Category: Sports News

Dave Bing is sort of a basketball version of Forrest Gump, only smarter.

A native of Washington, D.C., Bing met Marvin Gaye playing basketball. Unable to keep up, Gaye sang on the sidelines. They remained friends for years.

At Syracuse for a time, he roomed with Jim Boeheim and got to know law student Joe Biden.

After his playing career, he founded the NBA Retired Players Association. He started Bing Steel in 1980; in 1984, Ronald Reagan awarded him the National Minority Small Business Person of the Year. 

In 2008, he ran for mayor of Detroit and won. Later, he worked on the 2009 bailout of the auto industry with – surprise – President Biden.

In short, the man has a very long list of accomplishments.

But in his day, he was a formidable basketball player, as you’ll see in this video from the 1976 All-Star game.

He was 32 here, and the Detroit Pistons had traded him away, thinking that he was a bit long in the tooth.

He wasn’t done – Bing played until 1978. The great thing about him?

The second chapter was just as exciting as the first.

Go to the DBR Boards to find Blue Healer Auctions || Drop us a line

Where were you when the Houston Rockets drafted Yao Ming?

It’s a vivid memory for me as a Houston Rockets fan. I distinctly remember a fan in a street interview declaring that Ming would be the “best center ever!” I can’t find easy confirmation of this memory online, but it’s burned into my mind.

If you missed it: Ming is not the best center ever. Depending on whether you value longevity or peak, he’s on the fringes of the top 20. Can you really put Ming ahead of Dikembe Mutombo? Bob Lanier?

Longevity. What a thoroughly dirty word in relation to Ming’s career. The basketball gods were rough with the gentle giant:

What if they’d afforded him more grace?

Ming’s career should have gone differently

The man was 7’6″, 310 pounds, and – this is important – actually good at basketball.

He’s four years older than LeBron James if you needed your heart broken into a million pieces and scattered into the wind like the ashes of your childhood dreams. Ming should have been the Rockets’ Nene of the James Harden era. He should barely be a decade into his retirement. He should have retired when TikTok came out, and instead, he retired when “Tik Tok” by Kesha came out.

Look at his beastly 2006-07 stats. Ming averaged 25.0 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks per game with a 60.1 True Shooting % (TS%) and 5.0 Box Plus/Minus (BPM). He made the All-NBA Second Team. Ming was a certified franchise player.

Sure, he only played in 48 games, and sure, players this size have dealt with injury problems almost without fail, but none of that mattered because Ming was going to be the best center ever, and wrestling is real.

The decline didn’t even start there. Ming had a comparable 2007-08. The Rockets decreased his minutes through 2008-09, but on a per-minute basis, his production was comparable.

And then, just like that, it was effectively over. Which gets us back to the central question: What if it hadn’t been?

Let’s be honest. We all know the Houston Rockets win the 2007-08 championship if Ming and Tracy McGrady stay healthy. This group is a testament to roster construction.

Ming, the interior scoring hub, and McGrady, the prolific shot creator, flanked by a who’s-who of mid-00s role players. Shane Battier, perhaps the most archetypal three-and-D in NBA history. Louis Scola, a perfect third option for an era when the midrange counted towards floor spacing. Bobby Jackson, the quintessential sparkplug, and Dikembe Mutombo, the best backup big in the NBA backing up the best big man in the NBA –

Fine, besides Dwight Howard.

Although Ming was certainly more offensively gifted than Howard. For that brief, bright, beautiful moment, you could make the case that Ming was the best center in the NBA. Jokes aside, the Boston Celtics were the most super-y super team since the 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers. They may have stifled even this fantasy Rockets championship run, but the NBA Finals’ Western Conference spot was the Rockets’ to lose.

And, through no fault of their own, they would lose it.

Yao Ming’s Rockets career was cut short

What’s the point of this article?

I almost regret writing it. The Rockets kick off the 2026-27 regular season one week from this moment. Why are we chasing the ghost of Yao Ming’s career?

Short answer? A photo of Ming alongside Alperen Sengun made the rounds and made me sad. Long answer?

