2022/23 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "TANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

christian wood just had an assist…spurs understand the assignment now I think

steph going off

i went to the spurs game on sunday when they lost to okc, had seats right behind the camera crew, can report that zach collins stacks empty stats while he blows defensive assignments, perfect tank center

41 thru 3 for steph and he’s making ridiculous lay ups

this shot

Steph must know I’m dropping a Klay Thompson video tomorrow pic.twitter.com/CieKIqD9tf

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) March 16, 2023

Clippers looked legit tonight. Didn't feel like the standard warriors road curse.

watching this ja interview… jalen rose not exactly a hard hitting journalist

lmao his answers are all well I went and took care of business baby that's my family we're talking about

just watched, even by espn access journalism standards that was softball

gotta get ja home and tucked in safely

The Grizzlies have decided to leave road cities (like Miami) immediately after the game instead of staying overnight, per @TheAthletic

(Via https://t.co/Fy1S8thLPy) pic.twitter.com/ULg6b22rVh

— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) March 16, 2023

james harden crossing memphis off his list of potential free agent destinations

(like Miami)
thank you @TheNBACentral for making it clear

all those crazy night life strip club cities such as denver colorado

Atlanta Hawks F Bogdan Bogdanovic has agreed on a four-year, $68 million contract extension, sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 16, 2023

it's a well-known quin snyder quirk, he really likes to have a bo*an bogdanovic on any team he coaches

prob hoping he can make it through this season and then use that contract for trades?

watching this ja interview… jalen rose not exactly a hard hitting journalist

― J0rdan S., Thursday, 16 March 2023 05:28 (thirteen hours ago) link

When Ja conjured up the image of his daughter inspiring him to seek help, I had to applaud the cyrano-ing by the media consultants. Had to lol at him saying “this is not who I am” when I mean I’m not sure what else he’s spent his off court life doing, he can’t even leave a stadium without immediately getting a laser sight pointed at the opposing teams staff. Anyway I guess that’s the end of it, smooth sailing here on out.

it was pretty insulting to be asked to believe that he did any meaningful mental health work in a few days in florida, but mentioning the pseudoscience of Reiki as being part of it was the cherry on top

the "that's not who i am" thing really rankled no doubt. again i get that he prob can't admit to anything for legal reasons but ummm the whole reason we're here is because that's who you are. maybe it's not who you *want* to be... that would've been a much more honest & digestible answer. he wasn't able to sell the canned responses either, you could hear him clicking into coached up mode as if he had been shocked by an electric collar a few seconds after he began speaking

prob hoping he can make it through this season and then use that contract for trades?

― four square ups... no punches thrown (Spottie), Thursday, March 16, 2023 3:14 PM (nine minutes ago)

he had a player option for next season which he wiped to do this deal so if they wanted to use his salary in a trade they could've just had him opt in as a sign and trade. tho that hard caps you and maybe if they trade him this summer after signing him now it doesn't count as a sign & trade? so maybe you're onto something

in any event i'm not sure who wants $64 million of his 31-35 seasons when his knees break down by playoff time but maybe i'm wrong about his market. he is a great shooter

IDK I think the Ja we've seen is who he wants to be.

he didn't even acknowledge what he did or even hint at any accountability! it was actually painful to watch, you could tell he didn't really want to be there

but you all know this, the NBA is a reality TV show that fronts a multibillion dollar business. the average consumer is not watching multiple games a night and listening to NBA podcasts all day, they know ja from clips as the cool dunk guy on sportscenter, in the past few weeks they've known him as the gun guy, and now the audience has been served a (farcical) sit-down interview where he atones for his mistakes. all the boxes have been checked. the NBA and its corporate partners don't care about ja, they don't care about the private citizens he and his family have been menacing around greater memphis and on the road, they certaintly don't care about personal conduct standards -- they care about bad publicity that threatens their bottom line, and they have calculated, probably correctly, that this little florida trip and 4 minute interview is what their audience will accept

anyway go nuggets the vibes team

i mean, he's 23. there's been plenty of guys in the NBA who got up to worse stuff than this who came out the other side as upstanding citizens. zach randolph (whose friends [allegedly] beat a weed dealer w/ pool cues when z bo was 30) comes to mind... branding ja as a bad guy off of all this is, i think, harsh and far too unforgiving

what kind of guy is he?

The grizzlies getting Ja out of opposing cities in the dead of night before he goes all Aaron Hernandez on their watch.

He is young though, and obviously if Aaron Hernandez had a better system around him he might not have become you know a serial killer. I’m guessing or rather hoping that everything that’s happened so far is more bluster than anything, misguided tough guy bullshit.

I mean obviously it’s bluster so far I just hope that’s all he’s really capable of and he’s good from here on out

I suspect Hernandez getting hit in the head a lot was a factor

The grizzlies getting Ja out of opposing cities in the dead of night before he goes all Aaron Hernandez on their watch.

