Thursday Bolts – 8.20.15
Berry Tramel: “The NBA is expected to approve for the 2015-16 season a playoff format by which teams are seeded 1-8 strictly on record, regardless of divisions. But teams still are being scheduled with divisions. Every team plays a fellow division member four times, teams in the other conference twice each and teams in its own conference but not in its division three or four times. Which means the Thunder should have an easier schedule than most of its fellow Western Conference contenders. The Northwest Division of OKC, Utah, Denver, Portland and Minnesota figures to have three rumdums — the Nuggets, Blazers and Timberwolves — plus the Thunder and Jazz. With Utah not expected to be one of the premier six teams in the West.”
Richard Johnson of the New York Post: “Friends of former NBA Commissioner David Stern are urging him to run for mayor in 2017, now that Mayor de Blasio is looking less likely to be re-elected to a second term. Stern, a lifelong Democrat who has regularly contributed to the party, will be retired for two years in February. ‘He’s pretty bored,’ said one source. ‘He’s always been interested in politics, and he’s always been interested in running for office.'”
One tweet from LeBron is worth a lot of money.
Kevin Durant’s doctor performed Joel Embiid’s surgery.
Tim Duncan won the NBA’s best teammate award.
This was an interesting piece on the Oklahoma Drill from David Fleming of ESPN: “AT 8:30 THE next morning, Barry Switzer, dressed in golf shorts and a light blue T-shirt, steps out of his home on the edge of OU’s campus and strolls down the shady side of Chautauqua Avenue toward the football practice fields. Spry and feisty at 77, the Hall of Fame coach, one of only three men to win a national championship and a Super Bowl, never misses the first day of contact. By the time he arrives, the scorching prairie sun has already cooked the wet, thick grass into something that feels like a microwaved sponge. Switzer, though, snarls at the first person who offers him a bit of relief. ‘No shade,’ he says out of the corner of his mouth. ‘Oklahoma drill day. Suck it up.'”
