Remember when "Agent Zero" was "Agent Zero"? Now, courtesy of Vanilla Ice and his movie Cool As Ice, he's more like "Drop Agent Zero and get with the hero".

Hoopsvibe Very Quick Call: As of this very moment, who has more money: Vanilla Ice or Gilbert Arenas? According to Wikipedia, the "Iceman" is still worth $20 million dollars.  Arenas made $119 million dollars in his NBA career (including a staggering $19.2, a career high, in 2011-12) but how much does he have left?

Nikki "Hoopz" Alexander Fights Shaq At Gym.

HoopsVibe's Very Quick Call:She came up with Flava Flav. Enough said.

Lakers to retire Shaq's number.

HoopsVibe's Very Quick Call: Well, we knew Orlando wasn't going to do it.

It's official, the Los Angeles Lakers will retire Shaq's #34. The dedication ceremony will be on April 2. One day earlier and we would have really had some news. I can think of nothing more fitting than a dedication ceremony on April Fools Day.

Most view this as a given. The Lakers needed to retire his number seeing has he will go down in history as one of the best big men ever. His numbers speak for themselves and yet, I can't help but thinking Shaq's a little relieved. It's obviously common knowledge that Shaq left LA feuding with Kobe. Shaq bounced around the league with a number of teams, won a championship in Miami, and grew to accept his role, as a backup center.

His career stats are impressive though. Shaq's a 15-time All-Star, won 4 NBA titles (3 in LA and 1 in Miami), he finished with 28,596 points, (23.7 ppg), 13,099 rebounds (10.9 rpg), and 2,732 blocks (2.3 bpg). These are monster numbers and his per game averages were somewhat deflated by his lengthy exit strategy from the league where he played significantly past his prime and lowered those numbers. 

He will be remembered for his on the court dominance, his larger than life personality, and even his off the court antics. His ex-wife has left us with the dubious pop reality of "Basketball Wives" on VH1 and Shaq's transitioned into an NBA analyst. 

For more info, updates, and gossip follow @HoopsVibe.

Photo Credit: WENN

This is the good, the bad, and the horribly ugly of when NBA players try to act.

HoopsVibe's Very Quick Call: Sometimes it turns our great and sometimes it is unintentionally  hilarious and painful.

Most often when basketball player dabble in films it's in either comedic supporting roles or mushy feel-good stories. Rarely do these ballers take time to do any type of real preparation Hollywood actors do every day like studying at Stella Adler Studios in Los Angeles or the Tisch School in New York. These ballers traditionally know nothing of method acting, Stanislavsky, or even supplements like AuditionFocus geared to help actors be focused and mentally sharp with their memory and relaxation. Yet, NBA ballers dive in nonetheless and we have to watch the results. Some are surprisingly good, while others are cringe-wrothy as they crash and burn.

Most recently we had "Thunderstruck with Kevin Durant. This was the 2012 relase that was definitely in the latter category of "feel-good." The basic idea of the film is one we've seen many times before, but continues to excite. Kevin's skills get switched for a young fan. This leaves Kevin unable to play and his little fan with a dominating jumper.  The classic Michael Jordan movie "Space Jams" would be another film that falls into this "feel good" category. These are films for the whole family and basically co-brand themselves with the NBA star that carries them. 

Hollywood has long had a love affair with the big men of the NBA too. One of the originals to dip his size 23 toes into Hollywood was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the classic movie "Airplane" as pilot Roger Murdock. This is a situation where Kareem was put in a role where he could really shine comedically by not giving him more than he could handle. He comes off has hilarious and the movie succeeds both comercially and comedically. 

Another big man who had a run in films is Shaquille O'Neal. He starred in movies such as "Blue Chips" with Nick Nolte, as well as Disney's Kazaam. Although some of Shaq's movies were huge flops, his role in "Blue Chips" was solid and adds to the general idea that basketball players do best when acting as basketball players. 

