The NBA playoffs will be headed back to Salt Lake City again, and once again we find ourselves scrutinizing one of the most passionate fan bases in not just the NBA, but in all of sports. A fan base that has been on the roller-coaster of all sports roller-coasters since April of 2017. A fan base, that is as loyal as it is passionate and the envy of the league with how loud it can get. But also, a fan base which is equally reviled for its antics, and racists actions.

I have been a Jazz fan since at least 1986. I was just a small child but I fondly remember going to the games and watching Ricky Green and Adrian Dantley. My childhood growing up in Salt Lake City was dominated by the Jazz and the NBA. Growing up all my friends and I wanted to be Jordan, Olajuwon or Stockton and Malone. My first fight I remember as a kid was because my friend said Andy Toolson was a better point guard than Delaney Rudd. As I hit my early teen years the Jazz seen unprecedented team success with their two NBA finals runs. My early college years was watching the team rebuild, and as I became an adult I watched the Jazz make new inroads in the NBA with Boozer and D-will. Now firmly an adult with a career and family, I am treated to nostalgia as I watch this new Jazz team kindle old memories of a bygone Jazz era. As I have grown, I have grown with the Utah Jazz.

Yet, despite all these great memories I have some dark ones which cloud my happy times. Like the time I seen several men accost another young man who they accused of being underage and drinking, and instead of waiting for security took it upon themselves to beat him up. He was 21, and was detained by Salt Lake City police while his attackers were free to go.

The faucette is wide open and the NBA Trade Deadline is coming down the pipe!

We’ve already seen some huge shake-ups, most notably the Blake trade. The Los Angeles Clippers showed that they might just go into full-on rebuild mode when they shipped their franchise star over to the Motor City for a 2018 first-round pick, Avery Bradley, Boban Marjanovic, and Tobias Harris.

Breaking Down the Griffin Trade

The long-time Celtic, short-term Piston, Bradley is averaging just under 32 minutes, 15 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists per game. At 27, he is still in his prime and will be a reliable scorer -averaging 15 points or more for the last three seasons. As for Marjanovic, I don’t see a whole lot of value in either the short-term or long-run for the Clippers organization other than a fairly low-cost backup big-man to play a few minutes per game.

The early days of basketball often seen slow fan-unfriendly low scoring matches that often left spectators bored. Games often only got into the 40s and many of the best players averaged less than 15 points a game. Many early basketball games looked more like a glorified version of the childrens game of keep-away than an action packed professional sport. This style of play culminated in a game between Minneapolis and Fort Wayne, where the Pistons of Fort Wayne held the ball most of the second half nursing a 1 point lead over the Lakers. The Pistons would win 19-18 in the lowest scoring game in NBA history. Prior to that the fewest points ever score 33 points, just 4 fewer than both teams scored, and that game was one the opening night of the NBA, or BAA as it was called back then.

This place pace bored fans, many of whom where promised an action packed fun experience and attendance and interest in the new league had begun to dip. The NBA needed a solution and needed it fast. The solution was an ingenious one and one that would revolutionize the game as we know it. A simple clock, with just 24 seconds on it would forever change the game.

The clock was the brain child of Syracuse Nationals general manager Leo Ferris, a man that the NBA has long forgotten in one of the biggest travesties in the games history. Ferris, is as important to the early days of the NBA as anyone and one could argue that without Ferris there would be no NBA today; and there definitely would be no Atlanta Hawks, or Philadelphia 76ers. The NBA would look much different today without Ferris's input all those years ago.

On October sixth, the NBA lost one of the great pioneers in league history. Connie Hawkins was a four time NBA all-star and former ABA MVP, who's legal battle with the ABA and NBA helped change the landscape of professional basketball.

Few athletes in American history have ever been as victimized by the system as Hawkins was. In 1961, while Hawkins was a freshman at Iowa and ineligible to play on the Hawkeyes varsity team due to NCAA regulations at the time, a humongous college betting scandal erupted and Hawkins was kicked out of school.

