Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Stephen Curry is hurting basketball because basketball is NOT supposed to be fun
Good morning! We have that and much more in a ranty Monday NBA newsletter.
TURMOIL IN PHOENIX: Things are not happening for the Suns. They lost in Philadelphia on Saturday and have lost 15 of their last 20 overall. And now Eric Bledsoe is out until at least the All-Star break with a torn meniscus. So, naturally, with lame duck Jeff Hornacek on the ropes, the Suns fired ... his two top assistants and promoted two others, including Earl Watson. (Who could definitely still help a team on a 10-day contract.) That turn of events is sure to make everyone comfortable. You may remember that the last time the Suns fired a head coach midseason, they promoted a front office guy -- Lindsay Hunter -- instead of an assistant. It didn’t go well. That said, this is a new front office.
RIP CLOWN PRINCE: The great Meadowlark Lemon, dubbed The Clown Prince of Basketball, has died at age 83. He retired in the 70s but his legend lives on: he remains the most famous Harlem Globetrotter ever. He was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2003, too.
YIKESVILLE: Blake Griffin has a tear in his quad and will miss two weeks. One of those injuries you pray heals quickly and doesn’t ruin the Clippers’ season.
LEBRON VS. STEPH: A terrific piece by Kevin Arnovitz (duh) on LeBron’s status in the NBA and his quiet rivalry with Steph Curry.
TRIANGLE OFFENSE FOR REAL: You might think that the important pieces of this crazy Thunder highlight are the lightning-quick Russell Westbrook touch pass or the booming Enes Kanter dunk. But it’s really the hockey assist from DION WAITERS.
DIRK! Dirk Nowitzki passed Shaq for No. 6 on the all-time scoring list. Kareem, here we come!
HURTING THE GAME? Mark Jackson claimed during the Warriors’ Christmas win over the Cavaliers that Stephen Curry is “hurting the game” because now all high school kids wanna do when they hit the gym is take Stephan bombs. Because Steph Curry is the first NBA player kids have ever emulated, right? MJ, Bird, Magic, Kareem, Dr. J, Nique, A.I. and Kobe all “hurt” the game, too. (Some dolts would absolutely argue that A.I. hurt the game, for what it’s worth, despite the tragic lack of a Be Like A.I. ad campaign.) Plenty of otherwise smart people have tried to defend Jackson’s statement in sideways fashion -- “I see what he’s saying” is a common refrain -- but please recognize that this dude said “Steph is hurting the game.” That’s an incredible claim backed by no evidence made by a high-profile analyst on the NBA’s biggest stage. It was dumb and obviously wrong when they said it about MJ and the others, too ... so why defend this dude saying it now, especially given the sour history between Jackson and the Warriors?
NO DAP FOR BOOGIE: DeMarcus Cousins is the latest NBA player to have to give himself a high-five. The funny thing is that Boogie might be the least frequent in-game dapper in the biz.
TARK VS. BYERS: Phenomenal Joe Nocera column on the legacies of Jerry Tarkanian and longtime NCAA head Walter Byers, who both died in 2015. My college basketball history knowledge is fairly limited and a lot of this info was new to me. Fascinating stuff.
TONIGHT TONIGHT: The league has a nice full schedule, and NBA TV has Raptors-Bulls, which has the potential to be a doozy. Hawks-Pacers is a League Pass banger.
Happy Monday. See you next time.
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