Category: Basketball

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The Last Dance Origin Story Edition

Learn how Running It Back got started in this special episode which includes the original recording of our takes on the ESPN Docuseries, The Last Dance that launched in the Spring of 2020. Many of us, including Mike and Tarlin, were transfixed by this series that launched at the height of the first wave of the coronavirus before live sports returned to us.

Tarlin and Mike reminisce about Michael, Scottie, Dennis, and Phil as we try to glean lessons learned from the incredible story of the most dominant NBA Dynasty in recent memory.

If you want to learn how this all began, join us as we run it back to Spring 2020 and then all the way back to the 1990s during this unique and historic episode you won’t want to miss!

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LeBron versus Michael NBA GOAT Pod

Now that we’ve had a little time to let the 2020 NBA Season settle in, we thought it would be a great time to talk about who is the G.O.A.T Basketball player. There’s been a lot of hubbub around Michael versus LeBron so we weigh in with our takes there. We also bring Bill Russell and Kareem into the conversation about the greatest of all time.

And along the way, Tarlin makes his pitch to modernize the NBA logo, Mike brings in some random 1990s basketball references, and we commit to showing some range next time by broadening to more than the NBA. But for this show, it’s all about the GOAT of Basketball. We hope you enjoy!

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Blackballed – Donald Sterling and the 2014 Clippers

For this episode, based on the Quibi docuseries, Blackballed, we run it back to 2014 when Donald Sterling, then the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, was caught on tape engaging in offensive, racially charged speech. Once the tapes got out, there was outrage across the NBA and more broadly in the nation that ultimately led the newly appointed commissioner, Adam Silver, to impose a lifetime ban on Sterling that resulted in his sale of the team.

Tarlin and Mike share their quick takes on Quibi, which had just launched at the time, before digging into the relevance of the themes in the series. Since we recorded in late May, we connect this to the uproar triggered by the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. We look for lessons in leadership from the examples of Doc Rivers, Chris Paul, Adam Silver, and even Matt Barnes as we dive into a complex and relevant conversation about sports and its role in elevating consciousness about racial issues. We recorded this prior to the NBA’s season in the Bubble in Orlando, but much remains relevant as we continue to struggle with issues of race, justice, and equity in sports and in our broader society.

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LeBron, Jimmy Buckets, and the Kings of the Bubble

Join us as we run it back through a few crazy months of NBA Bubble 2020.

Tarlin and Mike reflect back on the amazing run the NBA had through the Bubble in Orlando. In addition to highlighting the stories we’ll remember along the way, we conclude by assessing the bona fides of the Laker and Heat squads. While we might not come to an agreement on Jimmy Buckets, we can’t deny that the NBA Bubble season will live on in our memories and that LeBron truly solidified his legacy with this run to glory. Most likely this win for Laker nation will come without an asterisk, but you never know…

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2020 NBA Finals Tipoff Edition

Tarlin and Mike got together just before the tipoff of the 2020 NBA Finals to talk through the David versus Goliath matchup between Jimmy Buckets and a crew of role players versus LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and an interesting supporting cast.

How many championships are represented on each squad? Who deserves credit for assembling the crews that have made it the Finals? And will this Championship come with an asterisk? We cover all this along with JeVale McGee’s influence on Dwight Howard, the Resurgence of Playoff Rondo, and Andre Iguodala’s 6th consecutive Finals appearance in a quick hit lightning round episode heading into what we hope to be a tremendous conclusion to the NBA’s year in the Bubble in Orlando.

Thanks as always for listening.

And check out our website at runningitback.fm and follow us at @runningitbackfm on Twitter. Follow us, subscribe, leave a review, and help us spread the word about lessons to be learned from sports!

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2020 NBA Finals Scenario Edition

Tarlin and Mike run through the four possible matchups for the NBA Finals. In all likelihood, it will be Lakers-Heat which has all sorts of angles to run it back to, but we do some scenario-based thinking about Lakers-Celtics, Nuggz-Heat, and Nuggz-Celtics before wrapping up this quick-hitter before we actually break down the NBA Finals once we know for sure what’s going to happen.

Listen in and enjoy.

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The 1999 NBA Playoffs, the Cinderella Knicks, and the Rise of Pop and Tim Duncan

Tarlin and Mike run it all the way back to 1999 to cover the season that was shortened due to a work stoppage. Through a series of fortuitous events, the New York Knicks get hot and tear through the early rounds of the playoffs before overcoming the loss of The Big Fella, Patrick Ewing, in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers. Despite losing their Captain, the Knicks go on to beat the Pacers by virtue of the heroic play of Latrell Spreewell, Marcus Camby, Alan Houston, and Larry Johnson. They go on to face Greg Popovich and Tim Duncan in the Finals where they were quickly dispatched as the Spurs dynasty begins to take shape.

What can we learn from this? How do the stories of 1999 resonate with life in the NBA Bubble amid the tumult of 2020? As leaders, what lessons can we learn from Van Gundy, Spree, Tim Duncan, and Pop?

Listen in as we run it back to help make sense of things today.

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Magic Johnson Announces He Has HIV

Tarlin and Mike run it back to November 7th, 1991 when Magic Johnson held an emergency press conference to announce that he had the HIV virus and that he’d be retiring from the NBA immediately. The news shocked the world and we reflect back on where we were when this flashbulb moment in sports history occurred.

Magic went on to have a storied career after the announcement – playing in the NBA All Star Game and on The Dream Team in 1992. The league responds by establishing the “Blood Rule” and working through the fears and objections of other players like Byron Scott and Karl Malone to demonstrate that even in the early 1990s, the NBA was up to the challenge of managing the medical risks of virus spread. Perhaps more importantly, it was our first experience with the confusion and misinformation of dealing with an epidemic and there are many parallels we draw between this story and much of what we’re seeing in the NBA in 2020.

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Allen Iverson – Practice!?!?

Tarlin and Mike bring us back to the story of Allen Iverson which in many ways culminated in the notorious press conference in which he said the word “practice” 22 times. We explore what brought AI to that point and how in many ways it has marginalized his impact on the game and the lessons we can learn from his career.

We run it all the way back to his incredible high school career at Bethel and the incident at the bowling alley which nearly ended his basketball life before it even began. From there, we try to learn from his impact with John Thompson at Georgetown right through his career with the Philadelphia 76ers and Larry Brown.

Thanks as always for listening.

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Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf – A Lesson in Protest

This week we run it back to the story of Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf to glean lessons about the protests we’re seeing in 2020. Mahmoud began his life as Chris Jackson, a poor kid from Louisiana who battled Tourette’s Syndrome to become a tremendous college basketball player at LSU in the early 1990s. We chronicle the challenges he faced finding his way as he eventually found solace and spiritual direction through Islam. That in turn led him to change his name and begin with a silent protest of the National Anthem that eventually went public. As he remained true to his convictions, he was blackballed by the NBA and was quickly out of the league, in some ways presaging the story of Colin Kaepernik in 2016.

What lessons can we learn from Mahmoud’s story? How is he similar and different from Kaepernik? We dive into all of this as we look for lessons to be learned based on the transformative story of the life of Abdul-Rauf. And we also harken back to the early 1990s along the way.

Thanks as always for listening.