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The Opening Tip

• The Nets’ GM is unfirable, for some reason

• All-Star Game discourse is back

• Title odds for every team

You gotta give.

1. Lord grant us the eternal job security of Brooklyn Nets GM Sean Marks

Nets GM Sean Marks is so unfirable that I bet, even if he was handed two superstars in free agency, then another via trade, and only won one playoff series, he’d still have a job.

(Oh wait.)

The Nets fired head coach Jacque Vaughn on Monday morning but kept Marks on board, who then held a press conference to brag about how this team was once ‘at the top of the map.’

To all this, I say: This fucking guy must be made of teflon.

What he’s done since being hired in 2016, in 11 rambling bullet points:

• Created a .500 team from nothing in 2018-19, the one decent thing he’s done, which he’s apparently still skating on. 

• Technically signed KD and Kyrie Irving, though they didn’t even tell him before announcing their decision. Seriously. 

• Allowed the most grotesque and shameless form of ‘player empowerment,’ which led at one point to him firing Kenny Atkinson because Kyrie and KD wanted the team to start DeAndre Jordan over Jarrett Allen. 

• Hired former teammate Steve Nash to coach the team, who had never coached anything.

• ‘Traded’ for James Harden, which truly, anyone could have done. 

• Gave Joe Harris, who’s out of the league, a big extension. 

• Traded James Harden for Ben Simmons, who’s played 54 games as a Net since Feb 2022. 

• Didn’t trade Kevin Durant the first time, who then asked that the Nets fire Marks.

• Traded Kevin Durant for a solid haul after leveraging Phoenix’s new owner’s new owner syndrome. 

• Refused to trade Mikal Bridges for all the picks he originally traded to Houston in the James Harden deal. 

• And, catching up to the present, has constructed a team perfectly built for 35 wins, which he doesn’t want to blow up because all his picks are in Houston.

Every coach he’s hired is gone, every superstar traded. It’s just a good thing there aren’t any Nets fans, or they’d be pissed.

-SE

[READ: What will it take to finally fire Sean Marks?]

2. Daily GIF: How about that All-Star Game?

The All-Star Game sucked, obviously, but the only thing more annoying than 24 All-Stars who don’t care is the annual discourse about canceling the All-Star Game. Let’s just get on with the season.

3. Trivia

4. Championship odds entering the final third-ish of the season

(The Cavs at +3000 might be worth a little sprinkle.)

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Quick hits

• Most meaningful part about another bad All-Star Game: The league spent all year trying to convince players to try this year. 

• Fuck it, Nikola Jokic at a hockey game.

• Ref mistakes are down this year, says ref rep who doesn’t want to share data showing that ref mistakes are down. 

• Here’s what JJ Redick said about Doc Rivers to spark a three-way beef between him, Pat Bev and Austin Rivers. 

• Local news outlet tries its hardest to not include Steve Kerr’s son’s first name in its headline. 

• This clip of Jaylen Brown getting the ball stolen from him by a bunch of little kids will unfortunately be used against him in the playoffs.

Reads

• Farewell, TGI Fridays where Rod Strickland and Chico DeBarge threw hands on 9/11 [Defector] 

• The NBA coaches that rattle the rim -- and one that can windmill [ESPN]

• The NBA and the definition of work [Defector]

That's the buzzer.
Thanks for reading the 360th edition of The Grip.