The Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza
An update: With the NBA Draft in two days, free agency looming and the BlackBerry buzzing constantly, I am sending out an abbreviated Extravaganza this week to accommodate a hectic writing schedule
Even a basketball newsletter occasionally requires an audible.
The original plan for this Newsletter Tuesday was the publication of a full, reflective One Year In piece on my first 12 months as a Substacker. I’ve been carefully composing that one on my BlackBerry, assembling all my thoughts and takeaways from this one-of-a-kind Year 1 as a (gasp) self-publishing entrepreneur. It’s simply not quite ready.
And there are too many calls and texts buzzing in to Stein Line HQ to give the piece the proper Tuesday consideration it needs. So …
I’m going to push my Substacking birthday celebration back a bit so it lands between Thursday night’s NBA Draft and the start of free agency on June 30. This Saturday will officially mark the start of Year 2 for your humble correspondent, which means — in true Substack tradition — that it will be time to take stock of what I’ve learned so far, review some of the coverage highlights from my rookie season as a publisher and look ahead to all the good stuff coming soon.
I’ve written two What I’m Hearing pieces already this week and suspect there will be more, convincing me to delay the Year 1 retrospective ever so slightly. Please just know, as I’ve mentioned in multiple pieces already, that I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility to deliver you the quality and density of coverage that every subscriber deserves — and I am so, so grateful for the tremendous support you give me to cover the league as an independent journalist. We are building a real community here, hopefully striking the right balance between meaningful and fun along the way, and I can't wait to keep growing it with you.
Those who subscribed right from the inception of The Stein Line — 🙏🙏🙏 — have likely already received renewal notices via email. I hope you will continue on this journey with me for all the news, rumbles, opinion, storytelling, historical perspective, truth-telling, travel tales, coffee commentary and, most of all, NBA coverage that puts the reader first always.
I’ve likewise enclosed links below to my first two pieces of the week, as well as a link to Monday’s Spotify Live Extravaganza with The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, to keep you connected to all of the NBA latest until my next submission.
Which is coming soon — promise!
The Stein Line is a reader-supported newsletter, with both free and paid subscriptions available, and those who opt for the paid edition are taking an active role in the reporting by providing vital assistance to bolster my independent coverage of the league. Feel free to forward this post to family and friends interested in the NBA and please consider becoming a paid subscriber to have full access to all of my posts.
As a reminder: Tuesday editions, on this and every Newsletter Tuesday, go out free to anyone who signs up, just as my Tuesday pieces did in their New York Times incarnation.
Predictive Text
Golden State winning the NBA Finals in six games over Boston was indeed my prediction — in writing — before the series started.
Which means that I ended our run of community prediction threads for every round of the playoffs rather strongly ... after getting both winners wrong when I made my conference finals predictions.
For the Finals, unsurprisingly, I was not alone in forecasting Warriors in 6. Thanks to the trusty tabulations from my pal @DeePee30, who went through all four prediction threads for me to keep track of the best fortune-tellers in our midst, I have been informed that there were 19 other people among 70+ respondents who made the same on-the-nose prediction heading into the Finals.
That includes my Substack executive pal Dan Stone and 18 more wise readers. This includes 10 who provided their full names (Calvin Conliffe, Kevin Donahue, Will Fenton, Daniel Jokelson, Adam James, Michael Kelminson, Aaron Otiker, Anthony Reiner, Butch Rosser and Renial Tiñas) and eight who sadly didn’t (Bijan S, Carl, Chris S, J. Yost, Manu4ever, MarkS, Milford and Shameer).
Numbers Game
🏀 6
Free agency reminder: You will have to wait six days, until July 6, for contracts verbally agreed to early in free agency to be made official. The league’s official moratorium period runs from 12:01 AM (ET) on July 1 through noon (ET) on July 6. Teams and players are allowed to begin free-agent negotiations at 6 PM (ET) on June 30.
🏀 2
The clinching victory in three of Golden State's four Stephen Curry-led championships took place on the road: 2015 in Cleveland, 2018 again in Cleveland and last Thursday in Boston.
🏀 47
Forty-seven of the NBA’s 87 playoff games this postseason, including all six in the NBA Finals, were decided by 10 points or more, according to research from Dallas radio colleague @PeasRadio. That’s a whopping 54 percent.
🏀 2007
How rough were the NBA Finals for Boston’s Jayson Tatum? They were eerily reminiscent, from a statistical perspective, of LeBron James’ first trip to the Finals in 2007 with Cleveland:
🏀 11
Interesting sidebar to my pal Howard Beck's recent piece in Sports Illustrated looking back at the 2015 Finals MVP voting. Beck made contact with all 11 voters on the panel that selected Andre Iguodala over LeBron James by a count of 7-4 — with no votes, controversially, cast for Stephen Curry. Six of the seven voters who selected Iguodala — all but ESPN's Hubie Brown — work at different outlets than they did seven years ago, including Sam Amick (now at The Athletic after casting his vote on behalf of USA Today), Jason Lloyd (formerly of The Akron Beacon Journal; now at The Athletic), Marc J. Spears (then at Yahoo! Sports; now at ESPN's Andscape) and yours truly (then at ESPN; now your humble Substacking correspondent). Two of the James voters have stayed put (ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy and NBA.com's Steve Aschburner) and two have relocated: Zach Lowe (from ESPN's Grantland to ESPN) and Beck himself (Bleacher Report to SI). #thisbusiness
🏀 $275,000,000
A measure of consolation for the Hornets amid the tumult of Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson backing out of a deal to become their next coach: Charlotte’s city council recently approved a plan pledging $275 million to renovate the team’s Spectrum Center home and build a new practice facility. The Hornets’ lease with the city of Charlotte, in exchange for the funding, has been extended to 2045.
🏀 75
All 75 games over 11 days from the league’s forthcoming Summer League in Las Vegas from July 7 to 17 will be televised by ESPN or NBA TV. All 30 NBA teams are participating, with smaller summer leagues in San Francisco and Salt Lake City preceding the Vegas event.
🏀 44
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have played in 44 regular-season games together. The number might not rise, either, if Irving is serious about leaving Brooklyn this offseason.
Thanks Mark, I think your plan is perfect. Right now, we are relying on you for the news, the rumors, the gossip, the inside scoop. You are really good at sussing out the news and rumors and we rely on that from you. Then between the draft and July 1st, I'd love to hear about that first year, what you've learned, what you'd change, what you won't, etc. And as a charter guy, I have re-upped to continue my subscription.
Now, Mark, will the Knicks get Ivey, Brogdon, Irving (please no) or some other PG?
Awesome stuff as always Marc. I'm curious after watching HUSTLE: Is there really a sort-of underground circuit of private runs pitting prospects against each other in front of execs and scouts?