2020 NBA Catch-All: Offseason

I guess.

The most recent "The Full 48" podcast was pretty interesting:

Epidemiologist and Asst. Professor of Quantitative Theory and Methods at Oxford College of Emory University, Zach Binney, and Carl Bergstrom, Professor of Biology at the University of Washington, join The Full 48 with Howard Beck to discuss Orlando's spike in Covid-19, and how it may impact the NBA's bubble plan.

I am so incredibly here for the "J.R. Smith streams from the bubble and probably gets himself suspended" experience. This is going to be absolutely hilarious, I mean it.

If you’re on Twitter there’s an account just covering the bubble experience of the players. As you might imagine it’s entertaining.

https://mobile.twitter.com/NBABubble...

It’s a very Michael Beasley to sign as a substitute player and then 5 days later test positive for COVID. Not to make light of it, but.. it had to be him or JR, right?

Prederick wrote:

I am so incredibly here for the "J.R. Smith streams from the bubble and probably gets himself suspended" experience. This is going to be absolutely hilarious, I mean it.

Turns out, the inaugural winner of the "NBA player gets caught being a moron" award was a dark horse, Lou Williams! (Not that J.R. Smith has ceased being J.R. Smith.)

@ramonashelburne wrote:

Williams was photographed at an Atlanta gentleman’s club on Thursday night by the rapper Jack Harlow, who quickly deleted the post from his Instagram story. Harlow tweeted on Friday, “That was an old pic of me and Lou. I was just reminiscing cuz I miss him.”

Sources told ESPN that Williams has been interviewed by NBA security about his whereabouts while he was away from campus, and told them he did go to the Magic City gentleman’s club for a short time on Thursday night

If you're unfamiliar, Magic City is perhaps the most famous gentlemen's club in America (certainly in Hip-Hop circles).

@DragonflyJonez wrote:

Bro snuck out a bubble and boarded a private jet from ORL to ATL. Then hopped back on that jet from ATL to ORL a few hours later. Then snuck back in the bubble. All for some titties and to kick it with his rapper friends. NBA players do not live in the same world that we do

Congratulations Lou, someone had to do it first.

(Also, Jack Harlow does NOT look like what I was expecting.)

Prederick wrote:

(Also, Jack Harlow does NOT look like what I was expecting.)

Yeah but he's a Louisville guy, so he's cool.

What a jackass. And then to lie about it, putting his teammates and everyone else at risk. Jackass.

Lou Williams has a history of interesting personal decisions. Apparently the reason the Raptors never even offered him a contract after winning his first 6th man award was his poor influence on the younger guys. Various non-specific rumors about his focus being on his relationships (was in a polyamorous relationship) rather than basketball.

So Gobert scored the first points of the restart. Because of course it had to happen that way.

Nature is healing

The pregame was interesting. For example they pointed out Utah at 4 could climb to 2, or drop to 7, depending on how their games go. This restart is like mini-playoffs. Going to be fun.

Read the room, Corona ads.

Gobert scores the first 2 and final 2 points of the game. Jazz win.

The background audio for Clips-Lakers definitely seems more tepid than the first one. Are they simulating Angelinos arriving the game late due to traffic?

If I had told you a year ago that LeBron James would score a game-winner in front of a CG crowd, you'd think I was talking about Space Jam 2.

That was nuts. 2 great games.

LBJ locked down Kawhi, made him pick up his dribble. Might have pushed PG a little bit, but they aren't going to call that.

2 really good games and they killed it with the presentation. This whole thing may still fail, but for now I’m really proud to be a fan of a league that conducts itself like this.

Rat Boy wrote:

Read the room, Corona ads.

Having now seen this ad a couple times more, I'm trying to figure out who the target market is. Certainly nobody in tech working from home and socially isolated the next year (that would be the Heineken ads with the Sinatra song). But the models are all Millennials? So maybe 20-somethings that don't have a WFH job...but still want to do the international travel thing and YOLO at their Air BnB? Who are those people? Maybe college kids that are going to big parties in the middle of a pandemic.

It feels like it came from a Before Times ad vault and Mark from Marketing was like, "Hey, look what I found. Let's do it live!" It's like record-scratch jarring when every other ad is doubling down on isolation.

Can anyone think of a player who had quite as big a gap between their appearance and their ability as Harden? Because dude genuinely looks like a chubby vagrant right now.

That intentional miss and putback was nails, though. That literally never works like that and it appears it was a designed play.

Prederick wrote:

Can anyone think of a player who had quite as big a gap between their appearance and their ability as Harden? Because dude genuinely looks like a chubby vagrant right now.

He always looks like one of those old guys at the gym that will school all the kids. It's why he is fun to watch, and, honestly, why the flopping doesn't bother me. He just comes off as a guy that will find every edge.

And I can't stand to watch any game he's in. Since he left OKC, he's a joke. That's not basketball.

Luckily I'm always able to watch the NBA finals because he'll never make it there again.

It’s kind of fun to watch a crafty old guy at the gym play that way. It’s definitely not fun to me when there are 9 other world class athletes on the floor just standing around, which is really my beef with his game.

Yeah good point. He's Allen Iverson with a friendlier whistle. He walks pretty much every jump shot, and gets FTs for flopping more than anyone.

And for a guy who shoots so many FTs he's not even top 20 in the league in %.

Sitting back and watching NBA games all day Saturday almost feels normal.

Except for being August.

Stele wrote:

Sitting back and watching NBA games all day Saturday almost feels normal.

Except for being August. :D

It’s really nice. And the games have been really good.

OMG Luka. That was a fun game.

Lots of OT today. Feels like playoff level hoops