But Nash at least is on top of his game in the last few years in the playoffs he almost broke the assist record against the lakers. His teammates need to contribute more and D'Antoni needs to reinforce defense, yeah the Suns can score a lot of points but when the other team can play the same way and play defense you can never win a playoff series.

I agree with your assessments, but if Nash happens to win another M.V.P. award next year and dosen't AT LEAST take his team to the finals, then he's going to get labeled, it's just the way of things in the sports world........look at Peyton Manning before he and The Colts won it all last year, he was considered a choker, now he's not, it's not fair, it's just the way of things.

Pistons!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope nobody gets suspended for that little mishap in the spurs/suns game and great comeback by the suns last night.

Latest news - Stoudemire, Diaw suspended for 1 game; Horry for 2.

I think that's going to hurt the Suns more than the Spurs.

Bulls in 7. What I've seen from my hometown team (the Pistons) over the last 2 games with a chance to end this series has been absolutely pathetic. It has led me to believe that the Bulls really are the better team and the first 2 games and quarter and a half of game 3 were flukes and us just catching Chicago on bad nights. Not to mention the refs are going game 7 vs. SA and the entire series vs. Cleveland on us. Again.

I think the Pistons will take it. Admittedly I'm not as optimistic about the Suns especially with Amare and Boris Diaw out for one game.

Its not fair that Stoudemire and Diaw got suspended over an outdated rule yeah the got off the bench but they did not do anything, also the rule says they can't leave "the immediate vicinity of their bench" what does that mean. A foot away, two feet away, four feet away, up to the half court line. And they did not suspend Duncan when he left his bench to check out what happened after one of his teammates fell on the floor over a suns player after dunk in the same game.

Congrats to the Jazz on making it to the Western Conference Finals they should give the winner of the Spurs/suns game a good fight to the finals, they were the best team in the leagu for the first month i think and its looks like their in top form lately especially Kirilenko all of a sudden is playing great again.

That pistons loss does not look good and the suns beating the spurs on the road and being down by a lot for most of the game seriously puts doubt on my hope for a Spurs/Pistons final.

I agree, if David Stern can't use his better judgement as comissioner in a case like this, then I don't know what he's good for....Stu Jackson is no better.

The MVP award and David Stern. Two things the NBA need to get rid of.

Man, the Pistons are blowing it! C'mon, they HAVE to win Game 6. I think they will. They got scared, and they're going to come out like in Game 1.
The suspension to Diaw and Stoudemire will cause Phoenix to lose this next game. Sucks that the rule is so "black-and-white".

Man, even if the Pistons lost tomorrow and still won game 7 my faith in this team ever getting back to championship status would pretty much be non existent. I pray to God that they will finally take care of business and wrap this up or I *will* be the first to protest to get Flip Saunders out and/or start the rebuilding process.

As for the Horry-Nash situation, it's clear to me that Horry was trying to get into position to draw the charge but unfortunately for him was near the scorer's table so Nash could give an MVP acting performance of a lifetime.

im a golden state fan. lol too bad they blew it =[ oh and jus so u know theres a chance ull see me in there one day but lol i have a legit chance and no this isnt a pipe dream im 6'8 and averaged 24 points and 15 boards as a junior this year. lol i know yall prolly think im some crazy kid but i promise u will at least see me d1

Lets Go Spurs!!

How minding numbing are these conference finals?
The San Antonio Watching-Us-Play-is-Like-Watching-Paint-Dry-Only-Without-All-the-Excitements and the Utah Isn't-it-Ironic-That-the-Mormon-State-Once-Had-the-Dirtiest-Duo-in-League-History-in-Stockton-and-Malones.
I haven't watched a minute of that. Total yawner. David Stern must be yanking his hair out over the terrible ratings that borefest has to be getting.
And in the East we have the Detroit Yeah-I-Rooted-For-'em-In-the-Finals-a-Couple-of-Times-But-I-Still-Think-They-Play-Like-Nineties-Knicks against the Cleveland Yes-LeBron-is-The-Next-MJ-Stop-Crying-Kobe-He-Is-Just-in-The-Same-Situation-Jordan-Was-Before-He-Got-a-Team-Around-Hims.
That one I would watch, only while LeBron was on the floor, if I had the time.
Pretty sad, when I was growing up there were 10 or 12 guys I would watch play anytime.
Now there's three. Nash, Nowitzki (sp?), and King James. Other than that, what else is on? League is just terrible now. So sad.

^What!

Kobe, Wade, Shaq, Duncan, Ginoblie, Parker, Boozer, A.I., Carmelo, Gordan, Agent Zero, McGrady, Kidd, Billups, R Wallace, Bell, Davis, Deng, Bosh etc.

