The Big Story – NBA Hits the Stretch Run: With the All Star Game nonsense and Super Bowl out of the picture, the NBA moves to center stage. The three biggest questions are (1) Can Cleveland keep doing it in the playoffs like they have in the regular season?, (2) Can the Celtics shake off their lethargy to hit the switch to defend their crown? and (3) How big a difference will Luka Doncic make as he joins LBJ out there in L.A.? And here’s a fourth: Will we be lucky enough to see a real competitive New York-Boston playoff series for the first time since 1984 (OK, 1990) followed by a Boston-L.A. Final? Time will tell.

Sports 101: Who holds the NBA record for playing the most consecutive games without fouling out?

News Item – Celtics Come Out Swinging:Maybe the Celtic Slump is over, as they came out of the All-Star break with big wins over Eastern rivals Philadelphia and New York on national TV. With Philly reeling and Joel Embiid looking like he’s headed for season-ending surgery, the Knicks’ win was more meaningful, as it was their third drubbing of their likely Round 2 opponent in the playoffs in three games against N.Y.

News Item – Kenny Atkinson: Thing I love most about NBA season so far is that in his next try as a HC after his cowardly boss listened to dirtbags Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving stabbing him in the back to get him fired in Brooklyn, Atkinson is coaching the team with the NBA’s best record in Cleveland while Kyrie and KD are facing steep climbs just to even make the playoffs. As Pat Riley once un-grammatically said, sometimes dems get what dems deserve.

The Numbers:

7 – million dollars the reported among the nation’s top college basketball recruits AJ Dybantsa (Brockton, Mass.) will be paid in NIL money to play at BYU next year.

13 – goals away from passing Wayne Gretsky as the most prolific scorer in NHL history for Alexander Ovechkin after going for the hat trick in Washington’s 7-3 rout of Edmonton on Sunday.

49 – years since Yankees players could have beards and mustaches until this year, now that the ban imposed by George Steinbrenner in 1976 was lifted last week.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Cooper Flagg: The Larry Bird-like Maine native told The Atlantic that he wants to return to Duke for his sophomore season over becoming the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick. The question is, if he does do it, will the team with the first overall pick take him anyway as the Celtics with Bird after he said he was returning to Indiana State for his senior season?

Random Thoughts:

Why does nobody do the “was it Brady or Belichick?” game with Duncan and his coach Greg Popovich? Because in the eight full seasons since TD retired, Pop’s won-loss record is a Cotton Fitzsimmons-like 299-356.

Sports 101 Answer: Most incorrectly believe Wilt Chamberlain holds the record because he never fouled out of any game ever. But he only played in 1,045 in his 14-year career. And while Moses Malone fouled out five times early in his career, he later played in 1,212 straight without fouling out.

Final Thought – Victor Wembanyama: With the French phenom likely shut down for the year due to shoulder and neck issues it’s a good time to evaluate how he’s lived up to the hype he got when entering the league down there in San Antonio.

His 22.6 ppg, 10.8 rpg and 3.8 bpg stats are among the best in the game in his two years. But after hearing how he would turn the NBA on its head, besides those stats and some highlight videos, we haven’t really seen it turn up in the standings. In his Year 1 the Spurs won the same 22 games they won the previous year, which is area codes behind these four guys who actually did immediately turn the league on its head by dramatically improving the teams they joined over the year before they got there:

Larry Bird – Boston had the greatest turnaround ever in going from 29 wins to 61.

Lew Alcindor – expansion Milwaukee won 27 in their first year and 56 the next.

Tim Duncan – he had more help in his first year than the other three as David Robinson missed the year when the Spurs won just 20 and 56 when he was back with Duncan in his Year 1.

Shaquille O’Neal – Expansion Orlando won 21 in their first year and 41 the next year with Shaq.

The first three won the NBA title in Year 2 while Shaq magically had Orlando in the Finals after knocking no less than Michael Jordan and Chicago out of the playoffs. While for Big V it’s just 24-31.

This is picking on the prognosticators who overhyped a new guy again. Not Wemby because he’s been terrific. Just not beyond belief, where so far he’s more Yao Ming than the four real game-changers mentioned above. Email Dave Long at [email protected].