Fighting Scots

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

The Minnesota Lynx have stolen Game 1 vs the New York Liberty after a cardiac comeback win in overtime, 95-93, to draw first blood in the 2024 WNBA Finals.
After a dominant first half from New York, Minnesota stormed back behind a huge scoring surge in the 4th quarter to take the lead in the dying seconds of the game.
The Liberty led by 15 with 5 minutes left in the game before the Lynx unleashed their furious run. It was led by Courtney Williams, who sank back-to-back threes with under 2 minutes to go. One of them was a four-point play as Williams got fouled by Sabrina Ionescu to give Minnesota the go-ahead lead late.
Breanna Stewart had a chance to win it for the Liberty in regulation but she missed the free throw that could&rsquo;ve given New York the lead and the win, sending the game into OT.
In overtime, 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier showed her wares that she&rsquo;s not just a defensive player when she gave the Lynx the final lead for the final tally on a tough fadeaway jumper.
Stewart had a chance again to send the game to a 2nd overtime but she missed a point-blank layup at the buzzer.
Collier finished with 21 points on 10-16 shooting with 8 rebounds and 4 assists to lead Minnesota&rsquo;s comeback. Williams chipped in 23 points as the team&rsquo;s leading scorer while Kayla McBride added 22 markers.
Stewart and Ionescu, New York&rsquo;s two superstars, scored 18 and 19 points respectively but struggled from the field overall (6-21 and 8-26) as the Liberty lost home court advantage following Game 1&rsquo;s loss. Jonquel Jones spearheaded the Liberty with 24 points and 10 rebounds but it was not enough to stop the Lynx&rsquo;s comeback.
Game 2 will still be at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY on Monday, October 14 at 3:00 p.m.

Minnesota have stolen Game 1 vs New York after a cardiac comeback win in overtime, 95-93, in the 2024 WNBA Finals.

Lynx strike first in 2024 WNBA Finals after after thrilling comeback win

SINGAPORE INDOOR STADIUM, SINGAPORE &ndash; The NBA G League United squeaked past the Tasmania JackJumpers, earning a tight 76-74 win to advance to the title game of the FIBA Intercontinental Cup 2024 Saturday afternoon here.
The Americans overcame the tough challenge from the Australians who were playing back-to-back following their win vs Lebanese side Al Riyadi yesterday.
The G League Squad led by nine at the half, 44-35, as they shot 45 percent from the field.
However, Tasmania had a furious second-half run behind American imports Milton Doyle and Jordon Crawford. The 5&rsquo;6 guard hit a big three with under two minutes left to give the JackJumpers a 72-68 lead.
GLU&rsquo;s Brodric Thomas answered with a three to tie the game at 72-all, but Crawford once again showed up for Tasmania by scoring another clutch bucket in isolation with under a minute left &ndash; a running hook shot in the middle to give his team the lead, 74-72.
In the end, Thomas was the hero for United. First, he got fouled on a three and made 2 of 3 FTs to tie the game at 74-74. In the next possession, Doyle turned the ball over gave GLU back the ball, and then he got fouled on a drive again. Thomas made two more clutch free throws for United&rsquo;s two-point advantage.
United broke the JackJumpers&rsquo; play supposed to be set on the post for center Will Magnay for the final tally.&nbsp;
Former NBA player Charlie Brown Jr. put up 23 points on 6/11 shooting to spearhead GLU&rsquo;s attack while Thomas and Deonte Burton added 12 and 11 markers respectively.
&ldquo;We got a little shaky sometimes but that&rsquo;s what great teams do &ndash; they win games,&rdquo; Juan Toscano-Anderson, who scored just 7 points but was instrumental on defense, said post-game. &ldquo;We figured out a way to win, ugly win or pretty win: still a win.&rdquo;
NBA G League United will now face Spanish side Unicaja for tomorrow&rsquo;s title game. Unicaja have also booked their place in the Finals after securing their second win yesterday.
The Tasmania JackJumpers will face Al Riyadi in the third-place match after the latter&rsquo;s win in the second game vs Angola&rsquo;s Petro de Luanda, 80-75.

The NBA G League United squeaked past the Tasmania JackJumpers, 76-74, to win and advance to the FIBA ICC title game.

FIBA ICC 2024 Day 3: NBA G League United escapes Tasmania to secure title game slot

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese continue to set standards and achieve historic records as rookies in the WNBA.&nbsp;
Clark, the 2023 no.1 overall selection, got the first-ever rookie triple-double in the WNBA by scoring 19 points, grabbing 12 rebounds, and dishing out 13 assists. The Indiana Fever rookie led her team to the win over last year&rsquo;s finalists New York Liberty. This was also the franchise&rsquo;s first-ever triple-double, and Clark did this against triple-double queen herself Sabrina Ionescu.&nbsp;
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CAITLIN CLARK MADE HISTORY TODAY 🗓️ 📊 19 PTS | 13 AST | 12 REB ✅ 1st rookie in WNBA history to record a triple-double ✅ 1st player in Indiana Fever history to record a triple-double<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WelcometotheW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WelcometotheW</a> <a href="https://t.co/9VVtlU4dLy">pic.twitter.com/9VVtlU4dLy</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1809743574071931331?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 7, 2024</a>
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Reese on the other hand, the 7th overall pick, surpassed WNBA legend Candace Parker&rsquo;s record of 12 straight double-doubles when she had yet another double-double, putting her at 13 straight. What&rsquo;s more impressive is doing this as a rookie and with the WNBA as big as ever, with all the influx of talent internationally and from this star-studded rookie class.
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In a league of her own 👏 With her 13th consecutive double-double, Angel Reese breaks Candace Parker's record for most consecutive double-doubles over multiple seasons!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WelcometotheW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WelcometotheW</a> <a href="https://t.co/gdUGaDM9e5">pic.twitter.com/gdUGaDM9e5</a>
&mdash; WNBA (@WNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WNBA/status/1810089834066616682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 7, 2024</a>
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Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese continue to set standards and achieve historic records as rookies in the WNBA.

Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese make all-time WNBA records as rookies

Since Halloween is just two-and-a-half weeks away, BasketballNews compiled a list of the best costumes worn by NBA players.

Which NBA players have rocked the best Halloween costumes?

New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart has been named the 2023 Kia WNBA Most Valuable Player, the WNBA announced today.&nbsp;
This is the second Kia WNBA Most Valuable Award for Stewart and the first for a member of the Liberty. Stewart previously earned the honor in 2018 with the Seattle Storm.
Stewart becomes the eighth player in WNBA history to win the award multiple times, joining three-time winners Lauren Jackson, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes and two-time winners Cynthia Cooper, Elena Delle Donne, Candace Parker and A&rsquo;ja Wilson.
Stewart received 20 first-place votes, 23 second-place votes and 17 third-place votes from a national panel of 60 sportswriters and broadcasters, earning 446 total points. Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas finished in second place with 439 points (23 first-place votes, 12 second-place votes and 25 third-place votes). Las Vegas Aces center A&rsquo;ja Wilson, the 2020 and 2022 Kia WNBA Most Valuable Player, was third with 433 points (17 first-place votes, 25 second-place votes, 17 third-place votes and one fourth-place vote).
Players were awarded 10 points for a first-place vote, seven points for a second-place vote, five points for a third-place vote, three points for a fourth-place vote and one point for a fifth-place vote.&nbsp;
With Stewart and Thomas separated by seven points, this marks the second-smallest margin between the first- and second-place finishers in the history of the award; the closest finish was a two-point difference between MVP Swoopes (327 points) and runner-up Jackson (325) in 2005. The 13 points separating Stewart and Wilson represent the smallest margin between first- and third-place vote-getters for MVP in WNBA history, surpassing the 45-point difference between MVP Parker (234) and third-place finisher Delle Donne (189) in 2013.
In addition, this is the second time in WNBA history that the MVP runner-up received more first-place votes than the award recipient. In 2005, Jackson received 20 first-place votes and Swoopes received 16.
In her seventh WNBA season and first with the Liberty, Stewart&nbsp;averaged 23.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.57 blocked shots and 1.45 steals in 34.1 minutes in 40 games. She ranked second in the WNBA in scoring, third in rebounding, 16th&nbsp;in assists, fourth in blocks and minutes and eighth in steals.&nbsp;The four-time All-WNBA First Team selection also finished second in efficiency (27.6) and third in double-doubles (20).
Behind Stewart, New York (32-8) recorded the second-most wins in a season in league history, posted its largest average margin of victory (13.16) in a season and earned the No. 2 seed in the 2023 WNBA Playoffs presented by Google. The Liberty will continue the pursuit of its first WNBA championship when it hosts the Sun in Game 2 of the Semifinals tonight (8 p.m. ET, ESPN). Connecticut leads the series 1-0.&nbsp;
The 6-4 Stewart was named the WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Month for three of the four possible months of the 2023 WNBA season, May, July and August, when New York posted a combined 21-4 record. In addition, she was honored as the Eastern Conference Player of the Week six times.
For the second consecutive year, Stewart was the No. 2 vote-getter in fan voting for the AT&amp;T WNBA All-Star Game, where she captained Team Stewart to a 143-127 victory over Team Wilson. She also helped New York win the third annual WNBA Commissioner&rsquo;s Cup presented by Coinbase, with the Liberty defeating the Aces 82-63 on the road in the championship game on Aug. 15.
Additional highlights of Stewart&rsquo;s 2023 season include:
<ul style="font-weight: 400;">
<li>Posted her first four regular-season games of 40 or more points, setting a WNBA single-season record and matching Diana Taurasi for the most in a career.</li>
<li>Scored a career-high and franchise-record 45 points in 30 minutes in a 90-73 win over the Indiana Fever on May 21, the most points ever by a WNBA player in 30 minutes or fewer.</li>
<li>Registered 43 points, 12 rebounds and six assists in a 99-95 victory against the Phoenix Mercury on July 5, marking the second game of at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in WNBA history.</li>
<li>Became the first player in WNBA history to have at least 25 points, five rebounds and five assists in a half, doing so in the first half of a 95-84 win over the Atlanta Dream on July 27.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Set single-season franchise records for total points (919) and rebounds (371) and finished with the second-most points in a season by a WNBA player.</li>
<li>Became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 4,000 points (196 games).</li>
</ul>
Stewart, a native of North Syracuse, N.Y, and a four-time NCAA champion at the University of Connecticut, was selected by the Storm with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft presented by State Farm. She signed with the Liberty as an unrestricted free agent prior to the 2023 season. Stewart holds career averages of 20.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.50 blocks and 1.36 steals.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
In honor of being named the 2023 Kia WNBA Most Valuable Player, Stewart will receive $15,450 and a specially designed trophy by Tiffany &amp; Co.
Below are the voting results for the 2023 Kia WNBA Most Valuable Player Award:
&nbsp;

New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart has been named the 2023 Kia WNBA Most Valuable Player, the WNBA announced today.

