Kevin Durant Just EXPOSED The NBAs Problem MJ2KALLDAY 2022-07-06 | Kevin Durant just exposed the NBA’s problem, and if these trades keep going, the NBA will need to change a lot.Most times we see stars demand a trade with just 1 year left on their contract. They inform the team that they ain’t signing a contract extension. The threat here is that they’ll leave after the next season is over and the team won’t get anything back. Remember when Anthony Davis was seen as wild for demanding a trade with a year and a half left. And a question was asked back then, is this good for the NBA? Can stars not honor their contracts?The worst was Ben Simmons who set a new precedent by demanding a trade 1 year after he signed his contract. He also said that he was not going to a single game for the 76ers, again with 4 years left.Now, less than 1 year from that, Durant is forcing his way out with 4 years left on his contract. Yes, 4 years. He signed a 4 year contract extension in August last year, after carrying the Nets in the 2021 playoffs. And not 1 year later, and he’s demanded a trade before his extension has even started. Part of throwing so much money at a player is to have the rights of the players’ services for that duration. NBA teams have already committed over 2.6 billion dollars worth of contracts in the first few days of free agency. Jokic signed a 5 year $264 million dollar deal, Beal with 5 years $251 million, just imagine if these players also demanded trades. LeBron used a different tactic. Rather than signing a longer deal and trying to force his way out, he signed 1+1 year deals. Basically 1 year with the second year being a player option. Was this necessarily good for teammates? No, because they didn’t know whether LeBron was committed beyond the season, teammates would have added pressure to do well or management was going to trade them in a heartbeat to try to keep LeBron. The NBA came up with the supermax in 2017. The whole point of the supermax was to incentivize players staying loyal for their team. Players had to play 7 or 8 years in the league and still be with their original team unless they were traded. There were other requirements involving All-NBA team selections, MVP, DPOY but this was reserved for stars in the league and allowed teams to offer 35% of the cap.Front offices have also been horrible to players. Remember when Harrison Barnes got traded mid game.DeMar Derozan was collateral damage in the Kawhi trade. Derozan wanted to retire a Raptor and management said show *Usher meme “Watch this”.* Some of y’all may not even remember the last NBA lockout in 2011 when no one was even sure if there would be an NBA season. To simplify a more complicated situation, 22 teams had lost money in the past few years, players were at odds with owners who were worried about guaranteed contracts. Players wanted a more flexible salary cap to keep earning more while owners wanted a hard cap. The negotiations led to Kobe talking playing for Italy, Durant’s 66 points at Rucker Park, actually maybe this lockout would be lit af. The current CBA expires in 2 years and with one of the biggest stars in the NBA demanding a trade with 4 years left, we may see guaranteed contracts go away. Maybe for the money to be guaranteed, stars can’t demand trades for at least 75% of their contract. However this sets a dangerous precedent. Stars can go wherever they want whenever they want meaning smaller market teams that already have a hard time attracting talent will get screwed over even more. The Nets are allowing this to happen because they want to be seen as a destination that stars want to go to, a destination that treats star players right. They have no obligation to do anything KD says. But keep in mind that not only has Durant demanded a trade, he has a no trade clause meaning he can veto the best trade deal because he doesn’t want to go to the Pelicans or Kings or whatever teamBut the NBA is taking notice. The Nets are getting walked on all over. The NBA has stepped in before, fining teams for resting high-profile, nationally televised games. With a new TV deal looming in 2025, we’ll see.
How Good is 17 Year Old Bryce James Actually? MJ2KALLDAY 2024-09-29 | LeBron’s other son Bryce James has been hidden from the media for a little bit so how good is he? #nba Because what has been going on with Bronny, with Bryce, with other high schoolers that are 17 years old is not good.
This Michael Jordan Story Makes No Sense MJ2KALLDAY 2024-09-22 | Michael Jordan changed the NBA when he missed on purpose.Athletes have been chasing his ghost for years But one night in 1996, Michael Jordan missed a free throw on purpose in crunch time in a crucial game 4 in the playoffs. No it was not to get the rebound and put back, and it was genius. Michael Jordan is possibly the greatest scorer of all time, 10 scoring titles, most points in a single playoff run so even players at the game were confusedso how do we get here? I’m going to break down the 3 steps to Jordan’s master plan and how it completely changed the NBA as we know it. To understand how, we need to understand what was on the line. And this was piece #1, Jordan left basketball at the top of the game. And that’s Piece #2, the 1995 Playoffs were a wake up call to the NBA. One extremely crucial piece of information to understand what happens next is that Jordan is wearing no. 45, not no. 23. Number 23 has a lot of significance now. It’s what LeBron chose to wear because he was inspired by Michael Jordan. It’s all over Jordan’s shoes. The number 23 has soaked in that Jordan aura and has aura itself. But it’s still Jordan right? Donovan Mitchell wears 45 because of Jordan too so it can’t just be for nothing?Game 1 starts and this is what Brian Shaw who was on that Magic team, was thinking at the time And in the final 4 minutes, it’s a one point game Now the Magic were doubling Jordan. They were selling out.But Jordan couldn’t score.The game would be close down to the last shot. The Bulls up 91-90, Jordan brings up the ball andThe Bulls were unable to come up with anything in the last 6 seconds and the Magic would win the game. Jordan had choked, something that no one had really seen. Jordan went 8 of 22 for the game with 19 points, disappointing for him, Scottie only had 7 points on 2 of 11 shooting. It was a disaster.And Nick Anderson who had been on the recieving end of many Jordan performances, feeling Jordan wasn’t invincible anymore.Leading to the one night. In the playoffs, the Bulls would meet the Magic again, this time in the Eastern conference finals. The Magic wanted to make up for their finals loss last year and the Bulls wanted to prove that they were the better team retooled with Dennis Rodman and finally an in shape, league MVP Jordan. The series starts and the Bulls came out swinging, winning by 38. Jordan scores 35 the next game, the Bulls win a close game, then the next, and the Bulls are on the verge of sweeping the Magic, but then came the one night forgotten about by many, but not by the players. On May 27, 1996, Game 4 starts. And the Magic get off to a good start, leading by 8 at the end of the first despite Jordan making his first 5 shots.This was not a Magic team accepting defeat. But Jordan was on a mission making tough shots like this.Jordan had 37 points heading into the last 5 minutes of the game.Jordan hits this jumper to make it 100 to 91, a 9 point lead with a minute and half, a dagger of sorts. He has 45 points and gets fouled at the end of the game . Darnell Armstrong who was on the Magic recaps it the best. Michael Jordan misses both free throws at the end of the game to leave 45 points on the board in a close out game to show the Magic that 45 really could be special. 23 was 45. And the Magic players received the message. A message that was one year in the making, a message to the rest of the players in the league that the invincible Jordan was back.
This Steph Curry Situation Is Wild MJ2KALLDAY 2024-09-15 | Steph Curry and the Warriors are in a whole bunch of lies.Stream- @MJPLAYSALLDAY Rumors. They are stories circulated with an uncertain or doubtful truth. There have been rumors in the NBA since the beginning of the league. When LeBron was making the decision in 2010, it wasn’t just the Heat he was rumored to be picking. But rumors often have a little bit of truth mixed in. Even without being a good team, the Warriors have remained in the spotlight, because of rumors. But what is the truth? What’s actually going on with the Warriors?Curry is one of the greatest players ever, but that only puts him into the fire. **To the point that a fantasy trade by Bleacher Report so heinous, so far fetched to get Steph Curry to the Lakers was viral news.** Every one, every media source reacted to a trade that Had the Warriors giving Curry for Austin Reaves, Ben Simmons and two first round picks. **Ben Simmons in 2024?**Are we that starved of content that we need to make up story lines? Does the NBA community need drama to be entertained? The sad part is that it seems like the answer to both of those questions **is yes.** **Now more than ever, we are reactionary and we get bored easily.**We looked at his instagram bio and said, look he removed Warriors guard for Olympic Gold medalist. Reports about Curry wanting out and that he could stronghold the Warriors into getting what he wanted, reports about Curry wanting to play with LeBron, all this content speculating when nothing is public nor are there any official reports and all of that in a matter of days was proven wrong when he extended his contract. And one of the main reasons it wasn’t longer was because of the over 38 rule, since Curry would turn 38 during his contract. And with more and more reports picking every single word and action of Curry and the Warriors apart, The lies need to stop **and I’m here to set the record straight because for a long time, we’ve all been led astray.** Titles starting with Warriors will trade Curry to the Lakers and just add the word prediction at the end so it’s technically true but the amount of clickbait is ridiculous. Could Curry get traded at some point? Yes! But can we talk about it when there’s actual substance, legitimate journalism and not sensationalism or takes? Apparently not becauseIn 2019, after the Warriors lost in the 2019 finals, after they lost Kevin Durant in free agency, and after Klay had a season ending injury, the Warriors were a bit of a mess. There were several videos and claims that the Warriors dynasty was over and fair. The Warriors were a mess and their luck looked like it just kept getting worse. Steph broke his left hand just a few games into the season. The Warriors were a heavily talked about subject despite being one of the worst teams in the NBA, despite having all their players under contract, no talk of their big 3 going anywhere, purely off of rumors, and rumors were flying. The timeline was for Curry to return to the court in 3 months, but then needed to be reevaluated. Rumors of the Warriors holding Curry and Klay back to tank were strong both by official media outlets and fans saying that because Curry doesn’t have a cast and because he did a handshake with his daughter, that he was ready to go. There were even YouTubers saying that Klay and Steph were fooling the world, that by looking at Klay shooting in an open gym, that he’s healthy for an NBA game.Hot takes were flying left and right, rather than rationally thinking it through, recency bias which has gotten stronger than ever was being used to spark controversy for the sake of views. And creating controversy and drama is just another tactic like when ESPN’s ranking would come out and It’s the equivalent to ESPN talking about LeBron and failing to mention other players, especially when there actually aren’t any story lines. Before the tumultuous 2023 season with Draymond and Jordan Poole and apart from the last season of Kevin Durant, the Warriors were typically drama free. Especially after 2019, the Warriors weren’t a team of contention for the next two seasons.However, somewhere in 2019, the NBA and ESPN realized that Steph Curry was bringing in nearly double the views that LeBron was who was bringing nearly double the views of everyone else. They realized a little late that there was a bigger audience in social media for Curry than LeBron and ran with it. It’s the reality of the league, certain players bring in more attention like Wembanyama vs Brunson, same game two insane performances and one has more than 5 times the views.We have Gilbert Arenas trying to clip farm saying Curry isn’t generational. **No seriously, Gilbert later said he knew the reaction it would get from the media…****And Curry wasn’t spared that either**
The Day Kobe Bryant Fooled The Entire World MJ2KALLDAY 2024-09-02 | The NBA world has doubted Kobe Bryant and this day, he completely fooled them. We might now look at his career and look at Kobe as the ultimate competitor, but that reputation was earned **and in the moment, it was anything but smooth.**On April 12, 2013, the Lakers were on the verge of missing the playoffs. It would be after the Lakers assembled a super team with Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, and Kobe Bryant, the expectations were sky high. And perhaps more importantly after Kobe had made a promise to the world. Throughout his career, Kobe had battled with a reputation of not being a good teammate, of not playing a style that leads to winning basketball, and that season, being overpaid, whether he still had it. The NBA world was roasting the Lakers, at the all-star break they were 25-29, and asked if he could “get it done”. Kobe made a declaration "It's not a question of *if* we make the playoffs. We will. And when we get there, I have no fear of anyone -- Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver ... whoever. I have zero nervousness about that,"The Lakers are above 500 just barely, tied for the 8th seed. It’s a must win game but Kobe can’t buy a shot. Steve Nash exits the game with his recurring hamstring injury. Kobe is also dealing with foot problems, but despite his own injury, Kobe tells Mike D’Antoni “I’m not coming out tonight”. The LAkers are down 12 in the second quarter and Kobe gets to work Making several passes, drawing a lot of fouls, and grabbing boards. Doing everything and being a threat to bring the Lakers back. He was patient, methodical.Kobe would play 47 minutes and 37 seconds, end with 19 points, a career high 14 assists, 9 boards and the Lakers win. Yes 14 assists because that’s what was needed to win.The next game (April 2 vs Mavericks) against the Mavericks, 23 points 11 rebounds 11 assists 4 steals 2 blocks playing over 47 minutes. Then (April 5 vs Grizzlies) 24 points 9 assists in 43 minutes, another win. Kobe was getting physical therapy in timeouts, commercial breaks just to play nearly every minute.But despite Kobe playing 47 minutes in their next game (April 7 vs Clippers) dropping 25, 10, and 7, the Lakers would lose. **Everything Kobe had been doing in the past 6 games led to the day** Kobe fooled the entire world, the day he finally was able to prove everyone wrong, but it would come at a cost. It’s the Lakers vs Warriors (*April 12 vs Warriors)*, the Lakers are the 8th seed but only one game ahead of 9th. Baby Steph has 22 points in the first quarter including 4 3 pointers, 32 points in the first half. He is scoring in every way possible, off the dribble step backs, catch and shoots, pick and rolls. He definitely impressed Kobe and Kobe was sluggish, not scoring a single point in the first, 3 turnovers. But he was determined. He played every minute of the first quarter and he wasn’t looking to sit in the second.He comes out firing This is a Baby Warriors team that is 6th in the West, they are a solid team.But Kobe break’s Klay’s ankles In the third quarter, Kobe drives past Barnes As Kobe laid on the floor, the entire arena went silent, everyone preparing for the inevitable. Everyone knew Kobe had pushed himself beyond his limits. This had to be it. Kobe was emotionless. He hit the free throws and he was back to playing like nothing had happened. And then Kobe drives, double clutches, and begins limping Both of Kobe’s legs were hurt, he had nothing left to stand on but his own will. And yet, he still didn’t come out. Kobe was battling father time, battling the limits of his own body, the quitter allegations, the can’t win without Shaq statements The Warriors are still up, Steph is on fire, Klay is heating up, and the Lakers need every bit of Kobe to keep the team a float. Him just being on the floor is putting pressure on the defense, Klay has 5 fouls.The Lakers take a timeout and Kobe is struggling to walk back to the bench At this moment, Kobe has torn his achilles, an injury that is a death sentence for athletes. And even then this is what he said was going through his mind.Kobe labored his way back to the free throw line, just to give him a chance to keep playing in the game. And as he’s shooting the free throws, Kobe is stoic. Not a word, barely an expression, just focused. He makes both, the game is tied, and eventually with some help walks to the locker room.Kobe had pushed his body to the absolute limit for the sole purpose of winning, trying to play two full games back to back. People remember the moment of him tearing his achilles and coming back to the free throw line, but what they don’t remember is the accumulation of what Kobe did for the Lakers.
How Nike Lost Wade With ONE SENTENCE MJ2KALLDAY 2024-08-25 | Nike and Jordan lost Dwyane Wade, now he’s one of their biggest rivals. Dwayne Wade is considered by many to be the third best shooting guard of all time, and in 2023, has one of the most popular shoes in the world, the Way of Wade. There are only 4 NBA players in history with life time shoe deals. It’s a list so exclusive that Stephen Curry who helped make Under Armour a billion dollar business doesn’t have one. The 4 are Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and now Dwyane Wade.While Wade might have been the 5th overall pick in the 2003 draft class that included LeBron, Carmelo, and Bosh, he wasn’t really on the radar for a long time. 7 players from Wade’s AAU team were picked for the Nike camp. Wade thought he was a shoe in, he packed his bags, and was ready to go, but on the day of the camp, he found out, he wasn’t one of them. But that wasn’t the worst part and I’ll let Wade explain.In high school, Wade was only the 101st ranked player in his class. Just barely in scout’s minds. He wasn’t really recruited by many D1 schools except Marquette. In that 2003 summer before the draft, Wade saw LeBron get a $90 million shoe deal with Nike before he had played a single game, but ok that’s the chosen one. Carmelo who also was a college star signed a 6 year $21 million deal with Jordan. **And so Wade was perfectly in line and Nike still didn’t offer him*. Adidas completely passed up on him, yeah they didn’t fully trust Wade the same way they were willing to throw millions at other players. And so Dwyane Wade, rejected for a second time, signed with Converse, one of Nike’s brands, for $400,000 a year, a lot of money but less than 20% of Melo. It was the same rejection he had experienced 4 years earlier. **But that would be a big mistake both in the short term and long term, but let’s talk about** the immediate impact because of all the players in this draft class out of all the future stars Wade would be the first to achieve the pinnacle.You see, that rejection in high school had never really left Wade’s mind. While LeBron would win rookie of the year, Wade would average 16 in his first season, then 24 in his second season becoming an All-Star and leading his team to the Eastern Conference Finals. Yeah in his second season, he was averaging 27.4 points and 6.6 assists in the playoffs, leading the #1 team in the EAST in the Converse ICON PEs. In that summer, converse would release his first signature shoe, the Converse Wade 1, selling 1 million pairs globally. And in 2006, Wade would average 27 and 6.7 and take the Heat to the finals. The Flash was crossing everyone, no one could keep him in front. And the Mavericks tried their best, but Wade would average 34.7 points, come back from down 2-0, and win the finals. I mean god.Just like the Jordan brand was Nike’s biggest line that saved the brand and eventually became a brand under Nike and Li-Ning offered Wade just that with the Way of Wade, giving him full creative freedom for the shoe too and getting some ownership stake along with $60 million over 10 years.And in China there was a problem. Kids who wanted affordable would by Anta or Peak, people who could afford more would get Nikes. Li-Ning was at crossroads, on the verge of collapse, but were hell bent on surviving, something Wade appreciated. They would raise more funds, open more stores, put everything into the Wade brand, it was the only focus, a long cry from high school where Nike wouldn’t even invite him or think about him when he was drafted or the Jordan brand who tried but couldn’t compete with other athletes among the bigger brand like LeBron or Kobe. 2018 is when there was a big change, 6 years later. Li Ning had been opening stores through out China and they shifted their model to also focus on life style and streetwear, using Wade and other stars at the forefront. They got a new CEO who was on the board of the company that owns Uniqlo. Li Ning was building and Wade’s brand was about to take off even more. In 2019, they would grow over 30%.In 2021, Li Ning would launch their US web store, coupled with their growing popularity internationally would grow their footwear 50% in one year. The Way of Wade brand would sign D’Angelo Russell, then Jimmy Butler, Cj McCollum, Fred VanVleet, just like Jordan. Safe to say Wade’s stake value in the company is worth a whole lot more now.Now Way of Wade still isn’t in US retail stores, on their 11th version but even then they are expensive in the resale market. People want these because of how good they are, getting the seal of approval from many reviewers and hoopers. **And that’s led customers switching from Nike.** From wanting to be a Nike athlete to being a strong competitor, alright Wade.
