Words. Julian Caldwell

Conspicuously absent from this year’s Final Four are the top seeds that steamed rolled their way through the regular season. Instead, you see teams that struggled to perform like elite squads and drew questions of whether they even deserved tournament bids.

Duke, Kansas, Ohio State and Pittsburgh, the four No. 1 seeds, came into the Big Dance with a combined 13 losses. Butler, Connecticut, Kentucky and Virginia Commonwealth go into the Final Four with nearly triple that number. Read More »

It wasn’t even a year ago when everything was different. Young. Exciting. Most of all, fun. But being from Northeast Ohio is tough right now. Learning to swallow your pride and bearing the brunt side of jokes takes a toll. “Cleveland Stays Takin’ Ls.” It’s become a slogan. The economy is down. The basketball team can’t win. You would think the sun hasn’t shown up above Lake Erie for months.

Still, it could be worse. At least the fans are showing up. Cleveland could be New Orleans, a city wrecked by the forces of nature, a still uneasy, rebuilt culture just coming back, an organization that can never tell from week to week how much support it will get or from year to year what the future holds. Read More »

John Wall torched the Jazz last night to the tune of 28 points, six rebounds and seven assists, but down one with 30 seconds to play, it was fellow rookie Gordon Hayward who came up with the huge block.

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Beast of the Night: Thaddeus Young posted 21 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and four blocks in just 24:39 of burn last night. He shot 63 percent (10-16) from the field, 50 percent (1-2) from the free-throw line and had just one turnover. While Young hasn’t exactly matched his production from last season, he’s still managed to improve his shooting percentages from last season’s marks, and has held top-90 value throughout the season. It would really help his value next season if he hit more threes. Read More »

Earlier in the day on Monday, Carmelo Anthony characterized last night’s Knicks/Magic game as an “almost must win” for New York. Then he and his teammates went out and played with a desperate urgency that’s been lacking, well, since ‘Melo showed up in NYC and outlasted Orlando in overtime, 113-106 … Carmelo wasn’t just his team’s leading scorer last night, he was a true leader. He went for a game-high 39 points, attacked the glass (10 rebounds), and even sort of looked to pass to teammates before he got bogged down over-dribbling or holding the ball. And on top of that, he was busting his ass on defense. There were whole sequences where Carmelo was all over Ryan Anderson (!) when Anderson had the ball at half court. ‘Melo was moving his feet, fighting for positioning, boxing out, the whole nine … The bad part for Knicks fans is obvious: Read More »

There is nothing more fun than playing fantasy GM. Everyone does it. The fact is that it’s a lot harder than it seems (off my 2K “Association” success, in my mind, I’m the next Jerry West). The term “core” is thrown around so much now that it has lost it’s value. What’s the point of creating a young group of talented players if two or three of them are going to leave? Only about a third of the league has a legit core, which in this case equals three or more guys locked up under contract for the next three years (through 2013-14). Some foundations will just take time. For example, while there are some chemistry issues, there aren’t too many teams with the potential star power that Sacramento has. Will they be winners or stat-munchers? Some others are still up in the air. Read More »

We’ve heard it before from Kobe Bryant: Shannon Brown does things that I could never do. He repeated it again last night after Brown decided to nearly jump through the backboard, switching hands in mid-air effortlessly. We just wish Aaron Gray would’ve jumped. Also, catch Kobe’s reaction after the jump.

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I’m coming home. I’m coming home. Tell the world I’m coming home.

These lyrics are forever etched in Knicks’ fans memories after the numerous commercial plugs on the MSG Network for the return of Carmelo Anthony to New York. What you don’t know is that the ad was also intended – whether knowingly or not – for another guy who came over in that trade. I’m talking about Staten Island-native and 2006 Knicks draftee Renaldo Balkman. Read More »

Unlike the Super Bowl, it seems not too many brands step their ad game up and come with new, unique commercials for the Big Dance. Thankfully, Dove Men + Care came correct. As I’m sure you’ve all seen their “Journey to Comfort” spots throughout the first two wees of the tourney starring Magic Johnson, Bobby Hurley and John Thompson III, check out some behind the scenes footage from all three shoots below.

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To this day, it still trips us up to see our words translated into Chinese for our 1.3 billion fans of Dime China. So with the new issue out, we thought it’d be cool for you to check out that cover as well. Read More »