"Arsenal are a wealthier, more powerful club and they should be better than they are under Mikel Arteta."--Mark Ogden, ESPN
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Zollner Avoids Elimination 116-109; Sensitive City (3-2) Breathes Easier, 125-120 Ontario State
Superstar Cade Cunningham scored a franchise-best 45 in the playoffs. Paolo Banchero matched CC's 45 for Disney but missed 7 of his 12 freebies.
The Cadavers rose from the dead in the 4Q (25-17) to save the jobs of coach Kenny Atkinson and president Drunk Koby Altman.
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
"3-2-1", NBA Draft Lottery Reform
16 teams make lottery.
"3": balls in the lottery hamper go to each of the 7 teams in each conference who finish with the 4th through 10th worst records.
"2": balls in hamper to the four teams, two in each conference, who finish 9th or 10th in their conference, and to the bottom three teams, dubbed the "relegation zone" for Lizards and like that.
"1": ball in hamper for losers of 7 vs 8 play-in games
In total, this means there would be 37 lottery balls assigned to 16 teams. CBS
FT SEVEN FOOT SIXERS BLOW OUT BEANS (3-2) IN BEANTOWN 113-97
Beans still has some of this weirdness in them at home.
Public Occurrences April 28, 2026
Florida Felon Indicts James Comey...Again
This one is based on the former FBI Director photographing and posting in May, 2025 some seashells that he saw in on a North Carolina beach arranged in "8647", which the indictment says was a threat against the Florida Felon's life.
If I didn't have to sleep, I wouldn't. I want to LIVE.
I sleep as little as possible, but the annoying fact is that all carbon-based life on earth must sleep. The mental, emotional and physical well-being of human life is contingent upon roughly one-third of our life spent sleeping. We must get a good sleep.
Which is why for about 30 years I have taken a prescription sleeping pill, temazepam, every night.
Now my (second) ex-wife is undergoing chemotherapy preparatory to cancer surgery. I keep close tabs on her. Yesterday she texted me on her (un) well-being. Didn't sleep at all Sunday into Monday night. Chemo rash. Itchy, painful. The awful side effects of chemotherapy have just about driven her mad. I went over to see her yesterday evening and we talked. Lidocaine gives her relief from the rash for about three hours. Not enough to get the sleep that she needs. I hesitatingly offered to go back to place and get one temazepam pill for her. She hesitatingly agreed.
I awaited the results with great anticipation today. At 11:20 am she texted me:
"Slept the entire night. First time In weeks (or maybe in my whole life????) 🙄"
My measured reaction:
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! WOO HOO!!! i did one right thing!"
Monday, April 27, 2026
Boulders, formerly Pebbles, ne "Nuggets" on precipice (1-3), have slight lead over Dire Wolves mid-way through 2Q
Boulders, formerly Pebbles, ne "Nuggets" on precipice (1-3), have slight lead over Dire Wolves mid-way through 2Q
Pat Riley's Season's End Presser*
2:30 pm:
I watched and listened to the whole thing. It went over one hour, longer than I had remembered these annual things going previously; he was right on time at 1 pm, ended at 2:06.
I'm tired. You know why I'm tired? Because listening to Riley is like reading a Tom Friedman column--you have to pay close attention to every word and study to get his main point(s), which are often surrounded by less consequential statements. Which is one reason I stopped subscribing to the New York Times!
(more (I have to study my notes))
*Updated:
To me, the most important things Riley said, in order of importance:
1) In answers to two questions (in the middle of the press conference, see above) Riley said he is going to have discussions with Erik Spoelstra on the "wheel" offensive philosophy. There could not be a basketball philosophy more antithetical to Riley's history and experience, but Spo is the coach and Riley deferred to him on this (and to positionless basketball a decade earlier) in 2025.
The first question was if Riley thought the roster needed to get bigger and longer.
A: There are different philosophies, e.g. playing big, playing small and fast, pace and space. Spo has a philosophy. (Spo invented "positionless" also.)
: Style of play and personnel dictate philosophy. Not the other way around. Riley then used a metaphor for his own philosophy, a traffic light. I hadn't heard this before and wasn't expecting it and it was confusing the way that Riley presented it. I understood Riley's philosophy to be an upside-down traffic light, red on top, cautionary yellow, green on bottom. He said Spo's philosophy was the traffic light right-side up: green, yellow, red. At first, I thought Riley was using the traffic light exclusively about playing fast or slow. He is not a fan of the "wheel", not a fan of breaking possessions down into three eight-second segments, whoever gets the ball last (since they're all positionless) takes the shot. Riley doesn't believe in that. Riley believes that when the clock is in the last segment "You get it to your guys", the main scorers.
