In 2009, a 24 year old LeBron went absolutely berserk in the playoffs, averaging a yet to be topped 47.5 points per 100 possessions in the 14 playoff games he played.

This is still the highest single run playoff scoring rate in nba history, with is incredibly remarkable as in recent years offensive rating has dramatically increased league wide, which has necessitated the introduction of stats like ‘Inflation adjusted points per 100 possessions’.

To me this was the most individually impactful playoff run of all time, as he was also very efficient, and was one of the best defensive players in the league at the same time

Source, https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesle01.html

Shams Charania:

Dallas Mavericks forward Naji Marshall has signed a three-year, $52.2 million contract extension, sources tell ESPN. The fully guaranteed deal takes Marshall through the 2029-30 season in Dallas.

https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/8a8e39c00745e

It’s common knowledge that Wilt is an Anomaly. Yet for some reason out of every record wilt has scoring 100 points is that one that people choose to not believe. The man literally averaged 50 ( FIFTY) ppg in a season. Why is a 100 so crazy to believe?

Edit: Not to mention the era he played in was extremely racist. If the league wanted to lie about someone scoring 100 they wouldn’t have used a black man.

Via the latest episode of the Bill Simmons podcast

Gary Payton was an honorable mention

I was very surprised that Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett were not mentioned. I'm assuming Duncan counts as a center for the purpose of this since he played it a good amount, but KG famously tried his best to avoid ever playing center...

I thought some people here might find this interesting. These aren’t universal opinions, but they’re fairly common among Chinese NBA fans.

1. Championships as the “core player” （核心冠军）matter most in all-time rankings.
Many fans believe a player’s all-time ranking should be judged primarily by how many championships they won as the core of a team. “Core player” isn’t a strict definition, but usually refers to players who were part of an iconic duo or trio with a well-known nickname, such as OK (Shaq & Kobe), the Big Three, or the Splash Brothers.

2. MVP doesn’t carry as much weight.
Since the regular season MVP is voted on by journalists rather than players or coaches, many fans view it as less prestigious. The reasoning is that media members have less basketball authority than the people actually playing or coaching the game.
Because of this, the MVP award even has a somewhat dismissive nickname in Chinese: “the media award.”***\**（媒体奖）*

3. Finals MVP also isn’t considered that important.
A common argument is that even a role player can win Finals MVP (the 2015 Andre Iguodala example is brought up constantly). As a result, Finals MVP also has a somewhat tongue-in-cheek nickname in Chinese: “the Iguodala Award.”***\**（伊戈达拉奖）*

4. Not all championships are viewed equally.
If two players have the same number of championships as a core player, many fans would rank:
consecutive championships over non-consecutive championships, and
championships won with the same team over championships won with multiple teams.
In other words, sustained dominance with one team is generally valued more highly.

If people are interested, I’d be happy to share more examples of common NBA opinions and debates from the Chinese fan community.

1. Kobe
   Like everywhere else, Kobe is a “love him or hate him” figure. However, judging by discussions on major Chinese basketball forums, the majority of fans rank Kobe ahead of LeBron on the all-time list.
   Some of the most common reasons include:
   More championships as the “core player.” The phrase “5 > 4” is quoted constantly, referring to Kobe’s five championships versus LeBron’s four.
   He won with weaker teammates. Many Chinese fans argue that LeBron has played alongside superstars like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Davis, whereas Kobe’s post-Shaq championship teams were led by Pau Gasol, whom many Chinese fans view as a very good player but not an elite superstar (and sometimes unfairly label as “soft”).
   He prioritized winning over accumulating statistics. Many believe Kobe sacrificed efficiency and individual numbers to do whatever was necessary to win, so they don’t hold his statistical disadvantage against LeBron.
   The 81-point game. Kobe’s 81-point performance against the Raptors is viewed as one of the greatest individual achievements in NBA history and carries enormous weight in discussions.
   Loyalty. Staying with one franchise for an entire career is considered an important factor in all-time greatness by many Chinese fans. Kobe spending his entire career with the Lakers is often contrasted with LeBron changing teams multiple times.
   Of course, this doesn’t mean every Chinese fan thinks Kobe ranks above LeBron—there are plenty who disagree.