The Day Steph Curry Fooled The Entire World MJ2KALLDAY 2024-08-18 | The NBA world has constantly doubted Stephen Curry. to not being able to score without help, to not winning any more championships. On August 8th, 2024, Team USA’s basketball olympic run was looking over. It would be the second year in a row that the US wasn’t the best and this year would hurt even more, after we assembled our best roster. Noah Lyles would be right. (*funny edit of world champion of what)*Throughout the entire Olympics, Steph Curry was in a slump. Team USA was winning, but had not impressed in the olympics, even nearly losing exhibition games. And on Thursday, Team USA was constantly and I mean constantly behind. But there was one man among the stars and no it was not LeBron, not Kevin Durant, it was a 6’ 3” undersized, not generational, one dimensional guard that saved an entire country and once again proved everyone wrong, ****but it was even more impressive than that, and it wasn’t the only time. The same idea that somehow Steph could not carry a team despite leading his team to a championship in 2015 and finals in 2016 without Kevin Durant.And on the road in a game 6, Curry starts off the game with 0 points in the first half and what happened next only added to the underdog story. Everyone was roasting Steph during half, calling him a choker, unable to lead a team as the main option, and he took the time during the halftime break to look at twitter, take in all the comments, and let it fuel him. He came out in the second half just putting on a clinic.3, layup, off the dribble. Curry would score 32 points in the second half including multiple clutch 3s to close out the Rockets on the road, again without Kevin Durant. He also led the league in scoring but at the end of the year, he also made a statement. And this wasn’t the first time Curry had to make a statement based on what was being said. After Curry and the Warriors won their first championship, everyone was saying the Warriors were lucky to win and that they weren’t that dominant of a team and this is what Curry said.The lack of a finals MVP was changing his legacy. And in the 2022 playoffs, Curry saved his best for last. Against the Celtics that were able to sweep the Nets and shut down Kevin Durant, in a series where the Warriors were down 2-1. No front running, no Kevin Durant, on the road, in Game 4, Curry goes off, scoring 43 points in every way possible including the deep 3s and the clutch shots.The Warriors would win the finals 4-2, Curry would finally get his finals MVP. Finally, the commentators saying he’s only a front runner would shut up right? (*curry what are they gonna say now)But even this still hasn’t been enough, because they came up with something new.This is what he said in the summer after Steph won. You do know that Steph actually finishes amongs the best in the NBA, in 2016, he was 2nd in the entire league, even including centers, at finishing in the rim.In 2023, he was the second best finisher in the league among guards…While this was the day that Steph saved Team USA, he proved it again in the gold medal game, answering another claim that recently was made by a former all-star point guard Gilbert Arenas. Yup, he called Steph not generational. And he said this during the playoffs that the Warriors didn’t make this year so Curry didn’t have a chance to retaliate.Now that word unfair is typically reserved for freaks of nature, generational athletes doing something athletically gifted that no one else can do and that’s what Curry was doing. And just like all the other times people have doubted Curry, he has responded with his play.
This Woman Basketball Player Is As Tall As Victor Wembanyama MJ2KALLDAY 2024-08-16 | The tallest woman basketball player is too big for the WNBA. What if there was a woman basketball player who made NBA players look small? I’m talking bigger than Joel Embiid. We might be used to tall 7 footers in men’s basketball. Currently we’re seeing Bob an Marjanovic, 7’ 4” Wembanyama, but in the WNBA.If you check the Guinness book of world records, the current tallest woman in the world is Rumeysa Gelgi who is 7 foot 0.7 inches and then there is her, Ziyu, a 7 foot 3 inch basketball player from China. This doesn’t even look real.Yes that makes her the tallest woman in the world, taller than the tallest WNBA player ever, and she’s 17 and wants to make the WNBA.In fact Ziyu would be taller than the average WNBA player by over a foot and 3 inches. That’s the equivalent to a 7 foot 9 NBA player. So taller than Yao Ming and you already know that everyone calling her the female Yao Ming.A woman who is taller than Shaq needs more shine than this and we got to see her play in the Olympics.And yes she can dunk. In 6th grade, Ziyu was already 6’ 9”. Taller than LeBron at 12. Both her parents were professional basketball players so it runs in the family. Even though Ziyu towers over everyone, her posture seems to also be normal, something that again, we’ve seen the demise of the tallest men’s basketball players have back issues. And in the under 18 Asia Cup, Zhang led the Chinese team to the finals and pretty much was unstoppable. She scored 36 points and 13 rebounds in 22 minutes against New Zealand, 44 points and 14 rebounds against Japan. These are exactly the type of numbers I would envision if you told me there was a 7’ 3” women basketball player.** She’s literally the woman Wilt Chamberlain. Watching the tape, Ziyu is able to get wherever she wants on the court, she has enough weight and strength to push pretty much every player off their spot. There is no player that comes remotely close to blocking her shot or even bothering her. After watching several interviews, off the court, Ziyu seems to be humble, calls herself a shy girl, coaches have nothing but praise, and she is focused on making the best of her abilities. but on the court, she is aggressive, wants the ball, directing teammates, just not yelling like Russell Westbrook.Throughout the entire cup, she was the best player, to the point that China was being called a one person team. And unfortunately China would lose in the finals to Australia, but fortunately for us, that means we got to see Ziyu face really good team defense and have to give it her all.Australia played fast to make sure Ziyu wasn’t set up in her defense because when she did, Australia had to play good team ball to get around her. It’s just that they were kinda able to get to anywhere they wanted on the court so maybe the rest of China’s team wasn’t doing the best to deny them the ball.
Where Does Team USA Basketball Go From Here? MJ2KALLDAY 2024-08-11 | Steph Curry and Team USA Basketball did it, but at what cost? #nba Use code MJ2KALLDAY50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box plus 20% off your next month of orders at bit.ly/4f6S4ro!If the world is catching up, or quite literally caught up as we saw when Serbia had our backs against the wall and before these olympics, several people called this version of USA as the best US olympic team in history, at least on paper, we are barely keeping top dog status. Durant specifically said, But Next Olympics, Curry and Durant might still be there, but uhhh not sure,LeBron might be retired…**look he should be I don’t know,** man’s the best player on the the team right now. And that’s amazing, but also a problem.Several players agreed to play this Olympics heavily off of the fact that other higher profile players were playing. LeBron was recruiting a year ago, LeGM and Noah Lyles.And we fell in this cycle before. In 1988, we got a bronze medal in basketball, the lowest finish in our history, and then we said nahhh we ain’t going out like this and sent NBA players, the dream team. But then we got complacent. After a 6th place medal in 2002, in 2003 they won the America cup but in 2004, only 3 athletes returned and as a result, we saw LeBron, Wade, Melo all get called up when they were not ready.But perhaps more importantly than that, Team USA needs to take the world seriously. **Basketball isn’t just America’s sport anymore and we should treat it as such, just as we tried to this year. But there’s a better way of going about it.** The best players in the NBA under 30 are international players. Now you have players like Anthony Edwards, Jayson Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton, Devin Booker, and Bam that still can be in their prime in time for next Olympics. We need to play together in FIBA, introduce glue pieces, hone in chemistry. Instead of antagonizing Tatum, we’re going to need him. We need to motivate them to continue, otherwise we’re getting recked. But I’m excited to see where the world will be in 4 years.
The Game A Star Was Born MJ2KALLDAY 2024-08-03 | Team USA Kevin Durant has always been different, even in the beginning against LeBron with Kobe.This was no ordinary game. It was the 2007 Team USA Intrasquad scrimmage, filled with the best players in the NBA: Kobe, LeBron, Dwight Howard, Carmelo, Jason Kidd.And the reason I called Durant a baby is because this is before maybe the greatest olympic game ever, before he snaked and became a champion, before he was MVP, before he was a scoring champ. This was before he had even played a single NBA game.**Durant was just happy to be there**. Kobe said Jason Kidd elbowed him in the stomach like it was a game from the 80s. There was more on the line for Kobe and LeBron, but that’s a story for another time. Just know that these scrimmages, the entire training camp was physical and competitive. The game even started like this, yeah the players are fighting for it. Sending doubles at Kobe, fouling at the paint, fast breaks, double clutching into a make, pick and rolls, chase down block.Durant was just 18 years old, the youngest member of Team USA, he had no place.Durant said he lied about his height to stop coaches from forcing him to play center. And he did lie, later on in his career, but not earlier. What a generational freak, man didn’t care about the hair routine, but actually grew his height…But even so, 6’ 9” Kevin Durant was a unicorn. He won national player of the year during his freshman year averaging 25.8 points, 11 rebounds, the first freshman to ever win that award.And in the NBA, he would become the youngest scoring champion ever. In fact, by the time he was 25, he had 4 scoring titles.But even the greats take some time to get into their stride. A couple of games, going through an NBA training camp, getting up to game speed. For some, it can even take seasons.So even as good as KD was coming into the league and as good as he would become, no one would blame him if he was a little out of place especially with this roster, **because this roster was special.**Do y’all remember Deron Williams, man he was so tough.And the list goes on. The best players in the world either at a superstar level or at their role.Durant wasn’t in the plans for the roster, in fact Coach K wanted to evaluate Greg Oden but he wasn’t available.So again, Durant, coming off the bench, was playing with his idols, and even if he couldn’t do anything, it would be a great experience…Durant scored 22 points in the game 9 of 14 from the field.Durant was playing so well that in a close game, he had earned being on the closing lineup, and he was hitting important shots **In a game where Kobe and LeBron were going at it fro reasons bigger than just Team USA, in a game where the top scorers in the league were going off, Durant carved his place.And even with this performance, KD didn’t make the cut. Too much on the line to trust a then 19 year old. Times were different. Now Kevin Durant is the difference between struggling in the Olympics and winning. We’ll forget about 2021, that didn’t happen
Why Team USA Basketball Is In Trouble MJ2KALLDAY 2024-07-29 | Team USA basketball is in trouble these olympics.In 1992, the Men’s USA Basketball team won their pre-olympic exhibitions by an average of 52.8 points. In 2008, they won by an average of 32.2 points. This year, they won by an average of 10.2 with all but two finishing with a less than 10 point margin.Team USA assembled one of the most impressive rosters in years and… we’re down by 13 at half against Sudan… We assembled the Avengers and we getting still getting teed up? But this isn’t anything new. Even with a win against Serbia, Team USA is still in trouble and will continue to be for the next few years. Noah Lyles might’ve spurred something when he said This year, the roster is godly, filled with players who have varying levels international experience. What I said about players resting and avoiding playing in the Olympics is no longer true this year, what I said about the team not having experience is also no longer true, but my other points still stand and it’s what everyone forgot about, so I’m gonna go through the 2 key reasons why Team USA will still continue to get worse unless they address it. And it starts with leadership, and no I’m not talking about LeBron. No I’m talking about the Team USA program, but to understand, we have to first understand why Team USA lost in 2004 before the world had caught up and what USA did to fix that.And that’s exactly what happened the past few years, but this time it was load managing. Players choosing to rest, not wanting to play voluntary extra games. The fire had been lost but just like the 2004 loss woke up players and led to one of the greatest olympic teams in history, the 2008 redeem team, filled with the best the NBA had to offer. Kobe, LeBron, Wade, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, this was no joke and it was filled with a mix of players who had some international experience and some with none. But that team did something differently, something that set them up for years of success. Team USA brought in Coach K to shake things up in the program and yeah he would, but the players were also committed to spending time playing with each other. See, Jerry CoIangelo, the Suns owner at the time, became the director of USA basketball in 2005, and chose Coach K to be the national coach and not just the Olympic coach. For the 2006 FIBA Tournament, the Team USA program tried to pick players who would also be available for the 2008 olympics and build a core. It was this idea to have players build and grow with each other over multiple competitions and not just one month before the Olympics. They told stars that they were committing to 3 summers. In 2006, all the players for the olympic trials stayed together in Vegas for a month. In 2007, the roster was finalized with Kobe on it and went through another intense training camp. And to top it off, in 2007, they had one of the greatest games the public has ever seen, with LeBron, Kobe going at it, a freshly drafted KD making his mark, capping off with Kobe hitting a game winner. Of course when the stars finally decided to play for the olympic team, it was a no brainer right. You would be crazy to say no to LeBron, Curry, Durant, especially after the roster from last year.Steph Curry said it himself that we haven’t seen Team USA’s best offense through these exhibition games. Even if USA is able to beat some of the lower teams, what we haven’t seen is a fluid offense. We’ve seen players late to hustle back, late to rotate. For all of LeBron’s heroics against Sudan, man had his hands down down 2. Team USA’s rotations have also been inconsistent, sometimes there’s weakside help, sometimes there’s not and no it’s not by design.Team USA no longer has the best players in the world on paper. Giannis, Jokic, Luka 3 of the top 6 players in the world are not from the US and this trickles throughout the league. But even with the increase in NBA players on other teams, even those teams try to stay consistent with their cores. Take a look at Canada’s Fiba team from last year and their olympic team this year, 8 of their players returned.If we take a look at France in the same way, 7 players came back.With Team USA, it’s 2. 2 players that aren’t even part of the new core. And that leads to an easy solution, keep your core the same. I know it’s enticing to just pick the best players available and it’s a good problem to have when you can replace one all-star with another. That’s how deep the roster selection can go for the US, but try to have certain cores together for a minimum of two years. Stress to players that this is a 2 year minimum commitment and try to have half the roster return. Technically, even if you don’t have the current best players by the second year and you just have B tier superstars, if they have chemistry with each other, then that is better than A tier superstars with no chemistry. It’s as simple as that.
Why Players Still Dont Like Stephen Curry MJ2KALLDAY 2024-07-27 | Players still don’t like Steph Curry.Old heads still don’t like Curry. Even some current players don’t like Curry. Even after he proved he could carry a team.I think it’s the idea that what Steph does seems to be attainable. Trae Young was supposed to be the next Steph Curry and that hasn’t went according the plan. But he doesn’t have a team around him.Heck Dame has the same capabilities right?When Curry and Dame faced off, Dame got cooked (2021 Steph going for 62 points).It’s why Steph at times seems more relatable to NBA fans than a LeBron who 6’ 8” 250 pounds with a 40+ inch vertical or Jordan who could palm the ball, float in the air. Steph is just the small guy fighting the freaks of nature. He is the best player that 6’ 3” and under. That is until you realize that he’s a freak of nature too, just not in the traditional sense. Every time we compare Steph, especially in terms of dominance, it’s always against players that are 6’ 6” and above. Magic Johnson, LeBron James, even KD, guys who could power through, get the ball in the low block iso. In fact, when we think generational for athletes, we typically think of physical athleticism first.But what Steph has done screams the same dominance done differently. **And it’s time we change the preconceived notion in the one big thing thing this week.**What is up dudes, dudettes, ballers, players. It’s ya boi. **Steph does things in a different way.**But his peers haven’t necessarily shown him respect. Like during the 2016 playoffs, after Curry is the first unanimous MVP, Durant and Westbrook were asked about Curry as an underrated defender and…Yeah they laughed at him even though Curry was defending better than the rest of his team on average and more importantly, why provoke the best player on the other team? Because you don’t respect him even after a record breaking season and Steph cooked em. ButAnd it’s not at a small sample size. If we take a look at the average number of 3s by year from 2010, you’ll see the massive explosion. Before Steph Curry got into the league, the highest number of 3s in a season was Ray Allen, 269. But since Steph’s 2014 explosion, now Ray Allen’s season is only 24th of all time. You’ll see Buddy Hield a few times, Donte DiVincenzo’s recent season. Dame. There’s only 2 times that a player has hit over 300 3s in a season, Klay and Harden. And oh yeah, Steph 5 times. He actually has 5 of the top 6 spots. That isn’t a single season of excellence, that is sustained regardless of if he was teammates with KD or not. Greatness to me is how much better you are than your competition, your contemporaries. In 2016, Curry not only made the most 3s, he also shot 12% better than league average for real true shooting percentage. And as an added bonus, per ESPN, in 2016 Curry averaged more 4th quarter points per 48 minutes than any player of the 21st century (including LeBron and Kobe Bryant) You’re telling me that someone is going to come around that is going to be that much better than the league at shooting?**Anything is possible, but uhhh maybe not.** We hear several claims that Steph Curry ruined basketball, that the next generation is cooked because now in your local gym, the average 9 year old is just chucking 3s believing they could do it. And technically they could make the attempt, shoot off the dribble, they just can’t make it. No has made it.If the average mortal believes they could replicate Curry, then imagine NBA players who are infinitely more talented and skills would feel they could replicate Curry given enough practice and reps. However, a lot of these Curry shots are considered bad shots.That went tragically. But Curry was quite literally a great rookie, over 17 points a game. He used to take 6 mid ranges a game in 2012, a lot off the dribble. More than Kevin Durant! He was good at the traditional game as well. He was already on the path to greatness in a traditional sense. It’s just that 3s weren’t considered as important. That attribute wasn’t considered something to be generational, but the fact that he changed what the game values is generational. We’re seeing several athletes right now who are closer in athleticism to Michael Jordan, but that doesn’t mean that Jordan’s athleticism wasn’t generational, because at that time, there was no athlete that could do what he did and being that much ahead of the best the world had to offer that it takes generations to catch up **is quite literally generational**So when they faced off a few weeks later on January 3, 2021, Curry created his own shots and dropped 62 points. Can’t create a shot huh. Led the league in scoring that year…huh.The way Curry creates shots is perhaps also “replicable” right. He’s not isoing that much, he just runs off of screen, gets open, and makes the shot. Apparently he’s one dimensional. He doesn’t iso hesi pull up enough…
I Was Hacked Twice...And Lost Everything MJ2KALLDAY 2024-07-23 | We back...What is up dudes, dudettes, ballers, players. It's ya boi MJ!Tiktok: @MJ2K_ALLDAYIG:@MJ2K_ALLDAYTwitter: @MJ2KALLDAY
The One Rule That Changed The NBA As We Know It MJ2KALLDAY 2024-07-07 | The 2024 NBA offseason has been chaoticKlay and Paul George both did not return to their teams, not because they didn’t want to, but because of one rule change, **and in fact it’s completely reshaped the entire NBA as we know it.** And when this rule was announced, it was meant to target the Warriors and Clippers. It’s the one big thing we need to talk about this week.So get ready to strap in to hear all the trades and roster moves completely reshaped the NBA as we know it in the one big thing we need to talk about this week. Teams are faced with a choice. Whether to spend money and contend or “strategically” avoid so they can be flexible. The NBA has a soft cap and hard cap. You can go beyond the soft cap for a number of reasons, like re-signing their own player using their Bird rights or even in a trade, taking back more money. You can’t sign a new player if you’re over the soft cap but sign and trade works like Klay Thompson to the Mavericks since the Mavs were over the salary cap.Valanciunas also didn’t go to the Lakers and signed a 3 year $30M deal with the Wizards? *Why are you taking a pay cut for the Wizards???*The Clippers were second highest paid in luxury tax, but they didn’t care as much. It’s why they resigned James Harden to a 2 year $70M deal. Also Batum and Mo Bamba so on paper, **they kidna mid in the West.**This was not the only concern for the Warriors and Clippers. What pushed them over the edge is the same reason the Clippers weren’t willing to add a 4th year to Paul George’s contract which ultimately ruined any chance of resigning him. It was the next two tiers, the last tier being introduced last year in 2023. The first apron is sort of the first hard cap where restrictions really come into play. No sign and trade, can’t take back more money in a trade, can’t sign waived players over 12.2 million, and no using any trade exceptions that you may have accrued over time. This hurts if you’re trying to build your team or add in season additions.But the next tier is what struck fear in both the Clippers and Warriors. The Second apron was added to further restrict rosters typically paying for multiple stars. You’re not allowed to sign players using your mid level exception, which was typically used on keeping veteran minimum players for their second year or extremely good role players willing to take a pay cut to play for a championship contender. Think Bruce Brown on the 2023 Nuggets who was pretty crucial but only made $6 mil that year. The 76ers have decided that it’s fine since Maxey is only 23 and they really need the process to get something. Now the 76ers are spending a lot to compete and they are ok with it. They resigned Maxey to a 5 year $204M deal right after signing Paul George so this core it set. Podcast P, Just know McCain, memes are gonna go crazy.But Klay was a different story. For the entire year, the Warriors were unwilling to commit more money to Klay because they wanted to avoid luxury tax and be out of the second apron.To be in the running for the Paul George sweepstakes, the Warriors waived Chris Paul and kept Klay off their books so they would go under the aprons allowing them to do a sign and trade.But the Warriors were willing to offer PG the max meaning they were willing to go into luxury tax for PG and that pissed off Klay who had been hearing a different message for a year, an organization that he has done so much for. Draymond signed a year ago and was making more money and so Klay felt slighted. And so bam you get Klay wanting out. The Warriors risked it And the risk was that if they didn’t get PG or sign Klay, they would still be over the soft salary cap and only really have their MLE to get players. So now they are stuck
The Failure of The Clippers Should Be Studied For Generations MJ2KALLDAY 2024-07-03 | Paul George just got traded to the 76ers, Kawhi and the Clippers NBA experiment failed.It all went so wrong. The Clippers didn’t even make the finals in 4 years, **but why?** Why did these Clippers fail? That’s because the entire world failed to account for one big thing, something we should have seen from the beginning **and that’s what we need to talk** about this week, to serve as a warning to never fall for the trap again. There are 3 pieces to the downfall of the Clippers, but before we get to some of the biggest issues on the Clippers, we would be remiss to not mention one of the only runs the Clippers had where they had both Paul George and Kawhi Leonard healthy, 2020. The Clippers would finish second in the Western Conference Finals, they had a 72% win rate when Kawhi and PG played together, they were dominant. Kawhi averaged 27.1 points, PG with 21.5, Lou Williams with 18.2, Harrell with 18.6 who would be 6th man of the year.make the second round of the playoffs despite Paul George struggling and I mean struggling (*lowlight).*But here’s where Piece #1 comes in.And Max Kellerman, I still want my public apology.Doc Rivers was not meant to lead the Clippers. His leadership didn’t keep the team calm nor did he develop offensive schemes that held up, as you’re about to see. But perhaps the key reason for the Clippers downfall was obvious. Kawhi was the king of load management. He had just won a championship with a completely new team Raptors in 2019 while load managing. Paul George also would miss several games and they only played 43 of 72 games.And so going into the playoffs they realize, oh despite our insanely talented roster, we don’t have chemistry. Kawhi led the Clippers with 4.9 assists? Oh we didn’t figure out our weaknesses of not having a floor general or play starter until the playoffs. Shiii**But what I’m about to say next should be alarming.** Over the last 5 seasons, of a possible 410 regular season games, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum played 290 games, Giannis and Middleton played 246 games, Jokic and Murray have played 224, even LeBron and Anthony Davis played 210. Kawhi and Paul George played 181 games together, 44% of their games. This is what I said in 2023. Oh… and this year, Kawhi played 68 games, the most he has with the Clippers. PG Harden and Westbrook are healthy. **But 2024 was different because they had James Harden.** They had one of the best playmakers in the NBA. This was a super team. But without Kawhi, PG or Harden had to be the main scoring option and while that can work for a game or two, it’s hard for a series. Especially since we’ve seen Harden’s recent body of work… 9 points in a game 7…yikes.Because we haven’t gotten to what they lost in this, piece #3, and no it wasn’t just the last 5 seasons. Kawhi Leonard was a star on the Spurs. Former MVP candidate that was doing it on both ends in 2017. Game winning 3, game winning block. But that was before injuries took hold. They saw the Spurs saga where Kawhi straight up also refused to play, but gave him the benefit of the doubt.Paul George had his health scares. This health report is insane, it’s a lot of small and big injuries, the shoulder surgery, knee sprain, the injury that shall not be named.
I Have Never Seen A NBA Prospect Like Bronny James MJ2KALLDAY 2024-06-30 | Bronny James is a NBA prospect like no other. #nba Over the years, I have made videos tracking LeBron James Jr., Bronny. But I have never seen a more confusing prospect than this.And now he got drafted to the Lakers, congratulations to Bronny!We’ve seen Michael Jordan’s son Marcus get to the college stage a bit off of name too and then fizzle out and even he averaged more points.Bronny shouldn’t be here, and yet his potential has always been sky high, enough to validate contention. We’ll get to his upside but Bronny wasn’t ready for the NBA draft, he should have never declared, yet he would have developed into a NBA player. So how good is Bronny actually? At first, Bronny was compared to his dad LeBron. But even at 15, it was apparent that while they may have similar traits ad tendencies of high IQ basketball, getting players involved, LeBron was a freak athlete that Bronny just didn’t develop into, nor did Bronny play in systems where he was the main option. The only thing that was better was his jumpshot but that isn’t saying the most. Bronny didn’t show much during his high school years, buried under other NBA prospects like Brandon Boston Jr. and Amari Bailey. but he was always well regarded.College was his chance to finally show a bit of growth in his game, while he physically stopped growing and ended at 6’ 3”, that was a lie 6’ 1.5”, everyone wanted to see his athleticism, his playmaking, just him doing more than 15 minutes a night. We were robbed of the opportunity to see what Bronny was capable of because a majority of the season was spent in Bronny just working his way back after a hiatus without being able to train with the team before the season. His subpar averages of 4.8 points on 36% from the field, 2.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists, alright is anyone going into the draft with these averages, what? But we couldn’t definitively be attributed to his game or his health. I can’t definitely say that Bronny is or isn’t an NBA prospect. This draft class has also been considered by many to be weak.But there’s a narrative that LeBron, that Klutch sports want to fulfill. LeBron and Bronny being the first father son duo in NBA history to play at the same time. And for that to happen, Bronny needed to be in the draft this year, at least since LeBron doesn’t know exactly when his last season would be and that this goal has seemingly been the driving force.And that’s what has me a bit angry. Because what should have happened was Bronny staying an additional year at USC. Working his way up through the draft rankings through his play. It’s not like he had no shot. In fact, I think some of the stuff we’ve seen from Bronny look incredible. His on-ball defense was suffocating. Essentially, he played winning basketball, made the right plays. Despite the not crazy 14.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.8 steals, no advanced stats in high school so this looks alright, he was 20th in his class, seemed like a late first round pick by several scouts. They liked everything he was bringing to the game.In fact, in high school, he was actually ahead of Reed Sheppard, close to Rob Dillingham, both of which would be drafted in the lottery this year.And in some key matchups Bronny outperformed some of the top guys in this year’s draft, like at the Nike Hoop Summit when he played for the Team USA select team vs world, going at Risearcher, the eventual number one overall pick, a game filled with eventual first round picks, Ron Holland, Jared McCain, Isaiah Collier. **and Bronny looked like he belonged. Playing great perimeter defenseThat doesn’t make him the better prospect but it shows his capabilities.If you watch the USC games, you can see that Bronny just wasn’t well incorporated in the offense, probably due to the late start. USC’s top recruit that year was another guard Isaiah Collier, so Bronny was going to be the focal point. And as USC coach Andy Enfield would say aftergames, “We just went with our veterans down the stretch, but he has continued to improve as a player.”But also, he was playing more off-ball, as a combo guard. His handles were good, but not great. His shot looked good, but fluky. Soft touch around the rim but not consistent. His defense, yeah that was there.But Bronny, even when he had a start for USC was unable to really create too much offense. Yes he made the right plays, passes off mismatches, but it wasn’t him creating problems for the defense. Now in the NBA, he’ll be able to develop behind the scenes, but will he get enough reps in? Will he be able to improve in game? It hurts him at the stage he’s in.Maybe I’m in the minority but I think Bronny could’ve made it in the NBA if he had just gotten a chance to improve. ****But now it’s always gonna be LeBron got his son drafted. He’s living in his dad’s shadow. He doesn’t deserve that. He seems like a great person and has handled the pressure so well. Let him make his own name because he’s capable of it.
The Lakers Really Let LeBron Do This MJ2KALLDAY 2024-06-26 | LeBron is hurting the Lakers.LeBron James is going to leave a lot of legacies. Most points in NBA history, longevity, the chosen one, but there’s another legacy that nearly transcends all his achievements. LeGM. The Lakers hiring JJ Redick makes this LeBron’s 10th head coach in 21 years. Of the 10 coaches, 5 were first time NBA head coaches. **And that isn’t coincidental.Here’s a chart of how many players and first round picks a team traded during a player’s career. Jordan had 35, Kobe had 56, Curry had 51. And then there’s LeBron, as of last season, 118. You might say that’s because they were only on one team, that they didn’t play as long, but the amount of roster turnover is like a 2k rebuild.LeGm is warranted.Even his own son Bronny got caught in the web…Regardless of whether you think JJ Redick can succeed or not, something is painfully obvious. LeBron has a problem that’s been holding him **and his teams back for years**. **And I’m going to go through the** 3 key pieces that will continue to hurt the entire NBA. This is the one big thing we need to talk about this week. This isn’t news, this is truth however long it takes, **so get ready to dive in.**
The Celtics Just EXPOSED The NBA Media But No One Will Admit It MJ2KALLDAY 2024-06-18 | Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown just won the NBA championship with the Celtics, but the media won't apologize for what they did these entire playoffs.Despite questioning who’s the best player, despite saying the Celtics can’t win shooting that many 3s, despite picking the Mavericks, the Celtics stayed focused and had a plan. Now I’m recording this as the Celtics are winning thinking how did so many people get it so wrong.The NBA Finals doesn’t just change legacies, it changes what other teams will look to model after and the Celtics won the championship by completely rewriting the narrative of what a great team is. **And no it’s not just the analytics.**Reporters, analysts, the average fan are used to a different model. A superstar duo, or a big 3. That’s what we’ve seen for the past decade. MVP Curry, LeBron, Curry and Durant, MVP Giannis, MVP Jokic, and close to MVP Kawhi.So even though the Celtics had 5th highest victory margin in NBA history, even though the Celtics had the best offense in history, there was doubt. And doubt is natural, but it was for the wrong reasons. It’s why Nick Wright’s last comment was the narrative. So it boils down to the players. I didn’t make this video to just celebrate the Celtics, congratulations to them by the way. No I wanted to look at how we evaluate teams and why we need to change it. Specifically what the media refuses to talk about **and I got the receipts**, so let’s start with a look beyond the numbers for a second.The Celtics have several players who are capable of being the best player in any given moment, but there’s a difference between the most talented and effectively the best.
Why He Is The Most Disrespected Player In The NBA MJ2KALLDAY 2024-05-28 | The most disrespected player in the NBA. #nba Now we should have expected this, Rudy getting twirled like a ballerina and everyone making jokes Or the fact that nearly every defender has consistently gotten cooked by Luka and Kyrie. But that hasn’t stopped the reporters for years.I've never seen a player with this many accolades be so universally thought of as incapable by current and former players as Rudy Gobert. In fact in a recent player poll, Rudy Gobert was voted as the most overrated player in the NBA. Now Rudy Gobert offensively is one of the worst centers I’ve ever seen, apart from whatever the f this was. The bench reacted like it was a game winner. And defensively in the playoffs, he has been a part of some infamous moments that even I’ve roasted him for. But when the talk is this loud even after playing good defense, I think it deserves another look cause here on this channel, we find out the truth It's time to verify these claims or not, with stats and the things that don't get tracked and see if we've all been lied to because if so, Rudy Gobert is the most disrespected player in the NBA.To understand how we got here, we need to answer the question, why is Rudy Gobert so hated?He started from a 59 overall 2k rating, completely raw talent in 2013 who would win his first defensive player of the year in 2018.In 2018, the 3 finalists were Rudy Gobert, Joel Embiid, and Anthony Davis. And if we look at steals and blocks for the 3, it looks like Anthony Davis should win, until you look at the fact that the Jazz were the best defense in NBA and the Lakers were 13th. And when you realize that Jazz become an absolute bad show without him becoming 21st because they quite literally have horrible perimeter defense and you start to appreciate it more.But there’s stuff the stats don’t show like just how much players are unwilling to take a shot at the rim. On this possession, there’s 5 instances of players not even attempting to challenge Rudy at the rim. Yeah the team that only shot 3s and layups due to analytics didn’t wanna test their luck.During this 3 year stretch, Rudy Gobert won defensive player of the year in 2021 over Ben Simmons and Draymond. And I’ll put up the steals and blocks comparison for the 3, but what is more important here again is impact. Rudy has the most defensive win shares, and the lowest defensive rating Even in 2022 when the candidates are Marcus Smart, Mikal Bridges, and Gobert, he has the highest DWS, and the lowest defensive rating, but the Celtics had the best defense in the NBA and led to Marcus Smart winning the award, which is deserved.Because when he doesn’t, it’s just a layup.And we can actually see moments like that against the Clippers in 2021. Like if Reggie Jackson is getting by your perimeter defense this easily, I don’t know what Rudy Gobert is supposed to do.While it’s true that a 5 out offense can diminish Rudy which I do not want to just sweep over, the Jazz perimeter defense was just not there. And it allows the 5 out offense to work if you can’t keep people in front of you. Rudy’s defense was to make up for a lot of these mistakes.The problem here is that the Jazz had so many defensive problems that we couldn’t really see Rudy in a normal playoff environment. If your playoff defense hinges on one defender, it’s going to get exposed no matter what. And even then on the Jazz, without him their defensive rating was 123.2, with him, 119.5 so still better. I will say in a modern NBA, Rudy’s value is not as high as it would be 15 years ago. My only issue is that it seems like there’s only one way for Rudy to be used defensively, and that is in the paint as a shot deterrent. Is that because he’s only great at one attribute and sucks at the rest or is it that teams haven’t been creative enough with him.**It’s easy to blame Rudy because he’s unique and gets got.** But every great defender gets got, because they put themselves in situations over and over again to get crossed or dunked on. But when you look at the numbers, you look at the games, you look at the nuance, it’s clear that Rudy is quite literally a great defender, not worth the contract, **but doesn’t deserve all the disrespect he gets for what he’s achieved.**
Anthony Edwards Is Forcing Me To Say The Unsayable MJ2KALLDAY 2024-05-15 | Anthony Edwards is doing something unbelievable.In the modern NBA where stars want to play the least amount of games possible, we have a young star near the top of the NBA making no excuses, wanting to compete against the best players, playing both sides of the ball , an homage to the NBA of the old.You’ve heard the comparison a million times at this point, that Anthony Edwards is the next Michael Jordan and for obvious reasons, but some things are getting swept under the rug. Like Ant said, he wants the comparisons to stop, but Anthony Edwards is different in some key ways, let me rephrase, he’s actually better than Jordan in some key ways.By the end of the series, Durant said that Ant is his favorite player to watch. Two greats acknowledging the next up. And what we’re seeing now actually hasn’t been done. If we look at the best playoff games from players 22 and and put them on a chart, you’ll see familiar names, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, heck we know how crazy Luka went in the playoffs a few years ago. And at the top of the list is Kobe Bryant, and Anthony Edwards? He’s just in the top 11, 3 times. There is no player that shows up more than twice in the top 20 besides Antman. These are not one off performances. He’s starting to do it consistently already. And here’s Michael Jordan, oh wait he hadn’t made the playoffs yet cause he got drafted as a 22 year old. But while we see the barking Anthony Edwards now, **he was always different from his peers.** And that’s piece #1. Anthony Edwards has always been like this, he just stayed true to himself, even when it wasn’t technically the best move for his career.Anthony Edwards has been unapologetically himself, even at the expense of his image at times. While everyone is hailing him now, back then people thought he wasn’t serious and that could be a problem. That’s why he wants to play as much as possible, he wants to play against the best, and kill them. The elusive…killer mentality… we talk about. Anthony Edwards might do that, yet his values are a bit different. But it’s not just his individual success that he believes in. And that’s piece #2, Anthony Edwards wants to be the best but it’s not limited to himself, nor does he need the credit, and that puts him one step ahead of MJ.Anthony Edwards’ ego isn’t to show he’s better than the people around him, no he’s invested in their success without forcing them. He believes in his teammates, maybe even more than they do. Something that even Jordan couldn’t figure out. Most teammates of Jordan have spoken out on his ruthlessness. Yes he got a great deal out of his teammates and he led by example, but several walked away resenting leadership, or in a lot of cases, not being able keep up. It’s not a style that works with everyone and Jordan didn’t figure out how to lead until he lost to the Pistons in 1990, 6 years into the league at 26 years old when he figured out he needs his teammates to excel to win. And it’s not a facade either, remember Anthony Edward’s reaction to the Suns getting Kevin Durant?Edwards motivates the team to be better, to believe that they are better. The Timberwolves are the best defensive team in the NBA because of Rudy Gobert, Jaden McDaniels, good team defense, but don’t get it twisted, Anthony Edwards wants to guard the best player and he does. Something that more stars in the 90s and 2000s did, before offense became the only requisite to being a superstar. It’s a lead by example case that motivates every player to do it more. No excuse if your best player is spending the energy to lock up defensively. **The more and more I looked into Anthony Edwards, the more I found myself reminded of 90s,** 2000s basketball. Yes there have always been egos, and yes, players are selfish in any era, but the desire to compete and win being the only thing that matters before social media, before the big player deals, before Adam Silver took over, is something that we all miss now. In 2003, the average number of games played by all stars was 79. Last year the average was 64. Edwards played 79 games this year, 78 games last season, he hasn’t played less than 70 games in his 4 seasons.And so stop the comparisons of Anthony Edwards with MJ. He already knows how to lead in a way to encourages chemistry and not forces it. There’s a level of trust knowing Ant isn’t scheming or manipulating, he just tells it how it is. **I haven’t been this excited about a young player in the past decade** because he embodies everything that I think the game is missing now.
