Category: NBA

Reader Email: I’d Like to Commemorate the Fact that Brian Has Remained Impartial During this Latest Kevin Durant Saga

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Reader Email: Hey, Brian, huge fan! You’re so funny, smart, talented, and handsome to boot! Talk about the total package! Love the site, and people forget that you’re doing all of this by yourself, with no help from the front office or the other bum players on the roster! Anyway, I know you’re a KD guy, so I’m proud of you for not blindly taking his side in this latest controversy. I love how you can remain impartial even when players you’ve forced yourself to like mostly just to go against public opinion are caught in embarrassing webs of Twitter and Instagram fake accounts made to defend themselves. So admirable and professional. It’s really a wonder why you’re not rich and world famous by now! I’ll write a letter to the Pulitzer committee to try and get you some much deserved recognition! Keep up the amazing work!

Yours forever and always,

bryansden68

Thanks for the kind words bryansden68. It’s nice knowing I have such devoted and passionate fans! And I gotta hand it to him, he’s right- I am smart. I’ve also remained clear-headed despite one of my guys, Kevin Durant, getting embroiled in a terribly embarrassing social media fiasco. In case you live under a rock, Kevin Durant responded to a tweet asking him why left, but he was speaking in the third person, as if he was talking about someone else entirely.

That launched a full-scale internet investigation, and, soon enough, multiple possible Kevin Durant burner accounts were uncovered on multiple different social media sites, all of which did essentially the same thing: bashed the haters and losers (and former teammates) who were calling him out. It was the most Kevin Durant story of all time (followed by his short-lived run as popular superhero The Servant) and comedy of the highest order. Most people with an opinion on KD, which, last time I checked, is pretty much everyone, had a strong reaction to this. It’s either “wow look how soft he is looks like I was right all along can’t believe someone would willingly leave Oklahoma City and Russell Westbrook for the team that leads the league in assists every year and always wins what a bum,” or “I used to like him now I don’t,” or “well he’s just a human being guys! Leave Kevin alone!!!” To my great credit, I haven’t let this change my opinion of him whatsoever. This is exactly who Kevin Durant is. He’s the lamest, pettiest, most sensitive player in the NBA. So sue me, but crippling insecurity and the insatiable desire to crush h8trz are things I strongly relate to. KD is the same person today as he was yesterday. Thinking about it, he’s even more KD now than he ever was. I’d feel cheated if he didn’t have a bunch of burner accounts he uses to defend himself against random guys online. I need him to make even more now. I want half the accounts on Twitter to just be Kevin Durant shadow accounts. I want them to debate between themselves whether everything was Scott Brooks’ or Westbrook’s fault for the rest of time. In NBA 2K19 there needs to be a subplot where you can set up different burner accounts to defend yourself against virtual trolls. Need more KD social media.

This is why the NBA is the best, though. This is one of the funniest sports stories I can remember and it happened on a random Monday a full month before the start of the regular season. And it happened on the same day as my new favorite player Kyrie Irving’s iconic First Take appearance. The is now easily the most interesting pro sports league in America and it’s not even really close. Every day there’s a crazy new story, a new talking point, a new feud between random guys. It’s amazing what happens when you allow your players to have personality and encourage them to engage with the fans and each other. I’m not sure if the Golden Age of NBA Twitter would have happened regardless or if the current group of NBA players ushered it in by their own actions, but I’m grateful for it either way. Can’t wait for the season.

 

Madden Needs to Come Out Earlier

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I play a lot of video games. Like, a lot. The majority of my free time is spent playing video games. Surprising, I know. And, considering my devotion in all things sports-related, it should go without saying that I play a ton of sports games. They’re what I spend most of my gaming energy on. Whenever a new non-sport game I want comes out, I just marathon it until I’m come as close to 100% completion as I deem realistically possible, then go right back to whatever sport is in season at the time. It’s been this way for as long as I can remember. So when I start to criticize the Madden franchise, one of the longtime pillars of my life and an important part of my personal development from child to older, larger child, I come to you from a place not just of experience and expertise, but also a place of deep passion and commitment.

Madden needs to come out way earlier. That’s just a fact. August 22nd is too late in the year for the only football game on the market to be released. It’s only been out for three weeks now, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that NBA 2K18 is coming out next week. NBA 2K is an objectively better game franchise than Madden. How am I supposed to pour hours upon hours of my life into Madden when I could be playing MyCareer? It’s an impossible thing to ask of someone, and, frankly, I’m sick of being put in that position.

