Contrary to the hype he’s been getting since high school — that only increased after he landed with the Toronto Raptors — DeMar DeRozan won’t become the next Vince Carter.

DeRozan will be better than Vince.

Almost purely on athleticism and potential, DeRozan was a Top-10 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft after leaving USC following his freshman season in order to help his mother, who suffers from Lupus. Read More »

It’s funny how things come full circle. Six years ago, Rod Higgins (who was the GM of the Warriors at the time) signed Erick Dampier to a seven-year, $73 million deal and traded him to the Mavericks. While only one of the guys involved in that deal, Eduardo Najera, is still in the League (the others being Christian Laettner, Luis Flores, Mladen Sekularac, Evan Eschmeyer and Dan Dickau), Dampier finds himself in an interesting position today. And coincidently, Higgins (now the GM of the Bobcats) is once again seeking a trade partner for Dampier. NBA teams in need of salary-cap relief should take note. Read More »

Once the Big Three was formed in Miami, it seems Louis Amundson was the most coveted NBA free agent on the market. And while last week the Hornets appeared to be the front-runner to sign him, according to his agent Mark Bartelstein, the Warriors snuck in to sign him to a two-year, $5 million deal. The second year is a player option. Read More »

Antoine Walker made more headlines in the past year outside of the NBA than he did during his last couple of seasons in the League.

Following his last official NBA appearance in February 2008, ‘Toine was back in the headlines last year when news began to spread that — despite earning about $108 million in salary over his career — he was having money problems. ESPN did an “Outside the Lines” special about the former All-Star’s financial troubles, which included writing bad checks to a casino and failed investments. Read More »

As much as everybody nit-picked and scrutinized along the way, when you look at what really matters, Team USA put together a pretty impressive performance at the World Championship. Bottom line: They took care of business and won the gold medal. Kevin Durant was dominant, Lamar Odom and Russell Westbrook and Andre Iguodala and almost every member of the team played their roles like they were supposed to, and the U.S. won each tournament game by an average of 24.5 points and only had one close call … Read More »

Why Team USA won: Kevin Durant. He absolutely owned the last three games of the World Championship, dropping 33 on Russia in the quarterfinals, 38 on Lithuania in the semis, and 28 on Turkey in the gold-medal finale. Everyone in the building knew KD would be the focal point, and yet most of his buckets today were standstill jump shots, as he was able to play catch-and-shoot and score within the flow of the Team USA offense. Read More »

Just when you began to wonder if Kevin Durant was getting too much hype this summer, he went out and proved he’s worth every bit of it. After dropping 33 points on Russia to lead Team USA to the World Championship semifinals, yesterday KD went off again on Lithuania, hanging 38 points (14-25 FG, 5 threes) and 9 boards on the previously-undefeated squad to lift the U.S. to the gold-medal game with another double-digit W … Durant (who wrote 9/11 messages on his shoes) was on fire early and carried the U.S. offense throughout. Read More »

We’re all the way to the Final Four of the World Championship, and it’s still not clear whether Team USA is simply way better than almost everybody, or if they’ve yet to get a truly tough test (beyond the Brazil game). After today’s semifinal there won’t be any doubt, though. Lithuania has been ballin’ in the WC, going undefeated and coming off a surprisingly easy smashing of Argentina. Linas Kleiza is playing out of his mind, averaging 19.1 points and 7.4 rebounds … Can Danny Granger get some PT today? Read More »

Last week, we told you about what’s going down tonight in Chicago, and I even made the trip out here to check it all out. As Season 3 of Gatorade REPLAY kicks off, two major names in Chicago basketball – the Bloom Township Trojans and the Brother Rice Crusaders – will reunite to replay their 2000 super sectional game that ended with a questionable last-second tip-in at the buzzer. But this time, 10 years later, each squad will have the help Dwyane Wade (Bloom Township) or Dwight Howard (Brother Rice) on the bench as honorary coaches for the two teams.

But before things kick off, Flash and Superman will be chatting live at 6:05pm CST, while game day commissioner a new Chicago Bull Carlos Boozer will chat live during halftime at 8:05pm CST. After the jump, you will find both the streaming video player and the social stream (so you can ask questions live). Read More »

As any competitive person with a dollar in their pocket is well aware, you can place a bet on pretty much anything in sports. For basketball fans not up on their FIBA game who don’t want to put down money on Turkey vs. Serbia, gambling site bodog.com just released its early odds for which player will win the 2011 NBA MVP.

Kevin Durant leads the pack with 5-to-2 odds. While there’s been a growing sentiment that KD is getting a little too much hype this summer, his preseason case to be the award’s front-runner is strong. Read More »