Always.

I'm no Duke fan but that team played some aesthetically beautiful basketball interrupted occasionally by completely stupid mistakes. Houston pulling that one off was a massive upset in my eyes but I'm thinking Florida is in trouble tomorrow.

An absolutely dominant tournament for Uconn

Not a big basketball fan, so sorry if this was obvious. But when I was checking on scores, it occurred to me that the Final 4 was made up of all No. 1 seeds.

In general. I’m a UNC guy.

Fair. I feel the same way about the Yankees.

2008 was loaded. UCLA had Kevin Love and Westbrook. Calipari was coaching Memphis and had Derrick Rose. The other side of the bracket were super stacked Kansas and UNC (Hansbrough) teams.

That was also the same year Steph Curry had his run with Davidson and nearly beat Kansas in the Elite 8.

I got curious, so I looked something up.

Of the 14 players who played the most minutes for the teams in tonight's title game (7 per), only half have played their entire college careers for those teams. And only 9/14 have played more games for their current team than any other.

The attempted dunk against the rim, followed by a block on the rebound, followed by the ball going off the body out of bounds, is the basketball trifectic of LOL.

I got a chance to go to the game yesterday and ended up in one of the executive suites for the very first time in my life. I am super grateful that I was in the suite and for just about any other event I would take a return invite. I hated the game watching experience yesterday. Not having to wait in line for food or the restroom? Tremendous. All you can drink Top shelf alcohol and access to someone to drive my son, my niece, her dad and I home? Yes please even though I don't drink that much in public. It just felt like I was watching the game at home. The last thing I wanted to do was not being around the basketball fans in that arena. The experience I had yesterday just walking around the arena before the game, at halftime and after the game was not like something I have ever experienced before. I know it is a trope but it just a fun atmosphere throughout the game and the entire day.

A couple of takeaways from the actual game. First, Paige Bueckers has the capability to be an all world defender based on her performance yesterday. My goodness she was everywhere on the defensive end. I was shocked that she only had one steal and 2 blocks when I looked at the box score. Second, I love Dawn Staley but Geno took to her to school tactically. He was a step ahead with every move he made. Finally, yesterday might as well have been Homecoming for the UConn basketball program. At least ten former UConn stars were lined up to congratulate the team but also stay off to the side so as to not take too much of the focus off this year's team.

In pro sports, we would blame the commissioner. Since this is college sports, who put in the call to have the refs call a foul every time a defender had the gall to breath on his man in the second half after allowing a mugging on just about every play in the first half. This is not a commentary on whether it help decide who won the game. Houston choke the game away but the officiating was horrendous for both sides.

It was really weird the difference between the 1st and 2nd halves. It was also strange how they went on foul spurts against one team. I think it was 6 of the first 7 against Florida and then something like 9 of the next ten against Houston. It was a conspiracy theorist's dream come true.

Dola to add that i think there were also 4 fouls in 10 seconds of game time.

Yeah, I agree. Not sure which half was called more correctly, but it was jarring and really didn’t help the quality of the game on the court.

If I’m an NBA playoff team or somebody picking in the mid late first I want Walter Clayton Jr on my team. I understand all the limitations and the physical template and upside teams are looking for but kid is just a gamer and last night showed on both ends of the floor.

So the Nuggest just fired Malone. Uhhhhhhh WTF?!

He gives me Jalen Brunson vibes. Not overly gifted physically but just a damn good basketball player with a high IQ. Maybe not the highest ceiling but definitely a very high floor. Worst case scenario I see is a pretty good backup PG.

I'd love the Bulls to take him at around 13 or wherever.

Firing coaches of mid-tier playoff teams is the new fad, I guess.

Now this one? This one right here? This one makes absolutely no sense UNLESS Mike Malone went to Stan Kronke's office and went Mike Malone on him.

The Nuggets problems seem to be a GM problem, not a HC problem.

He's not being extended (renewed?) either according to ESPN.

They report tension between Booth & Malone, so apparently BOTH are out. Interesting strategy.

There has to be more to the story. There's 3 games left in the season.

The only thing I've seen is that Booth and Malone didn't get along. But I just don't see how firing a coach this late fixes that. Feels like an offseason move.

It probably should have waited until after the season but I’ve always been a big fan of letting GMs have a lot of say in the hiring of their coach so if they are both out then that makes more sense to me.

Back when he went by Mike Malone, he was fired by the Kings. I went back and looked at some of the reporting after that firing. He had issues with the front office not giving players he wanted and giving him players he did not want.

There is now reporting that Malone and Booth did not get along. I can imagine Booth getting fired and Malone believing that the title should have afforded him more personnel say and telling the owners he should be the GM as well.

