Barons

Amidst all the hype surrounding her rookie year in the WNBA, Caitlin Clark will not be a part of the USA Women&rsquo;s Basketball National Team set to compete at the Olympics in Paris.
In a report by The Athletic&rsquo;s Shams Charania, the women set to be part of the 12 to go to Paris are the following:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A&rsquo;Ja Wilson</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Breanna Stewart</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Diana Taurasi</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Brittney Griner</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Kahleah Copper</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Sabrina Ionescu</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Kelsey Plum</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Chelsea Gray</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Jackie Young</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Jewell Loyd</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Napheesa Collier</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Alyssa Thomas</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
REPORT: Caitlin Clark expected to be left off Olympics women&rsquo;s basketball roster, per <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheAthletic</a> 🚨 The main roster indicates a preference for veterans: &bull; A&rsquo;ja Wilson &bull; Breanna Stewart &bull; Diana Taurasi &bull; Brittney Griner &bull; Alyssa Thomas &bull; Napheesa Collier &bull; Jewell Loyd&hellip; <a href="https://t.co/DgbRn3roUC">pic.twitter.com/DgbRn3roUC</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1799372767013535820?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2024</a>
<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</blockquote>
Clark&rsquo;s omission is noticeable yet understandable, with Team USA opting for more experience, overall team composition, and the chemistry of established WNBA stars in building the team.
The hotshot rookie who has taken the WNBA by storm will have to wait and watch before getting her turn with the national team in years to come. Clark is coming off a historic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/college-sports/">NCAA</a> career at Iowa, where she became the Division I all-time leading scorer and won two National Player of the Year awards. On Friday, she hit seven 3-pointers and matched her WNBA career-high with 30 points in a win over the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/wnba/team/mystics/">Washington Mystics</a>.
It is by no means of discrediting Clark and what she would be able to provide at the table, but more so in the tenure of these players playing for the national team. The 12 names have been training over the past few months together and it&rsquo;s only wise to keep them intact and not mess around with the dynamics surrounding the squad.

Amidst all the hype surrounding her rookie year in the WNBA, Caitlin Clark will not be a part of the Team USA Women’s Basketball - yet.

Team USA Women’s Basketball roster to Paris Olympics revealed, Clark left off

PARIS (AP) &mdash; Adieu France, hello America.
They were hugs of goodbye &mdash; not of joy &mdash; for Victor Wembanyama as he bid farewell to his teammates and the French league, before jetting off for what&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-draft-2023-wembanyama-396be2a8eeb0be8e3323bb509405695c">many predict</a>&nbsp;will be a glittering NBA career.
Wembanyama&rsquo;s performance &mdash; 22 points, seven rebounds and four blocks &mdash; couldn&rsquo;t prevent his Boulogne-Levallois team losing 92-85 to Monaco in a must-win Game 3 in the best-of-five French league championship series on Thursday.
To accommodate escalating interest in seeing the 19-year-old&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-sports-basketball-las-vegas-6f4ac3d44f624ef36ddb00e314cf0401">French prodigy</a>, Game 3 &mdash; and 4 if they had won &mdash; were switched from a 4,000-seat venue to Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros, home of the French Open tennis championship which seats&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/LNBofficiel/status/1669390713434275842" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more than 14,000</a>.
Fans sang &ldquo;Merci, Wemby&rdquo; as&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-nba-lottery-draft-french-finale-e8d2b9e7cf97ab22df549a03d1124456">the hugely popular Wembanyama</a>&nbsp;waved and clapped at them.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry for the fans who love to see a show,&rdquo; Wembanyama said on beIN Sports television after the game. &ldquo;Of course I&rsquo;m proud of what I&rsquo;ve managed to do along with my coach (Vincent Collet), in bringing the team to the finals. But I&rsquo;m not satisfied.&rdquo;
Next week, the San Antonio Spurs are expected to make the 7-foot-3 Wembanyama&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-draft-lottery-2023-victor-wembanyama-7ac2a47737c20c0df4543e1626407e47">the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft</a>, where he&rsquo;ll follow in the footsteps of France great Tony Parker and Hall of Famers David Robinson and Tim Duncan.
With Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadiv&eacute; among the crowd &mdash; likely with an eye on&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-mock-draft-wembanyama-c9dfd3d19592e1de44f5957ea2aa8b48">Wembanyama teammate Bilal Coulibaly</a>&nbsp;ahead of the draft &mdash; the Mets opened up big leads but with 50 seconds left the score was tied at 85-85. Jordan Loyd, a former NBA player with the Toronto Raptors, sank two 3-pointers to end Wembanyama&rsquo;s hopes of signing off with a French crown.
Ranadiv&eacute; told beIN Sport that Wembanyama is &ldquo;amazing&rdquo; but that &ldquo;I&rsquo;m also excited about Bilal. Young guy, lot of skills, so French basketball is in great shape.&rdquo;
Wembanyama, who opened the scoring with&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/LNBofficiel/status/1669413577068019712" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a reverse alley-oop dunk</a>, looked sad as he hugged his teammates while Monaco celebrated.
&ldquo;Wemby had a great game, but this team&rsquo;s unbelievable,&rdquo; said Loyd, who finished with 22 points.
Everything had pointed to a special night for Wembanyama and then a Game 4 on Saturday. Wembanyama clenched his fist when his pass inside for Devante Jones made it 24-10, then drew roars when he used his giant frame to block a shot early in the second quarter.
The &ldquo;Wemby, Wemby&rdquo; chants became louder when&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/LNBofficiel/status/1669432798598381573" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">he hit a 3-pointer</a>&nbsp;to make it 47-37, louder still when&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/LNBofficiel/status/1669431516190101504" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">he dished to Coulibaly</a>&nbsp;for a dunk early in the third quarter.
It was not enough, though, and it was &ldquo;Wemby&rdquo; who put Elie Okobo on the foul line to give Monaco its first lead, 82-81, with just over three minutes left.
Loyd &mdash; not Wembanyama &mdash; ended up with&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/LNBofficiel/status/1669449924562305028" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the MVP award</a>&nbsp;and the winners&rsquo; medal on the court where Novak Djokovic made men&rsquo;s Grand Slam history last Sunday with&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/novak-djokovic-grand-slam-titles-french-open-6f822dca855478163696538f37ff534b">his 23rd men&rsquo;s major title</a>.
<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/chicago-bulls-nba-sports-detroit-pistons-paris-ba85137c70a09ac5efcea7f5e8e472a1">Wembanyama&rsquo;s journey to greatness</a>&nbsp;in his sport, however, might only just be starting.

With today's loss to Monaco, Victor Wembanyama will leave his teammates and the French league to prepare for his NBA career.

Wembanyama bids adieu to France with a defeat as NBA Draft nears

ATLANTA (AP) &mdash; Hawks coach Nate McMillan said Friday he has no plans to retire in the middle of the season, brushing back a report citing unnamed sources.
The Athletic reported that McMillan is considering stepping down before the season ends, but McMillan said that&rsquo;s not true.
&ldquo;We have a race to prepare for,&rdquo; McMillan said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to get our guys healthy and make another run at the playoffs, but the things that were reported, look, I&rsquo;m here to coach this year, and I&rsquo;ve talked to (owner) Tony Ressler many times, and our goal is to make the playoffs. And that&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m working towards.&rdquo;
McMillan, 58, said he had no immediate reaction to the report. He is in the middle of his third season with the Hawks, who are 17-18 and in ninth place in the Eastern Conference.
&ldquo;I read that article briefly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never spoke to that reporter before. I think the last two weeks he&rsquo;s written a couple of articles with some sources in our organization that are making some comments about me and some things that I&rsquo;m saying and doing.
&ldquo;Look, at the end of the year, I&rsquo;ll do as I&rsquo;ve always done. I&rsquo;ll talk with my family and see if that flame, that fire, to continue next season, but that&rsquo;s the end of the season. All of us think about retiring, but that&rsquo;s at the end of the season. We&rsquo;re going to move past that, that story.&rdquo;
McMillan took over as coach when Lloyd Pierce was fired during the 2020-21 season and led the Hawks to the Eastern Conference finals. He was signed to a four-year contract after the season.
McMillan has a 748-656 record in five seasons with Seattle, seven with Portland, four with Indiana and parts of three with Atlanta. He was upset that a disagreement with Hawks star guard Trae Young during a shootaround became public on Dec. 2. Young was injured but skipped the game that night, leading to speculation that McMillan and Young are at odds.
It&rsquo;s been a busy season in the front office, with Travis Schlenk stepping down last week from his position as president of basketball operations to work as an adviser. General manager Landry Fields has assumed control of daily operations. Fields was promoted to GM earlier this year.
McMillan spent his entire 12-year playing career with Seattle, ending in 1997-98, and averaged 5.9 points and 6.1 assists.

Hawks coach Nate McMillan said he has no plans to retire or resign in the middle of the season, shooting down a recent report.

Nate McMillan says he has no plans to resign or retire midseason

Purdue maintained its grasp on No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men&rsquo;s college basketball poll on Monday.
Another unbeaten is closing the gap, though.
The Boilermakers received 40 of the 60 first-place votes from a national media panel after knocking off Davidson in their only game last week, allowing them to hold the top spot for a second consecutive week. But after then-No. 2 Virginia lost to Houston, Connecticut leaped into second place and scooped up the remaining 20 first-place votes.
It&rsquo;s the highest the Huskies, unranked in the preseason, have been in the AP poll since they were No. 1 on March 2, 2009.
&ldquo;We just have to stick to our identity,&rdquo; said UConn star Adam Sanogo, who had 27 points and 14 rebounds in a 68-48 romp at Butler on Saturday. &ldquo;No pressure, just play the way I&rsquo;ve been playing.&rdquo;
The Cougars&rsquo; 69-61 road win over the Cavaliers, along with an earlier win over North Carolina A&amp;T, allowed them to climb two spots to No. 3. Kansas moved up four spots after blowing out then-No. 14 Indiana at Allen Fieldhouse, while Arizona rounded out the top five after knocking off then-No. 6 Tennessee.
&ldquo;For us to get a gritty &lsquo;W&rsquo; against a team like Tennessee, it was a great night,&rdquo; Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd said.
Virginia dropped to sixth while Texas, which played its first game without suspended coach Chris Beard, remained at No. 7 following a win over Stanford. The Volunteers fell to eighth to begin a run of Southeastern Conference teams with Alabama falling to ninth after a loss to Gonzaga and Arkansas holding onto 10th for the second straight week.
The Bulldogs, who also beat Northern Illinois before their 100-90 road victory over the Crimson Tide, came in at No. 11 while UCLA climbed four spots to No. 12 after arguably the most impressive week of anyone. The Bruins won 87-60 at then-No. 20 Maryland before beating then-No. 13 Kentucky at Madison Square Garden.
&ldquo;Long week,&rdquo; said UCLA coach Mick Cronin, whose team has followed back-to-back losses with seven straight wins. &ldquo;We know what we&rsquo;re capable of if we defend and play with the toughness we played with this week.&rdquo;
Baylor checked in at No. 13 ahead of Duke, the only Top 25 team that did not play last week, while Mississippi State &mdash; one of five unbeatens left in men&rsquo;s Division I basketball &mdash; came in at No. 15.
Illinois began a run for the Big Ten at No. 16 with Wisconsin and Indiana right behind it. Kentucky tumbled six spots to No. 19 after its third loss in its first 10 games, while TCU rounded out the top 20 after its win over Mississippi Valley State.
Virginia Tech, Miami, Marquette, Auburn and Arizona State rounded out the poll.
RISING AND FALLING
Wisconsin made the biggest move in the poll, climbing five spots following its win over Lehigh. But that victory came on the heels of more impressive wins over Maryland and in overtime at Iowa the previous week to open Big Ten play.
Kentucky took the biggest fall after its 63-53 loss to the Bruins. The Wildcats&rsquo; other two losses are to Michigan State and Gonzaga, and they are just 1-3 in games played at Rupp Arena this season.
IN AND OUT
Marquette moved into the poll at No. 23 for the first time this season after beating Creighton to open Big East play, while Arizona State entered in the final slot after its own win over the Bluejays and another over San Diego.
Maryland fell out after its loss to UCLA. So did Ohio State, which lost in overtime to North Carolina in New York.
CONFERENCE WATCH
Seven different leagues fill up the first eight spots in the Top 25, though the SEC has the most teams in the poll with six this week. The Big Ten, American Athletic and Big 12 conferences have four apiece.

Purdue maintained its grasp on No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll on Monday. Another unbeaten is closing the gap.

