Sacramento Kings

It was a rough week for Ohio State, which lost all three of its games and tumbled down the AP Top 25 as a result.
The previously unbeaten Buckeyes fell from second to 10th in The Associated Press women&rsquo;s basketball poll released Monday after losing to Iowa and Indiana, two top 10 teams, as well as Purdue. Ohio State fell two games back in the Big Ten Conference standings.
South Carolina remained No. 1 for the 32nd consecutive week. The Gamecocks, who were again a unanimous choice from the 28-member national media panel, have the fourth-longest streak ever atop the poll. Only UConn (51 and 34 weeks) and Louisiana Tech (36) have had longer runs at No. 1.
Stanford moved back up to No. 2 in the poll and the Cardinal were followed by LSU, Indiana and UConn in the top five. LSU is the only other undefeated team in women&rsquo;s basketball besides South Carolina, which visits UConn for a top-five showdown on Sunday.
Iowa jumped out four spots to sixth with Utah, Maryland and Notre Dame coming in ahead of Ohio State. The Hawkeyes started the season No. 4 in the poll.
The Fighting Irish split a pair of games last week against ranked opponents, routing Florida State before falling to N.C. State.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of parity right now, which is great, great for the game,&rdquo; Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said. &ldquo;The game is growing, which is what you want. But yeah, I mean, every night, especially the ACC, the ACC is the strongest league and, you know, we have just a tough stretch every night.&rdquo;
One week after falling out of the rankings, Texas re-entered the poll at No. 24. The Longhorns routed then-No. 14 Oklahoma and Oklahoma State last week. South Florida also came in at No. 25. Colorado and Illinois fell out of the poll.
RISING BULLS
No. 25 South Florida continued its streak of being ranked for at least one week every season since the Bulls entered the poll for the first time in 2015.
&ldquo;For us not being in a so-called football five conference, that&rsquo;s a huge accomplishment,&rdquo; South Florida coach Jose Fernandez said. His team has won 10 consecutive games and has 20 victories this season. The team&rsquo;s four losses have all come against ranked opponents (Michigan, Villanova, Ohio State and N.C. State).
&ldquo;This group has been fun to coach. We always play a great non=conference schedule,&rdquo; Fernandez said. &ldquo;We won on the road at Texas, beat Alabama, beat Arkansas. We challenged ourselves in November and December.&rdquo;
RECORD PERFORMANCES
Cameron Brink carried Stanford to a win over Oregon with a triple-double that included 10 blocks. It was the first triple-double in NCAA Division I women&rsquo;s basketball featuring double-digit blocks since Tamari Key did it for Tennessee in an overtime win against Texas on Nov. 21, 2021.
No. 20 Oklahoma&rsquo;s Taylor Robertson set the all-time NCAA women&rsquo;s career record for 3-pointers when she hit her 498th in a loss to Iowa State on Saturday. Robertson has 503 entering this week. The all-time NCAA record, men or women, is held by Antoine Davis of Detroit Mercy, who has 534 and counting.

The Gamecocks have the fourth-longest streak ever atop the poll. Only UConn (51, 34 weeks) and La. Tech (36) have had longer runs.

South Carolina tops women’s AP Top 25; Ohio State tumbles

DETROIT (AP) &mdash; Antoine Davis&rsquo; journey into the NCAA record book took a fortunate turn when his father lost a job.
The Detroit Mercy guard moved in middle school from Alabama to Houston, where former NBA coach John Lucas put him through grueling daily workouts, and it changed the trajectory of his basketball career.
&ldquo;His name wouldn&rsquo;t be in the record books if I didn&rsquo;t get fired from UAB,&rdquo; Titans coach Mike Davis said. &ldquo;Moving to Houston and working out three times a day with John Lucas made him a different player.&rdquo;
Davis is the nation&rsquo;s leading scorer but that doesn&rsquo;t capture it all. Last week, he broke the Division I record for career 3-pointers with a spectacular performance. He made a personal-best 11 3-pointers in a win over Robert Morris, giving him 513 in a career few saw coming when the 142-pound son of the coach stepped on campus in the Motor City.
And after Detroit Mercy plays this Saturday in Indianapolis against IUPUI, there is a good chance that only the late Basketball Hall of Famer Pete Maravich will be ahead of Davis on the NCAA all-time scoring list.
Maravich scored 3,667 points, an astonishing total over three seasons during an era of college basketball without freshmen, shot clocks or 3-point lines. Davis is just 18 points from passing former Portland State star Freeman Williams, who scored 3,249 points in 106 games from 1974-78.
Davis set the 3-pointer mark in his 130th game, four fewer than the previous record-holder, Fletcher Magee, who played at Wofford from 2014-19. He likely will break the all-division NCAA record for 3-pointers set by John Grotberg, who made his 526th career 3-pointer in 2009 for Division III Grinnell.
He is averaging an NCAA-best 26.2 points, the first Titan to lead the nation in scoring since Spencer Haywood in 1968-69, and has scored in double figures in 130 straight games, an NCAA record.
&ldquo;Those numbers are surreal at the end of the day,&rdquo; Davis said. &ldquo;I still probably won&rsquo;t feel this until after my college career is over, probably later on down the line, but that&rsquo;s a lot of points and a lot of 3&rsquo;s made.&rdquo;
He passes, too, as evidenced by him joining Keydren Clark of St. Peter&rsquo;s as the two players in NCAA history with at least 3,000 points and 500 assists.
The Titans (7-12, 3-5 Horizon League) are ninth in their 11-team conference, though Davis is clinging to his dream of getting the program into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012.
Davis took advantage of an opportunity to play a fifth season, an option for all athletes who were enrolled when the pandemic hit during the 2019-20 season.
Davis entered the transfer portal last spring and was tempted to leave an overlooked basketball program for a major one. Maryland, Georgetown, Kansas State and BYU all offered Davis a chance to play at a higher level.
He had the green light to go, but chose stay despite a lack of fan support at games and financial backing for the basketball program that forces his father to pay a strength coach out of his own pocket to train the slender shooter.
When Detroit Mercy celebrated Davis joining the 3,000-point club by presenting him with a ball on the court before a recent game, there were maybe 200 fans in the stands.
&ldquo;I just said to my mother, `Where are the students?&rsquo;&rdquo; Tamilya Davis said at halftime of a home game against Youngstown State, sitting on a couch in her husband&rsquo;s office under photos of former Detroit coaches such as Dick Vitale. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand it. ... There&rsquo;s no school spirit.&rdquo;
Maybe bigger crowds are in the future for Davis. The 6-foot-1 guard is generously listed as 165 pounds and his slight frame may give NBA teams pause.
His father is trying to do something about that by hiring a strength coach to personally train him.
&ldquo;To do the things he&rsquo;s done at that size and not being wiry strong, but being weak, it tells you about how skilled he is,&rdquo; Mike Davis said. &ldquo;And, how much he&rsquo;s put time into his skill set.&rdquo;
The 24-year-old Davis was born in Bloomington, Indiana, where his father led the Hoosiers to the 2002 national championship game, and became a skilled basketball player when his father was forced to find a new job a decade ago and landed at Texas Southern.
He began getting homeschooled by his mother in Houston as part of the family&rsquo;s plan to free up his day for Lucas to train him along his other clients in the league and college basketball.
The extended court time also allowed Lucas to change his shot.
Davis holds the basketball in his right hand and steadies it with his left, like many players, and yet when his right wrist flicks on a shot his left palm rotates in to face the basket in a style that&rsquo;s all his own.
Lucas groomed Davis with those long workouts while requiring him to make at least 500 shots a day while coaxing him to become more competitive.
Davis has shot up to 10,000 times in a day, according to his father, and once hoisted up 60,000 shots in a 10-day period. Against NBA players and college standouts as a teenager, Davis did full court, one-on-one drills and had 100-possession games to test his mental and physical stamina.
&ldquo;Nobody was too big in the gym to go against the younger kids, so &rsquo;Toine was going against guys like Damon Stoudamire, Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley,&rdquo; Lucas recalled. &ldquo;His gift was, and is, scoring.
&ldquo;The only equalizer for size is a shot,&rdquo; Lucas said. &ldquo;If you can make shots, no matter how big or little you are, you will find your way onto the court and there&rsquo;s not too many people who can shoot like him.&rdquo;

Antoine Davis is the nation’s leading scorer, but that doesn’t capture it all

Antoine Davis on scoring binge at unheralded Detroit Mercy

Season 2 of Athletes Unlimited Basketball is coming relatively soon — with new players.

