AGRI Biz

Maybe Tracy McGrady can become the player he once was.   He merits praise for giving it a go months after undergoing the toughest surgery a professional basketball player can endure.   Sunday afternoon against his former team, he could not deliver when it mattered most.   His stat line against the Rockets— 15 points, seven rebounds, and five assists—was a reflection of his spectacular talents, not his readiness to perform at an elite level. He ...

The Rockets had seen this one before. A 16-point lead had become an 11-point deficit in less than 12 minutes. The Denver Nuggets' explosive offense was burning everything in its path, with Carmelo Anthony hotter than a brick oven. Then, the Rockets did what they have not been able to do in too many critical games this season: They executed in the clutch. They fought back. Kyle Lowry scored at the cup on two straight ...

The NBA's awards season has become an epic farce and a joke without a suitable punchline. Does winning Most Improved mean you sucked last year? Congratulations on no longer being a crappy player! In the rookie of the year race, high-scoring youngsters on putrid lottery teams usually beat out those filling lesser roles on playoff-bound units. Humor and frustration aside, one award still peaks my interest. Each year, the NBA honors the best ...

One of the NBA's youngest units doesn't look like a collection of raw college-age kiddos. Kevin Durant has topped the 30-point plateau 37 times this year, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are 26-11 in those games. Sunday's home win over the short-handed Utah Jazz marked OKC's 41st win of the season. The Thunder won 23 games in its last campaign. With a playoff berth all but secured, the team can now focus on fighting ...

The jokes are endless, and in many cases, accurate. Vanilla Ice performed at halftime of a New Jersey Nets game. To make the Nets look good in comparison. All NBA teams are at rest for All-Star weekend. And somehow, the Nets still lost. Only 1,000 fans showed up to see the New Jersey Nets lose to the Milwaukee Bucks. And most of them were there hoping they'd get to play. Pro basketball's unrivaled worst ...

Stop slapping yourself in the head. You did not misread my headline.   Cancel the ophthalmologist appointment and stop hitting “refresh” on your Internet browser.   The question I posed above deserves serious consideration. Since losing to the L.A. Lakers in the 2008 Western Conference Finals, the Spurs have dropped almost three years in average age.   Brent Barry signed with the Houston Rockets that summer. Jacque Vaughn retired. Damon Stoudemire skipped town almost as soon as ...

When Michael Jordan agreed to purchase the Charlotte Bobcats in late February, he became the first player to own a majority stake in an NBA franchise. David Stern said he expects the other owners to approve the former Bulls’ star before the end of March. His bid to take the team’s reigns from BET founder Robert Johnson raises an interesting question. Why haven’t more former players expressed interest in NBA ownership? For ...

Roger Mason stopped behind the arc and delivered his fourth game-clinching dagger in a nationally televised game against the defending champion Boston Celtics. As he stepped into the shot, it looked as if Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford had unearthed the next Robert Horry. One month later, Manu Ginobili's season ended, and the Spurs needed Mason to be more than a sometimes heroic spot-up shooter. When the playoffs arrived, he could not oblige. Mason's ...

Michael Jordan stood at the Symphony Hall podium and delivered one of the cruelest, pettiest enshrinement speeches in sports history, using an imaginary Taser to electrocute anyone who had doubted his greatness. His victims ranged from his revered former college coach Dean Smith, to an old high school teammate, to Bryon Russell. He did not have to feign sincerity. He welled up as images from his remarkable career flashed on a screen ...

No one can oversell the qualities that make a player worthy of the top selection in the NBA Draft. A baller who lives up to his promise can change a franchiseÆs fortunes and deliver a decadeÆs worth of dazzling performances and Larry OÆ Brien Trophies. As talk about the John Wall sweepstakes boils, I decided to examine and rank the previous 25 No. 1 picks. The comatose, abominable squads in the hunt ...