Knicks win the NBA Finals. My quick thoughts: -Team of destiny. Every game this series they were down double digits and found a way to win 4. That's grit, and it's an embodiment of the city itself. They won 15 of their last 16. Historic! -This whole thing starts with Jalen Brunson. His bball IQ might be the best in the league. He manipulated those young Spurs in the pick and roll. Love a good lefty! -Mike Brown finally got his. I've known him for years, and he's been int he game forever, and he put on a coaching masterclass with his staff. Shout out to Chris Jent too. Guy deserves a head coaching gig -OG Anunoby was incredible. Josh Hart was an engine, diving on the floor, squeezing the Spurs late. The Knicks wanted this one, bad! -As for the Spurs, no shame in this. You can't skip steps. They had to go through the heartbreak and they'll be back better for it. Wemby and Dylan Harper have the chance to be the next great All-NBA duo Congrats, New York. The city's gonna be hopping all summer.

I never did manage to win an NBA championship ring, but I like this mindset. More than four months after winning the Super Bowl, the Seahawks finally had their ring night. They unveiled the wild(!) ring and handed them out. Then it looks like they partied. If I'm reading Cooper Kupp's caption right ("Onwards") he's saying last night was the final Super Bowl celly. LX is completely in the rearview. And that's the right way to see it, because four months is a long time. We're closer to the next NFL season than we are to February, 2026, at this point. Cooper's LA Rams learned that one the hard way in 2022. You hold on to the celebration too long and the rest of the league dusts you. So, congrats Seahawks. And now, onwards.

I was a sneakerhead when I played. Too old to really care like that now, but I still appreciate when sneaks tells a story, and WNBA star Rhyne Howard's new PE might be my fave one I've seen in a while. So, I'm gonna take a minute to talk about it, ha. Caught this on the Dream broadcast when she debuted these Tatums last night. Purple for her friend who's battling lupus. The teal is for scleroderma, which took her grandma. Blue for Terrence Clarke, the Kentucky hooper we lost way too soon, who she was close with at school. And if you look at the heel there's a little makeshift Lego build back there, because Legos is one of her creative outlets. Rhyne also said the design is fully hers, that Jordan basically took notes and executed. Anybody who's been around PEs knows it almost never works that way. (I can vouch, as someone's who has had a pair or two of his own, ha.) Good looking Js. Better story. And all she did was set a W record wearing them. (Fastest to 400 career 3s made.) Salute, @howard_rhyne.

I could've chosen a better word, you're right. But what I was trying to say was two par: 1. The Knicks don't win off talent. They have grit, drive, vet savvy, chemistry, and a clear identity. The whole is better, for the Knicks, than the parts. For the Spurs, I think they have more raw/young/yet-to-fully develop talent than the Knicks 2. If we want to play it out on its face, of the Knicks who played last night 6 were first-round picks, 5 were second-round picks, and 1 went undrafted. That's an aggregate draft position of 30.75 (if you give undrafted a ranking of 61). Of the Spurs who played last night, 7 were first-round picks and 2 went undrafted. The Spurs players averaged a 21.56 draft position (if you give undrafted a ranking of 61). Above all, I love hoop and I really enjoy the discourse here. I don't post merely to get nods. I post to spark convos and go back-and-forth (respectfully) with y'all. So, thanks, Kento, and many others for the thoughtful comments!

The clock should've started the moment KAT tipped the ball, right? And by my math, would've been at 0 by the time Castle got a hand on it. So, play out what did in fact happen. The clock didn't start until Castle touched it. He bobbled it and didn't get a look up. When the clock started/didn't start doesn't matter, because no real FGA. But in a world where Castle catches it clean and scores, do the Knicks/can the NBA review that play and see it all happened after time ran out? This didn't happen, but curious as a hoophead.

Knicks pull off a Game 4 W for the ages. My takeaways: -The Spurs need a heartbreak to prep for their eventual Championship, and tonight was it. Every great team has gone through this. They'll cry in the locker room tonight and be better for it in the coming seasons -I never felt SAS' lead was safe. The Knicks are the more mature team, they're physical, and they smell blood when it's in the water. You can't let a team like that hang around. You gotta kill them off fully -Experience is trumping talent in this series. The Spurs are the most talented team left, but the "somewhat" talented, ultra-experienced extremely gritty Knicks know how to close. Last year's heartbreak, imo, against Indiana built this -Beat the Spurs now. Because Wemby and Dylan Harper for the next 10 years is scary.

