Anyone remember School Sports? Back in high school, right outside the principal’s office, I could find a stack of that magazine once every few months. I’d grab three or four copies, spend the next few classes sifting through the pages, keep one copy on ice and then cut apart the others, taping every picture up onto my wall. They had national stories and local stuff too, which was always weird (seeing names you know in a magazine). Coming up the stairs from gym class, I always snuck a glance to my left to see if they were sitting there on a ledge, right outside of the main office. Read More »

For some teams, the NBA draft is a chance to rebuild and send the franchise in a completely new direction (cough, Cleveland, cough). But there are no guarantees that a high pick will change a franchise’s fate, or even become an impact player.

Yesterday we listed the best NBA draft picks at each spot. Today, we present you with the worst picks at 1-30 in NBA history. Read More »

We argue. You decide.

JOHN CALIPARI (by A. Macaluso) When it comes to family, no one is closer than the Italians. You used to be able to say the same about John Calipari and his predecessor, Rick Pitino. Both coaches have known each other ever since they worked together at Five Star Camp. Both head coaches were actually friends in the beginning, with Pitino helping Calipari land the head coaching position at Massachusetts in 1988. Read More »

On the NBA level, getting into a debate about the best two-guards (of all-time or recently) is no fun. Once Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are mentioned, it’s over.

The same isn’t true for high school. Because there are so many differences in style of play, toughness of competition, and insane numbers to throw around, it’s not easy settling on one G.O.A.T. shooting guard for the prep scene. Over on High School Hoop, Jason Jordan ranks the Top 10 two-guards of the last decade (Class of 2000 to 2010), based solely on how good they were as high school and AAU competitors. Read More »

Kelvin Torbert was, undeniably, The Man back in 2001. Coming out of Northwestern High School in Flint, Mich., the 6-4 shooting guard was named Sporting News and Gatorade National Player of the Year over future NBA classmates T.J. Ford, Dajuan Wagner, Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry and Kwame Brown. Torbert averaged 26 points and eight boards as a senior, then dropped 21 points in that year’s McDonald’s All-American Game.

At Michigan State, Torbert was naturally expected to continue the legacies of Magic Johnson, Steve Smith, Shawn Respert and the “Flintstones” — the four-man crew of Mateen Cleaves, Mo Peterson, Charlie Bell and Antonio Smith that hailed from the same hometown as Torbert. However, Torbert never delivered on that potential in college. Read More »

A couple years ago I had an opportunity to interview John Calipari for Dime. Aiming to do something different with the biggest rock-star coach in the college game, I came up with the idea to have Coach Cal talk to me like I was a big-time recruit and give me his pitch on why I should play for him at Memphis. Thus was born “The Pitch,” our now-regular feature where we’ve had everybody from Rick Barnes to Reggie Theus share their recruiting tactics.

It was only right that Calipari set the standard. After all, he is the best salesman in the college game. Read More »

If media overhype isn’t your thing, or if you’re one of those people who was never a big Michael Jordan fan, you may want to stay in bed and keep away from the TV and Internet today. As you may have heard, MJ (and David Robinson, John Stockton, Jerry Sloan and C. Vivian Stringer) will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame today, so it’s gonna be all-Jordan/all-day on pretty much every sports outlet. Some of the Dime crew will be in Springfield, Mass., for the HOF festivities, where we’ll be providing live updates on Dime’s Twitter page. You should also check out @mitchell_ness on Twitter for updates from the VIP point of view, plus the latest on the hottest Jordan product ever released. They may be sold out already at the NBA Store, but we’ll let you know where you can get yours … Now about those “other” H.O.F. inductees: Don’t worry, we didn’t forget about them. Read More »

Yesterday’s “Where are they now?” post on Troy Bell generated a lot of discussion of our favorite has-beens. We saw all sorts of names: Dajuan Wagner, Scotty Thurman, Harold Miner and even David Benoit. So we’re going to do what we can to dig up information and catch you up to speed on everyone.

One name I saw come up that really struck a chord with me was Omar Cook. Read More »

Can’t the Timberwolves do anything right? The same franchise that used its first-ever draft pick on Pooh Richardson when Mookie Blaylock, Tim Hardaway and Shawn Kemp were still on the board; that cost itself five years of first-round picks just to overpay Joe Smith under the table; that wasted Kevin Garnett‘s prime by not getting him a good enough supporting cast; that may have fumbled their biggest post-KG opportunity at the ’09 Draft; that’s taking way too long just to eventually hire Elston Turner as its next coach — they’ve done it again. Read More »

Thursday’s NBA news wire looked like the brainstorm meeting for an after-school special. First, with the promotion for LeBron James‘ quasi-autobiography (Shooting Stars, co-written with Buzz Bissinger of Friday Night Lights fame) underway, the big bombshell — and perfect cover-up for the Jordan Crawford thing — was ‘Bron Clinton revealing he smoked weed once in high school. In a book that mostly focuses on his high school career, LBJ also wrote about dealing with fame at a young age. “We had become big-headed jerks, me in particular,” James said. “And we are to blame for that, but so are adults who treated us that way and then sat back and smugly watched the self-destruction.” … Read More »