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kalinahugtype2 · 5 years ago

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Interview with a Graduate

Abbey Hoerchner

1. Are you working on any big projects at the moment?

We have been working on our NBA All-Star Campaign - with a big push for social and web graphics to get votes for Giannis, Khris and Bledsoe. We also had been pushing “Let Pat Dunk” to campaign for Pat Connaughton to get into the dunk contest for All-Star weekend - this was through both graphics and even t-shirt designs. We are also already thinking ahead to what our Playoff look will be come April - it is usually an edgier spin off our our regular season look. Lastly, the Bucks have an Esports gaming team for the NBA 2K League (video game). They draft 6 players who get paid a salary, receive benefits, have their housing paid for, and fly to NYC each week for their games. I am currently designing the look for their Season 3 Campaign - this includes their Draft graphics, Gameday graphics progression (Matchup Motion Graphic, Starting Lineup Motion Graphic, Live Now Motion Graphic, Half-Time Score Static Graphic, Player Stat Highlight Static Graphic, Final Score Static Graphic, Victory Motion Graphic), any general announcement graphics, etc. that will end up on social media.

2. What is your intent as designer?

I focus on capturing the attention of, engaging, and holding the interest of fans/followers. An obvious secondary intent is to efficiently and effectively organize information that is easy for the viewer to decipher.

3. How do you use design to positively impact a community?

At the Bucks, we had a large focus on building up the Deer District, the area around the arena, and getting the Milwaukee community to see it as a revitalized place that they want to spend time at. We focused on creating graphics that promoted the plaza, and highlighted the different restaurants and establishments, to ultimately bring people together.

4. In what way do you think students at UWM can use design to strengthen the culture in Milwaukee?

I think there may be opportunities to showcase neighborhoods, areas, events, etc that aren’t always heavily promoted whether digital or print. I think using class as a time for research and production is great, however I wonder still if there is a way to push research, ideas, designs (especially connected with Milwaukee culture/geography) further into the public than within the UWM network.

5. Is there anything you wish you had known prior to graduating?

Connecting with #8 below - the faster pace of design in the workplace would have helped my transition more immediately. I also work in Photoshop daily for actually creating digital graphics and I was not extremely efficient in that program, based on the high focus in upper-level DVC classes on InDesign and Illustrator.

6. Do you have any tips and/or words of encouragement for current design students?

One tip would be to get comfortable talking about your work, be confident in why you did what you did and be able to clearly explain it. In the workplace you may have a client (in my case another department) that doesn’t really understand what we do or why we do it. In these cases, it is imperative to be able to clearly articulate design reasoning. Be thorough in the design process from ideation to final product - it will help you in the long run figure out what process works best for you to get the strongest design. Along with this, I would say to push the boundaries and explore the possibilities of a design. Go out of the box and you can always reign it back in after review/critique. There could be something you tried that maybe could work as an idea for a future project. I would highly encourage students to get a design internship while still in school (ideally one that you can get paid AND get credit). I stumbled upon my internship with the Bucks during my final semester of school. As a Women’s Soccer athlete at UWM, I knew I was passionate about athletics, so was intrigued about practicing design in a sports industry. I think for others who don’t know which specific industry they would like to practice in, getting internships while still in school and with different companies (whether sports, ad agency, other companies) will help you decide what specific industry you are passionate about. If you think you may be interested in Motion Graphics/Animation - take the class while still in school. I ended up finding this was the focus of design I became most passionate about, as it mixes up the creation of static graphics. While I was interning at the Bucks, I was also taking the Motion Graphics class at UWM. At that time, there was not anyone at the Bucks who knew the program, so I started elevating some graphics by using simple animation. After interning, I continued to grow my Motion Graphics skills and from there became a Multi-Media Designer, working in Adobe After Effects daily. Along with static graphics, I also create many animations that go on social media and a lot of content that runs on the LED boards inside the bowl during games (crowd prompts, matchups, sponsored content, themed animations, etc).

7. What do you feel are important resources to consult during the design process?

Specific to my role at the Bucks - I do a lot of visual auditing of other teams to see what they are doing. I don’t stay in the realm of the NBA, but look at football, soccer, baseball, etc. When I am doing my research, I am usually looking at their social channels. I also utilize Pinterest and Behance to start ideating.

8. What are the differences between the professional design climate and the one created at UWM? Do you feel you were prepared for the changes?

I think UWM prepared me very well for a professional design career, especially when thinking about the very thorough design process we go through for each of our classes in school. I think this helped figure out a personal design process that works best for each individual (ie. I still like sketching ideas/layouts out, even if they are very rough….but there are other designers who go digital right away).

One big difference that I had to get acclimated to was the fast pace for a lot of projects at the Bucks. This may be due to the professional sports industry. With some special player announcement graphics, we may have to create something within the hour. Some information design graphics may have to be done in a day. On the other hand, there could also be a logo design that you have a few days to ideate, sketch and digitize before reviewing.

9. Beyond the finished product, what is the most important part of being a designer?

For me, I think an important part is still getting the face-to-face contact with whoever you are designing a project for, especially when it is for another department. For many projects, we could sit behind a screen, design a few iterations, send via email and continue that process until a final design is approved. I am a people person and like social interaction during my work day, therefore if I am able to chat with the individual before starting, or take an iteration over to them to discuss in-person, I will! I think this offers me a better perspective on what their ultimate vision for the project is.

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cendikato · 5 years ago

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LOOK: Heartbroken Dwight reveals dunk contest plans with Kobe

Dwight Howard had hoped to team up with Kobe Bryant in the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk contest just 3 days before the tragic death of the Lakers legend

BY: Joseph Carlos Sapad

MANILA, Philippines – Even to his bitterest foes, Kobe Bryant’s legacy rooted in deeply.

Just 3 days before the tragic passing of the basketball legend, returning Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard expressed the possibility of one last team-up between the two during the 2020 NBA All-Star Slam Dunk contest.

“I’m trying to get Kobe, so if I get the Laker fans to lobby to Kobe to help me in the dunk contest, that’ll be really good. That’ll be awesome,” Howard said in a post-game interview.

Ten days after Bryant’s untimely death shocked the world, fans got an update to that offer.

“I was extremely hurt, it really hurt me bad,” Howard said after the Lakers’ 129-102 blowout win over the San Antonio Spurs. “There were nights when I just cried myself to sleep just thinking about it.

“For me, a lot of people thought that me and Kobe hated each other,” he continued. “There were times when we just didn’t understand each other. I didn’t get a chance to tell him how appreciative I was for our time together, and how thankful I was to be back here in LA. That was pretty hard for me.”

Howard first left the Lakers after a promising-turned-disastrous 2012-2013 campaign, a season where he had Bryant, Pau Gasol, Steve Nash and Metta World Peace as teammates.

In the first few months after the breakup, Bryant was occasionally seen trash-talking Howard, who by then had jumped ship to the Houston Rockets. There, the infamous clip of Bryant calling Howard “soft” was born.

But time healed all wounds eventually between the two, which peaked with Howard’s stunning decision to return to the Lakers after taking short stops in Charlotte, Atlanta and Washington.

Since then, the former three-time Defensive Player of the Year has been nothing but friendly with Bryant, as evidenced with his peace offering for the slam dunk contest.

However, that plan is all gone now, as Howard will have to redo his ideas against a star high-flyer lineup of Aaron Gordon, Derrick Jones, Jr. and Pat Connaughton in the All-Star Weekend.

As for how he intends to cope with the loss of his rival and friend, Howard himself said it best, just 12 hours before Bryant passed away.

“We should appreciate people while they’re alive.”

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tkmedia · 3 years ago

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NBA Finals: Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo backs up viral 'humility' speech with unselfish Game 5 performance

Getty Images As a writer, you're taught to avoid clichés. Surely publicists and team public relations officials train athletes to do the same. But ultimately it's unavoidable. With cameras and recorders constantly pointed toward your face, game after game, day after day, it's hard to come up with fresh, original, insightful remarks about a game you've been playing since you took your first steps.That's part of the reason why the philosophical monologue from Milwaukee Bucks All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo the day before Game 5 of the NBA Finals resonated with such a wide audience -- from die-hard fans to people who have never watched basketball. The honesty and thoughtfulness involved in Antetokounmpo's answer, sparked by a brilliant question from The Athletic's Sam Amick, is as rare as the mythical unicorn to which Giannis is so often compared."When you focus on the past, that's your ego: 'I did this. We were able to beat this team 4-0. I did this in the past. I won that in the past.' When I focus on the future, it's my pride: 'Yeah, next game, Game 5, I do this and this and this. I'm going to dominate.' That's your pride talking. It doesn't happen. You're right here."I kind of try to focus on the moment, in the present. That's humility. That's being humble. That's not setting no expectation. That's going out there, enjoying the game, competing at a high level. I think I've had people throughout my life that helped me with that. But that is a skill that I've tried to, like, kind of -- how do you say it, perfect it, master it. And it's been working so far. So I'm not going to stop."It's one thing to say the right thing, but it's quite another to back it up on the court. That's exactly what Antetokounmpo did in Milwaukee's pivotal 123-119 Game 5 road win over the Phoenix Suns on Saturday, which puts the Bucks one win away from their first NBA championship in 50 years. Antetokounmpo finished with his usual, dominant stat line of 32 points, nine rebounds and six assists, but his performance was marked by unselfishness, patience, and, yes, humility.The Greek Freak came out of the gates strong, scoring eight of the team's first 18 points. The problem was that the Suns were blowing the Bucks out of the building, leading by 16 at the end of the first quarter. With Giannis on the bench to start the second quarter, the Bucks quickly chipped away at the lead thanks to brilliant play from Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton. Milwaukee only trailed by three when Giannis checked back in with 6:14 left in the first half.This is where ego and pride -- those nagging feelings that Antetokounmpo so eloquently described in Friday's soliloquy -- could have crept up on the two-time MVP.He could have suckled his ego with thoughts about the past: "I'm averaging 32 points and 14 rebounds in my first Finals. It's time to take over." He could have succumbed to his pride with thoughts about the future: "When I go for 50 tonight and bring my team back, it will cement my NBA legacy." Please check the opt-in box to acknowledge that you would like to subscribe. Thanks for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. Sorry! There was an error processing your subscription. Instead, he chose humility, arguably the toughest option of the three, and stayed in the present. Rather than trying to force the issue by prying his way to the basket or taking contested fadeaways, Antetokounmpo made the simple play and allowed his thriving teammates to flourish.First, Giannis could have easily forced his way to the basket in transition to try to get a layup or get fouled, but instead, he recognized that he had drawn three Suns defenders and fired a beautiful one-handed, no-look laser to the corner for a wide-open Portis 3-pointer. A couple of possessions later, Antetokounmpo gets the ball on the wing facing a dwindling shot clock. He once again gets into the lane, but rather than force his way through the Suns' wall, he kicks it out to Middleton, who blows past the Jae Crowder closeout for a floater.Giannis had only two field goal attempts in the second quarter as the Bucks racked up 43 points and turned a 16-point first-quarter deficit into a three-point halftime lead.Antetokounmpo picked up his scoring in the second half, putting up 20 of his 32 points, but he didn't stop playing team basketball. He came into Game 5 averaging 3.6 screen assists per game in the playoffs, up from 2.8 in the regular season, according to NBA.com. On Saturday he had five screen assists and was particularly active as a roll man for Holiday and Middleton. Watch how he clobbers Mikal Bridges on this screen, freeing up Middleton to hit a baseline fadeaway over Deandre Ayton. And finally, there was an unselfish play that might have gone unnoticed. After the most thrilling play of the NBA Finals -- when Holiday stole the ball from Devin Booker and then threw a lob to Antetokounmpo, who was fouled while completing the dunk -- Giannis missed the free throw.The ball was batted into the air, and Giannis could have easily secured it with two hands. Instead, he tipped it back to Khris Middleton, a much better free throw shooter, who knocked down one out of two to secure the win.Pride and ego would have told Antetokounmpo, who had missed three consecutive clutch free throws, to grab the ball and prove to everyone that he can make them. Instead, his humility allowed him to realize that tipping the ball to ANY other Buck on the court would have resulted in a much higher chance of victory. At the end of this Finals, win or lose, we're going to see some mind-boggling numbers from Antetokounmpo. But we can't forget that along with those came countless winning plays that are a result of his selflessness and suppression of his ego."We've got to keep playing good basketball. We can't worry about the outcome," Antetokounmpo said after the Game 5 win. "Just got to keep playing good basketball, and hopefully we can get a win." Read the full article

