2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

Paul George just unreal this season

gonna watch Hornets/Warriors tonight, should be a fun game

actually I had a dream last week that there was a 4th Ball brother named Larry and he was incredibly scrawny and worked at Panera Bread

thats actually true

it's hard to say what the difference is between dreams and reality tbh

thats true also

Jeff Green washed it seems. Annoying that it’s the nuggets that it happens on

i thought jeff green came pre-washed

He was great last year (empty arenas maybe?)

GSW would be so far behind if they didn't have the greatest sharpshooter in the league (Jordan Poole)

starting to get a little concerned about the nuggets bench but I’m trying to think positive and say they’ll figure it out, MPJ will start hitting shots, jamal comes back, and all is good. really like watching bones hyland play

Miles bridges has made ~the leap~

GP2 playing inspired ball this game

Damn he’s doing it all

must be so cool for him considering how much of a legend his dad is in the bay

starting to get a little concerned about the nuggets bench but I’m trying to think positive and say they’ll figure it out, MPJ will start hitting shots, jamal comes back, and all is good. really like watching bones hyland play

sarver story dropped
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32440987/phoenix-suns-robert-sarver-allegations-racism-misogyny

what a scumbag eject him from the league

it seems like it at least approaches being comparable to the Sterling stuff, but it took like 30 years of all this simmering to get him out. otoh

whoops, was gonna say otoh these things accelerate quickly, so if the right people line up behind getting him out, can def see it happening. would the team refuse to play for him like the clippers did? did monty make a statement earlier when the teaser leaked?

they also had sterling on tape

reading that article every allegation is met with a denial like i would never do that im a nice and respectful boy then finally hes all ok fine i did pants that one guy in front of everyone

the fact that they got a quote from a suns co owner makes me think that this is part of a serious push to get him out of there

guess theres not enough here to out him outright? think they players or the fans will have to revolt or something

yeah this does not feel like a bombshell investigative piece to me but sarver is clearly a shitty dude and a bad owner and there is definitely some sort of scheme to oust him that is not based on nothing

the steve kerr quote really stands out in that article…wonder if he wishes he just said “no comment” now

yeah agree re the kerr comment. he couldve even said in my experience with him and left it open to the possibility of him being a pos.

one things for sure, earl watson... not a sarver fan

i'm curious about the kerr/sarver relationship

also james jones - obv he's still there so a lot more motivation to tow the party line, but both his and kerr's statements are pretty strong

cp3 is one of the most powerful players in the league it will be interesting to see his reaction to this. i don’t think that this story is enough to remove sarver as an owner — they mention in the story how difficult it is?— but if a lot of powerful players put pressure on the NBA publicly maybe silver would try and move on him

i agree tho that the co owner aspect is very telling

this story is also a good reminder that you can hire black coaches and GMs for racist reasons

I thought that was one of the weakest parts of the story actually — how it paraphrased sarver as wanting to hire a black coach who could “speak the players’ language.” obviously how that sentiment is conveyed will mean everything, but the way it was presented in the story made it seem pretty innocuous, essentially the standard neoliberal diversity mantra

the most depressing aspect of the story for me is that even if Sarver is forced out, he'd also cash out at near the team's peak value and be able to pocket hundreds of millions in capital gains.

obviously how that sentiment is conveyed will mean everything

I should add that I don’t exactly trust that sarver had the best intentions

well, to be clear, here is how that sentiment was (allegedly) conveyed:

"These [N-words] need a [N-word]," Sarver told the staffer of his largely Black team, according to the executive.

um ok apparently I completely glossed over that? retracted

that was in reference to lindsey hunter vs dan majerle & not earl watson — nonetheless

in other news, this team is decrepit as hell

New story: LeBron James is out with an abdominal strain. While no timeline for his return has been provided by the Lakers, a source familiar with the injury told ESPN that the team's medical staff "wants to take their time" with James' recovery https://t.co/2Gv9cMhXvH

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 4, 2021

seems like that sarver story got held up so that he/his lawyers could rebut and deny as much as possible once it was leaked that it was happening?

he's a scumbag but i'm not really sure i'm seeing the angle that ends up with him selling the team.

😬 Not worried but my radar is up. pic.twitter.com/o6NTMBhPvp

— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) November 4, 2021

xp

i guess ankle vs ab is different but lebron was allegedly healthy going into the playoffs last year and looked like a shell of himself

seems like that sarver story got held up so that he/his lawyers could rebut and deny as much as possible once it was leaked that it was happening?

he's a scumbag but i'm not really sure i'm seeing the angle that ends up with him selling the team.

― call all destroyer, Thursday, November 4, 2021 3:13 PM (nine minutes ago)

i feel like it's going to come down to public pressure and whether that will get him to step away. if he wants to be litigious about it i question whether there is enough there to forcibly remove him

watching a woj thing just now and he mentioned the hawks owner who had to sell the team after his racist email leaked and floated the idea that some sort of hard evidence might be turned up in investigating sarver. (or maybe not, if no one leaked anything to baxter holmes.) the levinson thing also happened months after sarver so maybe that timing was an important factor

the article said it was hard for the co owners of the suns to remove him but im not sure what the leagues options are, maybe the rest of the owners can just vote that he violated some conduct clause and make him sell, they got sterling out of there fast iirc

but the threat of deep public humiliation via investigation might be more relevant at this point

sarver seems particularly intransigent but yeah there may be more evidence or he may just not want to deal with it, good luck predicting anything with these types of guys.

i mean if he uses email hes basically fucked

all the owners have dirt they dont want to sell eachother out i bet

yeah im sure they dont want to but there is a point at which they will

cuban/mavs gonna avoid this one like the plague

lol yeah