NBA legend Pau Gasol came back to the team that saw him bright as a young star in the early 2000's. He averaged nearly a double double since April and has been fenomenal for Barcelona. He also won his last Spanish League against Real Madrid in 2001. Ex-NBA Nikola Mirotic has won the Final's MVP after putting 27 points and 3/5 from three.
No paywall, good read from Masai >I was 12, or maybe 13, and I remember walking to the basketball courts at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria. I imagined myself playing college basketball like Hakeem Olajuwon – I had watched him on the videotapes my mom brought home whenever she traveled for work, thrilled that a Nigerian like me was becoming a global star. In front of that flickering screen, and on that court, my basketball dreams took flight.
>Fast forward to June 2019. I was on a stage with Serge Ibaka, from the Republic of Congo, and Pascal Siakam, who draped the flag of his native Cameroon around his shoulders as we celebrated the Toronto Raptors’ first NBA Championship. Three Africans, at the very top of the NBA. That night, their – and my – basketball dreams came true.
>Who knows what dreams the Basketball Africa League, now underway in Kigali, might spark? Maybe one of those young men will make the NBA. But let’s dream bigger: Maybe, a few years from now, that young man won’t have to leave Africa to play basketball at an elite level. Maybe there will be a league on the continent, providing opportunity not just for the people on the court, but the entire ecosystem that exists around professional sports. Media. Medical. Marketing.
>And investment. More investment, less charity. This is what Africa wants.
>The impact of the 12-team, 12-nation BAL will go beyond the lines of the basketball court. Economically, the potential for growth is phenomenal – even for those without an interest in our great game, the commercial opportunities and avenues for investment in advertising, broadcasting, merchandise, and more, will bring transformative money into African economies.
>Globally, the sports industry is worth over half a trillion dollars, and it’s time for Africa to benefit from a greater share of that wealth. Already the BAL has struck deals with sponsors and partners who are global giants in their industries. These partners recognize the opportunity that the BAL provides, and have committed themselves to helping form the foundations of a revolution in African basketball.
>If you ask anybody in any game what they search hardest for – and find most challenging to locate – they’ll say, without hesitation, that it’s pure
... keep reading on reddit ➡Hi, recently I've been recently watching Neace, and in one of his streams he said this, and I thought it was a really good analogy that people should know. Hopefully some of you can relate to this quote, I certainly have kept it in mind for quite a while. Just wanted to share with you a nice quote I found :D
To be honest, this is probably the most un-pure year of basketball I've ever been a part of, just from the whole league and rushing the season back. It's pretty much all about business this year on every level. It's hard to hide it now.
The NBA is a great balance of the pure love and joy of one of the best sports in the world mixed with a billion dollar industry, and I think this year the industry side is taking precedent over some of the love and the joy... But there are good days and bad days
We did vote on what season we wanted, they gave a few options and most of the players picked this option. So we're in it, which is why I can't complain about it, but I can point out that this is what is and the pros and cons that come with that. It's very conflicting
https://twitter.com/JLew1050/status/1383525998499532804?s=20
Besiktas SJ - Fenerbahçe
Turkish Basketball League 2016/17 Final Series - 3/7
Currently 0-2
Information
Wednesday, June 14th, 2017
Match Time: 20:00 Turkish Time, 18:00 GMT, 13:00 US Eastern
Venue: Akatlar Spor ve Kültür Kompleksi (Istanbul)
Referees: EMİN MOĞULKOÇ - KAAN BÜYÜKÇİL - ZİYA ÖZORHON
TV: BeIn Sports 3
The series is at 2-0 in our favor and 4 wins seal the deal. The next 2 games will be at their court and today is the first one. This will probably be the most difficult game since they will do everything possible to win this in order to stay in the race. If we win this we can start counting down days to the championship. If we lose, it would not be a disaster but we should definitely win at least 1 of the 2 games at their court in order avoid any surprises. I believe we have the motivation and concentration to sweep the series 4-0 but it would not be unexpected to lose 1 of the next 2 games. Let's see if we can finish the job as early as possible to conclude this extremely long season in which we have already played more than 74 games already.
What if we eliminated the G-League and turned the NCAA into a minor league for the NBA
”Pro-B League” This is just my idea for how pre-NBA basketball should work.
It would be a joint effort by the NBA and NCAA. They would pool funds to compensate players and pay coaches. From here on out the new league will be called the JVBL for “Joint Venture Basketball League”
The entity formerly known as the NCAA and its member universities would run the JVBL on a day to day basis, with member schools providing facilities and the NBA providing the bulk of the funding along with new TV deals.
