Just
because it's August, doesn't mean that there aren't any new and
interesting developments in and around the world of professional basketball.
The following is a brief look at some of the more relevant news and notes for
this week in the NBA.
Men’s US Basketball Team strikes gold
in London
The 2012
Summer Olympic Games in London came to a close on Sunday, but not before the US
Men’s Basketball Team capped off another successful run through the tournament
with a gold medal performance in the finals against Spain. This game was by far
the team’s biggest challenge, but in the end Kobe Bryant and LeBron James along
with a host of some of the best players in the world prevailed with a 107-100
victory that was much closer than the final score might indicate. Bryant scored
17 points and James added 19 points and seven rebounds, but it was Oklahoma
City’s Kevin Durant that led all scorers with a 30-point effort to help seal
the win.
The Dwight Howard saga in Orlando
finally ends
The biggest
news of the week was a blockbuster four-team trade that sent Orlando center
Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers. All told, 12 different players found
new homes and five draft picks exchanged hands but, in the end, Howard got what
he wanted: a new start with a big market team. He will now join Kobe in the
bright lights of LA to try to bring home another world title for the NBA’s
highest profile franchise. As part of the deal, former Laker Andrew Bynum is
off to Philadelphia while the 76ers’ Andre Iguodala returns home from the
London Olympics as the newest member of the Denver Nuggets.
According to
Bovada’s most recent futures odds for the NBA, the Lakers now find themselves
as 11/4 second favorites to win it all next season behind the Miami Heat at 9/4.
The third-favorite is Oklahoma City at 11/2. After that, the numbers drop off
quite a bit with Chicago at 10/1 followed by San Antonio at 16/1 to round-out
the odds for the top five teams in the league.
LeBron caps off quite a season
Before the start of the 2011/2012 NBA regular
season, one of the most scrutinized players in the history of the league fully
understood the amount of pressure he was under to finally deliver on a few of
his past promises. Less than 10 months later, LeBron James can finally take a
break to reflect upon
what might have been one of the greatest seasons in the
history of the league. He was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in the
regular season and won that honor again in the NBA Finals. He helped deliver a NBA
World Title to the city of Miami, and now he can add an Olympic gold medal to
his list of accomplishments. It will be interesting to see what he has planned
for an encore once things fire back up in a couple of months, but for now it is
time for all the critics to give the NBA’s biggest and brightest star the
recognition he deserves.