When you interview guys for a living, it’s hard not to notice a difference between a good interview and a great interview. So it was very interesting last night to read a list of NBA players that Hornets.com’s Jim Eichenhofer compiled who’ve impressed him the most in a one-on-one setting. Also what’s interesting, is that fact that half of the guys of his list were Duke alums. Coincidence? Perhaps. But regardless of where they went to school, it’s worth taking a look. Read More »

Everybody pretty much knew that as soon as LeBron, D-Wade, Bosh, Amar’e and Joe Johnson were taken care of, the rest of the NBA free agency class would start finding homes quickly.

Two of the teams that were in the running for the A-List crew are filling out their rosters now, with the Knicks reportedly close to signing Raymond Felton (details unknown), and the Bulls inking Kyle Korver to a 3-year, $15 million deal. Read More »

In less than a season, Raylan Givens is rocketing up the Austin’s Favorite TV Cops power ranking — threatening Frank Pembleton (“Homicide”), J.C. Williams and Eddie Torres (“New York Undercover”), Rick Hunter (“Hunter”) and the entire cast of “In The Heat Of The Night” — the same way Kevin Durant crashed the NBA’s elite party.

In a recent episode of “Justified” (Tuesdays on FX), Givens had gotten his ass kicked in a barroom brawl, and while his ex-wife is nursing him back to health, they have this exchange: Read More »

It sounds strange to make a favorable comparison between a future Hall of Famer and a former NBA journeyman — and have the journeyman set the standard of said comparison — but watching Dirk Nowitzki drop 36 points in Dallas’ Game 1 win over San Antonio the other night, I couldn’t help but think of Christian Laettner. Read More »

File them in somewhere between Jerome James and LeBron James.

Back in ’05, Jerome James was in a contract year with the Sonics, and even as a full-time starter averaged only 4.9 points and 3.0 boards in the regular season. But in the playoffs, ‘Rome broke out: Starting with a 17-point, 15-board, 5-block line in Game 1 against Sacramento, he averaged 12.5 ppg and 6.8 rpg in the postseason. Solely on the strength of those three weeks, he signed a 5-year, $30 million deal with the Knicks. And you know the rest. Read More »

For all the rumors you hear about Coach K getting NBA offers left and right, there’s one place that could make a lot of sense for him whenever their current coach steps down: San Antonio. When you think about it, the Spurs are already the Duke Blue Devils of the pro game. They’re the clean-cut guys, the smug elitists who seem to get every bounce and just win year after year, and everybody hates them. And if you ask the fans in Denver who saw last night’s Nuggets/Spurs game, Tim Duncan‘s squad, like Coach K’s, has the refs in their back pocket … It was close going into the fourth before the Spurs went on a 16-2 run, with nine of those points coming at the free throw line. 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 »

If only we could all be like Tony Montana in Scarface with the multiple-screen setup of TV’s at the crib, because Saturday night’s NBA schedule was too hectic to follow with just one clicker. Kings/Bucks, Bulls/Hawks and Spurs/Pacers all went down to the wire almost exactly at the same time — and not to mention over on NFL Network you had the Saints in the process of snapping their unbeaten streak against the Cowboys … It took a couple months into the post- Ben Gordon era to figure it out, but the Bulls are better when Derrick Rose isn’t the primary offensive option, and instead able to run the show as a playmaker then go into scoring mode when he needs to (similar to Steve Nash in Phoenix). Read More »

Working at Dime Magazine, a ton of headlines, news and opinions pass through our website each week. Everyday a new story breaks and we change our focus to the next game on the schedule. Friday was hectic for us at Dime, as we worked to get our site back up and running. Now that we are back online, I took the time to reflect on what the NBA taught me last week. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Chauncey Billups rained on someone’s parade in Philly last night, putting up 31 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal and 2 turnovers. He hit 4 threes, shot 53 percent (8-15) from the floor and 100 percent (11-11) from the free throw line. Billups clearly wasn’t fazed by the frenzy last night and is on a nice streak. He remains one of the best fantasy point guards out there. Read More »