Another big shot for the win

After Sundiata Gaines' winning shot last week, it was quickly followed by another the next day.

This time it was Jamal Crawford from the Atlanta Hawks. Like Gaines in Utah, this wasn't the Hawks star (Joe Johnson) taking the final shot. Crawford comes off the bench for Atlanta and has to be favourite for Sixth Man of the Year award. Down by 2 at home with 3 seconds to go against the Suns, here's how it went down:



It was great to see for a number of reasons. Firstly, many basketball websites tend to focus on spectacular dunks, but here ... we're all about basketball shooting and the highlight play is the game winning shot. Secondly, other than the Boston Celtics, growing up the Atlanta Hawks were my team ... to be different from all the Lakers & Celtics fans of the 80's. When I was in the US the last time (10 years ago), the Hawks weren't a great team and they struggled to get a crowd and atmosphere. Now the team is performing well on-court coming 3rd in the Eastern Conference and its great to see the crowd go nuts in the clip above.

Top 10 NBA 3 Point Shooters of All Time

A strange source of NBA and basketball shooting information, I came across this list thanks to a Twitter post from business guru Guy Kawasaki.

Click on the title below to read the full story.

Top 10 NBA 3 Point Shooters of All Time | Top 10 Lists | TopTenz.net

The NBA has changed many times over, but the biggest change was made in the addition of the 3 point shot in the 1979-80 season. The 3 point shot started as a tool to catch teams up and only a handful of players where considered marksman. However, in today’s game the 3 point shot is used more than ever and accounts for over 35% of all shots take in the average NBA game. The list below will demonstrate not just who has hit the most, been the most accurate, or hit them when they counted the most, but a combination of all three.Essentially, the top ten are:

10. Chuck Person
9. Dell Curry
8. Dan Majerle
7. Peja Stojakovic
6. Steve Nash
5. Glen Rice
4. Dale Ellis
3. Larry Bird
2. Ray Allen
1. Reggie Miller

The notable omission for mine is Mark Price. I also think its somewhat harsh to have Larry at #3 but I guess he wasn't "just" a three-pointer shooter and despite his heroics from downtown, there have been better, more consistent shooters from deep. Over-rated for mine, Dale Ellis at 4? Maybe the author is from Seattle.

I'm sure John Rillie will agree with Miller at #1, but who do you think is missing off this list? Who do you think should be #1?

Basketball shooting - NBA leaders

Heading in to the new year and now two months in to the NBA season, I thought it was time to check out who the individual basketball shooting leaders are.

Three-point shooting percentage:

1. Jared Dudley (Suns) 50.5%
2. Daniel Gibson (Cavs)48.8%
3. Paul Pierce (Celtics) 47.3%
4. Anthony Parker (Cavs) 46.1%
5. Chris Paul (Hornets) 45.8%

Three-point makes per game:

1. Danny Granger (Pacers) 3.1
2. Danilo Gallinari (Knicks) 2.8
3. Rashard Lewis (Magic) 2.8
4. Channing Frye (Suns) 2.6
5. Peja Stojakovic (Hornets) 2.4

Free-throw percentage:

1. Steve Nash (Suns) 94.2%
2. Ray Allen (Celtics) 91%
3. Chauncey Billups (Nuggets) 90.3%
4. Mo Williams (Cavs) 89.4%
5. Manu Ginobili (Spurs) 89.3%

I was going to include leaders in field goal percentage, but they're not actually shooting it, the list is made up of big men who are mostly dunking or making put-backs.

I will include the glamour category tho ...

Points per game:

1. Kobe Bryant (Lakers) 30.6
2. Carmelo Anthony (Nuggets) 30.0
3. LeBron James (Cavs) 28.9
4. Kevin Durant (Thunder) 28.5
5. Dwayne Wade (Heat) 26.3

Basketball shooting display - J.R. Smith

I'm about to head up the coast to spend Christmas at my brother's place but it would be remiss of me not to make mention of the basketball shooting display put on by J.R. Smith from the Denver Nuggets.