And potentially 5-8 future hall of fame players entering the draft from what has to be one of the best college class I've ever seen to enter the NBA and another 7+ feet Chinese player to come out of China who looks better then Yao.

I know the MJ era was amazing but the NBA today in my opinion is far better then NBA of the old. It evolved back to a point where it actually takes a team to win it all and not an superstar and a handful of decent players to win.

And people hype Jordan so much to the point that he is an NBA God and anything in comparison isn't good enough because of peoples rose tinted glasses. You saw that shot R Wallace made in the comeback win in game 2 against Cleavland if it were Jordan to make that shot everybody would of been chanting MVP, sport reporters would have been writing sonnets and poetry about it.

Kobe -- Over-hyped, arrogant and cancer to his team. Yes, he has immense talent, but everything else makes him unwatchable.
Wade -- Ok, I like him, but not enough to get me watching.
Shaq -- Uncalled offensive fouls 9 times out of 10.
Duncan -- "The Big Fundamental". Yeah, so fundamental and mechanical he is unwatchable. And if he is so fundamental, where is the free throw %?
Ginbobli -- Fast on Stockton's heels for the title of "Dirtiest Player in League History".
Parker -- Solid but not spectacular.
Boozer -- Hunh?! How is he even on this list? Role player.
A.I. -- Please, anyone whose career shooting percentage is 42.3% is not a scorer. Yes, Alan you scored 40 points but shot 50 times and your team lost by 20. Keep patting yourself on the back.
Carmelo -- Overrated.
Gordon -- He's all right. Helluva sixth-man.
Agent Zero -- Arenas is a good player. Not great, not making me run to my couch, but good.
McGrady -- See what I said about Iverson and change the name.
Kidd -- I like him. Just wish he could shoot. That jumper is painful to watch.
Billups -- Excellent system player. *See career before Detroit.
R. Wallace -- All right, makes me think of Sam Perkins with more fire and inside game.
Bell -- Do you mean Raja Bell?!
Davis -- Again, all right. I do like the way GS plays. A game of wind sprints.
Deng -- Overrated. Chokes worse than A-rod.
Bosh -- He plays in Canada, right? Haven't seen him since the Raptors aren't good enough, yet, to be televised.

Looking over that list I realize what I dislike about the league now. It is all marketing. "Hey, look how great Iverson is he averages 30 points a game! Can't pass to save his life and he's a point guard! But look at that PPG!"
Yawn. Gimme Mark Jackson and his 'Teardrop' or Dennis Johnson any day.
Hell, I'll even take Mugsy...

whats unwatchable about him that he is on a bad team, and currently threatening for a trade if the GM's don't get better players to complement him.


well when your the biggest guy in the NBA its expected all centers/heavy basketball players get offensive foul calls on them


O.k. you don't like mechanical players fine, but I guess you missed all those clutch free throws he makes when the game is on the line especially last night to but the jazz away


another dirty player critique what player with rings on their finger isn't a little dirty.


yet he has similar if not better career avg stats then the two guys you mentioned. Yeah i know Jackson is hall fame but come on Parker does not have the seniority yet were going to have to wait another 5-7 years to compare them.


James regrets he lost him to the jazz and he is the star player on the jazz and for a five year pro he is coming along good and getting the Jazz to the Western conference Finals in like forever has to count for something. And for like the First month or more they had the best record in the NBA this year until some players got injured. Hardly a role player.


I agree Marc Jackson is one of the best but, How can you say that again like Tony Parker he has similar or even better career avg stats then the guys you mentioned and did he not take a team to the NBA finals and you can't fault him on taking a lot of shots when all the players around him suck after Larry brown left. and the comparison isn't fair A.I. does not have the seniority as Jackson


Your willing to give Lebron James the benefit of the doubt to develop but your quick to over look Carmelo despite the fact unlike James he got his team to the playoffs in his rookie year despite ther lack of a solid center and point guard. But lets wait till next year and see what happens.


O.K. I'll say he needs more experience what he needs is a veteran who as been there before to get him over the hill, it isn't fair from his rookie year straight out of high school he was tagged as the team leader.


Well like Dennis Wayne Johnson he had to fight his way out of his mediocre tag and he probably did not peak his prime yet he has more to offer. But i do agree lately Billups and the pistons have not been playing well.


Again willing to give James a pass but a two year pro choking a little bit against a better team oh he is A-Rod and he choke all the time


Iverson was not always the point guard for a time he played as a shooting guard, so yeah he shoots a lot. and when was the last time the NBA marketed A.I. in fact the avoided A.I. through out his career. It was either Shaq or Kobe before, these days its Nash, Dirk, and James and whoever is the flavor of the week at some point.

Raja Bell was a bad example but he was phenomenal with Nash against the lakers and i like hoe he bothers people on D, but of course he could do nothing against Kobe.
You don't like Wad fine I think he is just as explosive as Jordan and yet to hit his prime, I'm convinced is he and Shaq were not coming off injuries Miami would be in the eastern conference finals today.