New York Liberty's Breanna Stewart wins 2023 WNBA MVP award

When San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich chose to rest four starters during a nationally televised game back in 2012, he likely didn't think much of it.
Little did he know, this decision to sit Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green would go on to create a massive ripple effect, with the NBA creating rules about resting players and terms like "load management" entering the lexicon.
At the time, NBA commissioner David Stern fined Popovich and the Spurs $250,000 and said this decision was "a disservice to the league and our fans."
Nearly 12 years later, the NBA is still trying to combat this issue, implementing a new Player Participation Policy in order to prevent teams from resting their best players.
This new policy could conceivably be named the Coach Popovich Rule, but it&rsquo;s not. The NBA&rsquo;s Player Participation Policy specifically governs how teams are allowed to rest their stars. Current NBA commissioner Adam Silver put a very fan-friendly spin on the new rule.
&ldquo;This is ultimately about the fans,&rdquo; Silver recently told reporters following two days of Board of Governors meetings in New York. &ldquo;And that we&rsquo;ve taken this [load management] too far. This is an acknowledgement that it has gotten away from us a bit.&rdquo;
The league&rsquo;s perceived intention seems fair: reverse the load-management trend, which has seen a rise in star players voluntarily missing games &ndash; an admittedly bigger problem now than in the recent past. During the 2022-23 season, the average games played by the league's top-10 scorers was 65 games per player. Comparatively, the average games played by the top-10 scorers in 2012-13 was 75 games!
Ultimately, this move will benefit the fans, but was this really done with the fans&rsquo; interests in mind? By limiting how often stars rest, the NBA&rsquo;s on-court product will inevitably be more compelling. While that's good for fans, it's also good for the NBA itself (but more on that in a moment). Stars sitting out nationally televised games was never a good look, so putting an end to that trend is important.
But digging a bit deeper, I believe it becomes clear that this move is more about business than fan satisfaction. Let's consider, for a moment, that the league&rsquo;s current broadcast rights deal expires following the 2024-25 season. The current TV deal is worth a total of $24 billion over 10 years. The NBA hopes to double &ndash; or even triple &ndash; that number in its next deal, according to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/nba-is-next-up-for-a-big-rights-increase-and-75-billion-is-the-price.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jabari Young of CNBC</a>. It is entirely possible that the league is looking to demonstrate increased value for its bidders, which will likely include the usual suspects like Turner Sports and ESPN as well as streamers like Amazon and Apple.
For what it&rsquo;s worth, Apple recently inked a deal with Major League Baseball, paying $85 million annually to air Friday Night Baseball games over the next seven years. Meanwhile, Amazon reached an agreement with the NFL to pay $1 billion annually for 10 years for exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football games. The NBA is trying to entice these same companies to bid for their broadcast rights.
It's important to note that the Player Participation Policy isn't the league&rsquo;s first attempt to improve its televised product. The NBA also recently announced its <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-announces-details-for-inaugural-inseason-tournament-&amp;sa=D&amp;source=docs&amp;ust=1695515248097037&amp;usg=AOvVaw0mEzpohBfg-49Qyl7iKxR6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inaugural in-season tournament</a>, conveniently beginning this season, which is likely to be marketed differently and, therefore, viewed more regularly. Furthermore, the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which was ratified in April 2023, dictates that players must participate in at least 65 games to qualify for in-season awards. In total, these are major changes in order to ensure that the NBA's best players are suiting up more often than not.
This could ultimately be a win-win for the league and its fans. Players will probably need more convincing. But if the league plans to continue with an 82-game season &ndash; which it should &ndash; star players must lead the way, meaning they need to be front and center as often as possible. Rest is, of course, an important part of the process, which is likely to be an area of frustration for star players. But the medical advancements, health-oriented amenities and teams of on-staff trainers should ultimately translate to more games played for modern players &ndash; not fewer.
And considering how aggressively maximum salaries have increased, stars will understand. In 2012-13, the highest salary in the NBA was $30.5 million (Kobe Bryant). In 2022-23, it was up more than 50% to $48 million (Stephen Curry). By 2026-27, the highest salary will be at least $63 million (Damian Lillard). Of course, a big reason for these monster salaries is the NBA's TV money. This was never more apparent than during the summer of 2016, when the NBA's new broadcasting deal caused the salary cap to spike and teams went on a spending spree (handing out massive contracts that some would quickly regret).
But for the league&rsquo;s TV partners to also benefit monetarily, star players must be available as often as possible as a means of driving interest &ndash; especially since more and more fans are pledging their allegiance to stars rather than teams. The league clearly understands this fact. Just look at how the NBA structures its Christmas Day games, which are normally among the most-viewed games of the season. Last year, we saw LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Jayson Tatum, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, Devin Booker and Ja Morant, who represent seven of the top-10 players in jersey sales.&nbsp;We also saw Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic, the two finalists for 2022-23 NBA MVP award.
Like most major changes, the new Player Participation Policy will inevitably ruffle feathers, especially among some players. But it should also improve the NBA&rsquo;s viewership numbers and result in more competitive games. There will probably be some bumps along the way, but fans will benefit as much as anyone. I only wish the league would have referenced the TV deal in announcing the rule as a means of transparency. But regardless of whether the league, owners and players get richer, it&rsquo;ll be refreshing to see stars more frequently &ndash; and that&rsquo;s probably the point.

The NBA introduced rules to combat load management just as their TV deal is set to expire. That's no coincidence, writes Drew Maresca.

NBA’s new Player Participation Policy may lead to even larger TV deal

Throughout NBA history, there have been plenty of supremely talented teams. However, only a select few managed to string together multiple championships, revolutionize how the game is played and dominate to the point that they defined their era.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s extremely difficult to create a dynasty, but these six teams earned that distinction.
Boston Celtics (1957-1969)
While it&rsquo;s difficult for today&rsquo;s NBA fans to fathom, the Boston Celtics managed to win 11 championships in just 13 seasons. Celtics head coach and general manager Red Auerbach pulled off a draft-day trade in 1956 that changed the franchise forever, with Boston acquiring No. 2 overall pick Bill Russell in exchange for Cliff Hagan and Ed Macauley. Russell would become one of the most dominant defenders and rebounders of all-time, and when paired with Bob Cousy, John Havlicek and Sam Jones among others, the Celtics became an unstoppable force.&nbsp;
Today, winning three-straight championships is considered an astonishing feat, yet these Celtics managed to win eight consecutive titles from 1959 to 1966 &ndash; a record that is virtually impossible to break. While it was certainly a very different era of basketball, Boston deserves a ton of credit for revolutionizing the game and sustaining that level of dominance for more than a decade.
Los Angeles Lakers (1980s)
The 1980s belonged to the "Showtime" Lakers, a dynamic and star-studded team led by Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Under head coach Pat Riley's leadership, the Lakers thrilled fans with their fast-paced style of play. From 1980 through 1991, the Lakers won five championships and made nine NBA Finals appearances.
Magic&rsquo;s unparalleled playmaking abilities and Kareem&rsquo;s automatic skyhook made these Lakers nearly unstoppable on the court. The Lakers&rsquo; rivalry with the Celtics (and Magic Johnson&rsquo;s personal rivalry with Larry Bird) added another layer of excitement to the NBA, culminating in memorable NBA Finals matchups and moving NBA playoff games to live broadcasts rather than being on tape delay.&nbsp;HBO&rsquo;s show &ldquo;Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty&rdquo; has introduced the Showtime era to a new generation of fans.&nbsp;
Chicago Bulls (1991-1998)
On June 19, 1984, the Chicago Bulls selected Michael Jordan with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft. It didn&rsquo;t take long for Jordan to make his mark on the league, as he won Rookie of the Year and became a household name. Jordan was the lynchpin of the Bulls&rsquo; dynasty and became the biggest sports star that the world had ever seen. Coached by Phil Jackson, MJ and Scottie Pippen led the Bulls to six championships in eight years, thanks to two different three-peats. In the 1995-1996 season, the Bulls amassed a record-setting 72 wins, solidifying their status as one of the greatest teams in NBA history (although the record would later be broken by another team featured on this list).&nbsp;
These Bulls teams captured the imagination of fans worldwide. The Bulls&rsquo; dynasty and Team USA's "Dream Team" (which featured Jordan and Pippen alongside other NBA superstars like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone and Charles Barkley) deserve a lot of credit for making basketball popular across the globe. Just as &ldquo;Winning Time&rdquo; is bringing the Showtime Lakers back into the spotlight, ESPN&rsquo;s docuseries &ldquo;The Last Dance&rdquo; became a huge hit and showcased Jordan&rsquo;s dominance and popularity to younger fans who never got a chance to watch him play live.
San Antonio Spurs (1999-2014)
The San Antonio Spurs, guided by the steady hand of coach Gregg Popovich, enjoyed an extended period of excellence. By now, you&rsquo;re probably realizing that dynasties tend to start when a team drafts a special player. For the Spurs, that player was Tim Duncan, who is often regarded as the greatest power forward in NBA history. While Duncan wasn&rsquo;t a flashy player, he was incredibly consistent and capable of taking over games offensively and defensively.&nbsp;
Duncan and Popovich captured five NBA championships between 1999 and 2014. They managed to win across different eras, first with David Robinson, Avery Johnson and Sean Elliot, then with Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Bruce Bowen, and later with Kawhi Leonard, Parker and Ginobili among others. The Spurs' success was built on fundamentals, exceptional team chemistry and a selfless approach to the game. Their sustained success over more than a decade solidified them as a modern NBA dynasty.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/200413-shaquille-oneal-kobe-bryant-cs-1211p.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="458" />
Los Angeles Lakers (2000-2002)
The Lakers of the early 2000s were an unstoppable force, combining the dominant inside presence of Shaquille O'Neal and the scoring prowess of Kobe Bryant. Coached by the legendary Phil Jackson, this superstar tandem led Los Angeles to three consecutive NBA championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
Teams had to pick their poison against these Lakers, as Shaq and Kobe were nearly impossible to defend one-on-one. Shaq dominated with his imposing size and physicality in the paint, while Kobe made teams pay with his unmatched scoring ability and constantly evolving skill-set. Together, they formed one of the most formidable duos in NBA history, complementing each other's strengths on the court (while often butting heads off the court). Who knows how many more championships the Lakers would have won if Shaq and Kobe managed to get along and make things work in L.A.&nbsp;
Golden State Warriors (2014-2022)
The Golden State Warriors' dynasty has been a breathtaking display of offensive brilliance and finesse. Led by Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, the Warriors revolutionized the game with their three-point shooting, fast-paced style of play and small-ball lineups. Head coach Steve Kerr, who won five championships as a player with the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs dynasties, helped the Warriors capture four NBA championships in eight years (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022).&nbsp;
The Warriors won 73 games in 2016, breaking the previous record set by the Bulls. And as if this team wasn&rsquo;t already scary enough, Golden State signed Kevin Durant and became even more unstoppable. Even after Durant left in 2019, the Warriors managed to win another championship, beating the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals last year. The Warriors revolutionized the modern NBA, and their dynastic run may not even be over. After all, Curry, Thompson, Green and Kerr are still around and the team recently added veterans Chris Paul, Cory Joseph and Dario Saric in hopes of chasing a fifth ring.

