The best one-on-one player in the game? We thought we already answered this earlier this summer. Dime’s fanbase seemed to think Dirk Nowitzki would take home the top spot, but yet we can’t help but think that was a little bit of the championship hangover as well as crazed fans doing whatever they can to get him some extra votes. The Los Angeles Times recently interviewed some pretty big name players – Kevin Durant, John Wall, Matt Barnes and Trevor Ariza – and all of them except for Wall said in a game of one-on-one, Kobe Bryant would beat LeBron James. Read More »

And you thought the Shaq vs. Kobe beef was over? It’ll never end. This will go on longer than anything, linger longer than Brett Favre, and it’ll probably still have people talking 10 years down the road. All was quiet on the front for a while, but O’Neal has a new autobiography dropping on Nov. 15 – it’s called Shaq Uncut: My Story and it’s co-written with Jackie MacMullan – and the book gives some more inside info on O’Neal’s view of the feud between two of the most polarizing players in NBA history. According to Shaq, it was Kobe that destroyed the team’s shot at a title in 2004, the year they had Karl Malone and Gary Payton. Read More »

Kobe Bryant has maintained his spot as the best basketball player in the world because, even as his nagging injuries pile up and he moves into his 30′s, he relies more on his skills and fundamentals than simple athleticism and explosiveness.

Don’t get it mistaken, though: Kobe can still get up every once in a while, even if some analysts and fans talk about his hops like he’s Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Read More »

The only memories I have of Wayman Tisdale are from his final few years in the NBA when he was just a forgettable role player in Phoenix. I didn’t catch him in his prime during the late 1980s and early ‘90s. I also never realized he was a spectacular musician until sometime around his death in 2009. If we are talking about great NBA musicians, then Tisdale has to be near the top. He had a No. 1 Billboard album, as crazy as that sounds. But if we did that – opened this list up to every ballplayer/artist – it would turn into an impossibility. Read More »

Brandon Jennings says it’s back to basics this offseason and we’re glad he’s tending to his weak points. Brandon can be quite exciting to watch but aspects of his game leave much to be desired. He never looked comfortable after nursing his foot last year so here’s to him bouncing back. Jennings has a tendency to chuck anything at the iron in hopes of hitting the bottom of the net. It’s all good when he’s actually hitting shots but his itchy, misguided trigger finger stalls Milwaukee’s offense. A smarter shooter’s sense will go a long way for his mid-range game since he already has the quickness to skate by defenders. Read More »

One of these days, Gilbert Arenas is going to say the wrong thing, pop off and end up crossing the wrong team. Twitter is his drug in a way. Whenever he gets on there, all bets are off and it’s pure recklessness. Sometimes, the truth he types is honest and fun. Other times, it’s slightly uncomfortable. But the other night, Agent Zero went off about the gun charges, saying Washington leaked the story because they were sick of him and didn’t want Arenas or his huge contract around anymore. Read More »

UPDATE: Reports are now that this a is a done deal. Chris Broussard just tweeted the following: “Deal is done. Mike Brown and Lakers agree to 4-year, $18.25 million deal. Team option for 4th year. Brown gets $2.5 mil if option not taken.”

Out of all the potential head coaching candidates for the L.A. Lakers, Mike Brown wasn’t considered a favorite. Most figured he was at the bottom of the list, below Rick Adelman, below Brian Shaw and possibly below Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Dunleavy. But somehow it appears Brown has emerged and will be named the new head coach of one of the most celebrated organizations in sports. Read More »

Who will coach the Lakers next season? Almost immediately upon getting knocked out of the playoffs, the focus of L.A.’s offseason turned to who will replace Phil Jackson and his 11 championship rings. Because they are the Lakers and because they still have a ton of talent on the roster, L.A. should have the pick of the litter. GM Mitch Kupchak says that while he expects Jackson to retire, he is not yet ready to talk about the probable coaching vacancy. But we can. Read More »

When Mike Brown was fired over a little over a month ago, I listed Tom Thibodeau, Larry Brown and Avery Johnson as the three coaches the Cavaliers should pursue for their head coaching vacancy. Now, Thibodeau is with the Bulls, Johnson is with the Nets, and Larry Brown — still under contract with the Bobcats — has not pushed to be released in order to pursue other opportunities like many thought he would.

Since the vacancy, the Cleveland position has become a give-and-take. Coaches have wanted at least some indication that LeBron will be returning to Cleveland next year, but because it’s impossible for the team to ensure that, coaches such as Tom Izzo have been turning down large sums of money rather than take the risk. Read More »

At the very moment today’s Smack is being posted, odds are some NBA superstar — Amar’e Stoudemire, Paul Pierce, Dwyane Wade, maybe Mr. You Know Who — is hearing a knock on his front door, or taking a phone call from a front-office exec who sounds like a 14-year-old trying to be cool on the phone with the girl he’s crushing on. You want to hear a grown man’s voice crack? Listen in on one of these icebreaker free-agent phone calls … The first bomb in the Nets/Knicks battle for talent was dropped yesterday, when a giant billboard of Jay-Z and Mikhail Prokhorov began to appear on the side of a New York City building that just happens to face the offices at Madison Square Garden. Read More »