Swish Tribune

  Written by: Dylan Grodner of Swish Tribune  The theme of this season is scoring, both teams and players are putting up all-time high point numbers. There has been a total of 21 players that have scored over 50 points this season. Most recently, Damian Lillard with 71 points, as well as averaging 41 points over his last 13 games. In addition, this past weekend, the Kings beat the Clippers 176-175 in double OT, making it the second highest scoring game of all time. This leaves NBA fans with the question; how do players today score at such ease?  A simple answer to this question is that players are far more efficient than they ever were before. Field goal percentages are higher than ever, simply due to an evolution in the game of basketball and the way it's played.  The NBA is also much more fast paced than in prior years. A lot more shots are taken per game, resulting in higher scores. Some players attempt over 20 three pointers a night, giving them opportunities for more points. T

                                    Written by: Spencer Teman, of Swish Tribune                Mac McClung took home the trophy for winning the dunk contest this year in Salt Lake City after putting on an absolute show Saturday night. But there were some things that I didn't like about this year's format of the dunk contest.              The NBA needs to put bigger, household names and stars in the dunk contest, to gain more popularity. Mac McClung, this year's winner, has not played in an NBA game yet this season and was just picked up by the 76ers this past week.               What happened to the days where Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, and more superstars participated in the slam dunk contest. With star players such as Ja Morant and Zion Williamson, the dunk contest may be enjoyable and will gain more popularity.               Lots of people who watched the dunk contest did not know who some of the participants were. My favorite dunk contest was in 2016 with Zach L

                   Written By: Jack Nevins of Swish Tribune                    This past weekend brought great publicity to Arizona, as the Super Bowl and the Waste Management Phoenix Open were both played. While many were tailgating and partying for the big game, golf fans enjoyed their partying somewhere else one may consider far better, the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale.                    The 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale is like no  other. It's a 163-yard par three, where players need to clear 100 yards of desert and debris. The hole is surrounded by a grandstand, seating 20,000 fans. The course gets its nickname "The Stadium Course", because of this grandstand. This is not your typical country club par three. Fans make the hole so special, as they are by far the rowdiest crowd in all of golf, with fans collectively throwing beers after a putt is made, fans taking off their shirts, to even fans doing this...                      The 16th at TPC Scottsdale is truly someth

                                       Written by: Spencer Teman of Swish Tribune                With NBA All-Star Weekend just a couple of days away, I want to remind everyone why the NBA has the best all-star weekend format out of every major American sport.                The number of festivities that the NBA hosts during the weekend is incredible: the celebrity game, the rising stars game, the skills competition, the three-point contest, the dunk contest, and the actual game. No other sport has this many events during a singular  weekend.               All of the events draw a vast number attention, being that each event is competitive and intriguing to watch, unlike other all-star festivities within the NHL and NFL. I think that their formats are terrible because of how uncompetitive the games are, and their viewership has drastically declined over the years.               My personal favorite event of the weekend is the dunk contest and in a close second place is the three-point

                Written By: Spencer Teman, of Swish Tribune                The Chiefs have won Super Bowl 57 in a very entertaining game with the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-35. The game was decided by a controversial penalty call, but that did not tell the complete story for how close this game actually was.               Patrick Mahomes came into this game not 100 percent just yet coming off his high-ankle sprain but was still able get it done Chiefs victory on Sunday. Mahomes delivered, and after he got banged up going into halftime after a shoe-string tackle near his ankle, he exploded coming out of the locker room after Rihanna's' performance.               When analysts said Super Bowl 57 was going to feature the two best offenses in the league, the two offenses in the league both delivered. It seemed like there wasn't going to be a single possession that would go scoreless as the two teams combined for 73 total points.                The Eagles fell short in this one, bu

              Written by: Spencer Teman of Swish Tribune                The best NBA trade deadline that we've ever seen wrapped up on Thursday and I'm still processing all of the drama that went down. So many drastic changes throughout the league makes you wonder who was a winner and who was a loser?               Let's start off with some winners, especially the Phoenix Suns. The Suns shocked the NBA by trading for Kevin Durant without giving up any of the rest of their original big 3: Devin Booker, Chris Paul, and Deandre Ayton. To acquire a player like KD and not give up any of your best players is pretty unbelievable and a fleece by the Suns front office.               The Suns have struggled a lot this year with injuries and not winning games and adding KD solves this major hole. When KD is healthy, pairing him with Booker will be an eyeopener in Phoenix. Watch out for the Suns in the west because when they are healthy, it's a whole different ball game.          

