[ad_1]
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
[ad_2]
Tag: NBA Finals
-
Miami Heat evens up the series against the Denver Nuggets
Miami Heat evens up the series against the Denver Nuggets – CBS News
-
NBA says it won’t mind if Wembanyama’s debut comes in Sacramento, not Las Vegas
[ad_1]
DENVER — Victor Wembanyama’s next couple of weeks are now set: He’ll be playing in the French league finals starting this weekend, and then the San Antonio Spurs will almost certainly make him the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft on June 22.
And if that means the French star’s summer league debut comes in Sacramento instead of Las Vegas in early July, the league is fine with that.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league doesn’t have a preference regarding the site of Wembanyama’s first game with the Spurs. While the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas is the biggest — all 30 teams attend — and commands the most attention, there are smaller summer leagues that precede the Vegas event by a few days. Sacramento plays host to one of those events, and the Spurs are one of six teams headed there this year.
“All summer leagues are NBA Summer Leagues,” Silver told The Associated Press. “I’m very supportive of the Sacramento summer league. I remember when (Kings owner Vivek Ranadive) first came to the league and said this was something he wanted to do. I said, ‘As long as you have enough other teams who support it and players who want to play in it, it’s a good thing.’”
The Kings might be getting a lot more buzz than usual this summer. Not only are the Spurs headed there, but so is Charlotte — which holds the No. 2 pick. And it just so happens that the Spurs and Hornets will open Sacramento summer play against one another, potentially setting the stage for a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup a few days before Vegas even starts.
If Wembanyama plays in Sacramento, he’d be the first No. 1 pick that didn’t debut in Las Vegas since Markelle Fultz for Philadelphia in 2017. The 76ers played in Utah’s summer league that year before going to Vegas.
Other recent No. 1 picks have opened in Las Vegas with big-crowd, big-spectacle atmospheres. Paolo Banchero’s debut in Vegas for Orlando last summer had John Wall and DeMar DeRozan sitting courtside, as was Jerry West — three guys who didn’t need to see the scalpers who were working outside the arena for hours before the game. Zion Williamson played only nine minutes in his debut in 2019, in a game that was stopped by an earthquake, and his debut got LeBron James and Anthony Davis to grab courtside seats.
The Spurs have not said whether Wembanyama will play in the Sacramento event, which starts on July 3, and almost certainly won’t address the topic until they actually draft him in a little over two weeks. Wembanyama is expected to be with the Spurs in Las Vegas as well; the league has already announced him as one of the participants for its inaugural NBA Con — which runs there from July 7-9 and will celebrate many aspects of basketball culture.
“What’s made the summer leagues so valuable are really the media rights more than the individuals who buy tickets there, because it’s a very affordable experience,” Silver said. “So, the answer is, I want Victor to get playing court experience and I think the team — assuming it’s San Antonio — should make decisions completely independent of any commercial implications from where he debuts.”
Wembanyama’s Boulogne-Levallois team beat his former team, ASVEL, 3-1 in a French league semifinal series that ended Sunday. Monaco, the top seed in the league, awaits Wembanyama’s team in the best-of-five final that starts Saturday and could go until June 20 — two days before the draft.
“So proud of my guys,” Wembanyama tweeted Sunday after the semifinal win. “Job ain’t done tho.”
Wembanyama said in October that he’s 7-foot-3; some still say he’s 7-foot-4 or 7-foot-5, and given that he’s only 19, it’s certainly possible that he had a bit of growing left in recent months. Either way, he’s a generational talent who’ll come into the NBA with enormous hype, the likes of which probably hasn’t been seen since James went No. 1 overall to Cleveland in 2003.
“What I try to advise players — and I’m not making a prediction that he will or won’t live up to the hype — is to control what you can control, and I think what you can control is doing the work,” Silver said. “If he is in San Antonio, it’s an organization that led the way in terms of international scouting and signing of international players. Certainly, everyone would acknowledge they know how to develop players and particularly big men. And so, if I were in his shoes, or if I’m advising him, I’m saying, ‘Quickly become part of that organization and be a sponge and listen to the advice.’”
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
NBA planning to announce latest Ja Morant decision after Finals, Silver says
[ad_1]
DENVER — The latest sanctions, if any, that the NBA plans to levy against Memphis guard Ja Morant for his second instance of displaying a gun on social media will be announced shortly after the finals, Commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday.
Silver did not say what the penalties were, not even saying if Morant would be available at the start of next season. Morant was suspended for eight games by the NBA in March for an incident where he broadcast himself on Instagram displaying a gun in a suburban Denver club, and was suspended by the Grizzlies last month after another video showed Morant displaying what appeared to be a gun yet again.
Silver said the league has discovered more information during its current investigation, but the decision was made to not have the next round of Morant news overshadow the NBA Finals.
“We probably could have brought it to a head now, but we made the decision — and I believe the players’ association agrees with us — that it would be unfair to these players and these teams, in the middle of this series, to announce the results of that investigation,” Silver said.
The first suspension cost Morant about $669,000 in salary. The second incident was streamed on the Instagram account of Morant associate Davonte Pack. The video shows Morant in the passenger seat of a vehicle, briefly appearing to display a handgun. At the very brief moment — maybe less than a second — when Morant is shown holding what appears to be a weapon, the livestream had 111 viewers.
“In assessing what discipline is appropriate, if that’s the case, we look at both the history of prior acts but then we look at the individual player’s history as well and the seriousness, of course, of the conduct,” Silver said. “Those are all things that get factored. It’s not an exact science. It comes down to judgment at the end of the day on the part of me and my colleagues in the league office.”
This will be at least the third known NBA investigation surrounding Morant and the possible involvement of firearms so far in 2023.
Morant’s actions were investigated after a Jan. 29 incident in Memphis that he said led to Pack — someone Morant calls “my brother” — banned from Grizzlies home games for a year.
That incident followed a game against the Indiana Pacers; citing unnamed sources, The Indianapolis Star and USA Today reported that multiple members of the Pacers saw a red dot pointed at them while they were near the loading dock where their bus was located, and The Athletic reported that a Pacers security guard believed the laser was attached to a gun.
The NBA confirmed that unnamed individuals were banned from the arena but said its investigation found no evidence that anyone was threatened with a weapon.
Silver said he’s hoping this episode sparks change for Morant.
“He seems to be a fine young man, in terms of my dealings with him,” Silver said. “He’s clearly made some mistakes. But he’s young and I’m hoping now, once we conclude at the end of our process, what the appropriate discipline is, that it’s not just about the discipline. It’s about now what we, the players’ association, his team, he and the people around him around him are going to do to create better circumstances going forward. That’s ultimately what’s most important.”
COMPETITIVE BALANCE
The NBA Finals matchup no longer seems predictable months in advance, and Silver doesn’t mind that fact whatsoever.
Silver, speaking just before the start of a Denver-Miami matchup in the title series, said those two clubs making the finals “speaks a lot to the competitiveness in this league.” This is the league’s sixth different finals matchup in the last six seasons, and nine different teams have played for a title in that span.
“With just a little over a week left in the season, you had 26 teams still competing for the playoffs,” Silver said in his annual pre-finals address. “That’s a record.”
Denver is in the finals for the first time, and Miami is the second team to get there as a No. 8 seed — plus the first to get there after needing to survive the play-in tournament just to qualify for the playoffs. It’s also a matchup of teams in the middle of the pack of the NBA market; Denver is No. 16 in market size, according to Nielsen, while South Florida is No. 18.
“I think that’s intriguing,” Silver said.
There’s been no shortage of examples of the same team — or two, even — making the finals on what seems like an annual basis.
Golden State played Cleveland four consecutive times from 2015 through 2018; Miami was in four consecutive finals from 2011 through 2014 and played San Antonio in the last two of those years; and the Los Angeles Lakers played three consecutive finals from 2008 through 2010, two of those matchups against Boston.
There were seven teams with better odds of winning the NBA title going into the season than Miami; there were eight with better odds than Denver.
“Competition is great for the league,” Silver said.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
Denver Nuggets cruise past Miami Heat in Game 1 of NBA Finals | CNN
[ad_1]
CNN
—
The top-seeded Denver Nuggets cruised past the Miami Heat 104-93 to take Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night at Denver’s Ball Arena.
After clinching the first NBA Finals berth in franchise history with a sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals on May 22, Denver showed no signs of rust in Thursday’s Game 1, jumping out to a 17-point lead in the first half with four of the Nuggets’ five starters finishing with double digits in points.
Denver continued building on the lead to start the second half, leading by as many as 24 points in the third quarter.
Two-time MVP Nikola Jokic tallied his ninth triple-double to extend his record for most in a single postseason in NBA history. He finished with 27 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds in the victory.
Jokic’s 14 assists are the most by a center in Finals history. Nuggets guard Jamal Murray added 26 points and 10 assists as the team captured its first win in an NBA Finals in the franchise’s 47 years in the league.
“We respect that team a lot. They fight. They never quit,” Jokic said after the game. “We just wanted to get the first punch. You know the first three rounds, (the Heat) won the first game when they traveled … and we didn’t want that to happen, and I think we did a good job.”
The Heat, seeking to become the NBA’s first No. 8 seed to win a championship since the 16-team playoff format began 39 years ago, struggled with their shots in the opening two quarters, going 18-of-48 from the field. Postseason stars Caleb Martin and Max Strus were a combined 0-for-12 in the first half.
In the fourth quarter, Miami got off to a hot start, breaking off on an 11-0 run to cut the deficit to 10 points. Despite trailing by single digits later in the fourth, the Heat’s comeback bid fell short.
Heat center Bam Adebayo scored a team-high 26 points, while Eastern Conference Finals MVP Jimmy Butler managed only 13 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field.
