When it was announced that LeBron James would collect his fourth Most Valuable Player award. No one, except the Boston Globe‘s Gary Washburn (and he’s entitled to his views), wanted to be caught with a stain on their ballot … and rightly so. However, does that mean Kevin Durant‘s work (50/40/90 shooting averages and the West’s top record) should go without a well-earned receipt?

For the uninitiated, pro baseball hands out trophies for their top rookie, best pitcher, leading manager and most trustworthy fielder. MLB’s major awards are akin to the four biggest accolades handed out in the NBA – Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year – except that they’re given out in both the American and National League’s, respectively.

Given the NBA’s visible conference divide, isn’t it time that both the elite from the East and the best playing out West serve as different streams of power for their own lighthouses? If baseball, with clear distinctions between its two leagues, awards its players accordingly, shouldn’t the NBA look to do the same? Read More »

Gregg Popovich to send four of his best players home before their road game against Miami last night. It provoked David Stern to issue a missive criticizing the move, promising “substantial sanctions.” The debate about whether Popovich should have rested his most popular and important players before a nationally televised game is contentious, but it’s the reason Popovich rested them that provides David Stern an opportunity to swallow his (substantial) pride and improve the league by shortening the regular season. Read More »

Earlier today Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver announced that the NBA and YouTube will stream 350 NBA Development League games live during the season. Read More »

By the time David Stern retires as commissioner of the NBA on Feb. 1, 2014, the dueling eulogies and celebrations of his reign will have long been written. Hell, still 15 months away, many have been written today after he announced he’ll retire on that date while at the NBA Board of Governors meeting. Read More »

Welcome to the role of NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver. On Feb. 1, 2014 you get to succeed your 20-year mentor David Stern as the most powerful man in basketball. Before you hang the paintings in your office, however — actually, do this now, before you even choose what you want on the wall — this won’t be a situation where you can step into the league’s golden years. You will be only four years removed from the last NBA lockout and its cries of financial instability, and even more issues face you. There are many, of course. Here are our picks for the top five. Read More »

We all saw this day coming, but David Stern still represents a huge part of the NBA. It’ll be a shock to see him go. Yet we can put all of the speculations to rest: the NBA commissioner will announce late Thursday that he is retiring on Feb. 1, 2014, according to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein. Read More »

In the new issue of Dime Magazine, we took a look at the best – and worst – the game has offered since the turn of the century. From the players to jerseys to sneakers to teams to even trends, you can relive the past 12 years by scooping up the new issue currently on newsstands nationwide. In those pages, you’ll find the following feature… Read More »

As Jeremy Lin made TIME magazine’s top 100 most influential people list today, it proves the NBA’s most influential don’t even need to be on a roster the whole year to move the needle and up their Q rating.

Lin’s placement on the list, written about by former Harvard baller Arne Duncan — now known as the U.S. Secretary of Education — made us think who comprises the top 10 most influential in the NBA. Lin doesn’t make this list. An amazing run, but it’s over for now and lasted too short. These 10 have staying power. Read More »

You can call out the owners for being greedy, condescending and unreasonable during these lockout “negotiations.” But you can’t say they don’t know what they’re doing. The ultimatums, demands and all of the posturing has the players backed into a corner. Yesterday, David Stern and Adam Silver took to Twitter to answer questions on their most recent proposal – one in which has many players in New York at this very moment. Nothing surprising was revealed. Everything was shaded in “the players are the bad guys” coloring. Read More »

We’d normally be abuzz with preseason and training camp talk around this time but you already know how it goes by now. As Blake Griffin tweeted: First day of training camp finally here can’t wait for… Oh what’s that NBA owners? You won’t let us play? Sorry everybody… On the morning of the start of training camps last year, what was everyone doing? Checking for photos of new J.R. Smith tattoos or seeing how long it might take Boris Diaw to get in shape or even to get some funky quote from Ron Artest or Stephen Jackson. Now this year? The gyms around the league look pretty vacant. Read More »