Shepherd, Dailen | Fall 2013

NBA TALK

HEAT-PEAT ?

edition

BIG THINGS IN HOUSTON NEW LOOK NETSS RESTACKED CLIPPS

Miami Heat look to make 3 in a row

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ContentsBiography

2012 Olympic Basketball team vs. 1992 Dream Team

A “Heat-Peat”?

NBA 2013-2014 PREVIEW

Poster ad (GATORADE)

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D AILEN’S BIOGRAPHY

BioMy name is Dailen Shepherd. I’m a junior at Centennial High School. I was

born here in Columbus Ohio. I am a quiet and laid back person. I played soccer for about four years and in 2009 I fractured my ankle while playing. I also like to play basketball. A place I’ve been to is Virginia. A lot of my family is from Virginia and some still live there. My family is great; we like to do a lot of fun things together and have a good time. I have no brothers or sisters. I have a great mom. I look up to her a lot because she’s raised me up good. I

feel like I’m a kind and great caring person and I credit her for that.

ArtI haven’t thought about what art means to me. I just know that art is used everyday. The reason I like art is because it can be challenging to do but the outcome can look really good and that makes me feel good about myself.

My FutureI would like to do graphic design for my major in college and do it for my career. My dream is to be really successful in life and to move to Phoenix Arizona.

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The most popular question relating to the 2012 Olympic basketball tournament isn’t which team in this year’s Olympics has the best chance of beating the Americans, but whether this American team could beat the 1992 American team – the so-called “Dream Team” that featured Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird.

From a simplified viewpoint, a basketball team built in 2012 would beat a basketball team built in 1992 for the same reason a computer chip built in 2012 is faster than a computer chip built in 1992: people improve upon the work of their predecessors. LeBron James learned from Michael Jordan. Kevin Durant picked up tips from Connie Hawkins. Not directly, of course, Jordan has never been James’s coach and as far as we know, Kevin Durant has never even met Connie Hawkins.

THE DREAM TEAM VS. THE 2012 OLYMPIC BASKETBALL TEAM

One of the reasons we romanticize the 1992 Dream Team: their competition was overmatched to an almost comedic degree. The dominance of Jordan, Ewing, Robinson et. al might seem to bolster the argument that the 1992 team was a once-in-a-century collection of players.But a more likely answer is that the Dream Team was a lot of fun, and that they were something the likes of which we’ll never see again.But only because they had it so easy.

BY JUSTIN HALPERN AUGUST 2, 2012

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EASTERN CONFERENCE CONTENDERSThe Miami Heat learned its lesson last season en route to 66 wins and top seed in the East: Miami has the usual con-cerns about Wade’s knees. Still under-sized, the Heat is hopeful Greg Oden, the 7-footer whose career was virtu-ally ruined by catastrophic knee inju-ries, can give provide productive minutes.Derrick Rose is back and if he holds up, the Chicago Bulls will pres-ent the biggest challenge to Heat

WESTERN CONFERENCE CONTENDERS

The Oklahoma City Thunder is all set with Kevin Durant, the second-best play-er in the league after James, but there are questions about Russell Westbrook and whether former UConn wing Jeremy Lamb can really become their new third option.After not wanting the pressure of playing in Los Angeles, Dwight Howard resumes his career with the Houston Rockets with James Harden and a decent-enough sup-porting cast to get to the West finals.Doc Rivers heads up the L.A. Clip-pers and gets to see if Blake Griffin can ever become a legit No. 2 star for Chris Paul, still the game’s top playmaker.

By Mitch Lawrence / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

HEAT POISED FOR 3-PEAT

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NBA 2013-2014 PREVIEW

The reigning champion Miami Heat are once again the odds on favorite, followed by the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, and Brook-lyn Nets in the East. The L.A. Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rock-ets, and San Antonio Spurs are the favor-ites to come out of the slightly depleted

West.

The best odds call for a rematch of the 2012 Finals, with Miami squaring off against

Oklahoma City.

Bolstered by another expected MVP-cal-iber year from LeBron James and several key additions to the bench, the back-to-back champions come in as heavy 21/10 fa-vorites. Last season, Miami captured the

title despite 23.0 points per game off the bench, but the signings of Michael Beas-ley and Greg Oden are expected to improve the second unit, and the Heat will have a healthy Chris Andersen to start the sea-

son.

Miami could be the fourth franchise in NBA history to complete a three-peat, the last coming from the L.A. Lakers in the 2000s. In a recent poll of 30 general man-agers, the Heat were chosen as the favor-

ites to win the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

October 23 2013 by Greg Price

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