Game 2 is on Sunday in Denver.
[ad_2]
-
Jokic gets triple-double, Nuggets roll past Heat 104-93 in Game 1 of NBA Finals
[ad_1]
DENVER — Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets were facing some questions going into their first NBA Finals, and their answers came in resounding fashion.
No, a week and a half off didn’t hurt them.
And no, the NBA’s biggest stage isn’t too big, either.
Jokic got a triple-double in his finals debut, Jamal Murray scored 26 points and the Nuggets had little trouble with the cold-shooting Miami Heat on the way to a 104-93 win in Game 1 on Thursday night.
The two-time NBA MVP finished with 27 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who waited 47 years to make the finals and didn’t disappoint.
“The most important thing is to win a game,” Jokic said after his ninth triple-double of this year’s playoffs — his sixth in his last seven games. “I’m trying to win a game in any possible way.”
Aaron Gordon added 16 points and Michael Porter Jr. scored 14 for Denver, which trailed for all of 34 seconds and eventually led by as many as 24.
Bam Adebayo finished with 26 points and 13 rebounds for Miami, which shot 41% for the game — 33% from 3-point range. Gabe Vincent scored 19, Haywood Highsmith had 18 and Jimmy Butler added 13 for the Heat.
Game 2 is in Denver on Sunday night.
Miami opened the fourth quarter on an 11-0 run, cutting an 84-63 deficit to start the final period down to 84-74. The Heat actually got within nine on a 3-pointer by Highsmith with 2:34 left, but no closer and there wasn’t any doubt, either.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone gave his team a pop quiz in shootaround Thursday morning, peppering them with questions about the game plan and what had to be done in the most important game to date in franchise history.
They had all the answers then. Had them all at game time, too. They were the team with minimal NBA Finals experience, only two players having been to the title round before, and yet they looked right at home before the home crowd in Game 1.
Jokic became the second player in the last 25 years — LeBron James was the other, in 2017 — to have 10 assists by halftime of a finals game. He had 10 points and 10 assists by the break, and Denver was up 59-42 after the first two quarters.
That wasn’t good for Miami. Nor was this: The Nuggets were in full control and Jokic had taken only three shots.
“I don’t need to shoot and I know I don’t need to score to affect the game,” Jokic said.
And this part was worse for Miami: The Heat just couldn’t shoot. At all. Or at least, not until Denver was too far ahead to catch. Max Strus was 0 for 10 through three quarters, 0 for 9 on 3-pointers. Caleb Martin — who narrowly missed out on winning the MVP award of the Eastern Conference finals — was 1 for 7.
TIP-INS
Heat: Miami fell to 1-6 all-time in Game 1s of the NBA Finals. The Heat lost the series opener in each of their title years — 2006, 2012 and 2013 — and the only win came in 2011, a series they eventually lost to Dallas. … Adebayo’s 25 shots were a career high. He became the third player to score at least 24 points for Miami in a Game 1 of a finals. James did it three times for the Heat and Dwyane Wade did it in 2006.
Nuggets: Jokic became the eighth player to have a triple-double in Game 1 of a finals. None of the others were accompanied by 27 points; Dave Cowens had a 25-point triple-double to open the 1976 finals. … Bruce Brown, who played his college ball at Miami, scored 10. … Denver got to the foul line 20 times to Miami’s two.
CELEB WATCH
Among those in the sellout crowd: Grammy winner H.E.R., NFL legend and former Denver quarterback Peyton Manning, current Denver quarterback Russell Wilson, Broncos coach Sean Payton and actor-comedian Ken Jeong.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
Today in History: May 31, the Johnstown Flood
[ad_1]
Today in History
Today is Wednesday, May 31, the 151st day of 2023. There are 214 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 31, 1889, some 2,200 people in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, perished when the South Fork Dam collapsed, sending 20 million tons of water rushing through the town.
On this date:
In 1790, President George Washington signed into law the first U.S. copyright act.
In 1859, the Big Ben clock tower in London went into operation, chiming for the first time.
In 1921, a race riot erupted in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as white mobs began looting and leveling the affluent Black district of Greenwood over reports a Black man had assaulted a white woman in an elevator; hundreds are believed to have died.
In 1949, former State Department official and accused spy Alger Hiss went on trial in New York, charged with perjury (the jury deadlocked, but Hiss was convicted in a second trial).
In 1962, former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel a few minutes before midnight for his role in the Holocaust.
In 1970, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Peru claimed an estimated 67,000 lives.
In 1977, the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline, three years in the making despite objections from environmentalists and Alaska Natives, was completed. (The first oil began flowing through the pipeline 20 days later.)
In 1989, House Speaker Jim Wright, dogged by questions about his ethics, announced he would resign. (Tom Foley later succeeded him.)
In 2009, Dr. George Tiller, a rare provider of late-term abortions, was shot and killed in a Wichita, Kansas, church. (Gunman Scott Roeder was later convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 50 years.) Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, died in Southampton, England at 97.
In 2014, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier held prisoner in Afghanistan, was freed by the Taliban in exchange for five Afghan detainees from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Bergdahl, who’d gone missing in June 2009, later pleaded guilty to endangering his comrades by walking away from his post in Afghanistan; his sentence included a dishonorable discharge, a reduction in rank and a fine, but no prison time.)
In 2019, a longtime city employee opened fire in a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Virginia, killing 12 people on three floors before police shot and killed him; officials said DeWayne Craddock had resigned by email hours before the shooting.
In 2020, tens of thousands of protesters again took to the streets across America, with peaceful demonstrations against police killings overshadowed by unrest; officials deployed thousands of National Guard soldiers and enacted strict curfews in major cities.
Ten years ago: A tornado in the Oklahoma City metro area claimed eight lives, including those of storm chasers Tim Samaras, his son, Paul, and Carl Young; 13 people died in flash flooding. Four firefighters searching for people in a blazing Houston motel and restaurant were killed when part of the structure collapsed. Actor Jean Stapleton, who played Archie Bunker’s far better half, the sweetly naive Edith, in TV’s groundbreaking 1970s comedy “All in the Family,” died in New York at age 90.
Five years ago: The Trump administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum from Europe, Mexico and Canada in a move that drew immediate vows of retaliation. Western Europe got its first populist government as Italy’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the right-wing League formed a governing coalition. Comedian Samantha Bee apologized to Ivanka Trump and to her viewers for using an expletive to describe the president’s daughter on Bee’s TBS show “Full Frontal.” President Donald Trump pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza, who had pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud; Trump said D’Souza had been “treated very unfairly by our government.” The Golden State Warriors won Game 1 of the NBA finals over the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime; Cleveland’s J.R. Smith inexplicably failed to take a go-ahead shot after a missed free-throw as time ran out in regulation.
One year ago: A week after a gunman ran into an Uvalde, Texas grade school and started shooting, the first of 21 funerals was held. Hundreds of mourners turned out for an afternoon Mass to remember Amerie Jo Garza, with six pallbearers carrying her small casket into Sacred Heart Catholic Church. She was one of 19 students killed, along with two teachers. The European Union agreed to ban the overwhelming majority of Russian oil imports after tense negotiations. The move was the most significant effort to that point to punish Russia for its war in Ukraine. K-Pop sensation BTS visited the White House to discuss combating the rise in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans with President Biden.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor-director Clint Eastwood is 93. Singer Peter Yarrow is 85. Humanitarian and author Terry Waite is 84. Singer-musician Augie Meyers is 83. Actor Sharon Gless is 80. Football Hall of Famer Joe Namath is 80. Broadcast journalist/commentator Bernard Goldberg is 78. Actor Tom Berenger is 73. Actor Gregory Harrison is 73. Actor Kyle Secor is 66. Actor Roma Maffia (ma-FEE’-uh) is 65. Actor/comedian Chris Elliott is 63. Actor Lea Thompson is 62. Singer Corey Hart is 61. Actor Hugh Dillon is 60. Rapper Darryl “DMC” McDaniels is 59. Actor Brooke Shields is 58. TV host Phil Keoghan is 56. Jazz musician Christian McBride is 51. Actor Archie Panjabi is 51. Actor Merle Dandridge (TV: “Greenleaf”) is 48. Actor Colin Farrell is 47. Rock musician Scott Klopfenstein (Reel Big Fish) is 46. Actor Eric Christian Olsen is 46. Rock musician Andy Hurley (Fall Out Boy) is 43. Country singer Casey James (TV: “American Idol”) is 41. Actor Jonathan Tucker is 41. Rapper Waka Flocka Flame is 37. Pop singer Normani Hamilton (Fifth Harmony) is 27.
[ad_2]
-
Bob Myers departing as Warriors president, GM after 4 NBA titles, 11 seasons
[ad_1]
SAN FRANCISCO — Bob Myers can no longer put all of his energy into running the Golden State Warriors, and that’s why he is ready to walk away as one of the most successful professional sports executives ever.
“This is tough, this is hard. I have so many different things, emotions that I’m still processing,” Myers said, fighting tears in making his announcement Tuesday. “But the bottom line is this job, the one I’m in, I would say this for any professional general manager or coach, requires complete engagement, complete effort, 1000%. If you can’t do it, then you shouldn’t do it. That’s the answer to the question of why.
“… It doesn’t feel right to do something when I can’t give it everything, and that’s what it takes to do what we’ve done over the last 12 years.”
Myers is departing as Golden State’s president and general manager after building a championship team that captured four titles in an eight-year span and reached five straight NBA Finals from 2015-19. He shared his decision with owner Joe Lacob on Tuesday morning.
Yet basketball is and always will be in Myers’ blood and the thrill of competition so ingrained in him, he’s certainly not done in the business — even if he isn’t quite sure what’s next. He knows there will be an enormous void on game day and every other day in between.
