Gators

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced today at NBA All-Star Weekend 2024 the selection of 14 finalists from the following committees: North American, Women&rsquo;s, Men&rsquo;s Veterans, Women&rsquo;s Veterans, International, and Contributors.
The finalists will then be put forward to the Honors Committee to be considered for election as members of the Class of 2024. The new class will be announced in Phoenix on April 6 at the NCAA Men&rsquo;s Final Four.
North American Committee Finalists (in alphabetical order):
<ul style="font-weight: 400;">
<li>Chauncey Billups</li>
<li>Vince Carter</li>
<li>Michael Cooper</li>
<li>Walter Davis</li>
<li>Bo Ryan</li>
<li>Charles Smith</li>
</ul>
Women's Committee Finalists:
<ul style="font-weight: 400;">
<li>Seimone Augustus</li>
<li>Marian Washington</li>
</ul>
Men&rsquo;s Veteran Committee Finalist:
<ul style="font-weight: 400;">
<li>Dick Barnett</li>
</ul>
Women's Veteran Committee Finalist:
<ul style="font-weight: 400;">
<li>Harley Redin</li>
</ul>
International Committee Finalist:
<ul style="font-weight: 400;">
<li>Michele Timms</li>
</ul>
Contributors Committee Finalists:
<ul style="font-weight: 400;">
<li>Doug Collins</li>
<li>Herb Simon</li>
<li>Jerry West</li>
</ul>
"Being named a Finalist for the Class of 2024 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is a testament to the highest echelons of achievement in the sport,&rdquo; said Jerry Colangelo, Chairman of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. &ldquo;It's an honor that reflects not only individual greatness but also the long-lasting impact on the game itself. From the strategic brilliance of coaches to the unmatched abilities of players and the influential roles of a coach/broadcaster, an esteemed owner, and a dynasty-building executive, each Finalist embodies the pinnacle of basketball excellence. Their inclusion underscores the diverse contributions that have shaped and enriched the sport, making this recognition truly exceptional."
The Class of 2024 will be enshrined during festivities in Springfield, Mass., on August 16-17. VIP packages for the 2024 Hall of Fame Enshrinement Weekend are now available. Single-event tickets will go on sale on April 6, following the 2024 Class Announcement.
North American Committee Finalists:
CHAUNCEY BILLUPS&nbsp;[Player]&nbsp;&ndash; Nicknamed "Mr. Big Shot" for his ability to deliver crucial plays in pivotal moments, Billups was a five-time NBA All-Star and the 2004 Finals MVP after leading the Detroit Pistons to their third NBA championship. During his 17-year career, Billups&rsquo; averaged 15.2 points and 5.4 assists per game, while his&nbsp; 89.4&nbsp; free throw percentage is sixth best in NBA/ABA history. Billups was drafted third overall in 1997 by the Boston Celtics after earning Second Team All-American honors at Colorado. He is the current head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers.
VINCE CARTER&nbsp;[Player]&nbsp;&ndash; Renowned for his high-flying dunks, the former North Carolina standout was an eight-time All-Star in his 22 NBA seasons (1998-2020). Carter, who won the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest, was named the 1998-99 Rookie of the Year and is the only player in NBA history to play in four different decades. Carter averaged 16.7 points per game (21.3 as a starter) and also played a pivotal role in the success of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, clinching a gold medal with the U.S. Men's Basketball Team. He currently holds the single-season franchise scoring record for the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors.
MICHAEL COOPER&nbsp;[Player]&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Cooper was named to eight NBA All-Defensive Teams, taking home First-Team accolades five times and winning Defensive Player of the Year honors in 1987. The former third-round draft pick (60th overall) out of the University of New Mexico spent his entire 12-year NBA career (1978-90) with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning five championships while routinely matching up with the opponent&rsquo;s top shooter. Following his playing career, Cooper entered the coaching ranks and earned WNBA Coach of the Year accolades in 2000 with the Los Angeles Sparks before winning back-to-back WNBA titles in 2001-02.
WALTER DAVIS&nbsp;[Player]&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;The all-time leading scorer in Phoenix Suns&rsquo; history was a six-time All-Star (1978-81, &lsquo;84, &lsquo;87) during his 15-year NBA career with the Suns (1977-88), Denver Nuggets (1988-92) and Portland Trail Blazers (1991). Before Phoenix chose Davis with the fifth pick in the 1977 draft, the standout player from North Carolina won a gold medal in the 1976 Summer Olympics. He then averaged 24.2 points per game in his first NBA season and was named the 1978 Rookie of the Year. The late Davis had&nbsp;his No. 6 retired by the Suns, and in 2004, he was enshrined in the team's Ring of Honor.
BO RYAN&nbsp;[Coach] &ndash;&nbsp;Ryan went 747-233 (.762) in 32 seasons as a collegiate head coach with the University of Wisconsin-Platteville (1984-89), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1999-2001) and University of Wisconsin (2001-15), including a 364-130 (.737) ledger in 14-plus seasons in Madison. Ryan, honored four times as the Big Ten Coach of the Year, led Wisconsin to unprecedented success, clinching four Big Ten regular-season titles, winning three Big Ten tournament championships, and making back-to-back Final Four appearances (2014-15). The four-time Division III champion (1991, &lsquo;95, &lsquo;98-99) was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.
CHARLES SMITH&nbsp;[Coach] &ndash; Smith is Louisiana's all-time winningest high school head coach, surpassing the previous mark of 1,071 in 2020. With eight state championships to his name, Smith&rsquo;s coaching tenure at Peabody Magnet High School began in 1985 after starting as a math teacher in 1975. He guided the Warhorses to a pair of perfect seasons, going 41-0 in 2004 and 2010 and earning national top-five rankings. Smith, ESPN&rsquo;s National Coach of the Year in 2010, was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2019 and the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2021. In addition, Smith served as a head coach at the McDonald&rsquo;s All-American game in 2020.
Women&rsquo;s Committee Finalists:
SEIMONE AUGUSTUS&nbsp;[Player]&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Augustus, who was selected first overall in the 2006 WNBA Draft, was a four-time champion and eight-time All-Star during her 15-year WNBA career (2006-2020). The cornerstone player for the Minnesota Lynx, where she spent 14 of her 15 seasons, averaged 15.4 points per game and was named the 2006 Rookie of the Year and 2011 Finals MVP. At LSU, Augustus led the Tigers to three straight Final Four appearances and won the Naismith College Player of the Year and Wooden Awards in back-to-back campaigns (2005-06).
MARIAN WASHINGTON&nbsp;[Coach] &ndash; Washington led the University of Kansas women&rsquo;s basketball team for 31 seasons (1973-2004) and recorded a school-record 560 wins. The Jayhawks made 11 NCAA tournament appearances under her guidance, including two trips to the Sweet 16 (1996, &lsquo;97). Washington, who also served as Kansas&rsquo; director for women&rsquo;s athletics from 1974-79, was named her conference&rsquo;s Coach of the Year on three occasions (Big Eight: 1992, &rsquo;96; Big 12: 1997). She was a pioneer on the international stage, becoming one of the first two African American women to compete in basketball internationally at the 1971 World Championships and the first black woman to coach a United States team in international play at the 1982 R. William Jones Cup. Washington, who was the first female president of the Black Coaches Association, was inducted into the Women&rsquo;s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004.
Men&rsquo;s Veteran Committee Finalist:
DICK BARNETT&nbsp;[Player] &ndash;&nbsp;Barnett first gained prominence at Tennessee A&amp;I University, where he led the Tigers to three straight NAIA national championships (1957-59), the first historically black school to claim a men&rsquo;s basketball title. The &ldquo;Skull&rdquo; played 14 NBA seasons with the Syracuse Nationals (1959-61), Los Angeles Lakers (1962-65) and New York Knicks (1965-73), winning a pair of titles in the Big Apple (1970, &lsquo;73) and making his lone All-Star team in 1968. The Knicks retired his No. 12, and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame honored his 1957&ndash;59 Tigers squad in 2019.
Women&rsquo;s Veteran Committee Finalists:
HARLEY REDIN&nbsp;[Coach]&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Redin went 431-66 in 18 seasons leading Wayland Baptist&rsquo;s women&rsquo;s basketball program and captured six AAU National Championships. He coached the Flying Queens to two undefeated women&rsquo;s seasons (1956, &lsquo;57), 17 top-five finishes, and went 110-2 during his first four campaigns at Wayland Baptist. Redin also coached the Women&rsquo;s U.S. National Team in 1959, the 1971 Pan-American Games, and the 1963 World Tournament in Peru. He was the recipient of the Jostens-Berenson Service Award by the Women&rsquo;s Basketball Coaches Association for his lifetime of service to women&rsquo;s basketball in 1992, inducted into the Women&rsquo;s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999, and honored with the Naismith Award for Outstanding Contribution to the game of women&rsquo;s basketball in 2000.
International Committee Finalist:
MICHELE TIMMS&nbsp;[Player]&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;A trailblazer in Australian women&rsquo;s basketball, Timms became well-known as one of the best point guards in the world, representing the Australian national team throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Timms won a pair of Olympic medals with the Opals, winning bronze in 1996 and silver in 2000, and was the first Australian, male or female, to play professional basketball internationally when she suited up for Lotus M&uuml;nchen in Germany. In addition, Timms spent five seasons with the Phoenix Mercury, guiding the team to a berth in the 1998 WNBA Finals and earning an All-Star selection in 1999. The Sport Australia Hall of Fame inducted her in 2003, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008, and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2016. The Mercury retired her No. 7 jersey in 2002.
Contributor Committee Finalists:
DOUG COLLINS&nbsp;[Coach/broadcaster]&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Collins' versatile career in basketball is marked by significant achievements in roles ranging from player to coach to broadcaster, underscoring his wide-ranging impact on the sport. Following an NBA career where he was a four-time All-Star with the Philadelphia 76ers, he transitioned into coaching and accumulated over 400 wins with the Chicago Bulls (1986-89), Detroit Pistons (1995-98), Washington Wizards (2001-03) and 76ers (2010-13). Collins, who coached Hall of Famer Michael Jordan in both Chicago and Washington,&nbsp;also served as an analyst for various NBA-related broadcasts for CBS, NBC, TNT, TBS, and ABC/ESPN, along with working for NBC at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.
HERB SIMON&nbsp;[Owner] &ndash; Simon, the longest-tenured governor in the history of the NBA, purchased the Indiana Pacers, along with his late brother Mel, back in 1983. Under Simon&rsquo;s stewardship, the Pacers won numerous Central Division titles and made the franchise&rsquo;s first NBA Finals in 2000. Throughout his ownership period, the Pacers have been home to legendary players like Jermaine O&rsquo;Neal, Rik Smits, and Reggie Miller (Class of 2012). Beyond ownership, Simon's influence extends deeply into the heart of the Pacers&rsquo; organization, shaping its identity and impact both on and off the court through his philanthropic endeavors and civic engagement.
JERRY WEST&nbsp;[Executive] &ndash; Enshrined as a player in 1980, West then went on to establish himself off the court as one of the most successful executives in the sport&rsquo;s history. West played a pivotal role as the architect of a pair of Los Angeles Lakers&rsquo; dynasties during the 1980s and 2000s, drafting key players like Magic Johnson and James Worthy, acquiring Kobe Bryant, signing free agent Shaquille O'Neal, and hiring head coach Phil Jackson. He totaled eight NBA championships in Los Angeles (1980, &lsquo;82, &lsquo;85, &lsquo;87-88, 2000-02) and was named Executive of the Year twice (1995, 2004). Following his time in the Lakers&rsquo; front office (1979-2000), West served as GM of the Memphis Grizzlies from 2002-07 before earning two additional NBA championships as an executive with the Golden State Warriors (2015, &lsquo;17).

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced the 14 finalists for the class of 2024 including Vince Carter and Chauncey Billups.

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announces 14 finalists in class of 2024

NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Saying she is ready to share the &ldquo;unfathomable&rdquo; experience of being arrested and incarcerated in Russia, basketball star Brittney Griner is working on a memoir that is scheduled for spring 2024.
Griner was arrested last year at the airport in Moscow on drug-related charges and detained for nearly 10 months, much of that time in prison. Her plight unfolded at the same time Russia invaded Ukraine and further heightened tensions between Russia and the U.S., ending only after she was freed in exchange for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
A WNBA All-Star with the Phoenix Mercury, Griner had flown to Moscow in February 2022 to rejoin UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian women&rsquo;s team she has played for in the off-season since 2014.
&ldquo;That day (in February) was the beginning of an unfathomable period in my life which only now am I ready to share,&rdquo; Griner said in a statement released Tuesday by Alfred A. Knopf.
&ldquo;The primary reason I traveled back to Russia for work that day was because I wanted to make my wife, family, and teammates proud. After an incredibly challenging 10 months in detainment, I am grateful to have been rescued and to be home. Readers will hear my story and understand why I&rsquo;m so thankful for the outpouring of support from people across the world.&rdquo;
Griner added that she also hoped her book would raise awareness of other Americans detained overseas, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia last month and accused of espionage; businessman Kai Li, serving a 10-year sentence in China on charges of revealing state secrets to the FBI; and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive imprisoned in Russia on spying charges. Around the time Griner was released, Whelan criticized the U.S. government for not doing enough to help him.
Russia has been a popular playing destination for top WNBA athletes in the offseason, with some earning salaries over $1 million &mdash; nearly quadruple what they can make as a base WNBA salary. Despite pleading guilty to possessing canisters with cannabis oil, a result of what she said was hasty packing, Griner still faced trial under Russian law.
Griner&rsquo;s memoir is currently untitled and will eventually be published in a young adult edition. Financial terms were not disclosed.
In Tuesday&rsquo;s press statement, Knopf said that the book would be &ldquo;intimate and moving&rdquo; and that Griner would disclose &ldquo;in vivid detail her harrowing experience of her wrongful detainment (as classified by the State Department) and the difficulty of navigating the byzantine Russian legal system in a language she did not speak.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Griner also describes her stark and surreal time living in a foreign prison and the terrifying aspects of day-to-day life in a women&rsquo;s penal colony,&rdquo; the announcement reads. &ldquo;At the heart of the book, Griner highlights the personal turmoil she experienced during the near ten-month ordeal and the resilience that carried her through to the day of her return to the United States last December.&rdquo;
Griner, 32, is a 6-foot-9 two-time Olympic gold medalist, three-time All-American at Baylor University, a prominent advocate for pay equity for women athletes and the first openly gay athlete to reach an endorsement deal with Nike. She is the author of one previous book, &ldquo;In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court,&rdquo; published in 2014.
In February, she re-signed with the Mercury and will play in its upcoming season, which runs from May through September.

Griner says she is ready to share the “unfathomable” experience of being arrested and incarcerated in Russia.