J.R. Smith's season got off to a slow start as he was suspended for the first 7 games of the year. He's had some good performances, scoring more than 20 points on 3 occasions but nothing compared to today:

Bench		Min	FG	3Pt	FT	+/-	Off	Reb	Ast	TO	Stl	BS	BA	PF	Pts
J.R. Smith		30:15	15-25	10-17	1-6	+6	0	2	3	0	0	0	0	1	41

That's right, 41 points off the bench in just 30 minutes, including TEN triples!!

And yes, despite shooting 60% from the field and from down-town, he could make just 1 of 6 from the free-throw line. Clearly J.R. feels at home beyond the arc and the free-throw line is way too close for his liking.

Ray Allen - season high

Our boy Ray Allen hasn't set the world on fire this season so far, scoring more than 20 points on just one occasion through the first five weeks. Now, don't get me wrong ... Ray is certainly no Jacques Vaughn (notorious for slow shooting starts to the season), he's been solid but it wasn't until yesterday that he really put on a show.

Against the Charlotte Bobcats Allen led the way for the Boston Celtics with a season-high 27 points. Since we're all about basketball shooting, it wasn't the points that really stood out for us, it was the rest of his line from the boxscore. Ray got his 27 on an outstanding 6 of 9 from the field, including 5 of 6 from downtown and a perfect 10 of 10 from the free-throw line. The 5 triples and 10 attempts from the line were also both season highs so far.

He wasn't just putting on a shooting display, although he definitely did that ... but he also pulled down 5 boards, dished out 5 assists, had a steal, a block and just one turnover.

Sometimes the numbers don't always tell the full story but Ray's line from last night was sensational as was his game.

Basketball shooting legend - Oscar Schmidt

I came across this article on Bounce Magazine and had to give it love by sharing it here.

Oscar Schmidt made our list of the top ten all-time greatest shooters but wouldn't be known by that many people, especially the younger readers. Read (click on the title below to read the full story), learn and make sure to watch the video clips. The man was a legend ...

The Semi-Automatic: Oscar Schmidt | Streetball, Sneakers, Bobbito, Nike Air Force, Jordans

Basketball, broken down to its simplest compound, is about scoring more buckets than the team you’re playing against. The Semi-Automatic refers to players who leave bodies in their wake with their innate ability to get buckets. And few players can truly say that they are, or ever were, on the same level as the man known as “Mao Santa”, aka “The Holy Hand.”

Who is the greatest player to never wear an NBA uniform? Valid arguments could be made for asphalt legends like Joe Hammond aka “The Destroyer” aka “Dirty Hand Joe”, Oakland’s Hook Mitchell, Pee Wee Kirkland, Earl Manigault aka “The Goat” and others of similar stature. But don’t forget about Oscar.

“Who is that?”, you might be asking yourself. Oscar Schmidt is simply a legend among legends from Brazil. Outside of America, along with those enligtened souls within the USA who understand the man’s place in the game’s pantheon, he’s considered one of the greatest basketball players to ever grace God’s green earth.

Basketball shooting

As well as reporting on the NBL and the NBA, the focus of this blog is basketball shooting. Today we have two shooting related stories from the NBL. The first is from the team at the Wollongong Hawks interviewing Larry Davidson about a basketball shooting drill they use. Full credit to Asa and Joel for the video work they've been doing with the team.



And just reward for one of the best shooters in the league, CJ Bruton from the New Zealand Breakers picked up the Player of the Week award for the display he put on in the first game of the season against the Cairns Taipans. CJ was a red-hot 10 of 11 from the field and 8 of 9 from downtown on his way to 28 points. After off-season surgery I expected CJ to ease back in to form on court but he's come out with a bang!!

Bruton wins Player of the Week

New Zealand Breakers star CJ Bruton has ridden a hot shooting streak to capture the National Basketball League’s Player of the Week award for Round One.

Opening the Breaker’s quest to become the first Kiwi team ever to capture a championship in a major Australian professional league, Bruton was instrumental in guiding New Zealand to their season-opening 95-75 win over the Cairns Taipans at the North Shore Events Centre in Auckland on Thursday.

The popular point guard scored 28 points and added five rebounds, two assists and one steal but it was his sizzling shooting performance that really caught people’s attention. Bruton went 10-of-11 from the field, including an amazing 8-of-9 from three-point territory, to form a lethal one-two punch with backcourt partner Kirk Penney.

