So long, Superman. It was reported late that Dwight Howard will undergo season-ending back surgery on his herniated disc, news his agent and the team confirmed. After Stan Van Gundy said Dwight wanted him fired a couple weeks back, Howard missed a couple games with back spasms. Everyone read that to mean: I’ve given up. Turns out, the back injury is no joke. Just ask David Robinson, whose career had a painful end because of a similar injury. Now Howard’s out for the Olympics, too, which means Spain has one fewer U.S. big man to worry about. Read More »

As Jeremy Lin made TIME magazine’s top 100 most influential people list today, it proves the NBA’s most influential don’t even need to be on a roster the whole year to move the needle and up their Q rating.

Lin’s placement on the list, written about by former Harvard baller Arne Duncan — now known as the U.S. Secretary of Education — made us think who comprises the top 10 most influential in the NBA. Lin doesn’t make this list. An amazing run, but it’s over for now and lasted too short. These 10 have staying power. Read More »

Derrick Rose isn’t the only NBA superstar who’s tired of the hard fouls and cheap shots. Blake Griffin was the notorious recipient of one of the worst fouls of the year – Jason Smith‘s attempted fast break murder from March 22 – and now the Clipper superstar is speaking out as well. At some point, you knew Griffin’s celebrity would come back to haunt him. DeMarcus Cousins doesn’t enjoy it, and neither do any of the players that have been publicly embarrassed by the most explosive player in the world. I just didn’t expect it all to happen so soon. Read More »

There was a point in the third quarter where you could see it on LeBron James‘ face. New Jersey was flowing. Miami was in a trance. And LeBron was annoyed. A late regular season game in New Jersey isn’t exactly the NBA Finals, but it’ll do for now, especially when he puts together a performance that had shades of 2006, Game 5 in Detroit. LeBron scored 17 straight for Miami to bring the Heat charging back in a 111-108 W, all while everyone in the building screamed “MVP!” Read More »

In Chicago’s overtime win against Detroit yesterday, Derrick Rose dropped 24 and hit a dagger triple at the end of regulation to save the Bulls. But that wasn’t all he talked about afterwards. According to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune‘s Twitter, Rose said “I was mad, man. I’m sick and tired of people trying to take cheap shots at me. I gotta say something.” Who brought this out from the reigning MVP? Charlie Villanueva. Read More »

Three-thousand miles away and two big games to start a Sunday afternoon. … Jeff Van Gundy isn’t coming through that door wrapped around someone’s ankle, and Allan Houston won’t be joining, either. Still, that can’t temper a playoff matchup we’d love to see that was previewed Sunday: Heat vs. Knicks. The Garden has seen its high points this season (think Linsanity and ‘Melo’s Easter blowout) but we’d love to watch this series once it gets back to the World’s Most Famous Arena after how Sunday’s game looked until late. Read More »

Is it better to have won without your best player or worse to have lost with everyone healthy? That’s a preview to today’s conversation around the league, centered on Miami-Chicago. The CHI won despite an atrocious game from Derrick Rose (1-of-13 from the field with two points, eight assists), who was rusty enough the Heat got tetanus shots in case they ran into him. But seriously, it’s expected for Rose after missing 23 games this year, but a subject we touched on today at Dime continued to be proven true. The Bulls don’t need Rose to beat the NBA’s best teams. Read More »

Not everyone gets to take a bow like they want to after winning the NBA MVP. We’ve seen it by now, that some MVPs portend a superstar future (Jordan in 1987-88) or one that won’t ever reach higher (Allen Iverson in 2000-01).

Those evaluations, though, rarely come so quickly as the next season. This isn’t a knock against Derrick Rose of Chicago, who had such an incredible second season last year that he took home the Bulls’ first MVP since Jordan. Even if you’re a hardened Eastern Conference fan, you had to at least begrudgingly give him his due after getting 25.0 points, 7.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game. Read More »

Last week it appeared that Kevin Durant wanted this MVP much more than LeBron James. But with the comments he made to the media, along with the loss against LeBron and Miami on Wednesday night, Durant has given up his lead. It was very noble and admirable of him to address the media and support his point guard the way he did, however now isn’t the time for that. In the midst of a heated MVP race, Durant pretty much denounced himself as the number one scoring option on his own team. Sure that may have been a good move for the team going forward, and was great for the confidence of Russell Westbrook, but there’s no question that it hurt Durant’s MVP stock. Read More »

In a calmer, maybe more reasonable world, the Miami Heat could lose a game like the game they lost to the Boston Celtics last night and it wouldn’t be a big deal. In that world, LeBron James and Miami fans could adopt the same attitude Kobe Bryant and L.A. fans have after every one of their high-profile L’s in the regular season: Don’t panic, it’s only (fill-in-the-month). This is bigger to them than it is to us. We’ll be fine in the playoffs. … But there are five diamond-studded reasons why a Kobe-led team gets that kind of leeway and a LeBron-led team does not. Read More »