AM EDT
If there’s any kind of underlying theme for the current lockout, it’s NBA players of all ilks returning “home.” For some, it’s less literal; plenty of young NBA players have returned to the college campuses they once called their own in an effort to complete their degrees and, in some cases, compete against the players…
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More delays for Ron Artest: Insurance issues bar deal with the Cheshire Jets
Aug 26, 2011, 7:15 PM EDT
It’s just not Ron Artest‘s week. First, he was linked to Dancing With the Stars — a pretty insidious affiliation, if you ask me. Then, his admirable gesture of changing his name to Metta World Peace was temporarily denied on the basis of outstanding traffic violations. A bummer, but one that will hopefully be resolved…
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The minds and hearts of men are truly curious in their workings; they devise brilliant plans, painful follies, touching connections, terrible deceits, and on occasion, ideas of incredible ingenuity and the potential to change the world. They also, apparently, conjure the idea to create a small edible figurine of Paul Pierce for undoubtable commercial gains.…
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Stephon Marbury inks a new deal in China, is exactly where he wants to be
Aug 26, 2011, 6:17 PM EDT
Stephon Marbury announced on Twitter yesterday that he has signed a new deal that will keep him in the Chinese Basketball Association, but his pleasant present didn’t stop him from stopping to reminisce about his unfortunate NBA past. His short stint with the Boston Celtics at the tail end of the ’08-’09 season couldn’t erase what…
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Rodrigue Beaubois still recovering from second foot surgery
Aug 25, 2011, 1:50 PM EDT
For a championship team, the Dallas Mavericks had their fair share of injury turmoil last season. Dirk Nowitzki‘s relatively minor mid-season injury is the kind of obstacle that effective teams can overcome, but losing Caron Butler — who had arguably been the team’s second best player — for the season was an incredibly substantial setback,…
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Rudy Tomjanovich served as the Lakers’ replacement head coach the last time Phil Jackson took his leave from the game, but Rudy T likely won’t be around to see the beginning of L.A.’s second post-Phil era. According to Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register, Tomjanovich — who had been retained by the Lakers in a…
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What can LeBron James actually learn from training with Hakeem Olajuwon?
Aug 10, 2011, 2:17 PM EDT
Few things in the world of pro basketball are fetishized more than mentorship, particularly when the part of the wise sage is played by an NBA legend. There’s just something about NBA greats — past and present — comparing notes that really sparks the imagination; the idea that some enlightenment could be gained through two…
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Russell Westbrook isn’t the most hated player in the NBA, nor is he the most criticized. Yet the baffling misreads of Westbrook’s game — which paint him as either incompetent of villainous — have persisted into the offseason, so much so that his name alone was somehow deemed a suitable taunt for Kevin Durant. It’s…
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Team USA Basketball — as both a B-side to the NBA brand and a prestigious, standalone entity — exists in a strange place, lockout or no. Participation in the program brings its own potential reward, but a gold medal will never be an NBA title. It’s an achievement that is entirely separate from the highest…
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On “clutch,” “choking,” and ships passing quietly in the night
Jul 25, 2011, 8:22 PM EDT
Those in and around the basketball community engage in debate on an incredible number of game-related topics. Yet in truth, most reasonable observers of the game share more common opinions than one might initially think. There are subtle differences — mostly relative ones discovered in the process of comparing one player or team to another…
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Ersan Ilyasova reportedly agrees to play in Turkey, may skip out on the Bucks
Jul 25, 2011, 6:38 PM EDT
The possibility of Deron Williams and the league’s top tier crossing the Atlantic to play their professional ball has all but consumed the day-to-day NBA chatter, but even the most solid bits of news on the subject come with a lack of permanence. Williams isn’t going to play in Turkey for the rest of his…
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The Blazers are in the process of selecting a long-term general manager after their inexplicable firing of Rich Cho, and it’s apparent that they’ll search high and low for possible candidates who fit best with the organization’s sense of itself. Why Cho didn’t fit with that vision is beyond me, but all of our second…
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While supplies last: Decorate your walls with the life-size image of Dan Gilbert’s son!
Jul 15, 2011, 6:17 PM EDT
The fact that Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert also happens to own Fathead, monopolizers of the vinyl wall decal industry, became NBA relevant last summer. As you may recall, Gilbert marked down the price of all LeBron James decals immediately after he chose to leave the Cavs, and worked in a Benedict Arnold zing in…
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Team and league employees have embraced a veil of feigned ignorance during the lockout, as if a refusal to speak the names or sport the images of the players changes any bit of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the current lockout. The league itself has imposed some hefty fines for any who violate the terms of…
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On Deron Williams and the NBA players who likely won’t be following him overseas
Jul 8, 2011, 4:53 PM EDT
Deron Williams, in his decision to suit up for the Turkish club Besiktas next season should the lockout continue, has officially opened the door for other locked out NBAers to seek employment elsewhere. The notion that top NBA players could jet across the Atlantic to play in European leagues is no longer a mere possibility;…
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Cleveland open to making another deal before the lockout officially begins
Jun 30, 2011, 8:08 PM EDT
At midnight tonight (or tomorrow, if you really want to be difficult), the NBA world as we know it will come to a grinding halt. Contact between players and teams will be reduced solely to a negotiative process that will determine the league’s short and long-term future, and all of the other off-season festivities —…
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Sleep easy, Heatians: Eddie House isn’t going anywhere. According to Mike Wallace of ESPN.com’s Heat Index, House has accepted his player option for next season and will spend the 2011-2012 campaign — in whatever length the lockout allows — with the Heat. House’s option is worth approximately $1.4 million next season, per Storytellers Contracts —…
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Sacramento, Toronto will futilely attempt to lure Tyson Chandler in free agency
Jun 30, 2011, 6:35 PM EDT
With the NBA a bit short on Dwight Howards these days, the prototype for an effective center has shifted to a slightly more attainable model: Tyson Chandler. The Mavericks’ center anchored an impressive half-court defense that could switch from man-to-man to zone and back effortlessly and fluidly, and has for the moment Chandler has become…
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Video: If Heat lose, 'all hell will break loose'