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anisanews · 3 years ago

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Three ways Trae Young torched Bucks’ drop-heavy defense in Hawks’ Game 1 win

Trae Young has already proved he is ready for the NBA playoff stage. Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals was just the latest test the Hawks star passed with flying colors.

In Atlanta’s 116-113 series-opening win over Milwaukee on Wednesday night, Young scored a playoff career-high 48 points and dished out 11 assists. The 22-year-old scored or assisted on 72 of the Hawks’ 116 points, including 14 of their last 16 points of the contest, per ESPN Stats and Info.

MORE: NBA Twitter shows Young love after 48-point outburst

The Bucks didn’t provide much resistance in the first half, as Young hit 11 of his first 16 field goal attempts. A big reason why Young found so much success on the offensive end was because Milwaukee’s drop-heavy scheme allowed him to get to the spots where he is most comfortable operating.

Let’s take a look at three ways that Young took advantage of Mike Budenholzer’s defensive approach:

Dropping in the floater

Young led the NBA this season in both floaters made and attempted, and he realized early in Game 1 that one of his favorite shots would consistently be available to him. Less than a minute into the first quarter, Young came off a pick from Clint Capela, drove down the lane and tossed up an uncontested floater. Brook Lopez just kept dropping and dropping to the point that he was almost underneath the rim.

Lopez started up a little higher on the screen later in the quarter, but he still dropped too far back when Young penetrated into the paint. Young put Jrue Holiday in jail, keeping the All-Defensive First Team member on his hip and creating enough space for another floater.

And one more time. Once again, Lopez gave Young far too much room, and Jeff Teague wasn’t even in the ballpark.

Pulling up off the dribble

Young only shot 4 of 13 from 3-point range on Wednesday, but it seemed as though he could get to his pull-up game anytime he wanted. On this possession in the second quarter, Young lost Teague in the pick-and-roll, and with Lopez planted below the free throw line, this was an easy rise-and-fire opportunity.

When the Hawks went to the double drag setup late in the first half, the Bucks still had Giannis Antetokounmpo drop and relied on Pat Connaughton to recover. Unfortunately for Milwaukee, Young stopped on a dime, Connaughton flew by and Young launched from just inside the arc.

So what happened when Antetokounmpo switched? The Hawks ran another pick-and-roll with Lopez’s man. No one in sight . . . swish.

Dishing to teammates

In the play below, Holiday did a nice job of navigating the screening action and chasing down Young. Lopez also used his size at the rim to discourage the floater. But Young is such a good playmaker that none of the effort mattered. He drew two defenders and flipped the ball to Capela for the dunk.

And then there was the play of the game. On a pick-and-roll with John Collins, Young sucked in both Holiday and Bobby Portis, then threw the ball off the backboard for a wild Collins slam. Make no mistake — this was intentional.

Milwaukee mixed in more switching toward the end of Game 1, and Budenholzer may have to rely on his more switchable small-ball lineups moving forward. Lopez was minus-14 in 20 minutes, and many of Young’s cleanest looks came with the 7-footer on the floor.

That could open up more rebounding opportunities for Atlanta, however. Capela came up with a huge offensive rebound in the closing seconds to give the Hawks a three-point lead after Antetokounmpo switched onto Young.

The simple truth is that Young is such a gifted offensive player that there is no easy solution for the Bucks. They will have to mix things up to slow him down.

“I’ve seen pretty much every defense,” Young said after Game 1. “It’s really just figuring out what kind of defense they’re showing that night. . . . For me, it’s just trying to make the right read and figure out how they’re going to guard.”

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dailyvideovault · 5 years ago

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New video posted on: https://dailyvideovault.com/aaron-gordon-relives-the-2016-nba-slam-dunk-contest-with-omar-raja-hoop-streams/

Aaron Gordon relives the 2016 NBA Slam Dunk Contest with Omar Raja | Hoop Streams

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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A Q&A with Bucks guard Pat Connaughton during quarantine

A Q&A with Pat Connaughton of the Milwaukee Bucks.

A Q&A with the Milwaukee Bucks guard as the NBA season has been paused indefinitely over the coronavirus pandemic.

Six weeks ago, Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Connaughton was coasting through the fifth year of his career as a rotation player on one of the best teams in NBA history. He’d just competed in the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest, and had a story about his real estate development company published in the New York Times.

Today, as Covid-19’s rampant sweep across the United States has placed the rest of the 2019-20 season in jeopardy, there’s a chance Connaughton — a free agent this offseason — has already played his last game with the Bucks.

Most people have been forced to adjust to a different lifestyle. That includes this 27-year-old NBA player who would otherwise be preparing for a playoff run, while fulfilling his second career in different ways than he currently can.

In a wide-ranging phone interview with SB Nation on Monday, Connaughton opened up about free agency, why it’s important for professional athletes to prepare for life after retirement, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future in Milwaukee, the Netflix series Tiger King, and so much more.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

SB NATION: I’ll begin with a question I find myself asking just about everyone I talk to these days: How are you staying safe? And, did you consider traveling home once the NBA allowed its players to do so, or just bunker down and stay put?

PAT CONNAUGHTON: I stayed in Milwaukee. I tried to look at it from a variety of different angles. For me, I’m from the Boston area and Massachusetts was arguably hit worse than the majority of other places, so going home didn’t really make sense for me, for my own health but also for the safety of my family.

