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FOMO or Fear of Missing Out has been blamed for many of the extraordinary moves weve seen in markets. As investors watch from the sidelines while others make fortunes, it becomes too tempting not to join in.

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Q4 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

Ben Graham often wrote of irrational market moves like this, when The investors greatest enemy turns out to be himself. He defined the difference between speculation and investment, but admitted that speculation is often more fun!

Black Bear Value Fund performance update for the month ended January 31, 2021. Q4 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more Dear Partners and Friends, Black Bear Value Fund, LP (the Fund) returned +1.1%, net, in January. The HFRI returned +0.7% in January. The S&P 500 returned -1.0% in January. Statements should be arriving by Read More

At times like these, there are some really important things to remember for investors who intend to thrive and survive over the long term.

Ben Graham read Classics and loved the Greek myths. His all-time hero was the wily adventurer, Ulysses. On his return voyage from Troy, Ulysses had to pass the Isle of the Sirens. The Sirens were beautiful mermaids, who would sing at passing sailors. Their singing was so seductive that sailors could not help turning their ships or swimming towards the island, where they would be dashed on the rocks and drowned.

To avoid this fate, Ulysses crew put wax in their ears so they could not hear the Sirens. Ulysses had himself lashed tightly to the mast, so when he heard the singing, he could not free himself and swim to his death.

In his book, Maps of Meaning, psychologist Dr Jordan Peterson explains that, even in their day, ancient myths were never viewed as accurate accounts of history or scientific explanation. Instead, they served as stories to teach people and communities how to act: and that is how ancient peoples used them, following the examples of their heroes.

Graham viewed them in much the same way. He used the example of Ulysses as a lesson for investors.

Ulysses is ultimately a tale of FOMO. In spite of his greatness, Ulysses knows he will not be able to resist the temptation, unless he prepares himself in advance with some sort of restraint.

Like Ulysses, investors need to plan in advance if they want to avoid being seduced and wrecked by FOMO.

The answer lies in having some simple and time-tested rules to protect yourself. These should be:

Perhaps the best exemplar of simple rules was Walter Schloss. Walter Schloss was a student of Ben Graham and a friend of Warren Buffett. He never went to college and shunned computers and complicated models. He worked on his own out of a tiny office. Over 50 years his partnership out-performed the S&P500 by over 8% per annum! His clients were a small bunch of wealthy families, many of whom stayed with him over his entire career, with their holdings passing down to children and grandchildren.

When asked to explain his approach, Schloss came up with this:

A single A4 typewritten page of one-line rules hed mostly picked up from Ben Grahams night class. It wasnt particularly original or surprising, and it certainly wasnt complicated. What mattered was that Schloss had his simple rules, they were sensible, and he stuck to them.

Shortly before Walter Schloss retired, he published a list of all the stocks he had owned over his 50-year career.[i]

As you might expect for a consistent deep value investor, there were plenty of heavy industry stocks. But there were also plenty of tech and media stocks, consumer staples, telecoms, banks, insurers, restaurant franchises, healthcare... in fact practically everything was on Walters list!

The point Schloss was making was that, over time, every stock and every industry had, at one time or another become a deep value stock that met his stringent criteria. He hadnt needed to chase any of them, they all came to him. At some point, they all ended up in the bargain basement. FOMO is just an illusion.

Now, fifty years might sound like a long time; but for the average saver starting out in their 20s or 30s, that is exactly the sort of timeframe they will be investing for. For charities and endowment funds, it is of course far longer. And, the good news is, with that sort of horizon, you get to buy everything dirt cheap, on your terms.

A simple solution borrowed from psychology, is to write a postcard to your future self.

It is simply a few lines on how you expect yourself to behave as an investor.

Then put it in your desk drawer and look at it regularly, to remind yourself what you stand for, and see how youre measuring up.

The idea behind the postcard is to give you something consistent to measure yourself against. We know that markets can go wild in both directions. Further, the internet is full of people who claim to have made easy fortunes, most of which are, at best, exaggerated. So, instead of measuring yourself against the market or others, find some simple, timeless rules and principles you can always check yourself against.

