Now we have a few more details. The NBA's Competition Committee was presented with the idea of three 8-man teams — two USA, one World team — playing in a round-robin format, reports Shams Charania of ESPN. These would be 12-minute games, three of them, with the undefeated team (if there is one) taking the title. The idea was presented by the NBA and the players' union to the committee (made of owners, GMs and players) and received positive feedback, according to the report.
A few quick thoughts on this:
• The USA vs. World format fits perfectly on NBC and Peacock in 2026 because the NBA All-Star Game falls in the middle of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. While Silver was vague on details, this is expected to be a Ryder Cup-style format, featuring the USA vs. the World.
• The 2026 NBA All-Star Game in Southern California (at the Clippers' new Intuit Dome) will be played in the afternoon Pacific time, allowing for a Winter Olympic lead-in and more Olympic content on NBC and Peacock after the NBA exhibition.
• Making it a three-team round robin eliminates the need for a fourth team to fill out a bracket-style tournament, as was done last year in San Francisco. The fourth team in that tournament was the winner of the Rising Stars game (rookies and sophomores) and those youngsters getting on the Sunday All-Star stage was not popular with veteran players and other All-Stars who were voted onto the team by fans or selected by coaches for their play.
• An eight-man World Team roster would be stacked — the last seven MVP winners were international players. The world team could be an eight-man roster of Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama, Joel Embiid, Pascal Siakam and Jamal Murray — and that doesn't include Franz Wagner, Lauri Markkanen, Kristaps Porzingis, Alperen Sengun and Rudy Gobert.
• When asked about a potential USA vs. World format at last February's All-Star weekend, international players were far more enthusiastic than the Americans.
"I would love that. Oh, I would love that," Antetokounmpo said. "I think that would be the most interesting and most exciting format. I would love that. For sure, I'd take pride in that."
In a showdown of All-Star NBA centers, it was Alperen Sengun's day as he outdueled Nikola Jokic and was the key reason Turkiye handed Serbia its first loss of EuroBasket, 95-90, in what was the highest level of play we have seen so far in the tournament.
With that win, Turkiye remains undefeated and takes Group A, while Serbia falls to 4-1 and second in the group.
Two other teams punched their tickets on Wednesday for the knockout round and the final 16 of EuroBasket.
In a straight-up win-or-go-home game from Group A, Portugal got 15 points from Celtics center Neemias Queta and then were able to hang on after he was ejected in the third quarter to beat Estonia 68-65. In Group B, Montenegro needed only to beat winless Great Britain to advance, but the British earned the win instead, creating a three-way tie at 1-4 for the final knockout round spot. Based on point differential, Sweden – led by Miami's Pelle Larsson — advances to the next round.
With that, four of the Round of 16 knockout games are set, all to be played on Saturday:
Turkiye vs. Sweden Serbia vs. Finland Latvia vs. Lithuania Portugal vs. Germany
The most star-studded game of those four will see Jokic and a deep Serbian side taking on Utah's Lauri Markkanen — who has been a force in this tournament — and Finland.
There are two remaining spots in the round of 16 from Group C, and they will be set on Thursday.
Kawhi Leonard had a $28 million endorsement deal with a now bankrupt environmental startup where he did no work, essentially a "no-show job," for a company Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had made a $50 million investment in, per an investigation from Pablo Torre Finds Out (PTFO), reported Wednesday on his podcast. That investigation claims the Clippers tried to circumvent the salary cap with this deal.
"We are aware of this morning's media report regarding the LA Clippers and are commencing an investigation," NBA spokesman Mike Bass told NBC Sports.
That company in question was called Aspiration, a "green bank" whose model was to do large amounts of tree planting to gain carbon credits for its corporate clients. Aspiration had a long list of celebrity endorsements including Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr. and Drake. Leonard agreed to his endorsement deal in 2021; however, the deal was not made public and Leonard never made an appearance or so much as a social media post for Aspiration, PTFO reports.
In 2021, prior to Leonard's endorsement deal (but after Leonard signed a four-year, $176 million contract extension to stay in Los Angeles), Clippers owner Steve Ballmer made a $50 million investment in Aspiration. The company became a founding partner in the Clippers' then-under-construction new home, the Intuit Dome. Ballmer often emphasized his plans to make the arena a green building.