He Cant Keep Fooling Us Like This MJ2KALLDAY 2024-05-03 | This #nba player keeps fooling us.That is Jimmy Butler, exhausted. And why wouldn’t he be?He just dropped 35 points fighting through Anthony Davis 12 rebounds, 11 assists, 5 steals playing 47 minutes and willed the Heat to win Game 5 in the NBA finals. But this wouldn’t be the only time.And even this year, in round 1, oh he’s not there. We’re starting to see a Jimmy Butler problem, something that isn’t being talked about,somehow ignored for years, and I’m going to try my best to address it, beyond just the obvious missing games.If we take a look at the number of games played each season, Jimmy has never made it past 65 games for the past 7 years. Jimmy could be a top 3 player in the playoffs but not even a top 15 player during the regular season, something that I’ve mentioned exposes the NBA and shows how the regular season has become devalued, but bottom line, Jimmy is there when it counts right? Until he’s not. But why? Is Jimmy Butler injury prone? Yes and no. If we take a look at Jimmy Butler injury history, it’s a long list .Butler’s body is banged up with some serious injuries including several knee injuries. The one in 2018 required a meniscus surgery.And look, man don’t give a f, whether that’s calling out his own starter teammates and beating them with the bench.And during the playoffs, Jimmy doesn’t really miss games. He’s only missed two games in 11 playoffs. One due to knee inflammation and another last year due to an ankle sprain. But there’s something we don’t really talk about much that I’d want to look at. The impact of those injuries.**But I’m not saying that’s Jimmy’s fault**, at least in recent years, it’s the Heat and it’s something we ignored for years under the guise of success. The Heat have defied odds consistently because two things. Jimmy Butler and effort. Look at the roster and you might start to understand it.And sure, there’s a lot more context, injuries, matchups, but the bottomline is that the Heat don’t have guys that can create their own shot, meaning everything falls on Jimmy.And the Heat in 2019 were far from it.But what did they have was a winning culture and Pat Riley, who’s reputation speaks for itself, one of the few people capable of getting Shaq to lose weight and holding LeBron accountable. He promised Jimmy Butler that they would add another star.or in his exact words, find the next thing. But they haven’t. As much as Jimmy is HIM, I think he deserves to have a roster around him that is actually built for a championship, not one that needs him to have 3 games of 35 point triple doubles every series to have a chance at winning. He’s getting taken for granted. Sure we have Heat fans begging Jimmy to return, but we’re not on the Heat’s head for not giving Jimmy the right tools, and because of it, he may go down as a dog but not a champion, **and that to me is unfair.**
I Have Never Seen A Star Fail Repeatedly Like This AGAIN MJ2KALLDAY 2024-04-30 | Kevin Durant failed again...#nba There were two players in my mind with the most to lose these playoffs. Joel Embiid and Kevin Durant, because for KD specifically, he’s got what he wanted, he got a winning culture on the Suns, he got the star teammates. And they were healthy. But not the result.Kevin Durant started his career winning 4 scoring titles in his first 6 seasons, he was on path to be potentially the GOAT and after becoming the villain by joining the Warriors, what he’s done in the past 5 years has only hurt his legacy. I have never seen a player this talented fail repeatedly like this. The situation has changed, but like I said, he still has one choice remaining after all the failure, all the drama and if he takes it, there’s a chance of redemption. So I think it’s time to look at the 3 pieces on why Durant has failed, will continue to fail, and how he could fix it because otherwise, we are seeing the slow downfall of one of the greatest players in history **right in front of our very eyes.**So when KD was done with the BS, done with the state of the Nets that he was partially responsible for, he demanded a trade 1 year after signing a 4 year contract. And the teams on his list, the Heat or Suns, two teams where he would still be the clear number 1 but also now with established cultures, two teams that had just recently been to the NBA finals. But maybe bro didn’t realize that getting traded to a team typically means decimating their assets? So when he got traded to the Suns they were not the same team that made the finals. But that didn’t stop the entire NBA world from collectively losing their minds. So they said let’s get Bradley Beal who has only played 58% of his games in the past 3 years. Here are all the scoring champions in NBA history and here are all the ones that won a championship in the same year. Only 5 players since 1947 have managed to win the scoring title and NBA championship in the same year. Including Michael Jordan 6 times…but only 11 times in over 75 years so scoring isn’t the end all. So where do we go from here? What does Kevin Durant do?The Suns are frustrated, because they threw their entire future for Kevin Durant. Mikhal Bridges, Cam Johnson, 4 first round picks. And it only gets worse.To get Beal, they traded CP3, Shamet, 4 first round pick swaps and 6 second round picks. The Suns don’t have assets to make moves. And to make matters worse, the Suns can not do anything this offseason. The Suns have $150 million committed to just Durant, Booker, and Beal. That alone is more than the total payroll of 14 other teams. Bradley Beal has a no trade clause which leaves the Suns with nothing.But the solution is staring at KD right in the face, Piece #3. But we need to go back to 2011 to see it. The Heat brought together the most insane, villainous big three together. LeBron, Wade, and Bosh, they were supposed to run through the league, how many rings are you going to win LeBron? They dominated until the NBA finals where it all fell apart. But instead of blowing it up, instead of trying to add another star, the players and coach looked at themselves and how to improve. Erik Spoelstra went to Oregon college head coach Chip Kelly and learned an entire new offense that included a revolutionary idea, running Chris Bosh at the 5. It was the spread offense and Bosh worked on 3s the entire summer to add it to his arsenal to space the floor. LeBron and Wade figured out ball handling responsibilities. And went on to win 2 straight championships. **The moral of the story, teams need time to gel, but Durant hasn’t let that happen.**Only if the players give up will this team be done. And the problem for the past 4 years has been that KD has given up on his team without even 2 full seasons in place. Durant is 35, the average age of retirement of stars is 34. I understand the need to do it quickly, but it’s not about taking accountability, it’s about giving yourself the best chance to win. We live in a world today filled with immediate gratification, with everything at our fingertips, but that approach doesn’t work for basketball. **Cut the noise and go off.**
The MVP Award Is A JOKE MJ2KALLDAY 2024-04-26 | The NBA MVP is a joke, but I figured it out. Don’t miss out on all the action this week at DraftKings! Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up using dkng.co/mj2k or through my promo code MJ2K #nba Those are the statements of actual MVP voters and trust me, I wish I was wrong. Every year the NBA season ends and we’re left with one question. Who’s going to win the MVP award? Some years, it’s an easy choice. Other years not so much and this is one of those years. But the past few years have been really eye opening on just how flawed this process is, not just for MVP, but all awards. When you realize that there is actually no criteria for awards and that now more than ever, narratives seem to be dominating the conversation.The MVP race has boiled down to Jokic, SGA, and Luka, but for most of the season Luka wasn’t in the conversation, it was Giannis. But as you can see, in about Week 22, something changed. The reason? Because the Mavericks went on a 9-1 run and became the 4th seed. Jokic was predominantly #1 because the Nuggets were the #1 seed in the tough west and Jokic was clearly the leader averaging a near triple double. Being a player putting up great numbers is a prerequisite, but to be MVP, those numbers need to mean something, they need to lead to winning. ****You hear the phrase, best player on the best team. Just 10. 10 players in almost 70 years, meaning 80% of MVPs have been 2 seed and up. But for example Julius Erving in 1981 was the third seed despite winning 62 games. So let’s go even deeper. Only 4 players have been under a 4th seed.Now all MVP candidates also have to play a sizeable portion of games. Last year was rough so somewhere in the 75-80% range. and all the candidates thanks to the rule change have played more than 65 games. Sorry Embiid.But what is interesting is that in all this is what is the acceptable trade off of production and winning? **That hasn’t fully been answered.** We will get into ho’s the MVP based on this criteria, but because none of these criteria are set, it’s not consistent and leaves room for bias, but more than that, the system actually encourages it. To fix this system, we need to have categories with standardized weight and then with that system I’ll dive into who should be MVP.So based on this, who’s the MVP of this season. Luka leads the entire NBA in points and second assists. I think it’s really easy to give him the top spot, but it’s also not that easy if he isn’t necessarily the most efficient. Between Jokic and SGA, that’s a bit tough because both players run their offense and are pretty efficient. Jokic has the highest PER at 31, Giannis at 29.9, SGA 29.3, Luka 28.1. Giannis is averaging more points and assists than SGA while shooting better and it’s actually quite crazy how their box plus minus and VORP are that close. In fact Giannis is the only person in NBA history to average over 30 points a game on 60% from the field and he’s averaging 11 board sa game. If we’re talking purely from a production standpoint, Giannis has been insane, even if we normalize it and no one talks about it. **At this point, I think it’s fair to go either way and in the event of a tie breaker, we go to number of games played** and going by that, Jokic is MVP. .5 of a difference is insane. But ok let’s get to the one everyone’s been waiting for, Luka. The bias in me was rooting for SGA or Luka to be MVP purely off vibes, but that’s why I wanted to be objective and see who’s MVP and it’s Jokic. Man is just too good.Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.18+ in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply. Valid only in states where DraftKings Pick6 operates. Pick6 not available in all states, including, but not limited to, CT and NY (for up-to-date list of states please visit pick6.draftkings.com/where-is-pick6-available). Void where prohibited. 1 No Stress Pick Set per new Pick6 customer. Applies to your first qualifying Pick Set only, which must have between 2-6 picks; and cannot combine sports or repeat athletes. No Stress Pick Set reward only issued if qualifying Pick Set generates a Net Negative Return, defined as your Pick Set winnings less your Pick Set entry fees (ex: $50 qualifying entry winnings minus $100 qualifying entry fees equals a Net Negative return of $50, resulting in $50 reward in Pick6 Credits). Max. reward up to $200 determined by amount of Net Negative Return, awarded in Pick6 Credits, which are site credits that have no cash value, are non-withdrawable and must be played-through 1x before any related winnings can be withdrawn. Entry fees not included in winnings. Pick6 Credits expire 180 days (4,320 hours) after being issued and are only valid for use in Pick6 contests. Promotional offer period ends 5/6/24 at 11:59 PM ET. See terms at pick6.draftkings.com/promos. Sponsored by DK.
Victor Wembanyama Just Broke The NBA And Here’s Why MJ2KALLDAY 2024-04-18 | Victor Wembanyama got angry and showed why he's special, and it's not because he's tall. Yes 17 points in 3 minutes. It’s not the scoring that should blow your mind. There’s something else besides being 7’ 4” moving like guard that separates him from most rookies, heck most players. This isn’t the only time that Wemby responded to the moment. And it’s something that had led to one of the greatest rookie seasons of all time.Wembanyama would be on a minute restriction due injuries that were haphazard, like stepping on a ball boy. He missed a few games early, he was only allowed to play under 30 minutes a game. At that point, it would have been excusable if Wemby didn’t have the best season as his body was acclimating to the NBA. But no, Wemby didn’t complain. And mid season on January 25, when Holmgren hits a 3, Wemby drives through him and That entire game, Wembanyama went right at him. He was so eager to check in the game that he jumped the gun and ref told him to wait. Wemby would finish the game with 24 points 12 boards 4 blocks, everything more than Chet but would lose so towards the end of the season against OKC, Wembanyama hits this clutch 3, stares down the bench, then blocks Chet and goes ballistic. This means something to him, there’s a fire. He wants to show that he’s the best and it’s not just against Chet. Even bigger match ups like against Giannis, while most players are getting trampled, he’s not afraid to go right after him whether that’ around him And there’s a hunger to go at the best players in the league. When Kevin Durant wraps his arms around Wemby after the whistle and he finished, Wemby takes a hot for fun and says and one while looking straight at KD. Even the small little mind games just don’t work.But perhaps one of the telling moments was when Dillon Brooks decided to trash talk Wemby. Yup after a preseason game, Brooks was asked what he thought of Wemby and he said…**Just tall huh.** Well they would play in their second game of the season and Wemby came out dunking on his own teammate to prove a point. He reversed dunked on Jabari Smith that had Dillon Brooks out of it. (*I am perplexed)* youtube.com/watch?v=DuhjbTtkwiQNow Dillon wouldn’t really be matched up on Wemby but there was a clear moment. On an in bounds in OT with the game tied, Dillon Brooks is denying the pass, Wemby spins to cut, but then pulls back. Dillon needs a map. Wemby catches the ball and easily shoots over him. Just tall right? And the best part? He points at Brooks. He heard the talk. The Spurs would win the game. He’s not giving any little edge to anyone and we can trace it back to one specific moment.The moment that I knew that Wemby was him came from before the season, when we saw those stretching flexibility videos. I remember thinking to myself, wow, Wemby wants to play, he wants to be able to do anything without fear of injury, and he’s taking care of it early. I think nothing illustrates it more than when Wembanyama had a 5 by 5 game, the 15th player ever to do it, did against the Lakers and LeBron scoring 27 points, 10 rebounds, blocking LeBron to which LeBron even said he doesn’t have a ceilingWemby became only the second player to have consecutive 5 blocks and 5 steals, the other one person was Jordan and his response was “I wonder if he did it in wins.” This mentality makes me believe that he would be successful if he was 7’ 4” or 6’ 2”. And it’s why we saw a second year leap from Wemby, mid season. Yeah, if we look at his stats from his first 2 months to the rest of the season, everything went up but fouls. He started scoring 4 more points, better playmaking, and a ridiculous near 4 blocks a game while fouling less.
We Just Witnessed The End Of Curry And The Warriors As We Know It MJ2KALLDAY 2024-04-14 | Steph Curry has reached his breaking point.It’s 2019 NBA Finals. The Warriors just lost Kevin Durant for a second time due to an achilles tear. Klay Thompson already missed game 3, leaving Curry facing a box and one. And in Game 6, when Klay Thompson goes for dunk and lands on the floor in pain, the camera pans to Curry who is sitting on the floor in disbelief And now in 2024, we saw Curry have a similar reaction, with tears on his face, not because of Draymond getting ejected 4 minutes into the game, but because of what it means. This season for the Warriors has been a disaster. And it’s finally breaking Steph Curry, but why now? Why is Curry just done with the Warriors? The Warriors made the best of the situation getting D’Angelo Russell who they would later flip for Andrew Wiggins, but man 2019-2021 were rough. 2019 because Curry and Klay were both hurt, and they went 15 and 50 but in 2020, Curry went through it for several reasons.Now if you think Stephen Curry doesn’t care, think again. He cares about what people start saying, remember Kendrick Perkins, he cares about his legacy, something we’re about to get to in 2022 but Curry who was already an NBA champion was getting disrespected and he answered by leading the league in scoring. Yes, Steph Curry without another all star carried the Warriors to an 8th seed. The hope was that once Klay Thompson would come back, maybe the Warriors could be good again. But management didn’t. They just didn’t believe that the team could get it done and wanted the team to focus on younger players. In fact the Warriors going into the 2021-22 season were 9th in power rankings by bleacher report, 13th in LA times.But Klay would come back and while he wasn’t the same old Klay, he had his moments and was good enough that Curry’s faith was rewarded. Wiggins revamped himself, players finally understood how to play with Curry, how to spot him wide open. And perhaps the most important, Steph Curry finally won his finals MVP. You can see how much it meant to him, crying on the court. And afterwards, he was talking the talk, especially to all the doubters.Well duh, when you go from kicking your opponents to punching your own teammates, that tends to happen. So another year lost in the championship window.Where most players would have lost out on hope before the first championship, and even after last season, Curry had a lot of faith in himself and his closest teammates could get it done but that doesn’t seem likely because of piece #2 the Warriors are potentially calling it quits after this season and that’s coming from the Warriors owner.It’s no secret that Klay and Draymond Green’s contracts are ending soon. Klay is up this year, Draymond next. But the Warriors paid over $150 million in taxes last year to keep this exact roster in taxt. That’s right, the new luxury tax rules made the Warriors a luxury tax repeater making them pay higher rates for going over the salary cap since they re signed their core to massive contracts.And Joe Lacob, the owner, is sick of it. He’s stated that he wants to completely be out of the luxury tax. And that’s the thing. It’s not injuries that is holding this team back right now. It’s the players and management themselves. And yes while Curry proved all the haters wrong winning a finals MVP, he has a chance to do something special, something that would cement his legacy, and that’s Piece #3, a 5th championship can put Steph Curry as the best point guard of all time. At the current moment, there is the conversation of who’s the best point guard of all time: Magic or Steph. Even Steph was asked about it he said, Now the main argument holding Steph back is that Magic has one more championship. But if that was equalized, would that mean Steph would be the best point guard?Steph, like Jordan, takes a lot of things personally. And take the words of his teammates, And apparently Jordan said that Magic is the best point guard of all time.This 5th championship puts Curry firmly in the top 10 of all time, because he’s already done the rest. He has one of the biggest impacts on the game, he’s a multiple time MVP winner, and broke countless records. The reason why we are entertaining this debate is because Steph has the full resume, he has that aura.
We Just Witnessed The Warriors Ruin Their Future MJ2KALLDAY 2024-03-20 | The Warriors need helo #nba The Warriors started the season 5-1 with Curry going off, but it quickly went downhill, a lowpoint being the Warriors losing to the Grizzlies without 4 of their starters and right now they are 10th in the West.They are trying to win a championship, not be stuck fighting for a play in spot, but they have been inconsisten**You might think that the Warriors core is old and you’d be right.** Curry is, Klay is, Dray is, but the Warriors have actually stockpiled multiple lottery picks during their short stint of being ass between 2019 and 2021. Jordan Poole at the end of the first round in 2019, they drafted Wiseman with the #2 overall pick in 2020, then Kuminga, Moody in 2021. Coming into the draft, Wiseman was hailed a physically dominant 7 foot center that could shoot.The Warriors would finally have a big man of the future and it seemed unfair. I mean the Warrriors have a great track record for developing talent with Curry, Klay, Draymond, even Gary Payton, Poole at the same time period.He eventually got traded to the Pistons in his 3rd season, the Warriors gave up. In their championship season, the front office wanted the Warriors to develop their young talent. Wiseman, Kuminga, Moody. Both Bob Myers and Steve Kerr have repeatedly said that they were genuinely surprised that they won last year, that they had a lot of doubtsAt least that’s what I said a year and a half ago. Now the Warriors have more promising young players like Brandin Podziemski, Traycon-Jackson Davis, but still haven’t decided.And if we look at Kuminga’s minutes for instance, he’ll play 19 minutes one night, then 28 the other, then back to not finishing games in the clutch.especially when he’s no longer the rookie that makes several boneheaded mistakes, he’s taken a leap especially defensively which we’ll get into in Piece 2.And Moody, he’ll still get DNPs this season.Kuminga even said “"Obviously, I'm still a little nervous because I'm still younger on the team where if you lose the ball sometimes, you might come out.” He doesn’t enough faith in his team and coaches to let him play through mistakes and why would he.Now usually the veterans have been the stable options but not this year and that’s piece #2, the Warriors are alienating their own future in a time where the veterans are struggling and not leading to results. And this young vs old dynamic has been emphasized more because of Wiggins. Wiggins statistically has been one of the worst players in the league in terms of impact. And by now you should know that Klay Thompson has been inconsistent, but if you don’t, here are some of Klay’s performances 3 points in a loss to Dallas, 1 of 11 from the field, 5 points against OKC, 1 of 10, bro what…several single digit performances along with 7 3 pointers and 30 points against the Bulls. In fact even looking at his overall stats, he’s shooting 38% from 3, worse than his return season from the Achilles tear, his lowest ever in his career. It’s not that Klay can’t go off, it’s that he’s inconsistent and while that sucks to see, it’s a new reality for the Warriors and what they have to deal with this season.And Klay’s defense is just not great…Klay and Wiggins on pick and rolls have been hard to watch this season.It’s why Kerr was forced to bench Klay after waiting more than half the season hoping the old Klay would come back, and while there isn’t anything wrong with that, you would hope that younger players would get the same treatment.It’s actually the younger players that have been providing consistency.Brandin Podziemski in his rookie year in just 27 minutes a a game is averaging 9.7 points on 38% from 3, with 5.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists while also creating his own shots. In fact he’s part of the Warriors best lineup. Give him more opportunities. His usage rate has declined a little bit while his minutes have skyrocketed, the next step is to trust him more, more than what Wiggins or Klay have been able to give you.Now Kerr has found a role for Kuminga to thrive alongside Wiggins in the new Warriors small ball lineup. Curry, Klay, Wiggins, Kuminga, Green and it’s been working. Defensively holding teams to 106.9 defensive rating in 569 minutes, which would be best in the NBA. These younger players aren’t feelings that same love and so what happens a few years down the road when these players want bigger opportunities?And that’s the third piece, the veterans need to step up. Steph Curry started out averaging over 30 points in a game, but had a midseason slump, especially without Draymond. But for the Warriors to have any shot, they need him to basically be an MVP and while that’s not out of the realm of possibility, it’s a tall task. Chris Paul has been a bit of a disaster, we all know that his curse usually happens in the playoffs but he improves the team in the regular season but not this time.