And how do you know the San Antonio and Utah series is boring if you have not watched it?

Not going to bother arguing about players, could go on for weeks. LOL.
I believe I said I liked Wade but not enough to get me to the couch. Most of that is Shaq's fault. Although watching him shoot free throws is amusing.
And how do I know the Utah/SA series is boring?
Serious mismatch.
See 3-1 Spurs lead. The two best teams in the West are out -- Dirk choked, but that probably had something to do with facing his ex-coach and the league just handed the Spurs the series against the Suns -- so it is a meeting of the mediocre. Plus, SA is in it. No way in hell it is interesting with those guys in it. Gimme a 135-134 game any night.
And before anybody says it, no it isn't because SA plays defense it is because they're dirty and deliberate. Like watching the NHL in the late 90s when anything short of sodomy was legal on defense.

Bryant asks for trade, says Buss masterminded trading O'Neal

The story lines that have engulfed the Los Angeles Lakers in the last week hit a crescendo Wednesday when Kobe Bryant said he would welcome a trade.

"I would like to be traded, yeah," Bryant said on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York. "Tough as it is to come to that conclusion there's no other alternative, you know?"

Bryant, interviewed by Stephen A. Smith, was asked if there was anything the Lakers could do to change his mind.

"No," Bryant said. "I just want them to do the right thing."

Earlier in the day, Bryant said team owner Jerry Buss masterminded the trade of Shaquille O'Neal -- and Shaq later confirmed Kobe's account.

The issues between Bryant and the Lakers have reached a boil, beginning with Bryant voicing his displeasure with the club's direction, his suggestion that Jerry West should return to fix things, West's statement that he has no intention of undermining GM/good friend Mitch Kupchak, and, unrelated but bizarre in its timing, Buss' arrest early Tuesday for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Bryant was left "beyond furious" by a report in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times that read, "as a Lakers insider notes, it was Bryant's insistence on getting away from Shaquille O'Neal that got them in this mess."

O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat after the 2003-04 season, and the long-held belief has been that the deteriorating relationship between O'Neal and Bryant was a factor in O'Neal's departure.

In response to the Times' story, Bryant, interviewed by Smith for a Philadelphia Inquirer column, said Buss "called a meeting with me after he spoke with Jim Gray [of ESPN] to talk with him about Shaq's future in the middle of the 2004 season.

"He met with me at the Four Seasons Hotel here [in Newport Beach, Calif.] across from Fashion Island, which is now the Island Hotel," Bryant told Smith. "I went up to his penthouse suite. [Buss] looks me dead in the face and says: 'Kobe, I am not going to re-sign Shaq. I am not about to pay him $30 million a year or $80 million over three years. No way in hell. I feel like he's getting older. His body is breaking down, and I don't want to pay that money to him when I can get value for him right now rather than wait.

"This is my decision. It's independent of you. My mind is made up. It doesn't matter to me what you do in free agency because I do not want to pay [Shaq], period.'"

"Dr. Buss said that," Bryant told Smith. "And I haven't said anything for years because I've always felt like folks were just looking to create controversy. Now I know. I realize what extent [the Lakers] will go to, to cover themselves."

Reached afterward, O'Neal told Smith that he believed his former teammate to be beyond reproach.

"I believe Kobe 100 percent," O'Neal said when reached in Los Angeles. "Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind Kobe is telling the truth. I believe him a thousand percent.

"I would have respected Dr. Buss more as a man if he would have told me that himself, because I know he said it. But he didn't [tell me]. He never said a damn word to me."

Buss was unavailable for comment Tuesday, as was Kupchak. Buss, 74, was booked early Tuesday for investigation of drunken driving and driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or above.

The Lakers missed the playoffs in the first season after O'Neal was dealt for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant and a first-round pick, and have been eliminated in the first round the last two seasons. O'Neal and the Heat won the NBA championship last season.

"Sure, Shaq and I had our issues," Bryant told Smith. "So what! We always did and we won three titles. That doesn't change what was told to me. It doesn't change the fact I never, ever, said to get rid of him."

While Bryant re-signed for $136 million for seven years the day after O'Neal was traded, he has pushed for trades -- he wanted Carlos Boozer, then Jason Kidd, then Ron Artest -- that the Lakers were unable to pull off. Meanwhile, Odom has undergone shoulder surgery but is expected to be ready for training camp in October; Kwame Brown has undergone reconstructive surgery on his left ankle and might not be ready for the start of camp.

And now Bryant, who reportedly has made it clear to the Lakers that he may see fit to terminate his contract in two years, has told Smith he won't continue to wait for Buss to build the roster around him.

