Out of misguided curiosity, what part of screaming something at multiple credentialed reporters do you consider to be “off the record?”

I mean, he also holds the official world record, so yes :)

There are certainly people in the US who don’t know who LeBron is, but are there basketball fans? I’m not arguing China can’t marginalize the NBA and cripple its ability to make money there — obviously it can, and the league’s response shows it. I’m just saying that a few generations of Chinese basketball fans have…

Serious question: How much IS China actually worth to the NBA? Is it $500 million a year? A billion? What’s the dollar figure where you give the authoritarian regime whatever it wants? 

I think the bigger reason India isn’t part of this conversation is that India isn’t a massive authoritarian surveillance state. When Daryl Morey tweets about Kashmir, the Indian government doesn’t snap its fingers and make the Rockets disappear.

I actually don’t think that last part is true (the parts about China disappearing certain teams or the entire league is definitely true). As much as Xi’s government tries to control information, I just don’t believe that they’ll be able to convince savvy, VPN-enabled consumers that their local CBA stars are better or…

This is true, but I do think it understates the lengths that government will go to make the NBA disappear. Media blackouts, merchandise blackouts, international competition bans, pressuring companies that do business with the NBA — they’ll flex every muscle they have to erase the league from China.

Eh, it’s not so hard to believe that a smart guy (or a guy is who is really smart about specific things, like NBA market inefficiencies) also did a tweet without thinking too hard about it.

What if we made the free throw like a free kick: You get to take the shot you were fouled on from the place where it happened, unguarded. Get fouled on a dunk? Free dunk! Get fouled on a weird baiting three? Take it from there.

All of this is assuming that when Harden hunts for a foul on a three-pointer, his mental math works this way. He obviously understand the value of the foul, but I kind of doubt he processes it in terms of each attempt getting incrementally more valuable. It strikes me as more likely that he’ll be thrilled with the…

I do think getting so worked up over Harden glosses over the fact that he’s a huge outlier. Last year he took 172 more free throws than the next guy (Giannis). He took 218 more threes than the next guy (Steph). A few years back, he personally attempted more three-point fouls than any team in the league.

I agree the one shot vs. three change won’t change foul-seeking behavior. If anything, some guys will (incorrectly) be like “sweet, I only need to make one now!” And they’ll get used to (and better at) making the first one.

I don’t know if that’s Novak getting down on himself (not in the moping sense, anyway) so much as it is his outlet for his particular brand of intensity. He needs the chatter and the gestures and the back-and-forth with the crowd to get fired up.

Oh wow, this is great. And he’s not even looking at them!

There was real magic in that wildness — just getting out there in a big, weird, dangerous world and seeing what happened. The lack of polish and real possibility of getting in a nightmare situation are things that get play-tested and balanced out of most games today, for good reasons, but they really did add to the…

When the aging curve Stops Making Sense.

Bills...nice.

Oh god you just reminded me about Bears fans.

Now now, we all know Lakers, Yankees, Cardinals, Steelers and Canadian hockey fans are among the chillest groups in sports.

Yeah, it’s a bad look. If a union employee gets a huge payout from a shitty billionaire-dollar corporation (this was during the LAT’s Tribune Co. days) that got shady with him over age and disability, that’s a win, regardless of whether that employee is also a sportswriter you don’t like.