The best one-on-one player in the game? We thought we already answered this earlier this summer. Dime‘s fanbase seemed to think Dirk Nowitzki would take home the top spot, but yet we can’t help but think that was a little bit of the championship hangover as well as crazed fans doing whatever they can to get him some extra votes. The Los Angeles Times recently interviewed some pretty big name players – Kevin Durant, John Wall, Matt Barnes and Trevor Ariza – and all of them except for Wall said in a game of one-on-one, Kobe Bryant would beat LeBron James. In fact, Barnes answered without hesitation, saying “Kobe don’t lose to nobody one-on-one.” We’ve heard stories from back in the day how Bryant used to force everyone to play him one-on-one: the vets, the young guys, newcomers, everyone… and then beat them down without mercy over and over again until they realized he was the ultimate alpha male. Brian Shaw has said before that if you got him with a move in practice, he would force you to play him afterwards and then he’d use the move on you constantly until he had mastered it and you were embarrassed. One thing we can say though is that he’s never played someone like LeBron James before. No one is quite sure how’d he play. Even Wall admitted it on his prediction: it all depends on LeBron. He could be too big, too strong and too athletic, or James could have trouble making shots or finding his comfort zone. Alas, it’ll never happen, but it would be crazy to see … Wall might not think Kobe could beat James, but his offseason workout has definitely been comparable to Bryant’s. We’re not even talking about the games or the cross country takeover he’s had going on. He recently said he’s taking an insane number of shots a day. Wall says every workout this summer doesn’t end until he makes 2,000 Js. That’s some Herculean s— right there. Do we really believe he hit that many every day? It’s possible. The dude is like a basketball machine. He’ll play all day long. We guess we’ll all find out soon how much of that work paid off … It was reported last week that Derek Fisher and David Stern might’ve had a secret agreement to get the BRI to 50/50 and get this lockout over with. It would’ve been as if Fisher was backstabbing the other players. But yesterday, Fisher vehemently denied it all and called it absurd to even think about. Fisher contends that the players are completely united and won’t back down until they get what they think is a fair deal … Still, now Yahoo! Sports has come out with a report saying Billy Hunter has helped to in-a-way unknowingly draw a line in the side: you’re either with me or Fisher. It seems like Hunter is trying to hold back a deal while some are ready to commit to 50/50 … Who checked out “Unguarded,” the Chris Herren ESPN documentary last night? Unbelievable story about a kid that had it all, and nearly lost everything, including his wife and kids. Herren was one of the most promising high school basketball players of the mid-1990s, a guard who was good enough to star at Fresno State (actually played with Skip 2 My Lou and was considered his equal talent-wise), and good enough to play for Denver and Boston, and yet nearly was killed because of addiction. Now, he’s apparently been sober for some time and has started speaking all over the place, telling his story to whomever will listen. For once, the story wasn’t about the great talent who made it. It was about the great talent who blew it. Powerful stuff. At the end of the day, it’s just another 24 hours … Check out this photo the Sports lllustrated Vault tweeted yesterday. Of course Gary Payton would have an enormous boat nicknamed “The Glove” … We still can’t get over how cool it was to see Kevin Durant playing flag football with a bunch of frat dudes. He needs to take those kids out to L.A. and challenge Brandon Jennings‘ undefeated squad …Drake released the official tracklist for Take Care, which is dropping soon. What got us excited? The fact that Andre 3K is going to be on there. Is there any question that whatever he contributes will end up being the best stuff on the whole album? … And in-between doing his thing in flag football, is Matt Barnes hitting Tony Parker‘s leftovers? Actually that’s the wrong way to phrase it. Who wouldn’t hit TP’s leftovers? Eva Longoria denies that her and Barnes are together, saying they’re just friends. The story doesn’t seem like it has legs anyways; The only real evidence was seeing them out together in New York City recently … We’re out like opening night.
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