Purdue holds top spot in AP poll as UConn climbs to No. 2

Michael Jordan was moments away from hoisting his third of what would become five NBA Most Valuable Player awards, and then-Commissioner David Stern greeted him at the midcourt ceremony with words that were both simple and profound.
&ldquo;You are simply the standard,&rdquo; Stern said that night in 1992, &ldquo;by which basketball excellence is measured.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s never been more true.
The NBA MVP award has been renamed The Michael Jordan Trophy, the league announced Tuesday. Jordan is a five-time MVP so he has five trophies named for Maurice Podoloff &mdash; the league&rsquo;s first commissioner. But after six decades of the award bearing Podoloff&rsquo;s name, the NBA decided the time was right to rebrand.
The Jordan trophy will stand 23.6 inches tall and weigh 23.6 pounds -- nods to his jersey number and six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls -- but is not a depiction of him. The chairman of the Charlotte Hornets approved the design, one that symbolizes someone reaching for excellence, but did not want the statue to be of himself. He also declined a request for comment through the NBA.
&ldquo;Anybody should be able to see this and see themselves in it,&rdquo; said Mark Smith, a longtime designer at Jordan Brand and the person who oversaw the trophy&rsquo;s design. &ldquo;They should feel the excellence of Michael Jordan and his pursuit. It&rsquo;s got his name on it, but it isn&rsquo;t him. It&rsquo;s everybody. It could be a shipbuilder or it could be a teacher or a lawyer or a writer who looks at it and says, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m trying to do.&rsquo;&rdquo;
The league has rebranded almost all its trophies in the last two seasons, even adding some new ones. As part of Tuesday&rsquo;s announcement, the league revealed that The Jerry West Award is being introduced and will be given to the NBA Clutch Player of the Year &mdash; which, like almost all other league awards, will be voted on by a media panel. NBA coaches will nominate players for the clutch award.
Also, the Defensive Player of the Year will now receive The Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy; the Rookie of the Year will receive The Wilt Chamberlain Trophy; the Sixth Man of the Year will now receive The John Havlicek Trophy; and the NBA&rsquo;s Most Improved Player will receive The George Mikan Trophy.
&ldquo;Our new collection of trophies celebrates some of the greatest and most impactful players in the history of the NBA,&rdquo; NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. &ldquo;As we recognize the league&rsquo;s top performers each season, we also pay tribute to the legends who embody these prestigious awards.&rdquo;
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-sports-nikola-jokic-38e98ac99f4a71a971a5e626ef7e5209">It became evident last week that something was changing about the MVP trophy</a> when the NBA said Podoloff&rsquo;s name was going onto a new prize -- a trophy that will go to the team with the best regular season record.
The MVP trophy has many levels of numerical significance related to Jordan, besides its height and weight. It has a five-sided base, a tribute to his five MVP awards. The name badge is six-sided, one for each of his championships. The base is shaped at a 15-degree angle; he played 15 NBA seasons.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m always going to numbers and symbiology as key root DNA to make something specific and authentic for that person,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;When you start putting all these things together, there&rsquo;s only one person and it becomes very unique. Not different, but very unique.&rdquo;
Jordan was involved at every step of the design process, Smith said. The final product was a bronze trophy depicting a player &ldquo;breaking out of a rock to reach for the ultimate rock &mdash; a crystal basketball,&rdquo; the league said. The trophy becomes more refined closer to the top, meant to show how hard work leads to something more polished and finally something great.
Smith said he fully expects to be emotional when he sees the new trophy awarded for the first time this spring.
&ldquo;This is actually the highest achievement for a single player ... and it&rsquo;s mind-blowing,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be a mind-blower.&rdquo;
Other trophies renamed or reimagined in the last year or so include ones named for Joe Dumars (sportsmanship), Red Auerbach (coach of the year), the Kobe Bryant All-Star MVP award &mdash; along with the Larry O&rsquo;Brien Trophy for the NBA champions and the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP trophy.
New Eastern Conference and Western Conference championship trophies named for Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson respectively were added, along with the Larry Bird Trophy for East finals MVP and the Magic Johnson Trophy for West finals MVP. The league also began issuing divisional championship trophies, naming them for Nat &ldquo;Sweetwater&rdquo; Clifton (Atlantic Division), Wayne Embry (Central), Earl Lloyd (Southeast), Willis Reed (Southwest), Sam Jones (Northwest) and Chuck Cooper (Pacific).

The NBA MVP award has been renamed The Michael Jordan Trophy, the league announced Tuesday.

The Jordan Trophy: NBA rebrands, redesigns its MVP award

There&rsquo;s now another trophy for NBA teams to chase.
The league announced Tuesday that the team with the best regular season record will now receive The Maurice Podoloff Trophy, named for the first commissioner of the NBA.
And that name strongly suggests that another trophy tweak is coming &mdash; since until last season, the league&rsquo;s MVP trophy was named for Podoloff. Denver&rsquo;s Nikola Jokic received the Podoloff Trophy when he won his first MVP award in 2021; when he won MVP again last season, he also received a crystal ball amid a leaguewide redesign of many trophies.
The new Podoloff Trophy has a crystal ball cut into 82 panels &mdash; a nod to the 82-game regular season &mdash; and sits atop a pedestal that combines the structures of the Eastern Conference posts and Western Conference rings.
The league also unveiled several more redesigned trophies Tuesday. The Joe Dumars Trophy for sportsmanship, The Red Auerbach Trophy for coach of the year, The Twyman-Stokes Trophy for the league&rsquo;s best teammate and the NBA Executive of the Year Trophy all have new looks. Each features an embedment inside a 15-inch crystal net structure.
&ldquo;Winning the first NBA Sportsmanship Award and being the trophy&rsquo;s namesake are among the greatest honors of my career,&rdquo; said Dumars, who is now an NBA Executive Vice President and the league&rsquo;s head of basketball operations. &ldquo;The reimagined trophies represent the enduring legacy of past recipients and are a fitting way to honor those who will continue to raise the standard of excellence in our game.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The NBA today unveiled redesigned trophies for its end of season trophies. The trophies are designed in partnership with artist Victor Solomon, who previously worked with the league to redesign its trophy offerings throughout the NBA&rsquo;s 75th Anniversary Season.
&mdash; NBA Communications (@NBAPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBAPR/status/1600143568164691968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 6, 2022</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Last season, the league changed the look of the NBA&rsquo;s championship trophy, The Larry O&rsquo;Brien, with the golden ball atop it now tilting in a different direction than the previous version and with a rounded base instead of the square one that the trophy had for decades.
It also made design changes for many other awards, including the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP trophy along with the Eastern Conference and Western Conference championship trophies &mdash; naming them for Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson, respectively. The league also added two new prizes last season, the Larry Bird Trophy for East finals MVP and the Magic Johnson Trophy for West finals MVP.
All the trophies handed out at All-Star weekend, including the Kobe Bryant MVP award, were also redesigned last season. The league also began issuing divisional championship trophies, naming them for Nat &ldquo;Sweetwater&rdquo; Clifton (Atlantic Division), Wayne Embry (Central), Earl Lloyd (Southeast), Willis Reed (Southwest), Sam Jones (Northwest) and Chuck Cooper (Pacific).

The league announced Tuesday that the team with the best regular season record will now receive The Maurice Podoloff Trophy.

NBA adds Maurice Podoloff Trophy for team with best record

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) &mdash; Justyn Mutts scored 27 points to lead Virginia Tech to an 80-72 victory over No. 18 North Carolina on Sunday.
Mutts scored 21 of his points in the second half for the Hokies (8-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), who built an 18-point, second-half lead and then held on to hand the slumping Tar Heels (5-4, 0-1) their fourth consecutive defeat.
North Carolina cut that lead to 67-64 on a layup by Caleb Love with 3:06 remaining, but Mutts answered with a basket 17 seconds later, and the Tar Heels got no closer.
The Associated Press&rsquo; preseason No. 1 team, North Carolina played without center Armando Bacot, who missed the game with a bruised shoulder.
Caleb Love, Pete Nance, and RJ Davis each scored 18 for North Carolina.
NO. 4 ARIZONA 81, CALIFORNIA 68
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) &mdash; Azuolas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo combined for 42 points and 19 rebounds and Arizona bounced back from its first loss by holding off winless California.
Tubelis had 25 points and 12 rebounds, while Ballo &mdash; the Division I leader in field goal percentage &mdash; made 7 of 10 shots en route to 17 points, with seven rebounds and four blocks.
The Wildcats (7-1, 1-1 Pac-12) were coming off an 81-66 loss Thursday at Utah, just their fifth in 44 games under second-year coach Tommy Lloyd.
Cal (0-9, 0-2) continued its worst start in program history, extending the nation&rsquo;s longest active losing streak to 12 games. The Golden Bears were led by guard Devin Askew, who had 25 points, while forward Lars Thiemann added 18 on 9-of-14 shooting.
NO. 5 PURDUE 89, MINNESOTA 70
WEST LAFAYETE, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Zach Edey set career highs with 31 points and 22 rebounds, powering Purdue past Minnesota in the Big Ten opener for both teams.
The 7-foot-4 Edey started slowly, making only one of his first seven shots. He dominated after that, finishing 11 of 23 from the field and 9 of 10 from the foul line.
Fletcher Loyer scored 20 for Purdue (8-0).
Jamison Battle led the Golden Gophers (4-4) with 21 points. Ta&rsquo;Lon Cooper added 15 points for Minnesota.
NEBRASKA 63, NO. 7 CREIGHTON 53
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) &mdash; Derrick Walker scored a career-high 22 points as Nebraska upset Creighton, the highest-ranked opponent the Cornhuskers have beaten on the road since 1997.
Nebraska (6-3) beat the Bluejays for the first time in 14 regular-season meetings in Omaha since 1995. Creighton (6-3) lost its third straight, with its previous two against ranked opponents.
Sam Griesel scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half and Juwan Gary finished with 12 as the Huskers turned back every comeback attempt by the Bluejays.
Francisco Farabello scored 16 points to lead the Bluejays, going 5 for 9 on 3-pointers. Baylor Scheierman and Kalkbrenner had 10 points apiece.
NO. 13 TENNESSEE 94, ALCORN STATE 40
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) &mdash; Olivier Nkamhoua scored 20 points and Tennessee flexed its defensive muscles in a victory over Alcorn State.
The Volunteers (7-1) also got double-digit point production from Julian Phillips (18), Jahmai Mashack (13), Uros Plavsic (12), Tyreke Key (11) and Zakai Zeigler (10).
Dominic Brewton led the Braves (3-6) with 10 points.
NO. 19 KENTUCKY 73, MICHIGAN 69
LONDON (AP) &mdash; Cason Wallace scored 14 points and Oscar Tshiebwe had a double-double to lead Kentucky over Michigan in a London showcase of two marquee American college sports teams.
Wallace was 4 of 4 on 3-point shooting with his most important one giving the Wildcats (6-2) a five-point lead with 1:11 to play.
Tshiebwe, last season&rsquo;s consensus national player of the year, scored 13 points and pulled down 14 rebounds amid foul trouble that kept him on the bench for extended spells.
Hunter Dickinson led Michigan (5-3) with 23 points and nine rebounds. Jett Howard, Michigan&rsquo;s second-leading scorer, was in early foul trouble but had 16 points for the Wolverines.
NORTHWESTERN 70, NO. 20 MICHIGAN STATE 63
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) &mdash; Boo Buie scored 20 points and Northwestern beat Michigan State in the Big Ten opener for both teams.
Chase Audige also added 15 points and Ty Berry had 13 for Northwestern (6-3).
Mady Sossoko and A.J. Hoggard each had 12 points for Michigan State (5-3) and Joey Hauser added 10. The Spartans have lost two in a row, falling to Notre Dame earlier in the week.
NO. 21 UCLA 65, OREGON 56
LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Jaylen Clark and freshman Amari Bailey scored 14 points each and UCLA rallied in the final four minutes to hold off Oregon for its fourth straight win.
The Bruins (7-2, 2-0 Pac-12) hadn&rsquo;t had a big scoring run all game until they pulled away late.
The Ducks (4-5, 1-1) had won four straight over the Bruins. Guerrier led the Ducks with 15 points and Will Richardson added 13 points.
NO. 23 IOWA STATE 71, ST. JOHN&rsquo;S 60
AMES, Iowa (AP) &mdash; Jaren Holmes scored 14 points and Aljaz Kunc added 12 as Iowa State handed St. John&rsquo;s its first loss of the season.
Kunc also contributed eight rebounds and three assists for the Cyclones (7-1). Robert Jones had 11 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Posh Alexander led St. John&rsquo;s (8-1) with 14 points.

A recap of Sunday's men's college basketball slate includes a handful of top-25 upsets.

