CRAZY AND STRANGE NBA STORIES

Ladies and Gentlemen, fans of the NBA, we have reached my final NBA blog. It is crazy to think how fast time flew. It feels like I wrote my first blog yesterday. This being my final, I would like to end this NBA blog an incredibly interesting post, and probably my longest. Without further ado, these are some of the craziest and strangest stories that have occurred throughout NBA history...

DEADLIEST PUNCH IN NBA HISTORY

This is a story of how one punch changed professional sports. It was on the night of December 9, 1977, where two men's lives collided. A fight occurred between Kermit Washington - power forward of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Rudy Tomjanovich- an all-star forward of the Houston Rockets. The brawl took place on the Lakers home court. Tomjanovich ran up right behind Washington, who turned around to deliver a nearly fatal right-hand punch to Tomjanovich's face that knocked him to the floor, leaving him in a pool of blood. Basketball was a tougher, more physical game then. But since that one punch, the NBA and other professional sports organizations began cracking down on fighting with penalties for players. John Feinstein has written a book called The Punch, which chronicles what happened that night, and the impact it had on both men's lives.

LAMAR ODOM'S CANDY PROBLEM

We all know of Lamar Odom's drug addiction which is generally the reason why he had to stop playing basketball. However, Odom had a much more strange addiction that not a lot of people have talked about. Lamar Odom was borderline addicted to candy. This all started in the 2009 playoffs, where Odom claimed the reason why he played well in games 5 and 6 was that he ate candy for breakfast. Candy is not the best pre-game meal. It might even be one of the worst choices for the first meal of the day. So this was definitely news to some people. As reporters dug deeper into this, they found out that Lamar did not just eat candy occasionally, but that his whole diet revolved around candy. This topic even got its own ESPN segment, showcasing how much candy Lamar needed to fulfil himself. Teammates revealed that Lamar would bring bags of candy to every practice. This habit got to the point where Lamar would wake up every day at 3 AM to eat candy in order to refresh himself. Yikes.

JASON TERRY AND HIS ODD SUPERSTITION

It is definitely normal for athletes or anyone at all to have superstitions. Whether it be to eat the same meal for good luck, whether it be to pound your head against the wall before games for good luck. These superstitions are 1 thing, but Jason Terry's was something else. It was very bizarre. During the season on nights when his team has a game the next day, Terry has to go to sleep wearing the shorts of the team he is about to play. These can't even be shorts that anyone can buy at the store, they have to be real NBA shorts worn in a real NBA game. In order to get the game-worn shorts from the rest of the 29 teams in the NBA, Jason has established a network of equipment managers and former NBA players that hook him up before games. This superstition has been so well known that the San Antonio Spurs have tried to trick Terry with the shorts they give him. So the Spurs gave him practice shorts to sleep in instead of game shorts. After sleeping in the practice shorts, the following day, Jason's team did, in fact, lose to the Spurs the next night. This proves that Spurs' coach Gregg Popovich is always 1 step ahead even when it comes to weird superstition.

JASON WILLIAM'S UNPLEASANT HANGOVER

When Jason Williams was first drafted to the Phoenix Suns, he had no intentions of going there what so ever. Cameras even caught him screaming "oh no, no I'm not". He did not want to leave in PEhonex and waited for the last possible second to bail out. When he finally flew to Arizona he decides to get really drunk to forget about his problems. In fact, he got so drunk that when he woke up, the next morning he completely forgot where he was and thought he was still in New York. So when he looked out the window and saw nothing but desert, he started to freak out because he thought the US was hit with an atomic bomb. He tried to contact family and friends, but couldn't reach them. When the General Manager walked to the door and when Jason saw him, he ran to him and asked, "What happened? They dropped a bomb on us, where am I?"

So those were some odd and crazy NBA storied for you guys. My NBA blog is finally finished. It has been an honour to write about the NBA every week, usually on the last day of the week. Thank you for reading!!

Lebron wants Carmelo Anthony to the Lakers?

Lebron and GM moves are back at it again. Many fans like to call him LeGM. Lebron James wants Carmelo Anthony on the Lakers. This statement is very interesting because before this even happened and right after Carmelo got cut from the Rockets, nobody and absolutely NOBODY wanted Carmelo on their team. He was obviously a very unattractive pick. Lakers fans even gave the Carmelo decision a big fat NO. Memes were made and rants occurred about how out of prime Carmelo is now.

Carmelo Anthony

However, Lebron all of a sudden would like to land him. Most fans and people, in general, are not too sure about this one. They are definitely noticing the cons of this happening. Carmelo will be taking away minutes from the Lakers' young core. The team itself is doing very well right now, with young stars like Brandon Ingrim and Kyle Kuzma.

Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram

The whole team consists of all these young players developing and creating more chemistry as a team and around Lebron. However, Carmelo is reaching the end of his career. Inserting Melo on this team will take the young star's minutes away. Carmelo is also putting himself in a position of coming off the bench, which he would not want to do or at least not again. If he is willing to accept the role as a bench player, then this may work. Melo also has advantages with working with Lebron because the two of them have been best friends along with Chris Paul for a very long time. So if Carmelo is still confused about being the starter on this team then that will definitely mess things up. It will mess up chemistry and the team will just be discombobulated. Melo has shown this before on his previous teams, it is just plain awkward when he is on the court. This is just proving what could POTENTIALLY happen. Lebron, however, has shown that he can make his player picks work out so we never know what can happen with this pick. Anyone does what Lebron Says. There was also a bit more drama with things that Kevin Durant said. He claims that people don't want to or shouldn't join the Lakers because of Lebron, due to the attention. It would be nice for Lebron to prove KD wrong and show that he can make everything work. But I also hope that people want to come to LA but not to Lebron so that good players start coming to the Clippers :)).

Clippers Rise Up!!

If you have read my previous blogs, you may have stumbled upon the fact by now that my favourite team is the Los Angeles Clippers. I have also mentioned how they may be cursed because they have won absolutely no championships or even conference championships. How sad :/

LOGO

This year, they are making themselves look promising, despite the fact that we have no star players. We still fight and strive for greatness at every game. The Clippers are surprising the league and not a lot of people are discussing them because they are the Clippers, when you think of them you think of a garbage can. Well, they can think all they want right now, because my team, the Los Angeles Clippers are currently at the #1 seed in the Western Conference.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Nobody, not even me, would think we would be this good this season. I honestly had no expectations what so ever, I did not care about this season as much in the beginning, because our team is currently rebuilding, with the help of our GM, Jerry West. Let me just say that Jerry West has been doing us great so far. He helped us pick up and draft Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. This rookie is already on our starting lineup and proved that he is another really good fit for the team. So with that, we can rely on Jerry West to make smart decisions for us. Now, what do I personally think helped us become a better team? Well, to me it seems like our old roster had many chemistry problems, specifically with Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and Deandre Jordan. The spurt of the chemistry issues may have revolved around the fact that the coaches son was on the team, and a sense of biases was in the air.

OLD ROSTER

But now that the son has gone to the Washington Wizards, and we picked up great players, we seem to be balling out this season. I am happy with where we are right now and how we have been doing lately. We even beat top-tier teams such as the Warriors, Bucks, Nuggets, and more. Now for the future, we never know what may happen. Our GM may be working on getting Kawhi Leanard because Leanard wants to go to LA but not on the Lakers. I found that statement pretty interesting. All in all, this surprising to witness. Now I just hope that our team can stay healthy and consistently strong. If we can maintain our ground, then we may make deep runs in the future.

What's been going on?

Welcome back NBA fanatics! This week, we've got more juicy stuff to talk about as always. Currently, in the league, a lot of drama has been going on, interesting events, and more. First I would like to bring up a question that probably everyone, including the bandwagon fans, are bringing up. That question is, "What is going on with the Golden State Warriors?". Lately, the team has not been performing the way they are expected to be, and there has also been some conflict between teammates as well. The Warriors have been blowing games, and on top of that, they are on a 3-game losing streak, causing them to drop from the #1 seed to the #2 seed. Despite having injured players, the team should still not be losing this often, it is even rare for the team to lose twice in a row or even at all. There may be a cause of this terrible performance by Golden State, and that leads to me talking about the drama between Kevin Durant and Draymond "Donkey" Green.

A recent argument between Draymond Green (Left) and Kevin Durant (Right)
(Warriors @ Clippers Nov, 12)

Just recently, while going against my favourite team, the LA Clippers, the Draymond the snake and Kevin the donkey got into a serious argument on the bench after the Draymond turned the ball over in the final seconds of the 4th quarter, instead of passing the ball to Kevin Durant or a wide-open player. though evidence showed that Draymond was trying to pass toward the very last seconds, the ball got stripped from his hands, and the Warriors did not even have a chance to make an attempt at a game-winning basket. The game went into overtime and between the end of the 4th quarter and overtime, the argument on the bench occurred. In the argument, Draymond stated bold words to Durant, saying the team is better off without Durant and mentioning how the Warriors won without him. Draymond went further on and called Durant a b**ch. This is not the first time that the 2 players went at each other, they have had 2 or 3 big arguments before this. There is so much to this story and this conflict. Even former Warrior, David West, tweeted out that the media or the fans "have no idea what went down". The team did not want anyone to know, so they questioned why he tweeted that. But as said earlier, there is a lot to this story and why this conflict could possibly ruin the Warriors' dynasty. Kevin Durant alone might be ruining the Warriors' dynasty. There is a video on youtube that goes more in depth about this topic. You may want to check it out after reading this.

