Wolfpack

Kevin Durant joined an exclusive list of NBA legends on Saturday night as he became one of 8 players to score 29,000 total career points or more, in the Phoenix Suns&rsquo; 114-102 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
The Suns&rsquo; superstar reached the mark in the 4th quarter of the game off a pass from Tyus Jones for a pull-up transition three.
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Kevin Durant surpasses 29,000 career points with this 3, becoming just the 8th player in NBA history to reach the mark! 👏 <a href="https://t.co/e6qT9O0Wo2">pic.twitter.com/e6qT9O0Wo2</a>
&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1850391347099783662?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2024</a>
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Durant, in turn, is now in elite company together with LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki, and Wilt Chamberlain.
Durant, a 14-time NBA All-Star, now has a total of 29,010 points after tallying 31 markers against the Mavericks. He has a career scoring average of 27.3 points per game in 1,064 games played over his 17-year NBA career.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to give credit to the people who have helped me since I was a kid,&rdquo; Durant said post-game about the accomplishment. &ldquo;Teammates who passed me the ball, set screens for me, coaches who drew up plays for me. I&rsquo;m glad to be able to do this in front of these guys and this crowd, but I have more to do.&rdquo;
Durant is now 10th on the all-time NBA scoring list, and with the way he&rsquo;s still scoring the ball, he will likely climb up more ladders in the scoring history list for the remainder of his career.
Other than Durant, LeBron James continued racking up NBA history by having his 8th triple-double after being 35 years or older when racked up 32 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists in the Lakers&rsquo; 131-127 win over the Kings.
LeBron at one time had 14 straight for the Lakers in the 4th quarter, and scored 16 overall as he led LA&rsquo;s comeback from down 10 late in the 3rd quarter.&nbsp;
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A vintage LeBron game in the <a href="https://twitter.com/Lakers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Lakers</a> 3rd straight win: 👑 32 PTS (16 in 4th) 👑 14 REB 👑 10 AST 👑 4 3PM 👑 12-22 FGM <a href="https://t.co/kDAuPZ274b">pic.twitter.com/kDAuPZ274b</a>
&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1850409431126716669?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2024</a></blockquote>

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Even at their age, KD and LeBron are at the peak of their games with each and every stellar outing they produce night after night.

Kevin Durant joined an exclusive list of NBA legends on Saturday night as he became one of 8 players to score 29,000 points.

Kevin Durant becomes 8th player in NBA history to score 29,000 points or more

This article was originally published on BasketballNews on May 9, 2021.
The player-empowerment era in the NBA has allowed athletes to do so much more than just change teams when they feel it&rsquo;s time to move on from a situation. It has also led to athletes having more opportunities and control off the court as well.&nbsp;
One of the best examples (in both areas) is Kevin Durant.&nbsp;&nbsp;
While LeBron James may be credited with starting the player-empowerment era with his move to Miami back in the summer of 2010, Durant put an exclamation point on it when he left Oklahoma City for the Bay Area and joined the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016. Durant has also followed suit on the business side of things. While James&rsquo; business ventures may be more well-known to date, Durant isn&rsquo;t far behind in that regard.&nbsp;
Durant&rsquo;s most notable endorsement deal is with Nike, with whom he reportedly signed a 10-year contract <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/thunder/2014/08/31/kevin-durant-nike-under-armour-shoe-deal/14898743/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worth up to $300 million back in 2014</a>. He also has endorsement deals with Google and Alaska Airlines, but things certainly don&rsquo;t stop there for Durant. In fact, you could argue that his endorsements aren&rsquo;t moving the needle much in comparison to his other business endeavors.&nbsp;
Durant and his business partner, Rich Kleiman, own a venture capital firm named Thirty Five Ventures, and that&rsquo;s where Durant has done incredibly well from the business standpoint.&nbsp;
Thirty Five Ventures has its hands in many different businesses, some of which you may use on a regular basis. Durant and Kleiman have invested in Lime Scooters, The Players&rsquo; Tribune, Robinhood, Postmates, and most recently, Coinbase. According to its website, Thirty Five Ventures has an investment portfolio spanning over 60 different companies.&nbsp;
Coinbase recently made waves as the company went public, and made Durant and Kleiman&rsquo;s investment worth over 53-times what they originally put into the company back in 2017. Another one of their victories on the same front came via a $1 million investment in Postmates prior to its sale to Uber back in 2020.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;m just a basketball player, so I was smart enough to hire people who are really good in that field,&rdquo; Durant <a href="https://hoopshype.com/2018/03/04/kevin-durants-successful-business-ventures-are-inspiring-nba-peers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told our Alex Kennedy (via HoopsHype) in 2018</a>. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t take all of the credit for that. I have such a great team of people around me who have pushed me to explore that field and learn more about it because, like I said, I&rsquo;m just a basketball player. That&rsquo;s what I do and I usually don&rsquo;t want to do anything else. I&rsquo;m happy when I&rsquo;m playing basketball. But I have to give a ton of credit to the people who forced me to think outside of the box a bit because it&rsquo;s changed my life and made my life more interesting. It&rsquo;s not for every basketball player and it doesn&rsquo;t always turn out this way, but for me, it was a natural progression and things really worked out.&rdquo;
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KD14 on film. ⏭🎥 More pairs dropping tomorrow, 5/8. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TakeYourGameFurther?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TakeYourGameFurther</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KD14?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KD14</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BTS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BTS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/nikebasketball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nikebasketball</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/KDTrey5?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KDTrey5</a> <a href="https://t.co/TejR3ArZ58">pic.twitter.com/TejR3ArZ58</a>
&mdash; Thirty Five Ventures (@35Ventures) <a href="https://twitter.com/35Ventures/status/1390675654484627460?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2021</a></blockquote>

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But Thirty Five Ventures isn&rsquo;t just about investing in things like the aforementioned Coinbase and Postmates; it&rsquo;s also a company that creates and produces content -- and award-winning content, at that. Durant isn&rsquo;t the first star athlete to enter this space, but it&rsquo;s something he and Kleiman have done incredibly well and it&rsquo;s paid off.&nbsp;
&ldquo;All of the amazing athletes who succeeded in business &ndash; from&nbsp;Magic Johnson&nbsp;to&nbsp;Michael Jordan&nbsp;to LeBron James &ndash; brought something different to the table and they continued to evolve and learn from those before them,&rdquo; Kleiman told <a href="https://hoopshype.com/2018/03/04/kevin-durants-successful-business-ventures-are-inspiring-nba-peers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HoopsHype back in 2018</a>. &ldquo;LeBron laid out such a great blueprint: He looked at brand deals differently, he valued quality over quantity and he realized that athletes of this caliber are global brands so they should have equity in these businesses. Kevin learned so much from LeBron. Now, Kevin is building his own business in his way, and he will evolve, bring something new to the table and inspire the people after him.&rdquo;
Durant and Kleiman have been able to learn from James in some aspects, as <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-lebron-james-the-businessman-fenway-sports-group-springhill-entertainment-uninterrupted-blaze-pizza-ladder-athletes-companies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James has a production company of his own</a> and regularly helps out with content, not to mention starring in the upcoming &ldquo;Space Jam 2.&rdquo; As for Durant and Kleiman, the pair recently won an Academy Award for their work on the short film &ldquo;Two Distant Strangers&rdquo; in the &lsquo;Best Live Action Short&rsquo; category. Thirty Five Ventures also sold a show to Apple TV plus called "Swagger,&rdquo; which is a drama series that&rsquo;s based on Durant's youth basketball experience.
Beyond that, Durant and Kleiman have created &ldquo;Boardroom,&rdquo; which is somewhat similar to LeBron&rsquo;s &ldquo;The Shop&rdquo; on HBO, but it focuses more on the business side of things. The show has featured the likes of Malcolm Jenkins, David Shaw, Justin Tuck, Brandon Marshall, Nick DePaula and many others. They talk about everything from how coaches game plan, to how sneaker deals work, to how athletes are able to build their own brands and more. This might be where Durant&rsquo;s future in business looks the brightest, at least in terms of creativity. Recently, Durant and Kleiman have also expanded the Boardroom brand by creating new shows, launching their website and collaborating with Sports Business Journal on a print product.
Another thing Durant and Kleiman have been involved with is Overtime, a media outlet with a huge social media presence. The two have been backing the company for several years, and reportedly invested over $10 million. They&rsquo;ve also created content for Overtime and have been helping behind the scenes as well. Now, the company is launching <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/high-school-basketball-former-nba-execs-aaron-ryan-brandon-williams-kevin-ollie-overtime-elite-seek-to-revolutionize-amateur-to-pro-preparation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Overtime Elite, which will serve as an alternative to high school for elite basketball prospects with NBA futures</a>.&nbsp;
When it comes to Durant&rsquo;s business endeavors, he&rsquo;s taken a behind-the-scenes approach to certain companies and a hands-on approach with others. While his basketball career continues to be one of the best out there, his post-NBA career is shaping up to be just as fascinating.&nbsp;

Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman have invested in Lime Scooters, The Players’ Tribune, Robinhood, Postmates, Coinbase and 55+ others.

Easy Money: How Kevin Durant is dominating the business world

The NBA announced that 242 players have filed as early-entry candidates for the 2023 NBA Draft. Here is the complete list.

NBA announces 242 early-entry candidates for 2023 NBA Draft

Spencer Davies tells the complex story of Eban Hyams, the first Indian-born international professional basketball player.

Setbacks and bouncebacks: On Eban Hyams, India's first pro ballplayer

LeBron James recently turned 38 years old, and he's now in his 20th NBA season.
Any day now, James will pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, while also <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/lebron-james-climbs-to-fourth-place-on-nbas-career-assists-list" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ranking fourth on the NBA's career assists list</a>. He is a four-time NBA champion, with four Finals MVP trophies, four NBA MVP awards and 19 All-Star selections.
Even if he never plays another minute in the NBA, James would be widely regarded as the greatest player of all-time (or a close second behind Michael Jordan, depending on who you ask). James has cemented his legacy and there's not much left for him to prove.
But James isn't content with his loaded resum&eacute;. And just in case there were any doubts about his future, he made it clear on Tuesday night that he has no plans to retire anytime soon.
"I&rsquo;m not going anywhere," James <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeAScotto/status/1620642418180915203" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. "I&rsquo;m going to be in this league for at least a few more years.&rdquo;
This lines up with what James said last year on "The Shop" when asked about his future.
"I'm trying to squeeze as much juice out of this mothaf***in' orange as I can," James said. "And I'm still good. If I was out there on some bullsh*t, like nasty-looking Bron, I'd have been quit. But I'm still nice as f*ck out there!"
For years, people have tried to predict when James would take a step back and start losing his battle against Father Time. Hell, people have made lucrative careers out of praying on LeBron's downfall.
But as James' pointed out, he is still putting up dominant numbers after two decades in the NBA &mdash; averaging 30.2 points, 8.5 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 2.2 threes and a steal for the Los Angeles Lakers.
LeBron's game has obviously changed over the years, but he continues to fill the stat sheet and deliver jaw-dropping performances on a regular basis. Two weeks ago, he had a 48-point, 9-assist, 8-rebound, 5-three showing in a win over the Houston Rockets. In late December, he had a 47-point, 10-rebound, 9-assist, 4-three outing in a win over the Atlanta Hawks.
This season, James has scored 40 or more points on five occassions, and he's topped 30 points in 21 of his 40 contests.
Back in September, James inked a two-year extension with the Lakers, which included a player option for the 2024-25 season (worth $50,434,636).
Perhaps the biggest reason why James wants to continue playing is because he wants to <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/why-teaming-up-with-bronny-could-be-lebrons-greatest-accomplishment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">team up with his son, Bronny</a>, in the NBA for a year or two. Bronny won't be draft eligible until the 2024 NBA Draft, meaning the 2024-25 campaign will likely be Bronny's rookie season (and perhaps LeBron's final year?).
&ldquo;My last year will be played with my son,&rdquo; James told&nbsp;<a href="https://theathletic.com/3138844/2022/02/19/could-lebron-james-return-to-cleveland-again-the-doors-not-closed-on-that-he-says/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Athletic</a> last year. &ldquo;Wherever Bronny is at, that&rsquo;s where I&rsquo;ll be. I would do whatever it takes to play with my son for one year. It&rsquo;s not about the money at that point.&rdquo;
James has earned $390,511,090 from his NBA contracts alone, and he's <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-lebron-james-the-businessman-fenway-sports-group-springhill-entertainment-uninterrupted-blaze-pizza-ladder-athletes-companies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">made even more money off the court from his business ventures and endorsements</a>.&nbsp;

LeBron James isn't retiring anytime soon: "I'm not going anywhere. I’m going to be in this league for at least a few more years.”

'I'm not going anywhere': LeBron James plans to play 'a few more years'