Victor Wembanyama Is In Trouble But So Is The NBA MJ2KALLDAY 2024-03-05 | Victor Wembanyama figured it out. But the Spurs haven’t, leading to one of their worst records of all time, their worst losing streak of all time and their opponents are starting to notice that something is wrong. #nba Just 25 games in, Wembayama went from 22% from 3 to 36% in his last 22. He just had a triple double with blocks, but even as he’s getting better, his usage isn’t hasn’t went up.In the 11 Spurs wins, Wemby’s usage is 34.1, but in losses, only 30.1. You might say he’s more efficient and that’s partly right, he’s taken a leap mid season like some players would in their 2nd or third season. And just to understand how crazy this all is, in the 27 years Gregg Poppovich has been coaching the Spurs, they’ve only had 4 losing seasons, which were their past 4 seasons. And their worst record was 22 and 60, drastically worse than anything their next worst season, 34 and 48. Everyone accused the Spurs of tanking to get Wemby and it worked. Right now, the Spurs Are 11 and 44, on pace to win less than 20 games this season. And that’s with Wemby, that’s with Vassell, Keldon, Jeremy all developing under the tutelage of Pop. But that’s exactly what’s their downfall and leading to Victor’s downfall.So, the Spurs were always known for being the best place for high draft picks to reach their ultimate potential… until now, I guess. But why is that? Which leads us into piece #2, even Greg Poppovich, one of the greatest coaches of all time can’t fix this, which implies that other teams won’t be able to fix this.See…It all started when the Spurs, or Pop, put Sochan in at start point guard back in November… but that plan quickly backfired. Not only was Sochan not built to run point…He even said straight-up… "It is the first time I have ever played point guard in my life." Pop is seeing something we aren’t because Sochan tried his hand at running this offense and bro what is this, it did NOTHING, well, maybe just one thing…And it’s not like the Spurs were winning off this, no, they had an 18 game losing streak. If the Pistons didn’t exist, we’d be talking about this Spurs team even more as a disappointment.But look… all of this is making us forget one thing and it’s something that isn’t being talked about enough.The Spurs can’t win without him. The Spurs have not won a single game when Wemby doesn’t play. 0-6. Wemby is fifth in the NBA in usage rate this season. Now, that isn’t just the highest among all rookies this season, no… that’s actually the HIGHEST for any rookie in league HISTORY! **So it’s not a matter of not passing him the ball. Rather, there’s extreme dysfunction. It almost seems like everyone is trying to do their own thing. Whether it’s players trying to get their own touches in the middle of this Wemby madness or Wemby trying to figure things out himself, the Spurs seems more disconnected than ever. Wemby does a whole lot in his 24 minute restriction that only a month ago got increased to 30. And it’s not leading to wins. Wembanyama is having amazing performances, a triple double, a 5 x 5 game, first player to average 5 x 5 over a 2 game span. We are literally seeing history being made.But because of that, every other player has had to take a step back for a rookie. As Jaylen and Jayson have both said, the younger plays wanted more.And so instead of team success, each player wanted to be the guy as much as possible. And they couldn’t take reduced roles when Kyrie and Hayward came back.So if we look as the usage of the Spurs players last year, Keldon Johnson at the age of 24 went from 27.8% to now 22.4. Jeremy Sochan at 20 years old went from 19.8 to 18.6, less than his rookie year. And Devin Vassell has remained relatively the same. Wembanyama’s arrival has stunted the opportunities of all the younger players the Spurs were developing. ****So regardless of speculation, that is a reality. Now how the players feel about it, that’s real speculation.And that specific story is something we’ve seen years for years, but it’s even worse right now and that’s piece #3. Players want attention, always have, but with social media, now more than ever, need attention because it changes the trajectory of a career. Think Ben Simmons after failing in the playoffs and deciding to sit out. Even though we had just saw that man was useless on the floor come playoff time and that. He had shown an unwillingness to address those mistakes, his value was so high that he got traded for James Harden. Certain players get more room to fail if they have enough hype.No one wants a reduced role, especially to a younger player. To most players, it has to be earned through all the practices and their play on the court.
What Went Wrong With The NBA All Star Game MJ2KALLDAY 2024-02-22 | The #nba all star game sucks and here’s why. Last year was called the worst all-star game of all time. The score was 184-175, Tatum set a new record for most points in an all star game, and everyone hated it, because there was no defense, no competition, not even in the 4th quarter. Oh it’s East vs West now. **There’s no way it happens** agai——It happened again. The East broke a record for most points in an all-star game moments after Larry Bird said all he wanted was the game to be competitive.**But it doesn’t have to be like this.** I remember a recent all-star game that was so competitive, players were taking charges.When Kobe passed away, the NBA decided to completely rehaul the All-Star game making each quarter mean something for each team’s charity, and then the last quarter being a score target of 24 points more than the leading team’s score. At the end of each of quarter, if the score was close, players were fighting for the last two minutes, trying to win each quarter. And in the 4th quarter, players were going all out.We saw players icing pick and rolls, taking charges, having to run pick and rolls to get a mismatch*.* It was physical.Which seems like problem solved right? Until you realize the worst all star game before 2023 was 2017 when AD set a new scoring record and these supposed rules were meant to solve the problem, but didn’t even last 3 years.This has been a cycle that keeps repeating and keeps getting worse. **And I’m tired of it, we already lost the dunk contest, now we losing this?** So I’m going to go through why this is happening, why certain All-Star games worked and how to fix it, starting with when the All Star game was truly the best players going at it, no gimmicks, just hoops and a desire to win. When they asked Anthony Davis about the high scoring in the All-Star game, he just replied, “It’s the All-Star game” …nah bro y’all just had 397 points in a game and more importantly that’s never what the All-Star game was only about. It was about the best players going at it, to see what they were capable of for just one quarter.What we all want is this. That is the 2013 All-Star game when Kobe took it upon himself to guard LeBron, not half ass the effort, no, full court.Or in 2012 when Wade broke Kobe’s nose and he had to wear a mask, but ok what about non Kobe related things. Look at 2001. The 4th quarter was always when players took it seriously until the West started winning everything and they said let’s make captains pick teams.The All-Star game ratings had dropped for 3 years straight capped off by 2017 when Anthony Davis broke the single all-star game scoring record getting open lobs like this in the 4th quarter so 2020 was a new reset. It’s competitive, **we finally will get at least one quarter of the best players competing hard** for a couple of yea—— Oh.The ratings for the 2023 All-Star Game had a record low viewership, 27% lower than 2022. **And this stems from players walking all over Adam Silver.** He believed that players would play defense, but no they did not. And it’s that failure in leadership over and over again that’s led us to this.It’s the same problem we’ve been seeing in the regular season, to the point that the NBA had to enforce rules forcing players to actually play games. Yeah I’m talking about the 65 game minimum to be considered for awards that Draymond has called stupid and other players complained about. And I get it, if you have legitimate injuries like Tyrese Haliburton that keep you out but you’re also playing at the best point guard in NBA level, it sucks. But we didn’t get here of the pretenses of real injuries, no we got here because players were sitting out. It’s possible that one player from the older era was keeping the all star game together. He wouldn’t let it become what we’re seeing today. We saw it in the olympics when Kobe was doing those early 4,6 Am workouts, LeBron, Wade, Melo, and the rest of the team would eventually follow. It’s possible that he was the last domino and when he retired, there was no one holding the players accountable because obviously Adam Silver hasn’t the way the previous commissioner David Stern did. **So how do we fix it? How do we make a meaningless game have meaning?**It starts from the top down. You need the top of the top players to buy in, but how do you do that? The best and most revered players in the league, like LeBron, KD, and Curry, need to set the tone. They need to bring that competitive fire and passion to the All-Star game, inspiring the younger generation to do the same. If these top players take the game seriously, the rest of the league will follow suit.
The NBA Is Ruining Your Favorite Player But Wont Admit It MJ2KALLDAY 2024-02-15 | The #NBA is ruining young players.Scoot was in conversations to even be the number one overall pick. Certain people believed he was more ready for the NBA than Wemby. Scoot was able to score over Wemby and ended up winning that game, Victor blew everyone’s minds so when Scoot fell to third in the draft, everyone was shocked and there was outrage.Scoot Henderson is averaging 12.2 points on 12.1 shots, shooting 36.4% from the field. I understand that the point guard position is the hardest to learn, but even giving leeway for a rookie figuring things out, a third overall pick is supposed to be pretty good right now, especially since he played in the g-league. And it’s not like he’s not getting opportunities. He’s playing 27 minutes per game with a x usage, in line with other rookies. The NBA is ruining young players before they even get to the league. ****The story is becoming all to familiar and it’s something the NBA wants you to forget so I’m going to go through the 3 key pieces in this absurd story and what you need to pay attention to, to never fall in this trap again.And that’s piece #1, the NBA made a new product that is failing, but won’t admit it. These are all the pros that were drafted out of the g-league.And even though it’s a really small sample size, all of them have been head scratchers. The G league ignite is a developmental team in the g league that’s sole purpose is to develop talent. They only play exhibition games against mainly other g league teams. These games don’t really have meaning. It’s not like they are fighting for a championship, it’s more like AAU, players are just trying to show off and make a name for themselves. AAU has already been damaging US basketball, by developing bad habits, not winning basketball ****and ignite in theory is a higher level of that.But instead of reevaluating what the results of this program, the NBA has doubled down, and that’s piece #2, the NBA trying to create hype even when it wasn’t there.Scoot was also a negative net rating in the G-league, but again, that was his first season in the g league so we sweep that under the rug.Scoot averaged 16.5 points on 42.5% from the field, 27% from 3. While all the mixtapes were showing some amazing finishes fighting through contact with really good body control, it wasn’t consistent. In fact in every scouting report, there was one consistency. All mentioned his ability to score against older players.And if we look at Scoot Henderson, it’s the same thing. But if you ever watch the g league, it’s a completely different game than the NBA. And perhaps an underrated missing component of the g league is the lack of environment. How many people are consistently watching the g league? How many sold out arenas are these players having to perform under? Not dealing with that pressure means when you get to the NBA, it’s a massive change and an important metric to know before getting into the league. Again, that’s not to say a player can’t adapt, but if you’re picking a lottery pick, you would want to know that the player can rise to the occasion and have some sample size of high pressure games with thousands of people watching. For all of you that disregard the bubble because there was no crowd, then you might also disregard the g-league. So in fact, the G-league ignite doesn’t mean you’re the most ready prospect, it means you’re possibly the least ready. It is actually hurting the development of these players.And that’s piece #3, the NBA has set up Scoot and other prospects from the G-League up for failure. The concern doesn’t end because what about the next year of talent coming. You have Matas Buzelis and Ron Holland who both projected to be in the lottery along with several other late first rounders from the g league ignite. And that is scary because I don’t know exactly what to believe. I have to dodge the NBA propaganda and hope that these players can succeed in spite of the g league ignite.So now when Henderson has been a bit awol, we didn’t hear that much. And I’m sure when Scoot does play well, hopefully, the NBA media will push him up. Because Scoot’s success is the NBA’s success. The ignite program was supposed to be an alternative route to college. Especially after starting see bigger name athletes go abroad to play with professional teams, the NBA wanted a piece of the action, hoping to attract more eyes on the NBA. The G-league has helped certain players get ready for the NBA, look at Khris Middleton, Pascal Siakam both who had to ball out in the G-league just to get a chance in the NBA. And that’s the difference, even with the greatest facilities, if you’re not playing competitive basketball, then you’re missing on a key component of what makes a player successful in the NBA. So let’s stop hurting talent and force the NBA to fix their program. ****Because I don’t know about you but I wanna see the game get better.
We Are Witnessing The End of The NBA As We Know It MJ2KALLDAY 2024-01-27 | The NBA is changing and not for the better. #NBAJJ is asking Derrick White why it’s so hard to get stops in the NBA.The NBA has the highest offensive ratings in NBA history, even adjusted to the fast pace right now. Last year the Kings had the highest offensive rating ever at 118.6 and this season, there are 4 teams with a higher offensive rating than that. Scoring is becoming too easy.140 point games are common place. Last week we literally had the most 150 point games in a single night. **It almost takes away the importance of each bucket**; We have multiple 30 point scorers. 10 years ago there were only 19 20+ point scorers. Now there are 40…3.Then JJ lists 6 recent rule changes that favor the defense and asks anyone to point out any rule changes that helped the offense.How about for 1, Freedom of Movement?…that’s just one, there are several but first why was JJ so angry?Perhaps the reason JJ was so passionate about this is because he believes that the players of today are better than the players of yesterday **and that’s true in an absolute sense.**The players of today are more skilled and more talented in huge part because they got to see what the players of yesterday brought to the game and then work on that for years longer. And there’s two reasons for that. Think about Allen Iverson’s crossover. His handle was completely new in the league in the late 90s and broke so many ankles. Younger players could practice that sort of handle and make that part of their games, but the NBA also relaxed its palming officiating. Was there a rule change? No, but as Isiah Thomas said, that would usually get called a carry until it wasn’t. The freedom of movement emphasis was brought on in 2020.The emphasis was to call fouls on any arm hooks preventing offensive and defensive players from moving. But also, and most importantly, not letting defenders impede the path and movement of off ball offensive players. Uhh, that makes it really difficult to play defense… The NBA was incentivizing moving off ball, specifically because now you couldn’t really get in their path, moving the game more to the Warriors style of basketball. Defenses had to adjust to no longer being able to be physical with players without the ball, relying more on team defense. And the crazy thing is, this wasn’t the only time the NBA did this, but the entire league changed in 2018. LaMarcus Alridge said it changed the game. And he was right because the league average jumped up by 5 points a game from 106.3 to 111.2. That is the second biggest change in a single season in NBA history. But why?It allowed smaller, less physically imposing players, like Curry to go wherever they wanted and if you touched them, it would be a foul. Someone show me that that was changed since 2018? No? That’s right. Heck a year later Curry said "It gives perimeter guys a lot more freedom, "A lot more opportunity for creativity and obviously challenge defense in terms of schemes and how you approach that end of the floor” And don’t forget what Luka said. It’s easier to score in the NBA than in the Euroleague and the talent is supposedly in the NBA right? Not if you handicap them defensively.Less fouls, working more for buckets.And that’s piece #3, the average NBA fan is getting desensitized to scoring and threes. Offensive records being broken now don’t mean as much nor capture as much attention even though ESPN will try to stuff it down our throats. **NBA saw viewership go down and thinks offense is the answer.** We’ve always heard that people want to watch good offense, watch the ball go through the hoop, but right now it’s a bit the opposite. The value of a bucket is low, some one averaging 20 points no longer means they are one of the best scorers even though broadcasters are still treating 20 points like it was 15 years ago. I don’t think more talent ever gets less exciting. But I think the way the game is officiated and what the NBA chooses to focus on can make the game less exciting. If everyone is able to make threes, it makes it less spectacular. If every team is running 5 out, it makes it normal. If everyone was a 6’ 8” 250 pound beast that can run as fast as a guard, than LeBron wouldn’t be special in the NBA, he would be average and that’s the point I’m making. If you make rules that allow players to do previously one of one talents, then that’s not talent, that’s the NBA making things happen. And if it’s manufactured and not authentic, then it feels off, the thing you can’t put you finger on and that’s what’s happening now.
I Have Never Seen A Star Fail Repeatedly Like This MJ2KALLDAY 2024-01-09 | Kevin Durant has failed like no other star has. #nbaWestbrook, Harden, Curry, Klay, Kyrie, Harden, Booker. Instead of moving the ball around, Durant takes it from Curry and takes a pull-up three to win the game. No ball movement, and no Warriors action.Kevin Durant started his career winning 4 scoring titles in his first 6 seasons and after becoming the villain by joining the Warriors, **I have never seen a player that talented repeatedly fail like this.**Durant got swept by the Celtics while shooting 39% and getting locked up… had on and several off games against the Nuggets. Why am I mentioning these two series? Because Durant was supposed to be a leader and that’s what he wanted, but that’s also Piece #1. KD has failed to be a true leader.And since that moment, he’s gotten pretty much everything he’s wanted. His own franchise in the Nets that listened to anything he wanted. A trade right after he signed a 4 year extension to the team he wanted. But let’s look at the Nets for just a second. But more drama, Harden would be unhappy with the direction the Nets were going and having to play more minutes, KD was frustrated with Steve Nash who literally said the only way the Nets could win was have Durant play more and Kyrie was still out cause of the vaccine. They were still first in the conference, but started falling when KD got hurt. KD couldn’t necessarily keep the team together, but honestly, I don’t know if any player would, Harden demands a trade, the Nets get Ben Simmons Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, Kyrie comes back and the Nets now built in a way that Durant and Kyrie wanted were now in the playoffs. Healthy, decent role players, ready to take on whatever challeng—-Oh so his team didn’t work. KD’s style of basketball wasn’t winning basketball? Yet, still, KD still called out his critics last season, saying: “I’m not a leader? What the f–k does that mean? A lot of people say I’m not a leader because I didn’t tell Kyrie to get vaccinated... or I didn’t condemn Kyrie for leaving the team, going out, and living his life.”No, KD...Goran Dragic really had enough with the BS.We aren’t questioning your leadership because of what you told or didn’t tell Kyrie –- we’re questioning your leadership because in 2022, KD would request a trade from the Nets for the first time.But every really great player has to prove they can win a championship as the main guy. Kobe had to win without Shaq, LeBron had to be the main guy in Miami not Wade, but Durant left Curry to prove he could, but hasn’t. And that’s piece #2. Durant wanted to win AND be the top dog. For Durant, those two goals need to be fulfilled simultaneously, but which stars left championship situations to go off on their own and then failed? Maybe a young Tracy McGrady wanting to leave Vince Carter’s shadow? But even then they weren’t winning championships. Shaq left the Lakers but then won in Miami. He might not really get that respect that Giannis or Kawhi would for leading a team to a championship. His trade requests were to either the Suns or Heat, two teams who had recently made the finals and more importantly, had established cultures. Durant was done with trying to make his own. But with both the Nets and the Suns and even the Warriors, we’ve seen problem. **Durant can be the man on the team, but only if he isn’t allowed to play his playstyle.** And that’s piece #3, Durant needs to change what he thinks is winning basketball.KD’s style works as a closer, works when the team is struggling and needs something, but can’t be the backbone of a great team. Look at Kobe, who had to learn to trust his teammates, get them involved, and pick and choose his moments to take over. But if he never got those teammates involved, then they don’t give more effort defensively, they stagnate and are out of rhythm when you need them to hit big open shots.Durant is unhappy with the supporting cast right? But that has been a theme everywhere he’s been that wasn’t the Warriors. He feels the need to do it himself and also gets upset at his teammates for not being as good as he wants. Part of that comes with being traded to an organization since they need to trade their assets to get you. Which leads to hero ball, an offense that relies on KD to create and make several tough shots as the bare minimum to stay in games and not a layer of offense to turn to and then you get horrible shooting nights. And the cycle repeats.
