UPDATE: Can’t believe I forgot to include this. Apologies. I’m embarrassed. Babe Ruth was my favorite rebounder.

This is sort of like that whole Christmas in July thing. Only instead of presents and candy, you get to listen to a bunch of meatheads talk about hoops in this very special episode of The 8th Seed Podcast: August Edition in September. Long story short, we recorded this on Monday night, but I had a busy week down at the glue-huffing factory and never got around to editing/posting it until now.

Luckily, nothing has really happened all week in the NBA so none of this is dated, really. We talk Team USA a lot, specifically discussing their 2-point win over Brazil, and while the squad has played two more games since then, there wasn’t a lot to be learned by watching Kevin Durant, Eric Gordon and company stomp Iran and Tunisia by a combined 75 points.

We also talk about the Melo situation in Denver, call Matt Moore a racist, launch the soon-to-be-recurring “Try to Make Zach Cry Segment,” break down the Summers of Dallas, San Antonio, Minnesota, Los Angeles (Clippers) and Boston, which, as John Karalis lets us know has “cornered the market on O’Neals.”

Cast and crew (only seven of us this month … Michael De Leon of Project Spurs couldn’t make it):

• Me, your host, of here, Eight Points Nine Seconds and Hardwood Paroxysm
• Jeff Garcia of Project Spurs
• Zach Harper of Talk Hoops, Cowbell Kingdom, Hardwood Paroxysm, Raptors Republic and A Wolf Among Wolves
• John Karalis of Red’s Army
• Glenn Moore of The Dugout Sports Show
• Rey Moralde of  The No-Look Pass and SLAMonline
• … and this month’s special guest, Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game, Hardwood Paroxysm, and NBC’s ProBasketballTalk

Listen. (Download here.)

There is a deleted scene in the 2007 movie The Jane Austen Book Club where the character Dean Drummond goes on a humorous tirade about Tim Duncan. The fun behind this scene is that the actor who plays Drummond is actually Marc Blucas, one of Duncan’s former teammates at Wake Forest. In fact, Blucas was at San Antonio’s first round home playoff games against the Dallas Mavericks.

I have nothing further to add, but an additional sentence seemed appropriate beneath the excerpt.

Here’s the carnage as it unfolded from (1) the initial injury, (2) the return after six stitches, and (3) the final, post-game swollen-shut look. Truly unbelievable performance from Steve, who finished with 20 points on 8/15 shooting (3/3 from three), 9 assists and 4 boards.

UPDATE: Here’s some fourth quarter statistical info courtesy of Trey Kerby of Ball Don’t Lie that helps further show how great Steve is sans depth perception:

[Nash had] 10 fourth quarter points in a close-out game against the Suns’ rivals … and five assists for good measure. If you’re scoring at home, that’s 40 points and 20 assists per 48 minutes, so maybe Nash playing with one eye could be a strategy Phoenix could use in the Western Conference finals. Just throwing it out there.

Derek Fisher probably cried himself to sleep last night.

(All images via @jose3030 … image one … image two … image three)

And if that’s not enough to convince you that he’s just a remarkable basketball player, check his wonderful and expletive-laced (but edited) message to his teammates after the Suns won Game 3. (via SportsGuy33)

After the Goran Dragic-fueled beatdown that Phoenix handed out last night, it looks like San Antonio will soon be on vacation for the summer. And with this, we once again have an uber-hyped Western Conference Playoffs that, while by no means lacking luster, will not quite live up to the “this might be the best Playoffs ever” billing that it had way back when we were all salivating over four First Round match-ups featuring eight 50-win teams.

This is at least the third consecutive year that this has happened out West. And it seems marginally ironic that, this year, the key reason is that the Suns unexpectedly beat the snot out of the Spurs whereas, in 2008, one of the key reasons was because the Spurs dismantled the Suns, starting with a Tim Duncan three-pointer that sent Game 1 into double OT. After that shot, the series was all Spurs.

This year? There was never even any that much intrigue. The games have all been competitive by and large, sure, but the Suns have been in control throughout. There has been no question about that.

When we look back at the 2008 series, Duncan’s three was an oddity that helped prove the truth: those Spurs were much better than those Suns. And when, a few years from now, we look back on the 2010 series, Goran Dragic’s 10/13 shooting, 26-point night will stand out as an oddity that helped prove our new truth: these Suns are much better than these Spurs.