In the first round of the 2022 NBA Playoffs, Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins had to turn elsewhere. Surprisingly, the Western Conference&rsquo;s second seed was outplayed by the upset-minded Minnesota Timberwolves in its own building in a Game 1 loss, and needed to pack a more powerful punch to ensure the series would be tied going back to Minneapolis.
Enter Xavier Tillman Sr., a then-second-year big man who had seen his playing time diminish from his rookie campaign. The Michigan State product rewarded the team&rsquo;s decision with a critical 13-point, 7-rebound effort, all the while holding Wolves star Karl-Anthony Towns in check over 20 minutes in a Game 2 victory.&nbsp;
&ldquo;And then, it was kinda downhill from there. I didn't have a performance like that again in the playoffs,&rdquo; Tillman told Basketball News in a phone interview.&nbsp;
As for why that was the case, according to him, it ultimately came down to his approach. Tillman spent most of his second season in play groups in practice, participating in scrimmages and weight-lifting. Admittedly, he would save his legs on certain days because he figured he&rsquo;d need extra energy to perform on game days.&nbsp;
Tillman waited for his number to be called as the year progressed. He was certain it would happen, but it didn&rsquo;t&hellip; until the postseason. He was shocked, and, to him, it showed.
&ldquo;I didn't take advantage of it as much as I should have, and I knew it by the end of the season,&rdquo; Tillman said. &ldquo;I was like, &lsquo;Man, I could've been at least like five times better than what I finished the season out with in the playoffs,&rsquo; simply because I wasn't playing and it was a great opportunity for me to work on me. But I didn't see it as that.
&ldquo;I would just keep like stacking and wasting those days, day-by-day. Then, you have the same mentality. And eventually... maybe you could say it caught up with me?&rdquo;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Entering Year 3, Tillman vowed to be proactive. Whether he forced his way into the Grizzlies&rsquo; rotation or not, he was determined to &ldquo;work my butt off&rdquo; this past summer and during the season.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I'm gonna get up early before we have team meetings and team shootarounds. I'mma get on the bike for 30 minutes and I'mma go 11-to-12 miles on the bike. I'm gonna lift every two days instead of every three days to take advantage of that. And (in) these play groups, I'm trying to win, I'm trying to make winning plays,&rdquo; Tillman explained of his mindset.
To this point, aside from a handful of games where he&rsquo;s played 20 or more minutes with the Grizzlies when they&rsquo;ve been shorthanded, it&rsquo;s been much of the same as far as his playing time is concerned. (In fact, he&rsquo;s averaging just over 11 minutes a night, a career-low). With that being said, it hasn&rsquo;t deterred him from trying different things.
At the beginning of the season, Tillman personally requested that the coaching staff allow him to play with the Memphis Hustle, the organization&rsquo;s G League affiliate, to stay fresh &mdash; especially with home games being only a 40-minute drive from the team&rsquo;s home arena.
&ldquo;If we don't have a game that day, I can definitely go down there and play and get some good minutes. And that's been a blessing for me to just, honestly, keep my flow of playing,&rdquo; Tillman shared. &ldquo;Because even in those play groups and those workouts, you can't get in the flow of boxing somebody out, grabbing a rebound, pushing it, being in help defense. 'Cause it's a workout, all you work on is offensive scoring.
&ldquo;So being in a Hustle game allowed me to just play and play in a real game. So when I got my opportunity called &mdash; like now due to injury &mdash; I was ready to go and ready to help the team in all ways.&rdquo;
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X is so inspirational man. <a href="https://t.co/uAnVhnf9dl">pic.twitter.com/uAnVhnf9dl</a>
&mdash; Memphis Hustle (@MemphisHustle) <a href="https://twitter.com/MemphisHustle/status/1603087828589711371?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2022</a></blockquote>
Team-first is Tillman&rsquo;s M.O. Whatever his squad needs and asks of him, he does it. It&rsquo;s been that way from an early age, particularly when he was playing with current Phoenix Suns guard Duane Washington Jr. at Grand Rapids Christian High School in West Michigan.
&ldquo;We played high school ball together my junior and my senior year, and having him on my team, I knew that I didn't have to be a 20-point scorer for us to win these games. Especially 'cause he was a bucket-getter himself. I'm like, 'Okay, if I can get him shots and then fill the gaps on our team, we'll be great,&rsquo;&rdquo; Tillman said. "Start to try to fill the gaps instead of like, 'Hey, this is what I bring and then let everybody else fill it around me.' I've learned as I've gotten older. See the identity of your teammates and then work around that to help us win games.&rdquo;
If you&rsquo;re a teammate of his, it helps that Tillman can &ldquo;think the game&rdquo; the way he does. He&rsquo;s constantly one step ahead of his defender on offense and the opposing player when he&rsquo;s on the defensive end. If he gets an offensive rebound, it&rsquo;s either going up or going to a teammate. If he sees one of his guys getting doubled, he&rsquo;s freeing them up or cutting to the bucket.
Screens are precise, handoffs are well-timed, backdoor passes to cutters are on point and short-roll spray-outs to the corner are on target. There&rsquo;s a knack for the intangibles of the game and the little things that, when added up, become big.
&ldquo;I've always played on teams, for the most part coming up, where I've had shooters and scorers on my teams, but I didn't always have guys who cared about defense, who wanted to get blocks and steals and rebounds and stuff like that. So that was kinda the role I filled on my teams early on in life,&rdquo; Tillman said.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The main skill part that I would bring to the table was me being able to bring the ball up after a rebound and then, make a play after that to pass it to somebody else. But early on in my career playing basketball, I had people on my team who could score the ball, so my job then at that time wasn't even that. So I guess I kinda always had that... I don't know if anything is truly, truly natural, but my experience has made it natural, I guess you would say.&rdquo;
Tillman&rsquo;s distribution prowess is impressive, whether he&rsquo;s pushing the ball up the floor on the fast break or searching for guys in space in the half-court. Being a Michigan State Spartan, the recently-turned 24-year-old looked up to Draymond Green as somebody with a comparable height, build and playstyle.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Being able to facilitate, being to able to lock up on defense, being able to rebound with the big 7-footers and stuff like that. So I just drew similarities from him for sure,&rdquo; Tillman said. &ldquo;I loved watching guys coming up like LeBron [James], and not necessarily like the athleticism and scoring aspects, but the same thing I was talking about (with Draymond) &mdash; the way he can find people, the way on defense he'll be on the back line communicating crazy to everybody and letting everybody know what's up. And then, in transition, being able to make the plays that he does.&nbsp;
&ldquo;So those two guys are two that I kinda looked up to as far as my game and how I could find similarities between them.&rdquo;
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When on a G League assignment, there is a noticeable difference in Tillman&rsquo;s focus areas. Unlike the role he plays for the Grizzlies, he is granted freedom to expand his game with the Hustle. In five games, Tillman is averaging 17.8 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.4 steals per contest, taking 13.0 shots a game and converting on 52.3% of his total attempts.
Hustle head coach Jason March sends him out there for a predetermined allotment of minutes and draws up plays for the big man to take shots and score that don&rsquo;t usually come with the Grizzlies.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Him telling me stuff like that, it's like, 'Man, okay, I gotta shoot it.' So now when I catch the ball down there, I'm thinking, 'Okay, what's the best move I can make here to get a shot off?'&rdquo; Tillman explained.
&ldquo;When I'm on the Grizzlies, I got Des [Bane] on the court with me or I got Ja [Morant] on the court with me or I got DB (Dillon Brooks) on the court with me or I got JJ (Jaren Jackson Jr.) on the court with me or I got Tyus [Jones] on the court with me, and I'm like, 'These are our scorers. I need to find ways to get them open, and then if two people go to them, cool. I can finish the easy layup, I can finish my floater, whatever.'&rdquo;
For somebody like Tillman who has capabilities outside of the role he plays with the big club, those opportunities in the G League are helpful and reassuring.
&ldquo;It's always a balance. It's not easy, I will say that. The only part that's not easy is... I guess the ego side, the pride side of it,&rdquo; Tillman acknowledged. &ldquo;Because at the end of the game, everybody's looking at stats and you see like, 'Ah man, I only took 4 or 5 shots today and I played this many minutes? What's that about?' And then, you watch the film and you can watch the film and say, 'Damn, you're passing up all these shots.'
&ldquo;But in my head when I'm in the game, my mind is already set on, 'I need to get so-and-so open, I need to get so-and-so a shot here.' And so like, that's kinda the hard part is the aftermath when I watch film and I watch myself because I'm like, 'Man, I had way more shot opportunities than I took.' But then when I'm in the game, I'm like, 'Man, you played good out there. You got some assists, you got some rebounds. We went up 10 points while you were out there.' So it's just those things, trying to balance that for sure.&rdquo;
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X Gon' Give It To Ya<a href="https://twitter.com/Rookiedunker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Rookiedunker</a> <a href="https://t.co/0SpoKi2FfU">pic.twitter.com/0SpoKi2FfU</a>
&mdash; Memphis Hustle (@MemphisHustle) <a href="https://twitter.com/MemphisHustle/status/1602843540048023552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2022</a></blockquote>
With Brandon Clarke back from a sore hip that sidelined him for six games, Tillman&rsquo;s playing time has started to diminish again.
But at 31-13, the Grizzlies are the hottest team in the NBA with 11 straight wins, a rung barely below the Denver Nuggets at top of the Western Conference ladder. Tillman&rsquo;s been a part of that and will continue to do whatever he can to help his team along throughout the rest of this campaign.&nbsp;
A young, hungry and deep group that continues to blossom with each passing season, Memphis poses a legitimate threat to the rest of the NBA &mdash; both right now and down the road.
&ldquo;It's definitely been awesome to see, especially this early in our careers,&rdquo; Tillman said. &ldquo;Being my third year, Des's third year, Ja's fourth year, JJ's fifth year. It's pretty cool to see the success happen so early in our career. But at the same time, we have to have that knowledge in the back of our heads that it is early in our careers. So when things don't pan out the way we feel like it should, we shouldn't freak out and blow up the bus. We should say, 'Hey, alright, we made mistakes.' But we're a super, super young team. Mistakes are bound to happen.
&ldquo;So, it's just awesome that we have the success that we have now and the camaraderie that we have because we'll ride for one another every night, making sure that everybody's good, is getting cared for. We'll play hard for one another. The success that we've had, I can't lie, it's been awesome. Especially because our fan base has been pretty amazing, on the road or at home, where people are just still rooting for us, and the energy's amazing.&rdquo;

Spencer Davies goes 1-on-1 with Grizzlies big man Xavier Tillman to discuss his mentality in Year 3, his games with the Hustle and more.

No wasted days: Xavier Tillman waiting in the wings for Grizzlies' call

DENVER (AP) &mdash; Nikola Jokic had 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists, Jamal Murray scored 18 points in his first back-to-back games since knee surgery, and the Denver Nuggets took advantage of Donovan Mitchell's absence to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 121-108 on Friday night.
Jokic hit 10 of 17 shots, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range in his NBA-leading 10th triple-double of the season.
&ldquo;He sees things before they happen,&rdquo; said Bruce Brown, who added 13 points.
Added Cleveland's Kevin Love: &ldquo;Jokic looks like he's on the way to potentially a third (straight) MVP.&rdquo;
Michael Porter Jr. scored 16 points for Denver, which shot 51.5% from the floor and hit 17 of 33 3-pointers in its 12th win in 15 games.
Caris LeVert scored 22 points and Darius Garland returned from a three-game absence to score 21 points for the Cavaliers, who had their three-game win streak snapped.
Mitchell sat out to rest four days after scoring 71 points in an overtime win over Chicago. Garland, who had a right thumb sprain, hit 8 of 20 shots while adding eight assists despite getting chopped on his thumb again.
But the Cavs were undone by Denver's hot shooting and their own 18-for-32 performance from the foul line in the opener of a five-game trip.
&ldquo;I don't think we gave them our best shot,&rdquo; Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. &ldquo;You don't miss that many free throws if you're locked in. ... I don't think we had the right approach to beat a team like that."
The Nuggets overcame a second delay for a crooked rim at Ball Arena this week. The stoppage occurred with 11:22 left when Cavs players noticed the same rim that caused a 35-minute delay Sunday against Boston on Sunday was off again.
&ldquo;Not again,&rdquo; Jokic said when asked what he was thinking.
A crew returned with the same two orange ladders from Sunday and leveled the rim in just shy of 10 minutes.
&ldquo;At least they fixed it fast this time," Brown said.
Murray missed all of last season with a torn left ACL, and Nuggets coach Michael Malone called Murray playing on consecutive days &ldquo;uncharted territory.&rdquo; Murray only played 21 minutes Thursday as the starters rested much of the second half in a home rout of the Los Angeles Clippers.
&ldquo;I'm just so proud of him," Malone said. &ldquo;It's got to be close to 600 days since he's played a back-to-back. This is a big, big step."
Murray was key in a 13-4 run to start the third quarter that put Denver ahead to stay. After Jokic hit 3-pointers on the first two possessions, Murray had an acrobatic, one-handed rebound and put-back and his own 3.
MITCHELL SITS
Mitchell acknowledged &ldquo;I didn't have my legs&rdquo; after shooting 6 of 20 from the field Wednesday. He played 50 minutes and took 34 shots in his 71-point game two days earlier.
&ldquo;We've put a heavy toll on him. With Darius being out, he's had to have the ball in his hands. His usage has been crazy. His minutes have been crazy,&rdquo; Bickerstaff said on the reason to rest him. &ldquo;Our goals is always to do what's best for our guys and running him into the ground is not what's best for him.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Cavaliers: Bickerstaff said F Dean Wade, out since Dec. 2 with a left shoulder sprain, is close to returning. ... G Ricky Rubio, recovering from a torn left ACL, has progressed to 5-on-5 play. ... The Cavs had a season-high 11 offensive rebounds in the first half.
Nuggets: They've won 10 straight home games and are 16-3 at Ball Arena.
&nbsp;

Nikola Jokic had 28 points, Jamal Murray scored 18 points, and the Denver Nuggets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 121-108.

Jokic, Murray help Nuggets top Mitchell-less Cavs 121-108

On Monday, Nike announced that it officially cut ties with Kyrie Irving due to him sharing a link to the documentary "Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America," which many have labeled antisemitic. The news comes after Nike had suspended Irving and canceled his signature sneaker line.&nbsp;
The relationship between Irving and Nike began to deteriorate prior to the recent controversy. Last July, Irving said that the Kyrie 8 sneakers were "trash" and that he had "nothing to do with the design or marketing" of the shoe, but that "Nike plans to release it without my okay."
However, Nike co-founder Phil Knight specifically mentioned Irving's scandal as the reason the company was parting ways with him.
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&ldquo;Kyrie stepped over the line, it&rsquo;s kind of that simple,&rdquo; says Nike co-founder Phil Knight. &ldquo;He just made some statements we can&rsquo;t abide by and that&rsquo;s why we ended the relationship.&rdquo; <a href="https://t.co/VWWAEbsIku">pic.twitter.com/VWWAEbsIku</a>
&mdash; CNBC (@CNBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1590741070018641931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2022</a></blockquote>

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After nearly a decade-long run of success with Nike, Irving is officially a sneaker free agent.
In response to this, during Wednesday's game against the Charlotte Hornets, Irving wore the Kyrie 3s with the Raygun colorway, but employed black tape to cover the Nike Swoosh logos. Additionally, he handwrote in marker the messages "I AM FREE" and "Thank you God... I AM" and "Logo Here" on the side of his shoes.
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Kyrie Irving covered up the Swoosh on his Nike Kyrie 3 with some messages following his official split with the company. Irving is a sneaker free agent <a href="https://t.co/xyKS4qN1qd">pic.twitter.com/xyKS4qN1qd</a>
&mdash; Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href="https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1600692264774287360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2022</a></blockquote>

