2017 NBA Offseason

[Leroy]

Since I have nothing to add here other than to pat myself on the back for getting the Sixers involved in this discussion , is it just me or does that Lonzo or whatever his name is (the Lakers kid) have a really weird looking shot, almost starts at his belly? Man, he will get that slapped away a lot. Or maybe he is more of a passer than a shooter. No idea, other than I hear his dad thinks he's the best.

[Socnorb11]

He does have a weird shot. I'm not real high on the kid. Maybe he'll be good. It's easy to root against him, though.

[themiddle54]

I don't believe I've stripped KD of any basic humanity in forming my opinions.

A lot of the narrative surrounding KD, and LeBron before him with The Decision, does exactly that. Remember there was a book called "The Whore of Akron" about LeBron by a bitter Cleveland fan? Remember them burning his jerseys? Same for Durant. Same for Wayne Rooney and Everton up to a year ago--one sign in the stands read "Once A Blue/Now A Red/In Our Hearts/You Are Dead."

There's a fascinating book by Yago Colas, a prof at U MIchigan called "Ball Don't Lie" in which he explores myths about basketball. The Myth of The Right Way (racializes analysis and insists that The Right Way ((Larry Brown)) is not just pragmatic for winning games but morally superior to the Wrong Way ((Allen Iverson)) ), The Myth of Invention (basketball did not spring from Naismith, fully formed, on a single day in 1891), and so on. It culminates with The Myth Of The Man in Chapter 9. It deals with how people treated LeBron* post-Decision. Remember, the Cavs owner called him a traitor, sold his posters on the Cavs site for $17.41 (the year of Benedict Arnold's birth), cited LeBron's "cowardly betrayal." Sean Conboy: "In a world of attention whores, The King has ascended to the throne." Maureen Dowd: "It's usually women who get accused of needing to go places (the bathroom) in groups." They said coward, mercenary, traitor, and all sorts of other things about Lebron while with their words trying to take away his dignity and his masculinity. In "The Whore of Akron": "LeBron did the same thing as any trollop worth her taxi fare: he made the right noises, told us how good it felt, how big we were, how he loved us, how special we were. Oh, we knew...that he was only a child, and a child born unto a hapless mother more or less a child herself. His vast sense of childish entitlement seemed to speak louder every season. But lord, the sex ws fine." That's a grown man basically saying the city is a john and LeBron is an underage hooker using that analogy to paint LeBron as the immature one. He's also accusing LeBron of entitlement issues, without a hint of irony as he, a native of #Believeland expressing an entitlement to James he did not deserve, wrote those words.

Colas writes, in "Ball Don't Lie" about what these criticisms of James (and Durant, and Rooney, and others) mean:

Specifically, the Myth of the Man comprises four sets of tropes of masculinity that its adherents accuse James of violating: (1) the Sports Man (tropes that equate a narrow definition of sportsmanship with an equally narrow definition of masculinity and exclude James from both), (2) the Grown Man (tropes that explain James's decision in terms of immaturity, childishness, or failure in other ways to be an adult man), (3) the Noble Man (tropes that identify masculinity with a code of honor associated with nobility and then exclude James from both), (4) the Man's Man (tropes that associate James's decision with female stereotypes.)

People are doing the same thing with Durant. And they're doing it because they consider it audacious for a professional player to use the autonomy of his own personal free agency.

*LeBrron is a guy who has been under a microscope since he was 16 and has a spotless record of public behavior and on-court performance yet who is constantly referred to, up to and including in my bar, as a "little b***h" solely because he dared change teams one time. Durant is a guy who has been under a microscope since 18 and who gave a million bucks to a OK town that got blitzed by a tornado and who has a similarly sterling on- and off-court reputation as a teammate and a guy.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

It's almost like Lonzo and LaVar are playing good cop bad cop. I like what they're trying to do: why punt all that fortune to one of the athletic manufacturers if you think you're capable of running things (remains to be seen and could certainly backfire or fail, but LaVar is certainly succeeding in getting the press)? I just really dislike the way LaVar goes about it--he should just bang Ray-J on film. I also dislike the aesthetics of Lonzo's shot. But everything I've seen of Lonzo (which is far less than his dad), he's represented himself pretty well I thought.

This Foot Locker commercial honestly did make me feel better about the situation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPteUZf ... FootLocker

[Tim]

Bookmark me.

I'd take Fox over Lonzo.

[themiddle54]

Bookmark me.

I'd take Fox over Lonzo.

There's something for everyone in the top 5-6 guys in the draft. Fultz has the best instincts and is the best Playbook Player. Ball is the best passer and has the best court vision--that shot is ugly though, it's like he makes it easier for right-handed defenders to make life difficult for him and players are longer in the NBA so I'm suspicious of the notion that because his shot fell in college it's ok to shoot like that as a pro. Jackson is the best two-way player of the bunch. Isaac has length and bounce and ceiling for days. Fox has long athleticism and seems like the most competitive of the bunch. Tatum is by far the most advanced shooter of the bunch. I'm not sure who I like best of the bunch, but it's going to be fun watching this draft class put their stamp on the league over the next decade, including guys drafted later like Giles (a steal at 20 b/c ceiling) and Anigbogu and Bell who could both end up elite defenders.

[Socnorb11]

Peyton Manning at the ESPY's:

“Our gymnastics team was so dominant that Kevin Durant told me he wants to play for them next year. I gotta tell you, I don’t think you’d start for that team, Kevin,” Manning continued, while Durant kept looking unamused.

Then, Manning added, “Russell Westbrook, what do you think?”

[SHOW]

[Leroy]

Oh, man...that's the same look Trump had when Obama went after him.

Durant 2020?

[thrill]

Bookmark me.

I'd take Fox over Lonzo.

I would too but I'm solely basing that on Fox showing him up when they went head to head.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

There was a good piece on Oden from the Thigh Issue. I really don't know if it was the inserts they put in his shoes that did him in, but the Blazers really did not do well by him. The guy took everything so hard. They just left him out on an island with all that weight on his shoulders. I'm glad to see he seems to have things going for him now. He was such a goofy, happy kid when he got here. Knowing he made some real bad choices, I was also relieved to see he has most of his money.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/1986 ... ohio-state