The Houston Rockets have not looked good.

Houston Rockets' coach Kevin McHale is taller than Frankenstein.

From The Dream Shake

But there are some significant problems with this Rockets team that opposing teams have exposed in the first six games.The biggest problem (bizarrely, for the Rockets) is the offense [edit: okay, maybe it's the defense]. There are other problems with the Rockets, definitely: Scola’s rebounding numbers are way down, Lowry’s is really awesome but his turnover numbers are dangerously high, and Jordan Hill seems to be our best non-Scola big man right now. But the single biggest difference between the 2011 Rockets (winning record!) and the 2012 Rockets (we’ll see!) is the offense.

Original Photo Yahoo

It’s the return of the NBA!

It's a Christmas gift from the NBA today!

Original Photos wallpapersland, clarioncountyspromise

Fans went crazy trying to get their hands on the new Air Jordans.

The retro Air Jordans arrived in stores Friday, and so did guns, knives and violence.

From Yahoo Sports

Scuffles broke out and police were brought in to quell unrest that nearly turned into riots across the nation Friday following the release of Nike’s new Air Jordan basketball shoes—a retro model of one of the most popular Air Jordans ever made.

The mayhem stretched from Washington state to Georgia and was reminiscent of the violence that broke out 20 years ago in many cities as the shoes became popular targets for thieves. It also had a decidedly Black Friday feel as huge crowds of shoppers overwhelmed stores for a must-have item.

In suburban Seattle, police used pepper spray on about 20 customers who started fighting at the Westfield Southcenter mall. The crowd started gathering at four stores in the mall around midnight and had grown to more than 1,000 people by 4 a.m., when the stores opened, Tukwila Officer Mike Murphy said. He said it started as fighting and pushing among people in line and escalated over the next hour.

Original Photos finessephotography2013, sendmorecops

Chris Paul was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, until the NBA rejected the deal.

Chris Paul is a Hornet. No, he's a Laker. No he's not, he's a Hornet again.

From Yahoo

NBA commissioner David Stern killed the New Orleans Hornets’ trade of Chris Paul after several owners complained about the league-owned team dealing the All-Star point guard to the Los Angeles Lakers, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Some owners pushed Stern to nullify the trade and that the Hornets be made to keep Paul on the roster for the foreseeable future, sources said. A chorus of owners were irate with the belief that the five-month lockout had happened largely to stop big-market teams from leveraging small-market teams for star players pending free agency.

Original Photos thirdage , nbajerseys4sale

Chris Paul really wants to be a New York Knick.

If Chris Paul has his way, he'll be on the New York Knicks sooner than later.

From ESPN NY

The source did not confirm or deny reports that a representative for Paul has told the Hornets their point guard wants to be traded to the Knicks, but league sources say team general manager

The first day Demps could be allowed to talk to Paul is Dec. 9, when commissioner David Stern hopes to open training camps and fully lift the league’s labor lockout.

What will Demps hear that day? Apparently, not even Paul may know. “At this time, he is weighing his options and deciding what the best thing to do is,” the source familiar with Paul’s thinking said.

Original Photo Fan’s Edge

The NBA and it’s players showed their holiday spirit by reaching a deal to ensure there will be basketball on Christmas.

NBA commissioner David Stern is feeling the Christmas spirit after a tentative labor deal was reached with the players.

From The New York Times

The deal was reached about 3 a.m. Saturday, on the 149th day of the lockout, after a final 15-hour bargaining session at the law offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Midtown Manhattan.

Based on tentative agreements reached earlier, the deal is expected to be for 10 years, the longest such contract in the history of the National Basketball Association, with an option for either side to terminate it after six years. It includes a significant pay cut for players, along with shorter contracts, smaller raises and a more punitive tax system to rein in the top-spending teams.

Original Photos yahoo, costumecraze

When the NBAPA announced it’s plans to disband, they likely killed the chances of an NBA season.

The NBA Players Association dropped a bomb on labor negotiations, that according to David Stern, will cause a "nuclear winter".

From The Washington Post

NBA Commissioner David Stern quickly discredited the players’ attempt to take legal action as a “charade” in an interview with ESPN, calling the move a tragedy that could lead the league into “the nuclear winter.” He was highly critical of the “badly misled” union that he said is bent on self-destruction.

“There will ultimately be a new collective bargaining agreement,” Stern said in a statement issued by the league, “but the 2011-12 season is now in jeopardy.”

Original Photo bleacherreport

A growing number of NBA owners are actually hoping that the players reject the latest CBA proposal.

