It’s a special Juneteenth and Father’s Day edition of SSM.
Only one place to start, and that’s out in The Bay The Warriors are champions again as of Thursday Steph Curry was the MVP, a well earned award The stupid “No Steph with KD” talk can now be ignored
The Colorado Avalanche are the perfect name The Lightning are the target, and they’ve got perfect aim Up 2-0 in the series, looking absolutely tough Only two wins away from hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup
The Atlanta Braves, 14-game winning streak Weekend series in Chicago, Cubbies looking bleak Baseball did the baseball thing, Cubs won the series After losing 10 in a row, beat Atlanta two of three
We’ve got our first pink slip handed out in MLB The Angles fired Joe Maddon during a losing spree The Halos started strong this year, formerly first place Twelve straight losses gets you canned, an unfortunate case
Another manager made waves, and not the calming kind Tony La Russa made a move and seemed to lose his mind Gave Trea Turner a free base, the count was 1-2 Any way you look at it, that call really blew
The NBA Finals are tight, all tied at two a piece Both teams are two wins away from making the series cease Steph Curry’s a monster, but we all knew that He’s all the Warriors have, rest of the team’s been flat
The battle for Lord Stanley is now set in stone Lightning and the Avalanche for the hockey throne Tampa Bay will go for their third straight championship Colorado’s young, could be champs in their first trip
We were drowning in series-deciding games in the NBA Playoffs this weekend. Eliminations and game sevens were flying everywhere this week, and SSM is here for it.
Got started on Thursday night, Heat and 76ers Joel Embiid came back but could not be Philly’s fixer Jimmy Butler showed up, James Harden disappeared Both teams said things after the game that were kinda weird
For the Memphis Grizzlies, Friday night was it The Warriors are back to being the absolute shit Klay and Steph were back up to their old splash brother ways Going to the conference finals, hitting threes for days
Sunday was a big one, two game sevens on the slate Bucks and the Celtics were the first game on our sports plate This one was at The Garden, and Boston held their ground With the win the Celtics, are now Miami bound
The finale of the weekend, Suns and the Mavs Dallas is full of grown up cows, no more baby calves A tough matchup awaits them, the Warriors are no joke With Luka and J. Brunson, this team is far from broke
Of course, Stephen Curry has come a long way since that picture was taken. Skipping a few steps and career milestones, Curry signed a five year, $201M deal before the 2017-2018 season. Life changing money, right? Set for life type stuff for the best shooter in our lifetime and possibly history.
On Tuesday, Chef Curry cashed in again:
ESPN story on Steph Curry agreeing on a four-year, $215M contract extension with the Warriors: https://t.co/02D9mpkbuQ
With that announcement, Curry became the first player in NBA history to sign consecutive $200M contracts. Pretty incredible stuff for a guy who has earned and deserves it. Certain athletes are called “generational” for a reason, and Steph is one of them. He single handedly changed NBA roster construction, how offenses are run, shot selection; you name it, Curry has impacted it since coming into the NBA in 2009.
You can’t ask for much more regarding a high level talent with a pretty clean off the court record as well. Many times in sports, teams will turn the other cheek on player issues if they’re good enough to help the team win. That’s not breaking news. To Curry’s credit, he hasn’t ever had to make the Warriors even think about how to explain why he would still be playing despite doing some immoral shit off the court. If the most offensive thing a guy has done is release some heinous shoes, you’re in good shape.
Curry has done it pretty much the right way since coming out of nowhere at Davidson. In Curry’s 12 NBA seasons, he’s a seven time All-Star, two time MVP, and has won three NBA Championships. You pair that with over $400M in contract money (not even considering ad money, shoe deals, etc.), you must be doing something right in life.
Happy Mother’s Day! If you forgot to get your Mom anything, read her some poetry, which you can find below in this week’s SSM.
Bradley Beal dropped 50 on Indiana Didn’t need OT, game was bananas Wizards a shocking playoff team Getting hot at the right time, gaining steam
In the very same game, another triple double For Russell Westbrook, dude is trouble For anyone trying to shut him down He makes defenders look like clowns
Another big scorer, the man Steph Curry Forty-nine Saturday, racked ’em up in a hurry Put team on his back, and they won again Excited for the NBA playoffs to begin
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
The NBA is the the best in the big four sports at a lot of things. They by far and away have the best commissioner in Adam Silver, they lead the charge in the “bubble” phenomenon while getting their sport back on track during the pandemic, and have been for the most part the league least afraid to take stands on both social and political issues.
