#nba league pass

[mollyhale]

bally sports can go to fucking hell i just wanna watch my game tomorrow night

[noxandlove]

my version of aging is becoming a sports fan wtf is wrong with me

i usually get fixated on one (1) athlete and it's downhill from there

[heavenlycloud]

i don't like the way he's lookin' at you: 6th member! reader x huh yunjin

request: lessera in states r making me insane so i have a request...... at the lakers game one of the players (or a random dude. whatever you want) is checking out yunjin/being flirty with her so reader obv gets jealous and thr two start acting very homosexual which makes the press and fans go. crazy. thank you :3

cw // VERY MILD nsfw, swearing, jealousy

the one place you fell short as an american was being heavily into sports culture like everyone else had growing up. sunday night football was a huge occasion in your house, even more so when your older cousin began playing professionally. however, you never understood anything about the sport, it simply made no sense to you. most of your family teased you as the odd one out growing up for it because football was their thing. but you were quickly redeemed when you took a liking to basketball.

as a little kid your parents put you into sports just to make sure you were moving enough and getting exercise. they realized by middle school that you actually possessed a talent for it, so they put you in a club league. up until high school you played both club and school teams and indulged in both NBA and WNBA games when they were on tv. otherwise you were watching NCAA tournaments on your laptop, especially in March.

your love for the sport remained strong even after you had to quit playing to become an idol. instead, you kept up with your favorite team of all time: the Los Angeles Lakers. so when you heard that you and your members would be attending a Lakers game in LA during your trip to the US, you almost passed out. you'd only ever been to one other which was with your grandfather as a gift. that night you got to see kobe bryant, your favorite player and sports role model, play. since then it had been a dream to return at least one more if you ever got the chance.

the entire trip you were anticipating sitting in the stands and watching the game, a dream you'd had since childhood. all over social media your fans had been trending compilations of you sharing your love for basketball, especially with your members. the most ironic part of it all was that your members didn't really have an idea about the sport- especially your girlfriend.

time and time again you'd tried to get yunjin to understand basketball even so much as watching games with her and playing them back to explain. however, all she did was smile and nod, cheer when either team got points, or pointed out the most attractive players...mostly the last one which is why you no longer streamed WNBA games in her presence. yet, she was still the first one to steal all of your favorite team's jerseys, hoodies, and sweatpants from your closet.

you paced around your hotel room with nervous jitters as you tried to calm yourself before you all had to leave. yunjin watched in amusement from across the room with a smile on her face as she secretly recorded you. sensing a pair of eyes your way, you looked up and covered your face, "stop teasing me!" she giggled and stopped recording, captioning it simply with your instagram handle.

through your split fingers you noticed her outfit and smirked at the sight. her personalized jersey fell right against her upper thigh and just covering the tiny black shorts she was wearing beneath. she took a step back with a questioning look, "why are you looking at me like that?" you answered with a smug look, "nothin' you just look good n' i like the fit that's all." yunjin turned around and onced herself over in the mirror against the wall, "y/n i don't even have real pants on." you bit your lip and walked over to her, pressing your front against her back. she softly gasped when your lips hit her neck pressing a kiss gently to her skin. between kisses you mumbled, "ion mind. like i said before, you look good ma." she felt your teeth graze her skin and for a moment she started to give into your touch. a deep, breathy moan fell past her lips and you smirked as your fingers bunched up the material of the jersey around the hem.

right as you went to pull it off yunjin pushed you away, "no y/n." you groaned and pleaded, "come on now- lemme make you feel good, my pretty girl." yunjin felt butterflies erupt in her stomach at the pet name but she refused, "no because last time i let you do this before an event we were late." you gave her a look as if you didn't know what she meant and she clarified, "don't pretend you didn't mark my chest so bad they had to change my entire outfit last minute." you let out a laugh and admitted, "n' you still looked fine as hell in that lil' turtleneck." yunjin scoffed and pointed to the bathroom, "go take a shower so we can leave." you tried once more, "you sure you don't wanna join me?" your girlfriend gave you that one look you hated and you huffed, "ugh fineeeee." yunjin hummed and rolled her eyes playfully, shaking her head before deciding on the bottoms she wanted to wear with her top.

the entire ride to the staples center you were trying not to fangirl out too much. when you actually arrived you were in too much shock to even make a scene. your members took pictures and you did the same, making sure to capture every moment you could. when you all were escorted to your seats, you snapped a picture of just you and yunjin leaned over the camera so the upper half of your face was showing. you captioned the picture, "baby's first basketball game 🩵" and posted it right before the game started.

a few minutes into the players warming up on the court, you felt a shift in the air around you....something just felt off. when you looked down towards the end of your section your heart sank in panic until you saw eunchae happily talking to your other members. yunjin nudged you and asked, "what happened?" you shook your head and replied, "thought we left eunchae somewhere, but zuha's head was just blocking her from my view." yunjin laughed lightly and patted your leg, "everything is fine, enjoy this okay?" you nodded and smiled right until you noticed a guy sitting right beside yunjin, staring...hard.

his eyes flitted to her chest and you immediately took your Lakers varsity jacket off, "put this on." the firmness in your voice startled her slightly but she listened nonetheless because she liked wearing your clothes anyways. you turned away from the guy and the second you did, he tapped yunjin and flashed a charming smile, "hey." your girlfriend turned to the young man who looked no older than 24 and smiled back, "hi!"

the young man made conversation with yunjin casually but you could read between the lines to know what he was getting at. the entire time yunjin was catching no signs or signals that this dude was clearly into her. it was times like this that you didn't exactly find her obliviousness endearing. a slight bump to your arm caught your attention as yunjin added, "and this is y/n. she's in the group with me." you gave a tight lipped, forced smile before leaning back into your seat, placing a protective hand on yunjin's thigh. thankfully the game beginning pulled yunjin's attention away from the guy and to you and the middle of the court.

