A Phoenix Suns team desperately in need of wins could be without Kevin Durant for at least the start of a critical three-game road trip after Durant rolled his ankle on Sunday night against Houston.
The injury happened with 6:57 left in the third quarter, when the Suns were already down by 35. Durant drove the lane, stepped on Rockets’ Jabari Smith Jr.'s foot, and went to the ground. Durant had to be helped off the court and did not return to the game.
Here’s a closer look at the ankle injury Kevin Durant just suffered:
There was no update on Durant's status postgame, he is set to get an MRI on Monday, although it's telling that he will stay in Phoenix when the Suns head out for Milwaukee for the start of a three-game road trip on Tuesday. The Suns have six games remaining, spread across the next two weeks — it is very possible Durant could miss the rest of this season.
The Suns went on to lose to the Rockets 148-109 and are now 1.5 games behind the Kings for the final play-in spot in the West. Phoenix has lost three in a row, two of those by 30+ points, and is trending in the wrong direction. If Durant is going to miss time, the Suns' odds of making the postseason become very slim, and the question of whether to shut down Devin Booker and others for the season becomes very real.
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby scored the overtime winner against the Ottawa Senators on Sunday, his 24th career extra-period goal, which is second all-time behind Alex Ovechkin, who has 27.
Considering Crosby has scored a regular season goal against every team, we thought it was time to look at which teams the captain scored an overtime goal against.
Crosby has scored an overtime goal against 16 teams and is still waiting to find the back of the net versus Boston, Calgary, Carolina, Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, San Jose, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Vancouver, and Vegas.
He's never scored a game-winning goal against San Jose, St. Louis, and Vegas. Crosby ranks 12th overall all-time with 97 game-winners and first in Penguins history ahead of Evgeni Malkin (86), Jaromir Jagr (78), and Mario Lemieux (74).
Crosby scored one career overtime goal in the Stanley Cup playoffs on May 16, 2016, against the Tampa Bay Lightning at PPG Paints Arena, then CONSOL Energy Center.
Of course, there's no talking about Crosby and overtime magic without mentioning his Golden Goal from the 2010 Olympics, one of hockey's most memorable moments.
Before retiring, will Crosby catch Ovechkin for the NHL record regarding regular-season overtime goals?
But you don’t need to have taken any fancy statistics courses to know just how impactful the big man has been this season.
The 7-foot-2 Kornet, who re-signed with Boston this past summer on a minimum-salary contract, has emerged as one of the most impactful centers in the NBA this season. Given his impact, you could make the case that he has one of the highest-value contracts in the entire league.
Just check out some of the numbers:
Nothing but net… rating
Kornet ranks fourth in the NBA in net rating, with Boston outscoring opponents by 14.4 points per 100 possessions during his floor time. Oklahoma City Thunder players account for five of the top six spots in the league, with Kornet the only outlier atop a list of 208 players who have played 18+ minutes per game in 50+ appearances this season.
A year ago, Sam Hauser (+14.2) and Payton Pritchard (+13.6) topped both the Celtics and the NBA in net rating, with Boston slotting four players in the top six spots en route to an NBA title. This season, it’s Kornet who seems to be keying Boston’s reserve lineups with his positive impact on the court.
Kornet also tops the team in net rating differential. The team is 7.7 points per 100 possessions better when he’s on the court versus off. The next best differential on the team: Al Horford at +3.9 (+11.3 on, +7.4 off).
Often a plus, rarely a minus
The Celtics were a team-best +21 in Kornet’s 31 minutes on the floor during Saturday’s win in San Antonio. It’s the seventh time this season that the Celtics have been +20 or better in Kornet’s minutes. In fact, Kornet has been +10 or better in 27 games this season.
Kornet has finished in the positive for plus/minus in 40 of his 66 appearances this season. Kornet ranks 22nd overall in the NBA with a raw plus/minus of +345 this year.
More “net” gains
ESPN debuted a new “Net Points” metric this season that aims to spotlight the players most directly contributing to their team’s point differential.
Kornet ranks 17th overall in their rankings, one spot behind LeBron James. He’s one spot ahead of Anthony Davis (which essentially means the Mavericks probably would have been better off trading Luka Doncic for Kornet, based on impact this season).
