The Last Dance, Quarantine, Freddie
Another round of The Last Dance drops tomorrow on ESPN. It was exhilarating, clearly built for my generation, but also incredibly bent on Michael Jordan. He's transparent, but not 100% right.
Quarantine continues. Each day begins at 11 a.m., a vicious cycle, but with nowhere to go the night drags on (my most creative and productive hours) and opening my eyes before feeling fully rested. Shoutout to Nick Gelso and the folks over at CLNS, who’ve kept me busy as we’ve rolled out some frankly incredible interviews with the likes of Doc Rivers, Ray Allen and more. Subscribe to our new Dailymotion page, where we released some thoughts from Thunder coach Billy Donovan about the G-League starting a prospect program and what the NCAA needs to do to adjust.
First on that G-League plan. I’m not a big fan, and not because I want to see the biggest stars playing in college. As someone who covered NCAA basketball last year, it’s reached an all-time low. Syracuse scored 34 points total on opening night. Top prospects LaMelo Ball, RJ Hampton and James Wiseman ditched the league leaving a talent disparity where no elite team emerged all year. Here’s the deal. The argument is so outdated. Whether you believe in the morality of paying college athletes or not, college basketball is now hurting because of its inability to make going to college for one year worth it. Changes like maintaining eligibility after drafting, allowing players to profit off their likeness, transfer freedom and Donovan’s idea — matching NBA rules — have progressed at a snail’s pace. Coaches continue to advocate for their power and control, while players are getting smart and finding other ways to the NBA.
Even marginal prospects are going to the league earlier, because the NBA values youth and potential. My dream has always been a fully-developed G-League, where teams can select high school prospects to be mandatory stashes in the minor leagues for one or two years. That’d increase the competition and stature of the notoriously weak competition and funding in the G-League (which has slowly improved). The NBA’s plan for Green is to receive training, play some games and receive pay — hardly part of the G-League, it feels more like what current Thunder player Darius Bazley did. Green will then enter the 2021 NBA Draft as he would have anyway. Both college and the G-League lose. Imagine Anthony Davis, Zion Williamson, Kobe in the G-League for a year? Madness.
Can we create an award for Madlib and Freddie Gibbs’ “Bandana”? The iconic second album between legendary producer Madlib & fairly new rap star Freddie Gibbs released almost one year ago. It’s been a joy to listen to on repeat, so about a month ago I dug into its origin and why it received almost no consideration for awards despite topping numerous lists for best albums of 2019. Credit to Matt Madrigal for reimagining the cover as the article’s art. I’ll have more writing covering my favorite music and topics around it throughout quarantine.
The two-year anniversary of my Boston Marathon run passed last week (READ ON CELTICSBLOG). As was widely publicized on Monday, the race was not run for the first time in its history as COVID-19 kicked it to the fall. That made me slightly confused yet mildly sympathetic to the ones — like the BOSTON STROG lady — who were still trying to run the race on their own on Monday. It reminded me that while I reflected on the process that got me to the marathon two years ago, I never wrote about the day itself. It was a culmination of pain, battles and inspiration, then overcoming added challenges made it the most memorable day of my life. Thinking of that determination against an enormous challenge has inspired various aspirations I’ve thought about in quarantine. Stay tuned.
MICHAEL JORDAN “DOME THEORY” PODCAST WITH BOB RYAN (available on all platforms). What a joy this was, especially seeing hundreds of people tune into it. The legendary writer Bob Ryan joined Nick Gelso and me on “Dome Theory” (which you can subscribe to here) after Ep. 1 and 2 of “The Last Dance.” An obvious theme emerged throughout the two-hour special — blame Jerry. The maligned and late Jerry Krause catches scorn and uncensored cruelty from Jordan throughout the whole film. While complicit in the end of the Bulls, the film brushed over the importance of his managing in building six championships. Only he wasn’t Michael Jordan, nor did he draft him. Bob and Nick struck up the case of the 1990s NBA being better, until various themes reminded many of criticisms of today’s game. Chief among then: the revelation of Danny Ainge and MJ golfing as rivals between playoff games. Haven’t heard that level of buddying-up today. Bob even credited my point, and I was smiling ear-to-ear.
Author JEFF PEARLMAN previewed his forthcoming Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal Lakers book on “Dome Theory.” Worthy of its own documentary (which will follow the book on HBO), Pearlman is weary that the book didn’t look great for Kobe with such universal sadness following his January death. Pearlman had finished the book at the time, but went back to add context on that point in his life at the beginning. It’s due out on Sept. 29.
My friend Gianni Villegas joined me for an inspiring chat about his music and debut project “The New Masculinity,” along with the tendency for creatives in Syracuse to collaborate with those around them. The set of his Arnold Palmer Interlude video and credits for those who made it happen is filled with people recognizable to anyone around his friend group. There’s Dan, Cayla, Taylor, Matt in the background. I wish I could watch the video not knowing who’s there, it probably would’ve had a better effect.
*Coming next week. Pearlman and some others in the writing world started THE BIG SCRIBBLE, which I’m using as a way to commemorate my dad with some personal writing wherever it fits the topic. Stay tuned for some of those releases as they pass each week. Thank you to everyone who joined the mailing list this week. They’ll only hit your mailbox every 7-10 days or so, but if you nonetheless don’t want them feel free to unsubscribe below.