Why in Basketball do announcers and sportscasters on ESPN call assists as "dropping dimes" or "dishing dimes"?

Answer 1

According to:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/drop+a+dime

it is true that to "drop a dime" means "To make a telephone call, especially to the police to inform on or betray someone."

Therefore, dropping a dime means that you "assist" the po-lice in some way, so they just transferred that term to the basketball court.

It's a way for ESPN announcers to demonstrate their street cred... also, they think their audience has the attention span of a four year old, which in many cases is true.

Answer 2

A dime is a basketball jargon which means assist or a pass. So when they say "dished out 11 dimes" it means that the guy had 11 assists in that particular game.

Answer 3

it's a figure of speech.. announcer described the assist just like that of dropping a dime or dishing a dime. It is significant for an announcer to use such words to make their commentating interesting to the audience watching

Answer 4

that makes no sense to me because to "drop a dime" means to tell the police on someone. it comes from back in the day when a phone call cost a dime.

Answer 5

Its a playground turn, thats what we call a good pass, don't try to make sense out of it, its just one of those playground things that has been brought to the mainstream.

Answer 6

its a term used by people who play basketball, maybe even the atheletes themselves. so i figure it adds color to the commentating.

one reason I hate CBS broadcasts in Football is because they are so dry, i think NFL players would fall asleep.

just to make it more watchable i guess

Answer 7

Everyone cooks better than me SteveC

Answer 8

As much sense as it is in baseball when they call a "walk-off home run"...good question