The San Antonio Spurs have a reputation for not playing around. Players are as good as gone if they don’t fit the system and culture of the franchise. You’d think three-time NBA champion Tony Parker would’ve known better when he, en francais, said earlier this summer that the Spurs’s door to chasing a title closed last season. Parker got conspicuously tight lipped following the situation when the NY Daily News revealed the organization’s reaction. Read More »

Dirk Nowitzki‘s scalding destruction of the Thunder last night was one of the best shooting performances in NBA history. It was so good, Dirk had people suddenly vaulting him into the discussion with the best players ever. While Nowitzki will ultimately be considered one of the 20 best players in the game’s history, he needs a capper. He needs that ring. That way when he walks into a room, Barkley and Malone and Reggie all have to shut up. Amazing right? Read More »

How much of this summer’s NBA free agency drama is going to play out on Twitter? Chris Bosh (@chrisbosh) almost caused an international incident a couple weeks ago when he tweeted, “Should I stay or should I go?” Bosh then wrote another post — something like, “I should plan my vacation later next year” while he was watching a Lakers game — that created more rumors and speculation. Which brings us to yesterday, when Amar’e Stoudemire (@amareisreal) posted this: “Just touched down in my home state Florida. Miami what’s good?” Read More »

While we’re headed for potentially the most hectic NBA offseason in history, not every team is in line for a complete overhaul. Not every team is targeting, or trying not to lose, a franchise cornerstone. But every team has an agenda.

Overall, the Nuggets are in pretty good shape. While losing in the first round of the playoffs to a lower seed wasn’t what the ’09 Western Conference finalists would consider a good run, they’re coming off a 53-win season and a Northwest Division title. None of their key rotation guys are free agents, and their two best players are far from flight risks: Read More »

With Game 5 and a possible exit for the Denver Nuggets looming tonight, ‘Melo and company will certainly have to dig deep to get it done against Utah, who is up 3-1 in the series. A lot of talk has been swirling around the Nuggets since head coach George Karl left the team to undergo treatment for throat cancer in February – and while I agree with Austin about not speaking on behalf of everyone at Dime, I know that all of our prayers are with Coach Karl and his family during this time – about Denver collapsing internally. Read More »

Right before Cavs/Bulls tipped off last night, Charles Barkley said, “Unless something happens to LeBron James in the next two minutes, this game is history.” It wasn’t nearly that easy, but LeBron did dominate down the stretch as Cleveland won by 10 and took a 2-0 series lead … The first half was memorable for LeBron unleashing a dunk on James Johnson that may technically count as rookie hazing. Or as Reggie Miller put it: “Click-click, get ready for your Kodak moment!” The game was close until late in the fourth, when LeBron (40 pts, 8 rebs, 8 asts) started raining jumpers to stretch the lead. Read More »

Clearly, the Dallas Mavericks don’t measure up to the Celtics or Sixers in terms of NBA tradition. So that’s why, in contrast to earlier discussions about Paul Pierce and Allen Iverson, I’m going in a different direction with this one.

Last night, Dirk Nowitzki dropped a baseline jumper in the third quarter of Mavs/Lakers to crack the 20,000-point mark for his career. The moment was significant enough that it almost eclipsed the fact that Dallas eventually lost the game; Dirk even (maybe) got a haircut in preparation for the special day. Read More »

Last night, as Kobe Bryant (27 pts, 8 asts) hit a dagger pull-up jumper and the Lakers were turning the screws into the Jazz during a 20-0 run in the fourth quarter, one of the Utah announcers said dejectedly, “You can almost write this script every time we come to town.” Moments later, Carlos Boozer tossed up an airball and Jordan Farmar beasted his way through the lane for an and-one. “Yeah, the wheels are off,” confirmed the other Jazz announcer. Thing is, Boozer and Deron Williams and them were doing OK well into the second half, then L.A. just turned on the “Wait a minute, we own these guys” switch and ran them out the building … Read More »

The Ricky Rubio song-and-dance has turned into the Michael Myers of the NBA offseason; it just won’t stay down. Last week, Rubio was reportedly going to sign a six-year contract with Regal FC Barcelona (Spain) — where he’d be teammates with J.C. Navarro, Terrence Morris, Fran Vasquez, and the immortal Boniface N’Dong — that had a reasonable buyout option in 2011. Bad news for the Wolves, right? Not so fast. The Barcelona deal isn’t official yet, and in the meantime, Minnesota GM David Kahn has flown to Spain AGAIN trying to work something out. At this point, Kahn might as well buy a condo out there and sublease it when he’s not busy trying to convince Rubio to come to America. Read More »