MJ vs LeBron and a Dumpster Fire in Dallas - Swish Weekly - February 23
MJ vs LeBron and a Dumpster Fire in Dallas - Swish Weekly - February 23
It's been an interesting week for Swish Weekly. With the NBA having basically a bye-week, content felt slow early in the week, but then... fire. Unfortunately, we had the first public piece about sexual harassment and a culture of sexual predation in an NBA franchise with the Dallas Mavericks. We hope that if anything, this piece leads to meaningful change not only for the NBA and its affiliates, but also to organizations and workplaces at large.
Not everything was sad though. We had a phenomenal wrap-up piece for The Ringer's MJ vs LeBron week with Bill Simmons that is so good no amount of praise will do it justice. Seriously, if you can only read one piece from this list, scroll down to the bottom and read that one.
Let's get into it!
Destination LeBron - ESPN - Adam Reisinger
We start off this week's Swish Weekly, with the narrative that will grip the coming months of the NBA season. Where will LeBron James be playing basketball next season? In this piece, ESPN's Adam Reisinger breaks down the most likely destinations for James and how exactly those teams could make the numbers work. I'm sure we'll be seeing a bevy of these articles in the coming weeks and months so don't be surprised if a few pop up over that time.
America's Basketball Heaven - ESPN - Baxter Holmes
This piece is utter beauty. Very few are aware that a player out of Kinston, North Carolina, is on average 60-times more likely to make the NBA than any other high school in the country. That equates to about 1 out of every 53 kids that plays for the high school making the highest league in the world. That's simply no coincidence and Baxter Holmes details the incredible story of Brandon Ingram and his journey from small-town phenom to NBA star. It is stories like these that make me fall in love with the game all over again. It's a long piece, but worth every second of your time spent on it.
What the NBA Was Talking About at All-Star Weekend - The Ringer - Kevin O'Connor
Kevin O'Connor is your insider to the chatter at this past weekend's All-Star festivities. There was a lot to chat about including DeAndre Jordan and Paul George, but I think the most interesting point he brings up is about the G-League. Buffing up the G-League is definitely something the NBA needs to look at, especially if they are thinking about moving the age-limit for players to enter the draft. If LaMelo Ball can play in a Lithuanian professional league, why shouldn't the best players in the country be able to?
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/2/21/17034682/nba-second-half-predictions
Crystal Small Ball: Predicting the NBA's Second Half - The Ringer - Ringer NBA Staff
Think of this as your post-All-Star Break primer. It asks the questions that many NBA fans are thinking and gets a diverse set of answers for each. Which teams will solidify themselves as legit contenders and which will be left watching the playoffs from home? Which "under the radar" player will have his coming out party this season? Which team will win the tank race by losing the most games? Find the answers to all of these and more in this Ringer Staff article.
A Field Guide to the Characters of Michael Jordan Lore - The Ringer - Shea Serrano
Thanks to LeBron James winning his third All-Star game MVP award, the conversation of who is better, MJ or LeBron, has once again decided to completely dominate the airwaves. I hate the argument. Not because I don't have an opinion, but because I don't know if there will ever be a way to conclusively say one was better than the other. This is made even more difficult by the fact that LeBron is still currently playing so the resume is still being built. Regardless, this piece is great simply because it looks at the legacy of four other players tightly associated with MJ and how he shaped their careers with his own.
Victor Oladipo's Insane Unseen Dunk for the NBA Dunk Contest - YouTube - TeamFlightBrothers
This year's dunk contest was a bit of a let down. Sure it had some solid dunks and some nice nostalgia, but there wasn't a single dunk that made me say "holy crap I have never seem something like that before." This unseen dunk from Oladipo on the other hand would have been. I'm not even completely sure how to describe it, so I'll just call it "The 'Dipo" and you'll have to take a look for yourself.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22542306/zach-lowe-real-possibility-nba-playoffs-play-tournament
The NBA is having real discussions about a playoffs play-in tournament - ESPN - Zach Lowe
You might be familiar with Bill Simmons' "Entertaining As Hell" Tournament that he proposed way back in 2007 as a way to add more intrigue to the bottom seeds of the playoffs. According to this piece by ESPN's Zach Lowe, the NBA is actually looking at potential proposals that would implement a play-in style tournament for the final two seeds in each conference. While this isn't likely to happen in the near future, just the fact that the NBA is thinking about making such drastic changes is refreshing.
