National Basketball Association

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Hoop nightmare

Len Bias’s death was more than just a basketball tragedy.
It wasn’t quite the world-shattering, where-were-you-when moment as the space shuttle Challenger exploding into cottony plumes earlier that year. But I still remember my naive and dazed disbelief upon hearing that basketball star Len Bias had died of a cocaine overdose on June 19, 1986
By MIKE MILIARD | October 28, 2009

Punch drunk

Aqib Talib's press coverage. Plus, the Whizzinator wilts, and Christmas comes early to Philly.
Charges have finally come in on Aqib Talib, the frequently high (if you believe his pre-draft drug tests) and drafted-up-high (20th overall in 2008) Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback who reportedly decked a cabbie because . . . well, it’s still not exactly clear why.
By MATT TAIBBI | October 28, 2009

Taking sides

The US Senate election is forcing Massachusetts pols to choose their team. Plus, Pagliuca’s plan, and the state GOP tries to get serious.
The stakes are high in the battle for Massachusetts’s first new US senatorship in a quarter-century.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 02, 2009

Review: More Than a Game

More than a LeBron James showcase, too
Most know about the rise of LeBron James from impoverished Ohio roots (fatherless and raised in public housing) to mega-millionaire and NBA phenom, so why make a documentary?
By TOM MEEK | October 14, 2009

Injustice department

Letters to the Boston editor, October 2, 2009
Thank you Harvey Silverglate for shining a light on our criminal-injustice system with your new book Three Felonies a Day. And thank you Peter Kadzis for a great interview.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | September 30, 2009

What's the scam?

Trying to bilk the Scientologists
Back on the morning of June 7, 1982, a man walked into the New York branch of the Middle East Bank on the 25th floor of a Madison Avenue office building and tried to deposit a $2 million check. The man, a native of the United Arab Emirates, left without completing the transaction.
By JIM SCHUH | September 28, 2009

October lite

The outlook is still gloomy, but film finds time for childish things
We expected the vampires, the werewolves, the zombies, and the homicidal maniacs. Same thing with the android doubles, the alien abductors, the sexually abused pregnant teenager, the Apocalypse, and the post-Apocalypse. But kids' movies?
By PETER KEOUGH | September 17, 2009

Six for the seat

After a tumultuous week, these half dozen are still in the mix for Kennedy's seat.
Over the next few months, as candidates for the US Senate travel the state, you're likely to hear them say again and again that nobody can ever truly replace Ted Kennedy. That's the truth. But what does the state want next, after such a legendary, larger-than-life figure?
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 16, 2009

Fall guys

As summer winds down, sports crime picks back up
No shortage of sports-crime activity this week — in fact, it's been an extremely busy time, so much so that it's worth a bullet-point to get to some of the developments in brief.
By MATT TAIBBI | September 02, 2009

Short-sighted?

The Projo 's ultra-local approach could save the paper — or spell its demise
There may, in the end, be no way to save the American metropolitan newspaper. Plummeting advertising revenue and competition from the Internet often seem forces too daunting for even the savviest of publishers.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | August 26, 2009

Michael Mazur, 1935 - 2009

Painter, printmaker, teacher, art historian, curator, political/social/arts activist, Red Sox and Celtics fan
"He was so alive ," a friend wrote to me a few days after Michael Mazur died, on August 18.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | August 27, 2009

Smear tactics

Accused athletes unleash their attorneys
In the world of sports crime, there are two kinds of arrests. In the first, an athlete causes a public scene in some way, the police come, and the athlete is eventually squeezed into the back of a cruiser and taken away. The other kind of crime happens outside of public view.
By MATT TAIBBI | August 26, 2009

Magic man

A former NBA scrub gets caught speeding. Plus, Patrick Kane is sent to the penalty box.
Magic mushrooms may make for amusing Eminem lyrics, but are not and never have been a strong theme in the ongoing sports-crime story.
By MATT TAIBBI | August 19, 2009

The Wat Misaka story

Making a rebound
He only played three games and scored seven points in the 1947-48 season, but Wataru Misaka's story is netted, slammed, and sealed in NBA history. The 5'7" Japanese-American was the New York Knicks' first-round draft pick and the first non-white basketball player in the NBA.
By ABIGAIL CROCKER | August 05, 2009

The Times Co.'s super-potent silent treatment

If a tree falls in the Forest Dept.
In an earnings conference call last week, Janet Robinson, the president and CEO of the New York Times Co., had choice words — make that one choice word — for published reports on the Times Co.'s attempts to unload the Boston Globe.
By ADAM REILLY | July 29, 2009