Kornet sits 12th in defensive net points and 41st in offensive net points. The only Boston player ahead of him on the overall net points leaderboard is Tatum, who is sixth overall.
Luke in the two-man game
All three of Boston’s top two-man lineups (at least 500 minutes played together) feature Kornet.
The Kornet-Hauser combo tops the team at +15.7 in 552 minutes together. Kornet-Derrick White is +15.4 in 655 minutes, while the Kornet-Tatum combo is +15.0 in 815 minutes.
Among the 293 two-man combos with at least 800 minutes played together this season, that Kornet-Tatum combo is sixth overall in the NBA, sitting behind five OKC combos. (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander-Aaron Wiggins tops the NBA at +18.8).
Kornet, Tatum and the bench
One of Boston’s most successful five-man lineups this season has featured Tatum running alongside Kornet, Hauser, and Pritchard. That trio has a +18.9 net rating in 291 minutes together and owns an offensive rating of 130.2 in that span.
Boston’s preferred starters have struggled to be as impactful as they were a season ago, but the Tatum-and-the-bench lineups have cleaned up a lot of those struggles.
Double bigs thrive with Kornet
The Celtics have leaned heavily on double-big lineups this season, and Kornet has been vital to the success the team has enjoyed with pairing two of their four bigs together:
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The bottom line
The Celtics are now 31-6 when Kornet plays 16+ minutes this season. That’s a .838 winning percentage, or a 69-win pace over 82 games.
Boston is just 24-13 (.649) when Kornet plays fewer than 16 minutes or is a DNP.
Winger has 32 Serie A goals over the past three years as side keep up push for another Champions League campaign
Venice has no shortage of eye-catching door-knockers, heavy bronze casts of 16th-century lions and sea monsters adorning entrances of palaces throughout the lagoon city. Still, there is always room for another. Riccardo Orsolini could not hang around quite so long, but his goal for Bologna away to Venezia on Saturday will linger in the memories of supporters.
The second half had barely started when Nicolò Cambiaghi cut back from the left flank and crossed right-footed to the far post. Orsolini met his delivery with an exquisite side-footed volley across the goalkeeper and into the corner of the net.
Longtime Kings broadcaster Nick Nickson puts on his headset before calling a game between the Kings and New York Rangers on March 25. Nickson, who has called Kings games since 1981, is retiring at the end of the season. (Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
Don’t think of this as Nick Nickson’s final season behind the microphone for the Kings. Think of it as an encore.
Nickson planned to be golfing by now. He planned to be following his grandkids, Casey and Avery, to their games and attending the birthday parties and anniversaries he had to miss in more than five decades as a hockey broadcaster.
The Kings had other plans, summoning Nickson to a meeting in the summer of 2023 where he worried he might be fired before he could tell them he was ready to retire. Instead the Kings told Nickson, their longtime radio voice, they wanted him to simulcast the radio and TV calls. And they wanted a two-year commitment.
“Had it not been for the change, last year might have been my last,” he said.
Nick Nickson calls a game between the Kings and New York Rangers at Crypto.com Arena on March 25.
The fact it wasn’t makes this season positively, absolutely the last one. (We think.) At 71, Nickson says he has too much he wants to do and not nearly enough time between games in which to do it, so his career will end when the Kings’ season does.
“I’m doing this on my own terms, which I’m grateful for,” he said during an hourlong lunch that was heavy on remembrances and void of regrets. “Some people around the league said ‘Nick why? You still sound so good.’ And yeah I appreciate that.
“But I want to be able to enjoy doing what I want while I’m still healthy. The timing is right.”
The Kings will honor Nickson when they play host to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, a tribute he believes will be heartfelt even though it’s April Fool’s Day.
“I thought of that when they mentioned April 1st, ” Nickson said. “But because so many people are preparing for it, I don’t think it’s going to be a joke. I think it will actually happen.”
Stage manager Donna Moskal points to the camera as Kings broadcasters Jim Fox, left, and Nick Nickson, right, rehearse for a game broadcast.
