Category: NBA

LaVar Ball is Starting the “Big Baller League”

The most electrifying man in sports .. that isn’t in sports is back again! LaVar Ball has now come up with the outrageous idea of starting a basketball league for high school grads that don’t want to attend college. Stripping kids of free tuition to earn 10,000 a month playing for the Big Baller league. Amazing. I don’t know where this guy comes up with his ideas but he’s managed to become one of the biggest news stories of 2017 and to that I must tip the cap.

Ball’s Junior Basketball Association, which he says is fully funded by his Big Baller Brand, plans to pay the lowest-ranked player a salary of $3,000 a month and the best player $10,000 a month, Ball said. Ball is looking for 80 players to fill 10 teams that will seek to play at NBA arenas in Los Angeles, Dallas, Brooklyn and Atlanta.

However, the idea that he can essentially replace the NCAA is outrageous. Sure, the kids will earn up to  $10,000 a month but let’s be honest some of the kids at the bigger schools are probably being paid under the table. High school grads will undoubtedly be stupid for forgoing a chance at a free education just to play in LaVar Ball’s league but will it actually work? I can’t see this actually working.

However, players have gone overseas and came back to the NBA and found some success. If LaVar can strike a TV deal — can this actually work? The fact that we’re even considering the possibility of this just goes to show how powerful LaVar Ball has become. It’s absurd. If he can manage to snag one highly touted recruit, this does have potential to become successful.

The logo for the league features a silhouette of his son Lonzo, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, going to the hoop for a dunk.

“We don’t need a logo of a guy dribbling,” Ball said, an obvious reference to the NBA’s famous Jerry West silhouette. “Nobody does that anymore.”

Lonzo going for a dunk as the logo? LaVar’s troll game has literally reached new levels. 2018 will be the year of the XFL and the BBL and to be honest, I can’t even hate on it.

Isaiah Thomas Scrimmaging with Cavs G-League Team

Don’t look now but Isaiah Thomas is inching closer to playing his first game as a Cavalier.

Thomas, who injured his hip in last years Eastern Conference Playoffs, is reportedly going to scrimmage with the Cavs G-League affiliate this week, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

It appears that the plan is for Thomas to participate in his first five-on-five practice with the Canton Charge, in either the Cavs’ practice facility or in Canton. This will be Isaiah’s first real competitive test in his rehab since joining the Cavs back in August.

There still is no definitive date for his return, but Isaiah made a comment that he’d like to return in early January. As it turns out the Cavs play the Celtics on January 3rd.. revenge game anyone?

Turkey Seeking Four-Year Prison Sentence for Enes Kanter

Prosecutors are seeking more than four years in prison for New York Knicks’ player Enes Kanter. Earlier in May, Kanter posted several tweets when he was detained at a Romanian airport. One included saying that the Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the “Hitler of our century”. The six year NBA veteran’s passport was cancelled and wasn’t able to return to American until U.S officials stepped in. Updates on this story should be available soon.

 

Office Lock of the Day 12/4

I’m taking a heavy favorite today just to get back into the swing of things. Big Monday Night Football game tonight with the Steelers taking on the Bengals but that game screams trap to me. Home dawgs against Big Ben on the road? I’m all set on both sides of that. We have almost a full slate of NBA games tonight which brings me to the pick:

San Antonio Spurs ML (-160) vs Orlando Magic

Not great value out of this pick but it’s hard not to like it. The Spurs just lost a 90-87 game to the Thunder in which they rested just about everyone who is important. They return home to a matchup with Stan Van Gundy & the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons, who some would say have been overachieving this year sit at 14-8. It’s hard for me to think they’ll be able to steal one in San Antonio tonight. Give me the Spurs tonight but not taking any chances with the spread — take the ML tonight and enjoy the win.

 

LOTD: 3-0-0

 

LeBron With an Early Candidate for Block of the Year

Didn’t want to blog about this as it is a meaningless game against one of the worst teams during a November NBA game but this might have been LeBron’s best block yet. That’s career highlight material. It even worked as a bounce pass right to JR Smith.

The announcer’s call was electric as well. LeBron hate or not — incredible block and the Cavs have suddenly became the hottest team in the NBA quickly on their way to a double digit win streak.