Warren Buffett calls this your Inner Scorecard. As Mohnish Pabrai recounts from his lunch with Buffett:

He said, look - you can live your life in two ways. You can grade yourself based on what you think the world thinks of you - an outer scorecard, or you can grade yourself internally - an inner scorecard. He said, Would you rather be the greatest lover in the world, and have the world think that you were the worst, or the worst lover in the world, and have the world think that you were the greatest?. He said that if you know how to answer that question, then life becomes pretty easy.[ii]

On several occasions, Warren Buffett has linked the market cap of the US stock market to US GDP as a handy rule of thumb for determining if the market is overvalued or not.[iii]

Currently US equities are at a record high of 190% of GDP. The long-run average has been just shy of 100% of GDP, with a low of 32% in the early 80s. That suggests the US market is about 50% overvalued.

Intuitively, the reasoning here is sound. Broadly, company profits grow with the economy. Another way to look at it is that when the stock market goes up, it creates paper wealth. However, if the economy is not growing at the same rate, there is not the real wealth (i.e. goods and services) to back up the paper wealth being created. So, one way or another, that paper wealth has to be destroyed. Most of those who have it will never get to spend it. It has to be this way.

We have seen this time and again through history: the South Sea bubble, the Mississippi bubble, the Japanese bubble, the TMT bubble, the real estate bubble. In all these cases, the world was full of loud mouths showing off their newly made fortunes and boasting how easy it was. Very few kept them. It has to be this way.

To put it another way, the stock market is normally a winners game, where the average investor is likely, over time, to come away with more than they put in. However, at points of speculative excess and overvaluation, it becomes a losers game, where the majority of investors will suffer major losses.

Stepping aside from speculative phases or speculative securities means missing out on an emotional rollercoaster, financial pain, and the real bargains that are left behind long after the bubble pops.

Charlie Munger famously quipped, Its remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by tryingto beconsistentlynot stupid, instead of tryingto bevery intelligent.

The risk is that were all prone to stupidity sometimes, and particularly when things are going well. It is at moments of triumph that we are most prone to throwing the rulebook out the window, and doing something dumb.

A perfect example of this is the recent short squeeze in heavily shorted stocks such as GameStop. In a matter of weeks, this has cost many short sellers and hedge funds their careers, their reputations and their fortunes.

It is a cardinal rule of short-selling that you never short a stock much above 15%. The reason is simple: When short interest gets much higher than this, it can get very hard to find enough stock to close out the short, triggering a short squeeze. If a short cannot buy enough stock, they can lose everything. This is a simple rule that has been around forever. It is there to prevent precisely this sort of thing.

What is remarkable is that many of the stocks involved had short interests of over 60 or 70%! Not only that, some of them, such as Bed, Bath and Beyond, are buying back their shares at the same time. How could so many experienced and reputable short sellers be so dumb?!

The answer lies in the fact that 2020 was such an amazing year for short sellers and hedge funds. Being long momentum (e.g. tech) and short stocks that had already done badly (e.g. retail) was a popular strategy and it paid off big as Covid struck round the world.

Drunk on their success, flush with cash and keen not to miss out on the next leg, the shorts completely forgot those simple, time-tested rules. Its at those very moments they matter the most.

The GameStop debacle also reminds us of something else about FOMO. Bubbles normally have a good reason for happening; such as a new technology, new markets or new methods of financing. There is a fundamental truth behind them; just as shorting traditional retailers in early 2020 made complete sense. Thats what makes them so alluring. What kills bubbles is not a flawed idea, but an idea that runs too far. Its that combination of overvaluation, overinvestment, and mis-execution that sets up the disaster.

During the roaring 20s, Ben Graham was a rising star of the investment scene.

He had come from a poor family and was keen to enjoy his newfound wealth. He spent lavishly, with fine furniture, servants, and a long lease on a fancy New York apartment. His clients too had sky high expectations.

When the Great Depression struck, Graham lost a lot of money, he struggled to meet his bills and he and his family faced financial uncertainty every day. His clients also suffered, making his work a constant battle and a burden.