Alex Kennedy looks back on six of the most unstoppable dynasties throughout NBA history.

Exploring the most dominant dynasties throughout NBA history

Throughout NBA history, rivalries have served as the lifeblood of the sport, igniting passions and captivating fans. These matchups have defined eras and showcased the very best the sport has to offer.
Today, let's delve into the greatest rivalries in NBA history.
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Boston Celtics
This stands as the pinnacle of NBA rivalries. Spanning multiple decades, these two storied franchises have collided in the NBA Finals a remarkable 12 times, with the Celtics winning nine times and the Lakers winning just three. From Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird to Kobe Bryant vs. Paul Pierce, the Lakers-Celtics clashes have captivated fans worldwide across various eras.
Chicago Bulls vs. Detroit Pistons
The 1990s witnessed a fierce rivalry between the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons. The Bulls, led by Michael Jordan, sought to dethrone the physical and rugged Pistons, who were known for their "Bad Boy" image. The intense battles between these teams showcased the contrasting styles of finesse and brute force and introduced the "Jordan Rules" strategy to the world, making their matchups some of the most memorable in NBA history.
New York Knicks vs. Miami Heat
The rivalry between the New York Knicks and Miami Heat in the 1990s symbolized the fierce competition between two Eastern Conference powerhouses. The physicality and intensity of their matchups, featuring iconic players such as Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway, created a rivalry that brought out the best in both teams. This year, the Heat and Knicks matched up in the postseason for the first time since 2012, renewing their rivalry and introducing younger fans to the history between these two teams.
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors
Any teams that meet in the NBA Finals in four consecutive years are going to develop a rivalry of some sort. From 2015 through 2018, these teams battled for the Larry O'Brien trophy, with the Warriors winning three titles and the Cavaliers winning one (coming back from down 3-1 to ruin Golden State's 73-win season). These Finals' matchups featured star power -- with LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love facing off against Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green (and eventually Kevin Durant) -- as well as iconic moments and dramatic storylines. The Cavs-Warriors rivalry not only captivated fans but also fueled debates about team-building, basketball philosophies and the NBA's changing landscape.
Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers
During the 1980s, the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers engaged in a heated rivalry for Eastern Conference dominance. Led by Larry Bird and Julius Erving, respectively, these two powerhouses clashed in multiple playoff series, producing high-stakes and fiercely contested matchups that had fans on the edge of their seats.
Los Angeles Lakers vs. San Antonio Spurs
The Lakers and Spurs established themselves as powerhouses in the 2000s. The rivalry between these two teams epitomized excellence, as Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and the Lakers battled for NBA supremacy against Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and the Spurs. Their meetings in the playoffs often showcased high-level basketball and strategic brilliance, leaving an indelible mark on the league.
Which NBA rivarly is your favorite? <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tweet us your thoughts here</a>!

Basketball News looks back on the greatest rivalries in NBA history.

Examining the 6 biggest rivalries in NBA history

SAN ANTONIO (AP) &mdash; As Victor Wembanyama took the stage for his first news conference inside his new home arena, he couldn&rsquo;t help but notice an accessory that the San Antonio Spurs commissioned for the occasion.
It was a replica of the Eiffel Tower &mdash; made from Legos. Hundreds of them.
Wembanyama loves Legos. He looked down at the 4-foot replica when he saw it and smiled. And then he sat next to Spurs general manager Brian Wright and started to talk business.
The scene was a perfect microcosm of Wembanyama&rsquo;s world right now. He&rsquo;s still a teenager, albeit a very big one, at 19 years old and not averse to saying that he enjoys building things with Legos. And he&rsquo;s also the player, who seems incredibly mature for his age, on a world stage that the Spurs are betting on to change their fortunes and help them return to championship contention.
&ldquo;I feel like they&rsquo;ve already started to take great care of me,&rdquo; Wembanyama said.
They have to. The world is watching.&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/spurs-wembanyama-draft-nba-11b2b43bc27076ab5036769bf5d4160b">And the hype level</a>&nbsp;is already incredibly high.
The notion of basketball being a global game and the NBA being a global league is not new, with roughly one out of every four players in the league born outside of the United States. But there&rsquo;s never been an international player coming into the NBA with the hubbub that Wembanyama has; he&rsquo;s already a global brand and global phenomenon even without playing an NBA game.
Not even LeBron James had this much global attention when he came into the league 20 years ago.
The Kid from Akron, as he still calls himself, is one of the biggest success stories in the history of sports &mdash; grew up with almost nothing, instantly found fame and fortune as a teenager thanks to an enormous Nike contract that he signed when he entered the league, now is a billionaire, the all-time scoring leader in NBA history and still going strong.
LeBron was a big, big, big deal in the U.S. in 2003.
Wembanyama is a big, big, big deal globally right now. That&rsquo;s the difference.
Stories have been written about him in English, French and Spanish over the weekend. He speaks English just about perfectly, and now that he&rsquo;s in San Antonio he wants to learn Spanish as well. If he plays for France in the Basketball World Cup this summer &mdash; something he wants to do, but time will tell if the Spurs are on board with that plan &mdash; he&rsquo;ll be playing games in Indonesia and the Philippines.
And if he plays on that world stage, he will be getting&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/san-antonio-spurs-wembanyama-nba-draft-da32970a5781abdb0a65daa46203de7a">as much attention</a>&nbsp;as any player in the tournament. Same goes for&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-summer-league-spurs-wembanyama-las-vegas-b2189fccb53a75428056b55cb43330a2">when he plays at Summer League</a>&nbsp;next month. And it&rsquo;ll be the case when the NBA season opens; Denver will raise a banner and get championship rings on opening night, some free agents that&rsquo;ll start agreeing to new deals in the next few days will be in new cities, but every storyline to start the season will have Wembanyama&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-height-nba-draft-2023-07e21352ac2405385b7f3be2d0cfd7c4">7-foot-plus shadow</a>&nbsp;looming somewhere around it as well.
&ldquo;Because of all the hype, he&rsquo;ll have a target on his back,&rdquo; Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. &ldquo;So more than Os and Xs to begin with, we&rsquo;ll be most interested in setting a framework in an environment where he&rsquo;s comfortable, where he can be Victor. He&rsquo;s not LeBron or Tim (Duncan) or Kobe (Bryant) or anybody else. He&rsquo;s Victor and that&rsquo;s who we want him to be.&rdquo;
His presence just adds to the level of international stardom in the league right now.
The reigning NBA Finals MVP is Denver&rsquo;s Nikola Jokic of Serbia, the reigning league MVP and scoring champion is Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid of Cameroon, and the top three finishers in that MVP race this season were all international players &mdash; Embiid, Jokic and Greece&rsquo;s Giannis Antetokounmpo of Milwaukee. That trio has combined for the last five MVP awards; Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic of Slovenia should be in the MVP mix for years to come as well.
There&rsquo;s even talk of a World vs. the U.S. format to the All-Star Game before long. That might be a heck of a challenge for the American side.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re really seeing the ongoing continued growth of this league,&rdquo; Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this year. &ldquo;I know David Stern, who unfortunately is no longer with us, but it was so much of his vision to turn this into the global game it&rsquo;s become today. If he&rsquo;s looking down on us, I know he&rsquo;d be incredibly proud of those numbers.&rdquo;
Stern would have loved Wembanyama.
The teenager &mdash; already being mentored by past Spurs great big men like Duncan and David Robinson, along with French Spurs&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-parker-spurs-nba-draft-e80020c26ed10361e60c4e329cb475d1">Tony Parker</a>&nbsp;and Boris Diaw &mdash; is worldly, mature, engaging, funny and somehow has stayed humble even with all the attention. His family shuns the spotlight. They want no part of the attention. Wembanyama&rsquo;s parents are almost always around, but never meddling.
&ldquo;To my family, it&rsquo;s got to be weird sometimes,&rdquo; Wembanyama said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s got to be strange. There&rsquo;s a lot of new stuff. But they&rsquo;re really smart and grounded people. Whenever I need to find stability, I can go to them.&rdquo;
He&rsquo;s going to need those bits of normalcy. The challenge that awaits him is as tall as he is and the world is watching.

