CHANHASSEN, Minn. — The org won its fifth ring. The star won his fourth. But what some might consider "old" felt very fresh as the clock ran out on Game 3 at Paisley Park. Shorewood, winners of four titles in the 2010s, had waited 5 years to climb the mountaintop again. And LeBron James, who had been a secondary piece on three other championship teams, finally got his flowers as COMO Finals MVP. The honor, along with his record sixth All-COMO Playoffs selection, cements his case as a first-ballot COMO Hall of Famer in what's sure to be a crowded first class later this decade. "LeBron is one of the most important characters in this league's story," Shorewood GM Alex Smith said following his team's 3-0 sweep. "He's helped win it for us before. He's beat us in the Finals. We've beat him. And to have a chance to work with The King again this year feels like a full-circle moment." Way back in 2015, the Show traded for James at the trade deadline, and he helped them upset Chaska in the Finals for a second consecutive year. Then, he was gone to free agency, never to return... until this January. A balanced, veteran Shorewood squad used James' presence to finally find some chemistry in what had been an up-and-down season. They surged late, earning the No. 5 seed and peaking against Scranton and Hamburg BSV in the quarterfinals, and semifinals, respectively. While the Show cooled off in the Finals, they had the good fortune of squaring up against a Paisley Park team that was completely out of gas after a magical playoff run from the No. 7 spot. Paisley GM Brendan Halleron thanked his first-year coach, Ted Lasso, for "injecting a new level of belief" in a mostly downtrodden franchise, and cited an inspiring speech about adversity and potatoes. "If you can do it once," Halleron said, "you can do it again." That certainly rings true for Shorewood, which won titles in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2019 before a half-decade championship drought that ended Thursday night. As the champagne flowed in the visitors' locker room, James had his arm around legendary coach Bobby Finstock, who finally had "one for the thumb." "There are three rules that I live by," Finstock told reporters as James shook his head and smiled. "Never get less than twelve hours sleep, never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city, and never stand between this man and a trophy. Now you stick to that, and everything else is cream cheese." 2024 All-COMO Playoffs team
List of COMO Finals MVPs
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MINNEAPOLIS — Nikola Jokic is breaking the game. The Cleveland Outlaws star just earned his fourth consecutive COMO MVP award, topping former Shorewood teammate Giannis Antetkounmpo's shared record of three straight (2018-2020). Those two were, naturally, the primary focus of All-COMO voting this week, as they were among five players receiving unanimous support for first-team inclusion. The others in the "100" club: Hamburg (via Cream City) star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Scranton's Anthony Davis, and Paisley Park's Luka Doncic. Reprinted with permission from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. ST. PAUL, Minn. — Giannis Antetokounmpo has been here before. The Minnesnowta Chill have not. After the final buzzer sounded in a bizarre, subs-laden Game 5 of the COMO Finals between the Chill and the visiting Cream City Bricks, one could sense the difference between Antetokounmpo (business-as-usual as he accepted his second career Finals MVP trophy) and owner/GM Matthew Taylor, who yelled out in triumph as he skipped around the court and took selfies with fans. "It feels absolutely incredible, man," Taylor told the Pioneer Press. "We knew this day would come when we formed this franchise 10 years ago, but with all the heartbreak that this team has faced over the past decade, even we started wondering if we were cursed ... COMO CHAMPS, BABYYYYYYYYYY!" This was the perfect ending to a wild, unpredictable playoff season. The Chill, No. 3 in the regular season, entered the Finals as major underdogs to the No. 8-seeded Bricks, who had miraculously