Julian Champagnie is my favorite Finals story. I like to think I got better every year for the the majority of my career. From second round pick to super sub, from sixth man to starter, from starter to leading scorer. Brick by brick. (Or…swish by swish? Ha.) With that in mind, JuJu’s rise is awesome. Undrafted to cut by the 76ers. G League showcase to barely in the NBA. To, in his year 24 season, setting every Spurs three point record and coming up clutch in NBA Finals games. I mean, no matter who your team is, have to tip your cap to the guy who is now the Spurs single game 3PM record holder (11), season record holder (195), and playoffs record holder (56). Pretty special to see the NY kid doing Hollywood move type things at Madison Square Garden.

After much back and forth, let me clarify: Going to a game is higher reward, higher risk. And I'm, these days, solid with the no risk option of home. Sure, it's worth going if it ends up being a classic, or if your seat is amazing, or if you meet someone cool. More likely, though, the game is fine (or a clunker), your seat is fine (or worse), and the only person you talk to is the parking attendant and person holding down the cash register at the food stand. All that said, genuinely appreciate the many thoughtful comments that were both pro-attending events and pro-couch. Lot of dedicated sports fans out there!

Let me fill you in on a secret: Unless you're the one playing, or a family member is, the overall experience is usually better on TV. Can go into the why and all of the variables, but yeah, whether you're at a watch party or on your own sofa, you're likely in the right place.

My son turns 19 today. Some of you might know him as the 4-year-old who used to play 2K with me and had no idea the guy on the screen was his dad. Or maybe you saw him ball in OH in high school and figured he'd play at the next level like the other legacy kids, and he probably could have, but that's not what he wanted. Michael spent his first year out of high school building a business in private aviation. No campus, no dorm. Just him, a computer, and a phone, dialing into an industry that doesn't routinely open doors for outsiders, let alone teenagers. I was nervous when he decided to go this route, and I told him so. College is the safer path and I know what the startup world does to grown men twice his age. But the kid takes rejection better than I ever did, and I supported him in his choice. So, he's learning the business from scratch and holding his own on calls and at conferences where everybody else has 30 years on him. My nerves wore off somewhere in the past 365. Now I mostly just watch and smile. Kid might not be a hooper, or a college student, but he does have IT. Happy birthday, son. Keep going.

Spurs get the W in Game 3 at MSG. My takeaways: -First time all series San Antonio showed elite poise. The first two games the youth and inexperience got to them. Tonight, ironically on the road, they came out aggressive and set the tone early. Different team -Wemby was great. 32 points, efficient. But, amazingly and kudos to him, he's leaving production out there. He should have 15 rebounds. In general, the Spurs gave up way too many offensive boards tonight. That's what kept the Knicks in the game -The Spurs bench came alive. Keldon brought something he didn't in first two games, Dylan Harper is a monster (though he couldn't hit a shot), and Luke Kornet's rebounding was a critical x-factor -The Knicks played heavy tonight. Maybe the atmosphere, maybe the security, maybe all of it. They came out with turnovers on two of their first three possessions in the first and third and looked like the tighter team. The Spurs looked liberated by comparison Game 4 will be a must-watch heavyweight battle.

Canadian tuxedo in honor of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?

MSG is iconic, nobody's arguing that. But Steph, LeBron, Kobe, they all love(d) playing there too. The Garden brings out everybody's best, not just the Knicks. From my playing days until Jalen Brunson got there, a 20 year stretch, the Knicks regular season record at home was 413 and 471. Read that again. 413-471. That tells me MSG is an iconic court. Home court advantage, though, would reflect a different record. That said, and in defense of MSG, NYC might be getting uncomfortable to play in again. The Knicks are 107-56 there since Brunson arrived... This isn't to say the Knicks don't have some of the best fans in the world. This is just to say that doesn't always equate to winning games in their crib. (And, yes, it would be easier for fans if security wasn't ratcheted up for tonight's game.)

Really love this from Julian Champagnie. Champagnie, who is about to break Spurs record for threes in a single playoffs, got to the league the long way. Upstart AAU program. St. John’s before Coach Pitino. Undrafted. G League. Cut. Rinse. Repeat. And you can tell he hasn't forgotten that journey, or the kid he was when the process started. Grateful the league is filled with so many guys who appreciate fans, especially the kids, and understand that at the end of the day, it's so easy for a pro athlete to make someone's day or even change a life.

Reasons I'll never forget Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals: I'm in Ireland on a long-planned bucket list golf trip, so: I "had" to wake up in the middle of the night to watch the game. And I got to do so after playing Rosapenna. I've never watched a game, let alone a Finals game, in the middle of the night. And I've never played golf like that before. I almost shot a higher score than the Spurs. Never mind that, though.😂 But for real, basketball and the NBA really are international. So many people were talking about the game in Ireland today. It's cool and surreal at the same time. (Much like links golf.) Excited to do it all again with Game 2, where I plan to record my musings on the game right afterwards and discuss it with y'all.