Category: NBA

Bay Area basketball fans may have been disappointed that Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry sat out the three-point contest this year, but they didn’t have to wait long to get some representation. On Tuesday it was announced that a different Golden State sharpshooter, Valkyries forward Janelle Salaün, is headed for the shooting exhibition, as she was selected to the six-player WNBA three-point contest that will take place on Friday in Chicago.

Salaün, a 24-year old from France who signed with the Valkyries as an undrafted free agent last year, has been one of the league’s most prolific shooters from deep this year, so her inclusion in the three-point contest is very much deserved. She’s averaging 2.5 made threes per game, which is seventh in the WNBA, and her 39.4% clip is better than all but one of the players with more made threes than her. She’s made five threes in four of Golden State’s 27 games this year.

If Salaün wants to win the contest, she’ll have to beat some very talented shooters: Marina Mabrey of the Toronto Tempo, Natisha Hiedeman of the Seattle Storm, Rhyne Howard of the Atlanta Dream, Bridget Carleton of the Portland Fire, and rookie Azzi Fudd of the Dallas Wings.

The State Farm Three-Point Contest and the Kia Shooting Stars challenge both take place on Friday night, while the All-Star game is on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. PT on ESPN and Disney+. The Valkyries will also be represented in the Saturday fun, as Gabby Williams was named an All-Star starter.

Yaxel Lendeborg was clearly the impactful player when the Golden State Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies to win a Summer League title, and deservedly won Championship Game MVP. Tuesday, he was awarded MVP for Summer League as a whole.

He’s the first player ever to take home both MVP trophies, making him the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Summer League, but without the flopping. Look, Steph Curry had to wait until his fourth title to get that honor, so Lendeborg should have a big weight off his shoulders. For the record, Draymond Green was the best player on the 2013 Summer League champs, but he wasn’t going to take home the trophy after Ian Clark made seven threes in the title game. Yaxel, please do not lord this over your new teammate!

Lendeborg beat out a talented field of Summer Leaguers that included No. 3 pick Cameron Boozer and No. 4 pick Caleb Wilson, both of whom made the All-Summer League first team. Boozer averaged 18.5 points, eight rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.8 steals, while finishing second in points and third in rebounds. He’d likely have been Summer League MVP had the Grizzlies managed to close out the Warriors, but the Dubs’ Yaxel-driven rally — he scored seven straight points to take the lead — relegated the Duke forward to the lesser honor. Boozer was quite good, but the elite defense from Lendeborg and his team’s success seemed to be the tiebreaker.

Wilson was awesome, scoring 35 points in his debut and averaging 24 points, seven rebounds, 2.5 blocks, and 1.3 steals in his four games. Even though his Chicago Bulls went 1-3, it was an impressive performance from the athletic forward who didn’t turn 20 until two days ago. Wilson made 13 three-pointers in Summer League, which is six more than he made during his entire freshman season at North Carolina.

The other first-teamers were Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Burries (23.5 PPG, 50% shooting), taken one pick ahead of Lendeborg at No. 10, and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Meleek Thomas, who was the No. 34 pick this year out of Arkansas. Thomas was the Summer League scoring leader, putting up 27.3 points per game along with 3.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds and two steals.

In an interesting twist, the first team was all rookies and the second team was all second- and third-year players, who are normally the better Summer Leaguers — though also more likely to get shut down early.

Khaman Maluach of the Phoenix Suns averaged 19.5 points and league-leading 12.8 rebounds. Coward was first-team All Rookie last season, which makes the Summer League second team a slight disappointment, but he did average 19 points, seven rebounds, and four assists while making 41.7% of his threes. Third-year Minnesota Timberwolves guard Zyon Pullin had 39 assists, most in Summer League, while Liam McNeeley of the Charlotte Hornets averaged 21.7 points and shot 52.6% from three-point range, which should fit in nicely with his three-happy team. Egor Demin took the last spot almost by default after averaging 21 points in three games, a beneficiary of Bruce Thornton’s brutal final game for the Houston Rockets in the playoffs.

Other Summer standouts were Arthur Kaluma, whose reward was a two-way deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, Chaz Lanier and his league-leading 23 threes (51.1% shooting), Golden State’s own LJ Cryer, and Will Riley of the Washington Wizards, who was shut down after scoring 50 points and shooting 7-for-10 from distance in his first two games.

But the king of Summer League was Yaxel Lendeberg, right from his very first game. Now he has plenty of hardware to prove it.

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Considering the lack of future draft picks, the Dallas Mavericks have had an ACTIVE off-season. The made a trade for Marcus Sasser, a local guy, to absord some of the point guard minutes. Then they made what felt like a big trade to get Santi Aldama and the rights to Tarik Biberovic (who they would later sign to an incredible deal). Then earlier this week they made a trade for former number one over all pick in the 2024 draft, Zaccharie Risacher.

So now we have questions. Which is your favorite? I forogt to include the Sasser one in the poll but if that’s the one you rock with, I get it. Note that you have to be signed in to actually take the poll. Signing up for an account is something that actually really helps all of us here at MMB but also helps you. You should get less ads and a better experience. We want you here!

We’ll have results up for this one later in the week!

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Lakers fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

The Lakers’ front office set up the roster to maximize optionality this summer, and they certainly took advantage of it.

The majority of last year’s rotation is gone, replaced by new pieces in Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili. The biggest addition, however, is Walker Kessler. He provides the Lakers with a top-tier frontcourt player for the first time during the Luka Dončić era. Also, re-signing Austin Reaves was critical, and LA got a deal done.

So, for our SB Nation Reacts survey this week, we ask fans if the moves President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka made this summer changed their opinion of him.

The Lakers roster has had such dramatic changes that no one truly knows how this collection of players will perform.

This time of year is all about educated guesses and a general feeling on how things look before games are played. If you liked the summer the Lakers have had and are surprised they were able to transition from LeBron James so well, then selecting that your viewpoint has improved on Pelinka is the best option for you.

Many Lakers fans were skeptical about this summer, but the Lakers got younger, kept their No.2 option and now have an elite center. They addressed their most important need and are reportedly looking to add another big.

If they can make some more moves, they could improve even more, and they’ve already done a lot this summer.

The neutral selection is an interesting option. Perhaps you are already high on Pelinka and expected this type of offseason. Or, you are low on him and are unmoved by these changes. It’ll be fascinating to see how many people select unchanged in this poll.

If you are down on the offseason moves and see losing LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, Luke Kennard and still lacking a starting power forward as bad, then your opinion on Pelinka has likely worsened.

With so many players locked up, getting significantly better will be harder for the Lakers. It will require trades, and with little draft capital left, that’s going to be a challenge.

Pelinka is always a topic of conversation, and it seems that Lakers fans pivot their opinions of him rather drastically.

Now that most of the activity for the summer is over, let us know what you think about Pelinka by voting on the poll above and commenting below.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.

An awkward moment was captured on video between Spurs star Victor Wembanyama and a young Knicks fan at Fanatics Fest.

Wembanyama, 22, walked past a group of fans during the weekend event, and one young person called out, “Wemby! Wemby! Sign my jersey! Sign my jersey please!…Wemby…will you sign my jersey?”

It sounds like a normal request, but there was a catch.

The fan was holding out a Jalen Brunson Knicks jersey.

Wembanyama, smiling and laughing, replied, “That’s not…That’s Jalen Brunson,” declining to sign the jersey. The young fan said sorry after the exchange.

Wembanyama was one of many NBA stars present at Fanatics Fest at the Javits Center in New York. In his second outing to the annual festivities, he became the first participant to go 5-for-5 in the 3-point challenge, and he also made a guest appearance on a soccer podcast where he discussed his Paris Saint-Germain fandom and admiration of international stars Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi.

His Spurs ultimately fell in five games to the Knicks in their pursuit of the 2026 NBA championship, and local fans at Fanatics Fest clearly didn’t forget.

The New York crowd, which declared Wembanyama one of the newest New York villains during the NBA Finals, playfully booed him.

Wembanyama was a frequent source of stress for Knicks fans during the series, being at the center of calls — and controversial non-calls.

Brunson was also present at Fanatics Fest, alongside several Knicks teammates including Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges and Miles McBride.

Alongside many of the championship Knicks, other NBA stars such as Kevin Durant, James Harden and Anthony Edwards made the trip to New York for the popular event.

The Cleveland Cavaliers traded out of the first round of this most recent draft, but still ended up with a player on the NBA Summer League First Team.

Cleveland’s second-round pick, Meleek Thomas, joined Cameron Boozer (Memphis Grizzlies), Brayden Burries (Milwaukee Bucks), Yaxel Lendeborg (Golden State Warriors) and Caleb Wilson (Chicago Bulls) on the NBA Summer League First Team. Thomas was the only player from that group who was selected outside of the lottery.

Thomas’s spot is well-deserved. He led Summer League in scoring with 27.3 points per game on an incredibly efficient .500/.438/1.000 shooting splits over four games. This included an impressive 35-point outing to defeat the Miami Heat on July 23.

Judging a rookie exclusively by how they perform in Summer League is foolish. The competition level and the role they will play in the NBA aren’t close to the same. Excelling in Las Vegas doesn’t necessarily mean they will do so in the league. At the same time, how poised Thomas was in this environment is encouraging.

Thomas showed that he has the skills to be an effective natural scorer. His fluidity, ability to create off the dribble, and lethal shot were on display in every game he played. Defenders weren’t able to stay in front of him. And when Thomas got to where he wanted on the court, he scored efficiently.

Thomas likely won’t be an on-ball scorer early in his NBA career, at least not if he’s sharing the floor with the likes of James Harden and Donovan Mitchell. Yet, the skills that made him such an elite scorer in Summer League (shooting, ability to attack closeouts, midrange shooting) can translate over to more off-ball roles, if he chooses to apply them in that way. We’ll get our first idea if they can during preseason.

It’s too early to declare that the Cavs got the steal of the draft. We’ll wait until after the season to see if a discussion like that is necessary. But as of now, the Cavs have to be happy with what they’ve seen from their most recent draft pick.

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The second-apron environment the NBA has operated in the last several years was designed to produce parity. Keeping contending cores together for multiple years is incredibly expensive and comes with numerous team-building downsides. The simplest way to combat this is by replenishing your rotation through the draft.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have taken swings over the last three years at finding players later in the first round or early in the second round that they could develop into rotation pieces.

Jaylon Tyson was selected in the second half of the first round in 2023. After not having a large role his rookie season, Tyson exploded onto the scene last year. He provided energy in the regular season for a team that desperately needed it with all of their injuries. This was coupled with a revamped three-point shot that allowed him to become a valuable offensive threat on and off the ball.

Last year, the Cavs took Tyrese Proctor in the second round and immediately signed him to a standard deal. While Proctor didn’t get much playing time his rookie season, the minutes he did get showed enough promise to make you believe he could be an impactful role player down the line.

Cleveland’s most recent selection, Meleek Thomas, showed tremendous promise during Summer League. He led all scorers in Las Vegas with 27.3 points per game. That, unsurprisingly, earned him a spot on the All-Summer League First Team.

All three of these selections have shown promise in different ways, but which one has the brightest future? Let us know what you think in the survey below, and tell us why in the comments.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NCAA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Wizards fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

In this week’s survey, grade how the Washington Wizards performed in NBA Summer League. We’ll share the results this weekend.

Bucks guard and 2026 Draft No. 10 overall pick Brayden Burries was named to the NBA’s Summer League First Team. Burries, who appeared in four Summer League games, averaged 23.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.3 assists on .500/.364/.667 shooting splits. He’s the first Bucks nominee to the Summer League First Team since Sandro Mamukelashvili, now a rotational big for the Lakers, in 2022.

Burries impressed throughout his time in Las Vegas. He looked like a bona fide future NBA star, getting to his spots effortlessly, converting an array of tough finishes around the rim, and creating for himself and for teammates. Burries has been the go-to three-level scorer his tape at Arizona suggested, and he also looked willing to do the dirty work: diving for loose balls and switching onto more physical defenders. He even scored a game-winner in the Bucks’ final Summer League game against Philadelphia, divebombing through a clustered defense and levitating in the air to finish at the rim.

“You can see it,” Bucks Summer League coach Patrick St. Andrews said about Burries, per HoopsRumors.com. “Two-way player. Obviously, the offense shot it really well, but the defense as well.

“And the cool part is he wants to get better. You can feel it. He’s asking, ‘I need more individual clips. I need more, especially on the defensive end.’ For a young guy to ask, that kind of stuff is impressive. Speaking up in the locker room, you can feel his maturity for his age, which is super impressive. And then obviously, you see the talent.”

After an impressive Summer League outing, Burries will attempt to insert himself into a guard rotation that will include Ryan Rollins, Tyler Herro, Kevin Porter Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, and more. Starts might be hard to come by, but Burries certainly has proved that he’s deserving of real, meaningful minutes on this rebuilding Bucks squad.

Does Burries’ play change your stance on Rollins’ place with the Buck? Cast your vote below:

For the second consecutive year, the Gonzaga Bulldogs didn’t put anybody in the NBA draft. For a program that put seven guys into the NBA across the 2021 through 2024 drafts, back-to-back shutouts is an anomaly. But the draft is only the front door. 

Summer League is the NBA’s July proving ground: rookies, undrafted free agents, G League hopefuls, and fringe roster guys getting two weeks of live reps in front of all 30 front offices. It ran in two waves this year: tthe California Classic at Golden State’s Chase Center and Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center from July 3-6, then the main event in Las Vegas at UNLV the following week, where a Summer League champion was crowned on the 19th.

For an undrafted player, everything below the draft is a ladder. A standard contract is a real NBA roster spot. A two-way splits the season between the parent club and its G League affiliate, good for up to 50 NBA games. An Exhibit 10 is a training-camp flyer, a minimum-salary deal that can convert to a two-way or pay a bonus for affiliate time. And a Summer League invite is the bottom rung: a tryout, nothing promised. All five Zags landed somewhere on that ladder, and some made a very compelling case for why they shouldn’t have had to be there in the first place.

Graham Ike — Golden State Warriors

Graham went undrafted this year, but after a busy summer spent working out for about half the teams in the league, he ultimately signed an Exhibit 10 with the Golden State Warriors. Four weeks later he was a Summer League champion. Ike was Golden State’s most reliable big, starting all nine games across the California Classic and Vegas and averaging 9.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.8 assists while the Warriors ran the table to the Summer League title. The pre-draft book on him was that he was undersized and injury prone. Both of which are fair assessments for an organization potentially dumping millions into a player like Ike’s potential. He spent two weeks answering the only question that matters: can you help a team win? It was an emphatic “yes” from Graham. The Warriors went on to beat Memphis 94-90 in Sunday’s final, making Ike the second Gonzaga Summer League Champion and the first since Brandon Clarke walked away with the title (also with Memphis) in 2019.

His best night came a game earlier, in the semifinal against former teammate Anton Watson and the Lakers. Graham finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds on 6-of-10 shooting in a 92-88 win. He didn’t need the offense in the final (six points, nine boards, three assists, and a block), because by then he’d shown exactly what he is: a screen-setting, glass-cleaning big who makes winning plays without needing to touch the ball every time down the floor (a helpful asset when Yaxel Lendeborg is your frontcourt counterpart) Midway through Vegas, Ike owned one of the best box plus/minus marks of any rookie in the field. The Exhibit 10 gives Golden State the option to convert him to a two-way before the season, and the frontcourt fit is obvious. Nothing’s official yet, but of the five Zags in the desert, Ike made the strongest case, and left with the only trophy.

Jalen Warley — Indiana Pacers

Warley’s problem at Summer League is the same one that got him passed over in June: his best work doesn’t show up in a box score. The Pacers brought him to Vegas on an invite, no contract attached, and used him as a combo forward at the three and the four, the connective, defense-first role he filled at Gonzaga. He appeared in two of Indiana’s four games, averaging about three points and three rebounds in roughly 15 minutes a night, and closed scoreless on 0-for-4 in the Pelicans game, Indiana’s Summer League finale.

None of that is the full measure of Warley, and everyone involved knows it. In his lone Gonzaga season he put up 7.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, and a team-high 1.5 steals while shooting 56.6% from the field. He was the Gonzaga’s best perimeter defender and moonlighted as a small-ball five when the frontcourt got banged up. That’s a real NBA skill set; it just doesn’t pop in a July showcase built for scorers. This was a foot in the door with a well-run organization, not a launchpad for Warley, and the likeliest next stop for last year’s Swiss-army man is the G League.

Tyon Grant-Foster — San Antonio Spurs

Grant-Foster needed the NBA’s fitness-to-play panel to medically clear him before he could even sign, and once he did, he landed with the reigning Western Conference champions — where San Antonio’s depth left him boxed out. The Spurs ran four drafted rookies through Summer League — centers Jayden Quaintance (Kentucky) and Tarris Reed (UConn), guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie (Tennessee), and forward Maliq Brown (Duke). Tyon unfortunately spent both the California Classic and his time in Vegas behind them, earning spot minutes off the bench, nothing sustained.

He hit a fadeaway for a bucket against Golden State in the Classic and dropped in the occasional assist in Vegas, but never got a stretch long enough to build rhythm; one representative shift went 0-for-2 in five minutes. No stat line worth quoting, no roster claim staked. The Spurs didn’t hand him the runway, and there’s not much to read into an audition he barely got to take. Nothing’s signed yet. Most likely he lands in the G League with San Antonio’s Austin affiliate if the Spurs keep his rights, and at 26 with a shaky jumper, a standard or two-way deal is a long shot from here.

Ryan Nembhard: Dallas Mavericks → Atlanta Hawks

Nembhard was the one Zag in Vegas who didn’t need the audition. He arrived already made, a year removed from going undrafted and playing his way from a two-way onto a standard NBA contract midway through his rookie season, with Dallas picking up his team option for 2026-27. So Summer League was just a tune-up, and a brief one. He played two games, put up 8.0 points and 8.8 assists, then sat the Mavericks’ final three with an illness. Even in that brief window of floor time the passing was the story.

Then the offseason moved him anyway. On July 19, the same day the Vegas bracket wrapped, Dallas sent Nembhard to Atlanta in a three-team deal built around Lu Dort, with former No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher going back to the Mavericks and three second-round picks landing in Oklahoma City. A new Dallas front office and coaching staff simply had other plans. In Atlanta he reunites with former Zag Corey Kispert and fellow Canadians Dort and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and slots in as backcourt depth behind CJ McCollum and rookie Kingston Flemings (I want to say emphatically that I don’t believe there is a world in which Kingston Flemings is a better point guard than Ryan Nembhard). He walked into July with an NBA job and walked out of it with a different one. 

Atlanta just had its best season in years: 46-36, sixth in the East and first in the Southeast Division, and they broke through to the playoffs outright after four straight years stuck in the Play-In tournament. Ending up on Atlanta’s roster is no longer the “shipped to Siberia” fate it once was and it’ll be thrilling to watch two former Zags share a floor once again.

Anton Watson: Los Angeles Lakers

Watson’s third Summer League showed why the dude still deserves to be employed by the NBA. He opened the California Classic by tipping in a buzzer-beater to steal a double-overtime win over Miami, part of a 12-point, 10-rebound night, then carried that into a strong Vegas run. The Lakers went undefeated in group play and grabbed the top overall seed, and Watson’s fingerprints were all over it. In the opener he drew 7-foot-3 lottery pick Aday Mara, gave up seven inches, and held him to two points on 0-of-3. It was pretty hilarious watching Anton absolutely body the reigning NCAA champion. Against Chicago he chipped in eight points on 3-of-5 with four assists and one turnover. The connective, switchable defense that defined his Gonzaga career translated cleanly.

The run ended cold. In the semifinal against Graham Ike and the eventual-champion Warriors, Watson went 1-of-9 for two points in a 92-88 loss, and Los Angeles ran out of offense. One bad shooting night doesn’t erase the two weeks, but it’s the kind of quiet close that can keep a dude in the G-League for longer than he’d like to be. As for what’s next, the Lakers still hold his G League rights and he’s ticketed to rejoin their newly rebranded Coachella Valley affiliate. A strong training camp could nudge him toward a two-way, but another year in the G League is the likeliest outcome.

Final Thoughts

Five Zags, five different verdicts. Ike left the champion and the best bet for a real NBA deal. Watson did the quiet, useful things again and has a two-way within reach. Warley and Grant-Foster got the thinnest looks and are likely G League bound. Although none got drafted in June, the program still funnels pros into the league. 

And the drought should not last much longer. The 2026-27 roster is loaded with names already popping up on preseason draft watchlists, led by Arizona State transfer Massamba Diop, and followed closely by sophomore wing Davis Fogle. Isiah Harwell and Izan Almansa round out the group of hopefuls. After two straight quiet Junes for the Bulldogs, the draft drought will almost certainly be over by this time next year.

2019 is a year which will live in infamy for New York Knicks fan. That spring, despite having slogged to the league’s worst record, the Knicks were forsaken by the basketball gods, who blessed New Orleans and Memphis with lottery leaps while dropping New York to third. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were long rumored to sign with them that summer. Instead of Zion, KD and Kyrie, the Knicks ended up with RJ Barrett, Julius Randle and Marcus Morris. Yet the building blocks for a title were in place: RJ, JR and IQ (via the Morris trade) landed the Knicks the second and first runners-up for 2026 Finals MVP, i.e. OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns.

2019 was a memorable year for the NBA. LeBron James left Cleveland after four straight Finals to take his talents to south California. The Warriors reached their fifth consecutive Finals, the first and only other team to do so since the 1960s Celtics. Kawhi Leonard made an audaciously aspirational series-winning buzzer-beater that bounced on the rim for nearly as long as the investigation into his links with Aspiration, eventually leading Toronto over Golden State to win the title. Do you remember what happened in Game 3 of those Finals?

Mark Stevens shoved Kyle Lowry after the Raptor dove into the first row to save a ball from going out of bounds. Lowry said Stevens also told him “Go fuck yourself” multiple times. Stevens, a Warriors minority owner who estimated his net worth at $10.5 billion last year, was suspended for a year and fined $500,000.

In Game 1 of this year’s Finals, a fan ran onto the court in San Antonio to try and take a selfie with Victor Wembanyama, making it all the way to the Spurs star before being dragged off by security.

He actually got all the way to the Spur star before being dragged off by security. No one was hurt (though someone could have been). The fan showed neither malice nor aggression. The fan was suspended from attending an NBA game for the rest of his life. So was a second fan, one who never set foot on the court. Stevens, who laid hands on a player and cursed him out, was suspended a year and fined $500,000, equivalent to fining someone who makes $100,000 a year five dollars.

But even immunity isn’t enough for the gilded rage. Impunity or GTFO — and the calls aren’t even coming from inside the house. After the attempted Wemby selfie, Yahoo Sports broadcasters Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz called for blood. Below is the transcript from their episode; the original doesn’t offer quotation marks, so I’m not sure between Fenton and Fitz who said what:

“We need to be calling him a dumbass, and we need to stop supporting this behavior entirely.
It took tragedy for us to have metal detectors.
They didn’t even have metal detectors in, in airports pre-9/11.
It’s gonna take one person running out onto the court that has a plastic shiv because he got it through the metal detectors because it’s plastic, that decides he wants to change the outcome of a series, and then we’re all gonna sit there and say, ‘How the hell did we let this happen?’
Why do we need to be reactive?
Let’s be proactive.
I don’t think that’s enough punishment.
I want mandatory prison sentencing.
Put him in a good old federal prison and let him explain what life is like for the next five years while he runs through federal prison for it.
I don’t think there’s a punishment that can be big enough because it takes one moron that has nefarious things on his mind, that has lost his cool, that goes out onto the court and changes everybody’s life forever.”

If likening a fan trying to take a selfie with a star athlete to an act of premeditated violence that killed thousands of people feels like a stretch, that’s ‘cuz it is. Ye old slippery slope fallacy, gone but never forgotten. Yet if a broken clock is right every now and then, it follows to reason that sometimes taking the wrong turn down the wrong road really is all it takes to end in tragedy. But which way is right, and which is wrong?

Six weeks ago, the morning of the Knicks’ championship parade, James Dolan claimed the White House had already reached out to the NBA champs. “We just did receive an invitation from the White House,” he told WFAN, “which we accepted. We still have to figure out the details.”

On Monday, Variety published an interview with Jalen Brunson. In it, Brunson says, “[Visiting the White House is] something that we actually haven’t discussed as a team. And so obviously people are making assumptions and saying everything, but together we haven’t discussed it yet, and so we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Whenever I write something that ties the Knicks in any way to the larger world, some readers thank me. Some are repulsed, even insulting. Sometimes I get death threats. Lotta “I read about sports to read about sports and only sports. Keep your commie nose outta my sports, missy” from dudes kicking back with their “non-woke” beer and getting half a chub-on from the national anthem, military members furling flags and weapons of mass destruction flying overhead. Wanna talk sports instead? Okay. Let’s.

Do you love Jose Alvarado?

Rhetorical question. Who doesn’t? The grand thefting; the clutch 3s; a level of shithousery that’d fit right in with Argentina’s men’s World Cup squad. It’s why we kept seeing features like this throughout the postseason and after. Hometown kid comes home, makes good, makes history. Not everybody *is* a Knick from day one. Anthony Mason was. Josh Hart. Ditto Alvarado.

Riddle me this, sports fans: whaddya think woulda happened during Games 3 and 4 of the Finals — or any Knicks playoff game at MSG — if someone in the crowd heckled Alvarado by yelling that, as a Puerto Rican, he descends from a people who comprise “a floating pile of garbage”? What if it happened within earshot of Dolan? Care to guess?

No need! Because Dolan has been clear about what kind of behavior results in ejection from the World’s Most Boastful Arena. Back in that magical 2019 season, a fan at a game against Sacramento yelled to Dolan that he should sell the team. No profanity. No ad hominem attack on millions of people. He didn’t call Dolan a floating pile of garbage. Just offered his opinion on a matter of business. Serious people do it all the time.

The emperor — resplendent in layers of security personnel — asked if the fan really thought so, and if he wished to be able to keep coming to MSG. The fan said he’d merely shared an opinion, to which Dolan answered, “No, it’s no an opinion. And you know what, enjoy watching them on TV.” Dolan had the fan detained by security, questioned by police, then kicked out of the arena and banned for life.

I lied before. When I said my question was rhetorical. It wasn’t. It’s very much along the lines of the Mark Stevens/Spurs fan juxtaposition.

Alvarado doesn’t “deserve” to be respected because he can help Dolan’s team win a title. He deserves respect as a human being. Just like every Puerto Rican who can’t dribble deserved better than what we got during the Republican National Convention. Better than the Black and Brown children Elon Musk has killed. Better than what our Haitian and Somali brothers and sisters endure, our non-binary loves and whoever else the Fourth Reich hates.

But in a world where to be heard requires one to be seen, even Alvarado isn’t visible enough to make waves. But there are a few players who do. Including the captain of the melting pot’s favorite basketball team.

What happens if Brunson and the Knicks decide they don’t want to be “honored” by a racist rapist? I imagine if they ask agents and financial reps and other wealthy people, they’ll be advised to go, or at least advised against not going. Is that “political”? Some people can’t read that the president hates Black and Brown people and rapes children and women without melting down in a molten puddle of weird fury. Boil away, babes.

Some readers think I write about the Knick owner too much. Confession: there are a list of names of Knick-adjacent characters I wish I didn’t have to type as often as I do here at P&T. One is “Carmelo”; to this day, nearly a decade since he last played here, it still prompts as much passion — and division — as it did then. “Arron Afflalo” is another; I’m a good speller, but my Achilles heel is with words with double-consonants. And I cringe every time I write “Enes Freedom.” Believe it or not, there is not and never has been a day I woke up and wished I got to write about Dolan.

But reality matters to me. More than the Knicks, if you can believe it. So it matters to me when a public figure has the clout and the opportunity to tell a billionaire, “No.” Our politicians won’t. Take it where you can get it, I say.

As high as Dolan may feel he’s riding after the Knicks finally won it all, he’ll still never approach the popularity Brunson has earned. Dolan’s not as popular as Mayor Mamdani. He never will be. I don’t know how much that matters to someone with enough money to literally build an alternate, insular reality that only contains the people and things you think matter. I don’t think Dolan leaves work at the end of the day and wishes more people who are poorer and less powerful than him liked him more. It’s not about him wanting love. It’s about him wanting more power, more authority. And someone needs to stand up and tell him and his ilk, “This isn’t yours.”

This story caught my attention because of the fascinating conflict it potentially could lead to. Dolan, we know, is used to playing with his toys when and where and how he likes, especially showing them off to the Rapist-In-Chief. He doesn’t care what Adam Silver says. Or Mamdani. Or anybody. When is the last time you can remember anyone Knick-related defying the owner in any kind of public way? About anything? And coming out on top?

And yet . . . what if Brunson doesn’t wanna go to the White House? What if half the team doesn’t? How might the owner react if his employees take advantage of the moment and their momentum and just say “no”? A word he and his pals Trump and Harvey Weinstein and Derrick Rose (yes, him too) claim not to understand?

Dolan has all of the (hard) power in this equation. But Brunson is literally closer to god-like status than any New Yorker since Derek Jeter. He has the power to defy Dolan. The Knick players have that power. Will they exercise it? Do they want to? Athletes are among the few people in position to publicly do so without being punished.

Or does the world move on, as always, and sometime this summer I’m hate-watching Hart and KAT laughing alongside the man who kills children in other lands, kidnaps those who live here and condemns all children to the worser world he’s created? I know what I think and I know what I hope. If Brunson and the Knicks refuse to co-sign Dolan’s latest forgery, I will love the New York Knicks 100 times more than after Game 5 in San Antonio.

It’s not always common for a Summer League team to be exciting. The Lakers have had some of the most exciting sides that have ever traveled to Las Vegas in early July, but they’ve also had some absolute clunkers.

Almost universally, though, fans found this Lakers team a pleasure to watch. After a dud of a debut in the California Classic, the Lakers won five straight games, including the first four in the Las Vegas Summer League.

They were the only team to go 4-0 in the regular season portion of Summer League and featured several standout players. Cameron Carr and Adou Thiero were impressive as the two draft picks on the roster. Chris Mañon proved why he was a two-way player and Arthur Kaluma played his way into a two-way deal after a huge 34-point showing.

Realistically, any of them could be picked for Summer League honors and it’d be a worthy inclusion. The NBA, though, took a different approach to recognizing one of the best teams this summer by….

[checks notes]

….giving them no awards?

All four of the aforementioned players averaged double figures, led by Kaluma’s 18.6 points per game, in Vegas. Kaluma also shot 60.9% from the field and 50% from range as well. If anything, his debate should have been between whether he was First Team or Second Team, not if he should be on a team at all.

This is a clear lack of respect for the Lakers and it will not stand. You may respond with the obvious question of “Who cares about the All-Summer League teams?” or “Can you even name who made the team any other year?” and I’d respond to all of those fair points by telling you it’s about the principle!

There’s no doubt this snub will loom large over the rest of the summer for the Lakers and motivate them heading into next season.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.

The Golden State Warriors took down the Los Angeles Lakers in the Summer League semi-finals. Now they’re opening another series of semi-meaningless exhibition games with another go-round with their Southern California rivals.

The Warriors open the preseason Oct. 6 at home with the Lakers. They’ll also welcome two other West Coast teams, the Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers, with the road schedule to be announced later.

It’ll be the second preseason game for the Lakers, who will visit the Kings at the Golden1 Center one night before they hit the Chase Center, like a mini-California Classic! The Lake Show will show off their new-look team, with LeBron James gone to the Heat/76ers/Cavaliers, or making the correct decision and teaming up with Steph Curry and 2027 Rookie of the Year Yaxel Lendeborg.

Now the Lakers will feature Walker Kessler, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Matisse Thybulle, Jaden Hardy, first-rounder Cameron Carr, and old favorite Kevon Looney — and probably not Bronny James, since he’ll be joining his dad on the Dubs.

It’s an exciting way to start the preseason and the highest-profile preseason game the Warriors will play, no offense to Darius Acuff, Jr. and the Kings. They’ll also see Damian Lillard showing off his repaired Achilles tendon across the Bay from his hometown and some undisclosed other opponents who probably have a lot of Southwest Airlines flights from the Bay Area to their cities.

Get excited for 12-15 minutes of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves! Preseason NBA action: It’s fan-tastic!

It’s no secret that most of the NBA is waiting on LeBron James.

Even with James’ agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, saying James won’t be rushed into making a decision on which team he’ll play for next, and encouraging teams to fill out their open roster spots if they want to, much of the league’s free agency business remains on hold while James mulls his options.

As sources described to the California Post, multiple teams — and players — throughout the league are in a holding pattern until James makes his decision. 

It’s why James Harden remains an unrestricted free agent after declining his $42.3 million player option with the Cavaliers over three weeks ago with the expectation he’d re-sign with Cleveland on a new deal. 

It’s why Draymond Green remains an unrestricted free agent after declining his $27.7 million player option with the Warriors, with the expectation he’d re-sign with Golden State on a new deal. 

And it’s not just the teams, or players associated with the franchises, in the hunt for James, such as the Warriors, Heat, Cavaliers and 76ers, that are in a state of limbo. 

It’s also James’ former team, the Lakers, who are in a wait-and-see stage for James’ decision before finalizing their roster. 

The Lakers have made several moves since James revealed on June 29 that he wouldn’t be returning to the franchise for his unprecedented 24th NBA season: Austin Reaves (four years, $180 million), Walker Kessler (four years, $130 million), Quentin Grimes (four years, $60 million), Sandro Mamukelashvili (four years, $52 million), Collin Sexton (two years, $19 million), Kevon Looney (one year, $3.9 million), Ziaire Williams (one year, $2.8 million) and Matisse Thybulle (one year, $3.3 million). 

They pushed forward with their roster reconstruction around superstar guard Luka Doncic once it was known James wasn’t returning to L.A. 

But as they continue to finalize their roster ahead of the 2026-27 season (they need to shed at least one player from their roster to be compliant with the league’s rules), even they’re caught in the holding pattern because of James.

The Lakers continue to be interested in adding unrestricted free agent forward Jonathan Kuminga to their roster even after their other moves over the last couple of weeks, a source told the Post, but there hasn’t been progress on discussions recently.

The last offer the Lakers made to Kuminga came with an average annual salary around $10 million – a salary that won’t get a deal done now. 

The main avenue for the Lakers to add Kuminga would be via a sign-and-trade with the Hawks, who are unlikely to bring the 23-year-old forward back to the team, sources told the Post. 

The Cavaliers also have strong interest in Kuminga, a source said, and have been the team most linked to him outside of the Lakers over the last few weeks. 

But the Cavaliers, whose head coach Kenny Atkinson coached Kuminga while Atkinson was an assistant coach with the Warriors from 2021-24, have held off on making any significant roster moves while James mulls his decision. 

The Lakers appear to be using James’ uncertainty as leverage with Kuminga. 

And that’s just one situation the Lakers are caught in a holding pattern.

The Lakers, who have 16 players signed or agreed to standard NBA deals, will need to trade or waive at least one player before Opening Night in October to trim their roster to the maximum 15 signed players allowed during the regular season. 

But the options for trimming their roster won’t be fully revealed until after James makes his decision. 

Will the team James joins want to trade for Bronny James? 

It isn’t a guarantee that the younger James will follow his dad to his next team. Bronny is well-liked within the Lakers organization and he’s a player they’ve developed since drafting him with the No. 55 pick in the 2024 draft. But if LeBron’s next team is willing to send the Lakers a real asset for Bronny, that changes the calculus. 

Dalton Knecht, Jaden Hardy and Jarred Vanderbilt are other players to eye when it comes to the Lakers’ roster crunch. 

In addition to Kuminga and having to reduce their roster to 15 players, the Lakers are still evaluating their big man options even after adding Kessler and Looney. 

The Lakers no longer revolve around James after his eight seasons with the franchise.

But at least for now, like a lot of the NBA, they’re waiting to see what his next move will be before making any other potentially significant moves.

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