throughout the game you and your members were paying attention to the game, you more than others obviously. yunjin stole glances at her phone, from the corner of her eye she was definitely texting her friends about something totally unrelated which made you laugh. however, every so often the young man beside yunjin just had to tell her something about the game. being the polite and attentive person she always has been, she listened which you knew was giving the guy some kind of message that he was misinterpreting for interest.

you knew there were cameras on your entire group so you maintained composure the best you could. however, on the inside you were just dying for there to be a brief moment where you could make yunjin swap seats with you. into the second quarter, the Clippers called a time out which gave the guy enough time to start talking again. just a moment before yunjin laughed and said, "i don't even know what's happening to be honest." it was a mindless comment but it gave the young man enough confidence to start breaking down the game.

yunjin leaned closer to the guy to hear him and began laughing at what you deemed as stupid jokes. your girlfriend on the other hand, was eating it up. you stuck your tongue against your cheek in annoyance and sakura made a motion with her hand that she often did as a way to tell you to relax. you nodded and leaned your head against her shoulder and she patted the top of your head.

simply hearing the guy speak irked your nerves enough but the fact that yunjin was actually listening to him explaining what you'd tried to explain for years just made you more angry. you noticed the way he leaned towards her, manspread so his knees touched hers, and smiled a little too brightly for your tastes. his eyes lingered on her body when she stood up, and that was your breaking point.

without thinking you placed your hand firmly on yunjin's thigh, squeezing her leg gently. you held onto her hand and played with the wristband you both wore as the game continued on. when she stood up you followed in suit, slipping your arm around her lower back and resting your hand right above her ass. you smiled smugly when she grabbed onto your bicep when she jumped in excitement over a team scoring points. when you both sat back down you slung your arm around her shoulder, letting her play with your hand that rest against her shoulder. the game didn’t even finish before you and yunjin were trending on twitter and tiktok, and you knew it’d stay that way for days on the latter. but that only brought smirk onto your face knowing that people were noticing your behavior, a subtle way of hinting that yunjin was only yours.

when the game ended and you all got back to your rooms you barely let the door close before you were pressing yunjin against the wall. she giggled as your breath tickled her skin and sent shivers down her spine, "what's gotten into you today?" your hands undid the buttons on her jeans easily and you let them fall to the floor while her jersey fell against the very top of her thighs. you picked her up with ease and her legs wrapped around your torso, her arms holding your head against her chest lightly.

yunjin laughed and looked up at you from the hotel bed, her coppery red hair fanned out against the white duvet. she reached up and ran her thumb over your eyebrow, "hmm?" you shrugged and slipped your hands beneath her top, running your hands against her heated skin and letting your fingernails trail lightly behind. yunjin grabbed both of your hands and pulled them from her body before pushing you gently off of her. she scooted back against the pillows and headboard, opening her arms and legs for you to lay against her. she insisted softly, "come here baby."

you sulked and pathetically crawled into her embrace, her arms engulfing your body and ankles locking over your legs. you mumbled into her torso, "ion't like the way he was lookin' at you." yunjin hummed for you to repeat yourself and you clarified, "the fuckass dude next to you. i ain't fuck with that guy." your girlfriend brushed her thumb over your ear and your eyes fluttered shut out of instinct. she asked, "baby, you know i was just being nice." when you let out a dissatisfied sound and turned your face further into her body she laughed.

yunjin asked you seriously, "did it really bother you that much?" you sighed and answered, "i didn't mind that you was talking to someone. i'm not finna tell you who you can and can't talk to. i ain't like that he was lookin' at you up 'n down like a creep...n' you was all interested in him explaining the game too i guess." yunjin told you, "if i'm being honest...i wasn't even listening to what he was saying. there was someone filming us and i didn't want them to think i was rude so i played along. you were the only thing on my mind anyways, i gave you as much attention as i could."

you mumbled with a smirk, "not enough..." yunjin gently pushed you from her embrace and you switched spots with her. your back now against the pillows and headboard while she straddled your lap. she reached for your top and pulled it off with ease. you still had a slight pout on your lips with your face turned away from her in feign annoyance.

yunjin leaned forward and pressed a kiss to your lips, then another one on your cheek, down your jaw, and your neck. she pulled away for a second and said, "is this enough?" you shook your head in refusal and yunjin ran her thumb across your lip with a smile, "remember you said that." just then yunjin pressed another heated kiss to your neck, this time sucking your skin lightly just the way you like it. a smile tugged at the corner of her lips when she heard a whine fall past your lips, "yunnie..."

your girlfriend reached up and grabbed your neck, squeezing it lightly, "what's wrong baby? you wanted my attention, and now you have it. " she proceeded with her ministrations and your head fell back against the pillows behind you. your head swimming with no thoughts except how to explain to your stylist that you'd need high cut shirts and long pants for the remainder of your trip.

[vlplum]

WNBA

Weekly Schedule

Thurs, Aug. 15

• Mercury v. Sky — Prime | 8PM EST

• Mystics v. Lynx — ESPN 3 | 8PM EST

• Liberty v. Sparks — ESPN | 9PM EST

Fri, Aug. 16

• Storm v. Dream — ION | 7:30PM EST

• Mercury v. Fever — ION | 7:30PM EST

• Sun v. Wings — ION | 7:30PM EST

Sat, Aug. 17

• Lynx v. Mystics — CBS | 2PM EST

• Liberty v. Aces — CBS | 4PM EST

• Sky v. Sparks — WNBA LP | 5PM EST

Sun, Aug. 18

• Sun v. Dream — ESPN 3 | 3PM EST

• Storm v. Fever — ABC | 3:30PM EST

• Sparks v. Aces — NBA TV | 6PM EST

WNBA League Pass: $12.99/m & $34.99/y | USD

NBA League Pass: $14.99/m & $22.99/m | USD

[darkmaga-retard]

By Pete McArdle

As Steely Dan might say, the things that pass for knowledge today, I can’t understand.  It’s all lies, falsehoods, and misdirection on tap, served fresh 24/7/365.

