This via the Guardian (UK):

The victim of a face-eating attack in Miami last month is in good spirits and is expected to survive, despite losing half his face in the assault, doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital said Tuesday.

Ronald Poppo, 65, lost half his face in the May 26 assault – less than previously reported.

Poppo lost his left eye and currently cannot see out of his right eye, although he may recover some vision, surgeon Wrood Kassira said. Poppo also has two holes in his chest, doctors said, possibly caused by a bullet.

It seems that homeless man Poppo was the victim of a flesh-eating man, possibly under the influence of illicit substances. The attacker, who was shot and killed by police, mauled on Poppo's face, described by some as a zombie-style attack.

The connection to basketball?

Despite his condition, the victim showed high spirits, his surgeons said. He even gave the doctors a message before the news conference: "Go Heat." The Miami Heat basketball team plays in the first game of the NBA finals Tuesday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

That's commitment to your team.

Oh, and the connection to the image (via DailyThunder.com) above? The OKC Thunder have long been described by longing Seattle Supersonics fans as the Zombie Sonics.

This is clearly not a laughing matter though. We wish Poppo a speedy recovery.

Imagine if former NBA superstar Wilt Chamberlain had existed in the era of Twitter, YouTube and the 24 hour news cycle. Despite the relative "radio silence" of the era in which Wilt existed, he was an absolute mega-super-uberstar of his day. He was a dominant wonder on the basketball court, was in demand for movie parts, claimed to have unprecedednted success in the bedroom with the ladies and of course, did his fair share of commercials.

This 1966 commercial for VolksWagen cars was just one.

(image via autohistorian on flickr)

I've made no secret in the past about my disdain for the widespread homerism prevalent in NBA television commentary. The city-by-city-centric model of commentary needs to change to restore some respectability to play-by-play hoops announcing, and I think that we've found just the man to do it.

What we need, counterintuitively, is more Brits in NBA commentary. The reality is, we all know what's going on in a basketball game most of the time -- it's not a new sport in need of an education campaign. So most of the time the Marv Alberts of this world are telling us what we already know -- and we're simply not stupid enough to need that verbal diahorrea, are we? 

So how about we add some commentary to the equation? This guy has done just that. An Englishman by the name of Anthony Richardson does this comedic commentary routine on an NBA 2K12 simulation between the Los Angeles Clippers and the San Antonio Spurs.

He makes plenty of football references, but you don't even need to understand who the Tottenham Hot Spurs are to find much of this video funny. Get 'im in there, I say!

The NBA Playoffs bring passions to the fore -- even more so than during the regular season. And when I say passion, I mean one-eyed vehemence. 

One topic in particular that NBA observers seem to love focusing on over the past decade or so is the humble flop. The dive. The Academy Award-winning plea for a foul. It all started with Vlade Divac, seemingly, then extended to every "Euro" in the league, more recently making it's way to the antics of LeBron James and now it seems that everyone is open game.

This time around, the Los Angeles Clippers are the target of the claims of floppishness. 

Who would've thought the pathetic Clips could ever reach Tall Poppy status, worthy of being cut down? However yes, this year the combination of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin has turned the "other" team in LA into a hot commodity; one worthy of the disdain of opposing fans.

In this video, one fan has chosen to highlight the flopping by the Clippers during Game 4 of their 2012 Playoffs first round series against the Memphis Grizzlies. And here's the thing: I don't see too many flops here. Sure, some of them involve a bit of acting and falsifying, but on the whole, I do see a lot of regular basketball plays and fouls occuring here.

I guess this is where that passion I was talking about kicks in. Or do you see it differently? Watch and let me know in the comments or on facebook / twitter.

We talkin' 'bout practice, man!

We're not even talkin' 'bout the game.

We talkin' 'bout practice!

Yes, it was ten years ago today when Allen Iverson changed the basketball world with his totally awesome "Practice" rant.

Re-enjoy... and count how many times he says "practice" in this Philadelphia 76ers press conference video.

1991 was the first year that I got heavily into this thing called the NBA -- a pursuit that was destined to change my life irrevocably. The excitement surrounding the league back then was phenomenal.

You had Michael Jordan at the helm, providing ridiculous highlights on an almost nightly basis. The baton had been passed to him by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, both of whom were on near to their last NBA-legs, for various reasons. Outside of these ridiculously famous superstars, the likes of Clyde Drexler, Dominique Wilkins and Isiah Thomas were putting in super-human offensive performances on the wings, whilst Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Brad Daugherty and Rony Seikaly were legitimate big men in a mould we don't see today.

Meanwhile, we had a 1991-92 rookie class that included future stars Larry Johnson, Dikembe Mutombo, Kenny Anderson, Steve Smith, Terrell Brandon, Dale Davis and Australia's own Luc Longley. Hawks rookie Stacey Augmon, the Plastic Man, was setting highlight reels alight, alongside Nique in the ATL. And just around the corner, we had the imminent arrival of Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Christian Laettner in what was to be a star-studded 1992 NBA Draft.

Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Chris Mullin, Shawn Kemp, Kevin Johnson, Mark Price, Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, Tim Hardaway, Dennis Rodman. And I'm only just getting started. The league was ridiculously talented and full of the type of players that you'd pay to go and see play -- and entertain. 

The league of today, by contrast, seems to have a minimal amount of legitimate stars. The ones that do exist are often petulant or overly self-focussed. They show little real personality, as they are too busy manicuring their public image and "personal branding". You know who I'm talking about.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, if you disagree, but I can't see how the NBA of the current era even remotely compares to what we witnessed in the early 1990s. Watch this video of the top 10 dunks of 1991-92 and tell me otherwise...

The Los Angeles Clippers took out game three of their first round NBA Playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies; and Chris Paul's son showed off his acting skills in the post-game press conference. Here he is putting on Blake Griffin's game face:

Everyone knows that video game simulations mean little in reality. But, they can be fun.

For many a year the likes of 2K Sports and EA Sports have been using the NBA 2K and NBA Live franchises to predict the outcome of real-life NBA playoff scenarios. This year, Owen Good at top video games website, Kotaku, has used NBA 2K12 to predict the outcome of the 2012 NBA Playoffs.

According to the simulation, we do have a couple of upsets ahead of us -- one of which being that the Denver Nuggets will take down the Los Angeles Lakers in six games, winning the last four in a row. 

Unsurprisingly, the predicted Finals matchup is between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat... however, according to NBA 2K12, if Metta World Peace (aka Ron Artest) had not been suspended, the Lakers would not only take down the Nuggets in the first round, but progress to the NBA Finals against the Heat.

We'll see.

Another world; another era. Basketball was such a different game back in the 1960s. The sport was not as reliant on brute strength or elite athleticism, but moreso around grace and strategy.

Check out the video below, as the Cincinnati Royals take on the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of the 1966 NBA Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. The Celtics won the match 112-103, giving them the nod in the Best of 5 series, 3-2. They went on to win the NBA title, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals after a 54-26 regular season.

That Celtics squad consisted of the likes of John Havlicek, KC Jones, Sam Jones, Don Nelson, Bill Russell and was coached by legendary Red Auerbach.

As you can see, the style of play was vastly different... and of course, there was no three-point line! 

Meanwhile on the other side of the court were Hall of Famers Jerry Lucas and league legend Oscar Robertson, who averaged 31.3ppg, 11.1apg and 7.7rpg that season. You may not know Lucas, but he was one of only two players to average a 20-20 that season, along with Wilt Chamberlain. Bill Russell was never a big time scorer, despite averaging 22.8rpg himself that season, along with his 12.9ppg. 

Watch the original triple-double master, Robertson, drop 37 points in this same game: