Giants

LeBron James has once again caused a stir throughout the sports world.
No, I&rsquo;m not talking about his 42-point performance at The Drew League, or the rumors of him being in favor of a reunion with Kyrie Irving with the Los Angeles Lakers. Instead, I'm referencing the apparent outrage he caused for the city of Boston and its sports fan base
During the most recent episode of UNINTERRUPTED&rsquo;s The Shop, LeBron was asked, &ldquo;Why do you hate Boston?&rdquo; He responded, &ldquo;Because they&rsquo;re racist as f**k."
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Upon hearing news of LeBron&rsquo;s statement, many people didn&rsquo;t exactly consider this &ldquo;breaking news," as Boston has historically had a rich history of being exactly what LeBron described. However, there were a large amount of Boston fans who took to social media to take exception to LeBron&rsquo;s generalization of the entire city. But was he wrong?
You don&rsquo;t have to get Dr. Emmett Brown to fire up his <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjhoPPz5YL5AhUDhIkEHS9JCd4QwqsBegQIAxAB&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DI5cYgRnfFDA&amp;usg=AOvVaw3yzsh2Y3Z5nk0s22_1_2pU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DeLorean time machine with the 1.21 gigawatts</a> to revisit the 1960s, as Bill Russell has long described his racist encounters with Boston fans. And over time, plenty of professional athletes from every sport have made their racist encounters in Boston publicly known.&nbsp;
Let's look at some of those examples.
In his rookie season with the Celtics, Dee Brown was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/a34620ecfa0605c35908d7f1b858b427" target="_blank" rel="noopener">physically snatched out of his car and ordered to lay on the ground with a gun pointed at him by Boston police</a> while driving in a white neighborhood. The police later claimed that he &ldquo;resembled a suspect."
This falls right in line with <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2020/06/12/black-people-made-up-70-percent-of-boston-police-stops-department-data-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent data collected from the Boston Police Department</a> in June 2020. It unveiled that "70% of people stopped by Boston police officers through the department&rsquo;s 'Field Interrogation and Observation' program throughout were Black &mdash; even though Black residents comprise less than one quarter of the city&rsquo;s population."
In May 2014, Montreal Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban of the National Hockey League was vocal about <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/news/habs-bruins-denounce-fans-who-made-racist-comments-towards-subban-on-social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">racist tweets and comments from Boston fans on social media</a> after his double-overtime game-winning goal in a playoff win over the Bruins. This wasn&rsquo;t a case of fans simply being upset that their team lost; these were racial epithets being specifically targeted against a Black player.
Over in Major League Baseball, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones told reporters in May 2017 that Boston fans <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/05/01/orioles-adam-jones-berated-racist-taunts-fenway-park-peanuts/101187172/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hurled racial epithets at him for an entire game</a>.
&ldquo;A disrespectful fan threw a bag of peanuts at me,&rdquo; Jones said via <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/05/01/orioles-adam-jones-berated-racist-taunts-fenway-park-peanuts/101187172/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">USA Today&rsquo;s Bob Nightengale</a>. &ldquo;I was called the N-word a handful of times tonight. It&rsquo;s unfortunate that people need to resort to those type of epithets to degrade another human being. I&rsquo;m trying to make a living for myself and for my family.&rdquo;
Former Celtic and current Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving has been vocal about various encounters he has had with the fans of Boston. Irving didn&rsquo;t give any specific examples to reporters, but rather imported fans at TD Gardens to keep it &ldquo;strictly basketball."
Further, Celtics guard Marcus Smart seemingly supported Irving&rsquo;s comments. Back in October 2020, he <a href="https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/marcus-smart-nba-boston-celtics-covid-racial-injustice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">penned an article for The Players' Tribune</a>, detailing an encounter with a white woman in Boston.
Smart wrote about a time he attempted to be a good Samaritan and told a white woman, who was actually wearing a Celtics jersey, to be careful walking in the street as she was in the direct line of oncoming traffic. Instead of thanking him, the woman turned around and hurled a racial epithet directly at Smart.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard a couple of them,&rdquo; Smart <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj66pnd9IL5AhXskIkEHX_ECb0QtwJ6BAgcEAI&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DyE0VVQova78&amp;usg=AOvVaw0jg8MlJ31eU3VDMJsz0FAs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in the middle of the Celtics-Nets playoff series in May 2021</a>. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of sad and sickening because even though it&rsquo;s an opposing team, we have guys on your home team that you&rsquo;re saying these racial slurs and you&rsquo;re expecting us to go out there and play for you.&rdquo;
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So to those who were unaware, yes, racism is definitely alive and thriving in the city of Boston &mdash; but is it fair to label the entire city of Boston as racist?&nbsp;
I interviewed Celtics legend Bill Russell for <a href="http://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/we-matter-athletes-and-activism/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">my book</a>, "We Matter: Athletes And Activism," to try to answer that question, and this is what he told me:
"Well, one thing you have to always remember is that the majority of the country are decent folks. The majority of white people are decent folks. And I was always very careful not to stereotype people based on the actions of a few, or a little more than a few, as was the case in Boston," Russell said. "... A lot of the stuff that went on, I knew they were individual acts and not a reflection of everybody in Boston. I see many people today who who really believe that Black folks are responsible for all of the actions of other Black folks, and that&rsquo;s just ridiculous. And it&rsquo;s just as crazy for me to think that all white people were responsible for the ones that treated me and my family so poorly, broke into my house and destroyed my property for no reason at all...
"But just because I said that I don&rsquo;t put all white people in the same boat doesn&rsquo;t mean I don&rsquo;t still recognize that too many white people looked at me as less than, and no matter what they thought, I wasn&rsquo;t about to allow them to treat me as less than."
Powerful words by a giant in NBA history and one of the great athlete-activists the game has ever seen.&nbsp;
Celtics guard Jaylen Brown has addressed Irving&rsquo;s comments as well, but also brought light to the fact that racism extends far beyond the borders of athletics in Boston. During Brown&rsquo;s media availability prior to Game 3 against Brooklyn in May 2021, he <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31529162/boston-celtics-jaylen-brown-spotlights-systematic-racism-says-bigger-basketball" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spoke about systemic racism in the city of Boston and, to Russell&rsquo;s point, that every Boston fan isn&rsquo;t racist</a>.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we should have to put up with that, and I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s okay," Brown said. "I think that racism should be addressed, and systemic racism should be addressed in the city of Boston and also the United States... The constructs of racism in our school system, inequality in education, lack of opportunity, lack of affordable housing, lack of affordable health care, tokenism &mdash; the list goes on.
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&ldquo;I know that every Celtics fan in our arena is not a racist. We have people of all walks of life, ethnicities, colors, that are die-hard Celtics fans. So I think painting every Celtics fan as a racist would be unfair. However, Boston, we&rsquo;ve got a lot of work to do, no question.&rdquo;
So, in conclusion, yes, Boston has a very long history &mdash; past and present &mdash; when it comes to racism, but it&rsquo;s not everybody.
Hopefully, the non-racist white people of Boston will be inspired to prove LeBron wrong, displaying the moral courage and feeling obligated to no longer remain silent in the face of being surrounded by prevalent racism (both systemically and on a personal level, such as Boston fans yelling racial epithets at players).
Hopefully, the non-racist white people of Boston will become agents of change, equality, justice and unity.
As Angela Davis said, &ldquo;In a racist society, it&rsquo;s not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.&rdquo;&nbsp;
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Etan Thomas reacts to LeBron James' latest comments on "The Shop" about city of Boston and its sports fan base.

LeBron isn’t wrong about Boston fans' racist history — past or present

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

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

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

It&rsquo;s been quite an unconventional season in Washington.
The summer in D.C. was drowned out by an onslaught of Bradley Beal trade rumors. Instead of discussion about Wizards president Tommy Sheppard&rsquo;s impressive offseason, questions like the ones below dominated the news cycle.
Could Beal be the missing piece for Golden State? What if Boston broke the internet to form an all-St. Louis duo with Brad and Jayson Tatum? Is this the Ben Simmons trade that&rsquo;s been sitting there underneath our noses?
Well, here we are. Seven months later, Beal is still a Wizard, and as it so happens, most of us missed the point. Washington has cobbled together a deep, impressive group of veterans, which <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/kyle-kuzma-montrezl-harrell-have-wizards-adopting-dog-mentality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hit the ground running with an Eastern Conference-leading 10-3 record</a> and the third-best defense in the entire league to start the season.&nbsp;
But then, the inevitable defensive regression hit like a <a href="https://www.mlb.com/video/miguel-sano-homers-22-on-a-fly-ball-to-center-field">Miguel San&oacute; deep-ball</a>; Washington has returned to its homey lair of a <a href="https://www.cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/summary?season=2021&amp;seasontype=regseason&amp;start=10/1/2021&amp;end=01/15/2022">bottom-10 Defensive Rating</a>, and the Wizards overall record has deteriorated in harmonious fashion, with the team going just 12-17 since Nov. 15. With Beal having a down year and the vaunted defense appearing... um, suddenly not-so-vaunted, Washington has since looked rudderless following the hot start.
That is, until Kyle Kuzma started averaging a cool 26 and 11 over the Wiz&rsquo;s last nine games.
His output has largely been a byproduct of circumstance. Seven Washington players entered COVID-19 health and safety protocols at the turn of the new year, forcing the Wizards to go the substitute-player route like most other ball clubs. This left a hefty load to shoulder for Washington&rsquo;s mainstays, and Kuzma, in particular, made quite the impression while eclipsing 39 minutes in three straight games to ring in 2022.
The plat principal of the Kuzma experience this season has been his inspiring commitment to rebounding. He&rsquo;s finally at his rightful position &mdash; the 4 &mdash; and has seen his overall rebounding average jump by a colossal 2.6 per game while inhaling a career-high <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/advanced/?sort=GP&amp;dir=-1&amp;CF=PLAYER_NAME*E*kuzma">12.8%</a> of available boards.
As Washington&rsquo;s corps dwindled, Kuzma only dug deeper into the comfy niche he&rsquo;s settled into this season.
Kuz&rsquo;s rebounding rate has bumped all the way up to 14.5% since Dec. 27, when nearly half of his teammates entered protocols. He's keyed in on opponents&rsquo; misses with the hunger of Shaggy and Scooby Doo on a Whole 30 diet, his hands fastening onto the rock like a toddler leash. (Side note, who the heck uses those things?)
From there, Kuz is more than capable of initiating the offense in the open floor after ripping down a&nbsp; board, something he&rsquo;s been quite potent at as of late. No longer sharing the floor with LeBron James &mdash; whose resume alone obviously merits sole ownership of a fastbreak offense &mdash; Kuzma&rsquo;s now been empowered to push the pace like true-blue point-forward.
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But Kuzma&rsquo;s more than just a rebounder. He&rsquo;s a full-blown supersized slasher that knifes through coverages with X-Acto Blade precision, and he&rsquo;s only carved opponents up with more voraciously as Washington has suffered its availability crisis.
Kuzma&rsquo;s average drives per game have nearly doubled from 5.9 to 12.2 since December 27, and he&rsquo;s shot a supremely impressive <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/drives/?CF=PLAYER_NAME*E*kuzma&amp;Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;DateFrom=12%2F27%2F2021">63.5%</a> on those forays to the rim in that time (his accuracy on drives sat at just 45% beforehand). For context, the league leader in field goal percentage off drives is Giannis Antetokounmpo at 60.2%. So basically, Kuzma&rsquo;s been the personification of the &ldquo;He Don&rsquo;t Miss!&rdquo; meme when putting the ball on the floor in the Year 2022.
Perhaps it was out of pure necessity, but what&rsquo;s largely spearheaded Kuzma&rsquo;s torrential downpour of downhill scoring has been his aggression. He&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCwZqaHipqs&amp;ab_channel=MattBrooksNBA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">playing through contact</a>, devising the necessary counters &mdash; like the occasional <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iANdyk_EHA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eurostep</a> &mdash; to leave opponents loopy in a drunken state. <a href="https://youtu.be/LXyy_Z8Zy5g" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The glass</a> is the 26-year-old&rsquo;s friend if needed, of course. And his fabled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkXmnXdURF4&amp;ab_channel=MattBrooksNBA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hook shot</a>, which earned him modest prominence during his rookie season, will peak through the blinds when applicable. (Rejoice, Laker fans, it&rsquo;s back!)
Most importantly, when he gets to that right hand, it&rsquo;s basically over. Kuzma&rsquo;s always been a sturdy at-rim finisher, and his <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/4230#tab-shooting_accuracy">74% accuracy inside 4 feet</a> ties a career-high for the Flint native. His rim attacks have become a reliable source of renewable energy when Washington&rsquo;s bottom-tier offense trips up.
Here&rsquo;s a fun example of his decisiveness.
Washington sets up a pair of staggered screens for Beal, and Kuzma makes his move right when the help defender (Gordon Hayward) turns his head to bark out orders. Miles Bridges is left... miles behind (sorry) as Kuz stretches out for the layup.&nbsp;
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It&rsquo;s strange, but his size seems to stand out more now that he&rsquo;s a Wizard, no longer sharing the floor with a gaggle of giants in purple-and-gold threads. You really feel that Kuz is a full 6-foot-10 on his bull rushes to the rim. He's a towering thunderbolt of an athlete with G5 jets affixed to his highlight-blue sneakers.
Nothing is more emblematic of Kuzma&rsquo;s hot streak than his recent success from floater range. He&rsquo;s shot a hellacious <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/4230?season=2021&amp;start=12/27/2021&amp;end=12/28/2022#tab-shooting_accuracy">55% on short-range middies</a> in his last nine games, a massive bump from the mere 36% he posted prior; it's also good for the 72nd percentile among his peers. Granted, it&rsquo;s unlikely that he&rsquo;ll maintain this level of preposterous efficiency on in-betweeners, as runners like the one below are a tricky diet to survive off of. But for now, I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;ll gladly take it.
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What makes all of this so impressive is that his handle &mdash; which can get a little rickety when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9t8NDEGJEE&amp;ab_channel=MattBrooksNBA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bothered by nearby helpers</a> &mdash; hasn&rsquo;t been especially fluid nor deceitful as of late. His vision has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmbA8HBzZl0&amp;ab_channel=MattBrooksNBA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moments of genius</a>, though inaccuracy can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qmZXfjyI-Y&amp;ab_channel=MattBrooksNBA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plague him</a>. He grades out as a fairly average passer.
Most of all, his three-pointer remains a work in progress, and he&rsquo;s actually seen his efficiency from distance fall a percentage point to 33% during the recent hot stretch. He&rsquo;s pump-faking <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CuZ0O8dJOw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defenders out their shoes</a> without the requisite long-range weaponry typically required to make the seas part and open up the rim.
Kuz made his bed as a defensive-minded grinder in Laker Land, and that calling card is still very much intact. As mentioned before, the dude&rsquo;s mobile and huge. It&rsquo;s tough as nails to score on him in isolation, where he ranks within the 75th percentile as a 1-on-1 defender.&nbsp;
Kuzma uses his body well to shield opponents away from the rim, with his 7-foot wingspan handling the rest. It&rsquo;s tough to get him in the air on pump-fakes. His body control is pretty exceptional, and here, he uses a 2-foot jump to slow down and leap with precise control while contesting Chuma Okeke.
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Recently, he&rsquo;s even had to pick up the slack and play some 5. Montrezl Harrell was one of the many players held out due to health and safety protocols, leaving the Wizards with only one available big man, Daniel Gafford. Playing Kuz in the middle allows the Wizards to switch pretty much everything, and he&rsquo;s had some super impressive reps against the likes of LaMelo Ball, Terrence Ross, Cole Anthony and Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, just to name a few. Certainly a varied cast of opponents.
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Failing to mention Kuzma&rsquo;s legend inside of five minutes would be a disservice, because, well, you&rsquo;ll hear about it on nearly every single Wizards broadcast. Only a handful of people in human history have shown more exuberance about anything&nbsp;than Washington&rsquo;s play-by-play crew when discussing &ldquo;Klutch Kuz&rdquo;: Anthony Edwards when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Y2P-BQP5w&amp;ab_channel=DaHoopSpotProductions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ranking fast-food french fries</a>, JAY-Z the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aayZ9ybDTBw&amp;ab_channel=MardyMoves" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first time</a> he heard the &ldquo;Dirt Off Your Shoulder&rdquo; beat, and pretty much anyone who has ever done a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGJhjHw4sMM&amp;ab_channel=Whereuat" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nardwuar</a> interview.
That&rsquo;s it. That&rsquo;s the list.
Having said this, it&rsquo;s easy to understand NBC Sports Washington's fascination with Kuz in crunch time. His <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/clutch-traditional/?sort=GP&amp;dir=-1&amp;Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;TeamID=1610612764" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3.0 points</a> per game lead the Wiz in the clutch, and he&rsquo;s posting a <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/clutch-advanced/?sort=TS_PCT&amp;dir=-1&amp;Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;TeamID=1610612764&amp;CF=PLAYER_NAME*E*kuzma">70.6% True Shooting percentage</a> when it matters most. He&rsquo;s already nailed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-cVQhyBvw0&amp;ab_channel=ChazNBA">not one</a>, but two game-winners as a Wizard, sending the Pistons' fans home with a cheery wave and a toothy smile after a cold-blooded three. Truly villainous stuff from the hometown kid, if I do say so myself.
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It&rsquo;s been quite the revenge tour for Kyle Kuzma this year. Dangled in trades for almost the entirety of last season, his former employer sent him to the nation&rsquo;s capital in the Russell Westbrook blockbuster. Shortly after, the Brooklyn Nets felt a trade exception (that will likely go unused) was more valuable than his services in the Spencer Dinwiddie sign-and-trade. In the moment, it seemed quite telling that two teams on the brink of a championship said, &ldquo;Nah, I&rsquo;m good&rdquo; to Kuz.
Now, I bet they&rsquo;d surely love a do-over.

Matt Brooks takes a deep dive into Kyle Kuzma's resurgence with the Wizards and his incredible production since Dec. 27.

Don't look now, but Kyle Kuzma is silencing the critics

Ethan Fuller breaks down the state of each NBA franchise and ranks the most frustrating teams ahead of the 2020-21 NBA season.

NBA 'Sour' Rankings: Preseason Prelude

Fans of the New York Knicks have been frustrated for a long time. It&rsquo;s been one emotional rollercoaster after another. Don&rsquo;t believe me? Just ask any New Yorker how they feel about the team. You won&rsquo;t get a simple answer like, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking forward to next season.&rdquo; You&rsquo;ll get a long-winded, emotional, triggered, overly passionate, hand-gestures-filled, voice-cracking response. They may even start sweating. It&rsquo;s time for Knicks fans to get a win.&nbsp;
After recent reports that Russell Westbrook is ready to move on from the Houston Rockets, there has been a lot of speculation as to where his landing spot would be. In fact, our Nekias Duncan <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-russell-westbrook-trade-demand-deal-possible-destinations-houston-rockets-los-angeles-clippers-indiana-pacers-dallas-mavericks-charlotte-hornets-out-request">broke down four possible destinations</a> for the former MVP.
Kevin Wildes from "First Things First" said <a href="https://youtu.be/oZih7ko-Pos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on yesterday&rsquo;s show</a>: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s in the weird spot where he doesn&rsquo;t necessarily need to win a championship. [James] Harden needs to win a championship. I&rsquo;d like if CP3 won a championship. But because he&rsquo;s such an electric player, Russ doesn&rsquo;t&hellip; I think it would be better if Russ just got the keys to the car, could drive it as fast as he wants, could crash it into a few trees if he wanted to (which will happen). But do it in New York with the bright lights. That&rsquo;s what he needs and that&rsquo;s what would be better for his legacy moving forward -- not to championship chase.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Chris Broussard added: &ldquo;When we think of Oscar Robertson, what&rsquo;s the first thing we think of? He averaged a triple-double for an entire season&hellip; It&rsquo;s the same thing with Russ. Unless triple-double seasons become commonplace and Luka [Doncic] does it and LeBron [James] does it, his legacy will be that this guy is the only guy to average three-straight triple-double seasons. It&rsquo;s not going to be about any championship he wins later in his career.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Then, they started breaking down potential landing spots for him such as Portland, Cleveland, Sacramento, Indiana, Philadelphia, etc. But as a lifelong Knicks fan, I would like to see Westbrook take his talents to New York.&nbsp;
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Admittingly, I am one of those emotional Knicks fans that I described earlier and, yes, I have been frustrated for years (and rightfully so).&nbsp;
I grew up a Knicks fan. I was born in Harlem and although I moved to Tulsa, OK, when I was young, I spent all of my summers in Harlem. I would watch the Knicks with my grandfather, who loved all things New York. He loved the Yankees, Giants, St John&rsquo;s, Syracuse; he even (lightly) cheered for the Mets and Jets. He had the Yankees fitted cap, yelled at the TV screen and everything.&nbsp; My grandmother would routinely come in and tell us to keep it down because we were going to disturb the neighbors (although we could clearly hear people all throughout the building cheering, yelling, fussing and carrying on just like we were).
I remember my grandfather always taking me to the park to watch the older guys play and I would just listen to all of them talk about the Knicks daily. They&rsquo;d say that the team was full of bums and then, the very next day, be fully convinced that they were going to take down Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. They talked about how much they respected how hard certain players played and how the one thing they didn&rsquo;t tolerate was a lack of effort.&nbsp;
I too fell in love with the Knicks&rsquo; style -- the grittiness, the physical play. I loved seeing Greg Anthony run down from the stands in street clothes to defend his teammates. He had on church shoes and everything! I loved watching Charles Oakley bully people every night. I loved when Coach Jeff Van Gundy grabbed Alonzo Mourning&rsquo;s leg when he and Larry Johnson got into a fight (which still makes me laugh to this day). It was all for one and one for all, no matter what. Seeing all of that made me become a diehard Knicks fan alongside my grandfather. And we were proud of it.&nbsp;
Now, the Knicks have been a constant stream of frustration. It has literally been one catastrophe after another -- from Oakley being accosted by the team&rsquo;s security during a game, to the way former Knicks executive Phil Jackson disrespected Carmelo Anthony, to trading Kristaps Porzingis only to see him blossom into a star with the Dallas Mavericks, to missing out on Zion Williamson, to hearing that the Knicks didn&rsquo;t aggressively pursue Kevin Durant (after the media spent months making it sound like KD to New York was virtually a done deal). I could go on and on.&nbsp;
But Russell Westbrook could change all of that.&nbsp;
Now, a lot of people have scoffed at the thought of bringing Westbrook to their team because of his performance in the playoffs (since he averaged just 17.9 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.5 steals while shooting 42.1 percent from the field and 24.2 percent from three-point range). However, many people are forgetting that right before play in the bubble began, Westbrook tested positive for COVID-19, which could have accounted for his timing being so visibly off.&nbsp;
Recently, Rockets forward Jeff Green joined me on my show (&ldquo;The Rematch&rdquo;) and said that he saw the same thing.
&ldquo;I saw it firsthand,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;He missed a handful of practices and then he comes back and he just didn&rsquo;t have it. Not [that he didn&rsquo;t] have it, but he didn&rsquo;t have a rhythm -- the rhythm of the game and where his shots were gonna come from. And it was a different game in the bubble. He came back and he was energetic, but the shots [weren&rsquo;t falling] and his legs weren&rsquo;t there. Then, he gets hurt and he misses the seeding games and he comes back after Game 4 of the first round against OKC, and he still didn&rsquo;t have the rhythm.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We had a Russell who [wasn&rsquo;t 100 percent]. The athleticism and the quickness were still there, but the rhythm and the legs just weren&rsquo;t there. And you know Russell, he&rsquo;s gonna fight it but there just wasn&rsquo;t enough time to get him reps to have his legs, to have his rhythm, because we played every other day. It started to feel like [we were playing] back-to-back-to-back-to-back and we just didn&rsquo;t have enough time to get him established with the rhythm of the game. And you know Russell would say, &lsquo;We&rsquo;re not gonna make excuses about it, we&rsquo;re gonna go with the results.&rsquo; But it was really tough for him.&rdquo;
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Westbrook is exactly the kind of player who would be embraced by New York fans. He&rsquo;s someone who will leave it all on the floor no matter what. No complaints, no excuses, no crying to the media -- he just works extremely hard and plays with all his heart. That&rsquo;s why Knicks fans loved Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, John Starks and Larry Johnson. Even when they were dealing with injuries, they all played with a ton of heart and emotions, and they always gave 110 percent effort. 
That&rsquo;s exactly who Russell Westbrook is. He has John-Starks-level intensity all the time and the New York crowd would eat that up and he would feed off of their energy. Instead of &ldquo;Fire Dolan&rdquo; chants, the Knicks fans would passionately chant Russ&rsquo; name.
Not to mention, this would only add to the rivalry between the Knicks and Nets, with KD and Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn. Can you imagine the energy of those games? Westbrook and Durant -- once teammates, now foes -- would be crosstown rivals too. Imagine the Durant vs. Westbrook billboard in Time Square!
Not only would adding Westbrook be good for the Knicks, it would be good for basketball.

