Montgomery & Company

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NBA Recap: Special Stage

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with an NBA postseason recap. With eight different series going on, I won’t just simply give a quick breakdown of each of them as usually constructed by other publications and sports mediums. While that may be necessary and informative, that format is not as fun to write. And what are we doing if we are not trying to find good fun in all we do? The playoffs feel like a special invitation. And it is, despite more teams being invited than not. In fact, the fact more than half the teams make the playoffs matters even less with the excitement of the Play-In games—which adds more teams post-regular season. Basketball is the one sport that has managed to stay closest to the purest form of its product while giving us more of the product in many different forms of ingestion.…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: The Actual Recap

Wassup y’all! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with the recap at the end of the regular season. Before we start into postseason play, I believe it is important to look back on our journey. Nowadays, we want the regular season to mean more. I believe the onus is on is to give the regular season it’s proper value and celebration. So, let’s get into it. In-Season Tournament. For the first time, the NBA held an In-Season Tournament. Channeling an idea popularized by European futbol leagues, all 30 teams participated in pool play, with the top 4 in each conference moving to the knockout round. In the end, it was the Los Angeles Lakers winning the championship over the Indiana Pacers. While All-Star Tyrese Haliburton was probably the biggest individual winner, the NBA as a whole earned major points with fans. Sure, the courts were a little loud…
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MoCoMedia

NCAA Women’s Basketball Recap: The One

Wassup folks! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with a recap for a literal living legend. There won’t be much NBA talk for this recap. I am here to talk about Dawn Staley. On April 7th, Dawn captured the women’s NCAA title after defraying Caitlin Clark and Iowa 87-75. In 16 years at South Carolina, this is her third title. Her and South Carolina have gone 109-3 in the past three years, capping it off with a 38-0 season this year. She was overcome with emotion after the game was over, even bringing up her previous class, named, “The Freshies,” as this season was an attempt to redeem them four losing in last year’s National Semifinal. With a different and younger cast, she and her team completed the mission and are this season’s champions. But this is bigger than this year—bigger even than her 16 years as a…
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MoCoMedia

NBA (and NCAA!) Recap: Good Monday

Wassup family! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap of the recent hoops, both in college and the pros. Last time, we were getting ready for the respective tournaments with so much uncertainty. Now, as a new month begins, we have more clarity and detail about who could possibly be the next NCAA and NBA champion while still having much left to be decided. As you are reading this, both the men’s and women’s Final Four will be set. Like most of the basketball world, I’d like to fixate on the women’s side for this post—particularly, April 1st’s Elite Eight games. Those games saw a rematch of last year’s National Championship game between LSU and Iowa as well as USC taking on UConn (Editor’s Note: while I wanted to see USC win, I do support Connecticut at a tangential level). Both games had their share of…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: Tournament Preparations

Hey there! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) Johnathan Tillman is back with another NBA (and college) recap. We are heavy into March, which means that it’s time to get ready to immerse ourselves in the Madness. In college, both the men’s and women’s conference tournaments will have wrapped up by the end of St. Patrick’s Day, and what’ll them happen is the Selection Committee will seed the teams in hopes of creating a very exciting Tournament for the next three weeks. There will be favorites such as UConn and Houston on the men’s side as well as South Carolina and Texas on the women’s side who will be attempting to navigate a tough road to the Final Four. The task sounds simple on its surface—win six straight games over three weekends to cut down the nets. But if it were easy, there would be no such thing as March…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: History in Real Time

Hey hey! Ya boy—it me, ya boy—is back from the All-Star break with a recap of an outstanding recent stretch of basketball. Let’s highlight a couple things. But first, allow me to give a definition. If you’ve listened to The Till Show, you know this is important when I want to share a perspective. A milestone is defined as, “A stone functioning as a milepost,” and, “A significant event or stage in the life, progress, development, or the like of a person, nation, etc.” Both of those definitions are relevant, as two of the best hoopers on the planet are crossing milestones in their careers. Let’s begin in the NBA ranks, as LeBron James recently passed 40,000 career points. In a game against the Denver Nuggets, James made a left-handed layup to eclipse 40k, becoming the first player in Association history to do so. It’s another accomplishment for a player…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: Constellations

Welcome to the next stop in the NBA Recap series! Johnathan Tillman here with a quick look at what’s been going on in the Association. We’ve arrived at the All-Star break. This is the time where we honor this season’s best among the best, selected through various metrics, to play in a showcase of the game and their abilities. Like most things with subjective selections, debate springs from analysis of the choices. We talk about who deserves to be there, as if “deserve” has something to do with it. We rail about those who were feel were snubbed. But what I’ve seen happen when talking about snubs is the apparent unwillingness to take someone off the list for that snubbed player. It’s a similar feeling to everyone’s “Top 5” having at least 14 entrants in it, all of whom are worthy to be there. I applaud everyone who made the…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: In The Midst of History

Wassup NBA world! Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap of recent happenings in The Association. I suppose I could begin with yet another 70-point performance, but apparently they will be so frequent now that those types of scoring outbursts will lose a bit of their luster. Unfortunately, it is human nature for a number of us to grow tired of the consistency of Greatness. At some point, we want fresh blood at the top of the league and get annoyed when the champion feels preordained. For an example, look no further than LeBron James and the Golden State Warriors matching up four straight times in the back end of the previous decade. Instead of all of us marveling at just how hard it is to reach the Finals, we rest in the mundane and then try to discount the importance of the regular season. That…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: Seventy?!

Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap of the NBA season thus far. In this installment, I’ll discuss Philadelphia 76ers franchise cornerstone and last year’s MVP Joel Embiid scoring 70 points on January 22nd. Let’s establish the most important fact here: 70 points is a lot of points by one person in a basketball game. Yes, I know that’s obvious. But let’s lean into those ways why that’s obvious for a paragraph or two. Embiid took 41 official field goals, making 24, and 23 free throws, making 21. That is 65 total shots, not including any attempts negated by getting fouled. That’s more shots than total minutes in the game, a game where 20 other players took at least 1 field goal, as well as more points than minutes Embiid plays. He raised his league-leading scoring average to 36 a game, while still only playing less…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: Narrators and Narratives

As we have arrived close to the mathematical halfway point of the NBA season, we gain more clarity about players, teams and potential outcomes. Of course, we know nothing is set in stone, especially with the trade deadline still a few weeks away. But after the turn of the New Year, and the freshness of that begins to wear off, the season’s story has more to it. The narratives have more substantial data than projected data. So what happens now? [Before we get into the latest NBA stories, it is a must we take time to honor the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Renee Montgomery did an amazing job on a short piece regarding his impact and legacy and how athletes are looked at as role models. King is one of the most impactful and necessary people in this history of this country, and it is his kindness and…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Recap: A Fresh Restart

Happy 2024 everyone! I hope the holiday season was warm and kind to you, and may this year be filled with abundance in all positive aspects of your life. If you’re reading this, better is on the way. While Christmas, signifies the time where more people tune into the NBA regular season, January 1st is when the NBA begins to take over most of the sports coverage. There aren’t many college football games left. The NFL regular season is at an end, meaning there are only a handful of pro games left, as well. Baseball is still over a month away from pitchers and catchers reporting. And we now get more NBA games as the headlining broadcasts on networks. For example, there will be NBA games on Wednesday on ABC—something that didn’t happen until the Finals. The point is, this is a bit of a restart for the NBA and…
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MoCoMedia

The In-Season Tournament Recap: The Real MVP

On Saturday, December 8 th , the NBA had its first In-Season Tournament Championship in Las Vegas. It was a culmination of a twist on international tournaments like the World Cup, where there was a four-game group stage followed by an eight-team knockout round. Players received increasingly larger monetary prizes for each round their teams advanced to, peaking at $500,000 for every player and coach for winning the championship. In that championship, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers 123-109. LeBron James was named the inaugural tournament MVP. After initial dismissal of the idea of the In-Season Tournament, more and more basketball fans began to come around to liking it. Even players like Kevin Durant were skeptical at first, but expressed appreciation for it. However, I do believe there was a moment that caused that catalyst for an uptick in care. Flash back with me to November… At the…
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MoCoMedia

$700 Million.

Before we begin, just a quick note on the baseball in all this: I love baseball and have gotten closer to through watching the sports and playing the video games. It is a sport I can follow with detail. And while I can provide that kind of analysis, Why? To quote NFL legend Ricky Waters, “For who? For what?” Here is where you can find all the potential baseball analysis about how Ohtani fits with the Dodgers. Let’s talk about $700 million.MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani is signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a sports-record $700 million over the next ten years. This surpasses the previous record held by his former Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout. The Angels could give Trout $250 million right now and still not match the deal for Ohtani. Another perspective: Ohtani won the 2023 American League MVP and has now changed teams. Thirty years…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Bi-Weekly Recap: Restoring The Feeling

Ya boy (it me, ya boy) is back with another recap after two more weeks of NBA action. The season transitioned into November, and as the temperature cools, the intensity seems to have heated up. Let’s dive into some things that I noticed since we last checked in. SlimmerJam I Didn’t Quite Live Up To The Hype (And That’s Okay!) November 14 th saw the first of what we hope to be many regular season meetings between Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren. The great Bomani Jones calls their matchups, “The Skinny Bowl,” but I’d like to submit SlimmerJam as a replacement (I’ll also accept SlenderJam, SlimmerSlam and SlenderSlam). No matter the moniker, the two latest versions of basketball unicorns squared off. And while Holmgren’s Oklahoma City Thunder routed Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs, neither player played particularly well. Both players failed to reach double figures. The difference is if Chet struggles,…
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The Mavericks Trounce the Pelicans, Cardinals Welcome Murray in Comeback Win

