Specialists and supporting casts are great, but in the NBA, you’re only as good as your go-to guy. There’s a reason Paul Pierce could claim he was the best player in the world following the ’08 Finals, or why Kobe put the “Best Player on the Planet” argument on ice in ’09 until further notice: If you’ve got the ring and you’re the go-to guy on the team with the ring, nobody can really argue against you. Read More »

Nobody who followed basketball in the ‘90s could ever forget the name Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Some may remember him as the high scoring, diminutive guard with the silky-smooth shooting touch. But chances are, most just associate him as the guy who refused to stand during the national anthem in 1996. At that time, he was possibly the most controversial and hated athlete in all of sports. Read More »

In a way, it must be nice playing for an NBA organization that barely seems to know up from down, and for a coach who delivers his rendition of the “Inches” speech while drinking a Bud Lite. Who else but the Warriors would have their most high-profile player, Stephen Jackson, make a very public trade demand and insult the franchise at the same time, and not only do they try to spin it as a positive, the coach also keeps him in place as the recognized official leader of the team. When Jackson said he wanted to be traded because, basically, Golden State sucks, team GM Larry Riley actually tried to sell it as Jackson committing to making the Warriors a contender. Read More »

When we featured Phil Pressey in Dime #49, we knew that the 5-10 point guard from the Episcopal School of Dallas stood out from his peers. When we saw him hold his own against some of the best players in the country at the Boost Mobile Elite 24 a few weeks ago at Gauchos Gym in NYC, we knew that he’d have a choice from some of the top programs in the country. So it may come as a surprise to you that after receiving scholarship offers from Arizona, Baylor, LSU and UCLA, Pressey committed somewhere else. Read More »

Just like an art collector scouring the globe for a masterpiece, sole searching sneaker fiends will go to great lengths to find an exclusive pair of kicks. Back in Dime #25 (August 2006), we put together a list of the Top 25 Sneaker Stores when the kick game had never been bigger. But while that list was limited to mostly US spots, we decided in our 50th issue to take it worldwide. Read More »

I know three things about the National Hockey League:

1. There are four Black people involved in the whole operation. 2. Sidney Crosby is the face of the League. 3. Alexander Ovechkin is actually the best player in the League.

Ovechkin made headlines last week when he bashed the NHL for not yet committing to modify its schedule to accommodate the 2014 Winter Olympics. (The League is putting its schedule on hold while players compete in 2010, but hasn’t decided if they’ll do the same for 2014.) Russia is hosting the Olympics that year; Ovechkin is Russia’s top player. Read More »

In Dime #49, our NBA Draft Preview issue, we said that 10 years from now we will be talking about Earl Clark. And for good reason. At 6-9 and 225 pounds, Clark is an NBA-ready wing that is going to be a nightmare to guard out of the triple-threat for the Suns this year. In the issue we even said that he “might have the best jab step since ‘Melo.” Our friends over at InsideHoops.com caught up with Earl recently and he had some pretty interesting things to say. Read More »

First Isaiah Rider wants back in the NBA, now Greg Ostertag? The 36-year-old former Utah Jazz center has told the Lawrence Journal-World that he is attempting to make an NBA comeback.

“Watching the playoffs last year got me excited. My wife said, ‘Why not go try it again?’ One day I said, ‘What the heck. I’ll get in shape and get back on the court and give it a try.”

“I’ve got nothing to lose.” Read More »

Just like an art collector scouring the globe for a masterpiece, sole searching sneaker fiends will go to great lengths to find an exclusive pair of kicks. Back in Dime #25 (August 2006), we put together a list of the Top 25 Sneaker Stores when the kick game had never been bigger. But while that list was limited to mostly US spots, we decided in our 50th issue to take it worldwide. Read More »

In case you didn’t know, last season there were only two players in the NBA that averaged over 2.0 steals per game – whereas every season since 2004-05 there have been at least five. And now that the offseason landscape has finally settled down, with the majority of the big trades and free agents signings out of the way, here are five guys that will average 2+steals this coming season that didn’t last year. Read More »