Lie #1: Joe Biden was a great president, a dedicated public servant who put country first and stepped aside so that Kamala Harris’s brilliance could save our democracy.

Well, that’s five lies all tied up in one bundle!  Joe Biden is easily the worst president in my lifetime, possibly ever.  He and his family got rich, not by serving anyone, but by grifting on his various political offices.  Slow Joe also didn’t step aside; he was kicked to the curb by his Democrat comrades after it became clear he was going to lose in November. And so now we have Kamala Harris, who was chosen as V.P. simply because she possesses ovaries and dark pigmentation.  And for the one millionth time, America is a republic — if we can keep it — not a democracy.

Lie #2: Man-made climate change will make the Earth unlivable for humans in (pick one) 5, 10, 39, or 5,000 years.

Ha, ha!  If you think our Creator would allow us, His/Her/Zey’s most ambitious, creative, and intelligent organism, to destroy our beautiful terrarium, then you’re either a fool or an atheist, possibly both.  Our most brilliant minds can’t predict tomorrow’s weather with precision, our weather records extend a mere blip into the nearly five billion years of the planet’s estimated existence, and the only reason the scam’s called “climate change” is because leftists gave up on “global warming” when the Earth inconsiderately stopped warming.

Lie #3: Democrats love black people.

Where to start with this one?  The president who ended slavery in America was a Republican.  It was the Democrat party who championed Jim Crow laws.  It’s Democrats who’ve historically come up with all kinds of handouts and special programs for blacks, not because they love them, but because they think African-Americans simply can’t cut it on a level playing field.  Folks, that’s racism of the highest order.

And Democrats just love killing unborn babies, a statistically telling percentage of whom are black.

Lie #4: Diversity is our strength.

Nope, sorry, uniformity is our strength.  A team that’s chosen based on merit alone, and who plays according to one set of values and with a single goal in mind, always wins.  But don’t take my word for it; ask any recent champions of the almost three-quarters African-American NBA.  If diversity is strength, then the NBA is arguably one of the weakest b-ball leagues on the planet.

Lie #4: Gender is fungible.

People who think that taking hormones and having your penis or breasts amputated changes your sex are truly the saddest products of our failed education system.  They no doubt also imagine that having webbed feet makes you a duck, or sharpening your canines makes you a vampire.  It’s fun to pretend, like I do having a catch while wearing my Yankees jersey, sadly, that does not make me a Yankee.  Ninety-nine point nine percent of the human race is born male or female.  Period.

[elsfleur]

⋆·˚ ༘ * WHERE THE FLOWERS BLOOM | 0.1

ellie williams x reader x abby anderson

summary: the small tight knit city of jackson anticipates scandal in the arrival of brooding newcomer ellie williams who finds herself drawn to local flower shop girl, though she is not the only one.

content warning: this is a rewrite for something on my old account if it seems familiar, lightly nsfw content, modern!au and presence of original characters for the sake of world building. this is a slow burn fanfiction but hopefully worth the wait.

word count: 1,684

🪷 ʾ ⠀

you exchanged glances across the room as though sharing a secret in code neither of you fully understood but remained too stubborn to demand translation. abby, your abby, if you could call her that, was always the one to break eye contact first, a sip of her drink, a rub of her eyelids. months have passed since she had been truly vulnerable with you, a wretched mess of pouts and tears– the way she had arrived drenched by the rain, nearly falling against herself at your doorstep, begging for kindness, left you imagining terror scenarios for weeks. you held her till the shivers stopped and the sobs softened, dragged her muscular figure onto your bathtub and undressed her into the warm bubbly water.

and you felt sixteen again, caring for the girl who would not hold your hand in public but melt at your fingertips behind closed doors, she who was jackson high school’s basketball captain and miss all star in all her glory, she the daughter of a prestigious surgeon destined for great things and ivy leagues, she who dated owen from soccer but you the girl she truly wished to kiss.

she would call you her little secret as though it was endearing, a pet name, and it drove you sick to your stomach but you were down at your knees with her thighs pressing your cheeks and the moaning echoing louder than the wetness of your tongue by her clit– whenever she would brush the hair away from your face coo you pretty girl with her fingers down your slits you convinced yourself there were worse things to be than hidden, for starters: not hers.

dina caught on to your staring game, clearing her throat as she poured you a second drink in raised eyebrows and suggestiveness. your best friend and her unacquaintance of subtlety had stained your relationship with abby beyond repair, acting as though one trustworthy person having conscience of your affair was equivalent to a stab in the back, you remembered the way she’d screamed at you: i’m not gay! i just… i just liked you. just you. that doesn’t make me anything we are not the same! there were hardly excuses to be made, there were no repairs possibly done. you were an average nobody doomed to jackson and girls forever, whilst she was abigail anderson, trademarked by standing ovations, promising rising star.

you bitterly guessed her ego bested her once the injury happened, stealing away an nba future and a full ride ivy league sports scholarship until all that remained of her was the same honey blonde braid and a new pair of uniforms to replace the basketball jersey, sheriff slacks. abigal anderson, an average nobody doomed to jackson and girls forever, just with an added layer of self hatred on top. you dismissed both your old lover’s and best friend’s stare.

“i hope whoever rented the shop is nicer than flora was”

“i don’t mind either way as long as they’re as hot as flora is to make up for it–“ dina answered with a side smirk retorted by her on and off boyfriend eavesdropping a few tables away with a glare “you know anything about them, anderson?”

the entire town of jackson had stopped on its tracks to peek into the blacked out windows of what used to be flora’s bakery, an exciting guessing game at every arrival of trucks unloading black leather chairs and tall unopened boxes that according to jesse made heavy noises to the shake. the owner, whoever they may be, haven’t made their way to the building yet, and all pointed towards a newcomer. jackson wasn’t used to those.

abby licked her whiskey coated lips before speaking “didn’t take you for a gossip, dina”

“we both know you did”

her eyes were on you again, pale blue like a stormfront, searching your expression. abby anderson was a different kind of beauty, ragged around the edges, rough and sharpened. everyone guessed college would straighten that out of her, ivy league with the rich and powerful far enough from jackson you’d think nostalgia was a disease amongst the trophies and gpas. the cowards wouldn’t look her in the eye since the return, stamping failure further into her skull. she just drank.

