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Hoop Recap: Lift The Trophy High

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another hoop recap. There is so much to cover and touch on in the hoop realm that using NBA or WNBA couldn’t encompass it all. So going forward, that’s the new title. Alright, so this will likely be the last post from me in 2024. And I’m sure like most of you reading this, this year was more than a doozy in so many ways. I have had my share of setbacks and challenges that latch themselves onto the negative feelings like doubt and anxiety that cause me to not feel like I’m progressing every day. And that doesn’t include any physical problems that have arisen throughout the year. Since January 1st—and of course, well before that date—life has certainly done life things in a way that doesn’t always feel good. Doesn’t it also seem like this is both…
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MoCoMedia

WNBA Recap: Championship Edition

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with the final recap of the 2024 WNBA season. And wow, what a season it was. From the coverage to the entertainment to the quality of hoops all the way through the final day of the year, the W excelled with more eyes on it than ever before. Congratulations to the New York Liberty got winning their first championship in franchise history. One of the original teams that are still around finally has a title in its trophy case. Center Jonquel Jones was named Finals MVP and the Liberty defeated and incredibly tough and competitive Minnesota Lynx team in five closely-contested games. The atmosphere in the Barclays Center was beyond electric. It was fitting for the kind of year that W had. Not to mention the edition of Ellie the Elephant, the wonderful mascot of the New York Liberty, who…
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MoCoMedia

WNBA Recap: Lady of Magic

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another WNBA Recap. As the regular season winds down, let’s take a look at a couple highlighted things around the W. This post will be mostly dedicated to two-time MVP and consensus best player in the W, A’ja Wilson. Now, those who faithfully watch the W will already know all the superlatives that come with the way A’ja plays. So this won’t be a running just of her baby, baby achievements and abilities. Instead this is a perspective based around three broader view of 2024—which starts with the end of the 2023 season. For most, A’ja at the very least was a runner-up for the 2023 regular season MVP. Instead, she finished third in voting—with one infamous fourth-place vote—keeping get from winning her third MVP award. Rather than allow that slight to send her game into a rut, A’ja…
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MoCoMedia

WNBA Recap: Golden

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap. This time, we’re highlighting what was an unbelievable 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Overall, the Olympic Games were the spectacle we have known them to be. From an outstandingly visual opening ceremony, to all the old and new events, the two weeks in August were fantastical in every way. When it comes to hoops, both US National Basketball Teams did what was expected—win gold—even if the results were somewhat unexpected. Both teams defeated the host nation, France’s, teams in their respective gold medal games. And in both contests, Team USA found itself in an intense battle. In the women’s game, France held a ten point second half lead, before players like A’ja Wilson (MVP of the event) and Kahleah Copper took over in the fourth. That game came down to France’s Gabby Williams, a former WNBA player,…
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MoCoMedia

W/NBA Recap: Two Nights to Remember

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap. Let’s get into it. What a weekend for the W! All-Star festivities were in Phoenix this past weekend, with the Skills Competition and the Three-Point Contest on the same night. That night belonged to Atlanta’s Allisha Gray, as she won both events. The Dream’s All-Star guard defeated host favorite Sophie Cunningham of the Mercury by 2.4 seconds in the final round. Then, Gray squared off against the Liberty’s Jonquel Jones in the final round of the three-point contest. It came down to Jones’ final shot, which missed, giving Gray the win. Gray became the first player to win both competitions in the same night. This was a truly remarkable night for 2017 first-round pick and Tokyo Olympics gold medalist. Speaking of Olympians, night two of the W’s All-Star weekend saw the 2024 US Women’s Basketball Team take…
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MoCoMedia

W/NBA Recap: The Platinum Trophy

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap, highlighting a few things around the hoop world. Let’s get to it! The NBA Draft was recently. The two-day event saw 58 of the next crop of NBA hopefuls be selected by teams to begin their journey in the Association. The country of France, after having the number one pick come from their land, doubled down on it this year with Zaccharie Risacher (pronounced “ree-sah-share”) and Alex Sarr being taken by Atlanta and Washington #1 and #2 respectively. Various players, like UConn’s Stephen Castle and Purdue’s Zach Edey were selected. But that’s not what we want to discuss, is it? With the 55th pick, the Los Angeles Lakers selected LeBron James Jr., pairing the USC guard with his father—the first time such a thing has happened in NBA history. In baseball, Ken Griffey Sr. joined the Seattle…
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MoCoMedia

(W)NBA Recap: Confetti

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with the latest recap of the NBA and WNBA since we last spoke. Congratulations to the Boston Celtics for winning their 18th championship as a franchise, defeating the Dallas Mavericks in five games. Jaylen Brown was named Finals MVP, and Boston completed their dominant regular season and postseason with a title. From the first game of the regular season until the last game of the Finals, the Celtics went 80-20, literally winning 80 percent of their games. As much as luck and injuries matter in a championship team’s journey, the critics still have to beat the opponents in front of them. Otherwise, those of us around basketball would chastise them for being so good but not completing the championship mission—like how the sentiment was in 2022 after Boston lost to the Golden State Warriors in six games. With this victory,…
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MoCoMedia

(W)NBA Recap – Legacy?

