Tuesday, Dec 15th, 2020

  The Opening Tip

• Giannis just made a big-time commitment to Milwaukee

• LaMelo Ball is a passing magician

• The NBA’s short history with Native American imagery

 1. In a major win for small markets, Giannis signs on longterm with the Bucks 

The Athletic’s Shams Charania broke the news this afternoon that Giannis intends to sign a five-year, $228 million super max extension to stay in Milwaukee through the 2025-26 season, a year in which he’ll make $51.9 million. (He also confirmed the news on Twitter himself shortly after Charania’s report.)What this means: It’s a huge win for the Bucks, the league’s small markets, and the NBA’s maligned super max system, which allows the team that drafted a player to offer more money than any other suitor. The fact that this happened in the middle of James Harden’s drama in Houston is also optically beneficial for the league. 

• The deadline to agree to terms on the deal was Dec. 21. Although Milwaukee had been confident that Giannis would eventually come to this conclusion, the lack of an agreement by him over the last few weeks had produced a few whispers across the league. 

• Had he not signed it, Giannis would hit unrestricted free agency next summer. 

For Giannis … the super max extension proves a level of loyalty and faith in Milwaukee which hasn’t been shown by many stars in the recent past. He gets several more cracks at a title with the Bucks, much like Dirk did in Dallas. "Kobe [Bryant] did it. Tim Duncan did it. Dirk Nowitzki did it,” he told ESPN in 2018. “I just want to be one of those guys ... that stays for the city, play for the city for 20 years."For the Bucks … the team no longer has to operate on egg shells. Their best player is locked up longterm, and they can build, plan and draft accordingly.For the Lakers, Heat and so on … they can now turn to Plan B for next summer’s free agent class. And the Lakers can finally cut Giannis’ non-NBA level brother, Kostas.

 2. Daily GIF: If nothing else, LaMelo Ball is already an elite passer 

LaMelo Ball scored zero points in his preseason debut on Saturday, but he made a few breathtaking passes like the one above. (He also started this alley-oop yesterday.) The youngest Ball will probably shoot 26 percent from 3 this season, average five turnovers per game and rank as one of the worst defensive players in the league, but he’ll give all of us a reason to occasionally watch a Hornets game, which is what Charlotte’s needed all these years.Also: LiAngelo Ball, the one whose viral fame precedes his actual basketball talent, was cut from his non-guaranteed contract by the Pistons over the weekend. “They don’t know a good player. I was giving them a lottery pick for free,” remarked LaVar Ball, who apparently knows more about NBA talent than all 30 GMs.

3. Trivia time

Since 2005, only one title-winning team didn’t feature at least one former MVP winner.Which team was it?Answer at the bottom.

 4. The NBA moved away from its most problematic logo decades ago 

As a general rule, the older something is, the more likely it is to be super racist.Evidence: Major League Baseball, generally considered to be founded around 1869, and the National Football League, first year: 1920, are paying now for the accepted racism inherent in early 19th century mascot naming, something the NBA (est. 1946) hasn’t had too much issue with. 

• The Washington Football Team moved off its nickname early this year. The Cleveland Indians announced earlier this week they’d be doing the same. It would appear the Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Braves will also be forced into some type of action, though likely more along the lines of an imagery rebrand than a name change.

The NBA, meanwhile, has avoided the controversy almost entirely for two reasons: 

1. A large bulk of the league’s teams were established in a decade when Redskins sounded more like a racial epithet than a cool moniker for Boston’s first NFL team. 

(Full disclosure: There was an early NBA team named the “Sheboygan Red Skins” from 1949-50; the Atlanta Hawks started off as the “Tri-Cities Blackhawks” but dropped it to Hawks in 1951; and the Buffalo Braves became the Clippers in 1978 but didn’t appear to use much Native American imagery.)

1. The league moved away from its most problematic logo/name five decades ago. 

Indeed, the Golden State Warriors started off as the Philadelphia Warriors, whose early mascot, used as late as Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game season in 1961-62, was a Chief Wahoo-esque caricature bouncing a basketball. The team moved to San Francisco in 1962 and swapped out the overtly offensive logo for a more dignified Native American one, then moved away from the association entirely in 1969.A modern attempt at attaching a mascot to the logo in the 2000s ended up with this thing, which was offensively childish but not racially offensive.

 5. By the numbers 

26 points, 11 rebounds

Zion Williamson made his 2020 preseason debut last night, scoring an easy 26 points. Highlights here.

  2 games

Second year Laker Talen Horton-Tucker has scored 52 points in his first two preseason games, which is apparently enough for the NBA lexicon to anoint him a future superstar. “This kid is flat out SPECIAL!” tweeted LeBron, while presumably testing Horton-Tucker’s trade value with other GMs.

  $30 million

The NBA announced last week it would be subsidizing every NBA team with $30 million to help with cash flow issues. (And we're still waiting for a second $1,200 stimulus check.)

  Zero trade options

James Harden still wants a trade out of Houston, but the two most widely reported options -- Brooklyn and Philadelphia -- have nothing of substance to offer for Harden outside of Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons, which both teams have made clear they won’t do. Here’s Woj with the latest.

 6.  Quick hits 

• Ja Morant is back to dunking on the entire league.

• Brandon Ingramis too.

• Sometime on Twitter mixed a vaccine delivery to the NBA on ESPN theme song.

• ICYM Kyrie Irving’s latest failed attempt at sounding intelligent, here you go.

• Draymond Green on how Kevin Durantchanged after the 2017 Finals: “You've got Stephen A. [Smith], you've got all these people debating it, and everybody's still saying LeBron James is the best player in the world. That's when I kind of felt like it took a turn. And then we came back for the 2017-18 season, and Kevin just wasn't as happy."

 7.  Off the press 

• An agent’s mistake cost an NBA player $3 million. He paid him back. [The New York Times]

• After just 79 days, the Celtics are back, and now this is Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s team [The Boston Globe]

• ‘Is that f***ing Steve Nash?’ An NBA legend’s love of NYC pickup soccer [The Athletic]