While everyone had football on the brain for yesterday’s Super Bowl Sunday, the day also featured one of NYC’s most touted high school hoops rivalries between Christ the King (Queens, N.Y.) and Rice (Harlem, N.Y.). In front of a packed house on the Middle Village campus, I made the trek from the 4 to the J to the M for what could have been the greatest high school basketball spectacle ever. Read More »

The last time Brandon Jennings played at Madison Square Garden, the then Arizona-bound senior from Oak Hill Academy earned co-MVP honors (along with Tyreke Evans) as he finished with 10 points and an event record 14 assists to lead his team to victory at the 2008 Jordan Brand Classic. Tonight, on basketball’s biggest stage, a couple things have changed. First, Jennings is killing it in his rookie season after spending the season in Italy. Second, he’ll be playing against a team – and in front of a crowd – that he could’ve called his own if the Knicks didn’t sleep on him in this summers NBA Draft. Read More »

There’s no question that Amar’e Stoudemire would be one of the most pursued free agents this summer if he was on the open market. But it looks more and more like he’s going to go the route of Carlos Boozer and – if not traded before then – remain with the Suns for at least one more year. Read More »

Whatever kind of failure you might think Allen Iverson’s season has been, Stephon Marbury would gladly take two scoops of that failure with M&M’s on top.

After Tweeting/smoking/crying/Vaseline’ing his way right out of the NBA over the summer, Steph recently signed with the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association, and on Sunday made his debut. Read More »

Wow, this came out of nowhere this afternoon. Time to re-think whatever strategy you had in your office/dorm March Madness pool, because it may have just become a whole lot more difficult for you and for your favorite college teams to win the Big Dance. The web site Sports by Brooks is reporting that an NCAA Tournament expansion from 65 teams to 96 is a “done deal.”

From the article: Read More »

Even in the midst of a losing season, Minnesota Timberwolves rookie point guard, Jonny Flynn, still manages to keep a smile on his face. Returning to Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night was sort of a homecoming for the Niagara Falls (NY) native. For two seasons, Flynn starred at Syracuse and had some huge moments in the Garden – including the legendary, six overtime victory over Connecticut in the 2009 Big East Tournament. Read More »

Relevance is always an issue in collegiate athletics. Coaches will change, players will cycle through programs and records will fluctuate year-to-year; the “what have you done for me lately” mentality will always take over eventually. Lately, all signs coming out of Hollywood and the Southern Cal campus should point to throwing up a white flag on the current season. Thanks to former Trojan O.J. Mayo and the USC booster that supplemented him with compensation as a recruit, the NCAA has been sanctioned to dismiss any postseason for USC this year. No Pac-10 tournament, no NIT and certainly no NCAA come March. As USC wallows in the mud of basketball purgatory, the team actually – on the surface only I’m sure – remains upbeat about its current situation; although I doubt if Ovinton J’Anthony received any Trojan holiday greeting cards this past Christmas. Read More »

Don’t you hate it when somebody clowns you, but what they’re saying is true?

Responding to one Dime reader (appropriately named Eugene) accusing the magazine of an “institutional bias” against LeBron James, another reader, control, pointed out: “I think the main people Dime jocks on undeserving is Rondo, Stephan (sic) Jackson back in the day, guys who have potential but don’t fulfill it (Beasley/Gerald Green) and AB has this weird and sick mancrush on Zach Randolph.”

And I don’t even have a comeback. Yeah, I can admit I’m a bigger fan of Z-Bo than just about anybody I know who isn’t related to him, but I have my reasons: Read More »

When they’re not out on the court playing or working out, NBA players are just like us and spend countless hours surfing the internet and watching TV. With all that extra time players have in hotel rooms, you got to kill time somehow. Over the last few weeks, Dime got access to different NBA locker rooms and asked some guys about their favorite TV shows and websites. Some answers might surprise you. Read More »

It’s no secret that the Cavs are looking to add one more piece for their title run this Spring. And while names such as Antawn Jamison and Troy Murphy have popped up and fizzled out, it appears the latest rumor out of Cleveland has the Cavs making a run at David West. With the Hornets doing everything they can to avoid paying the luxury tax, acquiring Big Z’s $11.5 million expiring contract – and ridding themselves of West’s $9.1 million this season, $8.3 million next year and $7.5 million player option in 2011-12 – you have to think this deal makes sense for both teams. Read More »