Wizards bring Patrick Ewing back to the bench

Wizards bring Patrick Ewing back to the bench

The Washington Wizards are hiring Knicks legend Patrick Ewing as an assistant on Brian Keefe's staff. He's been out of coaching since Georgetown, which makes the full-circle energy here hard to ignore: the Knicks legend is back in the building — just not the building most Knicks fans had in mind.

Gobble's Take: Washington turned a nostalgia hire into a coaching move. That's either shrewd adulting or the basketball equivalent of framing your old yearbook photo and hanging it in the office. Source: Yahoo Sports NBA

The NBA needs the playoffs to bail it out — again

The NBA usually saves its best basketball for the postseason, and right now that promise is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Blowouts are happening at record-setting regularity, tanking is forcing lottery changes, coaches are on thin ice, Chicago's front office has already been gutted, and Giannis Antetokounmpo is floating couples therapy with the Bucks. On the brighter side: Stephen Curry is back from injury, and the heavyweight noise around Victor Wembanyama, Nikola Jokic, Cooper Flagg, and the Lakers is genuinely loud.

Gobble's Take: The regular season handed everyone a mess. The playoffs had better walk in like a bouncer with a clipboard and fix it. Source: Perplexity Search (evergreen)

In Case You Missed It

Yesterday's top stories:

• The first-round offense mostly got mugged
• Boston's 3-point rescue mission ended in Boston
• Golden State faces Atlanta again, with a return trip to follow