NBA arenas, chartered flights, five-star hotels and being set financially; all of these things were supposed to happen for Damon Powell. Despite some setbacks, he still finds himself one step closer to his ultimate goal. Read More »

The NBA Draft Combine was about a month ago, and a whirlwind of changes have since transpired. At the top we are seeing consistency, especially up to Sacramento at pick No. 7, but after that the show begins. With workouts happening daily, chatter at its highest possible magnitude and the rumors swirling left and right, it is time for a new addition of the Dime NBA Mock Draft. This time of year prospects are working their hardest, agents are earning their money and teams are doing their utmost diligence to find the future of their franchise. This is how we see it today: Read More »

Following the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago and feedback from various individual workouts around the league, we can continue to fine-tune how the draft will play out after the top spot. In the second of many Dime mock drafts leading up to June 23, keep in mind that this is a combination of what we think teams should do and what we think they will do: Read More »

Could you, with a straight face, make an argument that Robin Lopez is more valuable to the Phoenix Suns than Steve Nash? If you watched the Suns get dropped into the proverbial oubliette last night by the Magic, you could. Nash missed the game with a groin injury (maybe or maybe not the byproduct of somebody’s reaction to Nash announcing his divorce the same day his wife had a baby), but perhaps more important, Lopez was out with a knee injury that will keep him sidelined for about a month … Without Lopez, the Suns were using guys like Earl Barron, Earl Clark, and somebody named Garrett Siler to man the post. Read More »

Right after ESPN’s exhaustive 24-hour national TV marathon, perhaps the signature symbol of the beginning of a new college basketball season is the 2K Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden.

Kevin Durant had his national breakout as a freshman at the Classic in 2006. Derrick Rose did the same in 2007. Florida began its run toward the first of two straight national championships in 2005. Evan Turner‘s run toward his handful of National Player of the Year trophies made tracks through in Classic in 2009. Read More »

On the same night when college basketball officially tipped off, Bulls/Nuggets had all the unpredictability and entertaining sloppiness of an NCAA game, with a slew of former college superstars deciding the outcome. Derrick Rose (Final Four, Memphis) and Arron Afflalo (Pac-10 P.O.Y., two Final Fours, UCLA) traded clutch buckets for a minute, but the game really turned on turnovers — like one sequence when Ty Lawson (ACC P.O.Y., national champion, North Carolina) coughed it up twice in a row, one of which led to a steal by Keith Bogans (All-American, Kentucky), who flipped a no-look pass over his shoulder to Luol Deng (Final Four, Duke) for a dunk that put Chicago up four with two minutes left … Read More »

With the college basketball season coming up in a little more than a month, we decided to catch up with Texas’ guard-forward Jordan Hamilton, who’s looking to have a breakout season this year. Hamilton was ranked as the eighth best high school player in the nation two years ago and took his game to Texas where he averaged 10.0 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. The rising sophomore tells us about his game’s progression, along with a little bit about his past. Read More »

Score a few more votes for Lionel Hollins in the Coach of the Year race, because he may have just figured out the best way to guard Kobe Bryant at the end of a game. Last night the Grizzlies were up two on the Lakers with 21 seconds left when Mike Conley blew a chance to ice the win and bricked two free throws. Then it was Kobe’s turn, and as he was going into his move to get space for his trusty mid-range jumper over O.J. Mayo, Marc Gasol switched onto him. The 7-footer kept his arms up the entire time, and was quick enough on his feet to stay in front of Kobe long enough to force him to pass. Kobe did find Ron Artest wide open on the wing, but he missed and Memphis won. Read More »

That’s right, the college hoops season is here and you know what that means: it’s time to unleash the mother effing fury! For the past seven months, I’ve been bottling up a vicious mixture of excitement and rage, just waiting for the moment to release my emotions onto the rest of the world. Well that time has come. Your boy Matty D is back to give you a look at the top teams in the country and to separate the champs from the chumps. Read More »

It’s a great day for Georgia Tech and Texas. The slept-on Yellow Jackets get their high-energy, athletic power forward back from the brink of the NBA Draft. Gani Lawal decided to withdraw his name to go back to Atlanta for a chance at doing serious damage in the ACC alongside Derrick Favors.

And Texas is getting another possible first-rounder back. Damion James will return to Austin instead of going towards the bottom of the first round. He makes UT the class of the Big 12, and a real Final Four contender next year. Read More »