He will miss Stephen Curry’s warmup routine, his close friendship with coach Steve Kerr and all the special playoff runs they shared together, noting, “I’m proud of what I did and proud of what we did.”
One of the most successful GMs over the past decade in any sport, Myers’ contract expires June 30 and there has been speculation for months about his future, given the sides had yet to reach agreement on an extension or a new deal. Myers added about his decision, “This wasn’t about money, just want to make that clear, it’s not about money, I make plenty of money, I got offered plenty of money.”
The 48-year-old Myers grew up in suburban Danville going to Warriors games for his birthday, played basketball at UCLA and learned key skills on the other side of the business when he became an agent before switching careers and emerging as a top NBA executive. He did so with a personable nature and regularly attending practices to chat with players, staff, Kerr and his assistants.
Lacob acted on a tip from Danny Ainge to consider the unproven Myers and after interviewing other candidates over months, Lacob realized how much he really liked Myers despite his inexperience. Myers then spent a year as assistant GM under Larry Riley before being promoted a year later.
Kerr has loved working alongside Myers in a collaborative way, something that can be unusual in professional sports between the front office and head coach.
“He’s a fantastic coach, he’s an all-time, top, Hall of Fame coach,” Myers said. “You can go through a whole life and not meet people like that not make friendships like that. It’s super rare, most GMs and coaches don’t like each other, and I can see why. It’s pretty set up to fail.”
Myers has been known to talk to players during games, rare for a GM to do. That included working to calm down fiery forward Draymond Green at times.
He has long supported Green through his mistakes, technical fouls and suspensions. In 2016, Green was suspended for a crucial Game 5 loss to LeBron James and the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals after accumulating too many flagrant fouls in the playoffs that season. The Warriors wound up losing in seven games. Myers sat with Green next door to Oracle Arena at the Oakland Coliseum for that game Green missed.
It was Myers who only a couple of months later signed eventual two-time NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant, who played for Golden State from 2016-19 and helped the Warriors win repeat championships in 2017 and ’18.
“We are going to win no matter what, I don’t care what the rules are,” said Lacob, who plans to get as much as he can out of Myers in the GM’s final month.
Lacob’s son, Kirk, and Mike Dunleavy Jr., are potential in-house replacements for Myers, who will help with the upcoming NBA Draft in a support role.
“There’s a good possibility it could be an internal candidate,” Lacob said of filling the job.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich in March credited good friend Kerr and Myers for their commitment to acquiring players who want to be team-first and not just focus on individual success.
“He and Bob have been bringing guys in that can understand that,” Popovich said. “Every player can’t play that game, they just can’t do it. But they’ve brought in guys that understand it and that will play their roles for the sake of winning, and winning big.”
Myers spoke to the players and he heard from Durant — in Monaco — and will always cherish those relationships that aren’t always as friendly everywhere. Myers said watching and working with superstars Curry, Green, Klay Thompson and Durant, “I’d do that for free.”
After becoming GM in 2012, Myers constructed the roster that won the 2015 championship for the franchise’s first title in 40 years. A father of three daughters, perhaps he will become a fan again, something he said is far easier than doing his job.
“This team is in great shape,” Myers said, “great shape.”
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
Jimmy Butler helps Heat to 103-84 Game 7 win over Celtics and spot in NBA Finals
[ad_1]
BOSTON — No unprecedented comeback, no last-tick miracle, no cavalcade of higher seeds is going to prevent these Miami Heat from playing for the NBA title.
Eastern Conference finals Most Valuable Player Jimmy Butler scored 28 points, and Caleb Martin had 26 points and 10 rebounds to help the eighth-seeded Heat beat Boston 103-84 in Game 7 on Monday night and advance to the NBA Finals for the second time in four seasons.
A year after losing a seventh game to the Celtics, Miami recovered from blowing a 3-0 lead in the series and advanced to face the Western Conference champion Nuggets.
Game 1 is Thursday night in Denver, where the top-seeded Nuggets have been waiting since sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers on May 22..
“We stayed together as a group. As a team, we talked about going and getting a tough one on the road. We did just that,” Butler said. “But we’re not satisfied. We’re excited. We’re happy. But we’ve got one more to get.”
Bam Adebayo scored 12 points with 10 rebounds for Miami, which is the first No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals since the 1999 New York Knicks.
To get there, the Heat had to recover after losing the play-in opener against Atlanta and beat Chicago in a second-chance play-in. They eliminated the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in five games, then the fifth-seeded Knicks in six.
They put Boston in a 3-0 hole — a deficit no NBA team has ever come back from. Three losses later, Miami was on the brink of the wrong kind of history.
“Sometimes you have to suffer for the things that you really want,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “This group has shown fortitude, when there are inevitable letdowns and failures, to have that perseverance to pick yourself up, to have that collective spirit to keep on forging ahead until you get to accomplish what you want to.”
Game 6 hero Derrick White scored 18 for Boston, which was hoping to become the first NBA team in 151 tries to advance after falling behind 0-3 in a best-of-seven series. Jaylen Brown scored 19 with eight rebounds but went 1 for 9 from 3-point range and committed eight turnovers.
Jayson Tatum, who scored a Game 7 record 51 points against Philadelphia in the conference semis, had 14 points with 11 rebounds after turning his ankle on the first play of the game and limping through 42 minutes.
“When we were down 3-0, the thing was: How do we want to be defined?” said Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, who took over the team on the eve of training camp when Ime Udoka was suspended for inappropriate workplace behavior. “I thought they showed a lot of character by even getting to this point.”
The Celtics led by five points early before conceding a 14-4 run to end the first quarter and then giving up 16 of the first 22 points in the second. Miami led 76-66 lead at the end of three, then Tatum missed a layup to open the fourth quarter, and Brown followed with back-to-back turnovers; at the other end, Martin hit a 3-pointer and Butler hit a pair of baskets to give Miami an 83-66 lead.
Boston never got with 15 after that, with the sold-out TD Garden crowd alternating between stunned silence, angry boos and, finally, polite applause before they began filing out early.
“We failed. I failed and we let the whole city down,” Brown said. “In spite of whatever circumstance we had this year we rose to the occasion. We got to this point and we came up short.”
The Heat took the first three games – two of them in Boston – and needed just one more win to reach to the NBA Finals. None of the 150 teams that have opened a 3-0 lead in an NBA playoff series has ever failed to advance.
But the Celtics hyped themselves up by watching a documentary on the Boston Red Sox comeback from a 3-0 deficit against the New York Yankees on their way to the 2004 World Series. When the Celtics took the floor for Game 4 in Miami, ex-Yankees Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter were sitting courtside.
Boston won Games 4 and 5 by double digits and had a cushy lead in Game 6 before Miami rallied back to take a one-point lead with 3 seconds left. The Heat appeared to clinch it when Marcus Smart’s desperation 3-pointer rimmed out, but White scored on a putback in the final 10th of a second to force a decisive seventh game.
Back at home, the Celtics greeted their fans with a pregame video intercutting highlights from the Red Sox comeback with their own. 2004 Red Sox catalyst Kevin Millar recorded a message to hype up the crowd.
But the heavily favored Celtics couldn’t repeat the feat.
“The hole we put ourselves in, it’s hard. No one’s climbed out of that hole,” said Malcolm Brogdon, who returned after missing Game 6 with an elbow injury but scored zero points in seven minutes. “It was the same tonight: We couldn’t climb out of the hole we created.
“I thought we showed how resilient we were, how good of a team we are, climbing out of it partially. But not being able to finish it on your home floor? That’s super disappointing.”
Instead, the Heat overcame the disappointment of 2022, when they lost to the Celtics in Game 7 of the conference finals on their home floor.
“Last year was extremely painful,” Spoelstra said. “We thought about it all season long. And if you don’t have an opponent like that to bring you to a different level, sometimes you don’t get there.”
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
Miami Heat advance to NBA Finals after crushing the Boston Celtics’ dream of a historic comeback | CNN
[ad_1]
CNN
—
The Miami Heat closed out the Boston Celtics in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals on Monday, winning a deciding Game 7 103-84 to advance to the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets.
The road victory for the Heat blocked the proud Celtics franchise from becoming the first NBA team to rally to win a seven-game series after losing the first three contests.
“We have some incredible competitors in that locker room. They love the challenge,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They love putting themselves out there in front of everybody. Open to criticism. Open to everything.”
Celtics point guard Malcolm Brodgon said he thought his team played tight and it affected their results on both ends of the court.
“I thought (the Heat) played loose. I thought they really executed on the defensive end,” the league’s Sixth Man of the Year said. “Then offensively they were poised. They weren’t rushed, they weren’t nervous.”
Eighth-seeded Miami had to come through the play-In tournament but has not let its underdog status have any bearing on its impressive playoff run so far.
Against Boston on Monday, Miami forward Jimmy Butler led the way with 28 points while forward Caleb Martin netted 26 points and had 10 rebounds.
Boston shot a frigid 39% from the field as a team, and no Celtic managed to score 20 points in the game.
Many teams have tried, a few have gotten close, but ultimately all have failed in trying to achieve the comeback of all comebacks, netting 0 for 151 attempts.
Most teams to go down 0-3 didn’t even make it this far.
This Boston squad marks the just the fourth team to ever force a Game 7 following a 0-3 start to a series: the New York Knicks forced a Game 7 in the 1951 NBA Finals against the Rochester Royals, the Denver Nuggets pushed it to the brink in the 1994 Western Conference semis against the Utah Jazz and the Portland Trail Blazers almost made history in the 2003 Western Conference first round against the Dallas Mavericks.
