Sandy Dover

“Under The Armour” For American Athlete. Photos...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:44:33 -0500

“Under The Armour”

For American Athlete.

Photos courtesy of American Athlete and adidas America

Derrick Coleman: A New Jersey Nets Retrospective

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 13:44:00 -0400

By Sandy Dover

Exclusively featured by ESPN Nets Are Scorching

“It’s hard for me to look or even think about Derrick Coleman now and not think about Rasheed Wallace. They weren’t that far apart in skill level or their peak athleticism. Rasheed was freakish, but Derrick had an understated freak in his own game. The jump shots, the ability to shoot from long-range, the power to bang and score with ease in the post, the knack for grabbing boards (when he felt like it, in Derrick’s case)… they were similar in style and court philosophy. But this isn’t about Rasheed. This about DC.”

Sam Cassell: A New Jersey Nets Retrospective

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 13:37:00 -0400

By Sandy Dover

Exclusively featured by ESPN Nets Are Scorching

“What I loved most about Sam Cassell was that he was a true guard, just as effective playing the point as he was playing as an off-guard. That was his greatest strength. He could go into any situation and be both what he wanted and what the Nets needed. He didn’t back down, and that’s probably why he pretended to carry an imaginary set of dinosauric testicles after he made big shots. More power to him in my book.”

Kendall Gill: A New Jersey Nets Retrospective

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 13:31:00 -0400

By Sandy Dover

Exclusively featured by ESPN Nets Are Scorching.

“He came from the “Next Jordan” generation, a thought-to-be-elite squadron of various basketball players whose individual and collective essence emitted a scent that seemed reminiscent of the Greatest Of All Time, but in actuality was far off. Kendall was one of those guys. He had the height and build at 6’5” & 205 pounds, but he honestly lacked the intangibles to make any team better on his own. Make no mistake — he had talent — but not otherworldly. Coupled with being in New Jersey, a team wrought with peril and disappointment, the mix was not as I wanted it to be, which would’ve been with him as an All-Star and the Nets being playoff participants.”

Jared Sullinger, No. 5 Pick (2012 NBA Mock Draft)

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:14:06 -0400

By Sandy Dover

For SLAM.

“Sullinger, fortunately, isn’t a malcontent or a knucklehead, and he will likely force Sacramento to upgrade the rest of the roster and trade away players who don’t serve any kind of needs within the course of the games. A frontcourt lineup of Sullinger at power forward, Evans at small forward and Cousins at center might be a winning combination.

“Sullinger may be just the man to balance the scales of Fire (Cousins) and Ice (Evans)—and bring a new hope to the capital of California.”

Why Do We Hurt Our Heroes?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:32:20 -0400

By Sandy Dover

Exclusively guest featured by The Starting Five.

“Do we actually realize that we, as participants in sports culture, are isolating and vexing the same people that whose talent bolsters them into the spotlight, the undeniable greatness that makes them known in the first place?”

Sandy Dover Creative: Net Zero: The Curious Case of Deron Williams / Should The Nets Have Traded Deron Williams?

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:33:00 -0400

Sandy Dover Creative: Net Zero: The Curious Case of Deron Williams / Should The Nets Have Traded Deron Williams?:

sandydovercreative:

by Sandy Dover

Exclusively composed for ESPN affiliate Nets Are Scorching

“We can only assume that Williams — as great of a Boy Scout as he has been with the Nets — will go, and it’s not his fault if he leaves and the Nets get nothing in return. It’s the Nets’ fault. His future…

The Importance Of Being Melo

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:57:28 -0400

sandydovercreative:

By Sandy Dover

Featured exclusively for ESPN affiliate KnickerBlogger

Photo courtesy of NBA.com.

—

“The time is now for Melo to show and prove. He has little time left. If he doesn’t do what he was brought to do, he will be cast aside and seen as another failure of the New York Knicks system. Another star player who failed to make good in The Big Apple. If he disrupts the Jeremy Lin phenomenon further (already in effect), heads will roll and his will be the one all clamor for.”

KG: The Tongue of Destruction For SLAM. Photo courtesy of...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:09:00 -0400

KG: The Tongue of Destruction

For SLAM.

Photo courtesy of Reuters.

