There’s nothing that lights up a room of hoopheads quite like saying someone is better than Michael Jordan. That sentiment is typically met with a three-step response. First, the listener will be in shock. “What? Are you $%^&*@ serious!!” Next will come the denials and name calling. “Scottie Pippen is an idiot! He’s jealous of MJ!!” And finally, it’ll be amusement. People will start laughing at the foolishness. Back in May, immediately following LeBron James‘ destruction of Chicago in the Eastern Conference Finals, Scottie Pippen did the unthinkable and said LeBron could one day develop into a better all-around player than the greatest ever. Read More »

There’s nothing else to say at this point, other than if they don’t get this deal done by Monday, David Stern and the rest of the NBA will start canceling games. The two sides met for four hours yesterday for what was deemed an enormously important negotiation day by pretty much everyone involved, and yet they came out of it still very much apart. The meetings basically ended when the owners low-balled the players with an offer of 47 percent of the basketball related income, down from the 57 percent in the previous CBA, and still much lower than the player’s offer of 53 percent … Read More »

The elite of the basketball and hip-hop communities gathered last night to celebrate the launch of one of the most highly anticipated video game releases in years: NBA 2K12. The 2K franchise has crushed all competition and so did its launch party, which took place at “Good Units” in the basement of the Hudson Hotel on West 58th street.

With 13 championships between them, Scottie Pippen and Robert Horry went at it on one of the many video screens set up around the event. The young guns were in attendance as well. Read More »

One of these days, Gilbert Arenas is going to say the wrong thing, pop off and end up crossing the wrong team. Twitter is his drug in a way. Whenever he gets on there, all bets are off and it’s pure recklessness. Sometimes, the truth he types is honest and fun. Other times, it’s slightly uncomfortable. But the other night, Agent Zero went off about the gun charges, saying Washington leaked the story because they were sick of him and didn’t want Arenas or his huge contract around anymore. Read More »

You don’t need me to point out that tonight is the biggest game of the season. Massive. Enormous. Undertaker-huge. Rings are resting on these 48 minutes. The winners of Game 5s in the Finals win the series 77% of the time. If Miami wins, wrap it up. If Dallas wins, they have a death grip on it.

Because of the 2-3-2 format, Game 5s always seem to carry some type of legendary stench. The air is stuffy with expectations and formality. Just look at tonight, at all of the storylines. Read More »

With the sudden retirement of Shaquille O’Neal from the NBA, we got to thinking about all the great players that the Big Social Security Applier played with during his 19 seasons in the league. There’s a long list of All-Stars, but in making the list, we ask this question: Who was at their best while playing with Shaq? For example, the Kevin Garnett that O’Neal played with this season won’t rank as highly as the 2007-08 Amar’e Stoudemire that he shared the court with in his Phoenix stint.

Obviously, we’ll save all the center slots for the Big Aristotle himself, but without further adieu, we present the First, Second and Third All-Shaq teams: Read More »

The rainy day here in NYC has us talking in the office about the best NBA three-point shooters of all-time. And while the conversation started on Twitter, we wanted to bring it to the faithful at DimeMag.com as well. So if you needed one triple, and had any NBA player at your disposal, who do you go with? Read More »

Last night, NBA fans were given something we’ve never seen before. No, not just LeBron James‘ widely-criticized but highly-viewed “The Decision” TV special, but we saw an unprecedented collection of three superstar teammates form like the Justice League … Think about all the other “Big Three” combos: Bird, McHale and Parish were nowhere near as athletic as Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Jordan, Pippen and Rodman were a different bunch, consisting of one explosive scorer, one Swiss Army Knife in the flesh, and one defensive/rebounding savant. Read More »

Later on tonight, 60 ballplayers will live out a dream moment, while at least 60 more will feel the sting of getting pretty close to the dream but falling short. (Before re-focusing on making it the hard way.) That would be the NBA Draft, and as we get closer to the festivities at Madison Square Garden, the trade rumors and high-stock/low-stock speculation is running rampant … For the longest time it seemed the Nets were clearly taking either Derrick Favors or DeMarcus Cousins at No. 3, but yesterday Wes Johnson suddenly entered the picture: On one hand because he’s been killing in workouts, and because there may be a little handshake deal in place where if the Nets take Johnson, his agent will deliver them Carlos Boozer in free agency. Read More »

While I missed the majority of Lakers/Celtics Game 6 for my cousin’s high school graduation, everyone I know who watched the game had to come up with something to talk about during L.A.’s cold-blooded beatdown.

During the third quarter, one of my boys texted me: “Best role player ever in the NBA? Pippen?”

Depends on how you define a role player. To me, Scottie Pippen doesn’t count because he was too good. Read More »