Allisha Gray, NaLyssa Smith headline Athletes Unlimited new additions

The Washington Wizards are planning to hire James Posey as an assistant coach on Wes Unseld Jr.&rsquo;s staff, sources confirm to Basketball News.
Posey will return to the NBA sidelines for the first time since 2019, when he ended a six-season tenure with the Cleveland Cavaliers as an assistant coach. In Cleveland, Posey worked closely with head coach Tyronn Lue and played a pivotal role in the Cavs&rsquo; four-straight Finals appearances, including the team&rsquo;s championship run in 2016.
Last season, Posey served as an assistant coach under Tina Thompson with the University of Virginia women&rsquo;s basketball program. He also coached NBA Draft prospects at the Tampa Bay Pro Combine over the last two years, going undefeated in back-to-back years.
Prior to coaching, Posey played 12 seasons in the NBA and won two championships as a player &ndash; with the Miami Heat in 2006 and Boston Celtics in 2008.&nbsp;
In addition to the Heat and Celtics, Posey had stints with the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Hornets and Indiana Pacers. Over the course of his career, he averaged 8.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.2 threes and 1.1 steals across 864 games.
In recent years, Posey has also had success in the media space, becoming a <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/news/authors/james-posey">podcast host and columnist with Basketball News</a>. His podcast (<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-posecast-hosted-by-james-posey/id1529937541">"The Posecast"</a>) features great conversations with notable guests such as Ray Allen, Clyde Drexler, David West, Antoine Walker, Zach Randolph, Chamique Holdsclaw, Charles Oakley, Bonzi Wells and more.

The Washington Wizards are hiring James Posey as an assistant coach on Wes Unseld Jr.’s staff, sources confirm to Basketball News.

Washington Wizards hire James Posey as assistant coach

Izaiah Brockington couldn&rsquo;t help but lick his chops.&nbsp;
On Dec. 9, 2021, highly-touted 2022 NBA Draft prospect Keegan Murray and his Iowa Hawkeyes were traveling to Ames for an in-state rivalry game. The 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward was leading the nation in scoring with an average of just under 24 points per game (on a scorching 59.3% clip from the field), and the Hawkeyes were averaging over 90 points per contest at that point.
Through rigorous film study, Brockington observed Murray&rsquo;s favorite spots on the court, where he liked to catch the ball and how he got his buckets. And from the tip, the 6-foot-4, 200-pound guard followed through. He denied post-entry to Murray time and time again, helped the helper and put pressure on the Hawkeyes on the perimeter.
By the end of the night, Brockington outscored and outrebounded Murray while holding him to the worst game of his season by far (9 points on 4-of-17 from the field), while simultaneously delivering the game's most efficient performance with 29 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.
&ldquo;I feel like that was definitely one of my best games of the season. I really came into that game wanting to shut him down,&rdquo; Brockington told BasketballNews.com in a phone interview. &ldquo;I went out there and really tried to take away his strengths and mainly speed him up. I feel like he was really good when he was allowed to play at his pace and when guys were giving him space to work and see what was going on on the floor. So, I really came into that game wanting to lock him down on defense. And then, the 29 points, that was a bonus really.&rdquo;
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Unlike Murray, who&rsquo;s projected to be a lottery pick in most mock drafts (including <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft/2022-nba-mock-draft/players/keegan-murray" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No. 6 overall</a> in <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BasketballNews.com&rsquo;s latest</a>), you surprisingly won&rsquo;t find Brockington&rsquo;s name anywhere on those big boards. And no, you won&rsquo;t find him partaking in this week&rsquo;s NBA Draft Combine nor the G League Elite Camp. Considering his size at the guard position coupled with his ability to rebound, make <a href="https://twitter.com/SynergySST/status/1507061353076383744?s=20&amp;t=bJGYe1FEeuLkx9hLdfQYuQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">high-difficulty shots</a> and, most importantly, defend at a high level, it&rsquo;s a head-scratcher.
Take into account that Brockington spearheaded a 22-win Iowa State program that won just two games the season before, an NCAA-record turnaround, and it just seems like a downright mistake. So, he&rsquo;ll just have to prove that he stands out and find other ways to turn heads &mdash; just like he did last December.
&ldquo;I feel like my work ethic allows me to catch guys that a lot of people deem 'better' or would rank higher [than me]," Brockington said. "I feel like I have the intangibles that other people don't. I have athleticism, and I have the dog mentality &mdash; somebody who just loves to compete and loves to win and isn't gonna let somebody just walk all over them.
&ldquo;I love to compete. I attribute it to being from Philly. We just never back down from a challenge. The intangibles, I feel like, set me apart. And then, with my work ethic, all of these things that people say I don't have, I'm working every day and I'm ready to show everybody that I do [have them].&rdquo;
Having just worked out for the Atlanta Hawks, Brockington&rsquo;s list of interested teams is growing. According to sources, the Toronto Raptors, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Los Angeles Lakers, Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings, Utah Jazz and Brooklyn Nets are lined up next &mdash; and he has five other teams who asked to schedule workouts at Tandem&rsquo;s Pro Day on Friday.
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Brockington&rsquo;s lone season at Iowa State went down as the best of his college career, and he considers it the most fun he had playing basketball at the collegiate level because the roster was brand-new and had something to prove.
As a senior, he averaged 16.9 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, was named to the All-Big 12 First Team and earned the 2021-22 midseason John Wooden award. Boasting the Cyclones&rsquo; highest usage rate (27.5%), he took on the most responsibility he had to that point and ran with the opportunity.
Defensively, Brockington attributes much of his success (93.2 Defensive Rating) to the players he had to guard along the way. Starting in the Big 12, a conference he refers to as &ldquo;ridiculous&rdquo; in regards to talent, match-ups against Kansas standout Ochai Agbaji and Baylor&rsquo;s Jeremy Sochan and James Akinjo helped iron sharpen iron. The nights were intense and featured high-level basketball.
This past season, Brockington was adept at cutting off catch-and-drives (0.47 points per possession, per InStat) and defending pick-and-roll ball-handlers (0.54 PPP). It&rsquo;s something that he believes carried over his time at Penn State, where he spent two seasons prior to transferring.
&ldquo;We were really big on defense, so it was really about angles over there. And then, going to Iowa State, Coach TJ [Otzelberger] and our whole defensive scheme was non-stop pressure and to get guys to go into our help,&rdquo; Brockington said. &ldquo;But I feel like... you can push guys to your help, but it's better to be able to guard somebody and not need the help. I feel like, yeah, I definitely would try to cut guys off so that it's not forcing us to rotate and create long closeouts. Little things like that just help you stay more compact on defense and just stay more locked on your man.
&ldquo;So at Iowa State, we would drill things like [pick-and-roll defense] &mdash; getting over screens, being able to communicate and getting over and under, and just sticking on the ball-handler, making it tough for them. But, I also feel like I can thrive in an all-switching situation because I have strength and I have explosiveness. I feel like when I get caught down in the post, I can front or just make it tough for bigger guys to get easy position. I feel like I can thrive in either system, for sure."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The Work Gonna Show🖤✍🏾&hellip;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/iPromise?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#iPromise</a>🙏🏾 <a href="https://t.co/K23fSy995m">pic.twitter.com/K23fSy995m</a>
&mdash; Izaiah Brockington (@TheOnlyiZB) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheOnlyiZB/status/1527033907014684682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 18, 2022</a></blockquote>

