While his team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, finished with the second-worst record in the NBA this past season, Corey Brewer is coming off his best pro campaign yet. The two-time NCAA champion at Florida was in consideration for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, averaging 13 points and 1.4 steals per game. He also had one of the season’s best dunks when he practically jumped over Derek Fisher in a game at the Staples Center. I caught up with Corey at the adidas Nations camp this weekend and we talked losing, Florida, and the Mall of America: Read More »

Whatever happened to the days when officials would swallow their whistle?

In the 1980′s, when Boston squared off against L.A., Kurt Rambis was getting clotheslined by Kevin McHale, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was flinging elbows at Larry Bird‘s face, and that was just part of the game. But it seems like ever since Ron Artest and Paul Pierce got tangled up in the opening seconds of the 2010 Lakers/Celtics series, the officials have decided to call every little flop and touch foul. Read More »

The best thing about being tall, at least semi-talented, and relatively young in the NBA — well, besides the obvious — is that somebody is always willing to take a chance on you.

Exhibit A would be Darko Milicic. By almost every measure, Darko’s career has been a complete bust. He’ll never live down the fact that he was drafted ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in the ’03 Draft. Read More »

From the cover of Dime to the cover of GQ, Kobe Bryant has been everywhere lately. Except the basketball court. And it’s been killing him. Previously on his way to one of the most impossible Iron-Man like seasons in recent NBA history — playing through well documented injuries to his fingers, back, knees, shoulders and ankles — Kobe finally had to show human frailty and miss some games sandwiching the All-Star break, including the All-Star Game itself. (Kobe may be the only guy in the League who takes the ASG seriously.)

Last night he returned to the lineup, and in storybook fashion, dropped 32 points and the game-winner in Memphis. This entire season for Kobe has been a self-inflicted cross-examination of his toughness, but is KB24 the toughest man in the NBA? Read More »

“I talked to a couple of other doctors, a couple of other friends and they really kind of told me the same stuff that these guys told me. It’s not that I didn’t believe (Raptors doctors), but (friends) called me because they heard I wasn’t going to wear the mask and they said, ‘Don’t be stupid.’” – Hedo Turkoglu to The Toronto Star, February 7, 2010

Dear Hedo,

Let us start with some history. Read More »

As the NBA trading deadline approaches, no name has been thrown around more than Amar’e Stoudemire. An All-Star starter two years running and once thought to be the future of the Phoenix Suns, now it appears certain that if Amar’e isn’t traded this month, he’ll sign with another team in free agency this summer.

Back in Dime #52 (Oct. 2009), Amar’e talked about facing criticism, injuries, falling short of a championship, as well as the trade rumors that have followed him for the last year. Read More »

Right before the start of the season, I interviewed Wolves forward Al Jefferson for a big feature that ended up running in Dime #53. At the time, Big Al was still at home in Mississippi and was extremely optimistic about the season. He was telling me about how he thought this could be the year he makes his first All-Star team. Jefferson also thought that Minnesota could be a surprise team, much like the ’08-09 Blazers team. Read More »

For the first 18 games of the season, Kurt Rambis peered down the bench in search of something that could give his team any semblance of a spark. His lowly Minnesota Timberwolves were 2-17 and looking more like the Lake Michigan Admirals of the ABA, than a young NBA team on the rise. Enter Kevin Love. Read More »

This was supposed to be Al Jefferson’s year. Coming into the season, the Timberwolves star was supposed to be the most dominant big man in the West and a lock for the All-Star Game in Dallas. Between him, Kevin Love and Jonny Flynn, the Wolves were expected to be an improved team this season. Read More »

Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — previewing the NBA season by predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team. Same theme, different season…

Added: Jonny Flynn, Ramon Sessions, Wayne Ellington, Ryan Hollins, Damien Wilkins, Sasha Pavlovic, Antonio Daniels, Oleksiy Pecherov, Jason Hart, Nathan Jawai, Mark Blount, Henk Norel

Lost: Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith, Rodney Carney, Mark Madsen, Kevin Ollie, Jason Collins, Shelden Williams, Bobby Brown Read More »