As his friends attested, Ben Grahams experiences during the depression psychologically scarred him and led to more cautious approaches later on. Years later, Graham reflected that his luxurious new lifestyle did not make him any happier at the time, and brought only misery later on.

With runaway stock markets just like the roaring 20s, it is perhaps worth remembering a few things:

Putting all this together, it probably means that if youre making annualised returns much above 5% or 6% at the moment, it is probably not sustainable.

As Ben Graham and many others have discovered, a newly lavish lifestyle wont make you happy, but it could make you miserable and you could regret it.

Keep it real. Firmly and honestly manage expectations for yourself and your clients. Dont change your lifestyle much. Squirrel a bit away, reduce your liabilities, and maybe diversify a bit more, even if that means missing out a little.

At company and stock market level, FOMO is an illusion. The vast majority of those involved will eventually see paper profits end up as real losses. It has to be this way.

Like Ulysses, protect yourself from yourself. Dont believe you are able resist market manias: Speculation buys up the intelligence of those involved.

So prepare in advance with a handful of simple, timeless rules and principles you believe in. Write those rules down, and measure yourself against them, not against markets.

When things are going really well, double-check youre sticking to those sensible rules this is when they matter most. Be honest about what is sustainable, keep it real and dont let your lifestyle get ahead of you.

About the Author

Andrew Hunt is a global deep value investor and author of Better Value Investing: A Simple Guide to Improving your Results as a Value Investor.

End notes

[i] schloss+-+list+of+stocks+-+january+2007.pdf (squarespace.com)

[ii] Mohnish Pabrai's Advice For Value Investors (forbes.com)

[iii] Market Cap to GDP: An Updated Look at the Buffett Valuation Indicator - dshort - Advisor Perspectives

[iv] Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2020 (credit-suisse.com)

[v] Hiring Good Managers is Hard pdf (researchaffiliates.com)

[vi] See e.g. http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21569397-art-picking-mutual-funds-best-worst-and-ugly, and http://uk.businessinsider.com/performance-persistance-of-top-equity-mutual-funds-2015-6?r=US&IR=T.

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Ben Graham Was Obsessed With FOMO - ValueWalk

Ferris State's Deng Reng (1) leads the charge down the court. (Pioneer photo/John Raffel)

Ferris State's Deng Reng (1) leads the charge down the court. (Pioneer photo/John Raffel)

Ferris State's Deng Reng (1) leads the charge down the court. (Pioneer photo/John Raffel)

Ferris State's Deng Reng (1) leads the charge down the court. (Pioneer photo/John Raffel)

Down to the wire: Ferris men edge Grand Valley

BIG RAPIDS It went down to the wire, but Ferris States mens basketball team did enough to pull out a 68-65

Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win against Grand Valley State at Wink Arena on Friday.

Walt Kelser had 20 points and four rebounds while Michael Peterson added 19 points and seven boards to lead Ferris (6-4. 7-6) to its third straight win.

Ferris built a 37-27 halftime lead. The Bulldogs were 13-of-29 from the floor for 44.8 percent while Grand Valley was 12 of 26 for 46.2 percent.

Michael Peterson was 5-of-8 from the floor and scored 14 points in the first half.

Deng Reng hit a 3-pointer and a field goal for an early 11-6 Bulldog lead.

Kelser scored for a 30-20 lead late in the half and sank a 3-pointer with 51 seconds to go for a 35-25 lead.

Kelser scored a 3-pointer off the glass to beat the shot clock and open the second half. Petersons 3-pointer made it 47-33 with 14:50. Mason Plines dunk at 12:17 put Ferris up 49-38. He hit two free throws with 10:17 to play for a 51-41 lead. Jordan Harris connected for Grand Valley to make it 51-45.

Petersons offensive rebound and putback at 6:55 made it 57-48. Jimmy Schollers 3-pointer made it 60-50.

Kelser scored for a 63-54 lead with 4:30 to go.

Harris 3-point play made it 63-59. Vejas Grazulis followed with a hoop for Ferris.