We’re fortunate to be in the NBA. We might as well stay close to our team just in case, God forbid something does happen and we need access to doctors, we have team doctors. If we need access to food for some reason, the chefs are trying to help us out when they can. There’s different things that I think teams are doing to help their players that stick around.

I also wanted to do my best to stay in shape, and when the facility shut down I was able to work with some of our strength staff to get some free weights into my apartment, to get a bike, to at least have some workouts that I can do outside, running up hills near the lakefront where I live, things of that nature so that I can keep myself sane.

SB: What’s been the biggest difference for you, going from the 100 miles per hour schedule you were on as an in-season NBA player to just shutting everything down as quickly as you did?

PC: I really do believe it’s a simulation of retirement. Obviously guys still want to stay in shape and work out because basketball will be back at some point in time, but it is a mini simulation of it. Our working careers end by 35, 40, if you’re fortunate, so you’ve still got 35, 40 years of life, and what are you doing day in and day out?

For me, I love doing different things with real estate. I try to work with my best friend who’s our project manager who lives with me out here in Milwaukee, we’re working on ‘Hey, how can we grow the real estate company?’ It’s similar to what I do in basketball, learning from Giannis on a daily basis. How can I use the same competitive skill-set in the business world during this time off, because when the ball does stop bouncing I still want to have another successful career in another field.

SB: How about your daily schedule. I’m just curious how you’re filling spare time, being that I’m sure you have even more of it now with the season on hold.

PC: I wake up, I’ll scramble some eggs, cook some bacon, have a few pieces of toast, yogurt, smoothie, whatever it might be. I’ll then workout, whether it’s outside, inside, bike, weights, whatever I have access to, however creative I can be. By that time I’ll have lunch, and while I’m having lunch I’ll check my emails. I’ll check some of the work stuff I’m doing as far as the business outside of basketball for a few hours, do some stuff there.

By that time it’s probably dinnertime. We’ve been making dinner at home. Tacos. Homemade pizzas. Ramen noodles. We’re fortunate: My best friend’s fiancee also is with us and she’s a little bit more expertise in the kitchen than we are, but we’re learning.

At night, it’ll vary. Sometimes we’ll watch Billions. I’m a huge Billions fan. I’m catching up on it now because the new season is coming out in May. We checked out Tiger King. Some nights we’ll play video games. We’ll play NHL. I grew up with all hockey players. I was the only basketball player, so I didn’t have a choice on learning how to play hockey video games, now I actually enjoy it. Sometimes we’ll watch a movie. Sometimes I’ll read a book before bed. So I think it kind of varies depending the night, but before you know it, it’s 9, 10 o’clock, and if I want to try to continue to simulate what it’s going to be post retirement to get a feel for it, then I try my best to get to bed at a reasonable hour, get up in the morning and do it all again.

Photo by Michael J. LeBrecht II/NBAE via Getty Images

SB: I will never forgive myself if I don’t ask this super-serious followup question, but what were your thoughts on Tiger King?

PC: [Laughs] I was a huge fan of seeing the tigers, the lions, the ligers, the animals. Those things fascinate me. I used to watch The Lion Whisperer on Youtube. There’s this guy who is out with wild lions, in Africa or wherever they live, and he’ll just go up to them and they love him. So I’ve always been fascinated by the size of them, the size of their heads, the size of their paws. Actually the background on the lock screen on my phone is a lion. So I loved that.

As far as the personal life of my man Joe Exotic and some of the characters in it, I was a little bit puzzled. My facial reactions were a little bit, like, giggle-worthy, as my buddy and his fiancee said. They’d look at me when something was happening and I’d look at the screen like ‘what the heck is going on?’ Never in my life would I have sat down to watch that otherwise, so I think that’s all part of the experience. I’ll look back on this hopefully in five, 10 years and be like ‘Hey remember that pandemic we went through? Yeah, remember that show we watched with that guy who got put in jail, and there was that other lady who might’ve fed her husband to a tiger?’

SB: I could honestly ask you one million questions about Tiger King but I think it’s best for everyone if we move on to topics that actually matter. We don’t know when or if the season will come back, but how difficult do you think it’ll be to ramp your body back into game shape? There’s really nothing that can perfectly simulate what an NBA game is like. Does that concern you?

PC: Not for me, personally. I don’t think there’s any way to simulate game shape, but the ironic part about that is every offseason there’s also no way to simulate game shape, so in reality that’s not really a big difference, in my opinion. I’m more concerned about not having access to a gym. I can’t go into the facility. We’re not allowed to go into public gymnasiums. Unless you’re a guy who has a personal court in your house or live in nice weather and can shoot around in your driveway ... I’ve got a few balls in my house and I’m dribbling around but I’m sure the people below me and to the side of me aren’t thrilled about the dribbling that goes on at night, you know what I mean? I think that is something that will be on my radar as the season comes back around.

The in-shape thing, some of the workouts that I do, I’m laying on the ground dead afterwards. And as far as I’m concerned every time I’ve run up and down a court and played in a game I’ve never ended up laying on the ground in the locker room afterwards, like, purely exhausted. So I think the in-shape stuff, I can mitigate that worry, but I think the skill-related stuff, shooting, that’s something you’re gonna have to focus on a little bit more, pending when and if [the season] comes back.

SB: Is there anything the Bucks have communicated with you to try and combat that?

PC: When I think about what I can do, I think back to when I wasn’t in a gym every single day as a kid. We weren’t allowed to be. You had practice two, three, four times a week, depending on how many teams you were on. You weren’t necessarily in a basketball gym for hours upon hours every single day. Especially for me, playing baseball. I just think about the stuff that I used to do around the house. Dribble the ball around until my mom yelled at me. Lay in bed and shoot the ball up in the air, like you saw Pistol Pete do in that movie or whatever it was. Simple things like that to just keep your feel of the basketball at least somewhat normal.

SB: How did you find out the season was suspended and what was your first reaction?