“you should get them flowers” jesse cut the tension “from your shop, like a welcome to the neighborhood sorta of thing”

a silly game blossomed into your heart years ago, the inspiration for your flower shop really: how everyone you meet could be described by the floral language. dina thought hers too common, but it was your favorite, a daisy, standing for loyal love and “i’ll never tell”. jesse, a white jasmin, sweet love, amiability. even abby, forget-me-nots. you hoped to see the newcomer before blessing their arrival, if not, daffodils. new beginnings. a safe choice.

“i doubt they will like them” abby scoffed “it’s gonna be a tattoo shop, the owner, ellie, doesn’t really seem like the flowers and sunshine type of girl”

“tattoo shop” dina mused “hot”

🪷 ʾ ⠀

…and she was. the week had ran through you like water between your fingers and with daffodils in hand you were ready, flipping away the open sign from your shop and skipping towards your neighbor. hands busy with the plant pot, you pressed your face against the tinted glass windows as to search for the newcomers who had just hours prior been described to you over the phone with multiple flamable metaphors.

“are you looking for something?”

you were startled, nearly knocking down the vase in your hands and you understood, dina’s voice echoing gasoline, fondue, forest fire, cinnamon liquor through your brain to the point it fogged your response and reactions. freckles like starry war paint, eyebrow scar, pale green iris, peach pink lips, auburn hair gently brushing her shoulder at length. breathtaking, you immediately named the feeling, but she looked worn, tossed around. you blamed it on the lightly bruised eye she carried, caught onto sky grey vibes. you damned the daffodils, immediately thinking of something better: without knowing a single trait, you saw red carnations grow behind her in the way spiritualists would claim to see auras. red carnations; “my heart aches”.

she caught your eye for a second while awaiting your response, taking you in under her shuddering gaze in such precise detail you were sure all the lines and dots connected into the paiting of your face had made themselves a maze under microscope. she searched for something in you, a reaction, you barely even noticed how your breath had hitched until you ran out of air. her hand slowly reached towards your face in what appeared at first to be a cheek caress, before she tugged a leaf from behind your ear, stuck to your hair.

“uh yes! you! hi i’m your neighbor, the flower shop girl” you commented embarrassingly quiet, nodding your head at the leaf and the bouquet as though a flustered explanation.

“hi flower shop girl, i’m ellie”

ellie. you tasted her name on your tongue and melted into the feeling before she took the gift from you, arms extended. the heightened sleeve of her grey t-shirt exposed a beaming sun by her bicep, detailed sad expression in black ink across its center. you took notice of everything. ferns and a moth grew from her hand to the very end of her forearm and covered scars you could only assume to have been self inflicted. a sword pierced through the spare space of skin next to a phoenix and finally angel wings alongside a well hidden initial: J. you wouldn’t ask, but you wanted to.

“welcome to the neighborhood” you finally managed to say “those are daffodils, the flowers for new beginnings so i figured it fit”

“they’re beautiful, thank you” she answered, clearing her throat in uncertainty “anyways i have a tattoo appointment to get to in a couple of minutes, but it was nice meeting you”

“oh! yeah! of course! nice meeting you too, ellie”

you planned out your next meeting in your head, showing up with cookies as they do in the movies, catching glimpses of her sketches on the wall, giving them backstories to fill the gaps. it wasn’t so strange to be eager as you were taking into consideration how rare these opportunities had presented themselves: you never left jackson, not even on vacation. the world was meant to turn on its axis but you were destined to stay still, an agoraphobia rooted into your veins like movement would burst your chest open, bloody and broken. the flowers had been a therapist’s idea: to take care of something innocent as a purpose, exist outside the shell of a body you painfully cared for in pure obligation. your personal garden arsenal though, had meaning. yellow tulips, that’s what you were. the flower for unrequited love. the one tattooed by ellie’s hipbone you were yet to see.

too busy watching ellie walk away you barely caught abby’s gaze from the corner of your eye, her patrolling uniform perfectly neat and spotless in the same way she pretended to be, you too enthralled in the newcomer to watch her jaw clench. the return to your shop was hasty, the same daily people in line for a new centrepiece bouquet until the pleasantries and weather talk went quiet, jackson preparing itself for early slumber with the sunset.

🪷 ʾ ⠀

you were about to head up to your apartment when she opened the glass door, bells echoing out throughout the store “we’re closed” you called out, not turning around from your position rearranging pots until the heavy breathing made itself known to you, not following any steps towards the exit, the anxiety suddenly sending you shivers before your eyes could meet the entryway and harden at abby.

“we have to stop meeting like this-“

“shut up” she stopped you bluntly, in a stride finding her way towards your body and pressing it against the counter with her hips and grabbing your neck in a chokehold before rushing her lips against yours in a breathless sloppy kiss.

[simply-ivanka]

52% of America is women.

93% of basketball tickets are sold to the NBA

I don’t want to hear a fucking word about this until you show me a few ticket stubs and your League Pass receipts.

[theanticool]

Not to absolve James Krause of potentially breaking the law and using his position as a trainer to cheat at gambling or possibly fight fix, but kind of hard to knock anyone who takes that route. Not even mentioning how much money MMA promoters make and don’t share with the fighters, every single sport deciding to get on the FanDuel or Sports King train is tiring.

Then you see the amazing minds over at the NBA talking about adding a sports betting feature to freaking League Pass and…well, at a certain point you are enabling.

