Sneak-a-Peek: Converse Weapon EVO
Hey folks, we have a special Sneak-a-Peek for you this week to let those of you who haven’t heard, know about the release of the all-new, limited edition colorways of the Converse Weapon Evo. The Weapon Evo is an updated performance version of the original Weapon – the shoe that brought style to the court during the game’s “Golden Age” and enhanced on-court/off-court sneaker appeal across the board. Personally, i’ve always loved the throwback kicks like the Converse Weapons, so to have a modern performance version that I can actually wear to hoop is amazing.
The images below are limited edition colorways of the Evo, which pay homage to two of basketball’s greatest on-court rivals from the ’80s (Celtics/Lakers) with premium leather and detailing. These limited edition Weapon Evo colorways are available now at finishline.com and converse.com for $90. Additional team and in-line colorways will roll out in the following months. I’m lovin’ up these colorways, but i’m still excited to see what’s next for the weapon line. We’ll keep you posted on those, but for now enjoy and cop your pair while you can:
For a listing of shoe release information on the latest kicks check out our “KICKS” section.
Video of the Day: 2009 Playoff Dunk Mix
Top NCAA Freshmen Who Will Replace NBA Draftees
Allen Moll is an avid NBA and College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen is a regular columnist for thehoopdoctors.com, Bleacherreport.com, Fanhuddle.com as a NY Knicks and Wizards correspondent, and his own blog, Hoops Haven.
Every June, NBA franchises raid the NCAA College ranks of it’s prime talent in an attempt to improve and replenish their rosters. In turn, collegiate teams heavily recruit the HS basketball ranks to replace last season’s top players who move on to the NBA. Here is a list of top incoming freshman who should get major minutes by replacing graduated or drafted players who moved on to the NBA.
Keith “Tiny” Gallon – 6′8 300+lbs School – Oklahoma Replacing – Blake Griffin
Replacing the #1 pick in the draft is a daunting task, but OU does their best by bringing in another talented big man with immense size who is probably a little less mobile, but has more range on his jumper out to the 3 point line. Best Case Projection: Think Shaq with a jumpshot.
Alex Oriachi – 6′9 245lbs School - UCONN Replacing - Hasheem Thabeet
Although a few inches shorter, Oriachi will succeed Thabeet as Connecticut’s top rebounder and shot blocker and is slightly more polished offensively. Best Case Projection: Emeka Okafor.
Mouphtaou Yarou – 6′9 210lbs School - Villanova Replacing – Dante Cunningham
Yarou is a better all around talent as a freshman than Cunningham was 4 years ago. He could be one of the best big men in the country since he is the highest rated recruit in the ‘09 Class(#10), landed by any Big East team this season. Adding Yarou and 3 other top 100 recruits to the guard heavy Nova squad, which went to the Final Four, has the Wildcats thinking National Title. Best Case Projection: Al Jefferson
Avery Bradley – 6′3 175lbs School - Texas Replacing – AJ Abrams
Bradley may not be as a prolific 3 point shooter as Abrams but is the total package. With a long wingspan, he plays bigger than his size, can score in bunches, and is a tremendous on-ball defender. Bradley is a top 5 talent and may have as many highlights next season as Kentucky’s John Wall. Best Case Projection: a shorter Andre Iguodala
John Henson – 6′10 205lbs School - UNC Replacing - Tyler Hansborough
UNC has big shoes to fill since Hansborough left the NCAA ranks as the All-Time leading scorer. They will try by committee, by using 3 Freshman frontcourt players. Henson, who is a big time scorer, should provide points, but is probably best suited at SF because of his thin built. Hansborough’s rebounding and defense will come from and a pair of twins at PF, David and Travis Wear, who are dominating in the low post. Best Case Projection: Kevin Durant
Dante Taylor – 6′8 230lbs School - Pitt Replacing - DeJuan Blair
Taylor could be just as good of a ferocious rebounder as Blair, but is much better defensively, especially down low, but is also long and quick enough to disrupt guards in the backcourt. He won’t win Big East Player of the Year like his predecessor, but will be very good.
Best Case Projection: Jermaine O’Neal
Other Impact Replacements:
Dexter Strickland(6′3 175lbs) replacing Ty Lawson at UNC
Strickland while more fundamentally sound offensively, won’t be a hardwood blur like Lawson, and should get better with age. He could be a 4 year starter.
Rakeem Buckles(6′8 205lbs) replacing Earl Clark at Louisville
A versatile frontcourt player with a great name, Buckles is probably best suited to play the 3, with Samuardo Samuels and Terrance Jennings manning the 4 and 5 spots for Coach Pitino.
