Step aside, Notorious JVG: Big Stan is on the mic

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

PICTURE HIM ROLLIN: Stan Van Gundy unintentionally (we think) made the greatest rap album cover of all time. We need to get Big Stan a jersey like his brother’s ...

LESSONS FROM THE SAGA: I wrote about the five things we learned from the Tristan Thompson saga in Cleveland. The most important one: the Cavaliers now look like the overwhelming favorites in the East and perhaps the best team overall.

DAMN, STEPH: This is an underhand midcourt alley-oop to Andre Iguodala from the one and only Stephen Curry. Only sullied by Iguodala’s celebration: Is he ... is he raising the roof?

I WILL WATCH THIS: Dirk pondered whether he could beat Peyton Manning in a 40-yard dash, and now Chandler Parsons is trying to make it happen.

READ: Jessica Luther on the Louisville basketball recruiting sex scandal.

HOBBIES: Carmelo Anthony followed the Benghazi hearing basically exactly as I did: by yelling expletives whenever it got dramatic. I love Melo.

FREAK UNLEASHED: Jason Kidd says Giannis Antetokounmpo will play all five positions this season. Perhaps at once!

HUH: Russell Westbrook says that he has never shaved. Some men have all the luck. (Seriously, it’s nice to be able to grow a beard, but it’d be even nicer to cut out that annoying grooming step without looking like a serial killer within five days.)

RED PANDA BACK!

GOOD NIGHT, JIMMER: Michael Lee with a really good piece on the apparent end of Jimmer Fredette’s NBA career. Man, Fredette had one thing going for him (range) and a lot of things not. Those are tough odds to beat. It didn’t help that he came into the league with such high expectations as a well-known lottery pick landing on a team in desperate need of shooting. It certainly didn’t help that the much better Isaiah Thomas was the No. 60 pick of the same draft, landing on the same team and completely outplaying Fredette at every turn.

But perhaps the worst part of Jimmermania were the Jimmermaniacs, many of whom alleged that Keith Smart was racist for not playing Fredette more once Smart took over for the deposed Paul Westphal. (Westphal was allegedly the impetus behind picking Fredette and trading for John Salmons in that draft. UGH.) Like, it was clearly apparent that Jimmer wasn’t an NBA player. Instead of acknowledging that, his fans claimed reverse racism! It was a surreal time in Sacramento.

Okay, short and sweet on Friday. Have a wonderful weekend and see you next time.