When you’re going good, or you hit a big-time shot, you want to celebrate. It’s human nature to express our joy when we’ve accomplished something incredible. Nowhere is this more true than the NBA, where big shots are often followed by big celebrations; where players can get so hot everything starts to go in, and where a last second shot can birth new legends. With all that drama, there are bound to be some incredible celebrating. Read More »

John Wall is that No. 1 pick whose team has never progressed out of the high first round picks around him. How much of that is on him now? It’s a subject we’ve written about at length when we put him on our cover twice in the last year. Today his college coach, John Calipari said it’s not all on Wall — even after conceding that he “must improve” in between the rim and the three-point line — and that a 19-year-old shouldn’t be saddled with “the weight of the world” on his shoulders. Read More »

In the new issue of Dime Magazine, we took a look at the best – and worst – the game has offered since the turn of the century. From the players to jerseys to sneakers to teams to even trends, you can relive the past 12 years by scooping up the new issue currently on newsstands nationwide. In those pages, you’ll find the following feature… Read More »

If you’re LeBron, what’s the point? He could afford to be passive last night because Chris Bosh was getting busy in the fourth quarter of Miami’s 92-85 win over Cleveland. Kyra Sedgwick went off for 17 fourth quarter points, and had two of the biggest buckets of the game: a three-point play off the dribble and then a pull-up J in the closing minutes. His two free throws with 55 seconds left put Miami up eight, icing the win. It wasn’t so much that Bosh didn’t get help. ‘Bron had 18. But Bosh took the Cavs’ best punches all night, drawing foul after foul and finishing everything. Read More »

I was certain I was right. He was young. He was wildly exciting. He got called a whole lot of names, like a lot of other young guys his age got called, and he was going to play for a man known for all of the best and worst in college hoops. But damn, son had game. The type of game that made you go hit up his YouTube mixes at random times. You didn’t realize what you were doing. You couldn’t help it. Yeah, that’s what they call an addiction.

I was convinced. I figured I had just seen the future best point guard in the world. Read More »

Yesterday, two Western Conference Playoff teams got red cards. Memphis, playing well as they waited for the return of Rudy Gay, found out their star is now done for the year with a partially dislocated shoulder. And San Antonio, the team with the best record in the League and riding an uncharacteristic wave of perfect health, lost Tim Duncan to a serious ankle injury. While one may be slightly more serious than the other, both players are expected to miss significant time with only a few weeks left until the playoffs start. These injuries figure to have a huge impact on just how far these teams can push themselves in April and May. Memphis probably isn’t winning anything, but for the Spurs, this could be devastating.

This weird timing seems to happen all the time. 2011 isn’t the first year, and certainly won’t be the last, when playoff teams have to deal with this. Here are five other examples of it in the past decade, and while most of these happened during the playoffs, the consequences are the same: Read More »

You knew this was coming. Eddie House has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for his “obscene gesture” during yesterday’s Heat/Thunder game — that being his interpretation of the Sam Cassell Big Balls Dance, a.k.a. the Pedro Cerrano Dance.

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Tony Allen, Tom Thibodeau and Big Baby’s personal pork chef could have filled in for ABC’s announce crew and told you how yesterday’s Lakers/Celtics game was going to turn out. To put it simply: Kobe Bryant cannot beat Boston by himself. Despite 41 points (16-29 FG) from the Black Mamba, L.A. saw its slim halftime lead slip away as the C’s dominated most of the second half in a convincing 109-96 win on Kobe’s floor in what was supposed to be a Game of the Year candidate … Read More »

If you haven’t been paying attention for the last week and a half, it’s past time now to put Luis Scola on the short list of the best power forwards in the world. (“Not the NBA; the WORLD, Craig!”) The most beastly one-man run of international play we’ve seen since Michael Jordan took on the Monstars continued in yesterday’s battle at the World Championship between Argentina and Brazil, as Scola dropped 37 points (14-20 FG), grabbed 9 rebounds, and iced the game for Argentina down the stretch with one huge bucket after another … Read More »

Kendrick Perkins isn’t angry right now. The Boston Celtics 25-year-old starting center, one of the NBA’s leaders in technical fouls and known for his signature scowl as much as he is for his game (10.1 ppg, 7.6 rpg), is even in a good mood considering he’s facing a long rehab following surgery to repair a torn ACL.

The last time we saw Perk, he was watching the Celtics lose Game Seven of the NBA Finals from the bench, wearing street clothes after sustaining the knee injury in Game Six. Splitting the offseason between Boston and his native Beaumont, Texas, Perkins talked recently about his expected return time, the way he treats refs, and the new powerhouse squad in Miami. Read More »