It’s official: Kobe Bryant out Tuesday night vs. Spurs

By Kurt HelinApr 17, 2012, 4:09 PM EDT

We told you to expect this but Lakers coach Mike Brown made it official at the Lakers shootaround Tuesday — Kobe Bryant will miss his sixth straight game with a shin injury and will sit out the game against the Spurs, as reported by the Los Angeles Times and other sources.

The rule of thumb the Lakers trainers are using is when he shows he can jump without pain he can come back. While he has practiced with the team he is not where the trainers want him yet.

Kobe said recently he would be back “well before” the playoffs. So, how do you define that, coach Brown?

“With a guy like Kobe, especially, his feel is so great for the game that I think he’ll be able to ease in probably better than most guys,” Brown said, “but for me to sit here and say, ‘He needs five games’ or ‘He needs two games,’ would not be correct. I think it’s just more by feel than anything else.”

That is some quality tap dancing around the issue right there.

This game matters to the Lakers, who are now just one game ahead of the Clippers for the Pacific Division crown and the three seed in the West (the Lakers also have the tiebreaker with the Clippers). The team that wins the Pacific and gets the three seed gets to avoid a dangerous Memphis team in the first round.

The Spurs are on the second game of a back-to-back-to-back Tuesday, but none of their big three played more than 13 minutes in a blowout win against Golden State Monday night. Your guess is as good as mine as to what Gregg Popovich has planned.

Report: First round picks will walk across draft stage with two family members

By Dane CarbaughJun 17, 2018, 4:00 PM EDT

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The NBA Draft is a big moment for many young men entering the league. Before the picks are announced, TV coverage shows players waiting at their tables among parents, siblings, and their agents.

Now, the NBA is apparently turning the first round into even more of a family affair.

According to Yahoo! Sports, first round selections will be invited to bring two family members to walk across the stage with them as they are selected during the draft on Thursday night. Those members will also be in the greenroom, so they will get the full experience of what it’s like to be an NBA draft pick themselves.

Via Yahoo!:

As new element to the Draft on Thursday, NBA plans to introduce the 20 green room invites on stage prior to first pick and each will walk across main stage with two family members.

For projected first-rounder Aaron Holiday, brothers Jrue and Justin will walk him into NBA.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 17, 2018

This is going to be pretty neat to see, and it should make the smiles of the players even bigger as they get to experience a lifelong dream right alongside their support networks.

The 2018 NBA Draft kicks off on Thursday, June 21 at 4:00 PM.

It’s the 10 year anniversary of Kevin Garnett’s ‘Anything is possible’ (VIDEO)

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By Dane CarbaughJun 17, 2018, 2:00 PM EDT

Report: Minnesota’s Tyus Jones considered asking for trade, Thibodeau eased concerns

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By Kurt HelinJun 17, 2018, 12:00 PM EDT

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If there was one thing at the top of the list that set off Timberwolves fans on Twitter last season — and that is a long list — it was the burying of backup point guard Tyus Jones on the bench.

Jones played well on the floor — he is an excellent pick-and-roll ball handler, knows how to run an offense, is strong in transition, and can knock down a spot-up jumper — and the Timberwolves were 5.8 points per 100 possessions better than their opponents when he was on the court. Yet coach Tom Thibodeau jerked Jones’ minutes around — he leaned heavily on starter Jeff Teague and backup guard Jamal Crawford, then mid-season brought in Derrick Rose and gave him run. Jones’ minutes were up and down when they never should have been — even Teague went to Thibodeau and said to play Jones more.

It got to the point that after the season, the third-year guard considered asking for a trade, reports Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.

But sources told Sporting News that Jones met with team management after the playoffs, and Thibodeau reasserted his support of Jones and his development. Even if the Wolves re-sign Rose, Jones was assured, his minutes and opportunities would increase because Crawford is not expected to return to the team. Rose mostly played shooting guard with the Wolves last season, so there’s a chance Jones could play alongside Rose as a backcourt bench unit.

Jones had considered requesting a trade, but the meeting with the team defused that notion before it arose. And for now, at least, the Wolves have no intention of dealing him.

Thibodeau is saying the right things, we’ll see if his actions back up his words. Jones will be a restricted free agent in the summer of 2019 and he has a lot of fans around the league in other front offices. If Minnesota doesn’t give him enough burn he will hunt out a place that will (and may pay more than Minnesota wants to match).

It’s one of a number of issues around the Timberwolves that could derail, at least temporarily, a team that is on the rise in the West.

Kyrie Irving on Durant: “He’s on an incredible team but he’s also the best player on that team”

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By Kurt HelinJun 17, 2018, 10:00 AM EDT

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The backlash against Kevin Durant — for doing what those same people bash other athletes for not doing in prioritizing winning — continues unabated in some corners of the Internet, not to mention the “look at me” world of television punditry and talk radio.

Kyrie Irving had a rational response to all that.

Irving swung by The Bill Simmons Podcast, and they talked about Durant’s critics and how that impacted him during the NBA season.

“I love playing against him, but I also love watching him. He has a presence about him that is really unassuming, but he dominates games. Thirty-plus [points] is easy for him, but then you get 10 assists [from him] some games, eight assists, or 14 rebounds he had in the Finals, or Game 4 where he had the triple-double, and he’s just working on his craft. I think that in itself was like, “OK, I got the championship, now I just want to work on my craft.” And now, of course … everyone just starts attacking, like, “Oh, you’re not enough, you’re not this, you’re not that.” And it’s just, bro, give it a break. Like, seriously, give it a break. Let it go, man. Yes, he’s on an incredible team, but he’s also the best player on that team.”

Irving was good with KD switching teams to the Warriors.

“Yeah, I was happy for him. I was happy for him. At the end of the day, if you can control your experience, he wanted that. So I’m not the one to be opposing in any way of someone making a decision for their life. Which is kind of why I was an advocate of when I came out with my trade, like, “No, I’m just trying to be in my own truth, I’m trying to figure out my life.” No disrespect to anyone else, but this was the decision I had to make for me. And some people understand it, some people don’t, but at the end of the day it just really doesn’t matter.”

Two thoughts.

First, it is up for debate if Durant is the best player on Golden State. I would say that Durant is the best player on that team, and is the second best player on the planet (and second could be too low). Is he more important to the Warriors and their style of play/culture than Stephen Curry? No. Golden State is Curry’s team. But when you consider the ability to get his own shot and defense, I’ll take Durant as the better player. Best and most important do not have to be one in the same.

Second, I think Irving’s sentiments on Durant match those of most players — he earned the right to be a free agent, he earned the right to control his destiny on where he wanted to play, and that he chose rings over “having his own team” is all good then. It was his call to make. He agreed to sacrifice buckets and touches to get wins.

As fans of the sport, that’s something we should celebrate and venerate in athletes, not tear down. If prioritizing rings is what we say we want from athletes, if rings are one of the key benchmarks in a players’ legacy, then we can’t shred them for chosing the path that gets them rings (and in KD’s case last summer, taking a little less money to help keep a title team together). Players, for the most part, have no issue with what KD did, even if it made the Warriors that much harder to beat.