It didn’t used to be this way. Long ago in the Age of Heroes, NCAA Football would come out at the beginning of July, then Madden in August. It was the perfect setup: give me a taste of football at the start of training camp then give me another bite right before the season. It felt like a natural progression, and it kept me more invested in the college game, which only fueled my love for the NFL. Now, you have to go cold turkey all throughout training camp and the start of the college season, unless you feel like playing last year’s game, which, so close to the release of a shiny new version, only makes the cravings worse (once a game becomes 5+ years old, though, then it gains new life as an entertaining look into the past). I don’t want to be blasted in the face with a full load of football in late August, I want to ease my way in at my own pace.

Another problem is, of course, the demise of the NCAA franchise. I’m not the first and won’t be the last one to say that the NCAA games were more fun than Madden. The play was faster paced, there were distinct differences in play styles, not just slight variations of the same playbook like in Madden, and the career and dynasty modes were both better than any game mode Madden has ever had. I was legitimately addicted to recruiting computer generated high-school football players. Although I would never trust the computer to execute my gameplan the right way, I would always at least think about simming every game just so I could do more recruiting. Starting off as a random MAC or WAC (RIP) school and building them up to an improbable national powerhouse was awesome, and getting that first five star recruit was a unique joy that I’ve yet to replicate (if you started a dynasty as a blue blood school you’re a coward). That pursuit of developing fictional young players is probably what drove me to Fifa in the years since the last NCAA. Creating the most stacked youth academy in the world in my manager careers is pretty much my new favorite pastime. Sure, Madden still has the draft, and I do love scouting and angling to get better picks and young stars, but it’s not the same. At some point, I’ll lose interest in my franchise, mostly because they refuse to add any new features to it. Once that happens, I’m pretty much out. I mean, NBA has MyCareer, MyGM, even MyTeam (which, to me, is much better than Madden Ultimate Team since it’s possible to build a decent team way easier), then I can go online when I’m feeling myself. Fifa’s career mode is way better and more in-depth, has a better Ultimate Team, and is far more enjoyable to play online. Have you ever played Madden online? It stinks! The games are too long, there’s too many glitches, and I’m just not as good as I used to be. Not fun!

Lastly, and this really isn’t Madden’s fault, but the real-life product on the field is just so bad now. Listen, I’m a football junkie. I’ll watch any game at any time if you put it in front of me. But I’m convinced that the Patriots are the only NFL team capable of playing entertaining games at this point. They got completely dominated on Thursday night, but if they gave that same performance against the other 30 teams in the league on Sunday, they’d still win at least 24 games. Every team stinks, there’s only ten quarterbacks worth anything, and 95% of coaches and front offices don’t have the first clue what they’re doing. It’s comical how bad the NFL is right now. Compare that to the NBA, which tips off next month, and it’s night and day. The NBA has never been better or more interesting. Almost every team is run by smart people who understand the direction the league is going. Sure, there’s super teams, but there’s also more great players currently in the league than there has been in a long time. Almost everyone plays a visually appealing style. Bengals-Texans on Thursday night isn’t going to leave me dying to run to my PS4 and recreate the scintillating action. Bucks-Suns on a random Wednesday might. In addition to having the better video game, the NBA just has a better product than the NFL has. When 2K comes out, all I’m going to want to do is play MyCareer, start up a franchise mode to earn VC and explore different play styles, play MyTeam for a week before losing interest, and play the odd online game. Then Fifa comes out the week after. Before you know it, I’ve gone three weeks without playing Madden. What about the NFL as it currently is would make me want to run back to it, other than a base need to play fictional football games? EA needs to take a look in the mirror and realize that it’s time for a change. NCAA may be dead and gone, and I know they can’t really do anything about it until the NCAA itself changes (fat chance), but at least borrow it’s release date. If you offered Madden to me at the beginning of July, I would pay whatever amount you asked for. The start of training camp is when my football fever is at its highest point, not late August when I’ve actually seen how bad most teams are in the preseason. You might have to work a little harder, but putting Madden out in July would make everything better. My football fix is satisfied in a slower, more fulfilling way. I get more out of a game I paid good money for. It feels like a natural progression from one game to the next, rather that a huge cluster of release after release. And maybe, just maybe, you can help the NFL gain some momentum back from the NBA. I just fixed the NFL and EA Sports. I don’t always give out advice for free, so next time your company needs help, I’ll expect some sort of payment.