The scandal involved 22 different schools and 37 players, but Hawkins was not implicated. The scandal mostly focused on players associated with Jack Molinas, who had escaped the CCNY betting scandal a decade and a half earlier. Hawkins, growing up in New York City, knew many of the players involved and had borrowed $2,000 for school expenses from Jack Molinas, but Hawkins brother had paid Molinas back before the scandal erupted.

Point shaving is arguably the biggest cardinal sin in the basketball world. While there has been several cases of it involving college basketball, the NBA has had relatively few incidents of point shaving, that is not to say that the scandals have not affected the NBA, quite the contrary. Of the four major leagues in the US the NBA has been the most ardent opponent of betting on games, especially during its early years. The league has soften its stance in later years, but is still waging a fight against the state of New Jersey over online betting.

Point shaving is when a bookie or better convinces a player or official to help a favored team not make the spread. For example, if a team is favored to win by 10 points, the player or players involved make sure that the team wins by fewer than 10 points. This is accomplished by intentionally missing shots, committing turnovers or fouls, or in the case of a corrupt official making bad calls.

Basketball is an extremely easy sport to manipulate because of the tempo of the game and the affect just one player can have on the game. The NCAA is much more susceptible to point shaving than the NBA because of the NCAA's strict emphasis on amateurism. NCAA players do not make any money and are often struggling college students, while the NBA players are making millions of dollars. It is much easier for a bookie to convince a poor college student to miss a few shots for a few hundred dollars than it is to convince a millionaire NBA player to do the same thing.

The 2017-18 NBA season has just barely begun and already the Chicago Bulls have suffered a devastating loss. Bulls forward Bobby Portis punched forward Nikola Mirotic – breaking bones in Mirotic's face. This is a double whammy for a team who was trying to find an identity after breaking apart their roster from last year.

Mirotic, who had fallen out of the rotation last year, has figured to be a key part of the new look Bulls. Last season he averaged 10 points in 70 games and 24 minutes last year. The Montenegro center was a restricted free agent who re-signed with the Bulls in the off-season

The Bulls will also surely lose Bobby Portis, who they had hoped would finally be a contributor to the team. Portis averaged 7 points a game in both his NBA season in spot minutes.

There are very few things you can always bet will happen during college basketball. That an underdog will stun a powerhouse in the tourney; that student fans will take wins and losses harder than the athletes themselves; and that the game will be rocked by scandal every few years.

Once again, sadly, it's scandal time for college basketball and this one has already cost one of the greatest coaches in the game his career and likely a chance for the hall-of-fame, and it appears that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

In a few short hours the FBI did something that the NCAA never could do in decades of existence, reign in all the rouge elements of college basketball.

Last Tuesday's NBA league-shaking trade between the Cavs and Boston Celtic is definitely one of or perhaps the craziest deal in the history of the super league. The surreal switch of Irving from the Cavaliers to Celtic in exchange for Crowder, Thomas, and Zizic looks ridiculous as it sounds. And with Cleveland jumping around the streets over their newest player, the question that seems to be on everyone's mind is how Irving will fit with the Celtics.

Of course, we all know Irving is an all-star, and all-stars do play anywhere. But the thought of seeing our own big man playing for a conference rival team like Boston Celtic is definitely something none of us saw coming. As much as we hate to admit, the move is already a done deal and there's no stopping it now. Right now, we want to picture the Cleveland Cavaliers star playing in a Celtic jersey and see if he really fit into any puzzle in his new team.

The whole situation still looks like a dream; one that many of us (especially Cleveland's supporters) wouldn't like to wake up from. But facing reality, it looks like the conference rivals had it planned with Irving all along and we could say they've been doing a lot behind the scenes. No doubt, they've got the perfect blockbuster, but it still remains unclear how they will fit in together.

The NBA season is just around the corner, and every season some of the most high profile and impactful new players on most teams are rookies, and this year will be no different. This year holds to have more rookies than any other year in NBA history. So what rookies will be most impactful for their new teams?

Traditionally, the rookies who have the biggest impact for their teams have been those draft high in the draft. Of the last 20 rookie of the year winners, six have been the number one overall pick, and all except last years winner Malcon Brogden have been drafted with the first 10 picks of the draft.