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(The Brooklyn Nets also won 122-116, with Irving leading all scorers with 33 points and finishing one assist shy of a double-double.)
Irving&rsquo;s agent, Shetellia Riley Irving, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/05/business/nike-kyrie-irving.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The New York Times</a> that the sides &ldquo;mutually decided to part ways and we just wish Nike all the best.&rdquo;
On my radio show, "The Collision: Where Sports And Politics Collide,&rdquo; my guest was Torraine Walker, the <a href="https://twitter.com/TorraineWalker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">founder of Context Media Group</a>. We examined what Nike&rsquo;s decision to break ties with Irving means in the grander scheme of things, what actually constitutes antisemitism and if an ADL-style punishment is the answer. This was a great discussion.
Etan Thomas: What was your response to Nike dropping Kyrie and his response to being free? Were you surprised they did that?
Torraine Walker: "No I wasn&rsquo;t really surprised. I know once this controversy blew up that there was going to be some type of corporate response to it. I didn&rsquo;t think it would go to this extreme, but at the same time, I can&rsquo;t really say that I&rsquo;m surprised. Whether we like it or not, sports and politics are often divisions, and anything that looks like it&rsquo;s going to affect the brand, the bottom line, is going to be dealt with harshly when you&rsquo;re dealing with corporations.
"But the one thing I think this really lays out is, it shows the difference between ownership and sponsorship. A lot of times, we get caught up in the idea that someone who is the face of a brand has some type of bargaining power to the level that they can make contractual decisions. So this 'Hebrews To Negroes' controversy was so big that Nike could not ignore it.
"The other side is this &mdash; I think this is a great opportunity for Kyrie and also other athletes to look at basically creating their own brand and basically having some ownership in the products they are endorsing and have their faces on. Now, the question is, will the public get on board with that? Let&rsquo;s be honest, Nike has such a stronghold on the market and such strong brand loyalty and brand recognition that it&rsquo;s going to be difficult for someone who is coming into the market to do that. But I&rsquo;m not surprised at all that Nike did what they did."
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Thomas: What role did the media have in really magnifying this issue and controversy?&nbsp;
Walker: "The media had the primary role in keeping this 'controversy' going as long as it did. I can see the point where the posting of the documentary may have ruffled some feathers, or it made some people feel like it was an antisemitic thing. But usually when something like this happens, if an athlete or celebrity does something that people take offense to, people get offended, the athlete releases a statement, there&rsquo;s usually a cooling off period and, then, it goes away.
"But for some reason, there was this drive in the media to make this thing bigger than it was. They took a two-day story and made it into a month story, and I still don&rsquo;t fully understand the motivation behind that. I know a lot of organizations were pushing this. And I wonder if people inside the Nike organization was pushing this as well because, if I&rsquo;m not mistaken, Kyrie&rsquo;s contract is coming up anyway.
"But I think with the media, this was just the an opportunity for them to jump on an antisemitic angle with Black people and a Black man specifically, and they can run with it. So they saw a hot story and narrative that they could really push, and that&rsquo;s why we are where we are with this situation with Nike dropping him today. So to answer your question, the media had a huge role in this."
Thomas: What do you think about Kyrie and what he did with his shoes on Tuesday night &mdash; putting the tape over the logo and writing "I Am Free." What was your reaction to that?&nbsp;
Walker: "I was in favor of it, and I&rsquo;m glad he did it that way. My question is, how long will this be sustainable? It&rsquo;s easy to create a moment, it&rsquo;s easy to get people&rsquo;s attention, but can you direct that attention into something that will then be tangible for you to really be 'free?' And what does 'freedom' look like? Freedom looks like something different to everybody. Does this mean he is free from having to hold his tongue on issues he is concerned about? Does this mean he is free to create his own sneaker line? Does this mean he is free psychologically? I would love get clarification on that. I think it was a powerful statement, especially the timing, but would love to see it turn into something tangible."
Thomas: You mentioned something before, and it's the question that I continued to ask throughout this entire process: what is considered "antisemitic?" I think right now, there is a wider and wider bucket of what is being casted as antisemitic. On my show, "The Rematch," I spoke with an actual Rabbi, Harry Rozenberg, and we talked about this. He said, "Well, I may have a different opinion than your's, and feel very strongly and emotionally about my different opinion, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean your's is antisemitic." So I&rsquo;m asking you, in your opinion, what exactly is antisemitic?
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Walker: "Well, in my opinion, being antisemitic means you are making hateful statements about Jewish people, or you are calling for their extermination &mdash; which is what a lot of white supremacists and neo-Nazis call for. I don&rsquo;t believe that having questions about Judaism or having questions or issues as a Black man in America with the relationship between Black people and Jewish people is necessarily 'antisemitic.'
"And what&rsquo;s happening now is, any questioning of anything having to do with Jewish people or the state of Israel is being seen as antisemitic, and I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s fair and it doesn&rsquo;t make for a rational conversation. It has become this thing where even if you mention it, you are labeled as antisemitic, and that shuts down any conversation. So to answer your question, my definition of antisemitism is violent hatred of any person who is Jewish. That&rsquo;s my definition of it."
Thomas: Well, I couldn&rsquo;t agree more. I had a debate with Dave Zirin, my regular co-host on The Collision, when he guested on The Rematch, and we disagreed for literally the entire interview. We just had a different view of everything that had occurred, and this is when everything first happened.
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I mentioned my debate with Harry Rozenberg and we disagreed at times &mdash; we definitely disagreed when it came to discussing Palestine and Israel &mdash; but we also agreed that everything isn&rsquo;t in the "antisemitic" bucket. I think one of the things that happens is, when you label something as "antisemitic," it&rsquo;s kind of a lazy argument because it shuts down all conversation. Once you say something is antisemitic, then there is no conversation. But I think there are different things that can and should be discussed without the label of "antisemitic."
Walker: "Absolutely, and like I said earlier, when you are an African-American, your ideas on what 'antisemitism' means and what discrimination feels like is very different than what someone else from a different demographic may be familiar with. And this is not to say that people who are Jewish have not dealt with discrimination and bigotry in Europe and America &mdash; they definitely have &mdash; but that conversation has to change a little bit when we&rsquo;re talking about Black people.
"Because, we have to be honest: Black people are still collectively at the bottom of the economic ladder in America. And our relationship with someone who may be a landlord or someone who is exploiting them, it may be coming from an attitude of pushing back against exploitation. It doesn&rsquo;t mean that it&rsquo;s antisemitic, and a lot of times that gets lost in this conversation.
"But I do think that one thing that has come out of this conversation with Kyrie and Nike and Kanye [West] and [Dave] Chappelle, to an extent, is that these conversations are beginning to happen and they have to happen in order for any meaningful, impactful dialogue to take place. You can&rsquo;t just label something as antisemitic and then shut down the conversation and punish anyone who brought it up like Nike did with Kyrie."
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Thomas: I agree 100%. And yes, Nike&rsquo;s decision to drop Kyrie in the wake of him sharing the documentary "Hebrews To Negroes" has actually made them become part of the problem we&rsquo;ve seen with the ADL. Punishment over dialogue. Labeling over discussion and understanding.&nbsp;
Van Jones also took it upon himself to apologize to the Jewish community on behalf of the entire Black community for statements made by Kanye West &mdash; even though I don&rsquo;t know who appointed him as spokesperson for the Black community. But before we finish, let me make this point clear: a lot of people are, and have been, conflating Kanye West a.k.a. Ye and Kyrie Irving, but they are two COMPLETELY separate issues. One is NOT like the other and should NEVER be lumped together in any way, shape or form.
Walker: "I definitely agree."
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Etan Thomas speaks with Torraine Walker to discuss Nike parting ways with Kyrie Irving, how he responded and what it could mean.

Nike employs ADL tactics as it officially drops Kyrie Irving

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Giannis Antetokounmpo is having issues at the foul line again.
Not with his accuracy &mdash; but his timing.
For the second time in his team's last three games, the Milwaukee Bucks&rsquo; star had a free throw taken away because he didn&rsquo;t shoot it within the allotted 10 seconds &mdash; a problem that has dogged him at various times throughout his career.
&ldquo;Sometimes I'm so tired I take a few extra seconds of resting,&rdquo; said Antetokounmpo, who turned 28 on Tuesday. &ldquo;If there's going to be a 10-second call, I expect it. I'll give them the ball and run the other way.&rdquo;
The latest chapter in this years-long saga came with 1:52 left in the third quarter of Milwaukee&rsquo;s 109-102 win over Orlando on Monday night. Antetokounmpo was fouled by Moritz Wagner and took about 13 seconds before taking and making his first attempt.
On what would have been the second free throw, Antetokounmpo&rsquo;s routine was much like the previous attempt. He caught the pass from official Nate Green, took a deep breath and held the ball on his left hip for about 6 1/2 seconds. He then moved the ball in front of him, holding it with both hands, spun it, dribbled once, gathered it again and took another deep breath.
All that took about 7 more seconds.
&ldquo;At the end of the day, that's my routine," Antetokounmpo said. &ldquo;Obviously, I have to respect the rules and shoot it before the 10 seconds. But anytime that it's 10 seconds, I'm OK with it. If they call it, I don't complain."
By then, referee Brian Forte had seen enough and blew his whistle. Antetokounmpo never got the shot away, and it wouldn&rsquo;t have counted at that point if he did.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s aware,&rdquo; Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said when asked if he talks to Antetokounmpo when the foul line becomes a struggle. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a brief conversation. He&rsquo;s got routines and sticks to them. I think he&rsquo;s overall in a good place this year. He&rsquo;s just got to tighten it up a little bit.&rdquo;
A similar scene happened Friday in Milwaukee&rsquo;s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, when Antetokounmpo was called for a 10-second violation in what became a 133-129 loss. He didn't play in Milwaukee's win over Charlotte on Saturday.
For the season, Antetokounmpo is shooting a career-worst 62% from the foul line. He had a three-game stretch in November where he shot a horrible 13-for-38 (34%) from the line &mdash; a 4-for-15 game in Philadelphia was part of that, the night where he returned to the court postgame for some practice and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-philadelphia-76ers-nba-sports-giannis-antetokounmpo-4ee4cc97c3bb26eb80af8252e059be9b">wound up sending a ladder toppling to the ire of arena workers.</a>
Since that three-game stretch, he's shot 49 for 67 (73%). He was 8 for 11 on Monday.
&ldquo;As I've said, 10 games ago, I wasn't at my best," Antetokounmpo said. &ldquo;Now I'm making some. I'm shooting it better and hopefully I can keep this up. And I believe I'm going to keep this up."
The wording of the NBA definition for free throws in the rulebook is this: &ldquo;A free throw is the privilege given a player to score one point by an unhindered attempt for the goal from a position directly behind the free throw line. This attempt must be made within 10 seconds.&rdquo;
That has been an issue for Antetokounmpo throughout his career &mdash; most notably in the 2021 playoffs, when he was called for 10-second violations multiple times. That didn't exactly cause lasting damage; Milwaukee won the NBA title and Antetokounmpo was NBA Finals MVP.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXwlXQ-fKCs&amp;t=16s">There was a game in 2016 against Portland when Meyers Leonard,</a> then of the Trail Blazers, held up his fingers while on the bench to silently count off the 10-plus seconds it took Antetokounmpo to shoot a foul shot. Fans in Toronto have used the tactic during some of Antetokounmpo&rsquo;s past trips there, too.
In the game against the Lakers on Friday, Russell Westbrook counted off 10 seconds as well &mdash; not silently, and got the violation called.
&ldquo;I did feel validated," Westbrook said. &ldquo;Glad they paid attention."
Antetokounmpo fought through whatever the issue is on subsequent trips to the line Monday.
He went back to the line with 2 minutes left in regulation and Milwaukee clinging to a four-point lead. He moved much more quickly, unofficially taking the full 10 seconds in both cases before releasing the basketball, and made one of the two shots.
With 40.2 seconds left, he went back to the line, again taking roughly 10 seconds before each shot. He made both to give the Bucks a 106-99 lead, unfazed by fans loudly (and a bit briskly) counting off seconds as he prepared to shoot.
&ldquo;It is what it is," Antetokounmpo said.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is having issues at the foul line again. Not with his accuracy — but his timing.

Giannis' 10-second (and more) free-throw routine draws more scrutiny

In 2020, the Phoenix Suns firmly planted themselves within the NBA as a sustainable contender. Following the addition of Chris Paul, Phoenix ended its 11-year playoff drought with a miraculous Finals appearance.
The 2021-22 campaign was supposed to be the crescendo moment for an instant rebuild that was stuck in neutral before the arrival of general manager James Jones and head coach Monty Williams. All season, Phoenix was dominating opponents, putting on historic efficiency clinics in clutch-time situations that vaulted the team ahead of everyone else. However, a near-worst-case scenario occurred when Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks delivered a knockout blow in the Western Conference semifinals.
How it all ended was a look-in-the-mirror moment for the Suns, one that has brought some ripple effects to their current roster and long-term situation.
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From an off-court perspective, majority owner Robert Sarver will soon sell his stake in the organization following a year-long suspension. Early evaluations lean toward the Suns soon becoming the NBA&rsquo;s most expensive team from new ownership buy-in. Before this occurred, restricted free agency involving 2018 No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton brought some icy feelings, which included internal tension between he and Williams after their Game 7 bench spat. Ayton admitted that the two didn&rsquo;t speak to each other after the season ended, which somehow lasted into training camp.
Ayton signed a lucrative four-year maximum offer sheet with the Indiana Pacers, but the Suns matched it within mere minutes; this situation bears watching well into the season. Phoenix&rsquo;s summer flirtation with Kevin Durant, who had the Suns as his preferred trade destination, will only linger until it&rsquo;s finally resolved one way or another by July.
Jae Crowder is also away from the team, as his trade request has been granted. Crowder was expected to take on a reduced role in favor of Cameron Johnson, but the veteran forward wasn&rsquo;t receptive to the idea.
The Athletic&rsquo;s Shams Charania recently reported that the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/jae-crowder-and-suns-working-towards-trade" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Atlanta Hawks are a top candidate to acquire Crowder</a>, but Phoenix won&rsquo;t simply make a deal to get the starting-caliber wing off their roster. Phoenix&rsquo;s intention is to improve their depth in any Crowder transaction, which could happy soon with the regular season on the horizon. Evidenced by the Suns&rsquo; <a href="https://nba.nbcsports.com/2022/09/24/reports-suns-push-for-jarred-vanderbilt-derailed-bojan-bogdanovic-trade/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pursuit of Bojan Bogdanovic (prior to the Detroit trade) and promising young Utah Jazz forward Jarred Vanderbilt</a>, monitor that framework as any potential outline for a deal moving forward.
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The Hawks are interested in acquiring Jae Crowder, an ideal fit on the wing surrounding Trae Young. <a href="https://t.co/QvlgQUKQY7">https://t.co/QvlgQUKQY7</a>
&mdash; Evan Sidery (@esidery) <a href="https://twitter.com/esidery/status/1579494085534306307?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Mining through the chaos is an all too familiar occurrence in Phoenix that is creeping back into its most successful era since Steve Nash piloted Mike D&rsquo;Antoni&rsquo;s 7 Seconds or Less offense in the mid-2000s. Questions have been persistent all offseason about the Suns after their postseason embarrassment. 
Is the window closing on Phoenix and their realistic championship hopes?
With the Suns&rsquo; core pieces now entering their primes &mdash; led by soon-to-be 26 year old shooting guard Devin Booker &mdash; that would be a strong bet against consistent internal improvement. Booker has now fully established himself as one of the NBA&rsquo;s best scorers. Mikal Bridges was runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year, and will now be empowered to take more scoring looks this season. Johnson adds much-needed sharpshooting and floor-spacing capabilities while holding his own on the other end of the court. Ayton will also be relied upon as more of a scorer this season since Paul will be going into his age-37 season.
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The biggest questions around the Suns persist from the looming Crowder trade, which will leads right into the second-unit depth. Currently, Phoenix&rsquo;s primary bench rotation consists of Cameron Payne, Landry Shamet, Torrey Craig, Jock Landale and Dario Saric. Saric&rsquo;s return from a torn ACL suffered in the 2021 Finals helps bring back a connective piece, but it&rsquo;s a lot of pressure on Payne and Shamet to bounce back from subpar campaigns. In turn, the consistent theme of Paul and Booker maintaining their elite status as a backcourt will be of utmost importance in 2022-23.
The Western Conference is only getting stronger around the Suns. The defending-champion Golden State Warriors aren&rsquo;t going anywhere anytime soon. The Denver Nuggets are finally at full strength with the impending returns of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. alongside two-time MVP Nikola Jokic. The Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies continue their climb up the ladder thanks to their young stars. Also, the New Orleans Pelicans easily stand out as a team ripe for a major leap thanks to Zion Williamson&rsquo;s return.
This season, we will truly find out whether the Suns&rsquo; hopes to finally win a championship will be one left in the rear-view mirror, or if it becomes even more of a potential reality with their current core.