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During his two years with the Nittany Lions, he took on different roles and began to blossom under Pat Chambers. Again, there was plenty of talent to face-off against in the Big Ten, such as current Chicago Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu at Illinois, San Antonio Spurs forward Joe Wieskamp at Iowa, Indiana Pacers guard Duane Washington and future NBA Draft pick Johnny Davis at Wisconsin. Stylistically, Brockington believes the Big Ten&rsquo;s physicality helped prepare him too.&nbsp;
At Penn State, Brockington reconnected with his longtime friend Lamar Stevens. The now-Cleveland Cavaliers forward performed night-in and night-out for the team, showing Brockington the consistency and hard work it takes to be successful. Stevens has been in his ear throughout the pre-draft process, sharing what needs to be done and how to stick in the league. Brockington appreciates the support and encouragement, and he's taking every bit of that advice.
(Brockington&rsquo;s collegiate basketball odyssey actually began at St. Bonaventure, the first of three schools he&rsquo;d attend. Playing for Mark Schmidt for one year, he and the Bonnies had a solid season led by seniors Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley. Brockington ultimately transferred to Penn State to be closer to home and ended up sitting out a season, by rule, before suiting up).
As far as translatable skills go at the next level, Brockington states that his defense and rebounding top the list, along with his athleticism and ability to get downhill.&nbsp;
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In addition, Brockington takes pride in being well-versed in any kind of role. At St. Bonaventure and early on at Penn State, he did a bit of everything &mdash; serving as a spot-up shooter, a slasher, a rebounding specialist and a sixth man. He even played spot minutes off the bench at one point.
At Iowa State, he was a go-to guy, a star player and a leader for the first time in his college career, so opposing defenses threw everything but the kitchen sink at him.
&ldquo;Against certain teams &mdash; Texas comes to mind specifically &mdash; [they were], like, face-guarding me. [Texas] Tech would have a guy pressure and they would have dudes sit in gaps and essentially try to force me off of the ball. Seeing double-teams and all of that was new," Brockington said with a laugh. "It was just crazy being guarded like that in college 'cause I'd never had to deal with things like that before. I feel like those things really pushed me to be able to adapt and really try to just make smart decisions."
On the offensive end, Brockington has an appetite for the mid-range. The sly southpaw is able to get to his spots quickly off the ball and fire away with his leaping lefty jumper, and he likes to attack off the catch (with fireworks often following). Though he admits that is the area where he&rsquo;s most comfortable at the moment, Brockington understands the importance of being a three-level scorer.
&ldquo;I've been working on really being a combo guard &mdash; a guy that can use pick-and-rolls and make reads and just really making the right decision every time, a lot of basketball IQ things,&rdquo; Brockington said. &ldquo;And then, just knocking down threes... I've been working a ton and I'm looking to show everybody that I can knock down threes off the kick-out and off the pick-and-roll and off the dribble. I've been working extremely hard on that, and it's been going great.
&ldquo;I mean, [the mid-range] is an underappreciated part of the game. But a lot of analytics guys will tell you that it's inefficient, and that's probably true for most guys. That's just not the case with me. I feel like when I take mid-rangers, I create enough space horizontally and vertically to be able to get a clean look off.&rdquo;
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Despite spending five years in college, Brockington is only 22 years old because he graduated from high school early. Possessing that much experience at his age, he considers it an advantage. At the same time, Brockington says age doesn&rsquo;t have to do with his ability to play the game, pick up new information and improve as a player.
&ldquo;My experience in college has really taught me about consistency and taught me what hard work can do, and it's really about the preparation leading into everything,&rdquo; Brockington said. &ldquo;Games are won way before that time comes. Games are won in the offseason. Games are won in the film room. Games are won in pregame shootaround. So those are things I'll always have with me.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It hasn't been a typical college journey, but one thing that's remained the same is everywhere I go, I put my head down and work. I went out there, I produced and I was out there trying to win."
For Brockington, growing up in Philadelphia, he&rsquo;d always attend his father Antoine&rsquo;s rec-league games and hear stories about him. Antoine was a hell of a pro in his own right, achieving tremendous success overseas after an impressive career at Coppin State, where he won the 1997-98 MEAC Player of the Year award &mdash; and Izaiah looked up to him proudly.
Now, as the pre-draft process begins, it&rsquo;s Izaiah Brockington&rsquo;s time to carve his own path and make him proud.
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Spencer Davies speaks with Izaiah Brockington about his breakout season at Iowa State, unique path and next-level aspirations.

Izaiah Brockington hopes his unique journey culminates in NBA success

BOSTON (AP) &mdash; Jaylen Brown scored 32 points and Jayson Tatum had 31 to help the Boston Celtics stop a rare late-season stumble and beat the Indiana Pacers 128-123 on Friday night.
It was the eighth time this season that &ldquo;The Jays&rdquo; each scored at least 30 points.
&ldquo;We're not trying to take turns. Just playing the game the right way,&rdquo; Tatum said. &ldquo;If he takes six good shots in a row, that&rsquo;s fine with me.&rdquo;
The Pacers lost their sixth straight game despite getting 30 points from Tyrese Haliburton before he fouled out early in the fourth quarter with Indiana trailing 103-101. The Celtics led 124-120 with 40 seconds left when <a href="https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1510075050048688135">Al Horford found Tatum coming down the lane </a> for a dunk that all but sealed Boston's win.
Horford scored 17 points with 10 rebounds for the Celtics, who had won 24 of 28 games before losing to Toronto on Monday night without four of their starters. They followed it up with a loss to Miami on Wednesday &mdash; the first time they lost back-to-back games in two months as they climbed from below .500 to the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
But a loss to the Pacers, a non-playoff team with the fifth-most losses in the league, would have been more concerning.
&ldquo;Credit to them for making it tough on you,&rdquo; Celtics coach Ime Udoka said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re playing loose and free with nothing to lose right now. You can tell. At the same time, we&rsquo;re aiding them.&rdquo;
Oshae Brissett and Jalen Smith scored 17 points apiece for the Pacers.
The Celtics scored 11 of the first 13 points in the game before giving up the next nine to tie it. Boston took a 37-28 at the end of the first quarter and led by as many as 10 points in the second.
FOULED OUT
Haliburton had 22 points at halftime and had 30 points on 10-for-11 shooting &mdash; including 6 for 6 from 3-point range &mdash; before picking up his fifth foul with 4:27 left in the third quarter on a collision with Boston&rsquo;s Derrick White while going for a loose ball.
Haliburton complained about the call, and got coach Rick Carlisle to challenge it, but it was upheld. Haliburton sat out the rest of the third and the first 3:33 of the fourth, then lasted just 14 seconds before fouling out, drawing jeers from the crowd.
INJURIES
The Celtics, who lost center Robert Williams III to a meniscus tear on Sunday, had a few injury scares against Indiana, but Udoka said everyone is OK.
Brown appeared wobbly after getting hit in the face by teammate Grant Williams but he returned. Williams is OK after stepping on someone's foot. Guard Marcus Smart limped off to the locker room at the end of the first half after a collision with Daniel Theis but returned for the third quarter.
&ldquo;I reaggravated an injury in my right ankle. It scared me for a moment as well,&rdquo; Smart said. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t need to be going down at this time, getting close to the playoffs. But I&rsquo;m fine. Checked it out. I&rsquo;ll be all right.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Before the game, the Celtics honored longtime Pacers director of media relations David Benner. Celtics vice president Jeff Twiss presented Benner, who has worked for the Pacers for 28 years, with a piece of the Boston Garden parquet floor. ... Celtics swingman Nik Stauskas missed the game with a right ankle sprain. ... Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon missed his seventh straight game. ... For '90s night, the Celtics brought back 1991 slam dunk contest winner Dee Brown. ... Tatum had three 3-pointers, giving him 222 for the season, tying Antoine Walker's 2002 mark for the second-most in franchise history.
UP NEXT
Pacers: Host Detroit on Sunday.
Celtics: Host Washington in regular-season home finale on Sunday.
&nbsp;

Jaylen Brown scored 32 points and Jayson Tatum had 31 to help the Boston Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers 128-123.

