NBA Western Conference

Latest Articles

Sports blotter: In the rough

Did Johan Santana go out of bounds? Plus, LT's self-abuse defense falls short.
Another day, another New York sports icon fends off a rape allegation.
By MATT TAIBBI | June 30, 2010

Sports Blotter: Dead Duck

Oregon's Masoli finally stalls out; plus, a World Cup ambush, and Florida strikes back
The saga of the University of Oregon football team grows sadder and sadder.
By MATT TAIBBI | June 24, 2010

While Boston chilled, LA burned. What makes fans in some cities go wild — win or lose?
On the morning that the Celtics and the Lakers readied for Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals, framing one of the most storied and intense rivalries in pro sports, the police departments of Boston and Los Angeles geared up for the worst.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 28, 2010

Bandwagon fans gear up

Benchwarmers
Only after buying a "Beat L.A." T-shirt, methodically checking ESPN for World Cup updates, and watching every installment of the NBA Finals with a religious fanaticism, has the hard truth settled in: I am a bandwagon fan.
By ANDREW STEINBEISER | June 16, 2010

Cardinal sin

Drunken golf-cart fun at Stanford; plus, an aspiring NHL goon takes his show off the ice
Here's one you don't hear every day. J.J. Hones, a point guard on the Stanford Cardinal women's basketball team, has been dismissed from the squad for a DUI. No big deal, right? Happens all the time in college sports.
By MATT TAIBBI | June 16, 2010

Bust busted

Keith McCants mccan't stay out of trouble; plus, another Clockwork Orange homage
Bring up the topic of biggest NFL draft busts of all time and most people come up with the same short list of notorious names, all of them quarterbacks.
By MATT TAIBBI | June 10, 2010

Phillip Merling: Oh, baby

A Dolphin gets flagged for illegal hands to face; plus, Zach Randolph resurfaces
This week's foul NFL news emanates from down South, where Miami Dolphins defensive lineman Phillip Merling was busted for assaulting his pregnant girlfriend.
By MATT TAIBBI | June 02, 2010

Parental advisory

The pros take a back seat to their misbehaving moms and dads
An exceedingly bizarre sequence of events transpired this past week — the parents of two different playoff-competing NBA players were arrested in separate incidents, one on each coast.
By MATT TAIBBI | May 26, 2010

White losers rejoice: Fletch celebrates 25 years

Thrill of the Chase Dept.
This holiday weekend marks the 25th anniversary of Fletch , the uneven but wildly enduring 1985 Chevy Chase comedy about a wisecracking reporter embroiled in a potboiler mystery.
By PETER HYMAN | June 03, 2010

Ten years of great sports

Boston's road from Loserville to Title Town
Moments after Adam Vinatieri's field goal split the uprights as the clock expired in the Louisiana Superdome on February 3, 2002, the streets of Boston were in bedlam. Drunk people dangled from trees and hung off lampposts. Motorists leaned on their horns. I saw a guy hug a cop
By MIKE MILIARD | December 22, 2009

The China syndrome

Kirk Snyder's strange tale gets stranger. Plus, Texas Lutheran's divine intervention.
There was always a little something off about Kirk Snyder, the onetime University of Nevada Wolf Pack star and NBA washout.
By MATT TAIBBI | December 16, 2009

Rube awakening

A former Jail Blazer returns to action. Plus, hugging it out at Portland State.
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Couldn’t you feel that void, that emptiness resulting from the failure of former LA Clipper and Portland Trail Blazer Ruben Patterson to get arrested for anything at all recently?
By MATT TAIBBI | December 02, 2009

Crossword: ''You want fries with that?''

Some people do
Some people do
By MATT JONES | November 18, 2009

Hoop nightmare

Len Bias’s death was more than just a basketball tragedy.
It wasn’t quite the world-shattering, where-were-you-when moment as the space shuttle Challenger exploding into cottony plumes earlier that year. But I still remember my naive and dazed disbelief upon hearing that basketball star Len Bias had died of a cocaine overdose on June 19, 1986
By MIKE MILIARD | October 28, 2009

Bridge to nowhere

What's in a name? Plus, a curious consultant, and bashing Obama.
The Department of Transportation has taken quite a few knocks in this space over the years. So to try to offset that, spurred by the story in the June 8 Urinal about the Pawtucket River Bridge, let us throw them a compliment: they do a hell of an artist's rendering.
By PHILLIPE and JORGE | June 10, 2009

Crossword: ''That's B. S.''

At least it's broken up
At least it's broken up
By MATT JONES | May 29, 2009

Love hurts

Tough times for Dirk Nowitzki. Plus, a Pitt Panther gets caught shooting blanks.
There've been some bizarre stories over the years involving gullible jocks and their inappropriate, multiple-alias-bearing girlfriends/wives.
By MATT TAIBBI | May 20, 2009

Deal or no deal?

Will the Globe 's biggest union balk at the Times Co.'s offer? Plus, the Christian Science Monitor 's quietly successful re-launch, and sportswriter Bill Simmons's GM jones
When the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Boston Globe 's largest union, decided to take the New York Times Company's latest contract offer to its members last week, ratification seemed like a done deal.
By ADAM REILLY | May 15, 2009

Just like old times

Two sports-crime all stars get busted again. Plus, another Bengal drops the ball.
Well, it's been a few months, so it's about time to check in on our old pal Todd Marinovich.
By MATT TAIBBI | April 15, 2009

Blue Balls

The word on the street is that sports are recession-proof — think again
It's one of the great myths of modern American life that, no matter what travesties befall us, sports will carry on unfazed.
By STEVEN STARK | April 15, 2009

95. Marko Jaric

MODEL F#%KER
Maybe Victoria’s Secret bombshells have a thing for goofy Serb point guards with eyes that are way closer to each other than they oughta be — but we don’t. With stats like Marko’s, this droopy-visaged Memphis Grizzlies scrub needs a lot more than Adriana Lima on his arm to escape the wrath of Unsexiness..
By Boston Phoenix Staff | March 25, 2009

Celtic crossed

If a certifiable crazy man is signed to your position, here is what you don't do: act weirder than him
It was nice knowing ya, Gabe Pruitt.
By MATT TAIBBI | March 04, 2009

The wild bunch

The 15 craziest athletes in Boston sports history
Stephon Marbury is just the latest in a long and illustrious line of Boston athletes whose tenure here was marked by kooky, flamboyant, inscrutable, or bad behavior.
By MIKE MILIARD | March 04, 2009

How weird is Stephon Marbury?

Brace yourselves for the Starbury show, starring Stephon Marbury — perhaps the strangest pro athlete ever to suit up in a Celtics uniform.
In 1994's The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams , author Darcy Frey offers potent evidence that the matchlessly bizarre Celtic Stephon Marbury dates back at least to early adolescence.
By ADAM REILLY | March 10, 2009

Sports blotter: Walker wiggle

Call a cab, genius
The last couple of weeks have sucked for Celtics fans.
By MATT TAIBBI | January 14, 2009

Blount's blunts

Sports blotter: "Gone to pot" edition
Let’s just say it’s been a while since we’ve seen a pound-worthy entry to the annals of pot busts, as we did this week.
By MATT TAIBBI | December 19, 2008

Crossword: ''So cute''

If it gets any cuter, I'll get a toothache.
If it gets any cuter, I'll get a toothache.
By MATT JONES | October 22, 2008

Crossword: ''Hit the bricks''

A classic case of one-upmanship
A classic case of one-upmanship
By MATT JONES | August 20, 2008

New Mexico

Sports blotter: "Marcus Vick and more" edition
According to news reports, Lavender was drunk and disorderly on the streets of Cincinnati on April 6 when cops asked him several times to move away from an intersection.
By MATT TAIBBI | June 25, 2008

Bad sports

While old and new media are mending many fences, they’re still squaring off in jockland
When historians trace the rise of the blog as the dominant journalistic form of the 21st century, they’ll pay close attention to two recent developments.
By ADAM REILLY | June 18, 2008