Virginia Tech hands No. 18 Tar Heels fourth consecutive loss

Over the last week, I have been very active on social media voicing my views on the Kyrie Irving situation, which prompted quite a few active NBA players to reach out to me privately to express that they too shared the view that the six requirements laid out for Irving to end his indefinite suspension were not only way over the top and excessive, but insulting.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s do a quick recap of the events that have led us to this point.&nbsp;
Irving shared a link to the documentary &ldquo;From Hebrews To Negroes: Wake Up Black America" without context, which caused a firestorm, as many viewed this as an endorsement of the film.&nbsp;
At his initial press conference, he expressed his reasoning for sharing the doc, saying, &ldquo;When I post, it does not mean that I support everything that&rsquo;s being said or everything that&rsquo;s being done or [that] I&rsquo;m campaigning for anything. All I do is post things for my people and my community.&rdquo;&nbsp;
He also said:&nbsp;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a divisive person when it comes to religion. I embrace all walks of life. You see it on all my platforms. I talk to all races, all cultures, all religions. And my response would be, it&rsquo;s not about educating yourself on what antisemitism is. It&rsquo;s really about where the root words come from and understanding that this is an African heritage that is also belonging to the people. Africa is in it, whether we want to dismiss it or not. So the claims of antisemitism; who are the original chosen people of God? And we go into these religious conversations and it&rsquo;s a big no-no, I don&rsquo;t live my life that way. I grew up in a melting pot, and I say a melting pot of all races: white, black, red, yellow, Jewish, Christian, Muslim. You see the way I live my life now, I&rsquo;m not here to be divisive."
This was prior to his spat with ESPN's Nick Friedell.&nbsp;
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This was met with criticism, condemnation and accusations that Kyrie was antisemitic, since people felt he was endorsing and promoting antisemitic propaganda (which he said wasn&rsquo;t his intention).
The media as a collective began taking turns bashing Kyrie, attributing beliefs to him that he did not express, and since he didn&rsquo;t vehemently denounce these ideas, many took that as an endorsement. It's not uncommon for athletes to be attacked by certain media talking-heads who shall remain nameless, but what we saw was a unified, non-stop, public lashing of Kyrie across the board.&nbsp;
He deleted his tweet. Then, during another press conference, he was asked if he was antisemitic and his answer was, "I cannot be antisemitic if I know where I come from." He also explained that he meant no harm, while adding that he wasn&rsquo;t the one who made the documentary.
This drew the ire of Brooklyn Nets governor Joe Tsai, as Irving was swiftly suspended for a minimum of five games and given six steps that had to be completed before he would be allowed to return.
The Nets released a press release that stated: "We were dismayed today, when given an opportunity in a media session, that Kyrie refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs, nor acknowledge hateful material in the film. This was not the first time he had the opportunity &mdash; but failed &mdash; to clarify. Such failure to disavow antisemitism when given a clear opportunity to do so is deeply disturbing, is against the values of our organization, and constitutes conduct detrimental to the team. Accordingly, we are of the view that he is currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets."
Many people (including some who strongly condemned Kyrie for posting the link to the documentary) viewed this as a blatant attempt to emasculate and dehumanize Irving in front of the entire world.&nbsp;
Irving eventually posted <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckhj8iIu0HN/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a lengthy apology</a> to the entire Jewish community on Instagram.
As I voiced my personal disproval of the six steps he had to complete to return &mdash; which is unprecedented for an NBA suspension &mdash; that&rsquo;s when I started receiving messages from active players who were also outraged by the treatment Kyrie was receiving. However, they didn&rsquo;t feel comfortable saying anything out of fear that a similar outrage would be directed toward them or that an objection to Kyrie's punishment would be interpreted as supporting him posting the movie. They didn't want to be lumped in with Kyrie and face the same backlash. Their apprehension was very understandable.&nbsp;
This caused me to ponder the question: what if this Kyrie backlash causes athletes to go silent again? After all, besides Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and Craig Hodges, athletes were pretty quiet back in the 1990s. That continued through my era in the early 2000s. Only recently, since Colin Kaepernick's protest, has there been a resurgence of athletes using their platforms and voices, and it&rsquo;s been beautiful to see. But it&rsquo;s also important to note that since Kaepernick took his stance, he has not played a single snap in the NFL. In addition, all of the protests have stopped and, for the most part, NFL players speaking out has significantly reduced almost to a whisper. Could that happen in the NBA?&nbsp;
Over the last 24 hours, both NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Joe Tsai said that they have met with Kyrie and can report that, in their opinion, he is not antisemitic, which has led many to believe that Irving will be returning to the court soon. But has the damage already been done?
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/emerald1.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="402" />
I reached out to Emerald Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner who has a newly-released book that I co-wrote called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-My-Voice-Grieving-Pushing/dp/1642598313/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=163ffcc0-f0f3-4ecf-b8fa-907636f54c3f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Finding My Voice,"</a> to discuss this situation. We talked about what it meant to her personally when athletes used their voices and platforms to support her family and whether the Kyrie backlash might scare players into being silent going forward.
Etan: Do you think the backlash that Kyrie Irving is currently receiving has the potential to silence athletes?&nbsp;
Emerald: "I hope not. Listen, I don&rsquo;t know anything about the film, and don&rsquo;t support antisemitism in any form or fashion, but I didn&rsquo;t actually hear Kyrie say anything antisemitic. And correct me if I&rsquo;m wrong, but he didn&rsquo;t produce the documentary, did he? They&rsquo;re acting like it&rsquo;s his film."
Etan: No, he didn&rsquo;t produce it, but to be fair, he did share it without context. But he also cleared up his reasoning for sharing it in his initial press conference. He said he was just sharing it for the information and wasn&rsquo;t endorsing or promoting the film.
Emerald: "So, he apologized and deleted it, right?"
Etan: Yes, he did.
Emerald: "But he still has to go through all of these hoops before he gets to play again?"
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Etan: Yes, the six steps he has to complete are:
1) He has to apologize and condemn the film
2) Make a $500,000 donation to anti-hate causes
3) Complete sensitivity training
4) Complete antisemitism training&nbsp;
5) Meet with the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish leaders
6) Meet with Joe Tsai to &ldquo;demonstrate an understanding of the situation.&rdquo;
Emerald: "Wow, that&rsquo;s really a lot. So let me say it like this: officer Daniel Pantaleo murdered my father in broad daylight on video and he didn&rsquo;t have to do anything before he returned to active duty. I wrote about it in my book how traumatizing it was to see him laughing and joking with other cops on the street like nothing happened. He didn&rsquo;t have to do anything. He didn&rsquo;t even have to apologize to the family of the man he murdered. But they&rsquo;re gonna make Kyrie do all this before he can play basketball?"&nbsp;
Etan: Wow, that&rsquo;s a great point.
Emerald: "Listen, Kyrie and LeBron and all of the players on the Brooklyn Nets at the time and Kobe and all of the Lakers team supported my family after my father was choked to death by the NYPD. Back then, every time I turned on the TV, all I saw were people justifying his murder and saying why my father deserved to die. I will forever be thankful to him and all the athletes who stood with us for that."
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/kyrie111.png" alt="" width="651" height="380" />
Etan: Yeah, a lot of people were quiet then, but athletes weren&rsquo;t. That started a new boom of athletes using their voices and platforms. That&rsquo;s why I wrote my book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Matter-Athletes-Activism-Sports/dp/1617755915/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=3aa7746c-b367-4e3f-b314-48164e0e4144" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"We Matter: Athletes And Activism"</a> and interviewed so many athletes and impacted family members. I wanted to encourage the next generation of athletes to continue to use their voices and show the impact it has. My fear now is that after this, athletes may start being quiet again or people may advise them to be quiet again in fear of the Kyrie Irving treatment.
Emerald: "And that would be tragic. You have done an amazing job promoting that concept and, yes, there is great power in their voices. When I turned on the TV and saw all of the NBA players wearing 'I Can&rsquo;t Breathe' shirts&hellip; I&rsquo;m getting emotional right now..."
Etan: I&rsquo;m sorry, I don&rsquo;t want to trigger you.
Emerald: "No, it&rsquo;s ok. You know I always get emotional when we talk, and we talked about this in my book, but when I saw them wearing those shirts, it made me feel seen. That someone actually cared about what happened to my father. It didn&rsquo;t feel like anyone cared. The police definitely didn&rsquo;t show any remorse. They all stood around and watched as Officer Pantaleo choked my father to death, then they all supported Pantaleo, not one of them condemned anything. So many people supported Pantaleo like they always do when the police murder someone. But it was Kyrie and NBA players who supported me. And my father loved basketball. He loved every New York team that existed. Even sports he wasn&rsquo;t even that into, if they were [a team in] New York, he supported them. He would&rsquo;ve been so proud how they all supported him. I can see his big smile now. I can&rsquo;t tell you how much I miss seeing that big smile of his."&nbsp;
Etan: It&rsquo;s so important that people know this, and understand this. I&rsquo;ve gone on multiple programs recently and said that silencing athletes that you disagree with isn&rsquo;t the answer. Instead, have an actual dialogue. And I really believe that.
Emerald: "Listen, we have done enough speaking engagements for me to fully understand and be a supporter of dialogue. Of course it&rsquo;s important. And not lectures but actually listening to because, correct me if I&rsquo;m wrong, but I didn&rsquo;t hear Kyrie say anything bad or anti-anything. He said I love everyone, I respect all religions. It&rsquo;s like they&rsquo;re trying to make him believe things that he didn&rsquo;t say he believed. At least that&rsquo;s how I see it."
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Etan: I definitely agree. I didn&rsquo;t hear him actually say anything antisemitic. I&rsquo;m just worried about the effect it will have on athletes moving forward. When I was playing, I had so many people warn me to be careful (including David Stern). I had other people who literally said you don&rsquo;t want to get done like Craig Hodges or Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. I heard Shannon Sharpe initially say that on his show "Undisputed." I see people putting that notion out there.
Emerald: "Well, that would be tragic if athletes did 'shut up and dribble.' I&rsquo;mma be honest, I didn&rsquo;t realize the impact y&rsquo;all have until I started working with you and talking to other impacted families who had athletes stand up for them. How Russell Westbrook spoke up for Terence Crutcher, how Stephen Jackson spoke up for George Floyd, how LeBron speaks up for a lot of families, how the whole Milwaukee Bucks [team] spoke up for Jacob Blake, how the whole NBA spoke up for Breonna Taylor and I can go on and on and on. It&rsquo;s important. Take it from me, it means everything."

Could this Kyrie Irving situation silence athletes going forward? Etan Thomas discusses this with Eric Garner's daughter, Emerald.