NZ Breakers

Although I have made it quite clear already that my NBL team this season will be the Gold Coast Blaze, my second team will be the New Zealand Breakers. They're considered by many to be the favourites for the championship this season, but that's not why I like them, because I almost always side with the underdog.

The reasons I like the Breakers are:
1. They are a great three-point shooting team
2. They have a couple of ex-Brisbane Bullets on the team (CJ Bruton & Dillon Boucher)
3. They don't play a lot of defence so the games are usually high-scoring and fun to watch
4. They have Kirk Penney ... one of our favourite basketball shooting man-crushes from last season

So with the Breakers getting the season underway in New Zealand on Thursday night, here are a couple of stories in the news about them.

Title or bust this year for Breakers - Boucher | Stuff.co.nz

Dillon Boucher isn't looking to hide from the pre-season hype surrounding the New Zealand Breakers ahead of Thursday's tipoff of the new Australian NBL season against Phill Jones and the Cairns Taipans at the NSEC.

In fact you could say that the Breakers' hard-nosed do-it-all forward is embracing the favouritism being heaped upon the New Zealand club who are being strongly tipped to become the first Kiwi franchise to win an Australian national league.

Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze has labelled the Breakers the team everyone's chasing this season, and it's a view that's pretty much universal across the Tasman, even if bookies Centrebet have the Melbourne Tigers as slight favourites ahead of the Breakers. Boucher has heard all the talk, all the speculation that this is the Breakers' year and, what do you know, he agrees with it.

NZ Breakers owner about making a difference | Stuff.co.nz

Who is this faceless, publicity-shy owner of the New Zealand Breakers? And why does he shell out his hard-earned fortune to keep a basketball club afloat. For the first time Paul Blackwell has opened up to the media about his motivations. MARC HINTON sat down to hear his special story.

Paul Blackwell is an enigma dressed up as a riddle. He's successful, rich and is in the select group of Kiwis who own professional sports teams.

Yet he's much happier parting with his hard-earned profits as the owner of New Zealand's busiest supermarket than he is giving up his story, and by association his privacy.

In a business all about ego, this God-faring, sports-loving everyday bloke doesn't just break the mould, he shatters it.

NBL tidbits

After a solid start to the work today, there's been a lull in the last hour or so which has given me the chance to see what's happening in the NBL.

Firstly, here's a story about the return to the court of ex-Brisbane Bullets guard CJ Bruton. After two off-season surgeries, expect CJ to start the season slowly but once he gets back to 100% expect the basketball shooting displays we're used to from him.

Positive Bruton ready for return | Stuff.co.nz

New Zealand Breakers star CJ Bruton is hoping that the pain of a couple of major off-season surgeries will translate into some serious gain on the Australian NBL court before too long.

The 33-year-old Aussie point guard has only just been able to resume full training after going under the knife over the off-season to have some work done on his ankle and elbow, both of which hampered him through the club's record-breaking 2008-09 campaign.


Then, while checking out the OzHoops board, someone mentioned this interview with ex-Brisbane Bullets and now Gold Coast Blaze head coach Joey Wright. I'm looking forward to heading down the freeway numerous times this season to see Joey, Big Joe, Gibbo and the rest of the Blaze in action. It will certainly be more entertaining (and no doubt more competitive) than the Blaze games I have seen over the last few years.

FIBA.com - News - Interviews

BRISBANE (NBL) - Brisbane Bullets championship coach Joey Wright has returned to Australian shores to coach the Gold Coast Blaze, and is a most welcome returnee, bringing up-tempo, exciting basketball back to the Coast. His mission is to take the Blaze from the NBL cellar to the top of the heap, just as he did with the Bullets.

He has coached some notable internationals in club competition, including Nigeria's Ebi Ere, Tall Blacks Dillon Boucher and Mika Vukona, and Australian greats Mark Bradtke (4 Olympics), CJ Bruton and Sam Mackinnon. This year at the Blaze he will coach 2002 FIBA World Championship All-Star Pero Cameron, Stankovic Cup MVP James Harvey and emerging Australian Boomers point guard Adam Gibson.

Wright always has some interesting views on world basketball, and FIBA's Paulo Kennedy caught up with Joey to talk about the contrasts between different countries.