PC: I was sitting in my apartment, actually just finished making tacos with my buddy and his fiancee. We were playing the Celtics the next day, and I was on League Pass waiting to watch the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Utah Jazz game. And it never came on. So we were like ‘when was the last time an NBA game didn’t tip off at tip-off time?’

So we went straight to Twitter, and for the next two hours we were watching Twitter as if it was the night of the NBA Draft, back when [Adrian Wojnarowski] used to drop the tweets before the draft picks came out. We might as well have thrown the Twitter feed of my phone up on the TV screen and just watched it that way because it was just fascinating.

I was just kind of like ‘this is wild.’ I didn’t think much about it at the start, as far as, this could end the season or anything that drastic. I was just like ‘wow this is having a serious effect on this one game.’ And then the Pelicans never even started their game and the Mavs finished their game, and we were supposed to play the next night? Will they [cancel] another game? The Celtics had just played the Jazz, so we kind of thought that our game wasn’t gonna last, but we didn’t get the official word for no shootaround until later on that night. And then we didn’t get the word about no games until the next day.

It was just kind of fascinating how quickly it unfolded, and how the NBA was ahead of everything. The NBA honestly set the precedent, in my opinion, for not just the rest of the sports world, but almost the rest of the world itself, to start taking this thing seriously.

SB: It’s hard to think about where we would be in this country had Rudy Gobert never tested positive, and we’re still so far behind.

PC: We’re far behind as far as the world is concerned. As a sports league, we were ahead of where the U.S. was, which is wild and scary to think about.

SB: Being part of such a special season with the Bucks, how often do you think about the possibility that the season is over, and how you might never get an opportunity to finish what you started? How difficult would that be, given all the hard work that was put in and what the expectations were?

PC: It’s tough because you look at it from a few different lenses. You think seasons like this don’t come along every year, so if it ends that’s gonna suck. To be honest. But when you look at it from the lens of an athlete you’re like we, as a team, are very good. What is preventing us from doing it again next year? Obviously we would be disappointed, we’re having a great year, etc. But maybe it just makes us hungrier next year. Maybe it’s fuel on the fire, as opposed to something else. Giannis will be a year older, a year more skilled. We’ll all be getting better. If you look at it that way you can throw some positive light to it.

The other light you look at it, just being open and honest, there are guys that are on contract years. There are guys that, I mean, personally I don’t have a technical contract for next year or anything. So you look at it like how does it affect free agency? How does it affect the salary cap? What does our team look like next year if the season were to end and not continue, and the playoffs weren’t to happen and there weren’t a champion to be crowned. I think all of those are unknown.

I could sit here for 24 straight hours and put down a sheet of paper, pros, cons, all these different scenarios, but I don’t think that does me any good. We don’t know. Nobody knows. The NBA is full of much smarter people than myself. Adam Silver is great. The owners are all very smart guys. The general managers are very smart guys. Obviously the player’s union, Michelle. Chris Paul. All them are very smart. I believe the best interest of as many players as possible and all the teams and the league itself will be what’s most important and what will be accomplished. So for me to worry about those sorts of things, sure, but at the same time it’s not gonna help me. I’m not gonna figure out, sitting in this apartment in the next month and a half, what the answers are.

Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports

SB: I wanted to ask you about being a free agent this offseason, and, as you said, we don’t know what will happen to the cap but there’s a chance it drops, given the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that will be lost — which could limit the amount of money teams are able or willing to pay. Respective of your own situation, I’m sure you’ve thought about that, and then also the idea that you might’ve played your last game with the Bucks. How difficult is it to cope with such an uncertain future?

PC: I definitely think about it but in the most simplistic terms. That’s one of the reasons I’ve always made sure I do other things outside of basketball. I’m not saying it’s because my basketball career is about to end, I’m just saying my dream was always to play in the NBA. Would I like to make a lot of money playing in the NBA? Absolutely. But if the cap gets affected there’s nothing I can do about it.

I want to continue to play in the NBA. I want to continue to be part of the Milwaukee Bucks as a championship contender, and I want to continue to help my team eventually win a championship, two, three, four, whatever it is. What my contract looks like while I’m doing that? If it was more money and more guaranteed years, absolutely, I’d love that. But as long as I’m here, as long as I’m playing, as long as I’m doing my job to continue to be an NBA player, a dream that I wanted to accomplish since I was a kid, it’s quite possible I make more money outside of basketball than I do in basketball when it’s all said and done.

The way that I’m trying to set up the real estate venture, the way that I’m trying to set up business outside of basketball, with, hopefully the relationships that I’ve built and will continue to build while I’m involved in the NBA, hopefully there’s a career after basketball. Maybe it’ll definitely be real estate, but maybe there’s something else. Maybe there’s a consulting role. Maybe there’s a front office role. Maybe there’s a league role. Maybe there’s something else for me because I don’t put all my chips in one basket. I can only control what I can control but I think the way that I’m setting up my life will at least allow me to have some flexibility as far as making money in the future, and continuing to play in the NBA for, hopefully, 10, 15 years.

SB: How has this pandemic impacted Beach House LLC, your real estate development company?

PC: We have a few job sites here in Milwaukee, we’ve got one that’s still moving forward. We got permission from the city because it’s right next to another building so for safety reasons they want us to make sure we get the foundation in and get some things there so it’s not just sitting as an open hole throughout this time. So I try to go by it once a day.

The name [Beach House LLC] might be changing soon, but one of our goals with real estate development is to mitigate risk. We’re trying to find distressed properties, we’re trying to find land, we’re trying to find things that we can create value in. My dad is a general contractor, I’ve been around it. So it’s not your typical real estate investments where you’re just investing in a property and banking on everybody that’s paying rent to at least cover the mortgage and give you a little bit of a return. We’re doing that but we’re doing it after we’re developing, fixing up or renovating a property. So in reality we’re kind of on both sides. We’re creating value in the property so the appreciation grows quicker, faster, more. And then we’re holding onto the asset and trying to cash flow it so it’s also making some money year after year. But in the long term, in the 10-year window, in the 15-year window, that’s when it really starts to make money.