Emerald Garner hopes Kyrie Irving backlash doesn’t silence athletes

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) &mdash; Jeremy Roach scored 16 first-half points to help seventh-ranked Duke open Jon Scheyer&rsquo;s coaching tenure with a 71-44 win over Jacksonville on Monday night.
Freshman Mark Mitchell had a team-high 18 points for the Blue Devils, who used a 25-4 run spanning halftime to blow the game open.
It was a quality start to a season of massive change for the Blue Devils, starting with Scheyer taking over for retired Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski. Duke has 11 new players, including the nation&rsquo;s No. 1-ranked recruiting class and two power-conference transfers. The Blue Devils didn&rsquo;t have top freshmen Dereck Lively II and Dariq Whitehead for this one as they recover from preseason injuries.
Mike Marsh scored 15 points to lead the Dolphins, who shot 34% and missed 18 of 19 3-pointers before making two meaningless 3s late.
NO. 1 NORTH CAROLINA 69, UNC WILMINGTON 56
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) &mdash; Caleb Love and RJ Davis scored 17 points apiece and North Carolina began a season of grand expectations by pulling away from UNC Wilmington.
Armando Bacot added 16 points and nine rebounds for the Tar Heels, who were perhaps most impressive at the defensive end. UNCW shot 29.8% from the field.
The Tar Heels, who were the NCAA Tournament runner-up in April, began the new season with the top ranking for the first time in seven years. It&rsquo;s a record 10th time that North Carolina has been ranked No. 1 to start a season &mdash; one more than rival Duke.
Trazarien White scored 19 points for UNCW, which faced a top-ranked team for the first time in program history.
NO. 2 GONZAGA 104, NORTH FLORIDA 63
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) &mdash; Drew Timme scored 22 points, Julian Strawther added 16 and No. 2 Gonzaga used a big first-half run to beat North Florida in both teams&rsquo; opener.
Anton Watson had 10 points, four rebounds, four assists and five steals for Gonzaga, which won its 68th consecutive home game, the nation&rsquo;s longest such streak.
Carter Hendricksen scored 16 points, Jadyn Parker 13 and Jose Placer 12 for North Florida, a veteran-laden team from the Atlantic Sun Conference that returned its top four scorers from last season.
NO. 3 HOUSTON 83, NORTHERN COLORADO 36
HOUSTON (AP) &mdash; Marcus Sasser scored 21 points, J&rsquo;Wan Roberts added 12 points and six rebounds, and Houston opened the season by beating Northern Colorado.
Sasser, a preseason All-American, scored 11 points in the first half. He finished 7 of 14 from the field and made 4 of 8 3-pointers. The senior guard missed the second half of last season and all of Houston&rsquo;s run to the Elite Eight with a toe injury.
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson won his 700th career game and 200th with the Cougars.
Matt Johnson II, Riley Abercrombie and Caleb Shaw each scored eight points for the Bears.
NO. 4 KENTUCKY 95, HOWARD 63
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) &mdash; Antonio Reeves scored 22 points, CJ Fredrick had 20 and Kentucky beat Howard with All-American Oscar Tshiebwe and two other players sidelined.
Tshiebwe had a procedure last month on his right knee. Point guard Sahvir Wheeler (right leg) and sophomore forward Daimion Collins (personal reasons) were also out, but the Wildcats still shot 55% against the overmatched Bison.
Jacob Toppin and freshman Cason Wallace each added 15 points for Kentucky.
Kobe Dickson scored 17 points and Elijah Hawkins had 14 for Howard, which shot 34%.
NO. 5 KANSAS 89, OMAHA 64
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) &mdash; Jalen Wilson had 19 points and 11 rebounds, Gradey Dick added 23 points in his debut, and Kansas began defense of its national championship without suspended coach Bill Self by routing Omaha.
Bobby Pettiford Jr. added 13 points, Dajuan Harris had 11 points and eight assists, and Texas Tech transfer Kevin McCullar Jr. scored 10 for the Jayhawks, who broke open a close game in the second half with two big runs.
Self served the first of a four-game punishment along with assistant Kurtis Townsend as part of the fallout from a 2017 federal investigation into college basketball corruption.
Jaeden Marshall scored 13 points and Luke Jungers had 12 for the Mavericks.
NO. 5 BAYLOR 117, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE 53
WACO, Texas (AP) &mdash; Adam Flagler scored 21 points to lead six players in double figures as Baylor won the opener of its 20th season with coach Scott Drew.
Flagler, a preseason All-Big 12 pick who also was the Bears&rsquo; leading scorer last season, also had eight assists and one of his four 3-pointers started a 24-0 run midway through the first half.
LJ Cryer had 16 points and Dale Bonner, another returning guard, had 14.
Alvin Stredic scored 14 points and Terry Collins 10 for Mississippi Valley State in its first game for new coach George Ivory.
NO. 9 CREIGHTON 72, ST. THOMAS 60
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) &mdash; Baylor Scheierman made back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the second half to give Creighton the lead for good.
Arthur Kaluma scored 17 points, Trey Alexander had 12 and Scheierman added 11 as the Bluejays won their 25th opener in 26 years.
St. Thomas, a Summit League member beginning its second season in Division I, gave the Bluejays all they could handle until the last few minutes. Andrew Rohde had 15 points to lead the Tommies.
NO. 10 ARKANSAS 76, NORTH DAKOTA STATE 58
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) &mdash; Trevon Brazile had 21 points and 12 rebounds in his debut as Arkansas won its season opener.
Brazile, a sophomore transfer from Missouri, scored six straight points during an 11-0 run early in the second half that gave Arkansas a 16-point lead with 15 minutes left.
Wichita State transfer Ricky Council led the Razorbacks with 22 points on 9-for-14 shooting.
Grant Nelson and Boden Skunberg had 17 points apiece to lead North Dakota State.
NO. 11 TENNESSEE 75, TENNESSEE TECH 43
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) &mdash; Tyreke Key came off the bench to score 17 points and Tennessee beat Tennessee Tech in both teams&rsquo; opener.
Key, an Indiana State transfer, connected on 4 of 8 3-pointers to ignite a sluggish Volunteer offense. Zakai Zeigler scored all but two of his 12 points in the second half.
Brett Thompson led the Golden Eagles with 15 points.
NO. 12 TEXAS 72, UTEP 57
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) &mdash; Tyrese Hunter scored 18 points to lead Texas past UTEP in the debut of its new arena.
Hunter, a transfer from Iowa State, was 6-of-8 shooting and added five rebounds. Ze&rsquo;Ri Onyema led UTEP with 10 points.
Texas this season moved to the $375 million Moody Center on the edge of campus, leaving behind the old Frank Erwin Center after 45 years.
NO. 13 INDIANA 88, MOREHEAD STATE 53
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Preseason All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis and freshman Malik Reneau each scored 15 points, helping Indiana beat Morehead State in the season opener for both teams.
The Hoosiers have won all six matchups in the series and are 26-0 all-time against Ohio Valley Conference foes.
Mark Freeman led the Eagles with 14 points, and Drew Thelwell had 11 for the OVC favorites.
NO. 14 TCU 73, ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 72
WACO, Texas (AP) &mdash; Mike Miles hit a 3-pointer with 51 seconds remaining to finally put TCU ahead to stay against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, which built an early 20-point lead in the season opener for both teams.
Miles, the preseason Big 12 player of the year, hit from deep beyond the top of the key for a 71-68 lead.
Emanuel Miller had 15 of his 19 points in the second half, and Miles finished with 15 points for the Horned Frogs. They returned all five starters and five other scholarship players after winning their first NCAA Tournament game since 1987.
Shaun Doss had 25 points with four of Arkansas-Pine Bluff&rsquo;s 13 3-pointers.
NO. 15 AUBURN 70, GEORGE MASON 52
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) &mdash; Wendell Green Jr. scored 16 points while K.D. Johnson and Johni Broome each had 12 to lead Auburn to a season-opening win over George Mason.
The Tigers weren&rsquo;t really challenged much in their first game since losing NBA first-round draft picks Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler.
Ronald Polite III led George Mason with 10 points, and Victor Bailey Jr. had nine.
NO. 16 VILLANOVA 81, LA SALLE 68
VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP) &mdash; Caleb Daniels scored 24 points to make coach Kyle Neptune a winner in his Villanova debut.
Neptune replaced Hall of Famer Jay Wright, who retired in the offseason. The Wildcats returned three starters (a fourth, Justin Moore, was injured) from the team that lost a national semifinal game to Kansas. Eric Dixon added 20 points for Villanova.
Daniels made his first five 3-pointers and the Wildcats used an early 10-0 run to put away their city rival and spoiled 74-year-old coach Fran Dunphy&rsquo;s return to the bench.
Josh Nickelberry scored 22 points to lead the Explorers.
NO. 17 ARIZONA 117, NICHOLLS STATE 75
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) &mdash; Azuolas Tubelis scored 23 points and Arizona went on a massive opening run to begin its second season under coach Tommy Lloyd with a rout.
Ballo scored 18 points, helping Arizona set a school record with 71.7% shooting from the floor against the reigning Southland Conference regular-season champions. The Wildcats opened the game with a 30-4 run.
Micah Thomas led Nicholls State with 20 points.
NO. 18 VIRGINIA 73, NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL 61
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) &mdash; Kihei Clark and Reece Beekman sparked a 15-2 second-half run, and Virginia beat North Carolina Central after blowing a 16-point first-half lead.
Armaan Franklin led Virginia with 21 points in the season opener for both teams, and Francisco Caffaro had 10.
Justin Wright scored 20 and Eric Boone had 18 for the Eagles, who used a 12-0 run just after halftime to go ahead. But Clark hit a 3 and Beekman followed with a steal and a breakaway.
NO. 19 SAN DIEGO STATE 80, CAL STATE FULLERTON 57
SAN DIEGO (AP) &mdash; Darrion Trammell hit three 3-pointers during a 29-10 run to open the second half and finished with 18 points as San Diego State beat Cal State Fullerton.
Fellow newcomer Jaedon LeDee and Lamont Butler scored 11 points apiece and Nathan Mensah had 10 for the Aztecs, who won their 10th straight season opener and their 17th in 18 seasons.
Vincent Lee scored 11 and Jalen Harris 10 for the Titans, the defending Big West Conference champions.
NO. 20 ALABAMA 75, LONGWOOD 54
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) &mdash; Freshman Brandon Miller had 14 points and 13 rebounds in his debut as Alabama beat Longwood.
Fellow freshman Rylan Griffen also scored 14 for the Crimson Tide, and point guard Mark Sears had 12 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Freshman guard Jaden Bradley added 11 points and six boards.
Alabama held Longwood to 27% shooting and blocked nine shots. Michael Christmas led Longwood with 12 points.
NO. 21 OREGON 80, FLORIDA A&amp;M 45
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) &mdash; N&rsquo;Faly Dante had 16 points and 10 rebounds as Oregon opened with an easy win over Florida A&amp;M.
Keeshawn Barthelemy added 13 points for the Ducks, ranked to start the season for the ninth straight year. Will Richardson scored 11.
Jordan Tillmon and Jordan Chatman had eight points apiece for the Rattlers, who have 11 new players. Florida A&amp;M coach Robert McCullum was on Oregon coach Dana Altman&rsquo;s staff from 2014-17.
NO. 22 MICHIGAN 75, PURDUE FORT WAYNE 56
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) &mdash; Hunter Dickinson had 22 points and 12 rebounds, and freshman Jett Howard added 21 points in Michigan&rsquo;s season-opening win.
After Purdue Fort Wayne opened an 8-4 lead, Michigan went on a 20-0 run to take control.
Quinton Morton-Robertson scored 15 points and Bobby Planutis added 13 for the Mastodons.
NO. 23 ILLINOIS 87, EASTERN ILLINOIS 57
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) &mdash; Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 24 points and Coleman Hawkins had 23 points and 12 rebounds as Illinois cruised past Eastern Illinois.
Dain Dainja added 17 points on 8-of-9 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Illini, who outrebounded the Panthers 53-30 in the opener for both teams.
Kinyon Hodges scored 14 points and Yaakema Rose added 10 for Eastern Illinois.
NO. 24 DAYTON 73, LINDENWOOD 46
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) &mdash; Mustapha Amzil scored 14 points, DaRon Holmes II and R.J. Blakney each had 13 and Dayton beat Lindenwood in a sluggish opener for both teams.
Dayton was without injured point guard Malachi Smith and didn&rsquo;t play particularly well until late, but it had a large margin for error against Lindenwood, which was playing its first game after moving up to Division I.
Chris Childs had 15 points for the Lions, who shot 33% from the field.
NO. 25 TEXAS TECH 73, NORTHWESTERN STATE 49
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) &mdash; Daniel Batcho had 12 points and 10 rebounds as Texas Tech rolled past Northwestern State in both teams&rsquo; opener.
Texas Tech broke it open late in the first half and led 42-23 at halftime.
Isaac Haney led Northwestern State with 16 points.

It was a quality start to a season of massive change for the Blue Devils, starting with Jon Scheyer taking over Duke's program.

Roach leads No. 7 Duke past Jacksonville in Scheyer’s debut

Arguments over conference supremacy have begun well before the start of the college basketball season.
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim offered one of the most quotable remarks of the preseason when he pointed out the Big Ten&rsquo;s failings in the postseason.
&ldquo;At the end of the day, you play for the tournament,&rdquo; Boeheim said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what you play for. It&rsquo;s simple. You can say all you want about the Big Ten. They sucked in the tournament. So to me, that&rsquo;s what they did. I don&rsquo;t care what they did in the regular season.&rdquo;
The Big Ten led all conferences with nine NCAA Tournament bids last season but sent only two teams ( Michigan and Purdue ) to regional semifinals and didn&rsquo;t have anyone last beyond the Sweet 16. Syracuse plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which got five bids but sent three teams to the Sweet 16 and had North Carolina and Duke reach the Final Four.
One year earlier, the Big Ten had nine NCAA Tournament bids to again lead all leagues but advanced only Michigan beyond the round of 32.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what you play for, to get in the tournament and to win in the tournament,&rdquo; Boeheim said. &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t do that, then you&rsquo;re not good.&rdquo;
As we rank the top six conferences for the upcoming season, we don&rsquo;t give the No. 1 spot to either the Big Ten or the ACC. That honor instead goes to the league that has produced the last two NCAA Tournament champions.
1. BIG 12
The Big 12 kept its hold on the national title when Kansas won last season after Baylor earned the crown a year earlier. The Big 12 nearly had three straight championships by three different schools, as Texas Tech lost the 2019 championship game to Virginia in overtime. The Big 12 has five teams in the preseason Associated Press Top 25. Kansas and Baylor are tied for fifth. The other ranked teams are No. 12 Texas, No. 14 TCU and No. 25 Texas Tech.
2. SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE
A look at the preseason Top 25 indicates the SEC could emerge as the best conference of all. The SEC has five ranked teams, all in the top 20: No. 4 Kentucky, No. 10 Arkansas, No. 11 Tennessee, No. 15 Auburn and No. 20 Alabama. Arkansas, Alabama and Kentucky brought in three of the nation&rsquo;s top five freshman classes according to composite rankings of recruiting sites compiled by 247Sports. Kentucky&rsquo;s Oscar Tschiebwe was the consensus national player of the year last season.
3. ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE
The ACC has the nation&rsquo;s top-ranked team in North Carolina, which returns preseason AP All-America selection Armando Bacot from a team that lost to Kansas in last season&rsquo;s championship game. No. 7 Duke begins the post-Mike Krzyzewski era by welcoming in new coach Jon Scheyer and the nation&rsquo;s top-ranked recruiting class. The only other ACC team in the preseason Top 25 is No. 18 Virginia.
4. BIG TEN
The Big Ten figures to take a step back this season after having three players (Iowa&rsquo;s Keegan Murray, Purdue&rsquo;s Jaden Ivey and Wisconsin&rsquo;s Johnny Davis) among the top 10 picks in the NBA draft. No. 13 Indiana is the only Big Ten team ranked higher than 22nd in the preseason Top 25. The league&rsquo;s only other ranked teams are No. 22 Michigan and No. 23 Illinois. Perhaps this is the year the Big Ten gets fewer NCAA Tournament bids but ends up lasting longer in the tournament.
5. PAC-12
The Pac-12 sent just three teams to the NCAA Tournament despite benefiting from the resurgence of Arizona in coach Tommy Lloyd&rsquo;s debut season. The Pac-12 heads into this season with three ranked teams in No. 8 UCLA, No. 17 Arizona and No. 21 Oregon.
6. BIG EAST
The retirement of Villanova coach Jay Wright could shake things up in this league. No. 9 Creighton is the preseason pick to win the Big East by the league&rsquo;s coaches, the first time the Bluejays have had that honor since joining the conference for the 2013-14 season. The only other ranked Big East team is No. 16 Villanova under first-year coach Kyle Neptune. Providence must replace all five starters from the team that won last year&rsquo;s Big East title.

Arguments over conference supremacy have begun well before the start of the college basketball season.

Big 12 has upper hand from recent NCAA postseason success

LAS VEGAS (AP) &mdash; The Seattle Storm are the lowest remaining seed in the postseason and came in looking to steal at least one of the first two road games against the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA semifinals.
Mission accomplished.
Jewell Loyd scored 26 points, including Seattle&rsquo;s final six, and the Storm edged the Aces 76-73 on Sunday to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series in front of a Las Vegas playoff-record crowd of 9,944.
Loyd made a go-ahead free throw with 1:16 to play, then a jumper for a three-point lead with 34 seconds remaining before the Storm held on for the win. She had 10 of Seattle&rsquo;s 16 points in the fourth quarter.
&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t just me, it was a team effort for sure,&rdquo; Loyd said. &ldquo;It helps when you have really good teammates ... you believe in them, they believe in you. That&rsquo;s the biggest thing for us, is that each of us have to stay confident in what we do and what we can bring to the team. That&rsquo;s been the key for us.&rdquo;
Associated Press MVP Breanna Stewart had 24 points and six rebounds for the fourth-seeded Storm, while Tina Charles added 13 points and franchise playoff-record 18 rebounds.
&ldquo;We knew that this was going to be tough. These games against Vegas have been tough all regular season and previous seasons, and we have a lot of respect for their players and what they do,&rdquo; Stewart said. &ldquo;We knew that coming here to their home court, we wanted to obviously try to steal one, we wanted to get one and get our momentum going in the right direction.&rdquo;
Chelsea Gray scored 21 points for the Aces. Kelsey Plum added 20, but missed a tying 3-point attempt with 2.9 seconds to play.
Jackie Young finished with 11 points but Aces star A&rsquo;ja Wilson was held to just eight on 3-of-10 shooting.
Seattle controlled much of the game, leading through the first 3 1/2 quarters after building a 12-point lead in the first half.
Las Vegas didn&rsquo;t enjoy its first lead until the fourth quarter, when veteran guard Riquna Williams&rsquo; 3-pointer from the corner made it 65-64 with 6:09 left.
The Storm wasted no time in attacking early, as they built a 15-4 lead midway through the first quarter. Seattle got balanced scoring, with five players contributing, including Ezi Magbegor coming off the bench to add four.
Las Vegas struggled to find any sort of rhythm, as a pop-and-shot approach left them with a paltry 5-of-18 (27.8%) shooting performance in the first quarter. Both Wilson and Plum went scoreless while the Storm held a 26-15 lead after one.
&ldquo;I thought we played tight, especially in the first quarter,&rdquo; Aces coach Becky Hammon said. &ldquo;We played like the world was on our shoulders.&rdquo;
The Aces responded with a much better defensive effort and seemed to be much more comfortable attacking the rim to climb back into the game.
Led by Wilson, the Aces used a 12-4 run to cut Seattle&rsquo;s lead to 30-27. Stewart took over from that point, scoring nine of her team&rsquo;s points during a quarter-ending 13-9 run to send the Storm into the locker room with a 43-36 halftime lead.
BROKEN RECORD
In addition to Charles&rsquo; record-breaking night, retiring Sue Bird had 12 assists and no turnovers. Her final assist gave her a WNBA-record 342 in the playoffs. Lindsay Whalen had 341 in 82 games. Bird broke the record in 57.
NOT SO FAST, VEGAS
Taking a page out of the Aces&rsquo; playbook, the Storm outscored Las Vegas 16-0 in fast-break points. Seattle also held the edge with second-chance points, 5-0.
GUCCI ROW
The stars came out for the series opener, joining Aces owner Mark Davis and Raiders tight end Darren Waller, fixtures at home games all season. Also in attendance were women&rsquo;s basketball Hall of Famer Ann Meyers Drysdale, Raiders coach Josh McDaniels, Los Angeles Clippers coach Ty Lue, Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, UFC president Dana White, Golden Knights goalie Logan Thompson, and Governor Steve Sisolak.
UP NEXT
The Storm and Aces play Game 2 in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Jewell Loyd scored 26 points, including Seattle’s final six, as the Storm beat the Aces 76-73 on Sunday to take a 1-0 series lead.

