Shoutouts: Three pieces worthy of the NBA Finals

Kawhi Leonard dunks in Game 3.

We’re bringing Shoutouts back to the B/R Blog. With the help of the Quality Editing team, I’d going to get back to highlighting some of the really good pieces that run on the site.

This won’t be systematic. The articles highlighted here shouldn’t be chalked up as The Best Articles on Bleacher Report. They’re just pieces that have caught the eye of Quality Editors or someone else on the editing team, and we want to shine a little extra light on them.

Here are three pieces, all of them centered on the NBA Finals, that have stood out in the last week or so.

An Ode to Gregg Popovich, the Most Interesting Man in the NBA by Josh Cohen

Cohen uses humor and a set of interesting factoids that even hardcore NBA fans might not know to present this portrait of the San Antonio Spurs coach as he entered the NBA Finals for might be his last chance to win it all.

See the 2013 NBA Finals Through the Eyes of a Former Referee by Josh Martin

Unless you’re an NBA referee, or you hang out a lot with NBA referees, you’re just about guaranteed to learn something from this interview with former NBA ref Bob Delaney. Martin asks him about flopping, superstar calls, players’ tendencies and more. Officials in various sports tend to fall back on drab clichés—or denials—in their rare interviews, but Delaney really digs in with colorful, vivid answers.

Is Kawhi Leonard Proving He’s The LeBron James Stopper In 2013 Finals? by Dan Favale

Favale’s well-thought-out analysis reads smoothly and is supported extensively with statistics and quotes. It also features excellent use of media.