NBA Free Agency!!

NBA’s free agency era began in 1988 with the first free agent: Tom Chambers left Seattle to go play in Phoenix. (Which was a minor miracle because contracts were almost much longer back then…ain’t nobody signing a 7-year contract now!). Anyways…let’s get down to business!

Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.

Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that.

Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.

Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that.

Following the success of the Raptors a Facebook Friend Marko Orlic in his words “was going through old Raptors rosters after our championship win, and man…it was a trip. Remember all these legends?”

This whole story is so convoluted. Security at NBA Finals games especially when a team wins is vastly different than a typical regular season NBA game. It’s supposed to be tighter and more restrictive because you don’t want fans bum-rushing the floor.

Now that the Raptors parade is over do they really hafta go to the White House? (Think the Blue Jays went during Bush.)

Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.

Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that.

Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.

Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that.

This past weekend I was hanging out with a couple of NBA journalists who were of course in town for the NBA Finals…covering the b-ball action for major networks.

My Summer Lair Chapter #119: Who Is Kevin Durant?

That question is partly answered by Marcus Thompson’s latest bio: KD: Kevin Durant’s Relentless Pursuit to Be the Greatest.

As for Marcus Thompson he’s a lead columnist at The Athletic, covering the Golden State Warriors, San Francisco 49ers and Giants, and the Oakland Raiders and A’s. KD is his second Warriors bio Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry came out in 2017.

As for KD well that’s complicated isn’t it? That’s why I said “partly answered.” Marcus’s KD bio opens with a nimble comparison between KD and Tupac Shakur: the intelligence, the volatility…the sensitivity… and of course the contradictions.

Kevin Durant’s contradictions not only hint at a complex personality he represents our age. We’ll howl at the demise of political rhetoric on Facebook but praise Facebook’s ability to connect us with friends and family. We’re constantly surrounded by contradictions without any clear way to properly resolve them so often we choose to tolerate them.

Like when KD left the Thunder to sign with the Warriors. Anger and frustration sure yet it once again confirms a simple truth. Nobody is simple; the complexity of their personality renders facile narratives impotent. If somebody doesn’t make sense it’s your narrative that’s wrong; you issued the wrong verdict. (We’ve seen this all the time with Kanye West. He’s fine and doing incredible work…you hot take is just lukewarm at best.)

And so here we are with the Toronto Raptors for the first time in the NBA Finals. Marcus and I are talking not about basketball per say but the culture that permeates the NBA. That’s the magic of KD and how he is so different from other NBA players…one thing leads to another.

Marcus Thompson II @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Recorded: Friday May 31, 2019 at 6:30pm

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