So which of the top 10 will have the biggest impact? The easy obvious choices will be the #1 and #2 overall picks in last years draft: Philadelphia's Markell Fultz and Los Angeles' Lonzo Ball. And while both will have huge impacts this year, they are both going to be handicapped by their respective teams. Fultz will play alongside some of the best young talent in the league in Philadelphia, and Ball will need another year or two of fine tuning before he reaches his full potential.

Basketball's early roots on the east coast are well document, from that cold December day in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891 when the game first formed to the present, we know the stories, the players and the histories. What is less known is how the game developed out west. While at the time of basketball's founding the east was pretty much an established mega-industrial center catering to the worlds needs. The west, it was still wild and untamed.

When James Naismith invented basketball in 1891 the United States states had just 44 states and Wyoming and Idaho had just joined the Union. Three states that would join the union after the founding of basketball, Utah, Oklahoma and Arizona, now contain NBA teams. The battle of Wounded Knee, the last great battle between the United States Army and the Native American's had happened just shy of a year before the game of basketball was invented. And the infamous gun fight at the OK Corral had happened just a decade before. In fact, the early days of basketball are closer in time to the French Revolution than they are to today.

It is easy to see why basketball's roots began in the east and why it has stuck and become such an integral part of the urban landscape. The east had the infrastructure and had young men with free time to play the game and form leagues. In contrast, the west lacked the roads, rails, and metropolitan areas to give rise to the infrastructure that is required to play basketball.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been particularly busy during the offseason but they still had time to add another new face to their roster ahead of the new season. Having cleared NBA waivers, 12-time All-Star Dwayne Wade agreed to a one-year deal with the Cavs, where he will link back up with LeBron James - who he won two NBA Championships during the pair's time with the Miami Heat. The deal, worth $2.3 million, will see the guard join a star-studded team, and one widely-expected to again be one of the strongest in the league this year.

A host of franchises were interested in signing the 35-year old, and the Cavaliers had to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and the Heat in the pursuit of Wade, with the veteran's relationship with James rumored to have played a key role in his decision.

After a long off-season, which seen the west once again get stronger at the expense of the east, it is finally time for NBA training camp. With the NBA preseason being shorter this year, most teams will report to camp in the next couple of weeks.

A lot has changed in the last 3 and a half months since the Warriors held up the O'Brien trophy. The Warriors got better. The Cavs swapped all-star point guards with the Celtics. The Celtics added Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. The Thunder added Paul George. And the Atlanta Hawks 10 year playoff streak looks to be coming to an end.

But who is the odds on favorite to win the NBA title?

Interestingly, George likely wouldn’t have been interested in playing for the Thunder if it wasn’t for former Thunder star and current pariah Kevin Durant, whose exit from the team during the 2016 offseason left a bitter taste in the mouth of Thunder fans.

According to Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins, George said Durant told him Oklahoma City was the place to be because the city’s hospitality would blow him away. George added that Durant told him the Thunder could offer him something else other teams couldn’t in terms of facilities, preparation, and fans.

Durant was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics who moved to Oklahoma City the next season. In his nine years with the Thunder, Durant led the team to the NBA Finals in 2012, and was a game away from making it back to the Finals before the Thunder blew a 3-1 lead to the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

After years of rebuilding following the Deron Williams trade, the Utah Jazz finally seen their efforts payoff in a spectacular 2017 campaign that seen the Jazz win 51 games, and win a seven game series vs the Los Angeles Clippers. But for all their efforts the past 7 year, they may be back at square one if things do not fall just right for them.

The Jazz have a lot of very important free agents, and the most important of them all will be Gordon Hayward. Hayward's rise to stardom has been the culmination of years of patience for the Utah Jazz and their fan base. The Jazz selected Hayward with the 10th pick in 2010, but the pick was originally acquired way back in 2003. The pick originally belonged to the New York Knicks, who traded it to the Phoenix Suns in a deal for Stephan Marbury. The Suns quickly traded that pick along with several others in a trade deadline salary cap dump to the Jazz. The pick was lottery protected and the Knicks never even sniffed the post season and for 7 years it languished until the protections ran out in 2010.

Hayward had a rough rise to finally becoming an all-star. His rookie year he played so poorly at times that Deron Williams threw the ball at his head, and he was inactive for a few games.

