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Don’t let anyone tell you that the movie “Eddie” is a bad movie. We explain why below.
Draymond-Poole, Part II
Father vs. playing is great summer content
There is never a dull moment when it comes to Draymond Green and the NBA. You may remember last year that he punched teammate Jordan Poole during a practice beforehand. It seemed to put an entire malaise on the Warriors’ season, and they never fully recovered. They were great at home, terrible away and ultimately not good enough to defend their title.
Poole was traded to Washington in the offseason, tying a nice little bow on everything where everyone can move on, right? WRONG! No one has moved on! Poole is asked about Green every time he appears somewhere. And now a Draymond appearance on Patrick Beverley’s podcast has more members of the Poole family coming after Draymond.
On the pod, Green was asked about the incident and this is what he said:
“I don’t just hit people. Dialogue naturally takes place over time. And you don’t usually just get triggered by something like… so quickly to that degree. I say as if this is a team. Is there no one on my team who triggers me at a moment’s notice. We know things that are not said among men. We know things that you have to stand on.”
This quote from Draymond makes the fake apology documentary he made nine months ago that much funnier. At that point, it was all about putting the incident behind them and controlling how they reacted going forward. Green intended to work and do what he could to fix it. It was not fixed. And now that Poole is off the team, we can see that it’s no longer behind them because no one will stop talking about it.
That video led to Poole’s father responding on Twitter to the quote from Draymond to Beverley. And then Green answered it:
Hey, Jordan Poole’s dad is on Twitter! And it was his first tweet since telling people he voted a Poole 3-pointer and celebratory highlight for Ultra Moment of the Week back on Valentine’s Day. He also recently liked a tweet calling Draymond something you shouldn’t call anyone, with a video of Kevin Durant talking about Green.
Players and parents tweet to each other. This is the perfect late July content we need from the NBA.
Let’s check in with Shams.
The latest from Shams
Cunningham, Holmgren highlight selected team
As we continue to monitor and report on the Damian Lillard and James Harden situations looming over this NBA summer, the biggest development of the week centered around youth and development.
On Thursday, Athletics‘s Joe Vardon and I reported it Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham and Houston’s Jalen Green, and Sacramento’s Keegan Murray is among a group of rising American NBA stars selected to join Team USA for FIBA World Cup training camp next month in Las Vegas, according to league sources.
- Team USA’s FIBA World Cup national team, featuring players such as Anthony Edwards, Mikal Bridges, Jaren Jackson Jr., Brandon Ingram and Jalen Brunson, will begin training camp for the 2023 FIBA World Cup on August 3 on the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
- Holmgren, Williams, Cunningham, Murray and Green will be part of the US Select Team, and as part of that, they will not only practice against the American 12 chosen to represent the United States at the World Cup, but are eligible to travel with the team to the Philippines and serve as a replacement if someone is injured before the start of the Cup.
Elsewhere, Suns owner Mat Ishbia told me on Wednesday that his organization is working to launch a new G League team as early as the 2024-25 season, which would complete the 30 teams that have their own G League affiliate.
- The Suns previously operated a G League affiliate called the Northern Arizona Suns, which former owner Robert Sarver sold to the Detroit Pistons in 2020. The Suns have recently had success developing prospects in Ish Wainwright and Saben Lee over the past two seasons. Wainwright is now on a standard contract and Lee was re-signed to a two-way deal.
Back to you, Zach.
Ear game
Welcome to A King’s Reign
Normally we’d drop some things to watch on TV, but today we’re bringing you A King’s Reign, an amazing project that our audio staff and writers have been working on for months at Athletics. It takes you through various important steps and landmarks in LeBron James’ historic 20-year (and counting) NBA career.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, here’s what to catch up on so far, with more to come next week:
Bounce pass
Want some Power Rankings three weeks into the offseason? Of course you do!
John Hollinger’s under-the-radar summer league players.
Fred Katz preaches patience as he examines the idea of Joel Embiid making his way to New York.
How will Jabari Smith Jr. a defensive star? Kelly Iko has the way.
Dollar amounts for NBA contracts are astronomical and we should talk about them differently.
Why didn’t the Kings make massive upgrades? Monte McNair explains.
Movie Friday
Don’t sleep on ‘Eddie’
We’ll be reviewing a basketball movie every Friday in this space during the high season, starting with the 1996 sports comedy “Eddie,” starring Whoopi Goldberg, Frank Langella, Richard Jenkins, and Dennis Farina. (We also did an episode about it for my film podcast Cinephobe with Amin Elhassan and Anthony Mayes.)
Are there any real hoopers in the movie? Malik Sealy (RIP), John Salley, Mark Jackson, Rick Fox, Dwayne Schintzius (RIP, Ivan making baskets), Greg Ostertag, Walt Frazier, Gary Payton, John Starks, Anthony Mason, Olden Polynice, Dennis Rodman, Avery Johnson, Muggsy Bogues, Larry Johnson and many more. 10/10
How is the story? Eddie (Goldberg) is the ultimate Knicks fan who gets a chance to coach in the middle of the season. She tries to get the Knicks to the playoffs despite Stacy Patton (Sealy) being the ultimate ball hog. Meanwhile, new Knicks owner Wild Bill Burgess (Langella) secretly tries to move the Knicks to St. Louis. Ultimately, she must make the team a team while navigating all the issues and politics of being an NBA coach. 7/10
How’s basketball going? Extremely solid. Everyone on the court is an actual professional basketball player, so while some of the continuity and basketball logic may suffer at times, it looks physically legitimate. 8/10
Is the lead credible? Once you see Kurt Rambi’s trainer, it’s not hard to believe in Whoopi as a trainer. She sounds like those in-game clips that only offer basic things like “defense” and “box out”. 8/10
Least believable moment: To think the NBA would allow the Knicks to be moved from New York to St. Louis in the middle of the night. 2/10
Does it have really memorable moments? Polynice explains what a black hole is while at the free throw line. Whoopi and Dennis Rodman banter during play. And the ending, where there is essentially a sit-in in the final moments of the game with the playoffs on the line, is truly insane. Also a horse bears the Converse crest. 9/10
Would you watch it again? Absolutely. I’ve probably seen this movie 30 times in my life and I always love it. There are some legendary performances.
Final Verdict: This is a good movie. It’s a fun sports movie. It has its limitations and there are ridiculous aspects of the story, but most people in it give a good performance. It’s also great for 90s basketball nostalgia.
🏀🏀🏀🏀/5
(Photo of Jordan Poole and Draymond Green: John Hefti / USA Today)