If there were any more hardliners at NBA owners meetings, it would look like the Polit Bureau.

From Yahoo

The point is that the players are facing a group of owners who are either representing or paying for the sins of teams that were purchased for way too much, and subsequently spent way, way too much on the Josh Childress’ of the world. As a result, those owners don’t care if there’s a season in 2011-12. They don’t care about their employees, and they don’t care about the workers that make a living tangentially through NBA basketball. And you can’t reason with that sort of lunacy.

All you can do is cede to it, if you want some of what you once had. Because negotiating only brought you this far.

If the players want to play, this really is the end of the line. It’s not the beginning of the end, the first step in some sort of magical, decertified journey that is going to lead back to a majority of the basketball related income in their pockets and sign-and-trades for all. No, this is it.

And we’re expecting NBA players, whose sense of perspective is skewed as badly as anyone’s, to recognize this. God help us all.

Original Photos marxists, cnbc

NBA owners are meeting with the players again.

Commissioner David Stern gives an update on the NBA lockout.

From The NY Daily News

Following a marathon 15-hour negotiating session that concluded at 3 a.m. Thursday, officials from both the sides said there is a possibility that an 82-game schedule can be played if a new collective bargaining agreement is finalized within the next five to seven days.

“We’ll try to schedule as many games as possible if we can make a deal this week,” Stern, the NBA Commissioner, said early Thursday. “Until we have an overall deal we don’t have a deal on anything.”

Original Photos Yahoo, awise

Michael Beasley of the Minnesota Timberwolves was arrested for marijuana possession.

The Minnesota Timberwolves may need a new logo after Michael Beasley was arrested for marijuana possession.

From The Star Tribune

The traffic stop occurred about 3 a.m. June 26 on Hwy. 12 near Carlson Parkway, said police Capt. Scott Boerboom. Beasley was driving 84 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone, Boerboom said.

Officers who stopped Beasley, 22, smelled marijuana in the car and found slightly more than a half-ounce in the vehicle, Boerboom said.

A police report said the marijuana was found under the front seat. Beasley said the marijuana belonged to a friend whom he had just dropped off, according to the report.

Original Photo bigtradeup

NBA owners mean business with their lockout.

Basketball fans need a MBA to follow the NBA's labor dispute.

From The Washington Post

As the NBA enters what looks to be an extended lockout, team owners want fans to believe a few things. They want us to believe that the league’s economic structure is fundamentally broken, that 22 of the league’s 30 teams are losing money, and that the league’s core economic problem is player compensation. In other words, they’re saying the players make too much money.

There is a word for what they’re doing on that last point: They’re lying.

They might not be lying about losing money — but the extent of those losses is a matter of considerable debate. The owners claim they lost $370 million last year. But, when amortization and interest are removed, $250 million of those “losses” vanish.

Original Photos floatingthought, mortgagepluscc

NJ Nets owner Mikhail Prokorov wants to take down Vladmir Putin and become Prime Minister of Russia.

If Mikhail Prokhorov becomes Prime Minister of Russia, he plans to invade Madison Square Garden and kidnap Carmelo Anthony.

From Bloomberg

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov was elected chairman of the Pravoye Delo political party as the pro-democracy movement seeks to challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’sUnited Russia in this year’s election.

“We have to become a normal, transparent and efficient party of power,” Prokhorov, Russia’s third-richest man, told reporters and party delegates in Moscow today. Prokhorov said he expected Pravoye Delo, or Right Cause, to come second in parliamentary elections scheduled for December, he said.

Prokhorov, the 46-year-old owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, will lead Pravoye Delo, a party with 56,000 members, into December elections for the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament. His party will compete against United Russia, which currently holds 315 of the 450 seats and has about 2 million members.

Original Photos A Soviet Poster A Day, smh.com.au, google

The NBA holds it’s draft tonight, and Jimmer Fredette wants the Knicks to pick him.

Jimmer Fredette really wants to see what he looks like in a Knicks' uniform.

From ESPN NY

Fredette had the college basketball world buzzing throughout the winter and spring, electrifying fans by leading the nation with a scoring average of 28.9 points per game. He was the consensus national player of the year, which partly explains all the hoopla surrounding him. But he has also made waves in recent days, particularly in this city, for stating that he would love to play for the New York Knicks.

“It would be incredible. It would be a lot of fun, to play with those guys and in Coach (Mike) D’Antoni’s system,” Fredette, who is a native of Glens Falls in upstate New York, said on Wednesday. “We’ll see what happens.”