Just a Quick Shoutout to the Cleveland Cavaliers

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By now I’m sure you’ve heard that the proposed blockbuster trade between the Celtics and Cavaliers was finally, after a tumultuous week of rumors and speculation, officially approved. Kyrie Irving is a Celtic. Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and what will inevitably be the number one overall pick in the 2018 draft (can’t forget that random second round pick the Cavs worked so hard to get!) are now in the Land. The merits of this trade have been debated relentlessly, and will probably continue to be debated until the draft pick’s career comes to an end. I’ve gone back and forth on it, but there’s no point in having a strong opinion of it yet. I’ve been going on and on about how the Celtics should keep the picks at all cost, but I like getting someone of Irving’s caliber and age. That’s not the point of this, though. I just wanted to give a quick shoutout to the Cavs and Dan Gilbert, the grimiest, most self-important, most inexplicably arrogant piece of shit in pro sports.

Seriously, how did the Cavs think they could pull this kind of stunt? Trying to shake the Celtics down for an additional first round pick or Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown? Because Isaiah’s injured? Even though the Celtics informed the Cavs about the injury at every turn and it was widely reported by every news outlet he was injured weeks before the trade? Huh? I knew Isaiah was hurt and might need surgery that would cause him to miss a significant portion of the season. And the Cavs, one of the two or three most influential teams in the NBA, didn’t? How does that work? The Cavs knew about it and Dan Gilbert, in his infinite wisdom, figured he could hold the Celtics over a barrel and take absolutely everything from them. For a player who everyone knew wanted out. I’m typically not a big business ethics guy, but I don’t think this is really the best way to build relationships and trust throughout the league. “Hey, I know you were transparent and we understood it, but after we had the physical we’re going to act like we had no idea about any of it.” Good work, Dan! You got a second round pick for your troubles. Congrats. Good luck getting anyone to trade with you ever again. But that’s just Gilbert. He’s convinced he’s the smartest guy ever and is obsessed with becoming some cross between Petyr Baelish and Julius Caesar. He thinks he’s this influential behind-the-scenes guy who doubles as a beloved leader of an organization. He thinks he’s the face of the Cavs. And he wonders why LeBron left the first time and why he’s going to leave again. It’s because of you, man! Your own players hate you. Everyone that works for you hates you. Other owners hate you. Anyone who doesn’t use Quicken Loans hates you. Your team is going to stink after next season, and I hope it stinks forever.

Poor Isaiah, by the way. The guy poured everything he had into the Celtics. He became the heart and soul of the team almost instantly. He played a playoff game, and played well, the day after his sister’s tragic death. Don’t know if you’ve heard, but he was the last pick in the draft and is generously listed at 5’9″. Through hard work, dedication, and sheer force of will, he turned himself into a multi-time all star and made 2nd team All NBA last year. All that just to get dragged through the mud by Dan freaking Gilbert. He made him seem like damaged goods. He made it seem like it was a huge burden for him to take on one of the best offensive players in the league. Great way to build team chemistry. He hasn’t played a second for the Cavs, and they’ve already treated him worse than the Kings or Suns ever did, and they treated him like absolute shit. I guess it just feeds into his story. It wouldn’t feel right if he wasn’t discounted at every turn. I’m an Isaiah fan for life, and nothing would make me happier than if he told Dan Gilbert to screw next offseason.

Celtics Acquire Kyrie Irving

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Well, didn’t see this coming when I woke up this morning. Celtics get Kyrie Irving for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the Nets’ unprotected first round pick in 2018. That’s a lot. A lottttttttttttttttt to give up. Say goodbye to the Marvin Bagley/Michael Porter dream duo. Also say goodbye to the logjam of wing players and big men, which is definitely a positive, and could open the door for a for a big time Jaylen Brown second season.

Anyway, always said I was a big Kyrie guy, everyone knows that. Always been at the front of the Kyrie bandwagon. He’s better than Curry, right? He better be, to give up all of that. Still, that’s the way NBA trades work. To get a player of Kyrie’s pedigree and track record, you have to give up a lot. It would have been nice to keep Zizic, but when you have a chance to acquire one of the most purely talented scorers and ballhandlers in league history, you do it and figure it out later. They avoid the Isaiah quandary next offseason and gain an extra year of control on the best player on the roster. The rotation is shaping up a little more now, although it would have been reeeeeeeeeealllly nice to have the one guy in the East who can guard Kyrie still on the roster. Can’t really fault them for not foreseeing that Kyrie would get sick of LeBron, but still. It was a bad trade then and it’s a horrible trade now. Celtics’ backcourt might be the worst defensively in the league. Oh, well. Maybe they think Isaiah’s injury is worse than it appears. I think I’ve talked myself into this. 2017-18 championship parade is back on.