Tim Connelly was the GM who created that Nuggets core who is Malone's guy. He left to Minny and Denver's record against the Connelly era Wolves is like 5-11 or something.

Michael Porter should've been traded ages ago for more rotation players and they still don't have a good backup center for Jokic. I'm pretty sure the last good one was Nurkic.

This morning's Athletic Pulse newsletter was recapping some of the NBA insanity this year, including this recent turn of events in Sacramento:

It gets even better.

Scott Perry was hired as the Kings' VP of Basketball Ops on April 21, 2017. He was then hired to be the Knicks' GM on July 14, 2017.

The guy who hired him to that position with the Kings? Vlade Divac.

Who did Monte McNair replace as permanent GM of the Kings? Vlade Divac.

Who reportedly has regained most of his influence with the Kings' owner over the last year or so? Vlade Divac.

Oh, since I don't feel he gets enough criticism for this and people need to be reminded of this over and over again, who passed on Luka Doncic with the #2 in the draft choosing instead to take Marvin Bagley Jr. because he already had DeAaron Fox on the roster?

Vlade Divac.

Jeremy Lamb is dating the owner's daughter and has been playing the role of shadow GM because he has the owner's ear. That's reportedly why Fox refused to sign an extension and wanted out. Sabonis has also been asking for clarification on who's running the organization and may ask for a trade as well.



The kings are a mess.

I'm fine with the Heat earning the opportunity to lose to the Cavs in 4 or 5 games because they won their play in games and it will be good for the young guys to taste the playoff atmosphere. However, this team does not deserve to be in the playoffs based on their regular season record and their overall play this season.

Sending the Hawks home is reason enough afaic.

Yes, fans in Dallas aren't the only ones salty about trades that involved Doncic.

#fuckthehawks

You wanted Landry Fields to be the GM to be roasted for sending Luka to the Lakers? At least Nico was able to get the Mavs Anthony Davis based on his previous job at Nike. Landry might get you Jeremy Lin.

Schlenk was the architecht of the draft day trade, at least he's gone. Fields really can't be any worse than that dumb SOB.

How many more wide open three's would Westbrook have to make before you don't leave him wide open in a end of the game situation?

I'm setting the over/under at 15 straight.

And just as I typed that... Westbrook goes Westbrook.

This has been a hell of a game one. The Nuggets are such an island of misfit toys that you would never think worked together but somehow do.

If the Grizzlies did not want to be in the playoffs, they could have forfeited the game to the Mavs.

I am not confident the Mavs would beat the Grizzlies in any other circumstance.

I don't understand the appeal of sitting behind the TV broadcast table if you are older than say twenty five years old. Yeah, they are on TV but most people look like they are waiting for their mugshot to be taken.

I’m pretty sure The Joker could get the best out of of anyone. I liken him to if Bird and Magic combined their talents into a random 50 year old 7 foot white guy. If he didn’t have the athleticism of Conan O’Brien he’d be the GOAT.

Nico Harrison - Didn't know fans' level of love for Luka Doncic - ESPN

You should be fired if you are this out of touch with your fan base.

Pistons won their first playoff game last night since Senator Barack Obama was a week away from securing the Democratic nomination for president.

6,174 days, Cade Cunningham was 6. The leading scorer from their last win, Antonio McDyess, is now 50.

Should be up 2-0 headed home.

Neither did the owner but he blames Nico as well. This is from Tim Cato who is pretty locked in with the Mavs.


I don't agree with trading Luka for the reasons that have been articulated, nor do I agree with what they got back.

However, nothing has convinced me that Harrison is not providing a shield for ownership. Executing the deals to bring in Derrick Lively, PJ Washington and Kyrie Irving over the last couple of years was enough to convince the new owners Nico was the new Jerry West? I refuse to believe that the new owners spent $3.5B to basically give Nico Harrison a general power of attorney to do whatever he wanted to with the franchise because he is "a figure with irreproachable basketball expertise". I refuse to believe that Patrick Dumont spent the last year or so in Dallas, saw all those #77 Mavs jerseys all over the city and all over that arena and needed a warning from Nico Harrison that trading the guy who was currently wearing the #77 Mavs jersey and has since 2019 might cause a fan revolt. Stop it!

If that is the case, they need to hire Woody Johnson's son to make the final basketball decisions assuming he plays NBA 2K in addition to playing Madden.

It is not the best time to bring up Ben Simmons since he has picked up two silly fouls that put him on the bench for the rest of the first half but he has played surprisingly well in his limited role with the Clippers so far.

The NBA are using WNBA style of refereeing for the playoffs and I must say I approve. No blood, no foul!

There goes Lillard's Achilles.

In the same vain, this is an appropriate way for this Cavs-Heat series to conclude.

Vacation reservations start tomorrow it appears.

wow Pacers