The NBA would also have input on an individual team basis. The JVBL would form a commission/commissioners office to govern itself.
My ideas are as follows-
Structure 1:
Increase the number of NBA teams from 30 to 40 over ten years, adding 2 new teams every other year. Each new NBA team/owner buys in at the current average NBA team price tag of ~2.5b for 25b total.
Half of the buy in pool will be used to compensate current and former players, coaches, staff and current ownership as well as a fraction going to the NBA as a whole (commissioner’s office). The other half will go toward funding the new JVBL.
The venture wouldn’t begin until the end of the ten years for the following reasons: The first is to allow TV deals to run out and be renegotiated. The second is to allow all 40 teams to participate equally.
The third is to give newly minted JVBL as an organization and as individual schools time to evaluate and restructure in preparation for the new league.
West- San Diego Las Vegas Austin Seattle Hawaii
East- New England- not a city, but you get the idea. The Triangle- Durham/Raleigh/Chapel Hill, NC Virginia St. Louis Kansas City
Structure 2:
Step 1: Cut the number of D1 NCAA teams -now called the JVBL- down from 350 to 240* (potentially 252 with the extra 12 teams run directly by the JVBL and NBA- providing 12 teams worth of unprotected draft picks or a limited number of players comprised of former full time pros).
EDIT: I think- not sure of the logistics here, you’d need those 240-252 schools to opt out of fielding D1 men’s and women’s basketball teams because the NCAA as a whole likely isn’t going anywhere. They’d free themselves up to make the leap to a standardized professional sports league.
This eliminates (to an extent) the arguments of “if you do it for one sport you gotta do it for every sport”. By taking the elite talent
... keep reading on reddit ➡Would be interested to see how this stacks up to other great playoff scoring performances, but all the same, unbelievable scoring output from Jayson last night. Would expect to see the Nets send harder and earlier doubles at him in game 4, because with Kemba struggling and Marcus being Marcus, Tatum is Boston's only reliable scoring threat.
Like the title says, I’m looking for a team. I turned the big 3-0 during the pandemic, and I am tired of being banged up by the young whipper snappers in the CSD league on Sundays. HMU if you know of someone who needs a spot filled. Can provide additional info upon request, just DM me.
The Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) announced Thursday that it has entered into a partnership with Bitbuy, a leading Canadian cryptocurrency platform, that will enable the league to pay players a portion of their salaries in Bitcoin. The partnership will be the first of its kind for any professional sports league in North America and comes as the league is set to tip off its third season June 24.
Full announcement: https://www.cebl.ca/canadian-elite-basketball-league-becomes-first-pro-sports-league-in-north-america-to-offer-player-pay-in-bitcoin-through-partnership-with-bitbuy
Source:
https://twitter.com/anthonyvslater/status/1358272960805568512?s=21
The full statement is included in the link. The answer came after the reporter brought up Luka jumping on Wiggins to get 3 free throws in the first half of the game.
Not sure why the league hasn’t addressed this. If anything it should be an offensive foul if you jump straight into the defender 3 feet away from your normal landing spot.
Besiktas SJ - Fenerbahçe
Turkish Basketball League 2016/17 Final Series - 4/7
Currently 0-3
Information
Friday, June 16th, 2017
Match Time: 20:00 Turkish Time, 18:00 GMT, 13:00 US Eastern
Venue: Akatlar Spor ve Kültür Kompleksi (Istanbul)
Referees: ZAFER YILMAZ - YENER YILMAZ - ALPER ALTUĞ KÖSELERLİ
TV: BeIn Sports 3
The series is at 3-0 in our favor and we need only 1 more for the championship. If we lose tonight, the next game will be at our court on Sunday. Let's finish the series and sweep Besiktas Sompo Japan tonight. The game will be played without any fans due to the incidents at the last game.
Fenerbahçe - Besiktas SJ
Turkish Basketball League 2016/17 Final Series - 2/7
Currently 1-0
Information
Sunday, June 11th, 2017
Match Time: 18:00 Turkish Time, 16:00 GMT, 11:00 US Eastern
Venue: Ulker Sports Arena (Istanbul)
Referees: MURAT BİRİCİK - MEHMET KARABİLECEN - CAN MAVİSU
TV: BeIn Sports 3 / NTVSpor
We won the first game and the series is 1-0 currently but it was not easy. They are defending very harshly and trying to make us loose rhythm . We need to be careful and not make the mistakes we did in the first game. We were not our best to be honest. we should definitely go 2-0 to their court. In the first game Turkish refs showed us again why they are terrible. I believe it will continue today