[gotham--fc]

I think the wnba should implement a “per game” price for the league pass like if there’s one game you really wanna watch and it’s only on the league pass but you don’t wanna pay the monthly or yearly price for the league pass I think they should offer a per game price like you pay $2-3 and you get access to that one singular game I think they’d get more ppl doing that especially the people who already pay for espn cbs nba tv etc that show a good portion of the games already no one wants to pay for a streaming service where they can’t watch over half the games but you’ll get people who are like yeah I wanna watch just this game I’ll pay $2 for it

Especially for the people who only watch one team the league pass is good if you wanna watch everyone but it’s not worth it for just one team bc of all the blackouts but if you’re like hey my team plays today but it’s only streaming on the league pass yeah I’ll pay for just this game

[unmanageably]

whats the tea on kd leaving the warriors? i was a casual fan at the time it happened so i don't know the situation

well... let me be brief (1/278)

lmao jk but.... well a lot! and most of it is speculation, etcetc ofc we'll never truly know until 20 years later when the last dance-esque documentary comes out about the warriors in the steph curry era lmao-- but the story goes like this:

kevin durant was the superstar of okc thunder and was steadily building up the franchise over the years to become serious contenders for a championship. they were always close, but had never quite made it. but with a good FO/org behind him, westbrook by his side, they were always really close— but again, as we all know, it was never enough (made the finals in 2012. lost. would make the playoffs but always got defeated). in 2016, they once again get really close at the western conference finals where they led the series 3-1 against the warriors. despite that they lose. a mere month later, he joins the warriors: a team that's obviously at the beginning of a dynasty— they won a championship in 2015 and made it into the finals in 2016. but more importantly, the team that beat kevin durant and okc thunder at the conference finals.

there were layers to this "betrayal" and to this day people still think this one decision "ruined the sport" (lol). people saw it as a betrayal on KD's part and it took an incredible hit to his reputation. you almost make it to the finals, you have an incredible teammate in westbrook by your side, an org that supports you and is willing to uplift you to your highest star potential, and you leave? to join the team that BEAT you? to the team that has steph curry, klay thompson, draymond green, andre iguodala?

already a hugely successful team without KD, but with him, it was undeniable. a superteam. yeah, a lot of team has duos or trios. lebron and kyrie, lebron and dwade, harden and cp3, etcetc. but this team was different levels. a whole team full. the team was 73-9 without KD. massively talented already. but now? steph, KD, klay as offensive threats. draymond and andre as defensive threats. insanely good roleplayers like shaun livingston.

everyone was livid. not just OKC fans. everyone in the league! the warriors, and KD's name specifically was tarnished. how disrespectful for the warriors to even think about creating a team like this. how disrespectful for KD to leave an org that's done so much for him. sports media was tearing into them, fans were tearing into them, they were quite literally, the most hated north american sports team. fans were burning jerseys, making videos threatening KD, etc.

we all know how KD with the warriors went. winning fixes all, right? arguably the most dominant team in nba history (2017 warriors vs 1996 bulls a common debate to this day), the warriors absolutely dominated the nba, and went on to win the 2017 and 2018 championships. KD finally gets his two rings and a FMVP. and the warriors still stay the most hated team in the league. you either loved the warriors or hated them! no in between. the narrative is that KD's rings were called into question because he "had a superteam" so they weren't "valid".

2018-2019 is when it all kinda starts falling apart. the warriors are plagued with injuries, and it's just clear they don't have the synergy and chemistry that they did before. it was most clear during a game against the clippers where draymond and kd visibly fought after a bad play at the end where draymond refused to pass to kd. draymond had allegedly yelled at kd and told him to just leave the warriors, and that they didn't need him (kd's contract was up that year as well). KD has said in later years that that argument was kind of like the ~last straw for him and the nail in the coffin for him leaving. he had already been having feelings of being "the odd man out"— though they were winning together and had good synergy on court, the core3 plus the other players were already a tight knit family long before he had arrived. after the incident with draymond, the team never really sat down and talked about it: just brushed it under the rug (dray was suspended for one game but nothing was talked about). KD felt like it was a slap in the face, all this stuff about how gsw is known for good team chemistry and good culture but they just wanted to brush that very public incident under the rug? after that he started playing more selfishly— less like how they would play as a team and more in isolation. KD gets injured during the finals, and as we know, klay gets injured as well: we lose the finals. we don't get the sought after three-peat. KD signs with the brooklyn nets and the rest is history.

i talked a lot about the beginning of KD signing on to the warriors because i feel like that was really the root of why he left. he became one of the most hated players in north american sports. his own fans tore into him. sports media all tore into him. calling him mentally weak, pathetic, etc. and does winning fix all? i feel like KD with the warriors was proof that... it doesn't. KD gets two rings that he basically sold his soul to the devil for AND two FMVPs and people still don't respect him. on top of that he wins it with the warriors: which has always been and will always be Steph Curry's Team. yeah he was integral to those wins, but you can't compete with how steph has built the dynasty, yk? what steph has given to the warriors.

so at the end of the day, the story goes like this: KD "betrays" okc by going to the team who beat him in the conference finals, creates the first real "superteam" in the nba (the superteam discourse is a whole other thing smh like teams aren't trying to do that now but i digress). the whole sports world is going in on him, he's basically sold his soul for these rings. he gets his rings, he gets his FMVP. but his legacy and reputation is still called into question: he's integral but still won his rings and his FMVPs on STEPH CURRYs team, not his. Steph's. on top of all the outside noise, internally he's not happy either. he doesn't feel protected within the team. he has beef with draymond, and steph/klay + the franchise will clearly always have their loyalty to draymond. he doesn't buy into the team culture anymore, and he feels like the odd one out. the only thing that could make him stay would be to keep winning more rings. but the two rings he has didn't fix anything. so why stay? what does he have going for him?

