Bill talks about watching the Celtics Game 7 against the Miami Heat, thinking the NBA is lowkey rigged and the refs having too much power, whether or not he has trouble being happy, performing at Fenway Park, throwing out the first pitch at a Red Sox game, being a “Jeopardy” clue, getting his pilot’s license, directing a feature film called Old Dads, and his Slight Return stand-up tour.
CBSLA Sports Director Jim Hill chats with Hall of Fame photographer Andrew D. Bernstein about his storied career and what it’s like covering the NBA Finals for 40 years.
With its 75th anniversary season getting down to crunch time, the National Basketball Association has reintroduced a familiar logo from its past for the championship series.
The NBA announced on Wednesday, April 13, that it would bring the iconic script font back to a reimagined NBA Finals logo this year. A cursive font was used in variations of the Finals logo from 1986 to 1995 and from 2004 to 2017.
“The NBA Finals serves as the culmination of our 75th Anniversary Season as we celebrate the league’s past, present and future,” said NBA chief marketing officer Kate Jhaveri in a press release on the league’s website. “Highlighted by the return of our familiar Finals script font, back by popular demand, our new logo pays homage to our league’s history and looks forward to what’s ahead.”
The modernized Finals logo puts the script font front and center, with a rendering of the Larry O’Brien Trophy behind. Unlike past iterations, the new script font does not feature a shooting star crossing the F and forming the dot on the I in “Finals.” It does, however, have some small gold flourishes at either end.
The new logo “honor[s] the league’s 75-year history while looking forward to the future,” according to the press release. “The identity also includes an updated black and gold color palette to complement the trophy and celebrate the pinnacle of the NBA’s season.”
The Larry O’Brien trophy in the new Finals does bear some differences from the trophy that has been given out up to now. The trophy in the logo has a circular base (as opposed to rectangular), and it appears to have a longer cylinder with more netting details and a different orientation for the basketball. There has been no word yet from the NBA if the trophy itself is being revamped this year; it could just be artistic license in the end.
The 2022 NBA Finals will tip off on Thursday, June 2.
Source: SportsLogos.Net
In this episode of Signature Shots, ESPN analyst Kirk Goldsberry details how Michael Jordan developed from an inconsistent jump-shooter at North Carolina into the most efficient and most prolific midrange scorer of the mid-90s, thanks to his legendary fadeaway.
They said LeBron came to Los Angeles just to make movies and that he had a better chance of winning an Emmy than a championship.
They said that even with Anthony Davis, the Lakers’ roster sucked & was clearly worse than the Clippers.
They said they were an overrated 1-seed who needed wishes of good luck to beat the Portland Trail Blazers & Houston Rockets.
Instead, the Los Angeles Lakers are your 2020 NBA Champions. And in case you forgot how dead wrong they’ve been since day one? Just sit back and watch.
Since 1903, 10 cities in the United States have had their clubs win multiple titles. This includes teams from seven major leagues (NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, WNBA, NWSL).
A good deal of Los Angeles’ multiple titles were won by basketball teams. The Lakers and the Sparks won titles in 2001 and 2002.
The Galaxy have contributed the most of any Los Angeles team, with titles in 2002, 2012 and 2014 in such years. The NHL’s Kings also won championships in 2012 and 2014.
Los Angeles is the only city to have three teams win a championships in a single year – with the Lakers, Sparks and Galaxy capturing crowns in 2002.
Much of New York’s success can be attributed to its baseball teams, with the Yankees contributing four titles to multiple-title years. Since championships in 1986 by the Mets and the NFL’s Giants, New York has been dormant.
Source: LA Times
The board is targeting a Dec. 22 start to what would be a season of 70 to 72 games, with the NBA Finals ending in June again as has been in the case for many years, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The person, who spoke to The Associated Press Friday on condition of anonymity because no plan has been finalized, said the possibility of fans being at games would hinge on how a particular market is faring against the coronavirus at that time.
There are other options, such as waiting until later in the season to begin play with the hope that more arenas would be able to have fans. But starting in December instead of mid-January or later could generate a difference of roughly $500 million in revenue, the person said.
Revenue projections for the league this season were missed by about $1.5 billion, the person said. The losses were the result of a combination of factors — the shutdown caused by the pandemic, the cancelation of 171 regular-season games, completing the season in a bubble at Walt Disney World without fans, the nearly $200 million price tag for operating that bubble and a yearlong rift with the Chinese government that saw NBA games not shown on state television there.
Source: The Associated Press
Alexia Grant, aka Chef Lex, was one of 10 chefs invited to cook for players inside the NBA bubble. From her kitchen at Disney World, she launched the pop-up restaurant Comfort Kitchen, specializing in Caribbean and Southern comfort food. Since, she’s cooked for players from every team in the bubble, including the Miami Heat, the LA Lakers, and the Denver Nuggets. But cooking under strict quarantine isn’t easy. She can’t leave the bubble to do her own shopping and has to rely on runners to deliver her food to the players in the inner bubble.
In this clip, Craig Hodges spoke about approaching Magic Johnson and Jordan to join him for a boycott in 1991 to spark change in the Black community, but Craig said they turned him down and felt it was “too extreme.” He went on to detail the money that was tied up in the marketing behind the faces of the NBA, including Jordan and Magic, likely making it harder for them to speak out on injustices at the time. Moving along, Craig pointed out how Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were seen as Black Vs white by fans, which you can hear more about above.
The NBA appears to be back, as both players and owners have approved the league’s 22-team proposal to resume play in Orlando, Florida on July 31 — but the games we eventually see will be much different than anything we’ve grown accustomed to. There will be social distancing, masks and smaller, non-NBA arenas. The most immediately noticeable difference, however, will likely be the lack of fans in the stands.
So what will the NBA do? Well, the league is considering using crowd noise from the popular video game, NBA 2K, to simulate fans during games in Orlando, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. He added that the league and the NBPA are still discussing creative options.
Source: Engadget
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