Official 2018 NBA Preseason Thread - Jimmy Butler Does Things

Where will LeBron end up?

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finessesosa said:
This as well and is an underrated statement and Harden not showing up for the 2nd unit. Shooting TERRIBLY
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Brooks had Harden guarding Bron with no help like he was prime Tony Allen.

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shogun said:
Why are countries like china and russia paying female basketball players more?
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As stated before, there is a wider market for it and people are into it more outside of the USA. Plus there was professional leagues long before in other countries compared to WNBA. Having been established for a longer period can have a positive impact on their fans, sales, revenue and ultimately salary in my opinion.

Don't @ me tho, I could be wrong
 
Bruh.

SHANE LARKIN OPENS his eyes, sits up and embarks on his own tortured version of "Groundhog Day." He grabs the remote, clicks on SportsCenter and hops out of bed to wait for his "number.'' He is 8 years old, and every morning presents a new set of unpredictable parameters that are purely arbitrary. As he starts to get dressed for school -- a ritual that can last a few minutes or sometimes hours, depending on the number for the day -- he notices an image of Ray Allen flickering on his television screen. Allen, it seems, hit eight 3-pointers in a game the night before. Suddenly, a sensory message makes a beeline for Shane's brain and informs him of the number for the day: eight.

"And then I know,'' Larkin tells ESPN, "that I have to wash my hands eight times.''

After scrubbing fastidiously, Larkin carefully picks out his clothes. But if his shorts touch the carpet by mistake, he not only has to toss them in the hamper and replace them with new ones, he must retreat to the bathroom again to wash his hands.

Eight times.

From there, Larkin attempts to navigate breakfast in a kitchen that is a cauldron of potential germs. He engages in a deft obstacle course as he sidesteps errant spills, a soggy sponge, a dirty dish. As he approaches the front door, with seconds to spare before he misses the bus (again), the family dog patters up to him, tail wagging, and licks his hand. Larkin has no choice: He heads back to the bathroom for eight more cleansings. By the end of the day, his hands are so raw from the obsessive washing, he falls into bed with bloody open sores.

Larkin's condition, later diagnosed as obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, afflicts just 2.3 percent of the population and just 1 out of 100 children. For a little boy who didn't understand why he was held captive by his own random regimen, it was exhausting, frustrating -- and incredibly frightening.

"You don't know what's going on," Larkin says. "You see your friends wash their hands once, or not wash them at all, and you say, 'What's wrong with me?'''

Ironically, the man who once determined Larkin's "number" so many years ago -- Ray Allen -- diagnosed himself as "borderline OCD" because of his need to have complete order and structure in his day, including a specific repetitive pregame ritual that embarked him on a Hall of Fame career.

On the occasions when Allen's treys were not dictating Larkin's day, it would be something as innocuous as a trio of bluebirds perched on a branch outside Larkin's window. Larkin would breathe a sigh of relief because his obsessive behavior would be more manageable for the next 24 hours with the number at only three.

Inexplicably, his OCD vanished once he sprinted onto the basketball court. There he was free, unencumbered by any concerns about germs or bacteria.

"That was the craziest part,'' Larkin says. "I couldn't touch the elevator button or the faucet to turn on the water because, 'Oh, that's so dirty,' but I could walk on a basketball court where guys were grabbing their armpits, digging in their nose, then touching the ball, and I'd be fine.

"I'd play for hours with that ball, then walk off the court and eat a hamburger without even washing my hands. It made no sense at all.''

Larkin shielded his condition from friends and teammates. Only his family was fully tuned in to his agonizing attempts to get through the day. "I didn't want people to think I was some kind of weirdo,'' Larkin says.

His symptoms persisted as he grew older. If the dog had an accident on the carpet, Larkin would be trapped in his room, unable to bring himself to walk down the hallway. The path to the tub often required a parade of towels to avoid dirt and mold. His mother, Lisa Larkin, washed as many as 20 bath sheets a day. Lisa understood her son's plight; she, too, struggled with mental health issues. Yet Shane's father, retired Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop Barry Larkin, was flummoxed by his son's behavior and implemented the "tough love" approach.

"My dad would test me,'' Larkin explains. "He'd go to the bathroom and purposely not wash his hands, then touch my arm. He'd say to me, 'You're good. You can do this.' That was his solution. It was so difficult -- and it caused problems between us."

Barry Larkin admits when he first encountered his son's symptoms, he thought Shane's obsessive washing was "more a convenience thing, an excuse."

"I challenged him to get through it," Barry says. "In the past, whenever I challenged him, he would accept that challenge and meet it."

But this was different. Something had to change. By middle school, Larkin's symptoms were worsening, so his mother found him a mental health professional, who recommended an antidepressant medication to help him cope. That, too, was confusing. "I'm not depressed,'' Larkin said to his mother. "Am I?"

He tried the pills. They helped alleviate some of his OCD symptoms, but he says they also robbed him of his drive and his energy, qualities that separated him as a budding basketball star. "The medication flat-lined me,'' Larkin says. "It made me way too relaxed -- too chill. I felt like I needed to be on edge to be the competitor I wanted to be. When I was on the medication, it was like, 'Eh.' I told my mom, 'There's no way I can continue with this.'''

To medicate, or not to medicate? It is a decision that permeates NBA locker rooms every day, as professional athletes silently struggle to deal with their mental health issues. The stigma of mental health is one thing; that stigma increases tenfold when their peers discover they're on "meds.'' It's a gamble that some players don't believe is worth taking, because it could affect their ability to be employed by a skeptical coach or general manager.

"I've been on and off medication my whole life,'' explains one NBA star, who debated identifying himself for this story but ultimately chose to remain anonymous. "I'd like to think it doesn't matter, but I'm not sure that's true when free agency comes around. I'm choosing to keep my life private because I don't need the s--- on social media. It's hard enough already.''
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http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...d-adhd-medication-marijuana-nba-mental-health
 
dcallamerican said:
But I think when that is brought up, the conversation about WHY this is the case will be introduced. Which can be tied into white men being in charge of everything this creating a society (and entertainment realm) based on the promotion of male dominated sports

hand2handking hand2handking Is that a fair assessment?
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Absolutely fair assessment @dcallamerican

The usury and exploitation of the modern athlete would of course naturally follow inequality patterns across gender lines

However im also a believer in lowering the rim in the womens game would make it more marketable as more women athletes could dunk creating more highlights opportunities
 
smedroc said:
Bruh..... That article is heavy. I feel for these dudes :smh:

Made me think about Lebron though and the level of scrutiny he has been under since high school...

Son is Teflon in both body and mind.
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****** cracked jokes but it's completely understandable how a kid like Fultz could have lost his mind in year one.

Tyler Honeycutt's suicide put all this **** in perspective for me. There's SOOOO much more pressure kids are faced with today than in the past. A kid has a hoopmixtape...gets famous...doesn't live up to the hype and has to face slander from the same people who cheered him when he was up.
 
Cashflow said:
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Apologies if i'm missing nuance and parts of this convo here, but the WNBA in total revenue for the year is around 52 million while the Mavs alone are 200+ million, not adding in popularity, attendance and endorsements etc. They probably do deserve a bigger piece of the WNBA pie though.
 
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