Tag: Chris Brickley

Wake up, babe. New Ben Simmons workout video shooting jumpers just dropped.

Is Ben Simmons back? We need to see more.

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Prince J. Grimes.

What’s going on, y’all. Welcome back to Layup Lines. I apologize for using such an old meme reference in the headline to get you here, but it is kinda fitting considering we were probably using that meme the last time Ben Simmons was good.

OK. That was mean. But hear me out.

In the three years since his last All-Star season in 2020-21, Simmons has played a grand total of 57 games. Some of that is due to injuries, some of it is because he never fully recovered from what happened against the Atlanta Hawks. Whatever the reasons, it’s been a long time since we’ve had enough evidence to believe he can be a good NBA player again.

Unless, of course, you’re into those offseason workout videos athletes love to post of themselves working on things they never actually do in games. Then, believers of the Brooklyn Nets forward have the most promising evidence yet of his impending bounce-back after four years of trying.

Simmons has been in the gym with renowned trainer Chris Brickley, and the results look about as good as you could expect for someone with good editing and no defense in front of him.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAB65qOJD04/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

If I sound skeptical, it’s because I am.

We’ve been down this road before. FTW has teased the potential Simmons return to form time and again and again and again. There’s a reason people like Doris Burke and Shaquille O’Neal have criticized him in the past. So, forgive me if I need a little more than a workout video to believe he’s fixed.

I hope I’m wrong. I would love to see Simmons be good again. He’s only 28. And Brickley is really selling it, responding to another skeptic on X by saying Simmons “is better now than his All Star seasons.”

That’s saying a lot.

At the same time, the problems with Simmons have been just as much about his physical breaking down as his mental. Back issues limited him to just 15 games last season. It’s the third straight year he’s been sidelined by back problems. Brickley can’t fix that.

That’s before we get to his shaken confidence. Though he averaged a career-high 11.9 rebounds per 36 minutes in those 15 games last season, and his 8.6 assists per 36 minutes were the second-best of his career, he was clearly a more tentative offensive player. Yes, he shot a career-high 58% from the field, but it was on a career-low 7.4 attempts per game — a number that’s dipped each year he’s played.

Even if he somehow gets over that mental hurdle, how much have the injuries and time away from the floor impacted his mobility and defensive abilities?

I don’t know the answer to any of that, but I know this video doesn’t bring me any closer to knowing either. So, I’ll just wait to see Simmons in a real game before I believe he’s back. You probably should too.

Adrian Wojnarowski retires

The Vertical

You’ve surely heard by now, but ESPN NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski announced his retirement this morning.

Normally, this type of news would have led the newsletter, but we here at FTW have already done so much coverage that I didn’t have much more to add. From reaction around the sports world to the biggest Woj bombs to Wojnarowski’s potential replacement at ESPN, we hit it all.

Our guy Mike Sykes contextualized the news about as well as anyone could in today’s The Morning Win: It’s the end of an era.

“Of course, I’m happy for him. He’s worked hard and has earned the right to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

But at the same time, Woj was one of the defining characters of the NBA basketball era I loved the most. His reporting shaped the zeitgeist. He didn’t just break news stories – he changed how the league was covered. Nobody scooped things the way he scooped things.

For so long, in the early aughts going into the 2010s, following Woj on Twitter was like being an NBA insider yourself. The platform was still young — everyone in real life wasn’t on it. But Woj used the platform as a news-breaking forum, so you’d have the scoop before all your friends did. It was almost like you were breaking the news yourself.

It’s not hyperbole to say that the NBA doesn’t become the league it currently is without the work Woj did covering it. He’s an essential character in the league’s story over the last decade and change in the same way an NBA superstar would be.”

Well said. Simply put, the NBA won’t be the same without Woj.

Shootaround

— Isaac Okoro was thrilled that he was a part of the final Woj bomb

— LeBron James ripped the Panthers in a tweet in support of Bryce Young

— Netflix’s trailer for the Starting 5 is here and it looks amazing

— LeBron hilariously poked fun at the memes of himself reading the first page of a book

WATCH: UNC commit Ian Jackson goes through workout with Chris Brickley

Highlights of UNC basketball commit Ian Jackson working out with trainer Chris Brickley.

UNC basketball commit [autotag]Ian Jackson[/autotag] took part in one of the most decorated all-star camps in high school last week.

The Chris Brickley Invitational was held in Chicago and hosted by legendary NBA trainer Chris Brickley. It is a showcase for the top talent in the high school game with players hand-selected from any class by Brickley.

Jackson is one of the top players in the entire country regardless of class and is a consensus top-5 player in the 2024 class. He is the No. 5 player in the 247Sports rankings.

Jackson was one of three future Tar Heels in attendance, alongside 2023 four-star guard Simeon Wilcher and 2024 five-star guard Elliot Cadeau.

While the rumors of a potential reclassification to 2023 are out there, Jackson has remained firm that he is staying in 2024.

UNC’s four-man recruiting class in 2024 is ranked No. 1 in the country, highlighted by three five-star prospects in Jackson, Cadeau and Drake Powell and one four-star forward in James Brown.

Below are highlights of some of his workouts before the scrimmage.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

Follow all of your favorite Carolina teams at Tar Heels Wire and Panthers Wire!

Russell Westbrook seems to have reworked his jump shot but fans aren’t really buying into it

Russ’ jumper looks different but fans still don’t think it works.

