It goes without saying that Jeremy Lin is a smart guy. Having Harvard on your credentials makes that sort of a no-brainer. When the new Houston guard visited Taiwan during his first visit to see where his parents were born, Lin — born and raised in the U.S. but clearly cognizant of international relations — slipped a question Sunday during press availability about whether he’s Chinese or Taiwanese like a bad halfcourt trap. Read More »

The U.S. men are about to get their toughest test of the Olympics. And it still won’t be a game. Lithuania plays the record-setting Americans on Saturday, two days after they detonated Nigeria by 83 points. After that one, a mini-controversy has erupted around whether the team purposefully ran up the score on the helpless Olympic debutantes. Nah; we mean, the U.S. just could not miss. Now, they weren’t exactly holding the ball in four corners, but even though we aren’t quiet buying Coach K saying that Nigeria’s coach would have been “humiliated” if the U.S. didn’t play hard the whole way, they did have to put the ball up every 24 seconds. Read More »

There are the Olympic basketball tournaments, and all the sideshows around them. From releases of sneakers to clothes with Dream Team or national team themes, to all the talk about what if the tournament becomes a U-23 showcase, it’s refreshing to actually sit back and watch the games themselves. New videos by Nike, which has contracts with all but one of the men’s players and several of the women, take us directly to the players’ point of view about what it’s like to play on the senior national team. Read More »

You may know Cappie Pondexter as the sweet-shooting New York Liberty guard – the one who has posted an 18.4 scoring average through the first third of the 2011 WNBA season. But that’s just her summer job. In the winter, you can find Pondexter in Russia hooping in the EuroLeague for UMMC Ekaterinburg. Or you can find her working for 4 Season Style Management, the image consulting company she co-founded. Read More »

Despite only entering the league this spring, Maya Moore has already become the proud owner of the WNBA’s best-selling jersey. Why is this a big deal you may ask? This is based on sales from October 2010 through June 2011. Not bad for this April’s No. 1 pick sporting No. 23 for the Minnesota Lynx. And in case you were wondering, Moore supplanted Candace Parker who has held the top ranking since October 2008 and boasts the best-selling jersey in NBA Store history. Read More »

The WNBA season tip-off passed by like the 10-year anniversary of the release of Final Fantasy IX – unnoticed. Despite all those clever “Basketball is Basketball” commercials, hoops fans were too busy hating on LeBron and Dwyane Wade’s celebratory antics in Game 2 to pay much mind to the June 3 season opener between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Minnesota Lynx.

But now that Dirk Nowitzki’s game-winning drives and Jan Vesely’s smooch are distant memories, hoops fans need something new to satisfy their basketball fix. Now I know the WNBA might not seem sexy, but I’ve got four reasons for you to follow this summer’s campaign. Read More »

As much pain as Ben Wallace‘s swollen ankle may have caused him while sitting at home Tuesday, his eyes would have been hurting more had he watched League Pass last night. Big Ben, Gary Payton, Bruce Bowen, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Mookie Blaylock — anybody who’s ever made a living shutting down NBA scorers would have cringed at some of the comical “defense” on display … In Denver, the Suns showed up for about 15 minutes before the Nuggets started shooting holes in their D like a game of Duck Hunt. Read More »

Sometimes, when we’re putting together an issue of Dime, it develops its own in-house nickname during the process. When we had Rajon Rondo on the cover of Dime #56, for example, along with features on Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul, we started calling it the “Point Guard Issue.” Or way back in Dime #29, when Gilbert Arenas graced the cover in his chip-on-his-shoulder prime and the perpetually underrated Shawn Marion was also featured, we called it the “Respect Issue” amongst ourselves. Dime #59, on newsstands now, could have been called the “Quiet Storm Issue.” Read More »

When it comes to women’s basketball, it doesn’t get any better than Diana Taurasi. She wins, she scores and she’s the fiercest competitor out there. Basically, she’s the female equivalent of Kobe Bryant. Averaging 22.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and a career-high 4.7 assists per game (including a 30-point, 10-assist performance on August 1), Taurasi led the WNBA in scoring for a record fourth season, while also managing to become the fastest player in league history to record 4,500 points, 1,000 rebounds and 900 assists for her career (224 games).

So what could go wrong for the league’s reigning MVP? Nothing. After Taurasi indicated earlier this summer that she might take next season off, the seven-year veteran re-signed with the Phoenix Mercury yesterday, right before she leads her squad into the postseason for the second consecutive season and the third time in the last four years. And remember, those last two trips ended with championship trophies. 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 »