The Big Punisher

What do they always say about an NBA playoff series? Never pick against the best player when things are pretty even. We guess that tip works well for playground ball as well. Kevin Durant was the star of stars last night at Trinity University in Washington D.C. for Capital Punishment, scoring 44 points, winning the MVP and hitting the game-winning free throws with 21.5 seconds left as Goodman beat the Drew League 135-134. Some of the Dime crew was in the house and while KD was THE man, John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins killed as well for Goodman. On the other side, James Harden – who was going at KD all night long, the two of them taking advantage of being on opposites sides for once – and Brandon Jennings were the two best. But on the game’s final possession, both players missed shots for the Drew League (the Beard’s shot was partially blocked) and Goodman backed us up (we picked them to win) … As we expected, Goodman raced out early, and led for much of the game’s first three quarters (they were actually up 15 at one point) before Jennings brought the West coast guys back. Wall couldn’t handle him, and suddenly after three it was 110-103, the Drew League up. After an 8-0 run by Goodman to start the fourth, it was on, going back and forth throughout the fourth … Baby Shaq was the only non-NBA starter, and of course he held his own … Delonte West apparently got the night off from the managers at Home Depot because he was in the house. Rudy Gay was there as well, and so was Andre Miller (obviously not playing because that would go against his offseason training regimen). Everyone who is someone was there, and there were 1,000 people waiting outside who couldn’t get in … And who says they don’t play defense in streetball? … Nick Young had one of the best tweets we’ve EVER seen earlier in the day: @agentzeroshow u playin 2 nite behind John like u used 2. Damn, that’s cold bro. Arenas and Young were going at each other all day on Twitter … In an AAU game before Capital Punishment, pitting D.C. Takeover and a Baltimore club team, there was one of the wildest (or wackest) ends we’ve ever seen for a game. Check out this tweet from Kyle Weidie: Prob weirdest ending 2 AAU game ever. Score tied @ 77 w 1 min left, play stops, clock runs out, game ends, gospel music starts playing. How that happened, we have no idea … DeMarcus Cousins is in negotiations with multiple European teams, according to Sam Amick. With Cousins, does his craziness fit in over there or not? We would say no, but at the same time, Euros might welcome another guy who doesn’t seem to be afraid of getting physical … As we told y’all yesterday, Capital Punishment wasn’t the only playground game this weekend that was going down for bragging rights. The ‘Melo League All-Stars, repping Baltimore, faced off against the Rucker Park All-Stars, holding down NYC, on Friday night, and B-More/the DMV area showed again why they might be the top spot for ball in the country. They edged Rucker 124-123 behind Brandon Jennings (even though he isn’t from Baltimore), Donte Greene, Gary Neal and Josh Selby … Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian tied the knot. Who wants to take dibs on how long they stay together? Over/under should be what? A year? Also word on the street is that Kim K’s dress came with an actual bus on the end to hold everything up. There were also reportedly performances from Stevie Wonder & Earth, Wind And Fire … Now can we get back to the doom and gloom? Elton Brand doesn’t think the season will start on time. In fact, he says it doesn’t look good, and misses being able to talk to his coaches. That has to be one of the craziest and most overlooked things about the lockout. We don’t know what we would do if we couldn’t hit up our co-workers, or even casually converse with friends in the industry. Everything takes one long timeout and life seems to move on without you. Brand has organized a team workout next week in Los Angeles, and most of Philly’s best players plan on being there … In the Virginia stop of the Red Bull King of the Rock, the best player all day long was Michael Anderson, who played for the Dakota Wizards in the D-League last year. Fitting then that he ended up winning it all and will visit Alcatraz in September for a chance at $10,000 … And Larry Fitzgerald got a record $120 million. Wow … We’re out like Cousins in Europe.