—

“Kevin Garnett lost it. He was cursing me out for no reason. Maybe because Stoudemire gave him 39 points, but take that vulgarity to Stoudemire. I’m not holding you and I did not even say s— to Garnett the whole game. That really surprised me. He lost it. He was cursing at me the whole game. He needs to calm the f— down. …Garnett needs to calm the f— down. There’s no reason he should be cursing at me the way he did the last game. So you can put that in the article. It was disrespectful and I would never do nothing like that to him. …I’m not even playing and I didn’t say nothing to him the whole game anyway. So if you’re mad, start cursing out STAT, Stoudemire. But you’re not going to do that s— because Stoudemire’s not going to take it. So he cursed at me and I’m 5-6½, 150. What he was saying was worse than Reggie Miller. It was uncalled for.”

–Spike Lee, via ESPN

Dwight Howard: SLAM Top 50 For SLAM. A definitive ranking of the...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:03:45 -0400

Dwight Howard: SLAM Top 50

For SLAM.

A definitive ranking of the NBA’s best center for the 2011-2012 NBA season.

—

“Understand that when I say that Dwight was never Superman, I don’t mean that as a takedown. The Big Diesel came and went. That era in black pinstripes and Magic blue was startlingly beautiful and amazing. Never might we see a 300-lb+ monster of a man at 7-2 (really) take over a game in the way that Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal did. The Superman moniker that the media haphazardly gave to Dwight wasn’t meant to dethrone the true Son of Krypton, for he was the last—he became The Eradicator. Dwight ascended into the glory of the shield, because (not unlike the Supermen who came forth in the true Superman’s absence) he represented the essence of that old glory. The aural nature of Dwight’s presence is what, in part, encouraged this literal manchild-turned-man to don red, yellow and blue outside of battle. The costume is Dwight’s nickname, his true identity is his adidas-made uniform. Sometimes the nostalgic essence of a person is just the beginning of something new; it’s a foundation to work from, not to live up to.”

Michael Vick Signature Shoe Postponed For Yahoo! NIKE, Inc. has...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 04:55:00 -0400

Michael Vick Signature Shoe Postponed

For Yahoo!

NIKE, Inc. has made it known that the shoe which would bear the disgraced star’s name, the Zoom Vick V, is been held back from its release to national retailers.

—

“Nike had expected lower sales in Vick’s product, because guess what? When injuries, losing records, and drug allegations precede your star power, it can be expected that your product will suffer, too. So whenever Nike decides to release the Zoom Vick V (probably in outlet and factory stores), don’t expect digital draw-ups on how aerodynamic the shoes is when your cut across the field; don’t expect white/Carolina blue color combinations that pay homage to Vick’s high school alma mater; don’t expect the double-stacked Zoom Air features or any mid-foot straps resembling his jersey number; heck, don’t even plan to see a crimson-hued, graffiti-laser design on the leather. If anything, just expect a decently comfortable shoe that is a mere shadow of what its highlight-heavy past used to be.

“Just like Michael Vick’s past had been.”

The 10-man rotation, starring the Nike Air Foamposite...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:44:00 -0500

The 10-man rotation, starring the Nike Air Foamposite One

Authored and compiled by Trey Kerby, formerly of Yahoo!

Featuring Sandy Dover

Jerry Sloan: A Man of Time, Passed By The retirement of...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:09:29 -0500

Jerry Sloan: A Man of Time, Passed By

The retirement of legendary NBA coach Jerry Sloan.

For SLAM.

“Sloan wasn’t the perfect coach for the Jazz, but he was the right coach, most of the time. He was the head man for 23 years, and so you’d naturally know that there’s a beginning and an ending in pretty much every station in life where there’s a boss-employee relationship involved. Sloan was the right coach for Utah, but as players changed, he for the most part did not. Change is constant in life. At some point, the old memes about being tough and “hard as nails” and all of those overworked (and ethnically veiled and sometimes ambiguous) statements about “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” that are constant in the retelling of Sloan’s arrival into NBA kingdom may also be a part of his probable martyrdom, when it’s all really just about a guy who spent a lot of time and effort being the best that he could be at a job that he was really good at and eventually just lost a tad bit of his touch (and a few necessary tools) somewhere in the process…and he decided to go before he became his own worst enemy.”

Antoine Walker: Shine & Blackout A long-form essay on the...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:37:27 -0500

Antoine Walker: Shine & Blackout

A long-form essay on the career of former NBA star Antoine Walker.

For SLAM.

—

“I always felt Antoine was legitimately the next player of the League. He was well-coached, highly-skilled and possessed an ability to affect a game in a very tangible way, not the same way that Magic or Pippen did, but somewhere in that realm, especially at Kentucky and in his first two Celtics years.

The problem with Antoine is generally the same problem that plagued Derrick Coleman and Rasheed Wallace—he just didn’t care enough. He didn’t care that he could’ve been the greatest power forward to play.