Brittney Griner working on memoir about Russian captivity

HOUSTON (AP) &mdash; The transfer portal. Name, image and likeness deals. Sixth-year seniors. Conference realignment. The ever-shifting prospects of the one-and-done rule.
The once semipredictable ground that underpinned college basketball has been changing at lightning speed over the past 24 months, leaving coaches and their bosses scrambling to adjust to whatever comes next.
The NCAA Tournament closes out Monday when UConn plays San Diego State, and will go down as one of the most unpredictable ever. Unanswered is the question of whether the shifting landscape in college sports was the reason for all bracket madness or simply background noise for an event that is always hard to handicap.
Either way, things are changing and coaches are trying to adjust on the fly.
&ldquo;These might be some of the greatest challenges we&rsquo;re facing with the portal and NIL and just lack of direction and rules and regulations,&rdquo; said Mark Few of Gonzaga, a perennial powerhouse that has reached the Sweet 16 in eight straight seasons.
The four teams that made it to Houston &mdash; Florida Atlantic and Miami saw their seasons end Saturday &mdash; got here in part because they adapted quickly. All four added players from the transfer portal, some of whom were given an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic, and some of whom were lured by the promise of sponsorship money under the loosely regulated NIL system.&nbsp;
Very few coaches want to go on record saying that allowing players to earn money through NIL or to freely move around in a billion-dollar business that imposes no such restrictions on the coaches themselves is a bad thing.
Few also want to touch on the bottom line of conference realignment, which is placing familiar schools in strange places &mdash; Texas in the Southeastern Conference and UCLA and USC in the Big Ten &mdash; in the service of generating more revenue.
And none want to be painted as dinosaurs who don&rsquo;t believe players should share in the game&rsquo;s considerable financial windfall.
Some, however, concede they are uneasy about the implications of all this.
&ldquo;I wish someone would understand the effect of the system,&rdquo; Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. &ldquo;The story is the number of kids who have been adversely affected by the climate as it is today.&rdquo;
Hamilton is not the only coach concerned by a recent NCAA study that showed 43% of Division I athletes who enter the transfer portal &mdash; taking advantage of their newfound ability to switch schools without having to sit out a year &mdash; end up without a place to play.
&ldquo;Is it great that 43% of young people decided to remove themselves from an experience of a lifetime?&rdquo; said UMass coach Frank Martin. &ldquo;People talk about a lot of the great things happening for young students now, but nobody really talks about that.&rdquo;
Now, the one-and-done rule, which used to be considered one of the biggest destabilizers in college sports, is barely a blip on the radar. For most of the past year, the NBA had made it a priority to eliminate the 17-year-old rule from the upcoming collective bargaining agreement. But that got scuttled at the last minute, and the rule will remain.
&ldquo;However it all shakes out, what I want is whatever is best for the kids,&rdquo; said Kentucky coach John Calipari, who for years has embraced the one-and-done system.
Calipari said he&rsquo;s more concerned about &ldquo;27-year-olds playing against 19-year-olds.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s an issue that we&rsquo;re going to have to deal with that we&rsquo;re totally avoiding,&rdquo; he said.
The extra year of eligibility granted because of COVID-19, combined with redshirt years being handed out for varying reasons, has, indeed, extended some players&rsquo; careers into their mid-20s.
Exhibit A: Since the NBA trade deadline last month, the Houston Cougars, who came into the tournament as a No. 1 seed and were ousted in the Sweet 16, had a starting five that was older than the starters for NBA&rsquo;s rebuilding Houston Rockets.
Exhibit B: Including 25-year-old guard Adam Seiko, San Diego State has four key contributors who are in their fifth or sixth year of college.
The NCAA is taking somewhat of a passive approach to all of the issues. It has largely refused to get into the regulation of NIL deals, instead leaving it to state governments to decide. Last week, Congress held the latest in a series of hearings that resolved nothing, even as the NCAA asks for a national standard.
&ldquo;I think one athletic director said that the only truth about NIL is that everybody lies,&rdquo; the NCAA&rsquo;s new president, Charlie Baker, said in a brief interview at the Final Four.
Baker would like to see the creation of a registry of contracts, financial literacy programs for families, a certification process for agents and a uniform standard contract for NIL deals.
For now, though, NIL and the portal have produced a free-for-all.
It played out at FAU, where coach Dusty May said some of his players were being approached while the team was in the middle of its run.
In another instance, after a run to the Sweet 16 last season, Maryland&rsquo;s women lost five players, including two who made it to the Final Four with their new teams this year. (The Terps still made the Elite Eight this year.)
Before the tournament started, Belmont women&rsquo;s coach Jamey Givens, whose Bruins missed the tournament after upsetting Oregon in the first round, last year put a fine point on it, tweeting good luck to all the teams in the tournament &mdash; &ldquo;except for those who have been actively recruiting off our roster all spring.&rdquo;
Martin, a former high school math teacher who got fired at South Carolina five seasons after reaching the Final Four, has long leaned into the importance of athletes getting an education. He is also a realist and an optimist, trying to thread the needle in a rapidly changing landscape.
&ldquo;For the most part, we tend to be fairly intelligent people who adapt,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and we&rsquo;ll figure it out, and we&rsquo;ll adapt, and we&rsquo;ll grow.&rdquo;

The once semipredictable ground that underpinned college basketball has been changing at lightning speed the last two years.

As Final Four closes, basketball on unpredictable ground

Women&rsquo;s college basketball believes it has the makings for a hit reality TV show with star power driving a marketable product that has a growing audience.
So they&rsquo;re taking the ensemble on the road for the Sweet 16.
The NCAA changed the format of the tournament this year, featuring two regional sites instead of the traditional four. The games in Greenville, South Carolina, and Seattle are the latest step to grow the sport and show the ladies can stand on their own.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley believes the question of whether women&rsquo;s hoops merits its own March Madness TV contract has already been answered, even though the women&rsquo;s tournament loses money under the current deal.
&ldquo;Somebody&rsquo;s watching women&rsquo;s basketball,&rdquo; Staley said. &ldquo;Somebody feels like we&rsquo;re in high demand, and obviously the decision-makers that put us on now realize that they&rsquo;ve got to keep putting us on.&rdquo;
The women&rsquo;s title game will be broadcast on ABC &mdash; the first appearance on network television since 1995. Women&rsquo;s basketball is part of a current contract that bundles all NCAA championships under one deal except for men&rsquo;s basketball and football.
The NCAA is expected to decide by the fall if the women&rsquo;s tournament will become a separate entity after hiring Endeavor, a consulting firm, to determine how to take championships to market.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an exciting time. Year over year, we continue to demonstrate the value that women&rsquo;s basketball brings to that space,&rdquo; said Lynn Holzman, the NCAA vice president of women&rsquo;s basketball. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be exciting to see what the results are of this for the sport itself, but also for the NCAA more broadly in our championships.&rdquo;
TV ratings have been trending up over the last two years. This year&rsquo;s regular season was the most viewed on ESPN networks in eight years and was up 11% from last season. That came on the heels of last season&rsquo;s title game between South Carolina and UConn that averaged 4.85 million viewers &mdash; the most for a women&rsquo;s championship game since 2004. The first round had a 27% ratings increase from last year.
&ldquo;People enjoy watching close games. They like the fact that there&rsquo;s some semblance of uncertainty of who&rsquo;s going to win,&rdquo; UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been so many changes in the top 10 all year long. ... Teams are in, they start out at the top they go out they come back in. I think all that creates a level of excitement.&rdquo;
People aren&rsquo;t just tuning in during March Madness, they have also been showing up.
Attendance at the NCAA Tournament has continued to rise the past five seasons, growing by 60% in the first two rounds from an average of 4,464 in 2016 to 7,240 this year. This season had the highest attendance ever for the first two rounds.
&ldquo;It makes us very bullish on women&rsquo;s basketball,&rdquo; Holzman said. &ldquo;It is demonstrative of the growth we&rsquo;ve been seeing in the sport.&rdquo;
Now the NCAA hopes that growth is reflected in increased television revenue.
ESPN pays $34 million per year for the championships package, which it agreed to in 2011, including women&rsquo;s basketball. But the law firm the NCAA hired to investigate equity issues in 2021 said in its report that estimated women&rsquo;s basketball annual broadcast rights would be worth $81 million to $112 million.
The NCAA said the 2019 women&rsquo;s tournament lost $2.8 million and those losses have multiplied the last two years since the the sports governing body increased spending after disparities between the men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s tourneys were pointed out.
If the NCAA can get close to the numbers projected in the 2021 report, it might be able to offer revenue shares &mdash; known as financial units &mdash; to women&rsquo;s teams in the tournament in a structure similar to what the men receive from their March Madness tournament.
Men&rsquo;s teams earn a slice of the money pie for their conference for every game they play excluding the championship. Each unit is paid by the NCAA over a six-year cycle. This year the NCAA will dole out $170 million to conferences from the men&rsquo;s tournament.
It&rsquo;s fair to say the women have a lot riding on this weekend at the two regional sites.
The NCAA is hoping the success of the Final Four &mdash; which sells out every year &mdash; translates to its new &ldquo;mini Final Fours.&rdquo;
Holzman believes the new format gave fans a better chance to know where their teams would be headed. The NCAA vice president of women&rsquo;s basketball also anticipated greater economic impact on host cities would lead to more bids to host in the future.
But for some coaches, it&rsquo;s all about location.
The regional sites the next two years will again be held in cities on opposite coasts. The closest team playing in Seattle this year is Colorado, located 1,300 miles away.
Texas coach Vic Schaefer is &ldquo;a little concerned&rdquo; about the distance some teams will have to travel, but eager to see how the tournament unfolds.
&ldquo;The powers that be believe it&rsquo;s going to be great, and I&rsquo;m hopeful that it will be,&rdquo; Schaefer said. &ldquo;Those are two opposite ends of the spectrums, west and east, three time zones between both of them. And there&rsquo;s just nothing in the Midwest. And we have a lot of teams in the Midwest. We&rsquo;ll see.&rdquo;

The NCAA is expected to decide by the fall if the women’s tournament will become a separate entity.

Women hope Sweet 16 next step to own March Madness TV deal

For basketball fans, the NBA trade deadline is one of the most exciting days of the year. It&rsquo;s fun to track the rumors, react to trades and root for your favorite team to make moves.
However, for the players involved in these trades, it can be very stressful and emotional.
Most players spend deadline day looking over their shoulder, and there&rsquo;s a lot of anxiety and nerves around this time of year. There aren&rsquo;t many professions where your employer can ship you across the country without any notice, but that comes with being a professional athlete.
To get a sense of what it&rsquo;s like to be traded, Basketball News spoke to several former NBA players who opened up about getting dealt and what the process entailed.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtyqvPS02_Y&amp;t=2886s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RAY ALLEN</a>: &ldquo;When I got to Seattle, [here&rsquo;s] the way the trade went down. I was in Milwaukee playing for the Bucks and we flew to Seattle, and we had a practice that day. It was coming up on the trade deadline, and everyone was talking about Tim Thomas being traded. So we were on the Key Arena floor in Seattle and the media came rushing in. I'm sitting on the floor stretching and I'm looking around and as I turn [toward the media], all of these lights come on. And I'm like, 'What's happening? We're about to have practice.' And then I turn around and I'm like, 'What's going on?' And they're all looking and pointing at me. I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;Me?!&rsquo; [The media members] are like, 'Yeah! You!' So we're stretching on one end and the other team is stretching on the other end, and [Bucks head coach] George Karl is down there on the other end. I kind of look around and I&rsquo;m looking up [at Coach Karl], and he takes off. So, I walk over to the media and said, &lsquo;What&rsquo;s going on?&rsquo; They were like, &lsquo;There was a trade.&rsquo; I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;Who got traded?&rsquo; They were like, &lsquo;You.&rsquo; I go into the locker room and check my phone and it's blowing up. I got traded for Gary Payton. It was crazy to be traded to Seattle in the middle of the season. I go back [to Milwaukee], get my stuff, take my physical and fly back in. And my first game [as a Sonic] is against the Detroit Pistons.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I remember going out to lunch with Brent Barry, who was so great the whole time. He was such a jokester on the sly; he always had his little sarcasm that he'd add to any situation. He goes, 'Ray, just so you know, people aren't coming to the game to see you. They're coming to see the Barry brothers match-up.' Because Jon [Barry] was on Detroit. That was always Brett, with his dry humor. (Laughs) So, I'm watching the [Sonics'] film and Gary was &lsquo;The Glove&rsquo; &mdash; everybody knew how ferocious he was on defense. In Milwaukee, we had schemes, and I was used to that. But watching [the Sonics&rsquo;] film, Gary would come from one side of the floor and just start guarding a guy. And I was like, &lsquo;What scheme is that?&rsquo; And they were like, &lsquo;No, that&rsquo;s Gary&rsquo;s scheme.&rsquo; I noticed how the team was built around him, because a lot of the young players, they had kinda just waited on Gary to do whatever Gary did. So when I got there, Rashard [Lewis] was young and impressionable. We had Ansu Sesay, Reggie Evans, Jerome James and all of these young guys, and they all kinda just went as Gary went. So when I got there, I was like, 'Yo, get your shots up! I need you!' I was passing them the ball; I was flirting with triple-doubles like every other game. But I was like, 'You guys gotta [do something]!' They would just sit around, and I could tell the hole that Gary left &mdash; these guys were used to playing a certain way and kinda expecting him to do everything.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Rashard emerged because he started watching me come to the gym early every day and he would always say, 'Man, I want to make the money that you make and have the success that you've had. I really gotta start focusing in and taking this seriously&hellip;&rsquo; So, Rashard started getting to the gym early. He saw the work that I put in, and he saw that it was something that he could do and something he wanted for himself. I like to think that some of that money that he got from Orlando, he could have passed some of it [to me] on the side, but that didn&rsquo;t happen. (Laughs) But he was a great partner to have because he did get significantly better &mdash; so much better &mdash; from the time I got there to when we parted ways with him going to Orlando and me going to Boston. [I never talked to Coach Karl about him running away] and since then, George has always taken shots at me through the media or in writing his books. It's just the strangest thing because I always thought that we had a strong relationship as a player-coach.&rdquo;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-news-etan-thomas-wpfw-dc-roundtable-drew-gooden-tony-massenburg-dave-zirin-john-wall-russell-westbrook-trade-washington-wizards-houston-rockets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ETAN THOMAS</a>: &ldquo;I have a story from when I was with the Wizards. I was in [general manager] Ernie Grunfeld&rsquo;s office. We&rsquo;re talking about me going to big-man camp because they used to send a big man down to Florida to IMG Academy to work out with Robert Parish and Clifford Ray. So I&rsquo;m in there in the summer, and I&rsquo;m talking to him about big-man camp. And I&rsquo;ve heard a little bit of trade rumors, I&rsquo;ve heard whispers and stuff like that, but nothing major. So he&rsquo;s telling me, 'Yeah, you&rsquo;re coming back from your injury, we&rsquo;re looking forward to next year. We want to send you down to big-man camp and you&rsquo;re doing all this stuff, and Robert Parish is great to work with and Clifford Ray is this, and we&rsquo;re looking forward to everything with you and we&rsquo;ll see how you and Brendan [Haywood] can work together,' and all this different stuff. It was this whole long speech, right?
"Now I&rsquo;m driving from the Verizon Center home to PG County. I&rsquo;m not even off Route 50 yet, and I get a call from my agent who says, 'You just got traded.' I was like, 'Are you serious?' I was like, 'No, that has to be a mistake! I was just in Ernie Grunfeld&rsquo;s office like 10-15 minutes ago!' So, I had to do a U-turn, go back to the Verizon Center, clear out all my stuff, and then he shook my hand and said, 'Thank you for everything,' like the whole conversation 15 minutes ago never happened."
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/pos2.jpg" alt="" width="689" height="466" />
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/heres-the-story-on-the-time-the-nuggets-traded-me-and-didnt-tell-me" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JAMES POSEY</a>: &ldquo;I was in my fourth season with the Denver Nuggets, and things hadn&rsquo;t really gotten off to the best start, to say the least. We were 6-18 and knew we were gonna have our hands full that night. Our opponent? The Dallas Mavericks. With Mike Finley, Steve Nash, Raef LaFrentz and Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas was no joke. They began the season 21-3, so in our morning shootaround, we were definitely engaged. Afterward, I showered and changed, went back home, took my pregame nap and was on my way back to the arena. I&rsquo;m driving and going over the gameplan in my head when I get a call from my agent. He said he was calling to 'check on me.' He asked me how I was doing and where I was. I thought the questions were a little strange, but didn&rsquo;t really think much of it. 'I&rsquo;m going to the arena, we got a game,' I said. 'You&rsquo;re going where?!' And that&rsquo;s how I found out I&rsquo;d been traded. We were both shocked, and for the same reason.
"Nobody communicated with me. I was literally a couple miles from the arena. Getting traded is a part of life as a professional athlete. And fortunately for me, I was young and, outside of the team, hadn&rsquo;t really had any family roots or ties to Denver. But that didn&rsquo;t completely remove the sting. I just considered myself lucky to not be in a situation where I also had to move a wife and three kids in the middle of the school year. Not every player is that fortunate. One minute, you&rsquo;re driving on the highway. The next minute, at a moment&rsquo;s notice, you have to start packing and prepare to make a new life in a new city. It&rsquo;s the hardest part of the job, and it&rsquo;s one that we all accept. But damn. When I got the news &mdash; again, I was literally five minutes from the arena and had done shootaround that morning with my teammates and coaches &mdash; I had mixed emotions. My initial reaction was just genuine shock, and even though resentment might be too strong of a word, I definitely felt some kind of way. 'They couldn't even tell me?'
"I can&rsquo;t speak for everybody, but I can definitely understand how being traded and not being told could make a player feel really disposable. Sometimes, people forget that players are people too. As far as I know, there&rsquo;s no specific rule about when you are no longer able to communicate with the coaching staff or the front office of a team that trades you, but in most instances, there would at least be a phone call or a text message from your old coach or GM or whoever. Just a, 'Thank you for your service, we wish you the best of luck,' something like that. From Denver, I got nothing. All those thoughts and feelings raced through my mind in the 30 seconds it took me to process everything and turn my car around. Then, naturally, I asked my agent the question everyone in my situation would ask. 'Where did I get traded to?' When he told me Houston, I perked up and immediately pressed the gas... I actually moved in with Nick Van Exel after the trade. He had a crib in Houston, so I stayed with him. When I found out about the trade, I just packed up as much of my clothes as I could and went to Nick&rsquo;s house. I stayed there until the end of the season, then I got my own spot. But yeah, if my agent hadn&rsquo;t called, I would've showed up at the arena and they probably wouldn't have even let me in.&rdquo;
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-news-etan-thomas-wpfw-dc-roundtable-drew-gooden-tony-massenburg-dave-zirin-john-wall-russell-westbrook-trade-washington-wizards-houston-rockets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DREW GOODEN</a>: &ldquo;I got drafted as the No. 4 pick in Memphis. Jerry West, it was his first year being the president of basketball operations for the Memphis Grizzlies, and I was his pick at No. 4, and I would say three or four months into that season, we were stockpiled at my position. We had Stromile Swift (who was drafted as the No. 2 pick two years prior to me), Pau Gasol (who was the No. 3 pick the year before my draft) and Shane Battier (who was the No. 6 or No. 7 pick that same year) and then the following year, they picked me at No. 4. So we had a lot of young talent, but we just could not put the pieces together to make something right. I heard the trade rumors. Rumors are rumors until they actually happen. It&rsquo;s funny, this story, because when I was hearing the rumors about me being traded, me and my agent had the discussion with Jerry West.
"Jerry West said, 'Drew, this is ridiculous, we have no intentions of trading you. Don&rsquo;t read the papers, you&rsquo;re going to be here a long time. So plan on wearing a Memphis jersey for a long time.' So I was like, 'Alright, that&rsquo;s cool; Jerry West gave me a straight-up answer, man! We&rsquo;ve got nothing to worry about! Let&rsquo;s just see what happens, man, let&rsquo;s ride this season out.' A day later,&nbsp;less than 24 hours later, I get a call from Dick Versace, who was an assistant general manager at the time saying, 'Drew, we&rsquo;ve got some news.' He said, 'You&rsquo;re on your way to the Orlando Magic; we just traded you for Mike Miller, the reigning Rookie of the Year.' And I was like, 'Wowww.' I was happy, don&rsquo;t get it wrong, I was happy that I was traded, but I was like, 'Wowww, Jerry West just told me that I was not going to get traded less than 24 hours ago, and then he has somebody else call me to tell me I was traded?!'"
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-tj-ford-james-posey-interview-qa-milwaukee-bucks-toronto-raptors-indiana-pacers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">T.J. FORD</a>: "The way I got traded, I felt it was just cold-blooded. Getting traded for the first time is just a unique experience. I got traded in the summer, I think after Hurricane Katrina and all that; it was when the Essence Festival was in Houston for the first time. Somebody bought my house and I was supposed to move out a week later, but they told me they wanted me out on Friday. Now, I've got an appearance in Milwaukee on Saturday that I'm supposed to fly to on Friday&hellip; So I get to Milwaukee and I speak at Michael Redd's camp, but he wasn't there. It was just a strange day. Who comes to somebody's campand then they ain't there? That just didn't make sense to me. [I&rsquo;m thinking], &lsquo;Gosh, something ain't right.&rsquo;
"I ended up having dinner plans with Skip [Robinson], the public relations guy. He helped me do a lot of great things in Milwaukee. We go to dinner and I didn't really have no power at my house, so at the restaurant I&rsquo;ve got my phone and my charger, but they&rsquo;re not next to me. Skip answered his phone and he's sitting directly across from me and I just hear him go, 'No! No! You've got to be kidding me.' Then, he's like, 'Here, the GM wants to talk to you.' So, I'm like, 'What's going on?' The GM's like, 'How do you feel about going to Toronto?' I'm like, 'What are you talking about? Stop playing with me. Stop fuckin' with me. Seriously, what's going on?' He's like, 'No, for real. We just traded you for Charlie Villanueva and it hasn't hit the news yet and it probably won't tonight.' I'm like, 'Yo, Skip, he just told me he f*ckin' traded me. He must be joking with me.' So, I handed him the phone. I get my phone and I've got a bunch of missed calls from my mom.
"So I called my mom and she's like, 'Your agent has been trying to call you! He's been saying something about a trade?' I was like, 'I know! The GM just told me that he traded me, so it must be a joke or something. I don't know. I'll call you right back.' I called my agent right away. But before I was able to do that, they got a TV at the bar in the restaurant. And, remember, the GM just told me that nobody knew about it. But it had just hit the news. Not ESPN, I'm talking about the local news at 10. I'm like, 'Ah man!' It was the worst day, man. Worst day. I was hurt. That was a tough one&hellip; I was fortunate to always get traded in the summertime. I probably would've been really shocked if I had to move midseason. I felt like I was pretty blessed to get traded in the summertime, when you can really process it."