LeBron James was a big deal in the U.S. when he was drafted in 2003. Victor Wembanyama is a big deal globally.

Facing immense pressure, Spurs' Victor Wembanyama is up for the challenge

SAN ANTONIO (AP) &mdash; The first dinner that Victor Wembanyama had in his new home city was filled with San Antonio royalty. Gregg Popovich was there, of course. So were Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Manu Ginobili and Sean Elliott.
NBA champions, all of them.
Wembanyama now starts his quest to join their club.
Even as the welcomes for Wemby continued Saturday &mdash; one at San Antonio&rsquo;s iconic downtown River Walk, another at the arena &mdash; the French teen who has been labeled a generational basketball talent already was thinking about what comes next. He&rsquo;s got a visit to Nike headquarters in Oregon in the next few days, appointments to see some houses in San Antonio that he might be calling home for the next few years and then practices for the NBA Summer League.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a lot to do,&rdquo; Wembanyama said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s all right. It&rsquo;s OK. It&rsquo;s all going to fit in.&rdquo;
He&rsquo;s excited, and rightly so. He put on a Spurs uniform on Saturday for the first time and will play in one for the first time sometime in early July in either Sacramento or Las Vegas; San Antonio plays in both of those summer leagues. He offered high-fives to hundreds of Spurs employees who showed up at the arena on Saturday to welcome him, smiling the whole way.
&ldquo;These are exciting times,&rdquo; Spurs CEO R.C. Buford said.
They come with the biggest expectations. The morning party on the River Walk took place at the spot where the Spurs&rsquo; championship celebrations usually are centered. And the news conference that followed at the arena came with Wembanyama seated on a stage that just happened to be at the same end of the court as San Antonio&rsquo;s five NBA championship banners.
&ldquo;To Victor, I wanted to say to you directly, we&rsquo;re excited to grow with you, support you, challenge you, especially Coach Pop &mdash; there&rsquo;ll be a lot of challenging days &mdash; on your journey through life and basketball,&rdquo; Spurs general manager Brian Wright said as he sat to Wembanyama&rsquo;s left. &ldquo;Your talent is obvious, but as we got to know you, the maturity, the approach, the character really showed us how special of a young man you are.&rdquo;
It was part of a whirlwind first 20 hours or so in San Antonio for Wembanyama,&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/spurs-wembanyama-draft-nba-11b2b43bc27076ab5036769bf5d4160b">who flew in from the NBA draft on Friday</a>&nbsp;and had dinner with Popovich and some former players that night. Wembanyama said he learned more about the NBA in those two hours than he had learned in the last few years.
&ldquo;Honestly, that was one of the best dinners of my life,&rdquo; Wembanyama said. &ldquo;And not because of the food. The food was good. But the people was crazy.&rdquo;
Saturday started with Wembanyama enjoying a bag of the city&rsquo;s famed breakfast tacos &mdash; bacon and egg, and bean and cheese, he said &mdash; before heading to the Arneson River Theater for the day&rsquo;s first introductory event. Robinson was there, sitting in the front row. So was San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, wearing a Wembanyama jersey.
There&rsquo;s someone driving around San Antonio with a Wemby license plate. There&rsquo;s a burger with foie gras on the menu at a local sports bar, as a tribute to Wembanyama. There&rsquo;s a mural of him on the outside of a business directly across the street of another mural featuring Duncan, Ginobili and Tony Parker. There&rsquo;s even a mariachi band that already has a song about Wembanyama.
&ldquo;The fans have been the best at their job,&rdquo; Wembanyama said. &ldquo;I can only hope to be at their level.&rdquo;
The Spurs also introduced&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-draft-2023-wembanyama-report-card-2b66d099d445bf3f1f8e3c697dcc9efb">second-round pick Sidy Cissoko</a>&nbsp;on Saturday &mdash; another player from France who has known Wembanyama for about a decade. Cissoko played in Spain before ending up with the G League Ignite, and he already has endeared himself to San Antonio, a city with a strong Latin influence, by taking questions in English, French and Spanish.
&ldquo;The hoop gods have been incredibly generous to San Antonio for a long time, and they blessed us again with Victor and Sidy,&rdquo; Buford said.
Wembanyama said he hasn&rsquo;t had much time for sleep, and he&rsquo;s looking forward to things calming down a bit so he can get back into his basketball routine &mdash; one that has been understandably disrupted in recent days. But first, there was luggage to unpack, more people to meet, more jerseys to sign.
It was hectic. It&rsquo;s going to be hectic for a while. And Wembanyama says he&rsquo;s enjoying it all.
&ldquo;This is the life I wanted,&rdquo; Wembanyama said. &ldquo;This is what I worked for and it&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;ve been wanting for a long time. So, it feels normal to me.&rdquo;

The 48 hours after Victor Wembanyama was drafted No. 1 overall by the San Antonio Spurs have been a whirlwind.

Spurs, fans welcome No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama to San Antonio

PARIS (AP) &mdash; Tony Parker surely knows what he&rsquo;s talking about when it comes to the San Antonio Spurs. And, no surprise, the four-time NBA champion told The Associated Press on Friday he sees a bright future for fellow Frenchman Victor Wembanyama on his former team.
Parker, who is now retired, played 17 seasons for the Spurs. He won NBA titles with the team in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014, so knows the franchise inside out. He told the AP in a phone interview it will be the &ldquo;perfect place&Prime; for the 19-year-old French wonder,&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-draft-2023-wembanyama-b3449d1a5f7a7de5906bb1979ffb2a26">the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.</a>
&ldquo;I know he wanted to go to San Antonio, and so it feels like it was destiny, with the French connection we built over the years,&rdquo; Parker said. &ldquo;And he is going to keep the legacy going. It&rsquo;s pretty cool.&rdquo;
As expected, the Spurs opted for Wembanyama, who has been creating huge expectations in the French league. Listed at 7-foot-4, he dominated in his final season with Metropolitans 92, leading all players in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots.
In spite of his huge frame, he can shoot 3-pointers with ease and his technical skills are stunning.
&ldquo;He is unique,&rdquo; Parker said. &ldquo;His set of skills is unique. You know, we never saw a guy, a 7-5 (player), shooting like that, and having the dribbling skills that he has, and the way that he plays the game, it is just different. I can&rsquo;t wait to see him play with the Spurs.&rdquo;
Parker, the majority owner of French club Villeurbanne, has a good relationship with Wembanyama, who played a season for that team.
&ldquo;So when the Spurs got the lottery pick, we talked, exchanged texts, and it was the same last night,&rdquo; Parker said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy for him and I will definitely try to support him.&rdquo;
Asked what kind of advice he would give to Wembanyama for a quick adaptation to the Spurs and the NBA, Parker said the kid just needs to be himself.
&ldquo;And he is already like that,&rdquo; Parker said. &ldquo;He does not care about the pressure and expectation, and I think the Spurs is the perfect place for him. He is in very good hands.&rdquo;
After matching a league record of 22 straight playoff appearances, San Antonio has not made the postseason the last four seasons, the longest drought in the franchise&rsquo;s 50-year history. Parker believes that Wembanyama&rsquo;s arrival will help rebuild a competitive team.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a good first piece,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now he is going to need some help, to win a championship in the NBA is the hardest thing your are going to have to do. So with the Spurs, we&rsquo;ve got a lot of work to do now to try to bring pieces around him that are going to fit, for us to be able to contend for a championship.&rdquo;
A former member of the French national team, Parker was the FIBA Europe Player of the year in 2013 and 2014 and the league&rsquo;s top scorer in 2011 and 2013.
Wembanyama&rsquo;s rise to the top will also benefit France, Parker said.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great for basketball, it&rsquo;s great for French basketball,&rdquo; Parker said. &ldquo;Obviously, the future years look bright for us with the national team.&rdquo;

Four-time NBA champion Tony Parker sees a bright future for fellow Frenchman Victor Wembanyama on his former team.

