Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Prince J. Grimes.
I apologize in advance for bringing this to your attention, but it’s the dog days of the NBA offseason when non-news becomes news, so here’s your weekly dose of non-news: Steph Curry apparently removed the Warriors from the bio on his Instagram account.
That’s according to a fan account on X, which posted then and now screenshots of Curry’s bio which shows the line “Guard for the Warriors” changed to “Olympic Gold Medalist.”
Steph has changed his IG profile picture and also removed “Guard for the @Warriors” from his bio 👀 pic.twitter.com/QwOleXImhh
— 🌞 (@GameOnSteph_) August 21, 2024
As you can imagine, NBA fans on social media acted totally normal about the small change. And by normal I mean they immediately started picking new teams for Curry.
And one the most popular destinations was the Los Angeles Lakers.
He’s going to the Lakers to team up with Bron and AD
— ³⁰ (@StephMuse_) August 21, 2024
It doesn’t take a genius to understand why people would think Curry might be disgruntled and want to team with LeBron James in LA. The Warriors missed the playoffs for the third time in the last five years last season, then shipped out Curry’s brother in splash, Klay Thompson. He’s 36 on what appears to be a sinking ship. Meanwhile, he just had the time of his life winning gold as part of a lethal tandem with James.
Not to mention, Curry’s Instagram activity Wednesday also included him collab-posting photos of himself with James and Kevin Durant, with the caption: “Same Team…Winning Team.”
Ooooooo.
OK. Look, I can see how this all looks. But we really shouldn’t read too much into it. For starters, I can’t even confirm what Curry’s bio said before today. I think we can trust it didn’t previously have a mention of his gold medal considering, ya know, he didn’t have one two weeks ago. At the same time, this literally means nothing… probably.
I mean, yeah, sure, Curry could have fit both “Guard for the Warriors” and “Olympic Gold Medalist” into his bio. But maybe he just wanted to bask a little in the only success he’s likely to have in 2024. Who knows?
What I do know is we’ve been down this road before with athletes who ultimately stayed where they were. It’s silly to read too much into people’s social media activity — even if there is a more sinister plot behind it all.
Reese’s Pieces are official
It was only a matter time before Angel Reese and the Reese’s Pieces brand collaborated on something. From the moment Reese first revealed that her fans go by the same name as the candy, it seemed too perfect not to happen.
Well, that moment finally arrived Wednesday. The sides announced an apparel deal, and FTW’s Meghan Hall wrote about it here:
“Now, per Boardroom, Reese put those good vibes in the atmosphere to work and officially landed an endorsement deal with The Hersey Company to be a brand ambassador with Reese’s. The partnership includes several Reese’s-themed apparel items, like tees, hoodies and hats. IT’S PERFECT.”
The best kind of partnerships are the ones that happen organically like this. Smart move by Hersey.
Shootaround
— Dijonai Carrington ripped the WNBA over lack of promotion for the Sparks-Sun game in Boston
— Anthony Edwards trashed every 90s player except Michael Jordan
— Steve Kerr trolled Donald Trump with Steph Curry’s celebration
— Erik Spoelstra is the obvious choice to replace Steve Kerr as Team USA’s head coach
