Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
But the 2006 finals remains Dwyane Wade’s basketball masterpiece, one that saw him join Michael Jordan (1993), Rick Barry (1967) and Elgin Baylor (1962) as the only players with four consecutive 35-point games in the league’s championship series. From Games 3 through 6, Wade scored 16 more points in the paint than any Mavericks player. “Bottom line, in the finals, it was kind of Jordan-esque. It really was,” Mourning told The Athletic of Wade’s performance. “He averaged almost 40 points a game in the finals. That’s getting it done. And it just took the others to kind of come together and do their part — you know, me, Shaq, (James) Posey, J-Dub (Jason Williams), Udonis (Haslem), and Antoine Walker, all of us. “We contributed in our own little ways from that perspective, but D-Wade was phenomenal to watch. He threw us on his shoulders. He just carried us.”
Tiago Splitter has been watching the Bulls from afar. Not just Wednesday morning before his introductory news conference at the Advocate Center, not just earlier this season when he was a thousand miles away trying to right the ship in Portland, and not just years ago when he was a championship player in San Antonio. “I’m actually a Bulls fan myself,” Splitter admitted. “Growing up in Brazil, I watched many games late at night, hidden from my parents at 1 am, watching MJ [Michael -Jordan] games and rooting for the Bulls. So super excited to be here.”
Jalen Brunson could become the new Michael Jordan of baby names. That prediction comes from Pamela Redmond, the creator and chief executive of the baby-naming website Nameberry. She and other baby-naming experts say names inspired by Knicks players are probably on the way, now that the Knicks have won the N.B.A. championship. Names like Jalen (Brunson), Joshua (Hart), Miles (McBride) and Tyler (Kolek) are already popular and rank among the top 1,000 names for boys born in the United States, according to data from the Social Security Administration. Landry (Shamet) is rising fast. Redmond expects a surge in the Knicks’ names, not only because of the team’s success, but also because the players are likable and captivated the city. She said that people have been “galvanized by the show of community, which feels like something that’s increasingly important at a time when it’s increasingly rare.”
NBA Base: Victor Wembanyama when asked about greats like Michael Jordan and LeBron James taking years to win their first ring: "It’s extremely painful. It’s painful, but I’m not running away from that. I’m using that to fuel me. I'm sure all these guys you named, they're not satisfied with being eliminated in earlier rounds or not making the playoffs, and I'm not satisfied with not winning."
Jorge Sierra: Jalen Brunson scored 47.9 percent of his team's points today. It's the second-best mark in an NBA Finals closeout game... only behind Michael Jordan the day he won his sixth title.
Advertisement
Tim Bontemps: From the great @StatsWilliams: To have 45 points in a close out Finals victory all-time: Michael Jordan, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bob Pettit … And, now, Jalen Brunson. What a performance.
The GOAT conversation has surfaced yet again after LeBron James told Time magazine, “I’m not taking nobody over me.” When Stephen A. Smith was asked about James’ comments on ESPN’s “First Take,” he didn’t hold back from pointing out that Michael Jordan and other NBA greats would never call themselves the GOAT. “I know Michael Jordan, I speak to him often. I’m telling you, he has never, ever, ever, once called himself the greatest,” Smith said on “First Take.” “It’s never happened. Kobe Bryant didn’t call himself the greatest. Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] didn’t call himself the greatest …” Smith continued to list other former NBA greats and didn’t withhold from taking shots at James when telling the rest of the “First Take” hosts why James would say this.
JR Smith: I did not grow up a Knicks fan. I hated the Knicks. I did not like Patrick Ewing. I did not like John Starks. I didn't like anything about the Knicks. I was a Bulls fan. I was a Michael Jordan fan. Michael Jordan is my GOAT. That's it. And my agent calls me and he gives he gives me these list of teams. Only thing I kept bringing me back was playing with Chris Paul. He's going to pass the ball. I'm going to be in a great situation. They play fast. They play up and down. My type of style. I tell him, all right. I'm going to the Clippers. He's like, all right. I get on a flight, land in LA. God rest in peace, Mark Warkentien. He is the first person I see. I was with him in Denver. He's like, "Kid, what are you doing?" I was like, I'm going to LA. He was like, "You really want to do that?" And had this conversation. I'm like, okay. Go to the hotel, go to sleep. I wake up. I said, "I'm going to New York." And my dad was the first person I told cuz my dad was a Knicks fan.
JR Smith: "I did not grow up a Knicks fan. I hated the Knicks. I did not like Patrick Ewing. I did not like John Starks. I didn't like anything about the Knicks. I was a Bulls fan. I was a Michael Jordan fan. Michael Jordan is my GOAT."
While James won’t directly make the case that he’s the most influential athlete of the past half-century, on the barroom debate about the basketball GOAT, he doesn’t hesitate. “I’m not taking nobody over me,” says James. “There’s no question. But I think Mike will say the same thing. Rest his soul, Kobe will say the same thing. Magic will say the same thing. Bird will say the same thing. Shaq could say the same thing. The late great Wilt. Kareem. I don’t think none of us are going to take somebody else. If there’s a general manager and he’s eyeballing all of us on a baseline, with the No. 1 pick, it’s gonna be hard not to take me, champ.”
Advertisement
NBA legend Michael Jordan was hit hard by the death of former teammate Stacey King, who died at 59 after a serious fall at his home on Saturday. “I’m deeply saddened to learn of Stacey’s passing. We shared some special years together as teammates, and he was part of a group that helped define an era of Chicago Bulls basketball,” Jordan said in a statement. “My thoughts are with Stacey’s family, friends, and everyone whose lives he touched.”
Madopal: My Stacey King story: I used to work at Record City in Northbrook. It was near enough the Berto Center that many Bulls would come in after practice. (Michael Jordan once shook his head disapprovingly at me wearing granny glasses). Stacey was more of a regular, so we saw him a lot. So, one time, Stacey was in and browsing thru the hip hop section. A coworker who used to greet & chat with him saw him looking at an album. From that point, we all greeted him as "Pooh-Man," and he took it with pride & grinned when he came in. Flash forward several years later, and I'm looking for parking at Northbrook Court. I see a rather tall man walking towards the mall, and I realize it's Stacey. As I drive past, I roll down the window and shout "Pooh-Man!" He doubles over with laughter. He will be missed.
Charles Oakley: I want to talk about the series. I want to talk about the commissioner lying again. When the commissioner is talking about with him and Michael Jordan, he's throwing Michael Jordan under the bus. That's what he's really doing. He's trying to have a conversation like they just talked yesterday. He's coming back out with something from 2017 when we met with that guy from New York, Michael, and himself. And he's trying to act like they tried to solve a problem. And he went to the public in 2017 said we met and we came to an agreement that this is over with. And now you look in the paper he's making another statement about that, but you didn't solve the problem in 2017 cuz it's nine years later and it's still going on. Q. So, Charles, there was no new meeting between you, James Dolan, the commissioner of the NBA, Michael Jordan, nothing like that has happened. Oakley: No. He's lying again. It's two times in this case he has lied about. He lied about putting the statement out that what happened. And he’s lying now like they talked two days ago. No, he didn't. I haven't talked to James, I've been to court with James. And we tried to settle and he said no. So, this has been a whole thing of they ain't blackballing me from the NBA.