I think as a professional athlete, the reason others have gotten involved is because we’re fortunate to have another source of income. How do you use that income to set up another source of income when that other source of income falls off? Aka, when your career is over, is there a way to utilize the money you’ve made in this career to set up another, arguably equal or close to equal, source of income afterwards. I think that’s kind of our goal with this.

In the short term, does [coronavirus] have an effect? Yeah, potentially. Does it also have an effect where you’re able to buy some property because prices drop? Potentially. I don’t really know how it’s going to fully affect it but in general it continues to go up over long periods of time. I think that’s what gives us an advantage in that world.

SB: Why change the name?

PC: I want it to reflect the story behind it. Beach House was an LLC that my father had for a house that he did back in Florida, way back when. I’d like to put it in something that shows athletes in business, something that’s unique about this actual story, because at the end of the day, if I’m able to do what I want to do in the business world I think it will be a unique story.

My main goal is, after seeing the 30 for 30, Broke, to shed some light, get some professional athletes involved [or] give them advice even if they don’t want to be involved and kind of help change the stigma that professional athletes go broke after their careers because they don’t know how to manage their money during, and shortly after.

SB: Have other players reached out for advice or even made requests to get involved over the past few weeks?

PC: I’d say a few have. I wouldn’t say as many as you’d think with all the time on our hands, but that’s also partly because I haven’t reached out to anyone either. What I’d like to do during this time is really think about what is that next growth for the real estate development company. We have five to 10 [professional athletes] involved in a number of different projects that we’ve done, so those are great one-off projects.

What is the next growth for my company? Is it raising a fund, or getting a bunch of guys together at a certain dollar amount? Is it trying to incorporate the pro athletes that I have with some of the businessmen that I’ve known and put them together for a fund or partnership where there’s a surplus of money, and now I’m going out, developing, buying, doing different things so that when one of the players in the NBA comes to town to play the Milwaukee Bucks next year, they’re able to go by the job site that we’re doing, and they’re able to see how it’s being built. They can see it in person and say ‘Hey, I own that.”

What is that next growth step for the company? That’s kind of what I’ve been utilizing my time and energy on during this hiatus, and hopefully in the next week or two I’ll have that answer and I’ll start to put something together for it. I’ll start to reach out to some players, or field some calls from some players and try to start to make it a bigger operation. Make it a bigger business.

SB: Are you mainly focused on properties in Milwaukee or looking to expand in the future?

PC: Location is the most important thing in real estate, so I want to expand to different areas. It’s just going to depend on the location in those different areas. I have two buildings, one that’s being built and one that’s gonna start being built in a few months around Notre Dame. I obviously know that area really well. We were able to get locations that are right near campus. You can probably hit a driver off your porch to campus.

There could be some similar growth in the future for the company. Some of the projects [Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum] is involved in, there’s no reason we couldn’t do a similar model around Lehigh. He’s obviously the biggest name to come from Lehigh in the professional sports world, so there’s no reason we can’t do some of those things. Those are the business ideas I love thinking about. But in the short term it’s about areas that we know and areas we have influence in and can get to relatively easily. We’re not locked to one city, is the short version of that answer.

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

SB: Circling it back to your playing career now, you competed in your first NBA Slam Dunk contest at All-Star Weekend last month. What was going through your head when the judges gave you a 45 after your first dunk?

PC: Honestly, I was ... that’s a great question. I don’t think I was as appalled at the time as a lot of people that I know. Did I think it could’ve been a little higher? Absolutely. But I wasn’t necessarily outraged, like, I like to think I’m pretty realistic. I like to think I’m relatively humble. That was my first dunk in an NBA dunk contest ever in my life. I was happy that I got it down on the first try, pulled off the White Man Can’t Jump thing pretty well, and then been able to share that moment with [Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich] and Giannis and Khris [Middleton] and Thanasis [Antetokounmpo] and my teammates. I thought it was pretty cool, so I was less concerned about one of the eights that could’ve been a nine. And by one of them I mean the only eight that could’ve been a nine. But that’s neither here nor there.

SB: Speaking of Giannis, you’ve been his teammate for a while and have a good relationship with him. With his upcoming free agency being one of the larger stories in the sport, do you ever talk about whether he’ll stay or go, or does it not really come up?

PC: It’s something I would talk about with him. We’re close enough friends where we definitely could. And I think our team is so close and so great as far as talking about things other than basketball, and business, and world issues, social issues. Kyle Korver brings a great element to those sorts of things. I think we have a very close knit team in our locker room.

I think sometimes it gets brought up randomly in passing and things like that, but I think at the end of the day, for us, it’s not as big of a deal as it is for the rest of the world. Obviously the city of Milwaukee, the team, everyone wants Giannis to be here forever. But Giannis has put himself in a position to provide for his family from growing up with nothing in Greece, and I don’t think you can fault Giannis for whatever decision he ends up making, that he believes is the best decision for him, his family, the people who are closest to him.

I’ll support him regardless of what he does, and I think the entire team will support him regardless of what he does. I think we’re building something pretty cool in Milwaukee so that will play a role, but it’s his decision and all of us will support what he does, whenever that decision comes to light.

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ussportsradio · 5 years ago

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zookapfan · 5 years ago

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leanpick · 5 years ago

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He Is Building a Home. And a Career in the N.B.A. MILWAUKEE — Pat Connaughton has crammed enough high-flying acrobatics into his drives down the lane as a reserve guard for the Bucks that he was invited to compete in Saturday’s slam dunk contest at N.B.A.