Reading over my notes, he was also using the traffic light as metaphor for commitment and change. At the end of last season in this event, he attempted his own variation of, "If it's not necessary to change, it's necessary not to change." It was mangled and confusing (like the traffic light this time). But when you do decide to change, you have to commit whole-heartedly to it. Riley made this statement in the context of discussing Kel'el Ware and Bam Adebayo playing together. The question was very direct:
"Is it time in your mind to tell Spo to commit to Ware and Bam as a tandem or I'm going to get you a prototypical big (a big, slow space eater who can only play one position) to play with Bam?"
He likes Kel'el and Bam playing together, thinks Kel'el should be playing with Bam in the same unit, said Spoelstra "was up and down with it for a number of reasons" and gently criticized Spo for not being more committed to it.
In the second question he made the same point on Tyler Herro and Norman Powell sharing the floor:
"They can coexist if you're playing the right style."
And again in his answer to the last question from "Tim", noi:
"We have the kind of players who can play in Spo's system but I will talk to Spo about making tweaks."
My global take on this first major point is that he is not real happy with the job that Erik Spoelstra did this season.
2) Answer to Ira Winderman's first question (and first of session):
"We're not good enough."
In answer to Ira's third question:
"I didn't think that we were championship material." ( i.e., at trade deadline)
In the middle of the presser, in answer to unid'd pencil:
"You need talent to win in this league."
But he loves everybody in the rotation, specifically naming Bam, Tyler, Davion (twice) Jovic, Ware, Powell. He will "try" to upgrade but the overall tone was that he believes that this roster, with growth and development, has enough. eye roll.
In answer to Anthony Chiang's second question:
"We like our roster."
3) "I'm not retiring."
4) "I'm really pissed. I'm disappointed. Disgruntled." (confirming Dwyane Wade)
5) Is not trading Bam, confirming Barry Jackson.
6) Confirms that he loves veterans over rookies.
Public Occurrences April 27, 2026
Germany's Merz: Iran Humiliating Florida Man, Entire Toilet Nation
"The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result. An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards. And so I hope that this ends as quickly as possible. The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either."
Sunday, April 26, 2026
First sentence in write-up on 7'6"ers-Beans:
By AP
Apr 26, 2026, 09:35 pm
PHILADELPHIA -- — Payton Pritchard hit six of Boston’s 24 3-pointers and scored 32 points...
Payton Pritchard 2025/26 (Beans, only team he has played for): 17, 3.9, 5.2 ppg, 46.4%.
Payton Pritchard: 6'1", 2020-26th pick, Beans.
Precious Achiuwa 2025/26 (Sacramento, his 4th team): 10.1 (career high), 6.7, 1.4 ppg, 52.8%.
Precious Achiuwa: 6'8", 2020-20th pick, Miami.
Pat Riley historically preferred veteran players to drafted rookies. Hell, he prefers the G League as a pipeline! Riley recently has seemed to place more value on draft picks than loose change, but I surmise that decades of neglect has withered the org.'s collegiate talent-spotting.
Beans (3-1) Blows the Hat off Billy Penn 128-96
I would take Beans against Zollner right now. They're not going to beat Beans.
Neemias Queta
Neemias Queta is 7'0" out of Utah State, fifth year, is starting for Beans today. On the season he is averaging 10.2 and 8.4 per game. He was selected by Excremento in the second round with the 39th pick. Ayo Dusonmu (Illinoise), the hero of Minnehaha's win over Pebbles last night, was selected 38th (Male Cows). Miami did not have a pick in either round in the 2021 draft.
The "Heat" draft with, it seems to me, average results. Missed hugely on Michael Beasley (2nd pick overall 2008) and Justice Winslow (10th pick 2015). They got Bam Adebayo (2017-14) and Tyler Herro (2019-13) at exactly the position they will be drafting in June. The "Heat" has never hit on a second round pick like Queta, Dusonmu, or "the greatest draft steal in NBA history", Nikola Jokic (2014-41).
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