Out goes Steve Nash in the 2012 offseason to quarterback it in Los Angeles alongside Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Dwight Howard. In comes Kendall Marshall (North Carolina), recipient of the 2012 Bob Cousy Award.

When Kevin Love declared for the NBA Draft in April 2008, I shook my head. Like Tyler Hansbrough, who was dominating college basketball at the time, I thought of Love as only a college player. He didn’t have what it would take to muster a valid career in the NBA. He would average 10 and [...]

The last time these two teams squared off against one another, four players were ejected.
With the Lakers holding a comfortable 90-73 lead in the fourth quarter, Steve Blake drove to the basket, past the cement-shoed Jason Terry, who, being beat, pushed Blake in the back to the hardwood.
Tempers flared, testosterone levels quickly rose, and a [...]

Butler’s success doesn’t rest on the shoulders of one man, not Shelvin Mack, Matt Howard, or even coach Brad Stevens. The Bulldogs are the quintessential team with their defense leading the way. On each possession, they play hard-nosed, physical defense. They show at the right time and rotate to leave no man unguarded.
It isn’t about [...]

Can you explain the origin of your two legendary nicknames, Earl the Pearl and Black Jesus?
Earl “The Pearl” came from when I was in college my senior year. My first ten games of the season, I was averaging close to 50 points per game. A guy wrote a column and listed the scores of each [...]

Jeffrey Pillow of HOOPSADDICT.com talks to former Duke Blue Devils great Bobby Hurley, spokesman for the Dove Men’s Care campaign “Journey to Comfort.” Hurley was a member of Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s back-to-back NCAA Championship teams in 1991 and 1992, earning MVP honors for the latter campaign. He is the NCAA’s all-time leader in assists (1076) and [...]

I had the fortunate opportunity to speak with the legendary Earl “The Pearl” Monroe on Wednesday, March 2, 2011.
Named one of The 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, Monroe was selected by the Baltimore Bullets with the 2nd overall pick in the 1967 NBA Draft from Winston-Salem St., where he averaged 41.7 points per game [...]

Whether the media reports that Deron Williams played a key role in Jerry Sloan filing his retirement papers midway through the season have any factual basis or not, it was time Williams moved on from Salt Lake. And so it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut would say, the career of the NBA’s longest tenured coach at [...]

Jeffrey Pillow discusses Carmelo Anthony’s two most likely destinations, New York or New Jersey, and why neither is worth the paper the contract will be written on.