Basketball News spoke to several former NBA players who opened up about getting dealt and what the trade process entailed.

NBA veterans open up about getting traded: 'It was the worst day'

Mat Ishbia said his first major project as owner of the Phoenix Suns will be to listen to employees and figure out what problems they&rsquo;ve faced.
After that, he&rsquo;ll start fixing.
The tenure of embattled Robert Sarver as owner of the NBA&rsquo;s Suns and WNBA&rsquo;s Phoenix Mercury officially ended Tuesday, when Ishbia &mdash; the chairman, president and chief executive of United Wholesale Mortgage, plus a member of Michigan State&rsquo;s NCAA championship team in 2000 &mdash; took over. He will be governor, while his brother, Justin Ishbia, will be alternate governor.
Justin Ishbia will be the team&rsquo;s second-largest shareholder, behind his brother. They acquired more than 50% of the franchise, which includes all of what was Sarver&rsquo;s stake as well as some holdings of minority partners, and the sale valued the Suns and Mercury at $4 billion.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to spend a lot of time listening and learning, then make the adjustments to make this not only one of the best organizations in the NBA but also one of the best places to work,&rdquo; Mat Ishbia told The Associated Press. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a huge part of my success here in Michigan and it will be a big part of our success now in Phoenix. I don&rsquo;t have enough information to know what exactly it&rsquo;s been like, but I will dig in and roll up my sleeves and figure it out over the next three, four, five months-plus.&rdquo;
The 43-year-old Ishbia was announced as the owner-in-waiting of the Suns on Dec. 20, and the last hurdle before the purchase became official was cleared Monday night when it was revealed that the NBA&rsquo;s board of governors approved him as the next owner.
The transaction was completed Tuesday. Ishbia will hold a news conference in Phoenix on Wednesday.
Sarver was suspended for one year by the NBA in mid-September after an investigation found he engaged in workplace misconduct that included racist speech and hostile behavior toward employees. About a week after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the suspension and $10 million fine &mdash; the most allowed by league rule &ndash; Sarver said he would start the process of finding a buyer.
Ishbia&rsquo;s name had been linked to other potential sales of pro sports teams in the past, including the NFL&rsquo;s Washington Commanders. And the self-described basketball nut jumped quickly to acquire the Suns and Mercury.
&ldquo;This is what I wanted the whole time,&rdquo; Ishbia said. &ldquo;My name got linked to a lot of things. That doesn&rsquo;t mean it was actually necessarily right. The Phoenix Suns, in my opinion, is one of the elite franchises in one of the elite cities in America. To have a chance to be one of the owners of the Suns and Phoenix Mercury is a dream come true.&rdquo;
Ishbia&rsquo;s company, UWM, employs about 7,000 people. It had over $226.5 billion in mortgage originations in 2021, which the company says is a record for wholesale volume.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re all about culture,&rdquo; Ishbia said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all about people. We&rsquo;re all about the word &lsquo;team.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s almost like a match made in heaven &mdash; the city, the location, the NBA, my love of basketball. And I can come in, take some of the really good things they&rsquo;re doing but maybe make some changes from a culture perspective.&rdquo;
There is one immediate order of business: The NBA trade deadline is Thursday.
The Suns &mdash; who went to the NBA Finals in 2021, losing a 2-0 lead and falling to Milwaukee in six games, had the best regular-season record in the league last season &mdash; are in a muddled Western Conference playoff race this season.
Ishbia said he and team president of basketball operations James Jones, who is also the general manager, have talked and will keep talking while Jones gauges the market to see what moves, if any, are right for the Suns.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to make sure we put ourselves in a great position,&rdquo; Ishbia said. &ldquo;I think we have an amazing team and I think we&rsquo;re in a great position right now. Will I be involved? Yes. Are we highly active? Yes. But at the same time, I think we have a championship-contending team without doing anything over the next two days.&rdquo;
Ishbia played for Tom Izzo at Michigan State, and he got into the 2000 title game against Florida at the end. He knew he was out of bounds when he picked up a loose ball in the final moments, but no referee blew the whistle. Sensing opportunity, Ishbia tried a reverse layup at the buzzer; it missed, but he celebrated anyway.
He senses another opportunity now.
&ldquo;For me, this is a lifelong dream,&rdquo; he said.

Ishbia will hold a news conference in Phoenix on Wednesday.

Mat Ishbia: Suns ‘will be one of best places to work’

It was the missed call heard around the world.
The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers were tied at 105-105 with four seconds left. LeBron James had the ball, drove to the basket and got all the way to the rim for a game-winning layup attempt and... Jayson Taytum committed what was a clear foul to seemingly everyone in America except the ones that matter &mdash; the referees.&nbsp;
No call was made, and LeBron had a wave of reactions &mdash; disbelief, despair, pain, anguish. And while some have criticized it as being an Oscar-worthy performance, many others believed that, in the words of Public Enemy, he had a right to be hostile.
This marked the fourth time in the past few weeks that Lakers players and fans believe a late-game call or non-call by the referees has gone against them and ultimately cost them the game.
Afterward, Eric Lewis, the lead official in the Lakers&rsquo; controversial loss to the Celtics, and the NBA admitted that <a href="https://twitter.com/kylegoon/status/1619565136770990080?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tatum fouled LeBron</a>.
In addition, the National Basketball Referees Association posted on Twitter early Sunday evening.
"Like everyone else, referees make mistakes. We made one at the end of last night's game and that is gut-wrenching for us," the NBRA said. "This play will weigh heavily and cause sleepless nights as we strive to be the best referees we can be."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Like everyone else, referees make mistakes. We made one at the end of last night&rsquo;s game and that is gut-wrenching for us. This play will weigh heavily and cause sleepless nights as we strive to be the best referees we can be.<a href="https://t.co/WyN8QVuTOl">https://t.co/WyN8QVuTOl</a>
&mdash; NBA Referees (@OfficialNBARefs) <a href="https://twitter.com/OfficialNBARefs/status/1619815874583752704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2023</a></blockquote>

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But does this admission really help anything? Should something be put in place so this doesn&rsquo;t continue to happen? Does this negatively affect the integrity of the NBA as a whole?&nbsp;
I caught up with former Los Angeles Laker and NBA champion Samaki Walker to dissect this issue.
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/screenshot-2023-01-30-at-13-04-19-ew8whyzxiaejzvf-jpeg-image-2104-2104-pixels-scaled-39_-1.png" alt="" width="475" height="475" />
Etan Thomas: What were your first thoughts on watching the missed call on LeBron there at the end of regulation against the Celtics?
Samaki Walker: "Initially when I saw it in live play, to be honest, I didn&rsquo;t really know if it was a foul or not. But once I watched the replay, it completely confirmed that it was definitely a foul and the non-call was pretty much egregious. You've got three refs on the court, and that one ref on the baseline was literally looking directly at the play. He had the perfect angle to see exactly what happened, and he swallowed his whistle. Listen, we played. We know refs miss calls. It happens. But the way technology has evolved, the refs could call up to headquarters and make sure they get the call right quickly so it doesn&rsquo;t even slow down the game. This problem could be easily fixed.&nbsp;
"That last play was an opportunity for LeBron to add another piece to his already incredible career. We should be talking about that last play in terms of LeBron being aggressive in driving to the basket, how he didn&rsquo;t settle for the jumper, to lead his team to victory. Instead, we&rsquo;re talking about the refs, and that&rsquo;s just not what the conversation should be about."
Etan: Yeah, and there&rsquo;s a lot to discuss with this. The NBA came out with the report afterward saying that the refs did in fact miss the call and LeBron should&rsquo;ve been awarded two free throws. And I don&rsquo;t know what good that really does after the fact. They&rsquo;re just admitting what everyone already knew. To your point, they need to change something so they can have the call quickly reviewed and get the call right there.
Walker: "I agree 100 percent, and the fact that we do have this technology, if the refs feel as if they didn&rsquo;t see it &mdash; they&rsquo;re humans; they could&rsquo;ve simply missed it or are not sure, and that&rsquo;s fine, we understand human error &mdash;&nbsp; but don&rsquo;t come together and guess. There is an easy solution to this because it impacts the integrity of the league. They could have another set of eyes watching in real time, and they tell them no problem we slowed it down, this is the correct call. This could all happen and the game not even be slowed paused or slowed down."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
LeBron is furious he didn't get this foul call at the end of the game 😳 <a href="https://t.co/hANldRDGCo">pic.twitter.com/hANldRDGCo</a>
&mdash; Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/ActionNetworkHQ/status/1619547824122908673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Etan: You said it impacts the integrity of the league. Could you go into more detail about what you meant by that? 
Walker: "This is what I meant by that: So now that gambling has legally entered the NBA, it&rsquo;s even more difficult for certain narratives to not start floating around. It just is, and this is an issue that the league has to deal with at face value.&nbsp;
"Everyone has seen the Tim Donaghy documentary, and that&rsquo;s immediately what runs through people&rsquo;s minds when a bad call of this magnitude happens. It&rsquo;s bad PR. The NBA doesn&rsquo;t want those notions even going through anyone&rsquo;s mind. That&rsquo;s why they need to fix this immediately. The NBA has to either hold these refs more accountable publicly &mdash; not in private, but publicly &mdash; or they have to utilize technology to not allow this to happen because public perception is everything. The public needs to be reassured and confident that the NBA is doing everything in its power to rectify this issue."
Etan: So either you&rsquo;re a part of the solution, or you&rsquo;re a part of the problem.
Walker: "Exactly, and this is a problem we can rectify. Let&rsquo;s have a checks-and-balances system. And to your earlier point, what good does it do to say we missed the call after the fact? That doesn&rsquo;t help anything."
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Etan: Another part that was kind of interesting is we saw LeBron&rsquo;s reaction. And I think the refs knew they blew the call, so they didn&rsquo;t give him a technical foul. Because, especially now, if you show that much of a reaction, they are immediately blowing their whistle.
Walker: "Just earlier in this very game Dennis Schroder laid on the floor after they called a foul on him on the fast break, and they tech'd him immediately. And then I felt they called a bogus offensive foul call on Jaylen Brown. I thought that was made to patch up their previous mistake."
Etan: Like a make up call?
Walker: "Yes a make-up call. And as a professional league, we shouldn&rsquo;t have to resort to those tactics instead of just getting the call right the first time. Any questionable call, they could have someone in their ear &mdash; sitting at headquarters or wherever &mdash; telling them they slowed it down and looked at it from different angles, and inform them what the correct call is. But the NBA has to implement something. Because, again, the integrity of the league is in jeopardy."
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Anthony Davis on the final possession: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s bullshit. It&rsquo;s unacceptable. &hellip; We got cheated tonight.&rdquo; <a href="https://t.co/etu283iMAu">pic.twitter.com/etu283iMAu</a>
&mdash; Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) <a href="https://twitter.com/jovanbuha/status/1619558445459570688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Etan: I definitely agree. You know, another aspect of this that&rsquo;s interesting... Immediately after the game, I saw Anthony Davis talking to reporters, and he said that they were cheated. And I expect him to be fined; I&rsquo;m sure it will be announced soon. And my question has always been, why are the refs handled with such delicate gloves to where players and coaches are fined if they criticize them? Because you can vent and criticize anything else, but the refs are just untouchable. And it&rsquo;s been like that for a while. What are your thoughts on that?&nbsp;
Walker: "Which is interesting and goes back to our previous point. They don&rsquo;t want anyone criticizing the refs because they feel that is bad PR for all of the reasons we just listed, so implement a system to get the calls right. Then, you wouldn&rsquo;t have players and coaches criticizing the refs. If your real focus is to protect the integrity of the league, implement a system where this isn&rsquo;t an issue, and the integrity won&rsquo;t be questioned. Because if you don&rsquo;t, this is going to keep happening, and that&rsquo;s just not good for the league as a whole."

Etan Thomas has a conversation with Samaki Walker discussing the controversial non-call on LeBron James last Saturday in Boston.

