A new season. Allow me to make a little noise of pure pleasure. UHHHHUUOOO. WUHHHH. It arrived a little earlier than expected, but it is, indeed, a totally new season. Who knows what’s going to happen? I’m not sure on the details quite yet, but I can tell you this: rookies will be scrubs, new acquisitions will be scrubs, returning players will be scrubs, I bet even an All-Star or two will regress into scrubdom, and I’m gonna love every second of it.
Of course, with a new season comes unfamiliar faces on familiar teams. First subject: Nick Young, Swaggy P, who, fairly or unfairly, has developed one of the worst reputations in the league among learned fans. He’s on the Warriors now! An attempt to rehabilitate his image, perhaps? He saw what going to Golden State did to the reputation of his former partner in boneheadedness, JaVale McGee. He saw how McGee turned from a laughingstock into a respected contributor on a championship team without having to change even one thing about himself. Young saw, and he became jealous. I don’t know how he conned the Warriors into giving him a contract, but he did, and now everyone is going to love him. Unironically.
Young chucked tonight just as he does every time he steps on the court. Rather successfully, actually, 23 points on 8 of 9 shooting, even if he turned his swag off in the second half. Just from this first game’s worth of highlights, we can see that it’s the same old Swaggy P, shooting the same old shots. Some nights they’ll go in, some nights they won’t, but the difference this year is that he’s contributing to a “winning culture”.
Do not be fooled.