With all of the intense, disturbing real-world stuff that went down in Boston all day Friday, basketball games don’t seem so important any more, do they? But here we are. It’s Saturday, the first day of the NBA Playoffs, and after the last week, we probably all need a major dose of basketball played by the world’s greatest athletes to take our minds off of current events.
This is what the schedule looks like:
Can you think of anything more entertaining than what we’re about to get with Nuggets/Warriors? It’s a shame that Danilo Gallinari is out; both teams at full strength would be wild…
Do you know who else is ready for the NBA Playoffs to start? Pat Riley:
On the next page, David Stern attacks flopping … and Sean Elliott??
To help product the product that is the NBA Playoffs, the League is getting out ahead of flopping, stepping up their policy and punishment for the second season:
And then we saw this:
… and within minutes we had an email in our inbox from our favorite teams asking us to fill out a survey critiquing their announcers and broadcasts. Sooo many more things to worry about and fix ahead of homer announcers (which, by the way, is exactly what hometown viewing audiences want). Why would Boston fans ever want a broadcast that is objective? Sean Elliott‘s behavior on Spurs telecasts is akin to a ridiculous WWE villain, but we’re pretty sure viewers in San Antonio love him. These local broadcasts aren’t ESPN productions, they’re not expected to be held to the same guidelines. If you’re on the League Pass and extreme homerism bothers you, you know who to avoid …
We thought this was really interesting. Ric Bucher was at Nuggets practice watching as they prepare for the Warriors’ transition three-point game with Andre Iguodala and Evan Fournier playing the roles of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson:
James Harden was at about 974,000 Twitter followers when he posted this yesterday:
On the next page, Kobe welcomes the “Lady Mamba” and Phil Jackson addresses rumors of his NBA return…
Yesterday, we heard from Skylar Diggins and her tribute to Kobe Bryant. Today, Kobe returned the admiration:
And when the predictable trolling happened right after he posted that, Kobe had his own thoughts:
The parade of well-wishers for Kobe Bryant continued yesterday with Mike D’Antoni, Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss. Remember the “helicopter” magazine profile from a few years ago when Josh Powell, Kobe’s best friend on the team at the time, said he’d never even been to Kobe’s house? Now everyone is invited:
Whatever it takes, Pau:
Phil Jackson responded to the widespread reports that he has an “itch” to get back in the NBA as a coach or front office presence:
On the next page Damian Lillard makes history and Nate Robinson kills Rip Hamilton …
Did you catch the new episode of Nate Robinson‘s “State of Nate” series yesterday? This dude kills us on Instagram – here’s his work from yesterday:
Bradley Beal:
Damian Lillard was named the KIA NBA Western Conference Rookie of The Month for April yesterday – making it sweep, winning the honor every month of the season. He’s the eighth rookie to sweep every month of the season since they started handing out the award in 1981.
Kendall Marshall felt the need to tweet every step of a flight he took today, including this:
And we leave you with this, compliments of Metta World Peace. Well said.
We’re out like the bad guys.
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