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isisnicole · 5 years

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Edgar Ramirez x OC- Fan Fiction

I wrote this for an assignment this past summer. It’s a WIP about actor Edgar Ramirez and Jasmine my OC. I'm posting it now hoping it will motivate me to work on chapter 2. So please enjoy my little bit of something.

Synopsis: Jasmine Lebron has to help her grandmother out while she recovers in the hospital. She doesn't know that her grandmother works for a real-life movie star.

Driving through the winding streets of Beverly Hills Jasmine Lebron had the windows down on her sports car. The sweet smell of fresh cut grass and blossoming flowers wafted into the interior. The symbolic tall palm trees lined each side of the dark paved road as she made her way up the street. Jasmine was trying to focus on the road and not be a typical tourist, eye gawking at the elaborate homes but she found it difficult to keep her eyes forward. Many of the homes were as expansive and great as a football field. Unique and elegant architecture could be seen on many of the old Hollywood style homes.

“Yes. Yes ma’am. I will take care of it. I’m on my way-,” Jasmine sighed heavily into the phone as her grandmother continued to ask her a million and one questions. Her grandmother was rushed to the hospital earlier that day due to chest pains. Now she was sending Jasmine to the house of her employer to help out till she got out of the hospital.

Jasmine pressed the button that automatically rolled up her windows and turned on the air-conditioner. Her sepia skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat. The moisture threatened to transform her silky pressed hair back into its natural curly state. She ran her hand across her face trying to remove some of the collecting sweat from her nose. She hadn't yet become acclimated to the comfortable California heat. She was still accustomed to the tepid climate of her first home of Connecticut. Many would say that her living in California for the past 2 years was plenty of time for her to get acclimatized. But not to Jasmine. She found herself relying on her saving grace to make it through the day. Her skin prickling as the cold air caressed her heated skin. Glancing into her rearview mirror for a quick check of her appearance. The mixed heritage of her parentage staring back at her. The dark tone and wide nose of her father. The high cheekbones and slim facial features of her Spanish mother. Both blending together perfectly creating the uniqueness that made Jasmine.

Her grandmother Marlene Angeles. Known as Mimi to all her grandchildren was a spunky and still very active 60 something year old. No one ever spoke her real age or they risked a serious tongue lashing. Mimi who at the moment should be resting was instead worrying about her employer. She's worried that he was going to be upset that she wasn’t at the house. Her grandmother’s employer wasn’t due back till Thursday so the house would be empty for the next few days for sure. Jasmine half-heartedly agreed to help Mimi since she was on a break from her studies at school. Which meant she had a lot of free time on her hands.

“You need to rest and not worry about this. If your boss can’t understand that you are in the hospital and need a few days off then you need a new boss,” she said losing herself for a brief moment as she spoke outright.

Jasmine immediately pulled the phone away from her ear but still had no problem hearing Mimi yell at her to not to speak ill of her precious boss, “He is the reason you are able to go to school. Just get over there and make sure that my casserole is not burning. I told Herb to take it out but he may have for-,” she paused in her fussing. Jasmine could hear another voice softly speaking in the background.

“I am on the phone with my granddaughter,” she said, her voice still stern and raised. Marlene sighed heavily. Her irritation at the interruption noted in her voice.

“I will call you back. The nurse wants to check my blood pressure,” she said, “How about my check out papers I have things to do,” Mimi barked.

“Mimi let the nurses help you. Ma said she was on her way.”

Mimi sucked her teeth scoffing at the mention of Jasmine’s mother. “I will be dead by the time your mother makes it up here. Did you reach your uncle?”

“Yes he is also on his way but he is on the other side of town.”

Jasmine heard her grandmother’s exaggerated exhale as she spoke louder into the phone “Fine. No one cares till I’m dead-,”

“Don’t say that. You know I care.”

Jasmine noted that she was getting closer to her destination. She guided her car onto a short two-lane road. There were no other cars parked along the side as there were no median line marking the lanes. This was a private street and there appeared to be only three houses in total along the road. Jasmine passed the first two residences. Both divinely crafted in their own atypical way. The final house at the end of the road was Mimi’s employers home. 1302 Westing Dr was etched in an elaborate noir design into the side of a stately red brick pillar. The home was a contemporary craftsman style home. The exterior was a mixture of light and dark ashlar pattern brick. The sharp angled rooftop was also trimmed in a dark finished wood. The home appeared to be smaller in size compared to the other homes on the road but Jasmine was sure the interior would show otherwise once someone entered. Guiding her vehicle up to the large estate gates, Jasmine marveled at the sheer height of the gate itself. She could see the well-manicured front lawn was green and lush. Jasmine was pulled from her admiration of the home by Mimi’s insistent voice, “Have you made it yet?”

Jasmine rolled her eyes at her grandmother’s sixth sense for things. “Yes, I just got here.”

“Good. Do you see Herb? He should be there still. Do you see a black town car?”

“Yes to all your questions." Jasmine saw a well-built black man wave to her before leaning into an immaculate black Lincoln Town Car. He withdraws a small white box and pointed it at the front gate. The massive black wrought iron gate swung open silently and smoothly upon its hinges.

“He’s opening the gate for me now. I’ll call you back once I’m inside and have checked on the food,” Jasmine stated. She disconnected the call before her grandmother could protest any further. Jasmine pulled her mauve colored Infiniti Q60 up the short winding cobblestone driveway. She saw her grandmothers beige four-door Honda Accord parked off to the side. Even though it was over 15 years old the car still looked new. Mimi didn’t drive except to and from work. If she needed to go anywhere else she would call on family to take her out for her errands. Jasmine skillfully pulled up next to the vehicle and parked.

After she placed the car in park, she reached over her center console for her bags that were on the floor of the passenger seat. The driver side door opened unexpectedly. She jumped, placing her hand over her mouth to stop the yelp that almost escaped.

A deep male voice called out, his timbre calm and friendly but his face was hidden due to his height. “I’m sorry didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“It’s ok,” she called out. Jasmine chastised herself mentally for being so jumpy at the polite gesture.

She exited her car coming face to face with the soft deep voice “How are you doing? You must be Jasmine. I’m Herb.” He closed the door firmly then turning to Jasmine his hand extended in greeting. She gave him a polite smile as she grasped his hand in a friendly handshake.

His face shifted from friendly to worry as he inquired about her grandmother, “How is Marlene?” Jasmine could see the small lines of worry lining the corners of his deep-set brown eyes. Herb looked young for his age. But Jasmine knew from Mimi's vivid description that he was in his early 60's. He could easily pass for a man in his early 50’s. His kind brown eyes and high cheekbones combined with his mocha brown skin that appeared velvety and robust. Herb didn’t show any of the usual signs of a man his age. Especially one who has lived a hard life. His low cut hairstyle and neatly trimmed facial hair were the only visible indications of age. The light dusting of grey giving Herb a distinguished look.

“She is ok. She is giving the nursing staff a hard time.”

His face softened before he chuckled nervously, “Yeah that’s Marlene for you, obstinate to the end. You know she told the EMT that she was fine and didn’t need to go to the hospital. She pulled the oxygen out of her nose and tried to unhook the I.V bag. I had to threaten to duct tape her to the stretcher if she didn’t stop.”

The thought of her grandmother being duct taped to a gurney tickled Jasmine. What she wouldn’t give to have seen the look on her face as Herb held the roll of grey duct tape threateningly in the face of her feisty but very stubborn grandmother.

“Come on, let me take you inside,” Herb walked around the back of the vehicle heading towards the large home. Jasmine swung her small decorative backpack purse over her shoulder as she followed. “I have to head out in about an hour to go pick Mr. Ramirez up from the airport and take him to dinner. I don’t know if he is coming back tonight, but I will text you and let you know,” he said as they approached the 3 car garage.

One garage door was already open, but there was no vehicle inside. Herb continued to speak as they walked. He turned to make direct eye contact with Jasmine as he spoke, “Marlene usually leaves around 8 or 9 pm when he is in town and at 5 pm when he is away.”

Jasmine nodded her understanding as they entered the home through the interior garage door. She was lead into a large laundry area just inside from the garage. There was a fresh set of folded towels resting on top of the metallic silver front loading washer and dryer. There were two large bundles waiting to be put in their proper place.

“Don’t worry about those things. Victoria and her sister handle the household duties. They come every morning for about 4 hours or as needed and do a light dusting and cleaning. But really they just sit around and gossip with Marlene most of the day.” Herb steps faltered as he realized his slip of the tongue. He turned around lowering his voice “But, don’t tell her I said that.”

“Don’t worry I won’t,” Jasmine snickered at the fear that her grandmother put into the grown man even from a hospital bed miles away.

As they continued further into the home, they entered the expansive kitchen. The large center island took up most of the kitchen with its mahogany-colored base with light brown granite countertop. There was a copper-colored faucet on the far right side of the island and two adjacent leather bar chairs rested on the other end.

Jasmine gawked at the full expanse of the area. She was brought back to her senses by the familiar chirping sound of Mimi’s designated ringtone.

“I made it Mimi.”

“Did my casserole burn? If it burned tell Herb, I won’t cook another meal for him for a whole month.” Herb scoffed at overhearing Marlene’s empty threat.

“I told her I wouldn’t forget to take her casserole out,” he said annoyed at Marlene's lack of confidence in him.

Jasmine glanced around the kitchen her eyes landing on the wide stovetop with its ivory colored arched hooded cooktop. The glass dish was sitting on top of the stove covered and cooling.

“It’s out of the oven, and it is fine.”

“Ahh thank goodness,” Marlene breathed.

“By the way, Herb is offended that you didn’t think he would remember.”

“Pfft. Herb knows what good for him. Especially if he wants me to keep feeding him,” she voiced. A moment of pause came before Mimi spoke again. Her irritation seeming to have cooled a bit.

“Give him the phone for a moment,” she ordered softly.

Jasmine placed her hand over the phone as she mouthed, “She wants to speak to you.”

Herb turned his head away from the phone. Jasmine shook her head at Herb’s stubbornness. It was the same type of thing Mimi would do in this situation. They were two peas in a pod Jasmine thought while she pushed the phone up to his face forcing Herb to take the phone. He gave in taking the phone from her hands. His face set as he placed the phone his ear “Yeah,” he grunted out.

Jasmine couldn’t hear what was said, but she was sure that Herb told her grandmother how he couldn’t believe that she thought he would let dinner burn. He went quiet for a minute as he listened to her grandmother speak.

His face softened. “How are you doing? Are you ok? Do you need me to bring you anything,” he asked softly. Herb held the phone close to his ear as he listened intently. Jasmine was sure Mimi probably told him she didn’t need anything or was giving him a list a page long of comfort items she would need for her stay in the hospital.

“Ok… ok… I’ll come to see you once my shift is over…Ok…one sec.”

“She wants to speak to you.”

“Yes, Mimi.”

“You only have to stay late if Herb brings Edgar back to the house. If not you can leave about 8. Also, make sure the stove is turned of-,”

“Mimi I know how to run a kitchen remember.”

“I know sweetie, but you know how I am about making sure things are done right,”

“Don’t worry. I will make sure it is all spotless.”

“Well your mom is here,” she whispered, “I am surprised, to say the least.”

“Behave.”

“I will as long as she does because you know I don’t have time for none of her bullshit. I am the one in the hospital dying.”

“So now you’re dying,” she said sarcastically. Mimi was always one for the dramatics.

“Don’t get smart with me little girl. I can still get out of this bed and come kick your butt,” Mimi said a few more choice words before disconnecting without saying goodbye. Jasmine chuckled at Mimi’s tit for tat move from her hanging up in her face earlier.

Herb showed Jasmine around the rest of the house. The areas that her grandmother frequented and the areas that were off limits. The home had an indoor heated pool and sauna. Mahogany wood was the central theme throughout each of the spacious rooms. Crème colored walls and ceilings complimented the dark rich wood giving the home a comfortable lived in feel. But the lived in feel appeared to be just a facade. Although the furniture appeared comfortable to the eye and soft to the touch, Jasmine could not help but to note that it all appeared to be brand new. Not like the well-worn furniture in her own home. This home, although it was comfy looking, was still very cold and uninviting.

“All this space for one person,” she a loud.

“Yeah it’s a lot, but during the holidays Mr. Ramirez has a lot of family that flies in for a few days of celebrating. It’s usually quiet around here the rest of the year especially if he’s on location somewhere filming,”

Jasmine nodded as Herb gave her more information on the elusive owner of the home. She took notice that there were no photos of family or friends anywhere in the house. She inquired about this, but Herb shrugged not knowing what to say about it.

Jasmine followed Herb back into the kitchen where he began searching the cabinets. Finally finding what he was looking for he pulled out plates and silverware for the two of them. Serving up two big slices of Mimi’s casserole. The pair ate in silence enjoying the scrumptious dish too much to speak. Jasmine looked around the space, her mind wondering what type of man this elusive Mr. Ramirez was. For someone to have so much space but no real feel of home. The thought quickly vanished as she shoved another forkful of casserole into her mouth.

#edgar ramirez #edgar ramirez fanfiction #bright #kandomere #edgar ramirez x oc #original story #isisnicole #fanfic #i need some motivation #wip #my wip

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junker-town · 4 years

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LeBron James is a genius passer, and it’s solving every Lakers problem

LeBron James has kept the Lakers’ offense humming with his passing.

The Lakers lack a modern NBA offense, and it doesn’t matter because LeBron’s passing is that spectacular.

The Los Angeles Lakers, co-owners of the NBA’s best record after six years of dysfunction, entered the 2019-20 season with two critical weaknesses.

One was the lack of floor spacing that resulted from the coaching staff’s decision to start Anthony Davis at power forward alongside more traditional centers in a (successful) attempt to improve defensively. The other was a dearth of supplemental playmaking, which I wrote about (and dramatically overplayed in hindsight) after their season-opening loss to the Clippers.

They’ve found the solution to both of those problems in a place that was so obvious that anyone missing it should have been kicking themselves, present company included. They turned to some guy named LeBron James.

James is doing something he’s never really done in his illustrious career: he’s playing as a full-time point guard and doing it brilliantly. His league-leading 11 assists per game is useful shorthand, yet it underplays his impact because his X-ray vision and pinpoint accuracy has papered over LA’s two biggest flaws. He see openings others can’t and he sneaks those passes into tighter windows than even other elite playmakers can.

Because of that, LA’s spacing challenges don’t matter and they only need one primary playmaker to create good shots. The Lakers rank fourth in offense and second in shooting efficiency despite bucking several modern offensive trends. Most notably, they attempt the fifth-lowest percentage of their shots from three-point range in the league, and they are dead last by a mile in drives per game. In a league defined by the drive-and-kick, the Lakers don’t do much driving or kicking.

And yet, they score in bunches because LeBron is that good a conductor. He rifles kick-out passes into shooters’ pockets.

He puts just the perfect amount of touch on pocket bounce passes to rolling big men, allowing them to finish in stride even as help defenders creep far in from the opposite side. It’s easy to take dishes like this for granted, but they must be so accurate to beat the help. On another team with better half-court spacing, LeBron has more margin for error. On this team, any pass that’s a tiny bit off target is a turnover. Instead, these end in layups and dunks.

LeBron’s lob passes are similarly precise. When standing still, they beat teams trying to front Anthony Davis with backside help off non-shooters.

When on the move, James’ combination of touch and eye manipulation freezes help defenders — or, more brutally, causes them to retreat to cover a pass that’s not coming. (Poor Gary Harris).

It’s one thing to have those tools in your bag. It’s another to deploy them accurately without much of a window to do so. James has the vertical benefit of leapers like Davis, JaVale McGee, and Dwight Howard, but the limitations of his perimeter teammates shrink the horizontal space needed to fit passes in. LeBron’s kickout passes must be faster, his lob passes softer, and his pocket bounce passes more progressive to sneak through defenders’ long arms.

