Sunday State of Mind: November 21st-November 27th

Photo: House Beautiful

The only thing better than the food during Thanksgiving week is the sports. Feast week in college basketball, rivalry week in college football, and more, all in this week’s Sunday State of Mind.

Feast week brings the upsets, in college basketball
Early in the season, and number one did fall
Friday night the Cyclones upset UNC
Iowa State resumé building early victory

After all these years, feeling like big brother
Recently there seems to be a bigger, better, other
Two years in a row now, and they’re feeling great
Two straight wins for Michigan over Ohio State

A rare win for the Raiders, and even better yet
Josh Jacobs set all the records that ever could be set
Over 300 yards between rushing and receiving
Every time he touched the ball, defenders he was leaving

A NBA homecoming, loving all around
Ben Simmons came back to play in his old stomping grounds
His favorite fans in Philly, I’m sure it felt so warm
He had a double double so at least he did perform

Steve Nash’s Cover Letter

Photo: Fadeaway World

The news that was seemingly coming for weeks became real on Tuesday. As many expected, and some wanted, Steve Nash was “relieved of his duties” as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.

The Nash/KD/Kyrie/Harden/Simmons experiment is officially a failure. In the rare time the Nets were at full strength during this weird expedition, there were flashes. But injuries, egos, and whatever the hell Kyrie does on a day to day basis was just too much, and Nash paid the price.

Because we like Steve Nash here at UDS, we partnered with the fine folks at Resume Genius to build a cover letter for Coach Nash to use while he looks for his next landing spot:

Best of luck, Steve. We look forward to what’s next. Whatever that is, there is 0% chance it’ll be worse than Brooklyn.

What If NBA Trades Were Clothing Items? Untimed Down’s NBA Trade Deadline Special

Photo: NBA.com

Deadline Day in the NBA has come and gone. With it, countless useless names moving from city to city that will have little to no impact on anything.

BUT, there are a few moves every year that draw interest. For every Daniel Thies or George Hill there’s a Pau Gasol or Carmelo Anthony. This year was no different; the league was dressed head to toe with deadline deals.

Another trade deadline day for the league with the most fashion forward athletes did not disappoint. With that in mind, what would some of the trades we saw today be if they were clothing items?

Kings/Bucks/Clippers/Pistons: Donte DiVincenzo, Trey Lyles, Josh Jackson, Serge Ibaka, two second round picks, Rodney Hood, Semi Ojele, Marvin Bagley III:

Rainbow Toe Socks

Photo: The Socks Emporium

A lot going on for something that is essentially useless.

It doesn’t really matter which players are ending up where in this deal. Just an absolute assembly of disarray happening here for a considerable amount of impracticability.

Mavericks/Wizards: Kristaps Porzingas for Spencer Dinwiddie:

Propeller Hat

Photo: CGTrader

These have to be two of the funnest names to say in the NBA; and they were traded for each other.

Spencer Dinwiddie sounds like a cartoon protagonist from a 90’s Nickelodeon show. Kristaps Porzingas sounds like a sommelier who takes his job way too seriously.

Just fun all around.

Nets/76ers: James Harden for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two first round picks

Fleece Sweatshirt

Photo: Russell Athletic

Look at those names above. The Nets gave up an aging forward who can’t stay in once place for too long and got a superstar point guard, a three point sniper, a top five rebounder, and reloaded on draft picks.

There’s nothing else to say here; the 76ers got fleeced.

One more year of Woj bombs and Shams slams at their peak deadline day performance. Now we have the buyout market, and a flurry of other big name moves that likely won’t change anything down the stretch either. This league!

Put Another Shrimp on the Barbie in the Ben Simmons/76ers Feud

Photo: CBS Sports

Crikey! This has gone from bad to worse.

On Tuesday, the heavily reported rift between the Philadelphia 76ers and Ben Simmons reached a new level. After previously leaking he was done with the 76ers, the point guard reported unannounced, practiced with his phone in his pocket yesterday, and then got kicked out of practice today for being unwilling to participate.

After saying “g’day mate” to his teammates on the way out of practice, Simmons was subsequently suspended for the team’s opening night matchup against the Pelicans. Woof.

Simmons will now have a some time away from the team. With all of the strange offseason moves in the past few months, what he’ll do with this time, no one knows.

He would presumably have time to enjoy all the Vegemite he desires. Or maybe practice his free throw shooting? How about trying to get back in with the Kardashian family? While his old fling Kendall Jenner is currently with Devin Booker, Simmons has already shown that he follows the “just because there’s a goalie, doesn’t mean you can’t score” mantra in life.

After a tumultuous offseason and a seemingly broken relationship between the 76ers and their point guard, all you can hope for is that this thing doesn’t get any uglier than it already is. If both sides can sit down and talk over some cheesesteak and meat pies, maybe they find some middle ground. Until then, the saga continues.

Sunday State of Mind: March 1st-March 7th

NBA All-Star Sunday is our focus this week. We recap an enjoyable Sunday night, event by event, in this week’s SSM.

The premiere event in our basketball binge
Was the Taco Bell sponsored Skills Challenge
A long shot winner, Domantas Sabonis
Dribbling, passing, shooting, guy could not miss

Next event up, the three point contest
From behind the arc, let’s see who’s best
Trey’s were falling, it was a tree point flurry
An obvious winner here, the man, Steph Curry

The dunk contest was the halftime show
We had Obi Toppin and two names you won’t know
It was Anfernee Simons of Blazers fame
Who won the contest, and cemented his name

Now the main event, Team Lebron vs. KD
Alley oops, no defense, and plenty of three’s
A glorified scrimmage, but it’s always fun
170-150 was the score, Team Lebron won

Another ASG in the books, a way different look
Great job by the NBA, and all who partook
A normal All-Star weekend next year, fingers crossed
Without events like this, sports fans would be lost

Sunday State of Mind: August 3rd-August 9th

Photo: Photo by Blake Richard Verdoorn on Unsplash

Happy Sunday, everyone. Please enjoy this journey back in time on the week that was in sports in this week’s SSM.

At the time of this blog, the PGA Championship is still live
DJ, Finau, Scheffler…who will survive?
To be completely honest, the most important thing though
Is the continued trolling, of Bryson DeChambeau

The Cubs and Cardinals, cancelled this weekend
St. Louis’ COVID positives have gone off the deep end
It’s the best rivalry in baseball, there’s no debate
Yankees/Red Sox? Giants/Dodgers? Not that great.

This week us NBA fans lost a good one
76ers standout Ben Simmons is done
According to this tweet, Ben had a left knee subluxation
He left the NBA Bubble, on a surgical vacation

Connor McGregor is engaged! The Notorious MMA.
Asked his girlfriend of 12 years, announced on Saturday
Seems like Connor’s enjoying his “retirement” so far
Engaged and staying out of trouble, no hitting old men in bars