Whereas DC wanted to collect his money, and Rasheed hides his apathy behind a boisterous personality, Antoine was extravagant in many ways.”

The Nike Air Flight One A nostalgic look at the first signature...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:30:00 -0500

The Nike Air Flight One

A nostalgic look at the first signature shoe of former NBA superstar Anfernee Hardaway.

“The Nike Air Flight One was Penny’s premier shoe and the first that introduced Nike’s early version of its patented Zoom Air into high-performance basketball footwear. Released in late 1994, the Air Flight One was visually marked by its dual foam pods on the sides of the shoe, a Nike LunarLite-like midsole and a durable Nubuck synthetic leather that added class and low-maintenance style to its black/black-white colorway. A rear plastic jewel heel tab in the shape of the number 1 and a black neoprene/spandex tongue with white pinstripes gave the shoe a visual share to his Magic uniform.

While relatively unknown at the time, Nike inserted a full-length Air unit, which was then known as Tensile Air, that drastically cut the weight of the shoe and made it a speedy set to play in; the performance test was successful and Nike renamed it Zoom Air. It played the host-cushioning role in the Nike Air Jordan XII, the first Jordan to implement the Zoom Air setup. Above all, the Black Cat himself played in the Air Flight One against Hardaway in Game One of the ’95 Eastern Conference Semifinals, before he made his stunning debut in the monumentally known Nike Air Jordan XI (“The Spats”).”

The Air Jordan XI “We stood with our mouths open for five...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:12:00 -0500

The Air Jordan XI

“We stood with our mouths open for five minutes, and watched that game start to end looking at those shoes. We used the TV timeouts and halftime segment to dunk on the Nerf hoop that hung above our bedroom entryway. He was fined for that game twice—once for not receiving league approval for his game uniform number change, and another up top of that for his shoes’ color blocking not complying with that of his other teammates.”

The Mystery of Derrick Rose’s Feet A KICKS magazine...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:49:42 -0500

The Mystery of Derrick Rose’s Feet

A KICKS magazine exclusive. A fictional narrative of the young career of Derrick Rose.

“The feet of Derrick Rose have taken the young man many places. Those feet took a shielded, quiet, shy young boy off of the streets of the rough neighborhoods of Chicago and led him to local rec courts around the city. Four older brothers decided that the young man needed to be raised with the type of village only an African proverb could parallel. Rose was called a prodigy from a young age and entered the history-rich Simeon High School (also known as Simeon Career Academy), where his feet found proper footing, flashing what was to become a 6-3, 200-pound point guard in only a mere few years.”

Et Tu, Charles? For SLAM. “The point of this, really, is...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:42:52 -0500

Et Tu, Charles?

For SLAM.

“The point of this, really, is to let you know you’re appreciated in some way. You know who you are, and in a time where celebrities hide behind their money and corporate sponsorships, you, Sir Charles, have been unafraid to be a voice and to speak out when you’ve felt cause enough to do so, despite the fact you have no other backing or gain in voicing your opinions, thoughts and feelings. For a guy who came up in Leeds, AL in the 60s, you’ve said yourself that you’re pretty lucky.”

Allen Iverson: Free At Last? For SLAM. The end of Allen...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:33:58 -0500

Allen Iverson: Free At Last?

For SLAM.

The end of Allen Iverson’s relationship with the Philadelphia 76ers, and the beginning of his end.

“Allen, everyone knows that you are an all-NBA guard, man. That’s not even a question. You are an All-Star today, tomorrow and probably for the foreseeable future…but your game isn’t conducive to winning a championship on most teams as a starter, AI. The team that you keep referring to from 2001? That team was custom built for you, because you can’t win any other way. We know you’re not really that selfish at heart, not truly. Those that have followed you know that you are a team player, as long as you have your role. You want to play whole games. You want to be able to take the tough shots. We know what you’ve sacrificed, just from all the injuries you’ve had. I know that you just want to play the position on the team that you know is guaranteed to keep a team in the hunt…but there aren’t any teams willing to take the time build around you like that, Allen.”

You Got What You Wanted, Allen For SLAM. “You don’t have...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:29:46 -0500

You Got What You Wanted, Allen

For SLAM.

“You don’t have any extra men left, Allen. You’ve used all your Mario tokens, your “1-Ups” are in the tank. This is your last life. Remember that you have the power to change for the better as an NBA basketball player. You are a living legend. Show the world that you’re better, that you are a man of wisdom, that you have patience. …Your legacy is still being written.”