Another interesting event that occurred recently is that Carmelo Anthony was said to no longer be a part of the Houston Rockets. Many reporters and fans state that Carmelo should go to the Lakers, but it does not seem like the GM of the Lakers, in other words, Lebron James, is not interested in signing Carmelo. Not even my team wants him. Carmelo is claimed as an "unattractive signing" in this season. It is honestly very sad to see Carmelo's career go down this path. The former all-star has never even won a championship ring yet, and as of now, he is getting pushed around and all over the place with different teams. It is not clear yet of where he will be residing, but no team seems too interested.

As for my favourite team, the Los Angelos Clippers, I feel that we are seriously doing better than expected, and we remain an underrated team this season. Sure, barely any NBA fan knows a single player on this team, but that's where we come underrated. Many may say that our star player, Lou Williams is carrying the team and finishing off games for us, but he really does have help. We have Danilo Gallinari, Tobias Haris, Boban Marjanovic, and even our rookie player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is playing extremely well and is on the starting lineup. Our team surprisingly put the Warriors and Bucks to sleep, when nobody expected that we were going to. I am excited to see where my team ends up this season.

This season had many unexpected events and turnarounds. We are even seeing Boston at #5, Houston at #10, my Clippers actually doing something good, the Warriors not playing right, big trades, and more. We will see how the warriors get their crap together, where Carmelo Anthony will go, and further unanswered questions.

What if an entire NBA team died?

As you have probably read the title by now, you may have already guessed that this week's blog post will be a little bit dark. The title really must have intrigued you. I may only be asking "What if an NBA team died?" as a hypothetical question, but however, there once was a team where this almost became a reality. This topic may be a bit morbid and the NBA does want fans to forget this dark tragedy and discussion. As crazy as it sounds, this actually almost happened, back in the 1960s. The incident occurred with the Lakers, at the time when the Lakers were still in Minneapolis rather than Los Angeles.

Minneapolis Lakers (the 1960s)

The team was just about to head back from taking a loss to the St. Louis Hawks. The loss was the last thing the Lakers' minds as they were about to board the plane. They few nervously in a frozen twin-propeller plane which began suffering an electrical failure after takeoff. It was a dark and dangerous night, with a cold blizzard as a burden. What makes this night even worse and much creepier, is the fact that one of the players were in possession of an Ouija board and was playing with it moments before complications on the plane began to occur. Co-pilot Harold Gifford claimed, "For a time, we weren't sure if we'd make it". Luckily, they eventually made it and barely landed safely in an Iowa cornfield.

Now, what would happen if an entire NBA team actually ended up dying? The NBA holds what is called a "Disaster Draft" if an incident occurred where 5 or more players were to be dismembered. Nobody knew this rule existed mainly because the NBA would not want a young audience to see the league in that way. The purpose of the Disaster Draft is to replace the individuals who were lost.  The rest of the teams that were unaffected by the disaster are allowed to protect five players. Though, the team that was affected would only be able to pick 1 player from a single roster of each team. This Disaster Draft would really hurt teams that are on the rise up of rebuilding and the team that was affected by the disaster, which chooses the players, still has the liberty of picking members of stacked teams, allowing them to build their own empire. That is what makes this rule extreme. The reminder that 5 players make big difference.

Can Derrick Rose Blossom again? Can my favorite team do something right this season?

Throughout the season so far, there were already many incredible 50+ point games from incredible players. We had Stephen curry score 51 points against the Washington Wizards. He went 12-16 from the three-point line. We saw Klay Thompson score an amazing 52 points against the bulls. What makes this game even more amazing for him is the fact that he broke the record for most threes made in a game, sinking in 14 three-pointers. Blake Griffin also had a great 50 point game, dropping 50 points and making this his career high. But the most incredible 50+ point game we have witnessed was Derrick Rose's career high of 50 points against the Utah Jazz. What makes this an amazing game is the fact that we have not seen Derrick Rose play like an all-star in a very long time. Rose is already out of his prime, sadly due to many injuries. He reached the point where he is known more for getting injured excessively rather than his actual time on the court. Not to mention, the media has made many memes about him because of these injuries.

But this is why it was really nice to see Derrick Rose have an incredible game once again. After the game, Rose teared up because that is how much of an amazing feeling it must have brought to him. Sadly, 2 days after this game, after such an incredible game, he only scored 3 points and left the game early due to ankle soreness. That must have sucked really bad.:( But overall it was really nice to see Derrick Rose do something like that, even after his prime. On top of all these amazing 50+ point games, we also witnessed so many game winners. Lakers' Lebron James scored a game-winning free throw against the Mavericks. Paul Milsap of the Denver Nuggets scored a game-winning tip-in against the Bulls in overtime. This occurred on a Halloween game too, so he really gave the Bulls a trick rather than a treat! (ok I'll stop). Brooklyn Nets' Spencer Dinwiddie, a guy you never even heard of, scored the game-winning three-pointer against the Detroit Pistons. Lastly, we had Victor Oladipo, from the Indiana Pacers, scored the game-winning three-pointer against the Boston Celtics. I know that in my blog posts regarding this season. I have not been talking about my favourite team, the Los Angeles Clippers. This is because nothing juicy has happened to them recently, but I have to say, they are doing a little bit better than I expected. I thought they would start of the season with like 1 win out of there first 10, but they are currently 5-4,  even though they have gotten slightly worse because they started the season off great, for a team like the Clippers.

