HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — The wait is finally over.
The 2016-17 NBA season is upon us, complete with the headlines from training camps around the league and drama in places like Miami, Oklahoma City, Cleveland and Oakland, all before a single game (preseason or otherwise) has been played.
— Pat Riley says Chris Bosh‘s Heat career is “probably over,” bringing an official end to the Heat’s celebrated Big 3 era in crushing fashion.
— Russell Westbrook says he hasn’t spoken to Kevin Durant since his former Thunder teammate bolted for Golden State in free agency, signaling that perhaps they were never as close as we were led to believe.
— LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and the Cavaliers are already dealing with great (repeat) expectations from fans and pundits alike.
— Draymond Green is already doing his best to temper similar expectations in the Bay Area, now that the Warriors boast two KIA MVPs (Durant and Stephen Curry) on the same roster.
And all this came after Kevin Garnett announced his retirement after 21 seasons, cementing the Hall of Fame Class of 2021 (KG, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan will all be eligible) as one of the best in history.
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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — This time a year ago Anthony Davis saw his name included in any legitimate MVP conversation. Alvin Gentry‘s arrival from the Golden State Warriors’ championship team was hailed as the game changer for a New Orleans Pelicans squad that everyone assumed was on the cusp of big things in the Western Conference.
But as often happens in the NBA, reality interrupted that story. Injuries to Davis and others along with the transition to a new system led to a humbling season in the Big Easy.
That would explain the absence of hype and the tempered expectations for the Pelicans’ 2016-17 season. Sure, there a lots of new faces (Solomon Hill, Terrence Jones, Buddy Hield, E’Twaun Moore, Langston Galloway and even Lance Stephenson, for starters) and Davis is sure to return with a chip on his shoulder.
Still, there are issues Gentry will have to deal with to start his second season. He won’t have veteran point guard Jrue Holiday, who is out indefinitely to care for his wife Lauren Holiday, who is pregnant and dealing with a brain tumor. Another veteran guard, Tyreke Evans, is also returning from injury.
And there is a culture change that has to take place in that Pelicans locker room, one that will rest as much on Gentry’s leadership as it will that of Davis and the other veterans on the team. Joel Meyers, the play-by-play voice of the Pelicans, joins us to break it all down on Episode 249 of The Hang Time Podcast.
We also have NBA TV’s Kristen Ledlow to break down the radical changes to the WNBA playoff format, unearth a big beef with NBA 2K17 (Langston Marbury in the house) and more.
Check it out on Episode 249 of The Hang Time Podcastfeaturing Joel Meyers.
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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — All of the stars came out for the 2016 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame ceremony last weekend in Springfield, Mass. Its annual right of passage for the best of the very best. Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson, Yao Ming and Sheryl Swoopes were all honored.
And so, too, was one of our very own. The great David Aldridge, winner of the Hall of Fame’s Curt Gowdy Media Award, was feted alongside those giants of the game.
No one covers the NBA and basketball the way DA has and continues to for TNT, NBA TV and NBA.com (you’ve enjoyed his work for three decades on every platform). The basketball insider’s insider, Aldridge’s career spans eras, from the golden years of the Showtime Lakers, Big 3 Celtics and Bad Boys Pistons to the Jordan era to Shaq-Kobe Lakers to this current super team era.
DA has seen it all and covered it all, and better than anyone.
That he found his way to the Hall of Fame was simply a matter of time. Going in on the same weekend as the likes of Shaq, Iverson and Yao seems only fitting for a man who has helped change the game, in his own right, for so many.
We dig in on DA’s wild and crazy summer, which included his covering Kevin Durant’s free agent summer and the Rio Olympics, his views on the current state of the game, athlete activism and so much more heading into the 2016-17 season.
Check it out on Episode 248 of The Hang Time Podcastfeaturing our very own David Aldridge.
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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — An argument could be made that Allen Iverson was the most influential sports figure of his generation, both and off the floor, when you factor in his accomplishments in uniform and the culture he created out of uniform.
There were plenty of challengers for that throne — Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and a host of others — but none with the on-court and street credibility that Iverson brought to the world stage.
No one had a bigger personality than Iverson, who redefined what it meant to operate with swagger. No one was as fearless (or stubborn, depending on who you talk to) than the pint-sized dynamo who didn’t to challenge the order of things when he entered the NBA.