Because they are, the Lakers score much more than their supplementary offensive talent suggests they should, even when James isn’t directly assisting the made bucket. This corner three by Alex Caruso should not happen, but it does because James has ability to snap a perfect backdoor pass to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope through a tight crease.

James’ passing ingenuity is even more important when the Lakers aren’t going against set defenses. Last year, the Lakers planned to destroy teams in transition, using LeBron and all the young legs on the roster to force tempo. It failed spectacularly.

But now, the Lakers are doing exactly what they wanted to do last year, despite having a much older team and a coaching staff not known for pushing the pace. The Lakers rank third in the league in transition scoring efficiency, according to Cleaning the Glass, and lead the league in scoring efficiency off missed shots only. They are running less often than they did last year, yet are scoring far more points when they do.

That’s entirely due to LeBron’s skill in spot cheap scoring opportunities and cash them in with perfect passes. He’s the best deep route quarterback in the city, and not just because of Jared Goff’s regression.

He rewards big men who run the floor, especially if they have their man sealed and he can drop passes in over the top.

He spots open wings and finds them with pitch-ahead passes.

And he makes one specific pet play the Lakers use after opponent free throws possible. In those situations, the Lakers like to take Davis off the rebounding line and put him on the opposite block for early post-ups the other way. (They borrowed this tactic from Alvin Gentry, who used it during the Pelicans’ brief Davis-DeMarcus Cousins twin towers era). L.A. inbounds to LeBron, and he rushes the ball up to feed Davis as quickly as possible, giving him space to go one-on-one before help arrives.

As the year has progressed, LeBron has become more audacious with his post entry passes. He’ll sometimes eschew dribbling up the court and instead toss 60-foot bombs on a rope to Davis’ waiting arms. Many players can’t deliver the ball this accurately into a big man from six feet away, much less 60.

And opponents can’t get too comfortable overplaying these looooong passes, because LeBron is also on target with backdoor lobs from that far away.

These opportunistic buckets add up over the course of a game, and nobody on the planet creates them like LeBron.

Because he can, the Lakers are able to stack the deck elsewhere and not lose much offensively. They can play lineups filled with dogged perimeter defenders, all of which funnel ball-handlers into the waiting arms of their supersized frontcourt. Under normal circumstances, teams that emphasize defense as much as the Lakers do must accept the trade-off that come with using defense-first players that are limited on the other end. Instead, LeBron’s pinpoint passing allows the Lakers to have their cake and eat it too.

In one sense, this is a novel approach to using the post-millenium GOAT. Recent Heat and Cavaliers teams emphasized shooting over size, figuring that LeBron would become even more unstoppable with an open floor. That maximized LeBron’s biggest strength, and it clearly worked.

These Lakers, on the other hand, beefed up areas LeBron didn’t directly control while knowing that LeBron could raise the floor of anything more directly under his purview regardless. Instead of maximizing LeBron’s biggest strength, they brought potential team weaknesses to his level.

It’s different. It’s certainly a bit counterintuitive. But you certainly can’t argue with the results, at least so far.

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biofunmy · 4 years

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The N.B.A. Elite Are Now From Everywhere

Want more basketball in your inbox? Sign up for Marc Stein’s weekly N.B.A. newsletter here.

It was at the 2018 All-Star Game in Los Angeles that I asked Steve Nash, one of the foremost imports in N.B.A. history, if the league would ever be ready — really ready — for a Rest of the World vs. United States format for its annual midseason showcase.

“We’re getting there,” Nash said then.

Nash suggested that perhaps 2022 would be “the time to try it,” as a 30th anniversary tribute to the original Dream Team that wowed the world at the Barcelona Olympics.

That forecast is looking smarter every day.

Understandably somewhat lost last week amid the very sad news of the former N.B.A. commissioner David Stern’s death was the bulletin from the league office detailing the first batch of returns from fan balloting for next month’s All-Star Game in Chicago.

The leading vote-getter in the Eastern Conference: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo from Greece.

The leading vote-getter in the West: Dallas’s Luka Doncic of Slovenia.

Fan voting will always generate outrage for one reason or another. Boston’s little-used Tacko Fall, who placed sixth among East frontcourt candidates, and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Alex Caruso, who landed at No. 8 among West guards, were the primary causes for complaints from the opening round of polling. Yet you scarcely heard a quibble about the fact that LeBron James trailed both Giannis and Luka even though he has joined Anthony Davis in powering the Lakers to a 29-7 start.

Antetokounmpo is the league’s reigning Most Valuable Player Award winner and is playing at an even higher level this season. Doncic has yet to appear in an N.B.A. playoff game, but he has established himself as a consensus top-10 player by averaging a ridiculous 29.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 8.9 assists in his sophomore season — leading the upstart Mavericks to a surprising 23-13 record in the process.

Unlike Nash’s era, when the N.B.A. certainly featured numerous successful international players but only a few who were considered truly elite, there are several at that level besides Giannis and Luka.

The Cameroonian duo of Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and Toronto’s Pascal Siakam have their own gaudy stat lines that make them All-Star locks.

Denver’s Nikola Jokic (Serbia), despite some slippage in his numbers from last season, remains the unquestioned fulcrum for the team with the second-best record in the West.

Utah’s Rudy Gobert (France) is not assured of making his All-Star breakthrough next month because a defense-first reputation like his historically doesn’t help much in All-Star campaigning. But Gobert has made such an all-around impact for the Jazz that you can find his name on Basketball Reference’s M.V.P. tracker at a solid No. 10.

Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns, who was born in New Jersey but represents the Dominican Republic internationally, played in the past two All-Star Games and would be a cinch for a third appearance if not for a recent knee injury — and the Timberwolves’ slump to a 14-21 record from a 10-8 start.

Throw in top All-Star contenders such as Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons (Australia) and Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania) — as well as All-Stars of recent vintage such as Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic (Montenegro), Philadelphia’s Al Horford (Dominican Republic), Toronto’s Marc Gasol (Spain), Miami’s Goran Dragic (Slovenia) and Dallas’s Kristaps Porzingis (Latvia) — and the point becomes clear.

There may not quite be 12 internationals playing at an indisputable All-Star level as we speak, but it’s increasingly fair to ask, as Nash predicted, if we’re all that far away.

Porzingis, after all, is working his way back to an All-Star standard after a lengthy injury layoff. Two of Nash’s young fellow Canadians — Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver’s Jamal Murray — have also flashed All-Star potential. Recent top-five lottery picks include Phoenix’s Deandre Ayton (Bahamas) and the Knicks’ R.J. Barrett (Canada).

The way things are going, as we dribble into a new decade, it looks as though mathematical fairness is the only deterrent to N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver’s trying out a United States/World format.

There were 108 foreign-born players on opening-night rosters this season, meaning there were more than 300 American-born players. It simply wouldn’t be equitable for two groups of such disparate size to battle for 12 All-Star spots each.

But I also don’t believe that the league is married to its two-year-old system in which the two leading vote-getters, as captains, pick their respective squads without regard to conference. For all the anticipation and chatter that the made-for-television selection show generates, momentum from the first game played using this format in L.A. in 2018, after years of waning interest, did not carry over to the 2019 edition in Charlotte.

Don’t forget that Silver, when he initially proposed the introduction of an in-season tournament starting with the 2020-21 season, was looking at the final four of that competition as a potential replacement for the All-Star Game entirely. The league ultimately backed off that proposal when teams and the players’ union voiced resistance to an in-season tournament that would fall any later on the league’s calendar than December, but Silver’s original thinking suggests that the N.B.A. remains concerned about how flat All-Star Games tend to feel.

At the M.I.T. Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston in March, remember, Silver himself said the 2019 All-Star Game “didn’t work” and admitted that the most recent changes were akin to putting “an earring on a pig.”

Maybe the starry imports who have succeeded Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker and all the international stars from the last decade will never get their chance to engage the Americans in an All-Star duel. Maybe restricting that format to the Rising Stars Game featuring first- and second-year players, as the N.B.A. has done for the past five seasons, is the right call.

Yet the mere fact that the debate only gets stronger may be as fitting a tribute as we can muster for Stern — since taking the N.B.A. global before any other North American sport, and to a much greater degree, is such a huge slice of his legacy.

The Scoop @TheSteinLine

This newsletter is OUR newsletter. So please weigh in with what you’d like to see here. To get your hoops-loving friends and family involved, please forward this email to them so they can jump in the conversation. If you’re not a subscriber, you can sign up here.

You ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I’ll field three questions posed via email at [email protected]. (Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you’re writing in from, and make sure “Corner Three” is in the subject line.)

Q: Where would you rank David Stern as a commissioner compared to those in other sports like Pete Rozelle in the N.F.L., Bowie Kuhn or Fay Vincent in baseball, etc.? — Bob Purcell (San Diego)

Stein: I covered a smattering of all the major North American men’s team sports in my youth, but I have been covering the N.B.A. almost exclusively since February 1994. So it’s not really fair for me to answer this one.

I would naturally put Stern ahead of all his competitors because I know so much more about his work. Most of my older peers always say that mythical top spot has to go to either Stern or Rozelle. But as our own Harvey Araton sagely noted when I asked him, Stern’s edge may well be that on his watch the N.B.A. achieved relevance on social, cultural and international fronts that the N.F.L. — for all its advantages in TV prominence and in-stadium attendance — can’t match.

What I can say with greater confidence is that I will always wish Stern, upon ceding his office to Adam Silver in February 2014, would have spent a few years trying to bring order to a sport he loved almost as much as I do: tennis.

Tennis has always suffered greatly from the lack of a commissioner who could exert authority over the sport’s many (too many, really) competing factions. But Stern’s focus, for pretty much his entire adult life, was the N.B.A. and growing/enhancing/protecting his league. So I am forced to concede that it probably would have been hard for him to muster anywhere near the same passion for another sport in a working capacity.

Q: I have to agree with the recent comment here that the Raptors are mostly ignored by the American sports media. Maybe you are an exception, but why aren’t more people writing about the Chris Boucher story alone? — Kent Goodwin (Stowe, Vt.)

Stein: I think we’ve reached the point in this discussion where nothing I say is going to persuade the skeptics. But I think I will be vindicated when Coach of the Year Award voting results are released in June.

The Raptors awoke on Tuesday on a 54-win pace. If they maintain that level for the rest of the regular season, given the ridiculous string of injuries they’ve faced along the way, Nick Nurse will have a real shot at winning the C.O.Y. prize — and thus prove how closely the Raptors are being monitored south of the border in the post-Kawhi Leonard era.

It was suggested to me last week by a trusted insider that the Raptors just might surprise us again before the Feb. 6 trade deadline and emerge as buyers to fortify themselves for another playoff run. The widespread assumption coming into the season held that Toronto would trade the veteran likes of Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka to prepare for a reset in the summer of 2021 built around the free-agency pursuit of Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo. (I predicted as much myself.)

The safe bet remains that Masai Ujiri, Toronto’s president of basketball operations, will avoid any deals that affect the Raptors’ cap space in 2021. But the Raptors will be a huge source of curiosity over the next month — thanks in part to the unexpected contributions from the likes of Boucher, Terence Davis, Matt Thomas, Oshae Brissett and O.G. Anunoby — whether or not they’re generating reams of coverage.

Q: How convenient for you. Now you get to expand your hate for Houston beyond basketball. — @venramamurthy from Twitter

Stein: This tweet came in response to my social media cheering for the Buffalo Bills as a proud former Western New Yorker — which lasted until the Bills unraveled in Saturday’s A.F.C. wild-card loss to the Houston Texans to extend their drought without a playoff win to 1995.

The supposition from Venkat is that rooting against the Texans was a natural for me because I “hate” his Rockets.

We’re still not past this stuff in 2020, friends?

My only issues with Houston, here in the real world, are the traffic, how hard it is to get to Cafe Adel for some wonderful Bosnian food in that traffic when staying downtown and the oppressive weather from June to September (my quarrel with every city in Texas — including the one I live in).

Happy New Year!

Numbers Game

$2,615,000

In 20 years as the team owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban has accrued more than $2.6 million in publicly announced fines from the N.B.A., according to this ledger maintained by the longtime Mavericks historian Patricia Bender. Not all fines issued by the league office are made public.

The N.B.A.’s two Florida teams sport quite the contrast with their records in overtime games so far this season: Miami is 6-0, and Orlando is 0-0.

16-19

The Pacers finished three games under .500 last season after losing Victor Oladipo to a ruptured quadriceps muscle in his right leg and were swept by Boston in a first-round playoff series. After acquiring Malcolm Brogdon in an off-season sign-and-trade with Milwaukee, Indiana is on a 51-win pace this season without Oladipo but still doesn’t know when he will return.

3-2

The potential downside of the Los Angeles Clippers’ well-chronicled “load management” strategy with Kawhi Leonard is that they may have to settle for a playoff seed that forces them to play the Lakers sooner than the conference finals. Thanks to an underwhelming 3-2 mark since their impressive Christmas Day defeat of the Lakers, Kawhi and Co. awoke on Tuesday as the West’s No. 4 team — which has the Clippers on course for a second-round playoff encounter with their Staples Center cotenants.

The Lakers’ 20 blocked shots in a home win on Sunday over Detroit were a rarity. According to Basketball Reference, no N.B.A. team had recorded at least 20 blocked shots in a game since it happened twice in 2001: Toronto with 23 against Atlanta in March 2001 and the Raptors with 20 against Golden State in November 2001.

Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@marcsteinnba). Send any other feedback to [email protected].

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Living My Life Quotes

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• After three straight years of writing, though, I definitely needed a break to just go live my life. – Andy Cohen • As long as we continue to think we will be happy in the future, we will never be happy in the moment, and that is the same as saying that we will never be happy. If we think that our lives will be better when we get that better job or retire, stay or go, gain or lose weight, or when our children grow and leave or come back, we are putting off the happiness that there is in today. – Aminu Kano • As soon as I came to believe there was a God, I understood that I could not do otherwise than live only for him. – Charles de Foucauld • At times, my parents said, “Let’s get the child married,” and I said a big no. Impossible. How could I be with a woman? I told them, “If you try to get me married, I’ll get myself castrated and commit suicide.” It was the best weapon. They were shocked, and they knew that if I decided, I would do it. I was selfish. I just wanted to live my life. – Laxmi Narayan Tripathi • Avoiding problems you need to face is avoiding the life you need to live. – Paulo Coelho

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Liv', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_liv').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_liv img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Because this is how it feels to live my life: scattered, fragmented, and exhausting. – Brigid Schulte • Because we take these huge long breaks, and then I just kind go, “Okay, fine, this is the way that I’ve chosen to live my life, and if the band now fades into obscurity, so be it, that’s my decision.” But then we come back and it’s still as big as ever, or bigger. It’s always been a surprise to me, that it worked out that way. – Milo Aukerman • Before I take my last breath, before my last flower withers, I wish to live, I wish to make love, I wish to be in this world close to those who need me, those who I need, in order to learn, comprehend and rediscover that I can be and I want to be better at every moment. – Ahmad Shamloo • Blessed with some success, so I’mma try my best to live my life right. When I see God, he’ll be impressed. – Mac Miller • Boys have said in the past that I live my life like a movie. I love all things romantic, like kissing in the rain. – Mollie King