Etan Thomas, a lifelong Knicks fan, explains why he would love to see New York trade for disgruntled star Russell Westbrook.

Why Russell Westbrook would win over New York Knicks fans

Near the NBA&rsquo;s trade deadline, the Spurs were rumored to be shopping [LaMarcus] Aldridge, but rival executives suggest the Spurs &ldquo;overplayed their hand thinking they were supposed to get some giant package for him,&rdquo; one NBA executive said.&nbsp;
The Spurs could shop Aldridge again this offseason. Aldridge had <a href="https://theathletic.com/814229/2019/02/13/lamarcus-aldridges-all-star-journey-from-repairing-past-relationships-to-growing-as-a-leader-on-and-off-the-court/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">repaired his relationship with Blazers superstar Damian Lillard</a>, and one agent suggests the Spurs could ship him back to the Blazers.
On the [DeMar] DeRozan front, he&rsquo;ll likely decide to pick up his option. The Spurs could build around him, using the team&rsquo;s bubble play as a roster model or trade him, too, should he opt out. DeRozan is close with Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler, and one agent forecast a possible Spurs-Heat package.
Source: <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/30/san-antonio-spurs-executives-discuss-their-new-vision-for-the-team-and-gregg-popovichs-future.html?__source=iosappshare%7Ccom.apple.UIKit.activity.PostToTwitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jabari Young of CNBC</a>
ANALYSIS: It looks as if the Spurs are looking to retool and find the right talent to surround their up-and-coming core with. Dejounte Murray, Derrick White and Lonnie Walker IV are the future of this franchise. If R.C. Buford is willing to budge on his previous stance, the Spurs could get a solid return for Aldridge. As for DeRozan, we'll have to wait and see on that player option. It wouldn't be surprising if only one, or neither, of the two are playing in San Antonio next season.

It looks as if the Spurs are looking to retool and find the right talent to surround their up-and-coming core with.

Aldridge, DeRozan's future with Spurs up in air

Every few years, several NBA stars come together and form a super-team. Obviously, the most-recent example is the Golden State Warriors. By signing Kevin Durant in 2016, the Warriors immediately became the favorite to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy (and it was hard to envision a scenario in which they'd lose). When LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh teamed up on the Miami Heat in 2010, there was the same reaction (which is why their 2010 NBA Finals loss was so surprising).&nbsp;
Which NBA franchise will assemble the next super-team? We asked a number of NBA analysts to share their predictions:
New York Knicks or Phoenix Suns: &ldquo;That's a really good question. I think you'd have to put New York in the discussion. I know it's laughable; people have been hearing about New York being a potential super-team for 20 years now and they've never been able to execute it. But I still think it's a place where people want to play and someday it'll work out, so I'll put them into the discussion. I think a sleeping giant in the NBA - an absolute sleeping giant - is the Phoenix Suns. But I don't know if they have the ability, with their ownership (Robert Sarver), to pull it off. The Phoenix Suns were good for 20 years because people loved being in Phoenix and there are so many advantages there - from the wonderful weather to the life a player can lead to the no state-income tax, and they have just squandered it. In the last 10 years, they've squandered it. They have a superstar there in residence. When you think about building a super-team, usually you want to start with a star. It's much easier to start with a star, and I think Devin Booker is a mega-star in development. They have a window to do it and they have a coach who people want to play for [in Monty Williams]. There's everything there, but the ownership is so shaky that it's just really hard for me to believe that it can be executed. But I&rsquo;ve been saying this for five years: Phoenix is a sleeping giant. I would put those two teams - the Suns and Knicks - on the list for sure, as far as building up from nothing.&rdquo; 
-&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://audioboom.com/posts/7700254-brian-windhorst-on-covering-lebron-james-giannis-future-the-nba-s-next-super-team-and-2020-fr">Brian Windhorst, ESPN (on &ldquo;The Alex Kennedy Podcast&rdquo;)</a>
Miami Heat: &ldquo;The New York Kn... Nah, just kidding. My early guess is the Miami Heat. They already have two stars in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. They&rsquo;re slotted to have at least one max slot available, though we&rsquo;re still unsure of the effect the pandemic will have on the cap moving forward. Still, the Heat have stars, intriguing young talent, a great coach, a strong front office and a great location to pitch. They&rsquo;re going to throw their hat in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes. And even if that fails, they&rsquo;ve been linked to both Bradley Beal and Victor Oladipo. It&rsquo;s hard to believe the Heat will go 0-for-3 on that front.&rdquo;
-&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://twitter.com/NekiasNBA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nekias Duncan</a>,&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="http://www.basketballnews.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BasketballNews.com</a>
Miami Heat: &ldquo;The franchise that will assemble the next super team is the Miami Heat. Pat Riley showed what he can do with significant cap space when he lured LeBron James and Chris Bosh to join Dwyane Wade in South Beach. It's the league's worst-kept secret that Miami hopes to make a run at MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo next summer. Miami is a potential destination for Victor Oladipo too. When you combine All-Star Jimmy Butler with a proven core of players, the lavish lifestyle of living in Miami and a ton of money to spend, who wouldn't want to sit at the table with Riley for a meeting?&rdquo;
-&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://twitter.com/MikeAScotto" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Scotto</a>,&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://hoopshype.com/author/michaelascotto/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HoopsHype</a>&nbsp;
Miami Heat: "Miami is the odds-on favorite to form a new super-team because they will have a solid amount of cap room."
- <a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://twitter.com/Chris_Broussard" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chris Broussard</a>, <a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://foxsportsradio.iheart.com/featured/the-odd-couple-with-chris-broussard-rob-parker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox Sports</a>
Brooklyn Nets: &ldquo;Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and the No. 2 pick the Warriors will have in the 2020 NBA Draft is pretty darn super, but I'm not sure that qualifies as &lsquo;assembling&rsquo; since they technically already possess those pieces. I found myself writing and rewriting my answer several times before eventually landing on the Brooklyn Nets. The team already has Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and a slew of young players and draft capital that could be packaged in a deal similar to the one that landed Anthony Davis in Los Angeles alongside LeBron James. Nets general manager Sean Marks has both the know-how and relationships to get something like that done, whether it be for Bradley Beal, Devin Booker or Rudy Gobert (who will be a free agent following the 2020-21 season). It's a tough call, but I vote Brooklyn. They narrowly edge Miami because, at least based on today's standard, I regard a &lsquo;super-team' as one that has three bonafide superstars. I think Miami has one in Jimmy Butler. The Lakers obviously have two in James and Davis. Should Giannis Antetokounmpo opt to sign there, they&rsquo;ll be a super-team, but that couldn't occur any earlier than after next season. Brooklyn, I think, is the only team that has two superstars and the capital to trade for another right now.&rdquo;
-&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://twitter.com/MokeHamilton" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Moke Hamilton</a>,&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://theathletic.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Athletic</a>
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/KDI_lg.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="AUTO" />
Golden State Warriors: &ldquo;The next super-team is the previous super-team: the Golden State Warriors. Kevin Durant may be gone, but if they can find good value for their No. 2 overall pick and their trade exception from the Andre Iguodala deal, they could be absolutely loaded again next season. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are a formidable trio, but with the assets at their disposal, the Warriors could very well turn back into a juggernaut with one or two moves.&rdquo;
-&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://twitter.com/Trevor_Lane" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trevor Lane</a>,&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://lakersnation.com/author/trevor-lane/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lakers Nation</a>
Dallas Mavericks: &ldquo;I already mentioned Brooklyn as my <a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="http://beta.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-teams-most-improved-biggest-leap-golden-state-warriors-brooklyn-nets-phoenix-suns-new-orleans-pelicans">team that will make the biggest jump next season</a>, but I'll go with Dallas here. The Mavericks have the ultimate building block in Luka Doncic, a special talent who looks like he's capable of winning multiple MVPs before his career is over. With Kristaps Porzingis' inspiring play in the bubble showing why KD once called him a 'unicorn' and an excellent coach in Rick Carlisle completing the remarkable transition of defensive maven to installing the best offense in NBA history, Dallas is right there. The Mavericks only need to find a third star, but Doncic will attract even more talent with his playmaking skills and limitless potential. With Mark Cuban, they also have an ambitious owner who will spend whatever is necessary to keep his franchise relevant.&rdquo;
-&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://twitter.com/MrMichaelLee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Lee</a>,&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://theathletic.com/author/michael-lee/">The Athletic</a>
Dallas Mavericks: &ldquo;The Dallas Mavericks have the best building blocks right now. They already have two of the league's best young stars in Kristaps Porzingis and Luka Doncic, but Doncic's rookie-scale contract affords them max cap room in the summer of 2021 to add a third. While no particular team can be called a &lsquo;favorite&rsquo; to assemble a super-team, it's hard to find a better landing spot for Giannis Antetokounmpo than the team that once employed his brother, Kostas.&rdquo;
-&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://twitter.com/NateDuncanNBA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nate Duncan</a>,&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/duncd-on-basketball-nba-podcast/id986901174" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dunc&rsquo;d On Podcast</a>
It&rsquo;s Up to Giannis: "It's difficult to project where the next super-team will form, but the entire NBA hinges on&nbsp;Giannis Antetokounmpo's decision this offseason with the Milwaukee Bucks. Does he accept a super-max extension or choose to wait until he's a free agent in the summer of 2021? If he does, the Bucks may need to consider trading him, which is why the Golden State Warriors are trying to position themselves for another dynasty. It's obviously up to Antetokounmpo, who may choose to stay with the Bucks. But what if he decides to head to Miami to play with Jimmy Butler and the Heat? Or maybe he bolts for Toronto to join Pascal Siakam and Co. on the Raptors? Out in Los Angeles, would LeBron James take a paycut to make room for Giannis on the Lakers? The next superteam is wherever Antetokoumpo chooses to play, if he decides to leave Milwaukee."
-&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://twitter.com/EricPincus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eric Pincus</a>,&nbsp;<a style="color: #ecf0f1;" href="https://bleacherreport.com/users/7951339-eric-pincus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bleacher Report</a>

Which NBA franchise will put together the next super-team? We asked a number of top NBA analysts to share their thoughts.

Roundtable: Which franchise will assemble next super-team?

Anthony Edwards' meteoric rise in the NBA continues relentlessly. The 23-year-old Minnesota Timberwolves superstar has added another chapter to his burgeoning playoff legacy, leading his team to a 4-1 series victory over the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Semifinals. This triumph not only propels the Timberwolves to their second consecutive Western Conference Finals but also reinforces Edwards' growing reputation as the league's premier "legend killer."
The term "legend killer" may have been used in jest by fans and analysts, but it's becoming more apt with each passing series. Edwards is carving out one of the most impressive early playoff resumes in recent memory, routinely stepping up against the game's brightest stars and emerging victorious.
Slaying giants and legends is becoming a playoff tradition for Edwards
Edwards' postseason journey reads like a who's who of NBA royalty. Last year, he spearheaded the Timberwolves' stunning run through the Western Conference, eliminating a Phoenix Suns team led by future Hall of Famers Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. In the following round, they went toe-to-toe with reigning MVP Nikola Jokić and the defending champion Denver Nuggets &ndash; and prevailed.
This season has followed a similar narrative. In the first round, Edwards and the Wolves dispatched the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. Edwards outdueled both LeBron James and Luka Doncic on both ends of the floor and delivering clutch baskets in high-pressure moments.
Now, in the semifinals, he's taken down a Warriors team that boasted championship pedigree and playoff-tested veterans in Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green &ndash; and would have had Stephen Curry, were it not for injury.
It's no wonder the nickname "legend killer" has started to stick. Edwards is not just winning playoff series; he's ending runs and ushering in a new era of stardom. Few players his age have compiled such an impressive list of postseason victims &ndash; and he's doing it as the unquestioned leader of a franchise that hadn&rsquo;t been to the Conference Finals in 20 years before his arrival.
Golden State&rsquo;s fortunes took a major hit just minutes into Game 1 when Stephen Curry pulled up lame, clutching his left hamstring. The team initially called it &ldquo;tightness,&rdquo; but subsequent scans revealed a strain that would sideline the two-time MVP for the remainder of the series.
Curry&rsquo;s absence was devastating. In Game 1, the Warriors managed to win despite him being out for the majority of the game, and Golden State was within striking distance. But without him, the Warriors lacked spacing, cohesion, and a consistent scoring threat. Butler, whom the Warriors acquired midseason for a late title push, averaged a decent amount of points in the series but struggled to find rhythm without Curry drawing double teams. Draymond Green&rsquo;s defensive prowess and playmaking were neutralized by Minnesota&rsquo;s size and physicality.
Minnesota, meanwhile, smothered Golden State with a vaunted defense led by Jaden McDaniels, Rudy Gobert, and Edwards. The Wolves&rsquo; game plan was simple yet effective: deny Butler clean looks, collapse on drives, and force role players to beat them. Brandin Podziemski and Buddy Hield were rather inconsistent, while Jonathan Kuminga, though promising, lacked the polish to carry the scoring load for the entire series. The Warriors ultimately lost four straight games after taking the opener.
Timberwolves' strategic mastery&nbsp;
Minnesota&rsquo;s resurgence is as much about front-office vision as it is about Edwards&rsquo; emergence. The franchise made a controversial decision last summer, trading long-time star Karl-Anthony Towns &ndash; the face of the franchise for nearly a decade &ndash; to the New York Knicks in exchange for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.
Initially panned as an overreaction to last year&rsquo;s Conference Finals loss, the move has aged like fine wine. Randle brought a rugged interior presence and a scorer's mindset that perfectly complements Rudy Gobert&rsquo;s defense-first approach. In these playoffs, Randle has arguably been playing the best basketball of his life, often bullying smaller defenders in the post while spacing the floor just enough to allow Edwards room to operate.
DiVincenzo, a tenacious defender and underrated shooter, has been an x-factor despite struggling a bit in the playoffs. He has consistently hit timely threes while guarding opposing guards with a relentless motor. His chemistry with Edwards has flourished, allowing the Wolves to maintain intensity on both ends without sacrificing floor spacing.
Add in the steady leadership of Mike Conley and the rim protection of Gobert and Naz Reid off the bench and the perimeter defense by McDaniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and you&rsquo;ve got one of the most well-balanced teams left in the playoffs.
With this series win, the Timberwolves have secured their second straight appearance in the Western Conference Finals &ndash; a feat that once seemed unimaginable for a franchise long plagued by mediocrity. They fell to Dallas in last year&rsquo;s WCF, but the lessons from that loss are clearly paying off.
This version of the Wolves is deeper, more experienced, and far more adaptable. They&rsquo;ve shown they can win gritty, defensive battles or shoot it out when the game opens up. Coach Chris Finch has masterfully balanced rotations and drawn up sets that accentuate Edwards&rsquo; strengths while keeping Randle, Gobert, and DiVincenzo involved.
The next step now is breaking through to the NBA Finals &ndash; something no Timberwolves team has ever accomplished.
Being the &lsquo;face of the league&rsquo;
As the NBA&rsquo;s long-standing icons gradually wind down their careers, the league is searching for its next torchbearer. While players like Jayson Tatum, Luka Dončić, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are all in the mix, few have made as loud a postseason statement as Anthony Edwards.
His playoff numbers &mdash; 27.4 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.6 assists per game &mdash; don&rsquo;t just tell the story of a rising superstar, they scream franchise cornerstone and future MVP. More importantly, Edwards has embraced the spotlight, asking for it and owning the pressure of delivering wins against the best in the world.
He&rsquo;s charismatic, fiercely competitive, and fearless. His ability to elevate his game in the postseason, rise above elite opponents, and close out games has drawn comparisons to legends of the past. And with every &ldquo;legend&rdquo; he defeats, Edwards inches closer to becoming one himself.
Anthony Edwards isn&rsquo;t just adding to his playoff resume &mdash; he&rsquo;s building a legacy. One legendary opponent at a time.
And if the &ldquo;legend killer&rdquo; keeps this up, the next generation of NBA stars might be defined by who manages to take him down.

Anthony Edwards continues his rise as the NBA’s “Legend Killer,” leading the Timberwolves past the Warriors to reach the WCF again.

Anthony Edwards adds to ‘legend killer’ legacy as Wolves eliminate Warriors in 5

<div>
In the first few days of his second presidential term, Donald Trump signed a number of executive orders that will have an impact on the healthcare industry, some issuing new policies and some rescinding policies set forth by prior administrations. This has had a devastating impact on the American people.
While the country is on pins and needles awaiting the next bomb (both literally and figuratively) to drop from the Trump administration, Michael Jordan has figured out a way to actively combat one of the casualties (U.S. Health Care) of Trump&rsquo;s plan for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and extended tax cuts for the upper echelon of the American population.&nbsp;
</div>
<div>From an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/01/republicans-medicaid-cuts">article in The Guardian titled:&nbsp;&ldquo;Medicaid recipients fear &lsquo;buzzsaw cuts&rsquo; for Trump&rsquo;s agenda&rdquo;</a>, it reads&nbsp;</div>
<div>&ldquo;Republicans are considering a rollback of the federal social safety net, particularly Medicaid, which has nearly 80 million enrollees in all 50 states. The budget plan proposes an $880bn reduction in funding for the insurance over the next 10 years, an amount that experts warn would hollow out the program and have ripple effects across the entire American healthcare system.&rdquo;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>From an <a href="https://www.maynardnexsen.com/publication-president-trumps-latest-executive-orders-impacting-health-care">article in the MaynardNexsen titled &ldquo;President Trump&rsquo;s Latest Executive Orders Impacting Healthcare&rdquo;</a> it reads &ldquo;President Trump rescinded former President Joe Biden&rsquo;s order that extended the enrollment periods for Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) plans in most states, and granted additional funding for third parties aiding enrollment in ACA insurance. While ACA enrollment nearly doubled under the Biden administration to about 24 million people, those gains are attributed primarily to government subsidies that lowered the cost of ACA premiums. The effect this rescission will have on enrollment trends is one thing to watch in the coming years&rdquo;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>While all this is happening in real-time, Michael Jordan opened his fourth health clinic in North Carolina on February 19 in Wilmington. This new clinic, established in collaboration with Novant Health, focuses on providing care to uninsured and underinsured patients.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/michael-jordan-etan-thomas-2_690w.jpeg" alt="" width="740" height="492" /></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>MJ has spoken publicly exhibiting a tremendous amount of sincerity and passion about how important these clinics are and how many people they will help. He has addressed the growing issue of healthcare disparities and affirmed his dedication to providing healthcare to all people regardless of their income or economic status in particular in his hometown of North Carolina.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Many people are pleasantly surprised to see this side of MJ, but it goes along with what I witnessed as his teammate for the Washington Wizards.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>I recall one time in particular when I was sitting in the training room getting treatment and he was getting his knee drained, which fans didn&rsquo;t know at the time he had to often do in order to continue playing. MJ asked me about a book (Soul On Ice by Eldridge Cleaver) he saw me reading on the plane and we engaged in a deep conversation about race, politics, the community, and much more.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
Sitting in earshot was his bodyguard, George, who chimed in and said jokingly, &ldquo;Yeah Michael doesn&rsquo;t like to tell anybody the things he does, so people don&rsquo;t think he does anything&rdquo;&nbsp;
</div>
<div>He then proceeded to tell me a story of when MJ was all set to have this big event at an exclusive golf resort in Georgia back in the day, and he found out that they were still keeping an old tradition of not allowing Black People to join the club, but of course, they would let MJ participate. Well, long story short, right before the event, MJ informed the organizers that he was going to cancel everything if they didn&rsquo;t change their policy and of course, they capitulated to his demands.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/michael-jordan-etan-thomas-4_690w.jpeg" alt="" width="743" height="563" /></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>I remember responding saying, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a great story that people need to hear. Why wouldn&rsquo;t you tell people that ?&rdquo; And MJ looked at me and said, &ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t do it for that.&rdquo; I remember looking at George and him saying, &ldquo;See, he doesn&rsquo;t want to tell anybody anything&rdquo;&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>I tell this story for this reason. Playing with MJ for two years with the Wizards, I saw him do a lot of things quietly that nobody knew about. And from time to time I would whisper to him, &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not gonna tell anyone about this either huh?&rdquo; And he would just smile and shake his head. In fact, he didn&rsquo;t even tell anyone that he donated his entire salary to the victims of 9-11. I remember being in the locker room when he was watching the coverage on TV and made the decision. Nobody found out until later that he did that.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Now, for years I have been on panels and programs talking about activism and athletes and they would always bring up MJ as the antithesis to the activist athlete and his infamous statement &ldquo;Republicans Buy Shoes Too&rdquo;. They would always paint MJ as the athlete who doesn&rsquo;t care about the community or really anything outside of himself and I would always push back on that because that&rsquo;s just not what I saw when I was his teammate. Now, did he lend his voice to causes or speak out on political issues that directly impact the Black Community? No, he didn&rsquo;t. But did he do nothing behind the scenes and have no interest or care for the community? I can&rsquo;t say that because that&rsquo;s not what I saw.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>People don&rsquo;t know about MJ&rsquo;s community impact platform, known as the Black Community Commitment (BCC), which is a 10-year, $100 million initiative focused on creating equitable futures for Black Americans through education, economic justice, narrative change, and social justice.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>They also don&rsquo;t know about him funding nonprofit institutional grantees and grassroots organizations across the country through his Open Call Community Grants program.&nbsp;They don&rsquo;t know about his Jordan Brand Wings Scholars Program which has sent hundreds of kids to college on full scholarships. But like George told me in the training room, he doesn&rsquo;t tell anyone so people assume he does nothing in the community.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Now, going back to MJ&rsquo;s 4th healthcare clinic.&nbsp;There is indeed currently a national healthcare crisis in the United States.&nbsp;In 2025, an estimated 27.1 million Americans of all ages are projected to be uninsured, representing an uninsured rate of 8.2%, according to data from the National Health Interview Survey. MJ&rsquo;s efforts have helped thousands of uninsured Americans actually receive care.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/michael-jordan-etan-thomas-3_690w.jpeg" alt="" width="741" height="494" /></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Furthermore, as many Americans have found out the hard way, being insured does not guarantee full coverage. There is a large percentage of working-class Americans who are currently drowning in medical expenses, faced with increased costs of medications (thanks to the Trump administration), and higher co-pays all while having limited access to essential treatments.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>An article by Vishwesha Kumar of Fadeaway World, described Jordan&rsquo;s Health Clinic as,&nbsp;&ldquo;After witnessing the positive impact of these centers, Jordan donated $10 million to Novant Health to expand the project, leading to additional clinics being built in Wilmington. His efforts have helped thousands of patients receive their first-ever primary care visits, reinforcing his dedication to improving healthcare access.</div>
<div>
The new Wilmington facility spans 7,300 square feet and includes 12 patient rooms, offering comprehensive medical services to uninsured and underinsured individuals. In addition to primary care physicians, the clinic will have a community health worker to connect patients with essential local resources. The facility will be open on weekdays, aiming to serve as a lifeline for many who struggle to access consistent coverage.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Micheal Jordan doesn&rsquo;t have to do any of this. He could ride off into the sunset and not care about what anyone thinks about him. He doesn&rsquo;t need any additional notoriety. He already has all the fame a man could possibly have. He doesn&rsquo;t need pats on the back or nods of approval from anyone. He does this because he genuinely cares.&nbsp;
</div>
<div>&ldquo;Michael Jordan gives back but you didn't know it. Like LeBron does, but it's just seldom they show it.&rdquo;~Nas</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>

While all this is happening in real-time, Michael Jordan opened his fourth health clinic in North Carolina.

