TBP Live from Chiles Center

For my first in-person G League experience

We’re back with episode two of TBP Live! This time we watched some G League hoops.

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I’ve always believed the G League to be a great resource for NBA franchises and a genuinely valuable developmental league for borderline NBA players, but before this season I hadn’t attended a G League game because Portland didn’t have a team and Philadelphia’s affiliate, the Blue Coats, play in Delaware. Because I guess Delaware needs something going on.

luckily this actually was my seat

But as of the 2023-24 season, Portland has a G League team of its own, the Rip City Remix. So on Monday night, January 22nd, I sauntered down to Chiles Center on the University of Portland campus (after my dad and I stopped at East Side Deli, meatball parm review 8.4/10) to watch some Remix basketball. I had a splendid time. Here are three things I learned.

1. The G League is Fast

If you think the NBA is speeding up, then your little pea brain isn’t ready for the pace of G League basketball. Ten teams in the G League play at a faster pace than the fastest NBA team. It’s non-stop and it’s a blast to watch live. Mostly. Sometimes it gets a little frenzied and devolves into chaos but that’s just because the guys give a shit, and overall the breakneck pace makes for fun-ass hoops. I don’t actually think you have a pea brain by the way, sorry for projecting.

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2. It’s Full of Hope and Humanity

The G League is fascinating because every player on the floor is one phone call away from being a competitor to LeBron James or Kevin Durant but in the meantime they’re playing in front of 250 people who get a free kids-sized ice cream at a parlor across the street when the team scores 100 points. (They did, and I am going to.)

Hope oozes from every part of the G League, but the degree of that hope varies from player to player, person to person. Ron Holland, for instance, is a member of the G League Ignite, the team Rip City played against Monday. He was the number two-ranked high school recruit in the class of 2023, and now he’s a near-lock to be picked in the top ten of the NBA Draft later this year. Holland is only in the G League because he decided to be there— the NBA requires players to be one year removed from high school before entering the draft, so Holland opted for a year of semi-pro ball instead of one year at a college where he’d… have to go to college. In the G League, Holland will get paid (not enough, but paid nonetheless) and can essentially just train for the NBA Draft instead of attending Art History 101. He should do that eventually of course, knowledge is power and art will be all that remains when the Dust Inevitably Covers Everything, but focusing on basketball first is a staunch career move.

Holland shooting a free throw

Most G Leaguers aren’t like Ron Holland. Most of them will never be NBA stars, many of them will never get an NBA contract, and lots still will never set foot on an NBA court. And those facts aren’t going to stop them from going out and trying to make happen what they’ve dreamed about for their whole lives, happen. And it shouldn’t! Because 1) this is what they love to do and have always loved to do and 2) what the fuck do I know?

In the third quarter of the game (which the Remix won, by the way) Ignite subbed in a player I thought I recognized as Norris Cole, but my rational brain understood that wasn’t possible. Except it was so, so possible. Yes, this Norris Cole:

who played pretty consistent minutes for the Heat during their two championship runs in 2011 and 2012, is now a member of the G League Ignite.

I’m not writing this to disparage Norris Cole; quite the opposite. He’s a bench player in the G League more than a decade after reaching the peak of basketball success, and I sincerely believe that someone scraping along, working every day in the field they love after a career that started off perfectly then quickly tailed into obscurity requires a will that few people have.

I also think that a situation like Cole’s should make us, as fans, reevaluate what we think success means in sport. Because Norris Cole “made it.” He won two NBA Finals rings in his first two seasons. And then a few years later he was 27 and unable to find work in the NBA. He disappeared from our TV’s so he ceased to exist in our minds before he even turned 30.

Of course, Cole did more with the game of basketball than most humans ever will, and a decade-long NBA career isn’t required to be successful. And when success comes so quickly then struggle happens so soon after, what else can you do at that point except keep trying?

I doubt Norris Cole thinks he’ll make it back to the NBA. He’s 35 years old and hasn’t been on an NBA roster in seven years. So maybe his hope is different than the hope of the 18 year-olds he shares a locker room with. Maybe he’s just hoping to find gratification in the game of basketball no matter where he’s playing it. I don’t know. But good on you regardless, Norris Cole.

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3. The Name “G League” is Still Outrageous

I hate advertisements in general but when the name of a league is trying to sell me something I start to get dizzy with rage. For anyone who doesn’t know, the NBA G League used to be called the NBA D League. The NBA Development League. Hm, okay, the place where players go to develop was called the Development League… sure, sure, that makes sense. “So where’d the G come from?” you ask…

OH, RIGHT.

The worst part? The name makes no goddamn sense. Imagine if I said “I’m gonna head over to Chiles Center and watch some NBA Gevelopment League action tonight.” You’d correctly take me for a moron.

The United States empire is on an irreversible path towards complete collapse and it probably started when we changed the D League to the fucking Gatorade League.

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I’m in on the G League. Maybe I’ll just start covering that league instead. No one asked for it but I’m so G League-pilled now you guys have no idea. Check out this cool mural.

Cool mural

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I bought a shirt so forget everything I said a few paragraphs ago, I guess. What a fraud.