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thealexard4-blog · 5 years ago

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NBA Dunk Contest

To change my focus to sports, this was something that I found outrageous. Last night, four guys went to take the stage in Chicago during NBA All-Star weekend for the main event. The dunk contest has always gained massive popularity and the last time it was held in Chicago was the famous Michael Jordan vs. Dominique Wilkins dunk-off that had Jordan winning barely because, of his home crowd. The players took the stage and Pat Connaughton will be the first one I will talk about, his dunk was amazing in the second round but, his first one wasn’t enough, according to the judges. Dwayne Wade gave him an 8 when everyone else gave him 9′s and 10′s which I thought differently than Wade did. Most importantly, my favorite dunk contestant, Aaron Gordon, took to the stage with incredible enthusiasm. Four years ago, he took the stage with Zach Lavine in what is considered the greatest dunk contest of all-time and barely lost. This year, history repeated itself. Gordon did a dunk that was caught in mid-air and did a 360 with the ball coming from his hip, up to the rim, and powered it through the hoop with such fluidity. If you don’t know about this, look it up, it is insane. Derrick Jones Jr. had some impressive dunks, don’t get me wrong, but he did the same trick in different ways. He would go in between the legs for every dunk, even if it was from the foul line, jumping over somebody, or catching it off the backboard. Although Aaron Gordon clearly had some better dunks than his final competitor, Gordon got snubbed by the judges, specifically Dwayne Wade, at the end giving him a 47 while Jones got a 48. Gordon for his last dunk jumped over Tacko Fall, who is 7′5 by the way and got that score. There is skepticism that Wade, because he played for Miami his whole career and Derrick Jones Jr. plays for the Miami Heat currently, wanted Jones Jr. to win. The judges said after the dunks that it was going to be a tie so, they were going to give Gordon a 48 as well but, Wade who apparently agreed with the judges, ended up giving Gordon a 9 instead of 10 which didn’t offset the scores. This caused outrage in the crowd at Chicago and all-over social media. You can see some of the other judges, after the scores come up, look at Wade in shock like he wasn’t supposed to do that. Wade started taking off his earpiece before the scores even came up, which makes you think, he knew he didn’t do what everyone thought he was going to do. Whatever the situation is, they should of both had a trophy and Aaron Gordon, who has had better dunks than anyone else in these past years. Hasn’t won a dunk contest trophy. It is just sad.

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generoussheepblaze · 5 years ago

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Connaughton's first dunk was a tribute to a 90s classic from CBSSports.com Headlines https://ift.tt/39EdhGN https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

#sports #Blogger

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afeelappeal · 5 years ago

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Derrick Jones Jr., Aaron Gordon have duel for the ages in dunk contest | 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend

Miami Heat high-flyer Derrick Jones Jr. defeats Orlando Magic’s Aaron Gordon in the championship round to claim the 2020 NBA Slam Dunk Contest. Dwight Howard’s Superman-Kobe Bryant tribute, and Pat Connaughton’s "White Men Can’t Jump" slam highlight early-round moments from an epic dunk contest. #NBA #AllStar ✔ Subscribe to ESPN+ https://plus.espn.com/ ✔ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn…

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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Ranking every dunk in the 2020 Slam Dunk Contest

Photo by Ivan Shum - Clicks Images/Getty Images

This was the greatest top-to-bottom display of dunking in the history of the competition.

The 2020 NBA Slam Dunk Contest may sadly become known for the absolute travesty that was the judging. Derrick Jones Jr. technically won the event, even though Aaron Gordon produced five straight perfect scores and then somehow got a 47 despite dunking over a 7’5 guy on the first try. Gordon should have two titles by now. Instead, he was beat unfairly by Zach LaVine in 2016 and defeated even more unfairly by Jones this time.

Here’s hoping that it will instead be known as the greatest top-to-bottom display of dunking in the history of the competition. The Michael Jordan-Dominique Wilkins duels may be the most iconic. Vince Carter may have shined brightest. The Gordon-LaVine dunk-off may have produced the best ending. But all four guys in the 2020 edition brought it, giving us a 16-dunk spectacle with no flops or disappointments. Many of the long-forgotten slams from the first round would top the best dunk in this competition’s leanest years.

If there’s one thing I hope the public takes away from the 2020 event, it’s that the 50-point maximum is woefully insufficient to cover the wondrous athleticism of today’s players. Any rating that considers Pat Connaughton nipping the backboard on the same level as the stuff Gordon and Jones produced in that final round needs to be recalibrated. That’s no disrespect to Connaughton’s dunk, which was nice. But there’s nice, and then there’s the stuff Gordon in particular did during this event.

Let’s pretend there’s no limit to the score a dunk can achieve. Here’s how I’d score and rank the 16 dunks in the 2020 Slam Dunk Contest.

1. Aaron Gordon makes Tacko Fall

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I’m speechless. Absolutely speechless.

Let’s freeze this one for just a second. Reminder: Tacko Fall is 7’5. Gordon didn’t need to use his arm to propel himself off Fall’s shoulders at all to clear him. He legitimately jumped over a 7’5 dude.

Look at that last shot. His hands are on the side of the ball, meaning he didn’t need to use them to lift himself up to actually reach the rim.

Did I mention this was on the first try? And it was unplanned?

Tacko Fall says that Aaron Gordon dunk was not planned. “I was scared for my life”

— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) February 16, 2020

It’s now part of legend that the 1988 dunk contest was, ahem, questionably judged to rob Dominique Wilkins. That one was at least somewhat debatable. There is no debate this time: Aaron Gordon was robbed.

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: Infinity is a number, right?

2. Aaron Gordon’s 360 rock-the-cradle

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I’ll always prefer a 360 to a between-the-legs dunk. There’s something about watching a dude spinning in mid-air while still moving forward that gets me. And the fact that Gordon cradled the ball with one hand while doing it added a nice extra element that put this finish over the top.

I assume Markelle Fultz meant to pass the ball off the side of the side of the backboard? It worked out pretty well for Gordon that he did, and he did miss the first pass because he tossed it too far into the court. But if Gordon did that dunk despite Fultz flubbing the pass? Maaaan.

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: A million? Let’s go with a million.

