Good morning, Team USA has all of the gold
That, more on Danny Ferry and lots of other stuff can be found in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
GOLDEN BOYS: Team USA beat Serbia by 37 to win the 2014 FIBA World Cup. That ... sounds about right. The Americans were never really challenged the entire tournament. They scored 129 points in a 40-minute game, a quarter-plus of which was essentially garbage time. Kyrie Irving is your tournament MVP; Irving and Kenneth Faried were joined on the All-Tournament team by Nicolas Batum, Pau Gasol and Milos Teodosic. (Anthony Davis was robbed!)
More importantly than all that: Team USA (minus Derrick Rose, because #derrickdontdance) celebrated with the Shmoney Dance. James Harden conducting the team exercise, Klay Thompson finishing off with a matter-of-fact confetti angel ... it all works, man. I will remember this Team USA fondly. Most because of BOOGIE.
Ethan Strauss asks if basketball is truly global. A basketball is the same shape as the Earth, if that’s what you are asking.
AND NOW THE BAD NEWS: Adrian Wojnarowski absolutely throttles the whole thing, focusing on Coach K’s role as profiteer off of the whole thing. Woj also insists the 2016 Olympics should be the last international tournament for veteran players.
One voice not represented as Woj makes his points: the players, many of whom fight to make these rosters and qualify for these tournaments. I wrote on this topic before the tournament.
SPEAKING OF DUKE: Danny Ferry announced an indefinite leave of absence on Friday. That likely means that he is out. The announcement came just after the scouting report in question, apparently written by a former Cavs front office executive, was leaked.
Meanwhile, the Hawks apologized again. If you have to apologize to fans a second time in one week, you probably should have worked on that first apology a bit longer.
Here’s a full timeline of the ordeal, which appears to be winding down.
ADDED IMPACT: Carmelo Anthony says free agents won’t go to the Hawks because of this. He’s ignoring that most free agents wouldn’t go to the Hawks before this.
YOU KNOW WHO GETS BUCKETS? Nick Young’s son.
THERE IS NO ANSWER: Comparing Allen Iverson to any other player is totally useless.
SPEAKING OF SPANIARDS: K.C. Johnson discovers where Pau Gasol is from.
A BIT TOO CASUAL, NERNO: Nerlens Noel photobombs a wedding party.
DO YOU, CLEVELAND: A LeBron/Manziel mashup jersey. It’s not quite Ernest Byner/Craig Ehlo, but whatever.
MORE THAN BALTCHE: Robin Lopez talking about joining the Philippines?
THE QUESTION IN NEW ORLEANS: What are they gonna do with Tyreke Evans?
PRESENTED WITHOUT COMMENT: James “J.D.” Dolan, who is the governor of the Knicks, wrote a song about Trayvon Martin. Bonus Jimmy: a New York Times profile.
NO BASKETBALL FOR THREE WEEKS OR SO: In its stead, enjoy this lovely piece by our friend Steven Lebron on the Gotham City All-Star roller derby team!
Happy Monday. See you next time.
