NBA Draft ‘23 | Travelers Championship | Song of the Summer ‘23 Nominee | Dial Drunk
1st Round Summary
The Spurs kicked off the ‘23 NBA Draft with Victor Wembanyama. His last name is going to drive me nuts trying to spell, so we’ll just call him by his nickname, Wemby. The French 7-foot center can do it all and is arguably the most hyped NBA prospect since LeBron.
Where did some of Week to Week Notes’ *Favorites* End Up?
*Our favorites at Week to Week Notes are not slighted towards players who have viewed the Name&Logo whatsoever.*
The #2 Overall Pick, Brandon Miller, ends up in Charlotte with LaMelo. I’m sure you would all love to hear Lavar Ball’s take on the draft pick, what the hell happened to him? The Thompson Twins made history by being the first twins to both be selected in the Top 5. Sadly they will be split up as Amen will be a Rocket, while Ausar a Piston. Anthony Black is now part of the Magic, hopefully, this Black Magic doesn't produce evil spells. Jarace Walker will be playing making up for Jordan Poole’s lackluster defense in Washington. Keyonte George will be in Utah, I don’t have a joke for you there. I don’t have a joke to go along with Kobe Bufkin in ATL either. Nick Smith will join Brandon Miller in Charlotte. Jordan Hawkins teams up with Zion in New Orleans (for now). Derek Lively heads to OKC Thunder.
One Last Sidenote in the 1st Round
I had no idea Gradey Dick got down like this…
2nd Round Summary
Hand up, I had GG Jackson at 5th Overall in my mock and he ended up going 45th. That could be really, really bad or really, really good. For now, we’ll say the Grizzles got the steal of the draft. I like his game a lot more than the NBA does and Hoops Fan Insider said he’s one of his guys as well. I’m sticking with my own talent evaluation skills over NBA GMs.
The City Locals
New York Knicks
The Knickerbockers had no draft picks this year, as they sent their first-rounder this year over to Portland for Josh Hart last winter.
Noah Clowney was a one-and-doner at ‘Bama who finished as an SEC All-Freshman Team honoree. Originally from South Carolina, Clowney is a 6’10” Power Forward who is still only 18 years old. He’ll grow into his body and don’t count out the possibility that he grows to become a 7-footer. His size and frame are a lot like Nic Claxton but without the shot-blocking skills and better shooting range. Bobby Marks said of Clowney, "I love the intangibles. I love how hard he competes. I love the length that he has. When you have a 7'3" wingspan, I can't teach that... I love the fact that he doesn't shy away from shooting from the outside. He's very versatile, can play a couple of different positions out there."
Dariq Whitehead is a local kid out of Newark, New Jersey. He had a foot that kept him out the first 4 games of the season and threw off the timing of the start of his college career. His jump shot is pure, he shot 43% from behind the arc. His only season at Duke may not have gone exactly how Whitehead had hoped, so I’m projecting that when fully healthy in the NBA, Whitehead has the talent to be a big-time scorer. Entering the ‘22 season, Whitehead was the #2 recruit in the country, the ‘22 Sports Illustrated, Naismith, & Gatorade High School Player of the Year, and also took home the McDonalds game MVP. At 13 years old, Whitehead moved to Florida to attend Montverde Academy. In his free time, Whitehead has volunteered as part of a fundraising campaign for pediatric cancer research and has donated his time as a basketball coach to special-needs children.
TPC River Highlands was first known as Middletown Golf Club in 1928 and later as Edgewood Country Club. The course first held a Connecticut PGA TOUR event in 1952. Since then the event has donated more than $49 million to charities in the surrounding community. Xander Schauffele is the defending champion of the Travelers Champion, Harry English the American won it in ‘21. TPC River Highlands is notorious for its tough finishing stretch from holes 15-18. The 15th, 16th, and 17th holes all play around their signature four-acre lake.
Leaderboard After Round 1
Denny McCarthy
Denny McCarthy was money yesterday, holing 10 birdies with no holes over par. He came about an inch away from shooting a 59 for the day. The lowest score of time in the history of the PGA was Jim Furyk's 58 at the Travelers Championship in ‘16.
Scottie Scheffler
Scottie doesn’t know to shoot over par. He is now 203 shots under par this year, which is 48 shots better than the next player on tour. Scottie, the #1 Ranked Golfer in the world, *might* know what the Week to Week Notes logo looks like, which is absurd.
Shane Lowry
Shane Lowry makes things very easy for me because he posts his highlights on his own Twitter account. It makes things very convenient. Good man yourself, Shane.
Patrick Cantlay
Patrick Cantlay posts his own highlights on his own Twitter account. How conceited do you have to be man? Could it be that he’s on his phone sorting through filters and that is why his rounds are excruciatingly slow? Can’t rule it out.
JT Thomas
JT Thomas got caught on a hot mic saying “guy (Wyndham Clark) wins one feckin’ US Open and I gotta mark it from 80 yards.” I’m a huge fan of JT Thomas because of this sort of banter. This dry and sarcastic sense of humor is classic JT Thomas.
I’m nominating Dial Drunk and Where The Wild Things Are for the Week to Week Notes’ inaugural Song of the Summer. The rules so far are that the song will have had to have been released at some point in ‘23 - apologies in advance to fellow Swifties but Midnights might have to be excluded here.
