Thursday morning news drop
Toronto Is Canada’s Basketball Centre, but You Can’t Always See That in Its Courts Thanks to the Raptors, basketball has never been so popular. But the lack of high-quality facilities tells a troubling story (Walrus)
The Warriors Got Back on Top by Evolving Their Title-Winning Template Teams across the NBA emulated Golden State’s style after its five-Finals run. After taking two seasons to reload, the Warriors now look like an even better version of their original blueprint. (Ringer)
Dennis Rodman, Bad Boy for Life He’s had a Hall of Fame career in the NBA, where he pushed buttons and fashioned himself into a gender-exploding rock star. (And collected five rings, too.) But when you peel away the attitude, and the hair, and the piercings and tattoos, who is Dennis Rodman underneath it all? (GQ)
Why Giannis Antetokounmpo Chose the Path of Most Resistance His fairy-tale rise made him a sensation. But now, after turning the once-dismal Bucks into champions, he’s becoming something more like a legend. Inside the whirlwind next chapter for the NBA’s most dazzling global star—who’s deciding what he intends to conquer next. (GQ)’
The Secret Covid Outbreak That Shot Fear Through the NBA Finals 17 sources describe to Rolling Stone a coronavirus crisis pushing pro basketball to the brink: Upwards of a dozen people associated with the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns tested positive — and a superstar “dodged a bullet” (Rolling Stone)
How Americans’ Appetite for Leather in Luxury SUVs Worsens Amazon Deforestation An examination of Brazil’s immense tannery industry shows how hides from illegally deforested ranches can easily reach the global marketplace. In the United States, much of the demand for Brazilian leather comes from automakers. (New York Times)
Connecting the dots between B.C.’s floods, landslides and the clearcut logging of old forests Deforestation dramatically alters how landscapes are able to cope with extreme weather events like the atmospheric river that surged across southern British Columbia earlier this week (Narwhal)
A month of inflation does not a crisis make Don’t throw away the best economic opportunity in 20 years for panic and austerity (The Week)
The Fed Has More Options Than 0% Rates or Recession It’s a scary situation if there’s no middle ground on policy for the world’s most powerful central bank. (Bloomberg)
The Untold Story of Von Dutch Behind the brand that made trucker hats hot in the early 2000s is a messy corporate origin tale, filled with sabotage and greed. (New York Times)
Check: Solving the $150 Billion Payroll Problem Check has the potential to become payroll's "platform of platforms." (Generalist)