Category: Sports News

Spurs' Stephon Castle named NBA Rookie of the Year originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Stephon Castle made no secret about it: He wanted to be rookie of the year.

And he got it done — by a wide margin.

The San Antonio Spurs now have back-to-back winners of the award, with Victor Wembanyama last year and Castle this season. Castle was the fifth rookie in Spurs history to score more than 1,000 points.

It was one-sided in the voting. Castle got 92 first-place votes, easily topping runner-up Zaccharie Risacher of the Atlanta Hawks and third-place finisher Jaylen Wells of the Memphis Grizzlies. Risacher got five first-place votes, Wells got the other three.

“Coming in with all the confidence that I had in myself as a player, that was definitely a goal of mine from Day 1,” Castle said on TNT, which broadcast the unveiling of the results. “I’m just happy I was able to execute it.”

Castle’s win marked the second time in more than a half-century that one franchise went back-to-back with the top-rookie honor. Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins (now of Miami) and Karl-Anthony Towns (now of New York) were voted rookies of the year in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

The last instance of a team going back-to-back before that: 1973 and 1974, when Bob McAdoo and Ernie DiGregorio pulled it off for the Buffalo Braves.

“I get so excited watching him play,” said Chris Paul, Castle’s backcourt mate this season in San Antonio. “The first thing that I want to see in a teammate or anybody is how competitive they are. That’ll take you further than talent any day. And I saw immediately was that he was competitive. I was like, ‘OK, cool. This is going to be easy.’”

Castle led all rookies this season in points (1,190) and steals (74). Risacher finished strong, winning Eastern Conference rookie of the month for both February and March. Wells led all rookies in games started (74) and 3-pointers made (138, matching the total posted by Washington’s Bub Carrington).

Risacher — who hails from France, like Wembanyama — was looking to give the NBA the first instance of international players winning the award in consecutive years since Australia’s Ben Simmons and Slovenia’s Luka Doncic in 2018 and 2019. Wells was bidding to be Memphis’ first rookie of the year since Ja Morant in 2020.

The rookie of the year award was voted on by a global panel of 100 writers and broadcasters who cover the league and cast ballots shortly after the end of the regular season.

The other awards that were part of that voting process and have already had their results unveiled: Cleveland’s Evan Mobley winning defensive player of the year, New York’s Jalen Brunson winning clutch player of the year, and Boston’s Payton Pritchard winning sixth man of the year.

On Wednesday, the most improved player — Cade Cunningham of Detroit, Dyson Daniels of Atlanta, or Ivica Zubac of the Los Angeles Clippers — will be announced, also at 7 p.m. EDT on TNT.

Other awards announced by the league since the end of the regular season: Golden State’s Stephen Curry won the Twyman-Stokes teammate of the year award and Warriors teammate Draymond Green won the hustle award.

Hield wears epic ‘Excluding Buddy' T-shirt after Butler post originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

On Tuesday, Buddy Hield continued his playful banter with Jimmy Butler with a humorous fashion choice.

As the Warriors boarded a plane to Houston for a pivotal Game 5 against the Rockets, Hield walked onto the aircraft wearing a T-shirt that read, “Excluding Buddy.”

The shirt was a humorous nod to a social media post from Butler following Golden State’s Game 3 win over Houston on Saturday night at Chase Center.

In that game, the Butler-less Warriors fended off the Rockets, thanks partly to Hield, who scored 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field.

Hield and Butler have been trading playful jabs since the latter joined Golden State via trade in February. The move created a definite vibe shift for the franchise, altering their trajectory and putting them on the precipice of winning a first-round playoff series for the first time since 2023.

Butler, Hield and the rest of the Warriors hope the good vibes can continue at Toyota Center on Wednesday night. Houston will be laser-focused on derailing Golden State’s shooters and bludgeoning them whenever possible.

Expect a lot of Butler, Hield and Steph Curry in what promises to be another physically grueling game. The trio likely will have to don their superhero capes once again to vanquish the villainous Dillon Brooks and the Rockets.

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Rename the school Shaqramento State. Or perhaps Shaq State will do.

Sacramento State announced Tuesday that it hired outsized personality and hoops icon Shaquille O’Neal as general manager of its forlorn men's basketball program. OK, so maybe hired isn't an accurate term because O'Neal — whose net worth is estimated at $500 million — will do the job on a voluntary basis.