LeBron At Point Guard Is A Movie MJ2KALLDAY 2023-12-31 | LeBron at Point Guard is a movie. #nba #lebron Yes, LeBron at point guard. Now only if AD was the 4 and they had a legit big man at the 5, **but hey I’ll take what I can get.** They faced off against a pretty hot OKC thunder team*,* **the best team in the NBA, and the best record in the West** and it was a throwback movie that might change the NBA again. The logic is extremely simple. LeBron is ball dominant, a great playmaker, and the pick and roll with AD is lethal. If you can have a bigger guard, you go for it. If you can have bigger size, you go for it During the 2020 Lakers championship run, **actually half of you discount the bubble run right?** Let’s look at the regular season for a second. Before the pandemic, the Lakers were 1st in the Western conference, LeBron was averaging over 10 assists a game, and he was an MVP candidate. All which is miles better of anything the Lakers have produced since then. And for the half that consider the bubble as legitimate, LeBron as point guard won us a championship. And sure, the Lakers ran different lineups based on matchups but the top 3 lineups all included LeBron as a point guard and gave several options.And in this new lineup, Prince, Cam, or Vanderbuilt can take on that role. The main issue here is shootingWhen LeBron was point guard in 2020, the Lakers were 23rd in 3 pointers made, but were #1 in field goal percentage. They chose to dominate inside while still having capable shooters spacing the floor.In 2020, LeBron averaged 7 pick and rolls as the ball handler per game. This season, he’s only averaging 4.1 and sure you can say he’s an old man that needs a cane and rest on the court, but I think LeBron would rather have these type of possessions than iso physical bumps, especially when LeBron is still 16th in the league in player usage. In the first 3 minutes of the game against the Thunder, he already ran 3 pick and rolls, all with good looks, even if the team didn’t always convertAnd against the Thunder, he ran 7 pick and rolls creating a lot of open looks, even if the team didn’t always convert. The looks were easy to generate, letting LeBron probe at his own pace in space. Can we stop saying LeBron at his age is so good every two minutes? Yes he’s the best 38 year old we’ve seen. **I don’t need to be reminded of that every time he makes a play.** He’s also still a top 20 player in the league that the Lakers are relying on and treating him in that regard means using him to the best of his ability. Is he an elder citizen in the NBA, yeah but he ain’t playing like one **so I’ma run with it.** LeBron finished the game with a season high 40 points and the Lakers got the dub, ending the 4 game losing streak. Anthony Davis can also thrive more as the roller. LeBron averaged over 3 assists a game to AD in 2020, the most assists to any of LeBron’s teammates in his career. And look, this success didn’t last too long because the Lakers lost to the Celtics who are probably the best team in the NBA right now. LeBron had 16 points 8 assists on 5 of 14 from the field partly because Jrue Holiday was strong enough to hold his own against Bron.
The Only Defender To Stop Kobe, Curry, and Durant MJ2KALLDAY 2023-12-17 | The Only #nba defender to stop Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, and Durant.Tony Allen was a monster. He was so confident in his defense that he said in 2015 “I’m First Team T.A.” No, not First Team All-NBA… First Team All T.A.! He named the defense team after his own initials because he’s great enough to have it NAMED after him! But while the players rave about Tony Allen**,** the NBA, and fans seem to have forgotten about one of the best perimeter defenders of all time that probably gave your favorite player trouble. He only averaged 8.1 points, and air-balled open shotsKobe multiple times said that Tony Allen was by far his toughest defender and for a guy who rarely gave props to any defender, this meant so much more. Kobe even said that "He’s never heard Tony ask for help”And’s that Piece 1… Tony Allen was one of the NBA’s most FEARED on-ball defenders because his mindset was scary.In his early NBA days with the Boston Celtics, Allen averaged his highest points output in his third season than in any other season of his career.In the first half, Boston's defensive plan was to throw multiple bodies at Kobe… but he shot over 60 percent in the first half as the Lakers went into the half with a small lead. But in the second half, Celtics coach Doc Rivers decided to make Tony Allen the full-time defender on Kobe. In 2008, Allen only averaged 4.3 minutes in the playoffs so this was a big leap before Allen made an All-Defensive Team, the accolades… the whole nine. But he had that tenacity and aggression you can't teach… so he bothered Kobe a TON! In the second half, Kobe shot just 5-of-14…Because in 2013, the Grizz and OKC played again… and again, Allen was a PESK defensively limiting KD to 11 combined turnovers and a combined 15-of-48 from the floor over the last two games of the series! And even then it wasn’t over because they would play another time when KD would be even better. Allen had a plan for each player, why he kept going first-team All-Defense in 2012 and 2013. KD was the MVP, won another scoring title… did things offensively we hadn't seen since Michael Jordan… KD was just entering his prime.How many 6'4” guys in the history of the NBA would be routinely willing to go toe-to-toe, mano-e-MANO with the world best's shot-maker and it works? Patrick Beverley got cooked.During this series, KD was held to just 36 percent shooting when guarded by Tony Allen. See how he DENIES even the entry pass from getting to KD, how he's all-up in him and exerting pressure on KD without fouling him. The instincts were second to none (0:50). It's why KD couldn't help but admit the ugly truth… Tony Allen was in his HEAD! No seriously, Durant admitted it. “I’m worrying about a guy coming from behind trying to block the shot”Years down the line when KD was asked about his battles with Allen… KD said what we all knew to be TRUEBut a true test of Allen’s versatility came on the perimeter when the NBA allowed more freedom of movement, less hands, and saw the greatest shooter in NBA history in his prime.In 2015, the Golden State Warriors were the NBA’s latest Cinderella story: high-energy, quick-fire offense featuring the two greatest shooters in tandem the NBA had ever seen. But after their unexpected 67-win season came a rather unexpected challenge…They had to go head-to-head with a gritty, hard-nosed basketball team in the Memphis Grizzlies, a team who the Warriors respected, unlike the current Grizzlies who they hate (*funny edit)*Steph through the first three games averaged just 21 points on 39 percent shooting. Klay, on the other hand, averaged only 17 with 12 combined turnovers. Tony was on the perimeter causing a lot of havoc and the Splash brothers shot 3 of 17 from 3 in game 2. And it didn’t come from dirty defense, trying to injury someone, no, Allen was primarily guarding Klay Thompson and still denying Curry. Throughout the series, the Warriors players when guarded by Tony Allen during the series were 0-of-7! He had Steph's number… and Klay was 0-of-5 with Allen on him too!At this point, the Warriors didn’t have an answer for this brute-style defense. They needed to somehow mitigate Tony Allen… so, guess what they did? Instead of worrying about his defense — which they knew they could do NOTHING about — the Warriors flipped the script. Because he wasn’t much of a shooter, the Warriors put Andrew Bogut on him and basically implemented a strategy where they’d only worry about four guys, not five. And it worked because Allen was offensively ass.At this point…There was no one in denial of this man’s greatness on defense. Everyone acknowledged he was the BEST, even at nearly 35 years old… putting him in rare company…
Why NBA Stars Cant Beat This Rookie MJ2KALLDAY 2023-12-04 | Ausar Thompson is breaking the #nba There’s only 5 players in NBA history to record over 40 rebounds and 10 blocks in their first 10 games, 4 centers who would win MVP and Ausar Thompson, a 6’ 7” shooting guardAusar Thompson is breaking basketball, ****plain and simple**.** Ausar was the 5th pick of this year’s draft. Last year, he was in the overtime league where we were unsure about how he would stand up to NBA competition. His twin brother Amen was thought to be the better brother and while Ausar was hyped, he was almost overshadowed, but what makes him so different already is piece #1, he’s embarrassing some of the best NBA players 15 games in.Defense is usually one of those things you have to learn when you come to the NBA. Players can tell you their welcome to the league moment which is usually getting embarrassed by an NBA star dropping buckets on them. In the history of the league, there are only 36 NBA rookies to make the all-defense team, none in the 2000s.So when we see a guard not only having highlights blocking Joel Embiid as help defense, but also being matched up with stars every night and annoying them, we need to take a closer look.Here, he’s guarding Zach Lavine, and here and here and here, Zach couldn’t do anything and needed an illegal screen.And Zach isn’t the only offensive player Ausar has pressed. Now every good defender would want to press stars, it takes them out of their rhythm, it forces them to spend more energy, so why don’t they? Because what ends up also happening is you get beat, stars draw fouls because you use your hands and not your feet.So how can he keep pressing them? You guessed it. He’s that quick. Ausar is a freak of nature, something like we’ve never seen allowing him to do special things which we’ll get into piece #2, but even when he’s wrong on which way the player is going, he’s able to recover. He already understands where the ball will be, when the player is gathering.These instincts for chasing down the ball happens with every part of his game. He’s the only rookie averaging a double double and yes he leads guards in rebounding already. And not just rebounds, he’s almost averaging as many blocks as Wembyanama. But the crazy thing is, he’s actually making several rookie mistakes, ball watching, losing track of his man, getting lost on team’s offensive schemes. Like the time he blocks Jimmy Butler, he actually lost complete track him, but was so quick that he made up for it. But before we get to his biggest strength physically, the rest of his game breaking build let him do things that complete the package.Amen, his twin brother, has a reported vertical of 44 inches, what? Ausar supposedly has a 38 inch vertical, but looking at these clips, he’s floating. No seriously, he’s actually floating. I don’t buy the 38 inch vertical, especially when he’s able to hang in the air and finish like this. but also I watched him running against Tyrese Maxey, who is one of the fastest players in the league today. Tyrese consistently is embarrassing defenders with his speed and then there’s Auasar Thompson, running at the same pace easily to the point that Tyrese just gives up on chasing, but ok Tyrese might not just wanna spend energy on defense. What about on offense? Tyrese Maxey gets some space with a screen, steps back. Ausar catches up and blocks him. And even here, Ausar is recovering from collapsing, closes out, then immediately changes direction to stay with Maxey on the drive. While his length helps, his speed is what makes all of those parts of his game look like he’s a cheat code.But all this leads us to piece #3, Ausar is doing things we’ve never seen. Like I said, he’s the only player on this list that’s not a big man.And he’s the only guard that’s close to averaging double digit rebounds. While he might be listed as a forward, Ausar has always played point guard and is a ball handler that’s being forced to play minutes at the 3 because the Pistons already have so many guards. And there’s only been 3 guards since the beginning of the league that averaged over 10 rebounds a game and Ausar might be the 4th. There’s never been a guard that averages 2 blocks a game, in fact, the highest amount was Michael Jordan in 1988 with 1.6. Ausar is at 1.8 right now.
The Most Disappointing Team In The NBA MJ2KALLDAY 2023-11-29 | The Clippers are the most disappointing team in the #NBA.✅ Download Mojo Fantasy now and use promo code MJ2K for 100% Deposit Match up to $100! mojofantasy.onelink.me/PptL/MJ2KFor the past 10 years, the Clippers have had some of the best players in the NBA. And for the past 10 years, they have been a part of some of the biggest disappointments in NBA history, but it was all preventable because they keep making the same mistake over and over again. The Clippers are the most disappointing team, **but how did we get here?** I’m going to talk about how they can save their season and entire franchise.When you think of the NBA’s most EXCITING teams of the 2010s… which teams do you think of?In 2015, the Clippers were awarded with 32 national TV games… the MOST in the NBA. Not LeBron's team; not KD's team; not Steph's team… but the CLIPPERS were the most exciting the league had to offer at this point! And that’s piece one: the Clippers had BIG expectations… but even BIGGER letdowns.They also had the BEST offensive rating in the NBA and even the NINTH best defense… putting them among only four teams to have a top-10 ranking on both sides of the ball! **The hype was real**… there were INSANE highlights every week…The Clippers for three years in a ROW after that, smack-dab in the middle of a crowded 2010s era, were top-five in preseason championship odds. Chris Paul averaged double-digits in assists three years in a row, Blake Griffin was the NBA’s most FEARED high-flier next to LeBron James… as BOTH guys finished in the top TEN in MVP voting in 2015.They even beat the NBA champion Spurs in 7 games of the first round that year.Griffin sprains his ankle in the 2013 playoffs, Donald Sterling, their owner, said to not bring black people to the games in 2014, Chris Paul hurts his hamstring in 2015, broke his finger in 2016, Griffin breaks his toe in 2017.The Clippers curse was in full effect. But the reasons for Lob City failing to reach their huge potential ran deeper than just injuries.When they were at their best from 2014 to 2016, the Clippers FAILED to even make it to the Conference Finals… including two first-round exits… and that absolutely forgetful series in 2015 when the Clippers stopped Harden and Dwight Howard… but couldn’t stop Corey Brewer and Josh Smith, and blew a 3-1 lead with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin…the Clippers that’s gonna come back to bite. The Clippers’ team chemistry got WORSE as the disappointing playoff exits piled up. That quote I mentioned earlier about cooperation was actually from head coach Doc Rivers! The quote on their pettiness was from sharpshooter JJ Redick…When the Clippers gave up that massive haul to bring in Paul George and pair him with top free agent signing Kawhi Leonard… they didn’t think they’d STILL be without a title nearly FIVE years later…Especially considering that they gave up SGA, Danillo Gallinari, and FIVE first round picks!Their first season together felt like their best shot… until 3-1 happened again. They were up in every single close out game against the Nuggets and lost every single one, losing 4-3, and you get pandemic P.2021 looked even more promising… until Kawhi’s ACL went! But again, five years and only ONE Conference Finals appearance is a major disappointment…Actually, in their first 4 years together they’ve played 142 games together, less than half of the total possible games and part of that was intentional.Though Kawhi and PG13 are still trying to do what Lob City couldn’t… They exposed one of the glaring downfalls of the Clippers organization… Piece #2, giving players too much power.Even though their highly questionable relationship was well documented in the media… and even though it often boiled to the surface, the Clippers never tried solving the issues between their two superstars as they should have.And if there’s ONE thing from this entire piece that I can take to summarize the story of Clippers that season… It's this quote from an anonymous Clippers staff member, who said “I thought from the beginning, ‘We’re doomed. Kawhi wants too much special treatment.”Not only that, but players on the team took issue with Kawhi purposely arriving late for team flights; Paul George also was involved in canceling team practices; and the BIGGEST of ‘em all… Teammates felt that Kawhi and PG were able to pick and choose when they played, which rubbed guys the wrong way.Which leaves them where they are today: either they’ll go and win it all with all this elite-but-aging talent…Or they’ll be left with NO other option but to completely blow it up. They traded everything they had left to get Harden and have no one left under contract next year, this is the all or nothing play.**They’re going to need to come to a solution for the long run**… and that’s by implementing a culture that unites the players and management, and developing their own talent through the draft.
Steph Curry Is Angry But No One Cares MJ2KALLDAY 2023-11-12 | When Steph Curry gets angry, he humiliates his opponents. #NBA✅ Download Mojo Fantasy now and use promo code MJ2K for 100% Deposit Match up to $100! mojofantasy.onelink.me/PptL/MJ2KYeah Curry cooked him twice, but why did he have such a strong reaction? Because it was against Dillon Brooks. You see that face, that’s the face of a psycho. And that’s what Curry is, a skilled psycho that when he gets angry, well, he humiliates his opponents Dillon Brooks was on the Grizzlies, the new age rivals of the Warriors, and would physically try to injure Steph.And throughout their battles, there were moments of tension like when Dillon Brooks blocked Curry.So when he hit this 3, there was a lot of emotion.Here’s the 7 times Steph got angry and humiliated his opponents. With just under 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Clippers were trailing the Warriors by 10 points. But that’s when the energy of this game would slowly begin to change when Steph drove down the lane and hit a layup through contact… and you can clearly see, the man wanted a foul call. And then shortly after that…The Warriors stole the ball on the other end and Steph came bull-in-China-shop downhill… when it clearly looked like the man got hammered to the head… but to the surprise of everyone, no foul was called. But if you look at it again, there was a ton of contact on that play. And that’s exactly when Steph lost his cool… man was heated… squaring up with the ref as he got held back and picked up a tech. But it didn’t stop there.When Steph received the inbound pass, the Warriors were called for an offensive foul, and Steph was just done.Heck, even the Warriors' announcers predicted what might unfold next: "Steph is like, man, they're trying to hold me down… they're going to make Steph even more furious. He's going to go berserk here in a little while.You could begin to sense the Staples Center growing a little paranoid… like they knew what was going to happen next.A few minutes later, Steph ripped one from 25 feet like… if you’re not going to give me the calls, fine, I’ll just shoot ‘em from HERE! From the logo with it. Two possessions later, he came back down, shook his defender… and NAILED another three, pushing the Warriors’ lead to a comfortable 15…But the drama didn't end there…Already up, Steph wanted to slam the door SHUT on the Clippers… and the even the refs!On the very next Warriors possession, Steph dribbled past half-court and got hit with a double-team. He drove aggressively towards the left baseline, and hit one of those “I told you so” contested stepbacks with TWO guys in his face! And then gave the refs a tech…Yeah, the Warriors roster sucked, Klay was hurt, and lost to Dame and the Trail Blazers. So literally one day before their next matchup, Dame who’s been the only star on his team for a while basically said, yeah makes sense why he’s struggling, he can’t do all that when the defense focuses only on him…And the NBA world wasn’t really giving Curry much either. And so the Warriors would face Dame and the Trail Blazers one day after those comments. AndCurry couldn’t be stopped, hitting 3, powering through one man, 2 man, stepback middies, and oh yeah, hitting deep 3s like Dame said he couldn’t.Curry scored a new career high 62 points and 8 threes! So much for not being able to carry a team. That season, Curry would lead the league in scoring that season. That game was a turning point and after that game he said**Steph takes a lot of things personally, he might not show it even when some players directly trash talk him.**Well Kevin Porter Jr makes this layup over Steph, then shrugs his shoulders, basically calling Steph lightweight. And with just a few minutes left in the 3rd quarter, Kevin Porter Jr. got called for a foul while trying to guard Steph and began staring him down. He also started chirping and Steph didn’t say anything back right then and there … but you already knew he was aware. 40 seconds later and Curry locks him down, forces the turnover, then pulls up for 3, that was Steph had 16 points in the game up until that point. He got the crowd going after he hit this DEEP step back with 5:40 left in the fourth.... KPJ strolled up the court with Steph guarding him, nailed a three right in his face cutting the lead to 4… and he was hyped. He let Steph know, too: he was wilin.But it’s a 4 point game, shoulda kept that one in the vault because what happened next was pretty, just not for KPJ.A three-ball right in KPJ’s FACE.… and a lot more buckets in the 4th. Like this, and this, including 19 more points in the fourth. It didn’t matter from where like what.After KPJ DARED Steph, he scored 26 POINTS from that moment on… in only 16 MINUTES. He ended the game with 40 points. Porter Jr tried and failed.
