Category: Basketball

Draymond drops perfect Klay joke after Warriors' fifth straight win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Klay Thompson plays for the Dallas Mavericks now, but his spirit lives on within the Warriors organization — through Draymond Green, that is.

The usually fiery Golden State veteran channeled his former teammate’s chill demeanor after the Warriors’ huge 118-104 win over the Denver Nuggets on Friday, with Green’s third game in four days clearly leaving the 35-year-old exhausted.

“I’m sorry I’m giving y’all the lowest energy ever. I’m exhausted,” Green told reporters at Chase Center after the victory. “But, it’s good. I feel like I sound like Klay Thompson up here. Exhausted, dog … I don’t even know how to make [paper airplanes]. I would make them and fly it across, but I don’t know how to do it.”

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Green was pivotal in the Warriors’ fifth consecutive win, delivering another clutch defensive performance that has his name atop the NBA Defensive Player of the Year conversation.

The Golden State star helped slow down NBA MVP candidate Nikola Jokić and the Nuggets’ high-powered offense, just one night after locking up Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić and three days after posting a triple-double in the Warriors’ win over the Memphis Grizzlies.

That's our DPOY 😤pic.twitter.com/mQsX2s5OuQ

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 5, 2025

So, it’s certainly safe to say Green was feeling tired. Thompson was and still is known for his laid-back postgame pressers, often folding his stat sheet into a paper airplane to whisk into the crowd of reporters as he answered a question. And Green always has been the opposite, whether it’s engaging in back-and-forths with the press or providing insightful — albeit long-winded — responses.

But not on Friday night.

“I’m exhausted,” Green said. “I just want to go home, relax, go to sleep. I’m tired.”

Same, Draymond, same 😴 pic.twitter.com/QzZzIvL5PH

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 5, 2025

Green is giving it his all as the Warriors enter their final five regular-season games holding onto the Western Conference’s No. 5 playoff seed. And with the Mavericks sitting in the No. 9 spot, perhaps Green and Thompson will meet again on the court before all is said and done.

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By Rob Peterson, Jenna West and Rebecca Tauber

Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles capped off their illustrious careers by being named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the 2025 class announced at the men’s Final Four in San Antonio on Saturday.

“It’s such a big honor. I’m just so happy, man, this is crazy. I made it to heaven,” Howard said as he teared up in an interview on ESPN after the announcement.

The 2025 class also includes coach Billy Donovan, who won two national championships at Florida and is the current longtime coach of the Chicago Bulls; longtime NBA referee Danny Crawford, who officiated more than 2,000 NBA games over 32 seasons, including 30 finals games; and Miami Heat owner Micky Arison, who has seen his franchise win three titles (2006, 2012, 2013) and seven Eastern Conference championships, including four consecutive from 2011 to 2014. The 2008 “Redeem Team” that took gold at the Beijing Olympics will also be inducted.

Jeff Twiss, the Boston Celtics’ longtime public relations executive, received the John Bunn Award, the Hall’s single-highest award short of enshrinement in the Hall itself. He’s been with the franchise for more than 40 years and is regarded as one of the great professionals on his side of the player-media divide.

Melo doesn’t need an NBA title to enter the Hall

There had been recent online scuttlebutt regarding Anthony’s Hall of Fame credentials because he had never won an NBA title. (He never appeared in an NBA Finals, let alone won a ring.)

But let’s be real here: Anthony entering the Hall of Fame on his first try shouldn’t surprise anyone who paid attention. In 2003, he was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player before leading Syracuse to its only men’s NCAA title. Selected third in the legendary 2003 NBA Draft, Anthony used one of the silkiest shooting strokes to accumulate 28,289 points, 10th on the NBA career scoring list. He’s also a four-time Olympic medalist in men’s basketball, three of them gold in 2008, 2012 and 2016.

The list of players who have scored 28,000-plus points and won an NCAA title, an NBA scoring title (28.7 points per game in 2013) and three Olympic gold medals is a party of one: Anthony.

In a “ringz” culture, it would be easy to cite the lack of an NBA championship (“I’m at peace,” Anthony told Sports Illustrated in 2023) on Anthony’s 19-year career résumé or a major individual award (one top-three MVP finish in 2013) as a reason to downplay his Hall credentials. Still, the 10-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA player built a storied career few, if any, can match.

Howard built his HOF résumé early in his career

Like Anthony, there have been questions about Howard’s Hall of Fame worthiness as people point to his late-career journey. He played for six teams in seven seasons (including the Los Angeles Lakers twice, winning a title with them in the 2020 bubble) and put up pedestrian numbers (11.1 points per game, 10.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 433 games). He was even waived twice, once by Brooklyn in 2018 and once by Memphis in 2019, without playing a game for either franchise.

