Yesterday we talked about the point guard war brewing between Rajon Rondo and Chris Paul. As news leaks about from various sources about what was exactly said it is hard to sort out fact from fiction(One source claims Rondo told Paul “he has a ring and Paul will never get one”). Neither CP nor Rondo is willing to talk about what happened on the court but regardless the rivalry has captured the fans attention. For today’s Reebok Still Talkin’ Quote of the Day we turn to Boston’s head coach Doc Rivers and his interesting perspective. Read More »

I can’t resist season preview magazines. NBA, NFL, college, MLB, I’m a sucker for those thick annual issues that I’ll pore through in a couple of sittings before the season, then rarely open during the season. (Speaking of, keep an eye out for Dime #53, our NBA/college/high school preview issue.)

Every few years, one of the preview mags will do a feature where they create the “perfect” player for their sport, Dr. Frankenstein-style. 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 Johnson, Taj Gibson, Jannero Pargo, Derrick Byars

Lost: Ben Gordon, Tim Thomas, Linton Johnson, Anthony Roberson Read More »

The second game of the NBA preseason, Bulls vs. Pacers, kind of flew under the radar for a few reasons: Nobody cared as much because it wasn’t the debut for the League or the replacement refs, it was on a Friday night when people had better things to do, and the most notable “new face, new place” involved was Bulls’ first-round pick James Johnson — only the most generic (at least in name) first-round pick in this year’s rookie class. Johnson was terrible, by the way, going 1-for-6 from the field and fouling out in 20 minutes … Derrick Rose had 17 points and three assists in Chicago’s win, while John Salmons and Luol Deng (3-10 FG, 9-9 FT) scored 15 apiece. Read More »

While Dwight Howard takes a couple days to bask in the warm glowing warming glow of his first NBA Finals appearance — all before getting to the task of whipping himself into “Kill Bynum” mode — we still can’t get away from the LeBron talk. Even though it’s been standard fare for guys like Rasheed Wallace to get fined for skipping mandatory postseason press conferences, the League said they won’t fine LeBron for skipping his interviews after the Cavs were eliminated in Orlando. The reason? Read More »

Since it seems the popular thing for national basketball writers to do these days is openly lobby for NBA jobs they’ll never ever-ever-ever-ever-ever get, allow me to put in my bid:

I want to be Zach Randolph’s agent.

Of course I don’t have any experience or a law degree. But if the most important function of an agent is to always work in his client’s best interest, I’ve at least been thinking like Zach’s agent for the last four years; Read More »

Remember last summer when Ben Gordon said that he wanted “Luol Deng money” from the Bulls? (It’s kind of ridiculous that such an expression exists.) If he was asking for $70 million then, his pricetag could have only shot up since his 22.8 ppg seven-game stretch against the Celtics. As of right now, there’s no way that Chicago could afford to give him that kind of money. So is it worth restructuring the books to make room for BG? Read More »

After all that had happened in the first six games, you have to imagine even Boston fans would’ve liked to see a more thrilling Game Seven between the Celtics and Bulls. It’s not that the game wasn’t competitive — Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon sparked a late second-half comeback and kept Chicago within a possession or two for most of the fourth quarter — but it was like the C’s were Lennox Lewis, keeping the young challenger at bay with a series of long jabs and the occasional big right hand … Read More »

When the TV broadcast is breaking out footage of Suns/Celtics from 1976, and the people you’re watching the game with are starting to cite the Syracuse/UConn six-overtime epic, you know you’re watching a classic NBA playoff game. Celtics/Bulls last night was simply incredible, going three overtimes before the Bulls pulled out the win to force a Game 7 in Boston. (Which, sadly, we can see being a Celtics’ blowout, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.) … Read More »

Headed into this season, there was a general vision for what the Blazers would become: they’d be a solid team in the West who would make waves in the playoffs. Part of the motivation behind that prediction is that Portland has explosive pieces who could be dangerous if they all get hot at the same time. But it’s also partly because they’re a likable group of guys who people across the country want to see succeed for the first time. Read More »