Category: Sports News

Happy Tuesday from the basement. Temperatures are set to hit 99 F later today at the place I’m typing this thing from, so I guessed it’d be better to do it now before the keyboard melted. Such is life in sunny Spain, where summers are not as cool and fun as they look.

• It’s Draft Day! Not that we care (that much) with the Knicks coming off winning the title, but SNY’s Ian Begley put together a comprehensive report of who’s worked out in New York, potential targets, and everything else for those watching on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
• Most interestingly, and in the lone insider-like note included in his write-up, Begley named St. John’s forward Zuby Ejiofor as someone with “fans” within the Knicks organization. Color me excited, we’re finally getting Ron Artest!

“If Robinson and Shamet are back, the Knicks probably look at size on the wing or a player who can handle the ball. Ejiofor has some fans in the organization. If they think they are losing Robinson or Hukporti, maybe the Knicks draft a center? Tarris Reed Jr. from UConn would be a strong pick in New York’s range.”

• The Knicks are set to sign the realest Frenchman hooper to a four-year, $10.5 million deal. Hooray!
• Loud Monday night across the Association, with two All-Stars moving places in Giannis Antetokounmpo (destination Miami) and Julius Randle (back to New York, but the bad one).
• As ClydeWingo pointed out on Monday night’s post-trade comments, and something I wasn’t aware of or simply had forgotten, Randle was seemingly key in the hiring of Tom Thibodeau as the man to lead the Knicks out of wherever the hell they were a few years ago, after Leon Rose asked him about it given his A1 role back then. Gotta love good ol’ Jules.
• The Celtics balked at adding players to the Giannis deal, ended up submitting a one-for-one package built around Jaylen Brown and two first-round picks, failed to convince the Bucks, kept trying to ostracize one of their two superstars, and seem poised to move new-generation Carlos Boozer anyway, says ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. Windhorst argued that Boston has simply realized the Celtics don’t have enough to beat the Knicks as currently constructed, and the only way out of purgatory is by dealing Brown away and quickly. Music to my ears.

“The Celtics took a hard look in the mirror and decided, we weren’t going to beat the Knicks”

• Windhorst surely was on a hot run yesterday, also saying that Brown “is accepting (the Celtics want to trade him) and realizes this is a chance to turn the page in his career and he may be getting his own team.” For the next chapter, tune in on whatever platform he streams his life so you get his take on it from the rawest possible source.
• On Tuesday morning, ESPN’s Shams Charania brought the Knicks name back into the Giannis trade conversation. Remember when NYK was close to pulling it off a few months ago? Here’s some tiny additional details.

“Antetokounmpo pushed for a trade, with his reps making it clear that the New York Knicks were his preferred destination. The Bucks and the Knicks briefly engaged in discussions last summer, but New York never believed Milwaukee seriously considered trading its superstar. The Bucks, on the other hand, believed the Knicks’ offers were never serious enough.”

• John Wall thinks it’s time.
• Speaking of Carlos Boozer, he was a bit salty about his son Cameron undoubtedly not getting drafted with the No. 1 overall pick, but the No. 2 either. Have a great time in Memphis, Bozo.
• The Knicks are going to need some depth next season, and if they really don’t cross the second apron, well, they will need to work the vet-min market with pinpoint accuracy and savviness. Helping New York, however, is OAKAAK Frank Ntilikina, who just left Olympiacos by mutual agreement. How we feeling?
• Vegas has its first backer for an NBA franchise once expansion comes to fruition, and it’s the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights owner, Bill Foley, who is set to pony up as much dough as needed to bring hoops to Sin City. Years away, yes, but just for fun, if the expansion draft happened tonight, which eight players would you leave unprotected from the Knicks’ title-winning roster?

Knowing Leon Rose and how the Knicks have operated under his guidance, I was always (and still am) convinced they’d move their first-round pick, leaving us all waiting for something to enjoy on Tuesday night on the cold, and with no prospect to call one of ourselves. Anyway, I still think they will end up drafting someone at some point in the second round, and then the UDFA market will open for undrafted prospects.

That’s all for today, fellas. Exciting times ahead!

It finally happened.

After an endless amount of speculation, rumors and reports, the Milwaukee Bucks decided it was time to trade the franchise's star, dealing superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat in a blockbuster – a move that shifts the landscape of the league on the eve of the 2026 NBA Draft.

Whether the trade transforms the Heat into championship contenders is up for debate, but it ends a long search for a franchise player in the post-Dwyane Wade years for Pat Riley. Now it's up to Miami's front office to build around the two-time MVP, who has battled injuries in recent years.

