π NBA ALL-STAR ISSUE π MEN IN BLACK III AGENTS JAMES, WADE & BOSH TAKE ON THE UNIVERSE www.dimemag.comMAYA / #68 / MARCHMOORE 2012 TELLS US ALL HER PLUS: SECRETS THE FUTURE OF BASKETBALL Issue #68 March 2012 www.dimemag.com Editor & Publisher Josh Gotthelf – [email protected] Director of Content Patrick Cassidy – [email protected] Managing Editor Aron Phillips – [email protected] Staff Writer Sean Sweeney – [email protected] Art Direction Alexis Cook Contributing Photographers Keith Allison David Alvarez Sid Ashford Chris Charles Tom Ciszek Joe Epstein Bob Frischmann Steven Gabriele Rebecca Goldschmidt Dorothy Hong Brian Jenkins Gary Land Troy Paraiso Paul Savramis Brandon Smith 62 Miami Contributing Writers Michael Aufses Austin L. Burton Heat Julian Caldwell Alejandro Danois Andrew Greif Bryan Horowitz Jack Jensen Martin Kessler Daniel Marks Dylan Murphy Eric Newman Lucas Shapiro Dime Interns Ryan Imparato, Kevin Smith Dime NY Office 212.629.5066 Worldwide Newsstand Distributor Curtis Circulation Company, LLC. Newsstand Consultant Howard White & Associates DIME®, THE GAME. THE PLAYER. THE LIFE.® and THE BASKETBALL LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE® are registered trademarks of Dime Magazine Publishing Company, Inc. For new subscriptions, subscription problems and/or address changes please go to www.dimemag.com, call 818.286.3153 or e-mail [email protected] PRINTED IN THE USA 8 Photo. David Alvarez Does anyone else find it strange that the hottest months for our favorites to win the NBA championship in 2012. From there, basketball take place during the coldest months in America? All- we feature three of the NBA’s rising stars – Landry Fields, DeMar Star Weekend. Trade deadline. March Madness. For a sport played DeRozan and Michael Beasley – as well as sit down for an extremely year-round, February and March are by far the most exciting candid interview with Spencer Haywood, one of the most underrated times for the game we love. While tertiary fans may not start basketball players of all time and a true pioneer in the game. paying attention to the NBA or NCAA until after the BCS National Championship or Super Bowl are over, us diehards are waiting, Just as the start of the season brought Chris Paul to Los Angeles, ready to tell them everything they missed. Lamar Odom to Dallas and Tyson Chandler to New York, by the time our next issue hits stands, the distribution of wealth may It’s astounding that the average age of this year’s All-Star Game have shifted again. So sit back and enjoy – we wouldn’t want it starters is just over 26 years old. Aside from Kobe Bryant, who any other way. ties Jerry West, Karl Malone and Shaquille O’Neal for the most consecutive All-Star nods in NBA history with 14, the future is in -Aron Phillips, Managing Editor the hands of nine players all born in the ’80s. And with the game reaching fans in over 200 countries and in more than 40 languages, it’s safe to say that the revolution will be televised. When putting together our All-Star Issue this year, we did our best to bring you the most compelling stories the game has to offer. Starting with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat, we take you inside the makings of a dynasty, and BAND OF BROT HERS 62 FALLING SHORT OF AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP IN 2011 WAS NOT PART OF THE PLAN FOR LEBRON JAMES, DWYANE WADE, CHRIS BOSH AND THE MIAMI HEAT. BUT IT MAY HAVE BEEN EXACTLY WHAT THE NBA’S SUPER-TEAM NEEDED TO TRULY BECOME A DYNASTY, STARTING WITH A TITLE IN 2012. BAND OFWORDS. Austin L. Burton PHOTOS. David Alvarez OT HERS 63 First, we’ll look at the last one. The man who, once upon a time, rep- In the traveling super-group that is the resented the NBA for an entire country Miami Heat, Bosh is the unsung yet un- as the face of the league’s only Cana- expendable bass player. The 6-11 power dian franchise. The man whose career forward stands firmly outside of the numbers mirror basketball legends, yet spotlight created by his two more famous to call forth his name in a Hall of Fame teammates, small forward LeBron James discussion could get you laughed out of and shooting guard Dwyane Wade, mak- barbershops from Oakland to Orlando. ing beautiful music that only true connois- The man who should, by all rights, be to- seurs of the form can fully appreciate. If day what David Robinson was yesterday LeBron and D-Wade are the Wesley Snipes – intelligent and iconic, as