Picks n' Pops: Mike Gorman's farewell tour, fence mending with Malcolm Brogdon, and Willy Wonka

Every week, I gather some thoughts on the NBA and beyond and dump them here.

- Mike Gorman is going on a farewell tour, and if anyone ever deserves one, it’s him. He’s been at this game for 42 years, which is absolutely amazing. 

The greatest accomplishment in the media business is going out on your own terms. So few people get to do that anymore. People price themselves out of gigs or their shticks get old, and those once on top of the heap find themselves either begging for attention or just out of the picture entirely. 

Not Mike Gorman, though. He’s a rare combination of class and skill that transcends all the other BS in this industry. The man is just great on and off the air. 

I hate things like this because it sounds like I’m eulogizing a guy to his face. But Gorman has been so good, for so long, that it’s hard to sound any other way. 

I’m lucky. I remember Mike on TV as a sports anchor on WPRI in Providence. I remember him doing Big East games first (he had the call on Jerome Lane’s famous shattered backboard against Providence … even though Bill Raftery’s “SEND IT IN, JEROME!” was the viral moment). I remember the old Sportschannel days with Tommy Heinsohn.

He’s a legend. But to me, every time we cross paths at the Garden and he stops to ask me “so what do you think tonight?” is the most special part of my professional life. Those little conversations have always meant the world to me. 

Mike Gorman deserves all the love and adoration this farewell tour will bring. 

- Bronny James is home from the hospital after his sudden cardiac arrest, which is such a relief. Now I’m wondering what a scare of this magnitude means to LeBron James’ career. 

- Want to know why Jaylen Brown’s negotiations took a while? Well, negotiating little quirks like this might have been part of it: 

Why didn’t he just ask for it to be paid on July 7? Why go this far without taking that extra step? Why not go the extra, extra step and get the payment sponsored by the Bottaro Law Firm (gotta hand it to the guy, those “dial 7” adds really embed themselves into the ol’ temporal lobe).

- I understand he’s not the most efficient guy in the world, but Kelly Oubre still being on the market is weird to me. I wonder if he’ll slide all the way down to minimum contract territory, even if it’s a one-year deal to rebuild his value. 

- There's some fence-mending to be done with Malcolm Brogdon. 

“The organization has had a few conversations,” Joe Mazzulla said after Jaylen Brown’s contract signing. “I think anytime you are in a situation like that and you are in a relationship, you just have to take some small steps into it. There is a healing process, there is a listening process and to see where we are at and where we have to get to. We've had some conversations as an organization but at the same time, we understand that the situation that it was and as the healing process goes on, we will move forward as well as you can.”

That does not sound encouraging. It sounds like Brogdon was told about the trade and then had to be told he’s still on the team. This is very reminiscent of the Ray Allen situation where he was told he was traded and then it fell apart.

Makes me wonder how long Brogdon can be part of this team. If anyone has the professional wherewithal to figure this out, I think it’s Brogdon, but that doesn’t erase the hurt feelings. Hopefully, time will heal this wound.

- Michael Jordan turned a $275 million dollar investment in the Hornets into roughly $2 billion with the sale of the team. I’m not sure how accurate the online net worth things are, but if they're close, this sale basically doubled Jordan’s. 

Probably tough for Hornets fans to hear after all those years of Jordan cheaping out on salary. 

- You think Jaylen Brown is paid a lot of money? Kylian Mbappé got a $1.1 billion offer to play soccer in Saudi Arabia. He passed on it, but Giannis Antetokounmpo wouldn’t mind a taste.

There's something to watch here. Basketball is an international sport and the NBA is bringing in a TON of money. Sovereign wealth funds are making splashes in soccer, it won’t be long before they turn their attention to basketball. 

Will it be in the NBA? Or will it be as a challenger to the NBA?

- You can call Twitter whatever you want, Elon, but can we make the browser tab look like something I shouldn’t have to explain to my wife?

- Steph Curry on Hot Ones is awesome. 

While we're here, are we in the era of the most lovable NBA superstars in league history? Curry, Giannis, Nikola Jokic … where are the villains? Is it LeBron? Still?

And if it is, that's ending soon. Personally, I find all these guys endearing. 

Maybe I'm just getting soft in my old age.

- Tim Bontemps, on a recent “Hoop Collective” podcast, said “I don't think there's any chance he signs an extension there ever, and if it was up to me I would trade Donovan Mitchell today. I don't think the Cavs are getting as far as they hope to next year, I don't think he's going to extend, and I think they'll get a lot more for him with 2 summers left than they will with 1 summer left.”

He also acknowledges that they won’t, but he’s right that they should. 

Danny Ainge and the Utah Jazz control Cleveland’s first round picks by trade or swap from 2025 to 2029. Yikes. 

- I don’t care how many Willy Wonka prequels, sequels, or whatevers you make, Gene Wilder nailed it the first time and no one will ever top it. Wilder’s Wonka had a level of humanity the others don’t.

- Austin Rivers this week: “If you get traded somewhere, you've gotta go play, man. You know what I mean? Like, this started with James [Harden] and Ben [Simmons] and all these guys doing this s***, it's bad for the league."

Rivers in 2019, when he didn’t report after being traded to the Suns: “I don’t want to be part of a team — no disrespect — obviously they’re trying to find themselves … They’re trying to get draft picks. I’ve never been in that situation. I don’t know if I would’ve handled that the best way and I think they knew that and understood that. If I would’ve came here, I would’ve been professional and would’ve played hard and tried to help younger guys out, but obviously, I felt like what was best suited for me, me and my team thought playing for a playoff team would do that.”  

C’mon man. That was only four years ago. Did you forget you pulled that same thing? 

- I’m tired of the Paul Pierce/Dwyane Wade thing. Pierce is right about not getting a chance to play with the same players Wade did, but Pierce is also a Hall of Famer. I know he feels disrespected and underappreciated, but nothing good comes out of public outbursts like his. 

Pierce seems pretty wound up for a guy in the weed business.