It’s a weird thing to type — let alone think — given how thoroughly San Antonio dominated Phoenix for the entire last decade. And it’s also strange for me personally because I really wanted both these teams to win this series.

On the one hand, I was starting to enjoy the “one last run” thing for the Spurs and would have loved to see Timmy — the grizzled, battle-tested titan who often seems like he may be the Last of the Mohicans when it comes to a certain type of big man — get a crack at knocking off the upstart, more-talented, more-flappable Lakers squad that we all now believe to be the class of the Western Conference. Plus, more Manu. That’s always a “yes, please” proposition.

On the other hand, the Suns getting back to the Western Conference Finals — and perhaps even continuing on to greater heights — after getting back to running represents a culmination of sorts for the Seven Seconds or Less era and — perhaps more philosophically meaningful — the Seven Seconds or Less conceptual view of basketball. These aren’t the Mike D’Antoni Suns exactly anymore, but the Nash/Amar’e core is still intact and the script is similar. Very similar. Snatch/Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels similar.

And this is a great thing for those of us who loathe the dismissiveness continually raining down from Wisdom Mountain of Certitude by the hallowed “defense wins championships” crew who will never even consider that uptempo basketball can be good basketball.

Offensively focused basketball is beautiful basketball and it can be winning basketball.

You of course need to get stops and you of course need to do many, many other things well (rebound, execute, not have Patrick Ewing as your center), but an offensively focused team, with good enough players, could someday win a championship. It’s just a fact. And the fact that so many people refuse to acknowledge it and dismiss all the positive contributions that the Seven Seconds or Less Suns brought to this League (which, oh by the way, seems much more receptive to incorporating uptempo, early-shot clock concepts into its repertoire for success) is a very negative thing. Maintaining an allegiance to certainty when new information that should make you at least question that certainty surfaces is not a positive trait. Not for a basketball fan thinking about basketball. Or for any person thinking about anything.

Yet, so many people’s only thoughts about offensively focused basketball are this: “The Suns lost so it can’t work.” While factually true, that line of thinking is an oversimplification of a much more nuanced conversation.

The series that Phoenix lost throughout this decade were failings of those particular Suns teams, not the failings of a philosophical view about the sport that should now be dismissed and never tried again. Nothing one particular team does can disprove that a particular way of playing can work.

But — and this is the beautiful part — one particular team winning while playing that way does prove it can work.

In the Western Conference Finals, the Suns will try.

Previous Doc Funk Friday installments can be found here. And much, much more unadulterated goodness can be found from the man himself at Brain on Funk.

Head that way ASAP.

From Suns vs. Spurs Game 2

From Magic vs. Hawks Game 1

From Cavs vs. Celtics Game 3

From Suns vs. Spurs Game 1

From Suns vs. Spurs Game 3

(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

“Oh, thank god. I thought that I lost you forever. Welcome back, and don’t ever disappear like that again.”

If these thoughts didn’t run through your mind once this match-up was officially determined, your brain is wrong.

After a one-year hiatus that felt like way more, Suns/Spurs is back. And while the personnel has changed, the main suspects remain the same: the Steve Nash- and Amar’e Stoudemire-led offensive juggernaut against the Duncan/Ginobili/Parker trifecta.

Let me tell you, as someone who, up until October, was certain that these teams would never face off in a meaningful playoff series again, this is heaven sent.

Notice how I said “meaningful” playoff series. As in, a series with title implications. Because while the Lakers are pretty much consensus favorites to make it out of the West, both of these teams could make it out instead — and you shouldn’t be the least bit surprised.

Really? The Suns?

Yes. They’re as good as ever offensively, somehow getting better every time they let go of a key player, turning would-be bench warmers into NBA rotation guys. How could any player not want to go there? If you have a pulse and you join the Phoenix Suns, you will shoot over 40% from three. It’s just a fact.

This time around, though, they’re winning with the same things that were once their greatest weaknesses: defense and depth. The Suns held Portland to an offensive efficiency mark of 104.1 vs. its 108.0 pace in the regular season. And apart from the usual suspects – Grant Hill shut down Andre Miller after game one, Jared Dudley gave his usual serving of hustle and the most athletic hands in history – it seemed as if the whole team was buying in. Even Amar’e Stoudemire was moving his feet and looking like he gives a damn. When was the last time that happened?