Has the window closed on the Suns' championship hopes? Lingering questions need to be answered one way or another this season.

Suns enter prove-it season amid drama, lingering questions

It was Oct. 29, 2003. LeBron James played his first NBA game. The Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Sacramento Kings, and James scored 25 points.
That night, there were 2,708 names ahead of him on the NBA&rsquo;s all-time scoring list.
He&rsquo;s caught 2,707 of them.
Only one person remains ahead of James on the NBA&rsquo;s career scoring ladder &mdash; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who has been the scoring leader since April 5, 1984. His run is about to end, the crown getting passed from one Los Angeles Laker to another in just 1,326 more points.
&ldquo;To sit here and to know that I&rsquo;m on the verge of breaking probably the most sought-after record in the NBA, things that people say will probably never be done, I think it&rsquo;s just super, like, humbling for myself,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s super cool.&rdquo;
The score: Abdul-Jabbar 38,387, James 37,062. At James&rsquo; career pace of 27.1 points per game, he&rsquo;s 49 games away from becoming No. 1; at James&rsquo; scoring pace last season of 30.3 per game, he would be 44 games away.
If James doesn&rsquo;t miss games, the first target window is mid-to-late January. He'll become the most prolific scorer while being one of the greatest passers ever; James is seventh all-time in assists and should be up to No. 4 when this season ends.
&ldquo;One of the things that&rsquo;s really amazing about LeBron is he&rsquo;s such a willing passer and such a gifted passer,&rdquo; said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra, who coached James for four seasons (2010-2014) and two championships. &ldquo;In many ways, that&rsquo;s one of his most unique, special qualities. And yet, he&rsquo;s going to break the all-time record for scoring &mdash; and that can be a secondary skillset for him. That&rsquo;s crazy.&rdquo;
Abdul-Jabbar played 20 seasons. James is entering his 20th season. They put up their points in different ways: James, for example, has 6,420 points in his career from 3-point range. Abdul-Jabbar has three.
Abdul-Jabbar's sky hook took the NBA by storm from the outset. He averaged 30.4 points per game in his first six seasons and 24.6 over his career, though managed only 14.1 per game over his final three seasons.
James hasn&rsquo;t had a dropoff. He&rsquo;s averaged at least 25 points per game in each of his last 18 seasons. Before last season, only one player &mdash; Kobe Bryant, who put up 22.3 points in 2014-15 &mdash; averaged more than 19 points in the 19th season of his career. James averaged just over 30.
Put simply, no NBA player has ever been this good for this long.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always gratifying to know that the work that you put in can have results,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been a person that cheats the game. I&rsquo;ve always put the work in."
He acknowledged a few years back that he &ldquo;could see&rdquo; himself catching Abdul-Jabbar, though stressed it wasn&rsquo;t a priority. The Lakers, just two years removed from the 2020 NBA title, were a disaster last season and missed the playoffs. James&rsquo; goal is to get back to championship contention, as he seeks a fifth ring.
His work ethic still astounds those around him.
&ldquo;LeBron is not from this planet,&rdquo; first-year Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s for damn sure.&rdquo;
James and Abdul-Jabbar have had a challenging relationship. Abdul-Jabbar was outside of the Cleveland locker room during the 2016 Eastern Conference finals as James was jogging by. James stopped and the two shared a hug and a few kind words, then later that night James spoke of the respect he has for Abdul-Jabbar and others who paved the way.
Other chapters haven&rsquo;t gone that smoothly. Abdul-Jabbar has been critical at times, though said earlier this year that he has &ldquo;deep admiration and respect for LeBron as a community leader and athlete. That hasn&rsquo;t changed and never will.&rdquo; Recently, James said he has &ldquo;no relationship&rdquo; with Abdul-Jabbar.
&ldquo;Obviously, Kareem has had his differences with some of my views and some of the things that I do,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;But listen, at the end of the day, to be able to be right in the same breath as a guy that wore this same uniform, a guy that was a staple of this franchise ... and a guy that does a lot off the floor as well, I think it&rsquo;s just super-duper dope.&rdquo;
They&rsquo;ll be linked all season, at least until the record falls. And that could serve as a refresher course for some fans.
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/atlanta-hawks-washington-wizards-nba-sports-14086e90e6040b1fcd7af8b6cbcc0ed5">Russell Westbrook&rsquo;s pursuit of the all-time triple-double record</a> seemed to introduce a younger generation of NBA fans about the greatness of Oscar Robertson. James closing in on Abdul-Jabbar, whose last game was in 1989, might very well do the same thing.
Robert Horry, the seven-time NBA champion who spent seven seasons with the Lakers and is now a broadcaster for the team, said he hopes Abdul-Jabbar benefits from the attention the chase will generate.
&ldquo;I look at Cap&rsquo;s record as better than LeBron&rsquo;s record, because Cap didn&rsquo;t shoot any 3s,&rdquo; Horry said, referring to Abdul-Jabbar by one of his nicknames. &ldquo;When you look at what LeBron&rsquo;s been able to do, it&rsquo;s amazing. I&rsquo;m not taking anything away from LeBron. But you have to look at what Cap did and be like, &lsquo;Man, this dude put in years in college, then he went to the pros and didn&rsquo;t shoot any 3s and played at a time where the game wasn&rsquo;t sped up like it is.&rsquo; Cap&rsquo;s record is amazing.&rdquo;
It is. But soon, it won&rsquo;t be his anymore. James is about to become the scoring king and, barring injury, he extend the mark for years to come.
&ldquo;The way he&rsquo;s always been a student of the game, the way he&rsquo;s taken care of himself, you always knew he was going to play as long as he wanted,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t slowed down. He&rsquo;s like Tom Brady. He literally can play until he decides, &lsquo;All right, I feel like doing something else.&rsquo; And I don&rsquo;t see that coming.&rdquo;

At LeBron James’ career pace of 27.1 points per game, he’s 49 games away from becoming No. 1 all-time in scoring.

LeBron James closing in on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's NBA scoring record

As we begin to officially put the finishing touches on &ldquo;Bet Week&rdquo; here on BasketballNews.com, NBA over/under win total projections have been released for every team.
Which numbers stand out most to hammer one way or another from a betting perspective? In this piece, I unveil my over/under predictions for every team in the Eastern Conference. All odds are provided by DraftKings Sportsbook.
Boston Celtics: Over 54.5 (-130)
The defending Eastern Conference champions headline the best win total of any team in the league on DraftKings, checking in at an impressive 54.5 projected wins. Boston not only improved its roster following a Finals loss to the Golden State Warriors, but the team added some real contributors who will hold immense value with Malcolm Brogdon and Danilo Gallinari. Also, Robert Williams staying healthy all season long would be a huge boost for an already elite defensive unit.
We&rsquo;re hammering the over here because the Celtics have all the necessary ingredients in place to finish with 55 or more wins. Not only can their rotation easily go 10 players deep, but Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are two dynamic stars at the most important position on the court. Even if the Celtics were to swing a jaw-dropping trade sending out Brown for Kevin Durant, this team should be in a magnificent spot to hit this projected mark with ease.
Milwaukee Bucks: Over 52.5 (-115)
It&rsquo;s never wise to bet against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. More often than not, they always hit their overs when the roster is fully cooperating from a health perspective. Giannis is a player I&rsquo;ve highlighted over the last week who is in prime position to make a serious push for multiple awards like Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year. If that indeed comes to fruition and Giannis sets a rampage throughout the NBA, Milwaukee will be one of the most dangerous teams entering postseason play.
The Bucks&rsquo; team-building job is a lot easier with Giannis onboard, but Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday are bona fide sub-stars who showed their true value during the team's 2020-21 title run. Also, re-signing Bobby Portis to a long-term deal was huge for the Bucks because he fits so well alongside Giannis as their complimentary stretch big.
Once more, I love the over to hit here at -115 odds on DraftKings. If Giannis stays healthy, the Bucks should cruise to 50-plus wins while posing a real threat to upend Boston atop the East standings.
Philadelphia 76ers: Over 49.5 (-140)
Joel Embiid and James Harden joining forces was always Daryl Morey&rsquo;s dream vision in Philadelphia. Following a rough and quick postseason exit, it feels like the light finally turned on for good with Harden. All offseason long, Harden has reportedly stayed in shape while re-signing a team-friendly, one-plus-one contract, and two of his former teammates in Houston have joined the fray.
The Sixers signing PJ Tucker, albeit at age-37, is a massive move to bring aboard much-needed physical toughness to a roster sorely lacking it. Danuel House Jr. will also provide some two-way versatility off Philadelphia&rsquo;s bench. Also, the draft night trade with the Memphis Grizzlies for De&rsquo;Anthony Melton continues to be overlooked. Arguably the perfect complementary third guard to place alongside Harden and Tyrese Maxey, Melton should thrive within this role, as he mastered it next to Ja Morant.
Health is a huge question mark when examining the long-term gains of this over/under of 49.5. Will Embiid play most of the season? If so, this is another simple nod to the over. However, with an already deep history of injuries, tread lightly here on Philadelphia. Rolling the dice, I&rsquo;m taking the over while praying Embiid puts together another fully dominant campaign.
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Miami Heat: Over 48.5 (-125)
As always, the Heat are flying under the radar entering another season. It was an offseason filled with little to no activity for Miami outside of re-signing Victor Oladipo and Caleb Martin. Plus, they seem like massive long shots to ever enter the potential trade race for Durant after originally being a preferred destination alongside the Phoenix Suns.
Miami is returning a loaded rotation, although losing Tucker to a conference rival will sting a little bit. This is an over/under bet where you simply trust the system in place. Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are top-30 players in the Association. Tyler Herro is an emerging young star who is the betting favorite to win Sixth Man of the Year in consecutive seasons. Erik Spoelstra remains one of the game&rsquo;s elite-tier tacticians too.
Add it all together, and Miami should flirt with a 50-win season in 2022-23. Trust the process and &ldquo;Heat Culture&rdquo; for the team to slide its way into a top-three seed in the East.
Atlanta Hawks: Under 46.5 (-105)
What a splashy offseason it was for Atlanta following its embarrassing postseason exit at the hands of Miami. The Heat exposed the Hawks&rsquo; lack of ball-handling help to take pressure off superstar point guard Trae Young. Now, with an all-in move for Dejounte Murray, Atlanta wants to surge up the East ladder. Can the Hawks recapture the 2020-21 magic with an All-Star backcourt pairing? Paying the heavy price the team did for Murray, Atlanta better hope this meshes as well as it looks on-paper.
For our projection, though, we&rsquo;re going with the under at a slight underdog value at -105. Similarly to the Western Conference, the East is setting up to be a war, so the top eight could all be mixed together by season&rsquo;s end. Teams such as Atlanta could be the prime example here, because 46.5 wins truly feels right on the money. In the end, a 45 or 46-win season for the Hawks would be a success, while also cashing plus money for those who bet the under.
Brooklyn Nets: Under 45.5 (-105)
I truly have no clue how this team should be viewed right now. With Kevin Durant still holding firm on his trade request, the 45.5 number here just feels like too much. If Durant is off the Nets anytime soon, Kyrie Irving would probably soon follow him out. It&rsquo;s a ticking time bomb right now, so avoiding this bet entirely is the smartest play possible.
Brooklyn did a fantastic job outside of the Durant and Irving fiasco to add more depth to a team ready to push for a title. However, because of all the uncertainty, getting the under on 45.5 wins at plus money odds is simply too good to pass up.
Toronto Raptors: Over 45.5 (-110)
One of my favorite teams projected to take a massive leap forward in 2022-23, the Raptors finished the regular season off strong before their postseason exit against Philadelphia. Scottie Barnes established himself as a true building block. Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet are entrenched core pieces. With OG Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr. as the team's fourth and fifth-best players, it goes to show how loaded Toronto can become. The Raptors added more depth and remain a top contender to secure Durant&rsquo;s services, if the Nets indeed decide to trade him.
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Whether Durant comes to Canada or not, I absolutely love the Raptors as a team who should be pushing closer to 50 wins compared to 40. Hammer the Raptors over here to oblivion as they establish themselves as a real Finals threat this season.
Chicago Bulls: Under 43.5 (+100)
As I wrote earlier this offseason, Rudy Gobert felt like the missing piece to the puzzle for the Bulls to become a real threat in the East long-term. Now, with Gobert on the Minnesota Timberwolves, where does Chicago realistically go to pivot? It&rsquo;s hard to see a clear answer right now, which is concerning over an extended window. The Bulls backed up the Brink&rsquo;s truck for Zach LaVine, who definitely deserved the lucrative payday. LaVine and DeMar DeRozan form a dynamic scoring combination, but who else can help take this team into another tier?
Patrick Williams is a potential name to watch develop, but the real questions loom in the backcourt, for me. Goran Dragic signing in Chicago was very interesting, because the team already has a glut of guards on its roster: Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, Ayo Dosunmu and Dalen Terry. With Ball&rsquo;s shoulder sidelining him last season, how concerning is that moving forward? For those wanting to monitor the betting lines for Chicago, Ball is an underrated piece to its early-season success as a connective two-way presence.
With the East even tougher, plus some looming concerns in the short and long-term view, I&rsquo;m hammering +100 value on the Bulls to finish as a Play-In Tournament team vs. being a playoff lock.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Over 42.5 (-135)
Similarly to Toronto, this is another squad I'll love to slam the over on. The 42.5-win number here is too small for Cleveland, especially with its young core jelling together even further. Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen make up one of my favorite young trios in the Association, and I&rsquo;m betting big on the three taking another huge step forward.
Don&rsquo;t forget, the Cavaliers were rolling before injuries to countless rotation members begin to be too much to overcome. Caris LeVert, a midseason acquisition, should look much more comfortable in J.B. Bickerstaff&rsquo;s system. Collin Sexton&rsquo;s status remains unclear, but he&rsquo;s a spark-plug scorer who would take immediate pressure off Garland.
Las Vegas is leaning towards projecting the Cavs as a playoff team, and I&rsquo;m siding with them as well.
New York Knicks: Over 39.5 (-110)
Just like their cross-town rivals in the Nets, betting on a Knicks over/under win total right now isn&rsquo;t smart. Wait to see how the dust settles for Donovan Mitchell in Utah first before deciding upon any Knicks-related props.
However, for my projection on Aug. 8, I&rsquo;m betting on Mitchell to eventually land in New York before the regular season begins. With Mitchell, New York feels like a real playoff contender. However, even after signing Jalen Brunson, this Knicks team feels rather incomplete compared to other squads.
This one is simple: If Mitchell arrives, it&rsquo;s a yes on the over. If not, stay away and hit the under instead.
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Charlotte Hornets: Under 36.5 (-105)
Here's another organization that feels incomplete at the moment, especially with the ongoing legal situation surrounding Miles Bridges. As currently constructed, the up-and-coming Hornets feel further away than they did last season. Although Gordon Hayward and Terry Rozier are solid veterans for Charlotte, I don&rsquo;t put them on the same tier as the Cavaliers or Knicks. LaMelo Ball is approaching full-blown superstardom, but who else around him will be able to help consistently? This may be a hot take, but it might be in the Hornets&rsquo; best interest to bottom out for a year hoping to land a top pick for a stacked 2023 NBA Draft.
If there&rsquo;s one team poised to regress from Play-In contender to lottery team, Charlotte certainly stands out, and I&rsquo;ll take the under at plus value.
Washington Wizards: Under 35.5 (-115)
Are the Wizards in win-now mode? It certainly seems that way after Bradley Beal signed the dotted line on a supermax deal. The time to put together a winner in D.C. is throughout Beal&rsquo;s hefty contract, but this team still isn&rsquo;t close to being a real threat. In my opinion, Washington continues to stand out as the premiere &ldquo;blow it up&rdquo; squad because of Beal&rsquo;s uncertain status. Now, with a no-trade clause, Beal pretty much runs the entire show now.
Washington added a starting point guard in Monte Morris, but that&rsquo;s not enough to really make a sizable improvement unless Beal bounces-back with authority. The team's young players also need to take much-needed steps forward. At this moment, I&rsquo;m betting against all of that occurring next season. As a slight favorite, feel comfortable selecting the under on the Wizards.
Detroit Pistons: Under 28.5 (-105)
It&rsquo;s hard to argue against the Pistons possessing one of the most promising young cores in the East. Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren are ideal pieces to put alongside former No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham, who began to flash superstar potential during the second half of his rookie season.
While the Pistons added foundational pillars this offseason, the team is still ripe with inexperience. The rebuild remains ongoing in Detroit, but the exit signs are approaching. In the meantime, the young core is prioritized over wins this upcoming season.
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Although a 30-win campaign sounds fun, another top selection in 2023 could really take this team to heights it hasn't experienced in decades. Bet on the under here, especially as the tank race hits overdrive post-All-Star break.
Orlando Magic: Over 26.5 (-120)
Paolo Banchero brings an alpha mentality that&rsquo;s been missing forever in Orlando. The No. 1 pick has the ultimate runway to produce immediately, which is why he&rsquo;s the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/best-bets-on-202223-nba-rookie-of-the-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">betting favorite to win Rookie of the Year</a>. Banchero could be a 20-plus point scorer right away, but don&rsquo;t forget about some other enticing young talent in Orlando. Franz Wagner established himself as a core piece, producing excellent all-around numbers. Wendell Carter Jr. is a double-double machine with playmaking chops for a big man. Jalen Suggs hit the rookie wall, but if he can round into form it'll add another aggressive scorer to the equation. Plus, there's the returning Markelle Fultz as well.
Orlando owns one of the youngest rosters in the NBA, but it consistently showed heart by keeping a lot of games close. If Banchero&rsquo;s adjustment is smooth, I actually like betting the favorite option here on the over. Something along the lines of a 27-55 season feels spot-on for Orlando.
Indiana Pacers: Under 24.5 (-115)
Rounding out the East&rsquo;s over/unders list is the Pacers, who are now creating a noticeable difference at the bottom. With two games separating Indiana from Orlando, it shows how little faith Vegas has in this team winning a lot of games next season.
Tyrese Haliburton is the face of the franchise in Indiana now, as the team begins a rebuild over 30 years in the making. Bennedict Mathurin, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, brings a score-first approach that should mesh seamlessly in the backcourt next to Haliburton. Isaiah Jackson and Jalen Smith are two young bigs who have flashed two-way potential in addition.
Outside of that, trade rumors are the main subject ongoing in Indiana. According to The Athletic&rsquo;s Bob Kravitz, Indiana would prefer to trade Myles Turner and Buddy Hield this offseason. Neither player fits the organization&rsquo;s new timeline, and the Pacers should be able to fetch some real value in return.
Indiana is a team that really stands out as a prime contender to enter a full-on tank. For an organization that has never drafted No. 1, it would change everything for the Pacers to have some good fortune. Finally embracing a rebuild, maybe lady luck is finally on their side for good.
With that being said, my most confident play is the Pacers under 24.5 wins cashing.