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling] • Civilization tries to persuade us we are going towards something, a distant goal. We have forgotten that our only goal is to live, to live each and every day, and that if we live each and every day, our true goal is achieved. – Jean Giono • Cooking, I mean, food, cooking foods is just everything that I do from morning to night. It’s how I choose to live my life: through cooking, people that are in food culture. And I love it. – Rene Redzepi • Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. – Dolly Parton • Each one of us has lived through some devastation, some loneliness, some weather superstorm or spiritual superstorm, when we look at each other we must say, I understand. I understand how you feel because I have been there myself. We must support each other and empathize with each other because each of us is more alike than we are unalike. – Maya Angelou • Everything’s a film idea if this is what you do.I’ve always been secretly confident that I’d never run out of ideas,because I’ve never had any. I just live my life, see things theway I do, and I’m just looking for a notion to hang it all on. – Alan Rudolph • Fundamentalist s live life with an exclamation point. I prefer to live my life with a question mark. – Amos Oz • Handicaps are mindsets. Whatever it is that stands in the way of achieving something, that’s when it’s a handicap. I prefer to see them as obstacles or challenges. This is how I’ve been my whole life. I don’t know any different. I just live my life through my feet. – Jessica Cox • He things that they’re rejecting are things that I can’t change. I can’t change my bra size. They’re natural! I can work out and I can stay healthy and motivated, but I can’t change some things. I really just live my life. I love my body. It’s what God gave me! I feel confident with myself, and if that inspires other women to feel confident with their bodies, great. – Kate Upton • Hope rises and dreams flicker and die. Love plans for tomorrow and loneliness thinks of yesterday. Life is beautiful and living is pain. – Hunter S. Thompson • How can I stand on the ground every day and not feel its power? How can I live my life stepping on this stuff and not wonder at it? – William Logan • How you live your life is a testimony of what you believe about God. – Henry Blackaby • I am a Christian and I don’t want there to be any confusion about what I believe or who I am. I don’t believe gay people are going to hell. I believe that judgment is left to the one upstairs and I believe Jesus is all about love. If I can live my life even just a smidgen the way God made his son for us as an example, I’m happy. I do not judge other people for what they believe, but for me, this is what works. – Kristin Chenoweth • I am a conservative Republican, but I believe in democracy and the separation of church and state. The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please as long as they don’t hurt anyone else in the process. – Barry Goldwater • I am merely asking for a first chance to live my life outside the [U.S. Disciplinary Barracks] as the person I was born to be. – Chelsea Manning • I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. – Abraham Lincoln • I am nothing if not rational about what is worthy of my anxiety and what is not, and I refuse to live my life as if a giant bus is just around the corner, waiting to crush me the minute I step off the curb. – Deborah Copaken • I am proud of my achievements, my work ethic, and the way I live my life. The PGA Tour not only treated me unfairly, but displayed a lack of professionalism that should concern every professional golfer and fan of the game. – Vijay Singh • I believe how I live my life every day is my act of worship. – Jack Layton • I can only live my life in this way. I don’t think I would be living it a different way if I wasn’t acting. – Dakota Fanning • I can worship Nature, and that fulfills my need for miracles and beauty. Art gives a spiritual depth to existence — I can find worlds bigger and deeper than my own in music, paintings, and books. And from my friends and family I receive the highest benediction, emotional contact, and personal affirmation. I can bow before the works of Man, from buildings to babies, and that fulfills my need for wonder. I can believe in the sanctity of Life, and that becomes the Revealed Word, to live my life as I believe it should be, not as I’m told to by self-appointed guides. – Neil Peart • I can’t live my life under the sort of “I cannot fail” philosophy, because then every time I do fail, which feels more inevitable than me being perfect all the time, it’s going to be soul crushing. And more importantly, I’ll never take any risks. – Damon Lindelof • I can’t play the game of basketball and live my life on what other people expect me to do or what they think I should do. That doesn’t make me happy. What makes me happy is being able to make plays for my teammates, to be able to represent the name on the back of my jersey. – LeBron James • I chose to live my life unafraid even during times when I WAS afraid. I discovered that opportunities don’t find you; you find your opportunities. – John Gokongwei • I couldn’t imagine living my life with another name. – Pete Postlethwaite • I didn’t ask to become a role model, but it was thrust upon all of us, regardless of whether you acknowledge it. You have to come to a decision as an adult and say, “I’ve got to live my life.” There’s nothing wrong with thinking ahead and being aware of how it might affect somebody – everything from a post to where you have dinner to who you’re with. But these aren’t things you can let consume your life. – Nick Jonas • I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t use drugs. That may be boring for some people, but that’s just me. That’s how I live my life. That stuff never appealed to me and I never understood getting so messed up that you can’t even walk home or remember the previous night. I choose to live my life without it. – CM Punk • I don’t ask anyone else to live my life. I have enough trouble doing that. – Hillary Clinton • I don’t like to let my celebrity interfere with me living my life. I like to meet people, I like to talk to people. – Rob Lowe • I don’t live my life as a Christian with trepidation, feeling that perhaps I’ve failed to give the best gospel possible on each occasion, but realising that God’s taking care of a lot through his Holy Spirit. – Larry Norman • I don’t live my life on the road. I’m getting on a bit and there’s a lot of other things in my life. Our lovely children and their lives. It’s more of a part-time business these days. – David Gilmour • I don’t live my life thinking about “if only.” I just try to think positively about the future. We’ll never know for certain what would have happened if we’d gone to Iraq. The important thing is that we’ve got to do everything we can to prevent other wars. – Richard Branson • I don’t look for [comedic moments] actually, I just live my life. – Gerry Dee • I don’t make plans. I live my life on a daily basis. – Paulo Coelho • I don’t really ever live my life in fear. I really live my life in gratitude and feeling positive for the most part. – Ellen DeGeneres • I don’t really know how to live my life, just like lots of other people don’t. I guess you just learn along the way. – Marina and the Diamonds • I don’t really think about dance except just before rehearsals start. I put it off. I don’t live my life thinking about dance – Paul Taylor • I don’t think anything has changed about me but my priorities have changed. At one point I was living my life and I didn’t see a direct correlation between who I was affecting with my actions. I’m not as reckless, I’m probably not as fun or funny. I’ve turned to my dad’s sense of humor. I think that having a family has put a lot more focus on what I do. – Anthony Green • I don’t want to write my life. I live my life. I want to make up a new world. – Peter Hedges • I feel like somehow I’m living my life mentally in reverse. It’s taken me to my 30s to feel relaxed and comfortable in my skin. I think I’m going to be dancing on tables when I’m 50. I really hope I am. – Karen Elson • I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacation with better care than they do their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change – Jim Rohn • I found power in accepting the truth of who I am. It may not be a truth that others can accept, but I cannot live any other way. How would it be to live a lie every minute of your life. – Alison Goodman • I get that you’re scared and that you’ve been hurt. But doing what is easy and safe is no way to live, and a life without passion and love is so far beneath what you deserve. – Kiersten White • I hate motorcycles. Because if I hit one, even if it’s not my fault, if I’ve done nothing wrong, I’m not charged with manslaughter, he’s gonna die, because he’s on a motorcycle. So I have to live my life knowing that I killed this guy. – Chuck Klosterman • I have always tried to live my life as a just and humble person. When the sanctions were announced, Europe should have questioned the people who have been sanctioned as well as to find the truth. That did not happen. How can Europe act fairly? Do they base their decisions on hearsay? – Joseph Kabila • I have seen many phases of life; I have moved in imperial circles, I have been a Minister of State; but if I had to live my life again, I would always remain in my laboratory, for the greatest joy of my life has been to accomplish original scientific work, and, next to that, to lecture to a set of intelligent students. – Jean-Baptiste Dumas • I just live my life and try to be present. – Lenny Kravitz • I just try to live my life and do my thing. – Robert Mapplethorpe • I just want to live my life the best way I can and enjoy the moment that I have off the court because you need to find a good balance. I think this is very important. – Grigor Dimitrov • I know how I live my life. I have a little magnet brain that attracts the kind of things that obsess me. – Sophie Calle • I know that I set an example so I don’t want niggas following my steps. I don’t want anybody to go do the things that I did cuz for real at times I didn’t even think I was gonna make it. I was hoping I didn’t get killed. I don’t want nobody to try to live my life. – Cormega • I know that what’s happened in the election has changed American reality, and I understand that I have to change with it. I have to rethink how I live my life. I’m not a political essayist; I don’t see that I would have any value cranking out articles for newspapers or magazines, because lots of people are doing that already. – Paul Auster • I live my life as I deem appropriate and fitting; I offer no apologies, no explanations. – Aaron Burr • I live my life by the numbers. Not only am I an American, I am an Americanist. – Henry Rollins • I live my life in a way that I feel completely comfortable with. I don’t struggle with who I am, who I date, who I love, what I say or what I stand for, not just sexuality but everything. – Sara Quin • I live my life in faith as I explore and challenge myself and others. – Anna Eshoo • I live my life like there’s no yesterday. – Dane Cook • I live my life on self-belief and I live it partly on going with the flow. – Melanie Brown • I live my life outside of the glitz and glamour of the red carpet events, and so you’ll never see me there. I’m never at parties. – Werner Herzog • I live my life through the prism of capitalism and physiological limits and eventualities. – Henry Rollins • I live my life trying to never appear to be a small man. – Julius Erving • I live my life until there’s no more living to be done. Because you never know when it’s going to stop. Wake up tomorrow and it could all be gone, bro. All the cars, all the motorcycles, everything. All the memories. We could go into a state of emergency, you know, and the world goes to war. The money won’t count for nothing. – Fetty Wap • I live my life with no regrets. Each decision of mine has define my life in a certain way – Katrina Kaif • I love my kids, I’m a proud father, a happy husband, and all of that. I live my life with my wife as a normal person, and that’s that. – Kevin Federline • I may be revered or defamed and decried; But I tried to live my life right. – Tracy Chapman • I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth. – William F. Buckley, Jr. • I met my manager when I was in high school and I just started playing guitar. He came from a line of managing incredible artists. He said instead of opting for the quick fix he wanted me to go out and live my life and get some experience under my belt and keep in touch. It took me a long time to get to where I am but I wouldn’t change it for nothing. It’s been very valuable. Life happened and then the music came. – Courtney Jaye • I never imagined that I would be the kind of person who is recognized when I am out and about just living my life. – Roxane Gay • I now have faith in those who say they represent a faith. Whereas before I was like, ‘Do not give me a lecture on how to live my life when I know I’m a pretty decent human being. I might not go to church every day, but I know I do the right thing or try to. You’re going to church and you’re still sleeping around on your wife and spending everyone’s money. How are you better than I am?’ So I’ve finally met people that walk the walk and it’s made me happy, really happy. – Sandra Bullock • I put a lot of pressure on myself early in my life, like, “You have to be perfect; you can’t do anything.” You basically can’t show any emotion and speak up. And then I realized that I have to live my life for myself. – Rowan Blanchard • I really prefer to be kind of anonymous. Because when people know your whole history, they have a tendency to relate to you differently and maybe put you up on a pedestal. I want people to just be normal with me. I just want to live my life. – Assata Shakur • I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life. I don’t mean to be reckless, but setting a goal that seems a bit daunting actually is very helpful toward recovery. – Christopher • I refuse to live my life in fear. – Fela Kuti • I research, write, travel and teach. I rarely arrange for spare time. If we do not fill our days with high priority actions they will fill with low priority actions. I would prefer to live my life according to my highest priorities and do what I love, which again is research, write, travel and teach. It is my mission and calling. It is what inspires me. It is my destiny. – John Frederick Demartini • I run 5 miles every night. It’s where I go to digest my day, hash out the multitude of information that’s been poured into me in the last wild six months or so, and to try and condense it down to some sort of cohesive strategy to live my life by. – Ryan Holiday • I spend half my time just living my life, and the other half analyzing it. – David Schwimmer • I spend my time trying to figure art out. I was brought up to believe that the way one processes information is by making it into art. That’s how I live my life. – Sean Lennon • I think i’m just breathing, that’s all. And there’s a difference between breathing and being alive. – John Boyne • I think what I have done is claimed the space and pushed it forward as much as I can in relationship to who I am and how I live my life. – Mickalene Thomas • I truly do live my life a day at a time. When I talk to people trying to get through anything, it’s a day at a time. If people stop to think, “It’s going to be potentially three years and 10 months for the new president to come in,” that’s a very long time and that can have major effects on somebody’s psyche. But if you take this thing a day at a time, and break it down a little differently, and do what you can do today, it will make it easier for people to move forward, and it makes it easier for me to move forward. – Marty Walsh • I try not to live my life on my phone or my social media pages. Most of the time, I feel better and happier and I learn more when I’m not on my phone, all day, or a computer, or an iPad. – Jane Levy • I try to live my life like my father lives his. He always takes care of everyone else first. He won’t even start eating until he’s sure everyone else in the family has started eating. Another thing: My dad never judges me by whether I win or lose. – Ben Roethlisberger • I try to live my life to the best, but I just always preach that you should just work hard and do your best. – Usain Bolt • I used to be a bit obsessed by acting but not anymore. I do enjoy acting but I probably enjoy it more now because it’s easier. I can’t work in the theater because to me it’s too serious. It’s like being in prison for me. I admire people that can do that but I can’t do it. I’d rather live my life and do a bit of acting in between. – Anthony Hopkins • I want to grow up, live my life, experience things, make movies about those experiences and by the time the audience catches up, hopefully they’ll have a movie there that helps them get through that next phase when they discover life isn’t always like High School Musical. – Zac Efron • I want to live my life in a way that when I get really old, I look back at my life and say: aaah I lived it, not survived it. – Kate Moss • I want to live my life naked, with all my little naked kids naked in the garden. – Candice Swanepoel • I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets. – D. H. Lawrence • I was constantly told and challenged to live my life as a warrior. As a warrior, you assume responsibility for yourself. The warrior humbles himself. And the warrior learns the power of giving. – Billy Mills • I was just living my life, and that’s what I wanted to do. – Fred Korematsu • I wear my heart on my sleeve and live my life as openly and honestly as I can. – Nico Tortorella • I will not try to run my own life or the lives of others; that is God’s business. – Eugene H. Peterson • I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live as if there isn’t and to die to find out that there is. – Albert Camus • I wouldn’t want to promote teenage girls having sex. But the reality is, it’s happening, and they’re just a little too young to understand how careful they need to be. That’s a big battle with me, because I’m 23, and a lot of my fans are eight years younger than I am, so there’s a bit of a tug-of-war there. I want to set the right example and, at the same time, live my life. – Rihanna • If I can’t be daring in my work or the way I live my life, then I don’t really see the point of being on this planet. – Madonna Ciccone • If I could change the way I live my life today, I wouldn’t change a single thing. – Lisa Stansfield If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner. – Tallulah Bankhead • If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice. – Terry Pratchett • If I read a script and the subject stays with me – then that’s when I want to go to work. Before, I was very addicted to being on set, and I was doing three or four movies a year for many years. Now, fortunately, I can go to work only when I am passionate about a project, and the rest of the time, I can live my life. I’m not interested in doing movies just as a marathon. When I go to work now, I have much more to give. But the other way, you get empty. – Penelope Cruz • If I were to live my life over again, I would be an American. I would steep myself in America, I would know no other land. – Henry James • If I’m using Nonviolent Communication I never, never, never hear what somebody thinks about me. Never hear what somebody thinks about you, you’ll live longer. You’ll enjoy life more. Hear the truth. The truth is that when somebody’s telling you what’s wrong with you, the truth is they have a need that isn’t getting met. Hear that they’re in pain. Don’t hear the analysis. – Marshall B. Rosenberg • If you want to live in Tennessee, God bless you, I wish for you a long life and starry evenings. But that is not where I want to live my life. I want to live my life in Carthage, in Athens. I want to live my life in Rome. I want to live my life in the center of the world. I want to live my life in Los Angeles. – Richard Rodriguez • I’m a high femme lesbian who loves butch women. That erotic identity has an enormous amount to do with how I live my life, who I live my life with and what it is we can or can’t do. – Amber Hollibaugh • I’m a really big believer in self care. One of the ways I nourish my soul is I eat the way I live my life – joyfully. – Tracee Ellis Ross • I’m connected to the event of 9/11 by my desire to do something to honor the 9/11 survivors and those who didn’t survive. Something that moves our society forward, something that engages children in what it means to be a citizen and encourages them to love and be inclusive. Because if we don’t live our lives well – if I don’t live my life well – it’s an affront to all the people who were involved in the tragedy of 9/11. – Jewell Parker Rhodes • I’m just going to live my life and be who I am. – Halle Berry • I’m just living my life, and I’m not gonna live my life for other people. – Taylor Momsen • I’m just living my life. – Curtis Joseph • I’m living my life for an audience of one. I live my life to please God. And I believe if He’s pleased, that people like my mother and my daddy, my grandparents, you know, my husband, my children, they’ll be pleased. – Anne Graham Lotz • I’m making art and making decisions and editing things. I don’t live my life to broadcast it into the art world; I don’t see it as my life on the stage. – Frances Stark • I’m more comfortable with my beliefs and with who I am. I honestly don’t think about it that much. I just try to live my life and I try to love people. I try to love God well and I try to love people well. Those are my main objectives. – Kelly Clark • I’m not going to wallow in self-pity and not live my life. There are always going to be some falls in life for everybody, no matter what career you have. You have to roll with the punches and keep going. – Naomi Campbell • I’m not living my life under the spotlight for anybody. – Annie Lennox • I’m not living the life I thought I would lead, but it does have meaning, purpose. There is love… there is joy… there is laughter. – Christopher Reeve • I’m pretty comfortable with my body. I’m imperfect. The imperfections are there. People are going to see them, but I take the view you only live once. – Kate Hudson • I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to. – Jimi Hendrix • I’m trying to focus as much on the here and now as possible. To live my life in a way that the humans that I know here on the planet Earth feel like they’ve been treated with respect by me, whether they’re people that I’m very close to or the audience who’s watching my work. – Damon Lindelof • In general I usually don’t really go by or live my life by a clock and outside of touring I don’t really ask anyone else to. It’s not out of lack of respect for anyone or intentional. – Axl Rose • In today’s world where, more than ever, the ongoing concentration of money and power in the hands of a self-selected few, relies on political and public apathy, Live My Life provides a much needed shot of timely, thought-provoking, musically forward, irreverence to the status quo. – Nomi Prins • It felt to me like I was living my life in a way that didn’t make mockery of my values. That’s what I intended to do. So, that became a very radicalizing proposition for me. – Bill Ayers • It gives me great peace to know that no matter how good or how bad I do, the Lord loves me. That’s all that really matters to me. Baseball isn’t what everything is about. It’s about the way I’m being a Christian husband, a Christian father, or the way I’m living my life and trying to be a Christian testimony to people. – Andy Pettitte • It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. – Marcus Aurelius • It is not what you gather but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived. – Helen Walton • It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living. – Terry Pratchett • It seems to me if I would want to access the special, mysterious, mystical, powerful and most important, I simply need to live my life more fully. – Bryan Kest • It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living. – F. Scott Fitzgerald • It’s believing in those dreams and facing our fears head on that allows us to live our lives beyond our limits. – Amy Purdy • It’s fantastic because I’ve been living thousands of lives, not only my life. – Claudia Cardinale • It’s my choice, to choose how to live my life. – Virginia Woolf • It’s nice to have some perspective, when you are just touring, touring, touring, it becomes kind of a crazy experience. But, when I have time off and live my life at home, and then I get back to the airport and I am back with my whole family again. My brother, my band, my tour manager and sound guy get to re-unite, it’s kind of an uplifting feeling to be rolling with such a crew and so much gear from country to country. It feels good. – Justin Nozuka • It’s not something that I can put on and take off anymore, like I said, I’ve had my years of confusion and wondering who I really (was) and why and how do I live my life and make sense of it all, but I’m not confused about that any longer. I think the world might be — but I’m not. – Rachel Dolezal • It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined. – Henry James • It’s true that the Internet is an equalizer, and everybody can be a star now. Musicians are more touchable these days, and that’s a good thing. It’s certainly the way I like to live my life, and it’s why I don’t do concerts in big arenas – I prefer to be in touch with my audience. – Cat Stevens • I’ve been having a lot of trouble sleeping as we all should. I dunno. You don’t live that long. It doesn’t matter. – Louis C. K. • I’ve just decided that I have to continue to live my life and do what I do. Hopefully, people love me because of who I am, not who I pretend to be. – Ashley Greene • I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened. – Mark Twain • I’ve never been one to get up on a soapbox and preach. I just live my life the way I live my life. – Ingrid Michaelson • Laughter and irony are at heart reminders that we are not prisoners in this world, but voyagers through it. – Eben Alexander • LIFE = (L)ive (I)N (F)ull (E)ffect!!!!!!! – Joseph Simmons • Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. – Soren Kierkegaard • Life is not a dress rehearsal – wake up every day excited to live out your purpose. – Andrew Wommack • Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. – Ralph Ellison • Life isn’t long enough to do all you could accomplish. And what a privilege even to be alive. In spite of all the pollutions and horrors, how beautiful this world is. Supposing you only saw the stars once every year. Think what you would think. The wonder of it! – Tasha Tudor • Live My Life provides a much needed shot of timely, thought-provoking, musically forward, irreverence to the status quo. – Nomi Prins • Live your life to the fullest. – Shakira • Look what they did to MaCauley Culkin. The poor child. I know because I’ve been there. But I could say after living my life, truth will always win out. And no one can take my character away from me anymore. – Linda Blair • Look, a lot of people don’t think that the way that I live my life is a real thing, that it exists, that having a broad spectrum of sexual orientation is even possible. – Nico Tortorella • Man’s ideal state is realized when he has fulfilled the purpose for which he is born. And what is it that reason demands of him? Something very easy-that he live in accordance with his own nature. – Seneca the Younger • My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. – Clarence Budington Kelland • My goal in life is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared. – Mary Kay Ash • My mom was an enthusiastic, positive, glass-is-half-full type of person and that is how I live my life and I owe that to her. She was an amazing woman. – Kliff Kingsbury • No matter your obstacles, live a happy life. – Sam Berns • Not to engage in this pursuit of ideas is to live like ants instead of like men. – Mortimer Adler • Now I still see those things but I’m completely over it. I threw negativity out the window and just live my life for me and my baby. Hopefully I inspire women to do the same in life, with whatever makes them happy. – Amber Rose • One must picture everything in the world as an enigma, and live in the world as if in a vast museum of strangeness. – Giorgio de Chirico • Only human beings can reorder their lives any day they choose by refining their philosophy. – Jim Rohn • Part One: I do not exist to impress the world. I exist to live my life in a way that will make me happy. Part Two: Everybody else is free to do whatever they feel like doing, for a living. Part Three: Responsible is Able to Respond, able to answer for the way we choose to live. There’s only one person we have to answer to, of course, and that is ourselves. – Richard Bach • People ask me: “Do I consider myself to be a Latino writer?” “What does it mean to be Latino?” Those are very strange questions to answer , but feminism is easier because it’s just an ideology, a way I live my life. And absolutely in the most political sense I try to sit down and write very strong female roles. – Quiara Alegria Hudes • Photography is all about capturing a mood, a feeling. I feel a special connection with nature, often very powerful. This late afternoon was phenomenal. Standing on the edge of the ocean, I gasped in awe as the holy light illuminated this cathedral window. Witnessing such a moment and capturing it is what I live for. Mother Nature is so powerful, I never underestimate Her. – Peter Lik • Religion means living your own life, completely fresh and new, without being taken in by anyone. – Kodo Sawaki • Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. – Oscar Wilde • Some 30 years later I found myself back here again [in Vietnam] on what was to be a short visit that lasted months, and since then I’ve been living my life with one foot in Ho Chi Minh City and the other in Fair Oaks, California. – Doug Rice • Some men live their lives terrified. Terrified of the night and all that is dark. I will live my life eternally in fear of the light of day. – Barnabas • Some people are going to be happy (with my decision). Some people aren’t. But I must live my life. – Thomas Hearns • Some people have learned to earn well but they haven’t learned to live well. – Jim Rohn • Sometimes you gotta go with your first instinct. You gotta go with your gut. That’s kind of how I live my life, you gotta go with your gut. – Michael B. Jordan • Straight away, remove yourself from the field of spiritual progression , stay away from contemplation and skillful discourse, do not do research or meditate on the divinities, and stop concentrating and reciting textbooks! Tell me, what is the absolute nature of reality which allows no room for doubt? Listen carefully! Stop holding on to this or that, inhabit your true absolute nature, and peacefully enjoy the essence of what it is to be alive! – Abhinavagupta • Thankfully, I’m not put in a position where I’m made to feel like I can’t live my life. – Nicholas Thorburn • The doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend all to the happiness of man, that there is only one God and God is perfect. That God and man are one. That to love God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself, is the sum of religion. These are the great points on which I endeavor to reform and live my life. – Thomas Jefferson • The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be. – Socrates • The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. – Charles R. Swindoll • The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. – Alan Watts • The most important thing in my life is to live my life and enjoy it–to do what I think is right and what I think is good. – Jaye Davidson • The New Testament has had a really powerful effect on how I write and how I live my life. – Anna Quindlen • The notion of the writer as a kind of sociological sample of a community is ludicrous. Even worse is the notion that writers should provide an example of how to live. Virginia Woolf ended her life by putting a rock in her sweater one day and walking into a lake. She is not a model of how I want to live my life. On the other hand, the bravery of her syntax, of her sentences, written during her deepest depression, is a kind of example for me. But I do not want to become Virginia Woolf. That is not why I read her. – Richard Rodriguez • The secret to so many artists living so long is that every painting is a new adventure. So, you see, they’re always looking ahead to something new and exciting. The secret is not to look back. – Norman Rockwell • The trail compels you to know yourself and to be yourself, and puts you in harmony with the universe. It makes you glad to be living. It gives health, hope, and courage, and it extends that touch of nature which tends to make you kind.- Enos Mills • The way I played the game, the way I live my life, is very emotional. – Brett Favre • Theater is the foundation of how I live my life, actually. My father was a playwright, so I was around it all the time and loved to talk shop with him, just loved it. And basically everything that I hold to be good and true and worthy, I learned in the theater. So not even just about the work, but just about life. Discipline, problem solving, creativity, how to get along with people. – Laura Linney • There is no stress. I live my life, I enjoy it and when I am comfortable I can get married. – Usain Bolt • There’s a house across the river, but alas, I cannot swim I’ll live my life regretting that I never jumped in – Laura Marling • There’s no way I set out to be a certain kind of symbol – the way I dress is the way I am, the way I live my life. – Pamela Anderson • Time is short. Eternity is long. It is only reasonable that this short life be lived in the light of eternity. – Charles Spurgeon • To hell with your cancer. I’ve been living with cancer for the better part of a year. Right from the start, it’s a death sentence. That’s what they keep telling me. Well, guess what? Every life comes with a death sentence, so every few months I come in here for my regular scan, knowing full well that one of these times – hell, maybe even today – I’m gonna hear some bad news. But until then, who’s in charge? Me. That’s how I live my life. – Walter White • To live well and honorably and justly are the same thing. – Socrates • Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement. – Golda Meir • Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die; another’s life, another’s death, I stake my whole eternity. – Horatius Bonar • We are born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Everything in-between is a gift. – Yul Brynner • We lay out our lives in a narrative we understand, like a movie, but are you enjoying making it or are you wondering who’s watching my movie. – Donald Glover • We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know where you’re aiming, you don’t have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared. – Mary Kay Ash • We’re living in an acquisitive capitalist society that is fundamentally anti-family and fundamentally uncomfortable with just enjoying being human. We’d rather shop than live, acquire than love and stare into a screen than hold each other. – Frank Schaeffer • We’ve been living on a high, they’ve been talking on the low. But it’s cool, know you heard it all before. – Drake • What have I done with my baptism and confirmation? Is Christ really at the center of my life? Do I have time for prayer in my life? Do I live my life as a vocation and mission? – Pope John Paul II • What I am thinking and doing day by day is resistlessly shaping my future, — a future in which there is no expiation except through my own better conduct. No one can save me. No one can live my life for me. It is mine for better or for worse. If I am wise, I shall begin to-day by the simplest and most natural of all processes to build my own truer and better world from within. – Horatio Dresser • What lasting impact will I make on the world and those around me? What will I live my life for? How will I be remembered? I want to leave the world a better place than it was when I got here. I want to experience as much as I can in this very short life that we have. – Theo Rossi • When I was 19, I was in a horrific car accident, and it taught me that at the end of our life, we ask all these questions. And my questions, I discovered, were: Did I really live my life? Did I love? Did I matter? And I was unhappy with the answers. – Brendon Burchard • With regard to life, modern painting is a revolutionary activity…We need it in order to transform the world into a more humane place where mankind can live in liberty…We must accept these things with passion. It means that we must live imaginatively. – Wifredo Lam • Yoga does not remove us from the reality or responsibilities of everyday life but rather places our feet firmly and resolutely in the practical ground of experience. We don’t transcend our lives; we return to the life we left behind in the hopes of something better. – Donna Farhi • Yoga has expanded beyond asana for me. It’s how I live my life and currently I’m throwing myself into a meditation practice. – Kathryn Budig • You couldn’t relive your life, skipping the awful parts, without losing what made it worthwhile. You had to accept it as a whole–like the world, or the person you loved. – Stewart O’Nan • You have two choices: You can make a living, or you can design a life. – Jim Rohn