Jewell Loyd has 26, lifts Storm over Aces in WNBA semis opener

Over the past few years, nobody has been more vocal about Kyrie Irving than Stephen A. Smith.
&ldquo;Kyrie Irving is saying basketball is not a priority to me&hellip;..Kyrie Irving until you want to play, you should retire," Smith <a href="https://youtu.be/z81VQBtWnYU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said on ESPN's First Take on Jan. 13, 2021</a>. "Forfeit every penny you make, retire and go do what you wanna do in regard to these issues that are clearly most important to you.&rdquo;&nbsp;
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&ldquo;We are witnessing one of the most delusional athletes in American history," Smith doubled down on April 29. "He&rsquo;s lost&hellip;What it comes down to Kyrie is you don&rsquo;t want to show up to work. You wanna do what you wanna do, when you wanna do it, how you wanna do it, and then you have your hand out for somebody else&rsquo;s money."
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These takes &mdash; which have been repeatedly expressed by Stephen A. and those of his ilk for the past few years &mdash; have sparked a nationwide demonization of Kyrie Irving.&nbsp;
To debate this and the ongoing rift between the NBA players and the media, I sat down with two media giants that I have a great deal of respect for in The Athletic's David Aldridge and Marc Spears of ESPN's Andscape. We discussed the contrast between the old media and new media, what the role of the media should be and what real effects talking heads like Stephen A., Skip Bayless, Nick Wright and those of their ilk have on the entire basketball world.
Although we disagreed for the majority of the discussion, this was a healthy debate with different perspectives presented &mdash; the way discussions/debates should be.
(Editor's Note: Watch the entire exchange below on BasketballNews' YouTube channel and subscribe to Etan's podcast "The Rematch.")
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Etan Thomas: I&rsquo;ll agree with both of you that the majority of the media, whatever bucket you want to include everyone in, does not conduct themselves like Stephen A. Smith, or Skip Bayless or Nick Wright or those of that ilk. But they are the loudest voices. And those are the voices that you hear everyday. And those loud voices drive not only the masses of sports fans, but it also impacts the way that journalists write their articles. 
Marc Spears: "Let me stop you right quick. You mentioned (Fox News) earlier &mdash; they present their misinformation as facts, whereas [Nick] Wright and [Stephen A.] Smith, they&rsquo;re just speaking on sports and giving their opinion."
Etan: But they are presenting their opinions as though they are facts. Honestly, Stephen A. Smith has the same power over the masses that Tucker Carlson has over the Right. They&rsquo;ll say all the time that Tucker Carlson is not a real journalist, he&rsquo;s not a real member of the media, but he still has the same media power over the minds of the masses&nbsp;
Spears: "Stephen A. doesn&rsquo;t conjur racism."
Etan: I&rsquo;m not talking about the topic, I&rsquo;m talking about the level of power and influence.&nbsp;
David Aldridge: "Etan for the sake of the discussion, I&rsquo;ll accept your comparison. If the argument is these people are on TV everyday (and) therefore, they have a lot of power, therefore, their opinions carry weight. But I will come back to again: With who? (Laughing) Who do they carry all of this weight with?"
Etan: With the entire sports world.
Aldridge: "But Etan, I would have to disagree with you because it&rsquo;s not the entire sports world. Because the entire sports world would include team owners, team general managers, head coaches, players. And nobody has gotten more bad criticism as of late than Kyrie. Let&rsquo;s use Kyrie Irving as an example.
"Kyrie just opted in for $37 million, and guess what? When he&rsquo;s a free agent next year, somebody else is going to give him a big contract. Might be Brooklyn, might not be. But somebody is going to give Kyrie some more paper to play."
Etan: You don&rsquo;t think the narrative that has been repeated by those like Stephen A. Smith and those of that ilk has hurt the entire image of Kyrie? Going from this past year, let&rsquo;s examine why he was sitting out. During the pandemic and he didn&rsquo;t want to take the vaccine. He was uncomfortable with the vaccine, which a large portion of the country was as well. I had a different conclusion than he had, but I respect his conclusion. Everybody was ok with it until... he started missing games. Then it was like, 'Wait a minute now, we can&rsquo;t have this.' Then, you had Stephen A Smith saying, 'Oh he doesn&rsquo;t want to play, oh he doesn&rsquo;t respect the game,' and that started creating a narrative where the entire pendulum started to shift completely on Kyrie. 
Aldridge: "Do you believe Etan, if I say I can agree with you on Stephen A. Smith voicing his opinion, do you think nobody on the Brooklyn Nets had the same opinion? Do you think the Brooklyn Nets were saying to themselves, 'Yeah, we would love for Kyrie to play, but we respect his position on the vaccine?'"
Etan: But nobody on the Brooklyn Nets was carrying the narrative publicly that he was abandoning his team. So once you have a Stephen A. Smith, who says that repeatedly, then you have journalists who start repeating what Stephen A Smith said in their articles. Then, you have an entire narrative that permeates throughout the entire country.
Aldridge: "Etan, I will humbly submit to you that there were a lot of people within the Brooklyn organization who had the exact same position."
Etan: I&rsquo;m not talking about that, I&rsquo;m saying they weren&rsquo;t saying it publicly.
Aldridge: "Their focus was they needed Kyrie to win. They were trying to win championships."
Etan: Of course. 
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Kyrie Irving is 100% correct and spot on with this and the media members who fall into this category will be quick to take offense because they know it applies directly to them <a href="https://t.co/ItgLF5N0eg">https://t.co/ItgLF5N0eg</a>
&mdash; Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) <a href="https://twitter.com/etanthomas36/status/1520000279747387392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Aldridge: "Okay, so that&rsquo;s my point. They didn&rsquo;t want to say it publicly, but that didn&rsquo;t mean they didn&rsquo;t have the opinion. The inference is that only journalists had this opinion (and that) not a lot of people had this opinion. (The talking heads) said it (publicly), yes, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean that other people didn&rsquo;t have the same opinion."
Spears: "A lot of people had the same opinion, I just think Stephen A. was just probably loudest with it."
Aldridge: "So if lots of people had the same opinion..."
Etan: I think you&rsquo;re still discounting the power of the pen, whether it&rsquo;s the power of the pen or the microphone that Stephen A. Smith and those of that ilk have. There is power in it, so when you repeat something over and over again, there is power in it.
Aldridge: "Okay there&rsquo;s power in it; I&rsquo;m saying the impact of the power I believe is far less. And look, we all love sports &mdash; we all make our living in sports, all of us love writing, talking, thinking about sports, we&rsquo;re all fans of sports. But, it&rsquo;s not the same... I don&rsquo;t believe the power of say, the political media, the political press to shape agendas, whereas a legacy media like the New York Times has an outsized influence on the way the rest of the political press covers things, because people still read the New York Times everyday.
"That&rsquo;s way different than, I would suggest, any talking head on one of the sports debate shows. Do they have influence? Yes. Do they have some ephemeral type of power and influence over a certain segment of the population? I would agree. I would again say, 'What is the impact of that power on a player?' I would say, 'Does it help shape perception of a player?' Yes it does. I would agree with you. It does help shape perception of a player."
Etan: But you don&rsquo;t think the perception of a player has any impact on a GM, or a President or a team? That&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;re telling me?
Aldridge: "I would ask you, if you were talking about who has the worst reputation in pro basketball right now &mdash; I don&rsquo;t have an answer, I&rsquo;m asking you. Based on the 'media&rsquo;s' shaping of their perception, who has the worst reputation right now? Kyrie? Maybe it&rsquo;s Kyrie. Let&rsquo;s say for the sake of the discussion it&rsquo;s Kyrie Irving, because of people have killing him because of the vaccine and a lot of other things.
"Let&rsquo;s just say Kyrie has the worst reputation right now in the NBA. He&rsquo;s going to be a free agent next year. I defy you to tell me that he&rsquo;s not going to get paid next year, regardless of this perception of him. If you&rsquo;re gonna tell me that Kyrie is going to have to take the minimum next year, I would tell you that you are incorrect. Kyrie will not be playing for the minimum."
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Etan: That's fair enough, but if you tell me that if he was an unrestricted free agent this year and the narrative that has been created around him wouldn&rsquo;t have impacted what teams sign him for, I would have to respectfully disagree.
Spears: "If he can play, he can play and will get paid period."
Aldridge: "Talent wins out Etan, you know that."
Etan: But listen, Stephen A. Smith has been drumming, 'Only sign him for a year, one year contract, don&rsquo;t sign him long-term, teams beware,' etc. So you&rsquo;re gonna tell me that if Kyrie was an unrestricted free agent after hearing this (hot take) constantly from people like Stephen A Smith, that teams would not be a little more hesitant to sign him for a long-term deal than they would for a year? (Which Stephen A. Smith has been repeating over and over and over again.) That&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;re telling me? It would have no effect whatsoever?
Aldridge: "At some point Etan, the player has to have some responsibility. Yes, it&rsquo;s the vaccine this time, and I&rsquo;m not questioning his motivation or reasoning, but let&rsquo;s be honest: He took off games the year before. He just took games off. Now, maybe he needed to; I&rsquo;m not saying he&rsquo;s wrong to do it. I&rsquo;m just saying in the middle of the season, he said, 'I need to take a few games off.' Okay, that&rsquo;s fine, but there is impact with that Etan."
Etan: But you do understand the double-edged sword here when you have an NBA who is embracing mental health in certain aspects&nbsp;
Aldridge: "I&rsquo;m not saying he was wrong to do it."
Etan: But this is what I&rsquo;m saying: There&rsquo;s a narrative that is created by the media. If the narrative created was that Kyrie was a champion for mental health, and why it&rsquo;s so important to take care of your mental health to continue the longevity of your (career)... if that whole narrative was pushed that way, then the entire perception would&rsquo;ve been different around the games that he took off because he said he needed a break.
Aldridge: "But it works both ways Etan. When Kyrie said that we shouldn&rsquo;t go to the (Orlando) Bubble, I think a lot of people in the media applauded him for that. A lot of journalists applauded him for thinking about something other than basketball. He was saying we should use this platform that we have in the wake of George Floyd, maybe we should use that for something else other than playing games. Now, I&rsquo;m not saying that everyone agreed with that, but a lot of people in 'the media' as you put it, applauded him."
Etan: But also, a lot of people in the media &mdash; and I actually <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-boycott-stephen-a-smith-espn-etan-thomas-protest-kyrie-irving-avery-bradley-dwight-howard-charles-barkley" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote about this</a> &mdash; but a lot of media talking heads called Kyrie dumb (and) said it was the stupidest thing they ever heard. And this is exactly what the players' issue is when they say 'new media/old media. It&rsquo;s the specific language that is used in order to critique someone.
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The Athletic's David Aldridge and Andscape's Marc Spears and Etan Thomas on the media's perception of Kyrie Irving and its effect.

David Aldridge, Marc Spears, Etan Thomas on Kyrie Irving's demonization

The NBA sent four teams home from its Play-In Tournament after Friday night, but all four are poised to contend next season.
Though the Charlotte Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs exited early, their trio of All-Star guards and exciting young cores mean all three should be back in the hunt &mdash; provided they beef up their rosters in the offseason. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers weren't supposed to make it this far without their franchise cornerstones; that only creates more buzz surrounding a 2022-23 championship contender.
What can these franchises do this offseason to set themselves up for success? I've written up some summer plans for all four squads, including draft assets (via Tankathon), potential free agents (via Spotrac) and a central team-building question (via my deranged mind). If you missed last week, I did the same for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/summer-plans-for-the-nbas-nonplayoff-teams" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10 teams who did not crack the NBA postseason</a>.
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Let's dive in.
CHARLOTTE HORNETS
Draft assets:&nbsp;First-round pick, First-round pick via Pelicans, Second-round pick, Second-round pick via Toronto (if 55-60)
Potential free agents:&nbsp;Montrezl Harrell, Isaiah Thomas, Miles Bridges (restricted), Cody Martin (restricted), Arnoldas Kulboka (restricted), Scottie Lewis (restricted)
Central question:&nbsp;How can the Hornets construct an interior defense?
Charlotte's bottom-10 defense doomed the franchise several times in the regular season and, ultimately, in the Play-In loss to Atlanta. The Hornets gave up boatloads of at-rim attempts and three-pointers, and simply looked like turnstiles at times. Improvement is necessary across the board, but an on-paper view highlights a clear need for upgrades inside.
Mason Plumlee is a fine basketball player, but he's not anchoring a high-level NBA defense. Neither is Montrezl Harrell, and 2021 first-round pick Kai Jones barely touched the floor in Charlotte. The Hornets don't have a whole lot of salary flexibility with big-money deals in place for Gordon Hayward and Terry Rozier. Miles Bridges' restricted free agency is also a key offseason focal point.&nbsp;
Though the Hornets likely can't throw outright money at a Deandre Ayton-level restricted free agent, perhaps they could work a sign-and-trade for a lesser-known young talent. Maybe Mo Bamba fits the bill from Orlando? Charlotte was tied to trade rumors surrounding Myles Turner before the trade deadline, and the front office could also elect to sign a veteran at a mid-level exception.
Regardless of the pathway, the Hornets have needed to address the center position for years now. With a playoff leap now the expectation in 2022-23, they can't afford to let another summer slip away.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
Draft assets:&nbsp;First-round pick, Second-round pick via Spurs, Second-round pick via Heat
Potential free agents:&nbsp;Ed Davis, Rajon Rondo, Brandon Goodwin, Collin Sexton (restricted), Moses Brown (restricted), RJ Nembhard (restricted), Dean Wade (team option)
Central question:&nbsp;What is Collin Sexton's future in Cleveland?
The Cavaliers may have slid out of the playoffs, but this was a banner year for the franchise's long-term trajectory. Darius Garland emerged as a cornerstone point guard, Evan Mobley might win Rookie of the Year, and the frontcourt pairing with Jarrett Allen looks to be a mainstay in the Eastern Conference. Injuries ultimately derailed what was a top-four seed. Most of the rotation is under contract and under 30, hinting at continued growth.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Darius Garland -&gt; Jarrett Allen -&gt; Evan Mobley (Lob) <a href="https://t.co/nDQz7tkxbs">pic.twitter.com/nDQz7tkxbs</a>
&mdash; Jackson Lloyd (@JacksonLloydNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/JacksonLloydNBA/status/1515354588353728522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2022</a></blockquote>