Evan Sidery goes over win totals for the Eastern Conference. Who stands out?

Best Bets: NBA Eastern Conference over/under projections

Welcome to my self-proclaimed &ldquo;Bet Week&rdquo; here on BasketballNews.com. During the quiet portion of the NBA offseason, this feels like the perfect time to check in on the newly-released Vegas odds. We'll put each award race under the microscope, and break down over/under win total projections as well.
Let&rsquo;s kick it off with what looks to be a star-studded rookie class entering the Association. Here are the best bets for 2022-23 NBA Rookie of the Year award as well as an underdog flier.
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Paolo Banchero, Orlando Magic (+320)
When the Orlando Magic stunned everyone by selecting Banchero atop the draft, the fit was never questioned because of how special he is scoring the basketball. Immediately, Banchero enters Orlando&rsquo;s rotation as the No. 1 option, and his dominant Summer League outing in Las Vegas showcased exactly that.
For years, the Magic have been missing an alpha who can take over the game, creating for himself and others. With Banchero aboard, Orlando has their face of the franchise who will offer immediate value to potential ROY bettors as well.
The Magic may not win many games next season, but everything is set up well for Banchero to put up impressive numbers throughout his rookie campaign. There&rsquo;s no reason to believe Banchero won&rsquo;t be an immediate near-20-point-per-game scorer along with some all-around statistics as well.
Similar to how LaMelo Ball recently won ROY, putting up huge numbers on a bottom-feeder team, Banchero&rsquo;s argument is a strong one.&nbsp;
Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City Thunder (+350)
The further we get from the draft, the more I love Holmgren's fit with the Thunder. It&rsquo;s already a strong match on paper, but Holmgren&rsquo;s two-way potential makes him perfect alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey and Luguentz Dort. Holmgren flashed special capabilities at Gonzaga with such a unique skill package for his size, which should be pressed into overdrive thanks to NBA spacing elements.
Oklahoma City is still a year or two away from climbing up the tough Western Conference ladder, but their pieces are set to coalesce and form a special unit. Holmgren is now a key pillar to the Thunder&rsquo;s historic rebuild attempt, and there&rsquo;s no denying the instant chemistry he displayed with Giddey during NBA Summer League. Holmgren will be fed as a top option alongside SGA, so having him so close to Banchero in odds rankings does make a lot of sense.
Armed with the ability to splash threes and defend the rim at an elite level, Holmgren within OKC&rsquo;s player development program has me giddy for what&rsquo;s to come next.
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Bennedict Mathurin, Indiana Pacers (+1000)
There's an underrated flier on the Rookie-of-the-Year betting market that nobody is talking about. Say hello to Bennedict Mathurin, the No. 6 overall pick and the Pacers&rsquo; highest draft pick in 30-plus years.
Mathurin excelled in Las Vegas, averaging 19.3 points and 4.0 rebounds in 22 minutes per game. The former Arizona Wildcat can score the ball with ease, as he flashed routinely during Summer League. After three Summer League outings, the Pacers saw enough and shut Mathurin down for precautionary reasons due to a sore toe. Entering his rookie year, Mathurin is slotted into an extremely important role for the Pacers as their overdue rebuild attempt gets underway.
Mathurin&rsquo;s score-first approach will mesh seamlessly with pass-first point guard Tyrese Haliburton. Believe it or not, Mathurin has the potential to be Indiana&rsquo;s top scorer right away. Haliburton is the face of the franchise in Indiana, but Mathurin has the ultimate runway to take advantage as their top scorer.
Indiana&rsquo;s over/under win total checks in at 24.5, which is tied for the second-worst in the Association. Don&rsquo;t expect to see many close contests when you tune into Pacers games next season, but they have a very fun young core that will develop together on the same timeline.
At +1000 odds on DraftKings, Mathurin&rsquo;s ROY value is immense. Not only will Haliburton instantly elevate his counting numbers, but Summer League helped further solidify that he&rsquo;s one of the smoothest scorers from the 2022 NBA Draft.
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nothing-but-bets/id1589799249" target="_blank" rel="noopener">For all the latest NBA betting trends, spreads, props and more, check out Basketball News' betting podcast "Nothing But Bets."</a>

The 2022 NBA Draft looks to be a special one. Which prospects stand out as the best bets to win the Rookie of the Year award?

Best bets to win the 2022-23 NBA Rookie of the Year award

What LeBron James has been able to accomplish on the court over the course of his 19-year NBA career seems unreal at times, and the fact that he&rsquo;s still considered one of the best basketball players in the world this deep into his career is remarkable.&nbsp;
But what James has been able to do off the court is nearly as impressive. Throughout his career, he&rsquo;s consistently been one of the most marketable athletes in all of sports. While working with brands is nothing new, James has forced companies to treat him as a partner rather than as an endorser.
James hasn&rsquo;t just been the typical athlete who stars in commercials, basically telling consumers to buy a certain product; in a certain sense, he actually becomes part of the product, and in many cases, he&rsquo;s the one that benefits. If he&rsquo;s partnered with a company, there's a decent chance he's at least a part-owner.
Perhaps the most famous example of this is James' deal with Beats by Dre years ago. He received stake in Beats by Dre in exchange for promoting the headphones, so when the company sold to Apple for $3 billion, James received a $30 million check. This is "the biggest equity cash payout for a professional athlete in history," <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/11068709/miami-heat-discussing-options-target-carmelo-anthony-free-agency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to ESPN</a>.
For years, James has <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/lebron-james-cover-story-march-2014" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that becoming a billionaire would be his "biggest milestone." This week, Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2022/06/02/lebron-james-is-officially-a-billionaire/?sh=35f6d29e453e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that James finally joined the three-comma club, becoming the first-ever active NBA player with a net worth over a billion dollars.
While James has earned more than $390 million from his NBA contracts, his off-court endeavors have brought in even more money. While James does have some traditional endorsement deals with companies like AT&amp;T, Pepsi and Calm, he also has equity in a number of brands:
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Owned By LeBron 
Fenway Sports Group
James and his longtime business partner Maverick Carter made headlines when they became part-owners of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club. Well, that was made possible thanks to their investment in Fenway Sports Group. James and Carter have set themselves up to be major decision-makers for these franchises going forward. James has said that his goal is to eventually own an NBA team as well, preferably in Las Vegas.
SpringHill Entertainment
SpringHill Entertainment is another entity owned by James, and it&rsquo;s his entryway into the filmmaking business. The name SpringHill comes from the Section-8 housing in which James spent part of his childhood. This company has produced TV shows such as "Survivor's Remorse," "The Wall," and "The Shop" and movies such as "Hustle" and "Space Jam: A New Legacy" (which James starred in). Forbes has valued SpringHill Entertainment at roughly $300 million.
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UNINTERRUPTED
When Fox News&rsquo; Laura Ingraham went on a rant about James&rsquo; political interests, she finished it with the phrase, &ldquo;Shut up and dribble.&rdquo; In an effort to control his own media narrative, James decided to create his own media company. UNINTERRUPTED is a platform for athletes to tell their own stories. It started as short videos on Twitter or Instagram, and now has evolved into podcasts and feature-length films. With the tagline &ldquo;More Than An Athlete,&rdquo; it allows athletes to express who they are on their terms.
Blaze Pizza
James got into the pizza game in 2012 when he and his business partners made a small investment (by their standards) into Blaze Pizza. The group invested roughly $1 million into the small pizza chain, and it has exploded. Now, you can find James tweeting about Blaze Pizza from time to time while his investment in the company continues to grow. There was even the video of James working at a Blaze Pizza, claiming to be &ldquo;Ron&rdquo; while behind the counter helping customers.&nbsp;
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Ladder
This is probably the least-known of the James-owned properties so far, but he and his trainer, Mike Mancias, have created Ladder. According <a href="https://ladder.openfit.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to its website</a>, Ladder is a &ldquo;sports nutrition company dedicated to creating high-performance, NSF Certified for Sport&reg; workout supplements for daily use. We formulate products to complement a strong nutritional foundation and unlock the next level in training and exercise.&rdquo; In this venture, James is partners with legendary bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger.&nbsp;
James has a stake in all of these companies and actively helps to make decisions. Also, he has reportedly invested in other companies such as Lyft and Tonal (a fitness startup).
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While James doesn't have equity in Nike, he does have a unique "lifetime" deal with the company that is worth north of a billion dollars (as Maverick Carter <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lebron-james-nike-deal-exceeds-1-billion-maverick-carter-says-2016-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">all but confirmed</a>). It's the largest deal in Nike's history, and it reportedly pays James more than $30 million per year. James is now on his 18th signature sneaker with Nike, along with 14 versions of his playoff shoe called the &ldquo;Soldier&rdquo; and a handful of other releases.
When James was an 18-year-old senior at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, he had already become a star in the basketball world. After appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated and having his high school games broadcast nationally on ESPN, every big shoe company was determined to sign the phenom.
The sneaker war was detailed excellently in Brian Windhorst&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/LeBron-Inc-Making-Billion-Dollar-Athlete/dp/1538730871" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times best-selling book</a> &ldquo;LeBron, INC.&rdquo; To summarize, while Nike wasn&rsquo;t the highest bidder, they were the brand that James associated with greatness, and the company he'd dreamed of wearing since childhood. It didn&rsquo;t matter that Adidas had outfitted James&rsquo; high school basketball team with gear or that Reebok offered more upfront money. What did matter was that Nike was considered the best of the best, just as James strived to be.
James has always done things his own way, and he's had tremendous success on and off the court. Now, he has built generational wealth and achieved something that no other active NBA player has done.
(This article was originally published in May of 2021, but was updated on June, 7, 2022).
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LeBron James is the first active NBA player to become a billionaire. Danny Cunningham looks at James' companies and investments.

LeBron James, The Businessman: 5 companies owned by The King

The Utah Jazz&rsquo;s 2021-22 season is officially over. The Jazz believed they were a championship contender, but this marks another season ending in disappointment and heartbreak. Now, looking ahead at what&rsquo;s to come in Salt Lake City, massive changes seem to be on the horizon. Whether it be Donovan Mitchell or Rudy Gobert on the move, something&rsquo;s gotta give. Other veterans such as Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic could be on the move too.
While our Bryan Fonseca recently broke down <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/examining-potential-trade-desinations-for-donovan-mitchell-2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">possible trade destinations for Mitchell</a>, it's seems likely that the Jazz will try to appease their young star shooting guard. Gordon Hayward already broke Utah&rsquo;s heart a few years ago when he left in free agency. If Mitchell requested a trade, it would send shockwaves throughout Utah. Unlike Hayward, Mitchell has star power that transcends Utah and he could potentially lead the team to heights they haven&rsquo;t reached since the 1990s with John Stockton and Karl Malone.
If the Jazz have to move their homegrown three-time Defensive Player of the Year in order to keep Mitchell, I'm almost certain it would happen. It&rsquo;s an unfortunate twist of fate for Gobert, but leaving the Jazz&rsquo;s system might be the best thing for him so he can truly blossom into a true two-way presence.
As seen throughout Utah's first-round series against the Dallas Mavericks, Gobert was ignored or simply used as a decoy more often than not. If Gobert is used on a more consistent basis in a different environment, who knows what he could accomplish as one of the NBA&rsquo;s premier lob threats?
Gobert hitting the trade market would result in a feeding frenzy around the Association. Whether it be title contenders or rebuilding teams who feel close to a massive leap, Gobert could be viewed as the missing piece to the puzzle.
Without further ado, let&rsquo;s dive into five realistic destinations for a Gobert blockbuster deal this offseason.
Chicago Bulls
Chicago knows they&rsquo;re in desperate need of a defensive jolt. Adding Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso in the backcourt already brought a new identity to the Bulls, who were seemingly allergic to defense before their arrival. Myles Turner has been mentioned as a possible target for Chicago, but the Indiana Pacers are <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/despite-trade-talks-the-pacers-want-to-keep-myles-turner-longterm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> expected to keep him long-term. Why not swing for the fences with Gobert? Acquiring the 29-year-old would be a crown-jewel moment for the organization.&nbsp;
Imagine the possibilities for Chicago with Gobert patrolling the paint with Ball and Caruso hawking the perimeter. It&rsquo;s the perfect complement to offensive dynamos Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. Chicago&rsquo;s new starting lineup of Ball, Caruso, LaVine, DeRozan and Gobert would seemingly have no holes in it from a two-way perspective.
I absolutely love this idea for Chicago, and they should be blowing up the Jazz&rsquo;s phone this summer if it seems plausible.
Jazz receive: Nikola Vucevic, Patrick Williams, Coby White, draft compensation
Bulls receive: Rudy Gobert
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New York Knicks
The Knicks are bound to blow it up one way or another soon enough. Julius Randle feels like <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/five-nba-players-who-feel-destined-to-be-traded-this-offseason" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one of the most obvious trade candidates</a> to potentially hit the market this offseason. If the Knicks are done with Randle, could they parlay him and other young pieces to acquire Gobert? While <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/examining-potential-trade-desinations-for-donovan-mitchell-2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York would love to land Mitchell</a>, the Knicks should seriously explore a Gobert trade since the organization needs some sort of game-changing move.
The 2022-23 season feels like a make-or-break year for the current Knicks regime. Head coach Tom Thibodeau&rsquo;s seat is red-hot, plus the Knicks&rsquo; front office has to be itching to make some sort of move to change course from a stale build.
Gobert&rsquo;s arrival would signal New York is ready to finally ascend the Eastern Conference standings. Sure, Gobert isn&rsquo;t a true &ldquo;superstar,&rdquo; but he&rsquo;s far and away the most impactful player the Knicks could realistically reel in this offseason. Gobert being the adult in the room for an accelerated rebuild in the Big Apple is a fun scenario, especially as it provides a high-floor outcome immediately.
New York&rsquo;s current roster has ample flexibility to turn it all over again by 2023. If the Knicks clear out all of their contracts with team options and expiring deals, sans the young core, they will have a max slot open for the loaded 2023 free-agent class. Would Gobert and RJ Barrett be able to sell a star on New York? If Barrett takes the leap forward that many expect, that&rsquo;s a fun big/wing duo to build around long-term.
Utah will likely want at least another young asset or two in return as part of this projected blockbuster, but the framework is strong enough to build off it.
Jazz receive: Julius Randle, Alec Burks, Quentin Grimes, draft compensation
Knicks receive: Rudy Gobert
Atlanta Hawks
Want to find the perfect fit for Gobert outside of Utah? The Hawks are the ideal destination for Gobert, who would be able to shine outside of the Jazz&rsquo;s system. Trae Young pick-and-rolls with Gobert would simply be unfair to try to guard, and it would help insulate their star point guard in a better situation.
Atlanta also has the right amount of assets to make this compelling for Utah to pull the trigger. Whether it be John Collins or Bogdan Bogdanovic, either one could be the centerpiece to a Gobert deal. Also, Atlanta has an upcoming expiring salary in Danilo Gallinari with only $5 million guaranteed on his contract. If you throw together Collins, Gallinari and future draft compensation, it could be enough for the Jazz to take negotiations more seriously. Clint Capela could also be re-routed to another team to free up further cap flexibility as well.
For Atlanta, they are ready to win right now with Young leading the way. With Young, Kevin Huerter, De&rsquo;Andre Hunter, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson, they have a young core that's ready to take the next step. Gobert brings a star piece to an organization that has the urgency to compete right now in the East, and they'll want to bounce back after how they crashed and burned to end their 2021-22 season. Also, the Hawks had the NBA's 26th-ranked defense this season (allowing 112.1 points per 100 possessions), so adding a three-time Defensive Player of the Year could be just what they need.
It wouldn&rsquo;t be a surprise to see a player of Young&rsquo;s caliber push for Gobert to join him in Atlanta too. With all the trade rumors swirling around Collins since he signed a five-year extension, this deal makes a lot of sense for both sides to explore further.
Jazz receive: John Collins, Danilo Gallinari, future draft compensation
Hawks receive: Rudy Gobert
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Golden State Warriors
Smoke is already forming around this possibility, if the Jazz indeed decide to blow it up in a few months. For the Warriors, it&rsquo;s an all-in move to create another dynasty in the final prime years of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. With so much young talent climbing the ladder in the reloaded Western Conference, the time is now for the Warriors to make a splashy move to keep themselves atop the standings.
This will be the last time the Warriors can explore potential deals revolving around Andrew Wiggins&rsquo; bloated salary as well. Next season, Wiggins will be on an expiring contract making $33.6 million. With Wiggins, Golden State can immediately enter the conversation for Gobert while also having some intriguing young pieces that could appeal to Utah.
Jonathan Kuminga is likely off limits from the Warriors&rsquo; perspective, flashing real two-way potential throughout this season. However, what about a combination of Moses Moody and James Wiseman? Instantly, Utah can replenish their young core with two immediate contributors to place alongside Mitchell long-term. Throw in some future draft picks and the Jazz might be the ones who are ready to press &ldquo;accept&rdquo; on this hypothetical trade.
Golden State&rsquo;s new-age lineup of dominance would simply be unfair. Take a look at the Warriors&rsquo; projected lineup with Gobert: Curry, Jordan Poole, Thompson, Green and Gobert. With all of the versatility on display here, it could vault Golden State into a different stratosphere entirely.
Jazz receive: Andrew Wiggins, James Wiseman, Moses Moody, future draft compensation
Warriors receive: Rudy Gobert, Rudy Gay
Detroit Pistons
Here&rsquo;s a surprise team that could become very aggressive in the Gobert sweepstakes if the chips fall their way this offseason. No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham flashed superstar potential for the Pistons during his rookie campaign, especially after the All-Star break.
If the Pistons get lottery luck once more with a top pick in this year&rsquo;s draft, could they decide to push some chips into the middle of the table for Gobert? Imagine if the Pistons had a trio of Cunningham, Gobert and a top prospect (Jabari Smith or Paolo Banchero?) to build around for the next five-plus years.
For the Pistons, acquiring stars via the draft or trades is the only realistic route to obtaining a game-changing talent. We already saw it on display with their former regime when they traded for Blake Griffin, which led to little progress long-term. Unlike Griffin, Gobert actually fits into the organization's long-term calculus.
From the Jazz&rsquo;s perspective, they would be asking for a heavy return from a team like Detroit. We&rsquo;re talking two key pieces to their core as well as veteran wing Jerami Grant. Would the Pistons feel comfortable moving Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart for Gobert? That may be Utah's asking price.
Jazz receive: Jerami Grant, Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart, Kelly Olynyk, future draft compensation
Pistons receive: Rudy Gobert, Nickeil Alexander-Walker
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Entering a pivotal offseason, will the Utah Jazz blow it up? If so, which teams make sense as a landing spot for Rudy Gobert?

Examining potential trade destinations for Rudy Gobert

While doing the media rounds for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Last-Enforcer-Outrageous-Fiercest-Competitors/dp/1982175648/ref=asc_df_1982175648_nodl/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=532676525181&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=8339304955139487848&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=m&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9007723&amp;hvtargid=pla-1380126241639&amp;psc=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">his new book</a>, "The Last Enforcer," Charles Oakley has been extremely vocal about his feelings towards his former New York Knicks teammate Patrick Ewing.
It has become abundantly clear that Oakley and Ewing are not currently on good terms in any way shape or form.&nbsp;This appears to have stemmed from the ugly Madison Square Garden incident of 2017 when Oakley was forcibly removed by security staff from a Knicks game.&nbsp;
The image of Oakley shoving a security guard prior being dragged away from his seat on live television stands as one of the ugliest moments the Knicks organization has ever seen.&nbsp;According to court papers, Oakley has since <a href="https://theathletic.com/2266870/2020/12/16/charles-oakley-wants-knicks-owner-james-dolan-named-in-assault-suit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused Knicks governor James Dolan of orchestrating an attack on him</a>.
Oakley has long been beloved by New Yorkers as a whole, while Dolan has grown to be an incredibly unpopular figure among many Knicks fans who blame him solely for much of the team's struggles over the years.
This particular situation definitely didn&rsquo;t help Dolan&rsquo;s popularity. In fact, during the incident, Knicks fans chanted &ldquo;Oakley! Oakley!&rdquo; as he was being removed from the arena, so it was clear as day as to who the fans were supporting.&nbsp;
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To make matters worse, the Knicks released a statement that said, &ldquo;We hope [Oakley] gets some help soon," implying &mdash; without basis &mdash; that Oakley had a problem with drugs, alcohol or some type of mental issues. Dolan also subsequently banned the Knicks legend from MSG indefinitely.&nbsp;
Since then, Oakley has expressed his disappointment that some of his former teammates, namely Ewing, didn&rsquo;t have his back the way he felt they should&rsquo;ve.
&ldquo;My relationship with Patrick Ewing should be better," Oakley told Fat Joe in February. "I played with him for 10 years in the Garden. Fans saw how hard I played, had everybody&rsquo;s back. When I came to a situation and needed him, he didn&rsquo;t come out to represent me like he should have... He knows he hasn&rsquo;t been fair to me, and I was always fair to him."
&ldquo;That happened in 2017, he just said something 5 months ago," Oakley said on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpmqPkiSIm8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Rich Eisen Show</a>. "I played with him 10 years, had his back. They offered him a D League job about 7 yrs ago, I said how are you gonna offer a guy who played with you 15 yrs a D League job? That hurt me when he didn&rsquo;t speak up for me."
While <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/podcasts/the-rematch/episodes/basketballnews-com-episode-48-nba-hall-of-famer-patrick-ewing-talks-knicks-days,-turning-the-hoyas-around,-charles-oakley,-more" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviewing Ewing for The Rematch</a>, I asked him about Oakley and the chance of them patching their brotherhood back together again. He was honest and forthcoming about the fallout, the current status and the possibility for reconciliation.&nbsp;
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tdGWgeWlXdg" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Etan Thomas: How are you with all of your former Knicks teammates?&nbsp;
Patrick Ewing: "We all still talk, John [Starks] and I talk a lot. He works for the Knicks. He came to our game in the Garden. Herb Williams, we still communicate. Derek Harper, we still communicate. Doc Rivers. Me and Oak, we were still communicating; we&rsquo;re not communicating right now, but Oak was one of my best teammates. I respect everything he did on the court. Greg Anthony. So a lot of us are still in communication. We&rsquo;re all doing our own things, but we&rsquo;re friends, we&rsquo;re comrades, and we did a lot of great things together."
Etan: So, you mentioned Oak, and you said y&rsquo;all are not really communicating right now. It&rsquo;s interesting, I interviewed Oakley a few years ago, right after the thing with Dolan happened in the Garden. So I interviewed him about it, and he talked about it a lot. It was a really ugly scene, and I felt bad for Oakley because that&rsquo;s just not how you do a former New York ;egend and Knicks great when they come back to the Garden. I mean, I&rsquo;m no Washington Wizards great, but I go back to D.C. and they&rsquo;re not gonna do me like that. That&rsquo;s just not how you treat former players.
So we did the interview and we&rsquo;re talking, and he alluded to the fact that some players didn&rsquo;t support him the way he felt they should have. He didn&rsquo;t say that you were one of them, but he said to me, 'I really only knew you one year,' because he played that one year in D.C. And when I saw him in All-Star weekend in New Orleans after it happened, I gave him a big hug. 'Are you alright, do you need anything?' I thought that was messed up.
I went on a few shows and talked about it. I actually went on Michael Rappaport&rsquo;s show with Kenyon Martin and talked about how they did Oakley wrong, and I think I wrote about it as well. And he was like, 'Well, me and you, we only knew each other one year and you was kind of quiet to be honest for most of the year.' I mean, I had legends there so I was just watching and learning, but he said, 'Some of my other teammates that I&rsquo;ve known for years and played with and was in the trenches with and bled for, they didn&rsquo;t really come to back for me like I thought they should&rsquo;ve.' And he keeps saying it over and over again, and honestly, he sounded to me like he was really hurt by it. And I don&rsquo;t know if you were one of the players in that category because he didn&rsquo;t say you by name, but thinking back on that incident, do you think you and the other guys supported him as much as you all should&rsquo;ve?
Ewing: "I can&rsquo;t speak for others, all I know is what I did. When I saw the incident, I picked up the phone and called (Oak) and asked, 'Do you need anything?' I saw they took him and cuffed him, so my first question was, 'Do you need me to have someone come and bail you out? Whatever you need.' What else am I supposed to do? I was asked about it by the media. I told them it was wrong. Oak was an integral part of our team, and of the Knicks fabric, and something like that should never happen. I don&rsquo;t know what else I was supposed to do.
"I&rsquo;m still working in the NBA as an assistant coach (at the time). I&rsquo;m trying to work my way up the ladder to hopefully be a head coach in the NBA. So I don&rsquo;t know what else I was supposed to say, or what else I was supposed to do. All I could do was give him my support, let him know I was there for him and (do) anything that he needed. When I was asked about it, I gave my honest feelings that I thought it was wrong and that things like that cannot happen. And I supported him. Anything else that he may have wanted me to do... I guess I didn&rsquo;t do enough to show him that I thought about him as a friend more than just a former teammate, but I did."
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Etan: You know, as somebody who watched you all play your entire careers with New York, I personally hope that you all get back together and are back on talking terms and do like a public thing where y&rsquo;all are together as brothers. Because, when I tell you that I was a die-hard Knicks fan. Like after y&rsquo;all would lose a game, and I went to school, somebody better not say nothing about the Knicks. That&rsquo;s how seriously I took it. So even when you just mentioned that you and Oakley aren&rsquo;t really speaking now, that was like a jab to me, like, 'Aww, it&rsquo;s supposed to be like this (pounds fist together),' like the Knicks vs. everybody. 
Ewing: "Like I said before, he was one of my best teammates. I used to call him 'The Hitman.' He was the enforcer. Anything that happened on that floor, you always knew he had your back. And I wanted to let him know that I had his back in this situation. I supported him in every way I could. I talked to Mr. Dolan myself about the situation. I know other people tried to broker a peace as well, but I still respect Oak and always will."
Etan: Well, I&rsquo;m gonna still hold out hope that y&rsquo;all get back together and reconcile. 
Ewing: "Me too. Believe me, me too."
Etan: Okay, so that&rsquo;s great to hear. So if you&rsquo;re holding out hope about it and it&rsquo;s open, I&rsquo;m confident that it will happen when it&rsquo;s supposed to happen in due time. Sometimes brothers fight, sometimes brothers argue, sometimes brothers have disagreements. And then, they come back together as brothers are supposed to, so I&rsquo;m holding out hope for that.
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Etan Thomas speaks with Patrick Ewing about supporting Charles Oakley and how he hopes for the two to broker a peace.

