Michael Shapiro
@mshap2 • 4,331 subscribers
All things Houston sports @Chron | @SInow, @UTAustin Alum | Eliminate the corner three
Shorts
![I asked Vernon Maxwell how Hakeem Olajuwon would fare vs. Victor Wembanyama. “[Wembanyama] wouldn’t be able to guard him. Dream would be falling away from all that 7’4” shit. He wouldn’t be able to guard Dream, Dream just had too much.” “It would have been a massacre.”](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2063012726679466229/amplify_video_thumb/2063012333887098880/img/D4uFenmOA-MqFPnI.jpg)
Videos
Fun moment w/Kevin Durant postgame. I asked if his self-proclaimed “Old Heads” team will play hard in All-Star Game. KD says he can “read between the lines.” “You should ask the Europeans + the World Team if they want to compete. Look at Luka Doncic + Nikola Jokic, let's go back and look at what they do at the All-Star Game. Is that competition?” More from Kevin Durant: “So we haven't questioned what they've been doing, but we question the old heads, the Americans. But these two dudes out there, Luka and Jokic, they don't care about the game at all. They be laying on the floor, shooting from half-court, but you gotta worry about the old heads playing hard. “I can read between the lines, bro. I'm just gonna say this. I can read between the lines, though.”
Michael Shapiro2,991,159 views • 5 months ago
Nice postgame note here from Alperen Şengün on fellow big man Steven Adams: "Man, he's a monster. I'm the center of this team, and any center in the league wouldn't be happy signing another good center, you feel me?" "This summer, when they signed Steven, I was so happy."
Michael Shapiro531,538 views • 7 months ago
![Good introspection (as usual) from Tari on seeing Will Wade in New Orleans. "We didn't really chat with anything having to do on the court. "Will Wade, he's one of the best coaches, if not the best coach, I've ever played for. He called me the [one] year anniversary after my father died. He reaches out, and that's to all his players, he looks out for everybody who played for him." "Our relationship goes beyond basketball. I'm glad to see him back. All the Texas guys here know we're back, LSU's back."](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2039184407639011453/amplify_video_thumb/2039184001315799040/img/kqd2J3gYtVeQD7K8.jpg)
Good introspection (as usual) from Tari on seeing Will Wade in New Orleans. "We didn't really chat with anything having to do on the court. "Will Wade, he's one of the best coaches, if not the best coach, I've ever played for. He called me the [one] year anniversary after my father died. He reaches out, and that's to all his players, he looks out for everybody who played for him." "Our relationship goes beyond basketball. I'm glad to see him back. All the Texas guys here know we're back, LSU's back."
Michael Shapiro213,740 views • 3 months ago
Cool story from Kevin Durant postgame: Durant linked up with Spurs legend George Gervin in San Antonio last week. Durant said he hadn't seen Gervin in years, then relayed the Iceman was Durant and Jeff Green's NBA-appointed mentor in their first NBA seasons in Seattle and Oklahoma City. Durant: "I got to know George Gervin through the NBA program when I first came into the league where legends would come back and talk to rookie players, second-year players. George was assigned to me and Jeff and he would come to OKC periodically and check-in us and have dinner. "It was a pretty cool program that they set up for us."
Michael Shapiro322,913 views • 8 months ago
Tari Eason says he’s “found a brother in KD.” “Our relationship, it really does go beyond basketball. This offseason we'll probably be seeing each other.” “I definitely think I found a brother in KD, so I appreciate him for everything and I appreciate him for all the game he's given me this year.”
Michael Shapiro92,429 views • 2 months ago
Best wishes to Lance McCullers Jr. Deserves to be called an Astros’ legend despite injuries that derailed his career. McCullers’ 2017 heroics are well documented. 2021 + 2022 ALDS efforts are underrated. 3 starts 16 2/3 IP 1 ER Game 3 in Seattle in ‘22 was particularly clutch.
Michael Shapiro15,384 views • 12 days ago
Ime Udoka says Kevin Durant would have been around “50 percent” had he tried to take the floor in Game 4. Udoka noted “limited mobility,” for KD. More from Udoka on Durant’s work to get back, disappointment in not playing ⬇️ “Playing the minutes that he did and the competitor that he is and the commitment that he's made to the team with a lot of guys being in and out this year, it's unfortunate for us and him that he's missing this time of year.” “It's hard, no doubt for a guy that wants to play and play as much as he does, to be out for this season is very tough.”
Michael Shapiro81,744 views • 3 months ago
![Just asked Ime Udoka about Kevin Durant’s preference to NOT be the lead ball-handler (and “get out of the way”) when opponents go to KD trap. Does Udoka agree with that? Not quite. “A lot of times he's gonna be initiating. … The double teams outside of turning it over have been very good for us this year. It bit us in the behind a few times, but overall the numbers show it [goes] really well when we don't turn it over and get it to scorers in the pocket and make the right play. But, obviously, the turnovers, way too high.” Adds: “We do want some other actions when [Durant] is being denied the way he is and trapped at the half court.”](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2034420998162850177/amplify_video_thumb/2034420530246270976/img/Z-v4DSc_99lzgLhi.jpg)
Just asked Ime Udoka about Kevin Durant’s preference to NOT be the lead ball-handler (and “get out of the way”) when opponents go to KD trap. Does Udoka agree with that? Not quite. “A lot of times he's gonna be initiating. … The double teams outside of turning it over have been very good for us this year. It bit us in the behind a few times, but overall the numbers show it [goes] really well when we don't turn it over and get it to scorers in the pocket and make the right play. But, obviously, the turnovers, way too high.” Adds: “We do want some other actions when [Durant] is being denied the way he is and trapped at the half court.”