overcome several serious obstacles to reach the ultimate series. Cream City's historic run was an all-timer For starters, Cream City only had $79 million on the payroll, by far the lowest of any playoff team ('Snowta had $124 million, by comparison). Bricks GM Jack Hughes, in his first season without a co-GM, had been a seller at the deadline. But in return, he collected key pieces that led the most improbable playoff run in league history. Both Kristaps Porzingis and Mikal Bridges made the All-Playoffs team after getting shipped to Milwaukee, while Immanuel Quickley came up with a season-saving, career-best performance (50 bones) to steal Game 3 of a first-round series against No. 1 seed Scranton. All of that after the Bricks needed some help to even make the playoff field on the final day of the regular season. They insisted on drama at every step of the way, following the Scranton series with a 5-game, back-and-forth triumph over Sunnyvale, and then a 5-game Finals that went down to the wire. "Some people thought moving on from [Julius] Randle and [John] Collins was me giving up on the season," Hughes said. "But I felt getting Porzingis, Bridges, and Quickley back was not only going to set me up for the future, but also for the rest of the season. Once everyone got healthy, we showed what we could do." Overnight superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is set for a new contract this summer (likely $30 million), which will likely prevent the Bricks from making another "Moneyball" run in 2024. For his part, Hughes was non-committal when it came to the topic of locking up his first-team All-COMO guard. "The goal is to keep as much of the squad together as possible," he said, adding that the team will take a "cheap" approach in free agency. Greek Freak's journey a fateful one But the best player on the floor wasn't SGA. It was Giannis. The future COMO Hall of Famer added a fifth ring to his trophy case (his previous four were with Shorewood), and a second Finals MVP to match former teammate Stephen Curry for the most in league history. "This win cemented Giannis's status as the undisputed COMO GOAT," Taylor said. "Having the Freak on your team automatically makes you a COMO Finals threat. We'd be fools to not do all we can do to bring him back." Antetokounmpo only ended up in St. Paul after Taylor overslept during the COMO auction. The commissioner's office placed an auto-bid to bring the Greek Freak to 'Snowta after nine seasons with the Shorewood Show. With his one-year, $43 million deal now up, he figures to be one of the most sought-after free agents once again. 2023 All-COMO Playoffs team
List of COMO Finals MVPs
While three consecutive COMO MVPs is undeniably impressive, the basketball world is a little bit *over* the Nikola Jokic awards conversation (and Jokic is, too). So, let's focus on some first-timers. On Thursday afternoon, Cream City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Scranton forward Jayson Tatum were both named first-team All-COMO for the first time (it's their first appearance on any of the All-COMO teams). They were joined by mainstays Luka Doncic (fourth time on the first team), Giannis Antetokounmpo (seventh), Joel Embiid (fourth), and, of course, Jokic (third). Chaska's Paolo Banchero won Rookie of the Year, while Scranton GM Sam Twetan took home the Executive of the Year award for the first time. Other notes: LeBron James and James Harden both made the second team. They're the only players to make an All-COMO team every single season in the 10-year history of the league. Anthony Davis also earned a second-team nod, the ninth All-COMO selection of his career. The third team featured a trio of first-timers: Anthony Edwards, Lauri Markkanen, and Julius Randle. Ja Morant snuck past Pascal Siakim for the final spot. 2022-2023 All-COMO selectionsFirst Team