But Shaq nevertheless assumes a role that has become increasingly popular in the NCAA in the age of name, image and likeness, and the Lakers great will attempt to help turn around a program that finished 7-25 and last in the Big Sky Conference last season. Sac State has had all of two winning seasons in program history and has never made the NCAA tournament.

Shaq isn't the only addition. Earlier this month, the Hornets hired former Sacramento Kings star Mike Bibby as coach. One of Bibby's first moves was to add O'Neal's son, senior forward Shaqir O'Neal, a transfer from Florida A&M, where he averaged 6.7 points and 3.2 rebounds a game last season.

Read more:What feud? Shaq agrees to walk Dwight Howard out at Hall of Fame induction: 'That's my guy'

Shaqir began his high school career at Crossroads in Santa Monica before transferring to a school in Georgia. He spent two seasons as a reserve at Texas Southern before transferring to Florida A&M a year ago.

Bibby has no college coaching experience but recently led his high school alma mater Phoenix Shadow Mountain to five state championships. He plans to go for the glamour in Sacramento. He made that clear at his news conference upon being hired April 1.

“I’m going to turn this around," he said. "I have a lot of NBA players who want to send their sons to me to play. We can get kids. We’re going to try to have that Deion [Sanders] impact. We’ll have superstars in the building, active NBA players stop by.”

Sacramento State will open a new basketball facility on campus in the fall, leaving behind the Nest, the decrepit current arena that seats only 1,012 people and is one of the oldest NCAA Division I venues.

Read more:Shaquille O'Neal says Colorado's Deion Sanders reminds him of ex-coach Phil Jackson

Transforming the Hornets into winners will be a daunting task for O'Neal, who already has a busy schedule. He is a longtime NBA analyst for TNT and oversees a business empire that according to a Times article in 2023 has included 155 Five Guys restaurants, 40 24-Hour Fitness gyms, 20 Big Chicken outlets, 17 Auntie Anne’s pretzel stands, nine Papa John’s pizzerias and at least one Krispy Kreme doughnut shop.

Shaq has appeared in commercials for Icy Hot, the General insurance, Buick, Frosted Flakes, the Carnival Cruise Line, Epson, Novex Biotech, Reebok, Google, Pepsi, Ring, Gold Bond, JCPenney, Tonka and WynnBet sports betting. Partnering with the sports betting business forced O'Neal to sell his minority stake in Sacramento's NBA team, the Kings, three years ago.

How extensive are O’Neal’s business holdings? He's hosted a Shaq Summit for several years to corral representatives from all of his brands and partnerships into one room for strategic planning.

How much time can O'Neal devote to Sacramento State? Serving as GM of a Division I athletics program involves more than glad-handing and bringing in talent via grins and a magnetic personality. The position gained prominence soon after NIL legislation was passed in 2021 that overturned the long-held NCAA stance preventing athletes from getting paid.

Read more:From franchises to Frosted Flakes, Shaquille O'Neal has changed what it means to be a retired athlete

Sure, some GMs are prominent sports figures — witness Andrew Luck at Stanford and Stephen Curry at Davidson — but logging long days on campus would seem a key part of the job description.

Sacramento State, long considered a bottom-rung athletics program amid the far-flung California State University system, has ambitions. The football program hopes to build a new stadium and upgrade from the FCS to the FBS.

A basketball program can flip from perennial losers to winners more easily than football because it can take only a few standout players to change fortunes. Shaq knows that firsthand, along with Kobe Bryant spearheading the transformation of a middling Lakers period in the late 1990s into three consecutive NBA championships beginning in the 1999-2000 season.

Can he trigger something similar at Sacramento State? If so, calling the school Shaqramento State might indeed be appropriate.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Has a No. 7 seed ever defeated a No. 2 seed in the NBA playoffs? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Golden State Warriors have the Houston Rockets on the ropes.

No. 7 Golden State on Monday took a commanding 3-1 series lead over No. 2 Houston in the first round of the 2025 NBA playoffs. The Warriors won a second straight home game, this time beating the Rockets in a 109-106 thriller.

The series now shifts back to Houston for Game 5 on Wednesday, when the Rockets will be playing to keep their season alive. Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and Co., meanwhile, are on the verge of advancing to the conference semifinals.

But just how many No. 7 seeds have pulled off first-round upsets in NBA playoff history? Here’s a look at the company this year’s Dubs can join:

How many No. 7 seeds have defeated a No. 2 seed in the NBA playoffs?

