Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Tyronn Lue is off to a wonderful start in Cleveland
Good morning. We have that and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
MORE BLATT FALLOUT: Game 1 for Ty Lue didn’t go well: the Cavs got booed at home and lost to the Bulls. Dave McMenamin lays out Lue’s first 24 hours as head coach.
The narrative has been that David Blatt was doing a good job with the Cavaliers. In GQ Bethlehem Shoals calls that narrative into question.
Yago Colas on what Allen Iverson’s classy tweet wishing Lue luck means about player-coach relationships.
Jeff Van Gundy called out media that uses anonymous sources for their coach-killing "hit jobs," neglecting to mention that coaches are just as likely and perhaps more likely than players or front office folks to engage in off-the-record hijinks. (Never mind his broadcast partner Mark Jackson.)
And in case you missed it, we had a special Saturday GMIB to catch up on the news. It has lots of Blatt-Lue-LeBron links, too.
David Blatt dumped by the Cavaliers for Tyronn Lue
STRAIGHT COMEDY: The end of Hawks-Suns on Saturday was so bad it was good.
ICYMI: Steve Kerr is back! This Sam Amick piece on how Kerr and his boss Bob Myers bonded over pain over the last six months is really touching.
THE NOT-SO-FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR: Kobe recreated the infamous hook shot from The Fresh Prince’s opening credits, and so someone set the “highlight” to the opening credits. Sometimes, the internet is just wonderful.
BEST REGULAR SEASON MATCHUP EVER: Attention: Spurs-Warriors is on Monday night (10:30 p.m. ET, NBA TV). Aaron Barzilai found that no teams with a cumulative record this good in January have met before, making Spurs-Warriors the best regular season matchup on paper ever.
BY THE WAY ... No Tim Duncan. And it’s not Pop being Pop either: Duncan’s knee is acting up, so he went back to San Antonio for treatment.
THE NEW DUNK: Nice piece from Only A Game on Under Armour’s Steph 2 marketing campaign, which claims that the stepback three is the dunk. How much did Nike have to do with making the dunk so popular, and can UA do the same for the stepback?
INTRIGUE IN BROOKLYN: Woj reports that four candidates are at the front of the line for the Nets GM position: two familiar names (Danny Ferry and Bryan Colangelo) as well as Denver's Arturas Karnisovas and Houston's Gersson Rosas. Woj also reports the Nets want to have a GM in place before the trade deadline in three weeks.
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