Deep Bench Chronicles

Stories the box score never told.
Longform writing on forgotten careers, and the margins of basketball history.
Research-driven stories and original visuals.

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

I’ve spent a long time working on this.

New story: Utah Jazz 1997–98: The Other Side of The Last Dance (Part 1):
https://t.co/tN3C6BeF9H
Locker-room tensions, injuries, strange incidents, and the turbulent road to the 1998 NBA Finals.

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

@exesasx77 I had to look up what "manure" meant in English. Pretty good nickname, I’ll give you that!

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

I love the innocence and spontaneity of rookies. Hope he keeps it, because he’s still got some world-class whiners and floppers left to face this season. SGA and company are waiting.

[Anthony Slater @anthonyVslater]

Yaxel Lendeborg said he “lost all respect” for Luka Doncic after facing him tonight because he said Doncic was “complaining the entire game.”

On his interaction with Doncic: “I told him he sucks. He can’t score on me.”

Full soundbite

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

@BBallNowandThen Bud Spencer & Terence Hill

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

@SquirtRambis @NBAHistory @ATLHawks @Hoophall Cousy c'est une ronce ça doit être la génétique alsaco-bourguignonne

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

RIP Cliff Hagan, who has passed away at 94.
1958 NBA champion
5× NBA All-Star
2× All-NBA Second Team
1968 ABA All-Star
1951 NCAA champion at Kentucky
Basketball Hall of Fame, 1978
One of the great forwards of his era

[Soul Power & the ABA @abathrowbacks]

Other ABA collabs we’d love to see.

PART 1…

The Oakland Oaks and the Golden St Warriors

The Oaks were the first west coast team to win a major pro sports championship in 1969. They featured Rick Barry, Doug Moe, Larry Brown, Warren Jabali and other ABA stars!

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

Sports journalism has been dumbed down into rankings, tiers and engagement bait, and then everyone acts shocked when all the nuance disappears.
You reap what you sow.

[Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS]

I'm getting more and more frustrated with bad faith aggregation.

I didn't rank the worst coaches in the NBA. There was no list of the 10 worst coaches. That's a straight up lie. I ranked all 30 NBA coaches 1-30. Inevitably the guys with less experience fall closer to the bottom.

I've seen a handful of these Sleeper accounts get mad about where I ranked some of these younger coaches, but like, I can't justify ranking Tiago Splitter above guys who have lengthy, successful track records off of a single season. That doesn't mean I think he's one of the worst coaches in the NBA. It means it's hard to evaluate most coaches off of a single season. For the record, I find myself pretty intrigued with Iisalo. He has a really unconventional approach that I suspect will work better with a younger roster than it did with Ja and Jaren.

I write the same thing in the introduction to this story every year: there are way, WAY more good coaches than bad ones, and most of the job is invisible and impossible to fairly evaluate anyway. If there's such a thing as a "worst" coach conversation, it usually consists of like two or three guys who tend to get replaced pretty quickly. But nuance and aggregation don't mix, so here we are.

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

@NBAFRANCE Bob Cousy

[Vincent Reculeau “Baby T.E.R.” @WonderfulOhYeah]

🚨C’est le grand jour🚨
La sortie du livre-jeu «Avez-Vous la Culture NBA ?» 🏀
10 chapitres, 10 thèmes pour se tester et apprendre en s’amusant.
Légendes, superstars, maillots, mascottes, records et surnoms sont au rendez-vous.
Un cadeau fun et économique pour tout fan de NBA !

[Adam Ryan: Documenting NBA History (1946–1998) @bballrecordpod]

Here’s my evergreen podcast chat with Paul “Big Mo” Mokeski about his life in basketball. We met @mokeski_paul and his lovely wife in Las Vegas in 2020 - one of the highlights of our trip to the USA that year.

🎧 https://t.co/qF1KG1N8fd

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

@PeteUtterback1 @bballrecordpod Exactly! I actually mention that group in the article. The odds of a high school player eventually reaching the pros are tiny, around 0.03%, which makes that 1975 Southern California group even more ridiculous in hindsight.

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

New story: Paul Mokeski, the role player’s role player.

https://t.co/EeEAXbJLhD

12 NBA seasons. 763 games. Nine playoff runs. Backup to Moses Malone, Bob Lanier, Dave Cowens, and Jack Sikma.

A 7-footer who built his career on screens, toughness, and trust.

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

@WonderfulOhYeah Farpaitement !

[Andy Bailey @AndrewDBailey]

Very interesting that The Ringer's writers write on Substack and not... The Ringer.

[Yvan Montgury, The Gravedigger @YvanMontgury]

Connie Hawkins was an athlete so far ahead of his time

📽️ : @Converse

[Deep Bench Chronicles @DeepBenchNBA]

The best NBA podcast out there for me. Adam prepares his interviews like nobody else. An endless source of great stuff.

[Adam Ryan: Documenting NBA History (1946–1998) @bballrecordpod]

1/ Fourteen years ago this week, I released the first episode of what is now Basketball Record podcast (guest @34billy42).

What began as a passion project has remained exactly that - a place to dig into the basketball history I love and share stories that deserve more attention.

[Denver Nuggets @nuggets]

Jok is ALREADY doin' this kind of stuff...

[Utah Jazz History @utahjazzhistory]

Shaq is still angry he lost to Stockton twice in the playoffs and got schooled by Greg Ostertag lmao

[Eurohoops @Eurohoopsnet]

Nikola Jokic:

“I wish every NBA player would go play six months in Europe just to see how much pressure there is…

You play Wednesday against Olympiacos in Greece, then you’re playing at home against Red Star or Partizan.

If you have three losses in a row, it’s a big deal”

[Adam Ryan: Documenting NBA History (1946–1998) @bballrecordpod]

Deep in the archives for upcoming Basketball Record podcast episodes. Working on:

- Don Nelson tribute
- Lakers @ The Forum (1967)
- Mack Calvin (1970 ABA playoffs feature)
- Dr. J’s Nets debut @ MSG (1973)
- Brian Taylor (2× ABA Champ)

Also editing my chat with @KevinCalabro.