Michael Shapiro97,770 views • 4 months ago
![KD’s point, as I noted, is well taken. His response to Victor Wembanyama’s plan to give full effort for Team World? Unconvinced. “We'll see, we'll see. I mean, of course Vic [gonna say that]. He said that last year, too, and he said it was the worst All-Star Game and people watch. So we'll see. ... This format might change the game, but who knows, we'll see.”](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2021809502433980614/amplify_video_thumb/2021809402437685248/img/QiC9NOKUE2oU9smB.jpg)
KD’s point, as I noted, is well taken. His response to Victor Wembanyama’s plan to give full effort for Team World? Unconvinced. “We'll see, we'll see. I mean, of course Vic [gonna say that]. He said that last year, too, and he said it was the worst All-Star Game and people watch. So we'll see. ... This format might change the game, but who knows, we'll see.”
Michael Shapiro119,864 views • 5 months ago
Rafael Stone offered a lengthy explanation on why the Rockets didn’t aggressively pursue a point guard after Fred VanVleet’s season-ending injury: “What I don't believe in philosophically is just going to get a point guard because they're a point guard.” Full quote ⬇️ “Just because somebody is a good ball-handler and good passer but they can't defend and they can't shoot, I'd rather just cobble it together rather than, ‘hey, we can get into our offense, but no one guards them after they make the initial pass and on the other end they're just a sieve.’” “And those players do exist in the NBA, there's quite a few of them, and they're available. But I didn't think that would make us better on the whole. So I do think there's an opportunity cost. ... Our team this year was very big and we were very physical, and when Fred went down, we made a conscious decision to just lean into that.” Stone notes there were trade-offs to not acquiring a new PG. Added the “timing” of FVV's injury created difficult scenario to make short-term deal.
Michael Shapiro63,843 views • 2 months ago
Kevin Durant agrees Tari Eason was snubbed from ESPN’s NBA 100 list. “Tari is one of those players you really gotta sit there and watch. … People in real basketball circles, that value the game and understand the game, they know what he brings to the table.”
Michael Shapiro189,289 views • 9 months ago
Here’s Tari Eason after last season’s playoff exit on his year before free agency + the chance of returning to the Rockets. “I was drafted here, grown up here, my family's here. I love Houston.” Tari emerged as an anchor of Houston’s rebuild as a rookie. Now he’s here to stay.
Michael Shapiro21,113 views • 24 days ago
![Alperen Şengün with his most points (33) since mid-December tonight. Expect more of this version of Alperen moving forward. Why? Houston Rockets big man says he's now fully healthy 3 weeks after ankle injury: “The swelling's gone almost. I used to not feel that much confidence jumping [off] both feet, but now I start feeling better.”](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2016003251724865782/amplify_video_thumb/2016003101430292480/img/R_CegKpOeBXBJGHI.jpg)
Alperen Şengün with his most points (33) since mid-December tonight. Expect more of this version of Alperen moving forward. Why? Houston Rockets big man says he's now fully healthy 3 weeks after ankle injury: “The swelling's gone almost. I used to not feel that much confidence jumping [off] both feet, but now I start feeling better.”
Michael Shapiro114,183 views • 6 months ago
![Ime Udoka said Kevin Durant “carried us on nights like this,” during the regular season. No Durant exposed Houston’s shortcomings in Game 6. “It's nights like this where guys are struggling, you want a 25, 26-point scorer on the efficiency and the way he does it to avoid some of these nights when guys are struggling.” “Myself and the coaches said that these are the nights you have [Durant] for, when other guys are going through it. Throughout the season, he kind of carried us on nights like this.”](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2050437789137662121/amplify_video_thumb/2050437706178494466/img/VjDU63imUAg6Qkuc.jpg)
Ime Udoka said Kevin Durant “carried us on nights like this,” during the regular season. No Durant exposed Houston’s shortcomings in Game 6. “It's nights like this where guys are struggling, you want a 25, 26-point scorer on the efficiency and the way he does it to avoid some of these nights when guys are struggling.” “Myself and the coaches said that these are the nights you have [Durant] for, when other guys are going through it. Throughout the season, he kind of carried us on nights like this.”
Michael Shapiro56,836 views • 2 months ago
Got extended comments tonight from Kevin Durant tonight in defense of AAU and the American basketball pipeline. Durant: “A lot of us are products of AAU. It changed our lives. Being able to leave our neighborhood and being able to play against the best around the country from an early age, come on. “I kind of hate when they disrespect the AAU route, especially since I'm a little biased since I took that route, too.” Full quote ⬇️
Michael Shapiro77,320 views • 5 months ago
Chatted with Amen Thompson today. Found this interesting: Amen said he didn’t have to be a vocal player in HS or with OTE given he “killin’ dudes.” Year 3 in the NBA brought out a new version of Thompson: “I feel like I really locked into into being a better leader. … Being vocal, you see things, addressing them on the spot, giving your ideas.” Amen said he chatted with Fred VanVleet about these things before the 2025-26 season. Full exchange ⬇️
Michael Shapiro51,978 views • 3 months ago
Kevin Durant not upset with Rockets' shot selection, offensive organization. Said Houston fed Şengün against Caruso as simple mismatch ball. "The team closes the game out, you know? We close games out as a team. I'm not expected to make every big shot in every close game.”
Michael Shapiro80,531 views • 9 months ago