The Heat, who have won three NBA titles, most recently in 2013, will face the top-seeded Nuggets in Denver on Thursday.
The Nuggets have not played a game in a week after sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals last Monday.
Spoelstra’s team took down Giannis Antetokounmpo and the No. 1-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, before winning a war of attrition against the Knicks in the Eastern Conference semis.
Despite Boston’s impressive regular season record, the No. 2 seed struggled throughout the postseason. It took the Celtics six games to get past the seventh-seeded Atlanta Hawks and another seven to get through the Philadelphia 76ers.
This brought the Heat and the Celtics together in the Eastern Conference Finals. The series has been an incredible display of drama and tension with the momentum ebbing and flowing throughout.
The Heat raced to a 3-0 lead in the series thanks to incredible performances by Butler and the Miami supporting cast.
Butler has been one of the stars of the NBA postseason and continued this form during the early games of the series against the Celtics.
Missing Tyler Herro through injury meant that head coach Erik Spoelstra had to seek other alternatives to support his star man. Up stepped Gabe Vincent and Martin – who have come up big in clutch time and throughout the series.
However, the Celtics won Game 4 and Game 5 in comfortable fashion with Jayson Tatum showing his brilliance in the win-or-go-home games. Back-to-back blowouts meant that Boston took the series back to Miami for Game 6 – the most crucial game of the series so far.
Buoyed by their home crowd support, it looked like the Heat had finally got their momentum back and had enough in the tank to become Eastern Conference champions.
The Heat held a one-point advantage with just three seconds left on the clock, but with the ball in Boston’s hands, it was far from over. As Marcus Smart attempted to splash home a game-winning three, the ball bounced off the rim and Derrick White scored a buzzer-beating putback to edge the game for the Celtics.
“It felt good. Everybody was asking me, ‘Did you get it off?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I think so,’ but it was so close, you never know,” White told reporters afterwards. “We’re just happy we won. However, we got to get it done, we got it done, and now it’s on to Game 7.”
Unfortunately for the Celtics, the Game 7 hill was again too steep to overcome.
[ad_2]
-
Denver Nuggets perfect the drama-free path to their spot on NBA’s big stage
[ad_1]
DENVER — The Denver Nuggets don’t brawl with other teams or bicker among themselves. It’s been almost a decade since they fired a coach. Their most spectacular highlights often involve sublime skip passes across the court — or a backward, half-court shot from their mascot, Rocky, during a break in the action.
Some might call them downright boring. The Nuggets call it beautiful. Their no-drama way of doing business, both on and off the court, doesn’t grab tons of headlines. But it has set the franchise up for success and brought it to its first NBA Finals in 47 years in the league.
The team that cemented itself into first place in the Western Conference on Dec. 20, then cashed in by making it to the final, is the virtual opposite of those it has mowed down in both the regular and postseasons. Those teams are studded with stars, or in the headlines after big trades, or featuring front-line players who are semiregulars on the police blotter, or filled with injuries and other drama up and down the roster and on the bench.
Even the team they’ll face in the finals, whether it be the Celtics or Heat, is wrapped in a drama-soaked and potentially history-making series. Less than a week ago, Boston coach Joe Mazzulla — who got the job this season after his predecessor was found to have had an improper relationship with a staffer — was on the hot seat, his team down 3-0 and his ability to coax the best out of a talented roster under question. After a buzzer-beating tip-in to tie the series 3-3, that all changed.
The Nuggets: They swept the Lakers and have been waiting and practicing for a week.
“If you’re going to win at a high level, you can’t have distractions,” seventh-year coach Michael Malone said during one of his team’s many off days between the conference final and the NBA Finals, which start Thursday. “You have to have guys that get along — on the court, off the court — and come together and share in a common goal.”
Only minutes after the Nuggets dispatched the Lakers last Monday, all the talk after the game was about LeBron James. In this instance it was whether the NBA’s all-time leading scorer would be back for another season (he turns 39 this year) and how that decision would impact one of the league’s glamour teams going forward.
James, though, made sure to shine some of the spotlight on the Nuggets.
“Me and A.D. (Anthony Davis) were talking in the locker room,” James said. “We came to the consensus, this is, if not one of the best teams, probably the best team, we’ve played since we’ve been together for all four years. Just well orchestrated, well put together. They have scoring. They have shooting. They have play-making. They (have) smarts. They have depth.”
They also have a two-time MVP in Nikola Jokic who is part of a roster that seems, for now at least, immune from the wheelings and dealings that capture headlines and can make or break franchises.
Last offseason, Jokic signed a supermax contract that locks him up through 2028. Jamal Murray is signed through 2025. Michael Porter Jr., whose signing of a max contract in 2021 raised some eyebrows considering his history with injuries, is inked with guaranteed money through at least 2026.
“What I also love about this franchise is that when guys don’t fit into the culture, they’re not here anymore,” Malone said. “We have guys that understand that being selfless is a huge part of being a Denver Nugget and guys who continue to buy into that, whether they’re playing or not playing.”
Last season, in a push to find a winning combination while Murray languished with a knee injury, they brought in everyone from DeMarcus Cousins to Bones Hyland to Austin Rivers. That group got dispatched by the Warriors in the first round. Drama came mostly in the debate about whether Murray should have hurried back from his torn ACL in time for the playoffs.
He didn’t, and that decision looks brilliant today.
It’s not to say the Nuggets never produce any head-turning headlines. A few times during minislumps this season, Malone challenged the players by going to the media and suggesting they were getting “soft.” But the players didn’t object; in fact, they mostly agreed with their coach.
There was the moment in Game 4 of the conference semifinals when Jokic made contact with Suns owner Mat Ishbia on the sideline when Joker snatched the ball away to try to quickly get it back into play. That led to about 12 hours of speculation that Jokic might get suspended for a game. Didn’t happen. He got a $25,000 fine and, before the next game in Denver, tossed a ball to Ishbia on the sideline, then walked over to share a handshake and a hug. Denver then sucked the rest of the life from that series by winning Games 5 and 6 by 16 and 25 points.
The Nuggets and their fans have chafed at being overlooked through much of this season — overshadowed by the megatrade that brought Kevin Durant to the Suns, or another chapter in the Kyrie Irving soap opera, or stories about Ja Morant and guns, or anything about the Lakers — or the Warriors, who conceded that a preseason fight in practice between teammates Draymond Green and Jordan Poole undercut trust on the roster and made it hard to win.
When it comes to producing those kind of headlines, the Nuggets couldn’t compete.
On the court — a different story.
“You never hear stories about a Nuggets player getting in trouble,” former Denver player, coach and front-office executive Dan Issel said. “You never read in the press about a Nuggets player shooting his mouth off about somebody else. You don’t read about a Nuggets player putting a screwy tweet out there. They’re just a hard-working team that wants to win a championship, and that’s the part that I admire the most.”
___
AP Sports Writer Pat Graham contributed to this report.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
White’s putback as time expires lifts Celtics past Heat, forces Game 7 in East finals
[ad_1]
MIAMI — The Boston Celtics were a tenth of a second away from elimination. The Miami Heat were a tenth of a second from the NBA Finals.
Derrick White owned that final moment.
White scored on a putback as time expired and the Boston Celtics moved to the brink of the greatest comeback in NBA playoffs history, holding off the Miami Heat 104-103 on Saturday night to force a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals.
“Derrick White, like a flash of lightning, just came out of nowhere and saved the day, man,” Boston’s Jaylen Brown said. “An incredible play.”
White knew it was good. Referees reviewed it, but it didn’t take long to give the official word.
Elation for Boston. Devastation for Miami.
“Ball came to me,” White said. “I made the shot.”
Perhaps Boston will call it The Shot.
White became the second player in NBA history to hit a buzzer-beater with his team trailing and facing elimination — Michael Jordan’s “The Shot” for Chicago against Cleveland in 1989 being the other.
“I was just happy,” White said. “Season was on the line. We don’t want to go home.”
Jayson Tatum scored 31 points, Brown scored 26 and Marcus Smart added 21 for the Celtics, who became only the fourth NBA team to erase a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series and force a deciding game. The others in that club — the 1951 New York Knicks in the NBA Finals, the 1994 Denver Nuggets in the second round and the 2003 Portland Trail Blazers in the first round — all lost Game 7, all on the road.
Boston, however, is going home for its shot at history. Game 7 is Monday night on the Celtics’ floor, a matchup that’ll decide who meets the Western Conference champion Denver Nuggets in a title series that will start Thursday.
“It’s a seven-game series,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “There’s nothing better than Game 7s.”
Jimmy Butler made three free throws with 3.0 seconds left — the foul was originally called with 2.1 seconds left; referees put 0.9 seconds back on after reviewing the play to see if it was a 3-point try that Al Horford fouled him on — for a one-point Heat lead. It capped a Miami rally from 10 points down with less than 4 minutes remaining.
The Celtics had White inbound the ball on the game’s final possession, and he passed to Smart — who missed a 3-pointer. But White sprinted from the inbound spot to the rim, the ball fell into his hands and he got the lay-in away just before time ran out to extend Boston’s season.
There had been other buzzer-beaters from players whose teams were facing an elimination game, but before Saturday, only Jordan’s came with his team trailing.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was asked what went through his mind at that moment.
“Nothing,” Mazzulla said. “Game 7.”
Butler scored 24 points and Caleb Martin had 21 for the Heat, who are trying to pull off their own improbable trek to the title series by being only the second No. 8 seed to make the NBA Finals. They’ve now lost as many games this week — three — as they had in their first 14 playoff games this spring combined on the way to ousting No. 1 Milwaukee, then No. 5 New York and taking what was supposed to be an insurmountable 3-0 lead over the second-seeded Celtics.
