Good morning, Steve Ballmer is everything for the Clippers
That and much more in the final NBA newsletter of the week.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
KOBE REACTS: That wonderful ESPN argument machine, #NBARank, has Kobe at No. 40, down from No. 25 a year ago. Kobe responds by calling the voters “a bunch of idiots.” Kobe!
UGH: Brook Lopez’s right foot continues to have problems. He’ll miss 10-14 days with a sprain suffered Wednesday.
AN EXPERIMENT: If you’d like to participate in a wee little SB Nation NBA experiment, please fill out this short form that asks about the fate of your favorite team.
BASKET BALLMER: Two good pieces on Steve Ballmer and the Clippers on Thursday. Ramona Shelburne digs in on the recent stuff, while a Bloomberg Businessweek reveals some interesting news about Ballmer’s previous interest in the Bucks. That story, however, was completely overshadowed by the hilarious cover photo of Ballmer the mag used.
SPEAKING OF WHICH ... Blake Griffin wrote a really cool essay on working for Donald Sterling.
SUSPEND STACEY KING: The Bulls analyst compared Jimmy Butler to MJ during a preseason game. Now, Jimmy is good and hit a neat game-winner. But Mr. King, my goodness. If any announcers should be stingy with the MJ comparisons, it’s you and Grandmaster Funk. This is unacceptable.
GROAN: Thanks to LeBron and some killjoy scolds in Cleveland, we’re not allowed to laugh about the time it looked like King James screened for Norris Cole when he was actually just giving a sloppy hedge.
HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: “Amare Stoudemire explains why he bathed in red wine.“
EH: Fri Lavey of the Harvard Sports Analysis Collaborative asserts that NBA mock drafts are a sham because he purports to have recreated Chad Ford’s success using a random number generator. That doesn’t actually seem true: he only approached the success rate of Ford, DraftExpress and others in a test where he classified prospects in 5-pick ranges based apparently on the actual draft order and randomly determined order within those buckets. Guess what? Figuring out which buckets to put players in is a major part of what the mockers do! Mock drafts have some problems. Lavey, in my estimation, does a bad job proving they are no better than random guesses.
NOPE: You are not allowed to give yourself a nickname, even if it’s a cool one like Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine’s “Bounce Brothers.” I’d be lenient on tag team monikers if players haven’t been abusing nickname law in recent years. YOU DO NOT PICK YOUR NICKNAME.
NBA BLOG PREVIEWS: Visit Phoenix with Bright Side Of The Sun and Philly with Liberty Ballers.
LIGHT EM UP: Michele Roberts The Person -- not Michele Roberts The Union Director -- blasts the idea of max salaries and the age minimum. Hell yes. (Stay tuned for something on Ms. Roberts on SB Nation NBA next week.)
ALRIGHT: How to grow a super-athlete.
Ladies and gentlefolk, happy Friday. See you next time.