  2023 NBA TRADE DEADLINE RECAP Written By: Dylan Grodner of Swish Tribune How does one of the worst expected trade deadlines in NBA history, turn into the greatest deadline of all time? A simple answer to this question is the drama the Brooklyn Nets caused. In this blog, we will take a deeper dive into why this trade deadline was expected to be lax and boring, to becoming one of the greatest trade deadlines of all time.  During the 2022 NBA offseason, we saw numerous blockbuster trades, where up to 10 players were traded for just 1. Consequentially, teams valued players much higher compared to prior years. Teams like the Raptors were expecting a minimum of 3 picks for guys like OG Anunoby, who is only a role player at best. Many analysts expected that there would not be a lot of action come time of the deadline due to the high value of players. It's safe to say that these analysts were undoubtedly wrong.  The Brooklyn Nets were the focal point of this year's trade deadline. Th

              Written by: Spencer Teman of Swish Tribune                In Lebron James's 20th season it only seems like he is getting better when most players begin to decline at his age. He added another accolade to his career on Tuesday night, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most points in NBA history, but is he the goat of basketball yet?               This has been a debated discussion for the telltale of time whether Lebron is the goat of basketball or not. To me, I believe he is not there just yet. While everyone is praising Lebron for breaking the scoring record, people have to realize that the Kareem's record was much more impressive than Lebron's. Kareem competed in an era of violence with little rules. Today's game is filled with soft fouls and slouchy defense.               Kareem played in a time where the three-pointer was not as widely used as it is today and as a result only made one career three pointer compared to Lebron's 2,237, where that

  Written by: Max Turtz of Swish Tribune As a Brooklyn Nets fan, shock has become somewhat normal in the past few years. Blockbuster trades, playoff woes, coaching issues, and COVID regulations have all contributed to the up and down road of the last few seasons. Now, halfway through the 2022-23 season, the Nets have looked like a potential contender.  Recently, drama has overfilled Brooklyn, with Kevin Durant’s MCL injury, the first major issue since Steve Nash’s departure. KD’s injury has put some extra weight on Kyrie Irving, especially on the offensive end. Kyrie has stepped up to the plate with jaw-dropping talent every night. This has helped the Nets stay near the top of the Eastern Conference standings.  All seemed well until Kyrie requested a trade on Friday the 3rd. To say this was a shock would be an understatement. First of all, the team has been managing well without KD and Kyrie is playing fantastic basketball. It’s unlikely that Kyrie will find a better role somewhere els

    Written by: Spencer Teman of Swish Tribune                  The NFL has a new Pro Bowl format, and, in my opinion, it sucks. To see professional football players, play a non-competitive game of flag football is not very amusing for any viewer of the Pro Bowl Games.               First off, how is Tyler Huntley the starting quarterback for the AFC. It makes no sense to me that the NFL could not select a better quarterback than the Ravens backup quarterback to be in the Pro Bowl. There are at least 8 quarterbacks currently playing in the AFC that are better than Huntley.  The Pro Bowl is supposed to feature big, household names like Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, etc. Instead, it is featuring Tyler Huntley as one of the starting quarterbacks. That is just one of the things that the NFL needs to take into consideration in improving the Pro Bowl.               The next thing they need to improve is the game being played itself. We've seen all season the best of the bes

                              Written by: Spencer Teman of Swish Tribune                Super Bowl 57 is set as it will take place between the #1 seeded Philadelphia Eagles from the NFC, and the #1 seeded Kansas City Chiefs from the AFC. Both teams have been playing great football all season and look to win the biggest trophy in all of sports, the Vince Lombardi Trophy, on Sunday, February 13th.               The Eagles dominated their path to the Super Bowl, after having a wild card weekend bye, outscoring the Giants and 49ers, 69-14, allowing only one touchdown to both teams. The Eagles looked like one of the most complete teams this season and took down the 49ers with ease.                There is not one weak spot on this Eagles team. As you look deep into the depth chart, they have zero weaknesses and their time to win is now. Second year quarterback Jalen Hurts is leading this team to their destiny as he looks like one of the best quarterbacks in the league. This Eagles roster co