As for the depth, well, the Suns now have either 10 or 11 legit rotation guys (depends whether Robin Lopez is healthy and if you count Jarron Collins). They finally have their Nash backup in Goran Dragic, who has evolved from perhaps the worse player in the NBA to a future starter in the making (and yet he got no MIP votes. Sigh). In fact, they played extended minutes against Portland without a single starter. Don’t be surprised to see that again against the Spurs: between the hustle of Dudley and Amundson, the shooting of Dudley and Frye, and the speed of Dragic and Barbosa, the Suns’ second unit is a force to be reckoned with.

On the other side, we have the Spurs. Oh, those marvelous Spurs.

Somehow, they just keep doing it. Keep finding these diamonds in the rough, as they have done for over a decade now and as they probably will continue doing until the end of time. This time around, it is George Hill. I’ve always been way, way too high on Hill, even when he was mostly a volume scorer for the first season and a half of his career, but, man, has he been amazing. As if the Spurs needed another clutch scorer.

As for the aforementioned trifecta … what else can one say? They just keep finding ways to come back. For the first half of the season, it was Duncan who was, somehow, sustaining an All-NBA level of play, having one of his best offensive seasons and putting up an MVP-type year. And when fatigue caught up with him – bam, Manu. The Poo God exploded for his own post-All-Star Break obliteration camp, taking his turn carrying the Spurs on his back with Tony Parker on the injured list.

And Parker? Back from a broken wrist after the worst season he’s had in eons, he seamlessly returns to the lineup – only in Manu’s former 6^th man role. I mean, in the name of all that’s Eva Longoria, he’s a former Finals MVP. Coming off the bench. How many teams in the league – how many players in the league – could pull that off? And not only has he been accepting his role without complaint, he’s been excelling in it, taking and making clutch jumpers to put away those pesky Mavs.

Which is what makes this series so, so different than it was in the past:

This time around, we have no bad guys.

In the past, we were all rooting for the fun, refreshing Suns over the dull, mean Spurs. We were counting on Phoenix to prove to us that beauty can triumph, and we were all disappointed when ultimately it didn’t.

But this year? How can you be against these Spurs? How can you be against Tim Duncan, at age 34, a step slow defensively and much more prone to bad offensive outings, as he tries to get another one? How can you be against Manu Ginobili getting back on the court four minutes after breaking his nose and leading his team to victory? How can you be against Dejuan Blair as he proves that rebounding is 100% mental, 0% ACLs?

We’re in for an absolute treat. We just have to hope it isn’t taken from us. Between Steve Nash’s back, Robin Lopez’s return, Duncan’s knees, Manu’s nose and Parker’s everything, health can swing this series either way. And in a playoffs marred by injury-related swings, one would hate to see it affect such a potentially great series. A series which, as it seems right now, I have no idea who takes.

So many players have the ability to tip this thing either way. Jason Richardson has proven that when he’s on, the Suns win – just ask the Blazers. Amar’e could go 2005 on Duncan. Duncan could go 2005 on Amar’e. Manu, Parker and Hill can all get their points. Steve Nash can never be counted out. And please note, that almost 1000 words in, I have yet to mention Richard Jefferson, who might decide that he wants to play the kind of basketball we’ve become accustomed to seeing from him in New Jersey.

If I had to predict what happens, though – and I do, because I’m writing this – I go Spurs. Barely. Partially because they were my preseason Finals pick, and I’m a man of my word. Partially because with George Hill playing like this, Steve Nash has nobody to guard: Parker, Ginobili and Hill would all torch him. And do you really want him guarding the 6’7″ Jefferson, even as bad as he’s been? He can still score, as evidenced by his two good games against Dallas.

Mostly, though, it’s because of Duncan. Look, he’s slipping. He knows it. We know it. Not so much on offense – again, from November to January he was a monster – but on defense. And yet, you can’t bet against him. You just can’t. This could be his last chance to get the 5^th ring, to distinguish himself as the best of the 2000s (though, to be honest, he already did). And as much as one likes Jarron Collins – who really is a good defender once you get past the twin jokes – if the Spurs need a win, and Duncan is the one who has to step up, he will.

