Really enjoyed producing this video with the great people over at Basketnews.com. We figured that somebody just has to ask the simple question. What is the story behind the creative, yet bizarre Seattle SuperSonics marketing campaign called Drobnjak’s Manjaks? Turns out a campaign based around back-up center Predrag Drobnjak can help a team build the NBA’s most popular website. It also turns out that Jerome James was a Space Bear due to the fact that it’s not that easy to find costumes for 7-footers. To go on a more personal note, this does mean – for the people counting at home – that The H ..read more

By Reinis Lacis (@LamarMatic) The Victor Wembanyama tankathon is yet to hit its full stride. Some of the teams that were previously considered suspect are winning games. The worst records can be explained away by injuries and youth. There’s also plenty of time to trade away players or start riding with 10-day contracts in Spring. Yet most of us foresee that at some point something delightfully tanktastic will happen. Any other outcome doesn’t seem possible in an environment where the next Nr. 1 pick isn’t even playing on US soil, yet his games are already broadcast on the NBA App. The irony th ..read more

Photo: Delfi.LV 13 games, 89 minutes, 45 points. Those are the superficial numbers from the season Gundars Vetra spent in the National Basketball Association (NBA). However, underneath those figures stories are to be found. Distinct personalities (Jack McCloskey), who noticed Vetra’s skillset. The status of a respected player within the Timberwolves, whose players (Micheal Williams and Lance Blanks) remember the first Latvian to play in the NBA. As well as short moments of fame that were disrupted by an unfortunate injury. Feature on the mythical season Vetra spent in the NBA with the Timberwo ..read more

The second installment on a series of oral histories about the first American players in Latvia in the 1990’s. Part I can be found here. Part II consists of the experiences Abdul Abdullah (Providence), Andre Reyes (Maryland and California), Casey Schmidt (Arizona and Valparaiso), Curtis Jackson (DePaul), Donald Whiteside (Northern Illinois), Doug Smith (Samford), Fred West (Texas Southern), Jamaal Brown (Ohio State), Johnathan Edwards (Georgetown), Johnny Melvin (UTEP), Kevin Nixon (BYU), Mike Spicer (Ball State), Ralph Davis (UTEP), Shawn Fergus (Cleveland State) and Wade Jenkins (Tulsa) had ..read more

The last 40-point game Elvin Hayes ever recorded. Yet judging just by this clip you would have figured that the 34-year-old had plenty of those left in him. Thing is that there wasn’t much one could do if the jumper was falling for The Big E. Like, he’s dropping fade-away bankers over you. Close out too aggressively, and he finishes at the rim. Terrific performance which must have had a pretty darn good field goal percentage, I might add. March 16, 1980. Statistically speaking this was peak Ray Williams who averaged 20.9 on 49.6% shooting as a 6-3 guard. The night before he had dropped 34 on ..read more

A few new videos… Here I come, armed with my 2020 biases and second-hand experience of stars sitting out games due to wear and tear. Yet I do think that Penny Hardaway fighting through pain to hold down the fort without Shaquille O’Neal was something that probably seemed risky even back then. Hardaway was hobbled throughout the 1996 playoffs, spent the summer with Team USA in the Olympics (reportedly pain-free) and then again fought leg problems during the 1996-97 preseason. “I was hurting pretty bad,” Hardaway said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. “There were some days when I couldn’t eve ..read more

WordPress says that the last Handle podcast I did with the great Chuck Mencel was published on January 30, 2019. To me it feels like that happened years ago… Sudden work opportunities in my home country of Latvia just appeared one after another to the point where the free time I used to have for podcasting and producing highlights now is used for all kinds of basketball-related gigs here. Meanwhile, ideas of producing content on NBA history constantly have been postponed. The coronavirus has had something to say about it. Without any basketball games left to announce on TV (or without any spor ..read more

By Reinis Lacis (@LamarMatic) http://traffic.libsyn.com/thehandlepodcast/The_Handle_Podcast_-_Chuck_Mencel.mp3 Direct download link (right mouse button + Save Link as for Windows users) The Handle Podcast on iTunes The Handle Podcast on Stitcher Minnesota Golden Gophers legend Chuck Mencel came on the podcast to relive his life and career. Plenty of stories proved to be very insightful about the events from that time. From stories about George Mikan to an innovative shooting drill he created himself and how obligations towards the army influenced his life, and much more. Chuck was fantasti ..read more

By Reinis Lacis (@LamarMatic) http://traffic.libsyn.com/thehandlepodcast/The_Handle_Podcast_-_Kerry_Eggers.mp3 Direct download link (right mouse button + Save Link as for Windows users) The Handle Podcast on iTunes The Handle Podcast on Stitcher We talk everything concerning the late 90’s, early 2000’s Portland Trail Blazers with Kerry Eggers, Portland Tribune’s journalist and author of “Jail Blazers: How the Portland Trail Blazers Became the Bad Boys of Basketball”. Topics include the research and interviews that were conducted (or were not) for the book to be released, wild stories from ..read more