The one notable film that breaks these predictable molds is Spike Lee's "He Got Game." This movie is carried equally by Denzel Washington and Ray Allen. Allen isn't given simply the traditional "easy" scenes we expect of basketbal players in movies. Lee wisely teamed up Allen with one of the strongest actors of our generation in Denzel and let them carry this film together. Sure, Allen isn't as strong as Washington is on screen, but who is? The point is the film works and Allen does a solid job doing more than just shooting jumpers on film, but actually telling the story of Jesus Shuttlesworth.

Stella Adler Studios 

Tisch School of Arts

AuditionFocus

Shaq's mistress, Vanessa Lopez is taking O'Neal to court. Let the mud slinging begin.

HoopsVibe's Very Quick Call: Lopez looks to have some especially damaging dirt on the big guy. She want the trial televised.

Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant almost come to blows in the locker room.

HoopsVibe's Very Quick Call: Now this is a fight I'd love to see go into the UFC octogon. My money's on Howard in the first round.

Word on the street is, Shaquille O'Neal participated in Superbowl festivities over the weekend and had has his eye on one particular Entertainment Tonight reporter.
 
Hoopsvibe's quick call:  Shaq is known to be a charmer, so this rumor isn't too surprising.

LeBron and the Heat have won 17 in a row, but they've got their work cut out if they want to break this record.

HoopsVibe Very Quick Call: The Heat are currently tied for the 12th longest winning streak in NBA history.

The current 17 game streak is tied with the Clippers for longest winning streak this season. But, both are just slightly more than half as long as the all-time best.

33, LA Lakers 1971-'72

The Lakers didn't lose a game for over two months, going a combined 30-0 in November and December. Led by Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Gail Goodrich, Pat Riley and Jim McMillian (and including former Phil Jackson assistant coach Jim Cleamons), the 1971-72 Lakers are arguably the greatest team of all time.

22, Houston Rockets 2007-'08

You may be surprised to know that the second longest winning streak is 22 held by the Houston Rockets in 2007-08. Nobody expected anything out of the Rockets that year and they somehow went off before showing "they are who we thought they were" and losing in the first round of the playoffs. Sadly for T-Mac and Yao, this was the height of their time together.

20, Washington Capitols 1947-'48 thru 1948-'49

The Capitols were part of the Basketball Association of America before being absorbed into the NBA in 1949. Not coincidentally, the team was led by NBA Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach, who led the squad from 1946-'49. The team won 20 games through two seasons.

20, Milwaukee Bucks 1970-'71

Already boasting Lew Alcindor at center, the Bucks acquired Oscar Robertson in a trade and found immediate success. The Bucks set a franchise record for wins that season (66) that still stands and won the NBA title in their third year of existence, the fastest for an expansion team in NBA history. The 20 game win streak was exceeded a year later by the same Lakers team that leads this list. Interestingly, this Bucks squad beat that Lakers team and snapped their NBA record 33 game win streak.

19, LA Lakers 1999-'00

In Phil Jackson's first year as coach, the Lakers started the season by winning 31 of their first 36 games, which included a 16 game winning streak. Later in the season, from February 4th to March 16th, LA won 19 in a row. After that loss, the Shaq and Kobe led squadron won another 11 in a row and earlier in the year also had a seven game streak.  One of the best teams in NBA history, LA won the title by beating the Pacers 4-2.

19, Boston Celtics 2008-'09

The Celtics started out 27-2, including the 19 game win streak, and also had a 10 game streak to their credit. Boston won 62 games but lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs after Kevin Garnett was injured and missed most of the second half of the season. The first round seven game series versus the Bulls is arguably the greatest playoff series in NBA history. 

Just two more wins would put the Heat into the top five. Four more wins would make their streak the second longest in NBA history. 16 more (man, that's a ton of games!) Would tie them with the Lakers for longest streak ever- think they can do it?

In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, who are the five best Irish basketball players to suck down a green beer and play in the NBA?

HoopsVibe Very Quick Call: The list is short and not great, which is what you'd expect.

The only Irish player in history born and bred in Ireland to play in the NBA was Pat Burke, a 6-11 center who spent three years with the Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns.