Tony Parker says San Antonio is ‘perfect place’ for Victor Wembanyama

One year ago, Jeremy Sochan walked across the stage at Barclays Center and shook Adam Silver&rsquo;s hand after the San Antonio Spurs selected him with the No. 9 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.
Now, after an terrific season that earned him an All-Rookie Second-Team selection, Sochan is returning to New York and attending the NBA Draft once again&nbsp; &mdash; this time as a media correspondent for the NBA&rsquo;s app and social-media accounts.
Sochan will conduct red-carpet interviews with this year's top prospects, including No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama, who will soon be Sochan&rsquo;s teammate. Wembanyama is the most hyped-up prospect since LeBron James, and all eyes will be on San Antonio next season after adding the potential superstar.
The Spurs will have one of the most promising young cores in the NBA, and the pieces fit together incredibly well. Sochan, Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell will perfectly complement Wembanyama&rsquo;s skill-set, and all four players are age-23 or younger. It&rsquo;s an exciting time to be a Spurs fan, and it certainly seems that San Antonio has found its next franchise cornerstones.
As a rookie, Sochan turned heads with his dyed hair and one-handed free throws. However, he also proved he belongs in the NBA and flashed glimpses of brilliance throughout the campaign.&nbsp;
The 19-year-old averaged 11.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 stocks while shooting 45.3% from the field, 24.6% from three and 69.8% from the free-throw line. Over the final month of the season, Sochan was even better, averaging 16.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.2 steals, while shooting 48.3% from the field and 76.9% from the charity stripe.
Before Sochan transitions to interviewer mode, he spoke to Basketball News&rsquo; Alex Kennedy as the interviewee and discussed Wembanyama&rsquo;s game, his advice for the incoming rookies, the Spurs&rsquo; terrific young core, his interest in broadcasting, his one-handed free throws and more.
After a successful rookie season that culminated in an All-Rookie Second-Team selection, what advice would you give to this incoming class of rookies?
Jeremy Sochan: &ldquo;Stand your ground, but also listen, be open to [feedback] and be coachable. Just be able to go into an organization and show them that you want to work hard and that you want to be there. Also, listen to your elders &ndash; your coaches and your vets &ndash; because that&rsquo;s going to help you. The other thing is consistency. They&rsquo;re coming from a season where they&rsquo;ve played 30 or 40 games, and now they&rsquo;re going into a season where they&rsquo;re playing 82 games (plus the playoffs, if you make it). Just try to be consistent because it&rsquo;s a lot of games and it wears down on your body, so try to do everything to help that.&rdquo;
Victor Wembanyama is one of the most hyped-up prospects in NBA history. His size and length are obviously crazy, but what aspects of his skill-set impress you and what are some things that should help him in the NBA?&nbsp;
Sochan: &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s just the footwork for his size, the mobility for his size and the touch for his size. I think that all adds up into him being an all-around player, and his height just gives him so many advantages, for real. I think [his skill-set] is really exciting and it&rsquo;s going to be really good for him.&rdquo;
I&rsquo;ve talked to scouts and executives who believe that you and Victor will complement each other really well. Do you feel that your skill-sets are a good fit? And how can you guys help each other on the court?
Sochan: &ldquo;Of course, if it happens&hellip;&rdquo;
Oh, right. Assuming he&rsquo;s a Spur, how would you guys help each other on the court?
Sochan: &ldquo;Yeah, assuming it happens, I think we both have a lot of versatility, especially on the defensive side. He&rsquo;s a rim protector and he&rsquo;s very lengthy, and then I&rsquo;m very destructive and I can play 1 through 5, so I think there&rsquo;s a lot of potential there. And then offensively, I feel like I&rsquo;ll be able to get him into good spots and be able to play-make for him and make the game easy for him. I think we complement each other&rsquo;s games really well and I think it&rsquo;s really exciting if, potentially, that happens.&rdquo;
Again, assuming Wembanyama is the pick, he&rsquo;ll join this young core in San Antonio that already consists of you, Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell, Tre Jones, Zach Collins, Malaki Branham, Romeo Langford and Blake Wesley among others. What do you think of all this young talent, and where does this group rank among the best young cores in the NBA?
Sochan: &ldquo;I think the thing about our young core is that we all want to be around San Antonio, we all want to work together and we all want to be better. I think we&rsquo;re all very motivated to just work. We have [the opportunity] to be around the Spurs and just work, and I think that really helps. Personally, I think we&rsquo;re one of the best young cores in the league. I&rsquo;m not a guy that likes to rank [teams] and stuff, but I definitely think we&rsquo;re up there."
Gregg Popovich is arguably the best coach in NBA history and the Spurs are known for getting the most out of players. Sometimes, legends like Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili will stop by to work out with you guys. What can you share about your experience in the Spurs&rsquo; organization and how they help players realize their full potential?
Sochan: &ldquo;I think they&rsquo;re just really keen and want to help us with opportunities, and it&rsquo;s all very team-based. They&rsquo;re always communicating with the players and showing us the way. The Spurs have a winning culture; they&rsquo;ve won for so long so they know the blueprint. They give us that blueprint and try to find players who actually want to work for that. That&rsquo;s what they&rsquo;re really good at, finding those kinds of players [who will buy in]. They help us a lot.&rdquo;&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/pop_sochan.jpg" alt="" width="748" height="373" />
You and Victor played against each other back when you were 15 and he was 14. Your team won, and you <a href="https://twitter.com/JeremySochan/status/1658907669879574528">joked on Twitter</a> that neither of you were good back then. Do you have a relationship with Victor and when did you realize he could be a special player?
Sochan: &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t really have a relationship like that, but I&rsquo;ve talked to him a couple times. And like you said, we played against each other so there is a relationship in that sense, but it&rsquo;s nothing crazy. But yeah, I played against him back then, and he already had a lot of potential, so it&rsquo;s exciting to see how he grew and how popular he got over the years. I think he&rsquo;s a very exciting prospect and he&rsquo;s going to do a lot of good stuff for himself.&rdquo;
Paolo Banchero, Walker Kessler, Bennedict Mathurin and Jalen Williams served as media correspondents during the NBA Finals, and now you&rsquo;re going to be the league&rsquo;s NBA Draft correspondent tonight. I know you&rsquo;ve done some interviews before, like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT9CQNvQvyw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">your chat with Tony Parker</a>. Are you hoping to do more broadcasting or media stuff in the future?
Sochan: &ldquo;Potentially! If I get the opportunity to do it, then why not? I feel like I&rsquo;m pretty good at it; I&rsquo;m natural. So yeah, if there&rsquo;s an opportunity, I&rsquo;ll do it.&rdquo;
Did you do any research about the players or prepare any questions? What kind of prep goes into being an NBA Draft media correspondent?
Sochan: &ldquo;(laughs) Yeah, I&rsquo;ve been able to prep a bit and do some research on the players. I&rsquo;ve talked to the people around me who know a bit more than I do. And sometimes it&rsquo;s just on the go too and just being able to do it [on the fly]. But yeah, I&rsquo;m excited to be here for the draft. It&rsquo;s kinda cool to come back here after a year and still remember everything [from my draft night], just all of the emotions and stuff. And [it&rsquo;s fun] just to be here for all of this year&rsquo;s draft prospects too.&rdquo;
You let fans <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1671237507634147332" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vote on what color you&rsquo;ll dye your hair</a> for tonight&rsquo;s NBA Draft. When did you start dying your hair and using that as a way to express yourself?
Sochan: &ldquo;I probably started two years ago or two-and-a-bit years ago. It was just something that I always wanted to do, just to be able to showcase [who I am] and be myself. And it shows people that you can do whatever with your body and be proud of it. Just be confident!&rdquo;
Your one-handed free throws really worked and improved your free-throw percentage over the course of the season. I actually <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/will-onehanded-or-underhand-free-throws-ever-catch-on-in-the-nba" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote an article</a> about how it could influence other players to make the same change. Would you recommend shooting one-handed to players who want to improve their free-throw percentage?
Sochan: &ldquo;Yeah, why not? The thing is, if it&rsquo;s working and it helps your shot, why not do it? When I started doing it, I feel like a lot of people were like, &lsquo;Why are you doing that? or, &lsquo;It looks weird,&rsquo; or whatever. Or they&rsquo;d ask like, &lsquo;How did you do it mentally?&rsquo; But I&rsquo;m going to do anything [to improve] my game and help me. If that helps, I&rsquo;m going to do it. And who cares if people laugh at you? Who cares if there are critics who talk about it? It is what it is at the end of the day and if it&rsquo;s helping me, I&rsquo;m going to do it.&rdquo;

Jeremy Sochan opens up to Alex Kennedy about his rookie year, Victor Wembanyama's game, San Antonio's young core and more.