Samaki Walker: Missed foul call on LeBron affects NBA's integrity

SAN ANTONIO (AP) &mdash; At the NCAA convention Thursday, outgoing President Mark Emmert said goodbye, incoming President Charlie Baker introduced himself and the state of college sports was declared perilous.
&ldquo;As a collective enterprise, we are both thriving and threatened,&rdquo; said Baylor President Linda Livingstone, who is the chairwoman of the NCAA&rsquo;s Board of Governors.
Livingstone handled most of the annual state of college sports address with the NCAA in a period of both transition and transformation.
Earlier in the day, the Division I Board of Directors approved a host of recommendations intended to reform the top-tier of college sports, from membership standards to the size of championship brackets.
But Livingstone reiterated what has become a familiar refrain from college sports leaders during her time on stage, saying federal intervention is needed.
&ldquo;We need a safe harbor to a certain degree from antitrust complaints,&rdquo; Livingstone said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not looking for, nor do we need, a broad antitrust exemption. But we do need the ability to make common sense rules without limitless threats of litigation.&rdquo;
Amid a patchwork of state laws, the NCAA is struggling to regulate the way athletes can now be compensated for the use of their names, images and likenesses. The association lifted its ban on athletes being paid by sponsors and endorsers in July 2021 and many within college sports worry it has quickly become a way to induce recruits or pay for play.
There are also multiple movements to grant college athletes employee status.
Livingstone said while it is essential college athletes not become employees of the schools in which they attend, that doesn&rsquo;t mean they couldn&rsquo;t eventually be compensated.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the questions that we&rsquo;re working on, trying to answer that question,&rdquo; she said during a news conference after her address to membership. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s why protection of the status of our student-athletes is so important, that they be viewed as sort of a unique status on our campus, that they would not be employees.&rdquo;
Baker, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, was brought in to lead the NCAA because of his reputation as a consensus builder in a mostly Democratic state.
He conceded getting federal legislation passed is challenging, but not having it might not be an option.
&ldquo;I do believe that there are serious issues with just letting this train run without doing something to deal with the consequences that are currently facing college sports,&rdquo; he said in the news conference after he briefly addressed membership.
Baker doesn&rsquo;t start until March 1. He attended the convention on a mini-listening tour. He said his notes over the last few days of meeting with NCAA staff, school administrators, conference commissioners and athletes filled an entire notebook.
Emmert thanked the membership for allowing him to serve at the top of the NCAA for 12 years and congratulated them on making massive changes in college sports that have benefited athletes.
And he said he was &ldquo;absolutely delighted&rdquo; with the choice of his successor.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s got to be a challenging role. You know that Charlie, you know that this is not a cakewalk. Anything but,&rdquo; Emmert said.
Livingstone has been an active participant in the NCAA&rsquo;s recent efforts to reform from within as part of the Division transformation committee. The committee made its final report public last week and D-I Board of Director&rsquo;s approval came Thursday at the convention.
&ldquo;Keep in mind these are concepts at this point,&rdquo; said Georgia President Jere Morehead, the chairman of the board. &ldquo;So there&rsquo;s still a lot of work to be done on the details, but tremendous progress was made today. The board was very adamant its support of student-athletes and most of the transformation committee recommendations focused on how to enhance the experience for student-athletes.&rdquo;
The report called for more sport-by-sport governance in Division I, more involvement by athletes in governance and enhanced expectations for D-I schools with a goal of creating a more uniform experience for athletes.
Transformation committee co-chairs Greg Sankey, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, and Julie Cromer, Ohio University athletic director, reiterated in a joint statement the work of transforming Division I will continue beyond the committee&rsquo;s work.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re confident these important changes will meet the needs of student-athletes because they were rooted in the perspective of student-athletes,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;In fact, we&rsquo;re confident that student-athletes&rsquo; voices have never featured more prominently in shaping how college sports is run.&rdquo;
The committee recommended allowing 25% of teams in sports sponsored by at least 200 schools to compete in annual championship events. That opens the door to possible expansion of the popular March Madness basketball tournaments from 68 to as many as 90 teams each.
The board also approved the creation of a second, 32-team postseason tournament in Division I women&rsquo;s basketball. The tournament would be similar to men&rsquo;s NIT, which is owned and operated by the NCAA.
The tournament was part of the recommendations from an independent gender equity review and is intended to provide an equal number of NCAA-funded postseason opportunities in men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s basketball.

With Mark Emmert saying goodbye, incoming NCAA president Charlie Baker introduced himself and spoke on a number of topics.

NCAA board approves recommendations for Division I reform

The Los Angeles Lakers franchise never seems to have a dull moment, and you can bet the roller coaster will continue in 2023.
With another year gone by and 2022 officially in the rearview mirror, it&rsquo;s time for the purple and gold to look ahead. Similar to the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-trade-rumors-7-possible-deals-for-the-los-angeles-lakers-charlotte-hornets-washington-wizards-indiana-pacers-san-antonio-spurs-pistons-magic-knicks-lebron-james-anthony-davis-rob-pelinka" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seven trade scenarios we looked at in last week's article</a>, I've decided to predict five things that could happen with the Lakers in the new year.
Let's take a look.
LeBron James will break the NBA's all-time scoring record sooner than expected
The Lakers season has been underwhelming so far, but LeBron has not been as he continues to play at an ultra-high level even in his 20th season. And now, he&rsquo;s on the verge of making history by surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer.
The question wasn&rsquo;t if he would break the record this season, but when. LeBron has stayed healthy for the most part this year (only missing a handful of games so far) and finds himself just 484 points away from Kareem's mark of 38,387.
If James' scoring binge continues &mdash; he&rsquo;s averaging 36.6 points per game since Christmas, and Darvin Ham has said he will continue to ride him until Anthony Davis returns from injury &mdash; LeBron is going to top Kareem BEFORE the All-Star break.
Here are two dates to target, with both games at home:
<ul>
<li>Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 7</li>
<li>Milwaukee Bucks on Feb 9.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
The Lakers finally make a trade... just not the big one
Going back to before the season started, Lakers' fans have been clamoring for Rob Pelinka and the front office to make a deal. And while LA has talked to a lot of teams, the franchise has yet to pull the trigger.
That will change before the Feb. 9 trade deadline, but it won&rsquo;t be that big, potential-game changer that some are hoping for.
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The Lakers have been clinging onto their oh-so-precious, tradeable 2027 and 2029 first-round picks, and the team doesn&rsquo;t seem anxious to include either in a deal at this point. Instead, they&rsquo;d rather count on good returns for minimum-contract players like Dennis Schroder and Thomas Bryant, and the return of Anthony Davis before the end of January.
LA will do something, but it will be around the edges that will involve the expiring contract(s) of Kendrick Nunn ($5.2M) or Patrick Beverley ($13.0M) and some second-rounders. Think of Josh Richardson, Cam Reddish, or Mason Plumlee &mdash; players who can help now, but also are on expiring deals so the team can preserve its cap space and reset the repeater luxury tax (something owner Jeanie Buss loathes to continue paying).
The Lakers will get into the Play-in Tournament
Somehow, someway, this team will get into the postseason. Right now, LA sits at 17-21, but is just one game back of the sliding Utah Jazz &mdash; losers of five straight &mdash; for the 10th spot in the Western Conference.&nbsp;
The schedule is tough, and they'll need LeBron and Davis to stay/get healthy, but this group won&rsquo;t melt down the stretch like last season; they&rsquo;ll find an avenue into the Play-In. Maybe the Lakers could get as high as the No. 9 spot if things break their way, but that&rsquo;s probably their ceiling at this point. From there, they&rsquo;ll cross their fingers and toes that the LBJ-AD combo can do some damage. Good luck.
LeBron will remain with Lakers next season and beyond
Sure, LeBron is a bit frustrated with this season, and he already sounded off on his &ldquo;playing basketball at this level just to be playing basketball is not in my DNA&rdquo; salvo. And it&rsquo;s not wrong to think that he could get fed up with the situation in La La Land and demand a trade after the season.
(Remember, he cannot be traded during the season because he signed an extension in September and cannot be moved for six months, which is after the trade deadline.)
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lebron james is shooting 72.7% on drives&mdash;and 84.9% at the rim&mdash;since the anthony davis injury <a href="https://t.co/ji0u4Wt2kY">pic.twitter.com/ji0u4Wt2kY</a>
&mdash; Dan Favale (@danfavale) <a href="https://twitter.com/danfavale/status/1611105868736614426?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2023</a></blockquote>

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LeBron has every right to be upset. Anyone would be, especially a 38-year-old, still-near-his-prime superstar who is chasing one more ring to tie him with Laker greats Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson.
With that being said, he&rsquo;s not going anywhere. His sons Bronny (18) and Bryce (15) are entrenched at Sierra Canyon High School, his off-the-court businesses have thrived since moving to California and his family really enjoys the west-coast lifestyle.
LeBron doesn&rsquo;t seem interested in moving his family or being away from them during an NBA season. While he&rsquo;ll continue to put pressure on the front office when it comes to the roster, the bet here is that he&rsquo;s not going anywhere. Well, at least not for the next few seasons.
LA goes big-name hunting and lands one
Nothing says &ldquo;Lakers exceptionalism&rdquo; like the team always looking to add another superstar. And unless the organization makes a trade taking on salary for future years (don&rsquo;t hold your breath), LA is set to have around $30 million in cap space this upcoming offseason. That&rsquo;s not enough to get a star on a max deal, but it could be enough to get a distressed one.
I give you Kyrie Irving.
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While Irving has been a big part of the Brooklyn Nets turning their season around &mdash; now in the No. 3 position in the Eastern Conference at 25-13 &mdash; he&rsquo;s a free agent at the end of the season, and the Nets would still have to make a commitment to him. That could come down to how far they go in the playoffs. Even then, Nets governor Joe Tsai and general Sean Marks could decide they&rsquo;ve had enough of the Kyrie experience.
Of course, the Lakers wouldn&rsquo;t shy away from Irving despite the off-court attention that comes with him. LA is desperate for another big name player. He&rsquo;s probably a much better fit that Russell Westbrook. He definitely is a better long-range shooter. But will his actions off the court get him in trouble? That&rsquo;s a big gamble for most teams.
The Lakers aren&rsquo;t one of them. They embrace chaos. LeBron has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYeEyAqkw_c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly already indicated he would welcome playing with Irving again</a>, and the <a href="https://www.nj.com/nets/2023/01/how-has-kyrie-irvings-recent-stellar-play-with-the-streaking-nets-impacted-his-free-agency-situation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">feeling seems mutual</a>. Despite his sometimes jaw-dropping offensive talent, most teams will steer clear of him. That would allow the Lakers to offer him a good, but less-than-max deal of around two-years, $62M.
Is that enough for Irving? It might be the best deal he gets offered.

Brian Fritz predicts five scenarios that could happen regarding the Lakers in the new year.

Making 5 predictions for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2023

Kyrie Irving&rsquo;s first press conference after returning from his suspension was met by a barrage of reporters seemingly throwing a series of questions at him that could have potentially resulted in him being suspended again.
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The media smh <a href="https://t.co/6ZsGU5llll">pic.twitter.com/6ZsGU5llll</a>
&mdash; Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) <a href="https://twitter.com/etanthomas36/status/1594830463675375620?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2022</a></blockquote>

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One interpretation is that the reporters were just doing their job in asking Kyrie the questions that inquiring minds would like answered. However, another interpretation is that Kyrie asked (very politely) if the reporters could simply stick to questions about the actual game, and they seemingly ignored his request and continued to ask questions that could potentially get him in hot water once again &mdash; an intentional attempt to set him up.
I wanted to delve deeper into this topic, so I reached out to journalist Chuck Modiano, who is a senior writer for Deadspin and has also written for the New York Daily News.
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Etan Thomas: Does it seem like the media is now picking on Kyrie?
Chuck Modiano: Let me first say that you have been doing a great job on social media covering this.
Thomas: Oh, I appreciate that.
Modiano: No problem. Well, there are definitely a couple of members who keep harping on it, but the problem is, they don&rsquo;t do that to other athletes. I don&rsquo;t think Jerry Jones is going to be peppered the same way. I know initially they asked him, but I doubt the questions will continue. I could be wrong, but we&rsquo;ll see. But the double standard always exists with Black athletes and it always has, and part of that double standard is the makeup of the press &mdash; and what the press finds noteworthy and not noteworthy to pursue. So yeah, it&rsquo;s definitely there and will continue to be there and we have to keep calling it out.
Thomas: I agree, but I don&rsquo;t see enough people calling it out and that&rsquo;s the part that frustrates me. It seems like it&rsquo;s just accepted. And let&rsquo;s take the actual content of everything that happened with Kyrie out of the discussion for a moment, and just compare this to how, say, Brett Farve was dealt with in the media. I mean, he didn&rsquo;t have to do anything &mdash; he didn&rsquo;t have to apologize or nothing?
Modiano: I think Brett Favre is a great recurring example. With Kyrie, it goes so far beyond the initial discussion of anti-semitism. It goes to something greater in media. The Black athlete is profitable and the Black athlete&rsquo;s perceived misbehavior is profitable. And we know this when a discussion should shift and it does not. So I&rsquo;ll give you an example. So there was a period of time where the discussion moved from Kyrie Irving to Jeff Bezos &mdash; let&rsquo;s hold Amazon accountable. He&rsquo;s making all this money off "Hebrews To Negroes." And let&rsquo;s form a petition, etc. And there were some famous actors joining in the charge. Rolling Stone actually had pictures of those actors, but most publications, even if the article was focused on Jeff Bezos and Amazon, still had the cover picture of Kyrie. So I said, "Well, that&rsquo;s not about perceived anti-semitism, that&rsquo;s about anti-Blackness." Because, again, the whole article was about Jeff Bezos and Amazon, so why is Kyrie on the cover picture? That was an editorial choice and that&rsquo;s when you have to examine the fact that anti-Blackness will get you more clicks and there is more profit in anti-Blackness.
Thomas: That&rsquo;s interesting. Now that you say that, I definitely noticed that as well. And to your point, there are a lot of Black media that participate in that as well. Right now, there are a lot of people trying to give Jerry Jones a pass. I just saw Stephen A. Smith and Jason Whitlock both defending him today. I actually tweeted about it.
Modiano: It&rsquo;s completely ridiculous. And listen, I am someone who has marched with former Nazis who are now against Nazis and are now on the anti-racism side and it&rsquo;s their life mission to flip other Nazis. So I am someone who believes to the greatest extent that reform is possible. But let&rsquo;s take Jerry Jones here, and put aside the fact that probably 95% of white people in Arkansas in 1957 more than likely shared a certain belief about Black people, I think we can safely say that. But not everyone joined a mob to terrorize Black students, so there is a difference between racist thoughts and racist actions. And it&rsquo;s important to remember that in 1954, the Brown vs. Board of Education was put into law, and the one of the ways white people would fight against that law was through mob action, and Jerry Jones was a part of that. So if you&rsquo;re going to tell me he&rsquo;s changed, I need to see it. I see his comments about [Colin] Kaepernick. I see the fact that he has never had a Black head coach. I see him donating half a million to Governor [Greg] Abbott&rsquo;s campaign. This doesn&rsquo;t sound like he has changed too much since 1957.
Thomas: And the same with Brett Favre. I haven&rsquo;t seen anything where he's tried to make amends after this $77 million Mississippi state-welfare-fund scandal or any evidence that he has changed. They say it&rsquo;s always something with Kyrie; well, it&rsquo;s always something with Brett Favre, right?
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JerryJones?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JerryJones</a> <a href="https://t.co/kpy9G3XaFU">pic.twitter.com/kpy9G3XaFU</a>
&mdash; Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) <a href="https://twitter.com/etanthomas36/status/1596296501747228674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 26, 2022</a></blockquote>

