It’s not so easy to take a kid from Brooklyn and drop him off in Israel. But once Sylven Landesberg, the former Mr. Basketball in the state of New York and ACC Freshman of the Year, saw the city of Haifa, the beautiful landscape and the people, that transition became a little bit easier. Now the undisputed leader of Israel’s Maccabi Haifa Heat and a star of the Inside Israeli Basketball TV show, Sylven chatted with us about the team, their tryouts in Florida and NBA dreams. Read More »

While everyone was busy talking about Kemba Walker and the resurgence of New York City basketball this year, Hofstra senior Charles Jenkins was doing work under the radar. Finishing his career as the Pride’s all-time scoring leader with 2,513 points, he became just the 63rd player in NCAA history to log over 2,500 points in a career, finishing second in Colonial Athletic Association history behind Hall of Famer David Robinson. As the CAA Player of the Year for the second year in a row, Jenkins averaged 22.6 points this season, ranking him sixth in the country, along with 3.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.7 steals per game. But what makes him so special? The 6-3, 220-pound guard from Queens could be the first New York City public school graduate to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft since Sebastian Telfair. Read More »

To somebody who knew nothing of the NBA and just happened to catch yesterday’s preseason opener, they would’ve thought the New York Knicks are really named the New-Look Knicks. As Amar’e Stoudemire and crew struggled to put some distance between themselves and Armani Jeans Milano in Italy, NY announcers Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier made sure to note about 150 times that this Knicks team is still getting used to each other. Valid excuse on paper for why you committed 27 turnovers, but let’s be real: The best players on Milano were “Buckets” Pecherov — whom Breen admitted “wouldn’t play a lot” on an NBA team — and former Temple star David Hawkins, whose game is a cross between “Baby Shack” and “Helicopter” from the defunct AND 1 tour … Read More »

I won’t be the first person to tell you that I was surprised Sylven Landesberg didn’t get drafted this June. While the first round was definitely a stretch (considering the tumultuous end to his college basketball career), for him to slip past the second round just didn’t make sense. But the NBA isn’t always the right place for guys to start their professional basketball career. Whether it’s the D-League or overseas, everyone has their route to the Big Show. So after playing for the Sacramento Kings at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas this month, Landesberg has decided to take his game, in a sense, back home: He’s going to Israel. Read More »

With Summer League now officially over, NBA teams are beginning to hand out training camp invites. While first-round picks have guaranteed contracts, and second-round picks are almost always assured invites to training camp, the undrafted rookies who partook in Summer League now must wait for the phone to ring allowing them to creep another step closer to being on an NBA roster. Here are 10 undrafted rookies who will be suiting up for an NBA team this fall: Read More »

John Starks. Brad Miller. Ben Wallace. The underdog. The come-up. That’s what this article is about, pinpointing those guys who are overlooked and passed over. Those three guys I mentioned above were all undrafted and all of them became All-Stars. For many, Draft Night is about celebration and security. But, others have to deal with the unknown. Here are the top five players from this year’s class who didn’t heard their name called: Read More »

Sylven Landesberg (photo. Dorothy Hong)

After two years at the University of Virginia, Sylven Landesberg knew it was time. As a former McDonald’s All-American, the debate was not if, but rather when, the 6-6, 207-pound shooting guard from Queens, N.Y. would enter the League. And after a stellar sophomore season in which he averaged 17.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists for the Cavaliers, it appears the time is now. Read More »

You knew we entered a new era when Fresno State sophomore Paul George became the first college player to announce his NBA Draft intentions via Twitter. But with the Final Four set, and all but those four teams looking forward to next season, it’s time for underclassmen to make their decisions for the future. Here are the latest players to declare for the NBA Draft this June. Read More »

When we posted about our intern search last week, we heard from all sorts of people. But one person that stood out from the pack was Lucas Shapiro. An avid Dime reader and basketball fanatic who even has his own NBA blog, while Lucas would love to intern, he is only 16 years old and lives in Boston. (Also, he doesn’t have his license.) But nonetheless, we thought we’d pass the mic to the young buck to put the rest of the world on to Virginia’s Sylven Landesberg. Here’s his story: Read More »