Flack wrote: ↑Fri Jan 15, 2021 8:45 am If there's a way to complain about athletes protesting without sounding like a privileged white jerk, I haven't found it yet. Look, if they want to put Black Lives Matter right on the court (which they did) I don't care, and when everybody takes a knee in the middle of the game, fine, whatever. But when players like Kyrie Irving refuse to talk to the media during media week (he said "I don't talk to pawns," that's a problem -- not just because he's not doing his job (he's literally being paid to talk to the media), but because it makes him unlikeable. (Irving changed his tune after being fined $25,000.)

I hope he doesn't do anything to become more unlikeable!

Ahhhhh! I got bamboozled! By imgur! I'm part of the problem!

Here's the real screen shot, fyi:



I thought game 5 was Sunday so I missed Saturday night's game. I'm ready for game six! I'd love to see Chris Paul finally get a ring so I'm all Suns, although the Bucks have a strong narrative as well.

We joke around a lot because so many athletes were silent regarding Hong Kong and that murderous, organ-harvesting dictatorship, but credit LeBron for being the only guy man enough to send China a bomb.

That's hilarious. I don't remember seeing that graphic even though I watched the game on ABC. I might've just blanked it out because it's LeBron...all I wanted was a LeBron-free finals, and we were so damn close to having that until he had to show up as a spectator.

Thank god he told everyone to shut up about China and a Free Hong Kong so he could make a 31% rotten movie. A hero.

It's been an enjoyable finals series between the Bucks and Suns so far. I'm really totally fine with either team winning so I'm mostly just enjoying the basketball. I've slightly been rooting for the Bucks due to Jrue Holiday, but Chris Paul deserves a ring and I wouldn't be disappointed at all to see that happen. If only both teams could win like the Jolt Country MVP trophy.

Game 5 saw the Bucks take a 3-2 lead in the series in Phoenix. I was particularly pleased to see Jrue have a good scoring game because his shooting has been very erratic recently. He was involved in the play of the game at the end when he stole the ball from Booker, raced down the court, and then threw the ball up for a Giannis alley-oop. Holiday could have dribbled it out and forced the Suns to foul, but he saw Giannis open and went for the spectacular play. Great stuff. The Bucks would seem to have the advantage now that they have a chance to close it out at home, but I definitely wouldn't count the Suns out of it. Devin Booker has never been in the playoffs before and must have felt like he had all the pressure in the world on his shoulders throughout this series, but his game has by and large held up against the more experienced Bucks apart from one bad game. The Suns have never looked like a young team overawed by the moment. The young players and the role players have consistently looked up the task. Their assurance no doubt partly stems from Chris Paul's veteran leadership, but Paul hasn't had to try to take over games as I thought he might need to. He's always had adequate help from his teammates and hasn't had to be the main scoring option. That said, I expect him to be daring and aggressive in game 6.

So it's come down to the Clippers, Suns, Bucks, and Hawks. I'm predicting it will be Phoenix and Milwaukee in the finals. Devin Booker actually looked human again in the Suns' last game, but I expect him to soon resume his free scoring ways and for Chris Paul to ultimately benefit from the rest he gained via his recent forced COVID-related break. The Hawks took the Bucks by surprise in the first game, but Milwaukee answered very forcefully last night. The Bucks defense was suffocating and dominating, and the Hawks were thoroughly outplayed and outhustled. Giannis smartly focused on scoring inside the paint for the most part. Brook Lopez's interior defense was unreal. Jrue refound his scoring touch and frustrated Trae Young time and time again on the defensive end. Trae is a dangerous scorer from anywhere on the court, but I think he should have taken a cue for Giannis and attacked the basket more. He took too many 3s and didn't drive enough. He has the speed advantage over Jrue so if he's not settling for jump shots he'll continue to be very hard for the Bucks to contain.

Robb's right about the NBA having shitty officiating and not being supportive enough of small market teams even as it loves expansion. I think the latter issue isn't just a problem with the league but with journalists and fans too. When a baseball team has been terrible for decades and suddenly puts together a team that can win, there's excitement and lots of fawning press coverage. It's a STORY in a sport that loves narratives and has a historical frame of reference. I didn't see anything on the same level as that with the Suns and the Hawks this year prior to the playoffs. I'm part of the problem because I'm not sure I watched a single Hawks game during the regular season and probably would not have been able to tell you who was on their roster other than Trae Young and Kevin Huerter. The NBA is just too focused on dynasties and stars. Perhaps we all are.

