Magnus Carlsen tells Giannis that he’s a Steph Curry fan
Giannis should’ve taken a selfie with him and then reported him to security
Lmao. Btw Magnus can be kind of an ass but he did that because you can’t have your phone during a match. He was actually nice because he took the selfie, then reported the issue.
I know but the joke was just hanging there haha
Then tell Pat Riley he saw Giannis eat a couple cookies
Always funny seeing the assistants, pr folks, executives and all the side characters in the back keenly listening
They focus like stenographers. I get they’re at work but its actually hilarious
Its gotta be so damn annoying. Now he has to tiptoe around liking Curry cuz they gonna make some stupid headline?
After that all star bounce assist. Cant lie, i wished Giannis would team up with Curry.
I really wanted to see Wemby + Giannis, man. I like defense, and that would’ve been the most devastating duo the world has ever seen.
It’d be impossible to get a rebound, let alone score on both of them. Wemby at center with Giannis as a weak-side defender, and then having one hedging out. What do you even do? You might not even be able to circle around to the other side because of that length, and even if you do, they’d likely already rotated back.
Twin Towers 2.0
And Wemby isnt ball dominant
Week-side is crazy
Fixed. Autocorrect can be a bitch and a half sometimes.
So, yes I’d absolutely love to see that pairing and it would be formidable exactly as you describe - I think that Steph would absolutely torch them. Obviously his 3pt shooting would be a problem, but there’s other good 3pt shooters who wouldn’t fare as well. Where he’d separate himself is his ability to drive and be that threat at both levels, so if they over commit, he’s either got an easy basket or an easy assist. And also his off ball movement would just be too much for these two.
Granted he’s probably the only one that could, but given he’s in this submission’s headline I’ve got to call him out.
Then you have something in common with Magnus Carlsen
Does that mean, I can finally be good at chess.
I want to see Wemby and Magnus playing chess. If anything, Magnus should become a Spurs fan.
turns out Giannis is a big Aronian fan
Giannis: “Basketball speaks for itself.”
ball don’t lie.
Aronian doesn’t say that, that would be Hans. who has played very poorly recently.
LeVon
Okay but Lev is actually the vibes GOAT
Neither can appreciate each other’s greatness. Wemby is punching the air rn
Wemby is hanging out with Gotham chess instead lol
It’s not like Wemby is some high level chess player.
Isn’t he about 2000-2100 online rating? It is not very high level, but it is way above average amateur.
No, sadly he is around 1000. 2000 is very high level (Grandmaster, the highest you can have, is 2500)
He was speaking about online ELO which is completely a different thing than FIDE Elo as a. refrence Magnus has 3000~ (depends on the cadence) ELO on chess.com for example, so the gap is actually way bigger
I am around 2200 ELO online and I’m not remotely close to a real GM or IM, FIDE ratings and online are completely different
But you are right Wemby is “only” around 1000 online, that’s roughly the 80th percentile of players
Oh, so being 1000 online is even worse? Not my goat anymore
I mean being better than 80% percent of the people playing online on a side hobby you have is nothing to be ashamed off 😅 but yeah
Too bad 90% of people are terrible at chess
As someone who is currently 600, 1000 might as well be a grandmaster to me
It’s funny because as NBA fans we look at this like Giannis is the most accomplished person in this room but actually Magnus Carlsen’s accollades are more comparable to Lebron’s or Jordan’s in Chess.
Yeah Giannis isn’t even in the same stratosphere as Magnus Carlsen when it comes to accomplishment
yeah he’s arguably the GOAT. Highest rated player ever
I’m pretty sure most people here know that Magnus is arguably the GOAT in chess which is obviously more impressive than Gianni’s’ basketball résumé
craziest crossover
Iirc, this is because of Esports World Cup.
I think Giannis is a sponsor? I saw an ad with him on it.
And chess is included in this program. Alongside other games like Valorant, Street Fighter, Tekken.