“We’ve got to go on the road and do something special,” Butler said. “But we’ve got a special group.”
The Celtics have now won five of their last six East finals games in Miami — a stretch that includes a Game 7 over the Heat last season to reach the NBA Finals.
That one, obviously, ended the Heat season. At least this time, Miami still has a chance.
“I don’t know how we’re going to get this done, but we’re going to go out there and get it done,” Spoelstra said. “And that’s what the next 48 hours is about. There’s been nothing easy about this season for our group, and so we just have to do it the hard way.”
The Heat are the 151st team to grab a 3-0 series lead in a best-of-seven. All 150 of the previous clubs finished the job. But the Celtics have made very clear that they have other ideas, and Mazzulla listed a lot of reasons why.
“Faith. Love. Togetherness. Physicality. Belief. Hope.” Mazzulla said. “All those things combined. It starts with the locker room. Those guys had a choice to make and they chose to believe in each other.”
TIP-INS
Celtics: The Celtics are 5-0 when facing elimination this season, 3-0 on the road. They beat Philadelphia twice on their way to erasing a 3-2 lead in the East finals, and now have tied this series. … Malcolm Brogdon (right forearm strain) was downgraded to out about an hour before game time. … White scored 11 for the Celtics, and Robert Williams III had 10.
Heat: Gabe Vincent scored 15, Duncan Robinson scored 13 and Bam Adebayo added 11 for Miami. … Diddy was at the game, as was former Heat guard Goran Dragic and Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk. … Unless Miami wins Game 7 at Boston, it may have been the final home game of Heat forward Udonis Haslem’s 20-year career. The Heat are 613-297 in the 910 games in their home arena with Haslem on the roster; that doesn’t include the restart bubble’s home games in 2020.
GAME 7 HISTORY
The Celtics are 27-9 in Game 7s, winners of their last four — including one in Miami last season and one earlier this season, against Philadelphia in the East semifinals. They’re 1-1 against the Heat all-time in such games (losing the 2012 East finals deciding game in Miami), and 22-5 at home in Game 7.
The Heat are 6-5 all-time in Game 7s, losing their last two (home vs. Boston in 2022, at Toronto in 2016), and are 0-2 when facing such a game on the road. Besides the Raptors game seven years ago, they lost a Game 7 at Atlanta in 2009.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
Today in History: May 28, Dionne quintuplets are born
[ad_1]
Today in History
Today is Sunday, May 28, the 148th day of 2023. There are 217 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 28, 1863, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, made up of freed Blacks, left Boston to fight for the Union in the Civil War.
On this date:
In 1892, the Sierra Club was organized in San Francisco.
In 1918, American troops fought their first major battle during World War I as they launched an offensive against the German-held French village of Cantigny (kahn-tee-NYEE’); the Americans succeeded in capturing the village.
In 1934, the Dionne quintuplets — Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne — were born to Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada.
In 1937, Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain.
In 1940, during World War II, the Belgian army surrendered to invading German forces.
In 1959, the U.S. Army launched Able, a rhesus monkey, and Baker, a squirrel monkey, aboard a Jupiter missile for a suborbital flight which both primates survived.
In 1964, the charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization was issued at the start of a meeting of the Palestine National Congress in Jerusalem.
In 1972, Edward, the Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the English throne to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, died in Paris at age 77.
In 1977, 165 people were killed when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky.
In 1987, to the embarrassment of Soviet officials, Mathias Rust (mah-TEE’-uhs rust), a young West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow’s Red Square without authorization. (Rust was freed by the Soviets the following year.)
In 1998, comic actor Phil Hartman of “Saturday Night Live” and “NewsRadio” fame was shot to death at his home in Encino, California, by his wife, Brynn, who then killed herself.
In 2020, people torched a Minneapolis police station that the department was forced to abandon amid spreading protests over the death of George Floyd. Protesters in New York defied a coronavirus prohibition on public gatherings, clashing with police; demonstrators blocked traffic and smashed vehicles in downtown Denver before police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. At least seven people were shot as gunfire erupted during a protest in Louisville, Kentucky, to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was fatally shot by police in her home in March.
Ten years ago: Calling it perhaps the biggest money-laundering scheme in U.S. history, federal prosecutors charged seven people with running what amounted to an online, underworld bank, saying that Liberty Reserve handled $6 billion for drug dealers, child pornographers, identity thieves and other criminals around the globe. Sen. John McCain, quietly slipped into Syria for a meeting with anti-government fighters, whom he supported the U.S. arming. McCain was a fierce critic of Obama administration policy there while stopping short of backing U.S. ground troops in Syria, but he supported aggressive military steps against the Assad regime.
Five years ago: Speaking before an audience of Cabinet members, military leaders, veterans and families, President Donald Trump paid a Memorial Day tribute at Arlington National Cemetery, saying he came to honor “America’s greatest heroes.” The Golden State Warriors reached the NBA Finals with a win over the Houston Rockets; it was the fourth straight year the Warriors would meet the Cleveland Cavaliers in the finals.
One year ago: As Russia asserted progress in its goal of seizing the entirety of contested eastern Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin tried to shake European resolve to punish his country with sanctions and to keep supplying weapons that have supported Ukraine’s defense. Real Madrid became European champion for a record-extending 14th time after beating Liverpool 1-0 in soccer’s Champions League final. Police deployed tear gas and security struggled with fans desperate to see the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. Many broke through stadium security in an attempt to see the match, whose start had to be delayed by 37 minutes. Director Ruben Ostlund’s social satire “Triangle of Sadness” won the Palme d’Or at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, giving Ostlund one of cinema’s most prestigious prizes for the second time.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Carroll Baker is 92. Producer-director Irwin Winkler is 92. Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry West is 85. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is 79. Singer Gladys Knight is 79. Singer Billy Vera is 79. Singer John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 78. Country musician Jerry Douglas is 67. Actor Louis Mustillo is 65. Former governor and U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., is 63. Actor Brandon Cruz (TV: “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”) is 61. Country singer Phil Vassar is 59. Actor Christa Miller is 59. Singer-musician Chris Ballew (Presidents of the USA) is 58. Rapper Chubb Rock is 55. Singer Kylie Minogue (KY’-lee mihn-OHG’) is 55. Actor Justin Kirk is 54. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is 52. Olympic gold medal figure skater Ekaterina Gordeeva is 52. Television personality Elisabeth Hasselbeck is 46. R&B singer Jaheim is 46. Actor Jake Johnson is 45. Actor Jesse Bradford is 44. Actor Monica Keena is 44. Actor Alexa Davalos is 41. Actor Megalyn Echikunwoke (eh-cheek-uh-WALK’-ay) is 41. Pop singer Colbie Caillat (kal-LAY’) is 38. Actor Carey Mulligan is 38. Actor Joseph Cross is 37. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Craig Kimbrel is 35.
[ad_2]
-
Nuggets make Denver a hoops town with first trip to NBA Finals in 47 years
[ad_1]
DENVER — It took 3,787 regular-season games and 29 trips to the playoffs, countless ripoffs of rainbow uniforms and even more ‘yeah, buts’ than any city should have to stomach. Finally, 47 seasons into an entertaining, often frustrating and almost always overlooked journey in the NBA, Denver is at the center of the basketball world.
The Nuggets — yes, those sometimes-lovable and often-forgettable Nuggets — are in the NBA Finals.
The way they made it says everything about their near half-century in the league, and just how different this team is from every Denver team, even the really good ones, that preceded it.
The Nuggets brushed aside their long-held irrelevance by completing their first sweep in 44 NBA playoff series. They did it against the Los Angeles Lakers, the team that has caused them so much of their pain. Before the Western Conference finals, Denver was 0-7 in playoff series against the Lakers. Now, Denver is 1-7.
“It’s almost like shock a little bit,” Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon said, echoing a sentiment certainly being felt across the franchise’s long-suffering fan base. “You’re just like unsure, like, are you sure we don’t have more time on the clock? Are you sure we don’t have another quarter to play or another game to play?”
With all due respect to Dan Issel, Alex English, Carmelo Anthony and everyone else who ever wore rainbows, Nikola Jokic is the best player to put on a Denver uniform. He recorded his eighth triple-double of the playoffs in Monday night’s 113-111 win over LA, surpassing a record for a single postseason held by none other than Lakers great Wilt Chamberlain.
Jokic, who was 0.2 assists short of averaging a triple-double this season, got beat out for his third straight MVP this season by Philly’s Joel Embiid. Fans see it all as par for the course in a city where the team that debuted in the ABA as the Denver Rockets — not the better-known, better-respected Denver Broncos — really put the town on the national sports map. That was in 1967. The Broncos were still a laughingstock but the local basketball team put out a good product right away.
It was good enough to make the Nuggets a no-brainer when the ABA folded in 1976 and the NBA went picking through the wreckage to invite a few teams to join.
Between then and now, the city has seen its share of the spotlight. John Elway brought two Super Bowl titles home and Peyton Manning another. The Colorado Avalanche, who share a home (Ball Arena) and an owner (Stan Kroenke) with the Nuggets, have won hockey’s Stanley Cup three times, including last year. Even the Colorado Rockies have been to the World Series. The Nuggets only trip this close to the title came in 1976 when they lost in the last ABA final to Julius Erving and the Nets.
David Thompson; Larry Brown; Doug Moe; English; Issel; Anthony; George Karl; Allen Iverson; Chauncey Billups. All those coaches and players spent time in Denver. None ever got too close to that NBA title trophy while here. Before this week, Denver made the NBA conference finals four times, and lost all four.
It conspired to make the place little more than flyover territory — a city with high altitude that the schedule makers often tuck into other teams’ itineraries as part of long road trips with more exciting final destinations — LA, New York, Miami.