Brown, Tatum pair up to lead Celtics past Pacers 128-123

Right before officially clinching their seventh Final Four berth this past weekend, the Villanova Wildcats lost junior guard Justin Moore, who had to be helped off the floor after a freak injury while dribbling to kill the clock with less than 45 seconds to go.
'Nova beat Houston 50-44 in the Elite Eight to become one of the last four standing teams in the Big Dance for the first time since 2018. However, it was announced days later that Moore &mdash; Villanova&rsquo;s second-leading scorer at 14.8 points per game on .397/.356/.750 shooting splits &mdash; ruptured his right Achilles tendon, prematurely ending his season.
Much of the basketball world united in comforting Moore during an excruciatingly awful time to receive such news, including Kevin Durant, who ruptured his own Achilles during the 2019 NBA Finals.
&ldquo;I texted Kevin; he called me,&rdquo; Wright recalled <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/college-sports/villanova/justin-moore-achilles-kevin-durant-villanova-20220331.html">to the Philadelphia Inquirer</a>. &ldquo;And Kevin said, &lsquo;I was watching that, and it looked just like &mdash; I knew it when he went down; it looked just like mine.&rsquo; So we talked for a while about it.
&ldquo;What was so impressive to me was, Durant said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;d like to talk to [Justin], talk to the parents about the process. I want to tell him that.&rsquo; He listed himself, Klay Thompson, a couple other guys I can&rsquo;t remember &mdash; he goes, 'Look, these guys had it in the NBA.' And people in the NBA know now that you can come back from that.&rdquo;
Moore wasn&rsquo;t just 'Nova&rsquo;s second-best scorer throughout the 2021-22 season, but the 6-foot-4 guard earned Second Team All-Big East honors and All-Big East Tournament honors earlier this month. Moore&rsquo;s been a starter in all three of his seasons at Villanova, and has seen his scoring averages jump from 11.3 to 12.9 to 14.8 points per game. This season, he netted a career-best 17.1 points per 40 minutes while also being the Wildcats&rsquo; best rebounding guard, pulling down 4.8 boards per contest.
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According to FiveThirtyEight, there have been six major injuries to Final Four bound teams in the Men&rsquo;s NCAA Tournament since 2010. Using the qualifier of players logging at least 20 minutes in an NCAA Tournament, these players include Kalin Lucas of Michigan State in 2010, Darryl Bryant of West Virginia that same year, Louisville&rsquo;s Kevin Ware (do not Google it if you&rsquo;re reading this during lunch) in 2013, Willie Cauley-Stein of Kentucky in 2014, Auburn&rsquo;s Chuma Okeke in 2019, and now Moore.
Lucas <a href="https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/2010/news/story?id=5017721" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruptured his Achilles against Maryland</a> in Round 2, and the Spartans subsequently lost in the Final Four. Oddly enough, <a href="https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/2010/news/story?id=5022928" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bryant broke his foot in the same round</a>, and his Mountaineers were also eliminated in the Final Four. Ware had a gruesome injury against Duke in the Elite Eight, and his Cardinals are the only team of this specific group that became national champions so far. Cauley-Stein <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2014/3/28/5559920/willie-cauley-stein-injury-kentucky-vs-louisville" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suffered a left ankle injury in Round 1</a>, and his Wildcats lost in the title game. And Okeke <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2019/3/29/18287843/chuma-okeke-injury-bruce-pearl-crying-auburn-sweet-16-ncaa-tournament-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tore his ACL in the Sweet 16</a>; Auburn reached the Final Four round before having its season end.
So, how does 'Nova piece together the production and minutes to replace Moore? He&rsquo;s logged 35.9 minutes per game since the beginning of the Big East Tournament, and has led the Wildcats with 34.6 minutes per contest this season.
Collin Gillespie &mdash; the 2022 Big East Player of the Year, Big East Tournament MVP and Third-Team All-American &mdash; will likely be keyed in on that much harder against Kansas this weekend. (I mean, that&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;d all do if you were in charge of the Jayhawks' defense, right?)
Gillespie&rsquo;s dropping a team-best 15.6 points and 3.3 assists per game on .431/.409/.905 shooting splits. Team sixth-man Caleb Daniels, a 6-foot-4 guard like Moore, has averaged 10.2 points on .427/.377/.851 in 27.3 minutes per contest this season.
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Though the Villanova-Houston offense resembled the (lack of) effectiveness of the Brock Lesnar-Goldberg match at WrestleMania 20, Daniels came up big with 12 points in 35 minutes, even as it came on 4 of 16 shooting. Every point matters against Houston, who had become a tournament favorite with sportsbooks due to its defensive run to the Elite Eight.
Jermaine Samuels, who led the game with 16 points, is 'Nova&rsquo;s leading non-guard scorer at 11.1 points per contest. The 6-foot-7 big also pulls down a team-high 6.5 boards per contest while shooting 47.4% from the field and 77.3% on free throws. Eric Dixon and Brandon Slater are the other two starting forwards, and there, you have 'Nova&rsquo;s main minute-eaters.
Moore, Gillespie, Slater, Samuels, Daniels and Dixon are the only Wildcats averaging at least 10 minutes per game this season, ranging from 34.6 to 25.1 in the order they&rsquo;re listed.
At least one of the following two guys will have to step up going forward to really alleviate the non-Moore minutes. The first would be Bryan Antoine, a junior who has come off the bench for three seasons with the Wildcats and wasn&rsquo;t one of the seven players to log minutes against Houston. Antoine hasn&rsquo;t played more than 11 minutes in a game since Jan. 25 and has scored 2 points since Feb. 12 (seven games, 35 minutes), but has battled injuries of his own, which is why he didn&rsquo;t appear until December.
He <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/03/29/march-madness-justin-moore-injury-gives-bryan-antoine-big-chance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently told the New York Post</a> that &ldquo;I&rsquo;d say I&rsquo;m pretty confident. I&rsquo;ve had the same mindset from Day 1. It hasn&rsquo;t really changed for me. Obviously with the injuries, I have been set back, but I&rsquo;m still the same player from high school.&rdquo;
Three years ago, Antoine was a five-star, top-20 recruit and McDonald&rsquo;s All-American who <a href="https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/24575439/bryan-antoine-commits-villanova-wildcats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">chose Villanova over Duke, Florida, Kentucky, and Kansas</a>. The 6-foot-5 guard should have a chance to prove he can still resemble that as the Wildcat rotation now has to expand beyond six.
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The other guard in waiting is fellow 6-foot-5 junior Chris Arcidiacono, the brother of the Ryan. The younger Arcidiacono did log two minutes against Houston but hasn&rsquo;t cracked 10 since March 5, which is the only other time he&rsquo;s scored in a game since Feb. 22. <a href="https://villanovan.com/20381/sports/with-moore-out-its-time-for-arch-madness/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Per the Villanovan</a>, Arcidiacono downplayed his potentially increased role with a boring quote.
&ldquo;Really, nothing changes,&rdquo; Arcidiacono said. &ldquo;My role is I come off the bench, bring energy, and just make sure we&rsquo;re playing Villanova basketball for 40 minutes. So whenever I&rsquo;m in, I&rsquo;m going to help our team play Villanova basketball.&rdquo;
He&rsquo;s downplaying it here, but no doubt that it&rsquo;s possible both Antoine and Arcidiacono receive increased roles against Kansas this Saturday.
Villanova will need to squeeze everything they can out of their non-regulars in hopes of finding something unexpected to help their championship quest.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Villanova played one game this season without Justin Moore --- an 85-74 win over UConn on February 5th in South Philadelphia. Chris Arcidiacono had nine points in 26 minutes off the bench. The Wildcats don't have what they had, but they still have enough. <a href="https://t.co/DckgK3BJyi">https://t.co/DckgK3BJyi</a>
&mdash; Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1508236981083553793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Bryan Fonseca looks at who 'Nova can turn to with Justin Moore sidelined for the rest of the NCAA Tournament.

