Welcome to the 2016 NBA Finals!

AND AWAY ... WE ... GO: Game 1 of the 2016 NBA Finals is set for 9 p.m. ET on ABC. Paul Flannery and I agree that this series should look much different than Warriors-Cavaliers did last year. I wrote that beating the Warriors would shut up LeBron’s haters. Here’s Jerry Bembry at The Undefeated on America’s love-hate relationship with LeBron. Rodger Sherman wrote about Anderson Varejao’s extraordinarily awkward situation. Ken Berger on Draymond Green’s need to walk a fine line and how impossible that may be. Harvey Araton on the excellence of Andre Iguodala.

MEET THE BALLS: Really wonderful Danny Chau story on The Ringer about three SoCal brothers who are taking Steph Curry style basketball to its logical extreme.

IMPORTANT: Marc Spears on the lack of diversity in NBA front offices. This topic isn’t going away. And it shouldn’t.

SAGER: Berger also wrote about Craig Sager, whose season is now done. Now Sager renews his war against cancer. The man is non-stop.

WHOA: DraftExpress bumps SACRAMENTO’S OWN Marquese Chriss up to No. 3 in the latest mock.

GAME OF ZONES ALERT.

LOCKED IN: The Celtics locked up Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens with extensions.

HAPPY TRAILS: In a somewhat bizarre twist, David Blatt has accepted a head coaching job in Turkey. It’s a reported two-year deal with no NBA outs. So, the earliest Blatt would be back on NBA radars would be 2018.

COVER BOY: Paul George will grace the NBA 2K17 cover.

MERRY CHRISTMAS: Paul Lukas caught a tip on what Christmas jerseys will look like this season.

JUST GONNA LEAVE THIS HERE AND WALK AWAY QUICKLY: Michael Eric Dyson on Steph Curry’s skin tone, his family status and all the associations therein. (This is an extremely fraught topic that I am in no way qualified to comment on.)

SURE: Young Thug has offered to give the Thunder some of his rings since they will not be earning championship rings.

LOL GTFOH: ESPN reports that Mark Cuban stands to profit if the Warriors and San Jose Sharks both win titles this month because Cubes owns the trademark on “City of Champions.” Are we going to ignore the fact that Oakland (the Warriors’ home) and San Jose are 40 miles apart? That there are like five sizeable cities between Oakland and San Jose? Which city is actually the City of Champions in this situation? San Francisco, the homebase of neither team? How about Union City, the halfway point? Does Cuban have a “Greater Metropolitan Region of Champions” trademark, too? (The funniest part is that earlier in the day Cuban was making fun of a certain presidential nominee for chasing cheap licensing money. The pots and kettles all go in the same cupboard, brother.)

That’s all for me. Happy Thursday. Enjoy Game 1. See you next time.

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