Photo. Jonathan Mannion

Why are we now looking forward to an early-November game between the Suns and Bobcats? Not because the two teams actually played one hell of an entertaining overtime game late last season, but because of Amare Stoudemire’s mouth. Asked if it was going to be tough to go from playing with Team USA to going back to playing with the Suns, Amare told the Arizona Republic, “Not at all. I could see that if I was going back to the Bobcats. I’m going back to the Phoenix Suns, baby!” Circle your calendars for Nov. 6, when Phoenix travels to NC. Jake Voskuhl (KG’s nemesis) isn’t around anymore to play enforcer, but we could see someone like Jermareo Davidson filling that role … A few days ago we told you about Dennis Rodman getting an $80,000 offer to play one game with the South Dragons of the Australian pro league. We figured there was no way Worm would turn down that kind of payday, but we were wrong: Rodman reportedly said no … Did you hear about Kobe reportedly dropping $21,000 on bottles of Cris at the BLUSH nightclub in Vegas recently? And it wasn’t even like Kobe was getting it in — he got caught up in a “Who’s the biggest baller?” contest with pro poker player Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari … Tony Parker torched Italy at the FIBA European tournament, hanging 36 points on Andrea Bargnani and crew; Dirk scored 24 in Germany’s win over Turkey; Pau Gasol put 26, 9 boards and 4 blocks on Andris Biedrins in Spain’s win over Latvia; and Andrei Kirilenko went for 17 points, 13 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks against Israel … But were any of those guys dropping buckets like this guy was dropping buckets? Try that style next time you hit up Dave & Buster’s (or Chuck E. Cheese, or wherever it is you go) … Everyone knows about Gilbert Arenas, but Dee Brown’s blog has some jewels of its own. A few weeks ago Dee was talking about how much he loves fishing in Wyoming (we can only imagine Dee terrifying the people out there), and recently he had this post: “My music? Thats what everyone is talking about right now. I love music and just like with basketball I needed confidence to do it, because athletes doing music hasn’t been whats up. When you hear a basketball player is doing music what’s the first thing people say or do, ‘he wack’, or they laugh. Deron Williams, my dude and teammate, said, ‘Dee DO YOU, people gone hate regardless of what you do, your music is hot, I like it and when people hear it people will say oh that’s Dee being Dee and they will like it too.’” Dee’s mixtape, “Unwritten,” dropped yesterday. Safe to say it might be the hottest hip-hop release you’ve ever heard out of Salt Lake City … Remember Paul McPherson? The guy was a highlight machine at DePaul during the Q-Rich/Bobby Simmons era and had a brief run in the League. We caught up with P-Mac for a “We Reminisce” feature in Dime #35, which you can read right here … If you haven’t heard of Oscar Schmidt, another name from the past, just know he’s a hoop legend in Brazil. Schmidt was the man for a long, long time in international play. Coming off Brazil’s medal-less showing in the FIBA Americas tournament, Oscar wasn’t shy with sharing how he felt about fellow countrymen Nene and Leandro Barbosa: “Nene should have worked harder,” Schmidt told a local TV station. “He stayed around in Rio during the Pan American Games only to gain weight. The same thing happened with Leandro.” Nene’s weight has been an issue for a while, but we don’t see it with Barbosa. He was still darting past everyone last time we checked — his 23.5 ppg led the FIBA tourney, actually … But at least Nene didn’t get chewed out like this kid. Remember that guy’s name if you’re a Kansas fan; he might be transferring in the next couple weeks … We’re out like trying to out-ball Kobe …