
NBA injects some life into All-Star Game
You got your five?
4:52 PMThe season has already gotten off to a different start in the NBA. The preseason started earlier. There are company logos on the uniforms. Now, the best change yet has been made official: They’re going to a playground pick ’em-style setup for the All-Star Game. It couldn’t have come at a better time.
Remember last year, when people wondered what Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook would do playing alongside former teammate Kevin Durant, who’d just gone to Golden State? Turns out it was nothing, as they still had to be on the same squad playing for the Western Conference. Sure, we all joked about how awkward it could be, but now they’ll legitimately get to play AGAINST EACH OTHER in an exhibition game. Never mind the Kyrie/LeBron bad blood.
The NHL adopted this format a couple of years back, and the resulting events were spectacular. The squad selection ceremony is one of the most fun televised productions of the year. And while the NBA doesn’t lack in personality, or connectivity with fans that an event like that would help foster, that’s not the point. Turn a room full of NBA players loose to pick teams on national television and you’ve got instant gold. The game might be fun, but watching these guys politic with their friends about who’s on whose team would be incredible.
Plus, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Ernie Smith on the commentary? This is the free-for-all event the NBA needed, not the awards ceremony after the season is already over.
According to the league, nothing will change about the actual selection of the players to the rosters themselves, it’s just a matter of who plays with whom when they tip off. The 67th All-Star Game will be played at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. Eastern and will air on TNT.

Daily Dose: 10/2/17
O.J. Simpson is released; mass shooting in Vegas
2:39 PMHey, gang, it’s been a rough weekend, but on Monday I’ll be on Around The Horn if you’re interested in that: 5 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN, kiddos. Might be my second win of all time, but I doubt it, haha.
marshawn lynch in an “everybody vs trump” shirt. wow pic.twitter.com/HJLFU4CQqv
— kelly cohen (@politiCOHEN_) October 1, 2017
O.J. Simpson is out of jail. No matter what you may think of his ability to walk this earth as a free man, dude is definitely back on the street. It’s sort of a weird feeling, considering why he went in to begin with was a bit dicey and lots of people feel like he was doing a prison sentence for something he was already acquitted of, fairly or not. That said, what he does now is definitely of interest to a decent part of the nation. My personal opinion is that he’ll have a wildly popular podcast that will bring him mucho cash. Alas. And he likes McDonald’s, apparently.
Las Vegas is mourning. Last night, during a concert in an open-air venue, a man started firing upon the crowd and killed more than 50 people in the deadliest mass shooting in American history. It’s terrifying, it’s awful, it’s gross and it’s not remotely unusual if we’re being honest with ourselves. Authorities are calling him a lone wolf, which isn’t really of a whole lot of importance to the families of the dead, along with us looking to not get shot by a maniac with too many guns. Guns kill people. That’s what they’re made to do.
Recently, there was a tragedy at Yankee Stadium. A kid got hit by a foul ball in a scene that was entirely too real for some people just looking to enjoy a ballgame. Since then, there have been calls to put up screens all around ballparks, a move that I personally think would really affect the game-day experience but ultimately would make us all far more safer. As for the girl who was hit, she’s effectively got a broken face and also had bleeding on her brain. Please pay attention at baseball games, folks. It could save your life.
I like fantasy sports. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a fantasy NHL draft tonight. But how these fantasy games affect the players themselves is always an interesting quandary. I remember a couple of years back when the NFL’s Chris Cooley said he was really pumped to score three touchdowns in a game because he knew it would help him win his fantasy matchup that day. That was a real live football player talking about something that happens only inside of computers, which is hilarious. You know who doesn’t care about fantasy football? Richard Sherman.
Free Food
Coffee Break: Watching a woman dunk a basketball is an interesting thing. Because we see it so rarely, whenever it happens, people tend to lose their minds. People also tend to think that because of the lack of dunks, women’s basketball is inferior. That’s wrong, but dunking could bring an element to the game that people would love.
Snack Time: Lacrosse is a very white sport. Why, who knows, but the culture around the game is one that borders on discriminatory at best. This story about a lawsuit re: participation in Philly is fascinating.
Dessert: New Quavo and Travis Scott? Yes and no, but it’s coming.

Daily Dose: 9/29/17
NBA commissioner expects players to stand for anthem
6:35 PMHey gang, Friday’s another double dip for me. I’ll be doing Around The Horn at 5 p.m. and, through the magic of television, also hosting #TheRightTime on ESPN Radio from 4-7 p.m. EST. Here’s Thursday’s show.
It's worth asking why we spend $600 billion a year on the military if we can't get more than 5000 troops and 50 helicopters to Puerto Rico.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) September 29, 2017
A lot of people are looking to get to Mars. There are long lists of folks who’ve signed up to get on a rocket ship and head to the red planet, knowing full well they’d never come back. But, with Elon Musk’s dream of landing people across the galaxy, he’s also got a plan to evolve that mission. He wants to create rockets that can take you various places across the globe in a matter of minutes. Like, the U.S. to China in half an hour. I can barely even get my mind around the concept, but, hey, we’re all for it.
If you’re wondering how Russian hacking may affect you, now you know. A new CNN report says that outside agencies were using fake black activist accounts to stoke racial tension before the last presidential election, which is fascinating. Not because they were disseminating false information — they weren’t — but because they were trying to increase turnout to many previously organized events, to naturally increase division among American citizens. In short, other nations are using are own racism against us, and it’s working.
What if I told you … that three presidents showed up at a golf tournament together for one of the greatest photo ops of all time. In case you don’t know, the Presidents Cup, the competition in which the United States faces off against the rest of the world, is underway. Presidents Obama, Bush (43) and Clinton all graced New Jersey’s Liberty National Golf Club with their presence. This whole situation should instantly be made into a 30 for 30 film. I can’t imagine a more star-studded lineup for a more mundane tournament.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver is trying to get ahead of any national anthem controversies. But it won’t be easy. Mind you, the NBA does have a rule that players are to stand during “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but also, this is a league that’s seen quite a few pregame protests in its day. Not to mention that the WNBA has been at the forefront on these public displays for some time. Now, Silver is saying he expects players to stand during the anthem, which seems to be a step backward in wokeness.
Free Food
Coffee Break: You might not be focused on what’s happening in Calgary, Alberta, but it’s worth noting. Basically, in the fight for a new arena deal in town, the NHL and a big company have inserted themselves into the mayor’s race, which is an awful precedent and development.
Snack Time: I don’t mean to be the guy making a big scene every time Ta-Nehisi Coates writes something, but that’s where we are these days. Check out his latest for The Guardian, about what we should have seen coming.
Dessert: Ladies and gentlemen, meet Petie Parker.
Petie Parker is Instagram's most fashionable Spider Man pic.twitter.com/y609KiLw4l
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) September 29, 2017

Daily Dose: 9/28/17
Adidas and Nike are both getting subpoenaed
2:04 PMHef has left the building. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner died Wednesday night at the age of 91. While Hefner was best known for his men’s magazine, with its nude centerfolds and … ahem … titillating bunny costumes that helped spearhead the sexual revolution of the 1960s, he was also a champion of liberalism (abortion rights, marijuana legalization), most noteworthy a donation to black comedian Dick Gregory in 1964 to help find murdered civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael “Mickey” Schwerner. While Hefner will be lauded for that work, alongside helping make sexuality mainstream, he also has one glaring stain on his legacy. Since 2016, Hefner’s been involved with comedian Bill Cosby’s highly publicized sexual assault allegations, with two women accusing Cosby of raping them at the notorious Playboy Mansion, with Hefner allegedly being complicit in one of the assaults.
Nike is in some stuff now, too. The large shoe brand company has been pulled into the ongoing federal investigation of corruption in college basketball. According to ESPN and ABC News, a division of the Nike basketball department has been served with a subpoena by the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York as federal prosecutors look into sports brand companies paying college athletic programs to steer high-profile high school basketball players to Adidas-brand schools. For a company that has been accused of running illegal sweatshops, violating child labor laws and outsourcing American jobs to poorer Asian countries, it’s doubtful that Nike did anything wrong.
Speaking of which, the jig is up for Rick Pitino. The Louisville men’s basketball coach has been identified in the federal prosecution of college programs as “Coach-2,” who according to court records, helped funnel $100,000 to the family of a recruit and spoke directly with an Adidas executive just days before said recruit committed to Louisville. Had this been Pitino’s first infraction, he’d be given the benefit of the doubt. But the 65-year-old coach was caught up in a federal extortion case in 2010 for having sex with a woman who was not his wife for, in his own words, 15 seconds, and caught up in a NCAA investigation in 2015 for overseeing a program that offered strippers and escorts to recruits. And for all that hard work, Louisville risks vacating its 2013 national championship and on Wednesday lost two ESPN top 50 commits and a top 5 recruit cut the Cardinals from his school list.
Ray-Ray tried to have it both ways. Retired former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis tried to have his cake and eat it too when he confusingly dropped on two knees rather than the customary one during the national anthem Sunday, joining 13 Baltimore players in what they called a protest of President Donald Trump’s recent comments on anthem demonstrations. He later told Showtime’s Inside the NFL that he “dropped on two knees — both knees — so I can simply honor God in the midst of chaos,” when he simply could have A) not been on the sideline for a team he doesn’t play for anymore, B) not try to make a show of “unity” about himself or C) simply not put one or two knees on the ground if he didn’t agree with players not standing for the national anthem. Playing both sides of the field has made more than 50,000 people call for the removal of Lewis’ 3-year-old statue outside M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.