Chris Paul Wanted The Clippers, Not The Lakers; Steve Nash Gets Thrown Into Duke/UNC Beef

Chris Paul might not be Dwyane Wade, who seems intent on turning himself into some sort of fashion icon. But he’s stylish enough to make the cover of GQ (along with actors Denzel Washington and Javier Bardem), and in the subsequent interview, he admitted he was happy to end up with the Clippers instead of the Lakers. The former JV team had better pieces, and as Paul said, “winning with the Clippers would be legendary.” Taking away the fact that he almost has to say this, CP3 is right. At the time, the lil’ bros did have better pieces – Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Clipper Darrell, anyone not named Donald Sterling – and winning a title with a cursed franchise does probably mean more than winning one with a organization that wipes their ass with them … We’re guessing you had a chance to check out the brand spanking new Spurs alternate jerseys that were revealed yesterday afternoon. San Antonio gets extra brownie points for trying something that’s never been done before – they had to argue with the NBA to get them to allow a uniform without the name of the team or city on it, according to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News – and in the end, they might have the last laugh since it’s sounding more and more like ads will pop up on jerseys soon (what’s better for this than a jersey that’s almost completely blank?). But still, these look like something Gregg Popovich would design. On Twitter, we also heard a few people refer to them as NBA 2K practice jerseys (SO accurate), and Russ Bengtson tweeted this: “The Spurs would have asked Timmy what he thought about the alternate jerseys, but he’s in his 587th consecutive hour of Worlds of Warcraft.” Basically, one of the NBA’s most boring teams (sorry, Spurs fans) just came out with one of the NBA’s most boring uniforms. Nothing could be more apt. The worst part about it is that they actually fought for these … Kix And The City hit the Internet with more apparel news yesterday regarding Russell Westbrook. He’s one of the best sneaker “free agents” available – Westbrook is technically a Nike guy, but it’s been known for a while that he’s looking at other options – and there’s a rumor floating around that he’s signed on with adidas to join people like Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard and Ricky Rubio. The guys at adidas Philippines put up a photo on Instagram with a picture of Russ West and the caption BOOM! #russellwestbrook. We’ll find out soon enough how legit it is … And oh yeah, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has signed on with Jordan. That makes sense … Brooklyn’s new away jersey could’ve been leaked yesterday as well. This photo was flying all over the Internet during the a.m. but we still haven’t heard anything official on it. Jay-Z is expected to officially unveil their uniform at an upcoming Barclays Center concert. Even though these potential Brooklyn joints might be even more simple than San Antonio’s jerseys, we actually like them. We’ve been waiting for an all-black and white outfit, and this definitely fits. Do some more work on the “Brooklyn” across the center and you have yourself something that’ll fly off the shelves … But no matter what happens with their jerseys, the Nets can expect to be in the spotlight all year. Being the fourth season subject of “The Association” is only going to help. NBA TV made the announcement yesterday, and we can’t wait for the storylines. We’re going to get a front row seat to see Deron Williams and Joe Johnson deal with the ridiculous hype of New York City, Brook Lopez doing super nerdy things, and lots of Mikhail Prokhorov (they should just give that dude his own show). It really sucks that Kris Humphries isn’t still with Kim K. The cat fights between Beyonce and Kim – they hate each other – could be epic … Keep reading to see why Grant Hill is throwing Steve Nash in with UNC and Duke …

It’s a little strange seeing Grant Hill call out (sort of) Steve Nash for his move from Phoenix to Hollywood, especially when he’ll also be playing ball in L.A. this year. But we guess Nash’s situation is a little different. After all those postseason battles between the two sides – the Suns and Lakers – Hill said in a recent interview with Paul Coro that Nash’s exodus was “like transferring from Duke and going to Carolina.” The two-time MVP admitted something similar earlier this summer, and if you predicted Nash would eventually don the purple and gold, you’re either lying or Kobe Bryant. Nash ended up choosing his real family over his basketball family. Instead of going to New York or Toronto, he wanted to remain close to home – which is Arizona for his family – and the Lakers presented the best of both worlds for him … Grant Hill gets the credit for being the first person in about a decade to actually criticize Nash (well, we don’t have the context in which he said this, so it’s probably more likely he was just playing around). He also left Phoenix for many of the same reasons as Nash: getting older, crankier, and not trying to play out the end of his basketball life in the lottery … Brandon Roy doesn’t plan on taking a step back in his game this year. He admitted in an interview with NBA TV that the explosiveness isn’t the same. But in Minnesota this year, he still plans on being the same type of player, perhaps just a little smarter and less spectacular. We’ve spoken on his situation before, and continue to feel the same way: it’s going to be hard to be THAT guy he used to be every night. But off the bench with no pressure, every once in a while he can provide a spark. We like how Blazer’s Edge – for those of you who aren’t too bright, that’s a Portland blog – are the ones who posted the transcript like they’re some stalking ex-girlfriend … Ivan Johnson is officially an Atlanta Hawk again, having signed their qualifying offer of just under $1 million for the upcoming season. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports he signed the deal yesterday, and will be keeping his grill and mean mugging in the Dirty South for 2012-13 … And we dropped our cover feature from the new issue on the site yesterday: the 10 best players in the NBA since the turn of the century. If you’re into reading 6,000-plus words, that one is for you … We’re out like San Antonio’s uniforms.

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