Following rampant trade speculation throughout the 2025-26 NBA season, perhaps an introduction "Heat Culture" is the type of fresh start that Antetokounmpo needed after 13 seasons in Milwaukee.

As for the Bucks, they can now hit the reset button on a team that had stalled since capturing the franchise's second NBA championship in 2021.

So who won the trade? Are the Heat contenders? Reaction has been pouring in across the league and media in the wake of the trade. Here's what the people are saying:

The Milwaukee Bucks traded Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat late Monday night for Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, three first-round picks, a pick swap and a second-round pick. Boston had pursued Antetokounmpo with an offer built around Jaylen Brown, but Milwaukee ultimately preferred Miami’s younger players and draft capital.

It’s finally over.

After weeks of reports, counterreports, fake trades, real negotiations and enough collective bargaining agreement analysis to qualify half of Celtics Twitter for an entry-level front office job, Giannis Antetokounmpo is taking his talents to South Beach.

The Celtics were involved deeply enough for Shams Charania to report that Jaylen Brown had been placed at the center of their offer, and close enough for Boston fans to spend several days weighing the arrival of one of the greatest players ever against the end of the partnership that has defined this era of Celtics basketball.

This would have hurt.

For a moment, Brown stopped feeling like the player we would watch next season and became the player we were preparing to remember. We pictured him in a Bucks uniform and imagined Jayson Tatum returning without the teammate who had grown up beside him. We began sorting through the past ten seasons of playoff runs, criticism, improvement and the championship they eventually won together.

Then Milwaukee chose Miami.

Brown remains a Celtic for now. Whatever happens next, the possibility of losing him brought his entire Boston career into sharper focus. It reminded us how much of the last decade he has occupied, how much he has given this franchise and how strange it would feel to see No. 7 play anywhere else.

Ten years ago, Boston greeted him with boos.

Brown was 19 years old when the Celtics selected him third overall in the 2016 NBA Draft, a pick that immediately disappointed a loud section of the fanbase. People wanted a trade. They wanted a bigger name like Kris Dunn, Dragan Bender or Buddy Hield. They wanted someone they had already decided was safer, readier or easier to understand.

Brown stepped into that noise and made a promise anyway.

“I’m going to go to war for the city,” he said shortly after being drafted. “I wear my heart on my sleeve and I’m gonna leave it on the floor every night. I love to play ball and I know you guys love to watch. So let’s build this bond, and I promise I won’t disappoint.”

Ten years later, Boston already has its answer. Brown has kept every part of that promise.

Jaylen has grown up in front of us

Brown’s path to NBA stardom has been anything but smooth.

He fought for minutes as a rookie on a veteran team trying to contend. He worked his way into the rotation, then into the starting lineup, then into the heart of a team that kept reaching the edge of something bigger without quite getting there.

Every step forward in his game seemed to uncover a new flaw for everyone else to discuss.

His handle was too loose. His decision-making was too slow. His shooting came and went. He couldn’t go left. He and Jayson Tatum supposedly could not play together. One of them would eventually have to leave. Brown’s contract was too large, his game too limited, his fit beside JT too uncertain.

Then he would come back the next season with another answer.

The handle tightened. The jumper improved. His body got stronger. His reads became quicker. He took on harder defensive assignments and gradually became someone Boston could trust with an entire possession when a game began to wobble.

His growth has rarely been graceful, and maybe that’s part of what makes his journey so satisfying.

Brown has become a five-time All-Star and a two-time All-NBA selection during his first decade in Boston. He has climbed to 10th on the Celtics’ all-time scoring list, surrounded by names that already hang above the floor at TD Garden. He’s helped Boston reach six conference finals and two NBA Finals while spending his entire career under the pressure that comes with playing for a franchise that measures success in banners.

Through all of it, he has simply kept getting better.

The run that changed everything

Brown’s place as a Celtics great was secure before 2024. That year’s postseason run made him a Celtics legend.

He entered the year carrying the label of the league’s most overpaid player after signing his (at the time) record-breaking supermax extension. He had just been left off the All-NBA teams despite helping Boston post the league’s best record, and the Celtics’ shiny new toys in the form of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis led some people to wonder whether he would become the odd man out.

Instead, Brown played the best basketball of his life when Boston needed it most.

He averaged 23.9 points during the 2024 playoffs while shooting 51.6 percent from the field, often drawing the most difficult defensive assignment on the other end. When the Celtics were seconds away from losing Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, Brown deflected an inbound pass, then buried the game-tying three. Two nights later, he scored 40 as Boston took control of a series it would eventually sweep.

If we thought that was the mountaintop, the Finals showed us Jaylen still had another level to reach.

