Growing up in Michigan, I disliked Larry Bird and his Boston Celtics a lot.

It wasn’t until later in Bird’s career, and after he had retired that I began to look past my prejudice and really appreciate the man’s basketball ability.

Bird is the owner of one of my top-3 favorite NBA plays of all time. Bird is one of 4-5 players in NBA history that could pull a play like this off; he had the hustle, creativity, and court I.Q.

Amazing. Bird hustles to the rebound, pops the ball out of Clark Kellogg’s hands, and as the ball shoots straight up in the air, Bird sees teammates streaking down the court.

In one motion, Bird jumps up in the air, grabs the ball, cocks back and throws a baseball pass down the court – resulting in a Robert Parish dunk.

Larry Bird was a phenomenal passer in a regular offense, but a lot of his highlight passes were only possible because he sacrificed his body and took chances.

Bird’s hustle caused chaos because if he stole the ball or threw his body around to create opportunities, the defense was unprepared, and Larry Bird took advantage of those situations.

Take a look at some of his career highlight passes at YouTube and you’ll see what I mean.

• Larry Bird: Greatest Passer of All-Time
• Larry Bird: Greatest Passer of All-Time part 2
• Larry Bird: Greatest Passer of All-Time part 3

This is what the NBA Playoffs is about. Game four of the Western Conference Semi-Finals was just crazy.

Not only did the Oklahoma City Thunder outlast the Memphis Grizzlies 133-123 in triple overtime last night, they had to overcome two huge three-point shots that forced two of those overtimes.

(Discuss the NBA Playoffs in our forum)

To call them three-point shots is almost giving them too much credit, they were both essentially heaves at the basket – but the “heaves” made the game what it was.

The first heave came at the end of regulation with the Thunder up three and with Kendrick Perkins, who had just missed two free throws in an earlier possession, switched out onto Mike Conley, Jr.

With the larger defender on him, Conley danced, looked for options, and dribbled around before finally launching a high-arcing three that hit nothing but net – leaving just 3.5 seconds on the clock.

Watch the video:

Conley who ended the game with 16 points and 5 assists, would foul out in the first overtime bringing in rookie point guard from Venezuela, Greivis Vasquez.

Vasquez has never been known to be shy and with the Grizzlies down 109-106 with 16 seconds to play in the first overtime, he threw up an ill-advised, off-balance three with Russell Westbrook in his face. It swished right through:

Vasquez scored 14 points off the bench for the Grizzlies.

But thanks to a resilient Kevin Durant, the Thunder didn’t run out of gas. Durant would hit a couple huge shots in the third overtime to repel any comeback by the Grizzlies.

“The good thing about our team is we felt like we fought so hard we earned that game, so we didn’t want to give in,” said Nick Collison, power forward for Oklahoma City. “It would have been easy to give in at that time, but we didn’t do it. It’s a huge win for us and says a lot about us.”

Playing 51 minutes, Russell Westbrook had a career high 40 points, Durant added 35 points and 13 rebounds. The Grizzlies were led by Zach Randolph’s 34 points and 16 rebounds. Marc Gasol had 26 points and 20 rebounds.

Danilo Gallinari’s shocking, shirtless interview in which he admits that his game performance was due to his “taking a sheet.”

It definitely had me saying “What did he just say?”

The video summary says: “An unbelievable interview from Danilo Gallinari of the Denver Nuggets with sports broadcaster Melanie Collins.” Don’t ask me. I have no idea.

Update: The video was obviously a joke as any NBA head knows Gallinari hasn’t scored 30 in the playoffs quite yet. Now we know why, it’s a marketing campaign for Sheets Enegry Strips playing off Gallinari’s international-ness and his pronunciation of “sheet” alluded to another not as appetizing word. Sheets is a product that allows you to take vitamins in a whole new way, in the form of a tab much like Listerine Pocket breath mint tabs, and supposedly gives you energy.

Lebron James first shared this on his Facebook page and from there, it went viral rather quickly – check out the Facebook page for the Sheets.

The 2011 NBA playoffs is a who’s who, a showcase of the NBA’s best point guards.

As of this writing, the the top-scoring guards in the playoffs this year aren’t prolific shooting guards Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen or Dwyane Wade – they’re superstar point guards Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, and Chris Paul.

