Jesse Blanchard Articles - Page 2

After spending 15 seasons in the NFL mirroring the best wide receivers in the league, cornerback Champ Bailey says he will take a radically different route to the Hall of Fame than recent inductee Terrell Owens. Owens, one of the NFL’s most braggadocios wide receivers, famously skipped his own Hall of Fame enshrinement in protest […]

While the Philadelphia 76ers continue to ride the wave of The Process and its first playoff appearance to a prosperous future, Jahlil Okafor–Sam Hinkie’s final lottery pick–is struggling to find his place in the NBA. Okafor entered the league as a talented big man in the mold of the traditional post scoring center, averaging 17.5 […]

The last time the basketball world caught a glimpse of Jayson Tatum, the Boston Celtics rookie dropped 24 points in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now, he has turned to a familiar No. 24 to unleash hell on an Eastern Conference devoid of LeBron. ESPN’s Chris […]

On Monday, Carmelo Anthony finally put pen to paper on his one-year, $2.4 million contract with the Houston Rockets. And there’s some amount of irony in Anthony signing on with two men whose work led to the devaluation of his career in an effort to salvage what remains of it. The NBA Melo entered as […]

Kevin Love spent so much time working within the constraints of LeBron James’ shadow, it’s easy to forget he once shined as one of the NBA’s brightest stars on his own. Playing with LeBron narrowed Love’s role so much, he became as noted for all he couldn’t do as for what he could. In Minnesota, […]

The last time the basketball world caught a glimpse of a fully-realized Kawhi Leonard, he was almost singlehandedly kicking the Golden State Warriors’ ass. With a superior supporting cast to the 2016-17 San Antonio Spurs, the Toronto Raptors—with Leonard—could become the greatest threat the Kevin Durant-led Warriors have faced. When the Warriors debuted their new […]

Of the San Antonio Spurs’ Big Three, Tony Parker is the least outwardly changed by time. Where Tim  Duncan’s face now sports a few lines and grey specks of hair, and Manu Ginobili a bald dome, only perpetual stubble and sharpened features separate Parker young and old. And now, no Spur looks more different. San […]

Ten years ago, the beginning of the San Antonio Spurs’ end was said to have taken place when the defending champions were eliminated by the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals in Los Angeles. For a decade, tales of the Spurs’ demise became an annual tradition. For a moment, the […]

The mystique of the San Antonio Spurs organization is off. Two years after Tim Duncan retired, the perfect culture the black and silver wore has worn down. On Friday, reports indicated Kawhi Leonard does not want to return to the Spurs and his preference is a trade to the Los Angeles Lakers. Is this the […]

When George Hill stepped to the free-throw line in the closing seconds of Game 1 with the Cleveland Cavaliers down one to the Golden State Warriors, those two shots are plays he should make. Similarly, certain calls in real time are plays NBA referees should be able to make at a respectable rate. The biggest […]

Mark Jones has been part of the A Team on ESPN and ABC, doing play by play alongside the legend Hubie Brown, and he joins Coach Nick today to discuss in depth what he thinks will happen in the Finals. We also discuss what will happen with the Sixers organization considering their GM Bryan Colangelo […]

LeBron James remembers everything. On any random night, James might regale reporters with the play-by-play from a tense situation in that game; or a wrinkle an opponent developed on an arbitrary November night and stashed away only to have LeBron sniff it out and disrupt it during a key possession. The rest of us? Not […]

Writhing in pain, clutching at his right hamstring from the floor, the Houston Rockets’ Chris Paul watched helplessly as the game—and possibly the Western Conference Finals—moved on without him. For a player whose entire modus operandi is control, Paul’s greatest suffering might be having it taken from him. The Rockets point guard has already been […]

Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry tried to shake free from Houston Rockets’ defenders; delivering feint after feint in futility while Chris Paul and company mirrored his every step. Under pressure from James Harden late in the second quarter, Curry dribbled in retreat to his right, delivering a beautiful nutmeg pass through Eric Gordon’s […]

Sitting alone at the podium after LeBron James’ game-winner in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry fielded one question after another with, undoubtedly, many more circling through his own mind. It was one of the few times Lowry faced the media alone after longtime collaborator DeMar DeRozan was […]

In a suddenly half empty Air Canada Centre, LeBron James stood on the court with a towel draped over his shoulders, explaining the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 128-110 victory over the Toronto Raptors in Game 2. The crowd—at least, what remained of it—was stunned into silence. Toronto, as our own James Holas explained, spent an entire year […]

Acquiring assets is only part of a process. Stick around long enough, and any general manager will eventually be dealt a good hand. A front office shows its worth in how and when they play it. Sam Hinkie spent years hoarding chips until, finally, the Philadelphia 76ers landed on its two aces, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. The pair […]

In the midst of a marathon, every runner must face the proverbial wall. It’s a moment in every race where fatigue within the body and mind conspire to break both, forcing an athlete to pull from reserves beyond either. Manu Ginobili has run this race for 16 years now, hurling himself into thickets of arms, […]

Backed into a corner after a Game 1 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, the Miami Heat turned to its franchise icon. Given the reins once more, Dwyane Wade did what’s he seemingly always done. Three dribbles into Robert Covington, lulling the defender with the steady rhythm of each bounce. Feet perfectly spaced and balanced, ready […]

No one knows when the end will come for the San Antonio Spurs’ Manu Ginobili. All that’s certain is it will come sooner than anyone wants and much later than everyone expected. “I guess it’s sort of a melancholy joy, thinking that every arena he steps into will be the last time I’ll see him […]

  There’s a thousand reasons why basketball is one of the world’s favorite sports to watch, play, and wager on. But in the end, it usually all boils down to the simple fact that basketball is exciting and unpredictable as hell. And at the highest levels of the game, sometimes things get so crazy that […]

Brandishing a smooth midrange jumper with a slight fade as his primary weapon, a move steeped in finesse, it can be easy to forget just how strong LaMarcus Aldridge is. Only three years ago, Aldridge was the summer’s prize free agent. That’s long since been forgotten too. Three-pointers and perimeter proliferation have basketball chasing unicorns, […]

The NBA’s position-less revolution of the past decade was supposed to free unique players from the shackles of positional rigidity. While basketball’s values seemed to open, in truth, its rigidity merely divorced positions and wed styles. Somehow, in a league looking to shed labels, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Julius Randle still found himself falling through […]

In a sea of celebrating teammates, chaos all around him, the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose remained perfectly serene. It was Game 3 of the 2015 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Rose, tormented by years of injuries, put the Bulls on his back, scoring 30 points with seven assists. If life were a fairytale, […]

Tim Duncan retired two years ago. It was an event marked for its importance in Spurs and NBA history. Yet, only now are the San Antonio Spurs and the basketball world coming to grips with its significance. The Spurs’ way, as we have come to know it, retired with Tim Duncan. After a 116-112 loss to […]