But Howard built his résumé for Springfield, Mass., early in his career. The Orlando Magic tabbed Howard with the No. 1 pick in 2004, and he made an immediate impact for the franchise. He played in 567 of 574 games in his first seven seasons, led the Magic to the 2009 NBA Finals and won Defensive Player of the Year in three consecutive seasons from 2009 to 2011. Starting with the 2007-08 season, he led the NBA in rebounds five of six seasons, was named First Team All-NBA for five straight seasons and was top-five in MVP voting for four consecutive seasons.

Howard also led the NBA in blocks in 2009 and 2010. His three DPOY awards place him second behind Dikembe Mutombo, Ben Wallace and Rudy Gobert, who each have four. Wallace and Mutombo are in the Hall of Fame; Gobert is still in the NBA. Howard’s 14,627 rebounds put him 10th on the NBA’s career list, and his 2,228 blocks place him 13th all time.

Add in eight All-Star selections, eight All-NBA teams and a 2008 Olympic gold medal during his 18-year career, it’s easy to see why Howard is headed for the Hall. —

Bird enters Naismith as assists leader

Bird enters the Hall after retiring from a 21-year career with the Seattle Storm, during which she won four WNBA titles. From 2002 until her retirement in 2022, Bird tallied a league-leading 3,234 assists and appeared in 580 games.

Before the Storm selected her with the first pick of the 2002 draft, Bird was a star at UConn, guiding the Huskies to two NCAA titles. She also boasts Olympic gold medals from five consecutive Summer Games.

“In the same moment that I’m thinking about the next generation, inspiring them, I’m thinking about those that came before and inspired me,” Bird said in an ESPN interview after the announcement.

Moore built a legacy on and off the court

Moore won four WNBA championships with the Minnesota Lynx, who drafted her with the No. 1 pick in 2011. She was the league’s 2014 Most Valuable Player and won the WNBA Finals MVP in 2013. Moore also won two Olympic gold medals for the U.S.

“It’s just such a humbling thing, because it really makes you feel the bigness of the family of basketball,” Moore said on ESPN.

Moore was a member of UConn’s 90-game winning streak, going 150-4 with the Huskies during her college career.

In 2019, Moore paused her career to advocate for criminal justice reform, helping free her now-husband, Jonathan Irons, from prison due to a wrongful conviction. Moore was also a leader in the Lynx’s protests against police brutality in 2016, helping set the stage for growing political activism across the WNBA in future years.

Fowles stood out with dominant defense, double-doubles

Fowles was a two-time champion with the Lynx and a two-time WNBA Finals MVP. She won four Olympic gold medals for the U.S. and is an eight-time All-Star over her 15 seasons in the league. She was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year four times and led the WNBA in blocks twice.

Fowles is second in WNBA career rebounds at 4,006. In college, she led LSU to four Final Four appearances before being drafted second in 2008 by the Chicago Sky.

In 2018, Fowles became the first player on the Lynx to achieve a 20-point, 20-rebound stat line, with 23 points and 20 rebounds in a game against the Dallas Wings.

“I don’t think neither one of us go into this thinking that we’re gonna be Hall of Famers,” Fowles said on ESPN. “You just do your job, and you go out there and have fun and you enjoy the company, and then when it’s all said and done, the job is complete. And here we are.”

Enshrining ‘The Redeem Team’

Between the Dream Team’s debut in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics through the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, USA Basketball’s men’s team was a dominant force in international basketball, winning three Olympic gold medals and the 1994 FIBA World Championship. That dominance ended in 2002 with a sixth-place finish at the FIBA World Championships, the first time NBA professionals lost in an international competition. (NBA players were locked out in 1998, and weren’t allowed to participate in the FIBA World Championships that year.)

At the 2004 Athens games, the men’s team was filled with talent — Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Anthony and Dwyane Wade — and finished with a bronze medal.

With that third-place finish, USA Basketball was determined to get back to gold medal status and began to require multi-year commitments from players to build a better organizational culture. With James, Anthony and Wade committing through the 2006 FIBA World Championships and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, that trio saw the U.S. finish third in 2006.

In 2008, with those three cornerstones, Team USA added Chris Bosh and, most importantly, Kobe Bryant in their quest to recapture Olympic gold. Bryant provided a razor-sharp competitive edge to a group of young players who needed it. The team, also featuring future Hall of Famers Jason Kidd and Howard, won its five pool play games by an average of 32.2 points. In the medal rounds, the Americans crushed Australia by 30 and Argentina by 20 in the semifinals before defeating Spain 118-107 in what is considered by some as one of the greatest basketball games ever played.

The Redeem Team is the third U.S. men’s Olympic team enshrined in Springfield, with the 1960 gold medal team featuring Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, and the Dream Team.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Orlando Magic, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Lynx, Seattle Storm, NBA, Men's College Basketball, WNBA

2025 The Athletic Media Company

Steph driven by desire over wisdom amid Warriors' final playoff push originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – It would have been wise of Stephen Curry to spend Friday on the bench in designer sweats, giving his sore pelvis a couple days to heal, watching the Warriors try to shed three years of despair.

But with nine days remaining in the 2024-25 NBA season and the Warriors caught in the maelstrom of the Western Conference playoff chase, Curry is driven more by desire than wisdom. He is following what his heart wants, not what his body needs.

Spectating was out of the question. He ignored the “questionable” tag on the injury report because that designation might have influence in November but not in April. This is when Savage Steph is on the prowl.

Curry announced his plans to Golden State coach Steve Kerr and team health and performance honcho Dr. Rick Celebrini, strapped a pad to his backside, dashed onto the court, scored 36 points in 32 minutes and led a 118-104 throttling of the Nuggets that snapped a nine-game losing streak to Denver.

Some risks are worth a little agony. Jimmy Butler III, nursing a strained left forearm, also was listed as questionable. He also played. The third and relatively healthiest member of the team’s veteran core, Draymond Green, also answered the call.

Never was there a doubt, though, that Curry not only would put himself through an evening of discomfort but also invite even more if that’s what it would take to get the W.

“The conversation is just context of where we are in the season,” Curry said. “But if any of us felt physically like we weren’t ready to go or could put ourselves in jeopardy of taking a couple steps back physically, then you have a different decision.
“But we all felt good. We got in at a decent hour. Rick and Steve are pretty proactive on some of those conversations. When we all talked about it this morning, it was a full green light.”

Curry’s redoubtable will was on display in the final five minutes of the second quarter. Playing their third game in four nights and second in two, the fatigued Warriors sagged through the first quarter and fell behind by 10 points. When Curry reentered in the second quarter, he flooded the Nuggets with a torrent of buckets, scoring 12 points in less than four minutes.

That drove the first stake into the heart of Golden State’s longest losing streak against any team in the NBA.

Curry had teammates to inspire. A Chase Center sellout crowd to thrill. And there he was – in moments of temporary insanity – landing on the sorest part of his body after intentionally drawing charge calls from bigger opponents.

The two-time MVP and four-time NBA champ is all-in on his team’s drive for another triumphant season. His mission is visible on his face. The faraway stares. The brief curling of his upper lip. The glee with which he is dissecting defenses and terrorizing individual defenders.

“There is a completely different focus, and you see the focus everywhere,” Green said of his longtime teammate. “It’s not just once he steps on the court. It’s in his practices, in his workouts. He’s on the phone he’s talking . . . he’s suggesting substitution patterns. He’s just all the way in.

“He gets into the weeds around this time. We try to keep him out of the weeds all year because it can be a bit exhausting. But he kind of knows when it’s time for him to get in the weeds, and he is right now.”

Curry’s 36-point game on Friday followed a 37-point outburst Thursday against the Lakers in Los Angeles, which followed a 52-point performance Tuesday in Memphis. Three games, four days, 125 points, three Golden State victories.

“In three different cities, at (age) 37,” Kerr said, marveling. “He looked so fast out there tonight. Maybe it’s his most underrated part of his game is his conditioning. Just incredible what he does out there, especially considering how much attention he draws defensively, how much pressure people put on him. He handles it night after night and flourishes, incredible athlete.”

The Warriors were 10th in the Western Conference standings on Feb. 1. Butler made his debut on Feb. 8 and they’d moved to seventh by March 1. The win over the Grizzlies on Tuesday lifted them to fifth place. They went to bed Friday night one-half game behind fourth-place Denver and one full game behind the third-place Los Angeles Lakers.

Golden State is 20-2 when Curry, Green and Butler are in the lineup. Their last two losses, at Atlanta and at Miami, came in games Curry was sidelined due to the initial pelvic injury.

A chance to beat a longtime tormentor? An opportunity to push Golden State’s win streak to five? A night to give his team what only he can provide?

Tender tailbone and all, Curry was going to play. Never should have been a doubt.

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