Today I feel a bit unwell, so here’s a brief dose of links and notes.
- You might have heard it already: Jalen Brunson underwent surgery to repair a tendon issue in his left hand/wrist. We even got a couple of contradictory reports on it. Summer days!
- Brunson scored 45 points in Game 5 to close out the Spurs and win the Knicks’ first championship in 53 years with a bad shooting-side wrist. Let that marinate for a minute.
- Knicks extraordinare Guerschon Yabusele is heading back to Europe, agreeing to one of the richest deals on the old continent to play for Panathinaikos in Greece, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
- Kevon Looney is off the Knicks’ board after agreeing to a one-year, $3.9 million deal with the Lakers.
- As part of a ginormous six-team trade, Washington is getting Khris Middleton and sending D’Angelo Russell to Memphis, the Mavericks are getting Marcus Sasser and Santi Aldama, the Bucks are landing Caris LeVert, and Detroit is getting John Collins, Taurean Prince and Gary Harris. Don’t trust me and check the details once again. Congratulations, Motown, you can now consider yourself a contender for the No. 7 seed in the East!
- The LeBron James waiting game continues. ESPN published yet another story and featured an executive saying LeBron could still influence the balance of power in the East.
- Donovan Mitchell, proud owner of the latest albatross deal to be signed in #thisleague, could have waited for a five-year, $353 million deal, but instead locked in long-term on the first day he was eligible. He would seemingly also approve of LBJ’s landing with the Cavs.
- There was also a funny Kenny Atkinson wrinkle in the LeBron chatter. One executive wondered how James would fit with Atkinson, who claimed during the conference finals that the Cavs had “analytically” won two of the first three games while trailing the Knicks 3-0. I still think about that quote sometimes. Mostly when I need to smile.
“LeBron can influence the balance of power in the conference,” the executive said. ‘He’s not a driver, not on a night-to-night basis. [But] having him around, he picks and chooses his spots. ‘I wonder how he would fit with Kenny Atkinson?‘ (The executive wasn’t the first to wonder how James would react to Atkinson, who bizarrely claimed, ‘Analytically, we’ve won two of the three [games]‘ as his Cavaliers trailed 3-0 to the Knicks.)”
- Miami has a jersey problem after landing Giannis Antetokounmpo, as the Greek decided it’d be cool to don No. 7 after the Heat started selling No. 34 jerseys.
- You know who did an interesting thing, to say the least, with his jersey number? You guessed it right.
You can follow Antonio on Twitter at @chapulana.
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