Why would Jarvis Varnado, the nation’s leading shot blocker the past two years, give up his scholarship the summer after he tested the NBA Draft waters? No, he wasn’t kicked off the squad – Varnado is doing it for the betterment of his team. Read More »

Before guys make it to the Tournament of Champions, they have to pay their dues. And this Saturday, August 22 at Goat Park (99th & Amsterdam), you’ll get to see the next group of Metro area legends in the making in the high school showcase game. Check out the roster: Read More »

“I’m not under contract … I smoke weed occasionally. … I’m not driving … I’m following the rules.”

Whenever something goes down in the basketball world, UNDRCRWN has been there to immortalize it in a t-shirt. So would you think this situation would be any different? Read More »

As per usual, the haters were out in force when we posted the EA Sports NBA Live 10 preview video yesterday, and a lot of our readers were commenting about looking for improved gameplay. We have this video to run today to showcase some of that, in particular, the game’s player dribble moves.

Around the Dime office, I’m known as the guy who always gives players the benefit of the doubt (see: Gerald Green). While I would beg to differ, there is one guy right now that I think is out of his mind, and that player is C.J. Watson. Read More »

Welcome to the (so far) most Twitter-infected edition of Smack ever written. We begin with Nate Robinson, who was arrested yesterday in NYC for driving on a suspended license, and broke the news himself — on Twitter. Nate actually tweeted while he was being pulled over (if only this kind of technology existed when Rodney King got popped in ’91), and what started with his windows being too tinted turned into a revelation that his license had been suspended for an unpaid ticket he says he didn’t know about. Granted, this is a very minor legal matter, but it’s also horrible timing for Nate when he’s still technically unemployed … One of the League’s other high-profile jobless guys, Allen Iverson, took his free agency news to the Twitter crowd. Read More »

We caught this brand new video of Brandon Jennings, thought it was pretty sick, and wanted to share it with our readers. It’s a spot called “Back :02 Practice” and was shot a few weeks ago at Rowley Park in Gardena, Calif. Brandon felt that it was important to shoot his inaugural commercial since officially joining the League at Rowley, because that’s where his basketball journey originally started. He believes that the lessons he took from running at Rowley about practice and hard work – the main themes of the spot – have been crucial to getting him to where he is today.

Check it out and let us know what you think …

For guys always looking to match their gear to their kicks, the guys from Quintin have got you covered. Borrowing a few styling points from the legendary Marty McFly Hyperdunk, Quintin’s newest release gets the job done. Read More »

As we mentioned earlier today, this weekend is the best basketball weekend of the summer, and we here at Dime wanted to extend an invitation to the 2009 Nike Tournament of Champions. This Saturday, August 22 at Goat Park (99th & Amsterdam), TOC brings together the winners of the four premier Nike summer leagues (West 4th, Dyckman, Tri-State & Pro-City) to compete for the City Championship. There is also going to be a high school showcase game featuring some of the best players in the metro area, so don’t sleep. Gates open at 10:00 AM and admission is limited, so get there early!

When our friends at EA Sports came through the Dime offices to demo the new NBA Live 10 game for us a few weeks back, we promised some exclusive videos of the gameplay.

Now they’re starting to come through. Check out this first one that showcases all of the attention to detail in the game. Pretty sick…