The Utah Jazz’s offseason checklist listed just two crucial items from the moment the regular season concluded: maximize value through the draft, and re-sign Walker Kessler.

Somebody please explain, then, why Kessler and the Jazz are butting heads in contract negotiations for the second straight offseason.

With restricted free agency soon approaching, reports are sprouting from the fertile soil of the NBA offseason — the basketball equivalent of Formula 1’s silly season, in which the public is peppered by a hailstorm of rumors and reports that athletes will be on the move. If it’s interesting or potentially consequential, the eagerly awaiting public will chomp at the first morsel to hit their news feed.

And the Jazz are dipping their toes into those choppy waters by butting heads with their franchise center, Walker Kessler, for the second consecutive season.

Many, many NBA teams wouldn’t hesitate to overpay for a center this offseason, and letting Walker Kessler venture into the waters of free agency — even restricted free agency — will accomplish one of two things. Either the Jazz are forced to match an expensive offer sheet, or they lose a foundational piece of the roster they have spent the past three seasons meticulously constructing.

Finally, at the brink of fielding a competitive roster for the first time since Royce O’Neale was a Jazzman, Utah is letting a routine ground ball roll right past their glove.

Situations like these often boil down to a rousing game of “Who’s being unreasonable?” We’re forced to question whether Utah is being stingy, or if Walker Kessler’s camp is demanding too great a sum. We could be seeing a little bit of both, with lingering resentment and frustration impacting the numbers on either end of this negotiation. Contract negotiations are typically a tight-lipped interaction between the player’s representation and their team’s front office, so it’s hard to gauge which side needs to give way from an outside perspective.

But as negotiations become tense for the second consecutive year, I’d argue that both sides could do a bit more to meet each other in the middle without threatening free agency.

Alongside Markkanen and Jackson Jr, the Jazz place Kessler as the anchor of what might be the biggest, most fearsome front court in the NBA; if all goes according to plan, that is.

Losing Kessler simply isn’t an option for the Utah Jazz this offseason, and I expect them to match any offer sheet if this indecision eventually dips into free agency. JJJ arrived as part of a plan to fit alongside Kessler in the front court, and they’d be insane to quit on that plan before the pair have shared the court even once.

That’s why I feel the rumors that Kessler is “considering a future outside of Utah” are overblown — literally every NBA player has considered a career outside of their current location, so that means nothing to me. The two sides can and must come to an agreement.

A center of Kessler’s quality is hard to find these days — just ask Los Angeles — and the Jazz have invested far too much into this core of talent to let it slip now.

Sign Walker Kessler — it’s as simple as that.

Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. He has covered the NBA and College Sports since 2024.

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The Knicks’ championship celebration isn’t slowing down any time soon.

After players made appearances on “TODAY,” “Good Morning America” and “The View” earlier today, the Knicks are taking over “The Tonight Show.”

Knicks fan and “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon called the team’s visit “a booking 53 years in the making” in an official statement announcing the team’s appearance on tonight’s show.

In addition to every member of the championship squad — including captain Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, and Mikal Bridges — head coach Mike Brown and the Knicks City Dancers are also set to appear on the episode.

Tonight’s episode of “The Tonight Show” will also feature a performance from the Wu-Tang Clan. The hip-hop group performed during halftime of Game 4, where the Knicks recorded the largest comeback victory in NBA Finals history.

The celebration will continue through this week with the championship parade on Thursday.

When are the Knicks on ‘The Tonight Show’?

The NBA champion New York Knicks will appear on the June 15 episode of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” The show begins at 11:35 p.m. ET.

How to watch the Knicks on ‘The Tonight Show’ for free

If you don’t have cable, you’ll need a live TV streaming service to stream “The Tonight Show” for free. One option we love is DIRECTV, which comes with five days free and starts at $34.99/month, with plenty of subscription options and genre packs that include NBC.

You can also watch “The Tonight Show” live for free with a Peacock Premium Plus free trial (seven days, then $16.99/month).

Why Trust Post Wanted by the New York Post

This article was written by Angela Tricarico, Commerce Streaming Reporter for Post Wanted Shopping, Page Six, and Decider.com. Angela keeps readers up to date with cord-cutter-friendly deals, and information on how to watch your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and movies on every streaming service. Not only does Angela test and compare the streaming services she writes about to ensure readers are getting the best prices, but she’s also a superfan specializing in the intersection of shopping, tech, sports, and pop culture. When she’s not writing about (or watching) TV, movies, and sports, she’s also keeping up on the underrated perfume dupes at Bath & Body Works and testing headphones. Prior to joining Decider and The New York Post in 2023, she wrote about streaming and consumer tech at Insider Reviews.

