seeratsohi

[seeratsohi]

Against the Kings in the Nuggets’ second game of the season, he went scoreless but gathered nine rebounds and doled out seven assists. Against the Raptors on Wednesday, he was two points shy of a triple-double. Jokic’s style is quintessentially European, prioritizing team concepts over individual stardom. He is easy, under North American tenets, to criticize when his pass goes haywire or a teammate rewards his generosity with a missed shot. But he is impossible to categorize, and even harder to guard. In his third NBA season, he is trying, as Denver continues to rebound from a horrendous offensive start, to redefine what it means to be star.

[seeratsohi]

As far as blue-chip prospects go, his skillset is surprisingly unconventional, making him an irresistible watch. He shoots with his off-hand, which might be why he’s wholly unreliable outside of 19 feet. But with a killer first step, and half a foot over most point guards, he could render that point moot. He is an athletic marvel yet, at 21 years old, he plays a cerebral style. Again, he is 6’10. And he is a point guard.

[seeratsohi]

During his career, Waiters has been the subject of ridicule, viewed as an inhabitant of an imaginary Waiters Island, dwindling in population every time he clanked another ill-advised shot. He's been a sixth man, a pariah, an underpaid shot-maker, a multimillionaire, a meme and an aspirational brand. He is also, by his assessment, a top-15 player in the NBA.

"I can one-on-one, mano-a-mano, BBQ chicken, I don't care. That's what it is," Waiters tells B/R Mag. "I like my chances."

[seeratsohi]

LeBron James has been a professional basketball player for over half my life. He has dominated the prism through which I consume the sport: the giant, roving platonic ideal of efficiency, of dominance, with enough mythology in tow to captivate a gothic historian.

And man, he is doing a number on me.

[seeratsohi]

It's hard to know exactly what Jimmy Butler is -- this in his sixth season with the Chicago Bulls -- because what Jimmy Butler is is at odds with things. Lettuce, chocolate, pot pie.

He's also at war with the idea he's high maintenance. No, no, he insists -- he is "a normal individual," the guy who's always a phone call away, someone who can pop into a store and run an errand for you. He is, to hear him tell it ... Clark Kent.

[seeratsohi]

Their connection stretches far beyond table tennis. Booker, a second-year shooting guard, and Ulis, a rookie point guard, have been tight since middle school. From underrated high school prospects who made unconventional sacrifices to garner notice, to fighting for minutes on the loaded 38-1 Kentucky Wildcats, Booker, 20, and Ulis, 21, are bound by shared experiences and by living in the same apartment complex 15 minutes outside of Phoenix.

They don't live together, but they might as well. Despite having separate pads, Booker and Ulis operate like roommates, with Ulis dropping by Booker's place for bourre battles and pizza dinners. Barely legal, the rising Suns recently showed off their own kind of side hustle: down-home fun.

[seeratsohi]

For years, supporters of new age basketball, ushered in by the statistical revolution, have considered two futures certain: Anthony Davis would take over the NBA, and a 3-point shot would become a necessary ingredient to superstardom — at the least, to efficient superstardom.

How is it, then, that Anthony Davis is second in the league in scoring, averaging 29.6 points per game, a cool 57.8 true shooting percentage, while nailing just over one triple every two games. Since the turn of the century, no player has disregarded the arc to that level and scored more than 28 points per game. The last player to do so was none other than Shaquille O’Neal. In a season that just saw the Warriors and Rockets face hoist more 3-pointers in 48 minutes than at any point in NBA history, how does Davis maintain that efficiency, that volume, that power to astound? He is proving, above all, that change isn’t linear, and we’re never as smart as we think we are.

[seeratsohi]

It’s undeniable that the NBA is now the most progressive league in major sports, and it might even be among the most progressive of American institutions, a stride it never would have been able to make without its fans. On the internet of 2016, with its infinite niches, there is no singular, reliable definition for what constitutes “mainstream.” What’s clear, though, is that the mainstream NBA fan is more diverse, young and internet-savvy than ever, which has given the league the space to alter its decision-making.

[seeratsohi]

“When LeBron and his brand-conscious buddies Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo took the stage at the ESPYs donning black suits and urging athletes and others in the crowd to get educated on the issues of gun violence and racial profiling ravaging the country, the size of their spotlight mattered a great deal. If you have something to stand for besides yourself, self-promotion can double as a moral imperative.”

[seeratsohi]

“Then the earthquake struck. A wall collapsed on Labissiere's back, and forced him into a crouch that would make his legs go numb for weeks. Underneath the rubble, he couldn't see a thing. He couldn't move. The only hint of the outside world were screams: cries for help from families, friends, a whole community of voices outside, pleading for familiar voices to respond. Labissiere and his family, trapped inside, were screaming only for recognition, signaling for anyone at all who could hear them to help. Labissiere did this, too, until the moment came when he stopped believing help would arrive.”