2022-2023 NBA Season Thread

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

That is a high expectation to live up to. But Zion is really good. Like all NBA good. He is also fun to watch, I think it would be in the best interest of all basketball fans for him to stay healthy.

Yeah, I hate to see a guy's career get derailed due to health issues. Greg Oden comes to mind. Seemed to be a likeable kid.

I see that Anthony Davis is hurt again. Bad luck for Lakers fans, because LeBron is not getting any younger and will not be able to carry the team. The NBA is better when its best players are able to play.

Years ago, Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas almost had to retire early in his career due to problems with his ankles and feet.

[Déjà Bru]

Salient facts about Mat Ishbia, the new owner of the Phoenix Suns:

He was the shortest player on Michigan State's basketball team 20 years ago, but was one of those cheerful and energetic guys that either please and inspire his teammates or drive them batty.



He was a member of the 1999-2000 N.C.A.A. championship team. As a freshman, though, he didn't play much.

Four of those teammates went to the N.B.A. but not Ishbia. Instead, he went to work at his father’s small mortgage-lending company, United Wholesale Mortgage.

Ishbia is now its billionaire chief executive overseeing thousands of employees, including a few of his old teammates. He purchased a majority share of both the Suns and the W.N.B.A. Phoenix Mercury, a combined team value of $4 billion.

Last month, U.W.M. passed Rocket Mortgage as the largest mortgage lender in the country. Rocket Mortgage was founded by Dan Gilbert, who owns the N.B.A.’s Cleveland Cavaliers. This should add some spice to future Cavaliers-Suns games.

His stated goals are "to reboot the workplace culture of the Suns, while also bringing the franchise its first championship" and welcoming the return of Brittney Griner to the Mercury.

In addition to his parents, Ishbia cites Michigan State coach Tom Izzo as his biggest influence. Izzo "taught Ishbia how to hold people accountable and motivate them. Ishbia was a student coach under Izzo for his final season."



He hasn't forgotten his alma mater, either. Last year, he gave MSU $32 million.

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

...Last month, U.W.M. passed Rocket Mortgage as the largest mortgage lender in the country. Rocket Mortgage was founded by Dan Gilbert, who owns the N.B.A.’s Cleveland Cavaliers. This should add some spice to future Cavaliers-Suns games.

His stated goals are "to reboot the workplace culture of the Suns, while also bringing the franchise its first championship" and welcoming the return of Brittney Griner to the Mercury.

In addition to his parents, Ishbia cites Michigan State coach Tom Izzo as his biggest influence. Izzo "taught Ishbia how to hold people accountable and motivate them. Ishbia was a student coach under Izzo for his final season."

He hasn't forgotten his alma mater, either. Last year, he gave MSU $32 million.

Interesting. I'm sure you know that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, who actually lives in Michigan, suffered a stroke several years ago. Since then he has rarely been seen in public. He used to attend home games and sometimes sit in with the TV broadcast group. But no more. He is rarely mentioned by the team. I have not even seen a photo of him since the stroke.

But this year there was video of him talking to the team in the locker room either before the season or at the start of the season. He's in a wheelchair and still does not look or sound well at all. Also, his son has some kind of rare neurological disorder, and the team is doing a lot this year to raise awareness of that disorder.

When I saw the clip of the billionaire Dan Gilbert in a wheelchair, looking much older than he is, I had to reflect upon the fragility of life.

Years ago it was widely believed among fans that he will someday sell the Cavs to LeBron James. Who know if that will ever happen. To be honest, I'm not sure that would be good for the team if LeBron adopted a "hands on" approach.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Knicks? STRK W7?

Actually, it got to "STRK W8" before the inevitable correction set in. Now it's "STRK L4" and counting, including last night's debacle that made Luka Dončić look godlike once again.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Actually, it got to "STRK W8" before the inevitable correction set in. Now it's "STRK L4" and counting, including last night's debacle that made Luka Dončić look godlike once again.

60 points and 21 rebounds...these are Wilt-like numbers.

[Antonin]

January 2, 2023. Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers, 71 points vs the Chicago Bulls. In the first half it looked like we were going to get blown out by the Bulls. But it wound up being a game for the ages. Thrilling to watch. The Cavs were without PG Darius Garland and forward Evan Mobley.

Another Cavs fan favorite, backup center Robin Lopez, who had 1 point in the game, posted on twitter: "I'm going to get it out of the way and point out that Donovan Mitchell and Robin Lopez combined for 72 tonight. Hashtag Historic Game."

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Antonin

January 2, 2023. Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers, 71 points vs the Chicago Bulls. In the first half it looked like we were going to get blown out by the Bulls. But it wound up being a game for the ages. Thrilling to watch. The Cavs were without PG Darius Garland and forward Evan Mobley.

Another Cavs fan favorite, backup center Robin Lopez, who had 1 point in the game, posted on twitter: "I'm going to get it out of the way and point out that Donovan Mitchell and Robin Lopez combined for 72 tonight. Hashtag Historic Game."

His 71 points [42 in just the second half, 13 in OT] were the most points scored in Cavaliers history, surpassing the previous high of 57 (LeBron James and Kyrie Irving). He is also the seventh player in NBA history to record 70-plus points in a game. Those other names include the likes of Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant, David Thompson, David Robinson, Elgin Baylor and Devin Booker.

He had plenty of rest beforehand. In three of his four previous games, he failed to crack 15 points.