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equitiesstocks · 4 years

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Living My Life Quotes

Official Website: Living My Life Quotes

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walruspush87-blog · 5 years

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Kobe: Lakers champs again 'before you know it'

LOS ANGELES -- Kobe Bryant says the growing pains LeBron James and the Lakers have endured for much of this season are a necessary evil but that they will square things away soon enough.

Bryant, speaking at the Lakers' annual "All-Access" event at Staples Center on Monday, said they have "a determination to figure it out."

"They will figure it out," Bryant said. "They have talented pieces and (Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka) has put them in position with incredible flexibility. They will figure it out. So, enjoy the journey because we'll be champions before you know it, and then we'll just be laughing at all the Warrior fans who all of the sudden came out of nowhere."

Bryant said James' approach to his maiden voyage with the Lakers is not conducive to long-term success, but that it was needed at this stage in the team's development.

"It's a test of Bron's patience and also doing what he needs to do to keep the team's head above water," Bryant told Lakers play-by-play announcer Bill MacDonald at the "All-Access" event. "So, it's a balancing act. They were struggling, Bron got the ball, took control, decided to start playing point, doing everything, doing everything.

"That's the challenge I've been kind of battling with since the season started," James said after scoring a game-high 38 against the Pacers. "How much do I defer and allow some of our young guys to figure out, and how much do I try to take over games?"

Magic Johnson reiterated the Lakers will continue to lighten LeBron James' load compared to how he was utilized in Cleveland.

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"That's not the recipe for winning championships by no means, but it is a recipe to keep your head above water, to give yourself a little breathing room, and now it's going back to teaching how to play the way that we want to play."

L.A. started the season 2-5, prompting Lakers team president of basketball operations Magic Johnson to dress down coach Luke Walton in an intense closed-door meeting.

Since then, the Lakers have stabilized and steadily climbed the standings, ranking No. 5 in the Western Conference with a record of 14-9 heading into Wednesday's game against the San Antonio Spurs. James, who turns 34 this month, is averaging 27.8 points, 7.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game for the Lakers and has played in all 23 of L.A.'s games.

Bryant retired in 2016 but has stayed connected to some of the Lakers. He has deep friendships with Jeanie Buss, the Lakers governor, and Pelinka, who used to be his agent during his playing days. He also is tied to the Lakers' young core, working out with several players in the summertime. Now he watches those young pieces try to mesh with James, his longtime peer and sometimes rival, and is seeing the process play out.

"Coming in here, to this organization and this city, it's not anything that's new to him," Bryant said of James. "He's always had the spotlight. He's been able to deal with that gracefully. I think the difference here is that you have a collection of players and a lot of talent, all young. And so the challenge is, can they figure out what their games are individually sooner rather than later?

"Because at the beginning of the season, you saw a collection of individual talent try to figure out what it is that they can do and where they can do it on the floor -- what are their games? And at the same time, try to figure out how to make those games blend in as a group. Right? And you can't have both."

