Superchat tonight! 9:30 PM ET! Join us!
Jake Fischer and I will both be in my Substack Chat room tonight to take your questions and watch games with you. Hopefully you can meet us there
Special announcement on this Newsletter Tuesday:
The first Superchat in the history of this NBA Superstack will take place tonight at 9:30 PM ET.
What, you ask, is an NBA Superchat?
Translation: Jake Fischer and I will get together for an hour in the heart of this NBA Cup Tuesday to answer your questions in The Stein Line's exclusive Substack Chat room.
Remember when Jake and I used to do Spotify Live sessions together?
This will be the written version of that beautiful chaos.
Want to ask me directly about my love of the NBA Cup? Or, more realistically, do you have questions about NBA personnel matters? Or the leaguewide injury plague? Or anything else on your mind now that we've passed the one-month marker of the regular season?
Whatever is on your mind NBA-wise ... this is your forum and opportunity to just ask Jake or me.
Join us tonight via Substack Chat at 9:30 PM ET. Will we hang out for at least an hour to nerd out about games and dig into the NBA's latest hot topics together.
Good times await!
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For your review …
Jake and I have both written separate pieces dedicated to explaining (and previewing what's ahead from) our new partnership.
Please check them out here:
You can also read more from Jake's perspective in this very well-done feature from Awful Announcing:
Numbers Game
🏀 1,210
Through Sunday's games, accounting for the first five weeks of the 2024-25 campaign, Jeff Stotts of InStreetClothes.com recorded 1,210 man-games lost to injury across the league this season.
🏀 937
The total at the same point last season, per Stotts' database, was 273 games lower. Some of the injuries we've seen, of course, are unavoidable contact injuries, but team officials consistently cite two worrying factors for numbers that seemingly never stop rising when it comes to non-contact injuries: 1) The far greater court-coverage demands and the associated rapid decelerations/abrupt movements required of players in the modern NBA; 2) The shortening of the league's preseason and training camps that have reduced prep time for the regular season.
🏀 73
There were 180 respondents to last week's poll question about the NBA Cup format currently employed by the NBA and 73% of those respondents said they would like to see my suggestion enacted to turn the in-season tournament into a weeklong (and change) event that brings all 30 teams to Las Vegas to play out the Cup in one swoop. Let the dialogue continue!
🏀 9
A gem from The Athletic's Mike Vorkunov: The Celtics, after recently putting the franchise up for sale, are poised to become the ninth NBA team to usher in new majority ownership since Joe Tsai secured operating control of the Nets in September 2019 to begin this surge.
🏀 10
The other half of Vork's great stat: There have only been 10 majority ownership changes in the same span in the other three major North American professional sports leagues (NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball).
🏀 8
The eight NBA teams to undergo controlling ownership changes over the past five years: Brooklyn, Charlotte, Dallas, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Phoenix, Toronto and Utah. (The Timberwolves are included on the list even though the sale to Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez that Glen Taylor originally agreed to in April 2021 is currently in arbitration.)
🏀 8
The Lakers recently announced that they have begun work on a statue to honor legendary former coach Pat Riley, which will be the eighth statue dedicated to a Lakers great. The seven already outside Crypto.com Arena honor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant, Chick Hearn, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Jerry West.
🏀 200
Denver's Russell Westbrook recently recorded his 200th career triple-double to expand his all-time lead ahead of Oscar Robertson's 181. Westbrook's teammate Nikola Jokić is fourth in league history with 137 … one behind Magic Johnson’s 138.
🏀 30
There have been 30 triple-doubles so far this season. Jokić leads the league with seven, followed by the Lakers' LeBron James (five) and Detroit's Cade Cunningham (four). Dallas' Luka Doncic, amazingly, is still in search of his first this season.
🏀 6
Westbrook is also the first player in NBA history to record a triple-double with six different teams: Thunder, Rockets, Wizards, Lakers, Clippers and Nuggets.
🏀 5
Westbrook, of course, is playing for his fifth different team in the past six seasons and at six total is only one stop shy of matching the seven teams each played for by fellow former MVPs Moses Malone and Bob McAdoo. Those last five stops do not include the two separate times Westbrook was traded to Utah and bought out of his contract with the Jazz before ever playing a game for them.
🏀 60
Congrats to my pal Ken Berger, longtime NBA scribe turned personal trainer extraordinaire, who is crushing it with his new book: Stronger After 60.
🏀 91
It was recently announced that the one and only Hubie Brown, who turned 91 in September, will call one more game for ESPN at some point this season before retiring. Regular readers have probably heard me say this before, but working with Hubie on ESPN Radio from 2013-17 was one of the absolute joys and privileges of my career. And, truthfully, sitting with him at the morning meetings and hearing glorious 1980s stories from when he coached the Knicks (and Atlanta before that) ... THAT treat was 10 times better than the actual games. I cherish those memories dearly and gratefully learned so much about the game from him. This is a terribly difficult time for Hubie's family given the recent loss of his son Brendan, who followed him into coaching and whom he naturally adored — please read more about Brendan in this beautifully written piece from Orlando Magic personnel man Bill Pope. After seeing all the news coverage about Hubie's looming farewell to TV, I just wanted to write a few words about him today because he is one of the pillars of two significant professions within the NBA: Coaching and broadcasting. And mostly just because I love him.
That Hubie game will be a must watch. Hubie is an all-timer when it comes to calling games. Bill Land retiring in SA, Hubie retiring from national TV. All the voices of my youth are moving on.
Anyone have their questions queued up for when chat goes live!!!?