*DeMar DeRozan got a taste of fame at an early age – it just wasn’t his own. A childhood friend and AAU teammate of Romeo Miller, better known as Lil’ Romeo, the Compton kid was exposed to the celebrity lifestyle before he even reached high school. But now in his third season with the Raptors, DeRozan has made it on his own.

This feature was originally published in Dime #68, on newsstands now.* Read More »

It’s Championship Week in college basketball, otherwise known as the week of tournaments before THE Tournament. And honestly, it seems this year people only really care about two conference tourneys: the Big East and the Big 12 … and maybe the ACC based on history and hype.

This week we’ll be previewing those anticipated conference tournaments. But for now I’m doing the Pac-10, because that’s the one I know best, because I don’t want the Left Coast to get overlooked again, and, well, because I can. Read More »

At Iowa State, Marcus Fizer was a straight up monster. I remember seeing a bulky 6-8 dude just crossing people over and hitting fadeaways during the 2000 NCAAs.

But sometimes, success in the NBA is all about being in the right situation at the right time. And unfortunately for Fizer, he was brought into a bad situation. Read More »

After news broke yesterday morning about Tim Floyd’s resignation at USC, our man Jason Jordan got after tracking down the members of the Trojans’ incoming basketball recruiting class to find out if they were going to stick with USC. Read More »

The two biggest basketball stories from Wednesday revolved around coaches. In the NBA, the Kings ended their search by hiring Paul Westphal as head coach, and in college, USC’s Tim Floyd resigned his post just as it looked like the ugliest parts of the O.J. Mayo saga were coming to light … True story: Last week some of us in the office were talking about the Kings’ top three candidates (Tom Thibodeau, Kurt Rambis, Westphal) and when Paul’s name came up, people actually laughed. Read More »

Out of the blue, Tim Floyd submitted a letter to the University of Southern California, saying that he no longer could “offer the level of enthusiasm to my duties that is deserved by the university, my coaching staff, my players, their families, and the supporters of Southern Cal.” But who really thinks that’s the reason that a coach just forfeits his job with three years left on his deal, especially when there are looming allegations of NCAA violations? Read More »