― omar little, Thursday, March 16, 2023 3:52 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is a funny detail

aaron hernandez was doing crazy violent over the top shit back to when he was in college i don't think he's a fair comparison for ja

the NBA and its corporate partners don't care about ja

this may be true (tho i'd like to believe adam silver does care about ja) but it's also worth remembering that most punishment in the NBA has already been collectively bargained. i don't know enough about the CBA to say exactly what latitude silver has to suspend somebody for (what appears to be) legal possession of a handgun but my guess would be not very much. the union assuredly would've appealed a lengthy suspension and probably would've won.

feel like this dovetails w/ the brandon miller discussion where i look at the team as deeply failing the player. memphis could keep ja away as long as they want to but obv their priority is this year's playoffs. and that's what doesn't sit right for me for the reasons you touch on

I would argue that there’s no way he’s like Aaron Hernandez, but the grizzlies can’t take the same chance making that argument considering the way he’s been trending.

yeah hernandez was a rare psycho its unlikely ja is that

Grizz are obv trying to save their season, protect their investment, and do it via doing what seems to be the minimum amount to make sure Ja is not going to put himself in bad and dangerous situations in the future. It just seems like a lot of empty gesturing towards the issue. Def like the Miller thing though tbh I think the Miller thing is worse in terms of how the team handled it and it’s still less clear what actually happened. W Ja at least we kind of understand it.

Anyway they really better help him out and maybe he needs better friends

gl lonzo

ESPN Sources: Bulls G Lonzo Ball will undergo a third surgical procedure on his left
knee in past 14 months. He hasn’t played since January of 2022 and had already been ruled out this season.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 16, 2023

xp irl i do a lot of work around how adversity and trauma in childhood influence brain development and make it hard to the point of impossible for people to just turn on their polite society personas when they are thrust into a different milieu, when everything inside of them is giving them messages and instincts like i need to defend my people/show out with strength and power/intimate fear in anyone i perceive as threatening me. being steeped in this stuff all the time i try to see a lot of athlete misbehavior through that lens and have compassion and patience as a result. that said,

1) i know next to nothing about how ja was actually brought up - on the one hand he seems to have had a more stable family environment than a lot of ballers, on the other those family members seem to have been modeling and joining in with this behavior on numerous occasions

2) it should be a major high priority for the nba and its teams to provide the guidance that helps players who come from those backgrounds to learn how to manage in the world of money and entourages and etc etc. i mean going into this season ja was arguably THE most charismatic up and coming star in the league, winning smile, nightly sportscenter dunks, exciting young team (well at least that was a big plus before their heel turn, lol). it's definitely a failure of lots of parties involved from the league to the team. of all people trying to come up from the streets, star athletes have the most rare of resources and opportunities to extricate themselves from that life. i do have a hard time imagining that a lot of that hasn't been going on, though, so hard to know how much ja has just been blowing it off, vs. the people who should be looking out for him being afraid to rock the boat or have hard conversations

i couldnt make it through the full 20 minute ja interview. mostly cos its BS as stated above but also i cant look at Jalens hair/facial hair any more for extended periods of time.

There are concerns about Ball’s ability to resume his career and hopes that this surgery — which could cost Ball another full season away — will give him a pathway to play again, sources said. ESPN reported last week that Ball was weighing procedure. https://t.co/vjTLR8MBHq

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 16, 2023

what a mess.

jordan I feel like we are largely on the same page here but I just want to be clear that while yes I am more anti-gun than most people, the most concerning thing to me is not that he owns a gun or whatever, but that there is now a documented (and even then, only the ones that have been documented!) pattern of poor judgment *out in the community* where he and his family and friends are flexing their muscle like they're the local mob, on more than one occasion involving a gun. it's not like he's finding himself in the wrong places at the wrong time -- hes actively escalating situations in ways that are seriously, seriously concerning, the sort of situations that can easily continue to escalate into awful violence. and while I'm hopeful he can outgrow it, there wasn't anything in that interview that really demonstrated he had thought too deeply about his behavior, he spent most of his answers justifying it!

feel super bad for lonzo speaking of fucked up family situations, he seems like a chill dude

if he misses another full season he'll be playing a final year w/ chicago on his player option

oh man I didn't realize there was a 20 minute version of the interview, not really sure I can subject myself to that

k3v i don't think ja is faultless by any stretch. and the apology interview was really disappointing. i'm just bristling against the "well we know ja is a bad guy" posts bcuz i think it's way too early to say that

i cant look at Jalens hair/facial hair any more for extended periods of time.

― four square ups... no punches thrown (Spottie), Thursday, March 16, 2023 4:35 PM (ten seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

jalens mid life crisis fashion situation doesnt get the attention it deserves hes out of control and really believes hes a style authority saw some thing the other day where he was saying men should spend $100 minimum on a haircut like people should be listening to him and while ago i watched a clip from jalen an jacoby where jacoby was lightly ribbing him for the ridiculous pink suit hed worn the night before and jalen went into this whole soliloquy about how he was a trend setter moving the culture forward and in fact, and this is the crazy part, jacoby was wearing a sweater that had a little bit of pink on it and jalen claimed that the pink suit had influenced him to wear the sweater

lmao!

he believes that because he was part of the fab five that it awards him lifelong fashion icon status.

ha hadnt thought of that angle but yeah thats gotta be part of it

tbf he DID start the trend of naming children jalen (or i guess his parents did)