For what it's worth, I don't think the NBA is systematically fixed and the way the playoffs have unfolded so far this year is a good argument to use against anyone who'd argue differently. Granted, some of the refereeing is terrible and always has been. Even having an outright dirty ref like Tim Donaghy embarrass the league didn't really change things over the long run. The rules aren't enforced consistently, and certain players tend to get the calls they want more than certain other players. The challenge system is a step in the right direction that ideally will bring more accountability to the sport, but it doesn't feel like enough. Personally, I think the rules themselves could be improved some, too. I want to be able to see a travel and know it really is a travel. The Nets were doing this thing against the Bucks where they'd set a screen for Harden, Jrue Holiday would move past the screen to try to stay on Harden, and then Harden and the player who had set the pick would move and sandwich Jrue with both Nets players initiating physical contact simultaneously. This would sometimes lead to a foul being called against Holiday and never as far as I can remember lead to a foul being called on either Net. Whatever that thing was I hate it and want it out of the sport.

The more I think about it, the sillier this is. "They didn't ask me when to start the season." Right. They didn't ask the guys that played in the finals when the season should start. Is he mentally retarded? The last game the Atlanta Hawks played was on March 11th, 2020. And they didn't ask them either. The Hawks were probably ready to start back up again on Halloween. God, what a stupid, crybaby opinion to put out there.

Right. I want to like him and he's just so freaking unlikeable. Yeah, you "only" got 71 days off. It was a pandemic, things were tough for a lot of people. I got 20 days off last year and at the end of 2020 my reward for busting my ass was for the 7 days of PTO I had built up as a disaster cushion and was going to carry over all the day evaporated and went straight into the ether. (and I realize I had it better than 98% of people and LeBron's got it better than 99.5%.)

LeBron is also 36 years old (Jordan had been initially retired for two years at this point). Yer gonna get hurt.

And still got to PICK HIS OWN SUPER BUDDY in Anthony Davis, holy christ quit your goddamn crying, you mewling baby.

As for LeBron... is there anything more delicious than the tears of famous people? Can you imagine sprinkling them on waffles and lapping them up for breakfast? Yum yum yum!

Yes, the timing of this season sucked. The players did not get enough rest between seasons. What are you going to do? Permanently shift the NBA season? I mean, really the thing to have done was to cancel the 2020 season, and I'm pretty sure LeBron and the rest of the Lakers didn't give back their reasons for that shit show in a bubble season. Championships are won and lost every year due to injuries. At least when Jordan cried it was because his dad got killed. Thank god they didn't have Twitter in the 90s.

bryanb wrote: ↑Sun Jun 20, 2021 12:29 pm What a great Bucks-Nets game 7 that was. My favorite NBA player, Jrue Holiday, struggled mightily with his shooting but redeemed himself in the fourth quarter somewhat. The thing about Jrue is even when he isn't shooting his best he's still going to create opportunities for other people and play tough defense. I'm not surprised at all that it ended up being Jrue who was guarding KD on the Nets' final possession. Giannis did a great job stepping up to counterbalance KD's explosive scoring (Giannis scored 40, KD 48). I tried my best to downplay my expectations so I wouldn't end up too disappointed if the Nets ended up winning, but this series ended up being a great reminder of why I'm an NBA fan.

I don't know if I would put it up there as one of the all time greatest games, but it was pretty great. That shot Durant made with one second left in regulation was epic and should have been the next morning's headline if he hadn't attempted a similar shot and airballed it in overtime. I've been rooting against the Nets all along and still found myself a little excited when that buzzer beater sent them into overtime. I don't know the numbers but I wonder how many games the Nets have played where their big three were healthy (that number will drop with Blake Griffin in the mix). That was the question all along and we finally found the answer. With Durant/Irving/Harden all healthy they are devastating, but fortunately for the rest of the league that doesn't happen all that often.

I was going to post about this tweet:



But this tweet was underneath it (not as a reply, just something Twitter thought I should see:)

Look at these two fucking shitbags:



I knew there would be people crying about "ratings" and shit. Can you imagine leading such a worthless life that you care about sports "ratings"? Holy fuck what a stupid thing to worry about.