But Denver? It was a great place to take a night off — or, put more diplomatically, for teams to exercise the 21st-century NBA practice of “load management” for their best players.
While NBA titles, and the fanfare that comes with them, have been built on the shoulders of megastars for decades, the Nuggets never were part of that scene.
In fact, Jokic was the exact opposite of that when he arrived in 2014. Rather, he was a doughy second-round draft pick known only to the insiders who followed the Serbian hoops scene.
“Everybody gets cracked up into his stats but I don’t think a lot of people talk about, like, this part of his game,” LeBron James of the Lakers said after the sweep, as he pointed toward his head, indicating Jokic’s mastery of the cerebral part of hoops. “Maybe it’s not talked about it, because a lot of people don’t understand it, but I do. He’s special.”
Great as Jokic has been, it’s the addition of another under-the-radar player, guard Jamal Murray, and his return to full health that helped get this team over the top.
Murray was a lottery pick out of Kentucky in 2016, the year Ben Simmons was the top pick and considered the NBA’s Next Big Thing. Murray blew up in the bubble during COVID, bringing Denver within a series of the finals, only to see the Lakers snuff out another season. He missed the next two playoffs due to a devastating knee injury. These playoffs, Murray is feeling great. He averaged 32.5 points in the four-game sweep of LA.
“I think our chemistry is at an all-time high, the way we play, the way we read the game without even speaking,” Murray said. “We talk that language on the court.
“It’s just beautiful basketball, honestly.”
With the Nuggets in their first NBA Finals after all these years, it will be hard to find anyone in Denver who would argue with that.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
Charlie Blackmon doubles in 4-run 5th, Rockies beat Marlins 5-4
[ad_1]
DENVER — Charlie Blackmon doubled in a four-run fifth inning, Jurickson Profar extended his on-base streak to 31 games and the Colorado Rockies spoiled 20-year-old Eury Pérez’s road debut with a 5-4 victory over the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night.
Elías Díaz had three hits for Colorado. The Rockies have won the first two of the four-game set between the 1993 expansion franchises.
The 6-foot-8 Pérez made his major league debut against Cincinnati on May 12 and beat Washington on Thursday for his first victory. The right-hander pitched well for three innings Tuesday at hitter-friendly Coors Field, allowing one unearned run, but faltered in the fifth.
He walked the leadoff batter, gave up an RBI double to Blackmon and walked Profar before leaving. Randal Grichuk had a two-run single off reliever Huascar Brazobán and Díaz scored on Ryan McMahon’s forceout.
“I was just trying to get a ball to the outfield,” Grichuk said. “I didn’t try to do too much.”
Pérez (1-1) allowed four runs — three earned — on four hits in 4 1/3 innings.
“Sometimes you can out-stuff the lower levels out here you can’t out-stuff and that’s why you got to get ahead,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said about Pérez, who throws his fastball 98 to 100 mph. “His fastball still plays up here. The offspeed plays better when you throw fastball strikes on strike one.
Blackmon has 298 doubles to pass Larry Walker for second on the franchise list. Todd Helton is first with 592.
“He’s amazing. He’s one of the best teammates I’ve played with,” Díaz said about Blackmon. “He works out, he’s healthy, his preparation is at another level. You watch him and it’s like motivation for yourself. He’s doing something all the time.”
Jorge Soler and Garrett Cooper homered and Yuli Gurriel had three hits for Miami.
Soler put the Marlins ahead in the first inning with his 13th home run, and the Rockies tied it in the third when Grichuk scored on a two-out single by Harold Castro.
Cooper’s two-run homer with two outs in the sixth inning, his fourth of the season, chased starter Austin Gomber (4-4). Soler’s RBI double in the ninth made it a one-run game, but Pierce Johnson closed it out for his 10th save.
“He got out of some pretty big innings,” Schumaker said about Gomber. “Credit to him getting some double play balls. We just couldn’t get that one big hit.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Marlins: Transferred RHP Johnny Cueto (right biceps tightness) to the 60-day day injured list and selected the contract of outfielder Jonathan Davis. Miami also optioned OF Peyton Burdick to Triple-A Jacksonville.
Rockies: RHP Dinelson Lamet (back stiffness) is scheduled to make another rehab start with Triple-A Albuquerque on Friday.
HOMETOWN PRIDE
The Rockies celebrated the Denver Nuggets reaching the NBA Finals on front of their game notes. Each note was given a Nuggets-themed headline, from Denver’s playoff rallying motto “Bring It In” to “Sombor Shuffle,” which describes Nikola Jokic’s signature jump shot. Monday, Denver native and Colorado lefty Kyle Freeland donned a Jamal Murray jersey during batting practice.
UP NEXT
Reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara (1-5, 5.05 ERA) will be on the mound for the Marlins on Wednesday against Colorado rookie RHP Karl Kauffmann (0-1, 8.31).
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
Carmelo Anthony retires from NBA, after 19-year career, NCAA title, 3 Olympic gold medals
[ad_1]
Carmelo Anthony, the star forward who led Syracuse to an NCAA championship in his lone college season and went on to spend 19 years in the NBA, announced his retirement on Monday.
Anthony, who was not in the NBA this season, retires as the No. 9 scorer in league history.
Only LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki, Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O’Neal scored more than Anthony, who finishes his career with 28,289 points.
“Now the time has come for me to say good-bye … to the game that gave me purpose and pride,” Anthony said in a videotaped message announcing his decision — one he called “bittersweet.”
Anthony’s legacy has long been secure: He ends his playing days after being selected as one of the 75 greatest players in NBA history, a 10-time All-Star, a past scoring champion and a six-time All-NBA selection.
And while he never got to the NBA Finals — he only played in the conference finals once, with Denver against the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 — Anthony also knew what it was like to be a champion.
He was the Most Outstanding Player of the 2003 Final Four when he led Syracuse to the national championship, and he helped the U.S. win Olympic gold three times — at Beijing in 2008, at London in 2012 and at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
His college coach at Syracuse, the now-retired Jim Boeheim, tweeted a “welcome to retirement” message to his former star.
“I am honored to have been a part of your legendary career, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for you,” Boeheim wrote.
Anthony played in 31 games in four appearances at the Olympics, the most of any U.S. men’s player ever. Anthony’s 37 points against Nigeria in the 2012 games is a USA Basketball men’s record at an Olympics, as are his 10 3-pointers from that game and his 13-for-13 effort from the foul line against Argentina in 2008.
“Carmelo Anthony is one of the NBA’s all-time great players and ambassadors,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “We congratulate him on a remarkable 19-year career and look forward to seeing him in the Hall of Fame.”
Anthony will remain part of international basketball for at least a few more months; Anthony is one of the ambassadors to the Basketball World Cup, FIBA’s biggest event, which will be held this summer in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.
“I remember the days when I had nothing, just a ball on the court and a dream of something more,” Anthony said. “But basketball was my outlet. My purpose was strong, my communities, the cities I represented with pride and the fans that supported me along the way. I am forever grateful for those people and places because they made me Carmelo Anthony.”
Anthony was drafted No. 3 overall by Denver in 2003, part of the star-studded class that included James at No. 1, Hall of Famer Chris Bosh at No. 4, and soon-to-be Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade — he gets officially enshrined this summer — at No. 5.
Anthony will join them at the Hall of Fame before long — the Hall of Fame said he will be eligible for the 2026 class. He averaged 22.5 points in his 19 seasons, spending the bulk of those years with Denver and the New York Knicks. Anthony has long raved about his time with the Knicks, and what it was like playing at Madison Square Garden, especially as a kid who was born in Brooklyn.
He was the NBA’s leading scorer with 28.7 points per game in 2012-13, when the Knicks won 54 games and the Atlantic Division title.
“The Garden,” Anthony said in 2014. “They call it The Mecca for a reason.”
Anthony spent his first 7 1/2 NBA seasons in Denver, becoming the third-leading scorer in franchise history. His Nuggets teams had seven consecutive winning seasons and earned seven playoff berths, but they advanced in the postseason just once, ending in that six-game conference finals loss to the Lakers in 2009.
“He wore that Nuggets jersey with pride and did a lot of great things while in a Denver Nuggets uniform, as well as all the other uniforms he wore in an illustrious career,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Monday before Denver faced the Lakers in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals, hoping to clinch the franchise’s first NBA Finals appearance. “When you think of Carmelo, you think of one of the more elite scorers in NBA history, a guy that from the D.C. metro area goes to Syracuse and wins a championship and comes into the NBA and was just a bucket-getter from Day One.”
Anthony also played for Portland, Oklahoma City, Houston and ended his career with the Lakers last season. He went unsigned this year, and now his retirement is official.
He said in his retirement address that he’s looking forward to watching the development of his son Kiyan, a highly rated high school shooting guard.
“People ask what I believe my legacy is,” Anthony said. “It’s not my feats on the court that come to mind, all the awards or praise. Because my story has always been more than basketball. My legacy, my son … I will forever continue through you. The time has come for you to carry this torch.”
___
AP Sports Writer Greg Beacham in Los Angeles contributed.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
NBA Conference Finals 2023: How to watch Lakers vs. Nuggets Game 4 tonight
[ad_1]
Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG via Getty Images
The NBA playoffs are in full swing. Conference finals continue through May 29 (if needed). Tonight, we have Game 4 of the Western Conference, featuring the Los Angeles Lakers against the Denver Nuggets at 8:30 p.m. ET (5:30 p.m. PT) on Monday, May 22. The Nuggets are currently up 3-0, so if they win tonight’s game, they’re the winners of the Western Conference and will make it to the NBA finals. Tomorrow, the Miami Heat plays against the Boston Celtics for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference.