Magnus getting an E-Sports Championship via Chess? Cool, cool, cool.
Chess.com is an esport
If you like chess at all it’s actually a really fun tournament. It’s a no increment 5 minute format instead of the longer classical formats, been a treat to watch.
edit: my fault it’s 10M no increment, they changed it from Titled Tuesday but it’s still enjoyable
It’s a no increment 5 minute format instead of the longer classical formats, been a treat to watch.
It’s 10 minutes not 5.
He already has one
I doubt Giannis is a sponsor, maybe an ambassador like Magnus is?
EWC is run by the Saudis, they don’t need sponsorship money. The board chair of the organizer is literally crown prince MBS.
It’s usually hosted in Riyadh but got moved this year.
Magnus is a competitor
Magnus is a huge NBA fan. He’s talked before about spending an hour watching NBA highlights in the morning during a tournament instead of spending that time prepping for his upcoming matches lol.
Wemby also just took a picture with a grandmaster recently.
GOAT recognize GOAT
Non-chess fan here, is it true that he retired because the was bored of being so much butter than anyone else?
Not true, even by Magnus’s own account.
With assistance from computers, many opening positions of chess are essentially solved for several moves. This means that at any moment, you must be incredibly well-prepared for the proper response to a move or face the possibility of walking into an ambush.
This means spending insane amounts of time preparing for a World Championship match, which consists of several games spread over a few grueling weeks.
Magnus abdicating the throne was more about him not wanting to spend his life wasting all that time and energy just to prove himself the best when everyone already knew he was.
another thing people often don’t realize is how much competitive chess requires actual physical training and endurance in addition to “studying,” to the point that players are managing to burn around 6000 calories a day in tournaments due to mental exertion
this comes from espn which did an article on the diet/fitness regimens of top chess players and it’s legitimately in athlete territory
i wonder if any PVP games can get that sort of mental exertion outta you where you’re consuming tons of calories? like pokemon VGC, for example
So he didn’t care enough or like he was bored of how dominant he was?
He was bored of all the prep work required for the world championship, which is grueling study grind and then a very long match itself. It’s like if you’re the best doctor in the world, but every year you have to back to med school for 6 months just to re-train before you practice medicine again. When everyone already knows you’re the best doctor, it’s hard to commit that time.
Closer to “he didn’t care enough,” but that’s not quite it. It’s more like he wasn’t having fun.
There’s no great analogy, but it’s kind of like if prime LeBron had to face a team as physical as the ‘89 Pistons (but maybe without as much talent) in a 13 game series every year, carrying teams like he had to on the Cavs.
Let’s say he wins. Let’s say he repeats several times. His body is getting beat up. He’s asking the NBA to shorten the series; they won’t. Meanwhile, his opponents keep getting better. It’s no longer about his talent, it’s about his endurance.
What is he really out to prove? He’s better than any other human standing on the planet. Why waste his time? All he wants to do is play creative basketball, not be a winning machine.
No analogy really translates, but this is the best I got.
I think it’s also the fact that chess is almost a different game with computer prep. Hard to find comparisons for sure. In terms of what’s changed in chess, it’s something similar to exams that end up testing memorization instead of ability, blitzing out moves because the computer told you to instead of truly understanding the position.
He still plays competitively. He’s in the Esports World Cup right now. He just doesn’t care about the long, boring, tedious process of preparing and playing the World Chess Championship.
he’s bored of the preparation and long hard work it takes to keep the title of champion….he’s basically retired from classical chess, but still plays many other formats.
That’s my chess goat
Deep Blue erasure
He’s a Steph and LeBron guy. Called Bron the GOAT.
GOAT recognizes GOAT
Neither of them are GOATs. Come at me.
Probably tapped in with the first match up in 2015 and been watching since, I’m not mad at it
He was a Sixers fan a few years ago but maybe he stopped trusting the process.
Can you blame him
Yeah it was cool seeing him celebrate his last world championship with your song.
