Fri, September 13th, 2019

An NBA-obsessed newsletter for the info-craved basketball mind. Did a friend forward you this newsletter? Sign yourself up here.

Written while listening to Childish Gambino's This Is America

Aw man, we really suck

Serbia and Team USA were the favorites entering the 2019 FIBA World Cup. Both teams were upset in the quarter-finals earlier this week, and played yesterday in the fifth-place bracket.Gregg Popovich, who is so over this facade we call life, said this to Serbian coach Sasha Djordevic before the game: “We are a couple of fucking losers.”Anywho, USA lost to Serbia, 94-89, which wasn’t all that bad considering Serbia was winning after the first quarter, 32-7.Now, Team USA will play Poland tomorrow at 4 a.m. EST with a chance at seventh place on the line. We'll forgive you if you sit this one out. And you thought the Flint Tropics going for fourth place was kind of sad. Does any of this matter?Of course it does! Behind the Olympics, it’s the second biggest international basketball competition in the world. And USA’s team wasn’t exactly stacked, but it had 12 NBA players, which is seven more than any other team in the competition.Guess we’ll just have to wait until next year’s Tokyo Olympics, when the best American players will be more bothered to play for their country. There’s still a World Cup champion to be crownedLuis Scola, the 39-year-old wonder, dropped 28 points this morning on France in an 80-66 victory for Argentina, putting them through to the finals.(Maybe it’s because of the serene court he built and practices at in the Argentinian countryside.)Scola's style is very much old-man, YMCA bully-ball, but he can also confidently pull up and hit from deep, something he started to develop in his later NBA years.In the finals, Argentina will play Spain, which outlasted Australia this morning in double-overtime (!), 95-88.It was an awesome and infectious game, which served as a two-hour ad for how good international basketball can be. It swept Luka Doncic off his feet.And it even featured this guy, rocking a Lakers Shaq jersey:The highlight of the tournament almost came from Ricky Rubio who juuuuuuust missed a halfcourt bankshot which would have won the game.Anyway, shoutout to Patty Mills (despite a missed free throw with 4.7 seconds left in regulation which would have given the Aussies a one-point lead), who dropped 34 points in the defeat and had a great tournament overall, and shoutout to Marc Gasol, who scored 33 points, including two late free-throws to send the game to double-OT.The final game will be played Sunday morning at 8 a.m. EST.Here are the highlights from Argentina-France, and here are the highlights from Spain-Australia.And here’s the reaction from Spain’s bench as the final seconds ticked down.

Get a load of this psychopath

Imagine this situation in your head: You just found out your daughter, who plays basketball, is going to be coached by NBA legend and five-time champion Kobe Bryant. There is much for you to take in. To make it easier, we have assembled a pro and a con list for your new situation.Here is the pro: Kobe Bryant knows a lot about basketball, and has proven such in high-pressure situations, like the NBA playoffs. And, hey, you can probably get a photo with the guy, plus it’ll be a great fun fact to drop when you and your buddies Chad, Tyler and Brent hit the links this weekend.Here is the con: If your daughter has another passion, such as a dance recital that will occasionally conflict with basketball, Kobe Bryant will call her out to his 10.3 million followers. 

 Quick Hits 

• Shaun Livingston announced he’s retiring this morning after 15 NBA seasons. He went from exciting young player to almost needing to amputate his leg to a key piece on a dynasty team. 

• Joe Johnson has finagled his way back into the NBA with a contract with the Detroit Pistons.

• Frank Ntilikina dropped an efficient 16 points in the loss to Argentina, capping an impressive World Cup for the bust 21-year-old.

• Dwight Howard has a purple car for some very corny reasons. 

• Spencer Dinwiddie is turning his NBA contract into a “digital investment vehicle,” according to The Athletic, which means he wants to invest the bulk of his new contract ASAP, and probably in bitcoin.

 Concrete Reads 

• 57 minutes with Candace Parker [The Ringer]

• The death of paper tickets and the stories they leave behind [Sports Illustrated]

• The story behind the biggest brawl in WNBA history [Deadspin]

• How Boston’s Terrence Clarke became one of the top basketball prospects in the country [The Boston Globe] 

 Podcast Pick

Sam Anderson, author of Boom Town, on Oklahoma City and the Thunder, talks about the book, the James Harden trade, Russell Westbrook, and much more [The Lowe Post]