NBA: Luka Doncic leads the Mavericks to consecutive wins; Anthony Edwards shows why he is a rising star; Victor Wembanyama makes a forgettable debut at the MSG. NFL: Murray enjoys a hero’s return in comeback wins over the Falcons; CJ Stroud throws another last-minute game-winning pass; the 49ers blow the Jaguars out of the water with a 34-3 win. We start this week’s recap in the NBA with a high-scoring result that saw the Dallas Mavericks overpower the New Orleans Pelicans 133 to 124 on Sunday. Impressive displays from the powerful duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving saw the Mavericks win a consecutive game in style following the 144-126 triumph over the Clippers earlier in the week. The Slovenian point guard scored 30 points, 4 rebounds, and 9 assists. Meanwhile, Irving made 7 of 10 3-pointers and scored 35 points, adding 6 rebounds and 7 assists to histally. Meanwhile,…
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MoCoMedia

NBA Bi-Weekly Recap: The First Two Weeks

We have had two weeks to watch the NBA. We know nothing yet about final playoff standings, the MVP race or All-Star voting. All there is right now is what’s happening in the games early on. For example, shout-out to Nets guard Cam Thomas. Keep getting them shots up, it’s your time. Let’s look at a couple stories from the first two weeks of the season. “Power” Forwards…?One thing I’ve noticed in a good number on starting and significant librettos 6 across the NBA is the lack of a power forward. As basketball has evolved, strength and power looks different now. Athleticism for basketball’s tallest players is not rooted in how well heavier bodies can move on a pivot. Instead of bruising fulcrums of frontcourt tandems, teams now employ an athletic traditional small forward at the “4” position. For example, the Golden State Warriors start Andrew Wiggins—who was drafted as…
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MoCoMedia

NBA 2023-24 Season Bi-Weekly Recap: The Look Back

I will be giving a recap of things that have happened every couple weeks of the 2023-24 NBA season. But why wait until the season has already started to do that? In order to see where we are headed, let us first look back on last year and highlight some things that stood out. The reason why I’d like to do this is because each season is its own unique journey, similar to seasons of a TV show. Sure, we would like every episode to be incredible and we often look forward to finales. But there are memorable moments scattered throughout the season, and those should always be celebrated. So let’s look back with a quick list of standout moments. Patrick Beverley Showed a Ref His Missed Call On a Camera. To me, it was worth the technical foul Pat Bev got to start overtime of the Lakers-Celtics game after…
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MoCoMedia

Getting What We Wanted

The 2023 WNBA Finals tip off on October 8, and the two best teams all year are the matchup. The New York Liberty will take on the Las Vegas Aces in a best-of-5 series. The Access will be looking for their second-straight championship while the Liberty will be looking to capture their first in their 27-year history. While personally, I would have liked for the Atlanta Dream and Washington Mystics to have had better-ending seasons, this is objectively the best matchup the totality of WNBA fans could have wanted. Sure, there are a ton of factors and analysis to break down, and there are plenty of experts better equipped than me to do that. However, I’d like to focus on a theme that does not happen as often as sports fans would like, and that is getting the best possible championship matchup at the end of the season. There have…
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Montgomery & Co. Episode 72: Keep Moving Forward

The latest episode of Montgomery & Co. was an Atlanta Dream-centric one. With the WNBA season in its final stretch before the postseason, Renee and the crew discussed the state of each of the 12 teams in the W. Focusing on the seventh-seeded Dream, the team has been consistently inconsistent. As Renee pointed out, the Dream have had two separate 10-game stretches—one where the team went 8-2 earlier in the season and one now where they’ve gone 2-8. Injuries have played a major role in that rollercoaster of a season, but that is a part of sports. There are setbacks and tough periods of time where things just don’t seem to go your way almost if not more than they seem like they do. “It’s a season of runs,” Renee stated on the pod, and that is a fact. Listen to this episode, where Renee talks to Atlanta rookie Laeticia…
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MoCoMedia

On Tyre Nichols and Fighting for Humanity’s Existence

“I’m constantly always looking for the silver lining, I’m sure I do that from being an athlete and having to find the lesson in a loss. The only thing I keep thinking about is humanity. What happened to it? There’s been more mass shootings than days in 2023. RIP to Tyre Nichols, killed by police for no reason. Humanity and reform needs to be at the forefront of all our minds.” with Momentum, RM These words from Renee Montgomery sum up a part of many people’s feelings around the killing of Memphis man Tyre Nichols at the hands of five police officers earlier in January. Those officers beat Nichols (this is not a link to the actual beating, but Nichols’ mother speaking) after pulling him over, and Nichols succumbed to his injuries recently. The policeman were fired January 20 and have been charged with second-degree murder. The one word in…
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