NBA Offseason Thread

[WilyWestbrook0]

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...ng-sells-91000

In this slow news time, I just saw that Oscar's championship ring sold for almost 100k.

He is nearing 80 years old. I guess he figures he won't be around for much longer, and wants to sell his stuff, perhaps to help out his family?

[WilyWestbrook0]

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...tal-health-nba

Interesting read on Pierce, Love, and the NBA's mental health. I remember the news of when Pierce was stabbed; not surprised he had to deal with a bunch of stuff after that.

I guess this is just another age-old reminder of how money, fame, and success aren't the answers to all problems. Pierce recovered physically from the stabbing, but had to endure all the mental baggage of dealing with it for years. Love won a ring with LeBron, produced big numbers in Minnesota, has made a ton of $, might be the best-looking dude in the world -- but he has problems.

Science doesn't seem to have the answers for mental health. I know many of us look to spiritual sources for peace instead. I don't know what Pierce believes. Love's a successful NBA player, but I have never heard him discuss if he has any spiritual or religious convictions. He's not like David Robinson, A.C. Green, Hakeem Olajuwon, or Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf with strong Christian or Islamic beliefs. I know his uncle was in the Beach Boys and they do meditation type stuff, but they don't subscribe to a more organized moral code like the Christians and Muslims do.

Anyway, we always see these guys as basketball players first, but they are also human beings and have the same struggles other human beings often do.

[Jameis1of1]

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...ng-sells-91000

In this slow news time, I just saw that Oscar's championship ring sold for almost 100k.

He is nearing 80 years old. I guess he figures he won't be around for much longer, and wants to sell his stuff, perhaps to help out his family?

Great price for that piece … I'm not really sold on it's potential ROI (at least not compared to various sports cards like the recent Gretzky pop 1 RC, etc) but have little doubt it will increase in value far more than a bank cd or even most stocks on the NYSE will!

[Jameis1of1]

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...tal-health-nba

Interesting read on Pierce, Love, and the NBA's mental health. I remember the news of when Pierce was stabbed; not surprised he had to deal with a bunch of stuff after that.

I guess this is just another age-old reminder of how money, fame, and success aren't the answers to all problems. Pierce recovered physically from the stabbing, but had to endure all the mental baggage of dealing with it for years. Love won a ring with LeBron, produced big numbers in Minnesota, has made a ton of $, might be the best-looking dude in the world -- but he has problems.

Science doesn't seem to have the answers for mental health. I know many of us look to spiritual sources for peace instead. I don't know what Pierce believes. Love's a successful NBA player, but I have never heard him discuss if he has any spiritual or religious convictions. He's not like David Robinson, A.C. Green, Hakeem Olajuwon, or Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf with strong Christian or Islamic beliefs. I know his uncle was in the Beach Boys and they do meditation type stuff, but they don't subscribe to a more organized moral code like the Christians and Muslims do.

Anyway, we always see these guys as basketball players first, but they are also human beings and have the same struggles other human beings often do.

The world needs Jesus Christ … and NBA players are part of that world.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Another retirement, couple of days after Manu's:

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...ces-retirement

David West had a very solid career. In the deep 2003 draft class, he tends to get forgotten (put up a couple of 20 point and 8 rebound seasons in New Orleans when he was younger), but he was a good player, and got a couple of rings at the end of his career.

[Nostalgykone]

Oops sorry, I started another before reading this.
Shame on me.

But I agree 100%

Another retirement, couple of days after Manu's:

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...ces-retirement

David West had a very solid career. In the deep 2003 draft class, he tends to get forgotten (put up a couple of 20 point and 8 rebound seasons in New Orleans when he was younger), but he was a good player, and got a couple of rings at the end of his career.

[Nostalgykone]

Mental health will always have a stigma around it. Many see its remedies like psychotherapy to be pseudo science. If you are not challenged by mental health issues, or close to someone who is, then you don't get it and probably never will.

We know so little about the brain and in most instances doctors are prescribing drugs for emotional/spiritual issues on a trial and error basis. That's just as frightening as any spice or opioid epidemic. The reason it isn't addressed and you don't hear about is because the pharmaceutical companies agenda.

Different things work for different people, whether it's religion/community, physical fitness, or whatever else. It's important to be passionate about several different things in life. If you're able to do so than you're fortunate than most.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...tal-health-nba

Science doesn't seem to have the answers for mental health. I know many of us look to spiritual sources for peace instead. I don't know what Pierce believes. Love's a successful NBA player, but I have never heard him discuss if he has any spiritual or religious convictions. He's not like David Robinson, A.C. Green, Hakeem Olajuwon, or Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf with strong Christian or Islamic beliefs. I know his uncle was in the Beach Boys and they do meditation type stuff, but they don't subscribe to a more organized moral code like the Christians and Muslims do.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Mental health will always have a stigma around it. Many see its remedies like psychotherapy to be pseudo science. If you are not challenged by mental health issues, or close to someone who is, then you don't get it and probably never will.

We know so little about the brain and in most instances doctors are prescribing drugs for emotional/spiritual issues on a trial and error basis. That's just as frightening as any spice or opioid epidemic. The reason it isn't addressed and you don't hear about is because the pharmaceutical companies agenda.

Different things work for different people, whether it's religion/community, physical fitness, or whatever else. It's important to be passionate about several different things in life. If you're able to do so than you're fortunate than most.

You are right in that the science right now is iffy at best as we don't know much about the brain. But people do have real, concrete struggles, so the question is, how do we deal with it given the limited understanding we have? I was diagnosed with a certain condition in 2014 at nearly age 30 that I probably never would have received in the 1990s or early 2000s, and sometimes I still wonder about the methodology used to classify this condition now.

I've also mentioned Jon Niednagel here before, a "brain doctor" that Danny Ainge uses to help identify talent for the Boston Celtics. Niednagel himself actually isn't a neuroscientist, but he attempts to extrapolate what he has studied about the brain to what he has observed in mental and motor tendencies for various athletes, and ties it to a system he uses to classify people. He uses the same 16 type model found in Myers-Briggs circles, but tries to say that types aren't "personalities" per se, but instead hard-wired, inborn, and unchanging types that can be observed objectively in people rather than typed subjectively using vague questionnaires. I used to be a big supporter of his, but he's increasingly tried to make black-and-white distinctions among people he perceives as various types, when there's still lots of gray area involved. Kevin Love, for example, is said to be an "ISTP," a type Niednagel says never seeks out counseling to cope with problems. But Love did just that last season, he sought out counseling (if reluctantly at first).

All I know is we are a very complicated mix of genetics and environment, and a system with merely 16 types isn't nearly precise or analytic enough to properly account for all the human variation in the world.

[pwaldo]

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2018/08/...ht-chriss.html

The Rockets and Suns have agreed to a trade, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, Phoenix will acquire Ryan Anderson and De’Anthony Melton from Houston in exchange for Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Anderson was definitely expendable and didn't really fit into their kind of system anymore. Chriss can bring a defensive presence.