Tomorrow night, this new NBA Finals “BIG” spot featuring Dirk Nowitzki will air on national TV. The commercial, entitled “Forever Dirk,” focuses on re-living Dirk drilling one of his signature fadeaways in Game 6 of the 2011 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. Read More »

A press conference isn’t scheduled to begin for about an hour in New Orleans, but the reason for it — a new logo and name for New Orleans’ NBA franchise — may have already been leaked, with the above logo being the real thing. While there have been dozens of fan-designed logos popping up online since Yahoo Sports reported in late December that a name-change was imminent, how many of those logos match what looks to be a legitimate launch video that has been leaked? Read More »

Along with our Race to the MVP Ladder, the first week of December marks the beginning of Dime’s Rookie Ladder. So far it’s been quite an interesting year for this rookie class. There are underachievers and overachievers; some are struggling, and others are just coasting through. Read More »

Earlier today Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver announced that the NBA and YouTube will stream 350 NBA Development League games live during the season. Read More »

To celebrate the Nets’ new identity and the opening of their new home in Brooklyn, ten limited-edition “Carter 4” Nets jerseys, autographed by Jay-Z, are being auctioned off today, with all proceeds going to the Shawn Carter Foundation. Read More »

When the Knicks face the Pistons on Jan. 17 at London’s O2 Arena — only the third regular-season NBA game held in Europe — it won’t be a sign of permanent things to come. Commissioner David Stern said as much in a recent report by the Boston Globe, saying uncertainty between currencies, a lack of owners and lack of NBA-ready arenas won’t make his goal of a five-team European division feasible. By Stern’s comments, the NBA isn’t just tabling this idea until a better opportunity — it’s almost given up the idea altogether. Read More »

Last week, the NBA formally (and finally, if your name is Jeff Van Gundy) announced plans to crack down on flopping. The new policy establishes an escalating penalty structure for violators based on postgame video review by the league office. Penalties start with a warning and scale upward. The second flop costs a player $5,000, the third $10,000, the fourth $15,000, and the fifth $30,000. After that, violators will be subject to further discipline that may include a larger fine and/or suspension. The league also indicated that a separate set of penalties—presumably harsher—will be applied during the post-season. Read More »

Once the Chinese fans texted Kobe Bryant‘s team a 29-point hole, it was go time. That’s not quite the scenario you expect when you think of Kobe coming to the rescue, or any of his biggest crunch-time exploits that required his saving. But Sunday in Shanghai, in a celebrity all-star game where most of the players were singers, Bryant went off like his 81-spot against Toronto in ’06. OK, some context for that first sentence: Bryant was taking in part a promotional game for one of his sponsors during his tour of China and enjoying himself, according to his Facebook post Sunday about the event. Then, through a fan engagement scenario that seems straight out of SlamBall, fans sent enough texts to put one team 29 points down instead of nine. Read More »

[We wanted to update our readers to let them know that there are still some openings at the Chicago and New York City NBA D-League tryouts. All the info you need is in the post below. Last week, there were more than 200 players at the sold-out Los Angeles tryouts...]

Can you play ball? We mean, can you really play? Here is your chance to show out: the NBA D-League, in conjunction with Boost Mobile, is holding official Boost Mobile NBA D-League National Tryouts in May and June. Read More »

We’ve started to hear credible rumblings of a big-time overseas tour for a group of elite NBA superstars, designed to fill the void left by the cancellation of the first two weeks of the season.

The details are a little fuzzy at this point, and none of this has been confirmed (we’ll leave that to the reporters who are sure to chase this story), but here’s what we’re hearing: Read More »