Villanova will have to survive without Justin Moore in the Final Four

The&nbsp;<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/gilbert-arenas-brilliantly-spent-his-entire-rookie-salary-before-the-draft-it-wasnt-fun/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-stringify-link="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/giannis-antetokounmpo-shares-why-he-doesnt-associate-or-practice-with-other-nba-players-in-the-offseason/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">following article</a>&nbsp;first appeared on&nbsp;<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="http://basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://BasketballNetwork.net" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">BasketballNetwork.net</a>:
Even when a guy like Antoine Walker writes a book about making $108 million and then going broke, you still wonder how that&rsquo;s possible, right? Well, Gilbert Arenas shared a story about his rookie year that will paint a perfect picture.
Every player gets an estimate of where he should expect to get drafted. After checking which teams are expected to pick at those spots, the very next thing is to check the rookie salary in those ranges. Being told he&rsquo;d be a top 10 draft pick was music to Arenas' ears. Agent Zero got himself an expensive chain and a souped-up Escalade with five TVs and a suede roof.
When Joe Johnson got selected with the 10th pick in the 2001 Draft, Arenas was still waiting to hear his name. He would wait a bit longer, all the way to the 31st pick, falling to the second round. Suddenly, his $845,000 rookie salary wasn&rsquo;t enough to cover everything he had bought.
&ldquo;When they did my budget, I can only spend $500 a month," Arenas said in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrkHqFjmaZQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview with DJ Vlad</a>. "That&rsquo;s gas money, girlfriend, two dogs. I couldn&rsquo;t even drive back and forth to the arena. I had to say at the arena sometimes. I slept in the arena.&rdquo;
This was a sobering moment for Agent Zero. Sleeping in the gym because he couldn&rsquo;t afford gas, too proud to ask teammates to give him some money, the reality of being a professional kicked in for Arenas.
&rdquo;You&rsquo;re on you&rsquo;re own, and you have all the time in the world not to get in trouble,&rdquo; he said.
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Arenas also pointed out that, at the time, you couldn't return to school.
&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t fun. I even said then, &lsquo;I wish I could come back to college. I took a pay cut coming here," Arenas <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrkHqFjmaZQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
Pay cut? But players aren&rsquo;t paid in the NCAA, right? We already covered Al Harrington sharing his experience, openly <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/al-harrington-they-offered-me-cash-and-a-truck-to-join/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying a college offered him&rdquo; a truck and cash&rdquo; to join their program</a>. They even went so far as to offer to hire his mom and give Harrington $450,000.
So for a lot of prospects in that era, joining the NBA meant a pay cut and suddenly not being the best guy in the gym. Arenas said the biggest lesson he took from his rookie year was realizing he wasn&rsquo;t nearly as good as he thought he was. As hard as it was to accept that fact, the reality of his debt fueled his fire to watch film and warrant a bigger contract.
We know the story from there. Arenas retired with earnings over $160 million, so he&rsquo;s set for life. But the story about his rookie year gives us a fascinating insight into the lives of pro athletes. They can spend it as quickly as they can make it.
Check out more articles from BasketballNetwork.net&nbsp;<a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Gilbert Arenas shared a story about how thinking he'd be drafted higher in 2001 ended up costing him more money than he had.