Bryant said that restlessness is OK for the young players to feel, but that pressure has to come from within each individual, not from the outside.

"The patience is on all of us. We have to be patient," Bryant said. "But as a player, you're never patient with yourself. You're patient with each other, but not with yourself. You want to be there now. And you work to be there now with an understanding that it is going to take time. But you want to be there now. That's the way that you accelerate growth. They have a lot of potential, man. They'll figure it out."

Bryant, who announced the launch of the Mamba Sports Academy on Monday -- a holistic athletic training facility for young athletes located in Thousand Oaks, California -- detailed filling his days during retirement with both his business ventures and coaching his daughter, Gianna's, 12-year-old girls' basketball team. Bryant's team recently staged a game against his former agent and Pelinka's 10-year-old son's boys' basketball team. Bryant's team won (Bryant says by four, Pelinka says by two) and the proud coach has even sent video clips of his daughter's team running the triangle to former Lakers coach Phil Jackson.

"I love messing with Phil," Bryant said. "I sent a clip to Phil of our girls running 'Center Opposite,' versus a zone. No kidding. Center Opposite, the second guard fill, swing, corner to corner. OK? I sent him the video. ... He texted me back, 'Man, they actually ran that beautifully!' I said, 'Yeah, they had a better coach, what the hell did you expect? And I didn't have to burn sages for them to do that.'"

Bryant also offered quick takes on a couple of new Lakers other than James. On Rajon Rondo, who he once tried to recruit to come to L.A. to play with him, he said:

"He's moody. He's feisty. He's temperamental. He's a teammate's dream."

And then he commented on Tyson Chandler, who is only four years younger than him at 36, but still playing.

"Tyson's got to be like 80 years old," Bryant said with a laugh. "This guy doesn't age a lick. He's like black Gandalf with the beard."

The Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission hosted the event and presented Bryant with a Harry Potter gift package, courtesy of Warner Bros. Studios, on stage at the conclusion of the Q&A. Bryant said his production company, Granity Studios, is developing a series of books inspired by both fantasy and sports.

"It's like if Harry Potter and the Olympics had a baby," Bryant said. "It works ... kinda."

Source: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25448264/kobe-bryant-los-angeles-lakers-champions-again-know-it

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jodyedgarus · 6 years

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The 6 Things We’re Watching This NBA Season

Another NBA season gets underway tonight, and aside from the obvious question — can the Warriors piece together three consecutive championships? — there are several things worth watching. We took a crack at analyzing a handful of them, and how we think they might play out, just ahead of the games on opening night.

Will the Timberwolves overcome the drama to reach the playoffs again?

Minnesota coach and team president Tom Thibodeau has gone out of his way to paint the Timberwolves’ current situation as “not unusual.” But it’s hard to picture anything messier than what the past few weeks have brought this club.

Jimmy Butler, a free agent after this season, requested a trade. The Timberwolves have seemed reluctant to make that happen, confusing and frustrating interested teams. It all bubbled over last week with Butler’s outburst during a scrimmage, raising the question of why on earth the two sides still hadn’t divorced yet. And now, it seems that Butler and Thibodeau will at least start the season together after this awkward tango.

It’s painfully obvious why Thibs wouldn’t want to part ways with the player who was the team’s most valuable last year: His job(s) could be on the line if this season is a failure.

Yet even if off-court chemistry weren’t a problem, other issues remain. Minnesota has looked awful, a concerning sign even if it is a symptom of Butler’s absence. The club owned the NBA’s worst defense by far in the preseason, and three different rotation players this past week said they think the defense likely needs to switch pick-and-rolls more than it has done in order to be successful.

When I asked Thibodeau last week how the club could go about fixing its defense, he was quick to tell me that the Wolves ranked seventh in the NBA in defensive efficiency while the starting five1 was on the floor last season yet 30th (dead last) when their bench was playing.2 Knowing Thibodeau’s rotational tendencies, if that pattern repeats itself, it will likely result in his starters playing huge minutes — and not all of his starters seem to be on board with that.

No one knows how it’ll all play out. But there figures to be even less room for error now than there was last season, when Minnesota reached the playoffs on the final day of the campaign. So the fact that not everyone is on the same page — and perhaps not even reading from the same book — is problematic heading into an incredibly important year for the franchise.

Will the Lakers be able to run as much as they’d like?

It seems like every NBA coach in recent memory has said that he’d like to get out in transition more than the previous season. But with the Lakers — who have a front office led by the person who ushered in the Showtime era — that strategy will almost certainly go beyond just words.

Los Angeles finished the preseason second among NBA teams in pace, a trend that, should it hold, would allow the Lakers to rely less on their half-court offensive sets. This may take some time to iron out as Lonzo Ball and company adjust to playing alongside LeBron James — and vice versa.

Last week, we analyzed some ways the team could ensure that its pace would be among the league’s fastest. But perhaps the most surefire way for the Lakers to accomplish this is to secure defensive rebounds. And that may be a problem. The Lakers — who lack depth at center and are likely to feature several small-ball lineups this season — wrapped preseason by finishing 23rd among NBA teams in defensive rebound percentage.

L.A. will almost certainly be good in transition this year. It will run some drag screens or an occasional give-and-go, like this one that produced a LeBron-to-Lonzo alley-oop last week.

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The Lakers can be successful when they crank up the tempo. The question is whether they’ll force the turnovers and secure the rebounds that allow them to play that style.

Have the Bucks really overhauled their offense?

Last season was likely an exercise in frustration for fans of the Milwaukee Bucks.

On the one hand, the franchise had Giannis Antetokounmpo, a player so multitalented that it’s difficult to put his skill set into words. On the other hand, Antetokounmpo played within an offensive system that didn’t do anywhere near enough to make the game easier for him, particularly with regards to spacing. In last season’s first-round playoff series with Boston, he’d sometimes drive to the basket only to find two extra defenders in the paint because a pair of his teammates didn’t keep their distance and dragged their men into the play by mistake.

If things go right for the Bucks this year, though, those sorts of images will soon feel like a distant memory. And that’s because the team’s offense has shown brisk signs of overhaul.

Milwaukee last year ranked just below league average in attempts that came from the most efficient parts of the floor, taking 64 percent of its shots from inside the restricted area or outside the 3-point line. But this preseason, the Bucks led the NBA in that capacity, taking a whopping 81 percent of their shot attempts from those regions. For context, the Houston Rockets, who avoid midrange shots like the plague, led the NBA last season by taking 82 percent of its shots from the restricted area and behind the 3-point line.

This change comes just months after the team hired former Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer, who has long prioritized four- and five-out lineups3 that not only spread the floor with great tempo but also seek to make the extra pass to keep defenses off balance.

This Bucks’ roster — with rookie Donte DiVincenzo, Pat Connaughton, Brook Lopez and Ersan Ilyasova — has far more perimeter threats than it did last season. And because Budenholzer’s teams have always been pick-and-roll heavy, with bigs who can stretch the defense by popping as opposed to just rolling, Antetokounmpo figures to be positioned in the middle of the floor, where opponents will be able to give him considerably less attention. If they do load the paint against him, he’ll have an abundance of sweet-shooting teammates open in the corners for a change. (For what it’s worth, the Bucks managed to connect on an impressive 47 of 92 corner 3-point tries that stemmed from Antetokounmpo’s kick-out passes last season, per Second Spectrum.)

Giannis was already one of the scariest players in the league. Now, finally, he’s part of an offensive attack that may be more worthy of his vast, budding talent.

Can the Spurs really make the playoffs again, despite their injuries and departures?

Some are tip-toeing around this question out of respect for what San Antonio has done in the past, so fine: I’ll be the blunt one. I see almost no way the Spurs reach the playoffs for the 22nd straight time. I stopped just shy of that prediction last year, but I did feel pretty strongly that San Antonio would have a rougher-than-usual campaign, before we knew of the depths of the Kawhi Leonard situation.

This suggestion isn’t exactly groundbreaking, given that Kawhi is now a Raptor, Tony Parker is a Hornet and Manu Ginobili is retired. Perhaps even more of a blow, the Spurs have now lost three guards — all-defensive second teamer Dejounte Murray, 2018 first-round pick Lonnie Walker and backup point guard Derrick White — to long-term injuries, leaving the club thin at the position. (Keep in mind that this is all happening mere months after the Spurs allowed forward Kyle Anderson, a capable ball-handler, to sign with Memphis in free agency.)

The Spurs still have a number of key holdovers who are capable of giving opposing teams headaches, including LaMarcus Aldridge, Rudy Gay, Patty Mills and Pau Gasol. And they’ll also have DeMar DeRozan, who came over in the Leonard deal. Coach Gregg Popovich has said that while he and his staff will work to get DeRozan up to speed on the team’s offensive concepts, he won’t try to change his game.

“DeMar is already an All-Star. He’s played a certain way. There’ll be some things we try to add to his game if he’s willing,” Popovich told reporters. “I’m not going to jump on him the way I did [Aldridge]. I tried to turn [Aldridge] into John Havlicek. I think it confused him.” (Aldridge requested a trade two years after joining the Spurs, but the two sides worked the problem out.)

Now, with a limited number of ball-handlers, the club will have to rely on DeRozan to create some looks. Aldridge can shoulder some of that responsibility from the post, too, as he drew more double-teams while posting up than any other player in the league.

What remains worth watching here, given the team’s history, is whether Popovich can squeeze another elite defensive showing out of this unit, despite not having any elite stoppers or rim protectors for once. The Spurs have had an all-defensive team selection in 30 of the past 33 seasons, including each of the past six years.

If San Antonio can cobble together a top-four defensive showing, which it’s done each of the past six seasons, perhaps the Spurs can prove me wrong. But that will be a tall task in light of all these injuries.

How long will Hayward take to jell with the Celtics?

I’m not all that big on analyzing an individual player’s preseason numbers, but I can admit that I was paying some attention to Gordon Hayward’s, given that he’s coming back from an injury.

Those numbers weren’t pretty: 25 percent shooting (5-of-20) for just 21 points in his three games. He showed a little rust on the defensive end at times, too, nearly fouling out of a game against Charlotte. It may take awhile for him to assert himself consistently, but the beauty of his situation is that it’s really not a problem since he plays alongside Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum4 and Al Horford.

Hayward’s instincts and timing looked just fine, particularly in screen-roll action with Aron Baynes. Watching their chemistry this early on suggests that Hayward will at some point flourish in his minutes with Horford because of how solid a screener he is.

Hayward has always moved well without the ball and can draw attention from the defense with his cutting ability, so he shouldn’t clash much in terms of role with Tatum or Brown. But if he or one of the other wings isn’t seeing enough shot opportunities, it won’t be difficult to find more time for that player with the second unit. All of that leads me to trust that Boston — even if it doesn’t find a rhythm right away to begin the season — will settle into place over time.

The club had the worst effective field goal percentage among NBA teams this preseason. But given all the time that Irving and Hayward missed, and the time it could take for everyone to settle into the new roles they’ll have to adopt, it shouldn’t be a big deal if the Celtics aren’t hot out of the gate. (Toronto should adopt this philosophy, too, with Leonard.) As long as they’re clicking by midseason — and I don’t doubt that coach Brad Stevens will get them there — they’ll be right where they need to be.

Which teams out West can truly push Golden State?

While the Lakers have to be taken far more seriously now with LeBron, let’s be real here: There are only two or three teams in the West that could realistically make the Warriors uncomfortable in a seven-game series.

We all know Houston should be one of those clubs, if only because of what the Rockets did last postseason, when they pushed Golden State to seven games in the conference finals. They might have won the series if not for Chris Paul’s injury or the biblical 3-point shooting drought they experienced at the worst possible time. Yet while that club almost knocked off Golden State, this one is a little different. Exit Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute. Enter Carmelo Anthony (who played well, and was used very well, in preseason), James Ennis and Michael Carter-Williams.

I think Houston’s chances boil down to something relatively simple: If its defense slips past the top 10 as a result of those changes, or finds itself in far more compromising positions after switching this season, it’s hard to see how the Rockets will beat Golden State. The improvement on D was what made them such a tough matchup to begin with, and I fear they might have lost too much on that end to stay on even footing with the Warriors. We’ll see.

The Jazz, on the strength of their stifling, league-best defense, are a compelling pick for many. But just like Houston had to get more consistent on D to make a real run at the West, Utah will likely have to do the same on offense. In particular, the Jazz have struggled to produce steady, consistent offense against such versatile defenses as those of Golden State and Houston, which switch pick-and-rolls repeatedly.

That dovetails with the need for a leap from Donovan Mitchell, who figures to have a greater target on his back after a historically great rookie season at the rim for someone his height. Getting the more aggressive version of Ricky Rubio that we saw in the Oklahoma City series would help Utah’s cause as well.

And while I’m not as high on Oklahoma City — primarily because of the seriousness of Andre Roberson’s injury from last year and his recent rehab setback — I can envision a best-case scenario where the Thunder make noise out West. If Roberson returns anywhere near close to form on defense, he and Paul George would immediately become the best defending wing duo in the league, much like last year. That’s exactly the sort of length you need to effectively defend the best offenses come playoff time. (Looking directly at you, Pelicans.) Also, Nerlens Noel quietly appears to be a great fit at center for OKC’s second-unit defense, while ex-Atlanta guard Dennis Schroder should get ample opportunity to help off the bench — if not start, depending on Russell Westbrook’s status after a recent knee scope.

In a worst-case predicament, either Roberson comes back and isn’t anywhere near as effective or he doesn’t come back at all, limiting this club’s defensive potential — which would be a shame, given that the Thunder probably do have enough scoring to at least hold their own with the conference’s other top dogs. (And they perhaps have fewer questions about offensive fit than last year, when Anthony was on the team.)

It will almost certainly take a Herculean effort to knock off Golden State as the Warriors bid for a three-peat. But there are plenty of other storylines to enjoy in the lead-up to all that.

Check out our latest NBA predictions.

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-6-things-were-watching-this-nba-season/

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theseventhhex · 6 years

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Gold Star Interview

Marlon Rabenreither

Photo by Mic Becker

There is a wall stacked with amps where there might be a TV or a dining table in Marlon Rabenreither’s living room. The bookcases contain a library of music autobiographies and historic tomes, alongside reams of old vinyl records. The set-up could be from the 60s, ‘70s, or 80s, but the year is 2018 and when recording as Gold Star, the Austria-born and LA-bred Rabenreither makes music that’s similarly timeless and unable to pin to one context. Rabenreither began his solo project in 2013 and is readying the release of his third album, ‘Uppers & Downers’. On his latest release, the idea was to achieve a deeper scope, a more dynamic range: slow songs, fast songs, less genre specific, capturing all the moods. ‘Uppers & Downers’ is a collage that winks at classic eras, but with a modern bite and twist… We talk to Marlon about storytelling, overthinking and basketball…

TSH: Is there much of a shift in instrumentation coming into play for your upcoming album entitled ‘Uppers & Downers’?

Marlon: Absolutely. For my previous release, ‘Big Blue’, I went for very specific vocals and instrumentation; this was due to it being formed over the course of three days in the same room with the same musicians. With this latest album it was more a case of trying to make each song feel much more dynamic and really stretchng the sound palette in terms of what we could use to get weird sounds.

TSH: How did you approach the topics and themes for this record?

Marlon: It was a song by song kind of thing. The record consists of a collection of different gestures, mainly to do with personal experiences and stories about my friends. I’m mainly looking into things that I have gone through, rather than larger or broader themes. I feel like the topics covered are almost supposed to be like a collage with all these little narratives.

TSH: Do you often gravitate towards the storytelling route?

Marlon: A lot of the music that I like tends to be storytelling related and I think that’s why I naturally gravitate towards writing like this. It’s not so much because I’m good at it, haha! Maybe it’s just how I think and function; therefore that’s how I write.

TSH: Were both ‘Half the Time’ and ‘Chinatown’ written without too much deliberation?