Let’s see what we can cobble together.

It is worth remembering that so much of what we consider success in the NBA comes down to luck. Luck is everything. Ming was lucky enough to be born 7’6″, and he was unlucky enough to be born 7’6″. With his mass, that’s a time-tested formula for having a short-but-successful NBA career.

Luck could be on the Rockets’ side in 2026-27, or it could oppose them once again. Maybe the journey matters more than the destination. Ming’s body wouldn’t allow him to make good on his potential:

But I still remember how hopeful I felt before that happened.

Ben Simmons sheds light on why he signed with Kings, what he can bring to team originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Ben Simmons had a simple theory about where he would end up this offseason. Whichever team actually showed up to see him in person, rather than just offering a camp invite, would be the one that signed him for real.

That is exactly how his story with the Kings played out.

Speaking at Media Day with NBC Sports California’s Deuce Mason and Morgan Ragan, Simmons explained his thinking when asked why Sacramento made sense as his landing spot.

“It’s not in the cocky way or anything, but for me, I knew the first team that came to see me, to see where I was at physically and on the court, they were going to sign me,” Simmons said. “That’s how I felt from the moment [general manager] Scott [Perry] came down and saw me.”

Perry traveled to Florida in late August specifically to watch Simmons work out, which was followed by an hour-long meeting between the two. Simmons later visited Sacramento for in-depth medical exams, an on-court workout and meetings with coach Doug Christie and other staffers before signing a one-year, $3.5 million contract.

Several other teams expressed interest, but mostly in the form of training camp invitations rather than a guaranteed roster spot.

“I had a bunch of teams that wanted me to come to camps and play for a spot and things like that, which is fine,” Simmons said. “I think they would have had different decisions if they had seen me. But I think I’m right where I need to be at the right time.”

That confidence comes after Simmons sat out the entire 2025-26 NBA season without appearing in a single game, following years of recurring injury issues dating back to his time in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. Asked about his emotional state heading into training camp, Simmons pointed directly to his health.

“I’m just excited to get going and be able to do it healthy — with nothing in the back of my mind where I can be hesitant with certain things,” Simmons said. “I’m taking a few hits already in practice and it felt great. I’m ready to go.”

For a Kings team that signed Simmons specifically to add size, playmaking and defensive versatility behind rookie point guard Darius Acuff Jr., a healthy, confident version of Simmons — even in a reduced offensive role — represents exactly the value they bet on when Perry made that trip to Florida.

Download and follow The Deuce & Mo Podcast

Warriors coach Steve Kerr answers five questions on NBA's current, future state originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The last five decades of basketball have included Steve Kerr as a central figure in a variety of ways. Let’s count a few. 

By the mid-80s, Kerr had become a known name at the University of Arizona. Kerr twice was an All-Pac-12 First Team selection, tore his ACL playing for Team USA following his breakout junior year, and came back to help lead the Wildcats to the Final Four. He then was the very last pick of the second round in the 1988 NBA Draft, No. 50 overall. 

It took until Kerr’s fourth team, the Chicago Bulls, for him to find his home in the NBA. Kerr played for three teams in his first five years in the NBA and averaged 5.0 points and 15.5 minutes per game. In his first season with the Chicago Bulls, Kerr scored 8.6 points per game and averaged 24.8 minutes. That was his first of three straight championships in Chicago from 1996 through 98. 

When the Bulls dispersed, Kerr went to San Antonio and won his fourth straight title to close out the 90s and won his fifth in his final season as a player with the 2002-03 Spurs. He began broadcasting alongside Marv Albert in 2003 and left in 2007 to become the general manager of the Phoenix Suns, where in three seasons they had a win percentage of 63.0 (155-91). 

Kerr took his first crack at coaching going into the 2014-15 season and has been the Warriors’ head coach ever since. The Warriors won their first championship in 40 years in Kerr’s first season, which started a run of five straight trips to the NBA Finals and three more rings for his fingers. 