(he goes on to bounce between different teams, tries to build his own superteams but never comes as close as he did. meanwhile steph klay and draymond go through a tough two years, considerably the lowest two years in the steph/core3 era, and come out on top: they win the '22 finals, against a celtics team that had an 84% chance of winning the finals. they save their dynasty, their legacy. steph proves that he won a chip BEFORE KD, during KD, and AFTER KD as well.)

[moki-dokie]

Already posted this on twitter but tumblr tends to be a better place for this sort of thing. so. just basically gonna copy-paste the qt I did for this.

so, interesting thing that i feel is a prime example of why this "problem" is utterly made up bullshit capitalist propaganda.

back in the 90s, OKC was essentially dying. downtown was one of the worst in the nation. gang infested, falling apart, roads not only in severe disrepair but very poorly planned, and utterly reliant on offices nobody wanted to work in for good reason. it was BAD. (edit: also the 1980s recession hit here especially hard so it was suffering in general from the fallout of that, too.)

enter the MAPS program. a 66 month long temp raise on sales taxes to completely revitalize, restructure, and rebuild our downtown from the ground up. nothing like this had ever been done before in the nation, not on this scale. and keep in mind OK has notoriously been very red.

this was a bipartisan project (and continues to be still) and believe it or not got some of the most support during republican rule. i don't think there's ever been a project proposal before or since that received such outstanding support by voters either. everyone wanted it.

with MAPS our downtown got a convention center, music hall, trolley system, baseball stadium, library, arena, new streets, and like 3 miles of river dammed and moved to create a canal and set the foundation for future projects on the river itself.

by the 2000s, downtown was completely transformed. MAPS was so successful that another one was proposed and passed. And then 2 more.

since the original MAPS, theres been new parks added, river sports, cultural centers, hiking/walking trails, more street upgrades, a senior wellness center, state fair improvements, public transit upgrades, and too many infrastructure improvements to name.

OKC is now a contender to other major attractive downtowns in the nation. it is now a place you WANT to go. we got our own NBA team now that shaped some of the best in the league currently. it's one of the few walkable areas in the whole state too. its honestly beautiful.

point is, we got here by adding enrichment, art, entertainment, and public spaces. not more offices. not more soulless cooperations. not more industry. those were the problem, getting rid of them and replacing them with ways to improve happiness and community was the solution.

and we did it in one of the most socialist ways possible. in one of the reddest states in the nation. if your downtown is dying bc nobody wants to return to offices, then your downtown was dead already to begin with. work should not be the reason a downtown thrives.

so don't believe the capitalist propaganda for a single second. we have 30 years of evidence right here in OKC to prove that shit wrong at every turn. and any politician who spouts that rhetoric is 100% bought and paid for by some major corp.

anyway MAPS is really cool and everyone should read up on it https://okc.gov/government/maps-3/maps-history and advocate for similar projects like it in your own metro. if one of the poorest, most conservative and oft forgotten about places in the nation can do it, any city can.

and PS: all of this was happening at the same time as the Murrah bombing recovery - at the time the largest domestic terrorist attack in the nation. so like. there really is no excuse for a city to allow their downtown to die other than politicians licking the boots of big corps.

PPS: the newest MAPS was just passed a couple of years ago and is the largest one of them yet. we'll be getting more parks, a youth center, another senior center, a mental health and addiction facility, more public transit, more upgrades to streets, a new animal shelter, additions to the state fairgrounds, a civil rights center, lots of beautification, a multipurpose stadium, and three pretty fucking amazing projects that are worth going into more detail about. A family justice center - a temporary one exists but this one will be permanent. this is a really fucking cool place that helps victims of sexual assault, human trafficking, elder abuse, domestic violence, and children who've been through traumatic situations. a diversion center - this will essentially be a way to get people out of the prison system and back into society. it's for low-level, non-violent offenders that really shouldn't have landed in prison in the first place. our prisons are fucked around here, and so extremely overcrowded. I'm sure that could be said for most around the nation. this is more like rehabilitation and its really awesome to see. and lastly, a wholeass chunk dedicated to fighting homelessness - the first time this has really, truly been addressed with logical solutions. i gotta give big fuckin kudos to everyone involved on this one - its something they discussed openly with citizens, something they asked for suggestions about, something they've wanted to solve rather than just hide and needed the public's help to figure that out. the goal is to completely eradicate it by shifting focus to a housing-first program, create truly affordable housing (of which there is an extreme lack of in the heart of OKC), and offer services at every step of the way to make sure once a person is housed, they are able to also support themselves and stay housed. with $50mil from MAPS and $400mil from outside sources, this will be the largest of any of the projects to date and I am SO thrilled about it.

[exp-pack]

How StarCraft contributed to the San Antonio Spurs winning the ’99 NBA Championship:

A group of players, including two Hall of Famers Tim Duncan and David Robinson, as well as Malik Rose, and Sean Elliott, dubbed by other teammates as the “IBM Gang,” were united by a love for video games. After Elliott introduced his teammates to StarCraft, the group would be seen playing together often, especially while traveling together for away games.

The video footage shows Duncan, Robinson, Rose and Elliott playing 2v2 StarCraft in their hotel while on the road during their ‘99 NBA Finals run against the New York Knicks. After the Spurs beat the Knick in Game 5 in New York, the players passed the time on the flight with, you guessed it, more StarCraft.

Regarding the game’s impact on the team, Malik Rose was quoted once saying “Anytime you spent that much time together, all together, it makes you more fond of one another and made you closer.”

The Spurs claimed the franchise's first-ever championship in a five-game series against the New York Knicks, winning Game 5 on the road at Madison Square Garden. Tim Duncan won his first of three total Finals MVP trophies during this series--after winning Rookie of the Year only one year prior in '98--marking the beginning of the "Big Fundamental's" reign in the league.