The Lakers hung tight and narrowed it to 65-63 with a minute to go on Jake Van Tubbergens basket. Kelser hit a free throw with 33 seconds to go. Christian Negron scored for a 66-65 game, but Reng hit two free throws with 15 seconds to go to make it 68-65. Jordans 3-point try was blocked but the Lakers got the inbounds underneath the basket with 3.7 seconds to go. They called another time out when they couldnt make the inbounds pass. Jordans 3-point try failed with a second to play and Ferris secured the win.

At the end they were a little more physical and getting to the free-throw line, FSU coach Andy Bronkema said. They were really pounding us on the glass. We hung on and made just enough free-throws. Kelser put up another 20 with all eyes on him. It was fun to see Grazulis battle. We have to do it again tomorrow. Well have to flip the page quick and see what we can learn.

Van Tubbergen had 19 points and nine rebounds for Grand Valley (4-4, 4-4).

We have figured out how to play hard and how to bring the energy, Bronkema said. Thats what we did again today for three wins in a row. We got beat up bad against Lake State as far as energy wise and hustle. Win or lose, you dont want to do that. Three games in a row, weve had it. I dont want to be outrebounded by 10 by anybody. Thats the game within the game.

Also scoring for Ferris were Pline (6), Reng (6), Grazulis (6), Scholler (3), Jeremiah Washington (3) and Logan Ryan (2).

Were used to packed gymnasiums for this rivalry, Bronkema said. Its unfortunate the guys dont get to experience that this year but yet its fortunate were playing. Were happy were playing.

Grand Valley had a 35-25 rebounding advantage. Ferris was 23-of-55 from the floor and 10-of-26 in triples. GV was 25-of-50 from the floor and 2-of-17 in 3-pointers.

There was a lot of energy on both sides, Bronkema said. That makes it fun.

The two teams play today at Wink Arena, with tipoff time at 3 p.m.

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Down to the wire: Ferris men edge Grand Valley - The Pioneer

My debut feature Sator (out now on digital) has been the defining project of my life and took me seven years to complete, not least because I made this ever-changing, ever-evolving demonic thriller almost entirely by myself. What started as a simple run-of-the-mill film quickly morphed into something deeply personal, and led me to uncover my familys dark history.

Back in 2013, after Id been struggling for some time to raise funds for the film, a friend one day told me out of the blue that he would loan me half my budget in exchange for a percentage. I couldnt believe it and was almost in tears, knowing I could finally move forward now. So I took the offer, collected my personal savings from wedding videography, and began ordering all the gear I would need to get started.

I shot Sator over 120 days, most days of which consisted of just myself with one or two of the actors. There were about 10 days when I had someone assist me with basic tasks like holding an umbrella when it rained. There was only one day when I had three extra people help me for a couple hours, due to a stunt with fire that would have been too dangerous to do on my own. Out of all of these days, it was Day 10 that changed my world.

When I decided to use my grandmothers house as a location, I thought it would be pretty neat for her to have a quick one-scene cameo with one my childhood friends, actor Michael Daniel. When we arrived at her house, I set up lights while Michael hid out in the back room. My grandmother was so confused by the lights. Now what the hell is that contraption? she would say, and then just laugh. I said she was going to help me with something, but she didnt care she just loved the attention. I found Michael in the back room and told him to pretend to be her grandson, and since shes a very spiritual person, to maybe bring up spirits as well.

Action! Michael comes out and meets her for the first time. Hi, Nani! My grandmother is utterly confused, but Michael plays the role of grandson wonderfully. He eventually brings up the spirits, like I asked, then out of nowhere, my grandmother decides to share the voices that used to talk to her through something she called automatic writing. What is that? She has never talked to me about that before. Why hasnt anyone in my family mentioned this before?

After that day, I began doing a little research into my grandmothers supernatural past. Family members told me vague stories about Ouija boards and seances, but they were all too young at the time to remember all the details. I asked if Nani kept her automatic writings anywhere, and was disappointed to hear shed burned them all years ago. I knew I had something unique and personal here, though, so I aimed to incorporate as much of it as I could into the story I already had.