When the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Iverson No. 1 overall, it was a seminal moment in Philadelphia sports history and the start of an era that would see the Sixers go from worst to first in the Eastern Conference, culminating in a trip to The Finals in 2001.
Pat Croce, the colorful and outspoken president of the Sixers, was in the middle of the mix at the time, living the Iverson experience from ground zero. Now, on the eve of Iverson’s induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame, Croce joins us to reflect on the life and times of soon-to-be Hall of Famer Allen Iverson.
“He was David in the land of Goliaths,” Croce said. “He was a warrior with a quarterback’s mentality … Allen was the most interesting person I’ve ever met in my life.”
Trust us, you absolutely do not want to miss what Croce has to say. He has insights and a perspective on Iverson that few have been privy to over the years.
Check it out on Episode 247 of The Hang Time Podcastfeaturing Pat Croce.
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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — It’s Shaq Week around here and we’re celebrating the big fella, Shaquille O’Neal, in all his splendor in advance of his induction next week into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.
Normally a player has to wait until later in his life to take this introspective look at his own life and times. But for a player of Shaq’s magnitude, both on and off the floor, there is no reason to wait.
Folks knew Shaq would leave an indelible mark on the game, hence his name. Shaq’s Orlando Magic teammate Dennis “3D” Scott (the social media master) knew it from the first moment he laid eyes on the big fella that he would go down as one of the all-time greats (big men and players overall) in basketball history.
Shaq checked all of the boxes — multiple championships, Finals MVPs, gold medal, assault on the record books, entertainer, rapper, actor, law enforcement officer, pitch man extraordinaire, all-around renaissance man, etc. — and did in his own style, thank goodness for the rest of us. Rick Fox even showed up to weigh in on his good friend, whose love for the game and his teammates sticks out in hindsight.
You don’t change as many lives of the guys who played alongside Shaq and not leave a dramatic impression on those who were as close to him as both 3D and Fox were.
The stories they can tell publicly (and the ones they cannot) are seemingly endless.
It’s all Shaq, all day long on Episode 246 of The Hang Time Podcastfeaturing Dennis Scott, just the way it should be.
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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS —Kevin Durant called it therapy, his time this summer with the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team at the Rio Olympics.
We couldn’t agree more. Durant needed something to free his spirit after what turned out to be a tumultuous free agent summer that saw him leave the Oklahoma City Thunder for the rival Golden State Warriors.
Lee got off of his flight home from Rio and immediately jumped on with us on Episode 245 of The Hang Time Podcast to discuss Durant and his wild summer, gave us some inside scoop on his experiences both covering Team USA and attending other events while in Rio. He highlighted his surprise performer (DeAndre Jordan) from the Olympics and gave us his take on the John Wall-Bradley Beal dynamic in Washington.
Lee, a longtime friend of the program, also provided us with a superb dinner recommendation, should you decide to head to Rio anytime soon, while also reminding us that there will be a positive (MVP-level perhaps) bump for someone who suited up for Team USA this summer.
You get all of that and more on Episode 245 of The Hang Time Podcast … Featuring Michael Lee of the The Vertical.
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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — Patriotism. Drama. Intrigue. Tom Foolery (Ryan Lochte). World class competition in every sporting endeavor, familiar and foreign.
We’ve gotten it all and more from the Rio Olympics, and that includes plenty of drama and intrigue from the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team in their quest to win gold (they face Spain in Friday’s semifinals).
Will they or won’t they make it through? The basketball world awaits the answer from Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the rest of the NBA stars who made the trip.
Meanwhile, those of us not in Rio are left to ponder the possibilities, beyond Rio and what’s in store for the stars there and those who are watching from afar. LeBron James (who has been extremely busy this summer after ending Cleveland’s 52-year title drought in June) has already admitted that he wishes he was in Rio playing and has not ruled out future Olympic competitions. He’s also talked about his dreams and aspirations beyond his playing career, things we’ve rarely heard him speak on in the past.
Listening to LeBron reflect on the bigger picture inspired us to do the same this week here at headquarters. How many guys have done what he’s done, lived up to the hype, really exceeded by most estimates, while maintaining some semblance of order in their lives?
How many guys have gone from phenom/can’t-miss-prospect to the future Hall of Fame/all-time great heights LeBron has scaled and conquered during his career?
The list is short in any sport (with decorated Olympians Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and others representing this summer), and LeBron might sit at the very top, even with plenty of years in his playing career still ahead of him.