PG - Luka Doncic, Kansas City (4th 1st-team selection, 4th overall) 💯 SG - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cream City (1st, 1st) SF - Jayson Tatum, Scranton (1st, 1st) PF - Giannis Antetokounmpo, Minnesnowta (7th, 7th) 💯 C - Nikola Jokic, Cleveland (3rd, 5th) 💯 6th - Joel Embiid, Hamburg BSV (4th, 4th) 💯 unanimous 1st-team selection Second Team PG - Damian Lillard, Sunnyvale/Memphis (5th overall) SG - James Harden, Sunnyvale (10th) SF - LeBron James, Manhattan (10th) PF - Domantas Sabonis, Scranton (4th) C - Anthony Davis, Newport Beach (9th) 6th - Kevin Durant, Shorewood/Manhattan (7th) Third Team PG - Stephen Curry, West Grove United (7th) SG - Anthony Edwards, Sunnyvale (1st) SF - Lauri Markkanen, Chaska (1st) PF - Julius Randle, Cream City/Minnesnowta (1st) C - Bam Adebayo, Shorewood/Cleveland (3rd) 6th - Ja Morant, Memphis (2nd) Also receiving votes: Pascal Siakam, Manhattan (7pts), Kyrie Irving, Hamburg BSV/Scranton (5), Nikola Vucevic, Memphis (4), Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland (3), Tyrese Haliburton, Newport Beach (3), Demar DeRozan, Scranton (1), Kristaps Porzingis, Hamburg BSV/Cream City (1), De'Aaron Fox, West Grove United (1) Re-printed with permission from the April 4, 2022 version of the Daily Bugle®. NEW YORK — A lost season in Manhattan turned into the best stretch of professional basketball the Big Apple has ever seen. Led by midseason addition Joel Embiid, the Manhattan Spiders went on a 30-2 tear down the stretch, including a near-sweep of powerhouse Hamburg BSV in the COMO Finals, to capture the city's first hardwood championship since 1973. The Spiders started the season 3-11 and 11-17 before getting healthy and climbing up the North Star standings. They overwhelmed Shorewood and Sunnyvale in January and February to claim the top seed in the conference, a run that coincided with a trade for Embiid on Jan. 13. Billy Sunday's team earned a first-round bye, swept Sunnyvale 3-0 in the North Star finals, and then defeated Hamburg (the league's regular-season champion) 3-1 in what would've been another 3-0 sweep had Manhattan's Montrezl Harrell not laid a rare "zero" at the end of Game 2. The Spiders didn't blink, winning two straight to close it out, and had perhaps their best performance of the season in the clincher. "It feels even better than we thought it would!" co-general manager Alex Krause yelled in the locker room. Krause, who officially added co-GMs Jack and Abbey Fink this season, has fielded a few good teams since founding the expansion Spiders in 2015. But they've never come close to winning a ring before this year; perhaps their best shot was in 2020, when key players were kept out of the COMO Bubble that provided a somewhat unsatisfactory ending to an endangered season. After missing the playoffs last year and starting very slow this past October and November, fans began to call for Krause's job. Sunday night, he was suddenly a champion, and was already talking about becoming the first back-to-back champ since Shorewood in 2016 (three straight). "Our blend of organizational teamwork was the key to our success," Krause said. "We are grateful for what we were able to accomplish this season. But one championship isn't enough for any of us. We'll see you all again this fall." Notes
List of COMO Finals MVPs
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Welcome to the club, Nikola Jokic. On Thursday morning, the "Joker" became the third man in COMO history to win multiple MVP awards, joining Anthony Davis (2015 and '17) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (2018, '19, and '20). Jokic, who currently stars for the Minnesnowta Chill after opening the season with the hapless Newport Beach Grizzlies, became the first player to win MVP with two different COMO teams; he also won last year with Shorewood. Minnesnowta (51-19) faces rival Scranton (48-22) in a Best-of-3 first-round series that tips Thursday night in St. Paul. (Also notable: Scranton's Evan Mobley edged out Shorewood's Scottie Barnes for Rookie of the Year. Scroll to end of this page to see the All-COMO teams.) Hamburg's Buscaglia wins COMO Executive of the YearBut Jokic and the Chill aren't even the top dogs in their own conference. That distinction belongs to Hamburg BSV (51-19), led by fourth-year GM Joe Buscaglia. In a poll of league execs, Buscaglia was a runaway winner for Executive of the Year, earning 6 votes out of 14 ballots (second place