An NBA-obsessed newsletter for the info-craved basketball mind.

11.30.18

  Written while listening to The Notorious B.I.G.'s Unbelievable

Howard situation is ugly for all involved

If you aren’t plugged into NBA Twitter, it’s entirely possible you missed a very strange and mostly sad story about Dwight Howard that unfolded over the last week.The Wizards’ center was essentially outed as gay by a transvestite man, whose tweet thread included alleged conversions between he and Howard about Howard’s closeted homosexuality.The man’s name is Masin Elije, and you can read the thread here, where he accuses Howard of sexual harassment, manipulation, and threatening behavior in an attempt to pay him hush money.Howard, whose last tweet was in July, hasn’t responded publicly, nor has he been available. He’s been out of Washington’s lineup since Nov. 18, and it was reported yesterday that he may miss the rest of the season with what can only be described as a butt injury.These tweets were sent on Nov. 24. The Twitter community has had a trans and homophobic party, but the mainstream media, beyond a few click-farm content sites, hasn’t touched this story in the slightest. 

The Washington Post and it’s Wizards beat writer, Candace Buckner, haven’t so much as tweeted about it... 

... let alone written a column or reaction story: the lone Dwight Howard link since this happened is a Howard-needs-surgery story.As far as we can tell, there were no columns by major news sites written that were strict reactions to the news, which is strange, because it seems like a ‘what happened with Dwight Howard and his alleged victim is sad and homophobic’ column would have been the easy, fast, and right take. Woj, Shams, Windhorst, Haynes, or any other big-time NBA reporter, have yet to acknowledge that this happened.Not even TMZ has drummed up a story.Instead, we’ve gotten the reaction pieces to the non-reaction.

• Deadspin: Masin Elijé Is Still Talking About His Harassment Accusation Against Dwight Howard, But Almost No One Else Is

• New York Magazine: The Weird Dwight Howard Saga Shows the NBA Still Has a Problem With the Closet

Dwight Howard being accused of sexual harassment and non-sexual harassment is news. It is not something the Washington Post and the New York Times should just ignore.

The NBA likes to align itself with LGBTQ-friendly themes, and this is a story of homophobia that they have not commented on.The NBA media writes here’s-what-you-need-to-know stories when a player accidentally reveals a teammate is cheating on his girlfriend. The world is obsessed with what NBA players do. The world stopped when we saw Draymond Green verbally abuse Kevin Durant. New leaks came out the day after that happened every 30 minutes.Sad, strange, ugly and inconvenient as this is, it’s a story that deserves more reputable thought and coverage.

Steph Curry’s viral letter, analyzed

You have surely seen the latest event in the OMG STEPH IS SO CUTE craze. And, look, Steph Curry is definitely a nice guy. As Ryen Russillo called him on this podcast, he’s the rapper who doesn’t swear. He’s Will Smith, circa 1992: cool, talented, safe. But we have some questions about this letter. 

Did he REALLY write this? The all-caps handwriting feels like a serial killer trying to hide his/her identity. Are these his words? Maybe a few of them?C’mon -- it’s so clean. It has no scribbles or errors. (You should see what our Google doc edits look like!) At most, he just copied over the prewritten message for his PR team to scan it and send to the click-happy blogs and Twitter personalities.If that wasn’t clear enough: The letter is definitely scanned. At least take a picture with your iPhone, Steph. 

And one more question you must ask yourself:

Did Curry actually work tirelessly with Under Armour for the last two days to fix this issue? It was probably just a text or two.If you didn’t read the entire letter, please note that, towards the end, there is mention that his team and him “have something special planned for International Women’s Day on March 8th.”Mark your calendars, folks, this PR scheme is far from over.IN SHORT: We’re very happy little girls can now buy their own Steph Curry shoes. But we’re far too jaded to believe this was wholly organic.

Can't Miss Crossover

Darren Collison on the Sun’s Deandre Ayton

  Quick Hits

• Kevin Durant dropped 51 last night in a loss to the 19-4 Raptors, becoming the third Warrior to score 50 this year. No team in NBA history has had four 50-point scorers in a season. Hopefully they pick a good night to start force-feeding Jonas Jerebko.

• To smart NBA people, it comes as no surprise that Luka Doncic is doing what he’s doing. Here are some highlights from the Rookie of the Year in waiting.

• The Kings are winning some games, which is of course overshadowed by the fact that the front office wants to fire Dave Joerger.

• We’re now watching the generation of players, like Grizzlies rookie Jaren Jackson, who have been caught pirating videos by the FBI.

• Earlier this week, Russell Westbrook made the media wait to talk to him after a game for two hours, a selfish move that was quickly spun into a positive headline.

• Trade Alert: Cleveland has traded Kyle Korver to the Utah Jazz for two future second round picks.

 Concrete Reads

• Unwanted in L.A., Brook Lopez became Milwaukee’s ‘Splash Mountain’ [New York Times]

• The ballad of Buddy Buckets [The Ringer]

• The precarious perch of NBA broadcasters [S/O Leo]

  Podcast Pick

• Zach Lowe chats with Mike Conley about the resurgent Grizzlies [ESPN]

Three games to see this weekend

Tonight, ESPN

Tomorrow, Reddit

Sunday, Reddit