While most of the Dime crew was in D.C. and Boston for the Red Bull King of the Rock qualifiers, I had the chance to go to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame ring ceremony at Mohegan Sun. Former greats such as Rick Barry, Moses Malone, Calvin Murphy, George Gervin and Dr. J all came out to honor the newest members of the Hall and possibly hit up the Dennis Rodman after party. It’s a surreal feeling, being surrounded by greatness. Just the way these men carried themselves, you could tell. They weren’t obnoxious, self-satisfied or gratified. It was honorable and graceful. The way you’d teach your children to handle hundreds of star-struck on-lookers and swarming media. And then Dennis Rodman walked in. Read More »

Bill Russell‘s 11 NBA championships. Wilt‘s 100-point *insert noun that is exponentially better than “outburst” here.* Oscar Robertson‘s 41 triple-doubles in 79 games during the 1961-62 season. Call me ignorant, but I don’t think they’ll ever break. All these things we’re aware of, but we’re also conscious they’ll never be topped because they were set in a different era.

There’s always lesser records to be broken, however. You want your name cemented into NBA history? There’s ways to do it other than winning a lot or dropping buckets. Read More »

Why do we like the little guy in basketball? Because it reminds us of ourselves, the ones who missed out on the two-foot growth spurt that we swear could make us into NBA players? Because it gives us a glance at someone doing something they aren’t exactly supposed to do? Maybe. We like underdogs.

Dallas’ J.J. Barea fits that mold. The whirling dervish dropped 17 points and five assists on the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. How can a guy who’s not even 6-feet tall – teammate Brian Cardinal said he might be 6-feet in stilettos – do this over giants? And how did he score Miss Universe 2006 being so short? And is she taller than him when she’s wearing stilettos? Read More »

The Best Dunker You’ve Never Seen. That’s the headline we used earlier this month when Jacob Tucker, a 5-11 senior from Illinois College in Jacksonville, Ill., posted a dunk video on YouTube in an attempt to get an invitation to the 2011 State Farm College Slam Dunk Contest. Today, the guard with a 50-inch running vertical is practically a household name. Beating out Lee University’s Larriques “Rico” Cunningham (who has a serious reel as well) in an online vote, Tucker will compete tonight in Houston. Read More »