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap of The Association and The W. There has been a lot going on and a lot of new chatter about all that has been going on. But I’ll hone in on a couple topics I’d like to highlight. But first… [I literally took a deep breath before this paragraph] For all the discourse and debate around the treatment of Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark, I’ll simply say that we as fans have the ability to control how the W is talked about. We do not have to resign our fates to some impending doom of women’s basketball being harder to watch because of some hot takes and short-sighted opinions. If someone having a bad opinion about a music artist you like won’t stop you from listening to their music, then “casual” fans and their pairing of limited…
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MoCoMedia

Play It Where It Lies: On Scottie Scheffler and How We Respond

Early Friday morning, as the second round of the PGA Championship was slated to begin, a person was struck by a vehicle outside of Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. That person lost their life, and traffic was slowed as police looked to properly assess the situation. World’s number one golfer Scottie Scheffler was heading to the course to begin his pre-round routine ahead of his 8 a.m. tee time, and the commotion delayed him. He attempted to drive around, only to be stopped by an officer. After what Scheffler calls, “a misunderstanding,” the golfer continued on. The officer attached himself to Scheffler’s car, resulting in him being dragged a bit. The officer then implored Scheffler to stop his car. He then opened the door, dragged Scheffler out and placed him in handcuffs. Scheffler was booked and detained for an hour, and the start of the round of golf itself…
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MoCoMedia

(W)NBA Recap: Brave New World

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap. This time, we will include much more WNBA, articles, takes and opinions from now until the 28th season is ended. Twelve teams, including last year’s champion Aces, will look to be the one to hold up the trophy at the end. Along the way, there are sure to be amazing performances all across the league, as the journey to the title is just as important as winning the title itself. As fans, we are in for an amazing ride over the summer and early fall. This is an Atlanta Dream-leaning blog, but I will be sure to highlight the paramount happenings throughout the season. In so many ways, the start of this season feels different. Coming off the biggest and most-watched season of women’s college basketball ever, that momentum will be carried into the pro season. Those…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: Euphoria

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap. The first round of the NBA playoffs are complete, and the Association has eliminated half the teams. Here is where the real contenders are revealed. And here is where some team’s season goes from good to very good and promising, while others still will have underachieved despite winning a postseason series. But while all of that is true, I would like to discuss a season-long arrival that appears to be culminating with a superstar entrance in these playoffs. Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star guard Anthony Edwards has more than announced himself as ready to ascend to the top of today’s NBA. Earlier in the year, he was already ordained to take, “The Leap,” which is that jump from good young talent to potential All-NBA perennial selection. With an infectious smile atop a relentless aggression has a lot of the…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: Special Stage

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with an NBA postseason recap. With eight different series going on, I won’t just simply give a quick breakdown of each of them as usually constructed by other publications and sports mediums. While that may be necessary and informative, that format is not as fun to write. And what are we doing if we are not trying to find good fun in all we do? The playoffs feel like a special invitation. And it is, despite more teams being invited than not. In fact, the fact more than half the teams make the playoffs matters even less with the excitement of the Play-In games—which adds more teams post-regular season. Basketball is the one sport that has managed to stay closest to the purest form of its product while giving us more of the product in many different forms of ingestion.…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: The Actual Recap

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with the recap at the end of the regular season. Before we start into postseason play, I believe it is important to look back on our journey. Nowadays, we want the regular season to mean more. I believe the onus is on is to give the regular season it’s proper value and celebration. So, let’s get into it. In-Season Tournament. For the first time, the NBA held an In-Season Tournament. Channeling an idea popularized by European futbol leagues, all 30 teams participated in pool play, with the top 4 in each conference moving to the knockout round. In the end, it was the Los Angeles Lakers winning the championship over the Indiana Pacers. While All-Star Tyrese Haliburton was probably the biggest individual winner, the NBA as a whole earned major points with fans. Sure, the courts were a little loud…
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MoCoMedia