In his 44 seasons with the Kings, Nickson says he has called more than 3,800 games while narrating the rise of hockey in a desert. He watched the Triple Crown line of Charlie Simmer, Marcel Dionne and Dave Taylor; welcomed Wayne Gretzky to L.A.; and saw Jim Fox, Daryl Evans and Jarret Stoll move from the ice into the broadcast booth.
Two other players, Luc Robitaille and Rob Blake, went from Nickson’s broadcasts into the Kings’ front office as president and general manager, respectively.
“For the culture of a franchise to have people that have been around a long time, it means a lot,” said Robitaille, now Nickson’s boss. “You have your core fans that follow the team and when they’ve been listening to Nick Nickson for all these years they’re part of the family. It’s hard to describe.
“Everybody grew up listening to them and then next thing you know, they get married and they have kids, and they’re still listening. I hear those stories over and over.”
That’s because Nickson described more than just hockey. He did the play-by-play of history, calling the Kings’ two Stanley Cup championships. His radio call of the final six seconds of the 2012 Stanley Cup Final is arguably the franchise’s most memorable moment.
“The long wait is over! After 45 years, the Kings can wear their crown!”
Nick Nickson prepares a script before a game between the Kings and Rangers on March 25.
Nickson’s Hall of Fame career — he became the third Kings broadcaster, after Bob Miller and Jiggs McDonald, to be enshrined when he was voted in by his peers in 2015 — began with the minor league Rochester Americans a year after he graduated from Ithaca College, where he served as sports director for the school’s radio station. Two years later he began calling games for the New Haven Nighthawks, the New York Rangers’ AHL affiliate.
That’s where he got the break that changed his life. The Rangers, who had a player-development agreement with the Nighthawks, briefly ended the relationship in 1981 and the Kings, who were looking for an AHL partner, moved in. The Kings needed more than just a minor league affiliate, however.
Pete Weber had left his seat next to Miller, creating an opening in the broadcast booth. Kings coach Parker MacDonald knew Nickson from his time in New Haven, and though MacDonald wouldn’t last the season behind the bench, he was there long enough to push Nickson for the job.
With the move West, Nickson joined perhaps the most storied and iconic group of sports broadcasters ever assembled in one city. In addition to Miller, Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrín were calling Dodgers games, Chick Hearn was doing the Lakers, Tom Kelly was on USC football and Ralph Lawler soon moved north from San Diego with the Clippers.
All six are Hall of Famers. Yet Nickson, the youngest of the group at 27, fit in immediately.
“He was just great to be around,” Miller said. “Nick was always so well prepared. Great player identification. Kept up with the play, all the fundamentals.”
But the key to his success and that of the other Hall of Famers was stability, Nickson said. Scully and Jarrín both spent more than six decades with the Dodgers. Hearn and Lawler did 41 seasons with Lakers and Clippers, respectively. Nickson, meanwhile, is retiring after 44 seasons with the Kings, the same as Miller, who retired in 2017.
Nick Nickson calls a game at Crypto.com Arena between the Kings and Rangers on March 25. The Kings will honor Nickson before Monday's game against the Jets.
“It’s unusual that a broadcaster stays with one team for a number of years. The era of broadcasters sticking with one team for 40, 50 years is probably gone,” said Nickson, whose time with the Kings was measured in a series of short-term contracts that were always renewed. “You have that connection. It’s just a comfort level.”
“What we’ve had to offer and how we’re presented the game, I think it has educated [people] into being a more appreciative hockey fan,” he added. “That only is natural if you’re in that space for that long.”
As a result, giving up the job — and the game — after five decades won’t be easy. Just ask Miller, who was at a Kings game last weekend shortly after surgery for an aneurysm.
“You know, I still miss doing play-by-play,” he said. “There are certain games I’ll be watching on TV and my wife will say, ‘Do you miss that?’ I don’t miss preparation these days, with players changing teams and so many teams. But there are times I’d watch the game and say, ‘Yeah, I’d like to be doing the play-by-play.’”
As for Nickson, “well, he’s a golfer,” Miller said. “He’s got grandkids. So I don’t think he’ll have any problem getting used to it.”
Nickson has one confession he’d like to make before signing off the final time, though. That memorable call at the end of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs? He worked on that ahead of time.
The Kings were so dominant that spring, Nickson was confident they would win before the final series with the New Jersey Devils even started.
“That’s when I came up with what I eventually said,” he remembered.
Nick Nickson takes a brief break in the broadcast booth before a game between the Kings and Rangers on March 25.
But the genius wasn’t in the words, it was in the timing, with Nickson pronouncing the word “crown” as the final horn sounded.
He’s had nearly two seasons now to think about how he’ll end the final broadcast of his 44-year career, one that draws closer with every passing game.
“Maybe,” he finally offered, “I should that say ‘After 44 years the long wait is over.’”
It’s been almost 20 years since the Boston Bruins’ own first-round draft pick landed in the top five, but that streak might end this season as the Original Six franchise continues to tumble in the NHL standings amid a seven-game losing streak.
The B’s are in free fall right now. They just wrapped up a four-game Western Conference road trip plus an away game against the Detroit Red Wings and went 0-5-0.
The Bruins entered Monday tied with the Buffalo Sabres — yes, the same Sabres team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2011 — for the sixth-worst record in the league based on points percentage (.466). Based on actual points, the B’s are tied with the Philadelphia Flyers for the sixth-worst record (69 points).
Securing a top-five pick is a very real possibility for the Bruins. They haven’t done that since 2006 when they selected forward Phil Kessel at No. 5 overall.
Before we get into what needs to happen for the Bruins to have a top-five selection, here’s a look at their current NHL Draft Lottery odds, per Tankathon.
No. 1 pick: 6.5 percent chance
No. 2 pick: 6.7 percent
No. 3 pick: 0.2 percent
No. 7 pick: 44.4 percent
No. 8 pick: 36.5 percent
No. 9 pick: 5.6 percent
So, right now, the most likely spot for the Bruins to land in the lottery is the No. 7 pick, although they could jump as high as No. 1 and as low as No. 9.
What needs to happen for the Bruins to land a top-five pick? Well, they need to continue losing and get some help from a few other teams winning. More specifically, the B’s need the Seattle Kraken, Philadelphia Flyers and Sabres to win as many games as possible.
The Kraken and Sabres both have very tough remaining schedules, which isn’t good for Boston. The Flyers have the second-easiest remaining schedule and have won back-to-back games since firing head coach John Tortorella last Thursday.
Here’s the remaining strength of schedule for teams No. 4 through No. 10 in the current draft order, per Tankathon. The higher the rank, the tougher the schedule.
No. 4, Kraken: 4th
No. 5, Flyers: 31st
No. 6, Sabres: 3rd
No. 7, Bruins: 22nd
No. 8, Penguins: 24th
No. 9, Ducks: 5th
No. 10, Islanders: 8th
As we’ve noted before, the top 10 of the upcoming draft is pretty strong, and there are several high-end center prospects, which is good for the Bruins due to their severe lack of strength at that position.
Michael Misa (Saginaw), James Hagens (Boston College), Anton Frondell (Sweden) and Caleb Desnoyers (Moncton) are among the centers worthy of a top-10 pick. Misa would be the ideal pick for the B’s. He has 134 points (62 goals, 72 assists) in 65 games in the OHL this season. But he’ll probably be gone by the No. 2 or No. 3 pick. Frondell is an excellent option, too, but might not make it past pick No. 5.
The difference between the No. 4 or No. 5 pick and the No. 7 or No. 8 pick is a large one, whether the Bruins want to keep the pick or potentially look to package it for an impact player who can help right away.
The goal for the Bruins over the next two weeks should be losing as many games as possible and bolstering their odds of winning the draft lottery next month. Nobody likes to lose, but this path is what’s best for the short- and long-term health of the organization.
Popovich is recovering from a stroke he sustained back in early November and has been away from the team since. Kerr, during a six-game road trip, made sure to check on his old friend and shared an emotional update on Popovich’s health status.
“We’ve stayed in touch,” Kerr told reporters after Golden State’s win over San Antonio. “I went and saw him today and he looks great. He’s doing great. He’s one of the most important people in my life, so hoping that everything continues to progress. But it was wonderful to see him.”