As we count down to the NBA Finals on June 1, many people are already speculating on which teams could feature big in the 2017/18 season.

Whilst we’d expect teams like Boston, Cleveland, Golden State and San Antonio to once again put in some strong performances, it’s clear that the Toronto Raptors could be a good outside bet.

The Canadian side were no match for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers when they were dumped out of the Eastern Conference semi-finals earlier this month. But the Raptors have shown a good fighting spirit that suggests that Dwayne Casey’s team could be ones to watch in the new season.

Although many people have said that it’s time for the head coach to go, it’s clear that Dwane Casey had a massive part to play in helping the side win their first playoff series since 2001.

When the NBA announced the 2016-17 All-NBA team there was a little D-league history that was made as well. Beyond the fanfare of NBA superstars Lebron James, James Harden, and Steph Curry stood Jazz bigman Rudy Gobert, who made his first All-NBA team when he was named on the All-NBA second team. Gobert quietly became the first player to play in the D-league and then make an All-NBA team.

Gobert's stints with the Bakersfiled Jam in 2013 and 2014 raised few eyebrows when they happened, and have pretty much been forgotten. The rookie center played just 8 games with the Jam

The 2017 NBA All-Star game is right around the corner. Originally scheduled to take place in North Carolina, the weekend will now be hosted by New Orleans and the Smoothie King Center. The game is scheduled for Sunday, February 19.

Before we get there (and to the Slam Dunk Contest and Three-Point Contest), we first have to set the rosters. Fan voting for the all-star rosters, as well as player and media voting, is currently going on and will end on January 16. On January 19, we will know the official lineups. Until then, it is time to speculate.

We have some early returns on fan voting results as of 1/12, according to NBA.com. Fan voting counts for 50 percent of the determination in naming the 10 starters for the contest.

he was the first non-Caucasian to ever play in the NBA, or as it was known at that time the BAA or Basketball Association of America. Watura Misaka, the second generation son of Japanese immigrants, grew up on Ogden's 25th street in the back of a barber shop and would often find him and his family the victim of rampant racial discrimination. Yet despite this Misaka was able to find a love of basketball and was allowed on the Ogden High Schools basketball team, where in 1940 he lead them to the state title.

In 1942 he began attending college at Weber College, which is now Weber State University. This was a dangerous time to be Japanese-American as president Roosevelt had recently signed Executive Order 9066 which required that Japanese-American's in the western United State be placed into interment camps. It remains one of the darkest chapters in American history and one of, if not the most, egregious violation of Human and Civil Rights in the 20th century.

Misaka was allowed to get an exemption to continue his studies at Weber and play basketball. He only played two seasons at Weber College but would lead the Wildcats to the Junior College championship both season.

In 1997 Bill Clinton was entering his 5th year as president of the United States, the Chicago Bulls had just won 69 games en route to their 5th NBA title ; Karl Malone was the leagues MVP; The Golden State Warriors were in the middle of their 14 year playoff less streak; Brett Farve had just lead the Green Bay Packers to their third franchise Super-bowl; and the San Antonio Spurs failed to make the NBA playoff. 19 years is a very long time and in sports it is an eternity, but that season 19 years ago would shape the Spurs franchise and the NBA for the next two decades. For their futility the Spurs ended up winning the #1 draft pick in the 1997 NBA draft and selected Wake Forrest product Tim Duncan. Duncan would go on to dominate the forward position in the NBA like few have ever done before him and likely few will do after him. As a second year player, teamed with NBA hall-of-famer David Robinson, Duncan was able to help guide the Spurs to their first ever NBA title.

Even before Michael Jordan and his commercials with the catchy "Like Mike" jingle, kids around the world have wondered what it would be like to be a sports superstar. They've fantasized about the hearing the roar of the crowd and of hitting the final shot. Although it isn't quite the same as hitting the big leagues, basketball video games do provide a legitimate opportunity to experience the highs of hitting that championship-winner all from the comfort of home.

Why a Basketball Video Game?