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This seaon's leap makes the situation with Sexton... difficult. Let's not forget that the combo guard is a season removed from a 24-point-per-game season as an efficient primary scorer, and that the Cavs were 19th in Offensive Rating this year. Sexton can meaningfully boost Cleveland simply as a bucket-getter, nevermind if he keeps improving as a playmaker.
What kind of contract do the Cavs offer to a 23-year-old who missed nearly a full season with a knee injury though? If a desperate team decides to throw money at Sexton to force the franchise to match, is there a limit to the front office's willingness? What would an extension mean for Isaac Okoro and Caris LeVert?&nbsp;
Sexton is one of the biggest dominoes in the upcoming offseason, and arguably the most unpredictable.
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
Draft assets:&nbsp;Second-round pick
Potential free agents: Robert Covington, Rodney Hood, Isaiah Hartenstein, Amir Coffey (restricted), Xavier Moon (restricted), Ivica Zubac (team option), Nic Batum (player option)
Central question:&nbsp;What does a fully-healthy 10-man rotation look like?
Nobody expected the Clippers to be a playoff contender without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, and they still almost cracked the postseason with the supporting cast chipping in. L.A. made a splash at the trade deadline by adding Norman Powell and Robert Covington, two players who conceivably make sense next to the franchise's two stars.
This roster is deep. It's a great problem to have, but it's still a problem with several rotation options potentially hitting free agency. Covington will likely command a solid new deal as one of the league's more reliable two-way complements, and Batum could easily decline his $3.3 million team option in search of a raise. Ivica Zubac and Isaiah Hartenstein may both hit free agency; what would happen to the center rotation in that case?
The Clippers have Leonard, George, Powell, Reggie Jackson, Luke Kennard, Terance Mann and Marcus Morris locked down for next season. That's already seven rotation-caliber players, and it doesn't account for leaps from young talents like Brandon Boston Jr., Jason Preston or Amir Coffey. A roster crunch is inbound, and the organization can't let a quality addition slip away as it positions itself for title contention next season.
SAN ANTONIO SPURS
Draft assets:&nbsp;First-round pick, first-round pick via Raptors, first-round pick via Celtics, second-round pick via Lakers
Potential free agents:&nbsp;Lonnie Walker IV (restricted), Devontae Cacok (restricted), Joe Wieskamp (restricted), DJ Stewart Jr. (restricted), Robert Woodard II (restricted)
Central question:&nbsp;How do the Spurs toe the line between developmental patience and consolidation?
San Antonio valiantly fought to get to the Play-In Tournament before losing to New Orleans, but also had one of the more underrated developmental seasons across the roster. Dejounte Murray made his All-Star leap and Jakob Poeltl established himself as <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/jakob-poeltl-san-antonios-newest-watchful-protector" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one of the league's better rim-protectors</a>; the Spurs collectively were just a tick under league-average on both ends of the floor, per Cleaning the Glass.
One of the NBA's youngest rosters is well on track and about to receive another influx of potential. San Antonio could use its three first-rounders (including its own lottery pick) to add to the frontcourt or find another lead guard. However, the Spurs already have 12 players locked down for next season under at least partial guarantees, and 11 of them are under 30. They have a pathway to over $24 million in salary cap space this summer should they move on from restricted free agents like Walker.&nbsp;
There's an avenue, with draft picks, young players and cap space, for San Antonio to make a serious splash. Is that in the programming for this franchise, though? San Antonio hasn't acquired a star via trade in several years, unless you want to count adding DeMar DeRozan in the Kawhi Leonard blockbuster. At the same time, there are only so many minutes to go around for the young guns, especially if the Spurs think they can compete for the playoffs.
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Ethan Fuller sets the stage for the NBA's four Play-In exits approaching the offseason.

Summer plans for the Spurs, Hornets, Cavaliers and Clippers

Desmond Bane scored 30 points, hitting 12 of 15 shots, and the Memphis Grizzlies built a big lead early before coasting to a 133-103 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night to clinch a spot in the playoffs.
Jaren Jackson Jr. finished with 20 points, going 7 of 13 from the field, as the Grizzlies shot 54%. De&rsquo;Anthony Melton added 19 and John Konchar matched his career high with 18. Bane was 5 of 7 from outside the arc as Memphis made a season-high 21 3-pointers.
Before the game, Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins announced that leading scorer Ja Morant would miss the next two weeks with right knee soreness. Morant sat out the previous two games after tweaking the knee in Memphis&rsquo; loss to Atlanta last Friday.
But the Grizzlies were sharp again without their All-Star, just as they were in a 132-120 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday, and became the second team to lock up a spot in the postseason.
With Memphis leading 107-71 entering the fourth, the Grizzlies reserves finished up the game.
Lance Stephenson led the Pacers with 25 points, while Terry Taylor had 17. Goga Bitadze finished with 14.
Besides Morant, the Grizzles were also without Dillon Brooks, who rested his left ankle, and Brandon Clarke (left hip soreness.)
Indiana also was playing the second consecutive night after a last-second loss to Sacramento. Like Memphis, the Pacers had multiple players out. Additionally, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle missed the game for personal reasons.
As they did against Brooklyn on Wednesday night, the Grizzlies surpassed 70 points in the first half, taking a 74-48 lead into the locker room. Bane had 23 points, missing only one of his shots in the half, going 5 of 6 from outside the arc.
The Grizzlies opened the second half on a 10-0 run and Memphis had its seventh win in the last eight.
TIP-INS
Pacers: Lloyd Pierce served as acting coach with Carlisle absent. &hellip; G Malcolm Brogdon missed his third game with rest. &hellip; Bitadze has reached double figures in seven straight. &hellip; Duane Washington Jr., who turned 22 on Thursday, finished with four points. &hellip; Indiana is 9-28 on the road.
Grizzlies: Memphis outscored the Pacers 44-23 in the first quarter, matching its most points in a quarter this season. &hellip; The 10 3-pointers in the first quarter were a franchise record. &hellip; Memphis is 7-1 against the Central Division. Its only loss was to the Milwaukee Bucks, whom Memphis plays Saturday night. &hellip; C Steven Adams had 17 rebounds, nine of them off the offensive glass.
UP NEXT
Pacers: Travel to Toronto to face the Raptors on Saturday.
Grizzlies: Continue a four-game homestand Saturday against Milwaukee.

The Grizzlies built a big lead early before coasting to a 133-103 victory to clinch a spot in the NBA postseason.

Bane has 30, Jackson Jr. 20 as Grizzlies rout Pacers 133-103 for playoff spot

From a mid-season blockbuster swap involving two disgruntled stars, to rumors that a former No. 1 overall pick wants a change of scenery in only his third season, the topic of player empowerment is front and center in the NBA. &nbsp;
Superstars wanting off their team isn't a new concept. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar forced a trade from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1975. In recent years, superstars demanding to be dealt is so common that the term &ldquo;player empowerment&rdquo; established itself in our NBA lexicon.&nbsp;
But this season feels different, in that it is rife with unique trade demands. Like Ben Simmons' refusal to play a single minute for the Philadelphia 76ers while requesting a trade, with a whopping four years left on his contract. Or James Harden asking off of his second team in as many years. Even the Zion Williamson situation &mdash; rumored to be disgruntled in New Orleans after playing a total of 85 games &mdash; is unprecedented. With every new trade demand, it feels like stars are pushing the limits and boundaries of player empowerment.
Either the NBA's Mercury is in retrograde or we&rsquo;re witnessing the dawn of a new era.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Player empowerment&rdquo; was popularized in 2010 after LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh conspired to play with each other in Miami. Suddenly, players realized they could control their own destiny and team up to form super-teams.
Since then, player empowerment has largely come to mean trade demands from superstars. &nbsp;&nbsp;
Many executives have decried it as ruining the league's parity and even the sanctity of the game. &nbsp;
"Player empowerment is a catchall for the fact that the league has done a terrible job of empowering teams, the players have all of the leverage in every situation. I think it's the worst thing that ever happened to professional sports on all levels," an anonymous NBA general manager <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/06/07/lebron-james-agent-is-transforming-the-business-of-basketball" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Isaac Chotiner of The New Yorker</a>.&nbsp;
Many fans view it as a win for laborers.&nbsp;
The NBA is, after all, the most progressive sports league. However, without even touching the racial undertones that weave throughout the narrative about the league, it is easy to see why the masses support the players. Fans have watched players lose the battle over the means of production &mdash; from owning 57% of league revenue in 2005 down to only 50% today &mdash; so witnessing players gain autonomy over their playing career by stripping control from owners is celebrated as a nice consolation prize.&nbsp;
As we become inundated with debate over the merits of player empowerment, we&rsquo;ve seemed to skip over what the term actually means and how it actualizes itself in the league.&nbsp;
There is no denying that some players have power and some of those players have controlled the make-up of the league for over a decade. The issue is that player empowerment is a term that poses as the league's players uniting, but instead, it is merely a select few exercising their power over everyone else.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s break this down.&nbsp;
Were the Los Angeles Lakers' young core of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart empowered when Anthony Davis forced his way to Los Angeles? Not likely.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s also impossible to imagine all six of Jarrett Allen (Brooklyn to Cleveland), Taurean Prince (Brooklyn to Cleveland), Caris LeVert (Brooklyn to Indiana), Rodions Kurucs (Brooklyn to Houston), Dante Exum (Cleveland to Houston) and Victor Oladipo (Indiana to Houston) felt empowered after being forced to uproot themselves midseason during a pandemic because Harden wanted to join the Nets.&nbsp;
Framing the whims of a small few that can disrupt the lives of many as player empowerment feels disingenuous. A better term would be &ldquo;superstar entitlement.&rdquo;&nbsp;
With the knowledge that player empowerment really means superstar entitlement, it&rsquo;s easy to understand how empowerment stories are often framed as prima donnas throwing tantrums until they get their way.
But maybe it should be framed as superstars earning power through loss of salary.&nbsp;
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With the advent of max salaries, stars are never fairly compensated. The bigger and brighter the star shines, the more they lose out &mdash; with their play forever eclipsing the money they make. Ergo, player empowerment is less about empowering all or even most players and more about compensating superstars in a salary-cap league.&nbsp;
Heliocentric is another popular term in our NBA vernacular; we&rsquo;ve heard the term &ldquo;heliocentric offense,&rdquo; and we&rsquo;ve heard stars described as heliocentric. But it&rsquo;s also a term that can refer to the league itself.&nbsp;
To briefly go back to the 1500s and Copernicus &mdash; heliocentrism is a cosmological theory that the Earth and planets revolve around the sun. And in the NBA, everything revolves around certain stars. The bigger and brighter the star, the stronger their gravitational pull &mdash; the LeBronicus Theory, if you will.&nbsp;
Superstars wield more power than ever. They influence nearly every aspect of an organization &mdash; from coaching hirings and firings, to player personnel and roster construction.
The Harden-for-Simmons swap is an interesting case to dissect, because it centers around two stars whom everything doesn&rsquo;t revolve around.&nbsp;
On one side, there&rsquo;s Harden, whose status as a heliocentric star diminished as soon as he left Houston for Brooklyn. And on the other side is Simmons, a player who could never cement himself into anything more than a secondary star in Philadelphia.
Though both players had leverage, Harden had more because of the status of his contract. Neither were in a place to force their teams to bend to their will &mdash; at least not in the same way Harden was able to back when he told Houston they had a problem.&nbsp;
In Brooklyn, Harden <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33259122/james-harden-wants-trade-philadelphia-76ers-formally-request-deal-due-concern-public-backlash-sources-say" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly never voiced his desire to leave</a>, and 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey threatened to hold out on trading Simmons for the duration of his contract.
&nbsp;"You're going to think I'm kidding, I'm not. This could [go on for] four years... We're in the prime of Joel's career... Either Ben Simmons is playing for us, or we have to get back a difference-maker," Morey said.
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Morey on his timeline: "You're going to think I'm kidding, I'm not. This could (go on for) 4 years. ... We're in the prime of Joel's career...Either Ben Simmons is playing for us, or we have to get back a difference maker."
&mdash; Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/DerekBodnerNBA/status/1451288448875343872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 21, 2021</a></blockquote>

