2009 NBA Final Four: Videos and Articles, All in One Place

ESPN The Magazine/Chris Broussard's Cleveland Cavaliers 2009 NBA Playoffs Content
You could say that ESPN The Magazine senior writer Chris Broussard has been on a semi-Cavs beat a little bit this year. He hit up Cleveland twice to check out the haps at a barbershop -- talking LeBron James and Kobe Bryant while there -- and got a sitdown interview with the King. If you look at the content options below, you will find both text and video related to the Cleveland Cavaliers as they get ready for the dawn of the Eastern Conference Finals. Enjoy.
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A video of Kobe Bryant discussing his FC Barcelona fandom
We've been rolling out the contents of our new "Fan Issue" all week. The cover boy for the issue is Kobe Bryant; while you probably knew Steve Nash was a soccer fan, you might not know that Kobe's a big FC Barcelona backer. Here's a video on the topic. And here's a photo gallery containing Kobe-in-soccer-garb pics, along with other athlete fans like Jared Allen, Matt Kenseth and Natalie Coughlin.
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A look at what makes Derek Fisher tick
With the Lakers dropping the Jazz yesterday, Derek Fisher improved to 11-0 in the first round for his career. That is tremendous. (Robert Horry was 16-0, which is deity-esque.) If you want to know what makes D-Fish tick, we suggest watching this video we made with him in September of 2007. Is that old? Yes. Is it still relevant? Unquestionably.
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AccuScore: LAL-DEN breakdown

The Los Angeles Lakers have been the best team in the Western Conference all season, despite their bad habit of coming out flat every two or three games. And since Chauncey Billups arrived in Denver, the Nuggets have been right behind L.A., displaying depth, toughness and the ability to win in a variety of ways.

Baseline Forecast

The Lakers' home-court advantage should serve them well; they won 71.8 percent of the simulations in Los Angeles. The Nuggets are favored at home, but only slightly -- in our simulations, Denver won 51.8 percent of the time in the Pepsi Center. Given those disparities, the Lakers end up with an overall 75 percent chance of winning the series.

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ESPN The Magazine's 2008-2009 Midseason Style Package: Where do we stand three years after the dress code?
To see a photo gallery of Dwight Howard, Rudy Gay, Jason Kapono, Derrick Rose and Amar'e Stoudemire, click here. To check out Bucher's online exclusive where players rate the best and worst dressers on their own team, click here. (Ya gotta be "Insider" for dat.) Remember when the NBA instituted a dress code three seasons ago? Remember all the caterwauling? Players balked at having to wear collared shirts and sensible shoes. And they were even less pleased with the no-chains-or-medallions clause. The code was called fascist and racist and, in the immortal words of Marcus Camby, just too damn expensive.
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My Top 3: Dwight Howard reveals his three favorite dunks ever
We rolled to Flushing for a commercial shoot this week; Vitamin Water has a new spot coming out called "Cosmonauts," whereby guys like Dwight Howard, David Ortiz, 50 Cent, and Brian Urlacher aspire to be Russian astronauts (it's dropping in June). While there, we caught up with Dwight for a few minutes, and he named his favorite 3 dunks in NBA history (he also taught us a new expression: "Lang'ed out.") Check out our video with him (embedded here) and then take a look at the dunks he referenced: Vince Carter's dunk on Alonzo Mourning Michael Jordan's dunk on Patrick Ewing [Ed's note: Patrick Ewing is one of Howard's coaches with the Magic. Ha] Josh Smith's dunk on Primoz Brezec
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On the road with Courtney Lee
TORONTO Lee's first audition is with the Raptors. He'll be working with Wayne Ellington and Danny Green (UNC), Jamont Gordon (Mississippi State), Shan Foster (Vanderbilt), and Malik Hairston (Oregon)—eventually. Travel snafus have delayed the 9 a.m. start. The six invitees make this the largest perimeter-oriented scrimmage of Lee's mini-tour. He's heard the Raps may be trading down, and this crew of projected second-rounders gives credence to the buzz. After trainers take quick measurements (height—in and out of shoes—standing and running vertical leap, wingspan), it's on to situational matchups: full-court one-on-ones, fast-break two-on-twos and sideline-inbounds three-on-threes. With no bigs to set screens or throw to in the post, games devolve into shooting sprees as coach Sam Mitchell and GM Bryan Colangelo watch. Lee shows he's a fluid sniper who can create space with his first step. Plus, he has the best range. When Colangelo invites them to lunch, the guys wish they'd packed a more varied wardrobe. Except Lee. "I'm Polo up and down, Sperrys all day," he says. At the meal the players mumble one-word responses to Colangelo's psyche-probing queries about their families and Toronto's offense. Gordon seems the least engaged, barely looking up from his Sidekick. Then Lee is off to catch a flight to Orlando. Clearly, the Magic want to see how he plays tired. The ticket they've issued includes an Atlanta layover and doesn't get him into town until 11 p.m.
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