Basketball Shooting Lessons from Ray Allen

Thanks to a FaceBook update from the Boston Celtics, I came across an auction being run at the moment where you can get basketball shooting lessons from Ray Allen.

As you know by now, Ray Allen is one of my favourite shooters and if I was 15 years younger and still coming up in the game, I would be ALL over this! The current bid is $950 with 30 days to go, it'll be interesting to see where it actually ends up.

If you want to be shown step-by-step how to shoot a basketball and learn everything you need to know to improve your shot and don't want to spend thousands of dollars and can't make it to Boston ... why not just sign up to our Basketball Workshop for a fraction of the cost?

charitybuzz | #10075 - Basketball Shooting Lessons from Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics

Description: Spend 30 minutes with NBA Champion Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics and learn shooting rituals from one of the purest shooters in the history of the NBA.

Shoot some hoops with one of the Boston Celtic's most integral and successful players, Ray Allen. Considered to be one of the most accurate 3-point shooters in the history of the NBA, Ray Allen is an extremely accomplished and skilled player, being a nine-time NBA all-star and an Olympic gold medal winner as a member of the 2000 USA team. Don't miss you chance to improve your game while playing with and learning from one of the NBA's greatest shooting guards.

Donated by: Ray Allen

Terms: Includes: a private basketball shooting lessons from Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics. Valid for 30 minutes for 2 people in Boston. Winner must be patient and flexible in scheduling due to Ray's very busy schedule.

Summer league action and the NBA's top 10 plays of the year

Four or five days without posting, yes it is the off-season and things were quiet but I was also away this weekend and the laptop wasn't taken. It was my birthday yesterday so I spent the weekend down in Melbourne and Geelong catching up with friends. One of my friends got us President's Club tickets to Geelong vs Melbourne in the AFL so we stayed in Geelong for the night and went out on the town after the game. Hurting yesterday so other than buffet breakfast at the hotel in the morning and flying back to Brisbane in the afternoon, it was a very quiet day.

Anyway, catching up on some of the basketball "action" from the past few days, the most relevant was a basketball shooting display in the summer league. Anthony Morrow from the Golden State Warriors went off against the New Orleans Hornets for 47 points, 18 of 26 from the field, 7 of 9 from deep. Here are the highlights:



Also for your viewing pleasure, here are the NBA's top 10 plays of the year:

Orlando Magic ... home cooking

There's nothing like playing at home!

After stinking up game 1, narrowly losing in overtime in game 2, the Orlando Magic had to be looking forward to playing at home in game 3. Sleeping in your own bed, not having to travel, playing on your own court, in front of your own fans, on your own rings ... hopefully it would all add up to a much needed win.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, if the Magic are to win, they need their shooters to fire ... and FIRE they did in game 3. The inconsistent Rafer Alston found his range hitting 8 of 12 from the field, Hedo Turkoglu was 7 of 12, Rashard Lewis was 8 of 14 (including 3 triples) and Mickael Pietrus came off the bench shooting 7 of 11 from the field.

Dwight Howard continued to spend more time at the free-throw line than anywhere else as the Lakers again played their version of Hack-a-Shaq with him. He was 5 of 6 from the field and 11 of 16 from the line.

The Magic shot a ridiculously good overall clip of 62.5% for the game ... but still only won by 4 points.

The Lakers shot 51% but managed to hang with the red-hot Magic behind 31 points, 8 boards from Kobe Bryant (although he made just 5 of 10 from the line) and 23 points on 9 of 11 shooting from Pau Gasol.

Lamar Odom, who had been massive in the first 2 games was held to just 11 points, 2 boards due to foul trouble.

Due to One HD showing replays the day after, I haven't watched game 3 yet but will do so tonight. From a basketball shooting perspective, it should be great checking out the Magic shooters on fire and LA still managing to keep it close.

Here are the highlights of the game (I am avoiding watching them):

One-dimensional

Thanks to my new best friend One HD, I've been able to see every game of the Orlando Cleveland Eastern Conference Finals in the NBA.

