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2022 NBA ALL-STAR DRAFT | DURANT'S SMIRK AND LEBRON'S CLIPBOARD






I get the rationale behind the clipboard in this clip.


Fresh out of the NBA trade deadline, we have seen the boys from OKC imploding for almost four years now. The chemistry Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden had during their Oklahoma City Thunder run will never be duplicated – even if they try so hard to replicate it.


Kevin Durant left OKC because he couldn’t get Russell Westbrook’s in-game antics. Westbrook and Harden tried to team up in Houston to dismal results. Now, Harden left Brooklyn to join rival Philadelphia without the championship supposedly promised by a Durant, Harden, and Kyrie Irving triumvirate.


So yeah, when LeBron James is covering his face with a clipboard… you know that clipboard is important.


However, it’s not really just the clipboard. It’s the PAPER on it that makes it extra special.


Now one might think on the awesomeness of what that clipboard held. Maybe it's just a prop? Maybe it is just the names of the players so he wouldn't look at a monitor. LBJ is after all, also an actor that is comfortable in front of the camera... unlike KD who likes to take things privately.





I am a fantasy basketball nut and I get the thing about going to a draft-day with a smorgasbord of research materials. I have a different kind of cheat sheet for every type of league. I also rely heavily on my own research – because I have this thing wherein the guys doing the fantasy cheat sheets are also fantasy addicts themselves… and I would just give the world vague and almost-general assumptions on which player is going to be awesome in a particular format.


Inasmuch as I hate the shit surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers with LBJ’s team as dysfunctional as Brooklyn, you gotta love how the way he makes his all-star teams.


LeBron James: "He hasn't played, is he healthy?"

Charles Barkley: "He got traded, he's healthy now!"


LOL


LeBron James is undefeated in the NBA All-Star Game ever since the captain’s format is introduced because he knows how to create his team. Sure, it’s good TV to have Durant select or snub James Harden but he also dug a grave for his team for having a ton of guards and only a handful of bigs to show prior to the last two picks. LaMelo Ball and Dejounte Murray are the last additions but it’s not like KD can’t predict a setup on his head.


So I am guessing Joel Embiid, Rudy Gobert, and Karl-Anthony Towns are going to be in the middle with Jayson Tatum and Andrew Wiggins possibly helping out in the PF spot. Writing the sentence made me notice that Embiid and Wiggins are former Kansas teammates and Towns and Wiggins played for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Anyway, of course, Durant from a captain’s perspective had to choose Gobert because has already…


Wait…


Hmmm…


LeBron James has chosen Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic to join himself in his team’s frontcourt.


And the rest are all guards, shooters, and slashers.


Not only is LBJ known for his research… but he’s also known to audition players for his squad.


I was one of the few who plucked John Wall from free agency in anticipation of a Trade Deadline buzzer-beater but with Westbrook staying put, maybe one of those dudes are going to be points of interest in his stay with the Lakers… or his next destination?


Darius Garland?


Hmmm…


Maybe I shouldn’t rant about Durant’s All-Star team?


Maybe this year, Kevin Durant is going to hand LeBron his first All-Star Game (captain’s format) loss?


Hmmm…






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