Yesterday, the Hornets found out Chris Paul will miss the next two months or so following surgery on his left knee, which he hurt against the Bulls the other day. With the game in-hand, all New Orleans had to do was inbound the ball, get fouled and the game would be over. Instead, David West sends the rock to the other end of the floor, and in pursuit, CP3 smacks his knee, the Bulls get the ball and score, and eventually win it in overtime. Paul is definitely out for All-Star, meaning somebody – Chauncey Billups, Monta Ellis or Aaron Brooks – will be getting the alternate spot. But the bigger question is this: What will the Hornets do now?Read More »
When Blake Griffin went down for the season last week, there was a lot of disbelief emanating from Southern California. Whether it was talk of a curse or simply that the Clippers will never catch a break, it’s safe to say that no one knew how to stomach it. So searching for answers, I reached out to Steve Perrin (a.k.a. ClipperSteve), the brains behind popular Clippers blog, Clips Nation. Check below as Perrin sheds light on the injury, the curse and the fan reactions from Clips Nation. Read More »
I don’t believe in curses. If I did, I wouldn’t have allowed myself to become a Cleveland Browns fan in the ’80s — and then again in the ’90s. I wouldn’t have been surprised when Aaron Boone hit that home run in ‘03. And I wouldn’t have looked into a bathroom mirror and said “Candyman” five times. (OK, I didn’t really do the last one. Tony Todd still scares me to this day.)
Point is, I don’t believe there’s a curse on the L.A. Clippers. Read More »
Seeing as Rasheed Wallace didn’t even bother combing his hair, you kind of got the impression early on that Boston was taking the Pacers lightly — and that was before the C’s fell behind by double-digits in the first quarter. (Oh wait, ‘Sheed never combs his hair. Scratch that part.) KG was given the night off with a thigh bruise, and even Tommy Heinsohn called in sick rather than risk his pipes against Indiana when there’s a big Christmas Day game against Orlando looming … Overcoming a slow start in which they made Earl Watson look like Tim Hardaway, the Celtics managed a tie going into the fourth, and that’s when Paul Pierce took over. Read More »
Just when you thought things were going well for Eric Maynor in Utah, the Jazz go and trade him to Oklahoma City. The Thunder acquired the rookie point guard, along with Matt Harpring’s expiring $6.5 million contract, in exchange for the draft rights to Peter Fehse from Germany, a 2002 second-round pick. Since Fehse will most likely never play in the NBA, and Harpring is out for the season (possibly the rest of his career) after numerous ailments and surgeries, you can see why the Jazz made the move: to save some money. Read More »
During the Phoenix broadcast of last night’s Suns/Cavs game, one of the announcers compared Steve Nash and LeBron as such: “One does it with the brain, the other does it with the brawn. ‘Le-Brawn,’ I guess you could say.” Nevermind that dude almost wandered into Jimmy the Greek territory with that one (it’s strange how people act like Nash isn’t a great athlete, or LBJ only dominates because of his athleticism), but LeBron made the comment look silly anyway when he did his Magic Johnson impersonation and dropped seven assists in the first quarter. Read More »
A couple years ago I had an opportunity to interview John Calipari for Dime. Aiming to do something different with the biggest rock-star coach in the college game, I came up with the idea to have Coach Cal talk to me like I was a big-time recruit and give me his pitch on why I should play for him at Memphis. Thus was born “The Pitch,” our now-regular feature where we’ve had everybody from Rick Barnes to Reggie Theus share their recruiting tactics.
It was only right that Calipari set the standard. After all, he is the best salesman in the college game. Read More »
In this sport, it’s surprisingly easy to go from a superstar one day to be forgotten the next. With career averages of 20 ppg and 10.1 rebounds, Elton Brand is manchild in the paint. But being injured for the majority of the past two seasons, his stock has dropped a little bit in the sports world. So far in the 2009-10 season, Brand has struggled heavily coming out of the gates but has started to turn his play around the last few games. The Sixers hope he can build on his recent success and return to his All-Star form.
Just days before the start off the season, Dime traveled to Philly and caught up with Elton to talk about his new shoe, the Sixers and even rock and roll music. Read More »
As we anticipate the commencement of the brand spanking new 2009-10 NBA season, let’s take a look at a handful of fantasy “gangs.” To be more specific, let’s give fun names to certain groups of players who have similar attributes — for fantasy purposes, of course. Hopefully, this post will do two things: offer you some helpful glimpses into what you should expect from these players heading into the regular season, and present you with an amusing read to help you rediscover your smile (especially if you drafted Blake Griffin) and regular breathing patterns amid all the tense eagerness for tonight. Read More »
Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — previewing the NBA season by predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team. Same theme, different season…
Added:James Harden, Byron Mullens, Serge Ibaka, Etan Thomas, Robert Vaden, Kevin Ollie
Lost:Desmond Mason, Earl Watson, Damien Wilkins, Robert Swift, Malik Rose, Chucky AtkinsRead More »
