Getty

Russell Westbrook has 20-20-20 triple-double, dedicates it to Nipsey Hussle (VIDEO)

By Dane DelgadoApr 3, 2019, 12:30 AM EDT
Leave a comment

NBA stars have been showing their emotions about the recent death of rapper Nipsey Hussle. It affected the NBA community greatly, and the reverberations of Hussle’s death are sure to last throughout the season.

Oklahoma City star Russell Westbrook is one of the players who has taken Hussle’s passing to heart. Westbrook went to UCLA and grew up in Hawthorne, less than 10 miles away from Hussle’s Crenshaw.

On Tuesday, the Thunder took on the Los Angeles Lakers in Oklahoma City. Westbrook notched another triple-double, this time grabbing a historic 20-20-20. After the game, Westbrook said that he had dedicated his performance to Hussle’s memory.

Via Twitter:

It seems like Westbrook putting up stat lines like this is getting to be old hat at this point, but when it’s dedicated to the memory of a guy who impacted so many, not only in the NBA but in Los Angeles, it’s hard not to take note.

NBA playoff picture after Tuesday: Warriors win, own West

Getty Images
By Kurt HelinApr 3, 2019, 2:38 AM EDT
Leave a comment

Every night between now and the end of the 2018-19 NBA regular season, we will take an updated look at the NBA Playoff picture — what the standings look like, the potential matchups, who clinched, who moved up and down, all to set the stage for the NBA’s second season.

TUESDAY’S SCORES
Thunder 119, Lakers 103
Spurs 117, Hawks 111
Rockets 130, Kings 105
Warriors 116, Nuggets 102

• With this win, the Warriors move two full games ahead of the Nuggets for the No. 1 seed in the West, plus Golden State also has the tiebreaker so really they are three games up with five to play. The Warriors all but guaranteed they will be the top seed in the West.

• Russell Westbrook had 20 points, 20 rebounds, and 21 assists — making him the only person besides Wilt Chamberlain to have a 20+ triple-double — but he wasn’t efficient, shooting 8-of-23 to get there. Still, he pushed the Thunder to a win they needed to stay tied with San Antonio for the race to be the seven seed (and avoid the Warriors in the first round).

EASTERN CONFERENCE


X – Clinched Playoff Spot, Y – Clinched Division, Z – Clinched Conference

Tuesday’s playoff movers and clinchers:

• No Eastern Conference playoff teams were in action Tuesday.

WESTERN CONFERENCE


X – Clinched Playoff Spot, Y – Clinched Division, Z – Clinched Conference

Monday’s playoff movers and clinchers

• Golden State essentially secured the No. 1 seed in the West with this win, they have a two-game lead over Denver with five to play, plus the Warriors now own the tiebreaker. DeMarcus Cousins played his best game as a Warrior, with 28 points and 12 rebounds.

• With its win, Houston moves into the three seed by half a game (Portland was idle) and within 1.5 games of Denver for the No. 2 seed (and home court in the second round).

• San Antonio and Oklahoma City both won, they remain tied for the 7/8 seed in the West. Whoever finishes 8th gets the Warriors in the first round.

IF THE PLAYOFFS STARTED TODAY:
Miami at Milwaukee
Brooklyn at Toronto
Detroit at Philadelphia
Indiana at Boston

Oklahoma City at Golden State
San Antonio at Denver
L.A. Clippers at Houston
Utah at Portland

WEDNESDAY’S BIGGEST GAMES:

• Indiana at Detroit (7 pm ET). Two teams fighting for playoff seeding and needing wins go head-to-head in this East showdown.

• Toronto at Brooklyn (7:30 pm ET). The Raptors are basically locked into the two seed, which might mean more “load management” time for their stars. The Nets, like the Pistons above, are in a fight to make sure they stay in the playoffs and Brooklyn needs the win.

• Boston at Miami (7:30 pm ET, NBA TV). The Celtics are tied with Indiana for the 4/5 in the East and they are battling for home court. The Heat are the current eight seed in the East and need wins just to stay in the dance. This should be a hard-fought game.

• San Antonio at Denver (9 PM ET). This is a potential first-round playoff matchup, and the Spurs want the win and for this matchup to avoid the Warriors in the first round. Both teams are on a back-to-back.

• Houston at Los Angeles Clippers 10:30 PM ET, NBA TV). Another potential first-round playoff matchup, plus James Harden would love to add to his MVP resume with big numbers against another playoff team.

Report: Lonzo Ball suing Big Baller Brand co-founder Alan Foster

Getty
By Dane DelgadoApr 3, 2019, 1:03 AM EDT
1 Comment

You couldn’t have written a storyline on this for Ball in the Family. It would have seemed too unbelievable.

But here we are, and Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball is suing Big Baller Brand co-founder Alan Foster for more than $2 million dollars.

We got word that Ball had cut ties with BBB back in March, and the Lakers star even covered up his BBB tattoo with a bad set of dice. Now a report from Shams Charania says that Ball is suing Foster for allegedly using stolen funds to purchase assets in Africa.

Via Twitter:

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne also filed a report with verbiage from Ball’s suit. In it, Ball apparently suggests that Foster had the Balls start BBB specifically as a plan for him to extort money from them.