It was a great series and from my own perspective it was fantastic to see the basketball shooting display put on by the Magic. Sure, Dwight was a beast inside and carried his team's scoring in the paint, but one player doesn't not make a team (as was shown by LeBron and the Cavs) and it was the Orlando three-point shooting that made the difference. When Hedo, Shard, Pietrus or Alston were firing from downtown, the Magic looked good and if more than one of them was "on", Orlando were unstoppable.

On to the title of this post tho. Getting to watch all the games of the series and not having watched too many games in recent times due to no Foxtel, I noticed how one-dimensional Delonte West (pictured right) from Cleveland is. Delonte essentially has one move, the step back jumper. It doesn't matter whether he's beyond the arc or drives in to the middle of the key, you know he's going to that shot.

Now that's not quite fair because his other move is turning the corner on his defender and driving to the basket, so technically he has two moves.

When I was watching on Sunday, I almost burst out laughing when West actually turn down a wide-open three to dribble in to a defender and then step back to take the three. That's right, he turned down the open spot-up three, just so he could go to his signature move, draw the defender and shoot the step-back triple.

Don't get me wrong, I like Delonte and have kept an eye on him since he was drafted to the Boston Celtics back in 2004 and was then traded to the Sonics. It just goes to show that you don't have to be a superstar to make it in the NBA. If you know your game, know what your team needs from you and you have a go-to move that you can rely on to get points, you can make it to the top level of the game.

Orlando Magic shock the Cavs ... and the world!

Yesterday the Orlando Magic pulled off a come from behind win on the road in Cleveland to win the first game of their NBA Eastern Conference Finals match-up with LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

I followed the yahoo scoreboard at work yesterday and when I got home I was pumped to find the replay of the game on One HD (I love you).

While John Rillie chose to focus on Dwight Howard's dunk that stopped the game, for me it was all about basketball shooting.

The knock on LeBron James has been his poor jump shooting (and free-throw shooting) but that was evidenced last night. I got home in time for the second quarter and LBJ was on a role sticking jumper after jumper. When his shot is on he is virtually impossible to guard. Despite missing his first four field goal attempts, LeBron finished an impressive 20 of 30 from the field including 3 triples.

The real hero of the night tho was Rashard Lewis of the Orlando Magic. Shard also started the game slowly but after half-time could not miss. It took a while for the Cavs to adjust and by the time they did, it was too late, he was on fire. He scored 17 points in the second half, 11 in the final quarter and was 7 of 7 from the field after the main break.

The final quarter was great to watch with the lead going back and forth between the two times. In the final minutes it was big shot after big shot being hit which is great to see from a shooting perspective. Unfortunately for Delonte West, it was his shot from the corner in the final few seconds that proved the difference and the Magic hung on for the win.

The crew at Dime have a good breakdown of the game itself and Rashard's shooting performance.

Here are the highlights from the game if you didn't catch it:

Basketball Shooting

Why do you want to become a great shooter? What will come of all that time in the gym? The lonely hours spent perfecting your form, honing your craft. The great ones have put in the work so that come game time, when their team needs them most, they're ready, they deliver.

Last night was yet another example of what separates the truly great shooters from the good. Our favourite NBA shooter, Ray Allen coming through for the Boston Celtics when they need him most.

Game 1, Ray shot just 1 of 12 from the field. The truly great shooters know that everyone has bad days and they have the confidence to bounce back and keep shooting. They don't shy away from the spotlight, they revel in it and they want to show the world that an off-night won't stop them.

So we get to game 2, 10 seconds left, scores tied:



For the record, here's Ray's line from the night:

Boston Celtics (1-1)

			Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
P.Pierce	F	43:55	8-19	0-1	2-3	+5	0	8	8	3	2	1	4	0	4	18
G.Davis	F	41:17	12-21	0-0	2-3	+20	4	5	9	0	3	1	1	1	1	26
K.Perkins	C	32:19	7-9	0-0	2-5	+12	7	5	12	0	3	1	3	2	2	16
R.Allen	G	38:47	9-18	6-10	6-6	+5	0	3	3	5	4	0	0	0	1	30
R.Rondo	G	40:03	7-18	0-1	5-8	+17	7	5	12	16	1	5	2	0	5	19

With Ray Allen's heroics, what will get slightly less talk than it deserves is the shooting performance of young gun, Ben Gordon from the Chicago Bulls. Gordon has had a great season (coincidentally in a contract year) and this was one of his best.