Reason 53,395,392 the NBA is fixed: first game of the season is Celtics vs Cavs and the Cavs will get the number one pick when LeBron leaves again.

Marvin Bagley Reclassifies and Will Attend Duke Next Season, Celtics to Win 2018-19 NBA Championship

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Huge news day for college basketball yesterday. Not only did Jim Calhoun throw his name back out there, but 2018 top recruit Marvin Bagley III decided to reclassify and attend Duke this upcoming season. Duke now enters the season as the clear number one team and is probably going to win the championship, unless they wind up choking again in the tournament/Coach K decides he needs another surgery and takes a few months off, ruining team chemistry but preserving his record. Oh, well. If Duke didn’t win every once in a while, they wouldn’t be Duke anymore. They’re not really Duke, anymore, anyway. All these fancy one and done guys even though Coach K has always preached against one and dones and praised four year guys. Funny how his legendary morals seem to change whenever he finds a way to benefit from something new. Odd how that works out.

Anyway, Bagley’s a stud. The ultimate modern day big man, he’s being called the best prospect since Anthony Davis. He’s a freak athlete, he can shoot, he can handle the ball, and he’s 6’11”. Seems like a decent combination of skills to have. If only there was an NBA team that was one guy away from winning the next five championships. Oh, wait, there is! And, as fortune should have it, the Celtics could theoretically end up with the first two picks in the draft next year, barring unexpected leaps in performance from the Nets and Lakers. I was already gearing up for the Celtics to get previous top prospect Michael Porter, Jr., but now they’ll get Porter and Bagley? Whooooo, baby. Now that LeBron and Kyrie have both feet out the door in Cleveland, I can’t see a realistic scenario where the Celtics don’t at least make the Finals in perpetuity. What a time to be a Celtics fan. Think of everything they’ve got going for them. Top pick Markelle Fultz The NBA’s best guard defender Avery Bradley A great coach and a million young guys that all play the same position. Can’t beat that. Hope Marvin likes green.

Kyrie Irving Asks for a Trade

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So what do we call it when Windhorst breaks a story? #Windbomb? #GustofWind? Either way, huge, huuuuuuge news out of The Land. Kyrie says he wants out. LeBron, of course, is blindsided by this, just like he was somehow blindsided by David Griffin getting fired. So, he’s the most powerful and influential player in the NBA and no self-respecting front office would ever dream of making any personnel move without consulting him, but he’s always caught off guard whenever anything happens to his team? Huh?

But this isn’t about LeBron, this is about Kyrie. Do I actually think he’ll be traded? Not really. His contract won’t be a problem. All things considered, he’s a huge bargain. But I can’t imagine they’ll be able to get a deal that gives them equal value in return, unless they get a ton of young guys and draft picks, which would mean they’ve accepted that LeBron is moving on after this season. They could do some complex three team deals to try and get Carmelo, but I think I’d rather have Kyrie than #me7o. It’s really put the Cavs in a tough spot, and I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what Kyrie wanted. Maybe he got sick of LeBron’s LeBron Act. Maybe his feelings got hurt after Steph spent the Finals torching him and people stopped saying he was better than the two-time MVP. Maybe he just wanted a little more recognition from the Cavs, instead of just taking all the blame when they lose and get shoved into the background when they win, regardless of his performance. No matter what the reasoning is, if he’s serious about this demand, he’ll force the Cavs to show their hand. If they trade him and get anything besides Carmelo in return, then they’re just focusing on the future, and we all know LeBron isn’t sticking around for a rebuild. If they keep him and maybe sign him to a new deal, then all of a sudden they’re saying Kyrie is the most important player on the team and he can do whatever he wants, which will pretty much be an invitation for LeBron to leave town. Everyone knew he was leaving anyway, but now it’s official. Kyrie’s being traded. LeBron’s leaving in 2018. Celtics 2018-19 NBA Champions.