I spent a week rewriting the script and editing the footage to make Nanis scene work. Luckily, there was no schedule on this project, so I had all the time in the world to figure this out. Once the story was solid, I went back to my grandmother and did another improvisational scene. Now, you cant tell Nani what to say. I tried once: Hey, Nani. I need you to say, Does Sator love you? To which she replied, Yes, Sator loves me. You also can never predict anything she says either, so after every day of shooting with her, I would need to take a week-long break to figure out how to make the new footage work for the story. It was a draining process, but that wasnt even the worst of it.

There are so many stories of the struggle shooting this film, like almost burning down the cabin I built singlehanded for the movie, getting nearly trapped in a snowstorm, the dangers of lighting shit on fire. Or spending thousands of hours (and losing 20 pounds) working on postproduction for the film in my room. For seven years, this one project consumed my life, with little to no change. I cut myself off from everyone and started to wonder if I had just wasted years of my life. But as I love this artform so damn much, it was worth it.

Sometime while I was working on the films sound design, Nanis dementia had made it too dangerous for her to be in her house alone. After she moved into a care home, I helped my family clean out her house. I was going through the closet in the back room when I found two boxes. I opened one box, and there were her automatic writings! Not just a few, but hundreds and hundreds of the ones my family thought she had burned. Looking through them, I was seeing Sator this and Sator that. Before this point, I only knew that Sator was some sort of guardian to my grandmother, nothing more. But then I opened the next box, and inside was a thousand-page journal documenting Nanis entire journey with Sator and the massive impact he had on her life. Jackpot.

Reading through this journal, I came to learn all about my familys history with hearing voices. My great-great-grandmother had ended up in a psychiatric hospital because of it. When Nani was just four years old, her mother took her for a drive one stormy night along the coast and aimed the car towards the cliffs edge, ready to end her suffering. Just as she was about to drive off, she saw her daughter crying in the seat next to her and decided to not kill them both that night. If that had happened, I wouldnt be writing this. A few months later though, the voices became unbearable for my great-grandmother, and she put a shotgun in her mouth.

In 1968, Nani was in her 40s when she came in possession of a Ouija board and summoned up many beings that only went by initials like FOJ, GEK. AIK, ANN, QXS. QXI was the evil one, the one that would just stand outside your bedroom door at night, watching as you slept. But the leader of them all, and the only one with a real name, was Sator. Nani fell in love with Sator. I literally mean in love, to where she did something called spiritual lovemaking with him. I will let your mind wander with that one. Sator also taught her how to move away from the Ouija board and communicate through automatic writing. When all her children went to bed, she would sit in an armchair with a glass of gin, look forward into the void, and let Sator speak through her. Everything he said, she would scribble down. But he wasnt the only one; the other voices would write through her as well. What gives me goosebumps is that Nanis handwriting would change with each person, as if that being itself was the one doing the writing. If there was a left-handed spirit, she would write left-handed, and sometimes she would even write backwards. My uncle told me that after he went to bed as a kid, Nani would sit there all night writing and would still be there in the morning when he got ready for school.

The voices in her head eventually got her into trouble, though. She would drive around, having them tell her where to go, but the voices would all argue with each other, causing Nani to get lost. Sator also eventually convinced her that she was the biblical Eve, and after three months of getting into shenanigans with him, she ended up in a psychiatric hospital herself.

Discovering this journal and Nanis automatic writings was like finding a goldmine. I featured her writings in the opening of the film, where they are spread out for all to see, all things she wrote back in 1968. One day I would love to adapt her full story into a separate film, but at the time of finding these, I was already well into post-production and now desperately trying to find a way to incorporate Sator into the film. It became a race against time to capture Nani speaking about Sator before her dementia completely took over. The first day she talked all about him, but the last day it took 40 minutes of footage to get her to say just three sentences, because he was pretty much wiped from her mind at that point.

This project had so much to do with perfect timing. If I had waited any longer to make it, I wouldnt have been able to capture what I did with my grandmother. Also, the time I spent getting to know her and being able to immortalize her in this film was invaluable to me. She and I really bonded over this whole experience. Shed call me every day saying, Hey, when are you going to come over and spend some time with me? Unfortunately, she passed before I finished the film, but she did see one clip of herself. Her only comment was, Whos that old goat?

