NBA Week in Review: Kobe's low point, Lee Jenkins on LeBron's essay, more
Welcome to the NBA Week in Review, a look back at the week’s best offerings on and off the court. Today, we have the trainwreck Lakers, Craig Sager’s suit and Lee Jenkins on LeBron. Read last week’s review here.
Game of the Week
The best thing this week has to be the 76ers beating Kobe Bryant and the Lakers for their first win of the season. (Kevin Durant, if you're reading, you might want to stop from this point forward.) I don’t care if Kobe had a big game the next night against the Wizards, how are you throwing up airballs against an 0–18 team?! The 76ers actually won! I mean, how bad are the Lakers? At least Philly has some kind of plan. The Lakers are a flaming trainwreck using Kobe’s final season as a smokescreen to only partially cover up their incompetence. Between Kobe’s bricks, Roy Hibbert’s Twitter account, Byron Scott's take on threes, D'Angelo Russell sitting out fourth quarters, Metta World Peace actually playing, and an uncertain future, this Lakers season has a potential to be one of the worst for any team in NBA history.
Tweet(s) of the Week
Cook, chef.
Vine(s) of the Week
Dwyane Wade and his son have a handshake!
Who are the Rockets going to fire for this one?
Dirk is getting too old for this.
Roundup
Lee Jenkins writing about LeBron is a must-read ... How the Wizards’ small-ball style is hurting the team ... This Stephen A. Smith rant on the Warriors is particularly, uh, interesting ... The 10 sides to Kobe Bryant ... You should be reading Jeremy Woo’s power rankings every week ... How Kawhi Leonard could become the next Kobe Bryant ... Inside Stephen Curry’s insane stats.
The Ben Golliver YouTube Corner
After scoring 28 points in a win over the Thunder, Dwyane Wade admitted his sons make fun of him for not dunking anymore. Wade told Rachel Nichols he told his kids to YouTube him if they want to see some of the old, high-flying Wade. With that, here's the best Dwyane Wade highlight video:
The Fashion Outlet
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ8CtK2o-wY]
Craig Sager and Gregg Popovich shared a heartwarming moment last night, which was great. But I want more from Sager’s suit here. This is shockingly conservative for Sages. Where’s the color? Where’s the flair? I want every Craig Sager suit to be like Kanye West's “All of the Lights” music video: I need a disclaimer about potential health effects before looking at it.
The One-Question Interview
Off the court only. This week, a portion of a conversation with acclaimed SI senior writer Lee Jenkins. Yeah, this is way longer than one question.
Rohan Nadkarni: How did LeBron tell you he was going back to Cleveland? Was he just like, “Hey, it’s Cleveland?”
Lee Jenkins: I had a sense. Looking back, I should have known. He wouldn't have done an interview with me if he was going back to Miami. When I went to see him that day, I did have a sense. I kind of asked him a leading question about what Ohio means to him. That kind of got him talking about what he was going to do. It was a calculated risk but a pretty safe risk.
RN: Did you allow yourself to have a reaction?
LJ: Not really. You have a confined amount of time. I was trying to get (the most) out of him. In the moment, I wasn’t sure if this would be the first time people would be hearing about this. Other people were reporting it. In that moment, I was trying to make sure I got out of him the why. I wanted to understand where his head was.
RN: You are very gracious on Twitter. I remember the first time I shared one of your stories and you thanked me, I thought I was really special but then I saw you thanked literally everyone.
LJ: [Laughs] I'm sorry.
RN: How do you find the time to thank everyone who compliments you?
LJ: To be honest, I don't have that many followers. A lot of the ones I do have, I don't make a lot of funny quips, I don't break much news. Most of the people who follow me follow me to read my stories. I'm kind of blown away that they would take the time to read these really long stories. Shoot, it's the least I could do. I wouldn't really know another way.
RN: As a South Florida native, I'll never be able to forgive you for the LeBron letter.
LJ: I know man, I know.
