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7 takeaways from round two of NBA All-Star voting

TACKO FALL AND ALEX CARUSO ARE CLIMBING.

Do you hear that? Ah, yes. It’s the sweet, sweet sound of internet chaos. Round two of NBA All-Star voting is in and everyone is just as mad as they were the first go around.

For those of us who love to watch Twitter burn? This is great. For everyone else? All-Star voting is a complete sham. A popularity contest. Do away with the fan vote.

If we’re being honest here, they’re probably right. But that’s also the beauty of the fan vote. It’s chaos!

Here’s a look at how the second round of voting has gone so far. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

Once again, remember, fan voting doesn’t end until January 20. Player voting (25%) and media panel voting (25%) make up the other half of the vote for starters.  The reserves will be chosen by NBA coaches.

In other words, this isn’t how the team is going to look. There’s still a big chance for your favorite player to land on the All-Star team.

In the meantime, though, here are seven takeaways from the NBA’s totally chaotic second go-round of All-Star voting.

LeBron James is king again…

After falling down to third in the first round of All-Star voting, LeBron James has jumped up to first overall with 3,359,871 total votes. Luka Doncic is second with 3,277,870 and Giannis Antetokounmpo is third with 3,259,383.

Alright, look y’all. I’ll say it. Look, James is great. We get it. But THIS IS BORING.

Give us Team Doncic and Team Antetokounmpo. It’s time for the torch to be passed. Just once, it’d be nice to see James be human. Have him drafted with all of the other run-of-the-mill All-Stars. Could you imagine James being drafted as not the number one pick in an All-Star draft? DRAMA.

This is what we need. For the love of everything chaotic in the NBA, vote Doncic and Antetokounmpo.

Trae Young is still the leading guard in the East

TRAE YOUNG HIVE STAND UP! The Hawks guard leads all Eastern Conference guards with 1,389,628 votes.

We do not care that Young plays for the worst team in the NBA. We do not care that he can’t play a lick of defense. We don’t even care that we don’t fully know what’s going on with his hairline.

All we know is that he’s probably the most fun player to watch in basketball right now. That’s all that matters, numbers aside. All-Star games are about fun. This vote is correct.

Tacko Fall!? ALEX CARUSO!?!? CLIMBING!?!?

YUP. THAT’S RIGHT.

We’re doing it, y’all. We’re really going to make Tacko Fall and Alex Caruso All-Stars. We had no idea this was possible, yet here we are being incredibly dumb and incredibly great all at one time.

Tacko Fall has 543,352 votes. Alex Caruso moved up to sixth among all West guards. Objectively speaking, this is incorrect. But if this is incorrect, then what’s the actual point in being right?

This is great. Bald Mamba forever. Tacko Fall forever.

Carmelo Anthony is going to get that legacy spot

Anthony isn’t going to be a starter and that’s fine. But the fans want to see him in this game — that’s clear. He’s still sitting at 8th in the West’s front court voting and has been a pretty fun story this year.

We’ve got to get him in that same legacy spot that went to Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade last year. It makes too much sense.

Kyrie Irving knows what’s good

Kyrie Irving has been injured for most of the season and still has the second most votes as a guard in the East with 1,351,997 votes.

It’s hard to condone a dude who has missed 70% of his teams games so far being an All-Star starter. But, like Young, Kyrie Irving is just incredibly fun in an All-Star game. And he knows it, too.

…. Fair enough.

At the same time, Spencer Dinwiddie is being disrespected

We have to do better. Spencer Dinwiddie appeared in the first returns for the vote with 94,618 votes. Now, he’s nowhere to be found. He’s been replaced at the 10th spot with Fred VanVleet.

With all due respect to VanVleet, Dinwiddie has been flat out better this season. Hopefully, the players and media do him some justice.

What year is it again?

Because if you look at the voting too quickly you might think it’s 2010.

Derrick Rose is fourth at guard in the East with 918,550 votes and Dwight Howard is 10th in the West front court with 390,037 votes thanks to that Lakers bump.

Two years ago, this being a thing was laughable. Now? It’s…well…still pretty laughable. Yet, here we are.

Yup. We’re definitely living in a simulation.

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Steph Curry revealed what he told Giannis Antetokounmpo in viral courtside exchange

Curry offered an explanation.

Giannis Antetokounmpo still has another season until he fits free agency, but NBA fans are always — and I mean ALWAYS — on Tampering Watch when it comes to the Greek Freak.

Just look at what happened after the Bucks’ 107-98 win against the Warriors.

As the game came to an end, cameras caught a courtside exchange between Giannis and the injured Steph Curry. It appeared that Curry said something along the lines of, “Let’s do it, c’mon man.” But out-of-context lip-reading can be entirely unreliable.

Still, that didn’t stop NBA fans from immediately assuming that Steph was putting forth a recruiting effort out in the open. So, Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes reached out to Curry for his side of the interaction.

Steph told Haynes that he was only giving Giannis a gamer tag and asking him team up and “do some damage” in PlayerUnknown’s Battleground.

Given where the Warriors’ season is right now, I guess it’s somewhat plausible that Curry’s mind would be at gaming after another loss. But NBA fans weren’t exactly buying the explanation from Curry.

Giannis will hit unrestricted free agency after the 2020-21 season.

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The arrivals of Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin in Mississippi just made the Egg Bowl a must-watch rivalry

Mike Leach is taking over at Mississippi State, and Ole Miss recently hired Lane Kiffin.

Mike Leach is leaving Washington State to take over as head coach for Mississippi State, USA TODAY Sports confirmed Thursday. This is huge news for the 58-year-old coach who’s famous for his air raid offense and is approaching two decades as a head coach.

Leach had been with the Cougars since the 2012 season after getting his first head coaching job in college at Texas Tech and spending 10 years with the Red Raiders.

After a 6-7 2019 season, the Bulldogs fired Joe Moorhead Friday at the end of his second season with the program. Mississippi State lost in the Music City Bowl to Louisville in December.

Leach taking over means the SEC has yet another big-personality coach in the conference, particularly the SEC West. But while the always blunt and often entertaining coach joins Alabama’s Nick Saban and LSU’s Ed Orgeron in that category, perhaps the most entertaining aspect of this news involves the program’s rivalry with Ole Miss, which recently hired Lane Kiffin.

The Egg Bowl rivalry game between the two teams is often wildly entertaining, sometimes regardless of the score. And even the most recent on in November ended in absurd fashion with a last-second touchdown, a penalty for a player mimicking a dog urinating on the field and a devastating missed extra point. A dog urinating moment also occurred in the 2017 matchup too.

So how could a game with a history of ridiculousness get even better? Pitting Leach against Kiffin is a great start. So mark your calendar because the first Egg Bowl with these two coaches is November 26, 2020.

College football Twitter is rightfully pumped about this new element of the rivalry with Leach’s arrival at Mississippi State, and that even includes the former Alabama assistant and FAU coach.

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Richard Sherman spoke out against the NFL’s lack of diversity in head-coaching hires

“It doesn’t matter how much you talk about it because it’s not changing.”

Like many around the league, Richard Sherman easily noticed the lack of diversity in coaching hires around the league.

The latest NFL head-coaching cycle has yielded entirely white hires with the Giants even elevating former Patriots wide receivers coach Joe Judge to head coach. The Cleveland Browns are the only remaining team with a head-coaching vacancy, but Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski has recently been linked to the position.

If the current makeup holds, there will be just three black NFL head coaches — the same number as when the NFL instituted the Rooney Rule in 2003, requiring teams to interview minority candidates for head-coaching vacancies.

That rule clearly hasn’t helped provide real opportunities for qualified minority candidates, and according to Sherman, it’ll take a drastic shift in NFL ownership to see more black head coaches in the league.

Sherman said to reporters on Wednesday:

“It’s always going to be a challenge in this game whether it’s male, female, or whether it’s coaches of color getting head-coaching gigs. I think it’s going to be a conversation. The owners still look a certain way, and they still come from a very old background. So, it’s going to be this way until things change.”

He continued, saying that most coaches of color who get interviewed are brought in just to meet Rooney Rule requirements:

“You can be terrible as a head coach and, hey, no matter what in a couple more years, you’re gonna get another job. And you’re going to get recycled back if you look a certain way. And that’s the unfortunate part.

“Obviously, Robert Saleh is a person of color and got an interview. But, you know, I think Lovie Smith, there’s tons of coaches out there that deserve a head-coaching job, (Eric) Bieniemy. But those guys aren’t even getting a look. And the ones that are getting a look are just getting it so they can check the Rooney Rule box off. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much you talk about it because it’s not changing. The people who could change it make billions and billions of dollars, and they can care less.”

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Angry Celtics fan arrested after throwing drink on the floor over Kemba Walker’s ejection

A Celtics fan crossed the line after Kemba Walker was controversially ejected from the game.

Celtics star Kemba Walker earned two technical fouls in rapid succession and was ejected from Wednesday night’s game in the third quarter after he was leveled on a screen by LaMarcus Aldridge.

Official Evan Scott did not appear to see the collision, and when Walker got up and protested the no-call, Scott quickly assessed a technical foul. Walker said a few words to Scott, who then called a second technical, resulting in Walker’s disqualification. Celtics coach Brad Stevens erupted and also earned a technical.

The Celtics trailed the Spurs by 18 points to begin the quarter, but had trimmed the deficit to seven at the time Walker hit the floor on the screen. Celtics fans were understandably irate, but one crossed the line by hurling a drink near the Spurs’ bench.

According to the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy, the fan who threw the drink was arrested, and Brad Stevens apologized to the Spurs for the incident. The fan was charged with “disturbing a public assembly,” per WCVB.

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Tennis star Coco Gauff chastises her dad for cursing in this adorable video

Coco Gauff’s father and coach didn’t realize he cursed while mic’d up, so Gauff gently chastised him.

Coco Gauff is just 15, but she’s already one of the best players in world tennis. This week she was playing at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, and during her match against Laura Siegemund they mic’d up both her and her father, Corey Gauff, who also serves as her coach.

The talk, which took place after the first set, is a great example of her dad giving her a ton of positive reinforcement, which at one point embarrasses Gauff to the point that she looks up at the ball person like, Ugh, dads, right?

That was good, but the best part was when her father said that Gauff hadn’t given up three points to her opponent’s “damn serve” which led to Gauff gently chastising her father, reminding him that he was mic’d up and he wasn’t allowed to curse.

Her dad, who hadn’t realized he had cursed, pleaded his innocence, but Gauff wasn’t having it.

“I cursed?” he said.

She told him he had, and then he bashfully apologized into the mic.

It was very cute:

Gauff would go on to lose the match to Siegemund. I hope the cursing wasn’t responsible.

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Kevin Love loses it mid-game on Collin Sexton, sure seems done with Cleveland

Kevin Love showed up Collin Sexton, and seems like he’s fed up with the situation in Cleveland.

There have been rumors swirling for weeks that Kevin Love is on his way out of Cleveland, and he sure looked like someone who was ready to leave on Saturday night, when frustrations clearly ran over for Love.

At the end of the first half of the Cavaliers’ game against the Thunder, there were 14 seconds remaining on the shot clock and 22 seconds remaining on the game clock.

The Cavaliers had a decent reason to run the clock down a bit before getting their offense going, so as not to force up too quick a shot and give the Thunder more chance on the final possession of the half.

Cavaliers rookie Collin Sexton did more than run the clock down a bit, though. He just sort of stood near half court, dribbling and dribbling. Love, who was being guarded by the much-shorter-than-him Chris Paul, got completely fed up. He called for the ball in the post, was ignored by Sexton … so Love kept walking toward the young guard.

Love then demanded Sexton toss him the ball. Sexton gave it to him, and Love fired a furious two-handed pass to Cedi Osman, who couldn’t make much happen and hurled up a long 3 … and actually got bailed out by a foul call.

