Category: NBA

7 Kendrick Lamar GNX lyrics about sports, including a Kobe reference

One of the songs is called Dodger Blue and it is amazing.

Kendrick Lamar released a surprise album, GNX, and in the process was able to delight his fans around the world.

The project, which includes 12 new songs and did not have any promotional material leading up to its release, is his his sixth studio album. It includes a lot of what music fans can expect from the rapper, including some incredible beats and compelling lyrics as well.

Some of those songs include references to the likes of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, John Madden, local high schools in Los Angeles, and his upcoming Super Bowl Bowl performance.

It also has a song called “Dodger Blue” that is, obviously, a shout out to the World Series champions.

With the help of Genius, we looked at a few of the best athlete mentions on this surprise drop.

Track 1: wacced out

“Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulated me”

Track 5: hey now

“If they talkin’ ’bout playin’ ball, they can take it up with Jordan

It’s bald heads and the heckling for all endorsements”

Track 8: dodger blue

“What school you went to? God didn’t have Compton

Westchester, King Drew, do we function’?”

Track 9: peekaboo

“Peekaboo, eighty pointers like a Kobe game”

Track 10: heart pt. 6

“Punch played Phil Jackson in my early practices”

Track 11: gnx

“I’m in the field for real, UCLA Bruins”

Track 12: gloria

“Preoccupied playin’ John Madden and bull [expletive]”

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Dalton Knecht scores 17 points in loss to Orlando

A look at Dalton Knecht’s performance against Orlando on Thursday.

Orlando (10-7) defeated Los Angeles (10-5), 119-118, on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California.

Former Vol Dalton Knecht started and played 39 minutes for the Lakers. He totaled 17 points, four rebounds and one assist against the Magic.

Knecht converted 7-of-14 field goal attempts and 3-of-7 field goal attempts.

The former Vol was selected in the first-round of the 2024 NBA draft (No. 17 overall) by Los Angeles.

Knecht was a transfer from Northern Colorado and played for the Vols during the 2023-24 season under coach Rick Barnes. During his one season at Tennessee, Knecht averaged 21.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.

He led the Vols to a SEC regular-season championship and an appearance in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in school history.

Knecht was the 2024 SEC Player and SEC Newcomer of the Year. He was a consensus All-America standout and earned the Julius Erving Award.

Minimum GOATs: The best players ever on the NBA’s base salary

At any given time, roughly a third of the league is on veteran or rookie minimum contracts. By and large, these are young and unproven or older and nearly washed players, balancing on a knife’s edge for their NBA careers. Most second-round picks, …

At any given time, roughly a third of the league is on veteran or rookie minimum contracts. By and large, these are young and unproven or older and nearly washed players, balancing on a knife’s edge for their NBA careers. Most second-round picks, for example, end up signing minimum deals, and few stick in the league for too long. But every once in a while, a minimum player makes you sit up and take notice of their play.

Here are the Top 20 players to play on minimum deals. (For this exercise, we’re focusing on players on minimum contracts for full seasons).

The Nuggets redid Russell Westbrook’s Wilt Chamberlain 200 triple-double tribute with a photo just as illegible

Kudos to Russell Westbrook for being a good sport about this.

On Tuesday night, Russell Westbrook became the first player in NBA history to record 200 triple-doubles in a Denver Nuggets’ win over the Memphis Grizzlies. For one of the more unique talents and personalities in basketball history, it’s an achievement of longevity and success worth celebrating and then some.

So much so that it should get the iconic Wilt Chamberlain tribute, complete with a blank white piece of paper and a thick black marker.

The Nuggets appear to agree, but it really doesn’t seem like they know how to properly execute it.

They gave Westbrook the initial honor of doing the Wilt copycat photo with a “200” written on a piece of paper. The problem is that the 200 appears to be written with the thinnest possible writing utensil — not a thick black marker — so it’s hard to see when you squint.

For a cool milestone moment in an NBA legend’s career, it’s a little disappointing:

The awkward part about this whole thing is that Westbrook appeared to disapprove of the thin writing, too. In a post on his Instagram, Westbrook edits out the Nuggets’ 200 by unsubtly putting a 200 in big and bold font.

You know, so his achievement is more visible when he shares it and keeps it for himself. Honestly, I get it!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DClIOnBRhyH/?hl=en

Two days later, the Nuggets tried to rectify their mistake. This time, to hopefully make it more visible, they gave Westbrook a giant piece of poster paper with 200 written on it. Surely, now you’d be able to see it perfectly, right?