I’m so Sick of how We Handle Players Leaving in Free Agency

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Unless you’re totally unplugged to the NBA world, you know Gordon Hayward just signed with the Celtics. If you’ve ever read this site before, you know I am a Celtics fan and have somewhat wary about some of these win-now moves the Celtics might do. You’re also probably wondering why I hadn’t addressed it yet. Well, because it all happened on July 4th and I didn’t feel like doing anything, I decided to wait until his introductory press conference to give my thoughts on the move. And I’ll probably still do that. While I’m excited to have a player of Hayward’s caliber join the Celtics, this creates a lot of issues in the short term, the chief of which is they now have way too many players. But that’s not what I want to talk about today. What forced my hand into finally talking about Gordon Hayward is the concept of loyalty.

Search #betrayward on Twitter and you’ll find hundreds of these. Judging by the reactions, you’d think Gordon Hayward just assassinated every member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. That he’s a fugitive from justice who said Joseph Smith was a crackpot. Like, what did this guy do? Oh, he just decided he wanted to work somewhere else? That’s it? I’m so sick of this stupid idea that players need to be “loyal” to their teams. So just because a team drafted you you have to spend your entire life there? It doesn’t matter if they hate it or whatever, they drafted you so you have to be miserable living there forever. Sorry, man! The teams have no loyalty to the player. Unless you’re a Kobe-level megastar, which Hayward isn’t, 99% of teams will dump you the second you’re no longer worth the investment. The entire point of free agency was to give the players some choice and control over their careers. Do people not understand that? Literally every time someone leaves a team now he becomes public enemy number one. LeBron. Durant. Wade. Ray Allen. LaMarcus Aldridge. Jason Heyward got destroyed on Twitter when he left the Cardinals. The jersey burning, the bitching online, the booing, the death threats, it’s all just so stupid. These people aren’t robots. You can’t just assume the first team they play for is their dream scenario. Unless Gordon Hayward repeatedly said something like “I’m going to run for Congress in Utah I love it so much,” why should he be forced to stay? Utah has some great national parks. You also can’t drink or do anything after like, 10 p.m. And come on, do Jazz fans really think their team has any future whatsoever in the Western Conference? Utah stinks. How are they totally blindsided by this? How were the people of Oklahoma City blindsided by the fact that a professional athlete would rather live in San Francisco than OKC? How the HELL did the people of Cleveland think it’s more appealing to live there than MIAMI? Have some self awareness, people. Your city probably stinks, your team probably stinks, and the player who dares to leave the warm embrace of your psychotic fans probably has legitimate reasons to leave. Maybe he has a brain and saw that, since 90% of the good players in the NBA are now out West, maybe going East would be a good idea? Maybe he liked his time in college better than his time in the NBA (gasp!) and wanted to recapture some of the magic with his old coach. Maybe they have friends, or family, or just want to change things up. Maybe when, the last time he was a free agent, he took note of the fact that his current team decided not to give him the fifth year and the max and decided that they clearly didn’t want him that much?

How many of you hate your job? Be it your boss, the commute, you think it’s boring, the pay isn’t right, whatever. How many of you would leave your job, if you could? You could pick the city, the company, the perfect house, everything. You could literally have your dream life, all you had to do was leave your current job. How many of you would do that? 100%? I know I would. But it’s bad when pro athletes do it because…..why exactly? They make more money than you? Well, maybe if you weren’t so invested in sports and didn’t watch or go to games then the leagues wouldn’t have all this money to give out. Because they drafted him? So no other team (besides, of course, Portland) would have wanted Kevin Durant? He was a diamond in the rough that only Oklahoma City believed in? Because they decided they had a better chance to win somewhere else? Is that not what everyone who changes companies because they can get a better position does? Are people that hypocritical? “I don’t like the team he signed with so it’s okay if I burn his jersey and tell him I’ll kill his family!” Makes sense. I know all those people in Utah don’t get to experience the outside world much so they’re probably pretty emotionally stunted, but acting like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum probably isn’t going to make Hayward regret his decision. Grow up. I’m sorry your team isn’t in Florida or California, but the world needs ditch diggers, too. Everyone, including pro athletes, has a right to decide where they work. Whining about it on Twitter isn’t going to change that anytime soon.