Brown hounded Luka Doncic, attacked Dallas whenever Boston’s offense started drifting and delivered one of the defining performances of his career in Game 3. Boston nearly lost a 21-point fourth-quarter lead that night, but Brown steadied the game with the jumper that effectively ended Dallas’ comeback.

When the series ended in Boston, the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP trophy belonged to him.

Brown’s first instinct was to share it.

“It was a full team effort,” he said. “I share this with my brothers, and my partner-in-crime, Jayson Tatum. He was with me the whole way.”

That remains the Jays’ story at its best. They were drafted one year apart, compared constantly and blamed regularly whenever Boston fell short. Together, they grew through it. And when they finally reached the top, Brown used the greatest individual moment of his career to pull Tatum right beside him.

There is no banner 18 without both of them.

Boston has gotten more than a basketball player

Brown has never treated Boston like a temporary workplace. His ambitions have always extended beyond basketball.

Through the 7uice Foundation, he has worked to close opportunity gaps for young people in communities that are often overlooked. The Bridge Program brought students from Dorchester, Roxbury and other Boston neighborhoods to MIT, where they studied fields including artificial intelligence, robotics and climate science. He wants kids to see themselves in places that may once have felt closed to them.

Brown also launched Boston XChange with the goal of creating generational wealth in communities of color. Its creator incubator has supported local entrepreneurs working across arts, fashion, food and media. He partnered with Jrue Holiday to invest in people who had ideas and talent but had not always been given access to the rooms where money and opportunity move.

Brown has also become a trusted voice among his peers. In 2019, at only 22 years old, he was elected as a vice president of the National Basketball Players Association. His fellow players re-elected him to a third term in 2025, another reflection of the leader he has become and the respect he commands well beyond Boston.

All of it speaks volumes about the man Jaylen has become over the years. Brown could have kept his relationship with the city confined to basketball. Plenty of players do. They arrive, perform, maybe donate to a few visible causes and eventually leave.

Brown has studied the city, challenged it and invested in it.

Like Bill Russell before him, Brown cares about Boston without pretending the city is perfect. He has spoken openly about racism, education and economic inequality. He has marched against injustice and used the attention that comes with basketball to force conversations far beyond it.

Sometimes, that has made him complicated. He’s willing to say things that invite disagreement and think out loud in ways professional athletes are often trained to avoid. Brown is curious, ambitious and occasionally difficult to place into the neat little boxes fans prefer.

This year, Brown continued offering people a closer look at how he saw the game and the team around him. After the season, his livestreams became their own source of controversy when he called it his favorite year of basketball. Some fans heard that as a dismissal of the championship season, but his full explanation was far more personal. He had watched young teammates earn real roles, seen Tatum fight his way back from injury and helped a team with modest expectations become one of the East’s best.

The reaction was revealing. Celtics fans say they want athletes to be more open and candid, then occasionally bristle when those athletes give answers that do not match the ones they expected. Brown’s Twitch streams offer something rare: an unfiltered look at one of the best players in franchise history thinking through his season in real time. Even when people disagree with him, there is something special about being invited that close.

I, for one, am thrilled Boston gets the whole person.

History will remember the Jays together

When you talk about one Jay, it’s hard not to talk about the other. Brown and Tatum are not simply two stars who happen to share the court. As a duo, they have been Boston’s timeline. Celtics fans have watched them evolve from young prospects to playoff regulars, then through painful losses that felt like referendums on everything they were building.

They lost to LeBron James as kids. They battled with the Brooklyn experiment, Heat culture and Golden State’s dynasty. They heard that they did not pass enough, did not fit well enough and would never finish the job together.

But they did finish it together, and no trade can ever separate them in the Celtics history. The trade that never was would’ve ended the partnership. Instead, the Giannis pursuit reminded everyone how much the partnership has already accomplished.

What happens next between Brown and the Celtics is harder to know. Shams Charania reported that Boston made an offer built around Brown, but we have no idea what Brad Stevens told him behind closed doors, how seriously the Celtics believed Milwaukee was considering their package or whether Boston’s involvement helped force Miami to offer more. Once Milwaukee began prioritizing younger players and draft capital beyond Brown, the deal may have stopped making sense for the Celtics anyway.

Still, seeing your name publicly attached to a trade for your replacement can leave a bruise, even in a league where everyone understands the business. Stevens now has to make sure Brown knows where he stands and whether the trust that carried this partnership through years of rumors remains intact.

Brown has spent a decade giving Boston answers. After the past week, the Celtics may owe him one.

The promise became the legacy

There is a symmetry to Brown’s story in Boston that already feels almost too perfect to be real.

