First of all, you’ve probably noticed, but there’s a pretty dope video of John Wall at the top of this page talking about his new kicks and breaking out as a player. To add to that, ESPN released the No. 40-ranked player on their ESPN Rank Project this morning, and it turned out to be Mr. Dougie. After that, bloggers and analysts took over Twitter to talk about whether Wall should already be ranked that high after just one season. Wall is literally everywhere today, and there’s a chance he is playing ball without a ball right now. Read More »

If we didn’t know any better, off this summer alone, our top five NBA players might read something like this: Kevin Durant…Brandon Jennings…LeBron James…freakin’ Josh Selby…and John Wall. Washington’s finest has been destroying everyone from the blacktop to the gym. As “The Lockout League” has finally taken shape, he’s not doing anything to force us to back off some of the prodigious claims we’ve made about him. He’s going to be a beast, and some of us even think he could eventually be the best point guard in the world. Read More »

(1) Neon Bodeaux, Blue Chips vs. (8) Thomas Shepherd, Above The Rim

THE RULES

It’s pitch dark. Echoing voices are bouncing off buildings. Laughter. A couple of varsity lettermen with their jackets on are playing like they always played. One-on-one.

“Get off me! GET OFF OF ME!”

How did they end up here? He doesn’t know. Something in his mind is telling him he can’t remember. Or maybe that’s because he doesn’t want to remember. He doesn’t even know what he’s doing, can’t control it. But there’s his old yellow and orange jacket, the one he threw into the river after it was all over, so he can tell this was sometime in high school. Read More »

(8) Thomas Shepherd, Above The Rim vs. (9) Saleh, The Air Up There

THE RULES

“Yoooo, he’s playing ball without a ball!”

No, couldn’t be. But there he is on the other end of the court, warming up without any type of basketball. From right to left, he moves, smoothly faking dribbles around his legs. The night air is stuffy; the sky, completely black. But we all can see him.

“He looks like he’s auditioning for the Twilight Zone, b…” Read More »

The line stretches almost around the block. There’s a girl, black hair pulled back in a pony tail, with a Spalding basketball nestled between her arm and torso. A man with an afro squints forward, his eyes panning through the line ahead of him before reaching down with a finger to clean a sliver of dirt off his Jordans and adjusting a device on his ankle. Towards the back, a man dressed in rags is telling anyone that’ll listen that he could once grab a quarter off the top of the backboard. Read More »