[yaoistri]

tagged to do this by @kimissteeringwheel !!

pairing/ship list!

here’s the rules:

1. list your top 7 ships

2. put them in order of your love for them; 7 to 1, 1 being your favourite

3. name their fandom

4. supply photos for said people

7. tyson jost & jt compher, hockey rpf

sadly there is very minimal interaction between these two anymore, but they came into the NHL as rookies in 2017 and immediately became BEST friends playing together on the worst team in the league. they lived together and did everything together until tyson was traded away from colorado in 2022. jt has also now been traded away just recently.

6. erik johnson and gabe landeskog, hockey rpf

it’s 2011 and the youngest captain in nhl history gets drafted onto a team with a former number 1 prospect who has just been traded away from his initial team after injuring himself badly, and the two become tight instantly. LOTS of twitter banter occurs, and they play together for 11 years before winning a cup together! sadly, gabe has been out for a year after badly injuring himself during the 2022 playoffs, and ej just got traded away to buffalo, MEANING that the last game they ever played together was the game they won the cup….. sooo damn tragic and poetic

5. darius garland and donovan mitchell (spidaland), basketball rpf

they’ve only had one season together on the cavs, and sadly fell short in the playoffs, but they’re one of the best guard pairings in the nba for a reason, because they literally have soooooo much chemistry. also they’re ALWAYS touching each other????? like my camera roll is so full of pictures of them hugging

4. sebastian vettel and kimi räikkönen (simi), f1 rpf

they invented grumpy/sunshine. you can’t drive for ferrari and not get shipped with ur teammate i’m sorry it’s the rules! especially when you have a reputation for being as cold as ice but whenever you’re around him you start smiling… kimi ur not slick!

3. alain prost and ayrton senna (prosenna), f1 rpf

these two were INSANE. i’m a sucker for a tragic rivalry and they are nothing if not that. the chemistry, the tension, the way alain still talks about ayrton to this day, it all kills me. there’s so much about them we will never know and it drives me up the wall

2. nikola jokic and jamal murray, basketball rpf

these two oh my goddddd. might mansplain a bit here bc this is not a popular pairing at all — they were drafted to the denver nuggets in 2014 and 2016 respectively, nikola being a nobody from serbia who didn’t get picked until the second round, and jamal being a top 10 pick with all eyes on him. these two built this team on their backs, going from one of the worst teams in the league to finally winning the championship together in 2023 after facing a major setback when jamal tore his acl in 2021. the way they have so much trust in each other and have built a chemistry that has made them the best duo in the league is so dear to me :’) the dynamic is also spectacular - massive cynical european of little words and friendly but bratty short canadian who loves to have a laugh. i think the fact that i got to watch them grow together and that there’s like 5 other people in the world that ship them just make them sooo dear to me

1. lewis hamilton and nico rosberg (brocedes), f1 rpf

i literally have no words for these two 😭 i feel like i don’t need to explain that much either, because their story is so tragic and so out of a book that everyone already knows it. the intricacies of the way they destroyed each other will haunt me forever.

ok, passing the trend on! tagging @queergrittys @unsolvedjarin @jrueships if any of u are interested :)

[jordanrosenburg]

I just need to rant for a second because I'm so aggravated. Amazon Prime is $139 annually or $14.99 monthly. It used to only be like $100 annually, or $50 annually if you were a student. I do the $139 annual charge because it's actually cheaper overall than the monthly plan. (14.99 x 12 = 179.88) A lot of services are cheaper annually. But most people see the "lower" monthly fee and figure that's more manageable.

Amazon Prime Video is one of the "perks" of having an AP premium membership. The movies and tv shows on there don't have commercials, rightfully so. However, subscribers will soon start seeing ads unless they want to pay an extra $2.99 a month. So, for those monthly folks, that's now $17.98 a month. FOR WHAT?!

"We are writing to you today about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. Starting January 29, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers. No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership. We will also offer a new ad-free option for an additional $2.99 per month*..."

That's funny because, they cancelled The Wilds after 2 seasons. (Netflix does the same thing! And Netflix just very sneakily got rid of their $7.99 a month low-res option. So now if you don't want to pay $11.99 a month which is the new "basic" plan, you have to pay for ads.)

"Access to exclusive and broad streaming video content (including Prime Video exclusives like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Boys, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Citadel, The Wheel of Time, Reacher, and The Summer I Turned Pretty, as well as blockbuster movies such as Air, Creed III, Dungeons & Dragons, Candy Cane Lane with Eddie Murphy, and exclusive live sports including NFL Thursday Night Football). Access to Prime Video Channels, which provides an unmatched selection of subscription channels like Max, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, BET+, MGM+, ViX+, Crunchyroll, PBS KIDS, NBA League Pass, MLB.TV, and STARZ—with no extra apps to download, and no cable required. Customers only pay for the ones they want, and can cancel anytime."

All of those "channels" are extra costs. And they're saying this as if you can't just download the apps to your TV as if everyone only has firesticks or Amazon TVs these days nowadays.

And also, what if I don't like any of the original programming? What if I didn't care about football? All of the original programming I was invested in, was cancelled! I'm hoping The Summer I Turned Pretty doesn't get cancelled after the third season, but who knows?!

And what's different with APV as opposed to other streaming services is that this is just included with AP. This isn't something you can opt out of to save money. So, you may as well use it, right? What aggravates me the most is the fact that when I go to search for something, it'll either say, "Video not available, watch with [insert extra channel I'd need to pay for here], rent for $x.xx, or buy for $x.xx". I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO PAY EXTRA TO WATCH SOMETHING ON A SERVICE I ALREADY PAY FOR! NOR SHOULD I HAVE TO DOWNLOAD ANOTHER APP OR CHANNEL THAT ALSO REQUIRES PAYMENT.

I am so sick of having to surf between Hulu, Netflix, APV, MAX, Paramount+, Peacock, Apple TV, or Disney+. My Hulu is included in my Spotify because I was grandfathered into that option, so I don't pay extra for Hulu. However, I can't watch everything on Hulu unless I want to pay for the Hulu Live option which is $76.99 a month WITH ADS! So, between paying that or $10.99 for my Spotify/Hulu plan, yeah, I'm gonna keep the $10.99 a month plan. With Hulu Live, you still have the issue of not being able to watch everything you want to watch! There are still movies and TV shows that are unavailable. And I'm not talking about original content. I'm talking about if I have the urge to watch an old movie or binge an old TV show, I should be able to do that without flipping between services or having to pay extra!

