With the second best record in the Eastern Conference, and the team healthy and firing on all cylinders, why are the Magic messing with Hedo Turkoglu? Although Turkoglu can opt out of his contract after the season, a deal with one more year and about $7 million left, the Magic are worried about losing him and getting nothing back in return. Read More »

Last night was a great night to own anyone from the Magic, and nobody more than Jameer Nelson. Nelson, had 23 points, 5 threes, 11 assists, 5 steals, 2 boards, and zero turnovers. He also shot 66.7% from the field and was perfect at the line. He tied with LeBron James for the night’s fantasy MVP. The King went triple doubling with 30 points, 11 boards, and 10 dimes. And how can we not mention Dirk’s 44 and 14 last night as well? Here are the rest of the players we’re talking about today.

Randy Foye – Foye continues to prove me wrong that he can be a consistent fantasy player. Foye dropped 29 points, 5 threes, 8 assists, and 5 boards last night marking the 12th consecutive game he’s scored in double digits. A very key development has been the Wolves decision that Foye is a two guard and not a one. Read More »

Kentucky’s Jodie Meeks introduced Tennessee to The Bong Show last night, ripping them for 54. The video evidence…

While offices everywhere (or maybe just here) were dropping “Look at me, Dave” all day yesterday, Eddy Curry’s teammates were speaking out about the situation to the media.

Monta Ellis went through a full practice with his Warrior teammates yesterday and says he felt no pain or swelling in his ankle and the only obstacle keeping him from taking the court in a game is his conditioning.

He also took an opportunity to address some of the drama that has been swirling about him and his relationship with his coach and the franchise: Read More »

For the second time in six months, Kobe stole the spotlight away from a matchup between the pride of Spain and the pride of China (Pau Gasol vs. Yao Ming). This time KB torched Houston for 33 points – including 11 of the Lakers’ final 15 – while both big men played a shade under their Olympic form.

But perhaps the biggest story from last night was Von Wafer (23 points), who stole the show from Kobe at times. Read More »

The day before Dime’s own Christian Grant-Fields makes his reality TV debut, none other than Dennis Rodman takes his 628th go-round at staying in the mainstream spotlight.

Rodman will be part of the cast of “Celebrity Apprentice” along with Herschel Walker, Brian McKnight, T-Boz, Khloe Kardashian (Rashad McCants‘ girl), Andrew Dice Clay, Tom Green, “Deal or No Deal” model Claudia Jordan, country singer Clint Black, figure skater Scott Hamilton, and (unfortunately) Joan Rivers, among others.

The show airs March 1 on NBC.

Four years ago, we put O.J. Mayo on the cover of Dime #17 under the headline “The Next LeBron.” At a time when LBJ was not quite at that “Best Player in the World” level, and O.J. was in the middle of a high school career that had potential to at least equal LeBron’s in terms of hype and dominance, it made perfect sense. But that was four years ago. Last night, before Grizzlies/Cavs, the Memphis pre-game show focused on comparing O.J. to LeBron, which at this point doesn’t really work. As good as O.J. has been, he’s headed down a path that’s more Brandon Roy than LeBron … According to the Grizzlies announcers, LeBron (30 pts, 11 rebs, 10 asts) went into Tuesday’s game with eight “catch-from-behind” blocks, tops in the NBA. Two minutes into the first quarter he picked up #9 when he spiked Kyle Lowry‘s layup off the glass … The Cavs looked surprisingly sharp for a team rolling out a starting big-man tandem of Anderson Varejao and Lorenzen Wright. They were threatening to run away with it early, not giving up anything on D and scoring at will for the first few minutes. Read More »

Think Jodie Meeks wanted to put on a shown in his home state of Tennessee tonight? How about to the tune of 54 points on 15-22 shooting (10-15 from three, 14-14 from the stripe), along with eight rebounds, four assists and only one turnover.

Wow. If you watched the game, you realized just how prolific a scorer the 6-foot-4, 208-pound guard is. But don’t think this was an aberration. Already the No. 5 scorer in the nation, J-Meeks has dropped buckets all season long.

On November 15 in his season-opener against Virginia Military, Meeks scored 39 points. On November 28 against Kansas State, he scored 37 points. On December 20 against Appalachian State, he scored a previous career high 46 points, tying former Wildcat Tony Delk’s record for most three pointers in a game with nine (a record he broke tonight with 10). Read More »

Here we go again. I turned away from Celtics/Raptors last night after Paul Pierce and crew delivered the dagger in overtime, but thanks to Smack reader “deeds” for calling my attention to what happened right before the final buzzer. From the Toronto Sun:

Up by four with one second left in the overtime Rajon Rondo and Leon Powe had possession of the ball under the Raptors basket with nary an opponent in sight.

The classy thing to do would have been to run out the clock.

Instead, Rondo bounced one off the hardwood and Powe hammered home the lob for a dunk.

Raptors coach Jay Triano was incensed with the poor sportsmanship and admitted it took all his self restraint not to respond in an equally classless manner. Read More »