Gilbert Arenas spent money he didn't end up having before 2001 draft

I still remember back when the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History were named in 1996. And at the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, 47 of the 50 players got together, in my hometown at that.
From Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan to Wilt Chamberlain and Magic Johnson, seeing all of those greats in one place was truly inspiring. As a freshman at Xavier, it made me think about the future possibilities.
It&rsquo;s hard to believe that was 25 years ago, and in those years, obviously, a lot has happened for me &mdash; both personally and professionally. I think back about where I was then and where I am now, and am truly humbled.
For more reason than one.
When it was all said and done, all 50 of the Top 50 players were selected in the Top 75 that was <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/there-were-major-snubs-from-nba-75-just-like-we-knew-there-would-be" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced at the beginning of the season</a>, and when I saw that list, I realized something incredible: I played with seven of those guys, and coached an eighth (LeBron James).
But winning at the highest level, for me, started in Miami. There, I had the honor of playing with Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal, Dwyane Wade and Gary Payton.&nbsp;
So I can&rsquo;t really think about the Top 75, the Top 50 or my own career without remembering where it all came together for me. And every one of my teammates there will have at least a story or two about Shaq.
What I remember most about Diesel was how motivated he was to win. Winning three championships in a row is borderline impossible, and there&rsquo;s a reason why nobody&rsquo;s been able to do it since Shaq and Kobe. Most people overlook the fact that the Lakers actually made it back to the Finals in 2004, but they lost to Detroit. Four Finals in five years? Incredible.
Anyway, whatever happened in L.A. happened, but what we all knew was that Shaq saw something special in D-Wade, and wanted to team up with him.
The front office in Miami did what it had to do and traded for Shaq, but the Heat sacrificed their depth to do so, and they ended up falling short in their first year. They couldn&rsquo;t get past Detroit; they lost to them in seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2005.
That summer, Pat Riley and the front office down there got real busy. They brought in a bunch of new pieces, including myself, Gary Payton, Antoine Walker and Jason &ldquo;White Chocolate&rdquo; Williams.
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At this point, we all knew that D-Wade had a chance to be a really good player, but Shaq and GP were already legends. There were lessons every single day, but I think the biggest one I took from Shaq was what it meant to be on a mission.
Regardless of what anyone wanted to say about him, Shaq was always a winner, and he was so motivated to prove to everyone that he was capable of winning without the late, great Kobe Bryant. At that time, he was the only player on our squad who already won a championship, so when he spoke, we listened. He wasn&rsquo;t only our leader, he was like everyone&rsquo;s big brother. You looked up to him and didn&rsquo;t want to disappoint him.
Along with Pat Riley (who <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/basketball-news-james-posey-as-long-as-pat-riley-is-in-the-picture-the-miami-heat-have-a-shot-nba-championship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eventually became our coach</a>), we had two great leaders who not only encouraged us to be great or expected us to be great. They demanded that we be great, and they both led by great example.
From the mindset to the preparation, the two of them gave us great confidence to go out there and get the job done, even though we faced some trials and tribulations.
To put it simply, Shaq was our team&rsquo;s leader, and we all trusted him to show us the path because we knew that he&rsquo;d gotten to where we were trying to go. Even in our team&rsquo;s greatest moment of desperation &mdash; when we were down 0-2 to Dallas in the 2006 Finals &mdash; he preached accountability, but more importantly, he encouraged us to stick with the game plan and made us all confident that we would come out on the right side of history. And we eventually did.
Today, he often talks about guy panicking and being confident, and I can tell you: Diesel never lost his cool.
But yeah, Shaq... he was on a mission in Miami. In each our own way, we all were, I guess. But his motivation was different, and it impacted our team in a positive way.
I only spent two years as his teammate in Miami, but Shaq showed me what being a champion looked like. I carried that with me to Boston and for the rest of my career.
Now, one thing about most NBA locker rooms is that cliques form. That&rsquo;s not to say that there&rsquo;s any division within the team or anything like that, it&rsquo;s just natural that guys who have things in common might end up spending more time together than others. Some guys are really into fashion, some are into video games, some guys end up getting close because they have kids that are the same age, whatever.
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In Miami, Udonis Haslem, Antoine Walker and GP were the guys I got close with, and playing with GP was awesome as hell.&nbsp;
At that point in my career, I was mostly regarded as a &ldquo;3-and-D&rdquo; guy, and even though he was at the tail-end of his career, GP had so much knowledge and wisdom that he shared with me.
From the start, GP knew that I wasn&rsquo;t afraid to play defense and that I wanted to guard the guy in front of me. And you know he was known for the gift of gab. I still remember GP teasing me in our very first conversation as teammates.
&ldquo;Here go this long-sock-wearing, harassing, defensive ass dude,&rdquo; he said. 
&ldquo;I like you, because you be all up in a dude face.&rdquo;
Obviously, for GP, being &ldquo;all up in a dude face&rdquo; was a compliment, and I was honestly flattered because I was surprised he even knew that I wore long socks, felt that way about me or knew me like that!
From that first convo, the rest was history. Most of the time we were on the court, we worked hand-and-hand. As a tandem, we were usually trying to stop the other team&rsquo;s perimeter players, and we spent so much time together off the court that working together on the court was actually pretty easy. Riles coached us, of course, but once we were done with practice, GP was always in my ears giving me little nuggets of info. And of course, talking smack.
The truth is I understood why they called him &ldquo;The Glove.&rdquo; He had instincts, know-how and the ability to read and defend actions. Best of all, he had the will and want to pass along his knowledge to a younger player because he saw something in me and trusted me. I think the best lesson I learned from working with him is what it really meant to have faith and trust in another person on the court. And also, what it means to actually make your teammates better and smarter.
In a way, a lot of us on the 2006 Miami team felt like it was GP&rsquo;s last good shot to win a championship. He got to the Finals twice, once in Seattle and &mdash; a lot of people forgot &mdash; he was with Shaq and Kobe on the 2004 Lakers team that lost in the Finals. So he was 0-2, and we wanted to change that.
Together, we did.
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And what can I say about D-Wade?
I think we all remember his first playoff run in Miami and how he was able to put the team on his back in some big moments as a rookie. Shaq saw it, which is the main reason he wanted to go to Miami in the first place. And by the time I got there, they&rsquo;d already gotten to the Eastern Conference Finals. So even though D-Wade was only entering his third year by the time I got to Miami, I knew I had to give him his respect.
He ended up earning it from me, anyway, though.
If there&rsquo;s one word that comes to mind for me when describing him, it would be &ldquo;competitor.&rdquo; I honestly felt like everything he did on the court, he did with such pride. He wanted to be great and it was just inspiring to witness. Despite having all that talent, his work ethic was even crazier. He was literally the first to get to the gym and the last to leave.
D-Wade was actually in the TNT studio when they announced that he made the NBA 75. He said it felt &ldquo;surreal&rdquo; for him to make the cut. He mentioned that he only got three scholarship offers coming out of high school, and thanked Shaq (who was sitting five feet to his right) for coming to Miami and telling him that he had the potential to be great. He thanked the other greats that he had around him and said he made the cut because he was surrounded by greatness.
I can relate to that feeling.
But D-Wade also made the cut because he dedicated every minute of every day to maximizing his ability and striving to become great. It was no accident.
As I advance in my coaching career and even teach my children about perseverance, D-Wade is someone who will always be top of mind, because it&rsquo;s not easy for a 6-foot-4 guard to end up becoming one of the Top 75 players of all-time.
Like GP and Shaq, we can all learn something valuable from D-Wade. I know I certainly have.
As I looked back on my career, I remember the night I was drafted, and even before then, I remember the Top 50 players standing together at the 1997 All-Star Game.
And now, I can proudly say I can look back on my time in Miami and know that I played with three of the greatest ever.
I&rsquo;m better for it.

James Posey recalls when he won an NBA championship with Shaquille O'Neal, Dwyane Wade and Gary Payton on the Heat.

Thanks to 3 legends, in Miami, I learned how to become a winner

The following article first appeared on <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BasketballNetwork.net</a>:
It&rsquo;s a story we&rsquo;ve heard too many times: A successful NBA player filed for bankruptcy. Then, you Google his career earnings and wonder, "How the hell do you make so much money and go broke?&rdquo; It turns out <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/nba-players-who-managed-to-lose-their-massive-fortunes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">it&rsquo;s easier than you think</a>.
That&rsquo;s why Chris Paul <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/chris-paul-says-nobody-among-nba-players-talks-about-money-and-thinks-players-should-be-more-financially-educated/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">started speaking up about it</a>, Tracy McGrady <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/tracy-mcgrady-is-starting-a-program-to-help-young-athletes-from-getting-broke-after-their-career-is-over/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">started a program</a> to help young athletes, Charles Barkley <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/you-got-a-better-chance-of-being-a-doctor-than-playing-in-the-nba-barkleys-advice-to-black-kids/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tells young kids</a> they&rsquo;ve &ldquo;got a better chance of being a doctor than playing in the NBA," and Antoine Walker <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/antoine-walker-explains-how-he-lost-110-million-after-his-nba-career-was-over/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote a book</a> about his story.
So, why do some NBA players have these financial issues, especially after retirement? Professional athletes often provide for a large number of people and take care of their livelihoods. Add a lack of education, particularly when it comes to financial literacy, and things get under you quickly.
But part of it is human nature. It&rsquo;s the same thing that caused the housing bubble. You buy stuff you can&rsquo;t really afford right now because you believe you&rsquo;ll get that promotion, that pay bump &mdash; that next contract. Jose Calderon says he saw this far too often during his playing days.
&ldquo;The problem with some of the guys is they think too much about the second contract. &lsquo;When I sign the second contract, I&rsquo;ll be set,&rsquo;" Calderon said. "You have to be living by what you have in your first contract. That&rsquo;s all you have. There is nothing else signed.&rdquo;
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Just think of Isaiah Thomas. In Boston, he was The King of the Fourth, putting up monster numbers and receiving <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/awards_2017.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MVP votes</a>. Thomas was expecting to sign a max contract and talked about how the Celtics "better bring out the Brinks truck." However, injuries hurt his value and he&rsquo;s currently out of the league with career earnings of $31,309,253 (though he's still <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/isaiah-thomas-to-work-out-for-golden-state-warriors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">working out for teams in hopes of resuming his NBA career</a>). Future contracts are fool's gold.
The NBA and NBPA have done a great job of helping their players learn about the traps of debt and how to properly manage their money. Veteran players have also done a lot by openly talking about their mistakes and mentoring young players.&nbsp;
That&rsquo;s how you get guys like Jayson Tatum, <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/tatum-hasnt-spent-a-single-nba-dollar/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">who doesn&rsquo;t spend the money from his contract with the Celtics</a> and instead lives solely off of what he earns through endorsements and similar gigs. Calderon did the same thing.&nbsp;
&ldquo;That was my key &ndash; I was always low profile, trying to save as much money as I could,&rdquo; Calderon said.
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Check out more articles from BasketballNetwork.net <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Jose Calderon explains why some NBA players have issues taking care of their finances after their playing days come to an end.

