A former Husky from Northern Illinois University, Xavier Silas was one of the best players in the country in 2011, scoring more points than future NBA first-round draft picks MarShon Brooks and Jimmer Fredette. Seemingly at the top of the world, it seemed as if nothing could break his fall. Then, reality started to kick in. Read More »

We’ve written a lot in this space about the league’s “one more try” theme going into this next NBA season with the amount of older players getting contracts. One of the more intriguing teams trying to put it together is Dallas. On Friday they won Elton Brand off waivers to join Chris Kaman and Darren Collison as new additions in Mavericks blue. We’re sure they’re excited to have a home but it’s only temporary: all those contracts are for one year just in case the Magic hold onto Dwight Howard and he enters free agency next summer. Read More »

Most people know Xavier Silas as a basketball player, but he is also a modern-day philanthropist. Beyond basketball success, Silas is trying to alleviate poverty across the world. First stop, Haiti. Read More »

In the month leading up to the NBA Draft, Dime had former Northern Illinois guard Xavier Silas video blog for the site. Before each of his workouts, Silas showed us the how to “look good, feel good, and play good”. I caught up with Silas this week to talk about going undrafted, getting an invite to the Philadelphia 76ers training camp, and Twitter. Read More »

So The ESPY’s may not be an all-hoops award show, but outside of the U.S. Ladies and their overseas patriot smorgasbord, the ballers stole the show. It started off solid with SNL’s Seth Meyers making us laugh while making every athlete in the room sweat. Our favorite: Meyers mentioning that the Heat’s Big Three was a reference to how many quarters they play in big games. Sick. Burn. Dude. Or the one when Meyers said Kim K is only marrying a Net because she was sick of dating pro athletes. Wow. Read More »

“To master a skill, you need 10,000 hours of practice.” That is an old adage that if taken too literal, could be a theory that comes back to hurt you in the long run. Literally.

For Northern Illinois University (NIU) guard Xavier Silas, he found that out the hard way while preparing for his junior season, his first with the team after transferring from the University of Colorado in 2009. He was originally recruited by head coach Ricardo Patton en route to Colorado, but when Patton left it blazed the trail for Silas to follow him to NIU. Read More »

Is there ever a June superstar celebrity who’s bigger than David Kahn? Seriously, ever since Minnesota brought him in before the 2009 NBA Draft, Kahn has become a one-man show. A human catch phrase around this time. And now this year, we get the ultimate treat: knowing Kahn and his assortment of basketball scientists will be dictating the entire draft from the second spot. The Wolves are the most active team in the field, looking to trade down, out, half the team. Apparently, they want a star for the second pick. Good luck with that. Read More »

Two weeks ago, we did a profile on Northern Illinois’ Xavier Silas that included a video of how he gets ready for NBA Draft workouts. Xavier agreed to give us insight into his style choices for the remainder of the draft process, and combined his last two outfits into one video. Today’s destinations are Chicago and Oakland.

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Last week, we did a profile on Northern Illinois’ Xavier Silas that included a video of how he gets ready for NBA Draft workouts. Xavier has agreed to give us insight into his style choices for the remainder of the draft process. Today’s destination is Philadelphia.

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Most NBA prospects are used to being in their gym clothes all the time. They sport their gym shorts and basketball shoes wherever they go, including when they arrive at a team’s facility for a workout. Not Xavier Silas though. Silas, a senior shooting guard out of Northern Illinois University in this June’s NBA Draft, dresses up when he goes to these workouts. Read More »