As you can tell, this year's NBA season is off to a stunning start. My last 2 posts can prove it to you as well. I am very surprised that the NBA has already got some fire in it, and I can't wait to witness whatever happens next.

This Season is already bringing a ton of excitement!

Many great and exciting moments have already occurred in this season, and we are only 2 weeks into it. 4 days ago we witnessed Detroit Pistons power forward Blake Griffin get to perform his career high of 50 points against the Philidelphia 76ers. Griffin is surprisingly averaging the highest amount of points in this season as of now. In this game, he also scored an amazing game-winner. He scored a tough layup and got fouled as well, which is also called an "and 1". This game lasted until overtime. Raptor's new addition, Kawhi Leanard has been playing very well lately, performing high scoring games. It is very nice to see him come back after his long-lasting injury. Speaking of the Raptors, they have set a franchise record, starting the season 6-0, as well as the Milwaukee Bucks. In a game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Dallas Mavericks, we got to see 2 rookies face-off, Trae Young vs Luka Doncic. Many fans are already comparing Trae Young to Stephen Curry. He is putting up great stats, averaging 21.5 points. Everyone sees potential in this young star.

Trae Young

In a game between the Golden State Warriors and the Washington Wizards, Stephen Curry exploded with 51 points. He knocked down incredible deep three-pointers and scored 11 out 16 three-point attempts. Although I feel that many have talked about this performance and hyped it up way too much because we have seen Curry do this like a million times.

This shrug photo that everyone has been posting on social media

In a matchup between the LA Lakers and the Denver Nuggets, Lebron James put up a triple-double. The Lakers handed the Nuggets their first loss of the season. Meanwhile, with the Oklahoma City Thunder, they are starting off the season with no wins, goign0-4. I am personally surprised, but I do know why they are going through this down period. Russel Westbrook just needs to be a better teammate. The Thunder have been so bad this year, that they blew a big lead against the Boston Celtics, only scoring 1 point in the final 4 minutes. Lastly, we got to witness Lebron James reach another big milestone. He has passed Dirk Nowitzki on the all-time scoring list, making him #6. This milestone occurred against the San Antonio Spurs, where Lebron's team, the Lakers, still took a loss against the Spurs. But once again, everyone is talking about Rajon Rondo here. In the final 15 seconds with the Lakers down by 3 points and in possession, Rondo had a wide open lane and could have put up a layup, but instead loses control of the ball and passes it outside. I personally do not see it as a dumb move, because the Lakers needed a 3, not a 2, however, I also believe that any point counts in that position. But once again, Rondo was made into a meme this week. Overall, it has been another interesting week for the NBA!

Regular Season is back

The NBA made it's official return this week on Tuesday. I have to say that this season has already started off pretty exciting. Star players on their new teams made their official debut. Gordan Hayward returned from a stunning injury that occurred last year. We also got to see many interesting matches, where interesting incidents and highlights occurred. The Warriors kicked off the season in a close game win against the Oklahoma City Thunder, without star player Russel Westbrook. The Hornet's point guard Kemba Walker dropped 41 points against the Bucks, even though the Hornets still ended up losing including a missed game-winning shot by Kemba Walker. Sixer's star player Ben Simmons already dropped a triple-double against the Bulls. Kemba Walker, Ish Smith, and JJ Reddick hit big game-winning shots this week. Many interesting events occurred this week. However, the incident that everyone is probably talking about the most is the Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo fight during a matchup between the Lakers and the Rockets. 

The brawl was initiated after a hard foul on James Harden from Brandon Ingram. Ingram then gave a hard shove to Harden out of frustration. Ingram then got into a ref's face out of more frustration. There was already a little bit of tension already. Just when everyone thought it couldn't get any worse, Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo begin to get in each other's faces. Rondo then spits in his face, Paul then puts a finger in Rondo's face, afterwards Rondo throws a big punch, then Paul throws a punch. Brandon Ingram joins and starts to help Rondo throw more punches at Paul. Punches were continuously getting thrown until the fight was broken off. I would have to say that it was one of the first intense NBA fights we have had in a while, considering the fact that the NBA rules have gotten softer after the "Malice at the Palace". Afterwards, Brandon Ingram was suspended for 4 games, Rajan Rondo got suspended for 3, And Chris Paul got suspended for 2. This fight was discussed for the rest of the weekend, even memes were being posted about the fight:).

