Anxiously waiting for the season to begin. well i guess a 1 point victory isn't destroyed, but it was a major mismatch even with Ayton as tall as he was, playing the role of underdog vs the older favorite Ayton's 16 at the time, showed up to the gym late, put his shoes on with no warmups and him and this pick-up team of players from the bahamas beat UNC 84-83 in this exhibition. UNC was loaded with McDonalds All Americans, they had 6 actually and they had multiple 1st rd picks i think the clippers took Brice Johnson IIRC. i forgot who took Justin Jackson(Dallas?) but he got traded a ton.. those players are several years older than Ayton!! They were preseason top10 team!! Ended up winning 33 games!! That UNC team ended up making the national championship!!! they lost by 1 possession to Villanova!! yet Ayton who was 16, playing with a bunch of pickup players from the Bahamas BEAT them in the preseason... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! just one of those funny "defending the homecourt" stories.. But this Portland team will really be a whole different animal if they can get Ayton back to these 12+ rebound games.. He was once compared to David Robinson, really he's built to stuff the stat sheet just gotta get him consistent.. I know his rep has taken a lot of hits since this story from like 8+ years ago but he's still just 25 thats sometimes when 7-footers really take it to the next level, so I'm hoping he regains this "best player on the team" form he always used to play with, that had to take a backseat to all these other stars in PHX.. (people forget Dikembe Moutoumbo didnt enter the league til he was like 25)
Sabonis(5 year/$217MM) got bodied by Kevon Looney(3yrs/$22.5MM) did u not see the playoffs? he's overrated, and the kings lie about his height, hes not 7'1 he's 6'11... close game 7 and sabonis came out of the lockerroom at halftime n couldnt grab a rebound to save his life when it came to winning time... n looney whos 6'9 and paid like a backup is decimating him on every rebound infront of his home crowd.. it was glorious.. n whats tiny sabonis gonna do vs Wembanyama other than sit there n try to shove him around n maybe hurt him.. ?? nah look at Sabonis try and defend Ayton.. Its pitiful.. is he 33? thought he was younger than that... but even Aytons treating him like hes 33 in this footage no doubt.., Sabonis is trying to push him in the body rather than play real defense... Look at Aytons reaction at 1;10 "pushing off" Sabonis is totally outmatched in the 1v1.. traffic cone defense.. sabonis out here with those dennis rodman style dirty double forearms in ur back style defense.. kings arent built to win in the playoffs cuz of that shit.. that sabonis contract isnt good if u ask me, u cant win the championship with him at C u can win some regular season games n mayube a series or 2... id rather have ayton! Sabonis is carried by Fox, look at how they play the 4th quarter, the warriors exposed Sabonis in that playoff series, he was all out of sorts.. missing undefended wide open chipshots n layups.. wide open midrange shots that are usually automatic for him, he'd miss one n then didnt wanna take another n would drain the shotclock.. it was totally bizarre.. Ayton can just spin around and use his body to create separation and he's got a clean look everytime.. sabonis doesnt even jump just stands there with his hands in the air accepting his fate.. So sometimes when Pheonix would play The Kings n not get these kind of results from Ayton its cuz they phased him out or were trying to get the jumpshooters involved, we need to feed ayton the damn ball on this team, which im sure Scoota's on board for that plan... the Blazers I think is we need to get him in a rhythm of these 20-11 games.. then maybe he can get to 23 and 12.. n 12 boards a game from Ayton will hit harder than most players who grab 12 a game cuz he does damage on the offensive boards.. forget sabonis tho.. old news.. ayton is here now!
Im well aware Im just trying to transition the thread back to the present day.. cuz my point is really; Arvydas is 58 years old now... so who gives a damn?? Is there a thread on Ice Cubes Big3 league around here? if u wanna talk about over the hill basketball players that dont take care of themselves who now weigh 300+lbs, theres a very long list of em, some of them die in their 20's like former blazer Caleb Swanigan(RIP), some of them shoot people in parking lots over disputes over stolen cellphones like 6-time all-star Shawn "the reign man" Kemp.. sounds like a buzzkill of a conversation if u ask me, but i've found thats how people are, they'd rather romanticize the past while talking about their feelings than look forward to the future and use that dreadful skill called -- critical thinking...... but whats that basketball league run by Ice Cube? its The Big3, right? I dont like watching that shit.. everyones joints are shot, their all stiff n mechanical, its trash. Id rather watch the WNBA, those girls are way better, Aliyah Boston, terrific player, very entertaining. Thats what Ice Cube needs to do to get ratings!!!! let the WNBA All-stars face off against them over the hill fatbodied retired NBA dudes in the Big3.. Them girls will destroy the old men n it'd be fantastic tv.. shit it'd probably help the WNBA get viewers if they did it right..
Random aside --- If I ran the marketing n advertisement campaigns for the WNBA, i'd make all sorts of outrageous over the top claims, i'd be like if Muhammad Ali ran the advertising campaigns for the WNBA, like immediately id turn it to something insulting n pedantic, instead of this celebratory, pageantry type of shit currently in place... I'd take direct aim at all the soft stuff that goes on in the NBA, and portray the WNBA like a much tougher league, with much tougher players.. "Oh your players have injuries? how sad! our players are injured and their giving birth to children n then they come back next season dropping 20-10 and a few assists! whats your excuse?" type of shit, n show some Napheesa Collier highlights Id do the commercials like infomercial format style it'd begin "are you sick and tired of this?" and then show some flopping nba player drawing a foul(with yakety sax playing), doing the old reggie miller try to get freethrows on your jumpshots type of fool the refs with acting skills n tangling ur legs n feet with the defenders on purpose to fool the refs, not cuz its a real basketball move. sometimes nba players dont even get touched on their 3pt shots n they fall over like a sack of potatoes cuz they know the shots gonna miss out of their hands, so it seems like a logical recourse to "try their best to fool the refs", Jamal Crawford was good at this. n then we cut to an Aliyah Boston drive down the lane n spin move into a reverse layup, where she uses the rim to ward off the help defense.. n like id have explosions n the frame shaking, maybe like a really loud bus horn or some stupid shit.. like some action scene music from a movie or a crazy rap beat with a thunderous bassline.. "move bi**h - ludacris" might be too dated n a bit over heads but it tracks for the particular mood id be looking for.. but the way that hockey n rugby n american football fans, or fight sports fans act like their sports are way tougher than other sports like lets say synchronized swimming.. thats how the WNBA's advertisements should treat the NBA... that shit is a golden marketing plan n u cant tell me otherwise.. imagine a WNBA commercial where theres footage of all these like fake tough guy moments in the NBA where everyones holding each other back n no one has any real intention of fighting n they just wanna make a scene.. n then its like one of those action voice over guys with a deep voice "have you had enough of this fake tough guy garbage? come watch the WNBA the real toughest basketball league on the planet".. n u do like one of those stare down scenes where its a closeup of just an intense eye shot.. like editing from the movies with Elle Delle Donne Breanna Stewart Brittney Griner and Candace Parker staring each other down like the fights about to happen in a kung fu film from the 1970's like the 5 deadly venoms.. eff the NBA eff the blazers.. Im taking my talents to the Indiana Fever.. NBA season didnt even start n im already sick of it.. how bout a wnba commercial with allen iverson CARRYING the ball.. 20 seconds of all ur favorite NBA players CARRYING THE BALL.. n then u show off elle delle donne in the WNBA crossing defenders without carrying the ball.. idk i feel like those would be memorable ad campaigns at the very least..