Chicago Bulls (1-1)

			Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
J.Salmons	F	39:24	6-17	1-5	4-5	-7	1	1	2	2	1	1	2	1	3	17
T.Thomas	F	20:25	2-7	0-1	2-2	-21	0	4	4	0	2	0	1	6	1	6
J.Noah	C	38:50	6-9	0-0	1-1	-4	3	5	8	3	4	2	1	4	0	13
B.Gordon	G	43:31	14-24	6-11	8-9	-1	0	1	1	0	2	1	0	0	0	42
D.Rose	G	34:25	5-11	0-0	0-0	+1	2	4	6	7	2	0	2	2	0	10

The Minute Men

Any time a player has more points than minutes played, its an impressive feat. Here are two impressive basketball shooting performances I came across today.

From one of the NBA's upcoming shooters J.R. Smith from the Denver Nuggets:

Bench		Min	FG	3Pt	FT	+/-	Off	Reb	Ast	TO	Stl	BS	BA	PF	Pts
J.R. Smith		29:31	13-22	11-18	8-8	+23	0	4	1	0	1	0	1	0	45

Look at that closely, 45 points including ELEVEN three pointers, off the bench in just 29 minutes of court-time!! That is a ridiculous shooting display from JR.

Along the same lines, thanks to the crew at Dime, I came across this story about a shooter in college. Click on the title below to read the full story ... but I highlighted the most amazing part.

The Most Prolific Scorer In College Basketball | Ballers Network

John Grotberg scores more times than you blink in a minute. Playing in Grinnell College’s up-tempo system of substituting every 35 seconds, Grotberg scored 52 points in 19 minutes during a game his sophomore year. Grotberg set the NCAA record, regardless of level, for career 3-pointers with 526 this season. He led the nation and conference in scoring (31.0 points per game) and 3-pointers per game (6.2) this season, and led the MWC in steals per game (3.3), a category in which he ranked seventh nationally. Grotberg also was among the league leaders in free throw percentage at 86.8 percent.

The Art and Science of Shooting a Basketball

I came across this great article about basketball shooting this morning and had to share it with you. Its written by legendary UNLV coach, Jerry Tarkanian. Tarkanian led the "Runnin' Rebels" to the NCAA title in 1989-1990 with a line-up that included future NBA players Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon (one of my favourites) and Greg Anthony.

In the article, Tarkanian identifies the elements that are key to becoming a great basketball shooter. These are practice/technique, stance, grip, timing, concentration, confidence, soft touch/finesse and shot selection.

Click on the title below to read the full story.

Basketball Shooting - The Art and Science of Shooting a Basketball

Basketball Shooting Is Both Art and Science
Fundamentals of Shooting A Basketball

By Coach Jerry Tarkanian

Shooting a basketball is both an art and a science. Basketball shooting is an art form because it involves finely tuned hand-eye coordination rather than gross motor skills. For example, unlike such skills as the defensive stance and pivoting, which are relatively invariable, shooting form is highly individualistic. There is no one correct way of shooting a basketball, although there are certain elements of basketball shooting form common to all good basketball shooters that may be identified.

Shooting a basketball is also a science because it involves such mechanical processes as depth perception, velocity, angle of release, and trajectory of the ball in flight. The comic strip Mary Worth once featured an episode about a brilliant mathematics student who became an outstanding shooter on his basketball team because of his analysis of the scientific principles involved in shooting a basketball. Though the episode is rather far-fetched, it illustrates that an awareness of the scientific bases for good shooting can help to improve a player’s shot within the limitations of his ability and time spent practicing his shooting.

NBL shooting display

The best shooting display of the NBL Grand Final series between the Dragons and the Tigers was definitely delivered by Tremmell Darden in the deciding game 5. I watched the game with friends and while Tremmell is best known for his high flying acrobatics or his slashing drives, in the third quarter he showed his entire repertoire. He was a perfect 7 of 7 from the field including 3 of 3 from deep and just took over the game. Tremmell finished the night with 31 points on 10 of 16 shooting, 3 of 3 from deep, 8 of 11 from the line, 7 boards and 0 turnovers.

From a basketball shooting perspective, you just had to sit back and enjoy the show. Click on the title below to read the full story.

