Mike Prada

Becky Hammon coached a hell of a game. Negated the Alyssa Thomas middle pick-and-roll with the zone and by having the guard reach into AT's dribble.

That kept Dana Evans on the floor, and you saw the offensive benefits.

From wax packs to rated rookies, success is in the cards for Lakers' Jake LaRavia

Jake LaRavia might be the only NBA player with a hobby where Nikola Jokic, LeBron James and Luka Doncic can stink and where Ryan Rollins is a find! I ripped some packs this summer with the Lakers' new forward and wrote about his collecting www.nytimes.com/athletic/658...

State of the Wizards Rebuild with Mike Prada Episodio de podcast · Everybody Eats: A Washington Wizards Podcast · 01/10/2025 · 51 min

Everybody Eats Episode 1: @mikepradanba.bsky.social joins the show to take a big picture look at the Wizards rebuild. Check it out!

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/cl/podcast/s...

Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/7AXv...

Youtube: youtu.be/JlQCDohloNg

This is fascinating stuff. Really well done by @jaredweissnba.bsky.social

Also: Yes, @jaredweissnba.bsky.social has a new gig covering Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs. I know a lot of folks have asked about more coverage of that team and player over the past couple years. You're all in great hands.

Really excited for what he has cooked up this season.

CLA is a concept I teach in my undergraduate motor learning class. It’s a counterintuitive approach because the athletes often struggle with performance during practice, but the science is telling. Worse performance in practice that leads to better performance during competition.

What is ‘the CLA?’ Inside the revolutionary coaching method quietly fueling the world’s best athletes This radical coaching method was once a secret. Now, it’s reimagining athletic training and powering champions all over the world.

What if "muscle memory" is a myth? What if the very basis for how humans learn new skills is wrong?

A growing number of coaches and athletes see a problem with the way we train.

And they're solving it with a new method called CLA.

Read @jaredweissnba.bsky.social.

www.nytimes.com/athletic/666...

We've been busy....

Reed Sheppard SZN is upon us.

I can't believe those goofy gold Wizards jerseys from the early blog days are now considered vintage. Where did the time go?

Cloud -- at least she played hard.

Tough to win a road elimination game playing 3 on 5.

In awe of Breanna Stewart tonight. I dunno how she's still standing, much less playing and carrying her team.

The winner of this game has to play the Lynx in Minnesota in 42 hours lol

I dunno how you officiate a game like this. These teams are mauling each other.

Home court elimination games are good

Fever-Dream was, well, a fever dream.

Read this

Tonight — and many nights this year — underscored the impact of Betnijah Laney-Hamilton's absence. She was the one who got down in the mud when defenses tried to muck up the Liberty's offensive flow. She was also the one to take on tough assignments and guard up. They've missed that element all year

How often do you see someone beat A'ja Wilson down the floor?

Noelle Quinn displaying more off-ball movement than most of her players

The Storm have no shooting, but at least they have glacially slow ball and player movement

1. Don't think that's necessarily true -- Becky's comments were very strategic, for example.

2. It's not about what they say, it's about making you feel closer to them

Also, the coach getting caught coaching mid-interview is a feature, not a bug. We want to feel closer to the game, don't we? There you go.

The coach interviews during the game are good. Makes you feel the energy of the game as a viewer, and coaches can deal with the minor inconvenience.

If Kawhi Leonard just wants to hoop, couldn’t he avoid all this Clippers drama? There's a lot of finger pointing around the allegations of impermissible benefits, but Kawhi Leonard seems to have avoided much criticism.

I wrote about the strange lack of criticism Kawhi Leonard has received.

Sengun with more space around him this year is a scary thought

The @pablotorrefindsout.bsky.social reporting that Steve Ballmer may have circumvented the NBA salary cap underscores one under-covered trend: the exploding wealth inequality between (already super rich) sports owners.

Since 2019, the wealth gap between Ballmer and the bottom tier has grown >3X

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested additional $10M in company sponsoring Kawhi Leonard As Aspiration struggled to pay bills in March 2023, LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested millions more into the company.

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer made a second, previously unknown, investment into Aspiration in March 2023 for $9.999 million, while the company was struggling financially and just months after an investment by Clippers vice chairman Dennis Wong. www.nytimes.com/athletic/662...