Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken did their best to get in the mood for today’s story …

I’m quite sure they will stick with hockey going forward. 

Anyway, the 2024-2025 NBA season is up and running. It seems like only yesterday we were actively ignoring the WNBA season finale, with the New York Liberty winning the championship in, so it is said, a thrilling overtime win in Game Five of a best-of-five series against their storied rivals, the Minnesota Lynx. I would have been watching, but I was either at the mostly day job, but sometimes at the night job, or alphabetizing the bookmarks on a web browser I no longer use. It deserves mentioning that Lynx is an appropriate name for a WNBA team because if any group of athletes can be catty, it’s the WNBA.

Back to the NBA. While it is evident many, many, many times over that pro basketball is not a fan favorite among readers of these modest little scribbles, the NBA is undeniably a force in pop culture. During the most recent offseason, the NBA inked lucrative contracts with Disney (i.e., ESPN), NBCUniversal, and Amazon Prime to the tune of 11 years and $76 billion. That’s enough money to make people insisting we keep shoveling money into foreign wars jealous. 

Since broadcast networks are in the business of making money, it is safe to assume the three involved believe they will profit from the deal through advertising, as live sports events are about the only media conduit left where consumers cannot nearly or completely avoid suffering through ads. You don’t have to like the NBA. Still, given its pervasive nature, it helps to be at least conversant in its activities as part of facilitating preaching the conservative evangel to the uninformed, otherwise known as people who directly or through societal filtration get their information from mainstream media. Starting a conversation with, “Hey, did you see what LeBron did last night?” will reach a far wider audience than, “Hey, did you hear what Tucker Carlson said yesterday?” There are doubtless better examples, but you get the idea.

Looking at the NBA this year, while league headquarters are doubtless hoping the season will end with either the Boston Celtics trying to repeat as champions or the New York Knicks dethroning them en route to the Eastern Conference title, taking on the aforementioned LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, the team most likely expected to win the Western Conference is that franchise rich in history and lore known as the… Oklahoma City Thunder. Bonus points if you can name anyone on the team without looking it up. The Thunder rolls with point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is just plain fun to watch due to his plethora of skills. Gilgeous-Alexander can shoot the lights out in addition to driving -- or creating drives for his teammates -- to the basket. He also works hard and effectively on defense. Were he on a team anyone other than an occasional tornado cared about, Gilgeous-Alexander would be omnipresent in the advertising world. He also keeps whatever political views he holds to himself, which, since Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, may well be out of embarrassment.

Another story of note as the NBA rumbles into action is the first father-son duo in league history, as Bronny James joins his father LeBron on the Lakers. Bronny lit up the stat sheets during his debut. Check out these eye-popping numbers:

• Minutes Played: 3
• Shots Taken: 3 (including one three-pointer)
• Shots Made: 0
• Offensive Rebounds: 1
• Defensive Rebounds: 0
• Plus/Minus: -5 (number of points his team scored versus the opponent while the player was in the game)

Um, better luck next game, kid.

Finally, the Los Angeles Clippers now have their own home arena, a $2 billion marvel of modern technology known as the Intuit Dome. The Clippers, being the Clippers, naturally lost the home opener.

Have a thunderous (no pun intended) Thursday, everyone.