Marlon: Yeah, kind of. I tend to just write in an unconscious way to some degree. I don’t even know what I’m trying to say. I never set out to write about a certain topic - it’s just what’s on my mind at a given moment. For both tracks and for most of the album we would just try the weirdest thing first. We even experimented with an echo chamber, toy microphones and also recorded drums outside of the lobby studio with microphones running through - just to see how crazy it would come out.

TSH: The album was recorded at the historic Valentine Recording Studio in Los Angeles. Was your level of focus quite intense or more free-flowing?

Marlon: I’d say it was a good combination of both. I guess you’re always aware that you’re in a special place and that you have time constraints. However, just going in with a lot of songs and being very open with what they could sound like and where they could go was most helpful.

TSH: Did you once again delve into using vintage gear?

Marlon: Absolutely. At Valentine’s they had this old audioboard that was custom built and was used by the Beach Boys. They also have all of the original tape machines from those sessions too. It’s really rare to have a perfectly functional analogue recording studio that is almost unchanged from the way it was when these legends used them.

TSH: Moreover, did you enjoy the aspect of having collaborators on board for this realise?

Marlon: Yeah, it was really a great experience. I’m grateful for everyone that was a part of it and for helping out. I didn’t have these types of ideas existing on my last record, but it was so much fun. We hired bass players and organ players by committee - we’d find the best musicians in town who were interested and we’d book them for a day or two and take it from there.

TSH: Does your creative process still include the idea of staying out of your own way, not doubting yourself and just following things through?

Marlon: I hope so, ha! My logic with regards to songwriting is that if you overthink a lot of the time and you try to be too deliberate then you end up pinning yourself into a corner. Besides if I feel restricted I just walk around the city to clear my mind.

TSH: When it comes to the rapid rise of technology in the music industry, do you feel that the pros and cons are very much like a double edged sword?

Marlon: For sure. Right now with technology it’s almost like the Wild West where no one knows what the future looks like. It really is like a double edged sword. I mean it’s amazing that everybody can release music and to know that the labels aren’t these gatekeepers, instead you can now be really creative on your own. The other side of it is that there is so much content and it’s so easily streamable - it almost makes music a little more disposable than it should be. People are not experiencing the whole record by sitting and listening and instead they are listening in snippets. It’s sad to know this because music has the potential to be really sacred, powerful and life-changing. I want to work against this disposable nature of how people listen to music, that’s for sure.

TSH: What do you miss most when you’re on tour?

Marlon: Well, I definitely miss my close friends and my girlfriend. Also, I miss just being able to sit at my desk and being able to write freely. I always look forward to getting back from tour so I can have my own time and space, which is something that’s hardly possible when you’re on the road, so I don’t take it for granted when I’m back. Also, with Los Angeles it always seems like there’s a lot going on with so much over-saturated information, therefore it’s vital to get new perspectives via escaping your comfort zone.

TSH: You’re also really into basketball, what do you make of Lebron James’ move to the Lakers?

Marlon: I’m a basketball fanatic! My favourite thing to do is to watch the games. It’s cool to know that the Lakers are going to be relevant again with Lebron on their side, perhaps they can finally put an end to the Golden State Warriors’ amazing form. Also, I don’t think there’s any argument to the fact that Lebron is perhaps the greatest basketball player of all-time.

TSH: What matters most with your vision as you look ahead with your musical ambitions?

Marlon: For me, it’s all about being honest with my music. This in itself is hard enough but if you get close to some sort of truth, then it’s important to stay in touch with that. I also want to remain open-minded and just see where the songs take me. It’s always amazing when my small gestures connect with others because music can be a struggle at times, but every time I’m able to make new connections it feels worth it.

Gold Star - “Half The Time”

Uppers & Downers

#Interview #Gold Star

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bongaboi · 6 years

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Golden State Warriors: 2017-18 NBA Champions

Golden Still: Warriors sweep Cavs for second straight title By TOM WITHERS | AP Sports Writer

Jun. 8, 2018 10:56 PM ET

CLEVELAND (AP) There were still a few seconds left on the clock when the Golden State Warriors stormed off their bench to begin a celebration that wasn't guaranteed.

They couldn't wait any longer.

They had reached their destination: dynasty.

Stephen Curry scored 37 points, Kevin Durant added a triple-double and another NBA Finals MVP trophy and the Warriors won their second straight title and third in four years Friday night, 108-85 over the Cleveland Cavaliers to complete a sweep and perhaps drive LeBron James from his home again to chase championships.

Love `em or hate `em, there is no denying them.

''That's how you know we're a great team, is when everybody's coming after us,'' Durant said. ''Whether it's opponents, whether it's different coaches panning for us, whether it's the fans, the media that hate us, it feels good when you're the team that everybody's gunning for. It makes us better.''

No team is better.

Golden State. Golden standard.

Overcoming obstacles all season long, the Warriors won their fourth straight finals matchup against James and Cleveland with ease.

''Looking at this playoff journey, we knew it wasn't going to be as easy as last year,'' Curry said. ''Then the challenges that faced us. In October we wanted to be back in this moment, and a lot went into it. It's a great feeling to be back here.''

It was the first sweep in the NBA Finals since 2007, when James was dismissed by a powerful San Antonio team in his first one. His eighth straight appearance didn't go well either, and now there's uncertainty where the superstar will play next.

James, who said he ''pretty much played the last three games with a broken hand'' after injuring himself in frustration following Game 1, finished with 23 points and spent the final minutes on the bench, contemplating what went wrong and maybe his next move.

Following the game, he sat quietly in his corner locker with a towel draped over his head. He arrived at his postgame news conference with a large black brace on his right hand and explained the injury was ''self-inflicted'' following an overtime loss in Game 1, which included a reversed official's call and teammate J.R. Smith dribbling out the clock to end regulation.

''I had emotions of you just don't get an opportunity like this on the road versus Golden State to be able to get a Game 1, and I let the emotions get the best of me,'' James said. ''Pretty much played the last three games with a broken hand, so that's what it is.''

Act IV between the Warriors and Cavs featured a drama-filled Game 1. But from there on, Durant, Curry, Thompson, Draymond Green and the rest of this California crew showed why they're the game's gold standard.

And they may stay that way.

Not wanting to give the Cavs or their fans any hope despite the fact that no team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit in the NBA playoffs, the Warriors built a nine-point halftime lead when Curry ignored a closeout by James and dropped a 3-pointer.

Then the league's best team tightened the screws on Cleveland in the third quarter, outscoring the Cavs 25-13 and prompting Golden State fans to begin those drawn-out ''War-eee-orrss'' chants that provide a perfect musical accompaniment to their 3-point barrages.

By the start of the fourth, the only question was whether Curry would win his first NBA Finals MVP or if it would go to Durant for the second year in a row.

And again, it was Durant, who added 12 rebounds and 10 assists - more satisfaction and validation for a player who couldn't beat the Warriors so he joined them.

After surviving a rougher-than-usual regular season and beating top-seeded Houston in Game 7 on the road in the West finals, the Warriors pushed aside James and joined an elite group of teams to win multiple championships in a four-year span.

Only Bill Russell's Boston Celtics, the ''Showtime'' Lakers and the Los Angeles squad led by Kobe and Shaq, and Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls have been as dominant in such a short period of time.

The Dub Dynasty.

The path to this title was more precarious than the first two for coach Steve Kerr and the Warriors, who overcame injuries, expectations, a built-to-dethrone-them Rockets team and the brilliance of James, who may have played his final game in Cleveland.

The 33-year-old, who came back to the Cavs and ended the city's 52-year championship drought in 2016, is expected to opt out of his $35.6 million contract and become a free agent.

''I have no idea at this point,'' he said when asked if he played his final game for the Cavs. ''The one thing that I've always done is considered, obviously, my family. So sitting down and considering everything, my family is a huge part of whatever I'll decide to do in my career, and it will continue to be that.''

James averaged 34 points, 8.5 rebounds and 10 assists in the series, but as has been the case in the past, he didn't have enough help.

Another Summer of LeBron is officially underway and there are already teams stretching from Philadelphia to Los Angeles hoping to land the three-time champion, who may have to go elsewhere to put together a cast strong enough - and as James made clear this week, smart enough - to bring down the Warriors.

Right now, Golden State is on another tier and with Durant expected to re-sign with them in weeks and Curry, Thompson, Green and the rest still young and hungry, their reign could last much longer.

''We've got a lot of three-time, two-time champs in there, and we'll have plenty of time in our lives to discuss that later,'' Curry said. ''So want to keep this thing going as long as we can.''

TIP-INS

Warriors: Curry made a 3-pointer in his record 90th consecutive postseason game and extended his mark for 3s in road playoff games to 44. . Became the ninth team to sweep the finals. ... Won a road game in 19 straight playoff series, tying the Heat's NBA record.

Cavaliers: James scored 748 points in the playoffs, the second most in a postseason behind Jordan, who scored 759 in 1992. Appeared in their 26th NBA Finals game, moving past Atlanta/St. Louis into 10th place all-time. ... James averaged 34 points in his 13th postseason, his second-highest total.

LUE BACK

James' future isn't the only one in question. Cavs coach Tyronn Lue, who took a medical leave this season while battling anxiety, said he intends to return.

''I had some tough problems going on throughout the course of the season, and I probably could have folded myself, but I wasn't going to do that,'' he said. ''I knew that even if I wasn't feeling a hundred percent, I had to get back for the playoffs. That's my time. That's my moment. I had to fight through it. That's what champions do. I gave everything I had.''

#dubnation #nba #national basketball association #kumiko oumae #saimoe #nba finals #golden state warriors #hibike euphonium

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biofunmy · 4 years

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5 New N.B.A. Truths – The New York Times

Want more basketball in your inbox? Sign up for Marc Stein’s weekly N.B.A. newsletter here.

Seventeen of the league’s 30 teams have played at least 27 games. A third of the regular season schedule, in other words, is essentially complete.

So we can safely make some declarations about what has been a Los Angeles-centric season so far — with considerable doses of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic, too — after what amounts to a full trimester to evaluate things:

1. LeBron James has never been more like Wilt Chamberlain.

Wilt The Stilt, as legend has it, decided to lead the league in assists in 1967-68 because he got tired of being branded selfish and wanted to show the world he could do whatever he wanted on the floor.

He remains the only center in league history, in any N.B.A. season, to win the total assists crown.

LeBron has never been labeled a selfish player, but he has also never led the league in assists over an entire season. In Year 17, James is averaging a league-high 10.7 dimes per game. That makes him the only current player to sport a double-digit assist average and, because the Lakers list him as a forward, puts him on track to become the first forward in league history to lead the league in that category.

It’s certainly still early in the race to the championship, all things considered, but LeBron has never started a season more impressively. We can nitpick and point out that the Lakers have had the 18th-easiest schedule based on ESPN’s rankings. Just make sure you also note that while Kawhi Leonard and Paul George try to establish consistent smoothness in their fledgling partnership with the Clippers, King James and Anthony Davis look every bit the dream duo on the court that they appeared to form on paper.

The concern for the Lakers, if you insist on highlighting one, is that both James and Davis are averaging nearly 35 minutes per game. That’s a big load by modern N.B.A. standards.

That’s also such a welcome problem compared to the nonstop drama that gripped this franchise throughout LeBron’s first season in Hollywood.

2. James Harden has never been more like Wilt, either.

The Rockets employ a tireless statistician named Sean McCloskey. I like to call him Jack, in tribute to the former Detroit Pistons executive to whom he is not related, because he’s as good at his job as Jack McCloskey was in putting the Bad Boys Pistons teams together.

I share this dribble of minutiae because I recently asked Jack, er, Sean to send me his latest list of Harden scoring superlatives. What became immediately apparent, scrolling through them, is that so many invoke Wilt’s name.

Wilt earned copious scorn throughout his career for being so dominant (and so much bigger than most of his opposition). Harden gets his own share of scorn some 50 years later because of his high usage and his penchant for drawing contact (and hunting for fouls) that some find unappealing to watch.

You may not enjoy it, but Harden’s relentless production, just like Chamberlain’s, has to be respected — even if some of it this season is actually a byproduct of Houston’s rise to No. 3 in the league in pace since acquiring Russell Westbrook over the summer. The way people react to Harden makes him a true heir to Wilt, despite the fact that he’s eight inches shorter. And left-handed.

As Rockets Coach Mike D’Antoni and General Manager Daryl Morey are fond of saying, it’s bonkers to see a player like Harden, in his 11th season, find a way to get better yet again. You have to respect that, too.

3. The West is weaker than we all thought.

Instead of trying to pinpoint the most disappointing team through the season’s opening third, perhaps it’s wiser to just select the most disappointing conference.

Only six teams in the West are over .500. Denver (17-8) and Utah (15-11) have likewise fallen short of predictions.

The West’s record in interconference games, furthermore, is a very modest 73-72.

The East remains the overall weaker conference from 1 to 15, but its top six teams have collectively been more impressive than the West’s. That’s even with Houston (arguably) and Dallas (definitely) exceeding expectations.

Phoenix and Minnesota, after promising starts, are reverting to the lottery-bound form that has plagued those franchises for years. Portland and New Orleans spoke with considerable optimism (and even bravado) in the preseason, as did the Timberwolves, only to quickly descend into crisis.

And then there is San Antonio. The Spurs couldn’t hold a 25-point lead on Monday night in Houston and fell to 10-16. Rather than closing in on a record-setting 23rd consecutive playoff appearance, Coach Gregg Popovich is being urged, louder than ever, to trade the veteran duo of LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan and launch the sort of rebuild Pop has happily avoided his whole career.

We made the case in last week’s newsletter that, unless the Pistons get it together, we likely already know our eight playoff teams in the East. In the West, by contrast, we know so much less than anticipated by this juncture.

4. The championship race may not be nearly as wide open as many predicted.

If the Lakers and Clippers are generally healthy come April, they will be overwhelming favorites to advance to the Western Conference finals. If Milwaukee and Philadelphia likewise have good health entering the postseason, they’ll be equally huge favorites to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.

The free-for-all for the title that was widely promised, given all the injuries that waylaid Golden State after the Warriors’ five consecutive trips to the N.B.A. finals, simply hasn’t materialized.

5. The team to watch before the trade deadline is Denver.

Looking across the league in search of a trade that could truly trouble the two L.A. teams or the East brutes Milwaukee and Philly, I am repeatedly drawn to Denver.

The Nuggets need a jolt. The continuity edge they carried into the season over the teams that made dramatic summer changes hasn’t paid off — and Nikola Jokic has receded from last season’s peak form as he continues to generate questions and criticism about his conditioning by playing at nearly 300 pounds.

My former ESPN colleague Zach Lowe suggested recently that the Nuggets should make a trade play for New Orleans’ Jrue Holiday. It’s a sensational idea — and Denver has the assets to pull it off.

Given a variety of hypothetical deals to consider, Holiday to the Nuggets would do more for Denver than, say, Boston overcoming the considerable salary-cap challenges it would face in trying to acquire Kevin Love from Cleveland or Miami importing Kyle Lowry from Toronto. Perhaps the Heat could also make a run at Holiday, but I rate Denver, which has been very methodical in its teambuilding, as the most intriguing hope for a landscape-changing trade during the season.

The Scoop @TheSteinLine

Q: Their loss is our gain. We have a fresh, young, motivated stud in @Bam1of1. — @Junior_TreyOh5 from Twitter.

STEIN: I know, I know. This isn’t a question.

But it’s a response to one I’ve thrown out on Twitter a couple of times already this season as Miami’s Bam Adebayo continues to mount a wholly unexpected bid for an All-Star spot in the East as well as Most Improved Player honors: How did this ridiculously versatile player not make U.S.A. Basketball’s 12-man squad for the FIBA World Cup over the summer?

It’s an increasingly pertinent what-if given that Adebayo, after posting two triple-doubles in four days, was just named Player of the Week in the Eastern Conference. To go with his rugged defense and dogged rebounding, Adebayo has flashed a blossoming touch for both scoring and passing in Miami’s 19-8 start.

