The Opening Tip

• The HOF is irreversibly broken

• Mavs-Rockets yesterday was a classic 

• Why your sub-50-win team won’t win anything

Must-watch game

You gotta give.

1. The floodgates are open

The 2024 Basketball Hall of Fame class was announced this weekend.

The NBA list was Vince Carter (fine), Chauncey Billups (ok), Walter Davis (eh) and Michael Cooper, who’s induction must tank any faith you might’ve had left in the seriousness of this sham of an institution.

Michael Cooper’s career NBA stats: 

• 8.9 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 4.2 APG, 0 All-Star Games, 0 All-NBA teams, 4 First-Team All-Defense teams, 1 DPOY, 5 rings, solid college career at a mid-major

That is a role player who was a good/great defender. If that’s the bar now, that means Ron Artest, Mark Eaton, Tyson Chandler, Marcus Camby and Marcus Smart all have the game’s highest honor in their future.

If the argument is the 5 rings … Steve Kerr, Derek Fisher, Robert Horry, Horace Grant, John Salley, Kurt Rambis and Ron Harper all deserve a look.

A club loses aura when exclusivity becomes second to being nice. The sport’s only true Hall of Fame is irreversibly broken because of this.

[READ: Basketball Hall of Fame’s criteria, process need a serious overhaul]

2. Daily GIF: Chaos

The Mavs won this game in OT, despite being down by 22 in the first half and 10 in the fourth quarter, thanks to this chaotic game-tying 3 by Dante Exum.

[Watch: Mavs-Rockets highlights]

3. Trivia

4. NBA title winners by regular season games won, 1960-2023

TLDR: If you’re the Heat (43 wins), 76ers (44), Warriors (43) or Lakers (45), you are statistically not going to win the NBA title this year.

Notes: 

• We didn’t include the 1999 and 2012 strike seasons, or the 2020 and 2021 COVID seasons. 

• If you filter this to 1980-2023, the No. of teams who won the title with 40-49 wins is just one: The 1995 Rockets, who won 47 games on their way to a repeat. 

• So, over the last 44 NBA Finals, not winning 52-plus games has been a death sentence to your title hopes. 

Also … the next time someone says the regular season/regular season records don’t matter, they do. They do.

Quick hits

• Bucks update: They’ve lost four straight to the Wizards, Grizzlies, Raptors and Bucks and are now 15-17 in the Doc Rivers era. 

• Khris Middleton missed Sunday’s game because of ‘mouth trauma.’ 

• Despite averaging 4.8 PPG for a bad college team, Bronny James has declared for the NBA draft, though he still has the option to return to college. 

• Ant Edwards is the funniest NBA player. 

• The NBA standings in the West are fun to get lost in right now. 

• Everyone is in awe of Victor Wembanyama. 

• Low-key important story: Kyrie is back to playing distraction-free, winning basketball.

Reads + Pods

• DJ Burns Jr.’s slam-dunk smile [Wall Street Journal]

• South Carolina is a perpetual machine [Defector]

• Joel Embiid is back. Can he give the East’s playoff race a jolt? [Washington Post]

That's the buzzer.
Thanks for reading the 373rd edition of The Grip.