But I did finally finish the film! I didnt have any doubt about that, actually; I just wasnt expecting it to take so long. Sator got accepted into Fantasia International Film Festival and a handful of other festivals, and what a rollercoaster of emotions that has been! Being isolated for so long and then being thrown into crowds of people was not an easy transition for me, but it was really worth it in the end. It was an amazing experience to travel the world and talk to so many fascinating people whom the film resonated with. To everyone who has approached me, I really do appreciate the conversations we have had.

Looking back, I wouldnt recommend making a feature film by yourself, and will never do that again. But I value what the experience has taught me and have grown a lot as a filmmaker. Hopefully, I have done enough to prove my worth with Sator and will inspire some people out there to want to work with me on future projects. Or at least help me set up the tripod.

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How I Spent Seven Years Single-handedly Making a Demonic Thriller and Accidentally Uncovered My Family's Dark History - Talkhouse

The Long Island Nets will be back in action Wednesday, one of 18 teams participating in the G League bubble (gubble?) down at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, the same venue the NBA took over last summer.

The regular season is down-sized from 28 teams and 50 games to a highly compact schedule. Long Island is set to play 15 games in 25 days beginning Wednesday night against the Iowa Wolves, Minnesotas affiliate, followed by an eight-team, single-elimination playoff tournament in early March. Typically, the regular season would consist of five-month schedule plus a more robust playoffs.

With the abbreviated schedule, development - always the top priority - will be tested. Bret Brielmaier, who will be in his first season serving in the head chair for LIN, says that the dense schedule will be big for him and his team of 13 players.

The biggest probable challenge for the season is just the density of games. We are going to play 15 games in 25 days. Thats a lot of playing and we dont have a very deep roster. We have 10 guys so how we manage the attacks on these guys bodies will be important but the G League has done an incredible job of giving our guys the resources to help these guys as recovered, well-fed, hydrated, and ready to play as possible.

Matt Riccardi, the Long Island Nets General Manager and the Nets Director of Scouting, called the decision to opt into the bubble as an easy one but as an opportunity to work with players that are fresh into their system.

We definitely looked at this G League bubble as an opportunity to take a look at some guys that we have not had in our system before, Riccardi said. We have an incredible coaching staff and we obviously wanted to make sure that we had players that had a chance to develop, look at as call-up targets for the NBA, and that can put our program as competitive as possible. You will see the makeup of that. I think our oldest player is 28 but we do have a younger group but some veterans mixed in there with some G League experience and NBA experience as well.

Brielmaier is excited about the roster makeup of his team. The Nets G League affiliate has five tiers of players: NBA experienced players, two-way players, some standouts acquired in the off-season, returning players, and the rookies. Add all those up and the Nets think its balanced.

Matt Riccardi has done an incredible job of putting this together, Breilmaier said during a Zoom call from Disney World. It is very balanced in my opinion. We have some veteran leadership that has a good deal of NBA experience.

The format of the regular season does have a hidden benefit. The Net G League affiliate will likely not see much player movement due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Chemistry will benefit.

Beyond their initial 10-man roster, the Nets added three two-ways in the last week.

Reggie Perry, the Nets two-way rookie, was assigned to Long Island last week, following a lengthy history of past Nets rookies who put on the blue, white, and red in recent years. Perry, who has 14 NBA games under his belt, will be joined by two other two-way players from the Dallas Mavericks: Nate Hinton, a 66 shooting guard out of Houston, and Tyler Bey, a 67 small forward out of Colorado. The Mavs opted out of the bubble but under league rules can send to players to the bubble while retaining the players NBA rights.

Perry is, for fans and Nets executives alike, is the player whose progress will be most monitored ... starting with where Brielmaier will play him, at the 4, at the 5? Perry showed flashes for Brooklyn and in his next-to-last game pulled off a double-double against OKC.

Aside from the two-ways, here are some players to keep an eye on

Elie Okobo leads the Nets G League affiliate when it comes to NBA experience. The French point guard, whos only 23, has played in 108 NBA games with the Suns over the course of the last two seasons and is the highest draft pick selection (31st) on Long Island.

