Latest Eastern Stories
Posted: Jun 11th 2009 1:32 PM ET by Tom Ziller (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Eastern, Western

American sports leagues have often been fairly criticized for a lack of diversity at the management level. College football famously has problems fixed its incredible lack of blacks among its head coaching ranks, and pro baseball and football have faced the same talk in terms of its front offices.
But a recent study by the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport showed that
the NBA is doing it well. Women fill 43 percent of the league's "professional" positions, and the NBA remained the only major American professional sports league with a 'A' grade in both racial and gender diversity. The study also reported that over its history, the NBA has had more than twice as many black head coaches than any other league.
Posted: May 20th 2009 11:00 AM ET by Matt Steinmetz (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Cavaliers, Magic, Eastern, Playoffs, NBA Press Box

When the Magic-Cavaliers series begins tonight, two of the better passing big men will be on display: Orlando's
Hedo Turkoglu and Cleveland's
LeBron James.
At 6-foot-10, Turkoglu is a tough matchup for opposing defenses, and his ability to find teammates was a big part of Orlando's Game 7 win over Boston on Sunday. In that game, Turkoglu had 12 assists.
But we really want to focus on James here because, after all, it's his passing that has put him into an elite group of players. It's fair to say that James, all 6-foot-8 of him, is already one of the greatest passing big guys to ever play the game.
Posted: May 5th 2009 6:00 AM ET by Will Brinson (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Cavaliers, Celtics, Hawks, Magic, Mavericks, Nuggets, Eastern, NBA Fans, NBA Media Watch
Bloggers knee-jerking on the phone + roundtable style = RoundCast.Watson, Moore and I got on the phone late Monday night (East Coast FTW, until it comes to late night audio blogging) to talk about recent NBA activity. What we expected was a quick phone call -- yada-yada-yada,
Dwight Howard is awesome and goodnight, Irene -- but what we got was Watson attempting to anger every possible fanbase, our collective decision that the Celtics just are not that good and that the Nuggets might beat the Lakers but might not ... simply because they could lose to the Mavericks first.
Posted: Apr 20th 2009 11:00 PM ET by Will Brinson (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Bulls, Celtics, Eastern, NBA Last Night, Playoffs

You could forgive
Ray Allen for being a little timid coming into Monday night's game against the Bulls. He did, after all, shoot an embarrassing 1-for-12 in Saturday's playoff opener.
But after an equally miserable first half, Allen made up for the absence of
Kevin Garnett and overcame an outstanding performance by Chicago's
Ben Gordon. The Celtics guard scored 30 points and hit a series of big shots down the stretch, including the game-winner with two seconds remaining as Boston tied up its series with the Bulls 1-1.
Posted: Mar 18th 2009 8:03 PM ET by Tom Ziller (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Eastern, Western
The Rotation is a weekly study on the NBA by one of our All-Star voices. In rotation this week is Tom Ziller.
NBA owners continue to scream bloody apocalypse. The year 2011 marks the doomsday date, with the L-word -- "lock-out" -- graduating from whisper to constant ink. Non-basketball losses and flagging attendance (
see update, end of post) make every cent count, and apparently the stars of the show make too many of the dollars. "Two pounds of flesh or stay home," the owners warn.
But
David Stern assures you the NBA is fine. Thriving, even. Ratings boom nightly and the league's (to date) soft slip amid global economic Armageddon should reassure those who fret, Stern argues. A
$175 $200 million expansion of the league's credit store for franchises -- not a "bail-out," but further proof of the league's health!
Should we believe a commissioner preaching relaxation, or are the owners seizing with (some combination of) fear and blood-lust? Is the NBA really screwed?
Posted: Feb 13th 2009 5:43 PM ET by Shane Bacon (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Cavaliers, Eastern, NBA All-Star Game, FanHouse Exclusive
FanHouse is coming to you live from Phoenix, covering the 2009 NBA All-Star weekend. PHOENIX -- LeBron James is only 24, but a lot of things he does off the court suggest he's decades more mature than his actual age would suggest. FanHouse was at the All-Star media zoo on Friday, and before the East players made their way in and got settled at their interview positions, LeBron quickly visited each of the East players' interview stations.
Why was he doing this? Because he had some presents to give out.
Posted: Feb 10th 2009 10:09 PM ET by Matt Moore (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Pacers, Eastern

Everybody remember
Jamaal Tinsley?
The Pacers point guard often called "troublemaker" and "malcontent" hasn't been allowed to play or even practice for the team this season. While the Pacers are still writing his checks, they've made it clear to both Tinsley and his agent that there's just not enough room on the bus, if you buy what I'm selling.
There's a new wrinkle in this particular sale, though, and it seems to be expanding rather quickly. First the NBAPA today
announced that they're filing a grievance against the Pacers on behalf of Tinsley. Both sides probably have a case, but the fact that the Pacers removed his nameplate from the locker and sent his stuff to Atlanta (I hope he lives there) does not look good.
Now there's a new development on Tinsley that has him headed to... Charlotte?
Posted: Feb 8th 2009 7:14 PM ET by Matt Moore (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Cavaliers, Eastern
If I told you Sunday morning that
Kobe Bryant would suffer from such strong flu symptoms as to limit him to 19 points and two assists against the Cleveland Cavaliers, you might have assumed that LeBron and his merry men might have breezed to a victory.