Q&A: Jeremy Sochan on Victor Wembanyama, Spurs' young core, more

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

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

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

DENVER (AP) &mdash; Some might say Stan Kroenke and his family would be pulling off the impossible by bringing a long-awaited NBA title to Denver.
Less discussed &mdash; at least these days &mdash; was their willingness, in 1999, to dive into a messy acquisition process for a largely irrelevant franchise that had been considered a relocation prospect as the 21st century approached.
All of the talk of them relocating no longer exists.
Now, the conversation is about how the Nuggets were able to reach their first NBA Finals thanks to the stubborn patience displayed by the Kroenkes, who have taken an unorthodox route toward assembling an unorthodox winner. Denver hosts the Miami Heat in Game 2 Sunday night after&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/miami-heat-denver-nuggets-nba-sports-755531bae7f944958c4225f8d5f54bad">winning the Finals opener</a>.
Kroenke&rsquo;s deal to purchase the Nuggets, along with the Colorado Avalanche and their home arena for $450 million, included a clause that tethered the NBA franchise to Denver for the ensuing 25 years. These days, the Nuggets are estimated by Forbes to be worth $1.93 billion.
&ldquo;One thing I know about Stan is that when he sets his mind to doing something, and when he thinks he&rsquo;s right, he&rsquo;s going to fight for that,&rdquo; said Wellington Webb, who was Denver&rsquo;s mayor in 1999 and helped broker the deal that closed a year later between Kroenke and the Nuggets.
Though Kroenke married into money &mdash; he wed Walmart heiress Ann Walton in 1974, a few years after meeting her during a ski trip to Aspen &mdash; he had already honed his business chops. His first deal: Taking a $1,500 loan at 6% interest from his dad so he could buy part of a clothing shop with his friend.
Not long after, he got into the real estate business, building shopping centers with a developer who was tight with Walmart founder Sam Walton.
Real estate and sports are, these days, almost intertwined &mdash; a reality Kroenke grasped quickly.
&ldquo;I always thought I&rsquo;d enjoy (owning a sports franchise) because the professional sports business is part business and part sports,&rdquo; Kroenke told the Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune in 2022, &ldquo;and I love both of them.&rdquo;
Kroenke&rsquo;s representatives did not return messages left by The Associated Press seeking an interview.
His first major jump into sports was his partnership with Rams owner Georgia Frontiere. In the mid-1990s, Frontiere was chafing at the inability of Los Angeles to build a new stadium, She was looking for partners to bankroll a move to St. Louis. Kroenke bought in, and when Frontiere died in 2008, he exercised his right to purchase a majority stake in the team.
The sad irony is that it was Kroenke, the Missouri native, who moved the Rams out of St. Louis and back to LA where they are the main tenant in his $5.1 billion stadium. His connection with Denver &mdash; much different.
&ldquo;One of my dreams was to be involved in a professional basketball team,&rdquo; Kroenke told The Denver Post, shortly after closing the deal for the Nuggets. &ldquo;This is a dream I&rsquo;ve had for a long time.&rdquo;
There is, in fact, a strong argument that the basketball trophy might be the most meaningful for a family that has amassed three Stanley Cup trophies with the Avalanche, a Super Bowl trophy with the Rams and is still looking for glory with Arsenal, the Premier League soccer team it has had a controlling interest in since 2011.
Kroeke&rsquo;s son, Josh, was a standout basketball player in high school and played at University of Missouri. He now runs the Nuggets.
&ldquo;I thought that you could bring a championship to Denver,&rdquo; Josh said in a recent interview on team-owned Altitude Sports Radio. &ldquo;Trying to do something that&rsquo;s never been done before, it&rsquo;s not always easy, and it&rsquo;s usually met with a lot of resistance. ... We&rsquo;re mostly excited for the city to get to experience this. But the job&rsquo;s not done.&rdquo;
The Nuggets were parked squarely in NBA purgatory when the team went on the block in 1999, having not sniffed relevancy since their mid-80s heydey, when the teams were highlighted by coach Doug Moe&rsquo;s uptempo offense. Their situation off the court wasn&rsquo;t much better. In the late &rsquo;80s, then-owner Sidney Shlenker had toyed with the idea of moving the team to Memphis.
His sale to a media conglomerate that was never truly hot on owning sports teams did nothing to tamp the idea that the Nuggets were a team that might be available to move. And teams were moving; Between 2001-08, Memphis (from Vancouver), Oklahoma City (from Seattle) and New Orleans (from Charlotte) all adopted existing franchises in a flurry of NBA reshuffling.
When Denver went on the block, the highest bidder, billionaire businessman Donald Sturm, came in with a $460 million offer, but balked at the idea that he couldn&rsquo;t move the team.
In stepped Kroenke, who had no problem with the arrangement. A side note: To close the sale, Kroenke had to outmaneuver another group fronted by none other than John Elway.
&ldquo;It was clear Sturm wasn&rsquo;t going to work out,&rdquo; Webb said. &ldquo;And my only question was, &lsquo;Is the new guy going to be supportive of the team winning?&rsquo; Because if the arena is full, not only do the owners make money, but city makes money, as well.&rdquo;
The Kroenkes have answered Webb&rsquo;s question with their willingness &mdash; increasingly rare in pro sports &mdash; to play the long game, both on the roster and on the bench.
The roster was built in workmanlike,&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-finals-nuggets-jokic-murray-malone-18329e13dfecae50834ebc06d409027c">no-drama fashion</a>,&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-playoffs-nikola-jokic-denver-nuggets-mvp-lebron-lakers-8e668572f9f43942175ded63e7a61832">highlighted by Nikola Jokic</a>, who entered the league as an unheralded second-round pick from Serbia. The coach, Michael Malone, was hired in 2015, and there was never much talk of making changes after disappointing finishes to their seasons in 2018, 2019 and even last year.
Today, Malone sits behind only Gregg Popovich (Spurs), Erik Spoelstra (Heat) and Steve Kerr (Warriors) &mdash; who have a combined 11 championships on their coaching resumes &mdash; in terms of longevity among the NBA&rsquo;s 30 head coaches.
&ldquo;That has a ton to do with where we are today,&rdquo; Malone said. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t be more thankful for working for an ownership group that is not impatient and is not trying to find the next great thing, but is saying &lsquo;Hey, listen, let&rsquo;s let this grow and marinate into something special.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Despite his family&rsquo;s large role in the Denver sports scene &mdash; the Kroenke business also owns the MLS Colorado Rapids, and the National Lacrosse League&rsquo;s Colorado Mammoth, who lost the deciding game in that league&rsquo;s title series Saturday &mdash; Kroenke has still taken his fair share of criticism around town.
It&rsquo;s a byproduct of his 2004 move to bundle his teams&rsquo; TV rights and air them on company&rsquo;s new regional television network, Altitude.
In 2019, the region&rsquo;s biggest cable operator, Comcast, stopped carrying Altitude due to a disagreement over fees the cable giant was charging to carry the network. The ensuing legal battle has kept the Nuggets off the local airwaves in millions of homes for the last four seasons. The battle between billion-dollar companies has left many average Nuggets fans feeling like the only real losers in the equation.
But whatever bitterness lingers from the cable dispute has mostly been set aside over the past few months. All the playoff games have been on national TV.
Meanwhile, Kroenke stays firmly in the background. He can make it from his apartment at the top of Ball Arena through some back passageways and into his luxury suite to watch games in less than two minutes. Sometimes he brings his German Shepherd along.
&ldquo;I think that not only is he a good businessman,&rdquo; Webb said, &ldquo;but he also feels he has something special in Denver. And I think it&rsquo;s always been his goal to do right by Denver.&rdquo;

Some might say Stan Kroenke and his family would be pulling off the impossible by bringing a long-awaited NBA title to Denver.

Kroenke bought Nuggets, kept team in Denver, now hoping to deliver title

DENVER (AP) &mdash; Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra practically snickered when asked about neutralizing the effective two-man game played by Denver Nuggets teammates Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.
&ldquo;Yeah, where do you start? You have two guys that can score 50 in a playoff game. One guy is a triple-double machine that loves to get guys involved,&rdquo; Spoelstra said.
&ldquo;You go down the list of myriad of things you can do defensively, you have to check off some things that you don&rsquo;t really want to do because of both their ability to score and Jokic&rsquo;s ability to create something off-script.&rdquo;
Spoelstra knows what the Heat are up against; it&rsquo;s nothing new for Denver. The Nuggets&rsquo; potent duo has been nearly unstoppable in powering Denver&rsquo;s 13-3 run through the playoffs, including a&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-finals-2023-heat-nuggets-jokic-278674ca5c096db5880b812c7cc348dc">104-93 win in Game 1</a>.
A win Sunday night would make them just the second team this century to win its first 10 home games in a single postseason. The Nuggets&rsquo; run to what they hope is their first NBA championship is being fueled by Jokic and Murray.
They&rsquo;re entering the pantheon of pick-and-roll royalty of standard-bearers John Stockton and Karl Malone. But the Nuggets do it with a different twist.
Whereas Malone set up almost all of the screens for Stockton when they were Utah Jazz teammates, Denver&rsquo;s version is ambidextrous, doubling the difficulty of deciphering much less defusing it.
&ldquo;Three, four years ago, the No. 1 pick-and-roll combo in the entire NBA was Nikola and Jamal,&rdquo; Nuggets coach Michael Malone recalled. &ldquo;And most people would just assume that it was Nikola setting for Jamal. It was actually the opposite. It was Nikola handling and Jamal setting.
&ldquo;The reason it was so effective, aside from the obvious &mdash; two really talented players &mdash; is that Jamal is big, strong, physical and not afraid of contact. Some guys like to slip out of every screen because they don&rsquo;t want to make that contact, they don&rsquo;t want to give themselves up,&rdquo; the coach added. &ldquo;Jamal from early in his career here, he&rsquo;s shown that he&rsquo;s willing to go and set a screen on a big guy, small guy, doesn&rsquo;t matter, because he&rsquo;s tough.
&ldquo;The second part of that is he also knows that if Nikola has the ball and he screens, his man has to help, which will give him separation. If you want to simplify the game of basketball, it comes down to separation.&rdquo;
Both Murray and Jokic are three-level scorers who can shoot 3-pointers, make midrange jump shots and drive to the basket. Their Game 1 performance put them in some elite company.
Heading into the series opener, only Michael Jordan in 1991 and Russell Westbrook in 2012 had at least 25 points, 10 assists and five rebounds in an NBA Finals debut. Jokic and Murray added their names to that list Thursday night &mdash; Murray had 26 points, 10 assists and six rebounds and Jokic extended his NBA record with his ninth triple-double in these playoffs, getting 27 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds.
The only other pair of teammates to have 25 points and 10 assists in an NBA Finals game was Magic Johnson and James Worthy, who did it for the Los Angeles Lakers against Boston in Game 1 in 1987.
Murray and Jokic have been refining their on-court relationship since Murray&rsquo;s rookie season in 2016, a year after Jokic joined the Nuggets as the now-hard-to-fathom 41st overall draft pick. Murray was backing up Gary Harris and Jokic was coming off the bench behind Jusuf Nurkic.
&ldquo;We would actually come into the game together, and we would run post-ups or just simple give-and-goes ... and I&rsquo;d say then we kind of developed a chemistry,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Soon we both started, we started playing off each other. We started to figure out where we like the ball, when we liked the ball, when I&rsquo;m going to pass, when he&rsquo;s going to pass, when he&rsquo;s driving, when to relocate, where to relocate.&rdquo;
Heat guard Kyle Lowry, who is in his 16th NBA season, is hard-pressed to come up with a better point guard/big man combo.
&ldquo;Jamal and Jokic, they&rsquo;re deadly because they both can score and pass the ball,&rdquo; said Lowry, noting he played against the San Antonio Spurs&rsquo; &ldquo;great combination&rdquo; of Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re big targets, and they have a great feel for each other.&rdquo;
Nuggets guard Ish Smith has been on a record 13 teams in 13 NBA seasons and said he has never seen anything quite like Denver&rsquo;s duo. Smith said what makes Jokic and Murray so effective is both players are the antithesis of superstars who&rsquo;d rather go 1-on-1 in isolation.
&ldquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t work if Nikola was selfish and, &lsquo;I need the ball,&rsquo; and Jamal was a guy that was like, &lsquo;I need the ball all the time,&rsquo;&rdquo; Smith said.
The Heat know they have to at least slow down the Nuggets.
&ldquo;We have proven that we can win and overcome regardless of how the game is going,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;Ideal situation would be if it&rsquo;s on our terms and we are controlling the tenor of the game, but we have also won games where we haven&rsquo;t been able to do that for the entire game.&rdquo;

The Nuggets’ potent duo has been nearly unstoppable in powering Denver’s 13-3 run through the playoffs.

