Who do you want your offense to run through with the game on the line? Counting down 30th to 1st (one per team), I’ve ranked the League’s go-to guys…

BARON DAVIS, Los Angeles Clippers

When you follow up one uncharacteristically bad season with another — and then kick off the third year with an ominous start — you can’t blame anyone for suggesting that you’ve probably lost a step and aren’t getting it back. Read More »

The greatest performance of the NBA preseason may have just concluded a few minutes ago, in front of a limited “crowd” in a gym in Charlotte.

As documented on Twitter by team employees, Bobcats guard Matt Carroll hit 184 straight free throws during today’s practice before missing one off the front rim. It’s not as bad as Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points with no video evidence, but it still would have been cool to see Carroll’s bong show play out on camera. Read More »

All due respect to the (very) brief meeting between Dwight Howard and Yao Ming from Tuesday, but the first real superstar vs. superstar head-to-head matchup of the NBA preseason goes down tonight, when LeBron James and Kevin Durant line up across from each other in Heat/Thunder in Kansas City.

For different reasons, KD and LeBron — the last two Dime cover athletes — were all over the news and subject to a ton of media attention this summer. For every act LeBron committed that was viewed negatively, Durant was held up by polarized media and fans as the virtuous Spider-Man to LBJ’s Venom. Read More »

Throwing in the towel to ensure a shot at an NBA superstar used to be so much easier. If you were the Cleveland Cavaliers trying to get LeBron James as he came out of high school, all you had to do was (allegedly) tank a season to get a high Lottery pick. If you were the New York Knicks trying to get Patrick Ewing out of college to revitalize the franchise, all you had to do was (allegedly) rig the Lottery drawing. If you were the Minnesota Timberwolves trying to afford a No. 1 draft pick without breaking the bank, all you had to do was (really) pay the guy under the table like a migrant farm worker. Read More »

Well, sort of. The kid tags in a teammate to handle a dunk portion of the shootout, and with a $5,000 grant from Gatorade on the line for the school (Brother Rice in Chicago), Booze would have to be pretty heartless to crush him in a packed gym full of his peers.

Still a good video though, for a good cause.

Who knew The Jet had it like this??

No need to be alarmed yet, but the L.A. Lakers are not looking good early into the preseason. After dropping their opener to the Timberwolves in London, yesterday the two-time defending NBA champs took an L against defending Euroleague champion Regal Barcelona in Spain … Kobe Bryant shot 2-for-15 from the field, finishing with 15 points only because he was making his free throws. (As a team, L.A. went 0-for-14 beyond the arc.) Over his last three games — two exhibitions and Game 7 of the Finals — he’s shot 8-for-42 from the field, or 19 percent. Read More »

The NBA’s annual GM Survey was released earlier this week, and a lot of safe predictions were made. By overwhelming majority results that any politician would kill for, the GMs predicted the L.A. Lakers will three-peat as champions, and Kevin Durant will be MVP. They also chose Deron Williams as the No. 1 point guard in the League and Dwight Howard as the top center by wide margins.

When asked to predict the 2011 Rookie of the Year, 68 percent of the GMs named John Wall, the No. 1 overall pick of the Washington Wizards. Read More »

If this is what Nike’s putting together for some of college football’s top programs, just think what’s going to drop later this year once hoops get underway. Introducing the Nike Zoom Huarache Trainer Rivalry Pack, with special colorways for TCU, Virginia Tech and Boise State. You might want to get to your local sneaker spot a little early this Friday… Read More »

Shabazz Muhammad was the breakout high school star of the summer. The 6-6 wing from Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, NV) was already rising through the rankings before he averaged 32 points per game on the AAU circuit and really blew up.

Now every school from North Carolina to Kentucky to Duke is in pursuit of Muhammad, a junior who is ranked 8th overall in the High School Hoop national Top 50. Muhammad has agreed to give HSH and Dime exclusive access by chronicling his thoughts in a regular diary where he’ll keep everyone updated on everything from his personal life to his high school season to his recruiting process. Here’s an excerpt from his latest entry: Read More »