James Harden Is Ruining Teams But The NBA Ignored It MJ2KALLDAY 2023-11-04 | James Harden keeps fooling the #nba I guess James Harden is not done** in the NBA because the Clippers traded a package alright. Yes Harden is on the Clippers, another year, another Harden trade request involving either a fat suit, sitting out, and saying the organization ain’t it The Clippers traded Marcus Morris, Covington, Batum, KJ Martin, two first round picks, 2 second round picks, and a pick swap for Harden, PJ Tucker, and Filip Petrusev. **That trade package is for a star**, but in 2023, are we ignoring what we have seen? What we just saw a few months ago? At least Harden and Westbrook are back together, ahh the good times …**oh shiii**Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice can’t put the blame on you. Fool me three times, f the peace sign. And that’s what we’re seeing here. **But I’m not going to sit here and tell you that this** Clipper squad isn’t perhaps one of the greatest squads I’ve ever seen. Harden, while not a super star, is still a good playmaker that draws defenses. You have Kawhi who can single handedly carry team as we saw in last year’s playoffs before he got hurt, the guy that steps up in the playoffs. The only concern is Westbrook and Harden sharing that ball handler role since you already have Kawhi and PG so who will step back even more? **Not Harden apparently.** We’ll get into the on-court fit, but they need to be on the court.Now the NBA rules targeted at load management might make the Clippers stars play more, which would solve their chemistry issues, and if they can stay healthy, it’s scary hours, but that’s a big if. **But the thing that somehow every team conveniently ignores is that Harden has done this 3 times now.** I’m not going to get mad at his preference because that’s what he might want. His own team with no pressure, all the strip clubs possible, and playing basketball. But he switched tunes and started saying the Clippers and the Clippers are a team that is championship or bust and for the past 4 seasons they have been bust. There’s pressure to perform here. And this isn’t going to be Harden’s team. A few months, a few rule changes, and a few injuries later and now Harden has problems with Kyrie. He became frustrated with quote the “Nets maintenance staff and their focus on rest and recovery.” His logic, he’d run and lift after games in Houston, not get hurt, but on the Nets they were overcautious. *(si.com/nba/nets/news/james-harden-reveals-true-reason-for-nets-trade go to the part of the article that mentions recovery)*It’s Embiid’s team, he’s the MVP candidate, the guy who’s been on the 76ers his whole career, not James Harden. In fact that’s what Harden wanted. He was frustrated of having to be that guy on the Nets when Kyrie was out Now he’s saying the he’s not a system player, he’s the system? **Make up your mind man.** It’s always someone else’s fault. **He doesn’t want to be the guy nor does he want to be part of a system. It’s a lose lose.**And as I showed, uhhhh, he’s not worth a max extension. So Harden opted into his player option for this year under the belief that he would get traded. And when that didn’t happen, he just stopped showing up to practice. Even though that’s his literal job until he would get traded, he just said nah bruh, I’m out.And now he got what he wanted for the 6th time in a row. So now he’s on the Clippers. But if you look at a clear pattern, Harden has become unhappy with nearly every situation, but that’s not the worst part.It’s the damage left on a franchise. The Nets traded their young core of Jarrett Allen, Caris Lavert, 3 first round picks, 4 first round pick swaps, mortgaged their future for Harden. The Sixers ended up getting rid of Ben Simmons who also chose to sit out games, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and 2 first round picks. **But what none of these franchises will ever get back is time.** For the Sixers, it’s wasting Joel Embiid’s prime, although Joel has his own issues, Harden didn’t help. So knowing all this, I can’t believe that we’re dealing with another Harden situation, but that being said, the Clippers are the best team in the NBA…on paper. Look at the depth chart, you have multiple 15 point per game scorers coming off the bench, multiple all-stars in the starting lineup. But on paper doesn’t always translate.
When You Realize A Player Is Special MJ2KALLDAY 2023-10-26 | When a NBA player realizes another player is special, it’s a rare moment #nba Streaming- @MJPLAYSALLDAY At one point, they were one of the best in their class, best players in the nation look at the Kevon looney mixtapes you would think he's Kevin Durant.**But in the NBA, 95% of players are that kind of special** and so the extraordinary becomes ordinary. Players get used seeing 360s poster dunks, 30 footers, but every once in a while you get this.And other times, certain players do something that just seems impossible for even NBA players. That’s what happened to Thomas and that’s way #1, be a freak of nature, but it’s also one of the hardest to prove.Contrary to his teammates beliefs, he would start and immediately started going off. LeBron steals the pass, soars and dunks it. But even then, his teammates are calm, this bench reaction is weak *.* He steals the ball the next possession and as we gear up for some crazy bounce, he turns around and passes it to Ricky Davis. Instead of going to throw down another dunk, he passed it at 18 years old. And maybe that didn’t mean much, but it meant everything to his teammate.A couple plays later, LeBron drives and glides in the air, switching shots mid air around the defender. And freeze right here, look at Davis, all excited, and gives up a strong high five.The Pistons were the best defensive team in the NBA, at least that’s what Rip Hamilton thought, saying “"We thought we were the best defensive team in the NBA," "I can remember when we played against LeBron James his rookie year, me and Tayshaun [Prince] said to ourselves, 'When LeBron James figures it out, we're going to be in trouble.'”It’s game 5 and the Pistons believed one guy can’t stop em, as soon as LeBron got into the paint, he was seeing 2-3 bodies, on the perimeter he was getting bumped, fighting through contact.He was a tank, the ball in his hands every possession and it wasn’t enough, the Cavs were down by 7 with 3 minutes left. And well LeBron just decided nah. And 1, dunk after dunk, fastbreak, 3, getting fouled, he got the Cavs to overtime and kept taking hits like this and this but kept driving the hoop, fighting through contact and hitting jumpshots. The Pistons were doing everything and it didn’t matter. The game went into double overtime and LeBron just kept going. When it was all said and done, LeBron scored 25 straight points for the Cavs and the game winner.The Pistons, the most physical team in the league, couldn’t stop the freak of nature with unlimited stamina.The second way players can think your special is attitude. Kevin Garnett is maybe one of the craziest, most intense players in NBA history. Just look at his eyes. And that’s what makes Garnett’s moment of realizing another player being special even before he got to the league, that much more real. And I’ma let him explain.Kobe was the exception. He had KG psyched out and that’s just unheard of. You heard the stories of Kobe shadow practicing during games, **he was odd to everyone else but that was his norm to operate at a level none of us had.** And just like that even Mike knew he was special beyond just the court.**But while these reactions are of bewilderment,** there are players who never react to their opponent at all, except when someone is special and that’s the third way, step up to the challenge.In a 2014 preseason game, Kobe is guarding Curry 94 feet, like a psycho Kobe would. It was the third possession in a row and Curry is gassed, but a 6’ 3” 190 pound Curry nudges a 6’ 6” 212 pound Kobe and pulls up right from that spot. The 30 footer goes in and Kobe starts laughing, and taps him from behind, an extremely rare sign of respect and awe for another player’s craft.And that season, Curry would become an MVP for the first time. Game recognize game.But it wasn’t the only time Kobe’s approval meant greatness. One year earlier, this was Kobe’s reaction to another opponent’s performance. It’s April 10, 2013, Kobe is trying to drag the Lakers into the playoffs. Coming into the game, he was averaging 27.3 points, 7.9 assists in 43 minutes a game in the last 8. You do not mess with this Kobe and against the Trail Blazers, he’s hitting shot after shot after tough shot. But the Blazers had a promising rookie Damian Lillard. And Lillard was going toe to toe with Kobe, hitting ridiculous one legged midranges, multiple threes, heck Kobe couldn’t stop him himself and was getting frustrated. It was a duel, Dame ended the game 38 points and 9 assists, but Kobe played every second of the game ending with 47 points and the win. When the game ended, Kobe went over to Dame, acknowledging just how good his performance wasAnd Dame would become one of the coldest players in the league, hitting some of the most iconic game winners in NBA history. So yeah he wasn’t afraid.
Why Tyreke Evans Is Banned From The NBA MJ2KALLDAY 2023-10-16 | Tyreke Evans was one of the best NBA rookies ever, but got banned #nbaIf I told you that there was once a 6’ 7” rookie point guard that was as good as LeBron’s rookie year, better than Steph Curry, would you believe me? And what if told you that same rookie would eventually get banned.Tyreke Evans was on track to be a star. He was in conversations with Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Oscar Robertson. But the league would abandon him. **Why? I’m going to go through the** 3 pieces that led to the rise and fall of one of the best rookies of all time and how he got banned from the NBA, especially a team sabotaging him on purpose in piece 2.He averaged 20 points, 5.8 assists, and 5.3 rebounds in his ROOKIE season? And if plain numbers don't tell the entire story… how about this? Those numbers were only achieved by THREE other players in the then 64-year history of the NBA. Only MJ, LeBron, and Oscar Robertson. he'd go on to drop a triple-double in a game a month later against the Raptors, going 19, 10, and 10 all this without a jumpshot because Tyreke was shooting 25% from 3, absolutely horrendous.Everything was on the comeup for Tyreke… just not for the team, not exactly, because the team when from 17 wins to just 25 wins with a Rookie Tyreke, and at the same time, they continued drafting really early in the draft in the following years, namely the addition of another attention-grabbing player like DeMarcus Cousins just one year later…Well, that's what Piece 2 is all about… because due to several factors — mainly disfunction and lack of development — Tyreke Evans couldn't capitalize off his incredible rookie season. With their top pick in the 2010 Draft, the Sacramento Kings appeared to have made the correct decision for all the right reasons…See…During the 2010-11 season, Tyreke hit a number of setbacks beginning with injuries, well, and a suspension to open the season because of a reckless driving incident over the summer. But early in the season, Tyreke was diagnosed with a plantar fasciitis that either greatly limited his playing time or kept him out of some games altogether. But for the the first half of the season, Tyreke averaged 18.3 points and 5.5 assists on 41% from the field, averaging 37.8 minutes per game!Just when it began looking like he was on a surge… he reaggravated his foot injury in February and was forced to miss nearly two monthsSo… the DeMarcus-Tyreke experiment that was supposed to takeoff that year would have to wait another year… and **the Kings had shiny new object syndrome**, in a continual state of distraction thinking something new is worth pursuing. The Kings still, well, sucked… and it's why they kept landing top pick after top pick, and those picks just so happened to be guys who played Tyreke's position like top prospect Jimmer Fredette, **they literally were drafting guards constantly and taking away his minutes at the point.** One last chance on the 22 win Memphis Grizzlies. They signed Tyreke to a one-year 'prove-it' style contract, and gave him a chance to be the point guard, the first time in 5 years and man did he prove it averaging a team-high 19 points per game on nearly 40 percent from 3..and Tyreke was playing so well that he was hurting their odds of getting a higher draft pick so they looked to trade him instead mid way into the season and benched him until they did. But then he'd join the Pacers…where once again, he didn’t play point guard. His PER was the lowest ever, he just never found his way through the offense. He was definitely on the move… but not to another team… he was OUT of the NBA.The final piece, Tyreke was banned by the NBA for a violation of the league’s anti-drug policy and the NBA left him to dry. Tyreke served his ban and was reinstated by the league quietly in 2021, a year early. And no one noticed when he made a return one year later. That’s right, 32 year old Tyreke came back to the G-League but there were barely any headlines. More of a hush hush sort of thing, but Tyreke didn’t disappoint in his first Bucks G-League game, scoring 16 points, 6 assists but only shooting 37% from the field. In his second game, he played only 3 minutes, and in his third, oh he didn’t have a third game because that was it. The Wisconsin Herd waived him. The Wisconsin Herd—-And just like that, everyone forgot about Tyreke, once a hyped up player, didn’t get a shot at redemption. But why?
Why Team USA Basketball Will Keep Getting Worse MJ2KALLDAY 2023-10-04 | Team USA basketball will keep getting worse. #nba In 2012, Team USA with one of the best rosters assembled beat Nigeria by 83 points. In 2021, Team USA played Nigeria again and lost. And just two weeks ago, they didn’t even get a medal in FIBA 2023. Who was on the roster…oh. Before 2021, USA basketball had only 5 losses..in 85 years. 3 of those losses happened in 2004, the worst performance in USA basketball history. So when Team USA loses in basketball it’s a big deal. If we take a look at the roster this year, not a single player had ever been part of a world cup or Olympics before and only had 3 all-stars in total. Anthony Edwards was our best individual player and that’s part of piece #1 players are more concerned with resting than representing the country.We went from this to this.Yet this time, it wasn’t due to injuries that some of the best players said no. Rather, the offseason is for rest and that’s fair, especially if you had a deep playoff run. But we’re in the age of load management. Players are already sitting out NBA games, voluntary extra games seems far fetched. In 2019, LeBron, Curry, Kawhi, Harden, everyone said no for the World Cup. There was only one All-NBA player on the roster.Kevin Durant, Paul George, Lillard, Bam, everyone said no this year. Leading to players with no All-NBA players on the roster this year. So the roster was filled with several first time international players.It all changed one day during the 2006 FIBA World Cup in Japan when Coach Mike Krzyzewski was coaching Team USA for the very first time… and it didn't go NEARLY as expected… well at least for the players, namely guys like LeBron and Dwight Howard. You see… during an exhibition game versus Lithuania, Coach K absolutely obliterated Dwight Howard for dosing off on defense and how he was defending the pick-and-roll… and Dwight Howard — a bonefied star and probably the best center in the NBA at the time — didn't LIKE IT! In 2007 Team USA would have a scrimmage with their full roster, a duel between LeBron and Kobe in which Kobe hit a game winner, a whole year early. The main players were set, not some random last minute team.But, no… it didn't end there… because Coach K took Kobe aside one day when they were watching film on there games… and said to the best player in the world “Those were some bull—t shots.” He directly questioned Kobe's shot selection… But to Kobe's credit… he responded with a simple, “OK, I gotcha, coach.”And then came 2008… a new era, new time… what we famously remember at the Redeem Team! It had been two years now since Coach K was introduced, the stage was set, and the players were locked in…Coach K appointed Kobe and LeBron as the leaders of the team. Kobe made it his mission to one up him in competitiveness… diving on the floor in practice, intense defense, and it set the tone for the rest of the guys on the rosterAs the USA went on to go a perfect 8-and-0 in the tournament and bring gold back to the territory it belongs… the team didn't just go on to become the notorious 'Redeem Team' — the United States took stake as number one with a winning identity and a championship culture. 2016 might've been Coach K's last year on the Olympic stage… but he didn't go out without helping deliver a third straight gold medal…No LeBron, no Kobe, no D-Wade, no CP3… no PROBLEM!Team USA has since struggled with the X's and O's, and with the foundational aspect of the game…Olympic competition has grown massive, international talent has evolved RAPIDLY… to the point that the chemistry and attitude Coach K instilled is now more crucial than ever and needed to win games, something that’s missing.Those were the words of the late Kobe Bryant going back to 2019 when Team USA strung together some L's in the FIBA games. And that’s piece #3 competition is much more difficult now, the game is more international.Team USA was outscored 16-2 over the closing minutes of the ballgame while France looked like a well-oiled machine on both ends with all their players in cahoots with the gameplan! Team USA, though they had far better talent… scored just 11 points in the third quarter… proving that talent can only take you so far.If we backtrack to 2008… there were just 17 NBA players that played internationally, but not for Team USA. In 2016, that number grew so much that now just TWO of the 12 competing teams in the Rio Olympics didn't have at least one NBA player on their roster…So what’s the solution?Finding a coach who is able to handle several personalities while still being respected and listened is tough, but one coach comes to mind and that’s Erik Spoelstra who has made literally any squad whether it’s filled with stars or filled with undrafted players get to the finals. So Team USA, get it done.
Why JR Smith Is Banned From The NBA MJ2KALLDAY 2023-09-25 | Is JR Smith banned from the NBA?As a five-star recruit out of high school going directly to the NBA, J.R. Smith flashed every bit of his huge talent in the NBA in one way or another… he BROKE the three-point record for MULTIPLE franchises, and was ultimately a key scoring option on the team that won arguably the most historic NBA championship EVER!But you might also stumble across his on-court antics, I mean hennything is possible. J.R. Smith has been out of the NBA for a long while**… and though he tried his hardest to make a comeback. In his own words, he became blacklisted and BANNED from the NBA, even admitting himself that the NBA 100 percent gave up on him.But is JR banned and why? I’m going to outline what exactly happened.And that’s Stage #1, JR Smith was really exciting to watch… but also really problematic. JR went straight from high school to the NBA. The hype was real, so much potential that you'd think he be mentioned in the same breath as Kobe and D-Wade at the time.During his rookie season, J.R. won Western Conference Rookie of The Month for three consecutive months, from January to March, and his notable performances included a 27-point game against the formidable Dallas Mavericks and a 33-point explosion featuring six three-pointers against a top-five defensive-rated Grizzlies team.But while J.R. had his issues early on… he was still a lights-out shooter and a player with elite scoring in bunches, someone like that was hard to come by in the NBA, especially in the early 2010s… It made J.R. a viable target in free agency… Chris Paul was pushing him to come to L.A… Melo was telling him to come to the Big Apple… J.R. was still a hot commodity And that’s Piece 2… J.R. Smith was wanted by teams out there.J.R. was hooping out in China during the NBA lockout in 2011 as he waited for his next opportunity to come calling… while there were a few suitors out there… J.R. chose New York and was about to become one of the best players at his role in the NBA. While JR wasn’t too happy with coming off the bench at the start of the season… his positive relationship with new head coach Mike Woodson convinced him that maybe he’d be BEST suited playing with the second unit. J.R. was playing the MOST minutes per game than he had at any other point in his career… and at the same time, he was taking the MOST shots than he did at ANY other point in his career. But it still wasn’t the end for J.R… especially when the best player in basketball wanted you on his team. The Cavaliers did not want to trade for J.R. but LeBron told Cleveland “Get him here and I'll take care of it.”J.R. Smith finally got what he wanted all along: to be a STARTER! In fact, J.R. as a bench player with the Knicks before that same season’s deadline had a 23 percent usage rate and took nearly 65 percent of his shots from inside the three-point line. But in the 46 games he played with the Cavs after being traded, he now only had the ball 17 percent of the time and was taking a LUDICROUS 67 percent of his shots from THREE! He was a glorified spot-up shooter.**And then we come to 2018… possibly the biggest blunder in NBA history.****But what really happened to J.R. Smith after this series** and why does it feel like he straight up disappeared after the Hennessy took overJ.R. played 11 games before he decided that he wasn’t going to play until he was traded… and it ended up costing him the rest of the season because nothing manifested.Which us to the third and final Piece…The NBA officially gave up on J.R Smith for good. But J.R. publicly called out the team for tanking now that LeBron was gone and the Cavs reportedly tried absolutely any and EVERY thing they could to find a trade partner for J.R… but to no avail as they couldn’t trade him before the 2019 trade deadline during the season nor in the summer when trades were happening across the NBA In 2022, J.R. went on a podcast and didn’t hold back at all when he was asked why he never played in the NBA again after 2020. They asked if he was blackballed and if the NBA did him dirty… he said Yeah… “100 percent.” He even threw himself in the same boat as guys like Carmelo Anthony, Isaiah Thomas, and Joe Johnson as other guys who weren’t given a fair shot to prove themselves again in the NBA. But what is the why?** Was it really like JR Smith said?JR wasn’t banned, but the NBA wasn’t going to him any favors either. It’s 2023… and everyone’s seemed to forget entirely about J.R. the basketball player…He still hasn’t signed the official former electric guard who was Kobe-esque in his ability to heat up from anywhere, and the same guy that broke franchise three-point records for a living… But in other news… at least he’s at a good place right now with his family and his career in college golf at North Carolina A&T. Oh, and a 4.0 college GPA is a dead-solid DUB, too. **So, keep it up J.R.**
Why OJ Mayo Is Banned From The NBA MJ2KALLDAY 2023-08-27 | OJ Mayo got banned from the NBA after challenging Michael Jordan, but why #NBAHe was being called the next LeBron in high school, averaged over 18 points in his rookie year, and seven years later, got the longest ban in NBA history. OJ Mayo was on track to be a star, he challenged Michael Jordan, so what happened?OJ Mayo was basketball’s next big thing...OJ Mayo was doing things folks rarely witnessed before... and by the time his junior season came around, he was already the third-ranked high school player in the entire country at just 15 years old.And that was Piece #1 OJ Mayo was supposed to be an NBA star.This was it: an NBA scout even said of a sophomore Mayo that "It's hard to say a guard is a can't-miss prospect, but he's as close to that as you can get” ...Everything was looking up for Mayo... even getting an exclusive invitation to the famous “Flight School” basketball camp... a camp only open to college freshmen, but Mayo was already talented enough as an 11th grader to get an invite...OJ was the youngest one there but was trash-talking everyone. It was Michael Jordan’s camp and according to OJ. But… what did exactly happen? OJ Mayo made it his mission to score on MJ... he didn’t back down, he got a few buckets, and the campers all began sounding off, cheering on Mayo and as the more he scored, the more trash he spit at Mike... But before we get there, there was no way MJ was going to lay back and let Mayo continue running his mouth... so what did Mike do? MJ was hell-bent to shut Mayo up in classic MJ fashion, hitting fadeaway after fadeaway, jarring, hand-checking, getting physical on defensive... all while saying “You better scream for Mama.”And even causing him some trouble along the trail. Because when OJ Mayo would enter college in just the following year, he’d get involved in a recruiting scandal and violated NCAA rules in his one and only year at the school. But with how big OJ Mayo had become, no one was willing to talk or hear about anything other than how generationally-gifted he really was, even in his one-and-done year at USC, and he was one of the best freshmen ever. Derrick Rose went first in the draft, Mayo went third and well OJ’s rookie season was special. He scored 210 points in his first TEN NBA games… which became the third-highest mark in NBA history behind only Shaq and AI. Kobe called OJ the “total package”But for any pro athlete under the heat of the spotlight… there are two sides to the equation: performing on the court and staying between the lines off of it… and that’s piece #2 OJ was his own worst enemy. Because after a standout rookie season and looking like he was on the fast rise to superstardom… OJ Mayo averaged 17.5 points per game, yeah, still good but less than 18.2 in his rookie year… In January of 2011, the league suspended Mayo for ten games after he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs…. which he later blamed on an energy drink, nonetheless, it was an offense that caused him to forfeit $405,109 of his salary for the season but it turns out…He was already losing out on money because just EARLIER that very same month… OJ Mayo got into a pretty serious fight with Tony Allen, the heart and soul of the team, but not about basketball and maybe even worse than the Draymond Green punch. The Dallas Mavericks got him for a nice little bargain at just four million dollars in 2012. And that’s when it got worse, out of nowhere, the NBA officially dismissed and disqualified OJ Mayo for violating the league’s anti-drug program… and banned Mayo from the NBA for two whole years. That was the first time something like that happened in the NBA in over a decade and the longest ban in the history of their sport. That was Piece #3, OJ Mayo got banned but the NBA was taking unprecedented measures. There was only one other time that the NBA gave such a long ban, that was to Chris Anderson in 2006 who got permanently banned for a banned substance, but would eventually get reinstated and be back in the league 2 years later, and became an NBA champion, Birdman out here.But if OJ Mayo was busted for the same thing and clearly still had the game to play at a decent clip in the NBA… why was he never seen again… and what really happened to him after that?After being sent off by the NBA, OJ didn’t give up so quickly to eventually make his NBA return. In 2017, he said that he had his eyes fully set on an NBA return. He wanted the Bucks to give him another chance, saying that they did everything for him and that he feels that he owes them bigtime for that, hoping he’d get that one last chance at redemption But unfortunately for Mayo, as he waited for the two years to pass by… the more everyone seemed to forget about him entirely. To the point that when his ban was over in 2018, no one called.