Nuggets’ 2-man game of Jokic, Murray setting new pick-and-roll standard

The NBA&rsquo;s oldest coach. The NBA&rsquo;s newest superstar.
In an instant, the fortunes of the San Antonio Spurs changed in a big way.&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-draft-lottery-nba-b0692a8ee59c2235f2d4f4387266eab7">Victor Wembanyama</a>&nbsp;is on his way to the NBA, and the coaching wins leader in Gregg Popovich will be waiting for him.
The right combination of ping-pong balls &mdash; 14, 5, 8 and 2 were the winning ones &mdash; gave the Spurs victory in the draft lottery Tuesday night, meaning they&rsquo;ll have the No. 1 pick June 22. That means they&rsquo;ve won the Wembanyama sweepstakes, and that four years of losing in a way that had never before happened under Popovich has actually paid off.
Pop and Wemby. A 74-year-old wine connoisseur who is one of the best basketball coaches in the world, and a&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-sports-basketball-las-vegas-6f4ac3d44f624ef36ddb00e314cf0401">19-year-old supertalent</a>&nbsp;who hails from the land where some of the best wines are made.
The NBA has a new dynamic duo.
&ldquo;When you talk about generational talents, it&rsquo;s often times beyond just your ability to make a shot or your ability to jump or your ability to put the ball on the floor,&rdquo; Spurs general manager Brian Wright said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all of the little details that go into being great, becoming great. And as we&rsquo;ve studied Victor, he is very in-depth with everything that he does, whether it&rsquo;s on the court, whether it&rsquo;s training, or things that he&rsquo;s into off the court.&rdquo;
If the&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wemby-victor-wembanyama-nba-draft-f5be654cce544c675559bad526220a9e">7-foot-3 Wembanyama</a>&nbsp;brings his current warm-up routine to the NBA, it&rsquo;ll be like none other. He&rsquo;s barefoot on the court for probably a good 15 or 20 minutes, stretching and doing various other things to get his feet ready. There&rsquo;s also some very specific ballhandling and passing things that he likes to do. It&rsquo;s not just a few shots, few dunks, few 3-pointers and go play. There&rsquo;s a plan and a reason for everything.
Popovich will love that. He knows Wembanyama has been taught the right way; the kid spent last year playing for Spurs icon Tony Parker&rsquo;s franchise in France, and is spending this season getting coached by Vincent Collet. That&rsquo;s someone Popovich coached against with the U.S. at the 2019 World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics. Popovich raves about Collet, not hiding his respect level for him at all.
They&rsquo;ll talk before long about Wembanyama. That&rsquo;s certain. Pop will immerse himself into knowing everything that makes the kid tick, just so he knows how he&rsquo;ll react to every situation he&rsquo;ll face with the Spurs next season and beyond.
&ldquo;His ability to connect and spend time and bounce between the really detailed development of basketball players and the bigger picture of developing people is just so impressive,&rdquo; Spurs managing partner Peter J. Holt said. &ldquo;I think no matter what Pop does, he&rsquo;s going to find a way to do that because that&rsquo;s in his heart. And I&rsquo;m excited to see whatever the next phase is in that journey.&rdquo;
This is an embarrassment of lottery riches for the Spurs. Let&rsquo;s be clear: They&rsquo;re not giving this back. But winning the lottery in 1987 and landing David Robinson was big, then winning the lottery again in 1997 and landing Tim Duncan was bigger, and now comes Wembanyama.
It&rsquo;s big. How big, well, that story will get told in the coming years.
&ldquo;Now it becomes real,&rdquo; former NBA player Ian Mahinmi &mdash; one of more than 40 international players that Popovich has had during his tenure in San Antonio &mdash; said during the telecast of Wembanyama&rsquo;s French league game Tuesday. &ldquo;Now everything becomes real.&rdquo;
Popovich talked before the Spurs&rsquo; last game of the season about how, during his career, he has been the &ldquo;beneficiary of serendipity to a max degree.&rdquo;
He&rsquo;s not wrong. And more good fortune has come to San Antonio. The Spurs haven&rsquo;t won a playoff series since 2017 and went a combined 121-186 over the last four seasons.&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-nba-draft-spurs-ee1a9bd2232173666d3302bb491c7c5c">They basically lost more games</a>&nbsp;in the last four years than they did in the previous eight years combined.
The losing ends now, if Wembanyama has anything to say about it. He&rsquo;s coming to the NBA with eyes on becoming a superstar, an icon, a champion. And he&rsquo;s about to become the star of the latest &mdash; and perhaps final &mdash; phase of Popovich&rsquo;s career.
&ldquo;Today was a good day,&rdquo; Wembanyama tweeted after the lottery.
Popovich doesn&rsquo;t tweet, but he and everyone else in San Antonio surely felt the same way. After 60 losses this season, they got the win they wanted most.

The NBA’s oldest coach and newest phenom could become the league's newest dynamic duo.

Victor Wembanyama, Gregg Popovich will be NBA’s newest dynamic duo

It&rsquo;s time. The Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes is about to have a winner.
The&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-draft-lottery-2023-wembanyama-spurs-pistons-rockets-7e95b8f804e9ec64e303debdc3a7b2d4">NBA draft lottery is Tuesday night</a>&nbsp;in Chicago and 14 teams will hope that the ping-pong balls will bounce their way, giving them the No. 1 pick this year and the chance to draft Wembanyama.
<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wemby-victor-wembanyama-nba-draft-f5be654cce544c675559bad526220a9e">The Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs</a>&nbsp;all have the best chance of winning the lottery and getting the No. 1 pick &mdash; 14%, or about 7-1 odds.
Here is a look at what all the fuss is about:
WHO IS VICTOR WEMBANYAMA?
He&rsquo;s one of the most talked-about players in the world right now, for good and obvious reasons. He is a 7-foot-3, 19-year-old phenom who is wrapping up his third professional season in France and is about to start his NBA career.
LeBron James calls Wembanyama &ldquo;an alien,&rdquo; and says that with the utmost of respect. Wembanyama has the height of a center, the shooting touch of a wing and the passing ability of a point guard. His wingspan is nearly 8 feet and he can nearly grab the rim &mdash; 10 feet in the air &mdash; without even jumping.
WHAT WEMBANYAMA&rsquo;S BACKGROUND?
His parents are both tall and both very athletic. His father, Felix Wembanyama, is about 6-foot-5 and was a high jumper. His mother, Elodie de Fautereau; is about 6-foot-3 and was a basketball standout. They have tried to keep life very normal for a son who just happens to have worldwide fame already. And Wembanyama has tried to be a normal kid; he likes video games, art, reading and soccer.
WHAT HAPPENS TUESDAY?
<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-nba-draft-spurs-ee1a9bd2232173666d3302bb491c7c5c">The winner of the draft lottery</a>&nbsp;gets the chance to make the No. 1 pick in next month&rsquo;s draft. So, while Wembanyama won&rsquo;t &ldquo;officially&rdquo; be a member of that team yet, it&rsquo;ll be a foregone conclusion that &mdash; barring some sort of incredible trade &mdash; he&rsquo;ll be selected by that franchise in June and could be with his new club for summer league games in early July.
HOW WILL HE FIT IN THE NBA?
There is a learning curve for everybody, even No. 1 draft picks. And it&rsquo;s a rite of passage for all rookies, especially highly touted ones, to get challenged by established NBA players &mdash; few of them are taller, but many are stronger and more experienced. He will have some rough moments, for certain.&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-wemby-nba-draft-lottery-50308e65f44b8df7a2368c4de17bacff">But he will make any team better,</a>&nbsp;maybe much better, right away.
WHERE HAS HE PLAYED?
He became a full-time pro in the 2020-21 season with the French club Nanterre. He has been on three teams in his three seasons in the French league, his year with Nanterre followed by a season with the powerhouse club ASVEL &mdash; owned by San Antonio Spurs great Tony Parker &mdash; and this season with Boulogne-Levallois. His current team wraps up its regular season on Tuesday (which is why he won&rsquo;t be at the draft lottery) and is about to open the playoffs.

The Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes is about to have a winner. Here's everything you need to know about the potential superstar.