The thing about watching basketball games is that even if you're cheering for a particular team, you're still watching other people sweat for those baskets on the court. For those who are less athletically-inclined, a basketball video game offers a different experience because point depends on you and your skill level.

The long wait for the city of Cleveland is over, after half a century the city will celebrate its first championship. The Cavs, The Browns, and the Indians have broken the hearts of many Ohioans. But now after half a century of missery-bliss.

The last championship the city of Cleveland won was the in 1964 when the Cleveland Browns won the NFL championship, since then it has been a very hard time in C-town. The Cavs have been the victims of many of Cleveland mishaps. The Cavs began as an NBA franchise in 1970 and immediately began experience the curse of Cleveland.

When the Basketball Association of America (BAA) merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1949 it was the culmination of two great basketball leagues that would give us one final and polished product; the National Basketball Association (NBA). A league, that in 1949, looked much different that the product we see today. Today we have 30 teams nestled in mega arenas in 28 cities across the United States and Canada and income in the Billions of dollars.

The 17 team league would be a mixture of big east coast cities, small Midwest farming communities, and one lone enclave in the Rocky Mountains. From the start problems started to arise with the disparity between the former NBL teams and the BAA teams. One of the biggest was income disparity as the BAA teams had a lot more money than did the NBL teams, the one thing that the NBL teams did have an advantage over the BAA is that the NBL tended to have the bigger stars.

One of the major factors in the merging of the two leagues was that the BAA, after three years of existence, was finally able to start not only plucking the top stars away from the NBL but also the NBL's top teams as well. Two seasons after its existence in 1947, the BAA was able to lure the Minneapolis Lakers away from the NBL along with the Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Pistons and Indianapolis Jets.

Adding the Lakers to the BAA gave them the games biggest star in George Mikan

For all their accolades in NBA history and the NBA finals in particular; Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant nor Magic Johnson never accomplished a feat that Lebron James has recently just accomplished. This finals vs the Golden State Warriors marks James sixth straight NBA finals. A feat that is incredible rare in sports, and yet despite this success, James success at getting his team to the finals is often disregarded when talking about his greatness.

The first of these six straight finals appearances came in his first year of the Miami Heat's big three of James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. The Heat were the favorites to win the title that year and cruised through the later half of the season and were the odds on favorite to win the NBA title. But in a shocking turn of events the Dirk Nowitzki lead Dallas Mavericks stunned the Heat to capture Dallas's first NBA title.

Bismack Biyombo, the Toronto Raptor’s star center player, has unfortunately found himself in some trouble this past week. He has been suspended from the opening game of th1 ’16-’17 season due to an accumulation of too many flagrant fouls throughout the Playoffs.

Biyombo will now have some extra time on his hands as he will not be playing in that very important first game of the season. He also loses out on earning from that match that he would have been in

The 2016 NBA Draft is now less than four months away and there are a clutch of new college stars and freshmen that are waiting in the wings ready to be picked by the 30 teams from the National Basketball Association.

Ben Simmons, PF, LSU

6-foot-9 Simmons has been touted as the number one prospect due to his impressive all round skills. Simmons has been ranked as the best high school player by the majority of scouts and is a gifted forward who now plays for LSU Tigers after moving from his home town of Melbourne to Montverde, Florida in 2013. The 19-year-old possesses excellent ball handling skills and moves seamlessly in the open court.

The one thing that you can predict in March Madness is unpredictability. Every year some unknown school comes out of no where to spoil the big dance for a favorite. With the one and done system that most major schools have these days with their best talent playing a season before going to the NBA, these upsets are getting more and more frequent. Since its expansion to 64 teams in the 1980s no #16 seed has ever knocked off a #1 seed, and this should hold true again this year. Kansas, North Carolina, Virginia or Oregon have nothing to fear, and all four will be in the round of 32. Occassionally a #16 seed gives a #1 a run for their money, but the committee seems to take special care in preventing this from happening.

As the NBA season enters the home stretch, the Golden State Warriors have emerged as clear favorites to repeat as NBA champions. Led by reigning MVP Steph Curry, who recent topped the NBA record he set last year for the most three-pointers scored in a season, the Warriors' torrid pace has made them the fastest team ever to reach the 50-win mark in a season, clinching a playoff spot before the end of February. But while all eyes have been on the Dubs, a number of rival squads have also put together impressive campaigns, that are worthy of attention from basketball fans.

