The 10-man rotation, starring the end of the Sam Hinkie era
A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It’s also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren’t always listed in order of importance. That’s for you, dear reader, to figure out.
C: Philadelphia Magazine, The 700 Level, The Hook, Sports Illustrated and Liberty Ballers. Thoughtful pieces from Derek Bodner, Andrew Unterberger, Tom Ziller, Rob Mahoney and Jake Pavorsky on the end of the Sam Hinkie era , how and why the Philadelphia 76ers’ ownership lost faith in “The Process,” how much Hinkie brought that on himself, and much more. Lots of nuance on a fascinating and complex NBA story.
PF: Deadspin. Albert Burneko takes a flamethrower to Hinkie’s 13-page letter of resignation/justification of The Process: “Dress it up with Palo Alto sales-pitch aphorisms all the f*** you want, but the argument he is making here is, ‘All the loss and failure and embarrassment was part of a sophisticated plan, unless you think it was failing, in which case we got f***** by random happenstance.’”
SF: Bay Area News Group. Marcus Thompson III talks with Stephen Curry about his noncommittal response to the new law discriminating against LGBTQ individuals in his home state of North Carolina and to the NBA’s quick and decisive comments on the matter, offering the Golden State Warriors star an opportunity to expound on his views, and considering a climate in which, as Thompson writes, “There is more concern about policing beliefs than improving behaviors.” (On the other hand, as ESPN.com’s Kevin Arnovitz notes, beliefs can tend to inform behaviors.)
SG: TrueHoop. Kevin Arnovitz on the moment the Golden State Warriors solved the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2015 NBA Finals, and figured out how to be their best selves: the fourth quarter of Game 3.
PG: SB Nation. Paul Flannery profiles Isaiah Thomas, who became an All-Star as soon as he landed with a team that treated him like he’s been one all along.
6th: Miami Herald. A good read from Ethan Skolnick on the work Amar’e Stoudemire has put in, and continues to put in, to become a somewhat surprisingly valuable contributor for a Miami Heat team with designs on making a deep playoff push.
7th: The Atlantic and SB Nation. Great reads from Vann R. Newkirk II on the legacy questions that arise with Allen Iverson’s enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (“Is it possible to celebrate a player—one with no championship rings and a ball-hogging, shot-happy game that history looks on less and less kindly—for what he did without celebrating what he meant?”) and from Bethlehem Shoals on A.I. earning the immortality he deserves (“At this point, resisting Iverson seems like a positively outdated notion”).
8th: The New Yorker. Hua Hsu on another newly minted Hall of Famer, Yao Ming, “the feelings of attachment that we develop to characters, seen at a distance, sprinting up and down one playing surface or another,” and the unique space he occupies in both NBA and world sporting culture.
9th: GQ. More good Shoals, on how LeBron James — actual on-court LeBron, not social media sphinx LeBron — has managed to become underrated and overlooked this season.
10th: ESPN.com. Kevin Arnovitz’s always informative annual rundown of the next crop of head coaching candidates, a list that in years past has featured current bench bosses like Steve Kerr, Dave Joerger, Tyronn Lue, Quin Snyder and Fred Hoiberg.
More NBA coverage:
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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