NBA 2019/20: Return of the Big 3?

[Hot Pepsi]

Oh, I missed that rule. I assume that rule was specifically designed to create a situation like this.

There are lots of basketball rules I don't know because they were not used by the Centre Region Parks and Recreation U12 league in 1984-85.

[Incandenza]

How were they able to inbound it from the side like that instead of taking it up the floor?

Calling a timeout after the Celtics scored. You can advance the ball past halfcourt after the opposing team scores on a timeout in the final 2 minutes of a game.

[Hot Pepsi]

Just an incredible end to Toronto/Boston yesterday.

How were they able to inbound it from the side like that instead of taking it up the floor?

[Incandenza]

The tail deflation really made that.

[ursus arctos]

The competition is fierce

[Incandenza]

Raptors come out on top in 2OT in a must-win game. They had Kawhi for a magical season but Kyle Lowry really is the greatest Raptor ever.

[Incandenza]

Just an incredible end to Toronto/Boston yesterday.

[ursus arctos]

Steve Nash is the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl of a certain type of North American sports entrepreneur

[Incandenza]

https://twitter.com/tomhaberstroh/status/1301523437274435584

[Incandenza]

The Nets decided to pass over their assistant coach Jacque Vaughn, who filled in as interim head coach and got them to a 5-3 record in the bubble before being swept in the first round, and instead hired Steve Nash, who has no coaching experience at all. Vaughn is still being kept on as an assistant. Bet he'll feel great about that.

I'd have to guess that they wouldn't have made this decision without KD's blessing, though.

[Incandenza]

Complete shambles of an ending to the game tonight, neither team putting together two decent possessions for about the final 4 minutes, and James Harden winning the game with a defensive play, of all things.

[Incandenza]

Classic finish to the Denver/Utah series last night, as both teams had a chance to win at the end, Utah losing with a heartbreaker of a shot that went in then rimmed out. Jazz blew a 3-1 lead.

Another Game 7 tonight in the Houston/OKC series.

[Satchmo Distel]

Tennis has joined the boycott, led by the women of colour. It will make the US Open, in Trump's home city, more interesting than usual.

I will start a new thread on this.

[Hot Pepsi]

That’s a bad look. I sense that the NHL just isn’t good at reading the room because they aren’t in the same room.

I don’t think they were trying to make some kind of political statement by playing. After all, this all happened pretty fast after the Bucks and Magic were already warming up. It sounds like it mostly spread by texts, etc, among the players and, I guess, their agents, etc. The NHL players just aren’t in the loop.

There are a lot of meathead hockey fans on both sides of the border who’d complain about “politics” canceling the games. But after the Don Cherry thing and the way the league has been willing to support, at least, individual players speaking out, I don’t think they’re really trying to placate that segment of the audience.

Even NASCAR and the NFL seems ready to distance itself, at least a bit, from the worst parts of its fanbase. I didn’t think that would ever happen.


I also get the sense that the NBA players are also just not happy in the bubble. If this happened during a normal season. They might take a few days, but they wouldn’t be talking about dumping the season.

I hope they don’t quit. It would be a shame if all the sacrifices they’ve already made to salvage the season didn’t at least lead to a championship for somebody. But that’s easy for me to say. They need to do whatever works for them.

[Hot Pepsi]

[ursus arctos]

Reportedly there was no acknowledgement in the Western bubble, only in Toronto

[Hot Pepsi]

Hockey did acknowledge it before the game, but of course, they’re a bit removed from it because they’re all in Canada and, of course, almost everyone involved is white, so even if they care, it doesn’t have the same visceral impact.

[jefe]

5 of 6 MLS games didn't happen; Orlando-Nashville right now seems to have only happened because it started just before the wave of cancellations began.

[Hot Pepsi]

Wow.

The NHL looks bad for playing tonight.

[Incandenza]

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1298811949736701952

[Incandenza]

[URL="https://twitter.com/malika_andrews/status/1298763459165904898"]https://twitter.com/malika_andrews/s...63459165904898[/URL]

[ursus arctos]

Jayson Heyward of the Cubs is sitting out tonight and it appears that neither the Milwaukee Brewers nor the Seattle Mariners will take the field.

The entire WNBA is out for the evening.

[Cal Alamein]

The season hasn't started yet, but let's get the entire NFL to 'take a knee' for this season in support of BLM. The reaction would be seismic.

[johnr]

Now to see what LeBron does.

Here we are
https://twitter.com/KingJames/status...748711936?s=19

[Hot Pepsi]

Credit to the Magic for agreeing to postpone. I suppose they could just claim it as a win by forfeit.

The NBA owners - or enough of them - see the value in owning this corner. And the players have a lot more leverage in basketball than in other sports. Some of that is because of the player-centric marketing strategy developed by shoe companies and the league chose in the 80s, but it’s also just the nature of the sport. Fewer players. Stars have long careers. Etc.

MLS has been on the right side of this and is going to come out of this year stronger, at least in terms of its reputation. It just doesn’t have the profile of the NBA in the general consciousness.

The NHL hasn’t done a bad job here, but of course, it just doesn’t have many players or fans of color. It’s working on it, but there’s a lot of inertia there.