In This Trump Era, Michael Jordan’s Free Health Clinics Are Very Much Needed

Young point guards Quincy Olivari and Yuki Kawamura have been rewarded by their respective ball clubs after impressing in the preseason.
The Los Angeles Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies both gave out two-way NBA contracts to the young guards, upgrading their previous Exhibit 10 deals.&nbsp;
To make the move, the Lakers had to waive two-way center Colin Castleton and guard Grayson Murphy, allocating the space to Olivari.
The 22-year-old Olivari in his preseason stint with the Lakers, having totals of 35 points on 12-23 shooting, 8-14 3PT, 14 rebounds, and 4 assists across 4 games.
Olivari particularly stood out for the Lakers in their game against the Milwaukee Bucks and the Golden State Warriors, providing necessary energy on both ends of the floor.
Olivari quickly became the best wholesome story of the whole preseason <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/undrafted-lakers-guard-quincy-olivari-gets-emotional-after-exchange-with-stephen-curry-thats-my-favorite-player-ever">after his exchange with lifetime favorite player Stephen Curry.</a>
Kawamura, 23, has also shined for the Grizzlies in a similar way by fighting over screens and playing on and off ball defense with a concerted effort despite just standing at 5-foot-8.
Kawamura has been a playmaker for the Grizzlies&rsquo; offense and will now be the shortest active player in the NBA &ndash; and the ninth player 5-foot-8 or shorter since the merger.
The Japanese guard&rsquo;s play has caught Memphis&rsquo; eye and this has resulted in a two-way contract. The Grizzlies brought in Kawamura this offseason following a strong performance for Japan at the Olympics, where he nearly led his country to a monumental upset against Victor Wembanyama and hosts France. Kawamura stood tall amongst the giants by pouring in 29 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists despite falling short in the end.
Kawamura averaged 3.4 points, 4.2 assists and 15.1 minutes in preseason, leading Grizzlies with 21 total assists, and has now earned a roster spot.
In other news, the New York Knicks have waived guard Landry Shamet after he suffered a dislocated shoulder.&nbsp;
The Knicks are expected to keep 12 standard roster players and look to bring Shamet back once he recovers after averaging 0.8 PPG on 36% FG and 30% 3PT in the preseason.&nbsp;
The Knicks also waived Chuma Okeke and TJ Warren in the process.

Young point guards Quincy Olivari and Yuki Kawamura have been rewarded by their respective ball clubs after impressing in the preseason.

Olivari, Kawamura get rewarded by Lakers, Grizzlies after strong preseason play

NBA reporter and insider Shams Charania has joined ESPN as the company&rsquo;s Senior NBA insider.
<a href="https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1843349414066434182">Charania announced the news himself in his X account.</a>
The former &lsquo;The Athletic&rsquo; Senior NBA insider has made the switch to the sports giant following the departure of esteemed NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, who retired from the news and journalism industry to be the General Manager of his alma mater St. Bonaventure.
Charania, 30, has built a solid career as one of the most trusted NBA sources for insider info and news, and ESPN snags probably the biggest fish out there for the perfect Woj replacement.
There were sources that ESPN was eyeing certain NBA reporters such as Brian Windhorst, Chris Haynes, Jake Fischer, and Tim Bontemps, but have now ultimately ended with Charania &ndash; as his contract with The Athletic and Stadium expired over the summer.

NBA reporter and insider Shams Charania has joined ESPN as the company’s Senior NBA insider.

Shams Charania joins ESPN as its senior NBA insider

In today&rsquo;s NBA, the league is undeniably dominated by big men. 
The last five MVPs went to Giannis Antetokounmpo (two), Nikola Jokic (two) and Joel Embiid. Rookies Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren stand at a towering 7-foot-4 and 7-foot-1 respectively, and both are starting to make their mark in the NBA.
As the league embraces this new era filled with giants, it is awesome to see the two sub-6-foot guys match up against each other: New Orleans&rsquo; Jose Alvarado and Minnesota&rsquo;s Jordan McLaughlin.
Alvarado and McLaughlin, who are both listed as 5-foot-11 without shoes, have each carved out a role on their squad. The two provide different valuable skills off the bench, and they have been vital pieces to their team&rsquo;s success. 
Alvarado impacts the game on the defensive end by suffocating and pestering ball-handlers. He also comes up with his signature blindside steals, which earned him the nickname Grand Theft Alvarado (GTA). McLaughlin, on the other hand, is a crafty playmaker who sets up the Wolves' offense off the bench and serves as a reliable backup for Mike Conley.&nbsp;
In a league where there are 34 players who are 7-feet or taller this season alone, Alvarado and McLaughlin remain outliers and part of a dying breed.
There are only 12 players who are listed at 6-feet or below in the NBA this season, with the shortest being Markquis Nowell at 5-foot-7 and Jacob Gilyard at 5-foot-8. Together, they represent only 3% of the league population &ndash; which means small guards are largely going extinct in the NBA.
Unless you&rsquo;re an established point guard like Fred VanVleet, Kyle Lowry or Chris Paul, there has been little to no room for these shorter players on NBA rosters.&nbsp;
The current trend of positionless basketball and do-it-all forwards has certainly hurt these smaller guards. Whether it be less reliance on traditional point guards to set up an offense or getting hunted out for switches defensively, teams have been shifting away from said player prototypes. Even a former All-NBA teamer and super scorer like Isaiah Thomas was virtually driven out of the league mainly because of his unfortunate trait of getting exploited on defense due to his height.
Given this, it&rsquo;s impressive how Alvarado and McLaughlin are staying in the league. This could be attributed to their specific skill-sets. Both guys show that short players still have a place in the NBA as long as they provide value and play a certain role effectively and efficiently. In a league where height is often equated to success, it&rsquo;s refreshing to see two sub-6-foot players hold their own on the court.

As sub-6-foot players, New Orleans’ Jose Alvarado and Minnesota’s Jordan McLaughlin are the last of a dying breed.

Jose Alvarado, Jordan McLaughlin are the last of a dying breed

The NBA announced Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma as the NBA Cares Bob Lanier Community Assist Award winner for November for giving back to his hometown of Flint, Michigan and hosting a special event through his foundation (Kyle Kuzma Family Foundation).&nbsp;
Each month, the NBA Cares Bob Lanier Community Assist Award recognizes a player monthly for their outstanding work in the community.
On November 26, Kuzma surprised mothers at the Genesee County Jail in Flint with clothing and gifts for them and their children for the holidays.&nbsp; Kuzma also unveiled Kuz&rsquo;s corner &ndash; two newly renovated jail cells as a part of a larger effort to upgrade the facility&rsquo;s conditions.
In conjunction with the event, Kuzma announced the launch of a special partnership through his foundation with I.G.N.I.T.E. and R.I.S.E. to support residents of the facility for a successful future when they re-enter society.&nbsp; I.G.N.I.T.E&rsquo;s mission is to reverse the cycle of generational incarceration through education by providing residents with valuable job training and skills that they can use upon release to gain employment and reduce the likelihood of reoffending.&nbsp; Since inception in 2020, I.G.N.I.T.E. has provided more than 250,000 hours of educational training to over 2,500 residents leading to a reduction of assaults and violent offenses in the jail by 97%.&nbsp; R.I.S.E.&rsquo;s mission is to ensure that residents in the Genesee County Jail have access to behavioral and social health support services and complements the work of I.G.N.I.T.E.
Also in November, Kuzma and others from Monumental Basketball (Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics, Capital City Go-Go and Wizards District Gaming) partnered to host Thankful Meals presented by CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, a community outreach event to serve Washington D.C.&rsquo;s Ward 7 and Ward 8 residents.&nbsp; Kuzma distributed over 1,500 hot meals from Black-owned restaurant Henry&rsquo;s Soul Caf&eacute;.&nbsp; Those in attendance also went home with a GIANT food store gift card.
&ldquo;Helping to uplift the communities that are special to me is a privilege, so being recognized for that work is a humbling experience, particularly when it takes place during the season of giving,&rdquo; said Kuzma.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m proud to share this honor with my family and support system as well as my teammates and the entire Wizards organization, as all of us are committed to continuing to make a difference in the lives of others.&rdquo;
Kuzma will be recognized in-arena as the NBA Cares Bob Lanier Community Assist Award winner during pre-game of the Dec. 29 Nets-Wizards game.&nbsp; Washington Wizards General Manager Will Dawkins will present him with the award.

The NBA announced Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma as the NBA Cares Bob Lanier Community Assist Award winner for November.

Wizards' Kyle Kuzma wins NBA Cares Bob Lanier Community Assist Award

SlamBall co-founder Mason Gordon spoke to Alex Kennedy about the sport's return, the new season on ESPN and much more.

The return of SlamBall: Co-founder Mason Gordon discusses new season

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

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

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

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

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

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

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) &mdash; For Haley and Hanna Cavinder, the Elite Eight apparently was enough and their time at Miami is over.
The Cavinder twins &mdash; two of the most prominent athletes in the name, image and likeness era of college athletics &mdash; announced Tuesday that they will not return to the Hurricanes next season, ending their Miami tenure after one year with the program.
The Cavinders &mdash; who are 22 and were listed as seniors on the Miami roster &mdash; both played four seasons in college, but they could have played next season, too, because of the NCAA ruling that restored a year of eligibility to all athletes who went through a pandemic-affected season.
They transferred from Fresno State to Miami in April 2022 with hopes of playing in the NCAA Tournament and probably exceeded even their own expectations by helping the Hurricanes fall just short of reaching the Final Four.
&ldquo;We would like to thank our teammates and coaches for bringing us in as family and being part of a historic season,&rdquo; the twins said in a statement. &ldquo;With that being said, Hanna and I have decided to not take our fifth year and start a new chapter in our lives. The U will always be home and we are forever proud to be Hurricanes.&rdquo;
Haley Cavinder ended this season with 2,065 career points, which was 19th-most among all active Division I players. She averaged 12.2 points per game this season, a team best for Miami &mdash; and her 65 makes from 3-point range was another team high, by a wide margin.
Hanna Cavinder averaged 3.8 points this season for Miami. The Hurricanes lost a regional final to eventual national champion LSU, ending the year with a 22-13 record.
The decision was a bit of a surprise, at least from the standpoint of one of the twins. Haley Cavinder said before the NCAA Tournament that she planned to return to the Hurricanes next season for what would have been her final year of collegiate eligibility. Hanna Cavinder said at that time she was leaning toward no longer playing after this season.
And that begged the question: Would one Cavinder twin play without the other? Barring a change of heart, their announcement Tuesday provided the answer.
&ldquo;I love basketball,&rdquo; Hanna Cavinder told The Associated Press last month when she discussed leaning toward not playing. &ldquo;I ride or die basketball. I&rsquo;ve given basketball so much of my life. And sometimes I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;I just want to breathe.&rsquo; I really just want to breathe. I want to live. I don&rsquo;t want to be on a plan. I don&rsquo;t want to be on a schedule. But at the end of the day, I&rsquo;m so competitive in life that I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;m going to regret it or not.&rdquo;
The twins have 4.5 million followers on TikTok, part of their enormous footprint in the social media space. When the NIL era started on July 1, 2021, and NCAA rules began allowing athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, the Cavinders were among the first stars: Boost Mobile signed them immediately, touting the deal with a giant advertisement in New York&rsquo;s Times Square, and many other deals followed.
&ldquo;What started as us playing basketball 16 years ago turned into something bigger than we could ever imagine,&rdquo; the twins said Tuesday.
Their decision to come to Miami was scrutinized, and a probe by the NCAA led to coach Katie Meier missing the first three games of this season through a university-imposed suspension that was handed down in anticipation of sanctions surrounding how the twins and their family met with a Hurricanes booster before signing.
The NCAA probe never accused the Cavinders of wrongdoing. Miami eventually was placed on one year of probation after the school and the NCAA agreed that coaches arranged impermissible contact between the booster and the Cavinders.

The Cavinders — who are 22 and were listed as seniors on the Miami roster — both played four seasons in college.

Cavinder twins say they’re leaving Miami after one season

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) &mdash; Mark Madsen knows the situation he inherited when he was hired to take over a California men&rsquo;s basketball program coming off the worst season in school history.
Instead of focusing on the challenges, Madsen is jumping into the role with the same enthusiasm he had diving on the floor for loose balls as a player.
&ldquo;Having grown up here, I truly believe that Cal is a sleeping giant in terms of men&rsquo;s basketball,&rdquo; Madsen said at his introductory news conference on Monday. &ldquo;This is a sleeping giant. This is a program that can be a nationally ranked program year in and year out. That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m excited about.&rdquo;
Madsen is faced with a tough task, taking over a program that went 3-29 this season, which led to the decision to fire coach Mark Fox.
Cal went 38-87 during Fox&rsquo;s tenure, ending his final season on a 16-game losing streak. The Golden Bears haven&rsquo;t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2016 and haven&rsquo;t won a game in the tournament since 2013.
But Madsen doesn&rsquo;t see this as a long-term project thanks in part the the opportunities that come with the transfer portal.
&ldquo;If you can bring in three or four key pieces there, there&rsquo;s several really good players, really talented players,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a group of really talented players already in the program. So now you add three or four key players from the portal. You add some players that are already in the program from an existing standpoint, and then you bring in a couple of young guys and you make some tweaks. Good things can happen quickly.&rdquo;&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s been a whirlwind few weeks for Madsen. He coached Utah Valley to the NIT semifinals last week, interviewed and was hired by Cal, and had his fourth child when his wife, Hannah, delivered Anastasia on Sunday.
Madsen downplayed the perception that a lack of institutional support &mdash; no dedicated practice facility and an apathetic fan base that led to an average attendance of 2,155 this season for the lowest mark among any team in the Power 5 or Big East &mdash; may hinder success at Cal.
He focused instead on the opportunities at coaching Cal, although those familiar with the program know it will be a challenge.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be very hard. It&rsquo;s going to be difficult,&rdquo; said former Cal star forward Leon Powe. &ldquo;You come here and it&rsquo;s not an easy job, but somebody&rsquo;s got to do it. And if anybody is up to the task, it&rsquo;s Mark. He&rsquo;s really good at motivating people and bringing people together.&rdquo;
Madsen played at Stanford under Mike Montgomery, who later coached at Cal, from 1996 to 2000 and helped the Cardinal reach the Final Four in 1998.
After a nine-year playing career in the NBA that featured two titles as a backup on the Lakers in 2001-02, Madsen went into coaching.
He spent time in the NBA&rsquo;s developmental league and a year at Stanford before spending five seasons on the Lakers staff.
Madsen then was hired in 2019 to take over Utah Valley. He posted a 70-51 record in four years with a 28-9 mark this season and impressed California athletic director Jim Knowlton throughout the search.
&ldquo;He was on our radar weeks before the season ended,&rdquo; Knowlton said. &ldquo;As we continued to do our homework, he rose to the top faster and faster. ... When we finally got to the Zoom calls, we were absolutely blown away. Then when we got in person and spent three or four hours with him, we said, &lsquo;This is the next coach at Cal.&rsquo;&rdquo;
This is a homecoming for Madsen, who grew up a half-hour away in Danville and went to college across the bay at Stanford, where he had fierce battles with Cal against players such as Tony Gonzalez and Sean Lampley.
Madsen is the third prominent coach to flip sides in recent years in the Bay Area rivalry between Cal and Stanford. The Cardinal hired former Cal quarterback Troy Taylor to take over the football program last season and Bears women&rsquo;s basketball coach Charmin Smith played and coached as an assistant at Stanford.
While Madsen acknowledged that the first trip back to Maples Pavilion might be a bit awkward, he&rsquo;s all aboard at his new school as evidenced by the blue and gold tie he wore Monday.
&ldquo;I love my alma mater,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I love where I went to school. I love every experience that I had. But my excitement is for Cal. My excitement is for building this into a championship program.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Madsen is faced with a tough task, taking over a program that went 3-29 this season, which led to the decision to fire coach Mark Fox.

Mark Madsen hired to restore ‘sleeping giant’ at Cal

LAS VEGAS (AP) &mdash; March has gone from madness to unprecedented.
With Miami&rsquo;s win over Houston and San Diego State&rsquo;s takedown of Alabama on Friday night, the men&rsquo;s NCAA Tournament will not have a No. 1 seed in the Elite Eight for the first time since seeding began in 1979.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s not a lot of difference between the best team in the country and the worst team in the country,&rdquo; San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re seeing that on this stage.&rdquo;
Purdue, Kansas, Houston and Alabama are all gone, ensuring the Final Four will not have a No. 1 team for the first time since 2011 and the third overall. The four teams deemed by the NCAA to be the best in the country combined to win five tournament games this year, the fewest by three among No. 1 seeds since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Texas is the lone No. 2 seed remaining after bouncing Xavier out of the bracket 83-71 Friday night under interim coach Rodney Terry. The fewest combined No. 1-2 seeds in the Elite Eight before this year was two (three times).
How crazy has it been? The national title game is guaranteed to have at least one of these teams: San Diego State, Creighton, Florida Atlantic or Kansas State. The Aztecs, Bluejays and Owls have never been to the Elite Eight. The Wildcats were picked to finish last in the Big 12.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s also a lock the winning coach will be a first-time champion.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot of really good programs in the country that have lost &mdash; I mean, we could go down the list of them,&rdquo; Alabama coach Nate Oats said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what makes the NCAA Tournament the NCAA Tournament. They&rsquo;re all good teams.&rdquo;
The madness started in the opening round of the East Region, when fairytale Fairleigh Dickinson wrecked brackets around the world by becoming the second No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1.
Goodbye, Purdue.
Arkansas was the next giant killer, taking down reigning national champion and West Region No. 1 seed Kansas in the second round.
The Sweet 16 turned sour on Friday for Alabama, the bracket&rsquo;s No. 1 overall seed. The Crimson Tide were no match for Dutcher&rsquo;s ball-and-body-hawking San Diego State Aztecs in a 71-64 South Region loss in Louisville, Kentucky. San Diego State is the first Mountain West Conference school to reach the Elite Eight.
Miami capped the No. 1 carnage in the Midwest Region by taking apart one of the nation&rsquo;s stingiest defenses in a 89-75 win over Houston in Kansas City, Missouri that had Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga dancing in the locker room.
&ldquo;Unfortunately, one off-night and you go home in this tournament,&rdquo; Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson said.
On to an Elite Eight unlike any other.
___
AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report.

The Men’s NCAA Tournament will not have a No. 1 seed in the Elite Eight for the first time since seeding began in 1979.

Crazy Eight: No top seeds among last 8 in March Madness

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) &mdash; The best story in this NCAA Tournament is a fairly ridiculous one.
For years, outsiders and even some of Fairleigh Dickinson&rsquo;s proud alumni have called the private, commuter school in Teaneck, New Jersey, by another name &mdash; an inside joke and pet moniker suggesting a reputation for partying.
Fairly Ridiculous. You bet.
That would certainly describe what the Knights, college basketball&rsquo;s smallest squad which includes some Division II players brought to FDU by Tobin Anderson, the team&rsquo;s fast-talking, first-year vagabond coach, have accomplished in a few days.
From underdogs to overnight sensations. March madmen.
Only in the NCAA field due to a technicality, Fairleigh Dickinson, which went 4-22 last season, won a First Four game in Dayton before the Friday night stunning 63-58 win over top-seeded Purdue. It was just the second No. 16 seed win over a No. 1 seed in men&rsquo;s tourney history.
The Knights awakened Saturday to a new world.
&ldquo;Life changing,&rdquo; said FDU forward Sean Moore, who scored 19 points and blocked a layup in the final seconds to help seal the win over Purdue. &ldquo;That whole game has changed everybody on our team, staff, students, everybody who goes to Fairleigh Dickinson University.
&ldquo;Everything is different now. Phone has been going crazy, still is.&rdquo;
Same for Anderson, who spent much of his morning doing national TV interviews following an upset that reverberated across the sports world.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got, like, 1,200 unanswered texts right now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The problem each time I look at my phone it&rsquo;s more and more. My message, if anybody&rsquo;s listening, stop texting right now. Give me a chance to catch up.&rdquo;
Using their superior speed and quickness at both ends of the floor to fluster the Big Ten champion Boilermakers, FDU&rsquo;s players brought Purdue 7-foot-4 star center Zach Edey down to their level and advanced in the East Region.
On Sunday, the Knights (21-15) will face No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic (32-3), which nipped Memphis 66-65 in the final seconds late Friday night, for a spot in next week&rsquo;s Sweet 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
That possibility is almost too much for the 51-year-old Anderson to fathom.
&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t have to fly back to Jersey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I could jog back, take off running, be like Forrest Gump or something. That would be incredible.&rdquo;
Incredible may have already happened. FDU&rsquo;s feel-good story seems to have been pulled from a Hollywood movie script.
Over the past few days, Anderson, who was born in Iowa, played college ball in Connecticut and started his coaching career bouncing from one small college to another in upstate New York, has referenced &ldquo;Hoosiers&rdquo; several times. There are indeed parallels to the famous Indiana high school hoops miracle and what FDU is doing.
In May, Anderson took over a program in need of a massive renovation. Just hours after he was hired at Fairleigh Dickinson, he held his first practice and quickly realized the job would require patience along with an influx of talent.
He knew just where to find some, convincing four players on his team at St. Thomas Aquinas College, a Division-II power about 15 miles from New York, to join him at FDU.
One of them to make the leap was 5-foot-8 guard Demetre Roberts.
&ldquo;Coming out of high school, not having no D-I looks, I didn&rsquo;t pout,&rdquo; said Roberts, who had 12 points, four rebounds and four assists against Purdue. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t sit around and mope all day. I trusted coach. I trusted him all the way and I&rsquo;m still with him. And five years later, I&rsquo;m still here.&rdquo;
Not only did Anderson&rsquo;s sales pitch to enroll at FDU work, so did his proposal to the Knights on how to beat Purdue. They took the floor fully confident they could contain Edey despite being outsized, a 23 1/2 point underdog and a statistically deficient team.
&ldquo;We felt we could beat them ever since we were watching film, trying to prepare for them,&rdquo; said 6-foot-6 center Ansley Almonor, FDU&rsquo;s tallest player. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all close. We&rsquo;re like brothers. That was just a regular game for us.
&ldquo;We felt we could go out there and beat them, and that&rsquo;s what we did.&rdquo;
The fact that the Knights are even in the tournament is another twist in their captivating tale. By all rights, they&rsquo;re a No 17 seed.
FDU lost the Northeast Conference tournament title game 67-66, but still received the league&rsquo;s automatic bid because champion Merrimack remains ineligible for postseason play after moving up from Division II to Division I.
Now, the Knights, who opened the tourney with an easy win over Texas Southern in Dayton, are 40 minutes and one win from being one of the last 16 teams standing.
Beating FAU, a team with a similar playing style and swagger to FDU&rsquo;s, will be tall task. But after taking out one of the nation&rsquo;s top players &mdash; a literal giant &mdash; nothing seems too big for this group.
&ldquo;They&rsquo;re not huge,&rdquo; Anderson said of the Owls. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re still bigger than us. Who is not bigger? There&rsquo;s five guys in the hallway bigger than us. But we&rsquo;ve got to box out, rebound, be tough, be scrappy.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have to play really, really well, compete our tails off and hope they&rsquo;re maybe not quite as sharp. That&rsquo;s just the way it is. And it worked last night. We&rsquo;re hoping that it will help us tomorrow.&rdquo;

Only in the NCAA Tournament due to a technicality, Fairleigh Dickinson, which went 4-22 last season, has shocked the world.

