James daSilva

I recap the @TheOnion from 20 years ago @Onion20yrslater. Was @sbleaders.
Header: My grandparents in 1954.

[James daSilva @James_daSilva]

Well, this is the last @SBLeaders for me. Only 2,600 or so of these. What a fun and fulfilling job this has been.
https://t.co/Ehlepytf3C

[James daSilva @James_daSilva]

Great job as usual by @katiebakes, this time on the Knicks parade https://t.co/WE9MHQMqT8

[The Onion: 20 Years Later @Onion20yrslater]

Writing this newsletter about The Onion has helped me discover so many good jokes, include these jokes about historical figures to the 21st century:

Jules Verne: https://t.co/W800YBGGMI

Samuel Morse: https://t.co/dDInCbntgJ

[The Onion: 20 Years Later @Onion20yrslater]

20 years ago, The Onion said the U.S. was abused by Britain.

Plus, jokes about Toby Keith, health clubs, blooper reels, disciplining your children, doctors, unions and more https://t.co/fSeU5BA0RM #theonion #satire

[Tommy Beer @TommyBeer]

What's wild is that Brunson did all this in 2024, and ppl STILL drastically underestimated him going into 2025.

Then he did it all again the next season - putting up even better stats and taking the Knicks even further - and ppl STILL said the Knicks had no chance of winning a chip in 2026.

It's why Knicks fans who had watched this shit on a daily basis for 4 years were so confused/perplexed/pissed that JB was relentlessly disrespected by so many experts/pundits

[The Onion: 20 Years Later @Onion20yrslater]

The Onion's website made a big change 20 years ago.

Plus, jokes about Father's Day, AIDS, whaling, Nicole Ritchie, Ted Nugent, Phil Mickelson, the World Cup and more. https://t.co/jKDfym1oMu #theonion #satire

[Swith @SWitHBeAtZ]

You can either be V**** G********* OR you can be Zack Lowe. Choose wisely from whom you get your basketball discourse from

[James daSilva @James_daSilva]

I've said numerous times I don't expect athletes to take that pay cut, and Brunson was in a unique position (along with the likes of Duncan and Dirk) where he could reasonably know he was protected.

Not replicable, but what a testament to Brunson's foresight and focus.

[Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS]

So I've seen a lot of conflicting discourse on the Jalen Brunson discount and I wanted to clarify its tangible impact on New York's roster building.

At the bare minimum, it was the reason they had Jose Alvarado, and without Jose Alvarado, the Knicks do not win that championship.

If every other Knicks move before and during the 2024-25 season stayed the same, but Brunson waited the extra year to extend and therefore gotten more money, New York would have entered the 2025-26 offseason above the second apron. Being above the first apron prevents you from taking in more money than you send out in trades. Being above the second prevents you from aggregating salaries in trades or using the taxpayer MLE. The tax MLE is what got them Guerschon Yabusele. They traded him for Dalen Terry, and Terry for Alvarado.

If they didn't have the Yabusele contract, they would not have had a suitable contract to trade for Alvarado. Since they could not aggregate salaries, they couldn't just stack multiple small ones to get up to his $4.5 million number. The only way they could have gotten him would have been to trade someone on their roster who makes more than him, which is the five starters and Mitchell Robinson, which the Knicks obviously would not have done.

The Knicks would have lost Game 4 of the Finals without Jose Alvarado. They probably would have lost Game 1 as well considering how he stabilized the team when it looked like Brunson had gotten hurt, and he was +11 in the Game 2 win. He was +20 in a Finals decided by 12 total points.

There are a lot of hypotheticals you can attach to the Brunson discount on top of this. We don't know if the Knicks would have made the KAT trade without the Brunson discount, for instance. On a smaller level, they might not have signed Jeremy Sochan into their 15th roster spot if doing so would have created a substantially higher tax bill. Most teams at that price point only roster 14 players.

