Good morning, the Summer of Love is over
That and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
GLORY GLORY HALLELUJAH: The brilliant Chris Ballard goes long and super interesting on Kobe. This is the best basketball piece of the year to date, and I’m not sure it’s even remotely close. Read it.
DING DONG: Minnesota’s Love Affair ended Saturday as the deal sending Kevin Love to Cleveland was made official. The Wolves landed Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and Thaddeus Young, the Cavaliers got Love, and the Sixers took Alexey Shved, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Miami’s pick (via CLE). (The Sixers got worse again? You don’t say! At least in LRMaM they picked up Joel Embiid’s mentor.)
Love will wear No. 0 for Cleveland, following in the footsteps of the great C.J. Miles.
HOW WEIRD IS THE PHOENIX-BLEDSOE SITUATION RIGHT NOW? The Suns reportedly offered Eric Bledsoe for Kevin Love at the last possible minute.
SIZE MATTERS: The final Team USA Roster is set. Coach K’s final cuts were Damian Lillard, Chandler Parsons, Kyle Korver and Gordon Hayward. That means he took DeMarcus Cousins and Mason Plumlee and Andre Drummond and Kenneth Faried, along with Tournament MVP favorite Anthony Davis. Five legit bigs!
IMPORTANT NEWS: LeBron might be bringing back the chalk toss.
REFRESHING HONESTY: Kevin Durant admits Thunderstruck was wretched and swears off acting forever. Best TMZ Sports report ever. (Also, Kazaam did almost $19 million domestic?!)
WAIT FOR OKAFOR: Half the league wants Emeka Okafor, says Marc Stein, but he’s going to wait until midseason to ensure his herniated disk is repaired fully.
WHY DICK BAVETTA QUIT, by Steve Aschburner.
NAKED MAMBA WRESTLING, EXPLAINED: Remember the statue of a naked Kobe wrestling a snake we linked to last week? SB Nation’s James Dator talked to the artist about why Kobe is naked.
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER ICE BUCKET: Or three. Charles Barkley got done dirty.
PLUM ASSIGNMENT: A good look from Tim Bontemps at Mason Plumlee.
DEEP THROWBACK: Surfaced by r/NBA, Chuck gets Ron Burgundy’d by Ernie Johnson.
Happy Monday. See you next time.
