* A nice surprise this week was to see former NBA head coach Eric Musselman add Hoops Addict as one of his 20 hoop links on his official blog.
* Adrian Wojnarowski wrote a great article on the fractured relationship between Byron Scott and Jason Kidd. He summarized how Kidd led a revolt in New Jersey to get his former coach canned and the article looks at how Scott refused to get into the mudslinging. Do you think there’s any added incentive for Scott to oust Kidd and the Mavericks from …

For months, the Raptors and the media in Toronto have said they want to face Orlando in the playoffs. With a Toronto win and a Philadelphia loss on Monday, the Raptors and their fans got their wish. No matter how much it seemed like a fantasy a month ago, the Raptors will end up facing the Orlando Magic in their first round match-up. It will be the first time good friends Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard will battle it out in the post-season for supremacy as the best young big …

While thinking of ways to cover the NBA playoffs, inspiration struck - why not send out a mass email to my basketball contacts and get their thoughts on the upcoming postseason? The plan worked to perfection and I received feedback from more than 20 writers, spanning over 100 emails, all of which contributed to the creation of this post. I’m grateful to all the writers who participated in this by providing me with some great answers to the questions I sent out.
For this Playoff Predictions posts you’ll see responses from:
Brian …

Hey fellow hoops addict! This is a quick post to let you know I’ve created a group on Ballhype for their Playoffs Pick’em Bracket game. You can challenge me and other writers by joining the Basketball Addicts group and earn bragging rights for winning. While there isn’t a prize for winning my group, if you have the most overall points you will win a new iPod touch.
There’s no cost to enter and the deadline’s Saturday at 12 pm EST.

Every NBA pundit tells us that this season’s Western Conference teams are like no other in NBA history. With a win over the Memphis Grizzlies last night, the Denver Nuggets became the eighth team in the West to reach the 50-win mark. Golden State, the ninth-place team in the West, wound up with 48 wins, just one shy of the record set by the 1971-72 Phoenix Suns for most wins without a playoff berth.
Oddly, that 1971-72 season mirrors this season in more ways than just the Warriors’ and Suns’ records. …

The NBA does a fantastic job marketing itself on the Internet. This statement seems obvious coming from a basketball website, right? Sure, but the breadth of this Internet dominance had not really hit me until I saw a startling stat the other day.

This weekend marks the start of the NBA playoffs and with it comes anticipation. Players like DeShawn Stevenson and LeBron James prepare to back up their trash talk, while coaches like Phil Jackson work furiously on their master game plans to get their teams ready for the grueling task of coming out of the their respective conferences.
But there is an element of the NBA playoffs that frequently gets overlooked during this second season, and that is the decisions TNT, NBATV and ESPN make in terms of which announcers will call …

There is no denying that the MVP debate has gone to another level in recent weeks. In fact, you could argue that the race for the most ambiguous trophy in pro sports has even overtaken the “Wacky West” playoff race as the NBA story de jour.
This is one of those years where you probably can’t go wrong with an MVP vote. LeBron James is putting up otherworldly numbers. Kobe Bryant is playing the way everyone – fans and critics alike – have always wanted him to play. Chris Paul is …

You know exactly who I’m talking about, especially if you’re a sports fan and even more so if you’re Canadian - not to mention a fan of basketball, football, Canadian sport, hockey, national pride, baseball, humour, or quality television in general.
After hitting the Home for the Hardcore as an intern back in the days when The Score Television Network still called itself Headline Sports, Cabbie Richards decided to hit the streets.
Ever since, in his tireless pursuit of humanizing celebrities through his refreshingly casual and often hilarious interviewing practices, the man …

As he sat in seclusion in the depths of the TD Banknorth Garden’s locker room, Kevin Maurice Garnett found a brief moment of solitude. Having been bombarded with well wishes and champagne from jovial teammates and media members alike, Garnett needed a moment to himself to reflect on what had transpired over the last month and a half.
It was June 15, 2008, and the 2007-2008 NBA season, the most important and successful season for the league in over 15 years, had just culminated with his Boston Celtics winning their first …