CP

Hoop Talk 🏀

[CP @TheBigPrice]

That was insane. Shoutout OG. Shoutout the Knicks.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

How do you come out like this at home with a chance to go up 3-1?

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@Less_HumbleTeej What was KAT thinking about, bro? How silly that was.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

Spurs are the “better” team, but the Knicks are the better “team”. I think whoever wins Game 4 wins the Finals.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

When you’re still trying to rewrite history after a decade+, you know there’s a problem.

[NBACentral @TheDunkCentral]

LeBron James says that teaming up with other stars isn’t cheating.

“It’s no different from someone in business going from one place to the next place, because they get a better opportunity to be around better people. In sports, sometimes people get so caught up in ‘He should do this on his own.’ I don’t play tennis and I don’t play golf. The way I grew up is, we’ve got to do this together as a team.”

(Via https://t.co/fclus29nBU)

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@HonusBandicoot @TheJordanTruth No. Mike has a higher peak PER, higher peak VORP, higher peak WS, and is off matching Bron’s peak WS/48 by .001. Advanced metrics looking at just prime or peak, MJ has the edge.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@Tmc_340 @AsianFanatic_ @WarriorsMuse @solomon_tech Carry job, Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors do not belong in the same sentence.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@BlackIce244 Shoulda never passed to G Hill in the 1st place. It starts there.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@HPbasketball MJ objectively has the better career. More rings and accolades in less time, top in playoff and reg season PPG, #1 in most key advanced stats, #2 behind Jokic in others. The only argument is if you think LeBron has a better game.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@nbarealist23 Wilt wasn’t the playoff/ big game competitor Shaq was. For as dominant in the regular season Wilt was, he never once averaged 30 PPG in the Finals and never averaged 20 PPG in a Finals series win.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@AlexKennedyNBA I talked to a Knicks fan at the game tonight who said this exact thing. Said instead of having to spend $10K for Game 3 ticket in NY, he spent $1,500 on a flight, hotel and Game 2 ticket in SA.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@DeaconsPastorr To put it in perspective, KD doesn’t make his move without Bron making this move. He saw Bron get vilified then be loved again, and win, and said shoot I can do it too. For that reason Bron’s move is worse, because it set precedent.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

Oakley, brother. What are you doing?

[Jim Rome @jimrome]

"It's part of the game, everybody that averaged 30 points wasn't a good leader."

@CharlesOakley34 explains why Patrick Ewing WASN'T a good leader and why Jalen Brunson IS.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

Propaganda is very strong. Lebron is not better in every statistical measure. By almost all if not all advanced metrics Jordan has the edge, plus the pure reg season and playoff scoring and steals metrics. If you take away rings from both players, it would still be Mike.

[Justin Macmahan @JustinMacmahan]

Good reminder that the argument for LeBron is that he’s better in every statistical measure and was completely dominant for twice as many seasons. The argument for Jordan is that his team managed to lose before the Finals every time they weren’t going to win. Riveting debate!

[DT @15DT15]

Incorrect.

If Victor Wembanyama teams up with Cooper Flagg and Cade Cunningham at age 27, promises 8 NBA Championships then gets outplayed in a finals by Davion Mitchell and loses.

He will no longer be eligible to ever be considered better than Michael Jordan.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@_JasonLT @JonesOnTheNBA Wish you would give some context here, cause you know fans like to run on negativity. These numbers heavily skewed by the two blowouts. He wasn’t an overall net negative to his team over the last 4.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@jackburtonboots @lpces99 @_JasonLT The only game he was arguably a net negative relative to the rest of his team was Game 1. But in general, they are and were better when Shai was on the floor.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@jackburtonboots @lpces99 @_JasonLT They weren’t. Shai averaged the most Thunder minutes by a large margin. Those two blowouts he was on the floor while they were getting blown out. When he goes to bench and the backups are simming to end, those backups may be a +1 or whatever but that’s not real hoops.

[CP @TheBigPrice]

Please stop commenting on sports.

[Sports Patriot @SportsPatriotUS]

I’m going to say this as calmly as possible:

Watching Caitlin Clark in the WNBA has become genuinely hard to stomach.

Not because she struggles sometimes. Not because she makes mistakes. Not because she gets criticized. That comes with being great.

It’s hard to stomach because it has become obvious that the league, the officials, the media, the players, and even her own organization have all decided that the most important thing is not letting Caitlin Clark become too big.

And that is insane.

This league was handed the most marketable, electric, revenue-generating player women’s basketball has ever seen, and instead of building around the moment, too many people seem obsessed with humbling her.

She gets fouled. Held. Hit. Cheap-shotted. Mocked. Targeted. Then when she reacts like a normal competitor, suddenly everyone wants to analyze her attitude.

No.

Her attitude is not the story.

The story is that a generational player is being treated like a problem by the very league she helped drag into mainstream relevance.

This reminds me of the worst kind of youth coach... the one who sees a special player, feels threatened by her talent, and slowly drains the joy out of her in the name of “teaching humility.”

That is what this looks like.

The freedom she played with at Iowa is disappearing. The fire is still there, but the joy looks damaged. The confidence looks weighed down. She looks like someone constantly fighting the refs, opponents, narratives, coaching decisions, jealousy, and a league culture that should be protecting its golden opportunity instead of resenting it.

And let’s be honest: Stephanie White has not helped.

Benching Caitlin Clark randomly when she is controlling the game tempo, or having your best shooter off the floor in critical game ending minutes when a victory is within reach is basketball malpractice. Limiting her rhythm, downplaying her greatness, benching momentum, and treating her like just another piece instead of the engine is absurd.

You do not take a player who changed the economics of your sport and manage her like you’re afraid her greatness might offend the room.

Nike deserves criticism too. Other players get signature shoes rolled out with urgency, while the biggest draw in women’s basketball is somehow still waiting on that signature shoe. That is not confusing. That is revealing.

Fans are not stupid.

They see the fouls.
They see the double standards.
They see the jealousy.
They see the media resentment.
They see the league benefiting from her popularity while refusing to fully embrace her.
And here is the part the WNBA better understand quickly:
People are not tuning in to watch Caitlin Clark be humbled.
They are tuning in to watch Caitlin Clark be great.
If she walked away tomorrow, the fans would follow her. The sponsors would follow her. The energy would follow her. The high salaries and the charter jets would follow her. And the league would be forced to confront the uncomfortable truth it keeps trying to avoid:

Caitlin Clark did not need the WNBA nearly as much as the WNBA needed Caitlin Clark.

At some point, her family, her agent, and her team need to ask a hard question:

How much longer do you let a league profit from her while allowing the culture around her to beat the spirit out of her?

Because from the outside looking in, this does not look like normal adversity anymore. It looks like abuse.

It looks like a league trying to break the very player who made millions of people care.

https://t.co/AAxFrO46Z4

[CP @TheBigPrice]

@JonesOnTheNBA Brunson has the shot profile of a 6’6” wing, he’s able to get to his spots and get shots off like the taller guys. While a lot of guys his size over-rely on the stepback. That’s part of what makes him so good imo.