I’ve done some rechecking on the matter and was advised recently that U.S.A.B. officials didn’t see anything resembling this Adebayo during practices in August. It was likewise suggested that Adebayo, deep down, knew he didn’t make a strong enough case to earn a slot.

Adebayo wouldn’t go that far when I had a chance to ask him directly over the weekend, but he did acknowledge that losing out to Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez, Indiana’s Myles Turner and Denver’s Mason Plumlee left him with a “bigger chip on my shoulder.”

“Obviously no man wants to get cut, so I take it personally,” Adebayo said after posting the second of those triple-doubles in an overtime win on Saturday night in Dallas. “But it’s behind me now.”

Yet Adebayo insisted that “it’s not the reason why I’ve been doing what I’m doing.”

Credit Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra for instilling him with the confidence to become an increasingly significant part of Miami’s offense on top of Adebayo’s Draymond Green-like ability to guard all five positions.

Q: Does Taylor Jenkins have what it takes to not only guide the Grizzlies back into the playoffs in the next couple of years but also keep the Grizzlies in the city of Memphis? Or is a move to Las Vegas or Seattle inevitable? — Ross Kerwin (Hoboken, N.J.)

STEIN: Let’s separate these very disparate questions.

The Grizzlies, at 10-17 and fresh off a home win over Miami, have been a refreshingly tough out.

I didn’t expect a lot from this group with so much being asked of three rookies: Ja Morant, Brandon Clarke and the new coach. But Jenkins has the Grizzlies moving the ball. Morant, Clarke and the second-year forward Jaren Jackson Jr. are all thriving.

Memphis is 4-1 since Morant came back from a bout of back spasms, and the only loss was to mighty Milwaukee.

But let’s be clear here: Jenkins will have virtually nothing to do with keeping the Grizzlies in Memphis. That’s way beyond his pay grade. The team owner Robert Pera, in his most recent comments on the matter in April 2018, said he is “committed to Memphis as an N.B.A. market” and has no intention of relocating the franchise.

Neither relocation nor expansion is considered a pressing topic in the league at the moment, but the Grizzlies do continue to be mentioned as an occasional relocation candidate, thanks to their market size (29th in a 30-team league) and their struggles at the gate. They awoke on Tuesday ranked 28th in the league in home attendance at 15,304 fans per game, ahead of only New Orleans and Minnesota.

Should Pera’s stance change before 2027, various locally based minority shareholders in the Grizzlies must be given the first shot at buying the team, according to reporting from my fellow Western New York native Geoff Calkins, now of the Daily Memphian. If things ever reached that point, mind you, it would be fair to wonder who in Memphis could afford the going rate for an N.B.A. team.

The big picture, though, looks encouraging as a calendar flip to 2020 draws near. Faster than most outsiders anticipated after it traded away Marc Gasol and Mike Conley, Memphis would appear to have the makings of a new core starring Morant, Jackson and Clarke. With the Pelicans’ Zion Williamson still out indefinitely after October knee surgery, Morant is the Rookie of the Year favorite — and showing everyone why numerous pundits proclaimed him a potential franchise-saver when the Grizzlies won the No. 2 overall pick in last May’s draft lottery to acquire him.

Q: Feel stupid now for not having the Pacers make the playoffs in your preseason predictions? — Randy Bruce

STEIN: No, sir.

And that’s because I didn’t pick the Pacers to miss the playoffs.

I’ll be the first to put my hand up when I misfire with a prediction. Example: My tout that the Utah Jazz will reach the Western Conference finals isn’t looking especially clever at the minute.

But if you check back to my Eight Fearless Predictions newsletter from Oct. 22, I think you’ll find that I said Pacers Coach Nate McMillan would be in the conversation for the Coach of the Year Award if he can steer Indiana to what so many of us thought would be an up-for-grabs No. 3 seed in the East. Even with Victor Oladipo’s ongoing injury absence and even after the Pacers’ surprising 0-3 start, I (and many others) had Indiana as a playoff team.

The surprise, through Monday’s games, is that the Pacers are one of six teams in the East that have an average point differential of plus-4.9 and above. I can’t remember anyone who projected that to last this deeply into the schedule. According to Cleaning The Glass, Indiana’s average victory margin of plus-5.0 is worthy of a 54-win team.

Numbers Game

The Milwaukee Bucks, finally beaten on Monday night by Dallas, were the 13th team in league history to assemble a winning streak of at least 18 games. Only seven of the previous 12 teams, however, went on to win the N.B.A. championship. They are the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers (33 wins in a row), 2012-13 Miami Heat (27), 1970-71 Bucks (20), 2013-14 San Antonio Spurs (19), 1999-2000 Lakers (19), 1995-96 Chicago Bulls (18) and the 1969-70 Knicks (18). The five teams that fell short are the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors (24), 2007-08 Houston Rockets (22), 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks (19), 2008-09 Boston Celtics (19) and the 1981-82 Celtics (18).

2.8

In 1979-80, when the 3-point line was introduced in the N.B.A., teams combined to shoot an average of 2.8 3s per game. Forty seasons later, in 2019-20, teams are averaging nearly 30 more 3-pointers at 33.7 per game.

When James Harden followed a 55-point outburst in Cleveland with 54 points in Orlando last week, it marked the second time this season that the Houston scoring machine posted consecutive 50-point games. He’s done it five times in his career.

An interesting offshoot of the load management era: Several players who would be classified as Most Valuable Player Award candidates are averaging 32 minutes per game or fewer. They are: Milwaukee’s Antetokounmpo (31.2), Dallas’ Luka Doncic (32.2), Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (30.7) and the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard (31.5).

There are 51 days remaining before the Feb. 6 trade deadline at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Trade season began in earnest on Sunday when more than 100 players who signed contracts in the summer became eligible to be dealt. Potential names on the move include Cleveland’s Kevin Love, Memphis’ Andre Iguodala and the Knicks’ Marcus Morris. Trade chatter could begin to ramp up this week when representatives from all 30 teams converge on Las Vegas for the N.B.A.’s annual G League Showcase.

Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@marcsteinnba). Send any other feedback to [email protected].

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nothingneverforever · 6 years

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music albums of my 2017

Saturation (2017), Brockhampton ice cream or ......... (2017), Various Artists (compiled by me, Gen & Jade) Déjà Vu (1970), Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Scenery (1976), Ryo Fukui Hardcore Will Never Die, but You Will (2011), Mogwai Trouble Will Find Me (2013), The National Face Your Fear (2017), Curtis Harding Can't Buy a Thrill (1972), Steely Dan Stardust (1978), Willie Nelson Happy Songs for Happy People (2003), Mogwai Metaphorical Music (2003), Nujabes Desire (2017), Hurts Atomic Bomb (1997), Rivermaya The Best of Van Morrison (1990), Van Morrison Nine Treasures (2014), Nine Treasures Plastic Beach (2010), Gorillaz The MHC EP (2015), Mediocre Haircut Crew American Boyfriend: A Suburban Love Story (2016), Kevin Abstract

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Start date: December 26th 2017 I’m finally sitting at my desk, for the first time in a very long while. With a YouTube selection of Pink Floyd’s greatest hits playing, I finally understand some things about 2017 that I thought were beyond me.

When I was a child

I caught a fleeting glimpse

Out of the corner of my eye

I turned to look but it was gone

I cannot put my finger on it now

The child is grown

The dream is gone

(Comfortably Numb)

When I was a child, I did catch glimpses of what feeling fulfilled was supposed to be, glimpses of what shape I thought I wanted my future to take. Out of the corner of my eye I saw cafes with hodgepodge furniture that could have been more inviting, wallpaper that tried, but could have been a lot nicer, cutlery that could have retained its generic nature with just a little more colour and style, and I thought that was my niche to fill. I had dreams (and a scrapbook full of ideas) of creating my own space that was beautiful and open and warm and giving, and these dreams stayed for long. This year, this tiny slippery speeding blip of a year, I turned to look for that self and those images in my head but they were mostly gone. I can’t put my finger on what changed the romantic café visions into practical social work agency determinations, but the child is grown and the old dreams are gone. New ones stay in the dream realm only for a small while, before being plucked straight from the branch and living their days out over here with me, by my side and not above me. I’m living some of my new, concrete dreams and 2017 was a good home for them. If 2016 was the never-ending year of laborious depression and idle aloneness, 2017 ebbed so away from confusion and brought me to effortfully glowing shores from which I turned back and saw no pain.

On the 31st of December and the 1st of January I cried in public, untriggered for the most part, or if anything then triggered by stimulants completely irrational. They are now far away but I remember in the moment the crumbling of my stability being very scarily familiar, and I worried whether my 2017-is-the-best-year-ever! chant I repeated throughout the days of the year was prophetically accurate in that 2018 shall not be the same. It’s now the middle of January and I feel good again. There are things I need to clear and relationships I will have to redefine but 2018 is set to be a different kind of best year ever.

This post will be different from the last, because a couple of these albums are ones that reached my ears long before 2017, whereas my 2016 roundup was for music that I had only been introduced to in the same year. I guess it is appropriate, for in 2017 I did enjoy more than before turning to, … idk, to old stuffz I guess. So Déjà Vu and The Best of Van Morrison are things I definitely heard playing at home even before I could speak, but I also have Saturation, Face Your Fear and Desire that are new releases from the year. How these albums were consumed is also very different from before, because in 2017 I stopped bringing my iPod out with me, and started driving more. At some point I realized I much preferred listening to my own breathing and footsteps while on my runs, and after a while listening to my own very-much-me music while I was on the bus or train too became quite an uncomfortably fake experience, like I was reaffirming my selfhood in a place where a relinquishing of it would perhaps have been more appropriate. I think from March onward I started only listening to music in my room, which also meant I wanted to turn to different things. Heavier music doesn’t vibrate so comfortably in the dusty mellowness on my blue room, and that’s why cute soft trash like Willie Nelson, The National and Ryo Fukui sat well. In the year I also finally learnt how to properly control my car and drive it well and confidently, and found that during my journeys (short or long) I preferred having the radio on. (for various reasons that are unrelated to anything that is relevant to this post so I will not waste my time). Thank you to Nabil who taught me best how to drive smart and with whom I have nice memories of radio pop songs which shall come to play a big part in my remembrance of the entire year (like Selena Gomez’s It Ain’t Me, for example). Also Jade, with whom I enjoyed at great volumes Daniel Bedingfield’s If You’re Not The One, and Gen who appreciated with me that one line (Who do you think you are? Dreaming 'bout being a big star) from Thunder by Imagine Dragons. I love all my friends :’-) Anyway! The point I am making is that in 2017, unlike the year before, music that meant a lot to me came from other places too besides my own chosen albums and iPod playlists.

BUT ANYWAY

OKAY LET’S START

Saturation (2017), Brockhampton

Aaaah I don’t remember exactly how I came to know of Brockhampton, it could have been an article in the Sunday Times Magazine that my dad puts on my bed every Tuesday night or maybe something I’d read online…? Anyway I remember immediately telling Jade about them, how I liked that they were a seemingly diverse group of very young boys, that they were very LGBTQ-representative and -friendly, that they had formed over a chatroom on the internet, and how genuine and warm their friendships with each other were, rare for a group of males. I’ve since cooled somewhat, maybe because a lot of gross and annoying people have found love for them too, I don’t know, is it stupid of me to feel like that takes away from their genius, having people I don’t respect respect them?

Anyway, I first listened to Star (track 3 on the album), because it was the first thing I saw on their soundcloud page I think, and I loved so much about it. I loved the NBA references (Chris Paul, I'm assistin'/ Ameer going Blake Griffin / Give me forty-eight minutes / We go '04 Pistons), which are much richer and more interesting than the usual LeBron or DWade or Melo namedrop that other less imaginative rappers favour. Maybe I’m biased, because Blake Griffin is #2 in my basketball-heart forever, and because the 04 Pistons are culturally significant, with Rip Hamilton’s face guard and Chauncey Billup’s niceness and, again, its nice how they’re not the first team people talk about today. I also laughed at Bruh, I don't fuck with no white boys/ unless the n***a Shawn Mendes, it’s so typical of assumed-lead singer Kevin Abstract’s humour, and I also just love how Shawn Mendes, the most mediocre and vanilla of celebrity white guys out there would be the exception to his sexual attraction rule.

Having loved Star and how each group member brought a very different energy, not just vocally but lyrical-content wise, to the song, I listened to Saturation in full and got the entire cake when before I had only licked the surface icing. And it was a fuckin nice cake!!!

The first track, Heat, was quite novel to me, especially the verse that screams, unflinching, scarily genuine:

I’ll break your neck so you can watch your back

Fuck you!

I’ll break your neck so you can watch your back

Fuck you!

I’ll break your neck so you can watch your back

Fuck you!

I don’t know why, but it was the first time I’d thought about someone with a broken neck having visual eyeline with their own back. And it was a cool image to have, heh. I mean, if nothing else it’s very innovative, don’t you think? I was impressed with the creativity, I mean it. Maybe it’s a common saying and I’ve just been missing out on such threats? Either way, it gets me in a vibe and makes me think maybe I too can inject warranted fear into someone someday.

Next to strike my heart was 2pac, track 5. Of course, titled as such, I was bound to pay it more attention than the others, but since I first listened to the album as an unbroken whole, when I first heard it I didn’t know what it was named, the lyrics don’t mention his name at all, but musically it stood out immediately for its mellowed softness and watery sadness. I love it so, so much. The main verse is by Ameer Vann, and I would quote it in full but I think it should be listened to first [here it is – click]. Some lines, like I know there's angels on me /All my dead homies, I know they waiting on me are classic in evoking emotion, predictable in its honesty and reflection, but then Ameer comes up with: I know you used to trust me, I miss the chicken nuggets / And the kisses from her, damn I miss you momma. Can you feel it, the quiet brilliance in wielding different worlds and synthesizing all that stirs the soul? At once you feel the weight of its personalness, the seeming-randomness in fact not at all so, and all that means something to our own selves come to mind. The narrative modes, not just of 2pac but of so many other songs on the album, shift from verse to verse , and the jumpy, stream of consciousness tone from just this line adds so much. It reminded me in fact of one of my own creative pieces, from the final film I had to produce for my 2015 Film Studies final project for the International Baccalaureate. In my script, which was very hodgepodge and unfocused, there was a scene with this voice-over narration (by me):

Think before you move, and think while you move.

一旦我们感到满意，我们可以回去里面了。小时候，我的妈妈喜欢讲：太多太阳也不好。啊。好想我的妈妈哦。

Heh, it’s very pseudo philosophical, my entire 7-minute film was grossly so, and here the Chinese reads: once we feel satisfied, we may go back in. when I was young, my mother used to say: too much sun isn’t good either. Ooh… How I miss my mother. Is it not reminiscent of Ameer’s 2pac? I remember feeling the need to inject some cheap, immediate emotion into the scene that was otherwise contrived in its trying to relate to earthly universality. And I thought, how better than to invoke the Mother? (not that this was Ameer’s intention, his 2pac seems entirely genuine and beautiful). But you know what I mean, it is an imagery that works, no exceptions. 2pac endeared me a lot to Ameer, and I sought out the first solo song of his that I could find, and loved it immediately too. Besides the momma reference once more, one line in 2pac, I do some shit I shouldn't seems like it would fit right into this solo song of his, titled I’m Sorry: Then I text them other bitches / I know I'm not supposed to say that / You know my momma taught me better/ I wish I had it all together / But I'm tearing at the seams. Again, the simple frankness is so …. Nice. Nice guy, nice song(s)!