These NBA conference final games will determine which teams make it to the NBA playoff finals. Find out how to catch tonight’s game and see who might end up as NBA champions. You don’t even need a cable subscription — just Sling TV.
Best way to live stream the NBA playoffs
If you want access to live stream all the games in the NBA playoffs and finals, the most cost effective way is with Sling TV. The low-cost cable streamer’s Orange tier includes games on ESPN and TNT, while the Orange + Blue tier includes games on ABC (certain markets).
NBA conference final game schedule
With the NBA semifinals over, we’re down to the 2023 NBA conference finals. In the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers while the Miami Heat ousted the New York Knicks, so the Heat and the Celtics will take each other on in the NBA’s best-of-seven elimination tournament. Currently, the Heat are in the lead 3-0.
Meanwhile in the Western Conference semifinals, the Los Angeles Lakers, led by LeBron James, eliminated the Golden State Warriors. The Denver Nuggets won against the Phoenix Suns. We’ll see the fourth matchup of the Nuggets versus the Lakers tonight. Will the Nuggets take home the Western Conference championship, or will the Lakers make a comeback? (If you want to record this game tonight, Sling TV offers 50 hours of DVR storage.)
NBA conference final game schedule
Don’t miss a single moment of the NBA playoffs, starting with the conference finals tonight. The remaining Western Conference games will all air on ESPN. The Eastern Conference games will all be shown on TNT.
Don’t have cable TV? Luckily, Sling TV carries both TNT and ESPN so you can watch those games live.
Schedule for the 2023 Western Conference finals (No. 7 Los Angeles Lakers vs. No. 1 Denver Nuggets)
- Game 4: Monday May 22 at 8:30 p.m. EDT on ESPN
- *Game 5: Wednesday, May 24 at 8:30 p.m. EDT on ESPN
- *Game 6: Friday, May 26 at 8:30 p.m. EDT on ESPN
- *Game 7: Sunday, May 28 at 8:30 p.m. EDT on ESPN
Schedule for the 2023 Eastern Conference finals (No. 8 Miami Heat vs. No. 2 Boston Celtics)
- Game 4: Tuesday, May 23 at 8:30 p.m. EDT on TNT
- *Game 5: Thursday, May 25 at 8:30 p.m. EDT on TNT
- *Game 6: Saturday, May 27 at 8:30 p.m. EDT on TNT
- *Game 7: Monday, May 29 at 8:30 p.m. EDT on TNT
*These games will only be played if needed.
What about the rest of the playoffs?
The NBA final will begin on Sunday, June 1 at 8:30 p.m. EDT. When the conference finals are complete, all games of the NBA finals 2023 will be shown on ABC.
Watch the 2023 NBA conference finals on Sling TV
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
The best and most affordable way to watch the 2023 NBA playoff games airing on ESPN is through Sling TV. The most budget-friendly tier that includes ESPN, Orange, is only $40 a month. The Orange + Blue tier gives you access to the maximum amount of live sports, including not only ESPN but NFL Network, ABC, Fox and NBC broadcasts, for $55 per month. You’ll get 50 hours of DVR storage to record all the games you want.
There’s no contract. You can cancel at any time. Best of all? They’re offering the first month for $10 off. So you only need to pay $30 right now to get access to ESPN with Sling Orange, or $45 for the Orange + Blue tier.
Don’t have a smart TV to watch Sling TV on? Not a problem: Right now Sling TV is offering subscribers a free Amazon Fire TV Stick to use.
Watch the NBA Finals on a digital antenna
Amazon
Amazon
If you’re worried about being able to access the games that will be playing on ABC, like the NBA finals, you can get a digital antenna to access your local TV stations, which will include ABC. While Sling TV does carry ABC in several of its large markets, the antenna will give you peace of mind so that you won’t have to miss a single game of the NBA playoffs.
This one supports smart TVs in 1080p, 4K and 8K displays and works with older models too. It’s also currently discounted at Amazon. Buy now and it will arrive before Game 3 between the Lakers and the Nuggets airs on ABC.
Roainey digital TV antenna with amplifier signal booster, $27 after coupon (down from $40)
Hulu + Live TV bundle
It’s not as affordable as Sling TV, but the Hulu + Live TV bundle has a huge library of content thanks to their partnerships with Disney and ESPN. In the bundle, both Disney+ and ESPN+ are included and it’s totally ad-free. If you want it all, get the Hulu + Live TV bundle.
Sign up for the Hulu + Live TV with ESPN+ and Disney+ bundle, $70 a month
FuboTV
FuboTV is a sports-centric streaming services that has live TV events for almost every sport imaginable, including international ones, plus over 100 other channels. Did we mention that they give you 1,000 hours of DVR space as well? Get a free seven-day trial by signing up here.
FuboTV, starting at $75 a month
DirecTV Stream
DirecTV streams all the networks a sports fan could want, including NBC, Fox, ESPN and more. No matter what your viewing needs are, DirecTV Stream should have a monthly package that will serve you. Prices on DirecTV Stream services start at $65 a month for the first three months, then $75 a month thereafter.
DirecTV Stream, $65 and up per month
The best TV deals ahead of the NBA playoffs
Walmart
Looking for a new television for all your sports watching needs? Watch the 2023 March Madness tournament on a smart TV. We’ve rounded up some great deals for the latest in high-quality TV technology.
- 85″ Samsung “The Frame” QLED 4K smart TV, $2,748 (down from $4,298)
- 75″ Philips LED class 4K smart Google TV, $598 (down from $668)
- 65″ LG OLED class 4K B2 series smart TV, $1,297 (down from $2,300)
- 58″ Hisense LED Roku smart TV, $268 (down from $338)
- 55″ Samsung Q70A series 4K QLED smart TV, $749 (down from $1000)
- 53″ Hisense HDR Roku smart TV, $228 (down from $258)
Related content:
[ad_2]
-
As NBA coaching changes mount, some lament the lack of job security
[ad_1]
MIAMI — Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Denver’s Michael Malone are two of the four NBA coaches to have spent at least eight years with their current team.
They know how rare that is.
Spoelstra and Malone both spoke out Monday following the recent dismissals of three coaches who aren’t far removed from great success – 2019 NBA champion Nick Nurse, 2021 champion Mike Budenholzer and most recently 2021 Western Conference champion and 2022 coach of the year Monty Williams. Nurse was fired by Toronto, Budenholzer by Milwaukee and Williams by Phoenix.
“I’ve been thinking more about the great, proven, experienced coaches that have lost their jobs already,” Spoelstra said as the Heat prepared for another trip to the Eastern Conference finals and a matchup against Boston that starts Wednesday. “It just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Spoelstra has the NBA’s second-longest current tenure with one team. San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich has coached the Spurs since 1996, Spoelstra took over the Heat in 2008, Steve Kerr became coach in Golden State in 2014 and Malone became coach in Denver in 2015.
“I understand this business,” said Malone, who’ll lead Denver into the Western Conference finals starting Tuesday against the Los Angeles Lakers. “You look around the coaching landscape, if you want a secure profession, coaching is not the one to get into. I should have been a TV reporter.”
Of the last nine coaches to take a team to the NBA Finals, only two — Kerr and Spoelstra — are still with the franchise that they went to the title round with.
Three of the last four championship-winning coaches — Budenholzer in 2021, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Frank Vogel in 2020 and Nurse in 2019 – have since been fired by those clubs. Also no longer with their teams for various reasons after recent runs to the finals: Ime Udoka in Boston, Cleveland’s David Blatt and then Tyronn Lue as well, and now Williams by the Suns.
Budenholzer’s dismissal left Kerr upset, as he revealed earlier this month — but noted that all coaches understand how vulnerable they are.
“My first response is not necessarily shock, it’s more disappointment because Bud is a fantastic coach,” Kerr said. “He just won a championship and has been wildly successful in his coaching career. But this is the business we’re in. … Expectations every year for every team are so high, and only one team can win. It’s sad news for the coaching profession.”
At least five teams will have new coaches next season — Phoenix, Milwaukee, Toronto and Detroit are looking, and Houston has hired Udoka as the replacement for Stephen Silas. There were two in-season moves as well: Brooklyn’s Jacque Vaughn was hired by the Nets in November, and Atlanta’s Quin Snyder was hired by the Hawks in Feburary. And two coaches in the conference finals are in Year 1 of their careers: the Lakers’ Darvin Ham, and the Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla, who had to take over unexpectedly in Boston last fall following Udoka’s suspension for an inappropriate relationship with a Celtics employee.
At minimum, 12 of the NBA’s 30 teams will open next season with a coach who has been in place for no more than one season.
There is speculation about Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers’ future as well, and he was asked about that following the 76ers’ season-ending loss to Boston in Game 7 of their East semifinal series Sunday.
“No one’s safe in our business. I get that,” said Rivers, adding that he has two years left on his deal with the 76ers and therefore expects to be back next season.
Spoelstra has long said part of Miami’s strength is consistency. Managing general partner Micky Arison, CEO Nick Arison, team president Pat Riley, general manager Andy Elisburg and others have been with the Heat for decades — and from the very beginning, in Elisburg’s case, since he’s been with the franchise for all 35 of its seasons.
Spoelstra has been with the organization for more than half his life as well; he was 24 when he started in the video room, and now he’s 52.
“It takes so much time and energy to restart something,” Spoelstra said. “And I think that’s part of the reason why we’ve been able to reboot so many times, over and over and over. We’re not reinventing a new culture and then trying to teach everybody and then all of a sudden, two years later, it’s going to be somebody else doing the exact same thing. But particularly to have proven veteran guys (fired), it’s just been stunning. It really has been disturbing.”