I love you, Phoenix Suns, and if you prove me wrong I will be ecstatic. It’s just that this time, if you lose, I’ll still be happy for the winner.

Spurs in 7.

Head over to Red’s Army to listen to this month’s episode.

We discuss how every Playoff series looks after one game and pontificate about Kevin Garnett, both in terms of the most recent incident that got him suspended for a game and, more generally, about whether or not he’s just kind of a dick. (Kelly Dwyer had a State of Union of KG-piece yesterday called “Why We Don’t Like Kevin Garnett Anymore,” which, while interesting and representative of the overall issue, delves way too far into armchair psychoanalysis for my liking.)

We also yell at each other about Amar’e/the Suns franchise, profess our love for Mavs/Spurs and make fun of Adam Morrison.

Ya know, the usual.

Here’s the line-up of this month’s participants:

• Michael De Leon of Project Spurs
• Jeff Garcia of Project Spurs
• Zach Harper of Talk Hoops, Cowbell Kingdom and Hardwood Paroxysm
• John Karalis of Red’s Army
• Glenn Moore of The Dugout Sports Show
• Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm, NBA Fanhouse and NBC’s ProBasketballTalk
• Rey Moralde of  The No-Look Pass
• Jared Wade of here, Eight Points Nine Seconds and Hardwood Paroxysm

Pretty handsome crew. Particularly the last one.

I don’t think I actually speak all that much on the nonbasketball KG stuff in the podcast — mostly because I lack the motivation to care. But, for the record, I think most of the KG backlash is nonsense. He’s most likely a bit of a dick when he plays basketball, sure, but so were MJ, Larry Legend, Reggie and dozens upon dozens of other Hall of Famers. That doesn’t mean you have to like the guy, no, but I’m not exactly sure when we as fans started wanting to watch sports played only by clean-cut, model gentlemen.

Shouldn’t we spend our time praising genuine role models like Dikembe Mutombo and Dave Bing and save our scorn for legitimate malefactors like Jayson Williams and Donald Sterling? We really need to debate this incessantly? I guess it’s interesting perhaps. He is one of the best 25 players of all time and we do have cool YouTube clips of all his theatrics/transgression. But, really, I don’t have the time nor the inclination to come to any actual decisions about whether or not another grown man yelling and acting a little weird while playing a sport is a negative thing. /soapbox

(Funny photo though, right? It comes us from to the fantastic Doc Funk. The one where he looks at his watch is even better.)

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

(Photo by Steve Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)

But Manu?

He plays a brand of basketball that inspires joy joy feelings in all those around him and Kobe, according to Chris Ballard in his book The Art of a Beautiful Game, likes to repeatedly characterize as “balls to the wall.” Usually, Manu’s greatness comes with the rock in his hands. But this year, dude’s defense has been on full display.

Last night, par examplar, he unleashed this Yeti-like-force block on KG, who now has two huge reasons to be thoroughly embarrassed: the blowout his Celtics suffered at the hands of the old, boring Spurs and being swatted this badly by a slow, white, geeky, balding chump. (via Real Cavs Fans)

And this wasn’t the first time this year Manu has publicly de-scrotumed a future Hall of Famer named Kevin. Here we see Mr. Durant also get got by the Argentine. (Video via Project Spurs … Click through to see KD’s PG-rated response to the block … And my sincere apologies for the Sean Elliot commentary.)

Is that all?

Nope.

Here’s Manu standing on his head to prevent a lay-up attempt by his Eastern Conference SG doppelgänger. If you can’t stand the Heat, Dwyane, better get out of the kitchen.

Am I right?

Lastly, who can forget this Halloween swat?

Well, he and some other NBA scholars have a podcast that I rather enjoy called The Weekly Fix, and they just dropped the 81st episode today, which I will presume is the Terrell Owens edition. That’s quite a few, so kudos on that, Mssrs. Harper, Gallawa and Eisner.

I haven’t listened to it yet, so I’m not really here to endorse this particular episode. I just needed to point out how great the photo is that they included in the post.

It’s the top one of Manu, Peja and some other dudes.

I have included two other photos that it reminded me of.

We should probably start calling Eddy Curry by the name “Gas Giant.” You in?