Okay, I don’t want to drone on about the individual songs, this is an album review post, so let me say that this album was fucking huge. Literally, because there are 17 songs, and it was their first full album, and they released 2 more within the same year. These bros are all under … 24/5, so their existence is really, really important. They’re cognitive in ways other boybands aren’t, they’re honest in ways rap used to avoid, they dismiss boundaries and tread both with careful softness and undaunted hard-knuckles, they talk about racism, homophobia, depression/general sadness, rape culture; these just sound like stupid catchphrases but they add a lot to the discourse, especially for their fans who may not be fully conscious of the injustice that swirls around. This is a stupid sounding paragraph that I am not proud of but I think there is importance in noting their specialness. Thank u

Brockhampton is the self-made, self-aware, self-improving hero of the internet hip hop scene. I don’t know what I’m saying, but they’re big and important, thank you.

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junker-town · 6 years

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Enjoy the glorious twilight of LeBron James’ NBA reign

Plus, Ben Simmons is dominating without a jump shot.

Surrender yourself, for a brief moment, to the notion that LeBron James and the Cavaliers can’t win a championship this year.

Consider the dominance of Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors. Consider Kyrie Irving getting another chance to thwart them. Consider him doing that with the Boston Celtics. This week’s match-up between the Warriors and the Celtics gave us a window into that possible future. It’s an increasingly plausible NBA Finals scenario, and one that doesn’t include James.

Future NBA Finals matchup?

A post shared by @nbatv on Nov 17, 2017 at 1:48pm PST

Between Miami and Cleveland, James played in seven straight Finals. He has become a semi-permanent fixture in June.

Consider the Cavs’ brutal defense, and the fact that it doesn't project to improve any time soon. Consider the roster’s age, and injuries. Consider that, in his fifteenth season, LeBron leads the league in minutes. He's carrying a heavy load, yet the Cavs are still 8-7.

Play the tape out to the end.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Last season, the Warriors put a knife in LeBron’s inevitability. These days, the Celtics are twisting it. There is simply too much to surmount. Even the expectations that have always burdened him — more than any superstar of the era — have withered.

For the first time in his career, it’s possible to watch LeBron without worrying about the legacy implications. He will go down as one of history’s best players, perhaps the best, with the most versatile, athletically destructive game fans have ever witnessed. He will go down, most of all, as a player who shifted what it meant to be a superstar wing, making hay by becoming the best passer of his generation and dominating defensively. Where he sits on that proverbial Mt. Rushmore is a matter of personal preference. At this juncture of his career, legacy implications have diminishing returns. His legacy can only shift marginally.

Andrew Dieb-USA TODAY Sports

Some already assume he is moving on his second act of his life, with designs on moving to Los Angeles to focus on expanding his burgeoning production company. The telling difference, between where LeBron is today and in the height of his prime: It would be hard to blame him. The Cavaliers are markedly worse this season. Dan Gilbert and LeBron have always been at at odds. The franchise didn’t retain GM David Griffin, in the middle of free agency, leaving LeBron yet again mired in dysfunction.

Compare this atmosphere to The Decision era when LeBron’s fans — perhaps not as enlightened or empathetic they would become today — turned on him because, on some level, they had projected every single one of their hopes onto him. In the years since, he has become truly infallible, in part, because we know the story is coming to a close.

In the end, he took the Cavs to the promised land. What more could he accomplish in Cleveland? Hell, what more could he accomplish in the NBA?

From LeBron’s perch, the only thing left to chase is Michael Jordan. Winning a championship again would merely be another point in an argument that we'll tirelessly legislate for as long as the NBA exists, one that could never be settled by tacking on another title.

Because the root of Jordan’s legacy wasn’t truly about his six titles. Six was just a number. Five would have done the trick, so long as he went 5-0. Quantity doesn’t tell a story. Perfection does. And LeBron, with his messy Finals history, could never hope to paint over the perfection.

LeBron’s career has never been about accolades collected and checks marked. It has been about redefinition.

Consider The Block. Consider the Nike ad. You know it.

“You’re not supposed to make a defensive play the defining moment of your career.”

When LeBron traversed the court in four seconds and stopped Andre Iguodala’s layup attempt in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals, setting the table for Cleveland’s eventual win, it was a moment of destiny fulfilled. His signature defensive move, playing out with incalculably high stakes. It was the story he was born to live out.

youtube

History is never as clear in the moment as it is in hindsight, on the pages of books. LeBron’s arc is especially confounding. Things aren’t supposed to matter fifteen years in. The Block put a cap on LeBron’s thirteenth season, just as Jordan’s Last Shot to put the Utah Jazz away and cement his sixth title came in his thirteenth. With Jordan, we didn’t have to deal with an extended epilogue — eventual Wizards return, aside. In the coming seasons, I think we’re going to realize that for LeBron, the block was the end. And it makes sense. In the aftermath of his defining moment, how can anything matter as much again?

AT CENTER COURT

The hallmark of dominance is being able to do exactly what you want, even when the defense sees it coming. For Ben Simmons, when you consider that he has a discernible weakness in his jumpshot that opponents should conceivably be able to pivot to, the level of difficulty doubles.

Lost in Joel Embiid’s historic performance against the Lakers on Wednesday was that Simmons put up a game of his own, finishing with a triple-double. He dunked all over the place, despite the attempts of multiple defenders — from Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — to resist his assault to the rim.

Ben Simmons continues where he left off with a slam!@Sixers are off to a fast start on ESPN. http://pic.twitter.com/QnI8xeDnlf

— NBA (@NBA) November 16, 2017

He has done this all season. With opponents consistently sag off him, he consistently beats them to the spot. Right now, he ranks among the league leaders in the NBA in dunks, at 30. He has been topped only by big frontcourt players like Rudy Gobert and DeAndre Jordan. The next wing on the list? LeBron.

For a rookie, he understands exceptionally well how to counter everything the defense tries to take away from him. When Simmons has the ball in his hands, opposing guards will sag off and prepare to go under the screen. With his killer first step and long stride, Simmons has exploded away from the screen and landed at the rim time and time again.

When his opponents ignore him off the ball on the top of the floor, he leverages his cutting abilities. More often than not, Embiid -- who fires exceptional lead passes -- will find him in stride. When opponents sag off in the corner, Simmons sneaks into the dunker spot and awaits the spoils.

Regardless of his shot, Simmons has proved he’s merely too athletic and intelligent to ignore.

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biofunmy · 4 years

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5 New N.B.A. Truths – The New York Times

Want more basketball in your inbox? Sign up for Marc Stein’s weekly N.B.A. newsletter here.

Seventeen of the league’s 30 teams have played at least 27 games. A third of the regular season schedule, in other words, is essentially complete.

1. LeBron James has never been more like Wilt Chamberlain.

He remains the only center in league history, in any N.B.A. season, to win the total assists crown.

The concern for the Lakers, if you insist on highlighting one, is that both James and Davis are averaging nearly 35 minutes per game. That’s a big load by modern N.B.A. standards.

That’s also such a welcome problem compared to the nonstop drama that gripped this franchise throughout LeBron’s first season in Hollywood.

2. James Harden has never been more like Wilt, either.

3. The West is weaker than we all thought.

Instead of trying to pinpoint the most disappointing team through the season’s opening third, perhaps it’s wiser to just select the most disappointing conference.

Only six teams in the West are over .500. Denver (17-8) and Utah (15-11) have likewise fallen short of predictions.

The West’s record in interconference games, furthermore, is a very modest 73-72.

4. The championship race may not be nearly as wide open as many predicted.

5. The team to watch before the trade deadline is Denver.

Looking across the league in search of a trade that could truly trouble the two L.A. teams or the East brutes Milwaukee and Philly, I am repeatedly drawn to Denver.

The Scoop @TheSteinLine

Q: Their loss is our gain. We have a fresh, young, motivated stud in @Bam1of1. — @Junior_TreyOh5 from Twitter.

STEIN: I know, I know. This isn’t a question.

Yet Adebayo insisted that “it’s not the reason why I’ve been doing what I’m doing.”

STEIN: Let’s separate these very disparate questions.

The Grizzlies, at 10-17 and fresh off a home win over Miami, have been a refreshingly tough out.

Memphis is 4-1 since Morant came back from a bout of back spasms, and the only loss was to mighty Milwaukee.

Q: Feel stupid now for not having the Pacers make the playoffs in your preseason predictions? — Randy Bruce

STEIN: No, sir.

And that’s because I didn’t pick the Pacers to miss the playoffs.

I’ll be the first to put my hand up when I misfire with a prediction. Example: My tout that the Utah Jazz will reach the Western Conference finals isn’t looking especially clever at the minute.

Numbers Game

2.8

Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@marcsteinnba). Send any other feedback to [email protected].

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flauntpage · 5 years

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Jimmy Butler and The Process Will be Fascinating

Jimmy Butler has finally been traded, in a move that elevates his new team’s short-term future while momentarily stabilizing the one that had to let him go. The Philadelphia 76ers gave up 24-year-old Dario Saric and 27-year-old Robert Covington—two "Process" byproducts who helped round out the 2017-18 season’s most dominant five-man unit—along with Jerryd Bayless and a second-round pick for Butler and Justin Patton, a seven-footer with zero games of NBA experience who recently broke his foot for the second time since he was drafted.

In the grand scheme, this is a big deal for everyone involved and has long-term ripple effects that will impact both organizations (along with some others throughout the league) for years to come. T.J. McConnell recently told SB Nation’s Seerat Sohi, that “Trust the Process” is in Philly’s rearview. But as some have already pointed out, the step towards whatever their next identity is has yet to take form. The Sixers were the NBA's darling a year ago. After years of intentional failure, they finished fourth in net rating and won a playoff series. Today, they feel stuck in neutral/slowly sliding in reverse. They rank 20th in point differential and are stuck with more questions than answers.

What they need, they ostensibly can't have: patience. And now they’re throwing the league’s most outspoken and controversial star into a young locker room that suddenly has to win right away. As 11th hour as this trade kinda feels, it’s hard to argue with Philly’s bottom-line logic. They made fantastic use of two role players who developed wonderfully in their system, then turned both into one of the world’s 12 best players. That’s good and smart. They completed the deal without surrendering any of their own first-round picks (or the unprotected gift owed by Miami in 2021), Zhaire Smith, Landry Shamet, or Markelle Fultz. In other words: even though Saric and Covington have yet to reach their primes (though Covington is up for debate), the Sixers did not mortgage their future to bail out the present. They still have intriguing trade assets and room for internal growth. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t a significant gamble.

Butler knows how to impact games without the ball in his hands—I recently called him a diamond-encrusted Swiss army knife. He can defend point guards, wings, and stretch fours. He cuts, screens, and generally knows how to function at every position as a less brilliant version of LeBron James. From that perspective, everything is wonderful. But in a playoff series where he’s sharing the floor with Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Fultz (assuming he's still on the team), space will be an issue, as will shot distribution and the delineation of crunch-time responsibilities. Simmons is actually quite intriguing off the ball—a duck-in monster whose touch within five feet is serviceable—but he also can't shoot. How do those two fare beside Embiid, still Philly's best and most important player? It’s increasingly pedantic to worry about “who gets the last shot?” but it’s also fair to wonder how Butler will react to spending the rest of his prime as a third banana, either spacing up in the weak-side corner or colliding with help defenders who aren’t shy about having one foot in the paint whenever he takes off for the basket.

In other words, the long-term fit is questionable, at best. But if Butler is happy to leverage the attention defenses already give Simmons and Embiid, and willing to sacrifice touches and shots for the promise of better looks and more efficient opportunities, Philly's path towards basketball civility is well lit. That’s a very big “if,” though. And beyond this season (one in which Philadelphia is still not promised to escape what promises to be a blood bath in the second-round), we’ve yet to dig into how Fultz works in what's quickly turned into an extremely win-now situation.

Fultz is not ready to contribute in a playoff series, and it’s not crazy to imagine a scenario where Butler uses his own free agency to convince Philadelphia’s front office that a trade is necessary. The former No. 1 overall pick's trade value should be lower than the Sixers think it is, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be dealt for an older piece who can actually contribute right away. With Butler in town, Fultz's days feel numbers. (Moving Fultz in a trade that brings no long-term money back could make things a bit more interesting for Philly's free agency pursuit.)

And that's a big reason why this feels desperate. The Sixers weren’t championship contenders before they traded for Butler and even though they elevated their general ceiling by bringing him on, their primary concerns (depth, shooting) only got worse. It speaks to the organization’s sudden distaste for patience, which is both understandable (given how they were shunned by All-Star free agents over the summer) and silly. Instead of letting Fultz evolve at his own pace, seeing how this season plays out and then taking one final shot at a free agent who’d better fit what’s already there (like Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, Khris Middleton, or Tobias Harris), they’ve gone all in on someone who’s more awkward, old, and expensive than the four players listed in that parenthetical.

Butler also has a $30.6 million cap hold, which, when combined with J.J. Redick’s (at nearly $16 million) all but eliminates them as meaningful free-agent buyers. Renouncing Redick (along with McConnell, Amir Johnson, Mike Muscala, and Wilson Chandler) gives them nearly $20 million to spend, but whatever they get with that money probably won’t offset the loss of arguably their second-most valuable player so far this season.

The long-term prognostication is more grim than it should be, but that's what happens when you're building around two players that are odd in a league that's current aesthetic magnifies their flaws. Assuming they give Butler a max contract this summer, what will that thing look like on the trade market? In the meantime, the Sixers should still have some scary-ass lineups that most opponents won’t know what to do with for the rest of this season. Simmons, Butler, Embiid, Redick, and Shamet is one that should handle its business on defense while supplying three stars with necessary breathing room. And touching on something that was already said, Butler may have a more enjoyable experience with Philly than he did in Minnesota (or even Chicago).

It’s early, but the percentage of Butler’s jump shots that have been assisted this season is down 11 percent from last year; only James Harden and Chris Paul are lower on that list. As the lone starter on bench groups that have really struggled to generate efficient offense, whether Butler puts the ball on the ground or surveys the court from the mid-post, opponents have not hesitated to double and triple-team him.

That should change in Philadelphia, where so long as he plays with at least one of Redick, Simmons, or Embiid every minute he’s on the floor, Butler won’t have to expend the same amount of energy on offense, while the defensive coverage he faces may be less hostile. And just because this isn't a perfect fit doesn't mean it's horrendous. Off the ball, Butler is not Fultz. He made 39 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes last season, and 44.2 percent in his final dance with the Bulls. Ignoring anyone that good isn’t a great idea.

A bulk of this analysis centers around Butler’s relationship with the Sixers because it's utterly fascinating to imagine how good/bad/combustible it can be. But the Timberwolves should be commended for replacing a four-time All-Star with two logical pieces that can share the floor with Karl-Anthony Towns. Covington is slightly antiquated but definitely useful, while Saric has yet to reach his full potential and, despite early-season struggles, should be better in an environment that calls for him to do more stuff with the ball.

We’ll also see how Towns (and Andrew Wiggins, I guess) responds to the relief of life without Butler. It’ll be an uphill climb for the Timberwolves to make the playoffs, but if they slow roll their own semi-rebuild into the summer and add a lottery pick in the draft, they’ll be in decent shape going forward, with Towns, Saric, Covington, much less day-to-day stress, and an ability to develop on their own timetable. That’s not what a starved fanbase wants to hear, but it’s better than keeping Butler, losing in the first round, then watching him walk away for nothing.

Outside of Philadelphia and Minnesota, the ripple effects of this trade can’t be ignored. Teams that were rumored to have interest in Butler but no cap space to sign him this summer (the Houston Rockets, Miami Heat) are shit out of luck, with no clear avenue to add a perennial All-Star. And teams with cap space that didn’t want to fork over anything of value, knowing they could hunt Butler in free agency—the Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, etc.) are probably not too thrilled, either.

For now, the Sixers are better but still a move or two away from being considered dangerous enough to win a championship, and the Timberwolves escaped with a solid haul (assuming you ignore the fact that they could have this version of Zach LaVine next to Towns for the next ten years). It’s easy to make snap judgements about a move like this and assume all participants will be static from here on out, but for everyone involved, more change feels like it’s on the horizon—a.k.a., welcome to the NBA.

Jimmy Butler and The Process Will be Fascinating published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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