___
AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
Ja Morant in limbo again as he awaits review of latest gun video on social media
[ad_1]
Ja Morant still had his endorsement deals Monday. While his latest gun video on social media is costing him plenty in public relations currency, he hasn’t lost any money.
Any, or all, of that could change any day. Once again, Morant is in limbo — awaiting the outcome of yet another NBA investigation into what could end up becoming a cataclysmic off-court decision.
“This is going to be a hot question,” Syracuse professor of sport management Rick Burton said Monday. “I don’t think they can hit pause on this. I think that there will be too much demand for, ‘What are you going to do?’”
The NBA already suspended the two-time All-Star guard eight games in March for livestreaming himself holding an apparent handgun in Colorado. That cost him about $669,000 in salary.
How Morant’s sponsors react to him being caught on social media apparently holding a weapon for the second time in less than three months is another issue.
Morant has endorsement deals with Nike and the sports drink Powerade, which is owned by Coca-Cola. Endorsement deals traditionally include confidentiality and morals clauses.
Representatives of Nike, which started selling Morant’s Ja 1 shoes on April 19, did not return a message from The Associated Press on Monday. Powerade pulled his ad almost immediately after the March video.
In April, Morant countersued a Memphis teenager accusing the Grizzlies guard of punching him during a pickup court fight last summer at Morant’s home. The countersuit noted the lawsuit jeopardized relationships with sponsors including some “unconsummated deals.”
Burton, commissioner of Australia’s National Basketball League from 2003-07, said research shows some athletes believe negativity can help them break out as a “perfect pitch person.” Burton wrote in 2001 about the demand for antiheroes or athletes with controversial images.
“I’m sure the people at Nike are trying to figure out, ‘Does this make him more relevant to a certain audience? And is this something we’re going to ride out?’” said Burton, who noted Nike doesn’t often give up on an athlete trending negatively.
Memphis suspended Morant on Sunday from team activities, though that’s unclear what that involves in the offseason. The Grizzlies were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round. Charity events are the biggest offseason events until training camp in late September. Players start receiving game checks when the season begins in October.
Criminal charges are not likely with no indication of where the latest Instagram video was streamed.
Morant has a home in Tennessee, where Republican leaders have repeatedly worked to relax state gun laws, including in 2001 when they allowed most adults 21 and older to carry handguns without first obtaining a permit. A federal judge has since cleared the way to drop that minimum age to 18.
The issues are much broader for the face of the franchise and one of the NBA’s more marketable players.
“Hopefully, the young man will figure out what he’s got to do to turn the ship around if he wants to continue in not only the money, but his career in the NBA,” said Rob Prazmark, founder and CEO of 21 Marketing, whose clients have included the NBA and USA Basketball.
Morant now is facing criticism — even from his own fans. He remained among Twitter’s top trending topics nationally even 24 hours after his latest suspension.
Game 1 of the NBA Finals is scheduled for June 1. Commissioner Adam Silver, who cited Morant for “conduct detrimental to the league” when suspending him in March, traditionally holds a news conference before the Finals start.
Spotrac.com noted Monday that Morant is projected to be paid $33.5 million for the 2023-24 season if the NBA salary cap is $134 million. A suspension of 20 games or fewer would cost Morant $231,034 per game while more than 20 games would mean he loses $304,545 a game.
Morant said when the Grizzlies’ season ended that he needed to work on his decision-making.
“I’ve got to be better in that area,” Morant said.
The Grizzlies hold the No. 25 overall pick in the June draft and now likely are preparing for the possibility Morant won’t be available when the season starts in October.
The biggest question now is just how long that might be.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
Ja Morant in limbo again as he awaits review of latest gun video on social media
[ad_1]
Ja Morant still had his endorsement deals Monday. While his latest gun video on social media is costing him plenty in public relations currency, he hasn’t lost any money.
Any, or all, of that could change any day. Once again, Morant is in limbo — awaiting the outcome of yet another NBA investigation into what could end up becoming a cataclysmic off-court decision.
“This is going to be a hot question,” Syracuse professor of sport management Rick Burton said Monday. “I don’t think they can hit pause on this. I think that there will be too much demand for, ‘What are you going to do?’”
The NBA already suspended the two-time All-Star guard eight games in March for livestreaming himself holding an apparent handgun in Colorado. That cost him about $669,000 in salary.
How Morant’s sponsors react to him being caught on social media apparently holding a weapon for the second time in less than three months is another issue.
Morant has endorsement deals with Nike and the sports drink Powerade, which is owned by Coca-Cola. Endorsement deals traditionally include confidentiality and morals clauses.
Representatives of Nike, which started selling Morant’s Ja 1 shoes on April 19, did not return a message from The Associated Press on Monday. Powerade pulled his ad almost immediately after the March video.
In April, Morant countersued a Memphis teenager accusing the Grizzlies guard of punching him during a pickup court fight last summer at Morant’s home. The countersuit noted the lawsuit jeopardized relationships with sponsors including some “unconsummated deals.”
Burton, commissioner of Australia’s National Basketball League from 2003-07, said research shows some athletes believe negativity can help them break out as a “perfect pitch person.” Burton wrote in 2001 about the demand for antiheroes or athletes with controversial images.
“I’m sure the people at Nike are trying to figure out, ‘Does this make him more relevant to a certain audience? And is this something we’re going to ride out?’” said Burton, who noted Nike doesn’t often give up on an athlete trending negatively.
Memphis suspended Morant on Sunday from team activities, though that’s unclear what that involves in the offseason. The Grizzlies were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round. Charity events are the biggest offseason events until training camp in late September. Players start receiving game checks when the season begins in October.
Criminal charges are not likely with no indication of where the latest Instagram video was streamed.
Morant has a home in Tennessee, where Republican leaders have repeatedly worked to relax state gun laws, including in 2001 when they allowed most adults 21 and older to carry handguns without first obtaining a permit. A federal judge has since cleared the way to drop that minimum age to 18.
The issues are much broader for the face of the franchise and one of the NBA’s more marketable players.
“Hopefully, the young man will figure out what he’s got to do to turn the ship around if he wants to continue in not only the money, but his career in the NBA,” said Rob Prazmark, founder and CEO of 21 Marketing, whose clients have included the NBA and USA Basketball.
Morant now is facing criticism — even from his own fans. He remained among Twitter’s top trending topics nationally even 24 hours after his latest suspension.
Game 1 of the NBA Finals is scheduled for June 1. Commissioner Adam Silver, who cited Morant for “conduct detrimental to the league” when suspending him in March, traditionally holds a news conference before the Finals start.
Spotrac.com noted Monday that Morant is projected to be paid $33.5 million for the 2023-24 season if the NBA salary cap is $134 million. A suspension of 20 games or fewer would cost Morant $231,034 per game while more than 20 games would mean he loses $304,545 a game.
Morant said when the Grizzlies’ season ended that he needed to work on his decision-making.
“I’ve got to be better in that area,” Morant said.
The Grizzlies hold the No. 25 overall pick in the June draft and now likely are preparing for the possibility Morant won’t be available when the season starts in October.
The biggest question now is just how long that might be.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
-
Getting Ready for Game 7 With Jaylen Brown
[ad_1]
At least eight hours of sleep, a plate of pasta, fresh braids, and a look that’s reflective of his mood and penchant for luxury-meets-casual style. They’re all part of Boston Celtic Jaylen Brown’s game-day preparation. “I like to dress up and down at the same time, if that makes sense,” Brown told Vanity Fair ahead of Sunday’s matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers. “So, it’s like you take something luxury—a nice piece that makes [your outfit] look formal—and then wear some sweatpants with it.”
By Shawn Clarke, Medulla Media Company
Born and raised in Atlanta, where he says fashion “has always been a thing,” Brown’s personal style further developed as a student athlete at the University of California, Berkeley. “I’d see somebody wearing an Alexander McQueen skirt, but then [they’d] have on a regular crew neck or a hoodie, with dress shoes and high socks or something. To me, that was dope.”
Brown’s Game 7 look struck the balance of understated and elevated he’s drawn to: a Realtakai shirt, wool Prince of Wales check pants by Prada, a Gucci denim jacket, and Virón World vegan leather boots. (Nike x Louis Vuitton Air Force 1s had been in the running.) “I wanted to be comfortable so the idea for today’s look was to keep it clean,” he says. “Nothing too over the top; something that was smooth and said, ‘We’ve been here before.’”
By Shawn Clarke, Medulla Media Company
The six-foot-six shooting guard and small forward’s wardrobe is a mix of pieces he’s bought from shops like Dover Street Market, and others sourced by stylist Jason Bolden. “Jason is a great collaborator,” Brown said. “He understands my vibe and what I’m going for when we work together, so everything lends itself naturally to my personal style.” Lately, that style has leaned less on jewelry and watches, which are signatures for many NBA players. “I haven’t bought jewelry in over two years,” he said. “I love the aesthetic of it, but I just personally haven’t worn jewelry in a long time…. For whatever reason, I just got into a habit of trying to let my clothes speak for themselves.”
Some of the clothes Brown is often spotted in are from his own brand, 7uice, which he launched in late 2021. “My jersey would always be sold out,” he explained of the inspiration behind the label. “My fans would always be complaining, like, ‘Where can I find your jersey? It’s not available anywhere in Boston…it’s always sold out, it’s not at the arena.’ I gave away all the ones that I personally had, so I just decided to start a brand to feel more connected to my friends and family.” What began with a simple black hoodie has since expanded into a full sportswear line, inclusive of tees, sweats, beanies, and varsity jackets. “Now it [has] a cult following,” Brown said. “You go to the game, you’ll see all over the arena, people wearing the brand.”
[ad_2]
Leah Faye Cooper
Source link
