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Dear NBA, Please Stop Trying To Make Mac McClung A Thing
I’ll say it, I’m sick of Mac McClung. The NBA has put him in the spotlight this weekend too much for my liking and he needs some warranted slander. Putting my Bball Enjoyer ways on pause for this one.
For those who don’t know, Mac McClung is a 24-year-old G-League journeyman who has been on 4 NBA teams in 2 years. Now I’ll give Mac some credit, he can fly. He rose to relevancy by breaking the myth that white men can’t jump.
Impressive, I guess. That’s the last time I’ll compliment the man who is ruining All-Star weekend. Dunking is about all he does, and he’s not even an in-game dunker!
I mean this stat makes me want to vomit. I don’t watch Mac McClung often, but if you asked me, I would have assumed he was dunking at least once a game. Bro is just running laps hoping for his viral moment.
To make it worse, all weekend the NBA has inserted Mac in events. He just participated in the Rising Stars game which is ironic because Mac is neither rising nor is he a star. He was a part of the G-League Rising Stars team which was headlined by Scoot Henderson, the projected #2 pick in the draft. Instead, we watched Mac McClung take 8 shots in 9 minutes. PU.
Simply put…
I don’t want to watch Mac McClung. He is not good and now he has limited how much of Scoot I get to see.
On top of that, tonight the NBA is running it back and putting Mac in the dunk contest?!?! Mac’s a great dunker, I get it. But to be honest, I don’t care if he does something crazy, nobody will remember down the line and I will be unmoved. Remember when Jeremy Evans won a dunk contest? Glenn Robinson III? Maybe I’m just a hater, but nothing iconic will come from tonight. He will do some great dunks, get his viral moment, and fade back into irrelevancy.
Mac recently signed a 2-way contract with the Sixers. Maybe the NBA used that as an excuse to shove him in our faces. Not sure, but this weekend has too much Mac McClung for my liking. Is this irrational? Maybe. I will gladly accept the title of Mac McClung hater. He stinks.
Couldn’t agree more, grubbyfella.
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Let’s Check In On Skip Bayless
I was having trouble deciding what to write about LeBron James. Should I write a 50-page essay about his greatness? Should I laugh at the people who can’t withdraw from their preconceived biases and enjoy a historic moment?
No seriously, what should I do? We all use Twitter. It’s awesome to see rational people show their support for LeBron. This is his night and his moment. Even legendary rival Paul Pierce literally bent the knee and called LeBron “the King.”
Uhhhh, punctuation much? Had to read it over a few times. All jokes aside, that is awesome. Love him or hate him, you gotta respect the player LeBron is. Shoutout to Pierce for not being petty. Super cool to see.
I’ll save the real commentary for the real journalists (shoutout to KC for this one), I’d rather get in the mud and laugh at some of the silly tweets I saw.
That led me to this blog. How do you respond to all the miserable Jordan stans like this? Twitter was full of ridiculous takes and mad MJ stans. People being so irrational they can’t appreciate a moment like we just saw. They can’t appreciate one of the best players to ever play the game.
“But but he flops!” “He’s lost 6 finals”
Unfortunately, I’m going to have to ratio you bozos.
Ignoring them is probably the best option, but let’s be honest, we all ignore tweets that really get under our skin. I figured the best way to talk about some of the silliness I saw on Twitter is to recap the tweets of King LeBron Hater, Skip Bayless.
Truth being told, I am a fan of Skip. He’s crossed the line a few times lately, but if you treat him as an entertainer or even a caricature of LeBron haters, he is hilarious to watch from afar.
Let’s check in on ol’ Skip and see how he’s doing on this fine day.Starting off hot. Fair point, I guess? The Lakers stink. Skip knows what he’s doing. Still, not the worst start for Skip. Wow. Respect Skip. It’s important to put the moment in perspective. It’s not about MJ or about the trolls. We just witnessed an all-time basketball mome- Kings stay kings. Ernestine must have taken Skip’s phone earlier. Never change. You are watching a master at work. Just as LeBron rises to the top of his craft, Skip solidifies his place on the Mount Rushmore of Trolls. Anyways, I hope true basketball enjoyers withdrew from whatever preconceived biases you had for 1 minute and enjoyed last night. One of the coolest moments in NBA History. Happy I got to witness it. Congrats to LeBron. Who knows if we’ll ever see a moment like this again (looking at you Luka)…
Bonus: Some of my favorite tweets from last night
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Predicting Kyrie Irving’s Next Move
The trade deadline is officially approaching, and our ol’ pal Kyrie Irving is back in the news. I shouldn’t be surprised, yet somehow, I am truly shocked right now. The Nets were headed in the right direction. They survived the onslaught of chaos spawned by Kyrie earlier in the year and were one of the best teams in the East before KD went down. They still sit comfortably in the 4th seed with KD poised to return shortly. However, it appears the Nets and Kyrie could not come to terms on a contract.
Is this posturing? Is he just trying to get his bag? Understandably, the Nets want some sort of games played guarantee on Kyrie’s contract. Kyrie has struggled to stay on the court and has been a distraction to the team at times.
Not to mention the whole bullying Steve Nash saga…
Now after trade request number two, it seems the sportsbooks have released odds for Kyrie Irving’s next move.