was a three-way tie at 2 votes apiece). In an interview Wednesday evening, he called the award "an insane honor," and thanked the panel. "I've learned a lot more about the league since doing the expansion route and found a strategy that worked for me," Buscaglia said. He noted two moves in particular that turned his team into a winner: Last year's eyebrow-raising trade of marquee superstar Kevin Durant, and this past offseason's free-agency signing of Rudy Gobert. The Villagers are flush with talent, and have the balanced look of a champion. They'll just need to survive an insane Empire bracket that includes Minnesnowta (51-19), Scranton (48-22) and first-round matchup Kansas City (43-27), which took two straight from Hamburg last month to earn the inaugural Butterburger® Classic. 2022 All-COMO teams1st Team
PG • LeBron James, Manhattan (7th 1st, 9th overall) SG • Luka Doncic, Kansas City (3rd 1st, 3rd overall) SF • Kevin Durant, Memphis/Shorewood (5th 1st, 6th overall) PF • Giannis Antetokounmpo, Shorewood (6th 1st, 6th overall) C• Nikola Jokic, Newport Beach/Minnesnowta (2nd 1st, 4th overall) 6th • Joel Embiid, Memphis/Manhattan (3rd 1st, 3rd overall) 2nd Team PG • Dejounte Murray, Sunnyvale (1st) SG • James Harden, Sunnyvale (9th; first time not on 1st team) SF • DeMar DeRozan, Kansas City (1st) PF • Anthony Davis, Chaska/Hamburg BSV (8th; first seven appearances were all first-team) C • Rudy Gobert, Hamburg BSV (3rd) 6th • Karl-Anthony Towns, Duval United (5th) 3rd Team PG • Trae Young, Newport Beach (1st) SG • Ja Morant, Memphis (1st) SF • Jimmy Butler, Scranton/Cleveland (5th) PF • Domantas Sabonis, Scranton (3rd) C • Pascal Siakim, Manhattan (1st) 6th • Nikola Vucevic, Minnesnowta (3rd) --- Also receiving votes: Jarrett Allen, Scranton (4), Jayson Tatum, Memphis/Scranton (3), Stephen Curry, Scranton (2), Chris Paul, Kansas City (2), Miles Bridges, Minnesnowta (2), Robert Williams III, Hamburg BSV (1), LaMelo Ball, Minnesnowta (1) COMO Finals: Cleveland Outlaws climb the mountain, outlast Chaska Moose for first championship5/7/2021 Reprinted with permission from the May 7, 2021 edition of The Plain Dealer. CLEVELAND — Less than two years ago, the Cleveland Outlaws were a moribund, small-town franchise located in the foothills of the western United States. Then known as the Colorado Hilltoppers, the franchise had failed to make the playoffs in all five seasons of its existence. The owner abandoned ship late in the offseason. And the league needed a fix, fast. By some stroke of fate, a two-man group—who had no clue there was an opening—faxed the league office indicating interest in owning a team, should such an opportunity arise. Within hours of the original owner's departure, Nate Atkins and Wade Rupard took control of the organization. They soon moved to Atkins' hometown region and rebranded as the Cleveland Outlaws. In Year 1, they smashed expectations and finished 43-39 to earn the team's first-ever playoff berth. This year, they beat up an extremely competitive conference to earn the Empire's No. 1 seed. Thursday night, they clinched the league championship on their home floor. "It’s crazy to have turned the franchise around as quickly as we did," Rupard said. "But we were built for this. We’re building a dynasty here in Cleveland. This won’t be the first banner we hang." Indeed, the Outlaws have a few stars under contract for next season. COMO Finals MVP Kyrie Irving (who clinched the series with a 46.00 average in Game 4), Jimmy Butler and Clint Capela all have multi-year deals, while a group of younger players—including late-season surprises Jae'Sean Tate and Moses Brown—figure to extend their stays. The front office swung pre-draft deals for Damian Lillard (Kansas City) and Donovan Mitchell (Memphis), then added Butler from Scranton in February. They completely mortaged their draft future, but that's unlikely to affect them much over the next couple seasons. Atkins pointed out that the team got sufficient bulletin-board material in January from Minnesnowta Chill GM Matthew Taylor, who insinuated that the Outlaws had built their team without much of a plan. "Ever since a rival Empire GM said we