Kawhi Leonard and his hot wings coupons are so San Antonio Spurs

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

DREAMS FADE: Paul Flannery and I had a rambling F&Z conversation that touched on Rajon Rondo’s empty stats, the sudden implosion of the Knicks, the Coach of the Year race and more.

KAWHI ISLAND: Phenomenal Kawhi Leonard profile by Lee Jenkins. It includes this anecdote: “[Leonard] is happy to sponsor Wingstop, which sends him coupons for free wings, so he can feed his Mango Habanero addiction. This winter, after his $94 million contract kicked in, he panicked when he lost his coupons. Wingstop generously replenished his supply.”

WELL THAT’S JUST RUDE: As the Nets finished a thorough beating of the Sixers, Philly fans chanted “We’ve got draft picks!” which is accurate and awful cutting. Of course, Nets fans could have just responded by noting that Bojan Bogdanovic dropped 44 on those draft picks and I guess players.

LOGICAL HECKLING: A Spurs fan explains loudly to J.J. Redick why he thinks the Clippers are not that good.

SURE: Paul George throwing down a post-whistle 360 windmill.

SCORES GALORE ...

BOS 98, IND 103
DEN 110, ORL 116
PHI 114, BKN 131
TOR 107, MIL 89
LAC 87, SAS 108
SAC 106, LAL 98

YES! An oral history of the ‘96 Bulls by Alex Wong. More timely than ever.

BOOM FROM THE BOTTOM: Really nice Scott Cacciola story on the motivations behind Baron Davis’ D-League stint and NBA comeback attempt.

HOW TO SHOOT LIKE STEPH: Chris Ballard talks to Bruce Fraser, a coach who helped hone the shots of Steph Curry, Steve Nash, Reggie Miller and Steve Kerr. Pretty good shooters, those guys.

INTERESTING: Suns players appear to be lobbying on behalf of making Earl Watson the permanent head coach.

NEAT: LeBron’s kids play basketball and wear numbers to honor Steph Curry and Russell Westbrook, and LeBron loves that.

PIONEER: Interesting New York Times story on the only Arab player in Israel’s top basketball league, and on why Arab boys and men typically choose soccer over basketball.

SILVER X SOUTHWEST: If you missed Adam Silver’s chat about the league with CNN’s Brian Stelter at SXSW, here it is in all its glory via REDEF.

MADNESS: Mike Rutherford with 68 reasons the tournament is going to be fantastic.

CASHTIVISM: Vocativ rounded up presidential contribution data for sports owners. The biggest bet on the NBA side: Dan Gilbert gave $1.3 million to Chris Christie’s campaign. Whoops! Rich DeVos of the Magic split $900,000 between Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina.

ON THE AIR TONIGHT: Your ESPN doubleheader features Thunder-Celtics at 7 p.m. ET followed by Clippers-Rockets at 9:30. Other games of note include Mavs-Cavs, a critical Bulls-Wizards tilt and Hawks-Pistons.

Happy Wednesday. See you next time.