During the Suns-Lakers series, TNT showed Marv Albert‘s interview with President Barack Obama. If you remember, the interview was really interesting. Usually when a politician talks about sports, you yawn and don’t pay much attention. However, with Obama, I was drawn in the entire time and thoroughly impressed by his basketball knowledge and insights into the game. Obama is a great speaker, and his interview proved that not only is he great when writing his own speeches, but also when doing an interview. Even if you hate Obama’s guts as a politician and disagree with everything that he does in office, as a basketball fan, there is no denying how awesome it was to see the President talk hoops with Marv. Read More »

The NBA is off until Sunday, when the Celtics and Magic tip-off the Eastern Conference Finals (Lakers vs. Suns begins Monday). In the meantime, be prepared for 24/7 LeBron James coverage. With everybody weighing in yesterday to either breakdown what went wrong for the Cavs or speculate where LeBron will end up this summer, it was LBJ overload on Friday. Realistically, it’s going to come down to three teams: Cleveland, Chicago or New York. They’re going to throw everything they have at LeBron, but what happens for the two franchises that miss out on him? Read More »

Three things every Black person in America was afraid of when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States:

1. You already know. I don’t even want to spell it out. 2. Obama not getting enough leeway. If he doesn’t fix every problem the country has within two or three years, his critics will quickly peg him as another “do-nothing” president. 3. White people claiming racism no longer exists in America because we elected a Black president. Read More »

Everybody wants to make the Hoosiers comparison, but the best movie for Butler‘s surprise run to the NCAA championship game might be Invictus. Yesterday’s win over Michigan State was like part basketball and part rugby. It was ugly, it was grimy, it was gritty, but the Bulldogs pulled off the upset despite shooting 31% from the field, enduring a 10-minute stretch in the second half where they didn’t make a shot, and trying time and time again to give the Spartans the game … Read More »

*Dime’s NCAA Tournament Day 2 coverage*

Jordan Crawford just made himself a lot of money. Projected as a late first-round NBA Draft pick in 2011, the Xavier junior two-guard put on the whole f’n show today against Minnesota: dropping 28 points, five boards, five assists and handful of blocks and steals. Always known as a sick athlete who can score, Crawford showed he can shoot — he buried a dagger three with 38 seconds that put Xavier up nine — and play solid defense to go along with his scoring ability. I’d compare him to J.R. Smith without the knuckleheaded-ness. Read More »

It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of the NBA, NCAA or high school – great basketball is great basketball. And yesterday has to go down as one of the greatest days in hoops history. Ever. Take for example the first four games of the day: you had a one point game, a buzzer beater for an upset, an overtime scare and a double overtime thriller. Only if Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery called all four games, could you have asked for anything better … If you were on the site at all yesterday, then you know the Dime crew was on top of everything. So we’ll try and bring some new thoughts and observations to Smack … Let’s start with BYU’s Jimmer Fredette. Read More »

This much is a given: Our annual All-Star issue means we have to — scratch that, we get to — put Dime’s best foot forward and come with a A1 top-level star on the cover of the magazine. The complicated part? Every other mag is thinking the same thing.

So while we knew there would be a good chance Dime wouldn’t be the only mag to have Kobe Bryant grace its cover this month, we do have one advantage over the competition as the entire basketball world descends on Dallas this weekend with their brand-new issues in tow: Ours is just better. Read More »

The thematic stat you’re going to hear whenever the Mavericks get into another close game is that, dating back to last season, the Mavs are 10-0 in their last 10 games that were decided by one point. The Mavs are also 3-0 this season in games decided by two points, including last November when Dirk Nowitzki hit a game-winner in Milwaukee. Last night the Mavs hosted the Bucks, and again it went down to the wire … Read More »

Ranking the League from worst to first…

30. New Jersey Nets (3-40) Last week: Lost at Phoenix; lost at Golden State; lost at Utah. You know how some teams can play any style and win? The Nets have become adept at losing with any style. Last week they lost trying to run. They also lose in the halfcourt, lose when they go big, lose when they go small, lose with a youth movement, lose with vets, lose at home, lose on the road … their company softball team probably stinks, too.

29. Minnesota Timberwolves (9-36) Last week: Lost to Oklahoma City; lost to New Orleans; lost at Milwaukee. If you’re into moral victories, the Wolves can be proud of at least taking the Thunder and Hornets down to the wire. The talent and competitiveness is there; you just see the execution failures that come with a young team. Read More »

After 30-something games of tinkering with rotations, dealing with injuries and middling through their typical slow start, we got the feeling last night was the real beginning of this season for the Spurs. In handing the visiting Lakers a 20-piecing that admittedly gets an asterisk because Pau Gasol (hamstring) was sidelined and Kobe (back) sat out the fourth quarter, San Antone nonetheless showed a consistent level of energy and execution they’ve been looking for all year. Read More »