The NBA Thread

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Late to the party but I liked the Christmas games. Those also did amazing ratings wise, so the ratingsbros can have a fun time trying to decipher what that means and if it's over and the nba has fallen and billions must dunk or not.

I think the Mike Brown firing is a weird and bad move made to cover for a failing front office but I don't really want to track down sources and make an effort post about it.

Anyways, the first round of All-Star fan votes are out and they're something alright. https://x.com/NBAPR/status/1874878388026192043
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I knew LaMelo was really popular with children but I didn't know he was THAT popular. You could make an argument for him not being an All-Star at all if you didn't like the guy but at this rate he's going to be starting, lol. Of course KD LeBron and Steph get their popularity boosts too but with the possible exception of Steph they're all clearly All-Stars off performance alone, plus they've been around and winning for a long time. Wemby's pretty fast to get fan votes though that's clearly deserved, and it's always funny seeing injured players with really high numbers. Paul George doesn't even play and he's still top 10. On the opposite end JJJ in the West and Evan Mobley in the East feel like players who clearly should be All-Stars off performance but it seems the fans don't love them like that. I guess kids really do hate defense after all...
 
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Womble of Wimbledon said:
What's the problem here? The Kings suck this season and the easiest solution for the team is always to sack the coach. Maybe he is just very well-liked around the league, which might explain why he keeps getting coaching jobs despite always underachieving.
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Meant to respond to this earlier. The thing that's bad is letting the guy coach a practice then texting him he's fired as hes prepping to go to the game. Lacks professionalism plus it screws over the team.
 
In other news, MJ Successor #5324 is actually not an MJ level competitors.
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The fit on the Timberwolves for Ant is about as bad as it can possibly be. He needs a point guard and spacing and he gets neither of those things and teams figured out that he panics when doubled. It wasn't even just the Celtics where he was being guarded by Tatum and Jrue at the same time, OKC did that to him as well. I get why he's frustrated... but you can't just outright say things like that. You're literally just telling everyone else that this tactic is indeed effective against you and that they should keep doing it because it gets in your head and keeps your numbers down. As for how Jordan himself managed the double teams, the answer seems to be threefold:
  1. Illegal defense rules helped him out. Double teams against Jordan had to be more committal than they have to today, so he'd always end up having a teammate who's more open back in his day. Jordan himself said he didn't like the idea of changing that rule, believing that with modern zone people like him wouldn't be able to do what they do, so I don't think it's some slight to say that the best isolation player ever thrived in an isolation friendly era. The triangle offense was also set up to deliberately exacerbate this, forcing teams to either commit super hard to a double or to just let Jordan beat his guy and score.
  2. He often did pass out of doubles, like you're supposed to do. He's no point guard but he was a pretty good passer and a great playmaker, but he had Pippen and the triangle so there was no need for that to become a central part of his game the way it is for someone like LeBron. If he was coming up today he probably would just be a point guard since the modern game is more accepting of scoring point guards and big point guards not named Magic Johnson.
  3. Jordan's decision making was extraordinarily fast, in stark contrast to how people often dribble around at the arc for a while. He'd get the ball and just go instantly, often not even leaving any time for the defense to properly double team him and letting him split, or he'd outspeed the primary defender and effectively use him as a screen against the other guy. It wasn't just that he was one of the true freak athlete players but also his processing speed that would allow for this.
#1 is totally off the table for Ant, he's complaining about #2, and he's probably not smart enough for #3, so he'll probably be in this conundrum even with a better fitting roster around him unless he grows up (which to be fair he has plenty of time to do) and gets over himself. People don't double team guys like LeBron and Jokic much because of the passing threat, and while Ant's obviously never gonna be that there's still certainly possibility to improve enough that people don't just hit you with it every single time. Look at Giannis who gets triple teamed and takes it in stride.
 
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I am someone who last week knew nothing about NBA and used some videos as white noise talking about it this week to understand more about it.

The sports culture in America is totally different from my own country. Totally. I was quite curious to see the video TOP fights in NBA history and for a contact sport, it was the most mild milquetoast shit ever, no one even died and the top 1 (malice in the palace) was kinda cringy (even in fights somehow sugary sodas had space in it, Good job America)

Of all I watched this week, I liked Nikola Jokic the most.
 
