The people have spoken. After tons of official entries and lots of back and forth in the comments section of the site to give Gilbert Arenas a new nickname, it really came down to two potential winners. The first was opeyemi olomo’s entry of the “The Sixth Sense,” followed by Logan Light’s entry of “The Barracuda.”

So who won? Read More »

It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of the NBA, NCAA or high school – great basketball is great basketball. And yesterday has to go down as one of the greatest days in hoops history. Ever. Take for example the first four games of the day: you had a one point game, a buzzer beater for an upset, an overtime scare and a double overtime thriller. Only if Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery called all four games, could you have asked for anything better … If you were on the site at all yesterday, then you know the Dime crew was on top of everything. So we’ll try and bring some new thoughts and observations to Smack … Let’s start with BYU’s Jimmer Fredette. Read More »

Our original plan was to open up this morning after Smack with a post declaring the winner of our Give Gilbert Arenas A New Nickname Contest, but a funny thing happened: We got so many great submissions, we’re going to let you guys decide the winner. Here’s how it’s going to work: Read More »

Note: Comment now, because we are going to name a winner Monday morning…

After word broke that Gilbert Arenas was switching his uniform number from No. 0 to No. 6, this got us thinking: What should his new nickname be? Arenas has worn zero since his days at Arizona, always saying that he picked that number because that’s how many minutes people expected him in college. But with a new outlook hopefully going into next season, we thought we’d help our boy Gil out. Read More »

Anybody who watches MSNBC’s “Lockup” knows this much about prison etiquette: It’s all about perception. You might come into the bing at 5-foot-4 with a real pretty mouth, but if you create the perception right away that you’re stone crazy, you can drop the soap all you want and not have to worry.

Same rules apply in basketball. Guys only mess with you if you let them think they can, which is what makes Kobe Bryant such a strange case. Read More »

Barring an undefeated run through the Pac-10 tournament, the Arizona Wildcats (14-14, 8-8) are poised to miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a quarter-century. In a down year for the entire Pac-10, one of its signature programs isn’t even in the “bubble” discussion.

A transition like this is commonplace when one legendary coach retires (Lute Olson) and a younger coach takes over. But for first-year AZ boss Sean Miller — who made the Big Dance field in four of his five years at Xavier, including an Elite Eight — it’s not something he’s used to. Read More »

Another trading deadline past, another batch of winners and losers. The names may change, but the contrast stays the same: For every superstar who’s pleased that his team just improved his chances of winning a championship, there’s a role player facing the realization that his PT just went up in smoke. For every GM elated with pulling a fast one, one of his colleagues is feeling the sting of getting burned. (Unless he doesn’t know it yet.) And for every fan base who has grown to like their team a little more since last week, another fan base has lost another bit of their will. Read More »

Before the season, I made a pretty bold declaration by writing that the Washington Wizards could win the championship this year. And on paper, I still stand behind that statement. But when your whole starting five from the beginning of the season is gone by the trade deadline – something that I bet has never happened before – all expectations are thrown out the window. Read More »

The time has come, and the Wizards are finally ready to blow up the squad – that at least on paper – looked like the fourth best team in the Eastern Conference before the season. After finding out that the League granted them some cap relief (almost $4 million) after losing Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton to suspension for the rest of the season, they’re going to try and move their $74 million payroll below the cap threshold of $69.9 million. This means that Caron Butler’s days in D.C. could be limited. Read More »

We knew that the NBA was going to be tough on Gilbert Arenas, and that a suspension for the rest of the year was a very real possibility. And now it looks like that may very well be the case.

It broke earlier today that Gil was in New York to meet with David Stern and now Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski just tweeted this: Read More »