Torre's reporting works to connect Ballmer's donation and Leonard's endorsement deal through internal documents and comments from multiple Aspiration employees, alleging a functional workaround for the NBA's salary cap — something that would bring the wrath of the league down on the Clippers, if true.
One source, described by PTFO as a former Aspiration finance employee, said: "We went through a litany of really, really top-tier name contracts. And then, 'Oh, by the way, we also have a marketing deal with Kawhi Leonard' — and that if I had any questions about it, essentially don't, because it was to circumvent the salary cap." Leonard's deal with Aspiration gave him the ability to reject anything he didn't want to do for the company with no consequences, PTFO reported.
The Clippers vehemently deny all the accusations, stating that neither Ballmer nor the Clippers had ties to Leonard's endorsement deal. They also state that the team severed ties with Aspiration after the company failed to fulfill its end of the agreement with the team and Intuit Dome.
The Clippers sent this statement to NBC Sports:
"Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration. Any contrary assertion is provably false. The team ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago, during the 2022–23 season, when Aspiration defaulted on its obligations. Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Ballmer was aware of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation. The team and Mr. Ballmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can."
It is unknown — or, at the very least, has not been proven — whether Ballmer had direct knowledge of Leonard's endorsement contract with Aspiration.
While all of this with the Clippers was going on, Aspiration and its business model were falling apart. A federal investigation into Aspiration and its eventual bankruptcy led to co-founder Joe Sanberg pleading guilty two weeks ago to defrauding investors of more than $248 million. That investigation is ongoing, as is the bankruptcy. In that bankruptcy, the Clippers, Forum Entertainment (another Ballmer company, this one for a popular concert venue about a mile from the Intuit Dome) and Leonard's LLC are the three largest creditors, The Athletic reports.
Back in 2019, when Leonard first came to the Clippers after helping lead the Raptors to a title, there were multiple reports that Leonard's adviser, business partner and uncle, Dennis Robertson, made unreasonable requests such as sponsorship deals, a house, a plane on call, and more — all of which would have violated the CBA. (The Lakers reportedly felt they got played in their Leonard pursuit.) The NBA investigated the matter but found no wrongdoing on the part of the Clippers. That case was several years before and is not directly tied to this investigation.
It is not known whether Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, left, was aware of or played a role in facilitating an employment agreement between Aspiration Partners and Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard. (Getty Images)
The Clippers forcefully denied allegations detailed in a podcast published on Wednesday that a discredited global tree-planting company paid Kawhi Leonard $28 million to pad the star forward's contract and skirt the NBA salary cap. However, the NBA told The Times that it will start an investigation.
Investigative journalist Pablo Torre of the Athletic said during "Pablo Finds Out" that he reviewed numerous documents and conducted interviews with former employees of Aspiration Partners, the sustainability services firm that recently declared bankruptcy. Co-founder Joseph Sanberg agreed to plead guilty Aug. 21 to a scheme to defraud investors and lenders of more than $248 million.
During Aspiration's bankruptcy proceedings, documents emerged citing KL2 Aspire as a creditor owed $7 million, one of four yearly payments of that amount agreed upon in a 2022 contract. KL2 is a limited liability company that names Leonard — whose jersey number is 2 — as its manager.
Aspiration was partially funded by a $50-million investment from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. It is not known whether Ballmer was aware of or played a role in facilitating the employment agreement between Aspiration and Leonard.
Torre revealed during the podcast that he did not find evidence of any marketing or endorsement work done by Leonard for Aspiration. The only connection he found between the player and the company came in a 2023 tweet by the Clippers that read, "Happy Birthday, Kawhi! For every comment/retweet, @Aspiration will plant one tree for Kawhi's birthday!"
The NBA said in a statement to The Times that "we are aware of this morning’s media report regarding the LA Clippers and are commencing an investigation.” However, the Clippers told The Times that they could prove that Torre's allegations are false.
“Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration,” the Clippers statement said. “Any contrary assertion is provably false: The team ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago, during the 2022-23 season, when Aspiration defaulted on its obligations.
"Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Ballmer was aware of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation. The team and Mr. Ballmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can.”
A former Aspiration finance department employee whose voice was modulated on Torre's podcast said that when they noticed the shockingly large fee paid to Leonard, they were told that, "If I had any questions about it, essentially don’t because it was to circumvent the salary cap, LOL. There was lots of LOL when things were shared.”
Other celebrities paid to endorse Aspiration and its tree-planting operation included Robert Downey Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio and Drake. The finance department employee said none of them received anything close to the payment given to Leonard.
"Every other celebrity endorsement combined would not have met even a quarter of Kawhi Leonard’s endorsement,” the employee said.
Leonard joined the Clippers in July 2019 on a three-year, $103-million contract after leading the Toronto Raptors to the NBA title. He re-upped for four years and $176.3 million in 2021, then signed a three-year, $153-million extension last year.
When the Clippers landed Leonard in 2019, the NBA was stunned: In a matter of hours, the Clippers had traded for Paul George and signed Leonard, outmaneuvering the Lakers and other suitors.
Suspicions were raised that Ballmer had somehow circumvented the salary cap and compensated Leonard with more than just the max NBA contract. However, the NBA investigated Leonard’s advisor Dennis Robertson — also known as Uncle Dennis — and determined the Clippers had not granted Leonard impermissible benefits.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is adamantly opposed to a team doing an end run around the salary cap with creative under-the-table payments to players, perhaps contributing to the swift acknowledgment that the accusations concerning Leonard have triggered a league investigation.
Under the terms of the NBA collective bargaining agreement, the Clippers could be fined up to $4.5 million and stripped of a first-round draft pick for a first offense if they were found to have circumvented the salary cap.
Six years later, the deal for George and signing of Leonard are viewed in a different light because the Clippers never advanced to the NBA Finals and this season, the team watched assets they surrendered to acquire George — including league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — lift the Oklahoma City Thunder to the championship.
NC State opened the season with a 24-17 win over East Carolina on Thursday night at Carter-Finley Stadium, avenging its Military Bowl loss to the Pirates. Now, the Wolfpack is ready to turn the page as Virginia visits Raleigh on Saturday. But while the Cavaliers and Wolfpack are set to clash, it will be the […]
P.J. Washington is staying in Dallas as part of one of the best frontcourts in the league.
Washington has agreed to sign a four-year, $90 million extension to stay with the Mavericks, a story broken by ESPN’s Shams Charania and since confirmed by others including Washington himself.
This extension was expected, the only question was if Dallas would try to get Washington to agree to fewer years or take less than the maximum, but that ended up not being the case. This contract is fairly priced compared to the market and keeps Washington with the Mavericks through the summer of 2030.
Washington, who has primarily played at the four in Dallas, likely will come off the bench for the Mavericks this season as part of a deep frontcourt. Anthony Davis will start as the power forward, with Dereck Lively II starting at center and No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg more at the three in a kind of point/forward role. Off the bench will come Washington, Daniel Gafford and Dwight Powell (Flagg will certainly get time at the four as well). The Mavericks have as deep and talented a frontcourt as any in the league.
Washington was traded to Dallas at the 2024 deadline and found a quick connection with Luka Doncic, helping the Mavericks run to the 2024 Finals. His defense was something Jason Kidd returned to as coach time and again for key matchups. Washington averaged 14.7 points and 7.8 rebounds a game last season (he played in just 57 games due to injury) and has developed into a reliable 3-point shooter (38.1% last season).
It feels like it will take a while at the start of the season for Kidd to find and settle on a front court rotation. Whatever that rotation ends up being, Washington is locked in as part of it.
Kawhi Leonard is a six-time All Star. Photograph: Matt Slocum/AP
The Los Angeles Clippers and their owner, Steve Ballmer, have denied allegations the team’s star forward, Kawhi Leonard, was paid $28m for a job that doesn’t exist.
Journalist Pablo Torre laid out the allegations in his podcast on Wednesday. Torre, citing legal documents, claims Ballmer employed Leonard for a non-existent role in one of his companies to circumvent the NBA salary cap, which punishes teams for spending too much on player salaries.
Torre claims that Ballmer partially funded a now defunct tree-planting company called Aspiration. That company then allegedly entered into a $28m agreement with KL2 Aspire, LLC, a company owned by Leonard.
Torre says he could find no evidence that Leonard had ever performed any work for Aspiration, and there was a clause in the contract between KL2 Aspire and Aspiration effectively allowed Leonard to be paid even if he did no work. Another clause said the deal would be voided if Leonard left the Clippers. One former employee of Aspiration told Torre he had heard the deal with Leonard had been set up to “circumvent the salary cap.”
The Clippers and Ballmer denied the allegations in a statement released to Torre. “Neither Mr Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration,” the statement said. “Any contrary assertion is provably false.”
The NBA investigated Leonard’s advisor, Dennis Robertson, in 2019 and found the Clippers had not granted the player any impermissible benefits when they pursued him in free agency. Leonard, a six-time All-Star, joined the Clippers in July 2019 after leading the Toronto Raptors to the NBA title.
The NBA is yet to comment on Torre’s story, but has said in the past it would reopen the investigation into Robertson if new evidence emerged.
Under the terms of the NBA collective bargaining agreement, the Clippers could be fined up to $4.5m for a first offense if they attempted to circumvent the salary cap. They could also be docked a first-round draft pick.
OK, here’s the situation: Brad Stevens went away on a week’s vacation and he left you the keys to the Celtics’ brand-new roster. Would he mind a deal? Well, of course not.
Back in July, after an initial batch of roster tinkering saw the Celtics trade away Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday in a quest to dip below the second apron, Stevens suggested he’d be content if the roster in that moment was the roster that Boston carried into the offseason.
The Celtics have made six roster transactions since that declaration — albeit mostly tinkering on the back end of the roster and finalizing their two-way deals — but that maneuvering also included trading away the only player received in the Porzingis swap (Georges Niang).
Which is to say, even as the 2025-26 season approaches, this Celtics’ roster hardly feels set in stone. The team might have additional motivation to tinker depending on how the season plays out.
For Day 3 of our Ramp to Camp series, we asked our panel to channel their inner Stevens and consider if there’s one more move they’d make for the Celtics before the season starts. Are our Armchair Brads comfortable with the team’s frontcourt depth chart? Do our Virtual Brads see Anfernee Simons as a long-term fit for this roster?
While the next big transaction feels more likely to come closer to the February trade deadline, this is the time of year when teams need to take a long look at their roster and decide if this is the group they’re content to roll with. Given the absence of Jayson Tatum to start the season and some of the talent drain that occurred this summer, the Celtics can take a bit of a wait-and-see approach, but they also have to be opportunistic with eyes towards building the next iteration of a championship-caliber roster.
My goal: The Celtics sit about $12 million away from clearing the luxury tax. Even if it’s sometimes difficult to see a path toward resetting the repeater penalties by getting under (and staying under) the tax in one of the next two seasons, at least you put yourself in position to ponder that option by getting there this season.
So, while we’re content to carry Simons into the season, we’re examining deals that send out Simons while trying to 1) Bring back at least one player who could be a high-level role player on a championship team and 2) Cut salary with the goal of eventually getting below the tax after all deadline maneuvering is complete.
Since no one ever knows what exactly the Bulls are doing, we’re calling them to see if they think Simons can help in their annual quest to land a play-in berth. Even after the Bulls sign Josh Giddey to a long-term deal, Chicago has ample room to take on salary. Would they take on Simons’ money for a package that includes something like Ayo Dosunmu, Jalen Smith, and Dalen Terry?
The Celtics shed nearly $6 million off the books with this deal and would have pathways to eventually get below the tax (particularly if they could move a player like Terry to a third team without taking back salary). Boston gets a look at Dosunmu, someone who better fits the mold of a long-term piece, and can decide if it want to pay his next deal.
Speaking of Bulls moves… That’s where our panel starts as well:
Josh Canu, Media Editor
Trade Anfernee Simons for Nikola Vucevic.
Both players are on expiring contracts, the Bulls get a younger player, and the Celtics get a starting center and some cap relief as well. Not the sexiest move, but a move that works and is attainable.
Max Lederman, Content Producer
I’d pay Isaiah Thomas to be a part of the organization, either as a player or on the coaching staff.
I never felt right about how things turned out for IT, and bringing him back to Boston would be good karma.
Darren Hartwell, Managing Editor
The easy answer is trading Anfernee Simons and his $27.6 million expiring contract to shed salary. The hard part is finding a deal that makes sense.
After tinkering with NBA trade machines, we’ll go with a three-team proposal from Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey that sends Simons to Toronto and Terance Mann and Ochai Agbaji to Boston.
Michael Hurley, Web Producer
I’m inviting all of my friends to the Garden for some pickup basketball, first and foremost. After that, I don’t think I’m going too crazy.
The chances of going on a title run without Tatum are minuscule, if we’re being honest. So, why push the envelope when I could reset some financials and build for the following season?
If I’m doing anything, though, I’m challenging Joe Mazzulla to just try for one game to tell his team to take a normal number of 3s, just to see what happens. It’s possible I’d be engaged in some hand-to-hand combat as a result.
Brad Stevens said it was unlikely Al Horford would return. That was months ago. It feels like it’s a done deal and Horford is headed to Golden State. But since it hasn’t happened yet, I’m going with Big Al.
If I was running the front office, I’m making it work with Horford, an all-time Celtic and impactful contributor who would improve the front court in 2025-26. (I hope this doesn’t age as poorly as it very well could.)
Kevin Miller, VP, Content
I’m not sure there’s anything Stevens can really do. Adding another big would make sense, but I don’t see any realistic options.
I’m keeping Simons to see how he works in this offense for first half of season.
Adam Hart, EP, Content Strategy
Make some room for Malik Beasley and add him on a discount prove-it deal.
Summer, in technical terms, still has almost three more weeks until the lights go out and fall rears its head from the shadows. Draymond Green doesn’t ascribe to that calendar.
It ended with the passing of Labor Day, he announced Tuesday on Threads, his apparent preferred social media website.
The offseason still very much is ongoing for the Warriors as a team that hasn’t made a move more than two months since free agency began. The roster only consists of nine players. But players are beginning to trickle in through Chase Center to work out and scrimmage with training camp starting at the end of the month.
Before veteran stars Green and Jimmy Butler make their way to the Warriors’ home arena, the two shared the floor in Los Angeles for a workout at the end of August. Butler shared photos and videos of the workout Sunday with a 20-slide post to his Instagram, using the caption “whatever @money23green said on the last slide.” And on that slide, Green made the same prediction he proclaimed during NBA All-Star Weekend less than two weeks after the Warriors acquired Butler from the Miami Heat at the trade deadline.
“We gettin’ that b—h this year,” Green said, referring to the Warriors winning the championship.
Draymond Green after working out with Jimmy Butler in LA: “We gettin that b**ch this year.” 🏆
Green guaranteed the Warriors would win the championship on Feb. 16 as part of his TNT broadcasting duties. They, of course, did not. The Warriors went on a tear after Butler’s arrival, but then lost in the second round of the playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves without an injured Steph Curry.
About a month after his bold words on national TV, Green made an admission to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole and Kerith Burke on the “Dubs Talk” podcast, saying he likes the Warriors’ chances at a championship even more the next season in 2025-26.
“I think coming back next year, I think we’ll be even in a better position than we were this year,” he reiterated at his exit interview press conference after the season. “Number one, because you can manage the season better, which helps when you’re trying to compete for a championship, especially at the ages we’re at. It helps a lot.”
The ages of the Warriors’ top players – Curry, Butler and Green – are a talking point that isn’t going away. The facts are, a team leaning on this old of a trio has never won a championship. Butler and Green working out together isn’t going to guarantee a parade down Market Street.
The workout and increased chemistry is what Butler promised, though.
“Now you’ve got a whole offseason,” Butler said the same day as Green at his exit interview press conference. “I get to be around my guys in the offseason. We’re going to get to vacay together. We’re going to get our kids together. We’re going to get to train together, build even more chemistry and then take this thing into training camp and into this next year, this next season, and do what we set out to do.”
The worry in bringing Butler into the Warriors’ locker room was if the big personalities of him and Green would clash. The opposite happened, at least in the first chapter. The next chapter appears to have begun with an even greater sense of commitment and understanding of each other.
Which will be critical for the Warriors both at the start of the season, as well as a playoff push later on. Led by Curry, Butler and Green, Golden State badly needs to get off to a strong start this season. The Warriors begin their campaign against LeBron James, Luka Dončić and the Los Angeles Lakers on the road and then welcome Nikola Jokić and the new-look Denver Nuggets to San Francisco.
They have five sets of back-to-backs in their first 17 games, making the Jonathan Kuminga situation that much more interesting with the need for a young scorer helping an older team on nights that look like scheduled losses.
Green played every game after the Butler trade. The Warriors went 23-7 to end the regular season in games Butler and Green played together, and they had the best defensive rating (109.0) in the NBA.
“Great,” Green said at the end of Butler’s Instagram post when asked how he’s feeling. “We ‘bout six weeks out. Right where I need to be, baby.”
Replicating those same results, a 76.7 win percentage, isn’t going to happen for an entire season. These Warriors aren’t going to reel off 63 wins. Even if a workout can’t predict a large number in the win column, the Warriors need Butler and Green to be the tone-setters while Curry runs the show.