But even regardless of those hypotheticals, I feel comfortable saying that the Knicks would not have won this championship without Brunson's discount. Jose Alvarado was not a luxury. He was a necessity, and without Brunson's discount, the Knicks would not have been able to acquire him.

[Oh No He Didn't @ohnohedidnt24]

Josh Hart:

"Everybody wants to be the guy that scores the most, that puts the ball in the basket and that's not everybody's path. That wasn't my path and sometimes that's a tough pill to swallow but when you embrace that when you're a star in your role and you take pride in doing the little things that breeds winning basketball. For me as embraced as I was in this city wearing this jersey that sacrifice was easy. Some days it was tough don't get me wrong but you sacrifice for moments like this"

[Keerthika Uthayakumar @keerthikau]

The Knicks were 3-1 when down by 15+ points this postseason.

The rest of the NBA was 6-58.

[The Onion: 20 Years Later @Onion20yrslater]

20 years ago, The Onion turned Morse code into a movie thriller.

This is one of 2006's best Onion issues. The Pope, secondhand smoke, Jon Lovitz, Sony, Iran, Daily Kos, spam emails and more https://t.co/30HklzWqlq #theonion #satire

[Wemby Alien Era @WembyAlienEra]

Victor Wembanyama (in French) is asked what he is looking to improve on over the summer:

🇫🇷: Victor, after these Finals, what do you want to improve the most this summer? On the court or off the court, what area of improvement have you identified for yourself before next season?

👽: I'm going to work even harder, obviously, to be even more durable and, above all, to keep a fresh mind and maintain control of the game at all times. That's what really stands out about Jalen Brunson, for example. There are too many moments—and it doesn't come from bad intentions—but there are too many moments where I'm passive, where I don't have the control over the game that I'd like to have, and it ends up costing us.

#GoSpursGo #PorVida

[Blames @blames_]

Funniest part about this Knicks title run is we have faced Wemby, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Donovan Mitchell, and James Harden yet the only player who instilled even the slightest fear in the fan base was 34 year old CJ McCollum

[StatMuse @statmuse]

Top 5 youngest players with 10+ PTS in a Finals game:

1. Dylan Harper
2. Dylan Harper
3. Dylan Harper
4. Dylan Harper
5. Dylan Harper

[ArtButMakeItSports @ArtButSports]

España, by Ricard Verde, 1937, 📸 by Ronald Cortes

[Andy Bailey @AndrewDBailey]

Karl-Anthony Towns finished the playoffs with averages of 15.9 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.3 steals in 30.4 minutes, while shooting 45.6 percent from three.

His +258 plus-minus for the playoffs is the highest single-postseason plus-minus on record.

[Josh Hart @joshhart]

FROM NOW ON ADDRESS ME AS CHAMP! 🧡💙

[Kevin O'Connor @KevinOConnor]

The Knicks are an example of smart, courageous team building. Firing Thibs for Mike Brown was a ballsy decision by the Knicks. One of many that got them to this point. RJ & Quickley for OG, trading a 1st for Hart, signing Brunson to a big deal, the Randle for KAT deal, sending a ton of picks for Bridges, and moves around the edges like adding Shamet and Alvarado. Some teams are built through the draft. The Knicks were built through masterful trades and signings. Big time credit to Leon Rose and that New York front office.

[James daSilva @James_daSilva]

I said at the time, I'm not expecting or asking most athletes to do this. But man, what a great decision it turned out to be.

[Adrian Wojnarowski @wojespn]

In a largely unprecedented financial concession to give roster flexibility to a contender, New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson has agreed on a four-year, $156.5 million extension, his agent Sam Rose of CAA tells ESPN --- $113M less guaranteed than he’s eligible to receive in one year.

[James daSilva @James_daSilva]

I keep forgetting that I went to the game that launched this Knicks run: Game 4 in Atlanta, with the KAT triple-double, suffocating defense and 2nd-half runaway. And then they didn't lose for like 40 days.

[SportsCenter @SportsCenter]

This angle of Jalen Brunson going at Wemby 😯