In other words, ouch.

I wrote more on the topic over at Hardwood Paroxysm today. Read that.

Also, yesterday, I wrote some stuff about Tyler Hansbrough’s vertigo-like affliction, which has become “officially troubling” in my eyes and will likely shut him down for the rest of his wasted rookie season in the eyes of his coach.

Yup, jolly good times in Pacerland — as always.

Here are Episodes #1 and #2 of his beautiful Moving Pictures spectacular about the Mavericks in reverse-chronological order.

Moving Pictures With Rob Mahoney: Episode #2

Moving Pictures With Rob Mahoney: Episode #1

(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)

Brandon Roy is just an absolute surgeon. We already knew this, but it bears repeating over and over and over again. Moreover, if you combined LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden’s skill sets together into a single player, that guy might be First Team All-NBA. Ok, that’s probably an exaggeration, but Oden’s defense is already that for real and, actually, even his post moves/jump hooks looked pretty impressive the other night. (I wrote a little more about that while giving Oden a Lion Face over at Hardwood Paroxysm yesterday. I’m biased, but I’m a big fan of both that Lion Face/Lemon Face series as well as Trey Kerby’s Morning Bells over at HP. Good place to check out every morning — after stopping by BTPH, obviously.)

Yet, more so than having an amazing “Big 3″ or whatever other shallow distinction people want to dub the star-studded rosters of teams like the Celtics and Lakers, the Blazers just have a whole corral full of thoroughbreds. I’m not positive that the numbers bear this out, but, qualitatively, there seems to be almost no drop off when they go to the bench. They remain just as potent offensively and, in some ways, get better. It’s like a hockey team that just keeps running out quality guys. After Brandon, Greg and LaMarcus, it doesn’t really matter whether the other guys are Miller, Pryzbilla, Outlaw, Blake, Rudy, Martell or Bayless (and, remember, Nic Batum isn’t even playing until after the All-Star break). They lose very little, if anything.

And because all their wings are fairly similar stylistically, and because Oden and Pryzbilla are fairly interchangeable, the only real difference is that they lose a post threat when LaMarcus is out, and they lose a PG who can hit threes when Miller replaces Blake. Obviously, having different looks to throw at other teams is a good thing though, so the advantages gained by going with a lineup of something like Miller/Rudy/Roy/Outlaw/Aldridge is a great thing to have, too.

Ultimately, Portland just has a whole roster full of ballers. I really enjoy watching them. And they’re gonna be a problem in the West all year, perhaps even giving the recently-terrible-playing Nuggets a run for the Northwest Division title.

On the other hand, I was also really impressed with the Jazz on Thursday — and they’re the same team that then lost to the Sacramento Kings (without Kevin Martin, no less) at home on Saturday night.

So, perhaps, the Spurs just aren’t that good right now? I’m not yet ready to say anything is really wrong at their core, obviously, and I will always maintain that the only thing more pointless than preseason results are November results. But they certainly aren’t playing well. And seeing Tony Parker hurt his ankle on Friday — fresh off his ankle issues last season — starts to make me think “Oh, no. So it’s not just Manu and Duncan’s health we have to worry about this season but Frenchie, too?”

They have way too much talent to not be a factor out West, of course, but when looking at their front court in particular, it’s hard to believe they have the size to bang in the Playoffs with the likes of Pau/Bynum or Nene/Kenyon — and, perhaps, even Oden/Aldridge. In the last five years, Timmy has usually had a Rasho Nesterovic or Nazr Mohammed-type guy alongside him to help absorb the sizable defensive burdens of playing high-level post defense. Sure, no one is ever going to single out Rasho or Nazr as major difference-makers on those Spurs teams, but they were both high-level defenders for Coach Popovich, and there is no one on the current roster, with the possible exception of an in-my-eyes-completely-washed-up Theo Ratliff, that can even fill that “secondary big body banger” role beside an increasingly aged-looking Tim Duncan. I really think they need that guy and, no, Matt Bonner is not that guy. And as much as I like the Antonio McDyess pick up, he is not that guy anymore either, if he ever was.

