Stories the box score never told. Longform writing on forgotten careers, and the margins of basketball history. Research-driven stories and original visuals.
France
Joined November 2025
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I’ve spent a long time working on this.
New story: Utah Jazz 1997–98: The Other Side of The Last Dance (Part 1):
deepbenchchronicles.com/2026…
Locker-room tensions, injuries, strange incidents, and the turbulent road to the 1998 NBA Finals.
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
Other ABA collabs we’d love to see.
PART 1…
The Oakland Oaks and the Golden St Warriors
The Oaks were the first west coast team to win a major pro sports championship in 1969. They featured Rick Barry, Doug Moe, Larry Brown, Warren Jabali and other ABA stars!
RIP Cliff Hagan, who has passed away at 94.
1958 NBA champion
5× NBA All-Star
2× All-NBA Second Team
1968 ABA All-Star
1951 NCAA champion at Kentucky
Basketball Hall of Fame, 1978
One of the great forwards of his era
Sports journalism has been dumbed down into rankings, tiers and engagement bait, and then everyone acts shocked when all the nuance disappears.
You reap what you sow.
I'm getting more and more frustrated with bad faith aggregation.
I didn't rank the worst coaches in the NBA. There was no list of the 10 worst coaches. That's a straight up lie. I ranked all 30 NBA coaches 1-30. Inevitably the guys with less experience fall closer to the bottom.
I've seen a handful of these Sleeper accounts get mad about where I ranked some of these younger coaches, but like, I can't justify ranking Tiago Splitter above guys who have lengthy, successful track records off of a single season. That doesn't mean I think he's one of the worst coaches in the NBA. It means it's hard to evaluate most coaches off of a single season. For the record, I find myself pretty intrigued with Iisalo. He has a really unconventional approach that I suspect will work better with a younger roster than it did with Ja and Jaren.
I write the same thing in the introduction to this story every year: there are way, WAY more good coaches than bad ones, and most of the job is invisible and impossible to fairly evaluate anyway. If there's such a thing as a "worst" coach conversation, it usually consists of like two or three guys who tend to get replaced pretty quickly. But nuance and aggregation don't mix, so here we are.
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
🚨C’est le grand jour🚨
La sortie du livre-jeu «Avez-Vous la Culture NBA ?» 🏀
10 chapitres, 10 thèmes pour se tester et apprendre en s’amusant.
Légendes, superstars, maillots, mascottes, records et surnoms sont au rendez-vous.
Un cadeau fun et économique pour tout fan de NBA !
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
Here’s my evergreen podcast chat with Paul “Big Mo” Mokeski about his life in basketball. We met @mokeski_paul and his lovely wife in Las Vegas in 2020 - one of the highlights of our trip to the USA that year.
🎧 basketballrecord.com/96
This quoted post is unavailable.
New story: Paul Mokeski, the role player’s role player.
deepbenchchronicles.com/2026…
12 NBA seasons. 763 games. Nine playoff runs. Backup to Moses Malone, Bob Lanier, Dave Cowens, and Jack Sikma.
A 7-footer who built his career on screens, toughness, and trust.
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
Very interesting that The Ringer's writers write on Substack and not... The Ringer.
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
Connie Hawkins was an athlete so far ahead of his time
📽️ : @Converse
The best NBA podcast out there for me. Adam prepares his interviews like nobody else. An endless source of great stuff.
1/ Fourteen years ago this week, I released the first episode of what is now Basketball Record podcast (guest @34billy42).
What began as a passion project has remained exactly that - a place to dig into the basketball history I love and share stories that deserve more attention.
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
Shaq is still angry he lost to Stockton twice in the playoffs and got schooled by Greg Ostertag lmao
Shaquille O’Neal says John Stockton had an easy job and anyone could have become the NBA’s all-time assists leader by throwing the ball to Karl Malone
“I'm tired of y'all giving people with easy jobs greatness. Anybody could have done what John Stockton did. Throw the ball to Karl Malone”
“What if you trade John Stockton for Scott Skiles. Are they the same guy? He can't come off the pick and roll and throw the ball to Karl Malone and be the all time assist leader?”
“I wasn't disrespecting John Stockton. I just hate when y'all talk about these people that had easy jobs. I had to carry. John Stockton just had to deliver. Tony Parker just had to deliver”
“Dennis Rodman. When Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen got doubled, you get a free run to the lane and get a rebound. That's the easy freaking job. When he left the fucking Bulls, what did he do? I'll wait”
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
Nikola Jokic:
“I wish every NBA player would go play six months in Europe just to see how much pressure there is…
You play Wednesday against Olympiacos in Greece, then you’re playing at home against Red Star or Partizan.
If you have three losses in a row, it’s a big deal”
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
Deep in the archives for upcoming Basketball Record podcast episodes. Working on:
- Don Nelson tribute
- Lakers @ The Forum (1967)
- Mack Calvin (1970 ABA playoffs feature)
- Dr. J’s Nets debut @ MSG (1973)
- Brian Taylor (2× ABA Champ)
Also editing my chat with @KevinCalabro.
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
September 27, 2002: Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers is enshrined to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was welcomed to the Hall of Fame by Larry Bird.
📽️ @Hoophall: youtu.be/ad9UqapGC7o
Kon Knueppel To Miss Start Of Regular Season With Hamstring Strain basketball.realgm.com/wireta…
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
Until Jokic came around, the best passing big in basketball history was not your vydas or my vydas but Aryvydas Sabonis (cue SportsCenter theme).
Sabonis wasn’t far from Jokic as a passer but position roles were more rigid back then so Sabonis wasn’t given the passing opportunities that Jokic gets today
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
IMO Greatness is defined by the great players you defeated to get to the mountain top. If your team beat the Celtics, your legacy is secured.
Deep Bench Chronicles retweeted
Rest in Peace Bob ‘The Bombardier from Baton Rouge’ Pettit 🕊️
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame mourns the passing of Bob Pettit, a sleek, skilled big man who revolutionized the forward position during his career. The 11-time NBA All-Star and 2-time MVP retired as the all-time leading scorer in NBA history and left an enduring legacy. He led the St. Louis Hawks to the 1958 NBA championship over the Boston Celtics. The Basketball Hall of Fame salutes this true giant of the game.