John Hood(6′6 185lbs) replacing Jodie Meeks at Kentucky
Hood, who has good size, should be the recipient of many highlight reel assists from Freshman point guards Eric Bledsoe and John Wall, who will also score in bunches.
Kenny Boynton(6′2 187lbs) replacing Nick Calathes at Florida
Boynton, who was a McDonald’s All-American, is a sleeper as one of the best point guards in the country, since he can dish and score at will.
Junior Cadougan(5′11 185lbs) replacing Dominic James at Marquette
This Freshman from Canada is more than capable of replacing 4 year starter, James, in the backcourt. He will be called upon to score as well with the graduation of their entire backcourt(James, McNeal, and Mathews).
Andre Dawkins(6′5 195lbs) replacing Gerald Henderson at Duke
Duke caught a break when Dawkins, formerly in the ‘10 recruiting class, completed his coursework early to be eligible to play this season. He is what Vitale would call a “Diaper Dandy.” “Dawk” is an excellent jump shooter who, if he improves his ballhandling, could become an elite player.
Soloman Hill(6′6 195lbs) replacing Chase Budinger at Arizona
Hill is a versatile forward who can play any position from the point to power forward. He will also help with the loss of PF Jordan Hill to the NY Knicks.
We Have A Winner Of The Autographed Chris Paul Jersey!
Chris Paul: “No kids, ‘Dropping Dimes’ does NOT mean that Americans are careless with their money!” Fredrick Ong
The Hoop Doctor’s want to congratulate Fredrick Ong on winning our latest contest for the amazing prize sponsored by Right Guard of an Authentic Autographed Chris Paul Away Jersey. Fredrick has won the contest with the caption for the photo above of Chris Paul.
Fredrick is the owner of the basketball blog ‘Points in the Paint’ and also writes for the basketball blog ‘Give me the Rock’.
The Hoop Doctor’s would like to thank everyone who entered the contest for your participation and innovative caption’s to the selected photo. Keep your eye on our contests page for more contests coming this NBA season.
Top 10 Incredible Circus Shots of the 2009 NBA Season
This video has some jaw dropping shots. Everyone always get anxious for the dunks of the year, or even the assists of the year, but this is always my favorite. Ever since the Michael Jordan era, when it was seemingly nightly that he pulled off some miraculous circus shot, I have loved these crazy plays. Pulling off a ‘circus shot’ takes a lot of skill, body control, and creativity. But in the end it also takes a bit of luck to have it drop:
Allen Iverson Tweets About Wanting To Play in Memphis
I know I know I know. We told you all last week that Allen Iverson would be signing with the Charlotte Bobcats this week. But sometimes these things don’t always pan out right away. I guess that’s why they call them rumors, and once he signs we will call it fact.
Latest interesting twist for Iverson fans in the Allen Iverson offseason from hell, is his latest twitter account updates concerning the Memphis Grizzlies. A few days ago he tweeted that Memphis had made him an offer to play for them. Then Memphis confirmed it was true. And as of late yesterday, Iverson was tweeting that ‘Memphis is a place he would love to play’. So stay tuned folks, the Iverson free agency is not over yet, but it looks like he may just be headed to Memphis after all. Unless this is an elaborate ploy in the negotiations with Charlotte….
10 Greatest NBA Champions: #3 – 1986 Boston Celtics
Allen Moll is an avid NBA and College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen is a regular columnist for thehoopdoctors.com, Bleacherreport.com, Fanhuddle.com as a NY Knicks and Wizards correspondent, and his own blog, Hoops Haven.
With this season’s NBA Finals behind us, I decided to take a look back and rank the greatest NBA Championship teams in the modern era(post 1980). This will be a ten part series with a new entry each week. Which teams had the most dominating seasons and playoff runs in the last 30 years? How would they stack up against each other? Which teams had the most Hall of Fame players or coaches? The rankings were limited to two teams per franchise in the top ten. Let the debate begin.
Starting Lineup: Dennis Johnson, Danny Ainge, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish
Impact Bench Players: Jerry Sichting, Scott Wedman, Bill Walton, Sam Vincent, Rick Carlisle
Regular Season Record: 67 – 15 Playoff Record: 15 – 3 Finals: Beat Rockets 4 – 2
Individual Awards: Bird – MVP, Finals MVP, All-Star, All NBA First Team Walton – 6th Man of the Year McHale – All-Star, All NBA Defensive First Team Parish – All-Star Johnson – All NBA Defensive Second Team
#3 – ‘85-’86 Boston Celtics
The ‘85-’86 Celtics had a season for the ages. Coming off of a stinging loss to their arch rival Lakers in the ‘85 Finals, Boston made a questionable move by trading Cedric Maxwell to the Clippers for talented but oft injured big man, Bill Walton. Walton had once been one of the NBA’s best centers, anchoring the Blazers frontcourt and helping Portland win a NBA title in ‘77. Numerous injuries had derailed the dominating big man’s career before accepting a role off the bench with what some considered the best team in history. He shocked everyone by playing in an amazing 80 regular season games, providing valuable minutes off the bench for a dominating frontcourt of McHale and Parish.
The Celtics, in the regular season, were led once again by Larry Bird, who averaged 25 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals, while leading the league in FT%(.896), 3 Pt Attempts and made, earning him his third straight regular season MVP award. Their roster was also loaded with talent in the frontcourt with Hall of Famers McHale and Parish. The backcourt was led by defensive stalwart and floor general, Dennis Johnson and scrappy, former baseball player, Danny Ainge, with help from the bench from Sichting, acquired from the Pacers, Wedman, and young draft pick, Sam Vincent.
They rolled through the regular season finishing with one of the best single season records in history at 67-15, including an astounding 40-1 at the Boston Garden. They were very balanced, finishing 8th in points scored at 114.1 and 3rd defensively at 104.7 points allowed. Bird, Parish, and McHale were rewarded with mid season All-Star selections.
Both the Celtics and LA Lakers, by winning 62 regular season games, seemed destined for an ‘85 Finals rematch, which was won by the Lakers. In Game 2 of a first round sweep of the Bulls, the Celtics survived an offensive explosion by MJ who dropped 63 points at the Garden, still a playoff record. They then bested a Dominique Wilkins led Hawks team 4-1, the highlight being a Game 5 blowout 132-99. In the Eastern Finals they went up against one of their conference rivals at the time in Coach Don Nelson and the Bucks. Nelson had criticized Ainge of being a “dirty” player during their previous playoff matchups in ‘83 and ‘84. Boston swept Milwaukee to return to the Finals. The Lakers didn’t follow Boston back to the Finals by losing in 5 games to the Houston Rockets.
Even though the Rockets had won far less games during the regular season, finishing 51-31, they had an imposing frontcourt of their own with their “Twin Tower” pairing of 7′4 Ralph Sampson with 7′0 Hakeem Olajuwon. With Sampson in early foul trouble in Game 1, Olajuwon picked up the slack by tallying 33 points and 12 rebounds but couldn’t overcome the Celtics torrid shooting of over 65%, led by Bird’s 21 pts, 13 assists and constant double teaming, and had Boston thinking sweep, by winning easily 112-100. In Game 2 it was more of the same. Even though Sampson rebounded with 18 pts, Bird totaled another 31 points as Boston won easily 117-95. When the series switched to Houston, the Rockets rebounded to win Game 3, 106-104, led by Sampson’s 24 points and 22 rebounds. Game 4 was Parish’s turn to dominate by both shutting down the Rockets frontcourt and totaling 22 points and 10 rebounds to go along with a late 3 pt shot by Bird, and a Walton offensive board putback, giving Boston a 106-103 win. The now infamous Game 5 was marred by the famous Sampson(7′4) vs Sichting(6′1) fight. With Sampson ejected, Olajuwon had 33 pts, 14 rebs, and 8 blocks, leading Houston to a 111-96 win. With a lead in the series at 3-2, Boston was confident coming back home to the Garden, where they were 49-1, including the playoffs. Larry Legend showed why he was the best player in the league during the season by tallying a triple double with 29 pts, 12 ast, and 11 rebs, leading Boston to a Game 6 win and Boston’s 16th NBA Championship.
Bird was a unanimous selection for Finals MVP by averaging a triple double at 25 points, 10 rebs, and 10 assists. With this Championship, the ever competitive Bird and his Celtics now matched his rival Magic Johnson and his Lakers with 3 titles. The mid 80’s Celtics team were matched only by the Lakers by making 4 straight Finals appearances between ‘84-’87 and finished either 1st or 2nd in the Atlantic Division for 9 straight years from ‘80-’88. One of my personal All-Time favorite teams, the ‘86 Celtics come in #3 in the Greatest NBA Champions since 1980.
Here is some footage of Jordan’s Playoff record 63 points at the Boston Garden:
Here is footage of Larry Bird’s triple double in Game 6 to win title #16
David ‘The Admiral’ Robinson is Entering the HOF Too!
There has been so much talk about the G.O.A.T., aka Michael Jeffrey Jordan, entering the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this September, that it has sort of overshadowed another great player that will be entering the HOF as well. Does the name David Robinson ring any bells? Of course it does, known as ‘The Admiral’ was one of the greatest centers the NBA has ever seen. He was a champion, he was a class act, and he was the mentor to another of the greatest players the NBA has ever seen, Tim Duncan.
So to shine a little light back onto David Robinson today, we wanted to share this kick a%& video we saw featuring some ‘beastly’ dunks by a young David Robinson on some inferior forwards and centers league wide. Remember the dominance this man showed? Remember the triceps and deltoids. The man was actually a machine:
Shaq Loses Bet, Wears Pink Speedo on the Beach
Shaquille O’Neal is a man of his word. On last nights episode of his new ABC show ‘Shaq Vs.’ he challenged the best ever female beach volleyball team, Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh, to a match against him and any player of his choosing. Both sides were fairly confident they were going to win. I’m not so sure why Shaq was so confident after actually seeing his vball skills at the end of the episode when they finally did play the match. In case you didn’t catch the episode, or had trouble guessing, Shaq is a terrible vball player. Pretty much every pass was a ‘lift’.
But something that didn’t go unnoticed around our shop was Shaq’s confident bet to Misty and Kerri, saying that if he lost to a couple of girls he would walk down the entire beach wearing a tight pink speedo with his name written across his ass. Well Shaq ultimately lost the match, and being a man of his word, we now have this disturbing video to share with you:
Darryl ‘Chocolate Thunder’ Dawkins Is Back on the Hardwood
Allen Moll is an avid NBA and College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen is a regular columnist for thehoopdoctors.com, Bleacherreport.com, Fanhuddle.com as a NY Knicks and Wizards correspondent, and his own blog, Hoops Haven.
Darryl Dawkins, known affectionately as “Chocolate Thunder” during his NBA playing days, is back where he belongs, on a basketball court. Dawkins, who has been coaching hoops since retiring from playing professionally in the mid 90’s, has a new job as head basketball coach of the LCCC Cougars, a small junior college in Northeast Pennsylvania. Dawkins resides and has a huge fanbase in the Keystone State ever since his playing days for the local Philadelphia 76ers.
Dawkins has been a very successful as a coach at numerous minor league coaching venues and has aspirations of coaching at the highest level someday. He coached the Newark Express and Winnipeg Cyclones of the American Basketball Association in ‘97-’98. His most successful run as coach was from ‘99-’06 for the Pennsylvania Valleydawgs in the USBL. He led the Valleydawgs to 2 League Championships in ‘01 and ‘04 before the league folded in 2007. Dawkins has coached some very famous NFL players during his tenure with the Dawgs, most notably Randy Moss in ‘01, who was ranked the 2nd best player in HS behind Kevin Garnett in ‘95, and Terrell Owens for a short stint, during his time with the Eagles.
Darryl became one of the first HS players to go straight to the NBA when the Sixers selected him #5 in the 1975 draft. Dawkins, because of his immense size and ferociousness around the basket was unfairly expected to be “the next Wilt Chamberlain.” Although he was annually among the league leaders in FG%, because most of his shots were dunks, he never lived up to the lofty expectations by averaging 12 points and 6 rebounds over 16 injury plagued seasons. After his last full season in ‘86 with the NJ Nets, he attempted several comebacks with the the Jazz, Nuggets, and Celtics before retiring in ‘89. He then spent several seasons playing in Italy, a stint with the Harlem Globetrotters, and with the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the CBA. During his final season as a player for the Skyforce in ‘95, one game was televised by ESPN in which he outplayed Manute Bol who played for rival Florida Beach Dogs.
“Chocolate Thunder” was probably best known for his playing days with the Philadelphia 76ers, where he was a valuable role player for some very talented Dr J, Mo Cheeks, and George McGuiness led teams that made 2 unsuccessful trips to the NBA Finals.
Dawkins developed a cult following when, during the ‘79 season, he broke several backboards with his earth shattering dunks. The NBA then made a rule change where shattering a backboard would result in a fine and suspension. Dawkins, one of the game’s most powerful dunkers in history, also entertained fans by giving his ferocious dunks colorful nicknames like, “In-Your-Face-Disgrace“, “Go-Rilla“, and “Spine Chiller Supreme“. He also showed his eccentric side by creating nicknames for……………himself, like, “Chocolate Thunder”, “Sir Slam“, and “Dr. Dunkenstein“. He also claimed to be from the planet “Lovetron“, where he spent his offseason practicing “interplanetary funkmanship” with his girlfriend “Juicy Lucy“. Good stuff!
Darryl Dawkins has made his mark in the NBA by proving to be one of the best ever in terms of his .572 career FG%, which ranks 5th all time, one of the best dunkers, and personalities. He deserves a chance to prove himself to be one of the best in the NCAA or NBA coaching profession as well.
Here is the top 10 plays of “Chocolate Thunder’s” career:
