Category: NBA

Steph Curry's ‘alternate universe' as youth basketball coach still a possibility originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

STANFORD, Calif. – In an alternate reality, Warriors fans and the NBA world at large never got to experience the mind-blowing greatness of Steph Curry. 

There wouldn’t be highlight compilations of Curry crossing defenders and shooting from unimaginable distances. Mike Breen’s double-bang is locked in a box begging to be released. The Warriors might still be waiting for their first championship since 1975. Chase Center would have never been built, and the 3-point revolution isn’t even a concept. 

One man changed the game that much. 

But in reality, Curry and basketball were bound for each other. Maybe not in a Warriors jersey, and maybe not wowing crowds of all ages and backgrounds. The holy matrimony between the two was inevitable, one way or another. 

Even if that meant coaching. That’s the path Curry once saw, and not patrolling the sidelines of an NBA arena. 

“I didn’t know that he was going to end up playing basketball,” Curry’s wife, Ayesha, recently revealed on an episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “He said he wanted to be a high school basketball coach. I thought I was going to be, like, the girl out there getting it. I didn’t know.” 

Curry laughed but didn’t deny Ayesha’s admission in an exclusive interview with NBC Sports Bay Area on Wednesday at the Stanford Golf Course during his sixth annual Workday Charity Classic. 

He grew up in locker rooms and on basketball courts. His father, Dell, played 16 seasons in the NBA for five different franchises and was named the 1994 Sixth Man of the Year as a member of the Charlotte Hornets when he averaged a career-best 16.3 points per game off the bench while shooting 40.2 percent from deep. Curry can credit him with having the game in his blood, helping turn a skinny kid into the greatest shooter of all time. 

However, Dell isn’t the reason Steph saw coaching in his future. The leadership and community impact he witnessed from his mother, Sonya, opened his eyes to that being his likeliest career. 

“My mom was an educator growing up, so I kind of understood how to connect with people,” Curry said. “Seeing people learn a skill, or learn anything really, and that joy that comes with accomplishment, that always got me going.” 

This year marked the ninth Curry Camp, bringing some of the best boys and girls high school basketball prospects to the Bay Area for three days. It also was the first year that the Curry Camp model was brought overseas to China as part of his 2025 Curry Brand World Tour.

Back in March, he even accepted a role as assistant general manager for the basketball programs of his alma mater, Davidson College, and later hosted the men’s team for a surprise workout last month in the Bay Area, going through drills, sharing shooting tips and plenty more.

Curry has been influential from afar and through his camp for an always-growing long list of current NBA and WNBA players. Winning four championships, two MVPs and having a trophy case that can fill an entire living room is a life Curry wouldn’t change. Nobody would.

Coaching high school basketball also is something he says would have been an incredibly fulfilling life. What about coaching, at any level, in the future? Never say never. 

“I mean, anything is possible,” Curry said. “Who knows what the future holds. But the idea of yeah, that alternate universe, I would have been happy as hell to be a high school coach, knowing how important that presence is for kids. Everybody has a role to play. I took a different path.” 

The title of Coach Curry rolls off the tongue. Numerous all-time greats have picked up a clipboard in their post-playing days. Maybe one day that will be his reality. Maybe in a different life, Curry is counting his coaching championships at Charlotte Christian. 

Rest easy, Dub Nation. The slightest possibility of Curry one day coaching can be put on the backburner. All that he cares about in his basketball life right now is the chase for a fifth championship, counting down the days until he’s back on the court with his Warriors teammates.

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ESPN announced some changes Thursday for its NBA broadcast teams going into the 2025-26 season — among them, a promotion for Tim Legler and a contract extension (but also a demotion) for Doris Burke.

Legler will join the network's lead NBA crew, which also includes play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, fellow analyst Richard Jefferson and reporter Lisa Salters.

That team will call the 2026 NBA Finals on ABC, as well as the conference finals, several first- and second-round playoff games, a Christmas Day game and NBA Saturday Primetime games on ABC.

Legler is a former NBA journeyman who won the league's three-point shooting contest during the 1996 All-Star festivities. He retired as a player in 2000 and joined ESPN as an analyst the same year.

Read more:'Stupid idea'? Charles Barkley says 'Inside the NBA' hosts may have another show on TNT

ESPN did not provide details on Burke's contract extension, other than to say it is for multiple years. According to a press release, Burke will call "full slates of games throughout the regular season and the NBA playoffs" on ESPN and ABC with play-by-play announcer Dave Pasch.

Burke has been with ESPN since 1991 and joined the network's lead NBA broadcast team in 2023. When she called the 2024 NBA Finals, she became the first woman to serve as a TV game analyst for a championship-round game in one of the four major professional U.S. men's sports leagues.

In 2018, Burke received the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame's Curt Gowdy Media Award for outstanding contributions to basketball.

Read more:Plaschke: 'It’s over.' Bidding farewell to ESPN's 'Around the Horn' with gratitude

The news that Burke's future with the lead NBA team was up in the air was first reported by The Athletic in June ahead of the 2025 Finals. Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle spoke in support of Burke during his news conference before Game 1.

“She’s changed the game for women in broadcasting,” Carlisle said. “Doris is a great example of courage and putting herself out there."

Also on Thursday, ESPN announced a multi-year extension for Jefferson, who has been with the network since 2019 and called his first NBA Finals this year.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

A raucous crowd filled the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland, today when the Polish national team hosted Slovenia in a first-round FIBA EuroBasket 2025 game.

But Slovenia star Luka Doncic had at least a few familiar folks rooting him on. Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, general manager Rob Pelinka and others from Los Angeles made the 6,000-mile, 12-hour flight to support the cornerstone of the Lakers' future.

“We just wanted to make a statement to Luka that we support what he does for his country," Pelinka told Dan Woike of the Athletic in Poland before the game. "That’s really important to the Lakers when we have a player that’s the face of our franchise, just to show that support for him. And it’s just great to see him with his teammates, interacting, having fun."

Turned out the game might not have been too fun for Doncic and Slovenia, which lost to Poland 105-95. Doncic led all scorers with 34 points, including 14 in the first quarter. He finished with nine assists, five steals and four rebounds.

Doncic became the first player to combine 30-plus points, five or more assists and five or more steals in a single EuroBasket game. Also, his 17 free throws were the most by any EuroBasket player since 2005, when Juan Carlos Navarro made 18 against Croatia.

Still, the play circulating on social media is Doncic getting assessed with a technical foul after tossing up a long, one-handed three-point attempt to try to draw a foul.

Doncic, acquired in a trade with the Dallas Mavericks for center Anthony Davis on Feb. 1, signed a three-year, $165-million contract extension with the Lakers on Aug. 2. The five-time All-NBA guard has averaged 28.6 points, 8.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists a game during his seven-year career.

Read more:Luka Doncic takes a jab at Mavericks while showing off his revenge body

Poland, which upset Slovenia in the EuroBasket 2022 quarterfinals, has three stars in Aleksander Balcerowski, Jordan Loyd and Mateusz Ponitka. Slovenia was missing several key players — Josh Nebo, Vlatko Čančar, Jaka Blažič and Zoran Dragić — putting pressure on Doncic to carry the team.

The tournament brings together Europe’s top national teams. Besides Doncic, NBA stars participating include Kristaps Porziņģis, Nikola Jokic and Alperen Sengun. Doncic is determined to continue representing his country in international competition.

"It's an easy choice," he told Woike. "I always want to represent my country. Always did. No matter what."

Doncic, 26, is in the best physical condition of his career. He spent the summer in Croatia working out twice a day and adhering to a gluten-free, low-sugar, high-protein diet.

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"He is in great shape, really committed to working hard this summer, and to be able to watch that in person was worth flying over the ocean to come be with him,” Pelinka said.

Pelinka and Buss were joined on the trip to Poland by Kurt Rambis, Linda Rambis and director of player performance and health Leroy Sims.

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Brandin Podziemski reveals how Warriors' locker room views Jonathan Kuminga saga originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Jonathan Kuminga saga has dominated Warriors and NBA discourse throughout the offseason.

But how do Golden State’s players actually feel about the situation? Third-year guard Brandin Podziemski revealed how he and his Warriors teammates view the Kuminga noise in a conversation with 95.7 The Game’s “Willard and Dibs” on Wednesday.

“Obviously, everybody on our team knows it’s the media’s job to try to nitpick and find things to write and talk about and separate teammates so they have a story to write,” Podziemski told Mark Willard and Dan Dibley. “Like, we all know that’s how it works; especially the guys who have been around it for 10 to 15 years, they know how it works.

“Everybody in the locker room knows no matter how that situation’s resolved, it doesn’t change our viewpoint of JK as a person [and] as a player. Obviously, we all want him to be in Golden State; that’s the whole point. But it doesn’t change anything.”

To no one’s surprise, Podziemski has his teammate’s back.

It is no secret that Golden State, the lone franchise that has yet to make an offseason move, likely has transactions in wait because of the Kuminga situation. But it’s also well known that Kuminga and the Warriors are at an impasse in contract negotiations. 

At the end of the day, games will be played, and Podziemski will be obligated to lace up his shoes regardless of Kuminga’s status. The guard simply is focused on what he can control.

“The media is going to portray it one way to try and make people think differently of it,” Podziemski told Willard and Dibley. “But it doesn’t change my perspective. I know all I can control is being the best version of Brandin Podziemski that I can be going into my third year, and everything else is going to fall how it may.”

Podziemski said he and his Warriors teammates want Kuminga back for the 2025-26 NBA season. However, it’s uncertain how much Golden State’s front office agrees with that sentiment, if it does at all.

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Dawn Staley was ready to be the head coach of the New York Knicks.

In an interview with Candace Parker and Aliyah Boston on their “Post Moves” podcast, the South Carolina women’s basketball head coach confirmed she had a formal interview for the Knicks’ head coach vacancy earlier this summer and was interested in the position.

“If the Knicks would have offered me the job, I would have had to do it,” Staley said. “It’s not just for me, it’s for women, for … to break open that. It’s the New York Knicks, and I’m from Philly, but it’s the freakin’ New York Knicks.”

Dawn Staley speaks on coaching in the NBA, saying “if the Knicks would have offered me the job, I would have had to do it.” 👀 pic.twitter.com/BnBGEskmNx

— Post Moves with Candace Parker & Aliyah Boston (@PostMovesShow) August 27, 2025

League sources told The Athletic that while Staley impressed during her conversation with team president Leon Rose and other members of the Knicks’ front office, she was not considered a finalist to fill the vacancy left when the team fired head coach Tom Thibodeau following the franchise’s first trip to the Eastern Conference finals in 25 years. The franchise hired Mike Brown, formerly the Sacramento Kings’ head coach, to replace Thibodeau.

During the conversation with Parker and Boston, Staley said she went into the interview with the Knicks’ brass with a series of questions of her own, primarily centered around the potential impact of hiring the first woman head coach in NBA history.

“Would I take any NBA job? No,” Staley said. “I will say this: The NBA has to be ready for a female head coach. You can’t just interview somebody and say, ‘We’re going to hire her.’ I probably lost the job by asking this question.”

“Well, I had a series of questions that I asked them,” she continued. “No. 1 was: Why was I in the candidate pool? I said, ‘Has the New York Knicks organization, in its history, ever had what you’re looking for? They wanted a team. They wanted inclusiveness with management, coaches and everyone. They wanted it to feel like a closely-knit franchise. The answer was really ‘no.’ If you don’t hire anyone different, how are you going to get that? That was No. 1.

“My other question was, ‘If you hired me as the first female coach, how would it impact your daily job?’ Because it would. It would. You’re going to get questions that you don’t have to be asked if you hire a male coach. There’s going to be the media, all this stuff you’ll have to deal with that you didn’t have to deal with and don’t have to deal with when you hire a male. That got them to thinking. That really got them to thinking. ‘Maybe she’s right.’ I felt the energy change after that.”

Staley signed a new contract with South Carolina in January that makes her the highest-paid coach in women’s college basketball. The deal, which extends through the 2029-30 season, totals more than $25 million after signing bonuses and annual increases.

Staley’s interview was part of an unorthodox Knicks’ coaching search that ended with Brown’s hiring. Team decision-makers reached out to multiple NBA teams to inquire about their head coaches under contract, like Houston’s Ime Udoka, Dallas’ Jason Kidd and Chicago’s Billy Donovan. The Knicks also interviewed NBA assistant coaches like Minnesota’s Micah Nori and New Orleans’ James Borrego, as well as recently-fired head coaches like Taylor Jenkins and Brown.

More women than ever are joining NBA coaching staffs in high-ranking roles, but no woman has ever been the head coach of an NBA team.

In 2019, the Knicks, under a previous regime, hired Lisa Willis, a former WNBA player, as an assistant coach for their G League affiliate.

There are currently three women who serve as NBA assistant coaches: Jenny Boucek (Indiana Pacers), Brittni Dolandson (Atlanta Hawks) and Lindsey Harding (Los Angeles Lakers). In 2024, Harding, then the head coach of the Stockton Kings, became the first woman to be named coach of the year in the G League. Harding was the first woman to be the head coach of a G League team, and she worked under Anjali Ranadivé, the first female general manager in G League history.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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