If there was an NBA version of Derek Zoolander, it would be Steve Nash. (If you need to refresh your memory, watch this.) So the fact that the two-time MVP has launched The Steve Nash Collection, his first line of designer suits with custom men’s apparel brand Indochino, should come as no surprise to anyone. Read More »

This open letter was scribed as a response to ESPN Columnist Scoop Jackson’s piece, “NBA Lockout: A Call To Inaction,” published on Oct. 24, 2011. Here is an excerpt from Jackson:

“Two weeks of the regular season already canceled. Soon, the Christmas games. Then the All-Star Game. And hopefully, the entire season. The countdown to Armageddon is finally here.

If you think you just read the word ‘hopefully’ — as in, does this guy really have the audacity to hope that there is not a 2011-12 NBA season? — you read right. We’re now 117 days deep into the League’s most recent work stoppage; at some point, there needs to be an understanding that the next 300 days are far more important than the ones gone by. Read More »

James Donald was a physical education teacher in the Akron public school system for 28 years, primarily at Riedinger Middle School where he became LeBron James‘ gym teacher for his sixth, seventh and eighth grade years. Mr. Donald witnessed history late in LeBron’s eighth grade year when, during the annual student-faculty basketball game, LBJ executed his first-ever dunk. Mr. Donald kept the rim as a memento of the event. Here’s the story: Read More »

After last night’s dynamic and captivating premiere of HBO’s Prayer For A Perfect Season, I can’t help but smile at both the timing of its release and the purity that it represents. Director Marc Levin, (Brick City, Protocols of Zion and The Last Party, amongst other works) has always been known as someone that does not pull any punches as his high-stakes mentality explores the human element of each story he follow. Prayer For A Perfect Season is no different as the human side drives this film forward with every scene, floor burn and four-letter word – which starts and stops with love. The love of the game; the love of team; the love of family; and perhaps most valuable of all, the love of the journey. Read More »

By the time he said Jokers are wild if you wanna be tame/I treat you like a child then you’re gonna be named I already knew my ears were thanking me. Lyrics flowed like Niagara, perfectly and precisely. The perfect voice. The perfect MC. Words were his butter, and the track was his toast. Extra crispy. The appeal was wrapped up somewhere between the aura, the talent and the mythology. Revisiting the initial confirmation of that first listen is nearly impossible. I knew it instantly. And with Dwyane Wade, it took maybe three weeks of basketball before I realized that his 2008-09 season had a chance to be the best thing we’ve seen from a swingman since Jordan. Read More »

Baltimore’s Aquille Carr, the country’s most dynamic and exciting high school player, continues to burnish his growing legend while fighting crime in his spare time.

His YouTube mixtape highlights, with well over three million collective hits and counting, make you seriously wonder if your eyes have the capacity to lie. If you don’t already know, Aquille Carr, whose name means strong as an eagle in Latin and intelligent and wise in Arabic, is a 5-7 rising junior athletic marvel with a 48-inch vertical leap at Baltimore’s Patterson High School. Read More »

The Washington Wizards rounds out our rundown of fantasy basketball analysis for each NBA team. The Wizards are led by a talented point guard who supposedly has an improved shot, along with two big men who’ve struggled so far to truly break through in any real way. Though the rest of the roster’s fantasy potential is a bit hazy, one thing is certain: a rookie’s girlfriend is about to take the NBA by storm. Read More »

While in Hawaii for the “Hoops for Troops” USO Tour, Tyreke Evans hit this game-winning, buzzer-beating, step-back three over Mike Miller last night to give his squad the 81-78 win. Let’s just hope ‘Reke is ready to do much more of that in Sacramento once the season starts.

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We lost some interest in these exhibition games a while back, but when Allen Iverson shows up in November for his two-day “Las Vegas Superstar Challenge” (Nov. 12-13) in Las Vegas, it’ll give the game a new meaning. It’ll feel like it means something. None of us have seen Iverson – the real Allen (the dude we put on our very first cover) – in close to three years. We’ve seen a little of the faltering, has-been at the end of his career, and a highlight here and there of a very short overseas term. A wide-open exhibition game should bring out his old tricks. Read More »

Hate is such a strong word, but it’s something that will forever remain a partner with sports. Fans love their team, and hate whoever isn’t with them. In sports, it’s okay to hate. Deep down, you can’t entirely hate an athlete if you don’t know them, having never met them. So fans get a pass. It comes with the territory. It’s part of what makes sports entertaining. You can hate someone in this context; Athletes are like the cartoon characters we grew up with. But sometimes, the public’s detest of a player can take on a life of its own. Normally, it’s the very best who are dealt the hand, as we once showed with Kobe Bryant and now LeBron James. It’s always the greatest who get the most love and the most criticism. Read More »