(Discuss NBA Playoffs in our NBA Forum)

Interbasket ranks the point guards in this year’s NBA playoffs thus far…

1. Derrick Rose continues his amazing, potentially-MVP year upping his scoring in the playoffs to a Jordan-esque 32.7 points a game, along with nearly 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2.3 steals a game as the Bulls take a 3-0 lead over the Indiana Pacers.

2. Russell Westbrook – When you talk about the Oklahoma City Thunder, you are forced to talk about Russell Westbrook,  who is nearly as unstoppable as teammate Kevin Durant. Westbrook is hitting for 26 points per game, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds while shooting 60% from three and nearly 90% from the line.

3. Chris Paul – You, the one that doesn’t live in New Orleans, you almost forgot about Chris Paul, didn’t you?  Not until he whipped that one-handed baseball pass to Aaron Gray, did you remember just how great a point guard the 6-3 bowling ball is.

Paul dissected the Laker’s lazy defense to a tune of 33 points, 14 assists, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals to a game one upset of Los Angeles. For the series, Paul is averaging 25 points, 10.3 assists, and 5 rebounds.

4. Jason Kidd – Remember when Jason Kidd was called “ason” because he had no “J”?  Well, it’s still not pretty, but Kidd has turned himself into a sniper in the Dallas-Portland series, shooting 45% from behind the arc to the tune of 16 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and hitting almost 4 threes a game.

5. Rajon Rondo is destroying the New York Knicks. The herky-jerky guard for the Boston Celtics is putting up 18 points, 12 assists, and 8 rebounds including a triple-double that set the franchise playoff record for assists (20). Rondo and Chris Paul are the only players avergaing a double-double with assists.

And that’s no disrespect to veteran points Jameer Nelson or Andre Miller, or up-and-coming PGs Mike Conley, Ty Lawson, and Jrue Holiday, who is making a splash in this year’s playoffs. Despite being down 0-3 to the Miami Heat, the second year player from UCLA is averaging 17 points, 5 assists and 2 steals.

Discuss the NBA Playoffs in our NBA forum.

Check out the video of Manu Ginóbili putting out an April Fools joke on Kevin Garnett in the Spur’s 107-97 loss to the Boston Celtics.

Ginobili shot just 4-13 in the game and ended with just 9 points. The Spurs slide stretched to six straight games. Kevin Garnett finished the game with 20 points and 9 rebounds.

The ACB had a crazy finish between Unicaja Malaga and Real Madrid that saw four huge shots in the last 35 seconds of play.

With Real Madrid down 63-62, star Argentine play maker Pablo Prigioni launches and hits a huge three about 6-7 feet (2 meters) outside the three, putting up Madrid by two.

The next play sees former Toronto Raptor Jorge Garbajosa hit a corner three on a broken play to give Malaga 66-65 lead with 26 seconds remaining in the game.

Prigioni would bring up the ball, dribble down the clock, calmly run a pick and roll and hit another clutch three to put Real Madrid back up by two, 68-66 with just four seconds to play. It turned out to be about two seconds too much.

Former Clemson player and Euroleague star Terrell McIntyre ran down the court in 2.5 seconds, double-pumped and the lefty hit a three-pointer to give Unicaja Malaga the 69-68 overtime win.

With St. John’s up 2 in the Big East Tournament, the Red Storm’s Justin Brownlee grabbed a loose ball, thought the game was over, took a couple of steps, stepped out of bounds and threw the ball into the stands while the final 1.7 seconds ticked off the clock.

The ball should have gone to Rutgers for one last shot at the basket. It didn’t. Check out the video:

Quickly after the game, the Big East conference hoped to patch any wounds with a statement:

Big East commissioner John Marinatto issued a statement about 40 minutes after the game ended admitting there were two errors made by the veteran officiating crew.

The result will stand. The 17th-ranked and fifth-seeded Red Storm (21-10) advanced to the tournament quarterfinals for the 20th time overall and first since 2003.

Read more about this controversy…

WNBA star Sylvia Fowles throws down an easy dunk on the breakway during the Euroleague all-star game on her way to being named MVP.

Nothing super-spectacular, but certainly surprised by the ease in which Fowles flew in for the one-hand jam – she definitely looks more Brittney Griner than Lisa Leslie. Fowles scored 16 points as “The Rest of the World” team defeated the Europe team.  For more about the game, go to FIBA.com.

Well, it wasn’t so much a “dunked-on,” as it was two superstars going on each other. It’s rare to see LeBron not get the block in this situation.