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It wasn't Simmons' refusal to play games or Harden&rsquo;s pouting that forced their teams&rsquo; hands.&nbsp; It was that Embiid&rsquo;s play pressured Morey to make a deal, and Kevin Durant <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2953512-inside-kevin-durants-role-in-brooklyn-nets-james-harden-trade" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly wanted one too</a>.&nbsp;
Ultimately, the deal came down to what was best for the biggest stars. While James and Ben were the players who used their leverage to request out, Durant and Embiid &mdash; being the heliocentric star of their respective teams &mdash; made the final call.&nbsp;
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What Harden lost in star power in moving to Brooklyn, KD gained by doing the same. Though Durant&rsquo;s play has always been stellar, it&rsquo;s clear he has more power within the Nets' organization than he did with the Warriors. It was Durant, after all, who <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2953512-inside-kevin-durants-role-in-brooklyn-nets-james-harden-trade" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly requested Kyrie Irving be allowed to play road games</a> despite <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nets-say-kyrie-irving-cant-play-or-practice-with-team-while-unvaccinated" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the stance Sean Marks and the Nets took</a> earlier in the season.&nbsp;
Who has power and how much they have is determined by a number of variables, like their standing in the league, their standing on their team, their health, the length of their contract and market size, etc. And this list of powerful players is still arguably fewer than 10 names long in any given season (with some variance).
The variables at play that make Durant&rsquo;s star shine brighter with the Nets than with the Warriors are as simple as the fact that there's another superstar in Golden State &mdash; and he was there first and couldn&rsquo;t be eclipsed.
Of course there are titans like LeBron James, who can completely shift the paradigm of the league with a flippant comment &mdash; like over All-Star Weekend when he hinted at a possible return to Cleveland.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The door&rsquo;s not closed on that&hellip; &nbsp;I&rsquo;m not saying I&rsquo;m coming back and playing, I don&rsquo;t know. I don&rsquo;t know what my future holds. I don&rsquo;t even know when I&rsquo;m free.&rdquo; James <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/lebron-james-on-cleveland-return-the-doors-not-closed-on-that" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Athletic</a>.
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LeBron is back in Cleveland this weekend. His picture is on the building again. At first he said he hasn&rsquo;t thought about returning to play for the Cavs, but then we kept talking. &ldquo;The door&rsquo;s not closed on that,&rdquo; he said. LeBron had a lot to say today. <a href="https://t.co/cdg8RIoxZb">https://t.co/cdg8RIoxZb</a>
&mdash; Jason Lloyd (@ByJasonLloyd) <a href="https://twitter.com/ByJasonLloyd/status/1495148179410591745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2022</a></blockquote>

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LeBron&rsquo;s comments dominated the news cycle over the league&rsquo;s busiest weekend, and that's in large part because he will be a free agent in 2023. James signs short-term deals to maximize his leverage even though it means leaving long-term NBA money on the table.
Player empowerment isn&rsquo;t limited to team decisions &mdash; the NBPA also caters to the stars. With recent negotiations featuring superstars at the helm, contract negotiations often prioritize their needs.&nbsp;
Take for example the 2017 CBA. Superstar and NBPA president Chris Paul managed to help push forward the NBA supermax deal, given to players who have either won an MVP award, a Defensive Player of the Year award or earned an All-NBA selection in the previous season &mdash; or two of the previous three. The NBA supermax allows these stars to earn massive five-year deals with a starting salary of up to 35% of the cap.
Paul also helped change the "over-36" rule that prevented players from signing multi-year deals if they are to turn 36 or older over the course of the contract to "over-38." Not lost on anyone, Paul was set to be a free agent the summer of 2017, and pushing the rule back two years would have positively affected how much and how long he could have signed for.&nbsp;
In any collective bargaining, there&rsquo;s a give and a take &mdash; so both parties can walk away feeling like winners. So as collective bargaining agreements continue to reward those at the top, that leaves little for the rest.&nbsp;
Now, let's take a look at punishments. More often than not, disciplinary action comes in the form of fines. Technical fouls, for example, come with a fine of $2,000 for a player&rsquo;s first five offenses.&nbsp;
On Jan. 25 this season, the Sixers faced the New Orleans Pelicans. Embiid and rookie Jose Alvarado got into it and were each assessed technical fouls. That means Alvarado, who earns $462,629 this season, and Embiid, who's making $31.58 million, are meant to pay the same amount. Though Embiid generously offered to cover the fine for Alvarado, the benevolence of stars shouldn&rsquo;t make up for this obvious imbalance.&nbsp;
Fines are meant to disincentivize players from committing offenses, but when by setting these as a specific dollar amount as opposed to a percentage of their salary, they disproportionately&nbsp;hurt the lowest earners. And consequently, they allow the elite to do as they please.&nbsp;
Calling out NBA officials comes with a hefty $25,000 fine &mdash; this would be astronomical to rookies like Alvarado, but not to a superstar like Embiid who has been fined for doing just that. In Feb. 2019, Embiid told reporters the "referees f**king sucked" after a missed call in a close loss to the Boston Celtics. Though the fine undoubtedly hurt his pocketbook, it was a calculated risk he and other high earners like him have the freedom of taking.&nbsp;
From afar, superstar entitlement looks like stars picking their teams; a closer look unveils real inequities like financial penalties and disproportionate representation at the top of the players' union. A more granular look reveals that every scenario and every superstar is unique.&nbsp;
There is, however, one constant amidst the chaos in understanding power dynamics in the league, and that&rsquo;s team control. The NBA draft, rookie contracts, restricted free agency and good old-fashioned trades are just some of the ways in which teams have maintained ultimate control. The difference is when teams wield their power, it&rsquo;s not much of a news story.
We clutch our pearls at Kawhi Leonard demanding a trade but not at the Raptors for sending out DeMar DeRozan. We expect teams to make moves to better their situation, yet players who have become brands in their own right aren&rsquo;t given the freedom to do the same.&nbsp;
Any team would be over the moon to have a superstar play for them &mdash; we recognize this and they recognize this. So, they aren&rsquo;t going to sit back and wish upon a star for a trade. They ask, and if they're good enough, teams will acquiesce. It is a star-driven league, after all. So, we can&rsquo;t be surprised at who's steering the ship. And I&rsquo;d argue it&rsquo;s high time for the rest of the league to just grab on to their seats and hold on, because the era of player empowerment has only started taking off.&nbsp;
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Imman Adan details what "player empowerment" in the NBA truly entails and how it's been framed incorrectly.

The truth about 'player empowerment' in the NBA

During halftime of the 2022 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland, the NBA honored the legends who are part of 75th-anniversary team.
Following that ceremony, Shaquille O'Neal gave an emotional speech thanking the individuals who helped him become one of the greatest centers in NBA history. He thanked a number of all-time greats including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julius "Dr. J" Erving, Magic Johnson, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Jerry West and Kobe Bryant.
Here's a transcription of Shaq's moving speech (or you can watch the video below):
"My speech is going to be a little lengthy," O'Neal said. "I'd like to thank Sgt. Phillip Arthur Harrison. He's the guy who told me that one day, I would be here. I was a medium-level, high-level juvenile delinquent. I was always told that I would never, ever, ever make it. He convinced me to do well in school &mdash; doing well in school for me was all Cs. I get all Cs and he takes me to Madison Square Garden, and [I see] Dr. J go baseline and throw it down and the crowd goes crazy. I looked at him and said, 'Sir, this is what I want to be when I grow up.' His exact words were, 'If you listen to me, I'll make you one of the most dominant big men ever.' And he named Bill Russell and he named Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] and he named Wilt Chamberlain. And I never knew those names. I knew Dr. J because prior to that, there was a movie called 'The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh' and I watched that. I got in trouble in high school for trying to be like Dr. J. and my father said, 'No, I need you to be a big man.'
"So here comes another big man, and he's 6-foot-9, flashy, hip-hop and has style: Magic Johnson. I wanted to be like Magic Johnson. I want to thank another guy: Mitch Riles. We played in Germany together [as kids] and he was a white guy; he loved [Larry] Bird, I loved Magic, and we used to have seven-game series every day. We used to fight. I'd also like to thank Floyd McMerchy because when I didn't make the varsity team, he helped me. Then, Dale Brown comes along and everyone knows that story, but when I get to San Antonio, that's the guy [who recruited me to LSU]. I'm the best big man in the city and then there's another guy, David Robinson, who comes to town and I go watch him play and I say, 'Oh my God, I'm not that good!' In high school, you know, [we're] 36-0 and I'm averaging 40 and 22, but I see David Robinson and I go, 'Oh my God, I'm not that good.' I wanted to be like Patrick Ewing.
"I wanted to be like all of these guys, and I'm sitting there in the [75th anniversary] photoshoot like, 'Oh my God, there's Dr. J! There's Magic! There's the great Charles Barkley!' Charles taught me how to be ferocious and not give a damn what anybody said. Throw them bows, knock some teeth out! Once I saw Charles do that, I said, 'Okay... it's okay to be like this.' Jerry West helped me become that. When I first came to LA, I'll admit: I was all about my gold chains, I wanted to do movies, I wanted to do rap albums. He did one thing: He sat me down and the lights went off in The Forum and he said, 'Mr. O'Neal, when this is all said and done, you can be up there, and [the jerseys of] all of the greats [lit up]. Or, you could be a bust.' Because Jerry West told me that, I was like, 'You know what? I have big shoes to fill.'
"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar &mdash; I love the man to death, one of the best big men ever. I'm glad he didn't baby me; I'm glad he told me like it was. I read an article one day that still hurts my heart to this day: I'm averaging 29 and I'm doing my thing in LA, and they say, 'Hey, Shaq's one of the greatest big men.' And Kareem Abdul-Jabbar says, 'How great is he? He hasn't won a championship yet.' Instead of crying and complaining, [I got better]. All of those guys made me persevere&nbsp;and helped me get to this point. I'd like to thank the great Dr. Lucille O'Neal...
"I don't really get emotional, but it was a really emotional moment because [there are] all of these guys that are greater than me, and I can't believe I'm sitting next to them. Even when I look at myself play, I was not as good as Hakeem [Olajuwon]. I was not even as good as Chief (Robert Parish). I was not even as good as Bob McAdoo. But for the people who want to say, 'Shaquille O'Neal, you're great,' I didn't do it by myself. I did it with all of these guys, all of my teammates &mdash; Dennis Scott, Penny Hardaway...
"What really saddens me about today is that my father couldn't be there, my sister couldn't be there and my main man Kobe Bryant couldn't be there. That, like, really... Because a lot of people helped me get there, but those three [were big] &mdash; my dad pushing me, my little sister covering for me, and me and Kobe going back-and-forth and making each other great. It was a great moment for me and a great honor, and if I missed you in the thank you's, I apologize... But I want to thank everyone who helped me become who I am. I love you guys and I appreciate you very much."
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/SHAQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SHAQ</a> delivered a powerful, emotional tribute to all of those who inspired him to become one of the most dominant NBA big men ever. <a href="https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBAonTNT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBA75?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBA75</a> <a href="https://t.co/DzUgKkm0r6">pic.twitter.com/DzUgKkm0r6</a>
&mdash; TurnerSportsPR (@TurnerSportsPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/TurnerSportsPR/status/1495557464325984256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2022</a></blockquote>

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After Shaq finished, Ernie Johnson summed up what everyone was thinking: "Shaq, that's one of the greatest things I've ever heard."
O'Neal finished his career with four NBA championships, three Finals MVP awards, an NBA MVP award, 15 All-Star selections, 13 All-NBA selections, a Rookie of the Year award and two scoring titles. The Hall-of-Famer racked up 28,596 points (10th-most in NBA history), 13,099 rebounds (16th-most) and 2,732 blocks (9th-most) throughout his legendary career.

After the NBA honored the 75th-anniversary team, Shaquille O'Neal shouted out the people who helped him become an all-time great.

Shaq thanks Kareem, Dr. J, Magic, Barkley, more in passionate speech

According to multiple NBA sources, Klutch is not happy with [Lakers GM Rob] Pelinka. The sentiment has long percolated, but it reached a boil when Pelinka refused to trade [Russell] Westbrook and a future first-round pick (likely 2027) for Houston Rockets guard and Klutch client John Wall.
Source: <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2953708-lakers-need-to-figure-out-their-lebron-james-problem-sooner-than-you-think" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eric Pincus/Bleacher Report</a>
ANALYSIS:&nbsp;The Lakers did not make any moves at the 2022 trade deadline in a surprising turn of events. LeBron James recently spoke to James Lloyd of The Athletic&nbsp;and kept his options open ahead of 2023 free agency. James and Davis are both represented by Rich Paul and Klutch Sports. This could become a serious relationship to monitor as the Lakers continue to struggle.

The Lakers did not make any moves at the 2022 trade deadline in a surprising turn of events.