5. Marty Conlon

Conlon was a 6-10 lumbering big man who specialized in...uh...being big. And Irish, in that order. In nine NBA seasons he played for eight teams, including the Boston Celtics who has a franchise, have always had an affinity for large, slow, white men (Brian Sclabrine types). Conlon also had an extremely weird form when shooting free throws.

4. Chris Mullin

Without a doubt, the best Irish shooter in NBA history was Chris Mullin. Not only that, but he was probably the best pure scorer as well. "Mullie" averaged 25+ ppg in five straight seasons from '88-'89 to '92-'93. Check out these highlights from when he went head to head with the greatest non-irish basketball player of all-time, Michael Jordan:

3. Kevin McHale

 McHale averaged 17.9 ppg and 7.3 rpg in a 13 year career where he never scored less than 10.0 ppg in any season. The king of the up and under move in and around the basket, on either side of the Atlantic.

2. Jermaine O'Neal

O'Neal has made the 12th most money of any NBA player ever in terms of NBA salary, raking in $165,441,840 during his pro career. That's not exactly a "small potato". Nor does it have an "e" at the end, as former Vice President of the USA Dan Quayle suggested to a Trenton, NJ sixth grader William Figueroa on June 15th, 1992.

1. Shaquille O'Neal

The Irish may not have produced a lot of NBA talent, but financially, the two O'Neal's are set for life. Combine Jermaine's $165,441,840 with Shaq's $292,198,327 (second most in NBA history behind only Kevin Garnett) and you've got $457,640,167 million, which is actually about $100 million less than what Lord of the Dance stud dancer Michael Flatley has made in his career,and I don't think he can dunk. Even if you don't think Shaq is the best Irish basketball player of all-time, he is at least the best Irish center ever. 

Basketball is a team sport, but when two studs lock horns, the other players on the court recede from view.

HoopsVibe Very Quick Call: So many great rivalries, so little time!

Today, Gatorade released an ad for it's new product "Fixation",which features Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade squaring off, each player dreaming of a different outcome when they meet one and each other on the floor.

So it got me thinking: Who are the best one on one match-ups in NBA history? 

Here are the first batlles that came to mind. 

Shaquille O'Neal vs. Hakeem Olajuwon

Their match-up in the 1995 NBA Finals has been washed asunder by the tides of history, but at the time, this may have been the best duel I have ever witness. Hakeem was paying the best basketball of his career this season (in the playoffs particularly)and maybe the best stretch for any center in NBA history. Shaq led the NBA in scoring this season (29.3 ppg) and was in the midst of establishing himself as the most physically dominant center ever. In the Finals, Hakeem averaged 32.8 ppg and Shaq scored 28.0 ppg.

Wilt Chamberlain vs Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

In the conversation about the best center of all-time, these two names are really the only two at the top of the list- it's really just a question of who is 1a and who is 1b.This excellent article breaks it down, blow by blow, and concludes that Wilt is the victor.

They played against each other 27 times, including 11 games in the playoffs of 1971 and 1972. In their first 11 meetings, Chamberlain was still able to (i.e. inclined to) score with Jabbar. In those first 11 games, Wilt averaged 22.8 ppg and 17.6 rebounds, while Kareem averaged 26.0 ppg and 15.6 rebounds.

50 ppg, 30.1 ppg over his career, 23 rebounds/game over his career, the only non-guard ever to lead the league in assists, 100 points in one game, the list goes on...Wilt was simply more dominating.

Kevin Durant vs. LeBron James

This is absolutely the most exciting match-up in the current NBA, with both players battling every night for supremacy. In five playoff games (last year's NBA Finals), KD outscored LBJ 30.6 ppg to 28.6 ppg. But James dominated in every other statistical category and also won the title, by a margin of 4-1. In 11 regular season match-ups it's the same story; Durant averages 29.0 to LBJ's 28.1, "Bron Bron" has the edge in rebounds, assists, steals and blocks and has won nine of the 11 games. "Durantula" has some work to do, potentially in this years NBA Finals. 