graceful on and Denzel Washington in this Mo’ Better the court as he is gracious off of it – but Blues remake, Bosh is Bill Nunn, the big still can’t catch a break with a demand- man in the background pulling everything ing and increasingly hypocritical public. together and making this collection of re- markable talent an actual band. He’s No. 1 in your program, No. 3 in the trinity. Ladies and gentlemen: Chris Bosh. Through the first third of this truncated 66- 64 game NBA season, Bosh is averaging 19.7 agers in a preseason poll to win the 2012 forwards in the East. “I don’t think I am. I points and 7.7 rebounds, connecting on 50 NBA championship. don’t appeal to the popular crowd.” percent of his field goals and 82 percent of his free throws. During a January stretch in And look at where it gets him. When asked why – and he’s been asked which Wade was in and out of the lineup that question ad nauseam by local beat with injuries, Bosh put up four games of “When you say ‘big’ to me, I think of certain writers, GQ and Dime, among others – Bosh 30-plus points and four games of double- players … (Bosh) doesn’t fit in with those repeats what seems like an answer he’s digit rebounds. He owned the fourth quar- certain players,” said future Hall of Fame rehearsed many times: I don’t know … That’s ter of a Jan. 24 win over Cleveland, scoring center Shaquille O’Neal earlier this season a good question … It doesn’t really matter to 17 in the final frame and finishing with 35 in his new gig as TNT studio analyst. “Don’t me … I’m just trying to be the best I can be. points. The next night, late in the fourth get me wrong, I respect his game and he’s a quarter at Detroit, Bosh turned a two-point great player, but part of the ‘Big Three’? No He already might be the best teammate. Miami deficit into a three-point lead with way. Dominant big man? No way.” When this version of the Miami Heat a pair of reverse layups and a free throw, formed its nucleus during an unprecedent- then forced Pistons center Greg Monroe Biased? That too. O'Neal is the same one ed period of NBA free agency in 2010 – a into a critical miss that helped preserve a who, after all, called Bosh “the RuPaul of trio of proven superstars deciding to sign win for the Heat. big men” following a 2009 matchup be- with the same team when each could have tween Bosh’s Toronto Raptors and Shaq’s chosen to be “The Man” on separate teams So far, while Wade struggles to stay healthy Phoenix Suns. – Bosh took the biggest risk. He put his ath- and James still struggles to score in the letic legacy on the line by making the big- fourth quarter, Bosh is the most consis- “I’m not a popular guy, I guess,” Bosh was gest sacrifice to see if this experiment could tently productive member of a team that at quoted in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in work. Because as much as NBA fans and press time owned the second-best record early February, the day after James and media have argued over the Batman-or- (18-6) in the Eastern Conference, and was Wade were named starters for the NBA Robin status of James and Wade, Bosh has picked by 74 percent of NBA general man- All-Star Game. Bosh finished fifth among always been cast as Aqua Man. He is the 65 bronze medalist. In DimeMag.com columns ericks in six games, however, the media just say, ‘It’s LeBron’s fault.’” following the signing, I took to calling him and message board harpoons aimed at the “And Bosh,” because his name is always three big fish would have one believe the The newly-acquired villain label is espe- mentioned last. Heat were an utter failure. cially fascinating when you consider that, when he was coming out of high school LeBron, D-Wade and Bosh. Why? nine years ago, James was being called the next Magic Johnson not only because of his D-Wade, LeBron and Bosh. Because negativity is the fuel that powers third-eye passing ability, but also because sports media in the 21st century. Because of his winning smile and childlike enthu- There’s no other way. some 90 years after the Golden Age of siasm on the court. Now in his ninth pro sports journalism, we are now drowning season, he sees exactly why his image has Whereas James endures arrows of criticism in the Mother-in-Law Age, where finding gone from the kid in the white suit on Draft for allegedly conceding that he couldn’t something to complain and nag about Night to the man in the black hat. He sees win a championship as the clear-cut No.