Let's put a bow on the NBA's 2023 together
This Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza details how your help is needed for the Year In Review compilation that I've been wanting to assemble since last year
ORLANDO — By the time you read this, I (hopefully) will have entered the Orange County Convention Center for the start of a four-day hoops fest attended by front office executives and scouts from all over the NBA map.
The annual G League Showcase, which belonged to Las Vegas for the past few Decembers, has been relocated to Central Florida.
I understand the change even though I miss Vegas already. Love the Vegas cold in the fast-approaching winter time compared to July! Alas ...
The league was just parked in the desert for the In-Season Tournament semifinals and title game earlier this month, so moving Showcase to a new territory is understandable. It's also very common for Showcase. I've covered this event in Boise, Idaho, and Orem, Utah, and South Padre Island, Texas, and Reno, Nev., and Santa Cruz, Calif., and Mississauga, Ontario ... so it certainly was never married to Sin City.
This also represents my first trip to Orlando since leaving the Walt Disney World bubble in September 2020. On top of the inevitable nostalgic reflections I am prone to, like thinking about that time I wrote about life in the bubble for Wirecutter, I had a brainstorm on the flight over Monday afternoon.
I remembered that, last year, I waited too long to ask for community submissions on a Year In Review concept that I’ve been wanting to test out.
Thankfully I won't be repeating that mistake.
Instead of me just imposing my favorite 2023 memories from the Year In Basketball on everyone — while I also find myself increasingly pondering whether the LA Clippers’ eight-games-and-counting winning streak suddenly means that the James Harden trade previously branded so disastrous for the Clippers actually helped both teams involved — I want to open the floor to hear from you guys on year-end matters.
So ...
In the comment section below, or in my Substack Chat room — I'll create a special thread for this project — PLEASE register your standout professional basketball memory from these past 12 months. Please tell us not only what happened but why it stuck with you.
I plan to publish a smattering of your submissions along with my own personal favorites after Christmas to put a worthy bow on 2023 and properly usher us into 2024.
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Chatter Box
Two new pods to share with you on this Newsletter Tuesday ...
The latest episode of #thisleague UNCUT alongside Turner Sports' Chris Haynes dropped Monday. We covered several topics, as usual, with a focus on the Lakers' much-debated decision to commemorate their In-Season Tournament championship with a banner as well as the latest with Draymond Green's indefinite suspension in Golden State and, as the above picture indicates, GameBallGate with Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee:
I'd also like to share a couple podcast links from the latest edition of my radio show, The Saturday Stein Line, which airs Saturdays in Dallas on 97.1 (FM) The Freak. My guests were former Mavericks-turned-Mavericks broadcaster Devin Harris and The Los Angeles Times' Dan Woike:
Numbers Game
🏀 25
Ja Morant is scheduled to return from his 25-game suspension Tuesday night in New Orleans. Morant’s Grizzlies are 6-19. Can they, as my Substacking pal wonders here, go 35-22 for the rest of the season to claw back to .500? Is a play-in spot still within reach for the Grizz? I say no, but Memphis’ chance to disprove the naysayers (albeit still without Brandon Clarke, Steven Adams and the soon-to-return Marcus Smart) starts now.
🏀 31
Shawn Marion became the 11th former Phoenix Sun to enter the club’s Ring of Honor when the Suns retired Marion’s No. 31 last Friday. The Matrix joined Alvan Adams (No. 33), Charles Barkley (34), Tom Chambers (24), Walter Davis (6), Connie Hawkins (42), Kevin Johnson (7), Dan Majerle (9), Steve Nash (13), Dick Van Arsdale (5) and Paul Westphal (44).
🏀 12.6
The Lakers’ Anthony Davis entered Tuesday’s play as the NBA’s top rebounder at 12.6 boards per game. Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania), Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert (France) and Atlanta’s Clint Capela (Switzerland) have won the league’s past three rebounding titles since Chicago’s Andre Drummond (then with Detroit) became the last American player to do so with three rebounding crowns in a row from 2016-17 through 2018-19.