NCAA Women’s Basketball Recap: The One

Wassup folks! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with a recap for a literal living legend. There won’t be much NBA talk for this recap. I am here to talk about Dawn Staley. On April 7th, Dawn captured the women’s NCAA title after defraying Caitlin Clark and Iowa 87-75. In 16 years at South Carolina, this is her third title. Her and South Carolina have gone 109-3 in the past three years, capping it off with a 38-0 season this year. She was overcome with emotion after the game was over, even bringing up her previous class, named, “The Freshies,” as this season was an attempt to redeem them four losing in last year’s National Semifinal. With a different and younger cast, she and her team completed the mission and are this season’s champions. But this is bigger than this year—bigger even than her 16 years as a…
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MoCoMedia

NBA (and NCAA!) Recap: Good Monday

Wassup family! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap of the recent hoops, both in college and the pros. Last time, we were getting ready for the respective tournaments with so much uncertainty. Now, as a new month begins, we have more clarity and detail about who could possibly be the next NCAA and NBA champion while still having much left to be decided. As you are reading this, both the men’s and women’s Final Four will be set. Like most of the basketball world, I’d like to fixate on the women’s side for this post—particularly, April 1st’s Elite Eight games. Those games saw a rematch of last year’s National Championship game between LSU and Iowa as well as USC taking on UConn (Editor’s Note: while I wanted to see USC win, I do support Connecticut at a tangential level). Both games had their share of…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: Tournament Preparations

Hey there! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) Johnathan Tillman is back with another NBA (and college) recap. We are heavy into March, which means that it’s time to get ready to immerse ourselves in the Madness. In college, both the men’s and women’s conference tournaments will have wrapped up by the end of St. Patrick’s Day, and what’ll them happen is the Selection Committee will seed the teams in hopes of creating a very exciting Tournament for the next three weeks. There will be favorites such as UConn and Houston on the men’s side as well as South Carolina and Texas on the women’s side who will be attempting to navigate a tough road to the Final Four. The task sounds simple on its surface—win six straight games over three weekends to cut down the nets. But if it were easy, there would be no such thing as March…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: History in Real Time

Hey hey! Ya boy—it me, ya boy—is back from the All-Star break with a recap of an outstanding recent stretch of basketball. Let’s highlight a couple things. But first, allow me to give a definition. If you’ve listened to The Till Show, you know this is important when I want to share a perspective. A milestone is defined as, “A stone functioning as a milepost,” and, “A significant event or stage in the life, progress, development, or the like of a person, nation, etc.” Both of those definitions are relevant, as two of the best hoopers on the planet are crossing milestones in their careers. Let’s begin in the NBA ranks, as LeBron James recently passed 40,000 career points. In a game against the Denver Nuggets, James made a left-handed layup to eclipse 40k, becoming the first player in Association history to do so. It’s another accomplishment for a player…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: Constellations

Welcome to the next stop in the NBA Recap series! Johnathan Tillman here with a quick look at what’s been going on in the Association. We’ve arrived at the All-Star break. This is the time where we honor this season’s best among the best, selected through various metrics, to play in a showcase of the game and their abilities. Like most things with subjective selections, debate springs from analysis of the choices. We talk about who deserves to be there, as if “deserve” has something to do with it. We rail about those who were feel were snubbed. But what I’ve seen happen when talking about snubs is the apparent unwillingness to take someone off the list for that snubbed player. It’s a similar feeling to everyone’s “Top 5” having at least 14 entrants in it, all of whom are worthy to be there. I applaud everyone who made the…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: In The Midst of History

Wassup NBA world! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap of recent happenings in The Association. I suppose I could begin with yet another 70-point performance, but apparently they will be so frequent now that those types of scoring outbursts will lose a bit of their luster. Unfortunately, it is human nature for a number of us to grow tired of the consistency of Greatness. At some point, we want fresh blood at the top of the league and get annoyed when the champion feels preordained. For an example, look no further than LeBron James and the Golden State Warriors matching up four straight times in the back end of the previous decade. Instead of all of us marveling at just how hard it is to reach the Finals, we rest in the mundane and then try to discount the importance of the regular season. That…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: Seventy?!

Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap of the NBA season thus far. In this installment, I’ll discuss Philadelphia 76ers franchise cornerstone and last year’s MVP Joel Embiid scoring 70 points on January 22nd. Let’s establish the most important fact here: 70 points is a lot of points by one person in a basketball game. Yes, I know that’s obvious. But let’s lean into those ways why that’s obvious for a paragraph or two. Embiid took 41 official field goals, making 24, and 23 free throws, making 21. That is 65 total shots, not including any attempts negated by getting fouled. That’s more shots than total minutes in the game, a game where 20 other players took at least 1 field goal, as well as more points than minutes Embiid plays. He raised his league-leading scoring average to 36 a game, while still only playing less…
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