Ben Simmons Is Fooling The NBA Again, im sorry MJ2KALLDAY 2023-08-16 | Ben Simmons is fooling the NBA again. #NBAIn 2016, Ben Simmons was the first pick in the NBA draft. In 2018, he won Rookie of the Year and was electric in the playoffs. In 2019, he became an All-Star but choked in the playoffs. In 2020, he was selected to his first All-NBA Team but got worse and still wouldn’t shoot jump shots, but it’s ok right because In 2021, he still wouldn’t shoot, passing up open dunks. And in 2022, he chose to sit courtside instead of playing on the court and in the games he played, he averaged 7 points a game, and wasn’t even a starter. It’s 2023 and we’re still talking about Ben Simmons. Apparently he’s back and well everyone wants to talk about itBen Simmons is fooling the NBA again, I’m going to prove the 3 reasons how** and why we need to stop talking about Ben Simmons starting with the endless hype and cycle.Media has propped up Ben to new heights even when his play wasn’t. Looking at Google trends, Ben has remained extremely relevant even when he doesn’t play.The same as 2018, Ben Simmons was coming off winning ROTY the season before, so seeing his workout video had us hyped… until he was exposed during the playoffs by Jared Dudley and the Brooklyn Nets with missing posters outside the arena. In 2019, there was another video of Ben going off in a pickup game, even hitting long step back three-pointers … but his play during the season showed us the same player again unwilling to shoot, even against the worst teams in the NBA like the Suns. Low stakes, no pressure… but he still had a six-point game… and then two more single-digit games, all in the first month of the season. These were just the first signs of Ben Simmons having extreme doubts about himself now that more people were starting to tune in and watch him play.In 2020… we watched more Ben Simmons offseason highlights… but then he was afraid to shoot a layup over six-foot Trae Young during the playoffs In 2021, Ben knew we get fooled by these videos… so was at it again fresh off the worst series of his career, looking like he was determined for the best season of his life… then he decided to sit out, quit on the team, and injured his back out of nowhere when Philly sent him to Brooklyn… In 2022, Ben wanted to show us that he was now fully healthy now in his yearly offseason shooting video… but proceeded to average seven points, not willing to shoot wideopen layups and got shut down during the season with another strange injury… The Nets fell for nostalgia and other teams are too. Ben Simmons was once a nightly triple-double threat who averaged 16, 8, and 8 but his scoring has steadily went down every year after his second season. But it’s not just scoring. He became a liability on the court. He was part of one of the worst lineups in the NBA last season, we weren’t even out of the month of OCTOBER yet and Simmons already had the sixth WORST plus-minus in all of the NBA, his defensive rating was the 18th worst… and was so zoned out mentally that he fouled out TWO times in Brooklyn’s first three games of the season.In fact, if we just take a look at all players in the NBA, Ben Simmons is a below average player.And this might have been ok if Ben was at the end of the bench making 5 mil a year but no the man makes 35 million for crying out loud, a max contract. I mean man hit the MJ shrug to the Philly crowd after hitting 2 free throws in 1st quarter. That might tell you where we at.Simmons began dealing with a knee injury and was hit with consecutive DNPs... amid chaos already happening in Brooklyn with the team already souring on Ben Simmons’ horrible play to start the season.Because after Ben signed a max contract and had an entire playoff series where he wouldn’t shoot in the 4th quarter, he stopped reporting to the 76ers and after a whole bunch of fines, pissing off Embiid and his teammates, got traded. And so after 16 months of not playing and eventually succeeding in forcing a trade, Simmons would now be somewhere in Brooklyn where he would now supposedly be happy… it was something both he and the Nets were looking forward to.Remember… Ben Simmons strongly believed that it was the way his teammates and coaches treated him and handled the situation after the Hawks series that made him want out…So, there was no excuse for Simmons to shy away in Brooklyn… he had everything set up perfectly for him.Ben’s trade value is now zero, but that should have happened a while back. The 76ers and even the Nets sacrificed a lot for Ben, took their entire franchises off track, but the solution is simple yet almost never done.What the NBA needs to do is learn to separate hype with current play. So let’s stop talking about Ben Simmons. ****It’s time to move on, I don’t want to make another video on him unless he’s playing out of his mind.
The One Night Kobe Wouldnt Shoot MJ2KALLDAY 2023-07-29 | Kobe Bryant decided to not shoot in an NBA Playoff Game 7, but why? #nba “Kobe sucks, Kobe sucks” In a Game 7, Kobe isn’t even in frame?…**And this wasn’t the only time.** Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest scorers ever, He has made and missed the most shots ever, he told Shaq , heck he even took this…so how do we get here? You see Kobe was getting called #2, a guy who couldn’t win without the most dominant player in NBA history, Shaq. Sure Kobe was a star, he was a 3 time champion, averaged 30 points in the playoffs during a time where teams would score 80 points in a game, that’s so low but since Shaq left, the Lakers had done nothing. In the prime of Kobe’s career, they missed the playoffs in 2005, the first time in a decade, and well, the perception wasn’t so great. Allen Iverson said “There ain’t no No. 34 around here no more.”but here is Step #1, proving he could carry the Lakers by himself.You add Kobe who promised the Lakers would make the playoffs and came in averaging 35.6 points a game including a legendary 81 points in a game and maybe you have a chance. Nothing could stop Kobe hell bent on dragging this team to the playoffs and he did it. The Lakers were the #7 seed set to face the #2 seed Suns and the media seemed to be back on Kobe’s side.The Suns caught on and by Game 5, decided to double Kobe less and leave it to Raja Bell who couldn’t guard Kobe and clotheslined him…The Suns were frustrated no doubt, but they won Game 5 and kept the same strategy into Game 6, but here’s where it took a turn. Kobe was hitting shot after shot after shot. I lost track of how many midranges he was shooting over the Suns defenders just to keep the Lakers in the game and then this clutch 3, and layup to put the lakers up by 3, but the Suns hit a 3 to go to OT and despite 50 points from Kobe shooting 57% from the field, 63% from 3, the Lakers lose, the series is tied 3-3.The Suns get off to a good start and Kobe is just making impossible shots. Fadeaway, 3s, you name it. The crowd starts chanting Kobe sucks and he just takes it in. He dropped 23 points in the first half, but the Lakers were down …ok so it’s time for Kobe to turn up even more right? Well…Kobe comes out passing into the post and backing up.Heck he’s watching Smush Parker try to hit a fadeaway?Phil Jackson wanted to change that in the second half of Game 7, wanting to run things through other guys. The idea was to get everyone else involved to have them be in it more defensively and hopefully string a few defensive stops. The way the Lakers offense was set up didn’t mean Kobe would get an assist. It was designed to swing the ball to the open man once Kobe got doubled. Kobe just had to make a read on who would have the next quickest pass to the open man. This would get everyone involved. But this? No this looks intentionally low effort. Kobe would only end up taking 3 shots in the second half and watch as the Suns won Game 7 and the series. And everyone started to roast Kobe. It was getting called The Night Kobe Quit On The LakersAnd behind the scenes, he cursed out Charles Barkley for 3 hours…**But what if I told you that this could all be part of master plan set by Kobe to get him to the finals?** Kobe changed his number from 8 to 24 in the offseason saying he wanted to move on to something different.It was clear to the Lakers front office that Kobe was unhappy with this team. And by the end of the next season on May 30, 2007, Kobe requested a trade.And it wasn’t a bluff. Kobe was tired of an aimless rebuild with no hope and was looking at homes in Chicago during the offseason. What made the threat more real was the possibility that Kobe’s Game 7 performance could have all been to prove a point that his team is horrible, that they couldn’t just rely on Kobe to keep the Lakers franchise relevant. Kobe reported to training camp, but sat out practices in October 2007. It was becoming all real and the Lakers were scrambling. In February 2008, they would make a trade that would change the future of the NBA. The Lakers acquired Pau Gasol to pair with Kobe and immediately made the finals. Despite any quitter allegations, he continued to put his legacy on the line and thrive. Winning his first chip without Shaq, Game 7 of the NBA Finals against Boston, and perhaps the most important, his ability to inspire a never quit attitude in chasing your dreams, your goals, to work for what you want and not care of what anyone else has to say in your pursuit of greatness which is why most people forget about the night Kobe didn’t shoot. **Miss you Kobe.**
Why Jeremy Lin Is Banned From The NBA MJ2KALLDAY 2023-07-22 | Jeremy Lin got banned from the NBA but why? #NBALinsanity was born, the most talked about celebrity in sports. But now Lin is out of the NBA playing in Taiwan because even though he wants to play in the NBA, he has been black listed, banned. After winning the chip with Toronto in 2019, Lin said he feels the “NBA has kind of given up on me,” What really happened to Jeremy Lin?Lin was chosen California's player of the year in 2006 when he led his Palo Alto High School team to a state championship... but he didn’t get any athletic scholarship. Lin said, "Well, the obvious thing in my mind is that I was Asian American which, you know, is a whole different issue but I think that was a barrier." And at Harvard University, he heard more racist slurs than in the NBA, one being “Hey! Can you even see the scoreboard with those eyes?” but the NBA would be worse for different reasons.Lin didn’t get drafted but that didn’t stop him from overcoming his first obstacle, getting into the NBA. In 2010, he got on the Mavericks summer league and gave number 1 pick John Wall the work, 11 4th quarter points. Lin was a crowd favorite. And Lin ran with it. Ultimately signed with the Warriors, but even with this excitement, Lin wouldn’t really get much of a chance. 29 games, 9.8 minutes a game behind a young Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis. He was more playing in the NBA D-league and then got waived. He signed with the Rockets, but got waived again before the next season started. The Knicks gave him a shot in 2011, but again, more garbage time minutes, no responsibility. That was problem #2, no one had faith in Lin. In his own words, “That was going to be it for me. My agent had actually called me before the game and said, ‘If you don’t play well, tonight will probably be your last game in the NBA.’ …On January 28, 2012, the Knicks would lose, fail to reach 90 points for the 5th time in 7 games. Lin played 20 minutes, scoring 9 points and 6 assists and maybe that was enough because coach Mike D’Antoni looked for a spark and on February 4th, he would go to Lin off the bench in the first quarter, and by the second, Lin was balling out. He ended the game with 25 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds in a win. The next game, he dropped 28 points and 8 assists in another win. Dunking on the Wizards, playing on par with John Wall, and another win. The Knicks would play the Lakers, and well Lin comes out firing, jumper after jumper, including the spin layup and Kobe was cooking Shumpert, you know the iconic. While Kobe was going off in the 4th quarter, Lin was right there with him and the crowd was going crazy. I remember watching this live and just losing my mind as my two favorite teams just going at it. Kobe ended the game with 34 points 10 boards, Lin with 38 points, 7 assists, and the win. Kobe knew who Lin was after this game and would eventually become teammates but we’ll get there. Lin still had an iconic game winner 2 games later against Toronto, the Knicks won 6 in a row. But when Carmelo came back from injury was when the same problems resurfaced. Lin was a restricted free agent but the Knicks owner James Dolan said they would match up any offer up to a billion dollars. In fact, Lin wanted to stay with the Knicks but they never even offered him a contract. Two years later, the Rockets would trade Lin in a salary dump to the Lakers. Lin got his opportunity to play alongside Kobe. He then played a season for the Hornets in which he got solid minutes. ************************It was enough to sign a 3 year $36 million deal with the Nets, and it was exciting. But next season, Lin would rupture his patella tendon and be out for the season. Now it’s been four years since Lin was seen in an NBA uniform... but why? But all this is caused by Problem #3, racism which is related to the dark secret I’m about to walk you through because to Lin, it caused his rock bottom.You might think that with Lin’s injury history, maybe there’s some sort of justification, especially with hamstring issues and knee tears, but he played 74 games in last recent season. So, he got signed to the Warriors' G-League team for the 2020 season and proved once again that he could hoop at the next level, averaging 19.8 points, 3.2 rebounds and 6.4 assists with the Santa Cruz Warriors, ****literally one of the best players in the G-League.We’ve heard xenophobic comments throughout the past couple years. Statements that Giannis could never be the face of the league because no one can pronounce his name, calling Jokic a tub of lard. The NBA has an obsession for home grown athletes.So while Linsanity was perhaps one of the best basketball stories in this century, Jeremy Lin became another heartbreaking story. In 2021, Lin said his chase back to the NBA was officially over and said "When I add all of that up, I would say race has a role to play in that, I just don't know how big. But, you know, my gut is that race definitely has a role to play.”
The NBA Is Going To Fail, im sorry MJ2KALLDAY 2023-07-15 | The NBA is going to fail, im sorry #nba Yup, the NBA has a problem, Michael Jordan was right, and it’s the NBA’s fault, because if this doesn’t change…the league is doomed even with this new in season tournament, but I’m going to outline the problem and how the league has to fix it DeMar and PG are heated, because the rules have changed. Because of new contracts and agreements, a lot of money is almost being handed out, a player now has to be intrinsically motivated soly by being the best and winning.t’s why Zion can sit, not be so involved with his teammates, and be unaffected because he got a bag. Heck Ja already got his big contract and then got caught AGAIN showing a gun on IG live, and then he claimed it was... a toy? Huh? Zion Williamson has been exposed for engaging in multiple relationships that were transactional. Now these aren’t some players at the end of the bench, no, the NBA has spent hundreds of millions of dollars betting that these guys are the future of the league and their consequences were some twitter beef and an 8 game suspension, then 25 game suspension for a repeated offense? Damian Lillard’s agent is calling teams to specifically warn them against trading for Dame other than the Heat. Dame, the one guy that stood for loyalty, that threw shade over the years on other players teaming up, told Paul George to keep switching teams…you boys is chumps” And he requested a trade specifically to the Heat, one year after signing an extension. But he’s not the first star to do that. And that’s issue #1: Contracts are meaningless. KD asked for a trade and wanted to ditch Brooklyn before his contract expired… and Kyrie was seemingly ready to bounce, too. But what KD did was, in a way, completely and UTTERLY unprecedented.And maybe if it was just Kevin Durant, alright people let’s do this one last time, his name is Ben Simmons, another star who demanded a trade And we could go down a list, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, Paul George all mainly starting with LeBron James and the decision in 2010. Contracts don’t mean anything for the upper tier stars either who can force their way out. The last straw was Dame. That mindset trickles down to the rest of the league, but not in the way you might think. We all hear lead by example right? Well that’s what leadership is doing. What are other more average players doing? Now I don’t want to agree with Gilbert Arenas just because he’s Arenas, but several players have confirmed with Patrick Beverley is saying and that’s issue #2, passion might just be at an all time low. That doesn’t mean skill is because a player can be really good without necessarily being passionate about the game, but what’s lost in all that is a competitive edge, where the priority is winning. The same goes with the new in season tournament. The big new thing the NBA is going to promote to counter the dipping ratings. As I’ve shown in the past, this era viewership is much lower than several other eras. But again, what’s the incentive for players to play? A prize pool? Here’s why that’s sort of stupid.Which leads to issue #3: punishment and is related to a solution talked about later, but we need to understand how the league fell into this mess in the first place. ****Remember when NBA players went into the stands to throw hands with fans? David Stern was the same commissioner who suspended Ron Artest for the remainder of the 2004-05 season -- which ended up being 86 games – including 13 playoff games for his role in the infamous Malice at The Palace. He was strict on issues that affected how marketable the NBA was. When Melo was running with some shady people in Baltimore back in 2006, David Stern told him that he was making an example out of him, and said “Do you want to be in the streets, or do you want to be in the NBA? You’re f-—g with a corporation now”. So he cracked down hard on things like dress codes, player behavior on the court, and the infamous Melo "Stop Snitching" video. So the solution is sort of simple and the NBA has set it up perfectly with the new voting but the NBA missed it by not including it in the new CBA agreement. Force players to honor their contracts. If they sign any max extension, they can’t demand a trade for the first 2 years or they lose 50% of their contract. Stop giving every one a max contract. I understand that we have All-NBA selections to increase contract amounts, but reserve that right for the players who make 1st team All-NBA and because now voting is positionless and requires 65 games, playing more is incentivized with contractual increases. And most importantly, have the commissioner step in so we don’t get a Zion-Ja situation. Have actual punishments, not tip toeing around the truth, because tiptoing around is what’s gotten us in this mess.