FDU goes from underdog to overnight sensation with NCAA wins

Add Fairleigh Dickinson to the list of giant-killing New Jersey schools in March Madness.
The 16th-seeded Knights pulled off a mammoth upset Friday night, upsetting&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/no-16-fairleigh-dickinson-stuns-no-1-seed-purdue-in-march-madness" target="_blank" rel="noopener">top-seeded Purdue 63-58</a>&nbsp;in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Undersized FDU played big against the Boilermakers and became only the second No. 16 seed to topple a No. 1 seed.&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/ncaa-tournament-umbc-no-1-seeds-march-madness-df6c353dc4ff76ec99278efd69a8b454" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maryland-Baltimore County was the first,</a>&nbsp;knocking off Virginia in 2018.
FDU&rsquo;s win blew up&nbsp;most of the remaining brackets.&nbsp;Just who are these guys?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Entering today, only .065% of March Madness brackets remained perfect. Now, after No. 16 FDU&rsquo;s upset victory over No. 1 Purdue, there are ZERO perfect brackets remaining in ESPN&rsquo;s bracket challenge. There were more than 20 million entries, but they&rsquo;re all busted by Day 2. 😅
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1636902393366433793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2023</a></blockquote>

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WHERE IS FDU?
The school has&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.fdu.edu/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">two campuses in New Jersey</a>: Teaneck and Florham. The school&rsquo;s website list a total enrollment of 11,400 students, though U.S. News &amp; World Report lists the number as 7,860 as of fall 2021. The Teaneck campus is close to New York City; the Florham campus is on a former country estate of socialites Florence Vanderbilt and Hamilton Twombly. FDU has owned the campus since 1958. FDU also has campuses in Wroxton, England, and Vancouver, British Columbia.
WHAT&rsquo;S FDU KNOWN FOR?
Founded in 1942, notable alumni include billionaire and NFL Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf; Peggy Noonan, journalist and speechwriter to former President Ronald Reagan; former college basketball coach and ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg; and U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Delaware Democrat.
WHO ARE THE FDU STARS?
Demetre Robinson (16.6 points per game), Grant Singleton (14.3), Ansley Almonor (14.1) and Joe Munden Jr. (10.6). Sean Moore, the Knights&rsquo; leading scorer in the Purdue game with 19 points, came in averaging 6.7.
HOW DID THE KNIGHTS GET HERE?
FSU&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/fairleigh-dickinson-merrimack-664ffd8a126a62c7dec293f536924ac1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost in the Northeast Conference Tournament final to Merrimack by a single point</a>&nbsp;but got the automatic bid to the NCAA tourney because Merrimack wasn&rsquo;t eligible as it transitions to Division I.&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/fairleigh-dickinson-texas-southern-ncaa-446ebf664cbbba7960caeaf2f52fe6d4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FDU routed Texas Southern in the First Four play-in round</a>&nbsp;to earn a date against Purdue.
DID YOU KNOW?
The FDU win is just the latest in eye-catching victories by New Jersey schools.
A year ago, Saint Peter&rsquo;s toppled No. 2 seed Kentucky in overtime to bust a bunch of brackets and then&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-purdue-boilermakers-mens-basketball-st-peters-peacocks-mens-basketball-sports-college-basketball-20b5611db138644c0ff32550749e11a9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">became the first 15-seed to reach the Elite Eight</a>&nbsp;by beating ... Purdue. FDU&rsquo;s shocker also came just one day after No. 15 seed Princeton ousted No. 2 seed Arizona, 59-55.

Here's everything you need to know about No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson after they pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history.

March Madness: Where and what is Fairleigh Dickinson?

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) &mdash; Fairleigh Dickinson brought down a giant.
Pulling off one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament history, the undersized, underdog Knights stunned top-seeded Purdue 63-58 on Friday night, becoming the second No. 16 seed to win a game in March Madness.
The shortest team in the tourney, the Knights (21-15) showed no fear in swarming 7-foot-4 All-America center Zach Edey from the start and simply outplayed the Big Ten champion Boilermakers (29-6).
&ldquo;If we played them 100 times, they&rsquo;d probably beat us 99 times,&rdquo; FDU coach Tobin Anderson said. &ldquo;Play them 100 times, we have one win. But tonight&rsquo;s the one we had to be unique, we had to be unorthodox. We had to make it tough on them, just be different.&rdquo;
Sean Moore scored 19 points to lead FDU and a relentless defensive charge &mdash; the Knight pressed most of the game &mdash; by a team that now has everyone&rsquo;s attention.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
No. 16 FDU pulls off the upset over No. 1 Purdue! <a href="https://t.co/TgqzuzTVmi">pic.twitter.com/TgqzuzTVmi</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1636898050625921030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Five years ago, UMBC showed the way for the little guys by overwhelming Virginia in the first 16-over-1 victory after numerous close calls over the years. Still, No. 16s had a 1-150 record against No. 1s and were 1-151 overall before FDU&rsquo;s shocker.
After the final horn, FDU&rsquo;s players mobbed each other on the floor of Nationwide Arena, where the fans from Memphis and Florida Atlantic who were waiting for the day&rsquo;s final game joined forces in cheering on the Knights in the final, frantic minutes.
The Knights will now meet the Memphis-FAU winner on Sunday for a Sweet 16 berth and a trip next week to play at Madison Square Garden in New York &mdash; just a short drive from the private school&rsquo;s campus in Teaneck, New Jersey.
&ldquo;Man, I can&rsquo;t even explain it,&rdquo; Moore said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still in shock right now. I can&rsquo;t believe it. It&rsquo;s crazy. But it feels amazing.&rdquo;
Fairleigh Dickinson didn&rsquo;t even win the Northeast Conference Tournament, falling by one point in the title game to Merrimack, which couldn&rsquo;t participate in the NCAA Tournament because of an NCAA rule that bars it from the postseason because it&rsquo;s still completing its four-year transition from Division II.
FDU held Purdue scoreless for more than 5 1/2 minutes down the stretch and moved ahead by five on a 3-pointer by Moore &mdash; who is from suburban Columbus &mdash; with 1:03 left.
The Knights held on from there, becoming the third straight double-digit seed to send the Boilermakers home. Purdue was a No. 3 seed when it lost to No. 15 seed Saint Peter&rsquo;s, another small New Jersey school, in the Sweet 16 last year. The Boilermakers were bounced in the first round by 13th-seeded North Texas in 2021.
&ldquo;Our job was just to come into the game and throw a punch,&rdquo; said FDU&rsquo;s Demetre Roberts, 20 inches shorter than Edey. &ldquo;We knew they would throw multiple punches. Just throw a punch back. We knew what type of game this was.&rdquo;
Edey finished with 21 point and 15 rebounds in what may have been his final college game, but the Knights were masterful against him in the second half. Edey didn&rsquo;t attempt a shot in the final nine minutes, and anytime he touched the ball there were Knights all around him.
&ldquo;A lot of times they would have one dude guarding from behind and one dude basically sitting in my lap,&rdquo; Edey said. &ldquo;They were full fronting the entire game. Made it very hard to get catches. Credit to them, they had a great game plan coming in. And they executed it very well.&rdquo;
When Purdue&rsquo;s late push fell short and its season ended, Edey squeezed the shoulder straps on his jersey and walked stone-faced toward Purdue&rsquo;s locker room.
The junior center is a possible NBA lottery pick, but the bitterness of this defeat could sway Edey to stick around for another year.
&ldquo;I have no opinion on that,&rdquo; Edey said when asked about his future. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll make my decision going forward.&rdquo;
The Knights&rsquo; two prior NCAA Tournament wins came in the First Four, including this year, when they drubbed Texas Southern 84-61. After that game, Anderson told his players he believed they could handle Edey and Co.
&ldquo;The more I see Purdue, the more I think we can beat them,&rdquo; Anderson said with a camera in the locker room.
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FDU Tobin Anderson called it! &ldquo;The more I watch Purdue, the more I think we can beat them. Let&rsquo;s go shock the world!&rdquo; No. 16 FDU did just that, beating No. 1 Purdue 63-58 in the NCAA Tournament. <a href="https://t.co/s3r9Wqoqny">pic.twitter.com/s3r9Wqoqny</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1636900043142602753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Some of Purdue&rsquo;s players said they felt disrespected by the comments, which turned out to be prophetic.
&ldquo;It was the right message, wrong audience,&rdquo; Anderson said. &ldquo;I would have said that with no camera in there. I didn&rsquo;t mean to get Purdue upset. That was not the idea at all. But that&rsquo;s got to be the message. We&rsquo;re trying to win the next game. We just can&rsquo;t be happy to be here.&rdquo;
&ldquo;And the guys gotta believe.&rdquo;
Just being in the tourney was quite an accomplishment for FDU, which went 4-22 a year ago.
This was Anderson&rsquo;s first season at the school, and after he landed the job in May, he held a practice the first night just so he knew what he had to work with from a team that had the second-worst record in the program&rsquo;s 58-year history.
It wasn&rsquo;t a lot, so he brought three players &mdash; Roberts, Grant Singleton and Moore &mdash; along with him from Division II power St. Thomas Aquinas.
Turns out, they&rsquo;re giant slayers.
And it was the Boilermakers, not the undersized Knights, who were scrambling from the opening tip.
Purdue may have had Fairleigh Dickinson outsized on the floor and in the stands as a boisterous group of Boilermakers fans gave their team what felt like a home-court advantage despite being 240 miles from West Lafayette, Indiana.
However, when the Knights&rsquo; Joe Munden drained a step-back 3-pointer in the first half, &ldquo;F-D-U!&rdquo; chants broke out inside the arena and it became obvious this small team had big dreams.
Without a player on its roster taller than 6-foot-6, Fairleigh Dickinson sometimes needed two players to guard Edey &mdash; one in front and one behind &mdash; and he missed his first three shots before a dunk.
Edey showed some frustration and at one point told one of the officials, &ldquo;Sir, he&rsquo;s holding my left arm.&rdquo;
Purdue eventually settled in and reeled off 11 straight points &mdash; four on Edey free throws &mdash; to take 24-19 lead. The Knights, though, responded with their own spurt and Heru Bligen&rsquo;s layup after a steal helped FDU take a 32-31 into halftime.
Roberts finished with 12 points and 6-4 forward Cameron Tweedy had 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting for FDU.

Pulling off one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament history, undersized, underdog FDU stunned top-seeded Purdue 63-58.

No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson stuns No. 1 seed Purdue in March Madness

Arizona and Virginia rightfully lay claim to proud college basketball traditions, whether you&rsquo;re talking about the Wildcats winning the national championship in 1997, the Cavaliers doing it 22 years later or the many stars the programs have sent to the NBA and overseas.
They also have developing reputations for NCAA Tournament&nbsp;disappointments.
The&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/princeton-stuns-arizona-5955-in-march-madness" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stunning loss by second-seeded Arizona</a>&nbsp;to No. 15 seed Princeton on Thursday, and&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/pegues-three-gives-no-13-seed-furman-6867-win-over-virginia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fourth-seeded Virginia&rsquo;s collapse</a>&nbsp;in the closing seconds against Furman, were merely the latest examples of their humiliating March heartbreaks.
The Wildcats have been bounced by teams seeded worse than them in five consecutive NCAA tourney trips, while the Cavaliers were bumped by a No. 13 seed for the second straight year and&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/ncaa-tournament-umbc-no-1-seeds-march-madness-df6c353dc4ff76ec99278efd69a8b454" target="_blank" rel="noopener">five years to the day since becoming the only No. 1 seed to lose to a 16-seed.</a>
&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t take away from what these guys have done and what we&rsquo;ve experienced over the years, but you wanted it when you felt like you had it, and that was a tough one,&rdquo; Cavs coach Tony Bennett acknowledged after the 68-67 loss to the Paladins, who essentially won by cashing in a turnover with a deep 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left on the clock.
Bennett knows as well as anyone that agonizing notoriety is easy to earn and brutally difficult to overcome.
Doesn&rsquo;t matter that the names and faces change from year to year.
The Cavaliers were Final Four favorites when they arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina, for their&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/umbcs-legacy-no-1-can-mean-oneanddone-in-march-madness" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first-round game against UMBC in 2018</a>. Forty painful minutes later, they were saddled with&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/umbcs-legacy-no-1-can-mean-oneanddone-in-march-madness" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a lopsided 74-54 loss</a>&nbsp;and the ignominity of becoming the first men&rsquo;s team &mdash; after 135 wins by a No. 1 seed &mdash; to lose to one of the four lowest-seeded teams in the tournament.
Most hoops fans remember the upset vividly, perhaps more than the national title the Cavs won a year later.
&ldquo;I would just say everybody at this level is good,&rdquo; Virginia guard Isaac McKneely offered by way of explanation. &ldquo;I know there&rsquo;s the seeding and all that, but everybody can beat everybody, as obviously you&rsquo;ve seen.&rdquo;
If misery loves company, the Wildcats can relate.
Since losing in the regional final to Wisconsin in 2015, Arizona has been knocked out of the opening round three times despite being seeded sixth or better each time &mdash; the first two with Sean Miller on the sideline and the most recent, a 59-55 defeat on Thursday in which No. 15 seed Princeton scored the final nine points, with Tommy Lloyd running the show.
The run of disappointments began with a loss to No. 11 seed Wichita State in 2016. It continued against No. 11 seed Xavier in a regional semifinal the next year. The fourth-seeded Wildcats lost to No. 13 seed Buffalo in 2018 and, as a trendy title pick as a No. 1 seed last year, fell to fifth-seeded Houston in another regional semifinal.
Just how easy can the stink of an upset loss settle on even the bluest of bluebloods?&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-bracket-kansas-alabama-12476411b0da681b21df9281a8332196" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Just ask Kansas.</a>
Two years after playing for the 2003 national championship, the Jayhawks were dumped by No. 14 seed Bucknell and No. 13 seed Bradley in consecutive years. Their still-new coach, Bill Self, came to rue the &ldquo;Killer B&rsquo;s,&rdquo; and not even a run to the Elite Eight could shake the questions about whether he could get it done in Lawrence.
He could, of course. The Jayhawks won the 2008 title and are&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-north-carolina-tar-heels-mens-basketball-kansas-jayhawks-mens-basketball-sports-kansas-40ab6459e3d3ee23ad12c649db44f78e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the defending national champions</a>.
Winning a national title is about the only thing missing from the resume of Gonzaga coach Mark Few, but it might take one for the Bulldogs to shake an uneasy March reputation for underachievement. They have been a No. 1 seed on five occassions, and twice reached the title game, but have become known as much for their losses as their wins.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been in enough of those 1-16 games and you&rsquo;re like, &lsquo;Holy smokes,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Few, whose team plays Grand Canyon on Friday night. &ldquo;Last year, I walked out for the tip and Georgia State, I think they were bigger than us at dang-near every position. And I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;This is a 16-seed?&rsquo; I think that&rsquo;s kind of where we are right now.&rdquo;
Plenty of schools have positive reputations come March.
Princeton has been known as a giant killer ever since its backdoor-cutting, first-round upset of UCLA&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/sacramento-kings-nba-sports-march-madness-mens-e32cb5ff7350f08c976ccc96f0a78dca" target="_blank" rel="noopener">under Pete Carril</a>&nbsp;in 1996, when current coach Mitch Henderson was playing for the Tigers. And while they beat UNLV as a No. 5 seed two years later, the Tigers had failed to reach the second round for another 25 years &mdash; until Thursday&rsquo;s win over Arizona.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s going to be some comparisons from some of you, I&rsquo;m sure, to Coach Carril. I want to be really clear that this group did this,&rdquo; Henderson said. &ldquo;That was a really long time ago. This group did something special for its university, for the fans, for the former players and for one another. Very similar way that you see in the tournament, they just came together and did it.&rdquo;

Arizona and Virginia were eliminated by underdogs on Thursday, the latest examples of their humiliating March Madness heartbreaks.

Arizona, Virginia add to reputations for March sadness

DALLAS (AP) &mdash; Kyrie Irving isn&rsquo;t interested in talking about what his long-term future could be with the Dallas Mavericks, and he doesn&rsquo;t understand why people don&rsquo;t think he can play well off the ball.
&ldquo;All I know, this is really playing basketball with a lot of high-level, high-IQ players and making it work,&rdquo; Irving said before his first home game Monday with the Mavericks and All-Star teammate Luka Doncic. &ldquo;Every single time I step foot out there, I get a chance to prove it to myself that I can play with anybody and everybody and still be efficient and be myself.&rdquo;
Irving&rsquo;s home debut in Dallas came a week after the blockbuster deal became official to bring the potential free agent from the Brooklyn Nets.&nbsp;The Mavericks lost 124-121&nbsp;to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who held on even as Irving scored 26 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter.
The first three games for Irving with the Mavs were on the road, and he played with Doncic for the first time Saturday night &mdash;&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/dallas-mavericks-sacramento-kings-nba-sports-deaaron-fox-13409941fa60c60c1528d0ea68ef3a41" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Irving had 28 points and Doncic 27 in an overtime loss at Sacramento</a>. Doncic had 33 points against Minnesota.
As for what happens after this season, the talented and enigmatic eight-time All-Star said that question constantly getting asked just puts unwanted distractions on him and the team.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve dealt with it before and it&rsquo;s very emotionally draining to ask questions about what&rsquo;s the long term,&rdquo; Irving said. &ldquo;What the future holds is really only going to be dictated on what I do right now, and how I prepare for those next steps, and that&rsquo;s being the best teammate that I can in that locker room and a great leader out here, I think within the Dallas community. ... So we&rsquo;re just putting that to bed and just focus on what we have ahead as a team.&rdquo;
The Mavericks, with 23 games remaining, are part of a crowded mix for a playoff spot. They are tied for fifth in the Western Conference, only 2 1/2 games ahead of 11th place &mdash; the first spot left out of the postseason.
When Dallas general manager Nico Harrison was asked his response to people who viewed the acquisition of Irving and his expiring contract as a risk, the former Nike executive, who already had a relationship with the player, said that wasn&rsquo;t the case.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see any risk involved at all. I&rsquo;ve known Kyrie for a long time, I know his core, I know what what type of person is. I think anybody who&rsquo;s ever watched him play basketball knows the type of basketball player he is,&rdquo; Harrison said. &ldquo;So I don&rsquo;t see risk. I actually see a risk in not doing it.&rdquo;
Irving smiled and responded, &ldquo;touch&eacute;,&rdquo; then adding that he appreciated their relationship and that it was now up to him to prove it &ldquo;and control what I can control.&rdquo;
Dallas also got Markieff Morris in the trade&nbsp;that sent Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2029 first-round pick and two second-round choices to the Nets.
Irving had a relationship with Nike for the entirety of his NBA career until earlier this season, when the sneaker giant dropped him &mdash; and canceled the planned release of his next signature shoe just before it came out &mdash; after Irving tweeted a link to an antisemitic film.
&ldquo;I would love to be well-liked by everybody. ... Oh, that&rsquo;s just not it. That&rsquo;s just not for I think anyone in this room,&rdquo; Irving said. &ldquo;But the genuine love that you have in your heart is the only thing that you can really control. I have open dialogue with everybody that spends time with me, wants to have conversation, wants to ask me questions.&rdquo;
For those who don&rsquo;t like him, he said he wishes them well.
&ldquo;But I have a life to live and I have kids to raise,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So I don&rsquo;t really have the energy to sit and focus on things I can&rsquo;t control.&rdquo;

Kyrie Irving isn’t interested in talking about what his long-term future could be with the Dallas Mavericks.

After trade to Mavs, Kyrie Irving doesn't want to talk about future

Courtside seats 166 and 167 at the arena where the Los Angeles Lakers play their home games are pretty much as good as it gets.
The people occupying those chairs when LeBron James breaks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar&rsquo;s NBA scoring record will have an up-close view, with their feet on the very hardwood where the history-making shot happens.
History, in this case, comes with a cost.
On Monday, those seats for Tuesday&rsquo;s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder could have been had for $75,000 &mdash; each. Total price for the two seats with Ticketmaster fees: $181,500. And there&rsquo;s no guarantee James will even break the record Tuesday; in fact, at his current scoring pace, he would be just shy of the mark when the Thunder game ends.
Which is why those same seats are even pricier Thursday for the Lakers&rsquo; next game against the Milwaukee Bucks &mdash; the two teams Abdul-Jabbar played for during his Hall of Fame career. For that game: $242,000, including the fees. But history suggests prices will come down; industry experts have long said extravagantly priced tickets rarely fetch the giant number listed.
Don&rsquo;t be mistaken, though. The best seats will still cost plenty.
&ldquo;For the game on Thursday, we did sell a pair of tickets, courtside seats, for $24,000 a ticket, $48,000 total,&rdquo; said Kyle Zorn, a brand manager at the online ticket marketplace TickPick. &ldquo;I feel like people are betting on the storyline that he does it against Kareem&rsquo;s former team, but he could easily score 36 points Tuesday and then the market for the game Thursday could completely crash.&rdquo;
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Whenever the record falls &mdash; maybe Tuesday, maybe Thursday, and it&rsquo;s doubtful the chase goes past that unless James isn&rsquo;t playing for some reason &mdash; it will be an event.
The NBA has already changed the national television schedule for Tuesday, rearranging things to get the Lakers-Thunder game into the second slot of the usual TNT doubleheader for that night &mdash; with Commissioner Adam Silver saying the league wanted to make sure it got as many eyeballs on the record-breaking moment as possible.
The Lakers will be back on TNT against the Bucks on Thursday, plus have another national TV audience awaiting Saturday when they visit Golden State on ABC. Those were previously scheduled that way, no rearranging required.
Silver said the NBA will pay tribute when James passes Abdul-Jabbar&rsquo;s total of 38,387 points, with likely a larger-scale celebration of the record at All-Star weekend in Salt Lake City later this month.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt we will stop that game and make sure we record for history, the ball, the basket, the uniform,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll stop and make sure that we&rsquo;ve done our jobs as the archivists of the NBA. At the same time, there&rsquo;s that balance that they will be playing against a team that will very much want to win that night and not be distracted. Most likely we will do something in the moment.&rdquo;
Common sense will likely prevail there: If James gets the record with a minute to go in a close game, for example, the NBA probably won&rsquo;t interrupt the proceedings with a lengthy stoppage. If it happens early, a brief halting of play wouldn&rsquo;t be unprecedented.
But for those who want to see it all happen in person, whether that&rsquo;s from courtside seats or the upper levels of the arena, it&rsquo;ll still cost a pretty penny.
Speaking Monday, and with the market likely to fluctuate until game time, Zorn said the cheapest get-in-the-door price for Tuesday&rsquo;s game was around $176 &mdash; about half what it was a week ago, with most people guessing the record falls against the Bucks &mdash; and $796 for Thursday&rsquo;s game.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s weird how prices for the game on Tuesday have decreased so significantly, as if it&rsquo;s like a guarantee that he&rsquo;s breaking it on Thursday,&rdquo; Zorn said.
Many price points are likely out of reach for most fans. Then again, if there&rsquo;s a Thunder fan in L.A. who really wants to see their team, they might just want to wait for March 24. The Thunder will be back that night.
Cheapest ticket right now for that game &mdash; about $60.
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Tickets for the upcoming Los Angeles Lakers games with LeBron James about to break the NBA scoring record are skyrocketing.

Ticket demand, anticipation grows as LeBron nears Kareem

Pat Riley remembers just about every detail surrounding the events of Dec. 29, 1961. It was a cold night in Schenectady, New York. A little snowy, the roads a little icy. And when the bus carrying the opposing team from New York City arrived, all of Riley&rsquo;s Linton High teammates peered out the window.
They saw a giant.
Long before Riley and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were winning NBA championships together as coach and player with the Showtime-era Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s, they were opponents. Riley and Linton beat Power Memorial and Lew Alcindor &mdash; Abdul-Jabbar&rsquo;s name before converting to Islam &mdash; 74-68 that night.
Abdul-Jabbar, then a 6-foot-10 freshman, was held to eight points because he spent virtually the entire game in foul trouble. He has told Riley several times over the years that Linton won because Riley&rsquo;s father &mdash; a lifelong baseball man &mdash; had his umpiring friends refereeing the game.
&ldquo;Which we did,&rdquo; Riley acknowledges.
Riley knew it then and came to appreciate it even more years later &mdash; there were only a few ways to stop the player who would eventually spend nearly four decades as the most prolific scorer in NBA history. Abdul-Jabbar is on the verge of being passed by the Lakers&rsquo; LeBron James, the 38-year-old who was nearly nine months from being born when the unforgettable center made one of his signature sky hooks on April 5, 1984 to overtake Wilt Chamberlain and become the league&rsquo;s scoring leader.
&ldquo;Kareem was a guy that never had any potential. He just had greatness,&rdquo; said Riley, now the president of the Miami Heat and one of the few who has worked with both Abdul-Jabbar and James. &ldquo;You could see that. When you can bypass potential and you move right to greatness as a high school player, and then college and then the pros ... there are very few like him. There&rsquo;s a handful. Two handfuls, at the most.&rdquo;
James is one of them, going from high school straight to the NBA, and now in his 20th season, he is now just 63 points away from passing Abdul-Jabbar&rsquo;s record. The Lakers play Saturday at New Orleans.
The most realistic target for the record-breaker is Tuesday in Los Angeles against Oklahoma City or &mdash; perhaps symbolically &mdash; next Thursday in L.A. when the Lakers play host to the Milwaukee Bucks, the team that Abdul-Jabbar started his NBA career with.
This past October, Abdul-Jabbar &mdash; on his Substack page where he discusses and offers opinion on a variety of topics, often nothing to do with sports &mdash; wrote that when James passed Kobe Bryant for No. 3 on the all-time scoring list in 2020, he &ldquo;knew it was just a matter of time before he passed me too.&rdquo;
Abdul-Jabbar added that every time a record is broken, all people are elevated.
&ldquo;When I broke Wilt Chamberlain&rsquo;s scoring record in 1984 &mdash; the year LeBron was born &mdash; it bothered Wilt, who&rsquo;d had a bit of a one-sided rivalry with me since I&rsquo;d started doing so well in the NBA,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel that way toward LeBron. Not only will I celebrate his accomplishment, I will sing his praises unequivocally.&rdquo;
The relationship between Abdul-Jabbar and James seems complicated. Abdul-Jabbar was outside of the Cleveland locker room during the 2016 Eastern Conference finals as James was jogging by; the two embraced and shared a few kind words, prompting James to discuss the respect he has for Abdul-Jabbar and others who paved the way in his postgame remarks.
Abdul-Jabbar also has lauded James &ldquo;as a community leader and athlete.&rdquo; But he criticized James for not doing more with his platform to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. And earlier this season, James said he has &ldquo;no relationship&rdquo; with Abdul-Jabbar.
There are ties that bind them, though. Both are champions. Both have worked to promote social justice and spoken out against racial inequality. Abdul-Jabbar played 20 years in the NBA; James is in Year 20. Abdul-Jabbar set the record while playing for the Lakers; James will do the same.
And If nothing else, James&rsquo; pursuit of the record may have exposed a generation or two that never saw Abdul-Jabbar play to how great he was.
&ldquo;We have to always acknowledge those who come before us, those who&rsquo;ve paved the way,&rdquo; Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. &ldquo;You think of all those points Kareem scored and he had, what, one 3-pointer? You think about all of that, and these kids get to learn about a different era. It&rsquo;s high, high-level education in the game of basketball, particularly NBA basketball.&rdquo;
When Abdul-Jabbar broke the record, Riley said Magic Johnson &mdash; then the Lakers&rsquo; point guard &mdash; made sure he was the one who got the assist on the play. Johnson nearly put himself back into the game against Utah in Las Vegas that night when Abdul-Jabbar was two points away.
Years later, when the Lakers from those championship teams of that era gathered in Hawaii last summer for a reunion, Abdul-Jabbar was a day late because of personal matters. The Lakers in 2022 celebrated his arrival the same way they did the record-setter in 1984.
&ldquo;He felt special because he was special, because he is special,&rdquo; Riley said of the man who once stood shoulder-to-shoulder alongside an embattled Muhammad Ali during the boxing champ&rsquo;s legal troubles in the late 1960s, and counted Bill Russell &mdash; another basketball giant and social-change champion &mdash; as a mentor. &ldquo;He was treated as the patriarch by all the players. It was a great week for him. He was engaged, came to everything we did, gave some spontaneous talks. And he&rsquo;s a shy guy, but he felt very comfortable in his group.&rdquo;
Riley coached Abdul-Jabbar in Los Angeles and later lured James to Miami for a four-year run starting in 2010. He sees in James much of what he saw in Alcindor when that bus pulled into Schenectady in 1961.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all about LeBron right now, and it should be, with his unique career and unique opportunity to do this,&rdquo; Riley said. &ldquo;Training, travel, personal chefs, personal trainers, all that stuff has come into play since Kareem. I hope people realize Kareem&rsquo;s story as well and how different it was. He went to college for four years; LeBron came out of high school. But they both dominated from Day 1. They both turned potential into greatness from Day 1.&rdquo;

After LeBron passed Kobe in all-time scoring, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar "knew it was just a matter of time before [LeBron] passed me too.”

Pat Riley: Kareem never had potential, ‘only greatness’

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; The home of the Miami Heat has yet another name: Miami-Dade Arena.
That will be the temporary moniker for the building where the NBA team plays its home games, while the search for a more permanent naming-rights partner commences.
The Heat and Miami-Dade County announced the new name Friday, two days after a bankruptcy court terminated the county's naming rights deal with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-england-patriots-business-fraud-recessions-and-depressions-bankruptcy-93cc19a4cd06e97a697bf86b010c94dc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX</a>. A county official had said earlier in the week that it would be referred to as &ldquo;the Arena," though those plans quickly changed.
&ldquo;Effective immediately, Miami-Dade County and the Miami Heat have agreed that, until such time as there is a new naming rights partner, to refer to the arena as Miami-Dade Arena," the parties said in a joint statement. &ldquo;The removal of the facility&rsquo;s existing signage and the changeover of branding elements will be ongoing in the coming weeks."
The process of removing FTX branding from all aspects of the arena will take some time. The company's logo appears on the court, is on many of the entrances, is embroidered on the shirts many security and in-game personnel wear, is on the arena roof and even was placed on the swipe cards that employees use to access the facility.
The county asked for the naming rights deal to be terminated in November, saying at the time that continuing to refer to the building as FTX Arena will only add to the &ldquo;enduring hardships&rdquo; brought on by the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange.
The county owns the arena and negotiated what was to be a 19-year, $135 million naming rights deal with FTX. The Heat &mdash; who have played in the building since Jan. 2, 2000 &mdash; were to receive $2 million annually as part of that deal, which went into effect in June 2021. The county and the Heat say they will work together to find a new naming partner.
Before the FTX deal, the building had been referred to as AmericanAirlines Arena since its opening in 1999. The airline giant, which has a hub in Miami, said in 2019 that it would not renew its deal past the expiration date of Jan. 1, 2020. The airline's name remained on the building until 2021.
FTX was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, though it ended up with billions of dollars&rsquo; worth of losses &mdash; estimates range from $8 billion to $10 billion &mdash; before seeking bankruptcy protection after a spectacular crash that took only a few days.
Its founder, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/manhattan-legal-proceedings-indictments-business-fraud-120cf18510ce329d759e2370f958a87c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested last month</a> in the Bahamas and extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges in what U.S. Attorney Damian Williams has called &ldquo;one of the biggest frauds in American history.&rdquo; Bankman-Fried has been released on bail and is scheduled to go on trial in October. He has pleaded not guilty.

After the collapse of FTX, the Miami Heat's arena has a temporary new name: Miami-Dade Arena.

Miami Heat's arena gets temporary name after FTX collapse

If we know anything about Kawhi Leonard, it's that he certainly won't vocalize that he's "back."
He had this to say two weeks ago after posting his first 30-point game since tearing his ACL in the 2021 Western Conference Finals:
"That's just how the game played out," <a href="https://www.si.com/nba/clippers/news/kawhi-leonard-reacts-to-first-30-point-game-since-acl-injury" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Leonard said</a> after that win against the Wizards. "Was able to get to my spots, rose over the top, knocked down some shots. When it's that time of the game when you want to be as aggressive as possible, either you're gonna make shots or pass it to your teammates and they make shots. Just want to make a play."
Leonard details his psyche for the performance, but he's not exactly trumpeting his totals, so let's do it for him.
Leonard's long, slow reintegration from his injury really took until this past December for the weight to be fully lifted after he dealt with recurring stiffness in his knee, plus an additonal right ankle sprain. He played five games before Thanksgiving and never cleared 25 minutes.
But Leonard has played over 27 minutes a night since returning from the ankle injury on Dec. 5. He's averaging 20.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in that span.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
On the season, the 21-18 Los Angeles Clippers are 11-5 when Leonard makes an appearance. (He missed Monday's loss against Miami due to an illness). They're outscoring opponents by a staggering 16.7 points per 100 possession when Leonard's on the floor &mdash; a number that ranks in the 98th percentile among players this season, per Cleaning the Glass.
LA's leading man is doing nearly everything we've come to expect from one of the most well-rounded superstars of this generation: Creating as a scorer, facilitating when necessary and anchoring an elite defense.
The mid-range zone continues to be Leonard's home. He's taking over half of his shot attempts in the intermediate areas, and is currently drilling a career-best 52% of those attempts. The 31-year-old has also returned as a dominant isolation scorer in his limited action this season. He gets those buckets in classic Kawhi fashion &mdash; not with a viral handle or quick-twitch speed, but with precision, strength and touch.
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/u4msx6" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
Check out how Leonard's faring among 69 players who have logged 40 or more possessions in isolation, per Synergy:
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Category</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Rate</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">NBA Rank</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Iso Points/Possession&nbsp;</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">1.15</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">11th</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Effective Field Goal Pct.</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">57.4%</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">8th</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Turnover Rate</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">2.4%</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">2nd-Lowest</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Score Frequency</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">56.1%</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">6th</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
It's a relatively small sample, but then again, Leonard has only played 16 games all year. He goes to iso plays 15.1% of the time (a pretty high rate), and is succeeding as usual.
But Leonard is more than an iso scorer or mid-range maestro, and his surgical approach to offense manifests as an attacking and playmaking presence. He doesn't drive the ball that often &mdash; a modest 9.1 times per game &mdash; and less than a quarter of his shots come at the rim.
When Leonard does drive the basketball, he's tough to stop. He's scoring on 56.5% of his driving field goal attempts this is season, which is tied for 15th with Giannis Antetokounmpo, if that tells you anything. He gets an assist on 10.3% of his drives and turns the ball over just 2.7% of the time. The latter rate is the lowest among 100 NBA players averaging six drives per game this season.
The Athletic's Mike Prada brilliantly illustrated how Leonard's strength and processing speed make him a puzzle for opposing defenses:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Kawhi Leonard, savant. This is reading the game, not just playing it. <a href="https://t.co/cGdBLSeE6l">pic.twitter.com/cGdBLSeE6l</a>
&mdash; Mike Prada. (PRAY-duh) (@MikePradaNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikePradaNBA/status/1608882773351333890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2022</a></blockquote>

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I have more where that came from. Leonard dished out 7 assists in his last contest, a narrow 131-130 loss to the Indiana Pacers. Four of them were particularly remarkable:
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/e4zgd2" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
In this game, we see:
<ul>
<li>Quick recognition and feed to a cutting Paul George out of a post-up</li>
<li>A no-hesitation extra pass to a wide-open Reggie Jackson</li>
<li>A spin out of a post-up into a baseline drive, and then, an automatic kick-out to a drifting PG (this one's gotta be particularly fun for Clippers fans)</li>
<li>A face-up drive, engaging Myles Turner as the help defender, and pass inside to an open Ivica Zubac</li>
</ul>
None of these dimes are all that flashy, nor are all of them particularly mind-boggling. But they're further proof of Leonard's unparalleled sense of timing. Nothing looks like a big deal to him because, well, he just gets everything that's happening.
Of course, Leonard's reputation as one of the sport's all-time defenders is well-established. But it's worth highlighting one more time, because while he's not atop many steals leaderboards or metric quantifiers, the veteran's impact remains just as pivotal. The Clippers are 10.1 points stingier per 100 possessions when Leonard takes the court, a 97th-percentile difference.&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Kawhi Leonard's nail help remains elite <a href="https://t.co/rRQcroQKdn">pic.twitter.com/rRQcroQKdn</a>
&mdash; Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeVirayNBA/status/1608645130634006528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Here's one example where Leonard won't get credit for any specifc action, but he mucks up a Boston Celtics drive with his help from the nail. He's adept at covering just enough ground to get a giant hand on the ball, but not overcommitting to a play and losing control of his positioning.
At a time where superstar explosions are dominating NBA headlines, Leonard continues to fly under the radar just by being himself. He's still got more room for positive regression; his ice-cold 27.4% three-point clip will almost certainly improve.&nbsp;
We no longer need to wonder if Kawhi Leonard will ever make it back to his old self, though. He's back and fully capable of leading the Clippers in a frenetic Western Conference.

Kawhi Leonard is averaging 20.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game since returning to the lineup on Dec. 5.

Kawhi Leonard is quietly returning to his usual self for the Clippers

Paul Silas, a member of three NBA championship teams as a player and LeBron James' first coach in the league, has died, his family announced Sunday. He was 79.
The family revealed the death through the Houston Rockets, for whom Silas' son, Stephen, is a second-generation head coach. The Boston Globe first reported Silas' death, and no official cause was immediately announced.
&ldquo;Our heartfelt thoughts are with Stephen and his family during this difficult time,&rdquo; the Rockets said in a statement.
Paul Silas began his career as a head coach with a three-year stint leading the then-San Diego Clippers starting in 1980. After spending more than a decade as an assistant, he returned to being a head coach and spent time with the Charlotte Hornets, the New Orleans Hornets, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Charlotte Bobcats.
He took four of those teams to the playoffs, winning exactly 400 games &mdash; 387 in the regular season, 13 more in the postseason.
&ldquo;Paul made a huge contribution to the game of basketball and will be sorely missed!&rdquo; Hall of Fame guard and Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson wrote on Twitter.
The Rockets were playing host to Milwaukee on Sunday night. It was not immediately clear how long Stephen Silas would be away from the team; the Rockets were planning to have John Lucas lead the team on an interim basis while the Silas family grieves.
Stephen Silas got into the NBA world when his father was coaching in Charlotte, starting as an advance scout and eventually serving as an assistant on his father's staff with the Hornets in 2000. It took Stephen Silas two decades to get a chance to be a head coach, that coming when Houston hired him in 2020.
&ldquo;My dad, obviously, he was my No. 1 mentor, someone who I could lean on, ask questions and he asked questions of me,&rdquo; Stephen Silas said in a 2021 documentary produced by the Rockets about his coaching journey. &ldquo;He really valued my opinion, which was kind of weird to me, me being so young and not having much experience.&rdquo;
Stephen Silas persevered for a long time before getting his big chance. He saw his father wait a long time for the job he wanted as well. Paul Silas was fired by the San Diego Clippers in 1983 and wouldn't have a head coaching opportunity again until 1999 &mdash; coming when Dave Cowens, for whom Paul Silas was an assistant, stepped down in Charlotte after a 4-11 start to the shortened 1998-99 season.
&ldquo;I was known as not a hard, hard, hard worker and it really hurt me when I was an assistant coach, for about 10 years, when I couldn&rsquo;t get a head job,&rdquo; Paul Silas told the Rotary Club of Charlotte while giving a speech there in 2013. &ldquo;I really talked to teams about being a head coach, but I didn&rsquo;t get one. What happened is I stayed positive. I had a positive attitude. Even though I couldn&rsquo;t get the job, I said, &lsquo;No, I&rsquo;m not going to be negative. I&rsquo;m going to be positive.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Eventually, Silas would take over in Cleveland. He got there in 2003, the same year the Cavaliers drafted James.
&ldquo;I coached LeBron for two years, his first two years, and LeBron was unbelievable," Paul Silas said. &ldquo;At 18 years old, he knew about Bill Russell, he knew about a lot of players who came through that most players his age don&rsquo;t even know. And he understood the game. I made LeBron a point/forward because I didn&rsquo;t have one when he first started. He didn&rsquo;t say a word to me. He just took over the game and we did well.&rdquo;
In time, James would become a champion. It took Paul Silas a few years to get to that level as a player as well.
He was a five-time All-Defensive team selection who averaged 9.4 points and 9.9 rebounds in 16 seasons with the St. Louis and Atlanta Hawks, Phoenix, Boston, Denver and Seattle. Silas won two titles with the Celtics &mdash; the first coming in his 10th season as a player &mdash; and claimed a third with the SuperSonics. He averaged 12.8 points and 13.8 rebounds in the 1976 Finals for Boston against the Suns.
&ldquo;Paul Silas was a giant in basketball circles," former NBA player Rex Chapman wrote Sunday on Twitter. &ldquo;A great man. Was fortunate to spend a couple of seasons with Paul when he was an (assistant) coach with the Suns. I don&rsquo;t know anyone with a bad word to say about him &mdash; ever. A sad day."
Paul Silas played his college basketball at Creighton, averaging 20.5 points and 21.6 rebounds in three seasons. He was voted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.
&ldquo;I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Creighton legend Paul Silas," Bluejays coach Greg McDermott said. &ldquo;His illustrious career as a player and coach will be matched by few."

Paul Silas, a member of three NBA championship teams as a player and LeBron James' first coach in the league, has passed away.

Paul Silas, 3-time NBA champion and longtime coach, dies at 79

Iowa&rsquo;s meeting with No. 15 Duke at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night is more than just another game to Patrick McCaffery.
The game opens the Jimmy V Classic doubleheader, which raises funds for cancer research through the V Foundation. The second game matches No. 2 Texas against No. 17 Illinois.
McCaffery, the 22-year-old son of Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffery, was 13 when he was diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid, the small gland at the base of the front of the neck that regulates a person&rsquo;s metabolism.
&ldquo;The fact I&rsquo;m able to play at that level and be a starter in this game is something crazy to think about,&rdquo; McCaffery said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m someone who has benefited from things like the Jimmy V and have seen first-hand how the Jimmy V can help people. Having the opportunity to play in that event is something I&rsquo;ll forever cherish and I&rsquo;m really looking forward to.&rdquo;
Patrick had two surgeries in 2014, the first to remove half his thyroid and, after tests showed it was malignant, a second to remove the rest of the gland and nearby tissue.
His follow-up treatment included taking two radioactive iodine pills to eliminate any possible remaining cancer cells from his lymph nodes. It was a grueling few days when he had to isolate to such an extreme that he rode home from the hospital in the car trunk and had to sleep in the basement.&nbsp;
Anything he touched, such as video game controllers, had to be thrown away. His mom, Margaret, cared for Patrick while his dad and siblings stayed at a hotel because of the potential danger of radioactive iodine exposure to others.
Three months after his diagnosis, he was declared cancer-free and was able to rejoin his summer basketball team. He went on to become the all-time leading scorer at Iowa City West High and a top-60 national recruit before he joined older brother Connor and his dad with the Hawkeyes.
Patrick has played in 72 games since 2019-20 and started 38 of 39 since the start of last season. He goes into Tuesday&rsquo;s game averaging a career-best 12.9 points, second on the team behind Kris Murray&rsquo;s 21.
Having no thyroid means Patrick must deal with occasional fatigue and low energy and a desire to eat at odd times. He has blood tests regularly to monitor his metabolic activity.
&ldquo;I understand I&rsquo;m not going to be able to do things the same way people who have one do,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have to work through that, and I think I&rsquo;ve done a good job of it. I feel good. Obviously there&rsquo;s no more cancer, just lingering effects that I&rsquo;ll have to deal with the rest of my life and be cognizant of.&rdquo;
Patrick said some people might be surprised he&rsquo;s able to play basketball at such a high level, but he was determined to not let cancer stop him from pursuing his goals.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always had this strong belief in myself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I knew I was going to be a good high school player, I knew I was going to be a good college player and I&rsquo;m pretty confident I&rsquo;m going to be a good professional player as well whether that&rsquo;s overseas or in the NBA.&rdquo;
Fran McCaffery, whose parents died of cancer, and the entire family have been involved in raising awareness and money for cancer research.
The V Foundation was founded by Jim Valvano, the college basketball coach and broadcaster who died of cancer in 1993. The foundation has awarded over $310 million in cancer research grants.
Pediatric thyroid cancer is highly curable but has not been researched much historically, said Dr. Vivian Weiss, who was awarded a $200,000 V Foundation grant in 2019 to study differences in how the disease behaves in children and adults and develop individualized treatment plans for children.
Weiss, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at Vanderbilt University, said she and her colleagues have performed genetic analysis on 100 children and the results have been promising for improving detection and treatment.
Weiss said Patrick&rsquo;s willingness to share his story has put a spotlight on the disease.
&ldquo;His ability to perform at that level and be as amazing and as successful as he is is really incredible,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and I think he serves as a wonderful role model for other children struggling with thyroid cancer. It&rsquo;s not an easy journey for any of these children. It&rsquo;s wonderful to see how resilient and how much potential there is for these children to live full, healthy and happy lives.&rdquo;

“The fact I’m able to play at that level and be a starter in this game is something crazy to think about,” McCaffery said.

Jimmy V Classic more than game for Iowa’s Patrick McCaffery

DALLAS (AP) &mdash; Luka Doncic scored 33 points, Spencer Dinwiddie added 21 and the Dallas Mavericks preserved a big lead against the Phoenix Suns this time in a 130-111 victory on Monday night.
The Mavericks remained in control after a 28-8 run covering most of the last 10 minutes of the first quarter while ending a 10-game, regular-season losing streak against the Western Conference-leading Suns.
Dallas squandered a 22-point lead in the second half of a 107-105 loss at Phoenix in the season opener between teams that met in the West semifinals last season. Dallas won that series last spring with a Game 7 rout on the Suns' home court.
Deandre Ayton scored 20 points for the Suns, who couldn't recover from a 15-point first quarter, their lowest total in any quarter this season, as they finished a Texas back-to-back after a blowout victory in San Antonio.
Phoenix lost for just the second time in nine games, while Dallas won consecutive games for the first time in three weeks.
Devin Booker, who was averaging 39 points over the previous four games, scored 11 on 4-of-13 shooting. The Suns shot 26% in the first quarter before finishing at 44% to 52% for the Mavericks.
The Suns trailed by as many as 27 and were never closer than 17 in the second half. Doncic, who had six rebounds and eight assists, sat the entire fourth quarter along with Booker.
RECRUITING VISIT
Free agent NFL receiver <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1599950602271830016?s=20&amp;t=qqVd42ed37psP9KxaB6d1A">Odell Beckham Jr. attended the game</a> with two stars of the defense for the Dallas Cowboys, linebacker Micah Parsons and cornerback Trevon Diggs. They sat in Dallas owner Jerry Jones' courtside seats next to the Phoenix bench.
Beckham politely declined to discuss in detail his visit with reporters when he arrived at the arena, where fans chanted &ldquo;O-B-J&rdquo; multiple times during the game.
He was spending Monday and Tuesday with the playoff-contending Cowboys after previous trips to the New York Giants, his first NFL team, and Super Bowl contender Buffalo.
The 30-year-old Beckham is recovering from a torn ACL, an injury he sustained in the Super Bowl in February while winning the title with the Los Angeles Rams.
TIP-INS
Suns: Cameron Payne had 14 points and a game-high 10 assists. ... Josh Okogie scored a season-high 12 points.
Mavericks: Kemba Walker dressed but still didn't make his Dallas debut in the fourth game since signing. The four-time All-Star went unsigned the first six weeks of the season. The 32-year-old has been battling knee issues in recent years. ... Christian Wood had 18 points and nine rebounds, and Josh Green scored 16 points.
UP NEXT
Suns: Host Boston on Wednesday before a four-game trip in a road-heavy December.
Mavericks: At Denver on Tuesday to finish a back-to-back and a stretch of seven games in 11 days. It's the third meeting in 19 days after the teams split consecutive games in Dallas last month.

Luka Doncic scored 33 points, Spencer Dinwiddie added 21 and the Mavericks preserved a big lead against the Suns to win.

Doncic, Mavericks preserve big lead, roll past Suns 130-111

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has &ldquo;no doubt" that suspended Brooklyn guard Kyrie Irving is not antisemitic, he said at a conference on Thursday, while LeBron James took to Twitter to defend his former teammate whose status with the Nets remains a mystery.
Those developments followed Nike co-founder Phil Knight telling CNBC, in an interview that aired earlier Thursday, that the relationship between the shoe giant and Irving is likely severed for good.
Silver met with Irving earlier this week, and he told attendees at the Sports Business Journal Dealmakers Conference in Washington that he came away from that conversation believing the situation is &ldquo;incredibly unfortunate."
&ldquo;I personally, based on what he said directly to me, have no doubt that he&rsquo;s not antisemitic,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;But I think there&rsquo;s a process that he&rsquo;s going to now need to go through.&rdquo;
That process &mdash; and when the Nets lift his suspension &mdash; hinges in part on how Irving satisfies a number of team-imposed return-to-play mandates, one of which was completed when he met with Silver earlier this week. There are several others, and the mandates have raised eyebrows of both the National Basketball Players Association &mdash; the union on which Irving holds an executive board seat &mdash; and James, among others.
&ldquo;I told you guys that I don&rsquo;t believe in sharing hurtful information,&rdquo; James posted on Twitter, echoing comments he made after a Los Angeles Lakers game last week. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;ll continue to be that way but Kyrie apologized and he should be able to play. That&rsquo;s what I think. It&rsquo;s that simple. Help him learn- but he should be playing. What he&rsquo;s asked to do to get back on the floor I think is excessive (in my opinion). He&rsquo;s not the person that&rsquo;s being portrayed of him.&rdquo;
Irving's suspension with the Nets will last at least five games. He's already missed four, and in theory could return Sunday when Brooklyn visits the Lakers. It's unclear when the Nets will reinstate him.
Nets general manager Sean Marks said Wednesday he had not spoken with Irving during his suspension.
&ldquo;At the appropriate time, when we do talk and if there&rsquo;s an update to share, I will certainly share it,&rdquo; Marks said.
Silver told The New York Times on Thursday that he's never known Irving to use antisemitic or hate speech, but added, &ldquo;Whether or not he is antisemitic is not relevant to the damage caused by the posting of hateful content.&rdquo;
The content was a since-deleted tweet posted by Irving last month with a link to a documentary called, &ldquo;Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,&rdquo; which includes Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories about Jews. In a contentious postgame interview session a couple days later, Irving defended his right to post what he wants.
The fallout was massive: Irving was criticized by Silver and several anti-hate groups including the Anti-Defamation League, the Nets eventually suspended Irving and then <a href="https://apnews.com/article/brooklyn-nets-nba-sports-kyrie-irving-racial-injustice-972e41eed3debbd9a548433c78227f05">Nike announced last Friday that it &ldquo;suspended" its relationship with Irving</a> and canceled its plans to release his next signature shoe.
&ldquo;I would doubt that we go back,&rdquo; co-founder Phil Knight said in the CNBC interview that aired Thursday. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t know for sure.&rdquo;
Irving signed with Nike in 2011 and had a signature line of shoes since 2014, with his annual endorsement deal believed to be worth at least $11 million.
&ldquo;Kyrie stepped over the line,&rdquo; Knight said. &ldquo;It's kind of that simple. He made some statements that we just can't abide by and that's why we ended the relationship. And I was fine with that.&rdquo;
The Nets said they decided to suspend Irving in part because he &ldquo;refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs." Nike evidently also tried to get Irving to clarify or apologize.
&ldquo;Same situation. He was dug in,&rdquo; Knight said.
Irving eventually made an Instagram post after the Nets announced their decision to suspend him, writing in part, &ldquo;To All Jewish families and Communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize.&rdquo;
Irving has also received some support in recent days. A small group of protesters was outside of Barclays Center before the team played the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, saying Irving has been treated unfairly by the team and others for speaking his mind.
Irving has expressed no shortage of controversial opinions during his career. He repeatedly questioned whether the Earth was round before eventually apologizing to science teachers. After the pandemic hit in 2020, he urged players to consider not participating in the season resumption inside a bubble at Walt Disney World in Florida. And last year, his refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccine led to him being banned from playing in most of the Nets&rsquo; home games.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has “no doubt" that suspended Brooklyn guard Kyrie Irving is not antisemitic.

Silver says he doesn't believe Kyrie Irving is antisemitic

The relationship between Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving and Nike is likely severed for good, the shoe giant's co-founder told CNBC.
&ldquo;I would doubt that we go back," co-founder Phil Knight said in an interview that aired Thursday. &ldquo;But I don't know for sure."
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brooklyn-nets-nba-sports-kyrie-irving-racial-injustice-972e41eed3debbd9a548433c78227f05">Nike announced last Friday that it has &ldquo;suspended" its relationship with Irving</a> and canceled its plans to release his next signature shoe, part of the massive fallout that followed his tweeting a link to a film containing antisemitic material. The Nets also suspended Irving for at least five games; he has missed four already.
Irving signed with Nike in 2011 and had a signature line of shoes since 2014, with his annual endorsement deal believed to be worth at least $11 million.
&ldquo;Kyrie stepped over the line," Knight said. &ldquo;It's kind of that simple. He made some statements that we just can't abide by and that's why we ended the relationship. And I was fine with that."
Irving posted a since-deleted tweet last month with a link to a documentary called, &ldquo;Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,&rdquo; which includes Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories about Jews. In a contentious postgame interview session a couple days later, Irving defended his right to post what he wants.
The Nets said they decided to suspend Irving in part because he &ldquo;refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs." Nike evidently also tried to get Irving to clarify or apologize.
&ldquo;Same situation. He was dug in,&rdquo; Knight said.
Irving eventually made an Instagram post after the Nets announced their decision to suspend him, writing in part, &ldquo;To All Jewish families and Communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize."
A day later, Nike suspended its Irving relationship.
Irving has also been criticized by several anti-hate groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, as well as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Irving and Silver met earlier this week in New York to discuss the situation, one of many conditions the Nets wanted Irving to complete before they will reinstate him.
A small group of protesters were outside of Barclays Center before the team played the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, saying Irving has been treated unfairly by the team and others for speaking his mind.
&ldquo;We look at who we sign and how much we pay and we look not only at how good the athlete is but what his or her character are," Knight said. &ldquo;It's not an exact science, but it's a process that we go through with a lot of intensity and with a lot of people sticking their hand in it."
Irving has expressed no shortage of controversial opinions during his career. He repeatedly questioned whether the Earth was round before eventually apologizing to science teachers. After the pandemic hit in 2020, he urged players to consider not participating in the season resumption inside a bubble at Walt Disney World in Florida. And last year, his refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccine led to him being banned from playing in most of the Nets&rsquo; home games.

“I would doubt that we go back," co-founder Phil Knight said in a CNBC interview that aired Thursday. “But I don't know for sure."

Nike-Kyrie relationship likely finished, Knight tells CNBC

Nike has parted ways with Kyrie Irving.
The shoe giant announced Friday night that it will halt its relationship with the Brooklyn guard, who has been suspended by the Nets for what the team called a repeated failure to &ldquo;unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs.&rdquo;
The Nets made that move Thursday, and a day later, Nike made its decision as well.
&ldquo;At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism," the Beaverton, Oregon-based company said. &ldquo;To that end, we&rsquo;ve made the decision to suspend our relationship with Kyrie Irving effective immediately and will no longer launch the Kyrie 8."
Irving has had a signature line with Nike since 2014.
&ldquo;We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone," Nike said.
Irving signed with Nike in 2011, shortly after becoming the No. 1 pick in that year&rsquo;s NBA draft. Irving&rsquo;s first signature shoe was released three years later, and the popularity of the Kyrie line led to him making a reported $11 million annually just from the Nike endorsement.
The Kyrie 8 was expected to be released in the next week. Previous models of his shoes were still for sale on the Nike website Friday night.
Nike's decision came a day after the Nets handed down their suspension, which will last at least five games, and after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he wanted an apology from Irving over his decision to post a link to the documentary &ldquo;Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America&rdquo; &mdash; a film that contains antisemitic material.
Irving defended his right to post what he wants, then refused to give a direct answer when asked Thursday if he has antisemitic beliefs. Later, hours after the Nets issued their suspension, Irving posted an apology on Instagram for not explaining the specific beliefs he agreed and disagreed with when he posted the documentary.
&ldquo;To All Jewish families and Communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize,&rdquo; Irving wrote. &ldquo;I initially reacted out of emotion to being unjustly labeled Anti-Semitic, instead of focusing on the healing process of my Jewish Brothers and Sisters that were hurt from the hateful remarks made in the Documentary.&rdquo;
Irving becomes the second prominent celebrity in less than two weeks to lose a major shoe deal over antisemitism. Adidas was forced to part ways with Ye &mdash; the artist formerly known as Kanye West &mdash; late last month, a move the German company said would result in about $250 million in losses this year after stopping production of its line of Yeezy products as well as halting payments to Ye and his companies.
For weeks, Ye made antisemitic comments in interviews and on social media, including a Twitter post that he would soon go &ldquo;death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,&rdquo; an apparent reference to the U.S. defense readiness condition scale known as DEFCON.
&nbsp;

Nike suspends its relationship with Kyrie Irving and will no longer launch the Kyrie 8.

Nike splits with Kyrie Irving amid antisemitism fallout

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) &mdash; Smooth as ever starting his 14th NBA season, Stephen Curry shook Tyler Herro and made it look oh so easy.
Curry scored 10 of his 33 points in a tight fourth quarter to go with nine assists and seven rebounds, leading the Golden State Warriors past the Miami Heat 123-110 on Thursday night.
He pounded his chest with both hands and hollered in delight after a dazzling sequence in which he crossed over twice to lose Herro, then stepped back and sunk a 3-pointer with 5:32 remaining that put Golden State ahead 108-100.
&ldquo;It was a great move,&rdquo; teammate Draymond Green said. &ldquo;He got to the spot that he wanted. Once he got Tyler to open his back leg up, he was kind of dead at that point. Steph is incredible and he&rsquo;s playing great to start this year off, which is expected. He continues to improve, which is scary that that guy continues to get better. It&rsquo;s pretty interesting and fun to watch.&rdquo;
Curry made a driving layup at 3:15, a 3 at 2:40 and long jumper at 2:04 to seal it. He has scored 30 or more points in all four home games.
Andrew Wiggins added 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Warriors, and Klay Thompson had 19 points with five 3s.
Jordan Poole drove into the paint and made a pretty pass around Bam Adebayo&rsquo;s waist to hit Ty Jerome, who knocked down a 3-pointer with 9:36 left for a 100-92 lead then Poole&rsquo;s jumper at the 8:07 mark made it 102-94.
Jimmy Butler scored 27 points, Adebayo 26 and Kyle Lowry had 12 points and eight assists for Miami in the second game of a back-to-back after a 119-98 win at Portland on Wednesday.
&ldquo;I thought it was our best defensive game, which isn&rsquo;t saying much given the other four. It just felt like a more typical Warriors performance where we were getting stops consistently and then getting out and running,&rdquo; coach Steve Kerr said. &rdquo;... Other than a few careless turnovers I thought it was the best we&rsquo;ve played at both ends, and of course Steph was just sublime. What he&rsquo;s doing is incredible. He just gets by anybody. It doesn&rsquo;t matter who&rsquo;s on him, he gets right into the teeth of the defense, finishes, finds guys. He&rsquo;s been spectacular here to start the year.&rdquo;
Lowry missed a 3 from the top with 6:11 to go that would have tied it then Kevon Looney dunked moments later as the Warriors bounced back after a 134-105 thumping at Phoenix on Tuesday in which a frustrated Thompson was ejected for the first time in his career.
Two nights later, Thompson played an extended 29 minutes. Curry&rsquo;s Splash Brother is still working to build up to his full minutes and had been 8 of 28 from 3-point range, missing all five of his attempts against the Suns on Tuesday before a 5-for-14 outing against the Heat.
GENERATION THRIVE
The Warriors unveiled their&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/JanieMcCAP/status/1585770388725780480" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">San Francisco Generation Thrive space</a>&nbsp;in Chase Center.
It&rsquo;s a free spot for teachers and educators or educational community groups to hold gatherings, meetings or as a small work space. It can be used by non-profit leaders and educators for professional development or to provide health and well-being resources.
President and COO Brandon Schneider announced $2.42 million in grants given by the Warriors Community Foundation, a record for a single season.
TIP-INS
Heat: C Omer Yurtseven is making progress from a left ankle impingement while rehabbing at home in Miami. &ldquo;We wanted to just get him checked out and then he&rsquo;ll train there and hopefully be able to ramp up when we get back,&rdquo; coach Erik Spoelstra said. ... The Heat have lost the last three against the Warriors and also three in a row on Golden State&rsquo;s home floor.
Warriors: The Warriors had 30 assists. ... Golden State marked the seven-year date of when it began an NBA-record streak of 24 straight wins to start the 2015-16 season. ... G Donte DiVincenzo (left hamstring) missed his second straight game and won&rsquo;t play on the team&rsquo;s upcoming trip while veteran F Andre Iguodala is still yet to play as the team monitors his nagging left hip in an effort to keep him healthy for the long haul.
UP NEXT
Heat: At Sacramento on Saturday night.
Warriors: Open a five-game East Coast road swing at Charlotte on Saturday night. The Warriors have lost the last three on the road to the Hornets.
___
More AP NBA:&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/hub/NBA">https://apnews.com/hub/NBA</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/AP_Sports" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://twitter.com/AP_Sports</a>

The Golden State Warriors defeat the Miami Heat.

Stephen Curry scores 33 as Warriors hold off Heat 123-110

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Blazing the Trail: Chris Webber, the read-and-react king

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Nekias Duncan thoroughly breaks down all five teams in the Central Division ahead of the 2022-23 season.

2022-23 NBA Season Preview: Central Division

Cleveland Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley has suffered a right ankle sprain and will be out of action for 1-to-2 weeks, the team announced Monday evening. He will miss the preseason opener in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
According to the Cavs, the second-year 7-footer will undergo a period of treatment and rehabilitation, and his status will be updated as appropriate.
Obviously, this is a stinger for the team, who has been <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-cleveland-cavaliers-giant-leap-evan-mobley-year-2-darius-garland-jb-bickerstaff-koby-altman-kevin-love-jarrett-allen-donovan-mitchell" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raving over Mobley's progress and development</a> for the first week of camp, but it is certainly better to play it safe with two weeks to go until the season officially starts.

Evan Mobley will miss the Cavs' preseason opener in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

Cavs' Evan Mobley suffers right ankle sprain, will miss 1-2 weeks

TOKYO (AP) &mdash; Japanese basketball fans will get to see NBA stars up close when the reigning league-champion Golden State Warriors take on the Washington Wizards in two preseason games.
Not surprisingly, Stephen Curry and Japanese-born Rui Hachimura will be the star attractions for each team.
And as clearly as the logo of Japanese online retailer Rakuten is splashed on Curry&rsquo;s jersey, big money is riding on the NBA&rsquo;s most recent foray into Japan.
Junya Ogura, senior manager at Japanese automaker Nissan&rsquo;s brand and media strategy department, thinks it&rsquo;s all worth it, given the NBA&rsquo;s strong appeal to the younger generation, a trend that&rsquo;s backed up by marketing studies.
Nissan Motor Co., which sponsors Japanese professional baseball and soccer, had a high-profile deal with tennis superstar Naomi Osaka which recently ended. This is the first time it&rsquo;s sponsoring NBA games.
The tickets cost up to 420,000 yen ($2,900) each for courtside &ldquo;VIP&rdquo; seats. Both Friday and Sunday games are sold out at the Saitama Super Arena.
&ldquo;These are the Japanese people who grew up on Michael Jordan,&rdquo; said Ogura. &ldquo;We are banking on a return that will come in the future.&rdquo;
The NBA has drawn 15 marketing partners to support the preseason games in Japan, including American Express, Hennessy, NEC and Nike, and now has 19 marketing and promotional partners in Japan.
Rakuten, which also sponsors Japanese baseball and soccer and holds the Japan Open tennis championships, live-streams NBA games.
&ldquo;Obviously it&rsquo;s about the money,&rdquo; said Bob Dorfman, a San Francisco-based sports analyst at Pinnacle Advertising.
&ldquo;Building the fan base in Asia, and everywhere else in the world, results in more sponsorship dollars, increased media rights and greater merchandise sales.&rdquo;
The NBA may have more global appeal than other U.S. sports, being easier to understand than football, for instance, according to Dorfman, who has worked in Japan.
&ldquo;Every team has foreign-born players on their rosters, and the league&rsquo;s top stars are cultural icons, trendsetters, and social media giants. The game is cool,&rdquo; he said.
That translates not only into sponsorship money but also youngsters spending on sneakers and other fashion items and merchandising.
Between 1990 and 2003, the NBA staged 12 regular-season games in Japan. The last time the NBA played in Japan was in 2019, when Houston and Toronto played a pre-season game. The coronavirus pandemic had postponed their return to Japan until now.
And so the NBA is again courting Japan.
A giant 3D display at a Tokyo street-crossing depicts Curry and other NBA stars as &ldquo;manga,&rdquo; or Japanese comic, characters. The NBA&rsquo;s Japanese-language social media accounts have amassed more than 1.6 million followers.
While the players are in town, they will be taking part in various fan events. Besides Hachimura, the NBA now has another Japanese player, Yuta Watanabe, who is with the Brooklyn Nets.
The NBA is also excited about the potential for women&rsquo;s basketball. Japanese women were the silver medalists in the last Olympics. Rui Machida, an Olympian, signed earlier this year with the WNBA's Washington Mystics.
&ldquo;Our fan base is growing,&rdquo; said NBA Asia managing director Ramez Sheikh. &ldquo;There is real momentum around basketball in Japan, and it&rsquo;s a real important market for the NBA.&rdquo;
Wizards officials acknowledged they were surprised by the big reaction signing Hachimura drew from Japan. They suddenly saw more Japanese in the stands, tour buses started coming, and Japanese media showed up in big numbers.
&ldquo;It was all about Rui (Hachimura),&rdquo; said Hunter Lochman, chief marketing officer at Monumental Sports &amp; Entertainment, which owns the Wizards. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fast-paced. It&rsquo;s high scoring. It&rsquo;s a great sport and it&rsquo;s a global sport."
Besides Japan, exhibition games are scheduled for Abu Dhabi this season. Regular-season games are being played in Paris and Mexico City.
Kyle Kuzma, a Wizards forward, said he was excited about being in Japan for the first time.
He already had sushi, planned to go shopping and was approached by a fan on the street, who gave him chopsticks.
&ldquo;This is a big moment. It&rsquo;s a big stage,&rdquo; Kuzma said after a practice session in Tokyo on Thursday.
___
Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

The Warriors and Wizards are in Tokyo to kick off their 2022-23 preseason in Japan.

Warriors-Wizards games in Japan to woo NBA fans, sponsors

Nekias Duncan thoroughly breaks down all five teams in the Atlantic Division ahead of the 2022-23 season.

2022-23 NBA Season Preview: Atlantic Division

Louder, bulkier and more locked-in than anybody&rsquo;s seen him before, Cleveland Cavaliers sophomore Evan Mobley is determined to surge to another level, and his teammates and coaches are eager to see it unfold.
&ldquo;Evan, he's on a mission right now,&rdquo; Darius Garland stated at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Monday. &ldquo;I think that he's on the mission of the Rookie-of-the-Year campaign (after a second-place finish).&nbsp;I think he's felt that this year, felt that this summer, and he really wants to show the world what he really can do and what they missed out on last year, sohe's coming in a lot more hungry. He's a lot stronger. He knows more about the game than he did last year. So we&rsquo;re super excited to see his jump from last year to this year, so I'm excited to see for sure. Hopefully [we have] four All-Stars as well.&rdquo;
With an impact on winning basketball and a scintillating start, Mobley helped lead the Cavs to one of the strongest starts in the Eastern Conference last season. Remember, this was a team that was picked to finish in the bottom half of the standings in the 2021 preseason (by just about everyone outside of the building). Yet, in spite of rotational injuries and setbacks, Cleveland made a Play-In Tournament appearance and put together a 44-38 record.&nbsp;
And while his counting stats were solid in their own right &mdash; 15.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.7 blocks per game on just a hair under 55% True Shooting &mdash; they hardly encompass how brilliant he truly was at such a young age.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really proud of everything I accomplished this past year,&rdquo; Mobley said. &ldquo;I feel like I did the best I could. Everything that went down last year was great, it was a learning experience. I&rsquo;m just trying to get better from it and come next year even stronger and harder.&rdquo;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
The then-rookie Mobley&rsquo;s prowess as a help defender, on-ball defender and off-ball defender worked flawlessly in tandem with Jarrett Allen&rsquo;s blunt, emphatic rim protection. Evan started fast breaks with deflections, rejections and ridiculous lateral movement that led to turnovers. Opposing guards thought it would be smart to force a switch with either 7-footer, but as the season went on, teams quickly learned that this was the wrong idea. (It should be noted that Lauri Markkanen, Cleveland&rsquo;s ex-primary small forward, played a huge role in this success as well.)
However, it&rsquo;d be short-sighted to gloss over the fact that the USC product provided flashes of brilliance on the offensive end in some games, particularly as a playmaker and off the dribble. We can certainly expect the Cavs to ask more of him on that side of the court as a sophomore.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just going to try to affect the games in different ways that I didn&rsquo;t necessarily really do last year, such as bringing the ball up. You&rsquo;ll see me on the perimeter a little bit more as well as inside, obviously,&rdquo; said Mobley, who told the media he got even closer with head coach J.B. Bickerstaff this offseason. &ldquo;Me and him just had conversations throughout the summer, just trying to get me ready for this season. He&rsquo;s been really working with me, with my faceup game, really playmaking from the elbow area and mid-range area and getting to my spots and hitting &lsquo;em and knocking &lsquo;em down. I feel like that&rsquo;s where you&rsquo;re really going to see me a lot this year... (My three-point shot) is coming along really well. I&rsquo;m happy with all that I&rsquo;ve been working on. Hopefully this year you&rsquo;ll see a lot more threes.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Every time I have to guard him, it seems like he scores,&rdquo; Allen said. &ldquo;He always scores on me. His offensive game is improving still from what it was last year. We obviously know he&rsquo;s an All-NBA Defense-caliber type of defensive player. On the offensive side, he still amazes us every time.&rdquo;
Having worked out together in Los Angeles this past summer, Kevin Love spoke with Mobley's father, Eric, and found out how serious Evan was about becoming great.
&ldquo;We know what he&rsquo;s capable of. He hasn&rsquo;t even scratched the surface of really how good he can be. But all the signs are there and he&rsquo;s not afraid to work,&rdquo; Love said. &ldquo;When I saw him in L.A. when we were all there together, I thought, &lsquo;Okay, he&rsquo;s going to make a big step.&rsquo; He&rsquo;s obviously been putting in the work; he hasn&rsquo;t been shy about showing up and putting the hours in, adding a little bit to his game. We know what he can do defensively, but the thing that stuck out to me was just again his size, his ability to be a shot-maker and put the ball on the floor.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I think he has the skill set to be able to do whatever he wants offensively. I think between, whether it be Donovan [Mitchell] or Darius or J.A., we have so many young guys on this team who can do so much. But I think as a 7-footer, he&rsquo;s one of those guys that&rsquo;s like a unicorn, able to do it all now and be very special.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Kevin Love on Evan Mobley in Year 2: "When I saw him out in LA., I thought to myself, 'Okay, he's gonna make a big step.'" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cavs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cavs</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@basketbllnews</a> <a href="https://t.co/oQ6J3adyIv">pic.twitter.com/oQ6J3adyIv</a>
&mdash; Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpinDavies/status/1574556678451699712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2022</a></blockquote>

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

Another reason Cleveland should be excited about the 21-year-old is the amount of muscle he added this offseason. He can't put a number on it, but his arms definitely took center stage while at the podium, and he admits that he feels stronger and heavier. And the bigger he&rsquo;s gotten, so evidently has his voice.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve known Ev since he was in high school and I&rsquo;ve probably heard him say five things before we got here. Now, he&rsquo;s talking and communicating and getting to his spot,&rdquo; Donovan Mitchell said on Tuesday. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s much better, and I don&rsquo;t mean that in a bad way. He was really good in high school and he&rsquo;s really, really good now. For him, there&rsquo;s little things he can obviously improve on, technique and stuff like that. But his natural feel for the game as a defender, as an offensive player, there&rsquo;s certain things you just can&rsquo;t teach.
&ldquo;Obviously, we all know the size and quickness and the speed and his length. But for me, his instincts of knowing where to be, and this is just after one year being in the league, that&rsquo;s not always the case for a guy that just turned 21. He&rsquo;s got a lot of potential in a lot of areas. From what I saw in Nashville and from playing pickup when I came back here and even [Tuesday], there&rsquo;s just little things that he does that you just can&rsquo;t teach. It makes teaching even easier because he&rsquo;s able to pick up on stuff and get better day by day.&rdquo;
Cavs president Koby Altman can&rsquo;t help but envision what Mobley&rsquo;s progression will look like after having another year of experience under his belt.
&ldquo;His commitment has been incredible, of what we've challenged him to do,&rdquo; Altman said. &ldquo;He was one of the contingent that came back to Cleveland multiple times before summer league, showing his commitment to the organization and what we're asking him to do. At 21 years old, we're already giving him a lot of challenges &mdash; not only from the basketball court, but off the court from a strength-and-conditioning, nutrition program. All of this [is] to mold him to be what we think he could be, which is a superstar.
&ldquo;We're very excited about Evan Mobley here. He's about basketball. He's about team. He&rsquo;s about all the right stuff. We're really fortunate to have him.&rdquo;
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Echoing his players&rsquo; sentiments, Bickerstaff is enthusiastic about Mobley&rsquo;s eventual development into one of the best players on the team and in the NBA.
&ldquo;Our conversation with Evan and our expectations is he has the ability to be a superstar without being the leading scorer on your team. He has an opportunity to be the best player on the floor without having to take the most shots. I think that's hard to find. But he does [have that]. He can stuff the stat sheet in every category; that's our expectation for him.
&ldquo;We want him eventually &mdash; and hopefully it's this year &mdash; to be in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year. We believe he has that type of ability and can have that type of impact on the floor. Very few superstars, which he's going to work his way to be, can be that type of player without dominating the ball on the offensive end of the floor. We believe he has the ability and we'll get there.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Evan Mobley on his chats with J.B. Bickerstaff and his offensive offseason improvements. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cavs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cavs</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@basketbllnews</a> <a href="https://t.co/MEzmb3bUC8">pic.twitter.com/MEzmb3bUC8</a>
&mdash; Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpinDavies/status/1574534485290323968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 26, 2022</a></blockquote>

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With all of this hype surrounding the maturation of his game, Mobley likes to keep it about the squad as a whole. His sole goal, like everybody else, is to help the Cavs succeed at the highest level.
&ldquo;I think our whole team is trying to win. I feel like we didn&rsquo;t go to our full capacity last year and I feel like we&rsquo;ve got a lot to prove this year,&rdquo; Mobley said.
&ldquo;The Play-In experience was great, it was like a playoff game. I feel like that experience definitely opened all of our eyes to what we want to accomplish and what we want to get to. I feel like this year we&rsquo;re going to be even hungrier.&rdquo;
(Note: This article mistakenly originally stated that Mobley gained 25 pounds; that is incorrect. The 240-pounder is his older brother, Isaiah.)