    Written By: Jake Bornstein of Swish Tribune The New York Knicks managed to get it done in the Garden with a comeback win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night. In the previous meeting, the 76ers came out on top in an upsetting 4th quarter-comeback double-digit win over the Knicks on Christmas Day. However, the Knicks were determined to get their revenge. Notable injuries caused the Knick's to look to their deep bench. RJ Barrett ruled-out last minute. Mitchell Robinson, the Knicks starting center, who has been out for the last couple of weeks was ineligible for tonight's games. The Knicks have been back and forth all season but have struggled to win games recently. The Knicks were underdogs without Robinson, giving Embiid an advantage.  The first quarter of the game was dominated by the 76ers, who grabbed a hold of a very solid lead of twenty-one points. Joel Embiid and De’Anthony Melton contributed to the 76ers offensive efforts, scoring a combined 17 points. Despite

               Written by: Spencer Teman of Swish Tribune               Friday afternoon, Kyrie requests a trade from the Nets and just two days later, he's paired up with one of the league's best in Dallas as he is now a Dallas Maverick. Luka finally gets the superstar he has been looking for ever since he took the NBA by storm.             It's crazy to think that four years ago the entire NBA world thought that KD and Kyrie would dominate the NBA on the Nets and win multiple championships. Now four years later, not only did they not win any championships, but they won one playoff series together.             To me, it is the the worst failed experiment in NBA history and Kyrie Irving fully sabotaged Kevin Durant's career. The whole reason why KD went to the Nets was because he wanted to team up with his buddy Kyrie Irving and four years later, Kyrie betrays him.             We still don't know the full story behind why Kyrie requested a trade from the Nets, but h

Who Really Deserves To Be An All Star? Written By: Jack Nevins of Swish Tribune       On February 19th in Utah, at Vivint arena, home of the Utah Jazz, the stars of the NBA will duke it out in a showdown on the world's biggest stage. The teams used to consist of the East vs. West, where it then shifted to two team captains where players were selected in a draft, back to square one with the East vs. West. As you see the top ten players get selected for the starting roles on each squad, the reserves bring great controversy to who should really get a roster spot. These players consist of who was snubbed or who deserved to be on the team of these elite players.           The 2023 All-Star teams were missing notable names from both the East and West, but who really was snubbed and deserved a spot? The Eastern conference starters contain Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, and Jayson Tatum. The Western conference starters include LeBron James, Stephen Cu

Super Bowl LVII Written By: Carmine Tuosto of Swish Tribune As the final weekend of football approaches, Arizona is hosting the Super Bowl between The Philadelphia Eagles and The Kansas City Chiefs. Both of these teams have been fantastic all season long and have managed to secure the #1 seed in each of their respective conferences. With that being said, Philly is still the favorite, but it is definitely a tight race. Jalen Hurts is coming off of a poor performance against the best defense in football, throwing only 15/25 against the 49ers. He is bound to have a bounce back game and will throw the ball more, especially having Jason Kelce and the offensive line protecting him. The Eagles have a better run game than the Chiefs and a better wide receiver room. By having talented receivers like AJ Brown and Devonta Smith, and great running backs, like Pro Bowler Miles Sanders, they are definitely hard to stop. They also have a better offensive line which gave up only one sack in the NFC Ch

      Written By: Spencer Teman of Swish Tribune       As all star weekend approaches, we take a look at the east all star starters and await the reserves to be announced later tonight.        The starters consist of Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. If I had to make a prediction before the season on what the east starters would look like, there probably wouldn’t be many differences as there are really no surprises in this lineup.      I believe that the west is much more guard heavy while the east is more forward heavy. There are a couple guards in the west that deserved to be starters and if they were in the east they would make it. Same for the forwards in the east, if they were in the west they probably would’ve been put as starters.      But enough with the logistics let’s talk about the east starters starting with Kyrie Irving. Kyrie has consistently been one of the best guards in the league and this year with the Nets he has b

2023 NBA Western Conference All Star Starters  By Dylan Grodner,  of Swish Tribune  LeBron James is closing in on the all time scoring record, Stephen Curry is coming off of a Finals MVP, Nikola Jokic is looking for his third straight MVP, Luka Doncic leads the scoring title in the West, and Zion Williamson, well, he's Zion Williamson.  With James honing in on his 19th All Star Game appearance, and his 5th straight year of being named captain, he was a lock for this position. He has averaged a whopping 30.2 PPG, 8.5 RPG, and 7.1 APG, tallying up to 7,418,116 total votes. James truly has aged like fine wine and looks to continue his winning record of 5-0 in the All Star Game as a captain. Another lock for this position is Luka Doncic. Doncic has been my MVP thus far, averaging a career high of 33.4 PPG, 8.9 RPG, and 8.3 APG. He has filled up the stat sheet in the most prominent way and continues to put his team on his back, currently sitting at the 6th seed in the West. Where would