Rob Pelinka refused to trade Russell Westbrook, draft pick for John Wall

Kevin Love and Darius Garland scored 22 points apiece, and the Cleveland Cavaliers tied their franchise record with 46 points in the third quarter of a 144-99 rout over the COVID-19 depleted Toronto Raptors on Sunday night.
Lauri Markkanen added 20 points and Garland had eight assists for Cleveland, which led by 47 points twice late in the fourth. The Cavaliers won their fifth in a row at home and made 22 3-pointers in a team-record 52 attempts.
It was Cleveland&rsquo;s largest victory margin of the season and the first time Toronto has lost by more than 17 points in 2021-22. The Cavaliers had 39 assists, two shy of the most in the NBA this season.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re lucky to be in this position where we&rsquo;ve got such a good thing going on,&rdquo; Markkanen said. &ldquo;We play hard and we play unselfish basketball. Once we brought the energy we needed, the floodgates just kind of opened up after that.&rdquo;
Yuta Watanabe posted career highs of 26 points and 13 rebounds for Toronto, and Chris Boucher scored 21 points. The Raptors have 10 players in the NBA&rsquo;s health and safety protocols, including top scorer Fred VanVleet, rookie Scottie Barnes and Pascal Siakam.
&ldquo;We had to take a pretty good loss tonight, but we&rsquo;ll bounce back,&rdquo; Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. &ldquo;It was a good game for Yuta, and that&rsquo;s about it.&rdquo;
Toronto&rsquo;s eight-man active roster &mdash; featuring four hardship signees &mdash; had never been together until holding a brief practice on the main court at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse before the game. D.J. Wilson had 15 points and eight rebounds in his team debut.
&ldquo;We met those guys on the bus on the way to the arena,&rdquo; Watanabe said. &ldquo;Because we weren&rsquo;t permitted to do anything together the last few days, I spent a lot of time in the gym by myself putting up shots. That&rsquo;s all you could do.&rdquo;
The Raptors&rsquo; previous two games were postponed when they could not suit up the required eight players. Boucher, Watanabe, Svi Mykhailiuk and Dalano Banton were the only holdovers from their pre-outbreak squad.
Denzel Valentine had 17 points and nine rebounds, Dean Wade scored 17 points, and Ricky Rubio had 16 points and six assists for Cleveland. Love grabbed nine boards and Tacko Fall had three points and seven rebounds in 11 minutes off the bench.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a good thing going and I&rsquo;m having a lot of fun,&rdquo; Love said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be great watching this young team develop. We know we&rsquo;re going to get everyone&rsquo;s best shot at us going forward, so I hope 2022 is a year of growth.&rdquo;
Rookie Evan Mobley and center Jarrett Allen were among seven Cavaliers sidelined because of the safety protocols. Cleveland has the fifth-best record in the Eastern Conference at 20-13.
&ldquo;The Raptors came out and played hard, but as the game went on, we were more physical and that obviously took a toll on them,&rdquo; Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.
TIP-INS
Raptors: G Gary Trent Jr., F Precious Achiuwa, F OG Anunoby, C Khem Birch, F Isaac Bonga, F Justin Champagnie and G Malachi Flynn also are in the health and safety protocols. &hellip; G Goran Dragic (personal reasons) and G David Johnson (left calf strain) were officially active, but unavailable. &hellip; F D.J. Wilson, F Juwan Morgan, C Daniel Oturu and G Tremont Waters are on 10-day contracts via roster exceptions.
Cavaliers: G Isaac Okoro missed his third straight game as he works on his conditioning after being cleared from the safety protocols. &hellip; F Cedi Osman was added to the protocols earlier in the day, joining C Ed Davis, G RJ Nembhard, G Lamar Stevens and F Dylan Windler. &hellip; Cleveland leads the East and ranks third in the NBA with 15 double-digit victories. The Cavaliers&rsquo; last 11 wins have been by at least 10 points.
CHRISTMAS GIFT
Bickerstaff, who was promoted to the job on Feb. 19, 2020, signed a multi-year contract extension on Saturday morning. The son of longtime NBA coach and current Cleveland senior advisor Bernie Bickerstaff took over a team in disarray following the resignation of John Beilein. &ldquo;If you look at our roster, we&rsquo;ve got guys locked in here for a long time,&rdquo; said Bickerstaff, who is 47-69 with the Cavaliers. &ldquo;Now, with this coaching staff, we&rsquo;re locked in for a long time, too.&rdquo;
UP NEXT
Raptors: Host Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
Cavaliers: Visit New Orleans on Tuesday night.

The Cavaliers tied their franchise record with 46 points in the third quarter of a 144-99 rout over the depleted Raptors.

Love, Garland score 22 as Cavs rout depleted Raptors 144-99

Stephen Curry hears the roaring crowds everywhere he travels these days.
His pursuit of the NBA's career 3-point record has created warm and fuzzy environments for the Golden State Warriors at each stop. Fans want to see history, and they want to see the 33-year-old Curry break Ray Allen's career 3-point record in person.
Yet among those he calls friends and foes around the league, Curry knows there's a very different feeling. They want to challenge the soon-to-be 3-point king.
&ldquo;Yeah, you hear a little bit of everything," Curry said after Monday's 102-100 victory at Indiana. &ldquo;I saw what Joel (Embiid) said the other day in his postgame. I know teams are coming out and making sure it's not going to happen against them, especially when it's 16 or 10 or seven. But I won't get this again, and once you get over the mountaintop, it's just how far you can push it."
Opponents have delayed Curry's quest about as long as possible.
After making five 3s, scoring 26 points and rallying the Warriors to a victory Monday, Curry needs one more 3 to tie Allen's mark of 2,973, and two to surpass on the grand stage of Madison Square Garden. Ticket prices have reportedly quadrupled on the secondary market, and Reggie Miller, who held the record until Allen broke it in February 2011, is expected to call the game for TNT.
But reaching this point seemed unlikely when critics deemed the 6-foot-2 college star as a shooting guard trapped in a point guard's body. They questioned his size, his shot selection, even whether he could make a successful transition from Davidson to the NBA.
Pacers assistant coach Lloyd Pierce got an up-close experience when he worked with Curry during his second pro season.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny when you were around him during that year there were some games he was like 1 for 10 or 1 for 11 and you know everyone that goes up looks good,&rdquo; Pierce said. &ldquo;He liked to shoot on the gun back then and I was like, &lsquo;What are you doing, you&rsquo;re just coming into the league. You need bodies on you, you need to work.&rsquo; That was one thing we did, was always have a body on him.&rdquo;
Curry wasn't like anyone else, though.
Nobody could match his prolific shooting beyond the arc and Curry spawned imitators leaguewide as teams relied on analytics that suggested they would score more points if they attempted more 3s instead of long 2s. Curry starts Tuesday night with 6,889 career 3-point attempts compared with 6,935 2-pointers.
Brooklyn's James Harden is second among active players and fourth all-time with 2,509 3s, and 13 of the top 30 players on the 3-point list are still active.
It took Miller 1,389 games to set the NBA record of 2,560. Allen needed 309 fewer games to pass Miller, and now Curry is on the precipice after playing 788 career games.
But even Warriors coach Steve Kerr can see it's taking a toll and All-Star forward Draymond Green is hoping the record-breaker comes quickly Tuesday night so things can get back to normal.
&ldquo;Everybody wants to see the record broken, so it&rsquo;s not just our fans," Green said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure it will be electric (in New York). Hopefully, he makes the first two 3s he shoots in the first quarter and then that&rsquo;s it."
Curry sure hasn't looked like his usually proficient self the last three games.
On Wednesday, Curry was 6 of 17 on 3s in his final home game before embarking on a five-game trip. He went 3 of 14 behind the arc in a rare loss Saturday to the 76ers and his brother, Seth. Then Monday, he was 5 of 15 with his last errant 3 leading to the winning putback &mdash; even though he didn't tie Allen.
&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s been trying a little bit too hard the last few games, just trying to make 3s and get to this record,&rdquo; Kerr said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be a relief for him, I think, and for our team when he does break it."
And for Curry, who said he wanted to play for the Knicks before Golden State took him No. 7 overall in 2009 long before he won two MVP Awards and three NBA titles in four years, it's an experience he wants to savor.
&ldquo;I appreciate it, it's a blessing to play at this level," he said. &ldquo;This is part of history and it's a different vibe when you're on the road and you get that kind of reaction. It's a special time."

Stephen Curry needs one more three to tie Allen's mark of 2,973, and two to surpass on the grand stage of Madison Square Garden.

Curry embracing roar of crowds in record-breaking quest

<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nothing-but-bets/id1589799249" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&ldquo;Nothing But Bets&rdquo;</a> is back to go over today&rsquo;s slate on a loaded Friday in the NBA. Every single day, &ldquo;Nothing But Bets&rdquo; gives you the inside advantage before games begin. So far this season, we are carrying a 120-94-2 record (56.0%) against the spread.
As always, our odds are provided by TwinSpires Sportsbook and over/under power-play prop bets are provided by <a href="https://www.prizepicks.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PrizePicks</a>.
It&rsquo;s hammering time!
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Detroit Pistons vs. Golden State Warriors (-2)
This spread is small, but the reason why is because the Warriors are giving Stephen Curry a well-deserved night off. Against the Pistons, it might not even matter if Curry sits. In this matchup, I still love hammering the lower point spread in favor of the Curry-less Warriors. Cade Cunningham could help keep this one close for a little bit, but expect Golden State to open the floodgates late, easily cruising to cover the 2-point spread in Detroit. On PrizePicks, tail me on this fun power play: Andrew Wiggins over 19.5 points, Jordan Poole over 19.5 points, Cade Cunningham over 14.5 points, Jerami Grant over 1.5 threes.
Charlotte Hornets (-1) vs. Indiana Pacers
I love this matchup in favor of the Hornets. Charlotte&rsquo;s pace-and-space style is a bad clash for Indiana, who continues to be so inconsistent opening up the 2021-22 season. Who exactly are the Pacers? Always dealing with injuries and not knowing what to expect almost every game, is it time to blow up some of this core? Personally, I think so. Stay tuned to <a href="http://BasketballNews.com">BasketballNews.com</a> next week on this, because my thoughts go very in-depth. In the meantime, hammer Hornets -1 and the following power play on PrizePicks: Malcolm Brogdon over 19.5 points, Miles Bridges over 18.5 points, Domantas Sabonis over 11.5 rebounds, LaMelo Ball over 6.5 assists.
Boston Celtics (-3) vs. Los Angeles Lakers
As long as LeBron James remains out, it&rsquo;s so hard to trust the Lakers from a betting perspective. In Boston, the same idea holds here because I'm actually wagering on Celtics -3 here. Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook should have solid outings, but I like a charged-up environment in Boston alongside a monster outing from Jayson Tatum pushing it in favor of the Celtics. On PrizePicks, we&rsquo;re locking in this power play to tail our prediction of Boston covering the 3-point spread: Tatum over 25.5 points, Davis over 19.5 points, Westbrook over 6.5 assists, Marcus Smart over 3.5 rebounds.
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Brooklyn Nets (-10) vs. Orlando Magic
No Kevin Durant, no problem for Brooklyn at home tonight against the Magic. Although Orlando continues to surprise on some nights, they tend to struggle mightily against the NBA&rsquo;s elite teams. Even without Durant, Brooklyn still qualifies thanks to a James Harden-centric system being put on display. Harden helps the Nets roll over Orlando, cruising to an easy double-digit victory. Smash the Nets to cover the 10-point spread, plus the following power-play prop on PrizePicks: Harden over 24.5 points, Cole Anthony over 17.5 points, Patty Mills over 13.5 points, Mo Bamba over 7.5 rebounds.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Los Angeles Clippers (-4)
New Orleans is well within the NBA&rsquo;s abyss right now. How exactly will they escape? It&rsquo;s almost impossible to see how they can, even when Zion Williamson eventually returns from the foot injury he suffered during the offseason. The Pelicans are well on their way to a top lottery pick, and <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/pelicans-exec-david-griffin-on-hot-seat-after-slow-start-altercation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the seat is now getting warm for GM David Griffin</a> in the Bayou. Griffin&rsquo;s work in New Orleans has been very up-and-down, bordering on potentially squandering a rebuild attempt around a generational talent. You have to wonder if Williamson starts to seriously consider leaving the Pelicans relatively soon as well. For this matchup, though, let&rsquo;s hammer the Clippers to cover the 4-point spread. Betting against the Pelicans right now is an easy money-making exercise, so let&rsquo;s keep riding that train. On PrizePicks, lock in this power play: Paul George over 25.5 points, Brandon Ingram over 20.5 points, Reggie Jackson over 17.5 points, Jonas Valanciunas over 11.5 rebounds.
Milwaukee Bucks (-13) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
What a massive spread for this matchup, but that&rsquo;s not scaring me off here. I&rsquo;m taking the Bucks to easily cover the 13-point spread, because the trend of Oklahoma City not being able to hang with top-tier teams still holds true. Milwaukee is finally getting back to full health, so expect their starting lineup to feast against the inexperienced Thunder. Hammer the Bucks to cover, plus project a monster performance once again from Giannis Antetokounmpo. Let&rsquo;s lock in this fun power play on PrizePicks as well: Giannis over 24.5 points, Khris Middleton over 16.5 points, Josh Giddey over 4.5 assists, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander over 4 rebounds.
Denver Nuggets (-1.5) vs. Chicago Bulls
This is going to be the most entertaining matchup for Friday&rsquo;s slate, so make sure to tune into this one in Denver. Nikola Jokic is playing even better than he was last season as MVP, which says a lot about how incredible he's been. Meanwhile, the Bulls&rsquo; offseason retooling is paying huge dividends right now with all of their new additions thriving alongside Zach LaVine. And once Nikola Vucevic is back in the starting lineup, Chicago will be even better. Although I&rsquo;m so tempted to bet on the underdog here, I&rsquo;m siding with Jokic and the Nuggets to get the job done covering the 1.5-point spread at home. On PrizePicks, this is one of my favorite power plays to tail: Zach LaVine over 23.5 points, DeMar DeRozan over 21.5 points, Aaron Gordon over 6 rebounds, Lonzo Ball over 4.5 assists.
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Phoenix Suns (-8.5) vs. Dallas Mavericks
These two teams once again lock horns after a super entertaining comeback victory for Phoenix on Wednesday. This time around, we&rsquo;re betting once again on the Suns to cover the spread against the Luka Doncic-less Mavericks. Dallas led for most of the game because of super-hot, unsustainable three-point shooting. I&rsquo;m not projecting that will happen again, so, honestly, I expect the Suns to roll here and win by double-digits. The Suns are winners of 10-straight, and that streak should only continue as they continue to gain even more confidence. Phoenix is one of the most dangerous teams in the Association, so betting against them isn&rsquo;t a wise investment. Hammer the Suns at -8.5, plus the following power-play on PrizePicks: Devin Booker over 22.5 points, Mikal Bridges over 11.5 points, Deandre Ayton over 10.5 rebounds, Chris Paul over 8.5 assists.
Sacramento Kings (-3.5) vs. Toronto Raptors
The Raptors will be without OG Anunoby for an extended period of time due to a hip injury, which is a major blow because he&rsquo;s been showcasing why he&rsquo;s so important to their long-term future. However, even without Anunoby in Sacramento, I like the Raptors as underdogs to cover the 3.5-point spread. The heat is on for Kings head coach Luke Walton, and it&rsquo;s hard to envision how he survives the entire regular season. Give me the Raptors in this matchup on the road in Sacramento, thanks in large part to their reliable veteran combo of Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet. On PrizePicks, I&rsquo;m locking in this intriguing power play as well: Siakam over 18.5 points, Scottie Barnes over 6.5 rebounds, VanVleet over 2.5 threes, Tyrese Haliburton over 1.5 threes.
Recapping our picks against the spread for &ldquo;Nothing But Bets,&rdquo; here&rsquo;s what is being locked in for Friday&rsquo;s fun slate: Warriors -2, Hornets -1, Celtics -3, Nets -10, Clippers -4, Bucks -13, Nuggets -1.5, Suns -8.5, Raptors +3.5.
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Ahead of Friday' slate, "Nothing But Bets" shares their latest picks against the spread and over/under power-play props via PrizePicks.