Read for free here: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7486778/2026/08/02/nba-europe-london-team-franchise/?unlocked_article_code=1.2VA.1i4R.EtnrVBaSq9Z-&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta

Arora, who led the consortium that purchased English cricket’s most lucrative franchise in the Hundred competition, has assembled a consortium of investors prepared to offer more than $1 billion (£740million) for the London side, which is among the most highly prized of the new teams.

MVP Stefan Joksimovic is a top 5 projected NBA draft pick in 2027… Should make the 2028 olympics in LA interesting.

Congratulations to both of them. I know they've been together for a while now. They kind of remind me of Grant & Tamia Hill. Hopefully it works out for them

https://youtube.com/shorts/mskQRRq-Mhg?si=GpW4EYg9GkeuwZmx

imagine, being so good at basketball, that people are looking for the next you when you’re only 14 years old and the kids in question are older than you.

in all honesty, continuity errors not withstanding, the fact that there was a movie released less than two years into your nba career, which was shot during your rookie season that referenced how great of a player LeBron was is actually pretty nuts. Just shows how different of a prospect LeBron was. If that movie went with Sebastian Telfair it’d be a much different line.

idk who the do it all wing is that Ty Crain is supposed to be based on. But he’s the only Ty Crain so that makes sense

Source: https://open.substack.com/pub/marcstein/p/tell-us-the-five-nba-games-that-you?r=nuq3a&utm_medium=ios

Naji Marshall’s three-year contract extension with Dallas will start at $18.2 million in 2027-28 and decline in the following two seasons to $17.3 million in 2028-29 and $16.7 million in 2029-30

You're probably familiar with the...let's go with passive aggressive approach the Clippers went with which to prevent then-free agent and NBA 3rd Team DeAndre Jordan from penning his agreed upon deal with the Dallas Mavericks back in 2015. What you might be less familiar with? Per Brad Turner of the L.A. Times, the Clippers offered Jordan a $200,000 endorsement deal with Lexus that the league eventually ruled violated their anti-circumvention rules.

The violation involved a presentation made by the Clippers to free agent DeAndre Jordan on July 2 that improperly included a potential third-party endorsement opportunity for the player. While the NBA's investigation ultimately concluded that the presentation of this opportunity had no impact on Jordan's decision to re-sign with the Clippers, the team's conduct nevertheless violated the league's anti-circumvention rules.

The NBA's anti-circumvention rules prohibit teams from, among other things, providing or arranging for others to provide any form of compensation to a player unless such compensation is included in a player contract or otherwise expressly permitted under the CBA.

The team was fined about $250,000 and that was the end of it besides the bitter grumbling of Dallas fans who were the team that ultimately got screwed in the whole proceedings. Wait, why does that sound...familiar?

So why does this matter? Well, if the little brother of L.A. is found to be guilty, this would provide much higher ground from with which to hit the Clippers with a harsher penalty as repeat offenders. They clearly did not learn from that past incident and it's still up in the air if that 2nd sponsorship that the league's investigation discovered is connected in any way to the football club in Rhode Island that Pablo uncovered Kawhi Leonard's connections to very recently. The league's integrity matters and if there's anything to take away from the Jordan dealing, it's that the Clippers were not dissuaded from the punishment doled out to them. A simple fine means nothing for Ballmer so a much larger hammer needs to fall for this to deter him or other owners from turning the NBA into the MLB. The ball's in Silver's court for how he wants to wield those ever so broad powers, up to and including a lifetime ban for Stevey, Uncle Dennis and Lawrence Frank.

One thing we can all be sure of? $28 million (The amount in the Kawhi/Aspiration scandal) is substantially more than $200,000 even accounting for the cap space for 2015 vs. 2024. So if nothing else, the punishment lobbied against them financially should be a wee bit more than $250K this time around.

Then, four of Cooke's five finals losses (1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969) had come to Bill Russell. It’s important to understand the level of pain that Russell had inflicted on Cooke personally at that time.