Hack-a-Shaq Strikes Again — Ben Simmons Breaks Record for FT Attempts in a Quarter

Last night, the Sixers shot 64 free throws in a win against the Wizards. Thanks to the ‘Hack-a-Shaq’ strategy, the Wizards made a run in the fourth quarter and with a single point deficit — at 5 minutes left in the fourth, the Wizards had the lovely strategy to foul on 12 (!!) straight possessions. Ben Simmons was at the brunt of it and ended the game with 15 makes on 29 attempts from the free throw line.

He had his first 30 point game thanks to this and the fourth quarter dragged on for 48 minutes, which is absurd.

“It’s not my rule, it’s an NBA rule,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said about fouling Simmons. “Just trying to do whatever it takes to cut the lead. His free throw percentage is not good at the moment so it gave us a chance to shoot 3s while they hopefully miss free throws.”

Obviously, this is the fact with basketball and there’s really not too much you can do in regards to preventing this — but if this is happening and the game is clearly out of reach, I’m not about to sit here and watch a 48 minute 4th quarter between the Wizards and the Sixers. The Wizards did manage to cut the lead to 3 at one point, but ultimately ended up losing by 5. Hate the move but there’s not too much that can be done.

 

The Last Thunder Loss Has Broken Russell Westbrook

The Thunder dropped yet another game last night, this time to the Orlando Magic 121-108. After GM Sam Presti was hailed for winning the offseason, the Thunder have gotten out to an uninspiring 8-12 start. Combine that with their 0-5 record in the division and 2-9 record away from home, I think it’s time to start the panic button for this team.

Granted it’s only November and it’s not fair to judge a team full of new players on a slow start but I’m not sure if this team will be able to pull it together to actually make a run in the stacked Western Conference. Sure they brought in two stars to complement Westbrook but all of these players are all ball-dominant. Westbrook and Melo essentially play the same iso scoring game, both needing the ball to create. Paul George is a two-way player and probably was a great pickup — but at this point I think he is leaving after the year to explore greener pastures rather than staying in OKC. Westbrook put up 37 last night and the Thunder still lost by 13 — this shouldn’t be happening on a team touting 3 all-star caliber players. I expect the Thunder to turn it around but I don’t think anybody is expecting this team to make a run at the Warriors.

21 Savage with an AWFUL Half-Time Performance at Hawks Game

On Wednesday night, during a thrilling game between the 3-11 Sacramento Kings and the 3-12 Atlanta Hawks came one of the worst half-time performances of all time. Fitting to the awful matchup on a random Wednesday night, popular rapper 21 Savage came out and had a performance that was unequally awful and uninspired as the game.

This honestly sounds and looks like one of those voice-over parody videos.  Half-time performances are dumb to begin with, especially in November of the regular season. Still not the worst performance on the court this season by Atlanta but this was brutal to watch and listen to. Better luck next time Hawks.

LeBron Goes Full Villain-Mode After Knicks Win

LeBron has been in the news cycle a lot before the Knicks game last night due to his comments that they should have drafted Mavs’ rookie Dennis Smith Jr. rather than Frank Ntilikina. Smith Jr. has of course been lighting up the league, which means LeBron is certainly not wrong — but the context of this irked the Knicks, especially Enes Kanter.  The game was certainly chippy and this scuffle between Kanter and LeBron occurred in the first quarter.

The Knicks dominated most of the game and according to ESPN, had a 99.2% chance of winning with a 75-56 lead towards the end of the third quarter. However, the Knicks did what they do best and found a way to lose to Cleveland — which prompted the below instagram post by LeBron after the game.

I absolutely love the move. The only thing missing from LeBron’s game is that villain aspect. For years, he has tried to play the nice guy role when he should be taking Kobe’s lead and play with the villain mentality. He was at peak-LeBron when he was on the Heat and everybody hated him. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come because the nice guy image is not working.

The Funniest Thing You’ll See Today: Jimmy Butler

 

Laugh out loud funny stuff from Jimmy Butler on a canoe. He’s been having a solid season out in Minnesota but is clearly not a fan out the outdoors. He’s wearing two life jackets and still manages to let out the loudest screech possible. The absolute kicker is when you find out that he’s only in ankle-deep water.