🏀 50
Jalen Brunson’s 50-point game in Phoenix on what was intended to be Marion’s night included nine assists, six rebounds and five steals. Only two other players in league history, per research from the tireless
, have posted a 50/5/5/5 game previously since the NBA began tracking steals during the 1973-74 season: Michael Jordan (March 1988) and Rick Barry (March 1974).🏀 6
Brunson’s eruption marked the sixth 50-point game this season. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo leads the pack with his recent 64-point game against Indiana. Antetokounmpo also has a 54-point game, followed by Chicago’s Zach LaVine (51) and the Philadelphia duo of Joel Embiid (50) and Tyrese Maxey (50).
🏀 25
There were 25 50-point games last season by 15 players, representing the NBA’s highest single-season total since Wilt Chamberlain (30) and Elgin Baylor (four) combined for 34 in 1962-63.
🏀 10
Denver’s Nikola Jokić leads the league with 10 triple-doubles so far this season. That makes it a league-record seventh season in a row in which Jokić has posted a double-digit total of triple-doubles, per Kubatko, breaking a tie with Oscar Robertson’s six seasons in a row from 1960-61 through 1965-66.
🏀 38
The Knicks’ recent signing of Taj Gibson increased the NBA’s contingent of 38-year-olds to four as he joins LeBron James, P.J. Tucker and Chris Paul. James, of course, turns 39 on Dec. 30 in his 21st NBA season … and first as the league’s oldest player.
🏀 2
USA Basketball has announced that the senior men’s national team will play two warmup games in London before the Paris Olympics: July 20 against South Sudan and July 22 against the new FIBA World Cup champions Germany. It’ll be the United States’ first trip back to London since the 2012 Olympics which I so gleefully covered.
🏀 4
A ray of positivity amid Indiana’s 1-4 funk since reaching the In-Season Tournament championship game: Tyrese Haliburton is flirting with what would be just the fifth season in league history in which a player averaged at least 20 points and 12 assists per game. Magic Johnson did it three times (most recently in 1988-89) and Kevin Johnson did it once.
🏀 2024
New Year’s Day is less than two weeks away and, for Pacers fans, that means a home-and-home with their new pals from Milwaukee on Jan. 1 (in Milwaukee) and Jan. 3 (in Indiana).
🏀 30
George McGinnis won two ABA championships with Indiana before I really became aware of him as a young NBA fan in the 1970s. But I will never forget collecting his basketball cards as a Philadelphia 76er when I started falling in love with the game. McGinnis died last week at age 73 and was remembered here in this comprehensive obituary from Harvey Araton in The New York Times.
🏀 97.1
I’m on the radio Saturdays from noon to 1 PM CT on 97.1 (FM) The Freak in Dallas with an hour of live NBA talk presented by Panini Trading Cards and Collectibles. Join us online by clicking the link embedded in this sentence or via the iHeart radio app to listen to The Saturday Stein Line on this or any Saturday ... or catch the podcasted version of the show once it drops via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or #whereveryougetyourpodcasts:
This won’t have a specific date attached to it, but as a long time fan and season-ticket holder, the long-anticipated return to relevancy in Sacramento was my highlight of the year. For many years I felt roughly 8000 years old as I tried to convince my two teenage children that it used to be fun being a Kings fan. Last year’s schticky Light The Beam thrill ride had my kids fighting to see who got to come to the games with Dad. I’m sure this won’t register with many fan bases, but being a Kings fan in Sacramento is a unique experience. And for one season, at least, it was magical again.
Since we're talking calendar year...February 21, Minnesota at Dallas. The Wolves were dangerously close to yet another Wolvesy loss, clinging to a 3-point lead in the final few seconds after leading by as many as 26. This game, however, Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels put the absolute clamps on Luka and Kyrie, not even allowing a potential game-tying shot to go up.
Fast forward to November 6. The Wolves and Celtics go to overtime after the C's miss a game-winner at the end of regulation. Like that game in Dallas, the Wolves amp up the defense in the extra session, shutting down anything Boston tries en route to the win. It's those kind of lock-down performances that make me think this Wolves team is different than what we've seen for years.
Oh...and Edwards looking like a potential superstar is nice too :)