Riccardi called him amazing and is really excited to work with him, noting that the Nets liked him prior to the 2018 NBA Draft.

Elie is an amazing player, Riccardi said of the 63 French point guard. Weve seen him from his draft time to being on the Phoenix Suns to playing for the Northern Arizona Suns. Similar to B.J. [Johnson] and the other guys on our roster, we are really excited to get a chance to work with Elie. Someone we have seen from afar. We liked all of his intangibles, skills, NBA size, and just looking forward to seeing how he mixes with our group, our coaching staff, and vice versa.

It is worth noting that Sean Marks personally scouted Okobo in France prior to the 2018 Draft.

B.J. Johnson, who was a G League standout last season as a two-way for the Magics G League affiliate, the Lakeland Magic. A 67 small forward packed with athleticism, he too was on the Nets radar for a while as he put up big numbers playing against Long Island. In addition to his familiarity with Long Island, Johnson has appeared in 17 NBA games with the Hawks and the Magic.

We have seen BJ play a ton in the past, Riccardi said. We played against him in the playoffs two years ago when he was playing with Lakeland. We have seen him in the NBA. We think he is a really good player and a high-quality player that has a chance to continue to develop. Not just him but a lot of our guys, we feel the same way about it. They would not be here if we did not think highly of them and we didnt think they can contribute to this group and make it as competitive as possible for us.

To Brielmaier, both Okobo and Johnson are the high-level experienced guys in their unit. The 35-year-old head coach called them impressive and is fortunate to coach the two.

Both B.J. and Elie, you can tell they have had high-level experience through their careers so far, Brielmaier said. They have a way about them. They understand the game and their ability to help the younger guys, the less seasoned guys, has been really impressive. In both of them, you see great bodies, understand angles, great anticipation, and we are very fortunate to have those guys.

Paul Eboua may be Long Islands most intriguing player. Eboua, who is only 20 years old, is 68, built like a wall and has a 73 wingspan to go with it all.

The 20-year-old, who was claimed by Brooklyn after being waived by the Heat in December, (the first waiver claim in Sean Marks five-year tenure). He is viewed as raw and undeveloped by many pro scouts but Riccardi credits his international scouts for finding him. Long Island is thrilled to have him, he said.

Incredible young prospect that our international scouts Simone Casali, Jeff Peterson, B.J. Johnson (the Nets player development coordinator, not the player), who have done an incredible job of identifying in the past, Riccardi said. Someone we have followed closely and someone our coaching staff targeted as someone being really excited to work with.

Prior to the 2020 NBA Draft, multiple mock drafts linked Eboua falling to the Nets in the second round but the Cameroonian-Italian player went undrafted.

Some other players to keep an eye on:

Shannon Scott, who at 28 years old, is the oldest player on the roster, returns to LI. He was a member of the 2019 NBA G League Finals team. Scott is ready to apply his veteran experience to his new cast of teammates.

Just being able to talk about the foundation being built from previous years, Scott said on veteran leadership. A lot of similar schemes that we are going through to kind of help the younger guys out to let them know how things were in the past, how we were successful, and the things that didnt work out for us.

Nate Sestina, was four-year star at Bucknell, then filled a journeymans role as a grad transfer at Kentucky, is likely to serve as a stretch-5 for the Nets G League affiliate in the bubble. Sestina already provided a preview that he will be shooting from deep - a part of his game Brielmaier wants him to consistently bring to each game.

Coach Bret has messaged me and sent me clips. We have talked about it a lot, Sestina said. He said you got a flamethrower. You got to let that thing go. If you leave the game with a full clip, that is on you so they are very confident in me, and having a front office and coaching staff that is confident in you should give you the ultimate confidence to go out and play as well as knowing your teammates are confident in you as well and your ability to do something.

C.J. Massinburg, who is one of two returning Net from last seasons G League roster, is excited to be back. Massinburg missed several games last season due to injury.

Im excited to be back again, the 65 shooting guard said. When you come back the second time, you have more experience under your belt, you know how the pace of the game is, and you basically know what to expect. Im excited to be back again.

Massinburg is coming into the bubble confident with a year of experience under his belt. In addition, Massinburg is very familiar with Brielmaier from past summer workouts and Nets training camp.

