Lots of content coming up, including reviews of the first three Finals games. But first the news.
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Scott Cacciola in the New York Times has an unbelievable article covering how the
actual selling of the Clippers went down.
The story is fascinating, and told in great detail from start to finish.
Cacciola conducted a dozen interviews for the piece, and
constructed a clear timeline.
Essentially, what we find is that Rochelle Sterling, after failing to
convince Donald to sell the team, went ahead and took a closer look at a provision
in the trust that governs the ownership of the Clippers. It says if either Donald or Shelly are
incapacitated mentally, the team can be sold away. After seeing the CNN interview of Donald Sterling,
Mrs. Sterling called him and told him to go see a doctor to check for any
neurological abnormalities. Sure enough,
they found some, and using this evidence, Shelly went forward with the sale to
Steve Ballmer.
The only mystery to the story is what persuaded Donald to go
to get a checkup at the medical center.
If he had not gone, it’s unclear what evidence may have been used to
declare him mentally incapacitated. At
the same time, Shelly pursued the sale aggressively, so it is easy to imagine
other similar proof coming forth from somewhere.
Meanwhile, the article informs us as to how the buyers were
lined up. Apparently Sterling was
approached by several bidders—the most interesting, perhaps, being Grant Hill,
who formed a group that put up an offer of $1.2 billion—but Ballmer came in
swinging and won Sterling over.
There is news emerging today as well that Donald Sterling is
opposing the sale by these means and is going to sue the NBA. He recently asked the NBA to take back the
fine it imposed upon him and the lifetime ban, to which Adam Silver responded
with a curt No way, Jose. It is not certain that this will change anything about the sale of the team.
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Next, Chris Bosh. Tom Haberstroh at ESPN.com has a detailed profile of Bosh—who is emerging as one of the
greatest characters in the NBA. Bosh’s
interviews and comments after games are always thoughtful and really rewarding
responses: in general he seems to be one of the most open, communicative, and
honest players there are in the league.
The article details his upbringing--like the amazing Jonathan Abrams piece from last year--but focuses mainly on his
adjustment to Miami and his role there.
While it is a story that has been told before, Haberstroh tells the
story with a thoroughness that makes for excellent reading. Most interesting is, however, his ability to
get at the type of player Bosh has become: an incredibly smart one.
This, Haberstroh surmises--and shows quite vividly too--is finally a kind
of reconciliation of two parts of his personality which often were made to
conflict because of circumstances. But
Bosh, he shows, has reached a kind of inner peace with himself, in which he has
taken control over these circumstances and managed to actually reconcile them
internally. “After
separating the two sides of himself for so long,” Haberstroh says,
he's
begun applying that same thirst for knowledge he displays in his nonathletic
interests to advance his game past what conventional wisdom often dictates.
Haberstroh talks to Shane Battier to try and get some perspective on
it now, and why people have often accused him of being a big man who has
actually run away from the banging in the psot.
"People confuse intellect for softness," Battier
says. "It's just smart basketball.”
Be on the lookout for more of Bosh's smart basketball in Game 3. He can be one of the most interesting players to watch on the court, and there was plenty of evidence why in the last game.
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Finally, Zach Lowe has a fascinating piece on Lance Stephenson’s free agency, which he says is momentous.
The takeaway from the piece?
Basically, what we already knew: Stephenson is a hot commodity, but people
are wary of adding dynamite to the lockerroom.
But, with the difference that Lowe actually gives us a concrete sense of
what this means.
He breaks down Lance’s abilities. What do we find?
Well, he shoots well enough, but his ball handling is the thing that
gets him good shots, because it is excellent.
He also passes the ball well. He’s
hardly selfish, something he’s blamed about a lot. And while he is ineffective on the pick and
roll, he is also in a great position to learn and develop more.
And he’s big. There’s
no avoiding this: Lance is a big guard, and that allows him to bang his way
down to the basket if need be. In short,
he has the potential to do Russell Westbrook-like things.
And for all his antics, he did play excellent defense. Lowe makes a point to say that this is one of
the best things that has happened because of his playing in Indiana.
What I think makes Lance interesting is that there’s an
alternative universe where this doesn’t happen: where Lance, this crazy baller
from New York, is actually trained by Indiana to become a really fundamentally
sound player. Where he combines
Melo-style with Indiana tradition.
But somehow something more interesting has transpired. He's become a schizophrenic player, always deciding whether he wants to be Good Lance and Bad Lance.
And that's what's amazing about what will happen with his free-agency. It is just sheer
personality that’s the problem with him. Not
vanity, not selfishness, even—elements of character that mean specific things
because they translate in basketball terms to certain behaviors. It isn't any distinct playing "style." No: it is sheer mental craziness, unconnected
with any specific ability, and yet which can somehow affect every aspect of his play.
What Lowe does point out, in passing, is that this craziness--for lack of a better term--might be a function of something else. It may be a sign, that is, of a larger virtue we haven't quite seen yet because of the restraints working in Indiana has imposed upon him. It may be not craziness but competitiveness, a sign that there is “fight” in Lance, something some teams might like. And most of his oddness does have an aggressive, fighting sort of edge to it.
It’s just that it could also be a J.R. Smith sort of fight as well, one that ends up in Lance untying shoelaces as well as blowing in people's ears.
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