Patrick Ewing is hopeful that he and Charles Oakley can reconcile 

NBA players have become some of the most marketable celebrities in the world. These days, it&rsquo;s not uncommon for players to earn significantly more from their off-court opportunities than they do from their NBA contract.&nbsp;
While many companies are lining up to work with NBA players, not all of these stars have the same reach, engagement or consumer appeal. Some are far more influential than others, and <a href="https://www.actionnetwork.com/nba/most-marketable-popular-nba-players" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a new study from The Action Network</a> wanted to find out which NBA stars give companies the best bang for their buck.
To determine each player's "influence score," they analyzed 20 different metrics (each weighted as one point) that fell into three categories: Social performance (which measured their followers, engagement rate, yearly social growth, audience quality score, etc.), audience ratings (which factored in certain demographic and economic factors) and overall likeability (which measured monthly Google searches, online buzz and positive vs. negative sentiment). When everything was added up, 20 was the highest possible score that a player could receive.
LeBron James led all players with an overall score of 14.18, in large part because he ranked first in both social performance and likability. While James <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-most-trolls-trolled-negative-tweets-study-rumors-twitter-positive-mentions-stephen-curry-lebron-james-carmelo-anthony-joel-embiid-russell-westbrook-kevin-durant-kyrie-irving-klay-thompson-kevin-love" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has some haters</a>, he also has a ton of supporters. LeBron has plenty of endorsements and <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-lebron-james-the-businessman-fenway-sports-group-springhill-entertainment-uninterrupted-blaze-pizza-ladder-athletes-companies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">off-court endeavors</a>, which is why his 2021 off-court earnings ($65 million) more than doubled his NBA salary ($31.5 million).
At No. 2 was Stephen Curry with a score of 10.67. He has lucrative endorsement deals with Under Armour, Callaway and CarMax, and his $40 million in off-court earnings ranked eighth-highest among all athletes in 2021.&nbsp;
This is where things get interesting, as Derrick Rose rounds out the top-three with a score of 9.29. The 33-year-old beat out Devin Booker (8.96), Luka Doncic (8.83), Giannis Antetokounmpo (8.59) and Kevin Durant (8.55) among others. Even though Rose isn't the MVP-caliber player he once was and mostly comes off the bench these days, he has one of the most passionate fan bases in all of professional sports.
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After Durant, Kyrie Irving (8.17), LaMelo Ball (8.04) and Russell Westbrook (7.78) round out the top-10.
The Los Angeles Lakers (3), Brooklyn Nets (3), Golden State Warriors (2) and Phoenix Suns (2) were the only teams to have multiple players crack the top-20. Notable omissions from the top-20 include Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic and Donovan Mitchell.
Here&rsquo;s a look at the complete top-20 list from <a href="https://www.actionnetwork.com/nba/most-marketable-popular-nba-players" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Action Network</a>:
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Rank
</td>
<td>
Full Name
</td>
<td>
Team
</td>
<td>
Influence Score
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
1
</td>
<td>
LeBron James
</td>
<td>
Lakers
</td>
<td>
14.18
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
2
</td>
<td>
Steph Curry
</td>
<td>
Warriors
</td>
<td>
10.67
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
3
</td>
<td>
Derrick Rose
</td>
<td>
Knicks
</td>
<td>
9.29
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
4
</td>
<td>
Devin Booker
</td>
<td>
Suns
</td>
<td>
8.96
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
5
</td>
<td>
Luka Doncic
</td>
<td>
Mavericks
</td>
<td>
8.83
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
6
</td>
<td>
Giannis Antetokounmpo
</td>
<td>
Bucks
</td>
<td>
8.59
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
7
</td>
<td>
Kevin Durant
</td>
<td>
Nets
</td>
<td>
8.55
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
8
</td>
<td>
Kyrie Irving
</td>
<td>
Nets
</td>
<td>
8.17
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
9
</td>
<td>
LaMelo Ball
</td>
<td>
Hornets
</td>
<td>
8.04
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
10
</td>
<td>
Russell Westbrook
</td>
<td>
Lakers
</td>
<td>
7.78
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
11
</td>
<td>
Ja Morant
</td>
<td>
Grizzlies
</td>
<td>
7.67
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
12
</td>
<td>
James Harden
</td>
<td>
Sixers
</td>
<td>
7.56
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
13
</td>
<td>
Anthony Davis
</td>
<td>
Lakers
</td>
<td>
7.52
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
14
</td>
<td>
Damian Lillard
</td>
<td>
Blazers
</td>
<td>
7.52
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
15
</td>
<td>
Chris Paul
</td>
<td>
Suns
</td>
<td>
7.51
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
16
</td>
<td>
Klay Thompson
</td>
<td>
Warriors
</td>
<td>
7.47
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
17
</td>
<td>
Jayson Tatum
</td>
<td>
Celtics
</td>
<td>
7.40
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
18
</td>
<td>
Ben Simmons
</td>
<td>
Nets
</td>
<td>
7.32
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
19
</td>
<td>
Zach LaVine
</td>
<td>
Bulls
</td>
<td>
7.31
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
20
</td>
<td>
Zion Williamson
</td>
<td>
Pelicans
</td>
<td>
7.18
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Which players get trolled the most on Twitter? <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-most-trolls-trolled-negative-tweets-study-rumors-twitter-positive-mentions-stephen-curry-lebron-james-carmelo-anthony-joel-embiid-russell-westbrook-kevin-durant-kyrie-irving-klay-thompson-kevin-love" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Check out this other study</a> that determined which players receive the most negative tweets each day (and who has the most positive mentions).
&nbsp;
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A new study from The Action Network analyzed 20 different metrics to find out which NBA stars are the most marketable.

New study ranks the top-20 most marketable NBA players

In 2021, &ldquo;NBA&rdquo; was the No. 1 trending Google search in the United States, beating out &ldquo;Squid Game,&rdquo; &ldquo;Mega Millions&rdquo; and &ldquo;stimulus check&rdquo; among other top searches. &ldquo;NBA&rdquo; also fared well globally, ranking as Google&rsquo;s No. 4 trending search worldwide.
Kevin Esteves, the NBA&rsquo;s associate vice president of digital strategy and analytics, did a double take when Google released this <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2021/US/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> a few weeks ago.
&ldquo;I read it a few times just to make sure I understood what they were capturing and measuring,&rdquo; Esteves told BasketballNews.com in a phone interview. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an incredible stat. In a year like 2021 &mdash; with all of the news and trending searches that would&rsquo;ve been in contention for the No. 1 spot &mdash; for the NBA to occupy that top spot, I think it&rsquo;s just a testament to the health of the brand and how exciting the league has been over the last few years. It&rsquo;s an incredible brand-health metric for us, but I think it also speaks to how the NBA is more than just a basketball league; it kind of infiltrates the conversation across culture, music, fashion and social justice.&rdquo;
The NBA has always had an excellent online presence, but 2021 was perhaps the league&rsquo;s most impressive year to date.
Last year, the NBA was the most-viewed and most-engaged pro-sports-league account on social media, driving 24 billion views and 2.3 billion engagements across all platforms. Also, the NBA added 18 million followers across Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook combined last year &mdash; the most of any U.S. pro sports league.
&ldquo;What&rsquo;s really been our guiding philosophy throughout is we&rsquo;ve tried to be a first-mover on all of these platforms, and in many cases, we were the first sports-league account on the platform,&rdquo; Esteves explained. &ldquo;Then, it&rsquo;s about optimizing content for the platform that we&rsquo;re on &mdash; not just spraying the same piece of content across all of our platforms, but really optimizing for each platform, nurturing that fan base and giving them exactly what they want. That&rsquo;s sort of been key in our recipe for success.&rdquo;
In addition to growing its following on the larger platforms like Instagram and Twitter, the NBA also had a number of successful live activations on Twitch and TikTok among others. Even the way the league embraced Clubhouse during the height of its popularity &mdash; with regularly scheduled Watch Parties &mdash; is indicative of this philosophy.
&ldquo;I think a lot of brands can be hesitant around new platforms as they&rsquo;re emerging because they aren&rsquo;t sure if the ROI is there, or they&rsquo;re not sure exactly how it ladders up to their overall company objective,&rdquo; Esteves said. &ldquo;When you think about social media when it first started, a lot of brands were in the business of driving people back to their website or other offerings, whereas I think we&rsquo;ve always had the directive from our executives to optimize for the platform we&rsquo;re on and nurture engagement there.
&ldquo;At first, it was a very big marketing platform for us, but now, social drives just about every business objective that we have. But I don&rsquo;t think we could have achieved that if we were thinking that our first post on each platform had to drive 10 of our business objectives. We had to nurture engagement on those platforms to then be able to capitalize in the long-term. I think we benefited from that approach. Globally, I think you&rsquo;re starting to see more and more sports leagues embrace a similar approach, being on multiple platforms and [creating specific] content that they make available on those platforms to engage fans and ultimately increase the reach of the sport.&rdquo;
The NBA currently has the most followers of any pro-sports-league account on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/nba/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a> (63.1 million), <a href="https://twitter.com/nba" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a>&nbsp;(35.9 million), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/NBA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YouTube</a> (17.7 million) and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@nba?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok</a> (14.2 million). In comparison, the NFL has just 22.7 million Instagram followers, 28.3 million Twitter followers, 8.7 million YouTube subscribers and 7.4 million TikTok followers.
A big part of Esteves&rsquo; job is trying to turn those followers into regular viewers. He describes this as &ldquo;a pivotal challenge and opportunity.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We believe that social [media] is a driver of awareness and reach, and that it can complement and increase linear viewership,&rdquo; Esteves said. &ldquo;We know that there are such avid communities, whether it&rsquo;s the #NBATwitter community or the communities that we have on YouTube, Reddit, you name it. They are among the most vibrant social communities on each platform, and we believe that it&rsquo;s a complementary offering. It&rsquo;s long been our strategy to drive awareness through social.
"For a game like Klay Thompson&rsquo;s return, we had a live social producer on hand to capture Klay&rsquo;s arrival, his warm-up routine, him coming out of the locker room and just all of that context. For all of our biggest nationally televised games, we&rsquo;re making it appointment-style viewing. We know that fans on social are inundated with content. You see the trends on a platform like TikTok, where seemingly anyone can go viral now with content that they just captured on their phone.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s so much content saturation out there right now, so you really have to break through the noise, and we&rsquo;ve found that the best way to do that is to be authentic and provide access that nobody else can. Before tip-off of Klay&rsquo;s return, we had a video of Klay running right up to the stanchion and he jumps into the camera. There&rsquo;s no way you can get closer than that! And we&rsquo;ve always felt that is important.
"Something that [Commissioner] Adam Silver always says is, &lsquo;Ninety-nine percent of our fans never get to attend a game live.&rsquo; So how do we use social to bring the game courtside and make them feel like they&rsquo;re actually there? We feel like that&rsquo;s a critical bridge between social and TV tune-in, creating those authentic relationships and providing the context for why this is such a big game or matchup. We use social to do that storytelling.&rdquo;
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Having a live social producer on hand for Thompson&rsquo;s return paid off, as the NBA&rsquo;s Instagram generated 103 million views &mdash; &nbsp;the most-viewed regular-season day in the account&rsquo;s history. Klay-specific content generated more than 110 million views across the NBA&rsquo;s socials, making Thompson&rsquo;s return the most-viewed regular-season moment ever. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CYiCTLxLOFE/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Video of Thompson&rsquo;s pregame introduction</a> received 22.3 million views, which is the NBA&rsquo;s second-most-viewed Instagram video of all-time.
It translated to linear viewership too. On NBA TV, the game averaged 844,000 viewers, making it the league's most-viewed regular-season game since 2016. Locally, NBC Sports Bay Area had a 12.7 household rating, the network's highest-rated regular-season game since 2016.
The NBA is terrific at creating these moments that get everyone talking. During the 2021 NBA All-Star Game in Atlanta, the league&rsquo;s Instagram account generated more than 139 million views &mdash; the most of any account on the platform that day. The NBA&rsquo;s IG also racked up the most views of any account when Stephen Curry broke the NBA&rsquo;s all-time three-point record, generating 63 million views in 24 hours.
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And thanks to the super active and passionate community on #NBATwitter, it&rsquo;s not uncommon to see multiple players and teams trending on Twitter whenever something notable happens in the NBA. Several years ago, I asked Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey about the rise of #NBATwitter and how it became one of the most-engaged communities on the platform.
&ldquo;I think the first reason it&rsquo;s become so strong is the league&rsquo;s acceptance of it. And not just acceptance, but usage of it,&rdquo; Dorsey <a href="https://hoopshype.com/2018/08/26/cofounder-ceo-tweet-twitter-edit-nba-warriors-jack-dorsey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told me</a>. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a very open mindset to technologies like Twitter and that&rsquo;s helped immensely. I also think the pace of Twitter matches the pace of the NBA and basketball in general. We [focused on] very brief moments and it&rsquo;s fast-paced and there&rsquo;s a lot going on, and you find a lot of the same dynamics within basketball and an appreciation for those things within the fan base.
"We were fortunate to get a lot of the players on the service [early] and also the commentators &mdash; a lot of the smart commentators... We have some of the most amazing fans on #NBATwitter too... I think it&rsquo;s a good companion to the event and to what you&rsquo;re watching. It also has that feeling of making the world smaller. We&rsquo;re all watching this game at once; we all saw the same thing and here&rsquo;s how we all feel about it &mdash; whether we&rsquo;re outraged or we&rsquo;re excited, we&rsquo;re [part] of the crowd.&rdquo;
Esteves agrees with Dorsey.
&ldquo;When it comes to #NBATwitter, we&rsquo;ve leaned in, of course. Our game is high-paced, volatile, real-time and has all of those &lsquo;did-you-just-see-that&rsquo; moments that are kind of perfect fodder for a platform like Twitter. I think we&rsquo;ve benefited from the product on the court. The NBA is an extremely exciting product on the court with many rising talents," Dorsey said.
"The other day, Ja Morant had his freakish block in transition, and that&rsquo;s just fuel for Twitter and the conversation that&rsquo;s occurring there. In many ways, it&rsquo;s also a credit to the media, who are such a valuable part of that ecosystem and conversation, and to our players, who not only produce on the court but have been very invested. Shaq was among the first people with a Twitter account, period. Having our players invested in the platform helped. We&rsquo;ve benefited from that marriage, that partnership over the years, and our game has grown as a result."
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JA MORANT WILD BLOCK 😳 <a href="https://t.co/ZxQqdCWFsk">pic.twitter.com/ZxQqdCWFsk</a>
&mdash; NBA TV (@NBATV) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1480371894893248512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2022</a></blockquote>