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<div>
<div>Modiano: Oh, don&rsquo;t get me started on Brett. He has a long, ugly history and I&rsquo;m not just talking about outwardly supporting Donald Trump at the height of his racism and Charlottesville and Jan. 6th, or the inappropriate messages and nude pictures he sent to New York Jets game day host Ms. Sterger, but yes there is definitely enough history for there to be much more upheaval of outrage from the media. So we have to ask, why is the Brett Favre scandal not given the same attention and scrutiny as Kyrie? The answer could be simply that Brett Favre is not going to produce the amount of clicks that Kyrie will. But then you have to ask: why is Kyrie going to produce more clicks? Because Brett is retired and Kyrie is an active player? I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s it. I think it&rsquo;s because of anti-Blackness. We have a white customer service base that likes to see Black athletes being denigrated and will use Black media talking heads, like the ones you named before, to do the actual denigrating. That&rsquo;s the bottom line. So some will say, "No, it&rsquo;s the anti-semitism that is a much bigger issue." Well, if that were the case, all forms of perceived anti-semitism would garner the same reaction that Kyrie did, and it doesn&rsquo;t.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Thomas: And to your point, let me read this <a href="https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1596184440513777665" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweet from Shaun King</a> that read: &ldquo;So we now know that Donald Trump just had dinner with one of the most explicit bigots and Holocaust-deniers in the world right now, Nick Fuentes. I need to see if Trump and the people who support him get the Kyrie Irving treatment now. I seriously doubt it." Now they can&rsquo;t say that Kyrie has more power and influence than Trump, so will there be a big outrage about Trump?&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Modiano: We already know the answer to that. Of course there won&rsquo;t and Nick Fuentes is a proud white supremacist and racist. He is an actual Holocaust denier and has spewed actual anti-semetic rhetoric out of his mouth. And Trump has himself said a lot of perceived, I&rsquo;ll say, antisemitic statements. So in comparing the reaction of that to Kyrie, you&rsquo;re right; it&rsquo;s not the same outrage.&nbsp;A few years ago, I wrote an article with the New York Daily News asking, "Why are we not critiquing white athletes?" Whether it&rsquo;s Tom Brady with the Trump hat in his locker or Brett Favre posing in a picture with him on the golf course, where were those same reporters who pressed Kyrie then? Where were the pointed questions that we are seeing repeatedly with Kyrie? So if we are going to have a media that is critiquing athletes the way they are with Kyrie, ok that&rsquo;s fine, but let&rsquo;s do it with the white athletes too.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Thomas: So, how can Kyrie navigate through this? Because it seems like the media is going to continue to press him on topics where they&rsquo;re almost trying to play GOTCHA with him. He has to meet with the media, or he&rsquo;ll get fined. So should he just keep repeating the phrase, "Can you please only ask me basketball questions?" Or do the Marshawn Lynch ("I&rsquo;m just here so I won&rsquo;t get fined")?</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Modiano: I&rsquo;ll tell you what, I thought he turned the Thanksgiving question on its head pretty nicely. I thought it was brilliant how he navigated that. He ended positively, he wished everyone a happy holiday, and he did it with a smile, but he also made the point clear: I&rsquo;m not personally celebrating Thanksgiving. And I think that&rsquo;s great because it now brings the much larger discussion that is not going on about the actual history of Thanksgiving and the treatment of indigenous people of this country, so I thought he navigated that question brilliantly.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Thomas: But do you think the media was again trying to pick at him? I tweeted about this and it got a very strong response. Anyone who has been even remotely following the NBA knows about Kyrie Irving&rsquo;s connection to his Native American heritage. When I saw that, I was like, "Are they just trolling Kyrie now?" They could&rsquo;ve asked any other player on the team that, but they ask him in particular? I just don&rsquo;t think they would&rsquo;ve asked Deni Avdija (the Washington Wizards forward who is Jewish) if he would like to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas; I just personally don&rsquo;t think they would.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
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They know Kyrie Irving doesn&rsquo;t celebrate Thanksgiving and they know exactly why because he has explained his connection to his Native American heritage and the celebrated slaughter of his people. The media is being very intentional right now with Kyrie <a href="https://t.co/RCKWhaJn0I">https://t.co/RCKWhaJn0I</a>
&mdash; Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) <a href="https://twitter.com/etanthomas36/status/1595784312359624707?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<div>Modiano: So, I&rsquo;m leaning toward what you&rsquo;re saying. I don&rsquo;t know who the particular reporter was, I don&rsquo;t know the history, and we have to look at media collectively, not just this one person.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Thomas: Oh yeah, it wasn&rsquo;t particular to Meghan Triplett, the Nets new sideline reporter; I wasn&rsquo;t saying that. I was just using this one instance as yet another example, not her in particular. &nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Modiano: Right, but I think collectively, it&rsquo;s no question the media has a double standard with Kyrie. It&rsquo;s abundantly clear. So I&rsquo;ll say it like this: I can&rsquo;t say definitively that it&rsquo;s a racial double standard, but I will say that it&rsquo;s worthy of an investigation of a possibly racial double standard. And it&rsquo;s not just Kyrie, there has been a racial double standard historically with Black athletes for decades.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Thomas: So let me ask you this: People like Shaq and Charles Barkley were very direct with their critique of Kyrie. I actually tweeted about this as well.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
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Immediately they got <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CharlesBarkley?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CharlesBarkley</a> to go live and condemn <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KyrieIrving?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KyrieIrving</a> and I know he hadn&rsquo;t actually watched <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HebrewsToNegroes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HebrewsToNegroes</a> to even know what he was talking about. But Barkley is one of the go to Black Media used to condemn Black People and it&rsquo;s sad<a href="https://t.co/58aGoedJo8">https://t.co/58aGoedJo8</a> <a href="https://t.co/XC1kdKqKXi">pic.twitter.com/XC1kdKqKXi</a>
&mdash; Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) <a href="https://twitter.com/etanthomas36/status/1595022874901090311?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 22, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<div>Modiano: I&rsquo;m telling you, you&rsquo;ve been on it on social media. And your interviews have been great too. Different perspectives. You even got a Rabbi! I haven&rsquo;t seen anyone go to the length to actually sit down with a Rabbi and discuss this.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Thomas: (Laughing) Well, there&rsquo;s been a lot to cover, but it seems like people like Charles Barkley and those of his ilk are just not willing to move past it. He brought it up again last night, saying he was disappointed that more NBA players didn&rsquo;t come out and speak against him. I&rsquo;m just like... he has apologized, served his suspension, went through the entire ridiculous six-step criteria they laid out for him, met with Adam Silver, met with Joe Tsai, and they all gave him the stamp of approval that he is not anti-semitic (although he never said anything out of his mouth that was anti-semitic). He went through all of those steps, so how long will it be before the media as a collective whole stops trolling him?&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Modiano: My response to the many problematic things that come out of Charles Barkley&rsquo;s mouth is: Why is he being uplifted as this voice of Black America or something? I remember a few years ago, CNN did this series called Race In America, led by Charles Barkley. What qualified him to lead that series?&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
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<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Thomas: They could&rsquo;ve gotten Craig Hodges, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Colin Kaepernick, John Carlos, Tommie Smith or if they wanted contemporary athletes, they could&rsquo;ve gotten LeBron James, Eric Reid, Jaylen Brown, the Olympian Gwen Berry, Swin Cash... There are so many combinations of athlete activists they could&rsquo;ve gotten. And I interviewed most of them in my book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Matter-Athletes-Activism-Sports/dp/1617755915/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=66c9a448-2d15-42b5-ad8b-555bf1229604" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"We Matter: Athletes And Activism.&rdquo;&nbsp;</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Modiano: Right, but they didn&rsquo;t want any of them, they wanted Charles Barkley. Why? The same reason he was on CNN being the spokesperson of Black America, which I believe you tweeted about too.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Thomas: Yes, <a href="https://twitter.com/etanthomas36/status/1594710024969912322?s=46&amp;t=DudNOqBBO4hPI-A58FFLUg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I did actually.</a>&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Modiano: I told you, you&rsquo;ve been on it! (laughing) But why Charles Barkley? Because they know what his position will be on the topic, so it doesn&rsquo;t matter that he doesn&rsquo;t have a rich history of social justice like all the athletes you mentioned before and interviewed in your book. They like the positions he takes so that will trump his actual qualifications. Same with Herschel Walker. But just think about it, they don&rsquo;t do that with white athletes; they don&rsquo;t turn them into the spokespersons for white America on race relations. Anybody know where Larry Bird stands on anything? Kevin McHale? Dirk? Jerry West? Chris Mullin? We have to question these networks who continue to put the mic in Charles Barkley&rsquo;s face but at the same time, we know the answer. It&rsquo;s because he is saying what they want to hear a Black person say. Anti-Black is anti Black whether it&rsquo;s on Fox News, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Jason Whitlock or Charles Barkley.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Thomas: So basically, a lot of people in the media are pawns like Kyrie said&hellip; You don&rsquo;t have to answer that. Like you said, we already know the answer.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Check out these related episodes of "The Rematch."</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Craig Hodges and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf:</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
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<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Rabbi Harry Rozenberg:</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
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<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Dave Zirin:</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
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<div>&nbsp;</div>
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</div>

Has the media treated Kyrie Irving fairly? Etan Thomas sits down with journalist Chuck Modiano to discuss the coverage of Irving.

How long will the media continue to troll Kyrie Irving?

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

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

Emerald Garner hopes Kyrie Irving backlash doesn’t silence athletes

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; The NBA made its voice heard during the 2020 election cycle. LeBron James&rsquo; &ldquo;More Than A Vote&rdquo; initiative, formed after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sparked a national protest movement, was everywhere. Players were leading get-out-the-vote marches and rallies, making themselves more visible politically than ever before.
This year, the approach is of a more grassroots variety.
All 30 teams are doing various things in advance of Tuesday&rsquo;s midterm election, like airing public service announcements, leading registration drives and having employees volunteer at polling locations. The league won't play any games on Election Day.
But the volume is lower than two years ago. The &ldquo;More Than A Vote&rdquo; campaign is dormant, <a href="http://morethanavote.org/">its URL says the site can't be reached</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/morethanavote/status/1480240992745885697?s=20&amp;t=2YCPWi0mHQ1lbdCS746MoA">its last tweet coming in early January</a>.
That said, Golden State guard Stephen Curry&rsquo;s still has a clear message: All elections, including Tuesday's that will decide control of Congress, very much matter.
&ldquo;I think the message has been broadcast loud and clear for a decade now in terms of how important these moments are,&rdquo; Curry said. &ldquo;Athletes can leverage their platforms to different politicians, different communities that are important to them, different causes, and that&rsquo;s happening.&rdquo;
Curry&rsquo;s 17 million Twitter followers have seen him post multiple times in recent weeks about voting &mdash; &ldquo;our future is on the ballot,&rdquo; he said. He also promoted a summit for young voters in California.
If there is a trend in the NBA in this election cycle, it&rsquo;s just that &mdash; getting young voters involved.
Francesca Pierre-Michel, an 18-year-old high school student in Miami, just voted for the first time last week.. She was with about 500 other students at an event organized by the Miami Heat that brought them all to an early voting location to cast ballots. They came in on a caravan of buses, the line snaking around the outside of the building.
The significance of the Heat getting involved wasn&rsquo;t lost on Pierre-Michel.
&ldquo;For me, that&rsquo;s not the reason why I went to go vote,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But I feel like for the rest of my peers, seeing the Heat or their favorite basketball team being involved and encouraging young adults, that helps. I wanted to vote because I wanted to get my voice heard. I&rsquo;m 18. My vote really counts now.&rdquo;
The Heat arranged for the new voters to celebrate with pizza for lunch. Pierre-Michel also got the &ldquo;I Voted&rdquo; sticker, which has become her prized souvenir.
&ldquo;I put it on my binder,&rdquo; she said.
Boston guard Grant Williams also promoted &mdash; and participated in &mdash; early voting, flying home to North Carolina to make sure his ballot got cast last month.
&ldquo;I encourage everyone to go out and make a difference!! Our state and local elections are just as important if not more than the presidential so let&rsquo;s use that right for the better!!&rdquo; <a href="https://twitter.com/Grant2Will/status/1584961396176867329?s=20&amp;t=NgigKrquZYvovQmMXKYJxA">he tweeted.</a>
Taking a regular-season day off is a rarity for the NBA, which typically does not play on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve and tries to avoid scheduling games on the day of the NCAA men&rsquo;s basketball championship game. It also has a few days off built around the All-Star Game, which takes place in February.
All 30 NBA teams are in action Monday, the night before Election Day, and there will be voting-themed messaging at many of those game sites.
In Chicago, the Bulls will have a player speak to fans about getting out to vote, and their opponent, the Toronto Raptors, will be wearing shirts encouraging voting, even though there is no national election in Canada on Tuesday.
Atlanta will encourage <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-race-and-ethnicity-atlanta-political-parties-5ca73a0e7aaa2022038281394e1ee6ea">Georgia voters to go to the polls</a> in a state where the race between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker will help decide which party controls the U.S. Senate. In Dallas, the Mavericks partnered with several nonpartisan organizations to promote voter registration in a state where the governor's seat is on the ballot, as well as with Black churches to support &ldquo;Souls to the Polls&rdquo; efforts.
Curry believes that even if it's not as apparent as 2020, things are getting done.
&ldquo;Everybody has to do their part and you might not understand the ramifications of it in the moment but I think the trickle-down effect is really presenting itself in a loud way every year,&rdquo; Curry said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s because I&rsquo;m getting older, but it&rsquo;s more on my radar, front of mind, way more than it ever was. That matters.&rdquo;

All 30 teams are doing various things in advance of Tuesday’s midterm election. The league won't play any games on Election Day.

NBA teams' approach to Election Day more muted than 2020

The Brooklyn Nets have parted ways with head coach Steve Nash just two weeks into the 2022-23 season. Here is the official press release from the team:
<blockquote>The Brooklyn Nets and Head Coach Steve Nash have agreed to part ways. A decision regarding the team&rsquo;s next head coach will be made in the near future.</blockquote>
<blockquote>&ldquo;We want to thank Steve for everything he brought to our franchise over the past two-plus seasons,&rdquo; said General Manager Sean Marks. &ldquo;Since becoming head coach, Steve was faced with a number of unprecedented challenges, and we are sincerely grateful for his leadership, patience and humility throughout his tenure. Personally, this was an immensely difficult decision; however, after much deliberation and evaluation of how the season has begun, we agreed that a change is necessary at this time. We wish Steve, Lilla and their family all the best in the future.&rdquo;</blockquote>
<blockquote>Brooklyn Nets Governor Joe Tsai said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve gotten to know Steve during his time in Brooklyn, and he is not one to shy away from challenges. My admiration and respect for him grew over time as he brought hard work and positive attitude to our organization every day, even in periods of exceptional storm surrounding the team. Clara and I want to thank Steve, Lilla and their family for making this extraordinary commitment. We began this journey as colleagues, we part as friends.&rdquo;</blockquote>
Nash has also released a statement on the matter:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<a href="https://t.co/GUGhBtHKUL">pic.twitter.com/GUGhBtHKUL</a>
&mdash; Steve Nash (@SteveNash) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveNash/status/1587488767044161538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2022</a></blockquote>

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

Per <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeAScotto/status/1587488141606256647?s=20&amp;t=osLGUZIgvMJ3aoG7CbbP2Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HoopsHype's Michael Scotto</a>, former interim coach Jacque Vaughn will be the team's acting head coach in Tuesday night's game against the Chicago Bulls.
Nash finishes his stint in Brooklyn with a 94-67 regular-season record and three total playoff series apperances, including last postseason's first-round sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics.

According to multiple reports, Brooklyn has parted ways with head coach Steve Nash.