NBL > News

Tremmell Darden has done a lot of different things for the South Dragons this season, but scoring 21 points in one quarter wasn't one of them until he did just that in Game Five of the NBL Grand Final series against the Melbourne Tigers on Friday night.

Only two players have scored more than 20 points in one quarter of a Grand Final game in the history of the NBL – Andrew Gaze in 1993 and Rob Feaster in 2003 - but Darden added his name to that list with a devastating display in the third term of the Dragons' 102-81 victory over the Tigers.

Darden nailed a perfect 7-of-7 from the field – including 3-of-3 from downtown – during the third stanza as the Dragons took control of the contest before eventually cruising to their first Championship.

John Rillie starts the healing

After taking a day or two to mourn their NBL Semi-final loss to the Dragons, John Rillie is back in the blogosphere with his thoughts about what went wrong. Having seen all three games, I couldn't agree more with his assessment that the series came down to game 1, not game 3. Opportunity knocks, you have to be ready when it does. Click on the title below to read the full story.

Like Townsville coach Trevor Gleeson says in this article, the Croc players should hold their heads high. They had a good season and should be proud of their efforts.

One final note, I knew it already but its great to see John mention below that he'll definitely be back for another season. If you watched him over the last two months, he's playing way too well to give it away now.

JR, On Fire

I've been in playoff detox for the past 48 hours and like any good addict, it never gets any easier to get over it as the years roll on.

It was another season where we did not achieve what we set out to do. Sure there were not too many people that rated the Crocs at the start of the year, but I always felt that if all things feel into place, we would be a chance.

No doubt we needed luck and things to fall our way, but if I felt the team I played on never had a chance, it is time for me to give the game away. (While on that, there has been some speculation that this may have been my last year. Not so, I'm here for another crack at the title.)

We were very close to making it happen here in Townsville. One game short of making the Grand Final and maybe surprising the Melbourne Tigers. It was not to be, but we had our chances and we just did not capitalize on them when they were presented.

Many people will always remember Game 3 and how the South Dragons over ran us in the end. I would like to turn your attention back to Game 1.

With perfect basketball shooting technique like this, its way too early for JR to retire. Mika Vukona can just watch on as Rillie drains yet another triple.

Chris Mullin and some more Corey Williams

I was at the pub last night playing poker so I only got to see parts of the Crocs series-tying win against the Dragons. It was great to see that they fought back from a 3/4 deficit to force the series in to a game 3 decider in Melbourne.

With only 2 games in the NBA, its a rather slow day on the basketball front so I was checking out some sites that I don't look at as regularly. The main one today is Bounce which seems to be an affiliate/off-shoot of Dime (that I refer to regularly). One of the articles on there was about the "leader of Croc Nation", Corey Williams, click here to check out what they had to say about the NY playground legend doing his thing down under. Good to see The OT's DJ Rod in the comments!

The main story tho that I loved seeing on there was a feature on one of the greatest basketball shooting players of all time and one of my favourites, Chris Mullin. For those youngsters that only know him as the GM of the Golden State Warriors, check out the article below (click on the title to read the full story) to learn more about his life as a player, its a story of hard work and persistence. Watching Mully when he had it going was a thing of beauty ...

Speaking of the NBL, check out the Sports Illustrated cover in the article that has a college pic of Sydney Kings legend Dwayne McClain.

The Playground Gave Us “Mo”, aka Chris Mullin | Streetball, Sneakers, Bobbito, Nike Air Force, Jordans

By Ali

Christopher Paul Mullin was a simple, neighborhood guy from Troy Avenue in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn. The love affair with hoops was a multi-generational thing that began in the driveway of the family’s small row house.

His father Rod played street ball with Doug Moe before Moe would go on to star at the University of North Carolina in the late ’50s. His older brother Roddy played at Siena, where he was the team captain as a senior. Younger brothers John and Terence would later ball at Bridgeport and St. John’s, respectively.

Known to his family and around the hood as “Mo”, Mullin was the ultimate playground fixture and gym rat. Showing up for the run was only part of his childhood mission. The other component was hours of repetitive work on movement, dribbling and shooting the rock from an assortment of angles.

Perfect basketball shooting form ... no comment on the facial expression tho ...