In Dime #64, we wrote about Portland Trail Blazers guard Patty Mills‘ best assist yet — his “Assist Australia” campiagn that raised funds through t-shirt sales for victims of flooding from Tropical Cyclone Yasi, primarily in his home state, Queensland.

Today, a second chapter of the campaign unfolds. Mills is scheduled to present a $40,000 check before the Melbourne Tigers (his current team) play the Perth Wildcats, to the Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal. Should you be reading this Down Under, Mills will present the check at 7:25 p.m. local time. Read More »

The Portland Trail Blazers have a considerable dose of fantasy appeal. They boast five players who can feasibly be taken in the first half of most standard-sized drafts, which is an impressive feat. Armed with a new, able point guard, the Blazers should be a darling for fantasy owners whenever the league resumes. And if the knees of its hometown hero and hometown bust hold up during a shortened season — wait, let’s not get too greedy. Read More »

LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul…on the court…at the same time…during the lockout? No way. There’s no way. You’re telling us four of the best players in the game are playing together in a charity game during the lockout? No way. But the AP reported that LeBron James will be joining fellow NBA All-Stars Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul in a charity basketball game in Baltimore set to take place on Tuesday where this time it’ll be the ‘Melo League taking on the Goodman League. Read More »

After a year in which he might’ve been the biggest free agent bust of the summer, Travis Outlaw is putting an emphasis on this upcoming year. Actually, it’s his cousin, Chris, who told The Dispatch that there were other issues last year that affected him. He used words like “stressed” and “couldn’t get motivated” and “pressure.” Read More »

If the lockout goes down as expected, the Portland Trail Blazers will enter the summer having answered one of their biggest personnel questions and practically set its starting lineup in June.

Point guard Raymond Felton joins from Denver in a draft-day switch with Andre Miller. Unlike Miller, Felton doesn’t need the ball in his hands on every possession to be effective as a scorer and is an equal at distribution. And on the day he was introduced by interim GM Chad Buchanan along with draft picks Nolan Smith (No. 21) and Jon Diebler (No. 51) on Monday, Felton put the ball in the Blazers’ court about making him a franchise point guard. Read More »

In the most recent issue of Dime, I wrote a story on Saint Mary’s point guard Mickey McConnell and his odd trip as an unknown basketball prospect to being a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award for the NCAA’s best point guard. Despite being wooed by some of the nation’s best baseball programs during his senior year of high school, McConnell chose hoops. In four years, he grew by leaps and bounds.

He hasn’t picked up a glove in that time span, but Major League Baseball apparently didn’t notice. Read More »

It’s the end of March. And though I send my humblest apologies to folks in Minnesota, Utah, Cleveland, Washington, Toronto, New Jersey, and Detroit – it’s just about time for us upper-crust NBA fans to leave your humble franchises behind and get ready for the big show. And while I absolutely empathize with any and all struggling franchises (I have watched the Knicks play for the last decade), I hereby render your 2011 season over. Enjoy your summer. We’ll see you in late June. Read More »

If you’ve watched at least one Portland Trail Blazers game in the past two years, chances are you’ve seen what has become known as “Three Goggles.” If not, you should stop what you’re doing and read this great article by Blazers broadcaster Casey Holdahl for some background on how the phenomenon took off. But how do you know when something has reached true cultural relevance? If you find it on a t-shirt. Read More »

It seems like the easier the opponent, the harder Team USA insists on making things for themselves. But at least they’re still winning, and usually by blowout margins. Yesterday’s World Championship matchup against Group B doormat Tunisia was supposed to be a harmless stomping — and when it was over, Coach K‘s team was up 35 on the scoreboard — but the lasting impression was that the most talented team in the WC field let a clearly inferior squad hang in with them for the entire first half (Team USA led by six at the break) and some of the third quarter before Eric Gordon (21 pts), Russell Westbrook (14 pts) led the bench mob in restoring order to the mismatch … Read More »

When you’re not the ’92 Dream Team and penciled in to flog everybody by 30 or 50 points a night, you probably need some close games under your belt to test your clutch-ness and avoid complacency. For Team USA’s 2010 version, that game happened yesterday, as they barely hung on to beat Brazil in a tough contest that exposed a lot of U.S. weaknesses but also may have done them some good for later in the World Championship … Led by Leandro Barbosa, Tiago Splitter and J.J. Barea‘s long-lost cousin Marcelo Huertas, Brazil took the lead in the first quarter and didn’t give it up until late into the third, picking the U.S. apart with screen-and-rolls, timely threes, and Barbosa’s brand of South American Allen Iverson basketball, heavy on the jack … Read More »