Updated odds for Kyrie Irving’s next move:
-250: Los Angeles Lakers
+220: Retire and join The Daily Wire
+800: Podcast with Cole Beasley
+1500: Work with Gary Vee to rip off poor people at garage sales
+2500: Guangdong Tigers
+20,000: Stay out of the news cycle for 1 month
Honestly, I absolutely love the odds on Guangdong. That’s my lock of the week. Never let em know your next move, and nobody in the world knows Kyrie’s next move. Not even Kyrie.
I do see Dallas and Phoenix offering better packages than the Lakers though. The Lakers are going to offer the classic Westbrook and two firsts. I personally don’t see the Nets biting on that offer unless they decide to completely blow it up and really want those two Lakers firsts.
Chaos in the NBA once again. Thanks for the entertainment, Kyrie.
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Attempting To Rebuild The Chicago Bulls
TL;DR: The Bulls stink and rather than trying to make the playoffs with an old roster, we should commit to acquiring, drafting, and developing young talent. I propose some interesting trade machine deals and blow up the entire roster because I’m bored.
AK owes us an apology. The Bulls stink, and as time goes on, more and more fans are realizing this team doesn’t have any upside, while also having a much lower floor than we all expected.
Anyways, yesterday I pitched a DeMar for O.G. Anunoby deal on twitter and was met with an onslaught of rage.Ever??? This one made me laugh. I tend to try to keep it to memes and relatively educated opinions on Twitter, but I’m not going to lie, I am ADDICTED to the trade machine game.
Let’s evaluate some attempted semi-realistic trade machine deals to acquire some young talent.*
*I am not an NBA Executive. Individually, I don’t think these trades are horrible. As a whole, it’s borderline impossible to make all of these deals. Again, I am a bozo and all these deals probably get declined by both sides. But we can have fun, right? I will accept whatever bullying comes my way from this.
Trade #1
It has been rumored the Knicks want off the Fournier contract. The Knicks give up 3 young players all playing under 22 minutes per game. They offload Fournier’s contract and only lose 1 strong first round pick.
The Bulls get rid of their franchise guy Javonte Green. Luckily, they still have 4 Javonte’s remaining. They get younger and bring Derrick Rose home. I wanted to include Quickley but I’m not sure how realistic that deal is with him involved. Here is a potential deal with Quickley instead.
Also, have you seen Sims? He is an absolute freak athlete. Blow it up for him, he’s a rebounding machine.
Trade #2
Goodbye Demar. This one wasn’t as tough for me as it would be for most Bulls fans. My thoughts on Demar and his impact on this team have been well documented on Twitter. Either way, I think fans are opening up to the idea of moving him now that they see this team isn’t making any noise and likely won’t make any noise.
Dallas gets Luka a much needed second star while Chicago takes on a bad contract but brings in 2 firsts and a decent young piece in Josh Green.
Trade #3
I am very hesitant to post this one. In the event of a full rebuild, I would love to keep Caruso around. He’s such a great player and could be a great mentor. That being said, he’ll probably want out.
I’m guessing the Warriors will want to keep Kuminga, but AC is a legit all-defensive team guard. Not sure who says no to this one. Bulls might want a first instead of a second. Whoever made this trade sucks, imo.
Trade #4
Jarred Vanderbilt is rumored to be available for “the equivalent of a first round pick”. Would love to bring in Vanderbilt, but I think every team would love a player like him and the Portland 1st is heavily protected and probably not enough.
Trade #5
I don’t even like this one really, but what do you do with Vooch? I’m guessing AK is going to whip out the check book this offseason.
In total, Chicago would gain 5-6 first-round picks and 2 second-round picks while also adding a wide variety of young talent. Sounds like a decent jump start to a rebuild. Just don’t abandon the process too early this time around @AK.
Chaos complete. Truth being told, we all know this team isn’t blowing it up. Is it because AKME has become complacent on their current roster? Is it because they are too stubborn to admit they may have made a mistake? Or is it because Reinsdorf will refuse to give the green light on blowing it up because it will hurt ticket sales?
Whatever the reason, let’s start digging ourselves out of this mess before it’s too late.
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Nobody Knows What’s Wrong With Lonzo Ball’s Knee And It Makes Me Sad
Look, I’m not a doctor. I am some bozo you may follow on Twitter. But when Lonzo Ball tore his meniscus in January of 2022, I was naive enough to think he’d be back in no time. That’s what the Bulls told us. I should have known never to trust the medical staff that almost killed Luol Deng. Fast forward to 2023 and we are all absolutely dumbfounded at what is going on with Lonzo’s knee.
Don’t even know what to make of this situation anymore. It’s my first blog. Do I want to cry on the internet some more about how sad of a situation this is for Lonzo and the Bulls? Probably not. Yet here I am, crying over this situation once again.
6 different opinions?!?! In the year of our lord and savior 2023 we can’t use modern technology to find out what is ailing my starting point guard’s knee?
I didn’t expect him to come back this season, but now here I am questioning if he will ever come back. It’s weird to type out but this is such a bizarre situation nothing would surprise me at this point.
His impact has been extremely missed as the Bulls are struggling to stay relevant as the 10th seed in the east currently. Those few months of ELITE defense and shooting will never be forgotten. Most fun I’ve had watching the Bulls since the Rose Era.
Really wishing Lonzo the best. Hope he can come back fully healthy and help this team out some day.
Sidenote: AK wasn’t gaslighting us? He actually had no clue what was wrong with Lonzo’s knee? That is a shocking development. I owe AK an apology (I will not be giving it until my team is good again).
A Casual Basketball Blog 