He said all the right things after the game but the best was taking time at the end of his press conference to offer prayers for Damar Hamlin. Treasure this guy; he's a class act on top of being a bona fide star. He should have been a Knick.

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

He had plenty of rest beforehand. In three of his four previous games, he failed to crack 15 points.

He said all the right things after the game but the best was taking time at the end of his press conference to offer prayers for Damar Hamlin. Treasure this guy; he's a class act on top of being a bona fide star. He should have been a Knick.

Interesting. The local broadcast did not mention the injury to Hamlin. They went from the game to on-court reactions from the players to the reactions of the local analysts to a small part of the post-game press conference. They never show the entire press conference after Cavs games.

My wife and I did not learn about Hamlin's injury until local Cavs coverage ended and we switched to MSNBC.

[thehef]

A lot of times in the post-game interviews, they cut to them live & in-progress and cut away before it ends, once they think they have the crux of what the guy was gonna say about the game. They had no way of knowing that DM was going to end it with words about Hamlin... That's probably what happened.

[rudel.dietrich]

Press conferences are usually awful with canned answers and athletes and coaches being asked the same drool questions and getting back answers that never say anything.
After their game and shower the players either want to get treatment from the trainer, go back to the court and shoot, go to dinner, or back to their hotel. They don’t want to do a press conference.

I can see any they cut away so often.

[Antonin]

They never show the entire press conference here. If I remember correctly the postgame show never lasts more than 30 minutes, and that includes analysis by the courtside broadcast people, an on-court interview of 1 or more players by the woman who does general courtside reporting, analysis by the halftime analysis crew situated outside the playing area with fans waving in the background, maybe a locker room interview and snippets of the formal press conference with dumb questions like "How good does it feel to be playing next to [insert player name] when he has a night like this?"

I would image that's how most NBA cities do things.

[Cobra Mgr]

Ummmmm............yeah.............

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Ummmmm............yeah.............

Well, there was that hip thrust and bump before the shot ...

[Syd Thrift]

Yeah, it’s a little ticky tack but there was contact on the drive. I’m not sure what Sacramento wanted to overturn there.

[Syd Thrift]

dola,

Following a win over the faltering Jazz, the Bulls are now just 2 games under .500 and back in the play-in at the halfway point of the season. I’m not sure if they still have the easiest schedule in the league going forward but at one point they had that hardest played / easiest scheduled split…

[Déjà Bru]

The Heat set a new NBA record for free-throw excellence yesterday. 40 for 40! Jimmy Butler alone made 23 of 23 from the stripe. Perfection made a big difference because they won the game by a single point. The Thunder deserve a nod of derision for allowing the Heat to tee up so often.

The Heat broke a record that was held by two teams. The Utah Jazz shot 39 for 39 in 1982 (Danny Schayes was 14 for 14), tying a mark first set by the 1953 Fort Wayne Pistons (the Stuyvesant High School and Columbia University graduate and eventual convicted point shaver Jack Molinas* was 11 for 11).

[*The article linked to a review (behind a paywall, sorry) of the book The Wizard of Odds: How Jack Molinas Almost Destroyed the Game of Basketball. It looks really interesting; I probably will not buy it but I will see if the library has it.]


https://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Odds-M...s%2C108&sr=8-1

In The Wizard of Odds, renowned and best-selling basketball writer Charley Rosen brings us for the first time the full life story of Jack Molinas, one of the greatest basketball players of his era, a man whose gambling addiction and hubris caused his ultimate demise. Drawing on numerous, previously unavailable first-person accounts, including Jack Molinas’s own journal and trial transcripts, Rosen presents the true saga of a man who perhaps better than anyone around him understood the weaknesses of the system in which he lived—so much so that he convinced himself that he could manipulate that system to his advantage with total impunity, in a life’s journey that took him from NBA play to the Mafia and the pornographic film industry, and to an ultimate tragic destiny.

[Antonin]

It was great to see Ricky Rubio last night, back in action for our Cavaliers! I know he has been practicing for a while with the team, and I know this is not the first time he has had to go through that long recovery from an ACL injury, but every time he touched the ball, my wife and I cringed, hoping he would not make a fast cut and get hurt again.

Coming off the bench for us last season he really added something special to our offense. He was usually on the floor at the same time as Kevin Love, another savvy and surprisingly versatile veteran.

Since Rubio knows Donovan Mitchell very well, having him back might help make this another great year for us.

[Déjà Bru]

For his unveiling at the Pistons-Bulls game in Paris, did they purposely plant short people around Victor Wembanyama to emphasize his height? I mean, at 7 foot 2 inches, he's not that tall by today's standards.





https://twitter.com/NBA/status/16161...tons-future%2F

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

For his unveiling at the Pistons-Bulls game in Paris, did they purposely plant short people around Victor Wembanyama to emphasize his height? I mean, at 7 foot 2 inches, he's not that tall by today's standards.

Attachment 925592

Attachment 925593

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/16161...tons-future%2F

Yeah man, why did they make the commissioner of the NBA so short!? It’s probably a conspiracy.

[rudel.dietrich]

Victor may be taller than 7’2. Here he is next to 7’1 Rudy Gobert.
I know shoes and how they are standing make a difference. But he looks closer to 7’3 or 7’4.
He is massive

https://twitter.com/theathletic/stat...42341289820160