LEBRON JAMES (MIAMI HEAT)
James is the most dominant and scrutinized player in the NBA. A two-time league MVP and seven-time All-Star, he has achieved virtually every individual honor the game has to offer. He won an Olympic gold medal with the US team at Beijing, but the one big thing still missing from his resume is an NBA championship. He made the finals with Cleveland in 2007 and with Miami last season, but nothing less than winning the title this year will satisfy King James.
Photo: Reuters
DIRK NOWITZKI (DALLAS MAVERICKS)
Nowitzki has been a revelation in the NBA since leaving his homeland in Germany to ply his trade in the US. Initially drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks, he has spent his entire career with the Dallas Mavericks, leading them to the playoffs in each of the past 11 seasons. In 2007, the power forward was named the NBA’s MVP, becoming the first European to win the award, and last season, he was named MVP in the NBA Finals after leading the Mavericks to their first championship.
Photo: AFP
DERRICK ROSE (CHICAGO BULLS)
Rose upstaged LeBron James last season to win the league’s MVP award, becoming the youngest player to win the coveted prize after averaging 25 points a game. Two years earlier, the points guard was named Rookie of the Year after being selected by the Bulls as the first pick overall in the draft. He led the Bulls to the Eastern Conference finals, but, despite averaging 27.1 points a game during the playoffs, they lost out to the Heat.
Photo: AFP
KOBE BRYANT (LA LAKERS)
One of the most accomplished players the NBA has produced, Bryant has achieved it all. He has won five championships with the Lakers and an Olympic gold medal for the US as well as a string of individual awards, including the MVP in 2008 and the NBA Finals MVP in 2009 and 2010. At 33, he is showing no signs of slowing down, but there are questions about the Lakers after their limp exit from last year’s playoffs.
BLAKE GRIFFIN (LA CLIPPERS)
Griffin was selected as the first pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, but missed the entire 2009-2010 season because of injury. He made up for lost time last season, averaging 22.5 points and 12.1 rebounds a game, to unanimously win the Rookie of the Year award and establish himself as one of the most exciting prospects in the sport.
SOURCE: REUTERS
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier