NBA

Schedule:

8 p.m. ET | State Farm All-Star Saturday Night | TNT | Lucas Oil Stadium

Kia Skills Challenge

Starry 3-Point Contest

Stephen vs. Sabrina 3-Point Challenge

AT&T Slam Dunk

Bro this dude runs in the funniest way, and he just chucked up a half court shot backwards. He’s so funny man, I don’t know how you could hate on this man.

source for backward shot:

Beating a wnba player with a handicap no one even risking that because of generational slander and getting roasted for the rest of their life if they lost but steph still showed up. Meanwhile the most glazed player of this generation lebron is too chicken shit to even show up to a dunk contest. One of the many reasons why steph clears that spineless coward.

Most fans want the NBA to expand at some point in the near future to 32 teams, adding Vegas and returning to Seattle. Arguments in favor of stopping at 32 is that 32 breaks down neatly into 8 4-team divisions, and that the expansion between 1988 and 1995 weakened the product.

I'd argue that going to 36 allows us to maintain 6 divisions, with 6 teams each, which is a "neater" number, and that the drop in talent was likely more due to adding 4 teams in consecutive seasons, rather than adding 6 teams over 8 years.

What do you think of this? Any alternative proposals?

2026 - Las Vegas and Seattle: The 2 most popular options, at this point it's when, not if. Seattle joins the Northwest, and Vegas joins the Pacific. Minnesota is bumped to the East in the Central.

2030 - Vancouver and Montreal: Vancouver lost its team largely because an owner bought it claiming he had no intention of moving it, then immediately solicited offers to move it. Basketball has exploded in Canada since the mid-90s, Canada has a high immigration rate and a high immigrant population, especially in the big cities (immigrants are usually lower-income, so they can afford basketball and soccer but not hockey and football, their market size is quite large (Montreal is between Phoenix and Boston, Vancouver is between San Antonio and Portland), natural rivalries exist between East and West, and English and French Canada, and both are low crime, clean and growing. Montreal's core is bilingual and very cosmopolitan, and its French side might appeal to players from France or former French colonies in Africa, a growing source of players. Vancouver is also cosmopolitan, and has large Indian and Chinese populations, so it could be marketed to the 2 biggest (and growing) international markets in India and China.

Montreal joins the Atlantic, pushing Toronto to the Central, and Indiana is bumped to the Southeast; Vancouver joins the Northwest, pushing Oklahoma City to the Southwest.

Memphis at some point changes its name to the Pharaohs, so Vancouver can go back to the Grizzlies.

2034 (A) - San Diego: Like all modern NBA relocations, an owner - and a racist one at that - bought the San Diego Clippers with the expressed intent of moving them to Los Angeles. Warm climate, and its proximity to Mexico makes a great alternative to expanding to Mexico City and tapping into that market. This makes it beat out its larger, fellow California market Riverside/San Bernadino, and larger Tampa doesn't get a team because Florida already has 2 teams. The Padres are the only pro competition, with no in-season competition.

San Diego joins the Pacific, pushing Phoenix to the Northwest.

2034 (B) - Louisville: During the lead up to the ABA merger, the Kentucky Colonels were one of the top 2-3 ABA teams in terms of winning and attendance, and they had the greatest basketball rivalry against the Pacers.

But Chicago held the rights to Kentucky's star centre, Artis Gilmore. and they figured they'd have more to lose if they opposed Indiana's admission. So they opposed Kentucky's admission, allowing Indiana to get in.

Like other high-attendance markets - Sacramento, Portland, Utah, San Antonio - they'd be the only show in town. The city is already basketball-crazy. Kentucky joins the Southeast, bumping Washington to the Atlantic.

Divisional alignments:

Atlantic: Montreal Royals, Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Washington Wizards

Central: Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors, Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves

Southeast: Indiana Pacers, Kentucky Colonels, Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, Orlando Magic, Miami Heat

Southwest: Memphis Pharaohs, New Orleans Pelicans, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder

Northwest: Vancouver Grizzlies, Seattle Supersonics, Portland Trailblazers, Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns

Pacific: Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakes, Los Angeles Clippers, San Diego Conquistadors, Las Vegas Outlaws

So can you make a case for the cities that got shafted? Kansas City? St. Louis? Pittsburgh? Baltimore? Cincinnati? Austin? Mexico City? Hampton Roads?

Sabrina scored 26 points. Which is the same as the actual contestants scored. So it seems like WNBA players can compete.

Just give them WNBA ball and keep everything else the same. What do you guys think?

If you want proof look at the NFL. You have a sport where there is direct evidence that playing the game can cause brain damage. The players know this, the owners know this, everyone knows this. So what did those players agree to? Another game! Why did they agree to this? More money!

And it isn't like everyone was asking for more games, if anything it was the opposite. One of the main strengths of the sport is the short regular season. We all loved the 16 game schedule. But they were willing to go against that strength for a bigger revenue pie.

And they probably will again. Once they expand the league and add more teams it seems inevitable that an 18th game will eventually be added.

So if the sport with the most to lose is willing to add games for money. If the players with the most to lose are willing to expose themselves to more damage for more money. Why do you think any of the other mostly safe sports would ever seriously consider reducing the length of their regular season and shrinking the revenue pie?

It will never, ever, happen.

I'm not sure what the future of Team Ignite will be, because before there was a hole in the marketplace that we thought we were filling before doing that, and now my focus is turning to earlier development of those players.

If you're seeing now, what we're seeing in terms of that close to 30 percent of the league, players born outside the United States, it's clear that the development is very different in many of those programs outside the United States, more of a focus on practice, less of a focus on games, which seems to be the opposite of many of the youth programs in the United States.

I think that now we've begun discussions with the NCAA, the vast majority of the top players will play in college and never play in the NBA, of course, so we have a common interest in just improving the game, developing players, developing - players, there's no question, they're coming into the league incredibly skilled, but that doesn't necessarily translate to being team basketball players. And then what I'm hearing from some of those same coaches that may be complaining about inability to play defense is that these players are not as prepared as I'd like them to be, particularly as very high draft picks.

So I think there's an opportunity for us to be part of the community that's developing younger players, elite players, and also, as I mentioned before, in terms of increased participation numbers, of just us being a more active participant in getting kids active, boys and girls, with our Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA programs.

Even though I’m a newer NBA fan and I’m more of an NFL guy, I thought seeing a game at every NBA arena would be more achievable than seeing a game at every NFL stadium. So I made it my bucket list goal. At the beginning of this season I had only been to one, now I’ve been to three, and by the end of this season I’ll have been to five.

1. I’m a Philly area native, so obviously I’ve been to plenty of Sixers games in Philly. The Wells Fargo Center was the only NBA arena I had seen a game in prior to this year.

2. A video game I play (called Ingress) was hosting an event in Atlanta back in November. Since I was going to be in Atlanta anyway, I wanted to see a Hawks game. The weekend I was there, the Hawks just happened to be playing the Sixers. Couldn’t believe it worked out that they just happened to be playing the Sixers the weekend I was there anyway.

3. The Louisville Cardinals are my favorite college football team, and since plane tickets were dirt cheap and I had time off from work anyway, I figured I should fly down to Charlotte in December to watch them play Florida State in the ACC Championship. Figured I should catch a Hornets game while I was there. On the day of the ACC Championship game, the Hornets happened to be playing the Timberwolves. Wish I could have seen them play the Sixers, but oh well. It was an exciting game as a neutral fan.

Those are the three I’ve seen currently. I currently have tickets to games at two more NBA arenas, which will bring my total to five by the end of the year.

4. I have tickets to see the Sixers play the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 10th. It’s pretty easy to get from Philly to NYC by train and I don’t even have to take off work for that.

5. I’m a fan of the UFL (formerly the USFL/XFL). I was a big fan of the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars. I even went to Detroit last year to see a Stars game, but that was at the beginning of May so obviously there were no Pistons games going on. Since the Stars are gone this year I thought I would root for the Memphis Showboats. If I was going to see a game in Memphis, I figured I should go to one before the NBA season ended so I could cross the Grizzlies off my bucket list. The only week the Showboats were playing in Memphis before the NBA season ended was April 6th. I checked to see if the Grizzlies were in town that weekend and not only were they, they were playing my 76ers. That was too perfect not to go so I booked my trip to Memphis.

Beyond that, my sister lives in Boston so I’m hoping to use a Celtics game as an excuse to go visit her. I wanted to go see up to visit her to see Louisville play Boston College at the end October. Maybe the Celtics will be playing that same weekend. Brooklyn and Washington are both easily accessible from Philly by train, and I probably wouldn’t even have to take time off work to see a Nets or Wizards game. Cleveland is the only other arena that’s probably driveable for me, but I’d need to take a three of four day weekend to see a game there. I want to cross at least those four and maybe one more off my bucket list next year.

I’m curious how many NBA arenas other people have been to. Those who have been to a lot, what are your recommendations for me in completing my bucket list goal?

@Jacob Rude - Asked Bam Adebayo who the best defender was in the league. After clarifying he wasn’t picking anyone in the East, he chose Anthony Davis and explained why

I do not have a pic, but its awesome to see an old Ducks BBall legend supporting

A couple drinks in and idk how I’m gonna blame Fred Wilson into Fred jones. Whoops and god bless.

Obvious edit

What is this weird marketing/branding voodoo I’m misunderstanding? They keep saying welcome to The NBA Slam Dunk, like is there just gonna be one big dunk??

Hopefully this means we get some new immersive content soon!