He has one finger free after the Warriors’ championship in 2022, making Kerr a nine-time champion – five as a player and four as a coach. He also thought his days coaching the Warriors might have reached the end of the road at the end of last season. Kerr is back, signing up for his 13th and 14th seasons coaching the Warriors, and with his return, we have five questions for him on the current and future state of the NBA.

All questions were part of an exclusive interview with myself, Kerr and Bonta Hill in Hawaii during Warriors training camp, except for the third, which was a question of mine at a recent practice.

Where do you see this league in five years when it comes to offensive principles? 

“I mean, it’s always hard to predict those things, but the trends of pace and space continue to evolve. It’s not necessarily like analytically you’re tracking speed and pace. It’s more what are teams running to kind of emphasize those concepts, and what I’m seeing is fewer play calls and more flow basketball, more concepts just being executed. 

“And the faster the game, the more difficult it is to get organized. So you have to figure that out without slowing down a called play, and that’s a lot of what we’re working on right now.”

Are you seeing a little bit, though, of a big man revolution at the same time, where a lot of teams are going two-big at times, but there’s still the pace and space too? What’s the balance there right now in the NBA?

“I think for a while everybody thought going small was the best way to go. Now teams are playing the same style, but with bigger players. So ideally, if you can play with pace and space with four guys who are seven feet tall, hell yeah, let’s do that. 

“But I think what’s happening is the younger players who are big with size, guys like Karl Anthony Towns or Victor Wembanyama, they’re growing up shooting threes and handling the ball and making plays. So you’re seeing a whole generation of young players come up with a different skill level than when my generation was coming up, where it was more specialized, you know, specific to certain positions. 

“It’s positionless basketball. But man, these guys are more skilled than ever, and such big size. It’s really impressive.”

You talk a lot about how skilled today’s players are. What is the one skill most required to have success in today’s NBA? 

“I don’t know if there’s one, but I think compared to the old days, it’s hard to be a specialist anymore. In the old days, like everyone had three seven-foot guys who they knew their job was to guard Patrick Ewing, or Shaq, or Hakeem [Olajuwon], and that was why they were on the team. Today, that specialization doesn’t really exist nearly as much. 

“No matter what position you play, you need to be able to process and understand the game better. It’s faster. Decision making happens quicker. … I said this to you guys the other day: My checklist is dribble, pass, shoot, and process. Today’s players need to do all four of those things pretty well, and if not well, then they have to do them serviceably to be able to survive.”

Are we moving closer to covering the game the right way in terms of the media base? Because it feels like the playoffs were a lot of fun to watch. People focused on San Antonio and the Knicks and the way they played, and OKC or whatnot. What do you think of all that?

“I honestly think that we are, all of us in the NBA, we’re all part of a soap opera. Like, we are. It’s not just a sport. You look at the way fashion is now covered in the NBA. That’s impacted what guys are wearing to the game. That’s brought in a lot of other fans who maybe otherwise wouldn’t have been interested. The day-to-day soap opera of conflict and style and everything in between, it’s actually good for the league. 

“It draws a lot of attention. It draws a lot of ratings. The flip side is for the players and the coaches, you got to have thick skin, and ignorance is bliss. I don’t look at any of that stuff on social media, so that part’s good. But it’s never been more difficult to be an athlete in today’s age because of the vitriol, the anger they get, and so we try to help our guys understand that this is part of the machine. 

“This is part of the soap opera. You have to embrace it, but don’t take it very seriously. The only people that matter are at your home and in the gym.”

Between the Bulls, the Spurs, and the Warriors, you’ve been with all these dynasties. The way the league is now, though, is the parity good? Is it good for the league, and will we ever see another dynasty the way the league is now?

“It’s a good question. I think you have to get into the CBA dynamics. I don’t like the fact that once you build a good team, you have to start getting rid of players. I would like to see teams able to hang on to their players, like what we’ve done. I mean, it’s so special for our fans to have watched Steph [Curry] and Draymond [Green] together for 15 years now, and for a long time, Andre [Iguodala] and Klay [Thompson] and the whole group. Seems like that may be more difficult than ever to accomplish. 

“I like parity, but I’d like to see teams be able to stick together too.”

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

On a night dominated by the apparent status of Kristaps Porzingis, the absence of the Latvian big was felt at times during the Golden State Warriors’ 101-89 win over the Los Angeles Lakers at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Steve Kerr’s intention to spread the floor in a so-called ‘5-out’ alignment banked on players who are able to space to floor — including their center. Porzingis happens to fit that profile, while also being 7-foot-3-inches. Without Porzingis — and also not having Al Horford available tonight — the Warriors were not only small, they were bereft of shooting and spacing personnel.

That was apparent at times during this game, where the Warriors were able to rally back from a significant deficit, albeit during a time when both teams’ main characters’ nights were finished (one of them, Luka Doncic, did not suit up for the Lakers).

Once again, it was rookie Yaxel Lendeborg who stood out. He finished with 17 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists in just under 24 minutes of time on the floor. He once again flashed familiarity and comfort as an offensive player within Steve Kerr’s often-intricate scheme while displaying motor and hustle that gave the Warriors a couple of second-chance points.

Yaxel goodness: 1. Makes the skip to the corner upon seeing the double 2. Hustles to get the ball back, leads to a Podz 3 https://t.co/ReLSLq4pZE

— Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) October 14, 2026

Lendeborg’s touted versatility as an offensive operator was apparent tonight. As an off-ball spacer, he has been showing promise, especially off of Steph Curry’s on-ball adventures through the pick-and-roll. Lendeborg can be a corner spacer taking advantage of ‘tag’ situations, as he does below:

Steph high PnR on the SLOB, Yaxel on the weak side corner. His man tags, pass to Yaxel in the corner and drills the three. Spacing option. https://t.co/wTE2YtWddN

— Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) October 14, 2026

Interestingly, Lendeborg can also be the main character in a spread pick-and-roll configuration, with Curry playing the role of mostly standstill spacer. Lendeborg has on-ball juice and the handle to be able to keep such possessions stable, while also making use of change-of-pace craft in order to create a window for him to score up close:

Kerr yells "Thumb up Charles" for a spread angle PnR with Bassey as the screener for Yaxel. Again, the trust in Yaxel in PnR reps has been intriguing, with Steph as a standstill floor spacer. Yaxel comes off the screen, gets in the paint, sees Kessler meeting him to contest but Yaxel uses the Pinoy step to bump Kessler and get him up in the air to create the window.

— Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) October 14, 2026

There is plenty of evidence with regard to Lendeborg’s role versatility on offense. Perhaps his most important role in a Curry offense is as a screener, either on or off the ball. Off the ball screening provides Lendeborg ample opportunity to take advantage of Curry’s gravity through slipped screens and subsequent cuts toward the rim:

Dubs go to their "2" action with Gui playing the Draymond role as the elbow hub. Yaxel slips inside, catches the pass and finishes against contact. https://t.co/29fNMayCmV

— Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) October 14, 2026

There are, however, points of improvement for the young rookie. Lendeborg has work to do on the other end of the floor. He has the length and athleticism to make eye-popping defensive plays, but occasionally the little details escape him.

He has a knack for being out of position when defending the ball. He has a habit of standing straight up in lieu of being in a proper defensive stance. He can be caught with one foot leading out, enabling ball handlers to blow past him and taking advantage of his slow hip swivel.

Yaxel point of improvement: defends the PnR, gets switched onto Reaves, front foot leading out, gets blown by. Hip slow to open up. Positionally needs to be better. https://t.co/FaM6yjHCzy

— Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) October 14, 2026

Overall, Lendeborg has shown much more good than either bad or mediocre, which is a promising indicator of his ability to contribute right away — important, given the dearth of top-flight personnel surrounding Curry. However, Kerr made it a point that the team is far from where they want to be, although stating that they were ‘working on the right things.’

Steve Kerr a week prior to the opener: “We’re not anywhere close to where we want to be, but we’re working on the right things.” https://t.co/6ux63RSDqL

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) October 14, 2026

The Warriors will have their preseason finale on Friday night against the Portland Trail Blazers at Chase Center.