I don't watch basketball for two reasons. The first is because game 6 was fixed between the Kings and the Lakers in 2002. I did like wrestling as a child but as an adult sports that are fixed go into a different category than real sports. (NFL is pretty much in the same category with the NBA due to how fixed the NFC Championship game was a couple years ago.)

The second is something that came out of David Stern's mouth that unfortunately I haven't been able to find on Youtube. Memphis was threating to get into the finals one year and Stern was on some show and a vapid idiot at the time asked the commissioner what he thought about OH MY GOD the Grizzlies going to the finals. I want to say some other small market team was also maybe going.

"Obviously," Stern said with some big dumb fuck grin on his big fat dumb face, "that would not be our preference."

FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU fuck you fuck you. You need only look at how the Warriors came out of nowhere to be a team the casual fan cared about. He should have been doing everything possible to ensure the best teams went, but he was terrible at his job so he didn't.

...

I love the fact that Flack and Bryan talk basketball here, I hope you guys always do it and I love reading YOUR TAKES. Please don't let me anger stop anyone from posting.

What a great Bucks-Nets game 7 that was. My favorite NBA player, Jrue Holiday, struggled mightily with his shooting but redeemed himself in the fourth quarter somewhat. The thing about Jrue is even when he isn't shooting his best he's still going to create opportunities for other people and play tough defense. I'm not surprised at all that it ended up being Jrue who was guarding KD on the Nets' final possession. Giannis did a great job stepping up to counterbalance KD's explosive scoring (Giannis scored 40, KD 48). I tried my best to downplay my expectations so I wouldn't end up too disappointed if the Nets ended up winning, but this series ended up being a great reminder of why I'm an NBA fan.

I honestly feel like the Bucks haven't played their best this series so I'm glad they have still been able to push it to game 7 and have a decent chance to close it out. Obviously the Nets aren't at full strength or at their best either. People always expect the super teams to dominate, but I think people sometimes forget that teams that burn their salary caps on multiple superstars will tend to have worse benches and role players. It can still work out great if your stars don't get injured and stay mentally healthy, but if not... Jeff Green came up big in game 5, but he can't do that every night. If KD just has one bad game, the Nets have a infinitely higher hill to climb.

The Suns, thanks in a great part to Chris Paul's leadership, swept the Nuggets 4-0 and are headed to the Western Conference finals.

Due to COVID-19 exposure protocols, Chris Paul is temporarily sidelined. Will he miss game one of the Western Conference? Tune in to find out!

Also, the Nets/Bucks going to game seven is some fantastic shit. As always, I don't care who wins as long as it's not Kevin Durant's team.

While on vacation I've been able to catch a lot of basketball, although those late night games are rough when you're on the east coast! I caught Suns/Nuggets game three in a pizza pub, and Suns/Nuggets game four here at the town house. That hard foul from Jokic was a bad look for the league's MVP. Right now we're watching the 76ers slap around the Hawks.

I would like to add that I caught a game last night and it was glorious to see and hear fans in the stands again. It really brings life to the game.

I was at a casino yesterday, walked past a TV, and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the Suns up by 20+. Woo hoo! There's a great internet meme going around that says Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant spent their careers playing hurt and trying to convince people they weren't, while LeBron James spends his entire career trying to convince people he's hurt when he isn't. Being the GOAT is more than just being the best player, and that's where James fails in my eyes. It will be interesting to see where and how hard LeBron lays blame. Chris Paul, on the other hand, improves every team he's on. It was such a thrill when he got drafted in 2005 and spent two years playing in Oklahoma City, where we watched him run a team.

Boy, those play-ins were a great idea. All four teams that made it to the playoffs through the play-in tournament (Memphis, Lakers, Washington, and Celtics) went out in the first round, three of the four in five games.

It'll be interesting to see how Paul's shoulder holds up and how they stand up to Denver. I don't think either Dallas or the Clippers can beat Utah this year. Utah and Phoenix in the Western conference finals?

I really don't want the Nets to make it to the finals on general principle but we'll see. The Bucks have been hot but can they stand up to Kyrie, Durant and Harden? We'll see.