Corporate greed is Nike increasing its profit by 125% last year to $5.7 billion & blaming "inflation" for a 10.5% price spike on a pair of expensive sneakers made by workers in Vietnam earning less than a buck an hour while Phil Knight became $26.7 billion richer in the pandemic.
Dwyane Wade shares his iconic Kobe Bryant story from 2008 Olympics when Kobe found out Wade was coming off the bench:
“When he heard I wasn’t starting, I’m sure he knew like ‘man this is tough for D Wade not to be starting on this team’ but he came to me right away and he eased my mind. He was like ‘when you get in the game and it’s me and you on the floor, this is what I’m gonna do. I’ll pick up 94 feet and turn these guys, once I turn them, you do what you do. So I got so many steals and so many dunks because of the unselfishness of a star in our league…. When Kobe retired from basketball, I didn’t have no one to chase anymore. I lost something in me when Kobe retired.. I felt Kobe was the only one on the level I was on as the top two guards.”
(Via @OldManAndThree)
I'm fascinated by which players the league sours on to the point they're suddenly out of the league before their primes are over.
Spencer Dinwiddie is 6'5" and can play point. He had a positive net rating swing from 2016-17 through 2023-24. His career offensive box plus/minus is above average. 17.1 points, 6.7 assists and 2.0 threes per 75 possessions for his career. He could help some teams.
Never forgive them for what they took from us
Cheat codes
Game manuals
Demo discs
Couch co-op being normal
Split-screen multiplayer
Complete games at launch
No day-one patches
Unlockable characters
Secret costumes
Bonus modes
Physical collections
Cool disc art
Simple console dashboards
No account logins
No battle passes
No daily quests
No always-online single-player games
Weird experimental games
Mid-budget games
Licensed games with personality
Buying random games based on the cover
Gaming magazines
Game rentals
Main menus with soul
The feeling of actually owning your games
The excitement of a new console generation
Draymond Green on people saying the Jaylen Brown trade was a even swap:
“No disrespect to Paul George, but this isn’t an even swap. I got a lot of love for PG. but like myself, PG is 36 years old. Not like myself. I’m going into year 15. I think PG is going into year 17. And Jaylen Brown, not even 30 years old. He’s 29 years old and he’s going into year 11. So, and by the way, he won finals MVP two years ago. I think he just made All-NBA second team this year. Was arguably controversially possibly could have been a first team performer, but the votes are what they are. So it’s not an even swap. Like when you’re talking just player for player, it’s not.”
(Via @DraymondShow)
Andre Drummond, who will be 33 when the season begins, is still one of the top OREB Per Min in the NBA, can set big screens and showed he can hit the occasional three. Obv. oesn't replace loss of Mitch, but not a bad move to replace. Drummond has wanted to play for the #Knicks.
Hard agree. There is no reason that a player you draft should cost the same as someone you trade for. If JDub and Chet were both drafted, why do they cost the same as someone creating a super team? If they added a stipulation that homegrown talent (drafted/undrafted players signing their first and second contract with the same team) had a lower % toward the cap it would make for a better overall product.
After sitting here watching NBA free agency this year and overall NBA movement over the past 2 years somebody has to say it....
The new CBA was sold as parity, but the first and second apron are starting to function like a hard cap on player value, team continuity, and player movement.
Teams are no longer making purely basketball decisions. They’re making fear-based apron decisions. That means good players get squeezed, homegrown cores get broken up, fan-favorite teams lose their identity, and the overall product loses some of the nostalgia and continuity that made people fall in love with the NBA in the first place.
This isn’t about players not understanding business. It’s the opposite. We understand that the NBA is a business. That’s why the @TheNBPA has to operate with elite business acumen, elite negotiating strategy, and real foresight.
The owners and the league walk into these meetings with killers that continue to run circles around us time and time again with elite lawyers, economists, cap experts, media strategists, and long term business operators. Players deserve a PA that is just as sharp, just as prepared, and just as aggressive about protecting our upside.
Too often, it feels like players are informed after the fact instead of being truly educated and empowered before decisions are made. That cannot continue.
The next CBA is a do or die moment for us as players. It's only going to get worse for us. We need transparency, accountability, and a serious re evaluation of who is representing us and how they are representing us.
This is not anti parity. This is pro player, fan, and product. The league is strongest when players are valued properly, great teams can stay together, and the people representing us are operating at the same level as the people sitting across the table.
🇭🇷 🐐 From a scared little boy who used football as an escape during a war.
To arguably the greatest midfielder to ever grace the football pitch. And for many of us, it's not a argument.
They finally posted the cyber apprenticeship application
- Year Long Paid Internship ($22,584)
- Sponsors Clearance
- No Education Requirement
- Free Certs and Hands-On Training
https://t.co/pP4yXgT7VT