Who is Victor Wembanyama? Here's everything you need to know

When a generational talent like&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wemby-victor-wembanyama-nba-draft-f5be654cce544c675559bad526220a9e">Victor Wembanyama</a>&nbsp;comes along, it&rsquo;s clear that he would make any team that he&rsquo;s with better in a multitude of ways.
And the team that wins Tuesday&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-nba-draft-spurs-ee1a9bd2232173666d3302bb491c7c5c">NBA draft lottery</a>&nbsp;in Chicago &mdash; and the right to draft Wembanyama next month &mdash; will be immediately improved. Here&rsquo;s a look at the 14 hopefuls in the lottery, and their odds of landing the&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-sports-basketball-las-vegas-6f4ac3d44f624ef36ddb00e314cf0401">7-foot-3 French teen phenom.</a>
DETROIT
Odds: 14%, or about 7-1
Outlook: A new coach is coming, and if Wembanyama goes to the Pistons he&rsquo;d be teaming up with Killian Hayes &mdash; whose mother is French, so there would be some comforts of home at least.
Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey were&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-all-rookie-team-e70909b25b2ae3fabd26d3c380e4f07c">All-Rookie picks</a>&nbsp;this season. Cade Cunningham was one last season, after he was the No. 1 pick in 2021. It&rsquo;s hard to envision how exactly Wembanyama and Cunningham would play together, since there&rsquo;s still so much mystery about Cunningham&rsquo;s game, especially after he missed much of this season. But two great young talents surely would figure it out.
HOUSTON
Odds: 14%, or about 7-1
Outlook:&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/rockets-udoka-e24d2a5ccedef68bf86faee4ba2b5917">Ime Udoka is in place as the new coach</a>, there&rsquo;s a belief around the league that the Rockets will change their roster considerably in free agency &mdash; bringing James Harden back, perhaps &mdash; and Wembanyama would energize the fan base in many of the same ways Yao Ming&rsquo;s arrival did.
It would take some shots away from Houston&rsquo;s young players and adjustments would have to be made. And the pairing of Wembanyama with Alperen Sengun would be so interesting on defense.
SAN ANTONIO
Odds: 14%, or about 7-1
Outlook: Gregg Popovich would get another incredibly talented big to build around, just as was the case with David Robinson and Tim Duncan.
The Spurs have flourished with international players, such as Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. The Spurs haven&rsquo;t won a playoff series since 2017 and haven&rsquo;t played in one since 2019. But all the losing, all the drafting, all the player development has built them for this &mdash; and Wembanyama would be the springboard to make San Antonio a playoff town again right away.
CHARLOTTE
Odds: 12.5%, or 8-1
Outlook: Maybe this would convince Michael Jordan to not sell the majority stake of the Hornets after all. (Or maybe it&rsquo;ll just raise his price.) Imagine &mdash; the most recognizable player maybe ever, with an iconic brand, getting to draft a kid who is surely going to be a global marketing dream.
As often is the case with top draft picks, much of the attention goes to Wembanyama&rsquo;s offensive game. But Charlotte is desperately in need of more defense, and Wembanyama will make an immediate impact on that end &mdash; which would only further endear him to Hornets coach Steve Clifford. And Wembanyama and LaMelo Ball together would be instantly something to watch.
PORTLAND
Odds: 10.5%, or about 10-1
Outlook: Damian Lillard is tired of waiting and wants the Trail Blazers to become a contender. This would be a great start to that plan.
There is a ton of talent in Portland, led by the all-world guard, and the Blazers packed it in early this season with an eye on the draft. And the ping-pong balls don&rsquo;t care about fairness, but after Sam Bowie and Greg Oden, it surely could be argued that Portland deserves a draft break.
ORLANDO
Odds: 9%, or about 11-1
Outlook: Now this would be spicy. If the Magic win the lottery again, the pairing of Paolo Banchero with Wembanyama would give Orlando an immediate shot in the arm.
The Magic were 5-20 and refused to tank. They went 29-28 the rest of the way, and the young core &mdash; Banchero, Franz Wagner, Markelle Fultz, etc. &mdash; seems like it&rsquo;s poised for bigger things in the Eastern Conference already. Fultz, like Banchero, was a No. 1 pick as well.
INDIANA
Odds: 6.8%, or about 15-1
Outlook: With Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers want to play fast. And he would benefit greatly from an athletic big to play pick-and-roll with (as would plenty of other people in the NBA, of course).
There&rsquo;s a lot to like about Indiana as a landing spot. Championship coach in Rick Carlisle. One of the league&rsquo;s best atmospheres. Basketball is a religion in Indiana. Make no mistake, they&rsquo;d be good right away.
WASHINGTON
Odds: 6.7%, or about 15-1
Outlook: Two things immediately jump off the page with the Wizards. One, Bradley Beal would probably become an even better version with Wembanyama. And two, with Kristaps Porzingis, this might be the rare spot for Wembanyama to not be the tallest player on his own roster.
UTAH
Odds: 4.5%, or about 22-1
Outlook: Wembanyama is obviously familiar with the Jazz, given his relationship with former Utah center Rudy Gobert. It would be a unique parallel; the Jazz trade Gobert in 2022, fall into the lottery a year later, get Wembanyama to add to a good young cast led by Lauri Markkanen.
DALLAS
Odds: 3%, or about 33-1
Outlook: Dallas raised the NBA&rsquo;s ire by tanking at the end to protect its lottery odds. If the Mavericks win the lottery and can pair Wembanyama with Luka Doncic &mdash; and perhaps Kyrie Irving &mdash; the $750,000 tanking fine might end up as the best money Mark Cuban ever spent.
CHICAGO
Odds: 1.8%, or about 55-1
Outlook: DeMar DeRozan would be a great first vet for Wembanyama to open his NBA career with and learn from.
OKLAHOMA CITY
Odds: 1.7%, or about 60-1
Outlook: The Thunder were one of the best stories in the league this season with a budding star like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and last year&rsquo;s No. 2 pick &mdash; Chet Holmgren &mdash; set to make his NBA debut this fall. Put Wembanyama on the Thunder, and it&rsquo;ll be scary.
TORONTO
Odds: 1%, or 100-1
Outlook: The Raptors will have a new coach and nobody knows what direction they&rsquo;re going yet this summer. Wembanyama would surely change some of their plans.
NEW ORLEANS
Odds: 0.5%, or 200-1
Outlook: Everyone can see the Pelicans&rsquo; potential, even with the annual mystery of how durable Zion Williamson will (or won&rsquo;t) be. To overcome 200-1 odds would be just amazing luck, and as the city&rsquo;s motto goes, it would truly mean that the good times will roll in New Orleans.

Victor Wembanyama is one of the most hyped-up prospects in years. Tim Reynolds examines how he would impact each lottery team.

Wemby watch: How Victor Wembanyama may help each draft lottery team

Aaron Rodgers was sitting alone in the dark two months ago, pondering his future while many speculated about his next move.
Now, the New York Jets quarterback is the toast of his new town, bonding with the Big Apple and his excited teammates.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a legend right there, that&rsquo;s a Hall of Fame player,&rdquo; wide receiver Garrett Wilson said Wednesday during a video call. &ldquo;This is something 20 years from now, 30 years from now, I can tell my kids, &lsquo;You know, I played with Aaron Rodgers.&rsquo; I try not to think about it too much at this point, you know, just because we&rsquo;re going to work and he&rsquo;s my teammate and that&rsquo;s got to be the mindset.
&ldquo;But the reality of it is it&rsquo;s awesome, man.&rdquo;
After an offseason that included Rodgers going on an isolation retreat in Oregon and deciding to continue his playing career &mdash; and with the Jets &mdash; the four-time NFL MVP was&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/aaron-rodgers-new-york-jets-nfl-0a298bb72384d01d8ed5b0bcae9e340e">formally introduced by New York last Wednesday</a>&nbsp;after acquiring him from Green Bay. The deal&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/aaron-rodgers-trade-jets-packers-0a6b5e68c1c3d5c2ab1b9e59312dd181">brought one of the league&rsquo;s greatest players</a>&nbsp;to a franchise frustrated by 12 straight seasons without a playoff appearance and hungry for a winner.
And Rodgers is already making an impact.
&ldquo;We know that all of the sudden, all eyes are on us,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to back it up every time we take the field, you know, practice or game.&rdquo;
Rodgers is also enjoying his turn as New York&rsquo;s newest celebrity while taking in Knicks and Rangers games at Madison Square Garden.
&ldquo;I met Spike Lee, Martha Stewart and Patrick Ewing,&rdquo; Rodgers&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/PatMcAfeeShow/status/1653473013109755905?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said Tuesday on &ldquo;The Pat McAfee Show&rdquo;</a>&nbsp;on YouTube and SiriusXM. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sitting next to Jack Harlow. So much fun. Just having a ball.&rdquo;
He was there&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/jets-allen-lazard-aaron-rodgers-nfl-free-agency-b2e191509441f98a7dc54ef62d77b758">with former Packers teammate Allen Lazard</a>&nbsp;and running back Breece Hall for the Rangers&rsquo; 5-2 win over the Devils in Game 6 last Saturday. Rodgers and Lazard were back the next day for the Knicks&rsquo; playoff loss to Miami in Game 1. On Tuesday night, Rodgers and cornerback Sauce Gardner sat courtside next to actor Jerry Ferrara and former Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist for the Knicks&rsquo; victory in Game 2.
&ldquo;It was great being around a veteran guy like him, a down to earth guy who &mdash; I didn&rsquo;t know he was that funny,&rdquo; Gardner said.
&ldquo;Everybody knew who he was and I was able to just be in his shadow a little bit.&rdquo;
Rodgers, who&rsquo;s 39, teased the 22-year-old Gardner about his age at times during their night out on the town &mdash; which started with the QB picking up the tab for dinner at Carbone restaurant.
&ldquo;We were getting seated (at the Garden) and he was like, &lsquo;We&rsquo;re about to sit by Jessica Alba,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Gardner, last season&rsquo;s AP Defensive Rookie of the Year. &ldquo;I was like, &lsquo;Oh, I don&rsquo;t know who that is.&rsquo; He looked at me like I&rsquo;m crazy.&rdquo;
Rodgers probably would&rsquo;ve had a similar look a few months ago if someone had told him he&rsquo;d be calling the New York/New Jersey area home &mdash; as a member of the Jets.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just pinching myself a lot of days,&rdquo; Rodgers said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe it&rsquo;s real sometimes. It&rsquo;s been a dream, for sure, just to be here.&rdquo;
Rodgers is participating in offseason workouts, something he hadn&rsquo;t done the past couple of seasons in Green Bay while he feuded with the Packers&rsquo; front office. A&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/nyjets/status/1653096952236503041?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">slow-motion video posted Monday by the Jets</a>&nbsp;of Rodgers throwing a pass to Wilson, last season&rsquo;s AP Offensive Rookie of the Year, has gotten more than 9.6 million views.
&ldquo;I ain&rsquo;t gonna lie to you, I was kind of starstruck at first,&rdquo; linebacker Quincy Williams said with a smile. &ldquo;I was like, &lsquo;Hold on, coach, let me just take a little minute to just take this in,&rsquo; just to watch a few throws and seeing him in the green.
&ldquo;And it was like, all right, let&rsquo;s get to work so we can give him more opportunities to throw the ball.&rdquo;
The Jets are counting on Rodgers doing that and jumpstarting an offense that ranked near the bottom of the league in several categories the past two years with Zach Wilson struggling in then-coordinator Mike LaFleur&rsquo;s system. Rodgers is reunited with Nathaniel Hackett, his offensive coordinator for three years in Green Bay, including the last two of his four MVP awards in 2020 and 2021.
Hackett isn&rsquo;t the only former Packers teammate joining Rodgers in New York. The Jets signed Lazard, backup quarterback Tim Boyle and&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/jets-billy-turner-aaron-rodgers-hackett-a6c3c931ddc16822cd7db87f8226ac3b">offensive lineman Billy Turner</a>&nbsp;in free agency. They also already had wide receiver Malik Turner and offensive lineman Adam Pankey.
The Jets also&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/jets-randall-cobb-aaron-rodgers-a4d1e5166dd1bd02cf034294ca3c290a">signed wide receiver Randall Cobb</a>&nbsp;on Wednesday night. Cobb had two stints as Rodgers&rsquo; teammate in Green Bay and walked off the field with the quarterback after the Packers&rsquo; season-ending loss to Detroit at Lambeau.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like the first day of school every single day,&rdquo; Rodgers said on &ldquo;The Pat McAfee Show.&rdquo; &ldquo;Everything&rsquo;s new and exciting and fun.&rdquo;

The New York Jets quarterback is the toast of his new town, bonding with the Big Apple and his excited teammates.