Original Photos zimbio, ny post

Cleveland Cavaliers’ fans officially love Dirk Nowitzki.

We were all witnesses to the power of Dirk and the failure of LeBron.

From CNN

Cavs fans may be chuckling over that Monday morning, but Yahoo! Sports Dan Wetzel writes they were laughing at James as they watched from a Cleveland bar during Sunday night’s game.

“A crowd of Clevelanders gathered here to watch their onetime hero turned all-time traitor, and with each disinterested LeBron offensive possession, each failed LeBron chase down of Jason Terry, each embarrassing LeBron crunch-time turnover, the prevailing emotion was simple.

“Laughter.

“They weren’t hating LeBron here. They were laughing at him,” Wetzel writes

Original Photos wzak, techeblog, nba-usa

The Dallas Mavericks are NBA Champions.. and the Miami Heat are not.

The Dallas skyline looks different now that the Mavericks are NBA Champions.

From The Dallas Morning News

As hard as it is to believe, snow fell on a steamy June night on South Beach. Today, Dallas sports fans will hit every green light on the way to work.

Yes, the Mavericks are NBA champions, which validates the idea that anything’s possible.

The little franchise that never could just did.

The Mavericks soundly whipped the Miami Heat, 105-95, on Sunday night to finish a mesmerizing NBA Finals with a 4-2 win in the best-of-7 series.

Original Photos pics4.city-data, wikimedia

The Dallas Mavericks took advantage of a slumping LeBron James in Game 4 the 2011 NBA Finals.

LeBron James slumped badly in Game 4 for the Miami Heat.

From Hoops Hype

The man who famously took his talents to South Beach was vocal, animated, determined and very captain-like before Game 4 of the NBA Finals, exhorting his Miami Heat teammates to leave everything on the floor. He told them that it was a must-win game and he told them to play as if their backs were against the wall.

He said all the right things. Then he went out and laid a Brontosaurus egg as Dallas, once again, rallied in the fourth quarter to square the NBA Finals at 2-2, taking an 86-83 victory.

Original Photo Yahoo

The Miami Heat might be too much for the Dallas Mavericks to handle.

Jason Kidd has looked a little old, and really hasn't provided much help for the Dallas Mavericks against the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.

From SI.com

The more the Dallas Mavericks rely on Dirk Nowitzki, the more obvious it becomes that his teammates aren’t doing enough to help. Dallas got to the NBA finals behind Nowitzki and a supporting cast that provided points from a lot of guys. Three games into the NBA finals, the Mavs are down 2-1 mainly because those other scorers are off-target.

Jason Terry has been shut out in two fourth quarters, but at least has the excuse of being covered by LeBron James.

J.J. Barea’s aim has simply fallen apart. Peja Stojakovic has been so awful that he may soon be stuck to the bench.

Original Photos Yahoo, shcfmd

The Dallas Mavericks shocked the Miami Heat in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

The Dallas Mavericks were clutch late in game 2 of the NBA Finals.

From The Chicago Sun Times

The Dallas Mavericks stunned the Miami Heat in Game 2 of the NBA Finals with a 22-5 run in the final 6:20 of the fourth quarter that wiped out a 15-point deficit and tied the series 1-1 on Thursday night in Miami.

It was eerily reminiscent of the Heat’s equally stunning comeback against the Bulls in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Trailing 77-65 with 3:10 to play, the Heat outscored the Bulls 18-3 down the stretch to win 83-80 and clinch the series.

Original Photos nicoclub, sportslogos.net

Dirk Nowitzki’s injured left middle finger could be a big factor in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Not since Johnny Cash's classic photo was taken has the media focused on a middle finger like they have with Dirk Nowitzki's injury.

From The Chicago Sun Times

Nowitzki paid the price in the Dallas Mavericks’ 92-84 loss in Game 1 of the Finals. With the Mavs trailing 77-73 with 3:44 to play, Nowitzki tried to strip Chris Bosh in the lane. He thought he got all ball. Instead, he was called for a foul, Bosh hit two free throws and Nowitzki tore the tendon.

‘‘I was kind of talking to the referee about the play,’’ Nowitzki said, ‘‘and the next thing you know . . . I’m looking down, and my finger was bent. I couldn’t straighten it. It was a freakish play.’’

Original Photos iconicphotos, hotslive

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day.

Dwyane Wade wants you to have a great Memorial Day.

Original Photos broadwayworld, yahoo