View this email in your browser

10.20.17

S.E.: Welcome to the first Grip in a while, because one of us can’t communicate with the other one while a certain evil and corporate baseball team rebrands itself as a lovable underdog all the way to the freaking World Series.  

J.S.: They’re rebuilding, this is an improbable run.

S.E.: Please. They’re the richest franchise in the world playing in the poorest district in New York City. They don’t rebuild. That’s like saying the Pilgrims were rebuilding between shipments of small pox-infested blankets.   

J.S.: Too far.

S.E.: I know.  

J.S.: Say what you want, hater.

Well, that all happened fast

At least, unlike Kevin Ware a few years ago for Louisville (no hyperlink necessary), there wasn’t a bone sticking out.

But really.

Gordon Hayward’s night-opening, quarter-opening injury was just horrible on all of the levels you can think of.

With one innocuous alley-oop from one prized new player to another, a city, a region, a league and a country felt the weight of a horrific injury that literally unfolded into a 90-degree angle in front of all of our eyes.

The fact that it happened opening night, with all the storylines of perhaps the most hyped preseason ever, and the fact that it happened in more than 4.9 million homes across the country, made it that much worse. Kevin Harlan’s obnoxious fact-yelling didn’t help either.  

Look at the reaction from the Cavs bench:

Damnit. The question now for the Celtics and Danny Ainge is obvious. What to do? Should they sacrifice an asset to better align themselves with their expected competitiveness?

Do they write off a year of Al Horford’s prime and let the young guys, who by the way have looked great so far, mature into their future roles? The answer is probably the ladder, though a 47-35 regular season and a loss to the Wizards or Cavaliers in the second round isn’t what Celtics fans want to see.

From an empathetic standpoint and from a strategic standpoint, this really sucks.

But hey, at least there was no bone sticking out. Sorry.

Giannis is here, and Giannis is very, very good

*picture credit: SI

The thing about Giannis is that he might be revolutionary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. A case study:

Similarities: Both started on the Bucks, though one left for the Lakers. And the other will likely do the same in five years when he hasn’t won a title and everyone is mad at him and the honeymoon phase of his rise to super-stardom is over.

Differences: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar converted to Islam and changed his name from Lew Alcindor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar after winning a title with Milwaukee in 1971. He also grew up in New York City, began a dynasty with UCLA and chose the Bucks after a shameless bidding war between the NBA and ABA, despite the ABA’s offer to put a franchise for him in whichever city he chose.

Giannis also has a unique name but it’s his birth name and he was drafted 16th overall after Kelly Olynyk because he was 13 years old playing Greek pro ball in eighth grade gyms when he was drafted.Actually, maybe they aren’t completely alike. But Giannis did drop 37 with 13 rebounds on the Celtics on Wednesday.

Quick Hits

• The fascinating trio of Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony debuted last night against (guess who!) the Knicks. Here’s the box score.

• Joel Embiid, despite alleged minute restrictions, played 27 minutes in the 76ers opener on Wednesday. He looked good -- 18 points and 13 rebounds. But the Wizards won thanks in-part to a +19 from John Wall. Ben Simmons played as well, finishing with 18.

• Check out this uber-satisfying gif of the Phoenix Suns all breaking back into transition at the same time. Try to watch it only once.

• Tony Allen got a standing ovation in his return to Memphis. Take a moment to enjoy this.

• “Aww shit getta fuck outta here”

Concrete Reads

• You have to read this profile of Dwight Howard done by S.I.’s Lee Jenkins. It’s the best piece of writing on him ever. For example: He entered the league an overtly devout Christian. Now he has five kids with five women. [Tap Here]

• A well reported deep-dive by The Boston Globe on a crazy Celtics offseason. Full of anecdotes. Also, if they hit you with a paywall, just clear your history and try again. [Tap Here]

• Vice Sports, which was definitely dead at one point, has resurrected from the ashes to bring you this interesting profile of Utah coach Quin Snyder, namely his time coaching in Russia. [Tap Here]

Concrete Pods

• Jack McCallum, maybe the best longform NBA writer ever, joins Zach Lowe to discuss the similarities between the ‘72 Lakers and the ‘17 Warriors. Lots of great Wilt anecdotes. [Tap Here]

• If you want to hate the Knicks even more, ESPN NBA reporters Adrian Wojnarowski and Ian Begley basically spend an hour ripping everyone’s favorite franchise. It’s awesome. [Tap Here]

Programming note: If you know the two charter members of The Grip, you know we are deeply-flawed people. Our plan for this season is to publish The Grip every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, right to your inbox, as the cliche goes.

But there may be times when that doesn’t happen as consistently as we’d like. One day your patience will be paid off with a free t-shirt with our logo on it. That is, if the copyright people over at Getty Images haven’t shut down this whole operation yet. Thank you for reading.

Video Rewind: Wilt's free throws were just plain awful.

#throwbackeveryday

October 20, 1961: Wilt Chamberlain drops a casual 57 points & 32 rebounds over the Lakers in the second game of the season. That would turn out to be just 7 points over his season average.

*picture credit: Wiki