Good morning. A big thanks to Mike Prada for handling the newsletter all last week while I was grabbing my Odin sleep in preparation for another basketball season, which is seriously right around the danged corner. Let’s basketball.
Rest in peace, Moses
Good morning. We have some Moses Malone links and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
RIP MOSES: Moses Malone, the best rebounder of his generation and one of the greatest players ever, has died unexpectedly at age 60. (How unexpectedly? He was in Springfield for the Hall of Fame ceremonies this weekend.) Moses starred in the ABA and for the Rockets and Sixers in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He was one of the first preps-to-pros success stories. He and Julius Erving gave Philadelphia its NBA title in 1983. He helped push a young Hakeem Olajuwon to wondrous heights. (More on that from Fran Blinebury here.) When Kevin Love or another ball vacuum starts putting up obscene rebounding titles early in each season, Moses is the name that comes up, and for good reason. He’s a gold standard of sorts, and it’s tragic that his family and the basketball world lost him so young.
O NO CANADA: This had been the summer of Canadian basketball’s rise. Andrew Wiggins had joined the national team, and with a bunch of young NBA players and a FIBA Americas field lacking Team USA (who already won a spot in the 2016 Olympics), this was Canada’s dinner bell for the rest of the world. Unfortunately, they played down to Venezuela’s level in the semifinal and got screwed at the buzzer. Just watch it. With the game tied, Venezuela fired up a potential game-winner that missed, and in the ensuing scrum the ref called a foul on Canada. Gregory Vargas sunk a free throw to clinch it. Canada finishes third ... which means they’ll be entered in the last chance Olympic qualifying tournament next summer. Three spots will be available. They were so close.
DOWN TO EIGHT: EuroBasket 2015 has been narrowed down to the final eight teams. Two will make the 2016 Olympics directly, and the next five will be added to the last chance qualifying tournament to be held early next summer. So two more wins and you’re in. The eight teams surviving: Latvia, France, Greece, Spain, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Italy and Lithuania. Only one of Spain, France and Greece will get the automatic bid due to how the brackets shake out. Serbia looks to have a clear path to the finals, but Italy’s been plenty good and Lithuania is Lithuania.
GOODBYE, INTERNATIONAL DIRK: Dirk Nowitzki’s German team was knocked out of EuroBasket early, and won’t make the Olympics next summer. That means Dirk’s international duty is likely over. This is sad.
NEW HALL OF FAMERS: You might not have noticed, but new members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame were inducted over the weekend. John Calipari brought 64 former players to his speech and Mike Rutherford explains why Cal belongs in the Hall. Tommy Heinsohn shared a great story that involved him raising a middle finger to the Springfield crowd in what is an INSTANT MEME CREATION. Tim Cato recognizes inductee Dikembe Mutombo’s finger wag as the greatest celebration in the sport’s history. (I might allow it, though I’m partial to the shimmy.)
SPEAKING OF CELEBRATIONS ... Alexander Esswein is a German footballer with impeccable hair (as if there are German footballers without impeccable hair) who is worthy of your attention because he did an exact replica of LeBron’s celebration after scoring on Saturday. LeBron is legitimately a Global Icon now.
Happy Monday, y’all. Keep your head up. See you next time.
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