OTF Premium Texas basketball 2026-27 season thread

[harveycmd]

I have more stuff for you @Jordan91. When my daughters were growing up during the 2000s, I'd wake them up at 6:00 AM to read classics in the mornings during the summer (Plato, Aristotle, Dante, Homer, Virgil, Herodotus, etc.), and then we'd watch the Lakers in the Finals at night. We were reading The Odyssey during June 2009. The day we read book 22, in which Odysseus kills the antagonist Antinous (which means "anti-mind" in Greek) by shooting him in the throat with an arrow, and follows it up by telling his 20 year old son Telemachus (which means power crossing over or moving to) not to celebrate because the fight isn't yet over yet, Kobe made his famous statement after taking a 2-0 lead over the Magic in the Finals ("What's there to be happy about? Job's not finished. Job finished? I don't think so."). I let them stay up late that night to watch the postgame stuff. My youngest daughter immediately made the connection between Odysseus and Kobe. 

Yesterday, she called me and said we need to go see the film The Odyssey next week when it's released and wear our Kobe jerseys. That's the power of admiring greatness when you grow up. 

Edited 3 hours ago by harveycmd

[harveycmd]

I should add that Odysseus means "enemy" in Greek, which was also a role that Kobe embraced.

[harveycmd]

Another connection worth mentioning here is the status of Odysseus as the second greatest hero in Greek mythology after Achilles. Socrates argued in several Platonic dialogues that Odysseus was superior to Achilles and should be recognized as such by the Greeks. He based this argument on the contention that Odysseus was more "intelligent, skilled and worked harder" than Achilles. Sounds like the Jordan/Kobe stuff. 

Edited 3 hours ago by harveycmd

[thatdude2]

On 7/10/2026 at 10:47 AM, Gerry Hamilton said:

1

Does this somehow go back to Arch not taking as much as he could for NIL?

[Gerry Hamilton]

8 minutes ago, thatdude2 said:

Does this somehow go back to Arch not taking as much as he could for NIL?

With Spears Jr. ... he is making a fair # in year one from what I hear. This wasn't a bargain recruitment for Texas. That was Austin Goosby who took half of what BYU was offering to be at Texas. But the KD/Nike deal has helped with basketball HS recruiting from an NIL standpoint

[thatdude2]

2 hours ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

With Spears Jr. ... he is making a fair # in year one from what I hear. This wasn't a bargain recruitment for Texas. That was Austin Goosby who took half of what BYU was offering to be at Texas. But the KD/Nike deal has helped with basketball HS recruiting from an NIL standpoint

Thank you Gerry. This was the first time I have seen a gleam in your eye when talking about a commitment to Texas. Not even our (football) savior Arch received the same look of the eye from you. 🥹

[Jordan91]

3 hours ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

With Spears Jr. ... he is making a fair # in year one from what I hear. This wasn't a bargain recruitment for Texas. That was Austin Goosby who took half of what BYU was offering to be at Texas. But the KD/Nike deal has helped with basketball HS recruiting from an NIL standpoint

They are getting the most out of their money. You definitely spend on a kid like this. Getting two years out of him is just forward thinking, and I love that. I have always said those that can figure out NIL the best will rise the highest. They know when to spend and when to let somebody else take them. With Spears Jr he has two parents that played professionally and with Johnson they have his father. They have already prepared their kids for the transition. 

Edited 7 minutes ago by Jordan91