Whether they’ll have enough gas in the tank to last is a whole other question.
Luka Doncic wasn't going to let a little foul trouble keep him and Slovenia out of the final 16 of EuroBasket.
A game that started with Doncic in foul trouble saw him finish with 26 points, seven rebounds and four assists to lead Slovenia to an 87-79 win against Iceland.
With the win, Slovenia became one of the 12 teams to guarantee its spot in the 16-team knockout round that starts this weekend. Another team to clinch its spot was Israel, which picked up a 92-89 win against Belgium behind 22 points from Portland's Deni Avdija.
The 12 teams that have qualified for the knockout round are:
• Serbia • Turkey • Latvia • Germany • Finland • Lithuania • Greece • Italy • Poland • Israel • France • Slovenia
That group is likely to be joined by Nikola Vucevic and Montenegro, provided it can beat winless Great Britain in its final game. The biggest game may come on Wednesday when Estonia takes on Celtics' center Neemias Queta and Portugal: Winner advances to the round of 16, loser goes home.
In other action on Tuesday, the Knicks' Guerschon Yabusele had a monster game, scoring 33 with six rebounds and a couple of blocks in France's win over Poland.
In less good news for France, a team already without Victor Wembanyama or Rudy Gobert for this tournament, Wizards big man Alex Sarr is out for the remainder of EuroBasket with a calf injury.
It’s never too early to look ahead, especially when it comes to potential future pieces of the Kentucky men’s basketball program. With basketball season inching closer and closer, our friends over at Rivals unveiled their debut player rankings for the 2028 high school class (current sophomores). This marks the first of what will be several […]
Hall of Famer George Raveling, who coached at Washington State, Iowa and USC, but his influence was much broader — including on Michael Jordan's Nike deal — has died at the age of 88 due to cancer, his family announced Tuesday.
It is with deep sadness and unimaginable pain that we share the passing of our beloved “Coach,” George Henry Raveling. pic.twitter.com/LGWQubvI3V
Raveling was a "coach's coach" and part of a trailblazing initial wave of black basketball coaches at predominantly white universities. Raveling was widely respected throughout the basketball world and found success at every stop on his coaching journey.
That respect landed him on the USA Basketball coaching staffs for the 1984 Los Angeles and 1988 Seoul Olympics. It was at those 1984 games when Raveling grew close to Michael Jordan and his family. It was Raveling who introduced Jordan to Sonny Vaccaro at Nike and helped convince Jordan to sign with the Oregon company in a move that ultimately transformed the basketball shoe industry. Jordan has said multiple times since then that it was Raveling, more than Vaccaro, who convinced Jordan to sign with Nike. In the movie "Air" about Nike's peruit and signing of Jordan, Marlon Wayans portrayed Raveling.
Raveling also famously owned the original copy of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Raveling was working security at the 1963 March on Washington and was near King during the speech. As Raveling tells it, he simply asked King for the speech as he was walking off the stage, and King smiled and handed it over. Raveling held on to the speech (which he had framed to protect it) until he donated it to his alma mater, Villanova, a few years ago.
USA Basketball celebrates the life & legacy of two-time Olympic basketball assistant coach George Raveling.
George was a trusted friend & advisor to USA Basketball & he will be missed.
Raveling played his college ball at Villanova between 1957 and 1960, averaging 12.3 points and 14.6 rebounds a game over his final two seasons. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors — in the eighth round, when the NBA draft used to go that deep — but never suited up in the NBA.
"The finest human being, inspiring mentor, most loyal alum and a thoughtful loving friend," Jay Wright, who coached Villanova to two national championships, posted on X. "Coach Raveling lived his life for others, His heart was restless and kind and now rests In the lord!"
Raveling found his calling as a coach. He racked up a 335-293 as a head coach for the Cougars, Hawkeyes and Trojans, taking each program to the NCAA Tournament twice. After coaching, he served as Nike's director of international basketball for years, flying around the globe to watch and talk to prospects.
George Raveling, who died Monday after a battle with cancer, had an impact that stretched far beyond basketball, the sport which he last coached three decades ago at USC.
One of the most influential figures in the history of basketball and a close friend of the Kentucky Wildcats has passed away. George Raveling, a Hall of Fame coach who helped steer Michael Jordan to Nike and owned the original copy of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, lost his fight with […]
