The announcement arrived today. NYC native and one of the illest, most unique talents to ever rise from the city asphalt, Chris Mullin, has been elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In lieu of the great news, I’m rewinding this selection from a couple of years back, as we celebrate Mo’s achievement.

Christopher Paul Mullin was a simple, neighborhood guy from Troy Avenue in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn. The love affair with hoops was a multi-generational thing that began in the driveway of the family’s small row house. Read More »

photo: corbisimages.com

Tonight, The Celtics and Knicks will play their first meaningful game in quite some time. Back in the day, when the incomparable Larry Bird and Bernard King were battling, the divisional rivalry was tangible.

In addition to Boston and New York being two of the three remaining original 11 NBA franchises (the Warriors are the other), the teams have had 12 postseason battles, with each walking away with six series victories. Read More »

photo: sfgate.com

Last night, Golden State’s Monta Ellis continued his torrid opening season stretch by posting 39 points, eight assists and nine rebounds in the Warriors’ 115-109 victory over Memphis. He scored 17 of his teams final 21 points, exploding and elbowing his way onto the start-of-season landscape that seemed solely reserved for Kevin Durant, LeBron, D-Wade, Kobe, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo and the phenomenal rookies John Wall and Blake Griffin. Read More »

And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Thanks to the historic rampage that the Lakers went on last night in their 89-67 victory, the basketball universe will be treated to a delicious winner-take-all Game 7 tomorrow evening. The last time we saw Kobe Bryant in Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden, he was fighting by himself, seemingly buck naked, like the Asian dude in the movie, The Hangover, when he hops out of the trunk and causes some bodily harm before escaping into the desert to bring back re-inforcements.

After Game 5, it was apparent that if the Lakers had any chance of successfully defending their title, Kobe would need his entire supporting cast to step up and be counted. And in Game 6, that’s just what happened. And then some! Read More »

Basketball, broken down to its simplest compound, is about scoring more buckets than the team you’re playing against. The Semi-Automatic refers to players who leave bodies in their wake with their innate ability to get buckets. And last night, Kobe Bryant added another jewel in the crown of his stellar career by becoming the Los Angeles Lakers all-time leading scorer, thanks to his 44-point outburst against the Grizzlies. Read More »

photo of the unc’s dean dome: peterkrogh.com

The North Carolina Tar Heels. The legacy of this esteemed college basketball program conjures up words like prestige, championships, class and dominance, along with Hall of Fame names like Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Dean Smith. They’ve won 27 ACC regular season titles, 17 ACC tourney titles, competed in 18 Final Fours and captured five National Championships.

The question that begs to be answered is how did the program ascend to such rarefied heights. Read More »

photo: sheepy712.files.wordpress.com

The scam went down like this. A skinny kid named Reggie would be tossing up jumpers at the John Adams Elementary School and other playgrounds in Riverside, California. His older sister, Cheryl, would be at the other end of the court, tossing up bricks. Sometimes, she would wind up and heave the ball over the backboard and into the chain link fence.

Reggie would approach a couple of kids and the convo normally went down like this -

“You guys want to play two-on-two? I’m waiting for my man to show up. Or I can just play you with my sister down there.” Read More »