He arrived with people booing the pick before he had even put on the jersey. Instead of shrinking from that reception, he told the city exactly what he planned to give it.

He would go to war for Boston.

Over the next decade, he has lived up to every word.

He has played through criticism and trade rumors, transforming parts of his game that people treated as permanent limitations. He has defended the best players in the world, carried the Celtics through crucial playoff moments and kept the franchise among the league’s top-tier contenders.

Away from the floor, he’s treated Boston like a place worth investing in. He’s given young people access to education and helped local creators imagine businesses of their own. He understands that wearing Celtics green gives him influence and has tried to make that influence useful and positive.

The boos did not define his relationship with Boston. They only made what followed more meaningful.

One day, Jaylen Brown will walk onto the TD Garden floor with his family beside him and watch No. 7 rise above his head. Tatum’s No. 0 will find its way up there eventually, too, because even history should understand that those two are inseparable.

Brown’s journey in Boston began beneath those rafters with people wondering why he was here. Someday, it will end in the same building with thunderous applause, as the city he went to war for gets the chance to thank him for everything he has given it.

But that day is not here yet.

No. 7 still belongs on the floor. Jaylen Brown is still a Celtic. And after spending the past week imagining how we would say goodbye, Boston has another chance to appreciate him before his place among the legends becomes something we can only look up at.

The 2026 NBA Draft happens begins Tuesday night. The Sixers are likely going to make their only pick in this year’s draft at 22^nd overall. It’s an important pick for the franchise as it was the primary return in the highly-scrutinized Jared McCain trade from this past February. With Mike Gansey taking over as the team’s new president of basketball operations, we felt now was a good time to look back on Gansey’s draft record in Cleveland, a front office he worked in for nearly a decade.

Before we go any further, it’s important to point out that Gansey was always working under Koby Altman in Cleveland. That’s likely to change now that Gansey is in Philadelphia. If you take the Sixers at their word that Bob Myers will only be involved from afar, Gansey’s going to be making practically all the final decisions when it comes to personnel and day-to-day basketball operations.

We’ll see what Gansey has up his sleeve in his first offseason running the Sixers, but the most widely-held belief as to what the Sixers are going to do with the 22^nd overall pick next week is to use it on a player that can quickly assimilate into their rotation and give them some much-needed bench help. Gansey’s tenure in Cleveland’s front office spanned a long enough time to see the Cavs drafting in a variety of places across the first round which makes this an interesting exercise. Without further ado, we’ll look at the hits, misses and TBDs of the Cleveland first-round picks under Gansey.

Hits

Collin Sexton (8^th overall – 2018): Sexton was the first draft pick the Cavaliers made after Gansey was promoted from the G League to assistant general manager. Perhaps this one might be more in the gray area. Sexton has played for four teams already since being drafted and has never made an All-Star game, but I do think if you’re simply deciding between hit and miss, Sexton is a hit. For his career, he’s averaged over 18 points per game and shot just below 40% from the three-point line. His assist totals could likely be a bit higher, but he’s always been more of a combo guard than a true point guard anyway. Plus, he had to be good enough for Utah to want as a piece in the Donovan Mitchell trade four years ago, right?

Darius Garland (5^th overall – 2019): Much like Sexton, Garland is no longer with Cleveland, although he stuck around with the Cavs much longer than Sexton did. Additionally, there should be no mixed feelings on Garland’s time in the NBA. The two-time All-Star slowly got better in his first three seasons as a pro and perhaps what’s most notable about his statistical increases is that his assist average went from 3.9 per game to 8.6 per game from his rookie season to his third season in the association. If you’re still scratching your head as to why Cleveland traded Garland in a deal that brought back James Harden, you’re not alone, but the sole action of drafting Garland has to be a hit. 

Evan Mobley (3^rd overall – 2021): This one’s a no-brainer. Mitchell is probably Cleveland’s best player, but Mobley is definitely the second-best player on the Cavs’ roster in that case. The USC product is a walking double-double and is just one year removed from winning the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

Additional hits: We do want to take some time for Cleveland’s ability to dig up Sam Merrill and Dean Wade while Gansey was working there. After one season in Milwaukee and another in Memphis, Merrill was fighting for survival in the NBA in 2022. He joined Cleveland’s G-League roster to start the 2022-23 season and by March was signed to a 10-day contract with the Cavaliers. Since then, he has blossomed into a rotation player that’s usually playing between 15 and 25 minutes per night.

Wade joined the Cavs immediately after not being drafted in 2019. He would appear in 12 games at the NBA level in 2019-20 before playing 63 and becoming a fixture in the NBA for years to come. He’s grown to the point where he’s starting more than half the regular season games he’s appearing in for Cleveland. His stats don’t stand out, but he’s certainly been a positive return on investment given that he’s still with the organization seven years after not being drafted.

