NBA season 2019/20
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@junior said in NBA season 2019/20:
@mariner4life said in NBA season 2019/20
I love watching these great teams and thinking about what can be learned from them and applied to rugby (specifically the ABs). Without having any specific knowledge, I'm looking at recent AB teams (last 4 years) and wondering if there has been a guy (or guys) like MJ consistently pushing high standards throughout the team and, more importantly, pushing them hard.Iām not sure it would even be possible. The truly psychopathically competitive athletes like Jordan, Steve Waugh or Michael Schumacher didnāt start out that way. They were competitive to be sure but it wasnāt until they were starved of winning for the first time in their lives for a little bit that they went troppo.
No one in that team had lost a World Cup and many won as bench or squad members in 2015. They didnāt seem to take the Lions series to heart. Maybe out of this it will light a fire under someone like McCaw after 2007 or Brooke/Fitzy after Athletic Park.
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Love this article about Gary Lineker and MJ:
I just watched episode eight of the wonderful The Last Dance. Thought I'd share the story of the day I played golf with Michael Jordan. It was a Thursday night and I got a call from my agent. He said: "I've had Michael Jordan's people on the phone and he wants to play at Sunningdale."
I was a member so he thought I could help. He said: "There's three of them: Michael and two of his basketball friends and they want to play on Sunday." I said: "If it's a Sunday they can't play without a member, but I can host them (too right, I could)."
So Saturday night I get call from my agent: "There's now six of them, two more friends and Samuel L Jackson."
"I'll need to find another member to play with the other three. I'll call my friend, Queeny (former European tour player and Sunningdale member), I'm sure he'll help."
Thankfully he was free and available. I turned up at 8.30am. Keith, the club pro said: "Your guests have arrived, they're on the putting green." There they were, six of them, five giant basketball players and Samuel L Jackson ambling around, putting and smoking cigars.
The observing, quintessentially white elderly members were wide-eyed. We introduced ourselves and headed to the first tee. Now my mate Queeny liked a bet on the golf course and was a bit of a hustler. So we're all stood there and Queeny says in his slightly posh voice....
"So Michael would you like bet, a little wager?" Michael says: "Sure, man." Queeny says: "So how much would you like to play for?" Michael puffs on his cigar, looks straight at him, smiles and says: "Whatever makes you feel uncomfortable, man."
Mr Jordan had already won the day. -
Just to be clear (thanks @ACT-Crusader ), I've watched E9 so feel free to comment freely!
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That was as rewarding an ending as anything I have seen.
When he was sitting there at the end I got chills. Cigar in his mouth, looking out the window. Wearing shoes bearing his name. Slightly aged and very fucked up crooked fingers. It was like Thanos in the Avengers when he clicked his fingers(and thereās already a meme for that too).
I will cry like a 2yo when heās gone.
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Brilliant finish. Really liked how they did Episode 9 and the 98 Indiana series and the 97 Finals against the Jazz. Set up the final episode very nicely.
Seems to be a bit of rewriting of history from some about how the post 98 championship break up....
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@raznomore said in NBA season 2019/20:
That was as rewarding an ending as anything I have seen.
When he was sitting there at the end I got chills. Cigar in his mouth, looking out the window. Wearing shoes bearing his name. Slightly aged and very fucked up crooked fingers. It was like Thanos in the Avengers when he clicked his fingers(and thereās already a meme for that too).
I will cry like a 2yo when heās gone.
Wasn't it though. I went to bed and lay awake for hours thinking about it and how much he put into winning.
There is a lot to learn from that series.
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That. Was. Awesome.
I forgot how much I hated the Jazz. Bunch of speccy white fluffybunnies. Stockton looks like he does your tax return.
I love Reggie Miller though, so great to hear him. He's such a cheeky fucker.
Everything about MJ just screams that he's the king. Even now. He just has presence.
I'm gonna binge watch that one rainy day.
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@mariner4life said in NBA season 2019/20:
That. Was. Awesome.
I forgot how much I hated the Jazz. Bunch of speccy white fluffybunnies. Stockton looks like he does your tax return.
I love Reggie Miller though, so great to hear him. He's such a cheeky fucker.
Everything about MJ just screams that he's the king. Even now. He just has presence.
I'm gonna binge watch that one rainy day.
It's funny I used to hate Reggie as a kid because of the trash-talking etc. but as I've grown older (and admired those traits in other athletes) I've become a big fan. Also, he hasn't aged a day since 1998!
As for MJ, Le Bron ain't got shit on him and this series is a timely reminder of that fact!