Jose Calderon explains why NBA players go broke post-career

The following is an excerpt from "1996: A Biography &ndash; Reliving the Legend-Packed, Dynasty-Stacked Most Iconic Sports Year Ever" by Jon Finkel. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/1996-Reliving-Undefeated-Undisputed-Greatest/dp/1635767504/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The book is available now on Amazon.</a>
To borrow a song title from Green Day (the perfect mid-90s band), picks seven through 12 of the 1996 NBA Draft were a boulevard of broken dreams for NBA executives. They contain a collection of men that run the gamut from &ldquo;solid pro&rdquo; to &ldquo;absolute bust&rdquo; and no matter how defensible the selection was at the time, within 24 months it was clear that, to be blunt, these six franchises missed. This isn&rsquo;t 2021 revisionist history. This is 1997-1998 near-immediate regret.
It&rsquo;s one thing as a general manager to look in the mirror and know that taking Allen Iverson or Marcus Camby or Shareef Abdur-Rahim or Stephon Marbury or Ray Allen or Antoine Walker with one of the first six picks of the &rsquo;96 draft was the right basketball call at the time. They all made the &rsquo;96-&rsquo;97 All-Rookie Team (1st or 2nd) and there were two bona fide Hall of Famers (Iverson and Allen) several all-stars (Abdur-Rahim, Marbury and Walker) and Camby was a 4x All-Defensive Team player.
It&rsquo;s quite another thing to know that from the seventh through 12th picks, you took one of these half-dozen guys:
<ul>
<li> Lorenzen Wright &ndash; L.A. Clippers</li>
<li> Kerry Kittles &ndash; New Jersey Nets</li>
<li> Samaki Walker &ndash; Dallas Mavericks</li>
<li> Erick Dampier &ndash; Indiana Pacers</li>
<li> Todd Fuller &ndash; Golden State Warriors</li>
<li> Vitaly Potapenko &ndash; Cleveland Cavaliers</li>
</ul>
Over Kobe Bryant. Or Steve Nash. Or Jermaine O&rsquo;Neal. Or even Peja Stojakovic. That&rsquo;s a clean 35 All-Star selections from picks 13 to 17 versus none from picks seven to 12.&nbsp;
Ooooof.
Even in the moment, there was a lack of, let&rsquo;s say, sexiness, to picks seven through 12. In person, Kittles was the fastest coast-to-coast player in basketball (my opinion but I&rsquo;m right) and showed flashes of excellence, but few projected him as an All-Star-caliber talent. Wright, Walker, Dampier and Potapenko became serviceable, and in some cases, solid NBA players. But as they came off the draft board, Hubie Brown and other 1996 NBA draft analysts used phrases like &ldquo;will help shore up the defense&rdquo; and &ldquo;this helps them get bigger&rdquo; and other vague, roster-rounding-out terms, rather than things like &ldquo;game changer&rdquo; and &ldquo;potential superstar&rdquo; and &ldquo;special talent&rdquo; which he, and other draft gurus, reserved for the man picked after all of these guys: Kobe Bryant.
It&rsquo;s worth noting here that just because Bryant wasn&rsquo;t discussed as a #1 overall pick, it&rsquo;s not as if nobody knew how good Bryant could be. In fact, a lot of people suspected he could be the prize of the draft: they just didn&rsquo;t have the guts to put their jobs on the line for a high school kid, or they got talked out of it, or bullied out of it, or both.
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John Calipari really, really, really wanted him. He worked him out three times, each time becoming more and more convinced that Bryant was going to be special. So why didn&rsquo;t he take him with the eighth pick? There are three versions: one of them involves Calipari, a first-time NBA head coach, pleading with ownership to take him, but getting turned down. He described the scenario like this:
&ldquo;I had the eighth pick in the draft, and everyone thought I was nuts,&rdquo; Calipari said. &ldquo;A 17-year-old kid, a high school kid who&rsquo;s just now getting to the NBA? It shows you don&rsquo;t know what you&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo;
Version two was described in Jeff Pearlman&rsquo;s excellent book, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-shaquille-oneal-shaq-los-angeles-lakers-best-teammate-jeff-pearlman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Three-Ring Circus</a>, and it involves Kerry Kittles&rsquo; agent strong-arming Calipari and telling him that if he didn&rsquo;t take Kittles&rsquo; (instead of Bryant), he&rsquo;d never let any other clients sign with the Nets.
Version three involves Kobe Bryant&rsquo;s agent, Arn Tellem, talking to Calipari and telling him that if he drafted Bryant, the teenager would never suit up for the Nets.
&ldquo;It was a calculated gamble," Tellem <a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-hornets/article239760573.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The</a><a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-hornets/article239760573.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&nbsp;Charlotte Observer</a>.&nbsp;"I remember meeting with John Calipari and John Nash, pressing them not to take him if he fell. I left not knowing if they would pass. I thought they would pass, but didn't know.&rdquo;
In the end, it really doesn&rsquo;t matter which version is right, or even if it&rsquo;s a combination of all three. Calipari and the Nets didn&rsquo;t select Kobe Bryant and neither did the next four teams in line or any of the top-12 teams in the draft. It was only at Jerry West&rsquo;s urging, after a trade involving Lakers center Vlade Divac, that Kobe went off the board and found his way to the Lakers.
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West coveted Bryant like card collectors covet the Honus Wagner T206 and he planned to do whatever it took to land him. He worked with Tellem to limit Bryant&rsquo;s&rsquo; workouts. He massaged Vlade Divac&rsquo;s hesitation about going to Charlotte (Vlade once threatened to retire if traded).&nbsp;
As Bryant fell in the draft, West realized that his plan was coming to fruition when the Hornets selected him. And then the whole thing almost fell through because, well, someone on the Hornets said, &ldquo;Holy sh*t, we just got Kobe Bryant.&rdquo;
&ldquo;There was such excitement about the pick that Charlotte didn&rsquo;t want to go through with the deal,&rdquo; Mitch Kupchak, Los Angeles&rsquo; assistant general manager in 1996, said. &ldquo;There was a time there, whether it was Vlade (Divac threatening to retire) or just pressure on the franchise, where the deal was actually in jeopardy.&rdquo;
But it got done.
And instead of Bryant joining Anthony Mason, Glen Rice, Dell Curry and Muggsy Bogues in Charlotte, he teamed up with Shaq in Los Angeles and you know the rest.
***
With 25 years having passed since that epic day in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the legacy of the draft has been solidified.
Looking back on his class, Ray Allen says, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to remember where our mindset was. We&rsquo;re walking into a league with Jordan, Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, Hakeem Olajuwon, Scottie Pippen. There were some horses in this league that we were stepping into that we had been watching forever. We didn&rsquo;t think we were the next coming or next generation, but we were excited to be there.&rdquo;
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Allen explains that the toughest part about being drafted is balancing your excitement with any inclination to sit back and say, &ldquo;I made it." Guys who do that don&rsquo;t go far. He goes on to say that one thing that &rsquo;96 draft class shared was the mentality to keep pushing yourself and to self-motivate like you&rsquo;re on a mission.
&ldquo;When you look at myself, Nash, Kobe, Iverson, Marbury, Camby, Shareef, Jermaine, Peja, [Derek] Fisher, Walker, all these guys, they were all good to great in college [or high school] and scored a lot of points,&rdquo; Allen says. &ldquo;But they weren&rsquo;t in it to be famous or liked by everybody. It was evident in someone like Steve Nash, a white kid from Canada out of Santa Clara, he was on a mission. Kobe came in from high school and he was on a mission. Marbury wanted to prove what the legacy of New York City ballers could do, and he was on a mission. I came from meager beginnings and I was on a mission.&rdquo;
That was the big differentiator between past &ldquo;great draft classes." Rather than two or three or even five guys with the mindset to chase greatness, the &rsquo;96 class had a dozen.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the reason the &rsquo;96 draft class is thought of as one of the best,&rdquo; Allen says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the mentality we had. We were all on a mission to be better than we were. For all of us, there was a constant search to win. Every year, the championship was a carrot we were chasing. I didn&rsquo;t win until my 12th season. It comes down to watching basketball in June or playing basketball in June. This class had a lot of guys play in June. We knew what it took.&rdquo;
<a href="https://twitter.com/jon_finkel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Follow Jon on Twitter: @Jon_Finkel</a>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/1996-Reliving-Undefeated-Undisputed-Greatest/dp/1635767504/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Buy this book on Amazon: 1996: A Biography &ndash; Reliving the Legend-Packed, Dynasty-Stacked Most Iconic Sports Year Ever.</a> 
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Jon Finkel looks back at the 1996 NBA Draft, which included Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Ray Allen, Jermaine O'Neal, etc.

