Fri, July 10, 2020

Bubble updates — Stephen Jackson — 1992 Lithuanian hoops

July 10, 2020

Friday, July 10th, 2020

  The Opening Tip

  • The bubble has already produced some funny social media posts

  • Stephen Jackson is, it turns out, not so chill

  • Remembering the time the Lithuanian basketball team was decked out in Grateful Dead gear

  • Can you guess the Nets’ all-time leading scorer?

1. The Lead: Every NBA team is in Orlando. Let the weirdness commence. 

Every NBA team reported to Orlando on Tuesday.So, yes, this Truman Show bubble full of millionaire athletes turned AAU players on the elongated sleepover tournament from hell is actually going to happen.Notes from the first few days: 

  1. Joel Embiid rolled up to Orlando in a damn hazmat suit, then got testy about the food. 

  2. In general, the food has been gawked at by many players -- not the Mickey waffles, though -- which has led to one common joke: There’s no way LeBron is eating this stuff. 

  3. Rajon Rondo thinks this is what a Motel 6 looks like.  

  4. JR Smith’s bed allegedly has no sheets.

  5. The Mavs are finding ways to entertain themselves already.

  6. ALSO: Bradley Beal announced on Tuesday he’d be sitting out the return, which makes the Wizards’ inclusion even more pointless.

By the numbers: The Disney campus is 220 acres big, has “more than a dozen” practice courts, and can host three live games at a time, according to this USA Today article. A timeline reminder: 

  • July 7 was the report date to Orlando. 

  • From now until July 29, practices and scrimmages will take place. 

  • Games start July 30. 

  • The playoffs begin Aug. 17.

  • The second round starts Aug. 31. 

  • The conference finals start Sept. 15.

  • The Finals begin Sept. 30. 

 2. At least this man will be in the NBA bubble  

Jamal Crawford signed with the Nets a few days ago, which means there will be at least one reason to watch Brooklyn in Orlando. Crawford is joined by fellow new-signee Michael Beasley.(List of Brooklyn players that have dropped out: Spencer Dinwiddie, Taurean Prince, DeAndre Jordan, Wilson Chandler.)Of note: If the Nets don’t make the playoffs, they’ll get to keep their first round draft pick rather than give it to Minnesota.

 3. Stephen Jackson gets anti-Semetic     

Former NBA player Stephen Jackson is an anti-Semite, SparkNotes edition: 

  1. Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson posted some dumbass anti-Semetic quotes on Instagram he thought were the words of Adolf Hitler last weekend. (Turns out they were that of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.) He apologized on Tuesday, which he wouldn’t have had to do, if he never tried to quote, uh, Hitler. (Max Kellerman nailed that point here.)

  2. Also on Tuesday, Stephen Jackson came off the top rope to defend DeSean, saying, “he’s speaking the truth of the facts that he knows, and trying to educate others.” WHAT!

  3. On Wednesday, Stephen went on Instagram Live and first said, “I don’t know nothing about Hitler and I could give a fuck about Hitler.” OK! 

  4. Also on Wednesday, Stephen said: “The Jews are the richest. You know who the Rothschilds are? … They control all the banks. They own all the banks.” OH!

  5. On Wednesday night, he went on CNN -- as if cable news has ever helped anything -- and did the sorry if you’re offended thing.

In short: If you know as much about Hitler and The Holocaust as Greg from Curb, maybe you should try and learn a few things.PS: This is the guy we called a ‘remarkable human being’ for his grace in the wake of George Floyd’s death, which is lesson No. 182,757,963,991 why you should always assume most people are mostly bad, or at least not all good.PPS: If you need a quick catchup on Germany from 1914-1945, let Norm MacDonald educate you.

4. Quiz: Can you name the Nets’ franchise leader in points?     

Buck Williams

The New York/New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets/Americans have one of the strangest top-10 scoring lists in the league.

Try your best to fill in the blanks.

Answers at the bottom. 

  1. _________: 10,444

  2. Buck Williams: 10,440

  3. _________: 8,834

  4. Richard Jefferson: 8,507

  5. _________: 7,373

  6. John Williamson: 7,202

  7. Julius Erving: 7,104

  8. Kerry Kittles: 7,096

  9. ____ Coleman: 6,930

  10. Chris Morris: 6,762

5. Things You Probably Didn’t Know: Eastern European Basketball Edition

Longtime basketball writer Jack McCallum, who covered the NBA in the ‘80s and ‘90s as extensively as anyone alive, recently released a narrative podcast about the Dream Team.It was essentially the audio cousin of his book, Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever, and featured the scratchy-but-cool original audio recordings of his interviews with every Dream Teamer from a decade ago.It’s eight episodes long, and all worth listening to.There was one story we’d never heard, though: How the Lithuanian national team got suited up in Grateful Dead warmups, as pictured above.In short: In 1990, Lithuania, after decades under Soviet rule, achieved independence, which meant two things in relation to the Olympics: 

  1. They could compete independently, as Lithuania, starting in 1992. 

  2. They had no money to do so. 

The national team’s coach was Donnie Nelson, son of Celtic great, longtime coach and all-time weed smoker Don Nelson. In the leadup to 1992, the younger Nelson started fundraising for his team among NBA circles. This news leaked to a sportswriter in San Francisco, who wrote a story about Nelson’s quest, which trickled down to the Grateful Dead’s PR manager, who told the band, which immediately sent a big check to Nelson and hooked the team up with some rad tie-dye shirts of skeletons dunking, which are now a commodity on eBay.In Barcelona, Lithuania beat the Commonwealth of Independent States, previously known as the Soviet empire, which had dissolved a year earlier, in the Bronze game, 82-78, then rocked their warmups on stage to receive their third-place medals, which is on the short list of coolest things that have ever happened at a sporting event.

6.  Off the Press  

  • What does the NBA do for next season? [ESPN]

  • The NBA free agents with the most at stake inside the bubble [The Ringer]

  • Pittsburgh Steeler Zach Banner stands up for the Jews [Tablet]