It doesn’t need to be anyone high-profile. Just someone to bang with Nene for 15 minutes a night and battle with Bynum on the block. Timmy can’t be expected to do that for 30 minutes per night anymore — at least not if you still expect him to have the energy to hit his patented, back-breaking bank shots in the final three minutes of close Playoff games. I’ll always remember a great quote from Charles Barkley after Nazr Mohammed, who was having a pretty damn good year at the time in New York, was traded from the Knicks to the Spurs: “Isiah is building a championship team — too bad it’s in San Antonio.” I think they need to make a similar, under-the-radar, spackling-up-the-holes-in-the-roster move this year.

(We’ll explore that “spackle” concept more down the road. A lot of teams are too slow to identify that one little thing they need to fix their weakness. Often, it’s just a small thing, but, more often, teams make some big, unnecessarily radical move that fixes some things but creates new issues. Look for that spackle, GMs.)

Anyway, I’ll be watching the Spurs closely to see how this plays out, and all this is something I had the pleasure of discussing with my 8th Seed brethren Jeff Garcia and Michael De Leon on Friday night after the Spurs loss to Portland. Check the video below from their live post-game SpursCast where I joined them to offer my two cents.

I come on at the 23:30 mark. Some minor technical difficulties pop up right as I’m coming on, but we fight through it and chat for 20 minutes or so.

* Alright. I’ve had just about enough of this. Brandon Roy needs a nickname. Neither his first nor last name work on their own and I’m done writing out the whole thing. I’ve waited and waited, internets, but you’ve given me nothing to work with here. You’ve offered no good options. So he’s now “Daggers.” Me and Capital_T were unsuccessfully looking for a guy to call this anyway, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seem many bigger daggers than that one he hit against the Rockets last year. I mean, the purity with which that ball went through the net was just like someone getting stabbed. It’s official. Done and done. Put it on the board.

(Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images)

That shit went out like a Scud missile. (video via Fan IQ)

Some claim that using the spur to form the “u” is awkward and uninventive. But when I look at that spur, I don’t see the uninspired labor of a marketing intern: I see a thoughtful statement on the relationship between mimetic rationality, semiotics and sport.

And let’s be honest: they’re helped out by the fact that, no matter how you combine them, black and white can only look so tacky.

Personally, I much preferred our fiesta colors logo. The Alamodome used to look like the color fairy took a giant shit at halfcourt. It captured the kind of brazen campiness that was only possible during the 90s.

Graydon Gordian writes about the Spurs at 48 Minutes of Hell, the San Antonio affiliate blog of ESPN’s TrueHoop Network, and contributes his thoughts on leaguewide issues at Hardwood Paroxysm.

Remember that one All-Star Game in the Alamodome during the heydey of the Spurs fiesta-colors era where they wore those hideous uniforms with the peppers on them? That was awesome.

Let’s all hope Chicago isn’t the next logo we see. (via Dime)

I both praised one of the best hoops websites on this here planet while making the announcement that Joey of the website Straight Bangin’ is now writing regularly for FreeDarko. And he done tored it up with his first post the other day, which talks about the duality of this year’s Playoffs being both great because we get to watch the Leaders of the New School (Bron, CP3, Flash, Dwight, Deron, Rose, etc.) but also downtrodden because we have to endure the demise of the hallmarks of the post-MJ era (Deeeee-Trooooiiit BAS-KET-BALL, the Spurs, KG, The Answer, Shaq missing on a milk carton and even Timmy to some degree).

Here’s an excerpt:

For as much good as we’ve seen, there’s been an equal amount of bad. At least, for me, there has been. It’s an odd duality well captured by the Celtics, in fact. As sad as it is to watch Kevin Garnett reduced to the world’s most profane, best-dressed cheerleader, Rajon Rondo’s playoff performance has been a sensational counter, offering the sort of boundary-challenging performance we like to celebrate and mythologize. Of course, it likely comes from necessity precisely because Kevin is hurt. I don’t think one necessarily trumps the other, but this year, the bad seems to be a consequence of the good in a way that’s more pronounced than usual.

Kid has game. (Hip hop heads should stay up on Straight Bangin’, too, where he’s been dropping gems like this post about Raekwon for years.)

Furthermore, you should be checking out FreeDarko every day during the Playoffs. They’re cool dudes and they’re staying active.

That’s just cruel. (Screen cap from FanHouse via Ball Don’t Lie)