What gives me the right to start something like this? Absolutely nothing. I just figure @YouTheReader & I listen to enough wide-ranging good music that we don’t need any fecking Grammy judges to tell us what sounds good. I’ll try my best to mix in some new songs and if you have any requests please feel free to send them over.
Around this time last summer was the first time I ever heard Noah Kahan’s Stick Season. I listened to that song over&over&over&over again as I typed Notes like a nervous wreck. 1 year ago tomorrow I wrote Week 4, June '22. Here is what that Cover/Story/Reel looked like…
…I still didn’t have a Week to Week Notes Logo or a Week to Week Notes Heading but I had conceptualized a Front Cover of a Sports Newspaper with a link. The sports writing at that point was just a bullet point sentence or two per topic. I introduced my first Week to Week Notes rankings - Movie Scores - pretty random but on brand.
Sorry for rambling, I picked this song because at this point last year, I hadn’t really thought to write about music with sports, I was just writing about sports with music on in the background. Stick Season was a hit last year so I might as well strike while the Dial Drunk iron is hot (@RapGenius doesn’t even have annotations for this yet)…
Strong open. This song was released 2 weeks ago and comes from the perspective of a presumed alcoholic who has just been arrested for disorderly conduct. Fun one.
Oh, trust me, if I wanted to go down a rabbit hole questioning myself I’d end up in the middle of the Indian Ocean (that is in fact the complete other side of the world if we started digging from The City). I’m sure some people think less of me now than they did this time last year while I was listening to Stick Season, whatever, I’ll forget about it.
The reality is, I’ve been writing Week to Week Notes since I was a junior in college. It wasn’t as often as today, it was just the fantasy football season, but I still count that as practice.
The chorus is unreal. Transmitter radio is the first hint that the guy in the song is in the back of a cop car. The lyrics are on point, but the part of this I really want Noted is the chord progression at the 0:52 second mark right after “radio.” It’s subtle but sounds incredible.
If you’re wondering, yes, I have been thrown in the back of a cop car for being wasted, but that was years ago when I was a mess stumbling along binging and mixing. Now I’m just a bore who sticks to Guinness and drinks like it’s a marathon, not a sprint. I should’ve started #GuinnessChallengeSeason sooner.
Okay, my theory behind why my writing is all over the place from charming to alarming in seconds is because it’s how I always would write Week to Week Notes. Here I’ll give you a quick example of what:
1. TD Bank: What’s up gentlemen? Sorry, I have to put myself at #1 here. I hate to be that guy but I’m the only one with 3 rings and my name is on the trophy more times than any of your sad, pathetic “franchises.”
2. @Boston: Reigning champion. Congratulations once again, I guess.
3. @D-Flyer: I still sometimes go back and watch the Gary Sanchez double to right-center in Game 4 of the ‘17 ALCS, poor Gary. What could have been? They need to bring up Austin Wells, I think it might be time to let Higgy go which is probably an unpopular opinion. 👽 too would be fun. I’m going to go off on the Yankees tomorrow, not that I think any of the fellas in the clubhouse are going to read it if I tag them, just more to blow off some steam about how cool Hal & Co are with mediocrity.
4. @ChargersFanInsider: @YouTheReader this sick bastard would roast me for not roasting his fellow League Governors enough. Iron sharpens iron, thank you, sir, I can’t wait to once again mush San Diego every week this fall 🫡.
5. @JagsFanInsider: The ET team name was great. I thoroughly enjoyed researching facts about the movie last fall.
6. @UncleJ: Despite the Week to Week Notes GPT Bot going viral on Twitter, Roger Goodell has not yet reached out about Tyreek Hill’s suspension. I’ll let you know if I hear from you over the weekend. Enjoy The Travelers this weekend and tell that wanker Patrick Cantlay to keep it moving.
7. @UncleV: People forget that he is the only 2-time Rooster Cup Golf champion, so I gotta remind them.
8. @Glove: I’m not sure where we’re doing the draft yet but I think we can rule out Iran like you asked.
Alright 8 of those is enough, I won’t bore you all with fantasy football in June, back to Dial Drunk…
The dial tone symbolizes he’ll have nothing in the morning when he is bedridden with a hangover, and by then the pain he feels will spread all over.
To be honest, this bridge is what I think takes this song up to another level.
This drunken conversation in the lyrics where the character is speaking to the police officer is class. The combination of Kahan’s voice plus his appearance - long hair, kind of hippy looking - makes it so much when he says “fuck that sir” sound that much more poignant. He does this on a few songs of his, it’s really effective.
The character drunkenly going back and forth with the cop about how he’ll stand for the flag and kiss the badge in order to get another call from his emergency contact is witty.
Why do I write Week to Week Notes? Well, the original draft…
…needs updating. For starters, this is no longer a weekly sports newsletter. While the intentions still hold true, I don’t think my words from this time last year are bold enough for people who grew up on the internet…
…the stuff on the right side was said last fall while most of what is on the left are more recent. I figure it’s only best to include both because everything that’s written in red & black was what I needed to hear and it served its purpose to drive me to do this just as much as everything I’ve heard in blue & white. To be honest, I’m my own harshest critic and I’m competing with myself to improve and become more efficient. I try to enjoy today while still thinking about tomorrow. So why do I do this to myself…
YouTube Rabbithole
Noah Kahan - Dial Drunk
Great tune, have a nice Friday! Team USA & Yankees tomorrow…