Russell Westbrook’s jump shot caused so much pain for Lakers fans last year. It just left them so confused.

The shot was just so bad. Anytime he shot the ball it felt like a live ball turnover. And with the wild bounces it sometimes took off the backboard, that’s absolutely what it was.

That’s why Westbrook was just such a bad fit with James and the Lakers last season. He has never been a particularly good jump shooter and the Lakers knew that when they got him.

That’s why Russ is back in the lab this off-season. Apparently, he’s put in work to improve his jump shot. A video session of him working with Chris Brickley surfaced on the internet and, honestly, the shot looks better.

It’s flatter. He isn’t jumping as high and the ball has more arch to it than it previously did.

This is just a set shot, so we have no idea how it looks off the dribble. But this definitely looks like an improvement. A subtle one, but an improvement nonetheless.

You’d think fans would be happier about this. But nope! They’re actually not buying it at all.

Well, let’s start with this: the …

Well, let’s start with this: the overwhelming feeling among league insiders is that Mitchell is likely to sign outside of Utah at the first available opportunity in 2025. Mitchell considers New York home. Mitchell has spent the majority of this offseason in New York this year. His skills trainer, Chris Brickley, operates out of a gym in the city. It makes sense that he’d be interested in living there full time.

James Harden shoots lights out during drill with NBA skills coach

James Harden is looking good with training camp only a couple of days away.

Training camp will begin this week, which means a new NBA campaign is now upon us. Every team will try and gain an edge on each other during these next weeks depending on the work they put in. For Nets star James Harden, he has already begun his training to gain that edge all summer long. Last week, he was seen working with NBA skills coach Chris Brickley.

After a hamstring injury kept him from competing at a high level in last year’s playoffs, Harden’s number one goal as of late has been getting in shape. The 32-year-old admitted that his conditioning was not where it was supposed to be last season so now he wants to change that.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUKwNkIgTbg/

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NBA trainer Chris Brickley explains what it takes to be an elite player

Some prospects are identified with limitless potential but never amount to anything. Other guys come out of nowhere and shock the world.

Some prospects are identified with limitless potential but never amount to anything. Other guys come out of nowhere and shock the world.

It’s hard to predict which prospects fall under which category but Chris Brickley has a pretty good idea of how to do it. Brickley is the owner of BlackOps Basketball, where he works as a skills trainer for the league’s top stars.

You may recognize him considering his gym often has pickup games featuring everyone from Carmelo Anthony to Trae Young. He also helps train several famous musicians including the likes of J. Cole and Travis Scott. Brickley, who has over a million followers on Instagram, also owns the clothing brand Color Blind NYC.

He has seen so much of the progress many of the game’s best players have made during their careers. This year, he trained seven of the players selected in the first round of the 2021 NBA draft and some of them will go on to make a big impact in the pros.

With that in mind, Brickley caught up with HoopsHype to teach us about some of the traits and characteristics he has noticed from the players who start off as great prospects but evolve into guys who also have excellent professional careers.

Please note this interview was minorly edited in its transcript for clarity.

Ranking Quavo, Justin Bieber and Drake by their basketball skill

These dudes can really hoop!

“Athletes wanna be rappers, rappers wanna be athletes.” Those are words from the illustrious street poet and superstar Lil Wayne back in 2014. It’s true. If you need proof, look no further than your Twitter timeline, folks.

If you’ve logged on today, you’ve been blessed with the incredible privilege of watching rap and R&B superstars Quavo, Drake and Justin Bieber hoop in NBA super trainer Chris Brickley’s gym.

Keeping it real with y’all? They got some skill. Can’t even hate on it.

Jumpers all look a bit goofy, but they look pretty good! Like, I’m pretty sure Quavo could probably hoop on, like, a Division II college level or something! That’s how good he looks.

Drake and Bieber? I’m confident they could try out for the Canadian national team and at the very least make it to the cuts that happen right before the final cuts to the team. That’s a compliment! I swear! Well, to them, anyway. Not to Canada’s national team.

Obviously, this wouldn’t be a prime piece of internet content if we didn’t rank them. So guess what? We’re ranking them!

3. Drake

Yeah, I’m pretty sure Drake is that guy at pick up who can literally only shoot the ball and that’s it. How do I know? This was the first thing we saw him do.

Now, don’t get it twisted. That’s a valuable skill on the pick up court. But… just don’t ask him do to anything else.

By the way, I know y’all peeped that Kawhi Leonard bounce at the end. What kind of basketball magic do they have going on up in Toronto?

2. Justin Bieber

Listen here, man. Not a huge Justin Bieber fan, y’all. Can’t lie about it. But he’s definitely played some sort of organized basketball before.

My man gave us a hit ahead pass, attacked a closeout, got the the rack and gave us a no-look dump-off dish. And he made it look cool, too, which always gets you bonus points in my book.

Yeah, fam, Bieber got sauce. I’m getting hella White Chocolate vibes from the Biebs. Is that because he’s white? Potentially.

1. Quavo

Quavo is really good, y’all. I mean, really REALLY good. He’s pulling up in people’s faces off the rip in the most disrespectful fashion.

 

No, but really, props to Quavo for having game. This is dope. The only flaw that was apparent was his hesi-to-shot combo.

There was nothing wrong with the hesitation move, but fam, when you pull it out for three straight dribbles? Nobody should fall for this. He still hit the shot, though, so ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

This was fun to watch. Hit me for the next game, y’all. I’m down.

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