It’s been six days since the Bucks fired Mike Budenholzer, and his replacement still hasn’t been named. Christ conquered death in half that time. (One third, really. If that. Everyone talks about the three days but the tomb was empty less than 48 hours after the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus worked fast.)
What’s taking so long? Well, there can only be one explanation.
The Bucks are trying to hire 2019 national champion Shaka Smart.
It’s a move that makes sense for both parties. For the Bucks, the fit is obvious: Shaka Smart already lives in Milwaukee, saving them from having to offer a relocation bonus; Shaka Smart is arguably the best coach in basketball, giving them the best coach in basketball; and since Austin doesn’t have real professional sports and the Longhorns fill that role, Shaka Smart has basically already been a professional head coach before. He navigated the media so well down here that one Austin blogger is still aggressively devoted to his promotion. The man knows how to handle the big role.
For Smart, the fit is also obvious: After years of developing professional talent—Jarrett Allen, Mo Bamba, Mo Alie-Cox, Michael Jordan (work with me here)—he’d finally get to enjoy the fruits of somebody else’s hard work. Even the best baker likes to eat a cookie they didn’t make themselves now and then. Also? In college basketball, the best you can do with your regular season is make yourself one of the last 32 teams in contention for a championship. In the pros, there aren’t even that many teams around in October, when the first games tip off. It’s easier to win in the NBA than it is in the NIT. Facts are facts.
Why, though, you might be asking, would this take a long time? Given the deal makes so much sense?
Well, now and then a deal makes too much sense, and negotiations are intense. This especially happens when the elitest of competitors are involved. Competitors like to negotiate!
Eventually, the contract will be wrapped up, but for now, just get excited, Bucks fans. You’re about to unlock a whole new Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Speaking of Giannis…
Sorry or you’re welcome: These notes are going to be heavily about Wisconsin.
Yesterday, Giannis posted the following picture with the following caption:
This got me excited. I decided to do one of my own.
What possessed Giannis to post this post? The best public guess is that it was the revelation that Bobby Portis had unfollowed him on Twitter. If true, and this is a serious sentence I’m about to say, this would be big news for the future of the Milwaukee Bucks. If Bobby Portis unfollows Giannis, that means Bobby Portis wants out, and if Bobby Portis wants out, that means the Bucks are way less fun (and also probably worse at basketball, although something you should know about me is that I struggle mightily to follow the NBA, so maybe I missed something and Bobby Portis is bad now).
Is the rumble true, though? As eagle-eyed observers (my brother Tim) have noted, Portis still follows his teammate on Instagram. What could it all mean??
Greg Gard Bodied Matt LaFleur
Honestly, it’s impressive that Matt LaFleur showed up to Garding Against Cancer, knowing he’d be outshone in the suave department for the first time ever by another coach.
It is wild how many handsome, stylish fellas running hugely successful athletic programs/franchises there are in Wisconsin right now. This is like how Emerson and Thoreau and the Alcotts were neighbors.
I’m Back in on Aaron Rodgers
Another thing you should know about me (besides the NBA thing—and yes, I’m really getting personal today) is that I oscillate between either being exhausted by Aaron Rodgers or being willing to fight the gods on his behalf. Today, it’s the latter, owing to the word from Jordan Love that Love and Rodgers have talked since the trade, and that Rodgers told Love he’d be there if Love needs anything. “Always just grateful to be around him.”
The guy gets it.
Again, I’m exasperated with my consciousness for allowing this to be part of how I operate, but it is what it is at this point. Every thing Aaron Rodgers does is capable of flipping me back to the other position, but it’s always one or the other. There’s no in between. I don’t understand why this is.
Bob Huggins Meets the LGBT Community
Ok, we’ll move on from Wisconsin.
Bob Huggins’s punishment has been announced after this week’s incident in which he used a derogatory three-letter word for gay people twice on live radio without skipping a beat. He’s going to be suspended for a few games at the beginning of the season, he’s agreed to a one million dollar pay-cut, and he’ll be giving time and money to everything from West Virginia University’s LGBTQ+ Center to Xavier’s Center for Faith and Justice. You can read his official apology here if you’re interested in more of the details.
I don’t have a lot of room to speak on this, being a straight white male, but to dip a toe: The incident’s been more mind-blowing than anything. It’s shocking that the news of that word not being accepted anymore hadn’t yet permeated Bob Huggins’s brain. That word has been out of the Scrabble dictionary for years. It’s also shocking, considering he didn’t know, that he hadn’t used it in a live interview before now. There’s been a live round sitting in Bob Huggins’s chamber for a decade and it only popped this week? Holy hell. The whole thing hits a lot of football coach stereotypes, but Bob Huggins isn’t a football coach.
The word in question has been used to try to inflict real pain on real people, and I don’t want to make too light of that piece of all of this. The best-case scenario from here, though—for a few reasons, one being that it would imply Bob Huggins was just being a dumbass and wasn’t actively trying to be hateful—is that we get Bob Huggins on a float at a pride parade in West Virginia next month. Imagine the pictures.
Tennis Got an NIT
How about this? College tennis added an NIT this year.
It’s being run by Universal Tennis, not the NCAA, and while each of the men’s and women’s tournaments is an eight-team field, they didn’t get the eight next-best in each sport. It does look, though, like they got one of the first at-larges not selected to the women’s NCAA Tournament in TCU, and the important thing here is that other sports are copying college basketball and adding an NIT. The NIT isn’t just the past, friends. It’s also the future.
Joe Kelly Rocked
Another great outing from Joe Kelly last night, who turned in yet another consecutive perfect inning, this one against the Royals, and struck out a batter while doing it. I’m not kidding when I say that Joe Kelly is going to be one of the biggest targets this trade deadline. That is going to happen.
NIT History Lesson: Walter Dukes Also Rocked (But It Was Longer Ago)
No NIT History Lesson from us today, but let Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey close us out by sharing one in our stead:
Thank you, Congressman.