Even though when Bret was with Brooklyn, I had some summer workouts with Brooklyn and I was in training camp with Brooklyn so I was pretty familiar with Bret, Massinburg said. Built a relationship with him there so now that he has the head job, everything is just comfortable and nothing is really foreign. The sets that we run, concepts, and so it is just good to be back another year and I am able to pass down that knowledge to the younger guys and guys who arent so familiar.

Jeremiah Martin, who is no longer on a two-way with Brooklyn, is a player the Nets organization still likes a lot. Martin, who has played in nine NBA games with Brooklyn, is a top-quality defender and is known for his quickness.

The Nets also signed Jordan Bowden back in November, believing he has potential as a 3-and-D possibilities. A four-year player at Tennessee, Bowden is 65 with a reputation for toughness. He played with several NBA players in Knoxville, including Grant Williams, Jordan Bone, Admiral Schofield and Kyle Alexander.

Riccardi is banking on the trio of Scott, Massinburg, and Martin to help navigate the ship as the veteran leaders through the unique bubble experience.

We have been leaning on both coach and our players a ton, especially the guys that have been in the bubble before and giving us some examples of what to expect and pointers on how we can navigate this thing to the best of our ability, Riccardi said, referring in particular to Martin who averaged 10 points in the NBA bubble. We are thankful we have such guidance in this group of people to lean on and have been there before.

The Nets traded for two other prospects in the off-season: Tariq Owens, a shot-blocking 610 center who played for St. Johns and Texas Tech in college and Northern Arizona in the G League last season. He impressed enough to be chosen for the G League team that took part in scrimmages last month with Team Ignite, the select group of high school stars the NBA recruited to play in the G League.

Kaiser Gates, a 67 wing the Celtics had on their Red Claws roster last season. A 3-point specialist, Gates is likely to see action off the bench.

No doubt development will be tested throughout the bubble experience but the duo of Brielmaier and Riccardi has a track record of finding solid players. The two 35-year-olds have already found two diamonds-in-the rough.

The head coach pushed the Nets to sign Joe Harris, a castoff struggling to find a landing spot after he joined Brooklyn. Brielmaier had served as an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Harris last stop before Brooklyn.

Riccardi pushed hard for the front office to take a strong look at Spencer Dinwiddie a few months later. Dinwiddie, then with the Windy City Bulls, had already been cut by two NBA teams.

Wednesdays 7 p.m. game vs. Iowa and all their games will be streamed on ESPN+. The game against Team Ignite will be featured on ESPNU February 22.

See the article here:
Long Island Nets Season Preview: Development will be tested in the bubble. - NetsDaily

Over the years, Matthew McConaughey has carved out a persona for himself as a laid-back guy youd maybe expect to be pretty progressive, but as a new piece by The Daily Beast points out, hes made a habit recently of referencing the illiberal left in interviews while promoting his new book Greenlights and chatting about cancel culture with podcast hosts like Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan, who are beloved by the right.

Peterson is especially controversial due to his views on mens rights and his vocal opposition to legislation in Canada designed to protect transgender and non-binary people. And as The Daily Beast notes, McConaughey appears to be a fan of his; he thanked him in the back of Greenlights, and this week the actor appeared on Petersons podcast.

Many of the things you said I had been thinking about, but I heard you putting them into words and contexts, I was like,Wow, thats what Im talking about, thats what Im trying to get to, McConaughey told the host. And a lot of it goes back to self-determination, which weve talked a lot about. Self-authoring.

You see a lot of those threads through my book, McConaughey continued. Maybe in a different way, in a more folksy way. But a lot of what youve said gave me confidence to go, Im gonna put my story on paper. So I thank you for that. And thats why I thank you in the back of the book.

The pair also discussed cancel culture with respect to Louis C.K. (yikes). You can read the full story about their conversation (as well as McConaugheys history of putting his foot in his mouth when it comes to talking about Trump and the Hollywood elite) here.

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Link:
Why Is Matthew McConaughey So Chummy With "Men's Rights" Activist Jordan Peterson? - InsideHook