As Billy Hoyle told Gloria after he’d proven White men can’t jump: “It, uhhh, it happened again.”

It would be another microfracture knee surgery for Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden, and it means Oden will miss the rest of this season — the second time he’s missed an entire campaign since he was drafted No. 1 overall in 2007. Read More »

Don’t look now, but it’s happening again. Last season, the Portland Trail Blazers were about as injury-plagued as any NBA team could get. Their ideal starting five — Andre Miller, Brandon Roy, Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden — averaged just 56 games played apiece over the 82-game schedule, bolstered in large part by Miller somehow staying upright for the entire season. Not to mention the Blazers also saw key reserves Joel Przybilla and Travis Outlaw suffer significant injuries, and it seemed coach Nate McMillan was rolling out patchwork lineups every night. Read More »

During the Blazers/Suns game last night, there were more than a few people commenting on Twitter how other NBA teams – most notably Denver – should have made a play for soon-to-be free agent Marcus Camby before the trade deadline. Well, it appears the Blazers aren’t going to let him go anywhere. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, Portland is working toward securing Camby to a contract extension. Read More »

Even more than MVP, the Coach of the Year award needs a criteria makeover. Because while it’s kind of ridiculous in retrospect that Shaq only has one MVP when he was the most dominant game-changing basketball player in the NBA for several years, it’s patently ridiculous that Jerry Sloan was never deemed the best coach in the League over any of his two decades-plus run in Utah while continually placing his team in the title contending picture. Read More »

All week long, it seemed the media was trying its hardest to will Cornell to an upset win over Kentucky. But by the end of the first night of Sweet Sixteen action, Butler was the underdog stealing the headlines. While Cornell had a good 3-4 minutes of magic in their pocket before John Wall and the Army of Blueness proceeded to trample them, Butler neutralized No. 1 seed Syracuse’s athletic advantage and picked apart the infamous 2-3 zone in a monumental upset … Isn’t Gordon Hayward (17 pts, 5 rebs, 2 stls) overdue for the “next Larry Bird” hype that guys like Keith Van Horn, Wally Szczerbiak and Adam Morrison typically get around this time? 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 »

Ranking the NBA from worst to first…

30. New Jersey Nets (7-56) — Garbage in, garbage out, garbage up, garbage down.

29. Minnesota Timberwolves (14-50) — In Monday’s loss to Dallas, Kurt Rambis sat Kevin Love most of the night and played Darko in his place, claiming he wanted to have a more active big man to give Dirk some problems. You’re over-thinking it, homeboy. Play the double-double kid. Read More »

Last week we asked the Dime faithful for your favorite and least-favorite NBA nicknames. Reader Chaos best summed up ours and everyone else’s general feeling: “We need to start giving players real nicknames man. I miss those days. How can you beat Hakeem the Dream, Air Jordan, Sir Charles, The Admiral, Clyde the Glide and The Worm. All the names these days are lazy like Melo, CP3, CB4, King James, Joe Jeezy … smh.” Read More »

With a day off in between the All-Star Game and the continuation of the NBA schedule, Monday was a time for trades, post-trade fallout, and trade rumors … As we wrote this column, the Blazers and Clippers were reportedly very close to closing a deal that would send Marcus Camby to Portland for Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake. The Blazers have to do something to cover the hole left at center by Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla‘s injuries, because going into the playoffs with Juwan Howard starting in the middle is just asking for a first-round exit. Read More »

At the start of the season, there was no question that the Blazers had the most post depth in the League. But then the injuries hit. First Greg Oden fractured the patella in his left knee, and then Joel Przybilla ruptured his right patella tendon. As both of these happened in December, Portland hoped that 2010 would bring them some good news. But after going 5-5 in their last 10 games, and Utah jumping them in the Northwest Conference standings, it’s time to make a move. Read More »