Inside the Corrosive Workplace Culture of the Dallas Mavericks - Sports Illustrated - Jon Wertheim and Jessica Luther
We live in a world where atrocities seem to happen with an uncomfortable regularity, yet sports have often seemed to be the safe haven of escapism. We shouldn't be so naive to think that sports are simply immune to the horrors of the rest of the world and unfortunately that facade seems to have finally come to an end. We debated here at Swish Weekly about whether or not to include this article in this week's newsletter, but ultimately decided that this piece is something that we should all be cognizant of. The culture inside the Dallas Mavericks organization is disgusting and horrible, and to quote one female employee "a complete shitshow." It's always important to remember that sports involve humans, and humans are flawed, but sports have often been ahead of their time and if any industry can spark real change in our society, sports and the NBA in particular are the ones to do so.
How LeBron Can Finish His Fairy Tale Better than MJ - The Ringer - Bill Simmons
We couldn't bear to end this week's newsletter on such a sour note with that last article and luckily we don't have to. This piece by the Pod-Father himself, Bill Simmons, is one of the greatest "MJ vs LeBron" pieces that we have ever seen. It chronicles the NBA landscape that essentially forced the greatest of all time to retire in his prime, which ultimately led to a half-hearted return with the lowly Wizards 39 months later. But that's only the first half of the story. The LeBron side of the piece is phenomenal and details out a couple compelling narratives for the greatest star of this generation. Whether LeBron stays in Cleveland, bolts for the Lakers, or takes his talents elsewhere, LeBron has the ability to create a stronger career resume than even Michael Jordan could.
Whew, what a week. This has been one of the best weeks for content that we can remember. Those last two pieces are incredible pieces of writing and while we hate to see the NBA put in a precarious position with such allegations, this will inherently create necessary change for the league. The piece on MJ vs LeBron was also amazing and potentially deserves it own book, but was an incredible depiction of the legacies left by the two greatest to ever play the game.
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The Jordan vs LeBron debate always drives me nuts! I grew up watching Jordan and now we have LeBron. Let me be clear before I continue, Michael Jordan is the GOAT. He is the best basketball player to have ever stepped onto an NBA court!
That being said, if I had to choose a player to start a team with, I pick LeBron every time. Simply because LeBron gives you the flexibility to put whatever types of players around him. Why is that? Well because LeBron can effectively play four positions. I've been a basketball addict since the early 80s and in my estimation Lebron is a hyper athletic version of Magic Johnson. Just an opinion, let the flaming commence. Ha!
I agree with you that MJ is the GOAT for sure. I do think that LeBron has the chance to overtake him in terms of "career", but he'll never be able to surpass Jordan in terms of "prime" of their career. The only way LeBron can overtake MJ is by winning multiple more championships as the best player on the team. I think if LeBron can get to five championships, it will be enough to close the gap in the argument of who was better.
As for who I would start a team with? I think I'm still going with Jordan since I'm GUARANTEED at least a couple championships with Jordan no matter what.
Sweet articles! Upvoted and followed! That Oladipo dunk was pretty creative, he should've brought these out during the dunk contest - maybe he would've advanced further.
Uggh, play-in, MORE playoff teams!?? Already half the league makes the playoffs in NBA and NHL-- enough with the participation trophies already!
Celtics article, on centers and Ainge's machinations...
https://steemit.com/sports/@tenhanger/center-of-confusion-in-celtics-nation
The first round of the playoffs is boring as hell. A single elimination game to decide which team makes it to the playoffs would be awesome. They need to do something to make the league more exciting between the end of the regular season and the conference finals.
Well what's the point of the regular season if every team has a chance to make the playoffs at the end?
that dunk is insane, if he did that at dunk contest he would probably be in finals
That dunk was amazingly creative. Just wish it was a bit cleaner. Kinda like Dwight Howard's "superman" dunk from a while ago, it didn't look that clean to me, and that's a big part of the dunk for me. The degree of difficulty on Dipo's dunk was insane though.
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