I'm aware that rights and ownership come into play here. I know these services have to pay the networks to be able to stream certain shows. However, Amazon is a multi-BILLION dollar company. I think they can afford to eat the cost. They wonder why piracy is still a thing. How could it not be? All of this costs so much money and you still can't watch the things you want to watch!

People turned to streaming services so they could go ad-free and to save money on cable. Now, it all costs the same, even more, as cable depending on how many services you're paying for.

I also think APV is pulling this bullshit as a punishment for the strikes. "We lost so much money because the writers and actors were gone for so long, so now we need to make up for that lost time and also we have to cancel certain shows because they take months to put together and cost so much to film. So now we have to raise our prices so we can try to salvage what we can afford to do." That's essentially the message they're sending.

Amazon has generated approximately $553.7 billion in revenue over the last year. So, this is clearly just the usual corporate greed. Breaking even isn't an option anymore. Every quarter, every year needs to make more money than the last. Meanwhile, Amazon treats their warehouse workers like garbage. (I hope the workers keep unionizing because they literally keep the world running. We're able to get just about anything delivered same day or overnight because of the warehouse workers and drivers.)

The writers went on strike because they were being run ragged and so were the actors. When you have a speedy three month production, that means those people need to find other jobs for the other months of the year. That's why the next season would take a year to make because people found other jobs, so they needed to work around those schedules. And that's not to say some writers and actors and behind the camera workers aren't working multiple jobs at the same time, because they are, but this creates more and more time conflicts. They weren't, and probably still aren't, paying these people enough. So, now that things have been renegotiated, the streaming services are upping their fees for bullshit reasons all because they legally have to pay their workers more and god forbid they don't turn a billion dollar profit.

It costs more money to market towards new subscribers than it does to maintain the ones you already have. But who am I to say anything?

[principiumindividuationis777]

"Of all the players who ever played the game of basketball, Bill Russell is the first player I would pick to start a team."- Bill Bradley

"In my estimation, the guy that has to be there is Bill Russell. He won eleven championships as a player. I think that's the idea of what excellence is when you win championships."- Phil Jackson

"I picked him [Bill Russell] as the number one center of all time, as far as I'm concerned, because he was a complete, complete basketball player. I'm gonna pick him over me, because he also helped his team to win a lot more than maybe I could have helped my team to win. Sometimes the mere power of you makes you more individualistic. I have said this before: Wilt Chamberlain on the Boston Celtics might not have been the same, because I'd have taken away from Bob Cousy, from Tom Heinsohn, because I was a scorer too, and then all the sudden they'd have to pass the ball to me, and that would take something away from them, so sometimes, less is better."- Wilt Chamberlain

"When I was a rookie, there were 80 jobs in professional basketball, so a lot of good players didn't make that. I said [to Michael Jordan], 'If there were twelve teams, you couldn't have won that championship. He [Jordan] said, 'Why?'. I said, 'Because Pax [John Paxson], he hits this open shot, won the game. Well, if there were twelve teams in the league, he couldn't have made that shot.' He [Jordan] said, 'Why not?' I said, 'Because he'd have been up in the stands', and that's not a knock on him, it's a talk about the quality of the NBA."- Bill Russell

[epicspheal]

The League's Director (in Pokespe) when half the Kanto gym leaders are members of a criminal organization and the Elite Four tries to wipe out humanity: i sleep

Hi there anon! Haha this posts brings back a lot in regards to some past discussion regarding the role of the Pokemon League and dealing with criminal organization. Because it does seem odd that someone like Giovanni, nevermind the Elite Four and half the Kanto gym leaders could manage to slip by the league... Until you look at the league for what it is which is a very organized sports association. Sure it passes legislation but only in regards to the sport of Pokemon training (passing salaries, how many Pokemon can be carried at one time, etc) and at least in the Hoenn Chapter declaring a national emergency. So there is some power but ultimately with the fact that there is an International Police organization, armies for various regions (as hinted at with Lt. Surge) and local law enforcement there's very little the Pokemon League actually can do. Much like in real life people who go into sporting organizations or other professional organizations can be bad people on the side and have criminal dealings. And it's not the job of the professional organizations to handle them criminally, the most they can really do outside of cooperating with law enforcemen is decide to kick the person out and bar them from any future sanctioned events. So the idea that trainers can be league reps and still be evil actually makes a lot more sense when you look at it that way. And it also explains why in general most gym leaders, elite four, and even champions don't do as much you would think they would in regards to regional threats in the games and anime (I know we're talking about the manga mostly for this ask but I wanted to bring the games and anime up too because it's pertinent). Because again they're under a professional sporting organization and not a governmental one. It's not really in their job descriptions as part of the league to actively combat threats. Now if they happen to be detectives, G-men, soldiers and what not as their other jobs then yeah there's more of a professional reason to help but again it's not coming from the league itself which is just a global NBA/NFL/MLB assocation That doesn't mean they shouldn't try to help out. They absolutely should as a civic duty to their regions especially given their battle prowess which is helpful in dealing with various threats, but it's not a requirement in the job descriptions so they can most certainly not intervene and still retain their jobs because the Pokemon League Association.

As far as gym leaders/elite four/champions being criminals, well certainly the League should have the power to kick them out but the fact that they don't across multiple canons raises some implications. Either they don't really care or they may fear retribution if they try. After all especially when speaking of the Elite four they are incredibly powerful and certainly may decide to retaliate if they haven't been imprisoned. The people in the league association (running things in the background) may very well not be capable of handling a pissed off ex-league member and so they could be backing down on actually handling evil members out of safety concerns.