The New York Mikals are your NBA Champi- I mean, the New York Knicks are your NBA Champions. This has honestly come as quite a shock to me. The Knicks were not the championship favorites coming into the season, the playoffs, the Conference Finals, or even the NBA Finals. 

I, like many foolish people, watched the Western Conference Finals thinking that I was watching the deciding series of the playoffs. Surely either the Thunder or the Spurs would take down any team in the East over the course of seven games, right?

Apparently not.

I am elated by this outcome, though. Not only do I love to see the Spurs lose, but I loved watching one of my all-time favorite Suns win a chip. Most of all, though, I love what this outcome tells us about the NBA in the modern era.

When I think of the NBA, I think of dynasties. I think of Magic and Bird, Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, Duncan, LeBron, Wade, Steph. I don’t think of Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups. The NBA, more than any other sport, is defined by its dynasty-building superstars. That is the image that has skyrocketed the NBA brand to its current popularity.

But, the NBA has implemented many changes in recent years to break the chain of dynasties and lead us to our current parity paradise. The most impactful of these changes was the second apron, forcing teams to break up talented cores and make tough choices about who to keep. In many ways, this new parity era has taken the NBA away from its previous dynasty-heavy identity to something more akin to the MLB. 

Until very recently, when the Dodgers decided to ruin the game I love, the MLB playoffs have been defined by an “every team has a chance” spirit. If your favorite team made the playoffs, they could get hot at the right time and beat any other team. The Arizona Diamondbacks experienced this in 2023, making a run to the World Series in a season where they went just 84-78.

Every now and then you get a big run in baseball. The Yankees will rip off three in a row here, the Red Sox will win two in three years there. But for the most part, every playoff team has a shot. In the NBA, this isn’t usually the case.

Let’s take a look at the last seven NBA champions going into these playoffs:

• 2025 – Oklahoma City Thunder
• 2024 – Boston Celtics
• 2023 – Denver Nuggets
• 2022 – Golden State Warriors
• 2021 – Milwaukee Bucks
• 2020 – Los Angeles Lakers
• 2019 – Toronto Raptors

Four of these seven, OKC, Boston, Denver, and Milwaukee share a commonality. Each of these teams, I would argue, were at the beginning or middle of their championship window. Milwaukee was closer to the end than any of us knew, but would have probably had a longer run if it weren’t for injuries.

The Warriors were clearly at the end of their window when they won in 2022. The Lakers title, though legitimate, was won in the bubble so I don’t want to use it to identify any trends. Finally, the Raptors window closed after Kawhi Leonard left town for the Clippers.

For each of the other four, I looked around the league after they won and asked, “Who could possibly beat this team next season?” For Milwaukee and Denver, I thought their best players were simply unbeatable. For Boston and OKC, I thought their systems were unbeatable. 

But all were beaten.

And now we have an NBA champion in the New York Knicks that looks a lot like the Texas Rangers, who beat the Diamondbacks in 2023, and that is strange. Much like the Diamondbacks themselves, the Rangers weren’t really in contention before their 2023 title run, and haven’t really been in contention since. They simply got hot at the right time and went on an incredible run.

Since the Bulls dynasty ended almost 30 years ago, the New York Knicks are just the fourth team to win a title that “wasn’t supposed to be there” (2019 – TOR, 2011 – DAL, 2004 – DET). Every other champion could have been considered a contender going into their title year(s).

Oh, the Knicks were good, and have been for years now. But the Raptors, the Mavericks, and the Pistons had all been good going into their title years too, and they weren’t expected to win either.

The difference is the environment. The Raptors won a title in the Warriors dynasty years, the Mavericks in the Boston/Miami years, and the Pistons in the Spurs/Lakers years. Everyone knew that the following season, one of the big dogs was likely to find itself back on top the food chain. It isn’t like that anymore. The Knicks have won an NBA championship in what could have been the second year of an OKC dynasty or the first year of a Spurs dynasty, but wasn’t. Next year, it could be Miami, Atlanta, or Indiana that gets hot at the right time and beats the next “unbeatable” team.

But, this isn’t Bright Side of the Knickerbockers, so why should Suns fans care that the Knicks won a title?

You should care because it means this ship may not have to sink after all. It means that the Suns can find their way to a title in the Devin Booker era. It could be the Suns who do the impossible and beat the unbeatable, like the Knicks did this season.

New York found their guy, Jalen Brunson, and surrounded him with the pieces he needed. They got long, defensive wings, a stretch big, and a deep enough bench. They built around him well with the pieces that fit best alongside him, and it paid off.

The Suns did this once with Booker as well. They gave him a point guard to run the offense, stretch bigs off the bench, long defensive wings, and paint defense. It resulted in the Suns’ first NBA finals run since the Barkley era.

