Brooklyn Nets guard D’Angelo Russell, NBA legend/Fox Sports analyst Jim Jackson and sports and entertainment journalist Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson. Photo Credit: Eric Salvary/Get Fit Radio TV

The Brooklyn Nets could use D’Angelo Russell. Russell last played November 11, missing the team’s last 26 games due to a knee injury.

Brooklyn will be without the point guard this evening against the San Antonio Spurs. 

The Nets’ leading scorer averaged 20.9 points over his 12 games along with 5.7 assists and 4.7 rebounds..

During his road to recovery, Russell has practiced with Nets’ G-League team, the Long Island Nets.  with his next opportunity to be activated, Friday night against the Miami Heat.

“D’Angelo is progressing really well,” Brooklyn Nets GM Sean Marks said earlier this week.

“He’s worked hard and he’s been diligent with his rehab. I would like to think it’s sooner rather than later. I’d never want to say it’s tomorrow or it’s three days or it’s five days or whatever it may be, but at the same time he’s anxious about getting out there and I know his teammates want to get him out there as well. So if things go well, I think we’ll see him in the short-term future here.”

Seeing Russell on the Nets’ bench has to be encouraging. He even received a technical foul while sitting on the bench, Monday at the Nets’ Martin Luther King Day home game against cross town rivals New York Knicks.

Since Russell’s injury the Nets have added nice pieces to the team like Nik Stauskas and Jahlil Okafor.

The Nets have gone 11-20 since Russell went down. They’ll do better with a Russell return. Taking a cursory look at sportsbook site, SportsBetting.ag”  they seem to think so too! With a healthy nucleus of Caris LeVert, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Spencer Dinwiddie and Allen Crabbe the Nets are pretty exciting to watch and could do damage in the years to come.

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While on Scoop B Radio Overtime, boxer Bernard Hopkins chats with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson about some of his favorite fashion influences. Photo Provided By: Eric Salvary/Scoop Vision Media

Bernard Hopkins made statements in the boxing ring and out of it. When he talks, goshdarnit please listen! Now a boxing analyst on ESPN’s family of networks, Hopkins dons a lot of suits and the now retired 55-8 Philadelphia bruiser known in the the ring as The Executioner traded in his boxing trunks and morphed into Mr. Suave in front of the teleprompter.

Not mad at you brotha! 

“I love fashion, I love to look good, I love to feel good and definitely love to perform good,” Bernard Hopkins told me on Scoop B Radio Overtime. “It’s a 3-punch combination that to me; that’s something that should be taught when you’re really young, but better late than never, but I love fashion.”

Check out Bernard Hopkins and Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson’s Fashion Discussion

In today’s sports world, fans and writers alike like to put things into boxes and category. In basketball for example many like to compare Michael Jordan’s legacy to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James. In the late 90s in baseball, folks were wondering who the homerun king was Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa and in boxing folks want the ultimate heavyweight in Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. Here’s a kicker for Bernard Hopkins: Who is on his Mount Rushmore of stylishly dressed athletes? Well I could look at– well like Magic Johnson,” Hopkins said after a brief pause.

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“There’s a lot of like, I could say basketball and football athletes that dress really good, but nobody really like stands out, you know? Deion Sanders is kinda like, loud and I don’t really like that style but a lot of people – he was like- he made statements whether you disagree or didn’t. He made statements.”

Sanders’ gear with MCHammer in the video of Straight To My Feet was legendary, by the way!

If you’re a tad young, that song was on the Street Fighter movie soundtrack

Many credit Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James as sports’ elite dressers. Honestly, the Brooklyn Nets’ Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and D’Angelo Russell are rising notables too. But back to a certain Cleveland Cavalier; Mr. Hopkins, do you dig LeBron James’ digs?

“I think LeBron has a style,” he said. “But it’s like you see somebody else wearing the same thing.

Hopkins also has advice for athletes looking to leave their mark in fashion: Be yourself! 