Dominique Wilkins vs. Michael Jordan

Of their era, these were the two most athletically gifted, electrifying players. WIlkins at times, looked like he almost had too much energy for his body, while MJ was always smooooooth. In 45 career games against each other, Jordan won 27 while "Nique" won 18. MJ averaged 31.6, while Wilkins poured in 29.8 as both players had almost identical stat lines. In one playoff series that the Bulls swept, Jordan averaged 34.3, 6.7 rpg, 4.3 apg to Nique's 30.0, 5.3 rpg and 3.0 apg.

Kobe Bryant vs. Michael Jordan

The significance of this rivalry isn't as much about the head to head play, though that was extremely entertaining, but about what it meant to the league- was it not old MJ versus a young version of himself? Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan played each other 8 times, four when Jordan was with the Chicago Bulls and 4 when he was with the Washington Wizards. The Lakers won 5 of those games. Across these games, Bryant scored an average of 22.8 points, while Jordan scored 24.5 points.

Oh,old man Jordan still has it.

What's your top five?

For more news, info and updates, follow us on Twitter @hoopsvibe

35 years ago today, the NBA scoring title was on the line with one game remaining.

HoopsVibe Very Quick Call: This is one of the great stories in NBA history.

Thompson's Denver squad played the Pistons in Detroit and the "Skywalker" got off to a ridiculous start, setting an NBA record by making 13 field goals in the first quarter. Thompson sums up his feelings in his book, Skywalker:

"Not realizing what had just occurred -- it all happened so fast -- I was amazed to learn later that I had set an NBA record for most points in a quarter with 32. That beat Wilt Chamberlain's 1962 mark by one, set in that historic game where Wilt scored 100 points. Equally stunning was my accuracy in that first quarter. I went 13-14 from the field (Poquette's block being the only shot I missed) and 6-6 from the foul line.

My 13 field goals were also a new NBA record, and it still stands to this day."

He continued his torrid pace for the remainder of the game, finishing with a total of 73 points, the most ever for a guard in NBA history, until Kobe broke it with his 81 point game. Remember though, neither Thompson nor Gervin had the advantage of the three-point shot.

"I had been locked in a scoring duel with George Gervin of the Spurs for much of the year. Only 14 points separated us at the top of the league scoring chart heading into our last games that Sunday."

Speaking of Gervin, later that evening "The Iceman" poured in a cool 63 points (probably without sweating) and just barely edged out Thompson by the slimmest of margins, the closest in NBA history, to win the 1978 scoring title: 27.22 to 27.15.

After scoring 73 points, the first thing Thompson did when he got home was check in on Gervin's progress.

"When I finally made it home, I scanned the dial on the radio and attempted to pick up the San Antonio versus New Orleans broadcast. If it had been any player other than "The Iceman," I wouldn't have even bothered. I caught the game early into the second quarter, and by halftime Gervin had fired in 53 points. I knew then that my 73 had been in vain."

Even though Thompson lost the scoring title, his value as an NBA player was at its apex. He was rewarded during the off-season with a record breaking contract- $4 million dollars for five years. That was the most any basketball player had been paid in NBA history. What do you think Kobe or LeBron would say if that got offered that deal today? The game has come a long way.

The closest match-up in recent memory to the slugfest between Thompson and Gervin was in 1995 when David Robinson and Shaquille O'Neal went at it for the scoring title, which also came down to the final regular season game. Robinson scored 71 points and edged Shaq 29.8 to 29.3.

Hey. Who is tired of this? People want us to feel sorry for a guy who is making $90+ million, Nike cash, and other endorsement money? Say what? Why do they have to resort writing pieces basically implying “Hey he is not that bad.” Wow. Now people are defending him – the same people who were bashing him prior to the 2010-2011 season.  It’s too bad. So we’re just going to sweep the one hour Decision extravaganza complete with jersey photo shops under the rug?

The Chicago Bulls becoming the number one team, record wise, reveals a quantum leap this season and ramifications for the future. Not many people are examining the Bulls massive improvements – they practically flew over the Atlantic Ocean without breaking a sweat. Imagine predicting that the Bulls would be the number one team with the best defense before the season started. Imagine that. People laugh, mock, wants some weed that you smoked, and then label you a Bulls homer. That is why some of us should say, “We’ll see.”