The 10-man rotation, starring the NBA, Donald Trump and the healing properties of fun
In today’s edition of The 10-Man Rotation — Ball Don’t Lie’s long-running regular look around the league and the web that covers it, now a weekly newsletter featuring original content you can’t get anywhere else and highlights from the week that was at BDL (subscribe here!) — I wrote a little bit about dread, escapism and trying to find a balance between staying connected and staying sane.
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From “It’s OK to use the NBA as a release in toxic times”:
I’ve tried to find some solace in remembering that our stuff might give people a few moments of escape, a shelter from the storm. Even that’s been a tougher sell, though, as the NBA, more than any other North American sports league, has made news with its full–throated response to (and, largely, rejection of) President Trump’s policies. Yes, as Sports Illustrated’s Andrew Sharp wrote this week, “The NBA’s reaction to Trump sounds like sanity in a country that increasingly feels out of control.” But covering that reaction also meant remaining immersed in the disorienting, disconcerting deluge, even while working in the toy department.
And then, on Wednesday, I was able to just separate for a second and actually watch some basketball … and man, it was fun. […] There was magic and mayhem and nonsense, and fun, great heaping gobs of it … and, afterward, Thursday felt a bit better than Wednesday.
That, plus a look back at some of the best hoops writing of the week, from both BDL and around the Web at large. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. It’ll arrive in your email inbox every Friday, and your heart will be full of basketball again before every weekend, just like you always imagined.
Previous editions of the newsletter include:
• The 10-Man Rotation, starring NBA Christmas, a true joy to the world
• No, Zaza will not be an All-Star
• The Cavs are slumping, and no one really cares
• Where has all the defense gone?
• Was Rajon Rondo’s Instagram hit all that bad?
Seriously, subscribe here. It’s never too late to feel good about the NBA and you. Just ask The Iceman.