“I think when you look at fashion you gotta look at: does it go with your skin? Does it go with your physique? Does it go with your whole persona about you,” he said. “I think that when it comes to clothes and I’m getting a little deep, I think that when it comes to wearing a suit or clothes, women or man, it has to fit your personality. I don’t care how much it costs, I don’t care what name brand it is, if the clothes don’t fit your personality you don’t make it blossom.” 

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The post Scoop B: Bernard Hopkins Puts Magic Johnson & Deion Sanders On His Mount Rushmore of Fashionable Athletes appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Los Angeles Lakers’ Point Guard D’Angelo Russell is known as one of the better young pick and roll passers in the league. His timing when coming off of a firmly set Julius Randle pick, followed by slicing the defense with a sharp pass through the middle, is a thing of beauty. Timing…. That’s the keyword for today boys and girls! Only one day after Iggy Azalea announced the ending of her tumultuous engagement with Laker Guard Nick Young — followed by the most high school reaction possible from Young —  Russell is now starring in a new commercial for Foot Locker in which he makes light of the situation that likely contributed to the downfall of Icky (get it? Nick + Igg… okay nvm).

The commercial centers around projected number one pick, Ben Simmons, as he seeks out advice on how to weather the rookie storms. He’s greeted by Karl Anthony-Towns, Devin Booker, and of course Russell. After being told cliche statements like, “The hard work starts after the draft” — boring — Russell chimes in last by asking if he had a cell phone. “Gotta phone?” Russell asks before chucking it into the nearby ocean, “Trust me” he then says to a confused Simmons. This is an obvious play on the situation that almost got Russell shunned from the league last year when he video taped an unsuspecting Young talking about cheating on the Australian pop star. What followed was a leaked video, an engagement on the rocks, and a whole lot of trust issues, from both Iggy and Swaggy. Now obviously Russell, nor Foot Locker for that matter, could’ve predicted that the couple would split when they filmed the commercial, the releasing of the timing was a little distasteful.

With Young expected to not return next season, a top two pick and a healthy amount of cap room, the Lakers are in a better position than in recent years. Replacing Swaggy with let’s say Brandon Ingram, will help to cure not only their on court issues but off the court ones as well. Either way, the moral of the story is, if you video tape your friends discussing their infidelities, you might get a Footlocker commercial out of it.

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The Los Angeles Lakers are putting these last two dismal seasons behind them and they will be in full rebuilding mode next year. They made it clear with the firing of head coach, Byron Scott.

According to ESPN.com, sources told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne that Scott, who was 38-126 (.232 win percentage) in two season with the Lakers, was informed by the team’s decision Sunday night during their second meeting of the past week.

Scott’s contract included a team option for next season, the third year of his four year deal, in which the Lakers declined.  A team option was also included for the fourth year, in which the Lakers also declined.

The Los Angeles Lakers finished with the NBA’s second-worst record at 17-65, eclipsing its franchise-worst record 21-61, which happened in the season prior.

Scott, whose 454-647 career record, has had success in the NBA as a head coach. He led the Nets to two NBA Finals in his first head-coaching job, and he won the NBA’s Coach of the Year award with the Hornets in 2008. His career began to spiral downward over these last five seasons. He finished last in his division in each of his past five seasons as an NBA head coach. He has also coached the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Scott wasn’t the only Laker head coach who dealt with bad teams in the franchises recent history. Mike Brown and Mike D’Antoni were both fired with in two seasons or less.

Finally now, that the Kobe era is over, and the D’Angelo Russell debacle is behind them, the Lakers are now looking for stability to help this young team grow and hopefully be on its way to a 17th championship.

Sources told ESPN, “Lakers felt they needed a new vision that embraced the current style of wide-open play and outside shooting.” The list of head coach candidates for next season include: Luke Walton, Kevin Ollie, Jay Wright, Roy Williams, Tom Izzo, John Calipari, Ettore Messina, Jeff Van Gundy and David Blatt, sources told Shelburne. According to ESPN, Brian Windhorst, Jeff Hornacek is also expected to be on the Lakers’ list.

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