Since the playoff field expanded from 12 to 16 teams in 1984, a total of six No. 7 seeds have made it past Round 1.

The 1986-87 Seattle SuperSonics were the first seven seed to accomplish the feat. After a regular season where they posted a losing record of 39-43, the SuperSonics eliminated the No. 2 Dallas Mavericks in four games. Seattle lost to Dallas by 22 points in Game 1 before reeling off three straight wins.

In the 1988-89 season, Chris Mullin and the No. 7 Warriors swept Karl Malone, John Stockton and the No. 2 Utah Jazz in three games. The Warriors then repeated history two postseasons later, with the No. 7 Run TMC Dubs disposing of the David Robinson-led No. 2 San Antonio Spurs in four games.

The 1997-98 New York Knicks are the lone No. 7 seed to go the distance in a first-round series and win the decisive final game. Allan Houston powered the Knicks to a series-clinching Game 5 win over the No. 2 Miami Heat after New York was down 2-1 in the series. The following season, the Knicks pulled off another Round 1 upset of the Heat in five games, except this time New York was an eight seed. The No. 8 Knicks went all the way to the Finals, where they fell to the Spurs in five games.

Speaking of San Antonio, the 2009-10 Spurs also made it to Round 2 as a No. 7 seed by eliminating the No. 2 Mavs in six games. Dirk Nowitzki and Co. bounced back from the defeat the following year by winning the Finals.

The most recent No. 7 seed to advance was the 2022-23 Los Angeles Lakers, who beat the Memphis Grizzlies in six games. That Lakers team and the 2009-10 Spurs squad are the lone No. 7 seeds to win a seven-game first-round series.

Of the six No. 7 seeds to emerge from the first round, the 1986-87 SuperSonics and 2022-23 Lakers are the only ones that went on to win another series. Seattle beat Hakeem Olajuwon’s No. 6 Rockets in the conference semifinals before being swept by the eventual champion Lakers in the West Finals. And the Lakers beat the Warriors in six games before being swept by the eventual champion Denver Nuggets in the conference finals.

The 1988-89 Warriors, 1990-91 Warriors and 1997-98 Knicks all lost in five games in the conference semifinals, while the 2009-10 Spurs were swept.

Here’s a full look at each of the No. 7 seeds that have advanced past Round 1:

• Seattle SuperSonics, 1986-87: Beat Mavericks in four games, lost in conference finals
• Golden State Warriors, 1988-89: Beat Jazz in three games, lost in second round
• Golden State Warriors, 1990-91: Beat Spurs in four games, lost in second round
• New York Knicks, 1997-98: Beat Heat in five games, lost in second round
• San Antonio Spurs, 2009-10: Beat Mavericks in six games, lost in second round
• Los Angeles Lakers, 2022-23: Beat Grizzlies in six games, lost in conference finals

Editor’s note: The original version of this story was published in April 2024.

Draymond reveals underrated Podziemski trait he wishes he had originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Draymond Green wishes he had the one particular trait possessed by Warriors teammate Brandin Podziemski.

Green was asked about Podziemski’s incredible 26-point performance in the Warriors’ 109-106 Game 4 victory over the Houston Rockets on Monday night at Chase Center, with the Golden State veteran explaining what makes his young teammate so good.

“The skill is there, but it’s his heart,” Green said. “I like to call it irrational confidence… although he puts work in. But he has irrational confidence. It’s one of those things I actually wish I had.

“But he just has the ultimate belief in himself and his abilities. And he went out there and showed it. And quite honestly, he’s been showing it for the last few months. Since he came back from his injury, he’s pretty much been lights out.”

"He has irrational confidence. It's one of those things that I actually wish I had."

Draymond envies Podz's bold mindset 🙌 pic.twitter.com/P3TKLJYRUh

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 29, 2025

Podziemski’s fearless play in Game 4 helped the Warriors tremendously. With the Rockets double-teaming Steph Curry at every chance, the 22-year-old was left with plenty of wide-open looks that he took advantage of.

Since the Jimmy Butler trade, Podziemski’s latent potential has been unlocked. The new lineup has allowed the second-year player to play off the ball, zipping through defenders and getting plenty of wide-open looks. Given how Houston hounded Curry, the offensive outburst from Podziemski was crucial to the victory.

With Golden State up 3-1 in the best-of-seven game series, Podziemski’s swagger and irrational self-confidence will be needed as the Warriors face down the Rockets in Game 5 in Houston on Wednesday night.

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