Blake Griffin is both the No. 1 pick and the best future pro in this draft class. He’s like a 6-10 version of Charles Barkley with stupid athleticism, a great motor, and legitimate ball skills. And Griffin is really 6-10 – there won’t be a Michael Beasley height crisis with him come draft time. He’s got the top spot locked up.

So who’s number two? Read More »

About a week ago, I got up with hip-hop duo Kidz in the Hall while they were in NYC to coincide with the release of the Reebok Classic Remix – a shoe that Kidz and Reebok collaborated on. Naledge and Double-O performed a couple tracks as well as their remix to the classic Special Ed track, “I Got It Made” at the Foot Locker in Times Square. After the performance, I chopped it up with the Chicago-born emcee and Brooklyn-born producer about sneakers growing up, style in their respective cities and who would win in a game of one-on-one…

It’s not just that Chris Paul had the presence of mind to throw up a half-court shot when he knew he was going to be fouled with the game on the line last night. It’s that he plays with that same presence of mind at all times, manipulating defenders with his eyes on virtually every alley-oop, and always playing heady defense.
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Blake Griffin (23 pts, 16 rebs) won the beast-on-beast matchup with Tyler Hansbrough (8 pts, 6 rebs), solidifying his spot as the best player in the country and the No. 1 prospect in the ’09 Draft (if he chooses to leave), but Psycho T had the stronger squad behind him and helped push North Carolina to the Final Four, completing the field of UNC, Villanova, Michigan State and UConn … Despite Hansbrough getting in foul trouble early, Ty Lawson (19 pts, 5 rebs, 5 asts) and the rest of the Heels never really looked to be in danger of losing; they were just too deep for Oklahoma, who only really goes about six players deep … Read More »

Are we seeing the early stages of a new, more mature Gilbert Arenas? The other day he announced his “retirement” from blogging, and instead of gunning for 40 in his season debut last night, Gil was clearly making an effort to pass the rock and get other guys their looks. Read More »

Now that all the underdogs and Cinderellas have gone home, it’s time for one of the remaining Elite Eight to step up and win this NCAA ‘chip. Last night the PTP’ers took over: Blake Griffin leading Oklahoma over Syracuse, Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson leading UNC over Gonzaga, Terrence Williams and Earl Clark leading Louisville over Arizona, and in the only close game of the night, Kalin Lucas lifting Michigan State past Kansas … Read More »

If you were at the last installment of Atlanta’s Open Gym then you know it went down.

Converse’s Open Gym Atlanta brought out almost 150 new ballers to Georgia Tech’s campus recreation center. Over 275 kids came out and spent their day playing ball. Read More »

When Gilbert Arenas said earlier this week that he was only going to play in home games when he returns this year, there was nothing that made me more enraged. As an Arenas fan for years, you’d think I would be happy to see him on the court, but after fleecing the Wizards for $111 million this summer, I’d rather not see him at all. Read More »

When king grump Jim Rome got on Shaq on his show last week for trying to bring attention to himself by dissing Stan Van Gundy, Dwight Howard, and LeBron‘s intro routine, it felt like Rome was being the fun police. Though some of the Diesel’s comments can be seen as mean-spirited, Rome needs to lighten up. Look at Shaq’s comments last night about Greg Oden for example. Read More »

Yesterday’s Winston-Salem Journal had a piece on Stephen Curry and his plans on entering this summer’s NBA Draft (“I’m 50 percent in the middle,” Steph says in the interview). Here’s my advice to Steph: Take the guaranteed NBA (probable) Lottery money and run because it’s not going to last long. Read More »