Born and raised in America, I don’t really have an outsider’s perspective on leaving my home country for another place, another culture, another world. I only know patriotism in reference to the good ol’ USA, not an adoptive pot I’ve melted into or otherwise. Developing a patriotism for a new place in my adulthood is a concept out of my grasp.

But basketball players do it all the time. Sometimes they’re born on one continent and move at a very young age where they develop their hoops skills. Sometimes they come to America to play for the NBA, eventually gaining U.S. citizenship. Other times, guys flee their home country to play for a national team despite them ever having learned the country’s official language. Read More »

What happened to all the point guards Minnesota selected in the 2009 NBA Draft? Ricky Rubio is still in Spain, Ty Lawson is starting in Denver, Nick Calathes is playing in Greece and Jonny Flynn is apparently on the block. (And I don’t mean like Shawne Williams.) According to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein, the Timberwolves and Rockets are discussing a deal that would send Flynn to the Rockets. Read More »

Experience is priceless in college basketball, which is why the Florida Gators have to be considered a legit threat to make another Final Four run and possibly contend for a national championship in 2010-11.

Florida is returning its entire starting five from last season, a group that won 21 games and earned an NCAA Tournament berth: Erving Walker, Kenny Boynton, Chandler Parsons, Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin. Read More »

If Fran Fraschilla said it once, he said it a thousand times: Team USA wasn’t playing against Iran yesterday, they were playing against themselves. (Only without the Jay-Z after-party.) So if that was the case, would we call the 37-point “victory” over the guys in the other uniforms a win or a loss? … Hamed Haddadi and Co. weren’t as terrible as you may have been led to believe, but they still weren’t on Team USA’s level. And yet if you wanted the U.S. to improve during this game, you had to be disappointed. Read More »

A couple of nights ago, my Dad was talking about the upcoming FIBA World Basketball Championship and Team USA when he asked me, for like the fourth time this summer, “So where are all the superstar guys?”

After running down, again, the list of who was hurt (Kobe, CP, D-Will), who was a free agent (LeBron, D-Wade, Bosh, Boozer), and who just didn’t want to do it (Dwight, J-Kidd, ‘Melo), my Dad seemed confused.

“Wait … so this is the team?” Talking about the guys he saw squeak past Spain by one point on Sunday. “They don’t have none of the superstars!” Read More »

University of Florida’s Erving Walker wants you to underestimate him. He is 5-8, 170 pounds and looks more like a team manager than the starting point guard at a perennial power. But when the Christ the King alum is on the floor, he gets into the paint at will, drills shots from well-beyond the NBA line and forces turnovers with his persistent defensive pressure. Walker’s dexterity and determination have drawn rave reviews from announcers and have made him a fan favorite in Gainesville. Dime got a chance to catch up with the Brooklyn native this past weekend as Walker talked about last season, the incoming talent and being undersized in the SEC. Read More »

When the vacations – according to Brandon Jennings’ Twitter, he really needs one – and time away from NBA action ends for the League’s top ballers, they need a place to get some burn before training camp starts. For those who prefer to have something a little more elite than the local knee brace and elbow pad runs at the YMCA, they head to Bradenton, Fla., and IMG Academies. Read More »

After back-to-back championships, you might say that the Florida Gators haven’t been playing too well for the past couple years. But you definitely can’t say that about Nick Calathes. Despite not seeing him play in the Big Dance, Calathes could very well be the best player picked in the second round. Read More »

It probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that even after LeBron‘s team was eliminated from the championship race, Sunday’s headline NBA story still revolved around King James. In this case, it was LeBron’s actions immediately following Cleveland’s season-ending Game 6 loss the other night. Read More »

Now that Nick Calathes decided to forgo his senior season to make $1.1 million per year in Greece, Billy Donovan has a scholarship up for grabs. After missing out on lightning bolt PG John Wall to Kentucky, Donovan could use a big talent to compete with the supercharged Wildcats in the SEC. The only remaining five-star recruit on the board is Lance Stephenson – and UF just happens to have a void at the three. Head over to High School Hoop for the full story on the Gators’ pursuit of “Born Ready.”