Misses

Isaac Okoro (5^th overall – 2020): After six seasons in the NBA, Okoro has at the very least carved out a role for himself as a professional, but when you’re merely a role player as a top-five pick regardless of how weak the draft might have been, that’s a disappointment. And yes, if you’re thinking “Wasn’t 2020 the COVID draft that took place in November?” you’d be correct, but we still had most of the college basketball season take place in 2019-20. The point is, Okoro has became a decent wing defender who doesn’t score a lot and while that’s kept him around in the NBA, it’s not enough to be a hit as a top-five selection. Cleveland moved on from Okoro last season too, trading him for Lonzo Ball last offseason which should tell you a lot. 

Ochai Agbaji (14^th overall – 2022): While Agbaji never played a game for the Cavaliers, he wasn’t one of those selections who saw his rights get traded to another team on draft night either. Therefore, we have to include him here because Cleveland at least drafted him with some intention of him playing in Northeast Ohio. Agbaji was selected at the end of the lottery four years ago, but was included with Sexton in the trade to Utah for Mitchell just before training camp opened for the 2022-23 season. He’s started less than half the games he’s appeared in during his four seasons in the NBA, his numbers have fluctuated but have never been anything that have stood out and it would come as no surprise if he’s hanging on for dear life just to survive in the NBA a couple years from now.

To Be Determined

Jaylon Tyson (20^th overall – 2024): This one’s probably the pick that could be the most insightful for Philly’s 22^ndoverall pick next week for a couple of reasons. First off, it’s a pick that was made just two years ago and is the closest of all of these selections in the first round to 22^nd overall. Tyson was also the only pick of these first-rounders that wasn’t a lottery pick. Additionally, through two seasons in the NBA, Tyson’s early career arc seems to be mirroring what you get out of good picks made in the first round outside of the lottery.

Much like Tyrese Maxey for the Sixers, Tyson did not come right into the NBA and start a lot of games. Now, his role was less in Cleveland during his rookie season that Maxey’s was in Philly, but Tyson took a big leap from his rookie season to his second season. He started just three games as a rookie and that number ballooned to 42 starts in 2025-26. All of his statistical numbers went up and Cleveland is probably most encouraged by a 10-point uptick in his three-point percentage from 34.5% in 2024-25 to 44.6% this past season.

It’s still just a TBD because these players often improve incrementally and we’ve only seen one season of incremental improvement from Tyson. He’ll have to continue to get better like Maxey did as he takes on a bigger role for the Cavaliers and plays even more minutes in the future. Having said this, it looks like this pick is trending towards a hit for the Cleveland front office. 

Verdict

While there are more hits than misses, I think most juries would still be deliberating if this was the only available evidence put in front of them. With the exception of maybe Sexton, all of these players are still young enough in their NBA careers for things to change in a positive or negative direction, even if you might have your mind made up on a lot of them.

For purposes of the exercise, I had three hits, two misses and one TBD which leaves the final grade very difficult to give anyway. It’s also worth noting that most of these picks, particularly the ones in the top 10, were likely Altman’s calls as it would only be logical to assume that Altman was making the more impactful roster decisions and Gansey was tasked with finding marginal improvements. That’s another reason why Cleveland selecting Tyson seems like the best reflection of Gansey in the present day. By the 2024 draft, Cleveland was coming off a season in which it made it to the second round of the playoffs. Its core, mostly built by Altman, was in place and marginal upgrades were more easily achievable.

We should note that the marginal upgrades like Merrill and Wade are also a good sign for Gansey’s future in Philadelphia, particularly in the short term. If you subscribe to the widely-held belief that Philadelphia is simply stuck with Paul George and Joel Embiid for the next few seasons, then how else are they going to improve? Even if they hit a home run at 22, that’s still just one player for a team that needs probably three or four serviceable bench players to feel good about its rotation next season. Adding cheap talent in the second round, undrafted free agency or simply players like Merrill who were late bloomers after one or two changes of scenery is how you improve marginally. Doing that enough in the next 6-24 months might just be enough for the Sixers to become a contender with Embiid and George still on their cap sheet. Plus, finding cheap rotation players that are young would give fans more reason for optimism about what the team could look like in the 2030s, presumably built around Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe.

At the end of the day, there’s more to like than to dislike when it comes to Cleveland’s evaluation of draft prospects with Mike Gansey in its front office. It’s a thumbs up for Gansey based on what we know, but you probably also shouldn’t be brimming with confidence either.