Kobe gets the loose ball as LeBron trails, they stare at each other as to challenge each other, saying “Go ahead and try it” without it ever being said. It’s not a beautiful dunk, but Kobe goes with both hands and extends to the rim so even if LeBron got a hand on it, it would be quite difficult to stop the momentum.

After the dunk, Kobe slaps LeBron on the butt as to tell him “nice try.” Bryant was named MVP of the game with a game-high 37 points and 14 rebounds.

LeBron James became only the second NBA player ever to register a triple double during the all-star game. James, who also inspired the East to an almost-comeback, put up 29 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

The only other player to pull off that feat? Michael Jordan, who put up 14 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists in the 1997 All-Star Game.

Check out the 2011 NBA All-Star Boxscore.

It just wasn’t the Lakers night. The Lakers came into Quicken Loans Arena cocky and ended up losing to the NBA’s worst team, the Cleveland Cavs, a team that was just two games removed from a NBA record 26 consecutive losses by the Cavs.  

Not only that, their two NBA all-stars, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, were further embarrassed by Christian Eyenga, an athletic 6-5 rookie wing from the Congo, who put the two veterans on highlight reels they weren’t accustomed to being on the other side of. Check out the video:

Eyenga took a pass, blew by Kobe Bryant as if he was stuck in cement, rose up, extended and brought down Gund Arena with a high-flying one-handed jam that brought everyone out of their seats.

The dunk extended the Cav’s lead 74-71 with 30 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

To Gasol’s credit, he had a insane game – scoring 30 points and pulling in 20 rebounds. Still, Gasol this isn’t the first time that a little-known international rookie has dunked on Pau.

Last night we witnessed another high-wire act by Blake Griffin. This time around, it’s against the Toronto Raptors. After a turnover by Andrea Bargnani, the Clippers are running with Baron Davis leading the charge. Watch the video below:

What’s so amazing about this dunk is that Davis leaves the ball hanging in the air before Griffin flies in, snatches the ball out of the air with two-hands and throws it down from the rafters. An NBA player is lucky to have 1 or 2 of these crazy, jaw-dropping highlights in their career – Blake Griffin has one every couple weeks.

Last night in a game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Indiana Pacers, the Buck’s big Aussie center Andrew Bogut dropped a soft behind-the-back pass to a cutting Carlos Delfino. Watch the video below:

Bogut doesn’t always get the chance to display his passing skills (2.0 assists a game), but that was Arvydas Sabonis-esque. Bogut’s scoring is down this year, but he’s leading the league in blocks (2.8) and pulling in a double-double every game (13.2 points and 11.5 rebounds). His free throw shooting, however…

Thessaloniki, Greece – A professional Greek basketball team took off their jerseys after an embarassing loss to their city rivals PAOK.

(Discuss Greek Basketball in our forum)

Iraklis fans heckled the players and encouraged them to undress and leave their uniforms at the center court. Many of the players did just that.

From TalkBasket: A couple of hours later the president of Iraklis BC made an announcement apologising to the fans for the “queer game” by the players.

The club later retaliated again by quoting the team’s captain Vladimir Petrovic that “the players don’t deserve to wear this team’s jerseys” and again hinting against the players saying that “a club is not a contract, a car and house with internet” and ended with a “our players don’t need a pimp” referring to the Players’ Union.

Watch the video here:

For more information, check out TalkBasket.

Watch this amazing video of a Chinese woman going crazy shooting baskets on a pop-a-shot basketball machine – the speed and accuracy she displays is amazing.

Wow. By my count, she attempted over 120 shots and didn’t miss one. It truly is better being a Chinese mother (Ok, so it’s not a Chinese mom, but I would be remiss not to have not used that title) . To see more videos of Asian women shooting hoops videos, go to this forum thread.

This gives me a great reason to post a picture of star Chinese player, Haixia Zheng, who played for the Los Angeles Sparks in the early days of the WNBA.

Thanks to Sinobball for posting these videos in our forum.

Last week, the Phoenix Sun’s Goran Dragić threw a sick between-the-leg pass against the New Jersey Nets.

The 24-year old guard from Slovenia, ran a pick-and-roll with teammate Robin Lopez setting the pick. Dragić rolled off the screen and down the lane, bounced the ball between his legs to a rolling Robin for the easy layup over brother Brook.

If Goran Dragić continues making this pass, as he did against the Spurs back in November 2010, it could quickly become a signature pass.