The NBA released key games from the 2018-19 season schedule on Wednesday, including opening week national TV games, the Christmas Day schedule, and the docket for Martin Luther King Day. December 25 is really the marquee day on the calendar, and the pentuple-header for 2018 goes like this: Bucks at Knicks, Thunder at Rockets, Celtics at Sixers, Lakers at Warriors, Blazers at Jazz.
I have some questions.
What did LeBron do to deserve this?
You’d think the NBA would be thrilled that LeBron chose the Lakers. One of his rewards is stepping into a Christmas Day viper pit on must-watch national TV on the road 30-something games into his debut L.A. season? Sheesh.
This Knicks on Christmas thing every year ... can we not?
I gently propose that if you win fewer than 35 games and don’t add an All-Star in the offseason, you shouldn’t be getting Christmas Day games. Even if you’re a guaranteed sell-out at any record, you play in the Mecca of basketball, and you are really convenient for NBA headquarters employees.
Is Christmas Day not a national holiday in Canada?
The reigning East regular season champs made the single best player addition in the conference over the summer and still can’t get on T.V. on December 25. You don’t need to blow Spurs-Raptors on Christmas -- that sounds like a mid-November Thursday TNT game, honestly -- but sending the Bucks to Toronto for Christmas instead of New York seems reasonable.
Is there a global salt shortage?
If so, let’s get some miners to Thunder-Rockets because there’s going to be plenty.
How do the Sixers and Celtics feel about being the NBA’s new East crutch?
Without LeBron in the East, the league is leaning heavily on that old/new rivalry, using it for opening night and Christmas. I’m so here for it. Let’s hope they live up to it, too. That playoff series between them wasn’t exactly competitive ... even without Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving.
Rage Against The Grassroots Machine
The NCAA announced a wide range of rule changes and reforms as recommended by the Condi Rice-led commission -- that same commission that is helping push the NBA toward abolishing the age minimum. Ricky O’Donnell has four takeaways on the impact on college basketball. The biggest impact seems to be an attempt to kill the major summer AAU events that aren’t Nike’s Peach Jam.
The NCAA clearly stepped all over USA Basketball and the NBA in announcing these changes, some of which put the onus on USA Basketball and NBA to deal with elite prospects one way or another. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports NBA and USA Basketball leaders were blindsided by the rule change announcement. It also appears some of the changes -- like allowing elite prospects to sign with agents while maintaining NCAA eligibility -- wouldn’t take effect until the age minimum is officially gone, which is a couple years out.
Yahoo!’s Dan Wetzel, meanwhile, takes the NCAA to the woodshed for using the commission’s report to expand its investigatory powers while making only minor, common-sense concessions to players. And O’Donnell points out that the changes don’t actually fix anything. Here’s a representative quote:
”Even the new rule changes that seem good on the surface won’t have a tangible impact on the vast majority of college basketball players. The NCAA rushed to make a statement to appear as if it was taking a hardline stance in response to the FBI investigation. In the process, it served no one but itself.”
This is my shocked face.
Links Galore
Strong Tim Bontemps piece on the shared blame for the salary cap spike and its role in the creation of the Warriors’ megalith.
Is the Spurs’ defense in danger of being mediocre for the first time in memory?
I wrote about the lack of teams obviously tanking heading into the 2018-19. ATL, shorty.
Michael Powell of the New York Times digs in on the public subsidy of Cleveland’s arena.
The WNBA officially ruled the Aces’ no-show in D.C. after a travel nightmare as a forfeit. Pretty wild to have a forfeit in pro sports in 2018.
Kawhi Leonard thanks the Spurs -- including Gregg Popovich! -- a couple weeks after being traded.
Brian Bowen, one of the players at the center of the FBI’s college basketball investigation last year, is going to spend a season in Australia under its initiative for elite prospects.
Chelsea Clinton is a WNBA fan!
Riley McAtee dives deep to assess the Lakers’ chances of missing the playoffs.
The Hornets’ classic court gets my approval.
The state of Jahlil Okafor’s career: a partial guarantee. Wow.
I hope you’re sitting down for this but a Sixers first-round pick is injured.
A guide for fellow Lakers fans to navigate being trolled by the media this summer.
An anonymous lawyer with spare time keeps breaking news on NBA Reddit.
The Knicks still plan to waiving Joakim Noah, no matter how many “hey, JoNo looks pretty good!” workout videos come out on the ‘Gram this summer.
Speaking of Instagram workouts, I am so here for Myles Turner getting into trapeze yoga.
Should Al Horford come off the bench? (No. The answer is no.)
Be excellent to each other.
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