On the lighter note, my favorite team, the Los Angeles Clippers are not doing as bad as I thought they were going to do this year. They are currently 2-1 and they were able to close out hard fought games. I still believe we need our guards to put more work in.

The Malice at the Palace

Described as the worst night in the NBA, the night of Malice at the Palace took a toll on the league. This night was one of the more unforgettable moments, and also a very important one as well. On this fateful night, November 19, 2004, a huge brawl took place between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers. This took place in the Palace of Auburn Hills, Michigan - the Detroit Pistons home court.

The game played out like any other typical NBA game. No one tried anything and no harm and threat between the two teams were showed. However, towards the final minute of the game, the brawl began with 45.9 seconds remaining in the game. Pistons center Ben Wallace was fouled from behind by Pacers small forward Ron Artest. The foul was as is because Wallace was slapped across the back of the head during a layup attempt. Wallace has later warned Artest that he would be hit. Wallace took everything the wrong way and shoved Artest with both hands. This caused players from both teams to get in between the two as quickly as possible.

All of a sudden, tension occurred. As everyone was trying to clear off heat from the fight, Artest just laid on the scorer's table. It was at this moment when one of the fans threw a cup with liquid in it at Artest. Tension grew even stronger as Artest proceeded to go after whoever threw the cup. He entered the stands where all the fans were and went to go beat up the fan. He went after the wrong person. After fans grew a bunch of tension and considering a player from the opposing team was going after a fan of the Detroit Pistons, many other fans added to the tension and went after Artest. all of a sudden a big brawl between players and fans began. More and more of the security, staff, and players entered the stands to try their absolute hardest to end the madness. Fans were the ones who grew the angriest. Punch after punch, fighting proceeded and escalated.

As they were giving all effort to get the players out of the stands, the fans only grew even wilder. As players were barely starting to walk off the court, the fans began to throw food, drinks, and maybe even glass. Security had to cover the heads of the players as they made their way back to the locker room. It was described as the scariest night in NBA history. Many have said that no matter how bad it looked on TV, it was 20x worse in person. The league then had to make many rule changes for safety purposes, specifically to avoid traumatizing nights like this. This was a turning point where the NBA got softer in my opinion. One thing is for certain, Mallace at the Palace was a very eventful and historical moment.

The Game that shaped the future of the NBA

The title of this week's blog post is not an exaggeration. This particular game provided the league's roots and the league would simply not be how it is now without this one game. This goes way back to 1964, back in a time where the NBA was a lot different than it is now.



The league had only 9 teams, Basketball itself was not very popular, and players were treated like garbage. Even though the players created a union to represent themselves, the owners ignored each and every one of their requests. Teams did not have full-time trainers, the league forced players to play extreme back to back games, for example, a Friday night game, then a Saturday afternoon game right after, and players were simply not getting paid enough. Players' voices were not being heard. This situation was so serious that there would be meetings and the NBA commissioner would not think that players are worthy enough to come into his office. The players decided that enough is enough and something had to be done. This brings us to the 1964 NBA All-Star game, which would be one of the most important moments in NBA history. Players were so fed up at this point, so they began to discuss with each other in the weeks leading up to the game, and made the decision that if the owners did not give in to their demands, they were not going to play in the all-star game. They were basically going to strike. Players showed up to the game and told them that if owners don't treat them in the proper way, they will not play, and told the owners to go out on the court and tell the audience why there would be no game. This was a risky move from the players, considering the owners had so much power over the players. Owners could have cut any players involved in the strike.

Jerry West stated "The players were controlled by the owners" "All of us felt like we were slaves in the sense we had no rights" "It was the stone ages of basketball". He was right. Players were not even getting paid enough, especially in the conditions that they were forced to play in. In the locker room during the all-star game, 20 players took a vote on what to do, and 11 players stated that they did not want to play unless they were given proper rights. Owners lost their minds, considering this was not just any normal all-star game, but the first all-star game that would be televised. To not have a game would be an absolute catastrophe. Owners would tell many players, "if you aren't going to play in this game, you will probably never play again". The energy in locker room changes as they began to tell each other to go f*ck themselves. Threats were made. The owners finally realized after a while that the players were not playing around. As it became closer and closer to the game, it was the owners who were now panicking. Not having an all-star game would deal a horrible blow to the sport of basketball. Finally, the owners came back into the locker room and caved into every single one of the players' demands. They'd have a pension system in place, they'd have full-time trainers, they wouldn't be forced to play extreme back to back games, and perhaps most importantly, the player association would have a real voice and bargaining power in discussions. On this fateful day of the 1964 All-star game, all the seeds for everything that the league has become were planted.

      

The NBA Preseason is here!

