The NBA’s Play-In Tournament starts tonight, and it’s drawing NIT comparisons, for obvious reasons (all basketball tournaments are eventually compared to the NIT). This makes it the second NBA tournament this season to be painted in an NIT light, joining the In-Season Tournament, which I think is actually a better name for that event than NBA Cup. If you want Americans to like something, don’t make it sound soccer-y. Can you imagine if football used a name that associated it with soccer? Disaster.
Anyway, the Play-In Tournament is much less NIT than the In-Season Tournament. For one thing, the Play-In Tournament has never seen its championship played in Las Vegas. It doesn’t even have a championship. Also, the teams aren’t as good as NIT teams. Longtime readers know this well, but if you drew the NIT lines onto the NBA, proportionally, the top seed would be the fourth-best team in the association. Timberwolves, Clippers, Mavericks. Those are your NIT-level teams. (The NCAA T*urnament would be the Celtics, the Thunder, the Nuggets, and then the Magic, because they won their division.)
Still, we like the Play-In Tournament. We think it’s funny to make the Warriors, Lakers, Heat, and Sixers associate themselves with the Bulls and the Hawks. It’s like when there’s a guy in a bear suit inside the real bear enclosure at the zoo.
How Much Does Kawhi Leonard Love His Country?
The US Olympic roster is reportedly set for this summer. The eleven-man list:
- Joel Embiid
- Jayson Tatum
- Stephen Curry
- Kevin Durant
- Anthony Davis
- Devin Booker
- LeBron James
- Anthony Edwards
- Tyrese Haliburton
- Bam Adebayo
- Jrue Holiday
I look forward to monitoring these players’ patriotism throughout the NBA postseason. I’m also going to closely be watching that of Kawhi Leonard and Jalen Brunson, reportedly the leading candidates for the twelfth spot. How many veterans will each thank? How eloquently will each stump for the wisdom of democracy? How many Big Macs will each consume? We’re watching, fellas.
(Smart to leave one spot open. Very NBA move. See who fans are most excited about coming out of the playoffs.)
Michael Busch Will Not Stop Hitting Home Runs
Michael Busch homered last night. It was the fifth straight game in which he’s done that. The last time Michael Busch didn’t hit a home run, O.J. Simpson was alive and Two Dog Special was still an ongoing podcast.
The nice thing about Michael Busch is that I don’t expect too much from the Cubs’ first baseman. All you need to do is post an OPS over 1.000, scoop every single throw, and be as likable as Anthony Rizzo. That’s the standard, and if you don’t like it, you can move to third base, where all you need to do is hit 30 home runs a year and one day become a legendary color commentator with an unintentional knack for creating silliness. Hall of Fame is the expectation here, Michael.
The Home Run Dugout Celebrations Are Running Their Course
I had the Orioles on again last night (they keep drawing me to them), and they appear to have upgraded their one-person home run water bong from last year into a four-person home run water bong. This isn’t good. The home run dugout celebrations are jumping the shark.
Thankfully, we won’t be seeing these all that often anymore. They probably peaked last season, and their remaining embers should be stamped out by July. Remember when college basketball bench mobs were all the rage? Pantelis Xidias was hopping around. Monmouth’s walk-ons were constructing three-act plays. It was great, and then other schools got too involved, and it got old, and it went away. Turnover props followed a similar pattern.
Athletes aren’t naturally corny. They’re too competitive and young for that. They police this internally.
Etc.
The NIT, Texas, and Other College Basketball Pet Interests:
- One day after landing Tramon Mark, Julian Larry, and Jayson Kent, Texas lost Dillon Mitchell and Tyrese Hunter to the transfer portal. Not great for the Longhorns. Mitchell is in the Draft, too, but there isn’t a lot of smoke around either coming back to Austin in the end, and usually when guys enter the portal, the smoke around a return outpaces the real probability they’ll withdraw.
- If you’ve also been wondering what’s taking Robbie Avila so long, he and Isaiah Swope are reportedly set to visit SLU later this week. Are the visits connected because Avila and Swope want them to be? Or because Josh Schertz wants to use Avila as part of his pitch to Swope? Is Avila hearing from other schools even though he asked them not to contact him? How against the rules is that? All we have are questions. Time will tell.
Chicago:
- Here’s a good indicator for women’s basketball: I’d heard of all three players drafted by the Chicago Sky last night. Kamilla Cardoso, Angel Reese, and Brynna Maxwell, the third of which was a guard at Gonzaga. At the risk of being the guy who accidentally becomes sexist by being patronizing towards women’s basketball players, that feels like a really good draft for the Sky. Maybe because they had three of the first thirteen picks.
Joe Kelly, Burnley, and the Ottawa Senators:
- The Sens finish their season tonight against the Boston Bruins. What began with so much promise limps across the finish line. Woof. Last night, the Sens got blanked by the Rangers. I saw somewhere that Ottawa’s only led for a minute in the month of April? Goodness. Incredible to be 3–5 on the month anyway. Zack Ostapchuk came up, and a lot of Rangers fans assumed it was because the Sens wanted to let him fight Matt Rempe again (Ostapchuk beat Rempe up once upon a time in the minors). What Rangers fans didn’t realize is that Ostapchuk is simply one of the Sens’ better prospects. Not going great, guys. (Ostapchuk didn’t end up playing, I don’t think.)
- High chance of a Joe Kelly sighting tonight. He’s the most rested man in the whole Dodger bullpen. 2019 NLDS revenge game. Look out, Nationals.