Spencer Davies highlights the hype surrounding Evan Mobley in Year 2 through the words of his Cavs teammates.

Cavaliers forecast a giant leap from more vocal, muscular Evan Mobley

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) &mdash; Miles Bridges&rsquo; future with the Charlotte Hornets remains uncertain as the team prepares to open training camp on Tuesday.
Bridges, the team&rsquo;s leading scorer last season, was charged with three counts of felony domestic violence in June. According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney&rsquo;s office, Bridges allegedly assaulted the mother of his two young children in front of them. Bridges has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has a court date Thursday.
The uncertainty over Bridges&rsquo; legal issues has left the Hornets in wait-and-see mode when it comes to their star forward. Because he&rsquo;s a restricted free agent, Bridges is not listed on the team's roster &mdash; and he did not attend media day on Monday.
The NBA is also monitoring the situation.
Coach Steve Clifford, who is back for a second stint with the Hornets, said he's been advised not to discuss Bridges' legal situation while the case is ongoing. However, he talked about the need for a contingency plan.
&ldquo;When you play 82 games you are going to have guys injured, guys who are out, you have COVID. ... so you have to be adaptable in your thinking and make sure you have a plan B and plan C when it comes to your playing groups," Clifford said. "And this is a similar situation.&rdquo;
P.J. Washington would likely take Bridges' spot in the starting lineup.
Charlotte tendered Bridges a qualifying offer of $7.9 million before his arrest, a move that allowed them to match any offer sheet he signs with another team. The team had a chance to rescind that offer on July 13 but chose not to &mdash; a strong indication they still want him back.
However, because Bridges was arrested just days before the start of free agency, potential suitors shied away. The Hornets could have rescinded the qualifying offer to Bridges before July 13 but chose not to &mdash; a strong indication the four-year NBA veteran is still part of their plans.
Even if the legal situation is resolved and Bridges doesn't go to jail, there is still some uncertainty over his status. He essentially has four options: Sign an offer sheet with another team if one comes and see if the Hornets match; sign a long-term deal with the Hornets; agree to play under the Hornets' one-year qualifying offer; or sit out the entire season and become an unrestricted free agent next July.
Several Hornets players said they've reached out to Bridges and some have spoken to him, although none was willing to share details of those private conversations.
Gordon Hayward said not having Bridges back this season would alter the makeup of the Hornets, adding that &ldquo;you can't replace Miles Bridges.&rdquo;
Bridges averaged a career-high 20.2 points, 7 rebounds and 3.8 assists last season.
&ldquo;He does a lot of really good things for our team, on both sides of the ball,&rdquo; Hayward said. &ldquo;He's a really good defender, and offensively he took a big leap last year. So it's on all of us to step up if he's not here."
Added LaMelo Ball: &ldquo;I'm hoping we get him (back). I'm not really trying to throw in any negative energy and just trying to keep it positive.&rdquo;
WASHINGTON'S WEIGHT
Washington received some negative criticism last season for not being in shape. He took that to heart and hired a dietician during the offseason to help make sure he's eating the right foods. He said he's dropped about 12 pounds to get to 232, joking that is because &ldquo;I'm eating a lot of vegetables.&rdquo;
RICHARDS' PROGRESS
Clifford said no player made more improvement during the summer than third-year center Nick Richards. Clifford said the former second-round draft pick has taken giant steps forward and foresees him as the primary backup to Mason Plumlee. Of course, Richards could get competition from 7-foot-2 center Mark Williams, the team's first-round draft pick this year from Duke.
HAYWARD'S WORKLOAD
For the second straight season some of the talk at media day focused around managing Hayward's workload.
The Hornets' small forward has only played in 93 games over the past two seasons due to various injuries. Clifford said the Hornets are planning to closely monitor how much Hayward does in practice and games in an effort to maximize his productivity.
&ldquo;I feel great right now,&rdquo; Hayward said.
LOW EXPECTATIONS
The Hornets' season ended the past two years with blowout losses in play-in games at Indiana and Atlanta. Given that the team didn't make any huge upgrades in free agency, few prognosticators are giving them a chance to be a playoff team, which is fine by guard Terry Rozier.
&ldquo;We pray that we are slept on, and that teams come in here every night and play the Hornets and think it's a night off,&rdquo; Rozier said.
SHOOTING LEFTY
Plumlee was struggling so much with free throws last season he changed to shooting with his left hand late in the year. The veteran center said he plans to continue doing so this year, saying &ldquo;it just feels better.&rdquo;

Despite Miles Bridges' uncertain future, the Charlotte Hornets hope to exceed low expectations.

Hornets enter training camp; Miles Bridges' future uncertain

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Sometimes, the ideal scenario doesn't unfold the way you hope.
For Donovan Mitchell, the alternative could actually become the best-case solution for his career long-term.
Exiting the Utah Jazz's rebuild has now vaulted Mitchell into a position where he can reap the benefits in spades as the Cleveland Cavaliers' new star shooting guard flanked by multiple All-Star teammates.
During his <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-news-donovan-mitchell-intro-press-conference-cleveland-cavaliers-darius-garland-caris-levert-koby-altman-jb-bickertstaff-utah-jazz-trade" target="_blank" rel="noopener">introductory press conference in Cleveland on Wednesday</a>, Mitchell opened up about the topsy-turvy period where his future was in limbo. Mitchell knew the writing was on the wall for months, but the end result certainly caught him by surprise, as the Jazz tore it all down in a full-scale rebuild. Both Mitchell and Rudy Gobert were shipped off for seven future first-round picks and a number of intriguing young players to develop under new head coach Will Hardy, whose vision is being put together in Salt Lake City.
&ldquo;Yeah, obviously all summer I didn&rsquo;t say much. But for me it was once Rudy got traded I kind of saw the writing on the wall. I think we all did. I think we understood we had a good run,&rdquo; Mitchell said. &ldquo;I kind of had a feeling that I was going to get moved. I thought it was New York, I&rsquo;m not going to lie to you all. Who doesn&rsquo;t want to be home next to their mom? I haven&rsquo;t lived at home since I was like in the eighth grade, I&rsquo;ve been in boarding school, it would have been nice.
"But for me, once I found out I got traded and what we&rsquo;re going into, that trumped everything for me. I&rsquo;m truly excited to be here, be part of this group, be part of this city. You saw I had the Cavs jersey on when I was like 5 or 6, whatever it was. I was a LeBron fan, but I was a Cleveland fan. My man&rsquo;s over there (PA announcer Ahmaad Crump) saying Cleveland Cavaliers; I was saying that at the house. It&rsquo;s crazy how life comes full circle. Being able to be a part of that, between the fire and the intros, I remember the little things, I love playing in this arena. So to be here, I&rsquo;m truly excited.&rdquo;
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Mitchell's public peeling of the curtain for the first time since his departure brought forth some interesting details. Not only did Mitchell believe he was gone after Gobert&rsquo;s move to the Minnesota Timberwolves on July 1, but he&rsquo;s put in the hours of work to rebound from another unceremonious postseason exit.
&ldquo;Yes and no. I mean, I had a feeling,&rdquo; Mitchell said of his exit from Utah. &ldquo;You guys (the media) do what you guys do and there's always articles about it, about what could happen. No matter how much you try to ignore it, I'm not gonna be naive; we all have phones, we have technology, we have Twitter, we have Instagram. So we see it. But that wasn't a thought during the year. After we lost, that wasn't a thought for a little bit. Pretty much every question after we lost, I really wasn't thinking about it.
"But for me, I came into the summer... the last season for me wasn't my best. And no matter what situation, no matter where I was at, not matter how we were gonna go about it, I had to come back and be the best version of myself and just put that work in. Left the season healthy; I came in, my ankle's feeling good, and the thing for me, that was just a blessing itself being able to come into a summer ready to go. Obviously, it happened and things change, and I'm blessed.&rdquo;
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Donovan Mitchell candidly said he thought he'd end up home in New York this offseason, but when he found out he was heading to the up-and-coming <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cavs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cavs</a>, he "couldn't be happier to be here." <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@basketbllnews</a> <a href="https://t.co/QHWBPBsw2a">pic.twitter.com/QHWBPBsw2a</a>
&mdash; Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpinDavies/status/1570141099825721344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2022</a></blockquote>

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With the Knicks always out in front of the Mitchell sweepstakes, the New York native was already having visions of playing inside Madison Square Garden for years to come. A homecoming for Mitchell remained at the forefront of his mind as he awaited his true fate, but the process leading him to an even more stacked roster with long-term sustainability instantly washed those feelings away of not ending up a Knick.
&ldquo;Yeah, so I honestly had no idea," Mitchell admitted. "AB (Mitchell&rsquo;s agent Austin Brown) called me on a Wednesday and said, 'You&rsquo;re going to Cleveland.' And like I said, my reaction was what it was. But all summer I really didn&rsquo;t say much, I just kind of let you guys do what you guys do and I thought for sure I was going back home, I&rsquo;m not going to lie about that.
"But when I found out where I was headed and who I was playing with, the group, the team, the coaching staff, I couldn&rsquo;t be more happier to be here, and be a part of this organization and be part of this group to join each and all of those guys, the attitude and I&rsquo;m truly excited about it... 
Now forming one of the most well-balanced starting units in the East, Mitchell and the Cavaliers are poised to make serious noise in 2021-22 and beyond. Cleveland knows the risk it took shipping off control of its drafts to Utah through 2029, but the investment into its young core adding in the star was too good to pass up on. A three-year recruiting pitch to Mitchell is well underway, and the win-loss results will be monitored closely until his player option decision arrives in 2025.
Until then, Mitchell knows what lies in front of him. This is a golden opportunity to boost his stock and become the missing element to a sleeping giant of a contender.
Now, the fun part starts beginning the next chapter of his career in Cleveland alongside Garland, Mobley, Allen and a roster ready to reach heights he and the Cavs hope could surpass what he accomplished in Utah.

Mitchell opened up about his offseason where his ideal outcome didn't come to fruition, but the long-term gains could be substantial.

Donovan Mitchell dreamed of the Knicks, but Cavs are best-case scenario

Reaction from the basketball world and beyond <a href="https://apnews.com/article/boston-celtics-nba-entertainment-sports-48db4e1f37deb6e6574263c9f42dee46">on the death of NBA great and 11-time champion Bill Russell</a>:
___
&ldquo;Bill Russell was the greatest champion in all of team sports. The countless accolades that he earned for his storied career with the Boston Celtics &mdash; including a record 11 championships and five MVP awards &mdash; only begin to tell the story of Bill&rsquo;s immense impact on our league and broader society." &mdash; NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement.
___
&ldquo;Today, we lost a giant. As tall as Bill Russell stood, his legacy rises far higher &mdash; both as a player and as a person.&rdquo; &mdash; President <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1553817774300053509?s=20&amp;t=-ZnXgJkB0TtY0I5k52Vn_Q">Barack Obama</a> said on Twitter.
___
&ldquo;Rest in peace Bill Russell you were everything we all aspired to be, your winning spirit will live forever my friend. Thank you for your words of wisdom.&rdquo; &mdash; <a href="https://twitter.com/IsiahThomas/status/1553797801187938304?s=20&amp;t=-ZnXgJkB0TtY0I5k52Vn_Q">Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas</a> said on Twitter.
___
&ldquo;RIP Bill Russell, a giant in every sense of the word - athletic, civil rights, altruistic - the whole lot RIP champ!&rdquo; &mdash; <a href="https://twitter.com/RealBillRussell/status/1553790050839588865">Tennis great Martina Navratilova</a> said on Twitter.
___
&ldquo;To be the greatest champion in your sport, to revolutionize the way the game is played, and to be a societal leader all at once seems unthinkable, but that is who Bill Russell was. Bill was a champion unlike any other in the history of team sports &mdash; an 11-time NBA champion, including winning eight consecutive titles, a five-time MVP, an Olympic Gold Medalist and the NBA&rsquo;s first Black head coach.&rdquo; &mdash; the Boston Celtics said in a statement.
___
&ldquo;He was one of the first athletes on the front line fighting for social justice, equity, equality, and civil rights. That&rsquo;s why I admired and loved him so much. Over the course of our friendship, he always reminded me about making things better in the Black community.&rdquo; &mdash; <a href="https://twitter.com/MagicJohnson/status/1553808490660933633?s=20&amp;t=-ZnXgJkB0TtY0I5k52Vn_Q">Hall of Famer Magic Johnson</a> tweeted.
___
&ldquo;Thanku for being a trailblazer, pioneer Thanku for setting the bar, for ur kind words of wisdom, Thanku for that great laugh u had. I can go on all day about what u meant to me. Today is a sad day for the NBA family u will be forever missed #6&rdquo; &mdash; <a href="https://twitter.com/paulpierce34/status/1553799541064962049?s=20&amp;t=YD6E91QezSMH92LMKm2k3g">Celtics great Paul Pierce</a> said on Twitter.
___
&ldquo;Bill Russell was a pioneer &mdash; as a player, as a champion, as the NBA's first Black head coach and as an activist. He paved the way and set an example for every Black player who came into the league after him, including me. The world has lost a legend ... may he rest in peace.&rdquo; &mdash; <a href="https://twitter.com/hornets/status/1553824118637821955">Hall of Famer and Charlotte Hornets majority owner Michael Jordan said in a statement</a>.
___
&ldquo;Bill Russell was bigger than basketball, even though he was one of the greatest players of all times. He stood for Civil and human rights before it was trendy, in fact when he did it, it was risky! A true giant on and off the court, May he Rest In Peace and Power!&rdquo; &mdash; <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRevAl/status/1553802498124775425">Reverend Al Sharpton</a> said on Twitter.
___
"R.I.P Bill Russell. You allowed me to be in the position I am in today and you changed not only the league but the world. Forever 6." &mdash; Celtics player <a href="https://twitter.com/Grant2Will/status/1553792104761102336?s=20&amp;t=-ZnXgJkB0TtY0I5k52Vn_Q">Grant Williams</a> said on Twitter.

Reaction from the basketball world and beyond on the death of NBA great and 11-time champion Bill Russell.

NBA players react, pay tribute to Hall of Famer Bill Russell

NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Han Xu understandably grew up idolizing Yao Ming, mesmerized by the giant shadow the 7-foot-6 Hall-of-Famer cast each time he stepped onto an NBA court.
Standing 6-foot-10, Han would like to emulate Yao&rsquo;s impact &mdash; including his influence on the sport in China. The New York Liberty post player wants to be a female beacon of basketball in her native land.
Han is on her way. Fans can&rsquo;t seem to get enough of the 22-year-old budding star.
&ldquo;Han and Li (Yueru) have been creating hype online and offline. Many girls have been inspired by Han and Li, and we have numbers to show that more girls have started participating in basketball on all levels,&rdquo; said China basketball analyst Michael Yuan, founder of Team Fountainhead. &ldquo;We can also clearly see more news coverage and other kinds of user-generated content on China&rsquo;s social-media platform.&rdquo;
Han&rsquo;s highlights have garnered millions of views on streaming platforms in China. Kuaishou, a global social media platform, recently hosted a livestreaming session with her that generated about 1.6 million views.
Han and the 6-foot-7 Li, who is with the Chicago Sky, are the latest of a half dozen Chinese players to have spent time in the WNBA. The first to have an impact in the league was Haixia Zheng, who averaged 8.9 points in two seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks in 1997 and 1998 &mdash; starting 21 games her first year.
&ldquo;Homegrown players like Han Xu and Li Yueru succeeding at the highest level drives interest among China&rsquo;s passionate basketball fans and inspires Chinese youth to play the game,&rdquo; said Jonathan Li, senior vice president of NBA China.
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Chinese fans became aware of Han and Li Yueru during their stints with the Olympic team that finished fifth in Tokyo. But their fan base has grown since both were drafted in 2019 &mdash; Han in the second round, Li in the third.
&ldquo;I was very honored to be able to come here to make my dream come true in 2019,&rdquo; Han said through a translator. &ldquo;At that moment, I just wanted to grow up gradually, to learn from the veteran players who compete in the world's highest-level basketball league.
&ldquo;And I also hoped to be able to promote the sport in China with my influence here.&rdquo;
Like her childhood hero: the 7-foot-6 Yao.
&ldquo;He had a very successful career in NBA and he also promoted the culture of the sport in China so that now more Chinese people like to watch basketball,&rdquo; Han said. &ldquo;I hope I can also make some influence in WNBA and then transfer my influence back to my country and let more fans to see the performance from a Chinese player.&rdquo;
Neither Han nor the 6-foot-7 Li, who turned 23 in March, were born when Zheng was doing her WNBA thing in L.A. And neither have Yao&rsquo;s skills &mdash; very few players do.
The Houston Rockets made Yao the No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft. He has become an ambassador of the game in China and is currently a Chinese basketball executive.
Though Han and Li are still honing their skills, their popularity is on the rise in China.
Han is averaging 9.2 points and shooting nearly 54% from the field while playing about 18 minutes a game with the Liberty. Li hasn&rsquo;t had as much success, averaging just 2 points a game in Chicago.
When they played in New York last month, a handful of Chinese media were on hand. Interviews with the players drew millions of views in China. They will square off again on Saturday and it will be broadcast live in China.
&ldquo;The population of Chinese basketball fans is huge,&rdquo; Li said through a translator. &ldquo;Fans in China, while they are watching me and Han Xu highlights, will get to know more WNBA players and WNBA teams. I think this is a thing that could benefit me and Han Xu but also could benefit the WNBA as well.&rdquo;
Both Han and Li have excelled in the offseason in the Chinese Basketball League that has had WNBA players such as Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles play in it.
&ldquo;When I was growing up there were a lot of WNBA players who I looked up to,&rdquo; Li said. &ldquo;There is a lot of WNBA players who I think no matter in what aspect in life or in their career, I think (in) all those aspects they are doing a great job. They are excellent.&rdquo;
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Han has shown flashes that she could be dominant force in the WNBA. She scored a career-high 24 points against Las Vegas earlier this month.
&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a great honor that domestic fans can watch WNBA games on TV in China,&rdquo; Han said. &ldquo;I think when fans in China watch my play in the league, they can get a better idea about the development of this sport in overseas.&rdquo;

Han Xu, the Liberty's 6-foot-10 center, grew up idolizing Yao Ming. Now, she hopes to have a similar impact — on and off the court.

The female Yao Ming? 6-foot-10 Han Xu making mark in WNBA, China

NBA Summer League is one giant laboratory for young players and coaches. Within the Thomas &amp; Mack Center and Cox Pavilion, we can grasp at a multiverse of futures, both for individuals and the league at large.
The San Antonio Spurs think they've found an innovative talent in their fractal of possible outcomes. Blake Wesley turned heads in Las Vegas with his ball-dominant role, and Spurs summer league coach Mitch Johnson believes the rookie is indicative of a movement at the guard position.
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"Blake Wesley and Josh Primo are the modern day guards," - M. Johnson <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/porvida?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#porvida</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nba?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nba</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nbatwitter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nbatwitter</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gospursgo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gospursgo</a> <a href="https://t.co/32cje9PMl0">pic.twitter.com/32cje9PMl0</a>
&mdash; JeffGSpursKENS5 (@JeffGSpursZone) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffGSpursZone/status/1545886937692753920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Though it was just Summer League, Wesley relished the chance to break himself in as an orchestrator.
"I see myself as a point guard, so going into the NBA I feel I'm gonna be a point guard," Wesley told Basketball News over the phone. "A big key to the Spurs is [being] 6-foot-5, long [and] athletic, so to get guys open is gonna be good for me. I'm gonna get to the paint and find guys."
Wesley handed out at least four assists in all but one of his Summer League contests; he cleared that bar just seven times in 35 contests while a freshman at Notre Dame. The summer Spurs put the ball in his hands early and often, and Wesley showed ease with making plays out of his drives.&nbsp;
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/35o17c" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
In his best moments, Wesley recognized how defenses collapsed around him when he exploded down a lane. He read drop and help defenders, and uncorked some lasers out to perimeter shooters. In the second highlight of the above clip, we're already seeing how Wesley can draw nail help and hit the shooter one pass away.
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This pass was bonkers. For Wesley to arrive at this dime, he has to shrug off his initial defender, force help to come over, recognize where the next defensive rotation will be and then&nbsp;wrap the ball around all of them to hit an open Robert Woodard II.
Summer League was expectedly imperfect for a rookie getting his first taste of NBA action. Wesley averaged 17.0 points, 4.0 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.6 steals in those five games. He also gave away 2.8 turnovers per game and shot just 27.6% from two-point range (and 34.4% from distance). But the No. 25 pick felt like he belonged with the league's top young talent.
"I felt good," Wesley said. "It was a good experience &mdash; a lot of people [in] their first game. [I was] playing against other rookies, other veterans and stuff like that, guys older than me, bigger than me. So to be out there was fun."
Wesley's been an NBA player for barely a month, and still must get ingrained with Gregg Popovich and the rest of the coaching staff. He says that Johnson and Josh Primo, last year's No. 12 overall pick, have helped him make the pro transition smoothly.
"I feel like everybody [has helped], but those two guys, Josh Primo and Coach Mitch have helped me a lot," Wesley said. "Josh Primo helped me a lot during training camp and stuff like that, and then Mitch taught me a lot during Summer League. They gave me the ball, they gave me the keys, so I just have to facilitate for everybody else.
Wesley and Primo's off-court rapport translated to on-court chemistry. The duo shared lead ball-handling dutues and connected several times for some impressive buckets.
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Wesley has also spent his first month jelling with his rookie teammates, including fellow first-round picks Jeremy Sochan and Malaki Branham. Sochan and Wesley were already friends and nearly EYBL teammates on Indy Heat before the COVID-19 pandemic <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/jeremy-sochan-a-citizen-of-the-world-sets-his-course-for-the-nba" target="_blank" rel="noopener">forced Sochan back to his home in England.</a>&nbsp;
"I knew Jeremy for a long time, and I know Malaki now. We're all close; we all hang out," Wesley said.&nbsp;
The 19-year-old has a couple of months to get ready for the NBA regular season. Wesley already can't wait to face Ja Morant, another uber-athletic guard, and LeBron James, who is nearly twice his age.&nbsp;
'It's gonna be crazy," Wesley said. "I'm 19, he's like, 35." (Wesley actually undersold the 37-year-old James).
The young guard should receive some trial-by-fire minutes on San Antonio's young roster. Dejounte Murray's departure to Atlanta opens a hole in the backcourt. Wesley isn't an exact stylistic match, but at 6-foot-5 with length and an ability to breeze to the paint, he and Murray share some similarities.&nbsp;
Wesley won't overreach though.
He knows his first jop his to learn from Popovich and his teammates, and find his niche as an NBA playmaker.
"I'm gonna go in and do my role," Wesley said. "Whatever Pop tells me to say or tells me to do, I'm gonna do it. They want me to go in there and be a point guard, so I'm gonna have to keep my point guard skills, get better, get stronger and be ready to work."