3. Derrick Jones Jr’s off the backboard, between the legs, scissor kick, jumping over a dude and slamming with authority I’m exhausted just describing all the elements of this dunk

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If you had to name some of the dunk contest’s most commonly used tropes, they’d include:

Jumping over a guy in a prop

Going between the legs

Throwing the ball off the backboard

Tomahawking it back before dunking with authority

Combining all of them into one dunk that looks fluid and nailed on the first try? Amazing that this was the third-best dunk of the night.

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 999,995.

4. Derrick Jones Jr’s reverse tornado

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This dunk is basically Vince Carter’s iconic reverse 360 that essentially ended the 2000 Dunk Contest before it even started, except with a between-the-legs element added to it. And not just any between-the-legs element. No, this was a between-the-legs element the opposite way while going against his body.

If I showed you this screenshot and you didn’t know how the play ended, you’d probably assume he tried jumping straight on and just missed right. Would you guess he was actually going to his left?

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 500,000 or so. Who’s counting?

5. Aaron Gordon calls him Chance the Reverse Dunker

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It’s easy to forget that the dunk contest is ultimately a beauty pageant in basketball form. The most technically brilliant dunk is no match for a clean, first-time finish where it looks like the dunker is actually flying.

Gordon looked like he was flying on this dunk, even if the actual slam didn’t have that many different elements. Jumping over Chance the Rapper is whatever. The cock back, OK, I’ve seen that before. The reverse spin to slam while moving away from the hoop — we just saw Derrick Jones Jr. do that a dunk earlier.

But the combination of all of those elements looked so clean, so it gets the edge over...

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 1,000.

6. Aaron Gordon’s reverse reverse between the legs

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Originality is the name of the game, and this Aaron Gordon dunk was original. Imagine telling someone 15 years ago that someone would pull off a reverse between the legs move in mid-air and that was merely the prelude to the dunk itself. As the great Kenny Smith famously said once twice 17,000 times, “I’VE SEEN SOMETHING I’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE.”

This is one of those dunks that makes me wonder why people are down on the dunk contest. How can anyone watch that ridiculous athleticism and not be awed?

By the way, this was the sixth-best dunk of the night.

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 999.

7. Aaron Gordon’s other dunk over Chance the Rapper

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This was so close to an elbow dunk. So, so close. Just a couple inches more and he could stick the whole arm in the rim.

And it was Gordon’s fifth-best dunk of the night. And he didn’t win. I’ll never get over this.

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 500.

8. Derrick Jones Jr. goes between the legs over two people

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I was initially nonplussed by this dunk. Then, I watched it again, realized that Jones did a between-the-legs dunk with authority on the first try while flying over two people and jumping from here ...

... and I realized this dunk contest spoiled me.

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 100.

9. Derrick Jones Jr’s sideways between the legs in the dunk-off

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A very, very, very, very cool dunk that I have already seen before in previous dunk contests.

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 75.

10. Pat Connaughton kisses the backboard

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Oh yeah, there were two other people in this event. And one was quite good himself and was close to advancing over the winner.

I was worried for this Connaughton finish because relying on a replay to show the key element of your dunk is fraught with peril. What if none of the judges notice in time? What if they fail to appreciate it because they didn’t see it initially? Luckily, Candace Parker noticed what was up immediately, and Giannis Antetokounmpo sold it beautifully.

Deduct a couple points for this being the third try.

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 50 seems appropriate.

11. Derrick Jones Jr’s windmill from one-step inside the free-throw line

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Spare me the sad comparisons to Dominique Wilkins’ unfathomable 48 in his final dunk in the 1988 contest in Chicago that handed the title to Michael Jordan. This Derrick Jones Jr. dunk was great for a mere mortal, but it was also a worse version of the exact same dunk Zach LaVine did at the end of the 2016 event. There’s a reason DJJ was bummed after he pulled it off. He could’ve done the same thing from a step further back, but didn’t execute.

Wait, Aaron Gordon jumping over Tacko Fall got a worse score than this??

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 48 was appropriate.

12. Dwight Howard’s memetastic statue of liberty

Dwight’s first dunk #ATTSlamDunk pic.twitter.com/uvtchSAmpN

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 16, 2020

Shockingly, Dwight’s lack of charisma ruined what was actually a really difficult dunk. He spun the wrong way, held his pose in mid-air for a split second, and then spun the other way to throw it down. This reminded me of the sticker dunk he did in 2007, another very cool dunk that he completely ruined with a confusing presentation.

At least we get this meme forever.

"live, laugh, love" pic.twitter.com/9obLur4Ep5

— Dan Favale (@danfavale) February 16, 2020

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 47.

13. Aaron Gordon pulls off a nice reverse dunk, featuring a bunch of Tik Tok Stars in the background for some reason

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The dunk itself would’ve brought the house down in almost any other dunk contest. In this one, it served as the undercard for a big Tik Tok Stars presentation that had no immediate payoff. I thought they’d record some sort of skit that ended with Gordon slamming it down, like a live recording of an actual Tik Tok video. That’s what they’re called, right?

(Can you tell that I’m old).

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 45.

14. Derrick Jones Jr’s original Airplane Mode

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One of those dunks that must have looked cooler in person than it did on TV. To me, the layperson watching on my couch, it was simply a version of a dunk we’ve seen a thousand times before, with an elaborate presentation we’ve also seen a thousand times before.

Forty-six was a generous score for this. If it was scored correctly, Jones doesn’t even make the final and none of the judging shenanigans happen. What a Sliding Doors moment.

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 43.

15. Pat Connaughton stars in White Man Can Jump

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The setup was cool. The actual dunk was fine. Gordon did it better in 2016.

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: 39.

160,000. The superman dunk

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A C+ version of the original, more than a decade later. There’s a reason the dunk wheel of the mid-2000s was a bad idea: nobody wants to see inferior versions of originals.

Scoring this a 49 was an abomination. I’ll pretend that Dwight’s first dunk actually got the 49 and this one got the 41.

(This is probably too mean considering Dwight paid tribute to the late Kobe Bryant with this dunk. Oh well).

MY SCORE IF THERE WAS NO MAXIMUM: Negative 250. If I wanted nostalgia, I’d watch the original Superman dunk on YouTube.

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