THUNDER TRADE FOR PAUL GEORGE AND THE CELTICS HAVE OFFICIALLY WASTED YET ANOTHER OFFSEASON


This just happened a second ago and I’m typing this out on my phone but it couldn’t wait. Thunder just traded Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. If you’re waiting for more names there aren’t any. That’s the whole deal. Seriously. And the Celtics couldn’t match it. Just like they couldn’t beat the pupu platter Minnesota just gave Chicago for Jimmy Butler. And Blake Griffin is going to re-sign in L.A. Great work, Danny!

How did they let this happen? I don’t care if he wasn’t going to sign a long-term deal, how do you not beat that? Trading Jae Crowder straight up for George would have been a better deal than what they got. They could have given any number of deals better than what Minnesota gave up. They had a LEGITIMATE CHANCE AT PORZINGIS! WHAT’S THE POINT OF HAVING ALL THESE “ASSETS” IF YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO DO ANYTHING? DO THEY NOT REALIZE YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO GIVE SOMETHING UP TO GET SOMETHING? Listen, I’ve been at the front of the pack preaching patience, but when ALL IT TAKES IS A BAG OF BALLS TO GET A MULTIPLE TIME ALL STAR, PULL THE GOD DAMN TRIGGER!!!!!!!! YOU’D REALLY RATHER HAVE JAYSON TATUM OVER PAUL GEORGE, EVEN FOR A YEAR? JAYSON TATUM STINKS! WHAT IS THE THOUGHT PROCESS HERE? WASN’T THE WHOLE POINT OF GETTING ANOTHER FORST ROUNDER NEXT YEAR TO TRADE FOR SOMEONE GOOD? WELL THERE’S NO ONE GOOD LEFT SO WHOOPS! I’d be totally fine with this if they had just kept Fultz and committed to what they were doing. But after trading him I have absolutely ZERO confidence left. He’s just addicted to acquiring draft picks. Next year they’re going to have two top five picks and trade both of them for first rounders the year after. Then the cycle will keep repeating itself year after year. It’ll never end, the Celtics will never be good again, and they will never, ever, EVER use all of these so called assets to do anything.

I Think I Love Lavar Ball Now

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Last night was a big TV night. The NFL crowned Tom Brady number 1 in their annual “Top 100 Players” list, a stupid, contrived device that exists solely to fuel the #debate. The NBA Awards show finally aired almost two weeks after the season ended, an NHL-level scheduling decision. I don’t even remember anything about the regular season anymore. I can barely recall who won the title. The Celtics won, right? Anyway, I’ve spent enough words on MVP, so I’ll just say I didn’t fully agree with every award, but I’m not going to get upset about them. Through all that, though, one five minute segment on Monday Night Raw is all anyone can talk about. Lavar Ball finally fulfilled his destiny and entered the squared circle. The results were predictably amazing.

I’ve been on record as being a Lavar h8tr, but I can’t deny my true feelings anymore: I love Lavar Ball. I think it happened sometime before the draft, maybe even earlier. I never wanted to admit it to myself, but once he gave his show-stopping draft interview

I knew I had fully shifted to #teamBigBaller. Now, I say I’m only #teamBigBaller because I don’t have the available resources to become a full fledged Big Baller. I, unfortunately, can’t afford a fresh pair of ZO2s. But those $50 t-shirts? They’re a siren on the rocks and I don’t know how long I can resist the call. I need a taste of the Big Baller life. Even if only for an instant, I need to see how the Baller side lives. I need a piece of that power. You put on some BBB gear and the world opens up to you. Your self-confidence goes through the roof. You can will anything into existence. I would have to imagine it’s how God feels.

Listen, I still don’t like his kids. Lonzo seems like a good dude but I’m not sold on his skills. I hate LaMelo. I feel bad for the middle one, but not really since he’s going to be rich either way. But the longer all this goes on, the clearer it’s becoming that Lavar is a legitimate genius. He knows exactly what he’s doing at all times. He knows how to keep his name in the news 24/7. He’s a master of marketing. Even if he hasn’t, he’s made it seem like he’s been manipulating everything from the start. He can spin absolutely anything into a positive for BBB. He has that Kardashian gene for self-promotion that I thought we’d never see again. He’s turned himself into the most cartoonish, most easily hatable heel of all time, which has only made him more popular and in vogue. His sons’ success almost doesn’t even matter anymore. If Lonzo turns out to be an All-Star, then Lavar can just keep on being Lavar. If he doesn’t? Well, he’ll still just keep on being Lavar. He needs to have a recurring role in WWE, especially if his sons don’t pan out. He was born to be hated. And that might be his greatest gift of all.