They also are not afraid to get weird with it when it comes to uniforms, which I respect. Don’t get me wrong, I love the traditional uniforms of Alabama football, Yankee baseball, etc. But getting out of your comfort zone is always a good thing, both in uniforms and in life. In recent years, the NBA has begun creating new uniforms for teams, calling them “City Edition” jerseys that are meant to show “team history and unique city stories.” The 2021 versions were fully released today, and boy are they something.
Atlanta Hawks – while the MLK tribute is awesome, this looks like a jersey from a low budget, late 90’s Disney movie about a team full of scrubs who pulled out all of the right tricks, and had juuuust the right amount of luck to upset the far superiorly talented rivals from across town.
Boston Celtics – an ode to the 17 championship banners hanging in TD Garden, this jersey is the aforementioned far superiorly talented rivals from across town that the Atlanta Hawks beat in the low budget late 90’s Disney movie.
Chicago Bulls – the Bulls slogan is “Touch the Clouds,” which is ironic because they haven’t touched anywhere higher than eighth place in the Eastern Conference in the past five years.
Dallas Mavericks – hard to find much wrong with these, besides the fact that one of the NBA’s best players, Luka Dončić, wears number 77. Get the hell out of here and give the man a real number.
Detroit Pistons – very fitting slogan here, “Tough Together,” Pistons fans have had to watch some tough looking basketball together for the last decade or so.
Golden State Warriors – hard to argue with this one, paying tribute to Oakland after moving into their new arena in San Francisco. Like most things The Warriors have done since they drafted Steph Curry, this was done right.
Los Angeles Clippers – these are pretty much identical to the Clippers 2019-2020 “City Edition” jerseys, so bonus points for fresh creativity. Bonus points for making me want to play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas when I see the font.
Memphis Grizzlies – these are solid, but I wish they would’ve just went for it with the old Vancouver Grizzlies uniforms, which are just gorgeous and remind me of another one of my favorite old players, Bryant “Big Country” Reeves.
Miami Heat – this is the perfect city/team for something like “City Edition” jerseys. Miami can do anything with any neon pink, blue, orange, etc. and make it look great. A very solid, wavy effort here.
Milwaukee Bucks – does anyone really associate Milwaukee with the Great Lakes? I don’t, but can only assume this is what Giannis Antetokounmpo wanted, and The Bucks continue to do whatever they can to keep him happy and in Milwaukee.
Minnesota Timberwolves – this is just generally boring. Also the slogan “The North Star That Guides & Unites” is pretty great for a organization that has seemingly no direction at this point.
New Orleans Pelicans – an ambitious stab here, although I think it came out looking more like what I would have came up with for uniforms of my “Create A Team” in NBA Live 2002. You know, the one with Steve Francis on the cover.
Orlando Magic – Orlando has messed around with incorporating orange into their uniforms in last years “City Edition,” and I just don’t get it. They have a great color scheme, and should use it here.
Sacramento Kings – I can see thousands of bros at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza rocking these bad boys solely because is has “sac” on it, which is approval enough for me.
San Antonio Spurs – very smooth. Slick font, crisp lines across the chest. I’m all in here.
ROAM THE NORTH@Raptors City Edition jerseys are launching in March 2021. Shop the rest of the Raptors City Edition Collection today ➡️ https://t.co/NyoY8DuBlr
🗓️ NBA Season Starts Christmas Week with Games Beginning Tuesday, December 22. pic.twitter.com/f5iIlW1NSy
Toronto Raptors – from a team that’s going to be playing in Tampa Bay next year, missed opportunity to double up on your sales by throwing “Tampa Bay” and “Toronto” across the chest. Those friendly Canadians are too nice to make people pay twice though, eh?
Washington Wizards – ending our recap here with a banger. These are great, from the throwback logo to the flag pattern moving down the sides. This is the best thing the Wizards franchise has done in a while.
Even though it seems like the NBA season ended last week, it will be back on Christmas Day. Bring on The Association and all of the great, and not so great, “City Edition” jerseys that come with it.
We took some time to give thanks this week, and ignored the blog while doing so. But we’re back, and ready to review what we missed in the past seven days in this week’s Sunday State of Mind.
The Match3 went down, teeing off on Friday Phil, Chuck, Peyton, and Steph were excited to play In a big upset, Charles Barkley played well Chuck and Phil won 4 & 3, Peyton and Steph fell
Some more random sports, Mike Tyson is back! He fought Roy Jones Jr., but the excitement lacked It wasn’t a full match, only an exhibition spar The “fight” was a draw, and was as slow as tar
Moving on to real sports, college basketball A little behind schedule, still started in late fall It’s great to see action back on the hardwood A small step towards things feeling more like they should
Hate to beat a dead horse, but COVID’s still here Ravished the Ravens, a realized fear The MVP Lamar Jackson had a positive test Ravens/Steelers delayed six days, not the best
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