Fans today think that the problem of players getting into trouble is a modern issue and that players of the past were more gentlemanly. Most players of yesteryear and today are actually pretty nice guys, even the ones who get into trouble. Very few players have been truly terrible human beings, they just end up with problems and are unable to cope with them in a socially acceptable way so they end up acting out, or they get addicted to drugs.

One such player who had their career cut short by acting out and drugs was Marvin Barnes. Barnes is one of the saddest yet most interesting stories in NBA history, yet it is one with a glimmer of hope. Barnes had the nickname “Bad News Marvin” because of his off the court issues.

Back in December, the Miami Heat knocked off Oklahoma City, 97-95. The Thunder sat at 11-8 after that loss, on the fringe of the playoffs in the Western Conference. When the two teams met again this week, the Thunder rolled to a 99-75 rout, taking their 30th win of the season against just a dozen losses.

That's right -- the Thunder have gone 19-4 since that loss to the Heat and are now firmly in the conversation when it comes to contenders to take the Western Conference this year (and have the unenviable prospect of facing an even more determined Cavaliers crew in the NBA finals this summer). So how have they gone from mediocre to elite?

One change has been the return of a healthy Kevin Durant, of course. As the career of such big men as Bill Walton and Sam Bowie showed, and Joel Embiid seems to be showing now, if you can't put foot problems in your rear view mirror, your career will suffer. He is back from his foot issues and is playing well on both ends of the floor.

Schayes was a star big man in his basketball career for the Syracuse Nationals, the precursor to the Philadelphia 76ers. Thought, unlike, other bigs of his era, Schayes possessed the ball handling skills of a guard. His ball handling and passing ability made him nearly unstoppable and ranks him second in the early NBA era of big men behind only George Mikan.

He was drafted by the Knicks of the BAA and by the Waterloo Hawks of the NBL, but the Hawks sold his rights to the Syracuse Nationals. The Nationals offered Schayes more money than the Knicks, so high signed there instead of joining the bigger market Knicks.

When the Golden States Warriors walked off with the 2014-2015 NBA Championship last June, conjecture immediately began regarding the future prospects for the team and its star players, league MVP point guard Stephen Curry and shooting guard Klay Thompson. Only three games into the 2015-2016 season, some of those questions are being emphatically answered.

To begin with, the Warriors have served notice that they intend to go undefeated through the entire season. Of course, that isn't going to happen, but decisive victories over the New Orleans Pelicans (111-95), Houston Rockets in Houston (112-92) and again over the Pelicans in New Orleans (134-120) has to have other teams in the league wondering. If it's possible for a team that finished 62-20 to come back the following season and be significantly better, than the rest of the league is surely in trouble and playing for runner-up status.

As for Curry, his performances this year have been nothing short of spectacular. The truth is he has turned the NBA into his own personal playground and he owns the ball. On the season, he is averaging 39.3 PPG (hello Wilt Chamberlain). He is shooting 58.8% from the field (mostly perimeter shots), 48.6% from beyond the 3-point line, and 95.5% from the charity stripe. As if that isn't a big enough contribution, he has also contributed 7.3 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game. At this point in time, he has no rival to which he can be compared.

Most people know the origins of basketball; how in the winter of 1891 James Naismith invented the game to keep students active in the winter. But what most people do not know is how coaching the game of basketball got started. In the early days of basketball most teams did not have a coach as there was very little strategy to the game - most players relied on their athletic prowess rather than their brains to score. Even the games inventor, James Naismith, did not believe that basketball needed coaching. In his word you "Just play the game". But as the game got more popular players started figuring out how to manipulate the outcome of the game by doing things to prevent the other team from scoring; such as zone defenses.

There were many early attempts at coaching in basketball, even the games inventor was coaching, but the most impactful early coaching advocate was Forrest "Phog" Allen. Allen was a multi-sport star athlete - who was mentored by Naismith at the University of Kansas. After graduating from Kansas, Allen took a few years off of basketball to become a doctor

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