This is really so cool
Magnus is bigger name than giannis though
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen = 20 characters
Giannis Sina Ougko Antetokounmpo = 29 characters.
You are clearly mistaken.
This guy knows ball. And linguistics
That’s longer. This is bigger.
#Magnus Carlsen
I am a big chess fan but nah
Maybe he means relative to what they do cause otherwise I don’t know how anyone thinks magnus carlsen is bigger than giannis
Giannis is clearly bigger. Magnus Carlsen is 5’10” while Giannis is 6’11”
Well i mean in that regard magnus > mj
No he’s not. If you’re just talking about global popularity Giannis is way bigger. Obviously IG followers isnt the best barometer but Giannis has like 16m followers and magnus has like 1 or 2m. So when it’s that lopsided i think it’s a good indicator of who is a bigger name.
Carlsen is the goat of chess though so he’s bigger relative to his peers.
In Latin, Magnus literally means big
So yea, he wins
Nah dude, although Chess is the biggest “non physical” sport in terms of its player’s popularity (thanks to streaming etc., not many people can name the best poker player right now but a lot of people know Magnus and Hikaru), it doesn’t compare to stars from truly big international sports like Football and Basketball.
Maybe in name recognition only but nobody is fanning over Magnus like they do for Giannis. Chess has tons of players but still continues to be a game with many players and not many followers. Pro chess players even say this.
Absolutely not lmao
I had no idea who was magnus until I see in the comments he play chess. Never heard this name. But it’s the same for people that doesn’t know basketball they will not know giannis. I think regular people on the streets outside of their respective countries don’t know who they are anyway
Magnus is 100% bigger name than Giannis. Just purely by numbers - countries like India are huge chess fans and know him very well. NBA has much smaller reach globally. Other than Kobe, MJ, Steph, LeBron and Shaq - people who do not follow NBA can’t name other superstars.
How does this have 10+ upvotes. This is just 100% wrong. Nba has a much bigger following than chess globally. China alone has like half a billion nba fans. Chess is big in india but the vast majority of indian people dont follow chess like the average nba fan would. Giannis has a much bigger social media following like 10x more. Nba games get way higher viewer ratings globally than chess championships. More people play basketball globally than play chess.
I like how you say purely by numbers and include no numbers whatsoever lol.
Magnus - 1.1 million Twitter followers
Giannis - 3.5 million Twitter followers
Yeah, I also think a lot of people underestimate just how little people not tapped into the NBA know about it. My mom knows who Magnus Carlsen is, but if I asked her to name current NBA players I’m pretty sure she’d only be able to name Steph Curry, LeBron James and Damian Lillard. And Dame is simply because she lives in Portland and he’s essentially a deity here.
Do you think she could name two other chess players?
Magnus has 2.3 million Instagram followers, Giannis has 16m. This is obviously not the definitive metric but it’s one where we can compare them directly
Holy hell
He’s sizing Giannis up to see if he can steal something from him.
I like how Giannis didn’t respond to the rumor part at all lol
wait when did magnus start watching nba
Probably some time during the Lebron/Curry matchups. It’s been known that he’s a big GS fan for at least a few years, and they’d be a weird team to randomly become a fan of in another continent if he started watching in the 2000s or something.
checkmate, atheists
A Real Madrid and Warriors plastic
Why does Magnus always look like he just woke up?
Who tf is Magnus and why does he look like a Pixar bug?
Why is Magnus like a really chill guy… first he had crazy ball knowledge for the WC and now this… bro might be like us
Player first fans are the laziest form of fans in sports.
Having a superiority complex over sports fandom is pathetic.
Like i said; player first fandoms is lazy
Who cares, it’s how they enjoy the sport. How much work are you doing?
Front running behavior. I have no respect for that.
being a warriors fan in 2026 is the opposite of “front running behavior”
When curry retires, many a “warriors fan” will leave the team. Not the loyalists
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How’s the new washing machine working out Patrick?