Half of the wait is over because the NBA preseason is here. We are 1 step closer to the NBA regular season to begin! The preseason allows teams to get back into shape, and into grind time mentality, in other words, players are trying to get back into the game. The preseason began on Friday, 9/28. Many star players made their debut for their new teams. Kawhi Leanard debuted on the Raptors, Demar Derozen debuted on the Spurs, and of course, Lebron James debuted on the Lakers. 

Coolest Monkey in the Jungle (Lebron James)

My Uncle (Demar Derozen)

That one quiet kid in class (Kawhi Leanard)

Gordan Hayward

Gordan Hayward from the Boston Celtics has finally returned from a huge broken leg injury, which occurred last year. Demarcus Cousins from the Warriors did not play due to injury, and will apparently not be returning for the preseason. Although several teams are still yet to play their first game in the preseason. Many notable players had low scoring games and many notable teams lost to terrible teams. This is no surprise because it is only the preseason, but many fans, including me, have predictions for the upcoming regular season already. I personally believe that a lot of teams need to build up chemistry with their new additions in order to win games. There has been other interesting news from the past week. Star Player Jimmy Butler from the Minnesota Timberwolves has stated that he wants to get traded from the team. 

Jimmy Butler

One of the teams he wants to head to is the Los Angeles Clippers, which is my favorite team. I am not sure how I feel about this. I do not know whether Butler is worth giving up cap space for. I wouldn't mind having him on the team. There has also been news about the Cleveland Cavalier's player J.R Smith being notified that a tattoo on his leg will get him fined every game if he does not cover it up before the season. 

JR Smith

He seemed to be very angry about this. The tattoo apparently violates a law because his tattoo shows a Supreme Logo. It violates an NBA law because the league prohibits players from displaying any commercial logos or corporate insignia on their body or their hair. Smith has been voicing his concern and will talk to the league about this. I personally do not think the NBA will budge so he will have to cover the tattoo up. All in all, I am very excited and hyped for what this upcoming NBA season has to offer, and the preseason is just a supplement that helps remedy my impatience and anxiety for the regular season to start.

Incredible Stories of 2 Asian NBA Players

In all honesty, with the help of racism, Asain people are not and were never known as the most athletic or superstar players in the NBA. In the league, there are 0.2% of Asians. As an Asian my self, I am appalled. This also applies to all professional sports as well. Asain people are more recognized as intelligent beings coming from the hardest college, most likely to become a doctor. That is the harsh reality for Asians. However, there are 2 specific Asain NBA players that have proved society wrong, showing that they are worth it in the league. Each has played in different eras if the NBA, one of them being the Hall of Famer Yao Ming. The second one is currently in the league, but not as great as he once was in his glory days, Jeremy Lin. Each of them has a fascinating story and they both have represented Asians in the NBA for a very long time.

Yao Ming

Jeremey Lin

Starting off with Jeremy Lin's story. Jeremy has fought through the cultural biases throughout his basketball career. This has caused him to struggle to prove himself worthy on the court, even in college (Harvard). He was overlooked because he was Asian. It made no sense how he was not given a fair chance considering the fact that he carried his High School, Palo Alto into a 31-1 record, bringing them into the state finals, going up against Mater Dei. It was there when he brought the team to victory. Jeremey then became a NorCal Division II player of the year. Despite all this, he was still not offered a scholarship by any Division 1 college. He was given the opportunity to play for Harvard. There he showed off his talent, with a notable performance of 30 points against the Uconn Huskies, where future all-star Kemba Walker played.

Palo Alta vs Mater Dei (2006)

         Lin at Harvard University

After college, he came into the NBA summer league undrafted, eventually receiving a contract from the Golden State Warriors. This made him the first Chinese-American player to ever make it to the NBA. He was then sent into the D-League because he appeared overmatched. His career in the NBA got off to a rocky start. After given the 2nd Chance he was then cut from the Houston Rockets. This was the worst fit for him because as a point guard, he was on a team with 6 point guard already. Finally, the New York Knicks saw potential in him, so they picked him. New York is where the turning point in  Lin's career occurred. He reached an era in his career, which people liked to call, Linsanity. He started off in New York as a bench warmer, only playing when the stars got hurt. One game, when the Knicks faced off against the New Jersey Nets, he was given possibly his last chance to show that he deserves way more recognition and proving cultural biases wrong. With a do or die attitude, he went all out. Finally, he showed to the world that Asians have also got what it takes as well. He remembers crying in the shower afterward. Thus, his Linsanity phase was born as he continued to go off. He continued to go through hate and discrimination, but he also continued to show he could not be stopped as well.

This next story is what I find to be the most interesting one. This next one is about Chinese Hall of Famer, Yao Ming. The basis of this story is his height, standing at 7'6, he was always well-known for his insane height in the league. The truth is, he probably was not supposed to be this tall or this talented. In the 1950's, the Chinese government wanted to be great and powerful in all of the sports.





