Monday Morning Media Roundup: October 12th, 2020

The Lakers are NBA champions. If you want more on that, check out last week’s incoherency from yours truly.

With the Bubble finally coming to a close one of the big questions that will be on our minds is how the NBA plans on bringing basketball back in 2021? We’ve got plenty of offseason activities to rally around (free agency, the draft, articles about Giannis “loving” San Francisco’s commitment to green energy internet surveillance, etc.), but it’ll be for naught if whatever system the league develops to play games folds under the pandemic pressure.

The staff were talking about this very thing last night, actually. To me, a whole season conducted in a single bubble a la Orlando asks too much of everyone who would be involved. It’s an absolute feat that the NBA pulled it off, but they benefitted from only needing to bring a reduced number of teams, playing a reduced number of ‘regular season’ games, and the promise to players that those friends/family outside the Bubble could join them eventually. Theoretically this could be redone. Theoretically, I’m not sure a couple thousand people would be willing to exist in hotel rooms for months on end regard.ess of the money involved.

Perhaps the way to thread the needle is to try and have a series of mini Bubbles pop up at certain locations throughout the season? Give guys a bit of time back home between stints before their team and, say, five other teams head into a Bubble in Vegas or Orlando or wherever. Trying to let things function relatively normally and hoping you can avoid the worst while still conducting daily travel seems unfeasible. Instead, as this Bubble proved, you can put in enough controls to help beat the transmission odds.

I don’t envy either side in the coming wrangling over these arrangements. It’s one thing to come to agreement over a gamble like the Bubble when both sides can point to the dollars at stake if they can just play X number of games. A whole 82 game season, though? That’s a tall order.

Let’s roundup!

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Milwaukee Bucks guard George Hill among 5 recipients of NBA Cares Community Assist Award (ESPN)

Congrats to George for his work in the community both in his native Indianapolis and in Milwaukee. While he’ll be most recently remember for spurring the players strike in the Bubble — alongside Sterling Brown and eventually the entire team — it should be noted that Hill donates funds and materials to other causes (including a charter school in Indianapolis). Its fitting as well that a member of the Bucks receive this award given the amount of work the team does in various community outreach programs in Milwaukee and elsewhere.

NBA Star Giannis Antetokounmpo Swaps Layups for Laughs in Viral TV Campaign (Yahoo Entertainment)

I obviously adore Giannis and will gladly consume whatever products he’s hawking, but can we really say he’s made it as a superstar if he isn’t touted to be the lead in the inevitable Space Jam 3? That and a title are the final frontiers before him, and he’s still just 25. Let’s hope I get to watch him accomplish both on my nice TCL™ TV!

The Bucks are legends on the court, leaders off it (Milwaukee Record)

Older piece from around the time of the Bubble strikes, but now that the season is over I’ve been thinking about the place of the strike in the wider context of this past spring and summer. You can argue the actionability of what the players and owners agreed to, but I don’t think it can be denied that it was a catalyst for serious discussion on many fronts: The role of the athlete in pushing for social change, the troubling circumstances that led to the shooting (most recently at that point) of Jacob Blake, that age-old question of how much sports should concern itself with sports alone, etc.

It may seem trivial now that other events have swept up the spotlight since the strikes, but they were a piece of the wider puzzle, and one that will be remembered for years to come.

Rick Ross Claims Giannis Is Coming To The Miami Heat (Hot New Hip Hop)

Milwaukee Bucks Owner Wes Edens Lands $20 Million Manhattan Penthouse (Variety)

A little less landing of penthouses and a little more landing of top-tier free agents, Wes.

Who actually needs five bedrooms and seven bathrooms, you may ask. I’m not exactly sure, but there are two takeaways by Edens’ acquisition:

1) There’s a difference between being rich and being wealthy. Edens is the latter.

2) This office setup is worth $20 million on its own

Realtor.com

The Social Media Section

What the hell, Packers?

IT’S ONLY WORTH IT IF YOU ENJOY IT

Surely part of this is driven by the fact that the G-League is on life support for the foreseeable future, but it is cool that these guys are picking up opportunities abroad

Let’s get nuts

My first, second, and third reactions to this were simply “why?”

Appreciate the work put in to mock this up, but I just can’t get on-board with the blue unis

Add Brandon Jennings and you’ve got a hell of a starting lineup there

OK

Wonder if we could get Pat’s friend on a minimum deal?

Nice yard

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Now we enter my favorite time of year for the MMMR. If you thought the pickings were slim before, you’ve seen nothing yet. We’ve got over a month until the NBA Draft and the most pressing question from the Bucks perspective is who we’re trading the 24th pick to and whether we’ll buy a pick in the 50s.

Welcome to the new normal NBA schedule.

Happy Monday!