"Promises made to make this team better have not been kept," Bryant told Smith. "So where does that leave me?"

ESPN

Haters owned saying it was Kobe's fault for running Shaq out of town and deteriorating the Lakers, it looks like it was DR. Buss the whole time.


My trade prediction
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/trad...ams=13~13~13~14 oh how hell would freeze over this trade
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/trad...ams=18~13~17~18 I'd sacrifice my left nut for this trade
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/trad...;teams=21~13~13
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/trad...~13~17~17~17~13




LOL at Sheed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCfXaw-AaYk

As usual when it comes to men like Dr. Buss(multi-millionares), it's all about the money. I love the "I'm gonna trade Shaq while I can still get value for him"......LMFAO....how did that trade work-out for The Lakers, in retrospect, anyway?

Who knows where Kobe will end-up....I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Philly....but it looks like whatever happens, The Lakers will have an ENTIRELY new look in the near future, and they have nobody to thank but themselves.

WooHoo San Antonio.....The Best In The West.....Way To Go Spurs!!

Looks like Lebron has awakened.

He still needs to work on his D.

Don't worry, the more he wins, the more he'll start to get awards handed to him that he himself will probably start asking "how the hell did I win this??"

How the hell Kobe Bryant gets on the NBA All-Defensive team is beyond me, not that he's particularly bad on defense, but he's not who I think of when I think "lock-down" defender.

Unless you're a white girl in a Colorado hotel room. then there's no way you're getting past him.

.....Damn, that was GOOD....I hope Kobe's got ALOT more $4,000,000 diamond rings, lol.

................................

Go Spurs.



Maybe Detroit can land Vince Carter? Or how about Rashard Lewis or Randolph? KOBE?

The only way they could do ANY of those things is if they let Billups walk, something they're NOT going to do.

People and writers (such as Mitch Albom) here in Detroit says it's time for a change, either coaching or players...I feel someone will be let go...

Well, apparently Flip Saunders is staying, and Joe Dumars and Co. would be fools for letting Billups walk, so who of consequence does that leave? Only Rasheed Wallace, Richard Hamilton, and Tayshaun Prince.....and which one of THAT three would you suggest moving?

the Houston Rockets are my favorite team....tracy mcgrady and yao are my favorite duo in the NBA

Someone disagreed with me...

Had to bump it.

....Waaaaaaaaaaaa Gwooooooooooooooooon!!! BLOODFIRE!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS SAN ANTONIO!!!

Hamiliton is our best player...He won't be going anywhere. I think Prince will be shopped around, as we need Rasheed as the PF.

WooHoo.....Congratulations San Antonio!

NBA CHAMPIONS!! #1

Tim Duncan

Tony Parker..MVP..

Congrats San Antonio...Don't downplay the hype, you ARE a dynasty.

Hamilton is they're best SCORER, but they're best all-around PLAYER is Prince, IMO. Defensively, offensively, and all things considered, he's The Pistons best PLAYER, IMO. To me, as good as Rasheed is, and as much as he's brought to that franchise, he's the odd-man out. IMO, you have to rebuild the franchise around Hamilton, Prince, and Billups.

Well done San Antonio....
But I think it is the worst final series ive ever watched... San Antinio showed Cleveland how team-play is important...

KAREEM GET'S ROCKED!

Well my Lakers got took out RIGHT AWAY! This whole playoff series was weak. Hated it, but I live in the West Coast So I'm just glad to see the West took it home this year.

So what you guys think about KG possibly going to the Lakers? I definitely think he should be traded out to somene.. he is too good of a player to continue wasting his talent on Minnesota. The big 3 it seems are stayng in New Jersey and with Kristic back next season I think they should make quite of a run, but I've thought that for the past few seasons and been wrong so who knows I'm also excited about my Raptors. They proved themselves last season and that was only the start. This next season I am looking for a 50+ wins.

KG is not going to be a Laker...but sadly I think he will be out of Minnesota by the start of the season.

The way it seems is KG won't be traded anywhere. Lakers are my team, but they need to give Kobe some help. He can't be the star player on his team and get them to the finals by himself. He was this years leader for the most points once again that's all he's ever going to be unless the Lakers get him some help!

DAMN!!!!

KG to the Suns? Stoudemire to the Hawks? The #3 and #11 picks in the draft PLUS Zaza Pachulia and Anthony Johnson to Minnesota?

More here!

LOL, times they are a changin!!!

Guess not...Detroit got Stuckey and Afflalo!

Two Guards?

That does not bode well for Mr. Billups, IMO. He might want to pick-up some "change of address" forms.

Scary thought, isn't it? However, the talk is that Billups will resign with DET. Detroit also needs Webber to come back...WE NEED A CENTER!

Well from what it seems my team the Lakers still are not going to have a powerfull team at all!