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@junior Reggie hasn't. Did you watch the 30 for 30 on him and the Knicks? It's pretty funny
I read a great quote from Jalen Rose about how in LBJ's era all the great players get a turn to win a ring, in MJs time no one got a turn.
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@Bovidae said in NBA season 2019/20:
Reggie vs Spike Lee is one of the best stories in NBA playoff history.
He's not bad for the second best player in his family.
Thatās a great story when she talks about kicking his ass constantly when they were younger.
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@shark said in NBA season 2019/20:
I should say, by no means would i want air time devoted to boring scenes showing Mike walking his kids to school, or laying in bed with a fat stogie after honing out the ex wife, but you'd think there would be something. It's one thing to say they're not part of the basketball story, but to not have featured - bar a brief appearance and one throwaway comnent - thus far in eight episodes which predominantly follow MJ, seems like a deliberate marginalisation.
Wouldn't MJ have said, hey, if you want balance in this doco which has me coming off largely as a prick, how about we show how much I love my kids? And while we're at it, I had some tough times off the court in my marriage too, so maybe that should be part of the narrative?
Because the doco maker was explicit that that had nothing to do with the story he wanted to tell.
This is the bit I love most.
'Look, winning has a price and leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didnāt want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didnāt want to be challenged. And I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didnāt endure all the things that I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game. And I wasnāt going to take any less. Now if that means I had to go in there and get in your ass a little bit, then I did that. You ask all my teammates. The one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didnāt fucking do. When people see this they are going say, āWell he wasnāt really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.ā Well, thatās you. Because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win to be a part of that as well. Look, I donāt have to do this. I am only doing it because it is who I am. Thatās how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you donāt want to play that way, donāt play that way.ā'
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@mariner4life said in NBA season 2019/20:
@junior Reggie hasn't. Did you watch the 30 for 30 on him and the Knicks? It's pretty funny
I read a great quote from Jalen Rose about how in LBJ's era all the great players get a turn to win a ring, in MJs time no one got a turn.
Yeah good point about everyone getting a ring these days. Seems to be much more "glory hunting" than there was in MJ's day. (Obviously guys moved around back then too, but it seemed much less prevalent and not as many moved during their peak years in order to get the ring.)
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Saw a good quote the other day from his old trainer (Tim Grover he has an awesome book IMO).
"The ad said 'be like Mike' not 'like Mike' you don't have to be liked you have to be respected".
In other non MJ news I am coming out of retirement....
Card collecting retirement. Some decent money and good liquidity in them these days. Been doing a bit of learning.
Me and 5 mates are just about to do our first 'live break' where you all chip in and buy a box of cards (we brought 2 different boxes) was $250 each. We then had a random wheel pick our names and had a draft so we all get 6 teams each and whatever cards come out from your teams you get them. At the moment the rookie cards with most value are Zion and Ja Morant so I was stoked to get the second pick and land the Grizzles.
Looking forward to jumping on zoom this weekend and having one of the boys open the packets for us.
Haven't been this excited in a long time.
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@junior said in NBA season 2019/20:
@mariner4life said in NBA season 2019/20:
@junior Reggie hasn't. Did you watch the 30 for 30 on him and the Knicks? It's pretty funny
I read a great quote from Jalen Rose about how in LBJ's era all the great players get a turn to win a ring, in MJs time no one got a turn.
Yeah good point about everyone getting a ring these days. Seems to be much more "glory hunting" than there was in MJ's day. (Obviously guys moved around back then too, but it seemed much less prevalent and not as many moved during their peak years in order to get the ring.)
Player power wasn't as prevalent back then. As Simmons said recently, in the modern era MJ and Scottie would have simply said to Reinsdorf that Krause needs to go and they need to bring Phil back. And it would have happened. And Scottie would have been paid.
Not sure it's a fair reflection to say that modern guys are just chasing rings, they just know their power now and use it accordingly.
As for LeBron, yeah he's a clear #2 to MJ. But I also think he's a clear step ahead of Kareem, Russell, Magic and Bird. His career has been phenomenal, his 8 straight finals overblown but his supposedly poor finals record massively overplayed. The Cavs teams he dragged to the finals were so poor in comparison to anything MJ carried, and the GSW (in particular) team was markedly better than anything MJ faced. Some of the stats that LeBron produced in those series' are otherwordly, and really unlikely to be repeated.
The guy is a beast, and I have no doubt that he works just as hard as MJ, his body and longevity are surely a testament to that.
That last episode was superb. The best of the series by a country mile. Just basketball.
I came out of it all not leaning too much new, but having MJ reinforced as a prick, a classic personality formed by his uber competitiveness combined with years of being surrounded by yes-men.
But what a fucking player and absolutely no doubt as to who is the GOAT.
