It has not been a stellar year of headlines for Calvin Andrews of BDA. Earlier this year, after the O.J. Mayo-USC-Ronald Guillory story blew up, Andrews -- who allegedly paid Guillory to deliver Mayo to his client list -- was dropped by the Memphis guard and then suspended from agenting activities for a year by the NBA Players Association. This suspension is more of public slap on the wrist than anything -- rumors abound that Andrews is the real agent for top prospects including Hasheem Thabeet, who is listed as a BDA client. (The policing of the agents is a complete joke, in other words.)
But here's a karmic punishment that works: Carmelo Anthony, Andrews' top client by far, has reportedly dropped BDA to move over to CAA, the agency led by Leon Rose and attached to William Wesley.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony had an amazing season, leading the Denver Nuggets to the Western Conference finals, where they fell to the Lakers in six games. We caught up with 'Melo during the Nuggets-Lakers series, and he offered some insight about Kobe Bryant that the Magic might want to pay attention to as they prepare for Thursday night's first game of the NBA Finals. He also discusses movie stars he's met at the games, and what he thinks of boxing stars Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.
The Nuggets far exceeded expectations this season. The team ranked not as the squad most likely to scare the snot out of the Lakers, but as the old guard least likely to return to the postseason in the New World.
Chauncey Billups, Nene, Kenyon Martin, Carmelo Anthony, George Karl, Chris Andersen, J.R. Smith and Joe Dumars changed that. The opening week trade for Mr. Big Shot completely transformed the spirit of the team, as did Karl's summer decision to focus on defense, even at the expense of his stars' allegiance. Everything else went right, for the most part.
But the franchise sit has payroll cuts to consummate, and little in the way of burgeoning youth to fill the holes. By trading the promise of cap space (in the convenient form of Allen Iverson) for Billups, the Nuggets trade a minor rebuild for contention. It worked -- the Nuggets were legit contenders. But what now? How can they possibly get better?
There's a good chance that at some point during the NBA Finals -- or likely before they even start -- there will be talk of whether or not the Lakers are tough enough to win a championship.
And there should be that kind of talk. But it wasn't even an issue against the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers are going to their second consecutive NBA Finals because their big players were more skilled and more talented than the Nuggets' big players were tough and physical.
All year long, the Lakers had a singular, simple goal: to return to the NBA Finals, and avenge last year's loss in the championship round.
They achieved the first part of that goal on Friday by closing out the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, 119-92.
In a series where the referees were the topic of discussion over the past two games, the Lakers made sure that this one wouldn't be close enough for the officials -- or the Nuggets -- to have any say at all regarding the outcome of this game.
Despite suffering their worst loss of the postseason two days earlier in Denver, the Lakers re-asserted themselves as the best team in the West -- if not the entire league -- with a 103-94 win at home over the Nuggets. They now hold a commanding 3-2 lead in the series, needing just one more win over the next two games to return to the NBA Finals.
The Lakers have been maddeningly inconsistent the last several weeks, but Wednesday's win did preserve one positive streak: they've yet to lose consecutive games in the playoffs. Granted, they've yet to win consecutive games against the Nuggets, but the way the schedule works out, they don't need to.
DENVER -- For all the weird smack-talking from those Nike puppets, all the relentless marketing pushes by a sports-drink firm that suggests Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are on "a collision course," guess what? They might be headed for a Porsche-Hummer crash instead, which would be a colossal waste of ad-world brainpower and, when you consider the megastars excluded, our great entertainment loss in June.
No one is pondering a Denver vs. Orlando matchup, least of all ABC, which would watch in horror as a compelling postseason marked by fat cable ratings suddenly fades to black in the NBA Finals. "I'm sure the world does want Cleveland and the Lakers, the best two players in the world and the chance to see them in a seven-game series," said Nuggets star Chauncey Billups. "But I don't want to see it. And I'm trying my best to make sure it doesn't happen."
After a spectacular performance by Kobe Bryant in Game 3, the Lakers find themselves up 2-1 in their series against the Nuggets.
Although "The Birdman", Chris Anderson was in flight, the Lakers were able to contain Nuggets catalyst Carmelo Anthony. Will Carmelo be able to bounce back to his Game 1 and 2 form? Will Kobe be able to guide the Lakers one step closer to the Finals?
Join us tonight for a live blog at 9 PM EST to find out.
In both of the Lakers' Western Conference finals victories over the Nuggets, Trevor Ariza stole an inbounds pass late in the game that effectively sealed things for L.A. Since there were different players involved on the Denver side of things each time -- Anthony Carter was throwing to Chauncey Billups in Game 1; in Game 2 it was Kenyon Martin trying to get it to Carmelo Anthony -- maybe you just look at the one constant, which was Ariza, to figure out the reason why.
Or maybe, you look at something else -- like history. Because the fact is, before the arrival of Billups, George Karl and the Nuggets didn't believe in running plays to get the ball inbounds.
The Lakers went into Denver on Saturday night and beat the Nuggets 103-97 to take a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference finals series.
During the regular season, the Lakers won 11 more games than the Nuggets and beat them in the season series 3-1.
Why then does L.A. feel like the underdog in this series? It feels like the Lakers should be down in this series, feels like they are the inferior team and feels like they're the ones happy to hang in games and see if they can pull it out late.
Lakers 103, Nuggets 97: Recap | Box Score L.A. Leads 2-1 | Next Game: Monday @ Denver, 9 PM ET
It has not been a stellar year of headlines for Calvin Andrews of BDA. Earlier this year, after the O.J. Mayo-USC-Ronald Guillory story blew up, Andrews -- who allegedly paid Guillory to deliver Mayo to his client list -- was dropped by the Memphis guard and then suspended from agenting activities for a year by the NBA Players Association. This suspension is more of public slap on the wrist than anything -- rumors abound that Andrews is the real agent for top prospects including Hasheem Thabeet, who is listed as a BDA client. (The policing of the agents is a complete joke, in other words.)
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos. 
The Nuggets far exceeded expectations this season. The team ranked not as the squad most likely to scare the snot out of the Lakers, but as the old guard least likely to return to the postseason in the New World.
There's a good chance that at some point during the NBA Finals -- or likely before they even start -- there will be talk of whether or not the Lakers are tough enough to win a championship.
All year long, the 
Despite suffering their worst loss of the postseason two days earlier in Denver, the Lakers re-asserted themselves as the best team in the West -- if not the entire league -- with a 103-94 win at home over the Nuggets. They now hold a commanding 3-2 lead in the series, needing just one more win over the next two games to return to the NBA Finals. 
DENVER -- For all the weird smack-talking from those Nike puppets, all the relentless marketing pushes by a sports-drink firm that suggests 
After a spectacular performance by 
In both of the Lakers' Western Conference finals victories over the Nuggets, 
The Lakers went into Denver on Saturday night and 
