J-Kidd (photo. Jordan Hollander)
Sometime during the end stages of the Mavs joining the Dub Club (a.k.a getting 20-pieced) in New Orleans, this e-mail came through from one of the Dime crew: “Chris Paul, you’re under arrest for the murder of Jason Kidd.” That was cold, but you saw the numbers: 32 points and 17 assists […]

Kobe Bryant (photo. Chris Sembrot)
Kobe took another step toward locking up his first MVP, as the Lakers grabbed sole possession of first place in the West by blowing out the Spurs. Keeping that top spot is another thing: L.A. has a home date with Sacramento left on the schedule, while the Hornets have the Clippers […]

Photo. Jonathan Mannion
Just like we expected, the Cavs looked like a real NBA team once LeBron stepped back onto the court last night. Coming off the bench against the Pacers (”One and done,” he called it afterwards. “I will not be coming off the bench anymore.”), ‘Bron put up 17 points and 5 assists in […]

A.I. on Dime #28
Years ago, Jason Kidd told us that his man Gary Payton would have to be dragged off an NBA court before he retired. He just loved playing too much. You can say the same thing about Kidd — which is why we don’t buy the whole “He’s sitting out on purpose” story […]

Photo. Jonathan Mannion
LeBron was at the Indians game last night. In Cleveland. Wearing a Yankees cap. Craig Sager (it’s weird watching Sager and David Aldridge doing baseball games) tried to give ‘Bron a hard time for it, but he was just like, “I’m here to represent for the Yankees.” Guess you can’t blame LeBron too […]

Get some rest, Chris
Attention in the Dime office kinda went away from basketball for a day in favor of baseball. Between the Philly, Boston and NY factions in the office, almost everyone has a rooting interest in the MLB playoffs, leading to stuff like Cass saying, “After three o’clock I’ll be mentally checked out because […]

Don’t worry about rings
We’re getting closer and closer to seeing actual NBA basketball games, with yesterday marking the first day of training camp around the League. The Knicks started camp without a very important piece: the head coach. Isiah Thomas is, of course, still waiting to hear from the jury regarding his sexual harassment lawsuit. […]

Photo. Jonathan Mannion
Yeah, yeah, it’s supposed to be a team thing, but how’s Coach K gonna sit LeBron for the entire second half last night when ‘Bron could have easily broken the all-time USA Basketball single-game scoring record? The King was just unstoppable in the first half against Team Uruguay, dropping 26 points on 11-for-11 […]

One less big for Team USA…
Maybe Nick Collison stands a chance of making the Team USA roster after all. Citing plantar fasciitis in his left foot, Chris Bosh pulled out of training camp and won’t be playing in the Olympic qualifying tourney. Bad news for the U.S. squad, not only because CB4 looked really good […]

G.O. gives Christian nutrition tips.
The Oregonian ran a big feature on Greg Oden over the weekend, in which we learned a few things about the rookie:
* Trying to gain back the weight he lost after tonsil surgery, Oden is housing two double-cheeseburgers, fries and a pop every night at 1 a.m. His favorite spot to […]

After months of thinking it over — and coming off the heels of the annual uber-party that is Zo’s Summer Groove — Alonzo Mourning said he’s coming back for one more year with the Heat. A player of Zo’s age (37), stature (borderline Hall of Famer) and salary ($2.7 million) usually only comes back for […]

Photo by G. Land
Three years ago, Steve Francis was giving the Kobe/Shaq Lakers triple-doubles in the playoffs and was probably one of the 15 or 20 best players in the entire League. Now he’s taking Chris Webber-ish “please just go away” buyouts and his free agency is less of a story than Darko being on […]

For the second night in a row, the shell-of-the-Wizards didn’t go down easy, losing in overtime to the Nets. It took monster games from both Vince Carter (46 pts, 16 rebs, 10 asts) and Jason Kidd (10 pts, 16 rebs, 18 asts) to fend off Washington, as VC and J-Kidd became the first teammates to […]