Blake Wesley dished out 4 or more assists in all but one of his NBA Summer League games with San Antonio.

Blake Wesley is ready to sharpen his point-guard skills with Spurs

Alex Rodriguez was standing near his courtside seat, oblivious to a few fans who were snapping a quick photo of the baseball great as they walked by.
He was watching the Minnesota Timberwolves warm up instead.
Rodriguez &mdash; currently part of the Timberwolves' ownership group, with plans in place for he and business partner Marc Lore to assume control from Glen Taylor and become primary owners next year &mdash; said Wednesday that he's enjoying his transitions from baseball to basketball and from player to executive, and noted that he's still learning.
&ldquo;I mean, I come at it from a different perspective, being in baseball for about a quarter of a century, and now it&rsquo;s interesting to take my experience from Major League Baseball, from broadcasting and now being here as an owner," Rodriguez said in an interview with The Associated Press before watching Minnesota's Summer League game in Las Vegas against Milwaukee. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been great. The NBA has welcomed me with open arms."
And the Wolves haven't exactly been sitting around idly since Rodriguez and Lore started their ownership process.
Minnesota has been one of the biggest stories in the league this offseason, first by <a href="https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-timberwolves-denver-nuggets-nba-sports-01f9383665c7795641b297252d91d72f">luring executive Tim Connelly</a> away from the Denver Nuggets to take over as president of the Timberwolves. Then came the trade &mdash; <a href="https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-timberwolves-utah-jazz-nba-entertainment-sports-30765f1caacff7e3e99aa0674dee7ffb">acquiring Rudy Gobert from Utah</a> for a slew of players and draft picks, a move that created perhaps the top frontline in the NBA with Gobert playing alongside Karl-Anthony Towns.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all about the fans in Minnesota. I think they deserve a winner," Rodriguez said. &ldquo;They deserve consistency, they deserve continuity. And I think across the board, we&rsquo;ve seen that. ... If you&rsquo;re a fan, there&rsquo;s a lot to cheer for. There&rsquo;s a lot to be excited about. And I think when you can forecast predictability, it&rsquo;s good for the energy of the town."
Taylor agreed to sell the Timberwolves for $1.5 billion last year to Lore and Rodriguez. Lore became Walmart&rsquo;s e-commerce chief in 2016, when the retail giant bought his Jet.com startup in an attempt to boost online business.
Rodriguez hit 696 home runs over 22 major league seasons, with the New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. His last season on the field was 2016, marking the end of a career that was tainted by performance-enhancing drug use he later admitted to. He has invested in an array of businesses outside of basketball, serves as a trustee at the University of Miami &mdash; the baseball stadium there bears his name, even though he never played for the Hurricanes &mdash; and now finds himself learning a new game.
But he already speaks of it like a seasoned pro, talking about what Wolves guard D'Angelo Russell can do in pick-and-roll situations, how he thinks Gobert &mdash; a three-time defensive player of the year &mdash; is underrated offensively and why it was important to extend coach Chris Finch's contract this past spring.
It's busy, and that's what he wants.
&ldquo;Team ownership is 365, 24/7," Rodriguez said, &ldquo;I knew that (NBA Commissioner) Adam Silver and his team were great, but they&rsquo;re even better than what they project. His senior management team, all the way through, they&rsquo;re really incredible, they add tons of value. And I think they&rsquo;re great at welcoming people, whether you&rsquo;re a player, media, owner, executive into the room, and they know how to do that better than anyone."

"It’s been great. The NBA has welcomed me with open arms," Alex Rodriguez said.

Wolves co-owner Alex Rodriguez says NBA has welcomed him

The 2023 NBA playoffs are more than nine months away, and one thing is already clear.
There will be chaos.
The Minnesota Timberwolves grabbed a megaphone and announced that to the world when they traded multiple players and several first-round picks &mdash; one of them in 2029, which means that youngster is currently 12 and probably can&rsquo;t dunk yet &mdash; <a href="https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-timberwolves-utah-jazz-nba-sports-26b3c07948dc5cd6e28b8f7da887517f">to the Utah Jazz for Rudy Gobert.</a>
And with that, Minnesota is officially added to a list of legit Western Conference title contenders. There are solid arguments that can be made for no fewer than seven teams right now when debating who&rsquo;ll represent the West in this coming season&rsquo;s NBA Finals: defending champion Golden State, along with Phoenix, Dallas, the Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis, Denver and Minnesota are all on that list.
Remember, at least three of those teams won&rsquo;t get past the first round next spring. At least three.
But give the Timberwolves credit for what they did, because this is the way of the NBA world now. Organizations are either all-in or all-out.
Some team is about to send another massive package of players and picks to Brooklyn for Kevin Durant, unless the Nets somehow <a href="https://apnews.com/article/brooklyn-nets-nba-sports-basketball-kevin-durant-da572379d0eabc5025a2106344695f6f">change his mind about wanting to be traded elsewhere.</a> And that team &mdash; doesn&rsquo;t matter which one &mdash; will instantly see its title hopes soar even higher by adding perhaps the most unguardable player in the game today. Durant is owed nearly $200 million for the next four years, is about to enter his 15th season (not including one missed for injury), will turn 34 this fall and teams are still lining up to bet it all to get him in their uniform.
&ldquo;The ones who were locked in that gym with me know what it is, they know what I&rsquo;m about,&rdquo; <a href="https://twitter.com/KDTrey5/status/1543220271921840128?s=20&amp;t=-2imCXyePn9bkHHvYQHFdQ">Durant tweeted on Saturday,</a> his first public comment since requesting a trade from the Nets. &ldquo;If u haven&rsquo;t been in there with me, ask around.&rdquo;
Cryptic in some ways, clear in others. Durant wants more rings. In other words, somebody better go all-in.
That&rsquo;s what it takes.
Golden State spent somewhere around $340 million this past season on a championship-winning roster, about half of it in salary and the other half in luxury tax. Sure, the Warriors are deep-pocketed. But such is the price of doing business right now, especially in an NBA coming off a year where a record $8.9 billion in basketball related income was generated.
And the Timberwolves are the latest team to embrace that reality.
Gobert is owed $170 million over the next four seasons. Karl-Anthony Towns is owed $295 million over the next six seasons, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-timberwolves-covid-nba-sports-health-e166af0d243b55ff4b581f7ba5f5d5fe">after guaranteeing most of that in an extension</a> that was struck a few hours before the Gobert trade happened. Anthony Edwards, a star in the making, is on pace for a massive rookie extension next summer. Minnesota, a team that hasn&rsquo;t won a playoff series since 2004, is swinging for the fences. New owner Alex Rodriguez, he of the 696 career home runs, must be proud.
Someone is going to get Durant. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/brooklyn-nets-nba-sports-kyrie-irving-f07bead702771069df05809872a7ae85">It&rsquo;s not reckless to think that Kyrie Irving</a> could want a trade now as well, and if the Nets move Durant, they may as well move Irving instead of losing him for nothing next summer. Imagine Irving reuniting with LeBron James, this time with the Los Angeles Lakers, trying to recreate what they did in 2016 when Cleveland got to celebrate a title. If Irving goes there, add the Lakers to that list of legit West contenders, too.
New Orleans will have things to say about the playoff chase. So should Portland, assuming Damian Lillard is Damian Lillard again, and there&rsquo;s no reason to think that won&rsquo;t be the case. And who knows what Utah will be without Gobert, especially with speculation now surrounding whether the Jazz will choose to turn their roster remodeling into a complete teardown and trade Donovan Mitchell as well.
Keep in mind, moves are happening in the East, too.
Eastern Conference champion <a href="https://apnews.com/article/boston-celtics-indiana-pacers-nba-sports-00faa7bcb81773778bd2ccff8b817a3b">Boston significantly upgraded its depth by landing Malcolm Brogdon</a> &mdash; another example of big spending, with $67.5 million and three years left on his deal &mdash; and Danilo Gallinari.
Miami, the No. 1 seed in the East playoffs this past season, is known to be in the Durant sweepstakes and Pat Riley is always, always, always looking for more stars. It wasn&rsquo;t a free-agent move, but Atlanta believes it got better by trading for Dejounte Murray to play alongside Trae Young. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/philadelphia-76ers-nba-sports-basketball-pj-tucker-0ff7c77b197b64f251c9cc08c816596a">James Harden delivered his most significant assist as a 76er</a> by opting out and giving Philadelphia the freedom to go get P.J. Tucker; Harden is now expected to sign a new deal in Philly, and that cements them as another contender. Milwaukee spent to keep Bobby Portis, meaning most of the title-winning-core around Giannis Antetokounmpo remains intact.
Signings can&rsquo;t even happen for a few more days. Training camps won't start until late September. The season doesn&rsquo;t start until mid-October. And then it&rsquo;s six more months until playoffs.
That&rsquo;s when the big, bold and best moves of this summer might pay off.

There are a handful of NBA teams around the league who have made bold, giant moves to get closer to a championship.

Analysis: NBA teams going all-in, and that's what it takes

The Detroit Pistons have selected Jaden Ivey with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.
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The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Pistons?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Pistons</a> are selecting Jaden Ivey with the fifth overall pick in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBADraft?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBADraft</a> 🏀<a href="https://twitter.com/MattBabcock11?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MattBabcock11</a> broke down his game: <a href="https://t.co/yp6VTK5Y9q">pic.twitter.com/yp6VTK5Y9q</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1540130990999457797?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2022</a></blockquote>

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ANALYSIS: Jaden Ivey shot career-highs across the board this season and propelled himself into being one of the most sought-after prospects in the entire draft. He is a phenomenal athlete, alpha dog and promising on-ball defender who has flashed elite potential in numerous facets of the game. In addition, his offense took a giant leap this past season, as he's shown the ability to create space for himself, score on multiple levels and attack the rim at an elite level. Ivey has a chance to become a star player.

The Detroit Pistons have selected Jaden Ivey with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.

2022 NBA Draft: Detroit Pistons pick Jaden Ivey No. 5

If the Utah Jazz want to keep Donovan Mitchell in Salt Lake City long-term, it seems more likely than not that Rudy Gobert will soon be shown the exit door. As the Jazz <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/an-awkward-offseason-looms-for-the-jazz-as-they-try-to-avoid-rebuild" target="_blank" rel="noopener">enter an awkward offseason</a>, the future of Gobert and Mitchell will be one of the NBA&rsquo;s top storylines until a resolution is finally reached.
If the Jazz want to build around Mitchell long-term and get younger, Gobert's days in Utah may be numbered. The Jazz identified Gobert's potential and helped him develop into a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, so parting ways won't be easy. However, it may be necessary in order to revamp the roster and best accentuate their other star player.
Gobert's value has taken a hit due to his recent super-max extension, which will pay him $169.7 million over the next four seasons. Although Gobert has an immense impact on the defensive end, there may be some executives who can't justify shelling out close to $200 million for him.
Gobert makes little to no sense on a rebuilding team or one that's just beginning their ascent up the standings. Instead, the market for Gobert will likely feature win-now organizations that believe he could be the final piece to the puzzle. And assuming Utah would prefer to move Gobert out of the Western Conference, the list of potential teams continues to shrink. If only there was an aggressive team that just took a major step forward and feels they are one piece away from contention entering this offseason...
&ldquo;The vision is to win the title,&rdquo; Chicago Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas said a few weeks ago. "I realized last year, this historic club deserves a better team.&rdquo;
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Insert Gobert within the Bulls' current ecosystem and this organization could absolutely take another leap in 2022-23. Chicago wants to compete for a championship within the reloaded Eastern Conference that's headlined by the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat, Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors. The Bulls got off to a hot start this season, but eventually tailed off due to injuries and inconsistent play. In the end, Chicago was quickly dispatched in the first round by the Bucks &mdash; once again signaling that the time is now to make improvements.
&ldquo;The current situation is not enough, and we need to create something better,&rdquo; Karnisovas said.
According to Bleacher Report&rsquo;s Jake Fischer and The Ringer&rsquo;s Kevin O&rsquo;Connor, Chicago has already inquired about Gobert. For both Gobert and the Bulls, this fit makes way too much sense from a timeline perspective. Gobert is in his prime and Chicago has all the pieces necessary to make a run. Zach LaVine, who is <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/fischer-zach-lavine-expected-to-resign-with-chicago" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expected to re-sign with the Bulls</a>, and DeMar DeRozan form a strong scoring tandem. Add in Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso &mdash; who would be the best perimeter defenders that Gobert has played with &mdash; and now Chicago is cooking with gas. This is a team that would be ripe for a deep postseason run next season.
The question is: what is Utah's asking price for Gobert? Any deal would likely involve two-time All-Star Nikola Vucevic. Fischer noted that former No. 4 overall pick Patrick Williams has fans in the Jazz&rsquo;s front office. However, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/fischer-bulls-eyeing-rudy-gobert-trade" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Fischer</a>, "the Bulls do not appear willing to include Patrick Williams alongside Vucevic in a trade package for Gobert." Rightfully, Chicago should haggle over Williams&rsquo; inclusion and try to send out multiple draft picks instead.
However, if the Jazz are adamant that they need Williams back in order to deal Gobert to the Windy City, the Bulls should bite the bullet. A package centered around Williams and the expiring contracts of Nikola Vucevic and Coby White lines up almost identically salary-wise.
The time is now for this Bulls core to become a realistic title contender. With this current core centered around LaVine and DeRozan, Chicago&rsquo;s window to compete is over the next two or three years. Gobert would be a huge help against the East's giants such as Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Maybe Williams becomes a great player down the road, but it seems unlikely that this will happen within Chicago's current window to contend. And who knows if Williams will even realize his full potential? That's the risk in prioritizing a high-upside prospect over a win-now piece.
For Utah, this deal allows them to acquire an excellent long-term piece, shed a massive salary and add some expiring contracts (who could allow them to still be competitive next season). If the Jazz play their cards right around Mitchell in a post-Gobert world, they'd have an easy pathway to a max-salary slot too.
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We all know Gobert&rsquo;s immense impact on the defensive end, but his presence becomes an instant game-changer for the Bulls. Chicago already has a strong offensive core, so Gobert makes them a complete team that's very well-rounded. An elite rim protector anchoring one side of the court with two All-Star scorers keeping the offense afloat is a recipe for stacking up a lot of victories.
We saw it in Utah: a well-constructed team around Gobert can become a regular-season juggernaut. But the question becomes what happens during postseason play? Unlike the lack of defensive versatility surrounding him with the Jazz, Gobert would be playing alongside Ball and Caruso on the perimeter. It&rsquo;s easy to envision a scenario where the Bulls are a well above-average unit offensively and defensively with Gobert placed into the center spot.
Last season in Utah, the Jazz allowed 7.8 more points per 100 possessions in the minutes Gobert sat &mdash; a massive gulch that shows his transcendent ability to deter shots with ease. Gobert, Ball and Caruso will take pressure off of LaVine and DeRozan, allowing them to focus on the offensive end and be even more effective. The Bulls&rsquo; projected rotation with Gobert is eye-opening:
Starters: Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gobert
Second Unit: Ayo Dosunmu, Troy Brown Jr., Javonte Green, Marko Simonovic, Tony Bradley
Chicago knows that the time is now to push the right buttons in order to become a consistent threat in the East. Adding Gobert would give the Bulls a complete roster and thrust Chicago into contention in the East. Even if Chicago has to part with Williams, it&rsquo;s a necessary price to pay in order to maximize their window around LaVine&rsquo;s prime and DeRozan&rsquo;s final chapter of elite production.
In a perfect world, the Jazz don&rsquo;t make any changes and decide to make moves elsewhere on the roster in order to improve (such as moving Bojan Bogdanovic, Jordan Clarkson and Royce O&rsquo;Neale). However, the situation in Utah is far from perfect right now with their face of the franchise.
For a team like Chicago, they are well-positioned to pounce and become an instant title contender. As Karnisovas laid out, he realizes big changes could be necessary in order to return the Bulls to their glory years. Making an all-in move for Gobert could easily be the accelerant Chicago needs.
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Rudy Gobert seems poised to be traded this offseason. Evan Sidery explains why the Bulls should capitalize on this golden opportunity.

The Chicago Bulls should make an all-in move for Rudy Gobert

I'll never forget Game 5 of the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals.
On a personal note, it was one of the best days of my professional life. The arena itself was buzzing in anticipation of a series-shifting game. For a fan base that's (mostly wrongfully) berated for not being on time, the arena filled up pretty quickly with Miami Heat fans.
Before the game, I got to meet the legendary duo of Doris Burke and Mark Jones, Yahoo's Chris Haynes and other giants in the industry. It was a surreal stretch of meet-ups considering my wild journey to this point.
And then there was the game itself: a knock-out, drag-out fight until the Boston Celtics turned up the sliders late in the third quarter. A 59-58 Celtics lead with 2:44 left in the third turned into a 77-60 lead with 9:35 left in the fourth. A work of mid-range mastery from Jayson Tatum pushed the lead to 17, forcing Erik Spoelstra to call timeout at the 9:35 mark. Poor Max Strus couldn't do much about it.
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I found myself marveling at Tatum's game that night. It wasn't his most efficient scoring outing; he finished with 22 points on 20 shots (5-of-12 from two, 2-of-8 from three). He coughed up the rock five times &mdash; two offensive fouls, two (tough) passes that went out of bounds, and a live-ball turnover where he tried to thread a needle into paint congestion.
But I quickly found the fun of a young superstar figuring things out on the fly against an elite defense.&nbsp;
Here was Tatum, a natural bucket-getter, not just being forced to make playmaking reads. No, no, no. He had to set up the chessboard. Because of the Heat's personnel, and because of their aggressive help principles and occasional pre-switches, Tatum was often tasked with setting up a pick-and-roll before actually running what he wanted.
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Tatum starts the possession defended by Caleb Martin. A handoff between Tatum and Jaylen Brown invites Jimmy Butler into the fray. A ball screen, this time with Al Horford, calls up Bam Adebayo. Tatum calls for&nbsp;another&nbsp;ball screen to target Duncan Robinson, his ultimate goal from the beginning.&nbsp;
The Heat don't want to switch this one, so Robinson executes a show-and-recover. Derrick White slips into open space with Robinson and Adebayo focused on Tatum. But because Adebayo is involved above the break, the Heat's backline help is pretty small.
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Butler is an All-World defender, but he's stuck between two players in the paint. Robinson hasn't gotten back to White, so Butler has to hold. The issue becomes Horford. Martin can't drop down to pick up Horford like he normally would because Brown is in the weakside corner.
Tatum simply waits to see who Butler commits to. Butler drops back to Horford once he senses Robinson is nearly back to White; in that moment, Tatum fires a bounce pass to White for a layup.
All of that happens within an eight-second span.&nbsp;
To be frank, Tatum wasn't nailing&nbsp;all of that,&nbsp;to this degree, at the beginning of the season. He certainly wasn't doing it with a level of consistency last year. But strides have continued to be made. Even when the result wasn't great, you could see the process improve. He became smarter. The decisions were made quicker, and with more nuance.
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Tatum had seen a little bit of everything through that Game 5. He saw a version of that switch-with-help-behind-it defense during his first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets. In the next round, the Milwaukee Bucks flowed between sending two to the ball and daring Tatum to beat them in drop coverage.
The drop coverage bet was a poor one on the surface &mdash; Tatum is a dynamite pull-up shooter &mdash; but the Bucks knew there was refinement needed from Tatum inside the arc.
The floater wasn't consistent yet. If the easy pull-up wasn't there, Tatum sometimes struggled with driving&nbsp;too&nbsp;deeply into the pocket, either turning drop coverage into a late switch or allowing his own defender to recover. That led to some ugly late-clock possessions.
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The Heat were a juiced-up version of both. They occasionally rushed Tatum with two defenders like the Bucks did. They gave up switches, but packed the paint with helpers like the Nets attempted to do. Through the mix of coverages, Tatum thrived, struggled, and ultimately thrived again.
I asked him about his comfort level against, well, everything after that Game 5 against Miami.
"Comfort level? From a scale of 1-to-10?" Tatum quipped with a smile before answering. "I'm very comfortable. Each series presents different challenges. Miami guards differently than Milwaukee did. Watching film from game to game, that's the key. Seeing what you did well, what you can improve on, what adjustments they might make and seeing what to be ready for."
Tatum couldn't quite crack the final boss in the Golden State Warriors.
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His series averages were fine &mdash; 21.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.7 blocks &mdash; but not up to superstar standards. For every bonus, there seemed to be an annoying negative. Seven dimes from your star wing is dope, but nearly four turnovers a game isn't what you want. He shot a robust 45.5% from three on 7.3 attempts per game, but those inside-the-arc struggles &mdash; 31.6% from two on 12.7 attempts &mdash; popped up in a big way.
The Warriors deserve credit for never letting Tatum get comfortable. They made sure he saw a healthy dose of switches (74 picks), drop coverage (45 picks), and a mix of hedges and blitzes (42), per Second Spectrum. And regardless of what the initial coverage was, the Warriors had a way of varying their help defense behind it.
Sometimes, they'd pinch the help in early to restrict driving lanes. Other times, Tatum would have early access to the rim, only to be met by late helpers converging into the paint. That cat-and-mouse game ultimately decided the half-court battle in this series.
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Add in the bodies he saw &mdash; Andrew Wiggins, Klay Thompson, Gary Payton II and others got a taste of the Tatum assignment &mdash; and it should come as no surprise that this was Tatum's worst playoff series as a driver. On possessions where Tatum shot or passed to someone who shot after a drive, the Celtics generated 0.77 points per possession (PPP). It ended a streak of stark improvement from Tatum in that area:
<ul>
<li>Brooklyn: 0.89 PPP on 52 direct drives</li>
<li>Milwaukee: 0.96 PPP on 74 direct drives</li>
<li>Miami: 1.08 PPP on 64 direct drives</li>
<li>Golden State: 0.77 PPP on 77 direct drives</li>
</ul>
It wasn't always pretty. Not that they need&nbsp;my&nbsp;permission, but Celtic fans and NBA enthusiasts are within their right to be disappointed in Tatum's output during the Finals.
All I ask is that we don't lose the plot.&nbsp;
Tatum didn't struggle on his own; remember, before Draymond Green missed a chunk of games during the regular season, it was the Warriors who held the NBA's best defensive rating. They pinpointed what Tatum's weaknesses were and poked at him. And this is on top of what Tatum was asked to do defensively &mdash; often navigating the Green assignment so he could switch onto Stephen Curry when necessary, or dealing with drives from Wiggins on the ball.
Beyond that, look at the growth Tatum has made as a scorer and playmaker over the past year-and-a-half. Heck, look at the growth he made this postseason. Defenses keyed in on him, threw different schemes at him within the same&nbsp;quarter,&nbsp;and he was mostly able to figure it out.&nbsp;
This is a sour end to the season, but it's a season in which Tatum was an All-Star once again, earned All-NBA First Team honors, finished sixth in MVP voting and led his team to the NBA Finals for the first time.
This was a darn good year, and now Tatum has to stew in this Finals loss for a bit. His history already suggests he'll get better heading into next season; with this frustrating finish, I'd bet the house on Tatum making a substantial leap over the summer.
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Nekias Duncan reflects on the improvement that Jayson Tatum showed throughout the season and postseason.

Enjoying the journey, through the lens of Jayson Tatum

With the 2022 NBA Draft less than a week away, our Senior NBA Draft Analyst shares his updated his 2022 NBA Mock Draft.

Keystone Giants