We go off the map on this and so much more, including a mention of volleyball’s greatest competitor and one of my favorite all-time Olympians, Karch Kiraly, on Episode 244 of The Hang Time Podcast … Summer Games.
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HANG TIME BIG CITY — It’s the dog days of summer here in New York City, where the thermometer is knocking on triple-digits and the humidity ain’t far behind. In fact, it’s so muggy these days that out of the entire Hang Time Crew, I was the only one to show up for work today. (Sekou Smith and Rick Fox have presumably temporarily decamped to cooler climates.)
But one place that’s been pretty nice this summer is Rio De Janeiro, where the 2016 Summer Olympic Games are taking place.
Here in the United States, the stories of these games thus far has been Katie Ledecky‘s dominance, as well as awesome showings from the Simones (Biles and Manuel) and the #FinalFive. Oh, and Michael Phelps continuing to rack up gold medals.
And as the Rio Olympics finish up week one, one team that is still finding their footing is the USA Men’s Basketball team. After beginning with a couple of blowout wins against China and Venezuela, Team USA had to overcome a halftime deficit to beat a fired up Australia on Wednesday night.
It doesn’t get much easier. Tonight Team USA will take on Serbia, then they play France over the weekend, and then the medal rounds begin.
Some things we’ve seen haven’t come as a huge surprise. Carmelo Anthony, for instance, continues to prove just how well-suited his game is for international play. Some other things, like Team USA’s defense, may not be living up to their billing. And we know he can knock down big shots, but is Kyrie Irving the right man to run the point for this squad?
To get an inside look at Team USA’s performance thus far in these games, we dialed up our man in Rio, NBA.com’s John Schuhmann, who has been on the ground for every game and practice, to get a total picture of what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong for Team USA.
We will talk rings (Olympic and NBA) plus so much more this week with Schuhmann on Episode 243 of The Hang Time Podcast.
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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — Three years into his NBA career and one thing is clear, Dennis Schroder has arrived.
An exciting change-of-pace backup to All-Star Jeff Teague with the Atlanta Hawks, Schroder takes over for Teague now on a revamped Hawks team that traded Teague and lost All-Star center Al Horford to Boston in free agency. The Hawks new look does include hometown big man Dwight Howard, once the most dominant big man in the league.
Ask any fan or pundit and they’ll likely debate the biggest risk, Schroder moving into a starting role or the Hawks betting that Howard still has dominant big man juice in his body.
But know this, Schroder is convinced he’s ready for prime time. He’s been clear about his ambitions from the moment he made the transition from his native Germany to the NBA
Hawks coach and team president Mike Budenholzer is also a believer. He’s the one who signed off on the trading Teague to Indiana and opening up the space for Schroder to ascend to the starting job (Bud also wisely signed veteran Jarrett Jack this summer to serve as Schroder’s backup).
The results of these changes will determine just how wise a move it was to make these moves now. Will the Hawks remain among the Eastern Conference playoff elite? Will Schroder and Howard energize a unit that has done nothing but roll on Budenholzer’s watch?
We dig deep with Schroder on that and much more on Episode 242 of The Hang Time Podcast.
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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — There’s no pressure on Brett Brown and Ben Simmons, all they have to do is oversee and inspire a basketball revival in a basketball-loving city.
No pressure. No pressure at all for the head coach and new face of the Philadelphia 76ers.
Well, there’s actually a ton of pressure on Brown and Simmons, the No. 1 overall pick in last week’s NBA Draft. But they know that, each of them having signed on for hoops renaissance engineering duties in the City of Brotherly Love. Whatever plan was in place before under Sam Hinkie has changed with the Colangelo‘s (father and boss man Jerry and son and GM Bryan) at the controls now. But make no mistake, there is a plan.
An abundance of young talent (Simmons, Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor, Joel Embiid and Dario Saric in particular) has to be molded into a team capable of climbing out of the Eastern Conference basement. And it’s Brown’s responsibility to guide these youngsters through the ups and downs of this process.
Everyone involved knows it’ll be a bumpy ride early on and there’s no guarantee this young core will remain intact long enough to make it to their first training camp together. But there’s a glimmer of hope now that, quite frankly was not there before Simmons became a very real possibility with that No. 1 pick.
We dig deep with Brown on the young man from Down Under charged with leading the hoops renaissance in hoops-mad Philly and much more on Episode 241 of The Hang Time Podcast.
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with great (repeat) expectations from fans and pundits alike.