Nets, Steve Nash mutually part ways seven games into season

The Los Angeles Clippers have gotten their 2022-23 season off to a great start with a 103-97 win over their local rival, the Lakers, and everybody played a part.
In his first game since June 2021, Kawhi Leonard produced 14 points and 7 rebounds off the bench in 21 minutes. In another return over 18 months in the making, John Wall added 15 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 24 minutes.
Paul George registered a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double to go along with 4 dimes, Marcus Morris dropped 14 points and Ivica Zubac had his own double-double with 14 points and 17 boards.
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Entering this year, there was a multitude of questions hovering over the entire Clippers organization:
<ul>
<li>How will Kawhi Leonard look after missing the entire last season? Did he put on too much muscle? How will load management be handled with him this season?</li>
<li>How will the acquisition of John Wall work after he missed almost two years of action? Will the Clippers be getting the old John Wall or just an older John Wall?</li>
<li>How will Paul George fare after also coming off of an injury that derailed what was a very productive season in 2021-22?</li>
</ul>
I caught up with two former Clippers greats, Darius Miles and Maurice Taylor, to explore these questions and much more.
Darius Miles
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Etan Thomas: The Clippers really looked good in their first few games. A lot of people are saying they could win it all. How good do they look to you?
Darius Miles: "I don&rsquo;t wanna jump out there too quickly; it&rsquo;s still early, but I think they look really good. Seeing the pieces, the depth, having Kawhi back, PG. I&rsquo;m so excited for John Wall. He&rsquo;s always been one of my favorites. I saw him get a little frustrated there at the end against the Lakers. This is a different kind of role; he wanted the ball in his hands at the end like he was back in D.C. So he is adjusting to the new role, and I think it&rsquo;s gonna be just fine."
Etan: One of the things with John Wall people were wondering was if he can he get back to the Washington Wizards-level version of himself on the court after sitting out two seasons, but he looks good to me so far.&nbsp;
Miles: "He definitely looks good, I really want John to embrace this new role because if he does, the sky's the limit. And he&rsquo;s been saying all the right things. I heard one interview and he kept saying, 'I&rsquo;m so excited that I don&rsquo;t have to do it myself.' So he has to really embrace the fact that, sometimes down the stretch, you&rsquo;re not going to have the ball in your hands. You may have to go to the corner and spot up and let Kawhi and PG run this two-man game like they were doing against the Lakers. And sometimes, they may need (John) to speed dribble it up and initiate the offense, but other times it may be something different. And he just has to fully embrace the different times, whatever they are, because really, he can &mdash; and I believe will &mdash; be vital for this team."
Etan: You know, I&rsquo;m really rooting for PG to have a great year. He has taken a lot of criticism really since the Bubble season.
Miles: "I think last season while Kawhi was out, he really just put his head down and went to work. He wasn&rsquo;t saying much, wasn&rsquo;t getting into too much, and, before the injury, he was having a great season. I think this year is gonna be the same thing. He came out and said, 'Yeah this is Kawhi&rsquo;s team, so I&rsquo;m not gonna let the media play that game with us of whose team it is.' He squashed all that. 'This is Kawhi&rsquo;s team, and that&rsquo;s going to go a long way for us.' Because it cuts down on the chatter, you know?"
Etan: Definitely, like how Magic Johnson did with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Miles: "Exactly, just so there&rsquo;s no discussion. I&rsquo;m very, very excited for the Clippers. I wanna see the Clippers win a chip in L.A. Now, of course we don&rsquo;t have the ridiculous number of championships like the Lakers have, but this year, I think this team could really pull it off. And we&rsquo;re not talking about the best team in L.A. &mdash; we already got that. We&rsquo;re talking about winning it all."
Etan: Let&rsquo;s stay on PG for a minute. Why do you think he receives so much criticism? He was really getting criticized heavily I thought.
Miles: "That&rsquo;s just this day and age. As soon as someone sees a vulnerable spot, they jump on it. That&rsquo;s just how it is unfortunately."
Etan: It&rsquo;s interesting though because PG talked about struggling with his mental health while in the Bubble, and it was like, people got mad at him. Other players like Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan talked about their mental health, and they were praised for their courage, given awards and sitting on panels. I mean, PG just announced not long ago that he was <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/clippers-paul-george-giving-away-3-million-in-free-therapy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">giving away $3 million in free therapy</a>.
I just co-wrote <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-My-Voice-Grieving-Pushing/dp/1642598313/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=64d1657e-59d6-4718-87b6-89b40eb80095" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Emerald Garner&rsquo;s book</a> (Eric Garner&rsquo;s daughter), "Finding My Voice," and she talked about how costly therapy is and how much her entire family should&rsquo;ve had it for their mental health, and he is giving away $3 million of free mental health therapy for people!
Miles: "Yeah, how could anyone be mad at that? I don&rsquo;t know. I never really understood it myself. I&rsquo;m happy when any athlete has the courage to talk about their mental health because them saying that gives other people the comfort that they don&rsquo;t have to be ashamed. So yeah, I agree with you. It should&rsquo;ve been praised not mocked."
Etan: You mentioned Russell Westbrook earlier, and that&rsquo;s my guy. I played with him in OKC for a year, but they got him in the matrix right now, nonstop criticism. It&rsquo;s like he is taking the heat for a poorly-constructed team.
Miles: "Man, I love Westbrook. And I&rsquo;m glad [Charles] Barkley said something about it. But people don&rsquo;t understand how the slander, the politics of the game, the wrong situation or construction of a team, like you said, how that can take away someone&rsquo;s love for the game, and it looks like that with Westbrook. His body language, that 'lion' that makes Westbrook, Westbrook you know? Now, he&rsquo;s second-guessing himself; not sure if he should pass or shoot, just everything is off. I hate to see my man go through this."
Etan: So last question, there have been built-up expectations before for the Clippers. The year in the Bubble and the season before the Bubble, everyone was waiting for them to match up with the Lakers. It seemed like those years could&rsquo;ve been the Clippers' years as well. And I know a lot of teams always say this, but this season, it does really feel like this could be the Clippers year to win it all.
Miles: "I hear you. I just don&rsquo;t want to get too ahead of myself &mdash; especially with guys coming off of injuries &mdash; but then, we came out the gate looking really good this year. And we have a really deep bench, like 10-11 deep. I&rsquo;m super excited for this season, but I don&rsquo;t wanna jump out there too soon. I appreciate the support from Barkley, but not yet. But do I feel like we could be a contender? Absolutely.
"Also, we gotta see what happens with Kawhi&rsquo;s injury and his load management, and if that is a plus or a minus. I love the team, love the coach, Ty Lue; they have the team built to win the championship. They have the ability to beat any team &mdash; Golden State, Portland, Phoenix, Denver, anyone in the West or the East. Of course a lot has to go right, but yes, I&rsquo;m excited. (It's) gonna be a great year for us."
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Maurice Taylor&nbsp;
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Etan Thomas: How good can the Clippers be this season?&nbsp;
Maurice Taylor: "I think they could be really good, top-tier even. If you look at how the team is constructed, they really have everything you need in today&rsquo;s game. They&rsquo;re a really good defensive team, they can run, they can shoot threes, they&rsquo;re athletic. They can play iso ball, but don&rsquo;t have to rely on iso ball in order to be productive. And they have an incredibly deep bench. And they&rsquo;re big. They had a lineup out there with [Nic] Batum, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George; those are 6-6 to 6-8 wing players. And for Kawhi and Paul George to be the elite defenders they are, what other team has guys that size who can all defend and score at that level at the same time?
Etan: And how much do you think John Wall can help this team? Here in D.C., we&rsquo;re all rooting for him to do well. I <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/marcin-gortat-a-lot-of-people-owe-john-wall-an-apology" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviewed his former teammate Marcin Gortat</a>, who also echoed those sentiments, especially taking into consideration everything he went through that he detailed over the summer. But how great of an addition was Wall to this team?&nbsp;
Taylor: "I don&rsquo;t understand why there weren&rsquo;t more teams in line to get John Wall, especially contenders. The only knock against him was that he hasn&rsquo;t played in two seasons for whatever reason &mdash; still not sure what was going on in Houston &mdash; but he looks good so far. He looked quick. He didn&rsquo;t look like he lost a step at all, which was what so many people were worried about. But I was definitely impressed. If he can be that for us, I don&rsquo;t see anyone in the East who would be able to stop us if we make it to the Finals.
Etan: Yeah I saw Charles Barkley picked the Clippers to win it all and doubled down after the game against the Lakers. So he is sticking with his pick. He may have even said, "GUARANTEED!" (Laughing)
Taylor: "Well, I&rsquo;m not going that far (laughing). But remember, I was with the Clippers during the down years. The bad old days (laughing). So for us, the guys I talk to from my era, it&rsquo;s amazing to be discussing the Clippers in terms of championship favorites. But yes, they could definitely win it all this season."
Etan: I agree, and does T-Lue get enough credit for his coaching? Especially the way he was able to keep the team together last season when Kawhi was out. I know he was my former teammate, so I may be a little biased, but I do think he doesn&rsquo;t get the recognition he should for the job he has done coaching.&nbsp;
Taylor: "I think he is definitely underrated. In today&rsquo;s NBA, the notion is almost that you don&rsquo;t really need a coach because of the level of talent. We heard that when he took over in Cleveland and was coaching LeBron [James]. You heard that in Brooklyn with Steve Nash..."
Etan: Well, that may not be the best example because of how disgruntled it seems Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are with Steve Nash, but continue.
Taylor: "Yeah that&rsquo;s true. But, point being, I think good coaches sometimes fall through the cracks because players are so good now. But in reality, coaching is the X-factor for each team. That&rsquo;s why Miami was so good, that&rsquo;s why Boston with Ime Udoka overachieved the way they did last season. But to answer your question, no, Ty Lue definitely doesn&rsquo;t get the credit he deserved, and for the very reason you mentioned. He held everything together while his star player was out for the entire season. And he really pieced together a team. Like, they have a great unit. If you look at the Lakers, they just have a bunch of guys who got signed together. That&rsquo;s a pickup game, what the Lakers have."
Etan: And no proven shooters. They have some developing shooters, but they need proven shooters who can contribute immediately, right?&nbsp;
Taylor: "Absolutely, I don&rsquo;t know what they&rsquo;re thinking over there, but that&rsquo;s not my problem. We&rsquo;re constructed as a complete team, and you have to give credit to Steve Ballmer &mdash; when you have a team governor who goes all out for his team? I mean, the Clippers haven&rsquo;t had that in history, at least not while I was there. We&rsquo;re in arguably the best market in the league, so to have an organization that&rsquo;s willing to invest in their players and open their checkbooks the way Steve Ballmer is, it&rsquo;s going to be attractive to free agents to come to the Clippers. And they&rsquo;re making moves to win the whole thing. They&rsquo;re not penny-pinching or trying to spend the bare minimum. They are investing the way a team is supposed to."
Etan: If only someone could&rsquo;ve recorded Donald Sterling earlier while you were there (laughing).
Taylor: "Man, don&rsquo;t get me started (laughing). It&rsquo;s a night and day difference, but that&rsquo;s why they are in the position they are in. People always say players make the team, and that&rsquo;s true, but the ownership, the way the organization is run makes all the difference. So a lot of this credit, like I said, has to go to Steve Ballmer."
Etan: I hear you, so last question: Kawhi Leonard. I don&rsquo;t know how they&rsquo;re going to do with the load management for the entire season. Against the Lakers he came off the bench well into the second quarter. I&rsquo;m sure that&rsquo;s not going to be the strategy for the entire season, but how good did Kawhi Leonard look to you?&nbsp;
Taylor: "He looked really good. He moved well. With wing guys, when they come back from injury, you wanna see how their lateral movement is, if they have that pop back, and he had all of that. He definitely looked strong. And he&rsquo;s only going to get better as the season progresses. But the thing I am a little concerned with is the very load management (subject) you mentioned.
"A team can load management themselves right out of the playoffs if they&rsquo;re not careful. Is it going to get to a point where he&rsquo;s back and he&rsquo;s at full strength and he is their main guy this season? Or is it going to be an ongoing situation where, 'Okay, we have a back-to-back, we&rsquo;re going to rest him this second game?' If you do that enough times, that could change the dynamic of your playoff run or position. Because Golden State doesn&rsquo;t have any load management players, and that&rsquo;s who you have to be eyeing on the way to the Finals. So I am a little concerned, to be honest. But, other than that, things look very good for the Clippers this season."
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Etan Thomas speaks with former Clippers greats Darius Miles and Maurice Taylor about LA's opening night win and the upcoming year.

Darius Miles and Maurice Taylor have high praise for the Clippers

SAN ANTONIO (AP) &mdash; San Antonio is going to have a difficult time adding to the NBA-record career victories held by Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
Take it from him.
&ldquo;To be a championship program, you have to have a couple of superstars on your team. We have all known that for a long time. That doesn&rsquo;t exist right now,&rdquo; Popovich said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not a knock on these players, it&rsquo;s just a fact. To avoid that fact seems kind of senseless to me. What we have is a bunch of guys that can all be parts of a championship team if the other pieces arrive at some point.&rdquo;
The Spurs have talent. They are just young and inexperienced.
Forward Keldon Johnson, who celebrated his 23rd birthday Tuesday, is the team&rsquo;s leader along with 26-year-old center Jakob Poeltl and 22-year-old Devin Vassell. San Antonio also has four promising 19-year-olds in rookies Jeremy Sochan, Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley, along with Josh Primo, who is entering his second season.
The Spurs open their 50th season in San Antonio on Oct. 19 at home against the Charlotte Hornets.
&ldquo;We are going out there to win,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;I feel like we are capable of winning. We are not backing down from anybody. I feel like whoever we are playing, that is who we are going to go after. We aren&rsquo;t taking a back seat to no one, and that&rsquo;s for all 82 games.&rdquo;
The Spurs will of course surely add to Popovich&rsquo;s 1,344 career victories, but it be more difficult following the offseason trade of Dejounte Murray, the team&rsquo;s starting point guard and lone All-Star.
Over the past six years, the Spurs have lost Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, DeMar DeRozan and Murray to retirement, trades or free agency.
San Antonio is projected to miss the playoffs this season and instead vie for something more coveted than an eighth seed in the Western Conference. Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-2 center from France, is projected to be the top pick in next year&rsquo;s NBA draft. The Spurs, Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder are expected to scramble for the league&rsquo;s worst record and the best statistical chance for the top pick.
The last time San Antonio held the No. 1 pick they selected Duncan, who guided the Spurs to five championships and league-record tying 22 straight postseason appearances.
MEET THE NEW BOSS
Johnson has emerged as team leader as much out of necessity as his play on the court. Entering his fourth season with the team, Johnson and Poeltl are the longest-tenured players with the Spurs.
&ldquo;I definitely feel like a leader,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;Whether it&rsquo;s leading by example or being vocal. I think with these young guys, I can definitely speak my opinion and show them the right way.&rdquo;
RETURNING
Johnson and Primo missed the first three preseason games due to injury, but both were expected to play the final two contests in preparation for the season opener. Primo suffered a strained left MCL at the start of training camp and Johnson dislocated his right shoulder during a pre-camp workout.
KID GLOVES
The tough love Popovich meted on Parker in his rookie season has become notorious. Both can laughingly reminisce about the screams that drove Parker to tears as an 18-year-old, but don&rsquo;t expect a repeat of that treatment for the Spurs&rsquo; teenagers.
&ldquo;No, luckily that was a phase in the past,&rdquo; Popovich said. &ldquo;Because as I have told you often, I would be in jail if I treat anyone now like I treated Tony. For sure, I would be in jail.&rdquo;
ZACH IS BACK
Zach Collins played 28 games last season for the Spurs after missing all but 11 games the previous two seasons due to shoulder and foot injuries.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s still hesitant with his shot,&rdquo; Popovich said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good shooter. We want him to shoot it, but he doesn&rsquo;t seem totally confident yet. But, I think he feels much healthier than he did last year. More confident in his body.&rdquo;
The 6-foot-11 center averaged 7.8 points and 5.5 rebounds while starting four games in his first season in San Antonio.
NOT FORGOTTEN
The Spurs traded Murray to Atlanta in the offseason for three first-round picks and forward Danilo Gallinari, who signed with Boston after being waived by San Antonio.
Murray was 19 when he was drafted by the Spurs out of Washington in 2016. The 26-year-old was mentored as a player and a person by Popovich.
&ldquo;He and his daughter, watching him grow as a father, and watching the things he would do in that regard, are much more in the front of my mind than the triple-doubles that he got or anything like that,&rdquo; Popovich said. &ldquo;So, the basketball sort of fades when you get to know these people over time, and he was here a good time.&rdquo;

The San Antonio Spurs have talent. They are just young and inexperienced.

Young Spurs eagerly await 'other pieces' in transition year

Nekias Duncan previews each of the Pacific division teams ahead of the 2022-23 NBA season.