I've never heard of an athlete being flat out killed in a sports fight outside of combat sports, which is a little different. You had some sillier stuff going on in the past but the Malice at the Palace was terrible for PR and the league's been terrified of anything even approaching that ever since so they clamped down HARD on anything that could lead to a legit brawl. All the taunting penalties people complain about as viewers stem from that, they clamped down on alcohol sales (it was a beer that got chucked from the stands and the fans were super drunk), increased the penalties for players coming off the bench for any reason during a fight (infamously invoked during that suns spurs game), and jacked up player penalties for fighting a bunch. It's not like hockey where fighting is a metagame unto itself, they genuinely just don't want it to be part of the game here.
 
Active User said:
I've never heard of an athlete being flat out killed in a sports fight outside of combat sports, which is a little different. You had some sillier stuff going on in the past but the Malice at the Palace was terrible for PR and the league's been terrified of anything even approaching that ever since so they clamped down HARD on anything that could lead to a legit brawl. All the taunting penalties people complain about as viewers stem from that, they clamped down on alcohol sales (it was a beer that got chucked from the stands and the fans were super drunk), increased the penalties for players coming off the bench for any reason during a fight (infamously invoked during that suns spurs game), and jacked up player penalties for fighting a bunch. It's not like hockey where fighting is a metagame unto itself, they genuinely just don't want it to be part of the game here.
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This is what it gets me: it comes from above.

Now in football (real). You dont bottle or control stuff like this, it just happens. It may be out of nowhere or to have expectations that it will happen.

It may be caused by the players themselves, the police, the fans, whatever it is. And doesn't matter the place in the world, africa, south america, europe or asia, at least someone died as the game occurs.

This is my favorite one because I watched live on the TV and it was the club being relegated in their 100th anniversary and the other club who saved themselves. In this case the fans were pissed off as fuck and stormed the field, no one died here


This one was a fuckup of major size that changed how to organize games in the 90's. It wasn't even pro football but their teen championship but the ultras fought and the big mistake was that the stadium that the game was being played was being renovated. And they still had the game there. So with two ultras of opposing sides, and they had all the fuel with rocks and pieces of wood in the stadium to throw and fight each other. A 16 year old kid ended up dying and over 100 people got hurt.


And in the most severe cases: people dying because of the police/security that causes people to agitate due to tear gas and causing stampedes. Killing more people than just straight up brawls.



Violence in football was way more prevalent decades ago but still exists nowadays. People love their clubs and will fight to the death to defend their flags. It is more important than any nationalism that you can think of.

This way of supporting their teams is why you see a total difference in basketball fan culture in their fans in Euroleague than NBA. Since the culture was taken from football rather than just being controled by the NBA itself


There is a supporter flag that I saw in a stadium before that summarizes this culture quite well: "the training is the game, and the game is war"


And funnily enough, with the refs, you can see the players in NBA calling the ref a bitch straight up to his face. This shit doesn't happen in football at all if you don't want to be ejected even at the thought of it. You dont fuck with the ref, if you do, you are going to be fucked so hard by the organization and the law if it hard enough.


The dude who kicked the refs head went to jail for almost 3 years and (couldn't play for any game for 2 years lol)

To be a football ref you must have balls of steel, no player in the world is more fucked with than the ref. The players hate him, the supporters hate him, and they get all the shit. But his word is the law.


And this is just inside the stadium, there is also outside where ultras try to kill each other in ambushes.

Football games depending of the match was always something dangerous to go rather than something like the NBA treats it. It is like an adventure, where you risk your well being just to watch it.


This case, one of the guys who was beat up here, 2 years later murdered one of the guys who did thia to them and was jailed up.


And yeah you even have politics involved with each ultra having alliances between each other and sometimes helping them even when it isn't their team.

I tried to explain and give examples of how different it is from NBA and their supposed apex of violence. It just feels childish and plastic next to real football shenanigans and the culture of the game itself.

(When people say that football took over wars in Europe to deal with some remaining feelings of wanting to destroy your opponent, that shit is fucking true)
 
People fight at the soccer because the game is so fucking boring they need to inject some action into it.

The NBA had a huge problem with fights in the early days, it was much like hockey. It got better as the players became more skilled but the real turning point was Rudy Tomjanovich getting sucker punched by Kermit Washington and nearly dying (massive head trauma, leaking spinal fluid). Not to say NBA players never threw hands after that but they were much more hesitant to throw real punches.

The Malice in the Palace was the last nail in the coffin for NBA players using their fists, and hilariously they weren't even punching each other, but drunk fans.
 
Womble of Wimbledon said:
People fight at the soccer because the game is so fucking boring they need to inject some action into it.

