Advertisement - scroll for more content
While Michael Jordan and LeBron James receive high praise from Shawn Marion, while chatting on Scoop B Selects, Marion also shared love for the late great, Kobe Bryant. Marion shared that Bryant was one contemporary that he wished was his teammate. “I used to want to play with Kobe,” he shared. “I almost had a chance there too, but I really wanted to play with Kobe. Why not go to the Lakers in La-La Land? The Lakers and when you think about organizations in each sport, there are at least two organizations in each sport that stand out above everybody and that’s of course the Lakers and the Boston Celtics because of the rivalries they had history and then you go football, it’s the [Dallas] Cowboys and maybe the [New York] Giants and baseball it’s the Yankees and the Dodgers. And then you can look at hockey — I don’t know because I’m a Blackhawks fan, so I don’t care about all the other hockey teams that are supposed to be the “it” hockey teams! So you know, but every sport has the team ‘That always wins championships’ and they have more championships than others and those are teams that stand out more than everybody.”
Let’s put it another way. An estimated 17.2 million people watched the NBA on Christmas. In comparison, 29 million people watched Giants vs. Eagles on Monday afternoon. The Giants are 5-10 on the season and are only notable to a non-NFL person like me because their Italian-American QB is feuding with their social media manager (or something, I’m not an NFL person). Almost twice as many people watched that team face off against the Eagles than watched any of the five NBA games.
Adam Silver wants NBA media to do a better job covering lesser-known squads
It’s no secret NBA viewership is chasing the NFL’s audience. But league commissioner Adam Silver believes if basketball media did a better job breaking down lesser-known squads, the NBA could “become more NFL-like” for casual sports fans. “Historically, if you asked casual fans, ‘Are you going to watch the NBA Finals?’ They would say, ‘Who’s going to be in it?'” Silver explained in an interview with JJ Redick released on Wednesday. “And if you asked an NFL fan if they were going to watch the Super Bowl, they would never say, ‘Only if the Giants are in it.’ It’s a national holiday.”
Plaxico Burress to Ja Morant: 'If you can’t learn anything, learn from me'
Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in 2008 at a nightclub in Manhattan less than year after catching the game-winning touchdown for the Giants in the Super Bowl. He spent nearly two years in prison, and his career never recovered. In March, he was asked about Morant in an interview on “The Carton Show.” “If I was speaking to him, it would just be, ‘If you can’t learn anything, learn from me,’” Burress said. “Just make better decisions because you really don’t want for him to have that label moving forward, being that he’s so young. He has the opportunity to be the face of the N.B.A. He’s that great of a player and you want to continue to see him, you know, mature as a person as his game is getting better.”
Flourish Sports Group co-founder Iseolupo Adepitan is one of the key men, along with New York Giants legend Osi Umenyiora, responsible for producing a new wave of basketball and American football talent in Nigeria. His football programme, which works with Umenyiora, saw seven players convert from hoops to gridiron and make it to the NFL International Combine in London last year, and of those Kenneth Odumegwu, Jason Godrick and David Agoha made the NFL International Player Pathway Program (IPPP) Class of 2023. The Educational Basketball programme produced Emmanuel Okorafor, who played in the Basketball Africa League for Espoir Fukash last year, and has since gone on to join NCAA D1 side the University of Louisville Cardinals.
Advertisement
The New York Knicks (28x) haven’t fared too badly, either, edging out their neighbors the New York Jets (26x), New York Giants (25x) and New York Yankees (25x), who each rank in the top three for value growth in their respective leagues.
Kylen Mills: WARRIORS PARADE UPDATE: I'm told the players will not be doing any public speeches & there will not be any rally before or after the parade (like the Giants have done at Civic Center).They will give speeches at 10:20am in a private ceremony which will be broadcast. #DubNation
Jason Dumas: Steve Kerr says he expects Chase Center to be the loudest its ever been this Saturday. A little over an hour before tipoff, the Giants are honoring Buster Posey just down the street at Oracle Park. Could be a special sports day in the Bay. pic.twitter.com/NSYQnZMfA3
Advertisement
In partnership with When We All Vote and RISE, the Sacramento Kings announced the relaunch of Rally the Vote, a coalition made of 20 teams across the NBA, NFL, MLB, WNBA, MLS and NWSL aimed at getting unregistered voters to the polls. The coalition, which nonpartisan, includes the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Sky, Chicago White Sox, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and Fever, Los Angeles Football Club, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, New York Giants, Phoenix Mercury, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Storm, Washington Wizards and Mystics and Washington Spirit.
According to an NBA executive who has spoken to the Knicks, the hiring of Thibodeau is being compared with Coughlin joining the Giants. At his introductory press conference, the then 57-year-old was likened to “a commanding officer fixing to take an enemy hill.” The comparisons between Thibodeau’s arrival and Coughlin’s extends to their mentors. Coughlin’s mentor was celebrated former Giants coach Bill Parcells. Thibodeau’s mentor is celebrated former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, who hired him to his staff in 1996.
Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant celebrated his 31st birthday with the entire team — including fellow new players Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan at Dave & Buster’s in Times Square, spies said. Also at the party were Durant’s business partner Rich Kleiman, former Giants star wide receiver Victor Cruz and supermodel Joan Smalls.
Both Windhorst and Richard Jefferson predicted this would be unlikely, although Rachel Nichols compared it to Eli Manning pushing his way to the New York Giants on draft day after saying he wouldn't play for the San Diego Chargers.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement