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Cup of Cavs: Cleveland Cavaliers news and links Wednesday, December 22

Basketball remains a team sport.

New York Knicks v Cleveland Cavaliers Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Good morning! The Cavs are presumably still playing basketball this evening which will hopefully provide us a nice outlet for a few hours.

The first sip

I have always found Cavalier legend Iman Shumpert really interesting. He is someone who is extraordinarily talented and creative in a way that gives him a different perspective on life and the game of basketball.

I found his recent comments in the below video interesting even if I don’t necessarily agree with them.

The NBA is still a young league compared to the other three major sports so we don’t have the same level of historical context for it. They were still broadcasting playoff games on tape delay as recently as 1986 which is something you could’ve never imaged for an MLB or NFL playoff game at that time.

Michael Jordan didn’t get the sport off of tape delay, but he did popularize the game like no one else has and became the measuring stick for all who followed. The mythology built around Jordan helped basketball become what it is today and unintentionally started the ringzzz culture where we judge individuals solely on team accomplishments.

Treating basketball like it’s an individual sport where one person is responsible for a championship is what “ruined” it. LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and the countless more who will inevitably follow them are just the byproduct of that thinking.

We don’t judge baseball or football players primarily on team accomplishments since we have a wider cultural historical context for what it takes to win a championship. The NBA may be 75 years old, but it is much younger than that in terms of it being a culture defining mainstay.

The NBA will stay “ruined” until we evolve past the ringzzz culture Jordan created by being a member of a great team.

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Links of the day

Udoka playbook: Re-screen Hammers

2022 NBA Mock Draft

The NBA Is Sending in the Replacements. Plus More Observations From Around the NBA

Adam Silver says there are no plans right now to pause the season amid COVID-19 surges