They craved dominance in all of the sports, and one of their strengths and notable sports happened to be basketball. Their needs of dominance may not have been so forgiving and nice. That is because they did not fool around. They kept the mentality that they must do absolutely whatever it takes to be dominant, no matter how unforgiving. They took their strategies to the extreme as they scouted the nation for young children that had any potential. They would then force any liked child to leave their home and dedicate their life to the sport that China chose for them. This is already beyond messed up\. Even after Chinese athletes' professional careers were over, they were still forced to dedicate their lives to the sport and get their marriages approved by the government, in order to produce babies who would then be able to play a sport and so on. Moving on to Yao Ming himself. He was born as a very big baby. Right away China so the potential in him due to his height. They followed his childhood every step. Right away, he was of course forced to dedicate his life to basketball. He and his parents did not want this, as his parents wanted him to go to school full time and Yao wanted to be an archeologist when he grew up. Sadly China does give a damn. When players for a sport were gathered, they were put through hell during training and practices. They were tortured and to keep going until they could not breathe. Practices practically lasted the whole day. Players would often collapse on the floor. Players would often get beaten up when they make mistakes and even if a player is sick, they did not care. This created Yao into a superior basketball player despite hating the sport.



He continued to grow and develop as an athlete. China wanted Yao to grow even taller so they made drinks for him to take. Yao was put through basketball hell throughout his entire life. Thus, I believe that China created Yao Ming.

These stories are quite fascinating in their own way and definitely put Asian players up there, whether from struggles with biases to the Chinese government.

The Los Angeles Clippers are a disgrace to the NBA!

Clippers' trash cans...... because they're TRASH

The NBA pre-season begins in 2 weeks. We will finally get to see how each team with their new additions play out. This does not mean I will focus and anticipate on the upcoming season. In reality, there are many other things basketball related that I can talk about on this blog, with or without the current season. This week, I wanted to embrace how bad my favorite team is, so that is what I will be talking about. Many NBA fanatics, including me, believe that the Los Angeles Clippers are indeed cursed. They are not only the most cursed team in the NBA, there may be the most cursed team in all of the professional sports, never winning even one championship title.

For many years, the Clippers have been the laughing stock of this league. From missing opportunities on star players to being the only team that has never made it past the 2nd round of the playoffs, the Clippers are cursed. Let's take this back to the early history of the team, even before the Clippers were in Los Angeles. This is the era where the franchise has traded away future stars they have had and also have missed out on many opportunities at drafting all-star players. When the Clippers were in New York, Buffalo, the team had a future all-star player at the time, Moses Malone. The Clippers missed a big one here, by not giving Malone a lot of playing time. As a result, Moses requested to get traded off the team,. Afterward, he began to shine on Rockets. From then on after leaving the Clippers, he would soon become a 3x MVP. Later on, the Clippers traded the face of their team, Bob Mcadoo, who has already won an MVP. After being traded, he was an overall 5x All-Star and a future Hall of Famer. They gave up 2 big names and ended up receiving bum players in return. Throughout many years, they would go on to trading away 3 Hall of Famers and missed out on drafting 1 Hall of Famer. They would continue to miss out on star players, like when they traded away Hall of Famer, Bill Walton. In the recent years or modern era of the NBA, the Clippers franchise is not any different. This is the time period where the team began to blow winning opportunities. In 2014, the Clippers made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs, the most they have ever made it to. They were up against the Oklahoma City Thunder. In game 5, they had a chance to take the lead in the series, making it 3-2, only needing one more win to advance after that. In the game, the Clippers were ahead by 7 in the final minutes, but of course, they blew the lead, allowing the Thunder to take control and later on win the series. In 2015, the Clippers once again were in the 2nd round, after defeating the Spurs in the first. They were put up against the Houston Rockets. In this series, the Clippers were actually ahead, 3-1, only needing one more win the advance. But the Clippers somehow found a way to give up the lead, allowing the Houston Rockets to a make an amazing comeback. I was personally devastated while watching that happen. The team was so close to advancing to the Conference Final for the first time in history. The team has a long and bad history of giving up great oppurtunites. Everything happens for a resason, but at this point i dont even know what is going. However I still stay as a loyal fan to the team and I have faith that one day, the glory will be ours. GO CLIPPERS!

The Virtual NBA (My experience with the release)

As the NBA pre-season is just around the corner, beginning in about 3 weeks, and as the offseason trade drama is coming to a close, there is obviously nothing much with the NBA I can talk about right now.......or is there? There may be nothing in the real NBA world that I am interested in as of right now, but this week, the 20th video game in the NBA 2k franchise has released, specifically the 20th Anniversary edition. The Standard Edition comes out 4 days after. The NBA 2k Franchise consists of a series of basketball video games that release every year, basically simulating the NBA in a video game with a variety of game modes. The series kicked off back in 1999 with "NBA 2k".

First NBA 2K game (1999)

From then on, the franchise continued to grow.  Many NBA fans and fans of the franchise have anticipated this year's special edition mainly because it is the 20th Anniversary of the franchise.

20th Anniversary Edition

Many fans, including most of my friends, have pre-ordered this copy of the game, however, this leaves me feeling left out because I didn't pre-order this version. For a few weeks, I have been contemplating whether I should get the 20th Anniversary Edition, which costs $100, or the standard edition, which costs $60.

Standard Edition

These NBA 2K games release every year, similar to how there's a new NBA season every year.  Throughout the recent years, I have never had a hard time deciding which edition to order, because I always picked up the standard edition along with all my friends because we don't want to spend $100 on a game that may not even be worth the price. I would always pre-order the game around a month or 2, prior to the early release date for a pre-ordered copy. However, this year was a more stressful decision to make. Almost everyone I know ordered the 20th Anniversary Edition, except for me. So I ended up frustrated and confused about which edition I should pre-order last minute. I have never pre-ordered an NBA 2K game so late in my life. This decision left me with so much stress. It came down to one of those situations where there are good pros and cons for each choice. If I got the 20th Anniversary Edition, I would receive a ton of more content to enjoy, including physical content as well. All of the best content was exclusive to the special edition. Another good part about picking this version is the fact that I would get to play the game 4 days earlier. Usually, if you pre-order the game in general, even the standard edition, you get to pick the game up 4 days earlier. However this year, only the special edition is available 4 days prior to the initial release date. This is something I don't get at all. I feel like it would be a much easier decision for me if the standard editions released early as well because I am also a very impatient person when it comes to situations like these. If I get the standard edition, then I save $40 and I can say that I was wise with my money. That's pretty much it, but money is a big deal. When they say the struggle is real, they mean it. I had better things to be stressed about, such as my presentation that I had to practice for. Although there are differences between the 2 versions, it is still the same game at the same time, which makes me feel a whole lot better. On the final day that both games were available to pre-order, I finally went to GameStop, still making 2nd thoughts, but most likely getting the standard edition. I walk up to the register, wondering if the 20th Anniversary Edition was still available to order (it was the night of the Special edition pick up), the worker said they were all sold out of the special edition copies, reminding me that I have never ordered a 2K game this late in my life. It did make me feel a bit better as well, knowing there was no other choice I had afterward then just pick up the standard edition, which will be available for pickup 4 days later. So I ordered the standard edition, and I was finally all set. Regardless of the confusion, I am still very excited to pick up the new NBA 2K game this Tuesday. Personally, I think it is very convenient for the NBA 2K game to release every year, a few weeks before the actual NBA season starts. It keeps impatient people like me, calm and not dying for the NBA season to start as much. It keeps me occupied. I hope my experience with this year's NBA 2K game is a great one, just like every year.

A Very Interesting Off-Season.....

Congratulations, looks like you made it to my first NBA blog post! As the NBA season has not started yet (preseason begins in early October), there are still many interesting things that happens and has happened around the league.  This time period where the season isn't currently

on is called the "off-season". 

A lot of interesting trades occurred during this off-season, some I found interesting, however a few others I didn't understand why. The end of last season was very unsatisfying, seeing the Golden State Warriors sweep the Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-0 in the finals. Right after that boring series, I was really hoping for good trades to occur, where a team gets formed to at least put up a challenge against the stacked Warriors. When it comes to my favorite team, that being the Los Angeles Clippers, it is pretty depressing here. The Clippers have lost a majority of their star players, trading Deandre Jordan most recently. At this point we practically have nobody. This off-season, I did not even think about them making or getting anything out of a trade in order to contend in the playoffs. However, this off-season had some interesting trades. Lebron James had signed to join the Los Angeles Lakers, who will probably become the better LA team once again. Another really interesting trade was the San Antonio Spurs' Kawhi Leonard heading to the Toronto Raptors as the Raptor's Demar DeRozan heads to the Spurs. There were many other fascinating, like Carmelo Anthony going to the Houston Rockets, Isiah Thomas heading to the Denver Nuggets, and several other big trades. However, there was one trade in particular that I did not understand at all. That is, of course, a trade involving the Warriors, an already stacked team, getting another all-star player once again. 

A Monkey

Early in July, Demarcus Cousins signed with the Warriors in free-agency. This move basically completes an All-star lineup, practically making them nearlyQuestions, Comments, Free V-Bucks? impossible to beat. I honestly think this was a bad move on Cousins and one that probably has every other NBA fan clenching their fist. He has probably ruined the league for the next few years. If we already have an idea of who will win the championship every year, we won't see the point in watching. With this trade, the Western Conference is also very stacked and overpowered. Although I am still excited to see how everything turns out in this 2018-19 NBA season, I am still already aware of who will win, as well as everyone else.