Tag Archives: nba

Podcast Recommendations: Week of July 6th

For previous weeks, please click here.  Apologies for an incomplete week last week, but my best friend was getting married! Will hope to keep updating these posts daily.

Monday, July 6th

  • Dunc’d On Basketball: July 6th (Full Weekend Analysis) [length: 119 minutes]
    • Yes, I know, this podcast keeps coming up.  My pod-crush remains stronger than ever.  This is just the next installment of reactions towards free agency and evaluation of where teams stand as of right now.  Nate Duncan and Daniel Leroux of RealGM continue to be an outstanding team and a joy to listen to have adult conversations about basketball.  Keep killing it, guys!
  • Steven Lebron Radio: Ep 97: Sage Steele [length: 79 minutes – posted 06/10/15]
    • My apologies for being about a month late on this, but what a great listen.  I’ve never heard Sage Steele outside of her hosting duties on ESPN’s NBA Countdown show, and I’m so glad I did.  Alex Wong, host of this podcast does a great job discussing a very wide array of topics.  I was especially inspired by Sage’s overcoming of her intense shyness to accomplish her goal of being an ESPN broadcaster.  I have a newfound respect for Sage and am rooting for her even harder.  She also discusses her friendship with Stuart Scott, who I can’t believe has been gone for 7 months now.  This is a definite listen.  If you’re interested, Alex has a GREAT newsletter in which he recommends things to read around the web which you can subscribe here.

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Podcast Recommendations: Week of June 29th

Welcome to another wonderful week of podcasting!

Light day today, I didn’t have much time.  For previous weeks, please click here.  Please note that I only recommend podcasts that I’ve listened to, so they won’t necessarily correspond to the days that they have been posted.

Monday, June 29th

  • Fastbreak Breakfast NBA Podcast: Fastbreak Breakfast Ep. 34 “The Trill and Sauce Show” [length: 64 minutes]
    • A new addition to my NBA podcasts! This podcast reached out to me over twitter, recommending that I listen, and they were so right.  THESE ARE MY PEOPLE.  A really fun NBA discussion between three friends (2 Grizzlies fans, 1 Heat fan).  I don’t know these guys’ names yet, I’m not familiar with their weekly segments, and it never really mattered.  I laughed out loud multiple times, and if you’re a fan of the NBA and comedy, this is the podcast for you.  Don’t let me undersell the content – they know their stuff, they just happen to be really funny too.  Really glad I listened, and I recommend them wholeheartedly.

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Podcast Recommendations: Week of June 22, 2015

As a podcast addict, I have decided it would be a good idea to post the ones that I really enjoyed, hopefully people can enjoy them as well.  I plan on updating these daily as I listen to them.  Please note my recommendations are based on the day I listen to them, not the day they are necessarily published.  For now I won’t be posting links, just full titles of episodes. Monday, June 22nd

  • WTF with Marc Maron: Episode 613 – President Barack Obama [length: 67 minutes]
    • This was a big one.  Huge victory for the medium of podcasting, and Marc Maron and the President did not disappoint.  A wide-ranging conversation that began with the tragedy in Charleston. I think this is a great medium for politicians as they are able to discuss their positions and values in a much more relaxed format, away from the visual spectacle that TV news has become and the hacky segments of talk radio.  Kudos to Marc Maron for not only scoring the interview, but not abandoning his traditional interview style (or location!) for the leader of the free world.
  • Exponent: Episode 049 – In Aggregate [length: 56 minutes]
    • Ben Thompson, of the fantastic Stratechery website, and James Allworth of Harvard Business Review host the great Exponent podcast weekly.  If you are a fan of the business side of tech, this is absolutely the podcast for you.  The majority of this episode was devoted to the California Labor Commission’s ruling that Uber drivers are employees, thus entitled to benefits.  Unfortunately for us, they are taking a well-deserved break as travel schedules will make the summer difficult. I highly recommend going through old episodes, read descriptions of things that might interest you.  Episode 41 – Bubbles is a particularly interesting one to me.
  • Dunc’d On Basketball: June 22 (Dan Feldman: Hawks and Cavs offseason, NBA News) [Lenght: 67 minutes]
    • Quickly becoming my favorite basketball podcast, hosted by Nate Duncan. Often co-hosted with Daniel Leroux of RealGM, today he was joined by Dan Feldman for a discussion on general NBA news about the ongoing offseason.  I appreciate Nate Duncan’s approach to discussing basketball in a very “grown-up” way and is a completely different voice in terms of existing NBA podcasts.  There’s a lot of good options out there, certainly, but this one has really separated itself over the last month or so.  The sound quality of this one wasn’t great, and in general has been a weak point of the show, but I imagine as the show matures that will be fixed.  For now, enjoy the most important part: the content.

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Who’s Looking Out For the Big Picture?

I think Adam Silver has done a great job as commissioner of the NBA since he took over for David Stern in February 2014. I also admire the fact that he has lofty expectations for how he views the potential for the product that I personally love so much that it’s become beyond a hobby, more of a passion. Here, Adam Silver says: “As much as we talk about international […] I still think there’s an enormous opportunity in the United States. […] I think this game should be a rival to football. In the United States, it’s the No. 1 participatory sport. We’ve all played it. I want to focus on the game. The business is going well, but this is a beautiful game.”

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Round 1 Preview: What Happens to The Losers?

This great article from Dan Woike of the OC Register is a reminder of how fragile legacies can be.  Is Chris Paul not amongst the best point guards in the league? What can he do if either his team is not as talented or he just keeps running into bad luck? In this case, bad luck is as a first-round matchup with the San Antonio Spurs.
The starting point guards of the past 10 champions, in order from most recent: Tony Parker, Mario Chalmers (x2), Jason Kidd, Derek Fisher (x2), Rajon Rondo, Tony Parker, Jason “White Chocolate” Williams, and Tony Parker.  Doesn’t CP3 get drafted ahead of each one of these guys?  At the same time, what happens if the Clippers lose in the first round again? What happens to each of these teams if they lose in the first round?
Let’s take a look, with my series predictions.

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Why Sim Bhullar’s 10-Day Contract is a Big Deal To Me

I never really knew how to react to the news that Sim Bhullar would be joining the Sacramento Kings on a 10-day contract.  I’m a hoops junkie, so instead of rejoicing that an Indian player made it, my first step was to think of him as a basketball player and I wondered if the Kings really needed him.  But the truth is it means way, way more than that.

sim_release_web.jpg

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