I have been a bit doom-and-gloom since the Suns traded away Kevin Durant. Though trading him away was the right call, I thought it meant the end of the possibility of the Devin Booker era championship parade.

Now, the New York Knicks are champions. Their best player is a small point guard who many thought would never be able to be the best player on a championship team. Brunson certainly has his limitations, but the Knicks mitigated them through excellent teambuilding.

If they can do it, so can the Suns.

The offseason has begun, Suns fans. Given the current roster construction, it is likely to be a quiet one but you never know what could happen. I am holding out hope for a Jalen Green trade, but if you fire up the trade machine, you’ll find that the right move is a bit difficult to find.

Still, the right moves may be out there. If Brian Gregory can pull them off, the impossible may just become possible.

The next major offseason domino is on June 23rd, when the NBA draft comes around. Curious who the Suns might be drafting?

48ish hours later and still feeing . . . altered. In a good way.

The best way. Saturday night, millions of Knicks fans finally caught that dragon we been chasing most if not all our lives. I’m still kinda in a daze. You?

I bring it up because for this mailbag invite, I need you to know I could not care less about any “break up the Knicks” questions. Giannis Antetokounmpo did not appeal to me as a trade rumor during the season; he sure as shit don’t now. Got an idea for how the Knicks can turn Mikal Bridges into Dylan Harper? Keep it to yourself. I. Do. Not. Care.

S’cool if you do. But the New York Knickerbockers have been champions for not yet 48 hours. Far as I’m concerned, they can give everyone on the roster a 5-year extension on top of wherever their contract stands now and I’m good with it. These people did it! They did the thing! What comes next isn’t just another sunset. This is a cosmic event streaking across the heavens. I will follow its light so long as any one single photon of it remains.

(Not to mention these Knicks are as well-positioned as any of the NBA’s Great 8 2019-2026 champs to break the streak and repeat. I think OKC this year is the only one of that lot to even make the conference finals the next season. I don’t bet on sports, but if I did I’d bet on NYK joining them next spring.)

(Also I’m gonna try “NYK” for a bit as a proper noun. The Knicks don’t really have a ton of nicknames. Like, the Mets are the Metropolitans, the Amazins, the Metsies, the Miracle Mets. The Yankees are the Yanks, the Bombers, the Bronx Bombers and the Pinstripes, as well as the Damn Yankees across vast swaths of this land. The Giants have G-Men and Big Blue, the New York Football Giants and, once upon a time, more so, the Jints. The Rangers are both Blueshirts and Broadway Blues.

And yet, besides New York, Knickerbockers and some syntax featuring “blue” and “orange,” there’s not much to do with the Knicks. So I’m giving NYK a 10-day contract. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.)

Wanna talk draft? Or pros potentially on the move who you think would work added to the mix? That works. The rest of the NBA? These Knicks in a historical context? Summer ice cream shop go-tos? Bring it. Commas versus dashes when setting off an appositive? Maybe a bit narrow for a Knicks mailbag. But it never hurts to ask.

The comment section awaits. Dive in. The water is champagne.

The festivities are seemingly getting to at least one Knicks player already.

Since winning their first NBA championship in 53 years, the Knicks have been everywhere.

The team flew back to New York Saturday night, immediately after their celebrations at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, foregoing a night in Texas and a flight Sunday morning. They quickly joined the celebrations throughout the city, including throwing a party at a private club in Manhattan and hopping around to various media appearances on Monday.

During a guest appearance on “Good Morning America,” OG Anunoby went viral for being appearing to be completely checked out and his fellow teammates couldn’t contain their laughter.

After host George Stephanopoulos asked about the “difference” coach Mike Brown made in their run to the title and how he made the most of his team, there was an awkward silence as Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges all turned to Anunoby for him to answer.

However, Anunoby didn’t do so nor did he give any signs that he heard the question as he kept a stone face on live television.

Everyone burst into laughter and Brunson went on to say, “I guess I’ll answer.”

It was instead Towns who stepped up to the question as Anunoby stared into space.

Eventually, Towns had a hard time looking at his teammate, bursting into laughter.

The usually reserved Anunoby was later forced into a smile by the hosts, which sent Towns and Brunson even more into a laughing fit.

Knicks fans also joined in on the fun on social media, laughing at their player.

“OG is hanging on for dear life,” an X user posted.

“OG has to factory reset,” another said.

“I know he’s fighting off a historic hangover rn,” an X user chimed in.

Someone else noted the short answers from all the players.

“they’re collectively sharing one brain cell right now,” a user wrote.

Unfortunately — or fortunately? — the celebrating has only begun.

The Knicks are set for their championship parade Thursday morning through the Canyon of Heroes, starting at Battery Park.