06/28/25
June 25, 2025
SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Steve Ballmer paid a record 2 billion to Donald Sterling for the Clippers even though Donald was being forced to sell the team and had little leverage to speak of.
You don't bring a Brinks truck to a fire sale. Ballmer way overpaid.
Then the Clips put together a Herschel Walker trade with OKC to get Paul George. Where OKC is now is the result of that trade. Besides SGA, OKC GM Sam Presti has a trove of draft picks that would make Danny Ainge want to burst into tears and chew on a wet towel.
Presti's first wave of mega talent (Harden, KD, Westbrook) have all turned into high priced wanderers with baggage that for the most part have not delivered their NBA teams to the promised land.
And if OKC hadn't tanked in the 3rd quarter of Game 7 of the 2016 WCF with the Warriors and lost their chance to go to The Finals, KD might well have stayed put in OKC instead of signing with Golden State.
The Lakers just got sold and have roster issues. Not top contending anytime soon.
Against this backdrop and remembering that Rick Carlisle brought Dallas a title via the toughest playoff road in NBA history and this year almost pulled off what would have been the most momentous Finals upset in history with the Pacers, any complaints on the part of Mavs fans are strictly junior varsity. Be glad for what you had when you had it, and for what you're about to get later today.
posted by beaverboard at 12:54 PM on June 25, 2025
Oh, even without Coop the Mavs would still be in a much better position than quite a few other teams are in right now. Any grousing from fans should be firmly directed at ownership/management, which is a whole different thing entirely, and I don't know that the current group will ever (or should ever) regain the level of trust they had just six months ago.
posted by Ufez Jones at 06:29 PM on June 25, 2025
posted by Ufez Jones at 06:39 PM on June 25, 2025
KD dealt to Houston.
Mavs fans, I know you will *always* be salty about Luka being dealt to the Lakers, but at least you didn't completely tank your team's future like PHX did in acquiring KD. And, y'all won the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes!