My boy Eric Berman got compared to former Cavs reserve Sasha Pavlovic. Photo: halftimeadjustments.files.wordpress.com.

I was chillin’ with NYC native and fellow UNC student Eric Berman last week, and we started talking about what we missed about playground ball in the city.

One of the first things we came up with was the ridiculousness of the comparisons you get when playing on the blacktop.

Eric, who is about 6 feet, 190 pounds, said he generally gets likened to Jason Kidd and Jason Williams, though he will never forget the day someone compared him to Sasha Pavlovic. Read More »

After much anticipation, Kryie Irving, ESPN’s #6 ranked player in the 2010 class and Bounce #22 cover man, committed to Duke Thursday, giving the Blue Devils their biggest point-guard signee since Jason Williams.

Irving, a senior at St. Patrick HS in Elizabeth, N.J., played in the Elite 24 at Rucker Park in August.

Irving’s former high-school teammate Dexter Strickland is a freshman at UNC this year.

Fans at Late Night with Roy. Photo: Rivals.yahoo.com.

Chapel Hill, N.C.— I’m a sinner. I have betrayed my faith and my family, and nothing I could ever do will change that.

My grandparents graduated from Duke in the 1930s and bleeding royal blue is a tradition I’ve always embraced. To me, Shane Battier, Jason Williams, J.J. Redick and Greg Paulus are gods—they graced the sacred floor of Cameron Indoor Stadium for a combined 15 years and provided me floor-slapping and twine-tickling memories that still give me chills.

It was always my dream to play point guard for Mike Krzyzewski and be that gritty player everyone outside of Durham hated. When I realized by age 12 Coach K wasn’t going to call, I thought maybe I could just go as a student. But by the time I got my first B- in Physics class in 9th grade, I realized that wasn’t too likely either. Read More »

I’m excited as can be about this upcoming college basketball season, but one player I’m going to miss a lot is Levance Fields.

Fields—who will play in Russia this year, according to Wikipedia—drilled countless clutch shots over his four-year career at Pitt and was a joy to watch any time he stepped inside the lines.

I recently searched him on Youtube and thought I’d post one of the clips I found. How New York is this?

Corey WIlliams was one assist shy of a triple double Friday night. Photo: www.townsvillebulletin.com.au.

It’s only October, but Corey “Homicide” Williams is already warmed up in the land down under. Williams nearly posted a triple double, scoring 32 points, grabbing 11 boards and dishing off nine assists, in a loss Friday.

Homicide followed that up with 19 points, six rebounds and seven assists in a win Saturday.

To read more about Williams, click here

North Carolina– Just ran into UNC guard Dexter Strickland, who said he spoke to his former high school teammate and Bounce #22 cover-man Kyrie Irving Saturday, and he said he thinks the St. Patrick’s point guard will commit to Duke, which would add even more excitement to arguably the greatest rivalry in sports.

Irving and Strickland would be the latest high-school pair to don different shades of blue. Wayne Ellington and Gerald Henderson committed to UNC and Duke respectively out of Episcopal HS outside of Philadelphia about four years ago.

40 Cal recently made the claim that ’09 was the worst Summer for playground ball yet. Hyperbole? Perhaps. But it definitely drew several responses.

For more opinions, check out this piece that ran on the Macleem Web site.

What are your thoughts?

Carroll hailed from New York City. Image: wwp.greenwichmeantime.com.

Jim Carroll, the author of “The Basketball Diaries,” which is widely considered one of the best basketball reads of all time, died Friday of a heart attack. He was 60.

Carroll was a ballplayer himself and starred at Trinity HS on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in the 1960s.

He was also a musician and poet.

Is “The Basketball Diaries” the best book about the sport?