The NBA had a huge problem with fights in the early days, it was much like hockey. It got better as the players became more skilled but the real turning point was Rudy Tomjanovich getting sucker punched by Kermit Washington and nearly dying (massive head trauma, leaking spinal fluid). Not to say NBA players never threw hands after that but they were much more hesitant to throw real punches.

The Malice in the Palace was the last nail in the coffin for NBA players using their fists, and hilariously they weren't even punching each other, but drunk fans.
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Spoken like a true american (big retard). If you point almost every second it means nothing to whoever is watching or playing. The absence of the points over the game itself is the gameplay because both teams are trying to score and being stopped by other team. And when it happens, it is at the same time absolutely soul crushing or completely uplifting.

And that is something that just seeing the final score just doesn't tell you anything about the game.

A 1-0 can be absolutely everything. It could be scored at the beginning and the team going full defense to prevent the other tram to tie or it could be at the last minute, making a tie into a victory.

Scoring every single second become meaningless because at the end, a beautiful 2 points will have the same impact as a shit 2 points. Scarcety makes it more memorable and important.

You can see this the best at a volleyball rally, the longer it is the better since they are trying to score and can't due to defense

 
Currently, Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder are tied in first place with the same record — (34-6)

Almost a week ago, Cavaliers win streak reportedly stopped at 13 games.
 
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Spoken like a true american (big retard). If you point almost every second it means nothing to whoever is watching or playing. The absence of the points over the game itself is the gameplay because both teams are trying to score and being stopped by other team. And when it happens, it is at the same time absolutely soul crushing or completely uplifting.

And that is something that just seeing the final score just doesn't tell you anything about the game.

A 1-0 can be absolutely everything. It could be scored at the beginning and the team going full defense to prevent the other tram to tie or it could be at the last minute, making a tie into a victory.

Scoring every single second become meaningless because at the end, a beautiful 2 points will have the same impact as a shit 2 points. Scarcety makes it more memorable and important.

You can see this the best at a volleyball rally, the longer it is the better since they are trying to score and can't due to defense

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Go back to whatever europoor hole you crawled out of and head down to your local mosque to repent.
 
Not to jump on the Jokic bandwagon but he just had one of the most insane statlines I have ever seen against the Kings:

35 points, 22 rebounds, 17 assists on 12-of-19 shooting with just 1 turnover.

According to StatMuse (not sure how reliable that is) only Wilt Chamberlain and Russell Westbrook have recorded 20/20/20 games and both scored in the low 20s. Obviously Jokic didn't get to 20 assists but he was damn close and he scored way more than either of them did.
 
Yeah I saw that game, it was pretty wild. Even had a full court heave go in. It would have still been a real impressive performance if he didn't have to play in the fourth like he intended, but the Kings spoiled that. I think Jokic is still currently the best player but he'd need to get to the 2 seed for a fourth MVP since voter fatigue exists and Shai's own season isn't exactly undeserving.

On another note, All-Star starters were announced.
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I agree with the lineup they ended up with for the East, though given the LaMelo fan votes from the one I posted before I guess a lot of children won't. The West though... I'm honestly not surprised, Luka's hurt so the guard spot is free and Steph Bron and KD still have a lot of popularity with reasonable performances, but I did think Wemby could have grabbed a starter spot since he's both popular and clearly doing very well.
 
Full All-Star rosters are out.
Western Reserves​
Eastern Reserves​
Anthony Edwards​
Jaylen Brown​
Anthony Davis​
Pascal Siakam​
James Harden​
Darius Garland​
Jaren Jackson Jr.​
Cade Cunningham​
Alperen Sengun​
Evan Mobley​
Jalen Williams (J-Dub)​
Damian Lillard​
Victor Wembanyama​
Tyler Herro​
Lot of Kings fans aren't happy Sabonis got snubbed. I could see him over Sengun, but they're not gonna leave the current 2 seed without an all-star and I don't think Sabonis has a real shot over the other fromtcourt players. The West's reserves are stacked with frontcourt, in contrast to the East where injuries chopped that down quite a bit. Pretty funny how LaMelo won the fan vote yet isn't an all-star at all, but I ultimately think that's correct performance wise. Nice to see JJJ and Mobley make it on, someone out there still appreciates defense.

Edit: Kyrie's absence does seem like a bit of a snub given that the Mavs are alright despite a huge amount of their team and their star player being injured. 1st time All-Stars include Cade, Herro, Mobley, J-Dub, Wemby, and Sengun.
 
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