Still, watch Love:

This is tough. Sexton will argue that he was trying to run the clock down to get a final look. Still, his lack of awareness is rough here: Love has a much shorter player guarding him in the post. That has to be the look.

Sexton didn’t give it a look. Sexton made his mind up, until Love came out and showed him up. No matter who’s at fault, it seems that Love’s time in Cleveland is running short.

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Kobe Bryant heckled Luka Doncic during Lakers – Mavericks … in Slovenian

“He was talking Slovenian. So I was like, who is talking my language? And I saw Kobe.”

The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Dallas Mavericks 108-95 on Sunday night, in large part to the Lakers’ excellent defense.

A huge part of that defensive gameplan was keyed around stopping MVP candidate Luka Doncic of the Mavericks. The Lakers did well there, with Doncic having one of the worst nights of his season.

L.A. might have also had a little help getting in Doncic’s head, thanks to former Lakers great Kobe Bryant, who was sitting courtside at the game and isn’t afraid to talk trash to, well, anybody.

During the game, Bryant was shown trash talking Doncic to the point that Doncic actually turned around. When he realized who was doing the smack talk, he smiled and dapped up Bryant.

After the game, however, Doncic revealed that it wasn’t just standard trash talk … Bryant was riffing in Slovenian, Doncic’s native language.

“He was talking Slovenian,” Doncic said. “So I was like, who is talking my language? And I saw Kobe, and I was really surprised.”

Does Bryant know Slovenian from having grown up in Italy and spending a lot of time in Europe? Or is he just such a competitive lunatic that he went and learned Slovenian trash talk so he could give Doncic crap in a game that he wasn’t even playing in?

The world may never know. Honestly, neither would surprise me.

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Tacko Fall, wearing a tuxedo, conducts the Boston Pops to raucous ovation

The 7-foot-5 Celtics cult hero Tacko Fall wore a tuxedo and conducted the Boston Pops for a rendition of “Sleigh Ride.”

Celtics rookie center Tacko Fall has quickly become a cult hero in New England, mostly because of his size — he stands at 7-foot-5. While some of the appreciation for Fall feels a little icky and “look at the tall freak”-y, he seems to be enjoying it, and as long as he’s happy, I’m happy.

The latest stop on the Tacko Takeover of New England was at the Boston Pops on Monday night, when he led the famed orchestra in a rousing edition of the holiday classic “Sleigh Ride.”

He was wearing a size-48 double-extra-long tuxedo, via ESPN, which Fall said was the first tuxedo he’d ever worn.

That is one tall man leading an orchestra.

I do enjoy the initial reaction of the crowd, many of whom clearly had no idea who he was. Then he stood up, and they understood what was happening there.

As long as we’re appreciating Tacko Fall and not gawking at Tacko Fall, I’m . OK with this whole thing continuing. But watch yourselves, Boston. I’ve got my eye on you.

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Stefon Diggs overthrew Kirk Cousins on a trick play, and everyone had jokes

What could have been one of the best trick plays of the season was denied by a bad throw from Stefon Diggs. Alas.

Oh Stefon Diggs, what could have been.

The Vikings had a 10-6 lead in the second quarter of their NFC North matchup against the Green Bay Packers on Monday night, and were facing third and four, when they dialed up a fantastic trick play.

Quarterback Kirk Cousins handed off to a running back on what looked like a sweep, only for him to toss the ball to Stefon Diggs on an end around. Diggs then basically appeared to have an option read to either run the ball or throw it to Kirk Cousins.

The defenders committed, leaving Cousins wide open streaking up the sideline and … Diggs overthrew him. It was heartbreaking for fans of trick plays.

This wasn’t a Tom Brady catch fail. Cousins had no shot at this ball. He even dove for it! But yeah, just not the right pass.

Anyway, a lot of people had jokes.

To his credit, Diggs said he won’t complain about overthrows anymore.

Did that play destroy the Vikings? Unclear, but they didn’t score again for the rest of the game. It ended 23-10 in favor of the Packers, which makes the NFC playoff race that much more wild.

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