NBA Atlantic Division

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Rocky pot

It's murder time in Tennessee; Plus, Warren Sapp gets flagged for hands to the face
Late last May, a goofy-looking guy named Charles Austin Corn — a student at the University of Tennessee — was shot in South Knoxville in what looked like an attempt to rob his stash. He was unable to communicate with police after the shooting and died five days later.
By MATT TAIBBI | February 17, 2010

Texas stranger

A Dallas fullback plays cowboys and valets; Plus, the Laird brothers learn from their elders
Gilbert Arenas, you might've started something.
By MATT TAIBBI | February 10, 2010

Slam Dunk Season

How the Red Claws took Portland by storm
Back in the fall of 2008, WJAB sports guy Chris Sedenka hosted Red Claws bigwigs Jon Jennings and Bill Ryan Jr. on his afternoon radio show. They were solidifying their plan to bring an NBA development league basketball team to Portland, Maine, a scheme that — in other circumstances, under others' supervision — had been previously unsuccessful.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | February 03, 2010

NBA shoot-around

Gilbert Arenas brings the Bullets back to Washington. Plus, a D-lineman dustup.
Sometimes, even superstar athletes just wear out their welcome. When Gilbert Arenas came into the league back in 2001, and especially after he moved to the Wizards in '03, "Agent Zero" was poised to be the next big thing in basketball.
By MATT TAIBBI | January 27, 2010

Throwback shame

Nice try, Tiger. But sports crime in 2009 was ruled by the ghosts of Foxboro past.
Well, another year in sports crime has come and gone.
By MATT TAIBBI | January 11, 2010

Let’s recap

Balls, Pucks, and Monster Trucks
With the decade drawing to a close, it's fitting to reconsider the moments and developments of the last 10 years that forever changed sports in Portland and New England.
By RICK WORMWOOD | December 30, 2009

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

Goal rush!

How long can Boston's frenetic sports-media explosion last?
Get two journalists in a room these days, and before the conversation is five minutes old they'll probably be kvetching about the grim state of the news business. Unless, that is, they happen to be sports journalists, in which case the conversation will likely focus on how absurdly bright the future looks. Especially here in Boston.
By ADAM REILLY | December 02, 2009

ArtBar

A pleasantly unpredictable treat sneaks out of the shadows
How do we find hidden gems? You can't just look under the radar. Sometimes the hiding place is behind a famous name, as is the case with ArtBar.
By ROBERT NADEAU | November 16, 2009

Jason returns

Publisher stuffs game-fixer Tim Donaghy's book idea; Antoine Walker's broke
As next week will feature a Friday the 13th, it’s time to check in on the NBA’s very own Jason, Tim Donaghy.
By MATT TAIBBI | November 04, 2009

Taking sides

The US Senate election is forcing Massachusetts pols to choose their team. Plus, Pagliuca’s plan, and the state GOP tries to get serious.
The stakes are high in the battle for Massachusetts’s first new US senatorship in a quarter-century.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 04, 2009

Punch drunk

Aqib Talib's press coverage. Plus, the Whizzinator wilts, and Christmas comes early to Philly.
Charges have finally come in on Aqib Talib, the frequently high (if you believe his pre-draft drug tests) and drafted-up-high (20th overall in 2008) Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback who reportedly decked a cabbie because . . . well, it’s still not exactly clear why.
By MATT TAIBBI | October 28, 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

Injustice department

Letters to the Boston editor, October 2, 2009
Thank you Harvey Silverglate for shining a light on our criminal-injustice system with your new book Three Felonies a Day. And thank you Peter Kadzis for a great interview.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | September 30, 2009

What's the scam?

Trying to bilk the Scientologists
Back on the morning of June 7, 1982, a man walked into the New York branch of the Middle East Bank on the 25th floor of a Madison Avenue office building and tried to deposit a $2 million check. The man, a native of the United Arab Emirates, left without completing the transaction.
By JIM SCHUH | September 28, 2009

Six for the seat

After a tumultuous week, these half dozen are still in the mix for Kennedy's seat.
Over the next few months, as candidates for the US Senate travel the state, you're likely to hear them say again and again that nobody can ever truly replace Ted Kennedy. That's the truth. But what does the state want next, after such a legendary, larger-than-life figure?
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 16, 2009

Fall guys

As summer winds down, sports crime picks back up
No shortage of sports-crime activity this week — in fact, it's been an extremely busy time, so much so that it's worth a bullet-point to get to some of the developments in brief.
By MATT TAIBBI | September 02, 2009

Short-sighted?

The Projo 's ultra-local approach could save the paper — or spell its demise
There may, in the end, be no way to save the American metropolitan newspaper. Plummeting advertising revenue and competition from the Internet often seem forces too daunting for even the savviest of publishers.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | August 26, 2009

Smear tactics

Accused athletes unleash their attorneys
In the world of sports crime, there are two kinds of arrests. In the first, an athlete causes a public scene in some way, the police come, and the athlete is eventually squeezed into the back of a cruiser and taken away. The other kind of crime happens outside of public view.
By MATT TAIBBI | August 26, 2009

Michael Mazur, 1935 - 2009

Painter, printmaker, teacher, art historian, curator, political/social/arts activist, Red Sox and Celtics fan
"He was so alive ," a friend wrote to me a few days after Michael Mazur died, on August 18.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | August 27, 2009

Magic man

A former NBA scrub gets caught speeding. Plus, Patrick Kane is sent to the penalty box.
Magic mushrooms may make for amusing Eminem lyrics, but are not and never have been a strong theme in the ongoing sports-crime story.
By MATT TAIBBI | August 19, 2009

The Wat Misaka story

Making a rebound
He only played three games and scored seven points in the 1947-48 season, but Wataru Misaka's story is netted, slammed, and sealed in NBA history. The 5'7" Japanese-American was the New York Knicks' first-round draft pick and the first non-white basketball player in the NBA.
By ABIGAIL CROCKER | August 05, 2009

The Times Co.'s super-potent silent treatment

If a tree falls in the Forest Dept.
In an earnings conference call last week, Janet Robinson, the president and CEO of the New York Times Co., had choice words — make that one choice word — for published reports on the Times Co.'s attempts to unload the Boston Globe.
By ADAM REILLY | July 29, 2009

Felonious dunk

Antoine Walker throws up a brick. Plus, breaking and entering, Arkansas-style.
The Antoine Walker Era was one of the most depressing in the history of Boston sports — having to root for that guy was like having to be a groomsman at your sister's jailhouse wedding to a shoplifter with a club foot.
By MATT TAIBBI | July 22, 2009

Amici

Odd hours make this a rare North End treat
Remember the spirit and savor of the old-time North End red-sauce restaurants? Amici still does.
By ROBERT NADEAU | March 25, 2009

Interview: Louis CK

Boston's contribution to Conan, Letterman, and Chris Rock returns with a comedy special and a role in This Side of the Truth
"Boston is a great town to grow up in, but I really wanted to get out of there," says comedian Louis CK.
By MIKE MILIARD | March 12, 2009