Via ESPN:

In court documents obtained by ESPN, which were filed electronically on Tuesday night in Los Angeles Superior Court and are expected to be processed Wednesday morning, Ball alleges that “shortly after his release from prison, Foster embarked on his plan to target Ball and his family” and then “fleeced them of millions of dollars” by “creating a variety of corporate entities in which he gave himself ownership interests and managerial control.”

…

After Ball declared for the NBA draft, the suit alleges that Foster “persuaded Ball that it would be in his best financial interest to form his own company and his own brand of apparel and merchandise rather than aligning himself with established brands that had expressed substantial interest in signing Ball to lucrative endorsement deals.”

…

In 2002, Foster was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of mail fraud and two counts of money laundering as part of a scheme that defrauded 70 investors of $4 million, according to federal court records obtained by ESPN. Foster was also ordered to pay $3.7 million in restitution to victims.

Foster apparently did not inform the Balls of his criminal past. According to Shelburne, Ball’s suit also alleges that Foster had the Balls take out loans in which financing charges were then paid directly to Foster. When the Balls confronted Foster about this, he threatened to make public false information about the family.

It’s sad that people see rich, young kids with talent and see it as their opportunity to steal something away from them. We all want to get to the next step, but swiping from someone close to you like this is a bummer.

We’ll have to watch to see what happens between Ball and Foster. This could just be the tip of a bigger story.

A Wizards ticket rep used Ernie Grunfeld’s firing to sell to a fan

AP
By Dane DelgadoApr 2, 2019, 11:30 PM EDT
Leave a comment

Washington Wizards are one of the worst-run franchises in the NBA. They are the epitome of the Eastern Conference, a floundering team with high hopes, large operating expenses, and middling performances on the floor. That’s without considering the kind of playoff woes they have had over the past two decades.

Part of that issue was the management to Ernie Grunfeld, who was fired on Tuesday. Grunfeld was the president of the Wizards and worked for the team for 16 years. The front office during that time was clearly outmatched, and so it made sense that owner Ted Leonsis decided to move in a new direction. Finally.

Of course, fans on social media have been celebrating all day and one of the most interesting stories has been how one Wizards ticket representative decided it to use Grunfeld’s firing to their advantage.

According to Wizards fan Alan Pyke, he had told a ticket rep to call him when Grunfeld was fired as sort of a joke earlier this year. Pyke and then received a call on Tuesday to purchase tickets from that representative after Grunfeld was canned.

Via the Washington Post:

“Grab a pen and take this down,” he said. “As soon as they fire Ernie Grunfeld, I’ll be at the next home game.”

The Wizards parted ways with Grunfeld, the beleaguered team president, on Tuesday, and moments after the announcement went public, Pyke’s phone rang.

It was the ticket saleswoman, holding him to his word. He purchased seats to the game against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday. It was part of a spontaneous celebration of Grunfeld’s departure after 16 years.

“This is the least [the Wizards] could do,” Pyke said.

I bet the guy who came up with Salesforce never thought that it would be used to track a request like this.

Now if only the Wizards could fire John Wall‘s contract they might really be happy.

Report: LeBron James almost signed with Reebok instead of Nike

Getty
By Dane DelgadoApr 2, 2019, 10:30 PM EDT
1 Comment

Would it have been weird to see LeBron James wearing Reeboks?

That’s almost what happened according it a new excerpt from a book by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, titled “LeBron Inc.”

On the precipice of Zion Williamson becoming a pro and potentially signing a massive shoe contract, this new tidbit of information from James’ career seems pertinent. According to Windhorst, James was going to sign with Reebok thanks to the size of their offer, but didn’t want to because he didn’t like their shoes.

Via ESPN:

By the time the signing bonus and other factors were included, Reebok’s offer to LeBron was around $115 million, according to those who were familiar with the final numbers … staggering.

…

But LeBron had something else on his mind. He knew the numbers. He’d been sitting with the reality that he might be going with Reebok for a couple of weeks at that point. But he didn’t want to do it. He didn’t like their shoes that much. A couple of years earlier, one of Reebok’s endorsers, Shawn Kemp, had said the shoes Reebok gave him failed during games, calling them “throwaways” in an interview with a newspaper reporter. Reebok sued Kemp for saying it, but he said it just the same. LeBron had always envisioned himself wearing Nike and wanted to be a part of their great ad campaigns and work with their designers.

…

After all that, LeBron agreed to a seven-year, $77 million guaranteed contract with Nike plus a $10 million signing bonus that would get the deal to $87 million.

With incentives, LeBron’s first deal with Nike pushed him over the $100 million mark. According to Windhorst, Reebok’s stock price dipped the day after it was announced that LeBron signed with Nike.

Kobe Bryant once was with Adidas, and as we’ve seen with other players before, a lot of the time guys start out with one company simply because they pay them the most money.

It’s not as though LeBron’s first shoes were exactly iconic from a design perspective. His first sneaker was modeled after the Hummer he had in high school, and were about as mid-2000s as you could get.

LeBron has a lifetime contract with Nike now, and it’s hard to imagine him being anywhere else given the ubiquity of Nike in the NBA sphere today.