LINKS: Green on the Cusp, Ismael Massoud Talks to Big East Vault

Jeff Green, formerly of your Georgetown Hoyas and currently with your Denver Nuggets, has a chance to close out the NBA Finals tonight (8:30PM) at home against the Miami Heat. While Omer Yurtseven and Alonzo Mourning (VP or Assistant GM or Riley’s BFF) are beloved Hoyas, this one belongs to Jeff Green. My bet is that Green gets one of his monster posterizing dunks in this hopefully clinching Game 5. Best of luck, Jeff!

Earlier, Jeff Green penned an essay for the Player's Tribune ahead of the NBA Finals and has been showing his veteran leadership. He even fed the Denver team at his Miami-area home before a Game 3 victory.

In current-Hoyas news, grad transfer forward Ish Massoud spoke with Big East Vault this week and offered some insights into Coach Ed Cooley’s program.

Ed Cooley also did a podcast last week.

Meanwhile, there is still nothing yet posted about the 2023-24 men’s basketball staff.

Here are the links:

Cooks in the Kitchen - Georgetown Roster Coming Together | House of College Hoops (Michael DeRosa)

In early May, Cooley secured the commitment of Kansas State transfer Ismael Massoud, a 6’9” forward who was one of the Wildcats’ first players off the bench last season, averaging over 5 points per game.

In recent days, what appears to be one of the final pieces for the 2023-24 Georgetown Hoyas fell into place as Cooley landed his big man, 6’9” center Supreme Cook.

One of the best names you’ll find, Cook is a junior transfer from Fairfield who has averaged over 10 points per game and more than 8 rebounds per game each of the last two seasons.

NCAA approves rule change on guarding position in men’s basketball: Will it help? | The Athletic

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a change to the legal guarding position on block/charge scenarios involving defenders around the basket in men’s college basketball for the 2023-24 season, the NCAA announced Thursday. Here’s what you need to know:

The change requires a defender to be in position “to draw a charge at the time an offensive player plants his foot to go airborne to attempt a field goal,” per the NCAA.

Under the new rule, “If the defender arrives after the offensive player plants a foot to launch toward the basket, officials will be instructed to call a block when contact occurs between the two players.” To legally draw a charge, a secondary defender still has to be outside the restricted-area arc.

Future Hoyas | House of College Hoops (Michael DeRosa)

It hasn’t been directly said anywhere, but I think it’s fairly clear that Coach Cooley is playing for long-term success. They’ll be much better this upcoming season than they were last season, and better than the Torvik projections (that 194 defensive ranking is a Ewing number. Same with St. John’s, those are Mike Anderson projections).

Without directly saying it, he’s clearly prioritized the 2024 class in this later stage of recruiting over rounding out his roster. He’s had 2024 recruit Caleb Williams on campus multiple times and has been going after a couple of other 2024 talents including Jakhi Howard, who had planned to Georgetown and UConn and then make a decision soon after, though he did just get an offer from Memphis.

IRS Says Donations Made to Nonprofit NIL Collectives Are Not Tax Exempt | Sports Illustrated

In news that could rock the world of name, image and likeness, the Internal Revenue Service suggests that nonprofit NIL collectives offering tax deductions could be breaking the law.

According to a memo released from the office of the IRS Chief Counsel, donations made to nonprofit NIL collectives “are not tax exempt” because the benefits they provide college athletes are “not incidental both qualitatively and quantitatively to any exempt purpose.”

The 12-page memo was posted publicly Friday on the IRS website. The memo, actually written May 23, is filtering through the college athletics world as well as those working in the collective space.

Jeff Green’s team dinner helped Nuggets ‘reset’ before Game 3 win vs. Heat in NBA Finals | USA Today

Green, 36, hosted a team dinner at his southwest Miami home after the Nuggets arrived on Monday night. It was an opportunity for players and coaches to reset on an off day after their Game 2 loss.

And it worked quite well.

“He has a nice house,” Nikola Jokic said with a smile after he and Jamal Murray became the first teammates to have 30-point triple-doubles in the NBA Finals during Denver’s 109-94 win in Game 3 on Wednesday night.

Forward Jeff Green wants to finish career with Nuggets, not play for 12th team | Denver Gazette

“I’m finishing my career here, if I can,’’ said Green, who becomes a free agent this summer. “I want to just play two more years and, if my wife lets me play three, cool. But my goal is to play two more years and be a Nugget for those two years.”

Three more seasons would take Green to the verge of 40. Haslem, a forward whose Miami Heat is facing Green in the NBA Finals, turns 43 next Friday and has announced his retirement at the end of the season.

Green, whose Cleveland Cavaliers were swept 4-0 by the Golden State Warriors in 2018, is appearing is his second NBA Finals. His nickname on the Nuggets is “Vino,” because he is said to have aged like a fine wine.

Denver Nuggets’ Jeff Green is taking nothing for granted in the NBA Finals | Andscape

Green stands a svelte 6-feet-8, weighs 235 pounds and has a muscular build. Don’t let his age fool you — the athletic Green can still dunk on anyone in the NBA. The Miami resident credits his fitness guru wife, Stephanie, and men’s health and wellness coach Andy Lucas and others locally for keeping his body ready for the demands of the NBA. Green has averaged 12.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 1,107 NBA regular-season games.

And when the Maryland native played in his 101st playoff game on Wednesday, a 109-94 victory over the Miami Heat, he scored four points in 17 minutes to help the Nuggets take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals.

“We got a win. We’ve got to do it again,” Green said after the game. “We have another game in a couple days. We’ve got to bring the same amount of energy and effort. It’s just one game.

Six Degrees of Jeff Green | The Ringer

Over the course of his 16-year career, he’s played for 12 different NBA clubs—including one that doesn’t even exist anymore. And if he plays another two or three seasons, which he plans to, he could wind up having more teammates than anyone else in league history.

“You name it, I’ve done it,” Green says. “I’ve been there. I’ve played with legends. I’ve played with MVPs.” He’s also played with workaday veterans and 10-day signees. Green has played with 240 other pros in all, including Nikola Jokic (the latest of the aforementioned MVPs), Jamal Murray, and the rest of the Denver Nuggets as they compete in the NBA Finals. Green has made himself a crucial part of Denver’s playoff rotation in his second season with the team—taking advantage of a rare opportunity. It had been almost a decade since Green finished consecutive seasons with a franchise, which helps explain how a talented player with a valued skill set winds up with enough former teammates to host a convention.

Green wouldn’t have it any other way.

Interview: ‘Everything But The Chip’ director details making of 2001 Sixers documentary | Philly Voice

40 years removed from their last championship as a franchise — what a depressing thought that is — the high mark for any Sixers fan of a certain age is Allen Iverson’s storybook run to the 2001 NBA Finals. And in a new documentary that debuted on NBATV last week, fans got a closer view of the beloved Philadelphia team that took home every individual award before falling short in the championship series.

On a new episode of the ‘Clap Your Hands’ podcast, we had the opportunity to interview Brittany Hardy, director and producer of “Everything But The Chip: The 2001 Sixers,” who took us inside the making of this new look into Iverson’s MVP season. You can listen to the interview below:

The maturation of Iverson and coach Larry Brown in the years since they clashed in Philadelphia

The emotional wounds created by the Theo Ratliff/Dikembe Mutombo trade

Whether the Iverson/Brown combo would have survived the social media era