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If you&rsquo;re a basketball fan, it&rsquo;s almost impossible to avoid #NBATwitter these days. Even if you aren&rsquo;t on the platform, you&rsquo;re bound to hear about various tweets and the drama that unfolds there. When DeAndre Jordan flip-flopped on his free-agency decision to join the Dallas Mavericks and re-signed with the Los Angeles Clippers, that saga played out on #NBATwitter. Bryan Colangelo lost his job as general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers because some #NBATwitter sleuths discovered his burner account. Nearly every free-agency signing, trade and draft pick is reported first on #NBATwitter. It has become an integral part of the NBA landscape. It&rsquo;s also wildly entertaining.
&ldquo;My favorite account &mdash; and one that I think makes #NBATwitter so special &mdash; is Draymond Green&rsquo;s mother, <a href="https://twitter.com/babersgreen">@BabersGreen</a>," Dorsey <a href="https://hoopshype.com/2018/08/26/cofounder-ceo-tweet-twitter-edit-nba-warriors-jack-dorsey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told me</a> several years ago. &ldquo;She has found all the other NBA moms on Twitter and she trash-talks them during games! She also trash-talks her own son during games! Watching a game with her tweeting about what&rsquo;s going on with Draymond or with other moms is just entertaining. The basketball game is amazing in itself, but to see her comment on it just makes it funny.&rdquo;
The NBA&rsquo;s YouTube channel is also a huge point of pride. The channel generated 1.94 billion views in 2021, which was the most-viewed year in the channel&rsquo;s 16-year history.
&ldquo;These staggering numbers on YouTube are among the [metrics] we&rsquo;re most proud of because, as I like to say from the data side, this single-year record viewership has been years in the making,&rdquo; Esteves explained. &ldquo;The NBA has been on YouTube since 2005, and the optimizations that are required to kind of perfect your algorithmic traffic are so nuanced; it comes down to thumbnails and headlines and captions and the length of the video and the pace of the video. We&rsquo;re constantly tweaking and optimizing those things, and one thing that we&rsquo;ve seen is that as you further optimize, you get this domino effect where one successful video fuels the performance of the next video and the next video and so on. So, seeing these numbers peak in 2021 is a testament to a lot of the optimizations that we&rsquo;ve made over the course of several years.&rdquo;
This was something that Esteves pointed out several times: the NBA&rsquo;s success in 2021 was the culmination of several years of hard work.
&ldquo;I sit on our Digital Content Strategy and Analytics team and we sit hand in hand with the content-publishing team, and we created that feedback and optimization loop over several years and now we&rsquo;re seeing the dividends of all that work,&rdquo; Esteves said. &ldquo;Also, we&rsquo;re trying to increase data fluency throughout the entire company. We don&rsquo;t want all of the answers to sit in one group that sends out an email or report saying &lsquo;X, Y and Z.&rsquo; We want more people throughout the organization to understand the data and be able to analyze it themselves; I think that has also been part of our success.&rdquo;
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Esteves joined the NBA in 2012, so not only has he witnessed the league&rsquo;s tremendous growth across various platforms, he&rsquo;s also seen how the digital landscape has changed over the last decade.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been an incredible transformation,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I started at the NBA out of school as a project employee on our Social Content team. When I first started, on a lot of these platforms, it was rather intuitive what content you published on each because they were all so different. Twitter was kind of the lifeblood of everything going on with news and commentary, and it was very tech specific. YouTube was where all videos existed and it was kind of the searchable domain of all video. Facebook was more for friends and family and conversations. Instagram started as a photo-only platform.
"From a content-strategy perspective, it was rather intuitive, understanding what content we put on each platform. But now, all of the platforms have evolved so much, and they have replicated a lot of the same features &mdash; from stories to videos to live-streams to audio-only formats. Now, it&rsquo;s a lot more nuanced in terms of trying to understand where the content is going to work best, and that&rsquo;s where the data becomes so important. We&rsquo;re pulling in data from each of these platforms and really getting granular about trying to understand what performs best on each platform.
&ldquo;I think part of what has made us so successful is being open to the data and leaning in to the data, and understanding what&rsquo;s performing well versus what&rsquo;s not performing well. Sometimes, it&rsquo;s hard to admit the things that aren&rsquo;t working, but we&rsquo;ve been very transparent and honest with ourselves, and we hold ourselves accountable to make sure we&rsquo;re optimizing on each of these platforms. Having that approach is another ingredient to our success and how we&rsquo;ve been able to continue growing.&rdquo;
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This data includes interesting details about the NBA&rsquo;s demographics. For example, the NBA&rsquo;s Facebook, Instagram and TikTok accounts have more than 24 million combined followers from the Philippines &mdash; the most of any country outside of the United States.
&ldquo;One of the things that makes the NBA so unique is its global reach, and we see that show up time and time again in the demographics,&rdquo; Esteves said. &ldquo;The fan support we have in the Philippines, I think, is among the most amazing things I&rsquo;ve witnessed from the data side for the demographics of the NBA. For that country to represent such a significant portion of the consumption we have on a person-to-person basis, they just love the NBA; they love the stories and the players. Our content performs exceptionally well there.
"We see support from countries all over the world &mdash; in Europe, Australia, Africa and so on &mdash; but the Philippines is an example of something that really stood out to me. I think that ties back to a lot of the globalization that the NBA has done, with some of its global games being held in Manila and other locations outside of the U.S. That&rsquo;s been critical and we&rsquo;ve seen that show up in the numbers."
Utilizing these platforms, the NBA has gone from connecting to its biggest local supporters to reaching an audience that spans the entire world.
"Being based in New York, sometimes you have that U.S.-centric bias when you&rsquo;re looking at stuff, but once you see the data, it opens up your mind like, &lsquo;Wow, this content is being consumed in real time across so many different territories and countries across the globe.&rsquo;&rdquo;

In 2021, the NBA was the most-viewed, most-engaged and most-followed pro-sports-league account on social media.

An inside look at how the NBA became a social-media juggernaut

As many teams are currently in the NBA, the Phoenix Suns are getting hit hard by COVID-19. Head coach Monty Williams returned out of league protocols on Tuesday to guide the Suns to an impressive victory over the New Orleans Pelicans, and Deandre Ayton, Jae Crowder JaVale McGee have been cleared for return after reconditioning. (Only Abdel Nader and Landry Shamet remain in the protocols.)
In the absence of Ayton and McGee, two key cogs to the Suns&rsquo; success to kick off the 2021-22 campaign, an interesting debate is bubbling up to the surface out of nowhere. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski just reported that Phoenix signed veteran center Bismack Biyombo for the rest of the season, and immediately, he&rsquo;s become a valuable piece thriving alongside Chris Paul in pick-and-roll situations.
After not playing in an NBA game for 10 months, Biyombo was picked up in free agency, and has averaged 13.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.5 steals in only 23.6 minutes over the Suns&rsquo; last two games against the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans. Biyombo has been a necessary piece who adds size and toughness down low, and he&rsquo;s also been such a synergistic fit alongside Paul and Devin Booker, who constantly set him up around the rim for spoon-fed opportunities. Biyombo is 11 of 13 from the field.
At the same time, 2020 No. 10 overall pick Jalen Smith has finally entered the Suns&rsquo; rotation to see the first legitimate minutes of his career. With Ayton and McGee sidelined, Smith has become Phoenix&rsquo;s starting center, averaging 15.2 points in only 24.2 minutes over four games with an actual rotation spot. Smith <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/rotation-players-making-the-most-of-roster-incosistency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has displayed what made him so enticing</a> during the pre-draft process: rim-rolling ability, floor-spacing acumen and underrated rim protection value. The question now becomes what happens once Ayton and McGee return after exiting league health and safety protocols.
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Phoenix stunningly declined Smith&rsquo;s third-year team option, a <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/suns-admit-mistake-drafting-jalen-smith-no-10-overall-in-2020-declining-thirdyear-option" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rarity for a lottery pick</a>. The Suns let it be known that they seemingly didn&rsquo;t believe in Smith&rsquo;s long-term potential to find a niche role in their win-now trajectory alongside Paul and one of the best young cores in the league. It was an open secret that Phoenix was shopping Smith this offseason to find a win-now piece to bolster an already strong bench unit. Thaddeus Young was the one name who continued to be floated out there in potential trade talks revolving around Smith, but nothing came to fruition.
Now, with Smith showing true on-court value, he&rsquo;s suddenly boosted a nonexistent market around the NBA. There&rsquo;s a plausible scenario where Phoenix can ship off Smith&rsquo;s expiring contract plus Dario Saric, who is out for the season with a torn ACL, to find a real jolt for the team's rotation.
Biyombo&rsquo;s instant impact also plays a factor here, which is a stunning development. Hypothetically, Biyombo could be a better fit for what the Suns need in case of emergency behind Ayton and McGee as a third big. He not only provides much-needed size and versatility around the rim, but he&rsquo;s a veteran voice in the locker room as well.
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Welcome to PHX, Bismack Biyombo! 💥 <a href="https://t.co/taHVFhCJvC">pic.twitter.com/taHVFhCJvC</a>
&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1477809332700000259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Smith and Biyombo will be redundant when the Suns are back to full health. The question that now looms is what general manager James Jones will do with Smith. Will he side with the former lottery pick who is finally flashing real long-term value, or is Biyombo&rsquo;s veteran presence and cheaper salary enough at the back of the Suns&rsquo; bench?
With COVID issues ravaging rosters throughout the Association, Phoenix has stumbled into a unique situation which will now loom large over the next month. Whatever the Suns decide to do, it could have a championship-like shockwave. Whether it be acquiring a veteran like Young from San Antonio or another piece with even more win-now value (could Jerami Grant now become an actual option if the Suns are willing to trade promising young wing Cameron Johnson?), Phoenix now has moved its way up the proverbial ladder for most intriguing teams before the trade deadline.
All of the sudden, the Suns now have a big man predicament they&rsquo;re more than happy to be dealing with.

In the absence of Deandre Ayton and JaVale McGee, two Suns backup bigs have brought aboard an intriguing predicament.

Suns have a big-man predicament they're happy to deal with

The&nbsp;<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/lebron-james-puts-up-historic-stat-in-first-game-as-a-37yearold" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-stringify-link="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/giannis-antetokounmpo-shares-why-he-doesnt-associate-or-practice-with-other-nba-players-in-the-offseason/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">following article</a>&nbsp;first appeared on&nbsp;<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="http://basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://BasketballNetwork.net" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">BasketballNetwork.net</a>:
We are nearly one half into the NBA season, and the MVP conversation is heating up. Hall-of-Famer Kevin Garnett joined in the discussion and shared with the world his top-five candidates, excluding some usual names and adding two players rarely mentioned in the conversation.&nbsp;
KG&rsquo;s five MVP candidates
Kevin Garnett knows what is up when he talks about MVP-caliber players. He won one in the 2003-04 season after leading the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 58-24 record. KG joined the early MVP favorites discussion when he posted his top picks <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tic_pix/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on his Instagram story</a>.
<ol>
<li>Stephen Curry</li>
<li>DeMar DeRozan</li>
<li>Zach LaVine</li>
<li>Nikola Jokic</li>
<li>Kevin Durant</li>
</ol>
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KG's top 5 MVP candidates <a href="https://t.co/FTW13m5Zv2">pic.twitter.com/FTW13m5Zv2</a>
&mdash; Boardman (@boardman905) <a href="https://twitter.com/boardman905/status/1477516110471782402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Those are interesting choices there, and all are deserving, but some regulars are missing, such as LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid.
With his picks, KG is telling us that he&rsquo;s been caught up with recent highlights, which factored in his MVP bets. Curry broke the all-time three-pointers made record and is on track for more historical achievements this season, and the Golden State Warriors are on top of the Western Conference standings without Klay Thompson.&nbsp;Kevin Durant also does some heavy lifting for the Brooklyn Nets, who are still without Kyrie Irving (until Wednesday when he makes his season debut).
The current leaders of the Eastern Conference are the 24-10 Chicago Bulls. Usually, two great players on the same team cancel each other out, but KG doesn&rsquo;t believe that has to be the case. Not just having DeRozan and LaVine, but having them at No. 2 and No. 3 tells you everything you need to know about how The Big Ticket feels about the Bulls. Sure, the Bulls are fun to watch, and the DeRozan-LaVine tandem will get even better with time. However, there&rsquo;s still a lot to be played for in the season.
Meanwhile, LeBron James is now 37, playing at a new position &ndash; center &ndash; while <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/lebron-james-puts-up-historic-stat-in-first-game-as-a-37yearold" target="_blank" rel="noopener">still getting highlights and triple-doubles</a>. However, the Lakers are sitting at .500 at 19-19, clinging to the seventh spot in the Western Conference standings, affecting James&rsquo; MVP campaign. Also, two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo is curiously left off of Garnett&rsquo;s list. The Bucks are No. 3 in the East behind the Nets and the surprising Bulls. With season averages of 27.8 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 5.9 assists, there&rsquo;s a reason why NBA.com listed him as the <a href="https://www.nba.com/news/kia-mvp-ladder-dec-31-2021-edition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">top candidate on the MVP ladder</a>.&nbsp;
Let's hope KG puts out his final list at the end of the season so we can compare notes and see if he still feels the Bulls have two of the three best players in the NBA.
Based on team performance, if the MVP award was to be decided today, it&rsquo;d probably be a toss-up between KD and Curry.
Check out more articles from BasketballNetwork.net&nbsp;<a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

On his Instagram story, Kevin Garnett made his feelings known regarding who is leading the 2021-22 NBA MVP race.

Luke