2022-23 NBA Season Preview: Pacific Division

On Thursday, Athletes Unlimited &mdash; a network of professional women's sports leagues founded in 2020 &mdash; announced it received $30 million in new funding. Early investors include Kevin Durant and Rich Klieman's 35V, David Blitzer, Jane Gottesman of Earlystone Management and film producer Sharon Harel-Cohen, Angela Ruggiero, Salil Seshadri and Keith Meister.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We have been advisors for AU since the very beginning, and we're excited to be a part of this capital raise. Athletes Unlimited is at the forefront of women's sports and an inspiration for how sports leagues can thrive with an athlete-first business model," Durant said.
"Every pro sports league should take note of what AU is doing, especially the pathway for athletes to have a financial stake in their own leagues," Kleiman added.
Athletes Unlimited is a network of four sports: Basketball, softball, volleyball, and lacrosse. On the basketball side, plenty of WNBA players have populated rosters. Just last year, players included star guard Kelsey Mitchell (Indiana Fever), All-Defensive First Team member Natasha Cloud (Washington Mystics), WNBA Finals representatives in Courtney Williams, Odyssey Sims, Dijonia Carrington (Connecticut Sun) and Sydney Colson (Las Vegas Aces), versatile big Izzy Harrison (Dallas Wings) and more.&nbsp;
The league serves as a way to keep WNBA players stateside during the offseason and provide opportunities to grow their games, and gives free agents the ability to pitch themselves to other teams.
Los Angeles Sparks guard Lexie Brown, for example, performed well during AU's circuit last season &mdash; shooting a blistering 46.9% from three and nearly topping the leaderboard in steals (38). Brown carried that momentum into the regular season, doubling as one of the most prolific three-point shooters in The W last season &mdash; and an odd snub for the three-point contest &mdash; by canning 39.8% of her triples on roughly four attempts per contest and being an active defender.
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Brown has spoken <a href="https://auprosports.com/read/lexie-brown-seeing-the-big-picture-when-it-comes-to-women-in-sports/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">glowingly of the league</a>, highlighting the power its given female athletes.
"Another sign of progress has been Athletes Unlimited, providing female athletes with a voice and a new model which affords us another opportunity to compete. Not just that, but it puts the power in our hands as we govern our own affairs on and off the court," Brown said. "Athletes Unlimited has played a major role in rejuvenating my WNBA career. AU gave me a platform and visibility to showcase the work I had been putting in. I was given opportunities and exposure that I have never gotten and possibly will never get in the WNBA. We need more examples like it."
Cloud has <a href="https://queenballers.club/basketball/natasha-cloud-athletes-unlimited" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offered similar sentiments</a>.
"To have a league here, to establish another league here in the States, where women don&rsquo;t have to go overseas and be away from their families, where they don&rsquo;t have to put their bodies through year round-play. Just five weeks playing competitive basketball," Cloud said. "It means everything for me to be an intricate part of bringing this here, because it&rsquo;s a progression of women in sports. When we talk about investing in women, believing in women, valuing women and what they bring, AU is a prime example of that."

Nekias Duncan highlights the fresh investment into Athletes Unlimited from Kevin Durant's Thirty Five Ventures and others.

Athletes Unlimited receives $30 million in new funding via Durant, more

In a released statement, Phoenix Suns and Mercury governor Robert Sarver announced that he will be reluctantly <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/robert-sarver-announces-intentions-to-sell-phoenix-suns-mercury" target="_blank" rel="noopener">selling his portion of the franchise</a>. Simultaneously, he made sure to make the point clear that this was against his wishes, and that he didn&rsquo;t believe any of this was fair to him.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s be clear: This isn&rsquo;t a real punishment. Sarver is cashing out, and stands to make around $2 billion when he sells the franchise. But that doesn&rsquo;t appear to be the point for him. No, instead, Sarver has somehow transformed himself into the victim in the situation.
Recently, AndScape senior writer (and frequent guest on ESPN's Around The Horn) David Dennis Jr. <a href="https://archive.wpfwfm.org/mp3/wpfw_220922_100000collision.mp3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joined my show</a> with Dave Zirin, "The Collision: Where Sports And Politics Collide."
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
We asked Dennis to discuss Sarver&rsquo;s unapologetic departure and his possible plans in the near future.
Etan Thomas: David, I want to read <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1572641668251389952?s=20&amp;t=3AvIsxxafvOpk7M31VHjsw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a tweet of yours</a>. I want you just to go a little bit more in-depth. In this tweet, I saw the segment on Around the Horn and I thought it was great; that's the reason I reached out to you. But your tweet said, "Pardon my cynicism here, but Sarver already seems to be planning out his cancel culture tour that is going to make him richer than he was before. And we've seen all of this before." Go into a little more detail about what you meant.
David Dennis Jr.: "Yeah. So, he took an excruciatingly long, what, five days to decide to give up the team? And Sarver has already greased the wheels to start his cancel culture tour, which we've seen so many celebrities do after they're called out for racism, misogyny, sexual misconduct, etc. Instead of owning up to it, they say, 'Well, I was canceled by this woke mob.' Basically, code language that says, 'These Black folks, these women, etc. are out of control and they cost me my career,' and they go on a Fox News tour pushing that false narrative. And Sarver's comments that he made about why he's selling the team were all about that. It was about the fact that he wasn't given a chance to do right, it was the fact that he was basically saying cancel culture without saying that phrase.
"And this is a pathway that so many other people have taken that he now seems ready to take himself. He can write a book about how he was wronged by these NBA players. He can go on Fox News and the Newsmaxes of the world as a business consultant and talk about this. He can go on a worldwide tour, basically talking about how he was the affronted person, because of the fact that he was not allowed to clear himself of all of the racism and misogyny that he was accused of. And we've seen this so many times, and there's so much money to be made in it. Now, as far as the penalty? There&rsquo;s really no penalty for being a terrible person. I mean, he's already going to sell the team for $2 billion, and he has a financial forward-thinking thing that he's already looking forward to."
Dave Zirin: What were your thoughts, David, about the way that Adam Silver handled all of this? Initially, Silver was widely criticized for how he handled this. And then, a school of thought has emerged that said, "Maybe Silver played it correctly because he allowed public opinion to push Sarver out." I frankly wonder if that gives Silver too much credit, but I would love to hear your thoughts.
Dennis: "Yeah. I mean, there's one thing that this country loves to do &mdash; it loves to give white men the benefit of the doubt, especially when it comes to racial reckoning, right? There's always some idea that there is some great master plan. I don't see the master plan. I see a guy who was being paid by the owners to speak out on behalf of the owners, and that's what he did. The other 30 white-men billionaires did not see enough of a problem with what Sarver did to kick him out of the league. Adam Silver got that memo, and he went out there and was the voice box for those people. If the NBA really felt like Sarver did something or felt like they could say something strong about Sarver, the statement that they put out, the investigation would not have said that there is no racial or sexist animus in his actions of saying the N-word or insulting women.
"It was, 'Here's the information, but also, we're going to defend him at the same time.' Adam Silver, probably deep down in his hope of hopes, thought that this wasn't going to happen so that he would get let off the hook and that the NBA would look good in the long run. But the problem with that is he ends up putting the onus on Black folks, Black players, Black fans to protest. But whatever happened to white folks just going out and doing what's right just because it's the right thing to do? Which, we did not see from the other owners."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Pardon my cynicism here but Sarver already seems to be planning out his &ldquo;cancel culture tour&rdquo; and it&rsquo;s going to make him richer than he was before. We&rsquo;ve seen this before. <a href="https://t.co/ZluZo9Zdwn">pic.twitter.com/ZluZo9Zdwn</a>
&mdash; David Dennis Jr. (@DavidDTSS) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1572641668251389952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2022</a></blockquote>

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

Etan: It's interesting. We had <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/howard-beck-explains-differences-in-donald-sterling-robert-sarver-cases-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sports Illustrated writer Howard Beck on last week</a>, and he made some good points. I asked him the difference between this situation and the Donald Sterling situation, and why they were handled differently. I thought a precedent had been set and this one didn't follow that. But he made some good points. He said some of the differences being No. 1, there was no smoking gun, no actual audio of Sarver saying this that could be repeatedly played throughout the media. The timing of everything, there wasn't the player uproar or the national media uproar, like there was with Sterling.
And he talked about even the press conference, the amount of media that was there, it paled in comparison to that of Sterling. Do you think those are all relevant factors as to why Adam Silver and the governors were reluctant to give Sarver the Sterling treatment? Or do you think those are irrelevant factors?
Dennis: "I do think that those are factors. I think, here's the biggest factor, is that [the] Donald Sterling [incident] happened in what, 2013, 2014? And since then, these white billionaires have learned that if you are in fact caught on tape saying terrible things about people, you can still become the President of the United States. And so, you've learned that there are more people who actually side with you for these things than they thought before. There was a time when Donald Sterling did this that people thought, 'Oh, this is going to be universally panned as wrong.'
"But now, we live in a society where people believe what Robert Sarver did was not wrong, and he has more backers than they originally thought. And billionaires are more likely to stick to their guns because they see that we have a country in which racism and misogyny are more accepted than they once thought it was. If you could be on the Supreme Court or President of the United States or continue to own your companies, then why the hell do I even have to listen to a bunch of Black players, a bunch of Black fans who are just upset? I'm still the one with power. So, I think that is the biggest change. It's not the change in the players or the league. It's society as a whole, that is more accepting in this country of racism, and despite all the cancel culture stuff that they're talking about."
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Zirin: But do you think, David, that there's also been a polarization? I mean, since Donald Sterling, obviously the great societal difference since then has been the growth and expansion through 2020 of the Black Lives Matter movement, the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States. I mean, it makes me wonder if the climate has also produced an environment where if we were coming up on the season, players would not have put up with this either. And I think that might have created a much greater conflict than what we're currently seeing.
Dennis: "Oh yeah. I mean, I agree in saying that there's racism, but I think that they feel like they have more backers behind what Sarver's doing than they once thought before. So, it is a different sort of environment. And players were going to be more vocal and do all those things, but there was also probably enough of what the owners believed that they can put up with than they probably could before. There's more of an appetite for being okay upsetting Black people, I think, than before. And then that's why we end up with this sort of head-on collision.
Etan: You referenced Robert Sarver's statement. I want to read a little bit of so people know exactly what we're talking about. Sarver said in his statement:&nbsp;
<blockquote>
Words that I deeply regret now overshadow nearly two decades of building organizations that brought people together and strengthened the Phoenix area through the unifying power of professional men's and women's basketball. As a man of faith, I believe in atonement and the path to forgiveness, I expected that the commissioner's one year suspension will provide the time for me to focus, make amends and remove my personal controversy from the teams that I, and so many fans love.
But in our current unforgiving climate, it has become painfully clear that this is no longer possible, that whatever good I have done or could still do is outweighed by what I have said in the past and for those reasons, I am in the process of seeking buyers for the Suns and Mercury.
</blockquote>
So, as you said, he doesn't sound very apologetic. He really sounded like he's going to not go away quietly, but we might see him on that Fox News, right-wing Tucker Carlson tour talking about how he was done wrong and unjustly forced to sell his team.
Dennis: "Yes, that's exactly what he is doing. And another thing, he said he wanted a year to atone for this. He had a year; the investigative report came out a year ago. So, these things were already out, and he had a year to fix this and make this right. And we don't even know if those are words he regrets because Robert Sarver's the only person who says that, when he said the N-word, he was repeating it from somebody else. So, we don't even know if he's telling the truth about the origin of why he was saying those words in the first place. Because I do find it hard to believe that he heard another Black person say, 'N-words in the back, white people in the front.' And he just decided to repeat that? So, he had all the time to atone and do all that stuff. This just feels like a defense that he's going to use as fuel for his... whatever campaign that he's going to run going forward."
Etan: But let me jump right in with that. Even with that, people leave out the part about Earl Watson telling him, "Wait a minute, you can't say that word. It means something different when you say it." And then, him ignoring, I guess, what Earl Watson said, or [thinking] "You&rsquo;re beneath me, you can't tell me what I can't say. Why can't I say the N-word too? if Draymond Green could say it, why can't I say it?" So he kept saying the N-word over and over &mdash; the actual word.
And it's just interesting hearing a lot of people, who happen to be white, not understand how that's unacceptable in any way shape or form when you're specifically told that what you were saying is offensive. You know what I mean? I don't understand how so many people don't make that connection.
Dennis: "I think that connection is very clear. I just think they don't care. And that's exactly what Sarver said to Earl Watson. That he doesn't care. And I think that's going to be part of his next thing is why. Can't you see him doing an N-word documentary about why can't white people say this word and Black people can? This is a tale as old as time. Every time a white person gets called out for saying the N-word, we all ask the question of, 'Why can't white people say it?' And I just want to know, why do white people want to say it so badly? It just feels like if I'm in a conversation with somebody and they say, 'Hey, that's offensive,' a decent human being just says, 'Okay, my bad, I apologize.' That&rsquo;s just how human interaction works. But this has literally tormented white folks for decades that they cannot say this one word.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Zirin: It's really staggering. I mean, I have teenage children who understand why you don't say that word in any context. And yet, these supposedly "masters of the universe," emphasis on the word "masters" in their own mind, can't get it through their own heads about what is, or is not, offensive. And it's because as you said, they're leaning in that direction in the first place and they resent the fact they can't do what their great grandfathers were able to do, I think they say to themselves, "Why am I denied what previous generations of my white forefathers were able to do?" And that, in and of itself, offends them.
Dennis: "Yeah. I mean, and if we want to talk about a very long history, there's a long history of white men having trouble with the word 'no' when it comes to a lot of things. And part of becoming a white billionaire, quite frankly, is not taking no for an answer &mdash; no matter who it harms. And that comes to a head in these situations, and that&rsquo;s exactly what we saw with Robert Sarver."
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/violalogo1.png" alt="" width="750" height="375" />

David Dennis Jr. speaks on Robert Sarver's poor attempt to spin his selling of the Suns and Mercury into a victim mentality.