Personal fouls

ESPN's odd double standard on sex
The biggest story in sports media last week was the discovery of surreptitiously shot nude-video footage of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, whose comeliness has made her a favorite — and sometimes a fetish — of the online sports commentariat.
By ADAM REILLY | July 29, 2009

Felonious dunk

Antoine Walker throws up a brick. Plus, breaking and entering, Arkansas-style.
The Antoine Walker Era was one of the most depressing in the history of Boston sports — having to root for that guy was like having to be a groomsman at your sister's jailhouse wedding to a shoplifter with a club foot.
By MATT TAIBBI | July 22, 2009

Scammer solstice

Football meets fraud in Georgia. Plus, Wazzu wackiness, and Tim Donaghy gets busted up.
It's summertime, and the scammin' is easy. What else can explain the recent appearance of a former NFL player in court to face 22 counts of . . . wait for it . . . mortgage fraud!
By MATT TAIBBI | June 17, 2009

Cry me an Old Man River

Balls, Pucks, and Monster Trucks
Readers of this column over the past two years (my mom and my Aunt Theresa, mostly) know that I rabidly support my alma mater's basketball team, the University of Memphis Tigers. This past April, our head coach John Calipari relinquished the Tiger reins to take over at Kentucky.
By RICK WORMWOOD | June 17, 2009

Taser bait

A Florida Gator gets chomped. Plus, Memphis, the NCAA, and hypocrisy.
The clock keeps ticking down toward the inevitable first Tasered-athlete fatality. The fact that it hasn't happened yet is just a statistical anomaly, because two things continue to occur with regularity: major-college and pro jocks keep getting Tasered in late-night incidents, while an unluckier group of ordinary non-jocks keep dying from police Taserings.
By MATT TAIBBI | June 10, 2009

Bridge to nowhere

What's in a name? Plus, a curious consultant, and bashing Obama.
The Department of Transportation has taken quite a few knocks in this space over the years. So to try to offset that, spurred by the story in the June 8 Urinal about the Pawtucket River Bridge, let us throw them a compliment: they do a hell of an artist's rendering.
By PHILLIPE and JORGE | June 10, 2009

Crossword: ''That's B. S.''

At least it's broken up
At least it's broken up
By MATT JONES | May 29, 2009

Love hurts

Tough times for Dirk Nowitzki. Plus, a Pitt Panther gets caught shooting blanks.
There've been some bizarre stories over the years involving gullible jocks and their inappropriate, multiple-alias-bearing girlfriends/wives.
By MATT TAIBBI | May 20, 2009

Deal or no deal?

Will the Globe 's biggest union balk at the Times Co.'s offer? Plus, the Christian Science Monitor 's quietly successful re-launch, and sportswriter Bill Simmons's GM jones
When the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Boston Globe 's largest union, decided to take the New York Times Company's latest contract offer to its members last week, ratification seemed like a done deal.
By ADAM REILLY | May 15, 2009

Cocaine blues

Jags great Jimmy Smith done in by illegal tint and an imaginary friend. Plus, the Nevada Wolf Pack goes down shooting.
Wow. That's all I can say after seeing the mug shot of former Jacksonville Jaguars star wide receiver Jimmy Smith, busted last week on pot and crack charges.
By MATT TAIBBI | April 29, 2009

Just like old times

Two sports-crime all stars get busted again. Plus, another Bengal drops the ball.
Well, it's been a few months, so it's about time to check in on our old pal Todd Marinovich.
By MATT TAIBBI | April 15, 2009

Crossword: ''Triple threats''

Five names, one unusual pattern
Five names, one unusual pattern
By MATT JONES | April 16, 2009

NFL follies

Pro football gets tossed around. Plus, Kirk Snyder goes to the dentist.
Not only was Donte Stallworth officially charged with DUI manslaughter, but another former AFC East star, former Buffalo Bill running back Travis Henry, reached a plea agreement on drug charges.
By MATT TAIBBI | April 08, 2009

Blue Balls

The word on the street is that sports are recession-proof — think again
It's one of the great myths of modern American life that, no matter what travesties befall us, sports will carry on unfazed.
By STEVEN STARK | April 15, 2009

95. Marko Jaric

MODEL F#%KER
Maybe Victoria’s Secret bombshells have a thing for goofy Serb point guards with eyes that are way closer to each other than they oughta be — but we don’t. With stats like Marko’s, this droopy-visaged Memphis Grizzlies scrub needs a lot more than Adriana Lima on his arm to escape the wrath of Unsexiness..
By Boston Phoenix Staff | March 25, 2009

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[MUSIC] Clash of the Titans: Portishead/Velvet Underground edition

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