Wrote about PHEEther. Napheesa Collier framed the battle for the soul of American pro women's basketball in a piece of brilliant rhetoric. It's a hell of an opening salvo. www.teamziller.com/napheesa-col...

Wrote about Fox's secret injury and Kyrie's timetable and the total lack of margin in the West for their teams: www.teamziller.com/deaaron-fox-...

Wrote up my preseason MVP longlist. There are four obvious options, a few more dark horses and some ... uh, darker horses. www.teamziller.com/nba-mvp-pres...

Imagine the rush @pablo.show must have felt when he realized he had enough material to publish another video on the fake tree scandal on Clippers' media day www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab7k...

Within a few hours of me publishing a column declaring the Sixers as legitimate title contenders, Jared McCain tore a thumb ligament. My bad, Philly. www.teamziller.com/jared-mccain...

Cure society by putting Street Fighter II cabinets back in convenience stores.

"The sheer number of American elites willing to acquiesce to the destruction of democratic institutions is demoralizing. But it’s worth noting that many ordinary people seem to be made of sterner stuff." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

It is unlocked newsletter Thursday. I took the opportunity to publish a piece I've been thinking about all summer, one which will surely not come back to bite me in the ass. Go Birds. www.teamziller.com/sixers-champ...

Wrote about Austin Reaves' future www.teamziller.com/austin-reave...

Wrote about the T.V. stars that can't be silenced (unless they don't want to speak up): star athletes. Will we see a re-politicization of an NBA that has been pretty quiet for the first eight months of the second term? www.teamziller.com/jimmy-kimmel...

I wrote about the controversy around Adam Silver's true but tone-deaf comments on the cost of watching the NBA in the new streaming environment. This is the weekly unlocked newsletter. www.teamziller.com/adam-silver-...

And another one. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_ow...

Wrote about why shady off-the-books payroll is actually more useful than ever in the harder-cap NBA, which creates extra pressure on Silver to shut it down or open the floodgates with how he treats the Clippers: www.teamziller.com/steve-ballme...

So @pablo.show found out some more: Ballmer's sole co-owner invested in the fake tree org as it was circling the drain and being pestered by Uncle Dennis for late Kawhi payments. Here's my unlocked take: www.teamziller.com/kawhi-leonar... Here's Pablo's episode: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKJy...

Wrote about the Giddey Bulls and the echoes of the LaVine Bulls. Also some bloggy blurbs on the LeBron-China weird news cycle and EuroBasket. www.teamziller.com/josh-giddey-...

Wrote about Jokic still relying on Jamal Murray despite the Nuggets' good offseason, and whether Denver can survive even a merely good Murray postseason at this point, or whether they require him to be exceptional. www.teamziller.com/nuggets-niko...

If we can cat-proof and earthquake-proof it, a 5-foot-tall Mahabodhi Temple would be divine.

Miika Muurinen gets way more attention than he's earned for the Finnish national team because it's very clear that he has consumed the sport and its culture entirely through TikTok clips. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBA5...

Finland (!) booted Serbia out of EuroBasket, leaving Jokic still without an international gold to his name. That's a blemish on his legacy ... but a blemish shared by another all-timer big man who was just better in the NBA than in FIBA play. www.teamziller.com/nikola-jokic...

I have also unleashed my hottest take on the Clippers saga: this all got out and got blown up because of some Lakers fan in Aspiration's finance department starting a rumor.

Wrote about the secrets to the Valkyries' unprecedented success (defense is cheap and available!) plus another 750 words on THE CLIPPERS, including Ballmer's defense, the relevance of Aspiration's particular scam and what *early investor Doc Rivers* knew when. www.teamziller.com/valkyries-pl...

Wrote a bunch more about Apple Tree Time, Apple Tree Time, including whether the Clippers have anything (appears not), whether the BOG will want to come down hard on Ballmer (probably) and whether fans should care (ehh). www.teamziller.com/kawhi-leonar...

It's a bummer that this isn't an officially licensed Myles Turner collab www.lego.com/en-us/produc...

The Clippers are in a world of hurt. Tampering is the most common "circumvention" of league rules, but that's small apples compared to what Ballmer and Camp Kawhi are alleged to have done by the latest @pablo.show investigation. My take: www.teamziller.com/kawhi-leonar...

Bloggy Tuesday newsletter on EuroBasket and League Pass: www.teamziller.com/eurobasket-2...

happy labor day

Free newsletter of the fortnight is on the cost of watching the NBA in '25-26. For some fans (like me), cost might go down if you can drop the big bloated streaming bundle. But that depends on being able to get access to your local team in an efficient way. www.teamziller.com/nba-streamin...

Yikes.

Some news: the new Pinkshift album absolutely rips.

I find this very convincing: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/america-ti...

Wrote about what I'm most interested in as EuroBasket 2025 gets underway: www.teamziller.com/eurobasket-2...

[lights the "SOME PERSONAL NEWS" beacon] The Action Cookbook Newsletter, your most beloved online source for silly food, weekly cocktails, pet photos, short fiction and light emotional terrorism, has left Substack and can now be found on Ghost. the-action-cookbook-newsletter.ghost.io

It's a pretty straight line to say that it appears that the existence of player prop bets has helped derail Malik Beasley's career after his best season. www.teamziller.com/malik-beasle...

No third GMIB this week. Trapped in a mental void. Building a ladder of toothpicks to climb out. Back next week.

You know whos a great band? One of the very best of the 90s? Were an MTV band but got more popular by getting less famous? Still going strong today? Finding new peaks constantly? Yeah, Deftones, exactly, Im glad this isnt controversial, read my review of the new album pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

It's a good practice to the entire Deftones discography in order in preparation for every Friday, but especially this one.

Free newsletter of the fortnight is on the WNBA losing control amid rampant growth as evidenced by the Connecticut relocation mess AND a goodbye to John Wall, who personified coolness and joy in the NBA through the 2010s. www.teamziller.com/wnba-connect...

Wrote about the three possible outcomes for the Cavaliers. www.teamziller.com/cleveland-ca...

A weekly joy.

Wrote about the NBA Cup's Group of Death plus how Amazon and NBC are approaching these schedule announcements (Blake Griffin being funny vs. overdose levels of nostalgia) www.teamziller.com/nba-cup-2025...

I figured out that the thing that brings me back to BlueSky the most despite not wanting to spend time on my phone/social media is the pleasure of the reverse chronological feed with a manageable number of follows. And I just realized that what I'm chasing here is the Google Reader experience.

Wrote about the big picture of what's happening and what will happen next as the NBA fully embraces its Extension Era. When do we look at unrestricted free agency as perilous for players as restricted free agency? Are we already there? www.teamziller.com/nba-extensio...

my latest is on the president’s abuse of emergency powers and his psychological and practical interest in crisis government. gift link. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/o...

Wrote about global basketball ensuring that big international tournaments have as low stakes as possible: www.teamziller.com/fiba-world-c...

I missed a Vox Media discourse while being offline? What a shame!

For the moon solider. 🫡 www.patreon.com/c/shutdownfu...

"We're all throwing dildos at women athletes to promote our memecoin" really puts a fine point on not just how sexist, mean and stupid so much of right now is, but also the grim degree to which we're just inundated with Stuff a 15-Year-Old Dipshit Would Think is Cool. A confederacy of Beavises.

Free newsletter of this moon cycle is about Adam Silver's European vacation. The question: why? The answer, per usual: money. www.teamziller.com/nba-europe-e... NBA Europe is going to be to Silver what the WNBA was to David Stern, albeit with less altruism at its core.