had poor roster construction, we took it upon ourselves to build the most complete team possible," Atkins said. "Thank you to Matthew Taylor for inspiring the trade for Jimmy Butler, who became a horse for another Finals run." Butler was one of three Outlaws to make the All-COMO Playoffs team (Irving and Capela were the others). They needed every last ounce of help to squeak by Cream City in the semifinals—league miscommunication on a Bricks substitute extended the series and caused no small amount of controversy in the Rust Belt—and then put a halt to Chaska's momentum when it mattered most. In signature fashion, the post-game celebration was soaked in vitriol. "We know the league will never vote for us for executives of the year or for any of our players to be first-team All-COMO," Atkins said. "We’ll have wins changed to losses after the fact and our rule-change proposals denied, but we will always persevere because that’s what Cleveland does. It’s a city of champions." On the other side of the scoreboard, Chaska was a particularly despondent runner-up. The Moose are now 0-4 all-time in the Finals, including the past two. Their roster is set for a near-complete implosion this offseason, and they've traded away their next two first-round picks. However, they do have an amazing silver lining to build around: second-year star Zion Williamson averaged 30.68 bones over 19 playoff appearances to earn a spot on the All-COMO Playoffs squad. Speaking of which, here's the 2021 team: 2021 All-COMO Playoffs selections
List of COMO Finals MVPs
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The executives have voted, and three players are unanimous All-COMO 1st Team selections this year: Shorewood's Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Kansas City's Luka Doncic. (Reprinted with permission from the St. Paul Pioneer Press.) In terms of excitement, the 2020 COMO draft class is as underwhelming as the league has seen. Entering Saturday, teams were doing everything they could to dump their 2020 picks in exchange for something—anything—more valuable. That lack of enthusiasm continued after the clock started. Georgia's Anthony Edwards—the top pick in the NBA draft—fell to Memphis at No. 4 and was soon traded to Sunnyvale as part of a salary-dumping deal. Not exactly the kind of welcome typically bestowed on an elite prospect. If this class does have a readymade star, it's LaMelo Ball. The Minnesnowta Chill wasted no time bringing him to St. Paul with the No. 1 COMO selection. General manager Matthew Taylor sent the pick to the league office 45 minutes in advance of the draft. "It was a no brainer," Taylor told the Pioneer Press. "We sent our scouting department home last week because we knew LaMelo was our guy." Chaska took Memphis' James Wiseman at No. 2, and Scranton went with the French Floridian, Killian Hayes, at No. 3. That left Memphis with a somewhat obvious selection—Edwards—at No. 4, but the Hornets spent their entire clock trying to trade out of the pick. They failed, but did eventually ship Edwards to Sunnyvale in exchange for a protected 2021 first-rounder and the Slayers' absorption of Otto Porter's undesirable deal. Memphis stayed busy this week, taking part in a few of the league's 12 pre-Saturday trades. Saturday was no exception. They made the above deal with Sunnyvale, and also sent the No. 9 pick to Hamburg BSV in exchange for Nos. 12 and 14. The Hornets closed the first round with Kentucky point guard Tyrese Maxey, which was a bit of a reach, but fit the chaotic pattern other teams laid out. The NBA's No. 4 pick (Patrick Williams) didn't go until No. 10 to Manhattan, while the No. 5 NBA selection (Isaac Okoro) waited until Kansas City selected him at No. 13. Teams kept viewers guessing all morning, doing their part to at least deliver some drama on a day that lacked much anticipation. Here's a look at how it all went down: Official 2020 COMO Draft results
The offseason trading window runs from Tues., Dec. 1 (Noon CT) to Sat., Dec. 5 (Noon CT). The COMO Rookie Draft takes place Sat., Dec. 5, at 8 a.m. CT on Twitter @COMOLeague.
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