Revisiting the star-studded 1996 NBA Draft: 'We were all on a mission'

If there&rsquo;s one piece of advice I&rsquo;d give anybody about the Eastern Conference and the 2021 NBA playoffs, it's to not count out the Miami Heat.
I wore that Heat uniform for a couple years, won a championship under Pat Riley, and even though that was way back in 2006, nothing has changed down there.
As long as Riley is pulling the strings, the Heat are gonna have a shot. It&rsquo;s the Riley way, and Alonzo Mourning warned all of his teammates &mdash; including me &mdash; of that back in 2005.&nbsp;
&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want that man upstairs to come down here to coach,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;
&ldquo;If you think it&rsquo;s hell now, wait until he comes down... This won&rsquo;t be tolerated.&rdquo;
&lsquo;Zo was hot. We had a pretty rough November, losing some games to some bad teams and just having a tough time putting it together. He pulled a few of us aside in a team meeting and gave us that warning.&nbsp;
We all respected him, and he knew what he was talking about. After all, Riles was his coach for seven years.
I was new in town, so was Jason Williams, Gary Payton and Antoine Walker. We were some of the new faces the team brought in after losing in the Eastern Conference Finals the season before.
The pressure was on Stan Van Gundy to lead the team, and when we sputtered out the gate, everyone began speculating about his future -- even the players. That&rsquo;s what made &lsquo;Zo so outspoken.&nbsp;
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We thought we had some time to pull it all together, but the next thing we knew, after about 20 games, Stan and Riley were having a joint press conference. Stan announced he was stepping down.
Riles took over and led us to the championship. And although I didn&rsquo;t last too long in Miami, I learned some valuable lessons there, and I carry them with me to this day.
I played in Miami over 15 years ago, but based on what I&rsquo;ve seen and what I know, ain&rsquo;t nothing changed down there. Heading into the 2021 NBA playoffs, that&rsquo;s the exact reason why I wouldn&rsquo;t count the Heat out.&nbsp;
No matter what, with Riles leading that front office, the team will always end up with the kind of tough, gritty players it needs to excel playing that special brand of Heat basketball that he brought from New York way back in 1995.
Players who suited up for Riles are like a special little club, and I know that because, on top of playing for Riles himself, I had the opportunity to play for Doc Rivers and Byron Scott. It was obvious that they took some lessons from Riles. They were both tough guards who weren&rsquo;t afraid to challenge you, and they both had their own little fables and stories and techniques that they'd use to teach you and motivate you.
They had nothing on Coach Riley, though. I remember the very first lesson he taught us. He wasted no time.
We had one of those brutal four-game, five-night road trips. Tuesday night at the Bulls, Wednesday night at the Bucks, day off, Friday night at the 76ers and Saturday night at the Cavaliers. Stan resigned at that press conference the Monday beforehand, Riles took over and his first game as our coach would be on the first game of the trip, against Chicago.&nbsp;
We beat the Bulls, and then won against the Bucks the next night. Winning back-to-back games on the road in the NBA is tough, and after that, most coaches would reward their teams by giving them a day off, especially since we were playing four in five.
Not Riles, though. Or so we thought.
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After the Milwaukee game, we got to Philly in the late-night hours, and were told that we had a bus leaving the hotel in the morning and that we had to be ready by whatever time it was &mdash; maybe 11:00 a.m.
So we wake up in the morning, get dressed, get our ankles taped and all that. ALL OF US were grumpy and tired because, especially after winning those first two games on back-to-back nights, we felt like we earned the day off, you know?&nbsp;
Instead, we had to wake up, get dressed and head to the bus.
None of us knew what our new coach had in store for us. Remember, he&rsquo;d only been on the job officially for a few days.
After driving for a few minutes, the bus parked. We ended up at a movie theater &mdash; nobody knew what was going on.
Riles pops up and tells everyone to head into the theater and find a seat. We do, and next thing we knew, we were watching the basketball film &ldquo;Glory Road.&rdquo;
The movie was about the 1966 NCAA-champion Texas Western Miners. The team was coached by Don Haskins, and the reason why it was historically significant is because in that game, Texas Western became the first team to win the national championship with an all-Black starting lineup.
Of all teams, it was Kentucky that Texas Western beat in the championship game, and even back then, Kentucky was a powerhouse. They had an incredible starting lineup that was led by a young guard named Pat Riley.
Yeah. So that was quite the introduction to our new coach.
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Of course, back in those days, everyone knew what Riles&rsquo; reputation was. People thought of him as a drill sergeant and as a no-nonsense type of coach. If he were a high school teacher, he&rsquo;d be the teacher who walked in the classroom five minutes late and made all the students stop talking, sit up straight in their desks and face the board.
I took a few things away from Riles taking us to watch that movie. First, I knew he had connections, because we saw the film a full month before it was released in the theaters. But more important was the fact that it just let you know that he was a basketball lifer.&nbsp;
I think what he wanted us to take from seeing the film, though &mdash; and what I did take away &mdash; was that he knew what it felt like to be on the wrong side of history. Riles knew that our team was capable of succeeding like Texas Western, and that even if nobody gave us a shot, we had the power to control our own destiny. Riles told us that from the opening tip of the title game, he knew they were in trouble. He knew what it felt like to be surprised by his opponent, and wanted to do all he could to make sure that never happened to him again.
The same attitude and teachings were passed down to Doc Rivers and Byron Scott, and although I never played for Erik Spoelstra, many people refer to him as Riles&rsquo; prot&eacute;g&eacute;, so I know he&rsquo;s cut from the same cloth. That&rsquo;s why I wasn&rsquo;t surprised that the Heat won the Eastern Conference last season.&nbsp;
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And to be honest with you, I wouldn&rsquo;t be surprised if they managed to do it again. &nbsp;
The Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks are probably the teams that most people mention when they talk about the contenders, but the Heat should never be counted out. That&rsquo;s really what Riles&rsquo; legacy is, to me, anyway.&nbsp;
Talent-wise, Miami hasn&rsquo;t been considered among the top teams, but the discipline and the way they approach being prepared is always gonna put them in position to win any game. That&rsquo;s the kind of team that executes well, makes smart decisions with the ball, takes good shots and is physical with you. They&rsquo;re not the kind of team that beats themselves. Whoever they face, it&rsquo;s gonna be one of those series that&rsquo;s gonna be very physical and very exhausting.
The Los Angeles Lakers can tell you.
From the day Riles took over, it was the dawn of a new day in Miami. And almost 20 years later, even though he stopped coaching long ago, he still has his fingerprints all over that team. Toughness. Grit.
As long as Riles is in the building and can get his eyes and hands on that franchise, every player who walks through those doors in Miami quickly realizes the importance of mentally and physically being ready to play at a high level.&nbsp;
Believe me when I tell you, nobody who knows Pat Riley will ever count his team out. I know what&rsquo;s being preached down there every day, because I heard those messages.&nbsp;
The Heat are preparing to win it all, and when the 2021 playoffs come, just like they were last season, they&rsquo;re gonna be ready.

James Posey tells the story of Pat Riley taking over as head coach of the Heat in 2006 and how he has affected the franchise since.

As long as Pat Riley is in the picture, the Heat have a shot

Spencer Davies catches up with Will Bynum to discuss his unconventional journey and recent pivot to training NBA draft prospects.