Kobe Bryant was some kind of comic book character last night in Portland, flooding the Blazers with never-ending buckets and dimes/open looks for his teammates. In the wave of Kobe hellfire came this Trey Burke-style swat on Will Barton, who was thinking he was about to get himself a fast break dunk highlight on SportsCenter. This time though, there was no foul call: Read More »

Damian Lillard isn’t the only Trail Blazers rookie to have his own video series. Three installments of Baltimore native and former Memphis standout Will Barton‘s “All or Nothing” were released yesterday and take viewers into Barton’s neighborhood on draft day in June. Read More »

Dime had a chance to catch up with a handful of NBA rookies at the NBA rookie photo shoot last Tuesday. On Thursday, we began unrolling our Q&A’s with these future NBA stars. So far we’ve brought you Bradley Beal and John Jenkins, and today you’ll hear from Meyers Leonard.

Meyers Leonard isn’t just a big body. Despite his elite physical stature, standing at 7-1 with a 7-3 wingspan and a nine-foot standing reach, Leonard showed in his sophomore season at Illinois that his skills aren’t far behind. Learning to become more assertive with his pure size and strength, he became a hot name in NBA circles and one of the top center prospects at this year’s NBA Draft. We had a chance to catch up with Leonard at the NBA rookie photo shoot, and he talked a bit about his Summer League performance and, most importantly, that deadly Portland center curse. Read More »

NBA Summer League games begin Friday in Las Vegas, which is like the opening day of the NCAA Tournament for fans who can’t get enough of watching NBA prospects fighting for roster spots. Lottery players vs. undrafted nobodies, the guaranteed vs. the scrappy. It’s a preview of the next young crop of players who will shape the league. Off all the 23 teams and all of around 300 players involved who aren’t the top pick Anthony Davis, these are the top five most interesting players to watch. Read More »

The NBA draft process is a once in a lifetime experience for those who go through it. While there are many broad similarities between the experiences of players during this process like hectic travel schedules and grueling pre-draft training, each player takes something different away from the process. I decided to talk to ten different players eligible for this year’s draft to ask them all the same set of questions to use as a means of comparing their experiences. Read More »

The Clippers better hope David Stern likes their team because if it comes down to it, he’ll have a huge say in whether or not they get the best point guard in the game to possibly ignite the next Gary Payton/Shawn Kemp oop combo. ESPN is reporting Chris Paul likes the Clippers if he can’t ever get to the Knicks or Lakers, and luckily for L.A. they have a ton of assets that should please Stern, Dan Gilbert and anyone else who wants to complain. They have expiring contracts (Chris Kaman), draft picks (a possibly top three-five pick in a loaded June draft) and talent. Read More »

A perfect blend of old school and new school. Read More »

The first month of the college hoops season has already had enough defining moments to warrant the Luther Vandross treatment.

There was the poignant high of Coach K surpassing his mentor Bob Knight as the all-time leader in NCAA D-I coaching wins; the gut-wrenching (and ongoing) low of Syracuse assistant Bernie Fine throwing his program into scandal; the inspiring comeback stories of Arizona forward Kevin Parrom and Kansas forward Thomas Robinson; made-for-March upsets like UNLV over North Carolina, Presbyterian over Cincinnati, and Central Florida over UConn; and big-time matchups like Ohio State vs. Duke, Kentucky vs. Kansas, and Syracuse vs. Florida that were dipped in Tournament atmosphere.

This past weekend, though, gave us the most thrilling game, the highest display of talent, and the most grand exhibition of the best of college basketball, all wrapped in one 40-minute showcase in Lexington, Ky. Here is that game, plus the rest of the best and worst of the weekend: Read More »

If Duke played all of their games out in Maui, they might end up as the greatest college team ever. Yesterday they added to their all-time perfect record (14-0) there and clinched a spot in the championship game, beating Michigan 82-75. Living and dying by the three is the way of the college game now, and however unpredictable it might be, Duke is the best at it. It came through for them again. Michigan needed a perfect night of basketball, but they certainly didn’t get it during the first half. Tim Hardaway Jr., for all the praise we’ve been giving him, was terrible for most of the night. The Devils shut him out in the first half and built up a double-digit lead that withstood any comebacks the Wolverines countered with in the second frame. Read More »

Coach K is a pretty cool dude. Always smooth. Always chill. But at about the 12.9 second mark of the second half last night – after he had seen Michigan State chip into Duke’s lead and Mason Plumlee get called for a five-second violation – he had to be feeling that sweat on his brow just a little bit. But after a Spartan miss, the biggest drama of the night was over, the Dukies had won 74-69 and Mike Krzyzewski had the record. He’s now the winningest coach in Division I men’s basketball history with 903 wins, passing one of the men calling the game, Bob Knight. Seriously though, this joint couldn’t have been scripted any better: in MSG, against another great coach in Tom Izzo, playing against a gritty and tough team, and with his mentor looking on, Coach K got what he came for. Read More »