Disgraced NBA team governor Robert Sarver blames everyone but himself

Howard Beck is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated who was front and center during NBA Commissioner Adam Silver&rsquo;s press conference on Wednesday. His direct question to Silver about the difference in behavioral standards and accountability for Robert Sarver vs. any other employee in the NBA went viral, as many were shocked by the Commissioner&rsquo;s answer.&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
"There are particular rights here to someone who owns an NBA team as opposed to somebody who is an employee." Adam Silver answered <a href="https://twitter.com/HowardBeck?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HowardBeck</a>'s question as to why there is a different standard held for Robert Sarver as an owner in the NBA (via <a href="https://twitter.com/NBATV?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBATV</a>) <a href="https://t.co/ndmwDr7rkN">pic.twitter.com/ndmwDr7rkN</a>
&mdash; Sports Illustrated (@SInow) <a href="https://twitter.com/SInow/status/1570142214042288136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2022</a></blockquote>
On Thursday morning, Beck <a href="http://archive.wpfwfm.org/mp3/wpfw_220915_100000collision.mp3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joined my show with Dave Zirin</a> ("The Collision, Where Sports And Politics Collide&rdquo;) to discuss how the Sarver situation differs from the Donald Sterling investigation.
Dave Zirin: What was the mood at that presser? Did you feel like you were alone in having this concern, this question of the hypocrisy at play?&nbsp;
Howard Beck: "Yeah, I mean, just to set the scene a little bit... This is at a Midtown hotel that the NBA uses often, and so this is a very ornate ballroom that is always set up for Adam Silver's press conferences following a Board of Governors' meeting. It feels pretty formal in those rooms. It's interesting to think about Donald Sterling, which we'll get to, I'm sure, but eight years ago that had to be moved to a massive hotel ballroom at a different hotel because of obviously the international interest. I mean, CNN was there and I think Inside Edition or one of those [shows] and all the TV entertainment shows, like TMZ, everybody. There were hundreds of people in the room for the Sterling thing because of the nature of that and because of how public it was in the wake of the tape. This was a much more scaled down, kind of sedate, very formal news conference.
"It was a smaller group, maybe a dozen of us, and we're there to ask Adam, I think, just questions about the process, how they reached it. Clearly by my question and some others', we're also bringing to the table, 'These are the concerns, if not our own necessarily, but the things we know are out there. This is how the public is reacting.' People would like to know why this is different to Donald Sterling. To the point of my question to him, why a team owner can do things and still hold his position that the average employee would be fired for within seconds. It's not an emotional back and forth. It's a fairly standard press conference where you're just looking to see where Adam Silver's rationale is... trying to get the best explanation for the public and to inform whatever pieces we may be writing about it. There's not a tone in there. It's just a back-and-forth standard press conference in the way I felt it."
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Etan Thomas: I want to ask you specifically about his explanation of how it's so different than the situation with Donald Sterling.
Howard Beck: "If you want to drill down, and listen, we should remember this throughout our discussion today and anybody's discussion of any of this: Adam Silver's a lawyer by trade. He's been the Commissioner for eight or so years now. He's worked in the NBA for a couple decades, 20 maybe closer to 30 years. He's a lawyer by training, and the people who wrote this report on Robert Sarver are lawyers. It was a law firm that was hired to do it.
"Keep that in mind when we talk about the differences between Sarver and Sterling, because I think the facts that are on the table and viewing it through the prism of, if you're a lawyer processing this and you're thinking about what you can prove versus what is clear, what you can accomplish versus what you would like to accomplish, which may be different things... Look at it through the lens of a lawyer. I think sometimes that's helpful to understand how the league got to where it did.
"Donald Sterling, when it happened, there was a tape. There's that. Smoking gun right out the gate. No smoking gun when Baxter Holmes' story for ESPN first comes out last November. There was this wait and see. We got to have an investigation. We got to hire this law firm. They're going to interview hundreds of people. The law firm has finished its work. We now have that in hand. There's still no smoking gun that is comparable to Donald Sterling being taped by his mistress surreptitiously saying a bunch of horrendously offensive things, racist things that the whole world then got to listen to together repeatedly. That's the first piece. The second piece is that when the Sterling..."
Etan Thomas: Wait, wait, wait. Before we go to the second piece, let me just follow that up. Was it more about the court of public opinion or is it more of the legal court? Because if they interviewed all the people, they never said &mdash; and you correct me if I'm wrong &mdash; that the interviewees didn't coincide with the allegations.
Howard Beck: "Right."
Etan Thomas: They didn't have any of that, so there was no dispute on if he actually said what he was accused of saying, correct?
Howard Beck: "Yeah, for the most part. When Sarver responded to the report and to the suspension the other day, his quotes for his statement that he put out basically were like, 'I accept this and I'm sorry, but I don't agree with all of the chapter in verse.' There was a little bit of quibbling still even as he was accepting the results. We don't know which of those things there were. But yes, you're right, largely everything that had been alleged has now been corroborated through hundreds and hundreds of interviews by the law firm. Yes, but I'm saying... You asked the right question, of course, which is, 'Are we talking about court or court of public opinion?' I think it's both.
"To go back to Sterling for a minute... Here's the full scope of what happens with Sterling. There's a tape, so everybody can be appalled by hearing it themselves. It's not just reports of what somebody said or witnesses heard. We are all hearing it, so there's that shock value. Then on top of that, it happens during the playoffs. It happens involving Donald Sterling's team during the playoffs, and now they're going out to the court with their jerseys on inside-out as a form of quiet protest, but talking amongst themselves [about not playing] and surely the league, of course, was aware that. You've got a threat of a player strike. You've got sponsors fleeing. You've got the whole world saying, 'NBA, what are you going to do? How can you have this guy in your midst?'
"The pressure on the league at that moment was intense. Thus the hundreds and hundreds of media members in a ballroom for Adam Silver's press conference versus the dozen yesterday. The circumstances were so different that, I think, when you ask about the court of public opinion versus what you can prove in court or what the NBA can prove if they need to, to justify ousting an owner, it all kind of merges a little bit, because you need the groundswell of support. You need the public support. You need the players to be pushing in a certain direction. You need to get enough of the other NBA owners to support you as Commissioner, because Adam Silver cannot unilaterally oust anybody. He doesn't have that power.
"Because of the groundswell of outrage that happened with the Sterling case and how immediate it was and how intense it was, Adam Silver had all of the backing in the world, all the political capital, if you want to put it in those terms, to make the tough decision and say, 'He's done, he's out.' Plus, Donald Sterling had an estranged wife, Shelly Sterling, who was a part owner of the team and could wrest control from him, which helped the NBA immensely in that whole process. When you ask why it's different... Listen, racism is racism, sexism is sexism, misogyny is misogyny, and hostile workplace environment and everything else that's happened under Sarver is what it is. But the political reality of trying to remove an owner, that's why it's different than Sterling. It's the things I just laid out. Those things make, I think, the path to trying to resolve this in the same fashion much more difficult."
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Dave Zirin: I think the key element there, Howard, is the idea of a player revolt during the playoffs as opposed to an offseason where it's difficult to get comment. Chris Paul weighed in, LeBron James weighed in. But it's not the sort of thing where there are cameras in the faces of players after every game asking their opinion. Did you see that as a vital difference in terms of the court of public opinion?
Howard Beck: "This is one of the things that's interesting to me. If the NBA... Now listen, I'm not going to say the NBA had complete control over the timing of the investigation. That's always kind of a murky thing to try to assess, but all along we've been going, 'What's taking so long? What's taking so long?' I asked Adam that question multiple times at multiple press conferences over the last year. The NBA's best option in this case would've been to have this investigation, this report, come out like a month or a month-and-a-half ago in the dead of the offseason so that by the time Media Day comes along and training camps open, we've all kind of forgotten about it.
"This is now fresh in everybody's minds. It's mid-September. Everyone's reporting to training camp within the next two weeks, and Chris Paul and LeBron James, who came out very strongly on Twitter last night, are going to be asked about this on Media Day as will players on probably every team... Certainly all the veteran players who we usually go to for the big-picture type stuff or anybody who's been a very strong social-justice activist in the last few years... the Jaylen Browns of the world. We're going to be asking them all two weeks from now, 'What'd you think of the Sarver conclusion and the fact that he was not banned for life or do you think it was strong enough?' This is going to be front and center, I believe, when training camps open in a couple of weeks.
"There will be at least the possibility of more pressure on the league, more publicity around this story that maybe pushes this thing along. I can't predict that it's going to ever escalate to the level of the Sterling case. I want to caution on this note too: it's not fair for the players to have to bear the burden of adjudicating this or making the league do the right thing, but the players also have the most powerful collective voice on this by far. If Adam Silver can't act without the owners, if the owners don't want to act because they're the other owners and they just don't want to have to do this, because they're worried a bit somebody may be coming for them one day... who has more influence than anybody? It's the 450 players. It's LeBron and Chris Paul as the leaders of that Association.
"They cannot be ignored, and we cannot underestimate how big a deal it was. Dave, you said it, and I was alluding to it earlier... The threat of a player strike or any player action during the playoffs during the Donald Sterling saga was a huge leverage point or a pressure point for the league. I don't think we're going to get to that point in this case, but if the union keeps pushing on this and the players keep pushing on this, I don't think that the NBA can just say, 'Well, we've already resolved it. It's over. We've made our decision.' No. You can always tell a guy, 'You know what? We think it's time to sell.' If he doesn't want to sell, then you can use whatever leverage you've got. You can try to coerce, convince, whatever, and if he doesn't get there, then maybe you take the next step.
"Any given day, Robert Saver can just decide to step out. He doesn't have to own the team. He could also just reduce to minority-owner status, sell the majority share and not be the face of it anymore. Maybe that would be enough for a lot of us who think that this has fallen short to resolve it, but the idea of him still being in that seat courtside in about a year from now when the suspension's over seems like a bad look for the NBA."
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Etan Thomas: Let me ask you this, because you gave a path that could possibly happen with training camps opening and players being more vocal about the situation and the possibility that could apply more pressure, but I want to talk to you about the difference in the Adam Silver that we saw yesterday compared to the one we saw eight years ago with Donald Sterling and the language that he used. Now, correct me if I'm wrong at any time in this. When Donald Sterling happened, he pretty much said, "I'm going to urge all of the governors to get on board with this." Something to that effect. Whereas here, it was kind of like, "Well, I work for them, and this is kind of what they want. I feel remorse and I'm sorry to all the victims and people, employees and everything like that, but this is kind of what we have to go with." Totally different, right?
So if Adam Silver had a different tone and approach, could that have changed things a little bit? Because after he did that with Donald Sterling, then immediately you saw Mark Cuban come out in support. The same Mark Cuban who before that was saying that we should be cautious because of the possibility of opening up Pandora's box, but when he set the tone, then the tone changed. You saw Ted Leonsis right after that come out in support. So my question is, in theory, could Adam Silver have set the tone a lot more than he did yesterday?"
Howard Beck: "Yeah, I think that's a really fair point. It's a weird relationship. Adam Silver's the Commissioner, he is the face of the league in a lot of ways politically... the figurehead. He is the lead executive for policy matters and all kinds of just general public relations and business deals and all kinds of stuff, but he doesn't actually lead the NBA. He works for the 30 teams, for the Board of Governors, and so they employ him, not the other way around. That said, yes, in that position, you have the ability, because you've got the bully pulpit and you've got the public's attention... you can lead on the messaging. You can say that, 'I, Adam Silver, the Commissioner of the NBA, believe that this is the kind of conduct that should not exist in our league, and I am urging our Board of Governors to go down this road.'
"The problem is, if you don't think that support is there, you just put yourself out on an island, and the Board of Governors may not be real appreciative of it. They might say, 'We're not there. Sorry.' Now you've suffered a massive public loss where some majority of the 30 owners has voted not to go down this path that you wanted to go, that you have now staked a public claim on. You have to be... Again, I hate putting these things in political terms, but there's an aspect of it. Just like you don't go make some major policy proclamation before you think you've got the votes, you got to count the votes first.
"My guess would be, and then I'm only speculating, but that if Adam Silver doesn't believe he's got the votes and won't have the support to banish somebody for life, which is again a very drastic step that's only been done once... then he is not going to go there. We can criticize it as, 'Well, that's a failure of leadership. If you believe this, you should push it this direction and tell the board to follow you.' But if the board doesn't follow you, now you're out on an island, and you've just lost a lot of capital publicly and with the board. I don't know what that does for your effectiveness in the role. Maybe it's the end of your role."
Etan Thomas: But he did do that with Donald Sterling, and we saw it be effective.
Howard Beck: "Again, I've said this, and Etan, you and I may have even discussed this at some point along the way here. I think that on the one hand, Adam rightly got all the praise that he got for making the bold decision that he did on Sterling swiftly and decisively &mdash; within days after that tape became public, I think it was. That said, it was really the only decision he could make because of all the things we talked about earlier &mdash; because the possibility of a player revolt, because of sponsors fleeing, because of the intense public attention and backlash that just did not exist in this case.
"We can sit here and say, 'Well, if we put everything down on paper, here's all of Donald Sterling's offenses against society. Here's Robert Sarver's offenses against society.' We put them both on paper, and we go, 'Yeah, I think those things equal about the same punishment in our view.' We could do that, but that's not the reality. The reality is, how is the world responding to this and what does that provide the league in terms of the momentum or the support or the cover to try to do something that's really difficult?
"Again, never underestimate the fact that Donald Sterling's wife, Shelly Sterling, as a part owner of the team, played a really influential role in being able to wrest control of the Clippers away from him. There's just not that same element in this case. You can stand on conviction and say that we are going to hold the line. This is the principle. We're applying the same principle broadly, even if these cases are somewhat different. But if you can't follow through, because it's really hard to remove an owner and because you're now introducing a lawsuit that is not going to be a suit against Adam Silver. It's going to be against the whole league. Now all the other owners are having to deal with the legal battle, the financial strain, all the stuff that goes with that. That's a lot that you have to consider before you go down that path."

Howard Beck opens up about the NBA's one-year suspension of Robert Sarver and why he isn't banned for life like Donald Sterling.

Howard Beck explains differences in Donald Sterling, Robert Sarver cases

NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver was likely spared even stronger sanctioning by the NBA for his racist, misogynistic and hostile words and actions because of one key conclusion by investigators, Commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday.
The law firm that spent nearly a year digging into the situation determined Sarver's use of slurs &ldquo;was not motivated by racial animus."
Had that not been the case, Silver indicated, Sarver's punishment <a href="https://apnews.com/article/phoenix-suns-nba-sports-basketball-mercury-10452a9e19873c53422d07502053f798">&mdash; a one-year suspension and $10 million fine &mdash;</a> would have been far more severe.
&ldquo;It was relevant," Silver said after the league's Board of Governors meetings concluded. &ldquo;I think if they had made findings that, in fact, his conduct was motivated by racial animus, absolutely that would have had an impact on on the ultimate outcome here. But that&rsquo;s not what they found."
And that, to Silver, is one of the key distinctions between the Sarver case and the one surrounding then-Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling in 2014, when he was banned for life and fined $2.5 million for racist comments.
Some players, Silver said, have reached out to him to voice concerns. Silver said he would keep the details of those conversations private.
But LeBron James &mdash; obviously, one of the league's most prominent player voices ever &mdash; took his concerns public Wednesday night, tweeting that the NBA did not go far enough with Sarver.
&ldquo;I gotta be honest&hellip;Our league definitely got this wrong," <a href="https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1570184134827573248?s=20&amp;t=WgehmbfoznbRtEH1w-V32w">James tweeted to his 52 million followers.</a> &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t need to explain why. Y&rsquo;all read the stories and decide for yourself. I said it before and I&rsquo;m gonna say it again, there is no place in this league for that kind of behavior.
&ldquo;I love this league and I deeply respect our leadership. But this isn&rsquo;t right. There is no place for misogyny, sexism, and racism in any work place. Don&rsquo;t matter if you own the team or play for the team. We hold our league up as an example of our values and this aint it," he wrote.
Suns point guard Chris Paul echoed James' sentiment later Wednesday.
&ldquo;Like many others, I reviewed the report,&rdquo; <a href="https://twitter.com/CP3/status/1570220418191228928">Paul wrote on social media</a>. &ldquo;I was and am horrified and disappointed by what I read. This conduct especially towards women is unacceptable and must never be repeated. ... I am of the view that the sanctions fell short in truly addressing what we can all agree was atrocious behavior. My heart goes out to all of the people that were affected.&rdquo;
The NBA had the option of giving Sarver a longer ban than the one-year suspension. The $10 million fine was the maximum allowable, as was the case with Sterling's $2.5 million fine eight years ago; NBA rules on maximum fines were changed in 2019.
Another reason Silver, who was the ultimate decider of the penalty in this case, stopped short of suspending Sarver for longer or even banning him: He said he took into account a number of anonymous details that could not be revealed in the investigative report that was published Tuesday, along with other elements of Sarver's actions in his 18 years owning the Suns and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury.
&ldquo;There were these terrible things," Silver said. &ldquo;There are also many, many people with very positive things to say about him through this process. And ultimately, I took all of that into account in making the decision that the one-year suspension plus the fine was appropriate."
A 10-month investigation into Sarver's behavior confirmed he had used racist language, made sexually inappropriate comments, left some employees &mdash; male and female &mdash; feeling uncomfortable with his words and actions, and took part in what would be considered workplace bullying.
&ldquo;Indefensible is not strong enough,&rdquo; Silver said.
But the league did not have discussions about removing Sarver as owner during the Board of Governors meetings. Silver permanently banned Sterling after tapes of him making racist comments were leaked to TMZ in a move that started the process of Sterling being forced to sell the franchise.
&ldquo;This case is very different," Silver said. &ldquo;It's not that one was captured on tape and the other isn't. ... Mr. Sarver ultimately acknowledged his behavior."
Sarver did, and issued an apology Tuesday, though noted he did not agree with all of the report's findings.
Silver was asked about how most employees of any company would likely face firings if they were to use racial slurs or partake in lewd actions or comments in the way that the investigation showed that Sarver did.
&ldquo;It's hard to make those comparisons to somebody who commits an inappropriate act in the workplace in somewhat of an anonymous fashion versus what is a huge public issue now around this person," Silver said. &ldquo;There's no neat answer here, other than the rights that come with owning an NBA team, how that is set up within our Constitution. What it would take to remove that team from his control is a very involved process, and it&rsquo;s different than holding a job. It just is. When you actually own a team, it&rsquo;s just a very different proposition."
A difference between the Sterling and Sarver cases is this: Sarver cooperated with the league&rsquo;s investigation and Sterling, in many ways, did not. Sterling wound up suing the NBA for $1 billion in federal court after his lifetime ban was announced, saying his constitutional rights were violated.
The report said Sarver &ldquo;repeated or purported to repeat the N-word on at least five occasions spanning his tenure with the Suns."
&ldquo;However, the investigation does not find that Sarver&rsquo;s conduct in any of these instances was motivated by racial animus,&rdquo; the report read, adding that investigators made &ldquo;no finding that Sarver used this racially insensitive language with the intent to demean or denigrate.&rdquo;
The Sterling investigation &mdash; from when the audio tapes of him making racist remarks to a girlfriend were released, to Silver&rsquo;s announcement of the lifetime ban &mdash; took three days. The Sarver probe took 100 times longer, involved more than 320 interviews and the review of more than 80,000 documents and other materials.
Both investigations were handled by the same New York-based firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz. Attorney David Anders led both probes.
Sarver will be welcomed back in 2023, though Silver made clear that his words and actions going forward will be highly scrutinized.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have the right to take away his team," Silver said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to rest on that legal point because of course there could be a process to take away someone&rsquo;s team in this league. It&rsquo;s very involved, and I ultimately made the decision that it didn&rsquo;t rise to that level. But to me, the consequences are severe here on Mr. Sarver."
Sarver&rsquo;s punishment is also similar to others levied in past high-profile examples of wrongdoing, either words, actions or both.
In 1993, then-Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was fined $25,000 and suspended one year for making &ldquo;racially and ethnically offensive remarks.&rdquo; And last year, the NFL fined the Washington Commanders $10 million, plus investigative fees, after a probe found the team&rsquo;s workplace environment for women was, in the words of Commissioner Roger Goodell, &ldquo;highly unprofessional" &mdash; but stopped short of suspending owner Daniel Snyder.

One key conclusion by investigators may have spared Robert Sarver for his racist, misogynistic and hostile words and actions.

Ques