Wed, Dec 19th, 2018

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

Written while listening to Roy Ayers' We Live in Brooklyn, Baby

We have some things to say about the Nets

Remember, the Brooklyn Nets were supposed to have two primary purposes for the 2018-19 season: Offer New Yorkers a cheaper basketball experience than the team that plays at Madison Square Garden. Keep eating bloated contracts from the 2016 spending spree in exchange for draft picks they firesold in the 2013 deal with Boston. (They’re paying Allen Crabbe $18 million, Dwight Howard, who is not on the team, $18 million, and DeMarre Carroll $15 million.)Of late, they’ve added a new wrinkle that’s been completely absent in New York over the last six years: winning.OK, we’re going completely overboard -- Brooklyn’s 14-18 -- but they’ve won six straight, and beat the Lakers on Tuesday night at home. D’Angelo Russell hit a dagger against the franchise that gave up on him. And, also, Jarrett Allen stuffed the living hell out of LeBron James:Is this team going to make the playoffs? Probably not. They’re in 10th place.But they are: Five games better than the Knicks, whose roster is ghastly unimpressive, and who likely have Kristaps Porzingis wrapped in bubble wrap in Spike Lee’s basement.  Full of interesting players. Cheap. The next Nets game at Barclays is on Dec. 21 against the Pacers. The cheapest seats are $24 on SeatGeek. The next Knicks game at MSG is also Dec. 21 against the Hawks, and the lowest prices are $54 dollars.Plus, at every Nets game, there are at least a few die-hards in New Jersey Vince Carter jerseys who took nine different means of public transportation to get from Central Jersey to Downtown Brooklyn and LIVE AND DIE by every meaningless play.For all of these reasons, we are comfortable saying the Brooklyn Nets -- the ones who haven’t made the playoffs in four years and made perhaps the stupidest trade of the last 30 years in 2013 -- are New York’s team, which is more an indictment of the crippling incompetence of James Dolan and the Knicks, but still.

ESPN, what you doin’

ESPN personality Elle Duncan put together a video of herself arguing with … herself ... about the ‘legacy’ of Carmelo Anthony and released it to the world on Monday afternoon.This would have gone relatively unnoticed -- it’s mostly generic basketball talk about a player the NBA has moved on from -- if she hadn’t included this line:“[Melo being in the Hall of Fame] doesn’t really mean much with names like Dražen Petrović there. Dražen Petrović didn’t leave his mark on the game like Melo did.”First off Carmelo was a great player with a sour end. He’s a HOFer. Debate over.Here are some Petrović facts: Dražen Petrović died in 1993 in a car accident when he was 28. The season before he averaged 22.3 points a game for the New Jersey Nets and shot 45 percent from deep. He and a few others like Vlade Divac were the first crew from Eastern Europe to break the NBA’s geography barrier. He is internationally and nationally revered as a trailblazer and a great player. If you don’t believe us, watch this video of Goran Dragic sobbing when being given his Nets jersey. LeBron James called him the greatest international player ever. Reggie Miller called him the best shooter ever. ESPN made an excellent documentary about Petrović and Divac. (Which she could watch whenever she wants! She works there!)   Petrović won a silver medal in the Olympics in 1988, four years before the Dream Team came around.The Hall of Fame is definitely flawed, and our go-to example of this is Mitch Richmond, but to offhandedly make a comment with such condescending inflection about a great player who died when he was 28 in a car accident is lazy. To work for a company with bottomless pockets that’s willing to fund you talking to yourself about Carmelo Anthony, and to somehow come to the conclusion that that was an OK thing to say, is insulting.(To the sport, and to many others.)Anyways, put Sidney Moncrief in the Hall of Fame.[WATCH: Vice Sports on the legacy of basketball legend Dražen Petrović]

We have a very urgent question

Rex Chapman -- yes, THAT Rex Chapman, who appeared on our White Guys Who Could Really Fill It Up, Ranked, list -- Tweeted out a funny video the other day. (He’s a great follow.)  It’s of a very athletic man jumping from the tip of the (high school) 3-point line and laying in the ball from about five feet from the basket.The caption reads: “I’m posting this and saying, “That’s a 3-pointer.” (sic) just to see who argues.”It’s a good question, but our feeling is, that has to be a 3-pointer, right?Why hasn’t anyone tried this on a clear breakaway? Giannis Antetokounmpo is the obvious first choice here, but, if Lance Stephenson happens to lay eyes on the video, it’s very likely he’s the first to try it.

   Quick Hits

• LeBron, on playing with Anthony Davis: “That would be amazing. That would be amazing, like, duh. That would be incredible.”

• LeBron, on getting blocked: “He’s in his 20s and I’m in my 30s."

• LeBron, badly airballing a 3-point attempt in the last ten seconds of yesterday’s game.

• LeBron, praising his son and going viral.

• The Daily News’ Stefan Bondy has an interesting question about LaVar Ball.

• Joe Harris, a man you might not know plays in the NBA, hit a circus shot yesterday against the Lakers.

• Atlanta’s John Collins this season: 18.6 PPG | 9.5 RPG | 2.4 APG

• Here’s a map of the most hated teams in America by state.

 Concrete Reads

• Dion Waiters would like a word [Sports Illustrated]

• James Dolan, unplugged [ESPN]

• The Clippers are falling back to earth [The Ringer]

  Podcast Pick

Brook Lopez joins The Lowe Post [ESPN]

Four Games to Watch

Tonight, 12/19

Tomorrow, 12/20