Good morning. Tom’s off this week, so you have to deal with me in your inboxes. I promise to keep the horrible puns to a minimum. Let’s basketball!
LeBron James should never ever take his headband off
That and more in Tuesday’s NBA newsletter.
ACTUAL BASKETBALL, PART 1: EuroBasket 2015 is underway. Serbia is 2-0 after stunning Spain in the opener. Unheralded Belgium is somehow 2-1 after this (controversial?) buzzer-beating tip-in to beat mighty Lithuania. Bosnia and Herzegovina got not one, but two buzzer beaters from Elmedin Kikanovic to stun Israel. Greece is 2-0 and Giannis Antetokounmpo is moving 20 feet with two steps again. France is 3-0 and Tony Parker is now the all-time leading scorer in EuroBasket history. Russia is on the brink of elimination after losing to Finland. Jeez, what happened to them?
SPEAKING OF SERBIA ... the other Timberwolves rookie is really damn good, too. Meet Nemanja Bjelica, the reigning Euroleague MVP that’s tearing it up. Flip Saunders needs to find him minutes.
NOT GREAT, BOG: Bojan Bogdanovic, the Nets’ wing and Croatia’s best player, suffered a concussion in their team’s opener. FIBA doesn’t have any sort of concussion protocol, so Croatia merely declared him “day to day.” He wanted to play in their next game against Greece, but was told to sit. Still, as Bobby Marks noted on Twitter, it’s past time for FIBA to standardize this process. It’s 2015.
ACTUAL BASKETBALL, PART 2: FIBA Americas! A loaded Canada team bounced back from a tournament-opening loss to Argentina with three straight wins. Poor Uruguay looked powerless trying to stop Andrew Wiggins from gliding coast-to-coast and dunking. Argentina is 4-0 to top Group B, while Mexico survived against Venezuela to remain undefeated in Group A.
HEADBANDALYTICS: A Reddit user crunched the numbers and found that LeBron James shoots terribly when he doesn’t wear any accessories. No more ditching the headband for team unity.
DON’T PUSH IT: The latest report is that Kyrie Irving will be back well before January after he fractured his kneecap in the NBA Finals. Given the state of the rest of the East, the Cavaliers would be smart to take their time here. They can win plenty of games without Kyrie.
TOUGH TIMES IN THE BIG EASY: Injury-prone Pelicans point guard Jrue Holiday will be restricted in training camp, while small forward Quincy Pondexter is expected to be out until mid-November after knee surgery. Alonzo Gee is his backup, which ... uh oh.
SOUNDS LIKE LAST SUMMER: Anthony Bennett is healthy, confident and ready to put last year’s disaster behind him.
SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE: Great piece by Grizzly Bear Blues on Mike Conley, one of my favorite players in the league.
FURTHER READING: The seven ways to understand Conley’s brilliance, by some idiot.
A HOUSE DIVIDED: TMZ reports that Gillian Zucker, hired to be the Clippers’ president of business operations, has been interfering in actual basketball matters and stepping on Doc Rivers’ toes. One player on last year’s team supposedly refused to re-sign because of the power struggle (Ekpe Udoh? Hedo Turkoglu? There aren’t a lot of options here). A statement from a Clippers rep downplays the report, but doesn’t outright dispute it.
TWICE IS A TREND: Per Woj, 76ers second-round pick J.P. Tokoto is following in K.J. McDaniels’ footsteps and signing a one-year, non-guaranteed deal to become a free agent right away instead of inking a long-term contract or agreeing to be stashed overseas.
THE HIGHEST HONOR FOR ANY ATHLETE ... is Beyonce wearing your jersey while performing. Congratulations, James Harden.
AWESOME: Drazen Petrovic’s mom once took care of little Stephen Curry as his father competed in the 1992 Three-Point Shootout. Twenty-three years later, Curry honored a promise to send her a game-worn NBA Finals jersey.
GAME RECOGNIZE GAME: Ohio State quarterback wide receiver Braxton Miller did LeBron James’ signature celebration after scoring a touchdown against Virginia Tech. LeBron noticed.
BECAUSE BEING ANDRAY BLATCHE’S PICK-AND-ROLL PARTNER HAS ITS PERKS: Jordan Clarkson is trying to become eligible to play for the Philippines National Team. His mother was born in the country.
IMPORTANT PEOPLE LOVE OUR FAVORITE SPORT: David Axelrod, best known for being one of Barack Obama’s closest advisers during his 2008 presidential campaign, writes about his Bulls fandom.
A GOOD PROBLEM TO HAVE: Three Pounding the Rock writers on whether David West actually fits in well on the Spurs’ second unit.
WELL-RED ROCKET: How Matt Bonner, one of the league’s great characters, is preparing for life after the NBA.
SAME: Jay Williams said his former Bulls teammates used to bet $20K on rock, paper, scissors.
NICK YOUNG LOOKS DIFFERENT: This Twitter video deserves an award.
ARCADE FIRE: Great longread from our sister site Polygon on how in-person arcades have adapted in an era where everyone plays games on their smartphones.
Happy Tuesday!
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