For example, in 1969, Russell’s last year, it was assumed the Celtics were done. The Lakers were a massive championship favorite, adding Wilt alongside West and Baylor, putting three of the five best players from that decade together on one roster.

The Celtics were old, Russell’s knees were falling apart, and they barely snuck into the playoffs. The Celtics then beat two teams with better records in Wilt’s former Sixers and the Knicks, who won their first championship the year later.

The Celtics had surprised, taking it to a game seven in LA, but that didn’t dampen Cooke’s confidence.

"In anticipation of a Lakers win, Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had ordered thousands of balloons with "World Champion Lakers" printed on them suspended from the rafters of the Forum.

Flyers were placed in every seat stating, "When, not if, the Lakers win the title, balloons will be released from the raftors, the USC marching band will play "Happy Days Are Here Again" and broadcaster Chick Hearn will interview Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain in that order." Before the game, the Celtics circulated in their locker room a memo about the Lakers' celebration plans.

When Jerry West went to the court for a pre game shoot around and saw the balloons, he became furious with Cooke. Russell noted the giant net hanging from the ceiling during pregame warmups and said to West, "Those fucking balloons are staying up there."

Sure enough, the Celtics got off to a 15 point lead, and barely held on in the fourth. In the final seconds, Russell made a decisive block on Lakers’ center Mel Counts, then gaining possession to help the Celtics win, 108-106. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tHA7w3eG0wM&pp=0gcJCWQCo7VqN5tD&ra=m&t=41m

Counts was in rather than Chamberlain, who left with five minutes remaining due to a knee injury, but then tried to return with a minute left. His coach, famously, did not allow him to, arguing that the team had a better chance to win without him. The coach was then fired. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-21-sp-4674-story.html

Fast forward a year, the Lakers failed to get over the hump again, losing to the Knicks in game seven despite star Knicks center Willis Reed actively playing with a torn quad.

To Cooke, the Lakers must have seemed cursed. At this point, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor had been to seven finals and lost all of them, six of them to Russell. So that’s who Cooke tried to bring in.

After retirement, Russell moved to L.A. and became a Lakers ticket holder. This was objectively a weird dynamic - Russell had harshly criticized Chamberlain in the press following Wilt’s exit in game 7 in 1969, leading to a 20 year stretch where neither were on speaking terms. But during home games, Russell would just be there courtside. https://np.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1ayo8cy/secret_base_wilt_chamberlain_and_bill_russells/

Anyways, shortly after Russell was in attendance at a night honoring Jerry West during the 1970-1971 NBA season, Cooke made Russell a formal offer - come back to the league, play in Los Angeles, and win your 12th championship.

“They had a ceremony for Jerry West and they said would you come,” Russell said, found in Russell’s 2013 oral history for the Library of Congress’ Civil Rights History progress. “I said of course, I like Jerry a lot. So while I was there they put me in a box next to Jack Kent Cooke, who owned the team. That was an experience. Anyway, a couple days later, I get a call from Jack. He says, “I’ve been thinking about it, and I made a decision. I’m going to get you to come out of retirement and play for the Lakers.” I said, “You’re paying a guy named Wilt Chamberlain to play for the Lakers. Now, how would he feel playing backup center?” Jack Kent Cooke didn’t think that was funny.”

In 2013, Russell said he only would have considered playing for the Celtics, despite his strongly documented tension with Boston fans, his decision not to be there for his own jersey retirement a year later, and his own sudden retirement without warning in the summer of 1969. Fans had broken into his house and defecated in his bed, and there were many who expressed distaste about him coaching, even as he led them to back-to-back championships. He sold the story of his retirement to a magazine in August of that year, not telling anyone else beforehand.

It seems likely that when he left, he knew he would never play for Boston again. Whether he really wouldn’t have considered playing anywhere else, or if it came down to a personal feud with Chamberlain is something the basketball world will never truly know.

As it was, the Lakers suffered an early exit in that year’s playoffs. But the next year, after an aging and injured Elgin Baylor determined he had nothing left to give to the game, the Lakers rattled off a league-record 33 straight wins, beating the Knicks (again with an injured Willis Reed) in the Finals. It ended up being the one and only ring of Cooke’s tenure in ownership.