Wrong, because they used a thin writing utensil AGAIN:

Well, at least Westbrook appears to appreciate the gesture and attempt to correct the first Chamberlain tribute. It looks like he was a good sport about it.

Still, man … how do you get that wrong twice? Just fill in the numbers, folks! Why is that so hard?? It boggles the mind.

NBA ranking: The top scoring duos ever (relative to team performance)

HoopsHype ranks highest-scoring duos in league history, including LeBron and Wade, Shaq and Kobe, Durant and Westbrook, Jordan and Pippen.

Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo are combining to put up 44.75 percent of the total points scored by the Milwaukee Bucks thus far in 2024-25, which surely sounds like a lot to you.

Well, according to our research, that mark doesn’t put Lillard and Antetokounmpo even close to the Top 30 scoring duos ever, at least if we’re judging on the percentage of a team’s total points scored by a duo for a single season.

That means, for this exercise, we’re not just adding up Player A and Player B’s points per game to figure out the NBA’s top scoring duos of all time. Instead, we are adding each player’s total points scored in a season and dividing each duo’s mark by their team’s total points scored that year to find the highest percentages of a team’s total points scored by duos.

Below, check out the NBA’s top scoring duos ever.

The latest 2025 NBA mock draft from Bleacher Report has BYU star Egor Demin on the Jazz

This seems like a PERFECT fit for the Jazz if they don’t Cooper Flagg.

One of the most exciting names in college basketball is BYU freshman Egor Demin, who is off to an incredibly hot start this season.

After one of the strongest debuts of any first-year player, the 18-year-old freshman from Russia looks like one of the most promising prospects in all of college basketball. He is averaging 17.0 points and 7.5 assists per game at 6-foot-9, shooting 11-of-20 (.550) on 3-pointers as well.

Read more from Jonathan Wasserman on why this is such a good pick (via Bleacher Report):

“While the Cooper Flagg hype came built in after years of coverage and NBA accessibility, no player has generated more NBA buzz on his own so far than Egor Demin.

BYU coach Kevin Young has given the freshman an ideal role to showcase his on-ball upside, and the Russian has capitalized, looking like a legitimate 6’9″ initiator creating advantages and setting up teammates with his handle, size and passing IQ.

So far, he’s looked fluid and convincing enough for scouts to start feeling confident in his ability to continue playmaking at a high level in the NBA.

He also looks substantially further ahead as a shooter than previous jumbo playmakers like Josh Giddey, Anthony Black or even Scottie Barnes. Demin made 11 threes over his first four games. And even if the accuracy falls off, his early start and track record overseas point to clear shotmaking confidence and shooting becoming a regular part of his scoring attack.

Looking ahead, scouts will be eager to assess Demin against power-conference opponents, specifically his ability to create separation and finish inside the arc.”

Demin has not faced much competition so far this season. Among all teams ranked in the top 30, via KenPom, only five have had less difficult strength of schedule so far. But if he can keep this up, expect he will only continue this ascension on draft boards.

The Jazz could make a lot of sense for Demin to pair him with Keyonte George as their backcourt of the future. Jazz chairman Ryan Smith and CEO Danny Ainge both attended BYU and are reportedly very big donors to the university. They would likely find it thrilling to add the next great BYU star to their roster.

Another team with potential interest is the Spurs, who selected him in ESPN’s latest mock draft.

Here is our latest NBA mock draft at For The Win, where Demin goes to the lowly and injured New Orleans Pelicans.

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LeBron thinks not drafting Dalton Knecht means that 16 other NBA teams ‘[expletive] up’

Knecht looks even better than expected.

Los Angeles Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht just had his best game as a pro, recording 37 points against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night.

It was an outstanding effort from the former Tennessee star, who was also 9-of-12 on 3-pointers during the win over the Jazz in NBA Cup play. That tied a league record for most 3-pointers ever made by a rookie, which is no small accomplishment.

When asked about how the Lakers were able to find Knecht, it didn’t take long for LeBron James to admit exactly what happened. Los Angeles didn’t exactly “discover” some secret talent with Knecht.

Instead, according to LeBron, the other 16 teams that did not pick him in the 2024 NBA Draft “[expletive] it up” and he then wondered if any of the talent evaluators and decision makers watched him play.

Knecht, who was named SEC Player of the Year and won the Julius Erving Award for the best small forward in the nation, was simply available when the Lakers were on the clock.

That serendipity worked out perfectly for Los Angeles, who now have a 23-year-old sharpshooter ready to inject life into a team coached by JJ Redick.

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