"He's one of the most important people in my life…it was wonderful to see him." — Steve Kerr on Gregg Popovich pic.twitter.com/EuGbxrr2eO
Popovich, the Spurs’ coach since 1994 and the NBA’s all-time coaching wins leader, had a stroke on Nov. 2 at the team’s arena in San Antonio. Three months later, Popovich decided not to return this season.
Assistant Mitch Johnson stepped in just six games into the 2024-25 season and has served as acting head coach since.
Just before finding out Popovich wouldn’t return to the hardwood for the remainder of the season, the Spurs announced that All-Star center Victor Wembanyama — the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year favorite at the time — would not play again this season after deep vein thrombosis, or a blood clot, was found in his right shoulder.
Kerr detailed the emotional rollercoaster the Spurs have been through this season and applauded their resilience to continue to compete through the adversity.
“Pop has been basically the leader of the franchise for 26, 27 years. And that’s a huge loss,” Kerr said. “I think their coaching staff and Mitch, they’re doing a great job, they have stayed competitive. Tonight was a one-off, this was not indicative of how they’ve been playing. They’re hanging tough.
“But with the injury to Wemby and Pop’s absence, there’s a lot of adversity they’ve faced this year.”
While the future of Popovich’s legendary NBA coaching career is unknown, his basketball legacy — and his importance to Kerr and many others — is crystal clear.
What’s better than four NBA championships? Five. And what’s better than five? Six.
You get the idea. And so does Steph Curry.
The Warriors superstar, now 37 years old and in his 16th NBA season, already has one of the most decorated careers in league history and is a lock for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame whenever he decides to retire.
Might that day come if Golden State wins a fifth championship this summer? Longtime teammate Draymond Green joined NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole and Kerith Burke on the latest “Dubs Talk” episode and shared why he doesn’t believe Curry will ride off into the sunset if the Warriors’ dynastic duo were to secure its fifth ring this season.
“He is definitely that type of person where he’s just not going to hold on and do the whole thing a lot of guys do,” Green told Poole and Burke. “If he’s not at an elite level, he’s not going to do it. The problem he has is, if we’re winning number five this year, he’s got a strong chance to get six next year. And he’s not going to screw me out of six so he has no chance of retiring, because if we have a chance to get six, I’ll be at his house every day making sure he ain’t retiring. Because we need to go after that.”
That’s not to say Curry at least won’t consider the possibility of retiring on top, but Green believes his teammate ultimately will recognize that if the Warriors are able to win another championship this year, then they will have a strong chance to do so again next season.
“Honestly, I think the decision will come across his mind for like a week or two where he’s like, ‘Man, I did it.’ And then I think he’ll chill for a week or two and then be like, ‘Alright, I’m doing this again. I feel too great, I’m too at the peak of my powers,'” Green said. “He still has too much left to give to this game to let go now.
“He just turned 37 and he can 1,000 percent play this game at the level he’s playing at for another three years until 40. I wholeheartedly believe that. As much as he’s said that, and I believe him, and I think that would make the question run across his mind, I don’t see it happening this year. Whether we win or not, I don’t think it happens.”
Green’s assessment seems to line up with what Curry himself has said about how much longer he will play, recently telling 95.7 The Game’s “Steiny & Guru” that he would like to outplay his current contract, which expires after the 2026-27 NBA season
All three of Curry, Green (player option) and star forward Jimmy Butler are under contract through the 2026-27 NBA season, and many believe the contracts aligning could allow the trio, along with coach Steve Kerr, whose contract is up one year prior, to retire around the same time.
Will Curry and Green secure their fifth rings by then? Only time will tell.
Czech won first title but nearly pulled out of opener
Physio visit led to him denying Novak Djokovic in final
Jakub Mensik claimed the first title of his career with a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) win over Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s Miami Open final, but the Czech teenager revealed he had nearly pulled out of the tournament due to inflammation in his right knee.
Shortly before his opener against Roberto Bautista Agut, the 19-year-old was on his way to the referee’s room to announce his withdrawal, but found that the official was out for lunch and he visited the physio’s room instead.
CINCINNATI — In the opener, the Giants saw what can happen when you’re without your closer. Their comeback win in the ninth inning came against a Cincinnati Reds team that was without injured closer Alexis Diaz.
Three days later, Bob Melvin was without his guy, so he turned to a setup man who was an All-Star two years ago. Camilo Doval breezed through the ninth, picking up his second save since he was pulled from the ninth inning and sent to Triple-A last August. Closer Ryan Walker was unavailable for the final two games of the Reds series because of back pain.
“We’re lucky to have that dynamic, someone who has pitched in that role before and been successful before,” Melvin said. “If ever you can withstand something like that, it’s having a guy like Duvey that everyone feels confident in.”
The Giants are hopeful that Walker will be available Monday night in Houston. He felt discomfort after saving Thursday’s game, but he was said to be feeling much better on Sunday.
Without Walker, and with Randy Rodriguez having pitched in the first two games, Melvin turned to Lou Trivino for the seventh and then saved Doval to follow Tyler Rogers. Doval returned to the ninth by striking out Reds star Elly De La Cruz on a nasty slider down in the zone. After Heliot Ramos’ diving catch in left, he got a game-ending grounder to second.
Doval is coming off a good spring, one in which he threw more strikes and did a better job of paying attention to the small details on the mound. Melvin said all spring that you never know what can happen over the course of a long season, and while the Giants didn’t expect to need a second closer on the first weekend of the season, they certainly have a nice backup plan.
Ray’s Day
For five innings, Robbie Ray was perfect. He wouldn’t make it out of the sixth, and he ended up taking a line that didn’t at all represent how good his stuff was.
Ray was charged with three earned in 5 1/3 innings, but he felt good about his fastball command, his slider was sharp, and he was able to use his changeup as a different look. He even dropped in a perfect curveball to get a strikeout in the third inning.
It was the only curve Ray threw all day, and he said he initially shook when catcher Sam Huff put the sign down. It was the right call, though, and showed off what Ray believes is his first true four-pitch repertoire since 2021, a season in which he won a Cy Young award.
“This is probably the most I’ve felt like I’m being a true four-pitch pitcher,” he said.
The trouble came after Ray was hit with a pitch clock violation that he disagreed with. He felt he started moving toward the plate before the clock hit zero, but as he tried to make sense of it all, former Giant Austin Wynns hit a two-run homer. Ray said later that the sequence was “frustrating.”
In his Giants debut last July, Ray pitched five no-hit innings. While Melvin said he doesn’t start thinking about historic feats until about the seventh, Ray was well aware of the fact that he didn’t allow a baserunner until the top of the sixth, and he knew Nick Martinez was briefly doing the same thing on the other side. The innings were quickly melting away.
“Guys say they don’t know,” he said, smiling. “You always know.”
Shutting Them Down
The Reds didn’t get a chance to test Huff, who mostly caught perfection and then watched two homers leave the yard. Patrick Bailey took over in the ninth and didn’t see a baserunner, either.
That led to what was the most impressive stat of the weekend. The Giants somehow got out of Cincinnati without a single rain delay, and also without allowing a stolen base to a team that was third in the big leagues last year with 207.
The Giants had a pair, with Jung Hoo Lee stealing second on Saturday and Tyler Fitzgerald boldly taking off for third on Sunday. He was initially ruled out but replay determined that he was never tagged and a sacrifice fly brought him home.
“Pretty slow times to the plate (there) so we were pretty confident he could do it,” Melvin said of Fitzgerald.
The Giants want Fitzgerald to run more, and the second baseman always has the green light. He was hesitant late in Saturday’s game and ended up getting wiped out by a double play, but that was against a reliever who was about 1.2 seconds to the plate, making it much more difficult. The swipe on Sunday should be a nice boost of confidence.
As for the rain, the tarp was on all morning Sunday and went right back on after the final pitch. It rained most of the evening and there were thunderstorms and tornado warnings in the Cincinnati area, but the Giants were already well on their way to Houston.
The Washington Wizards are about to complete their seventh losing season in a row. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
The business of sports is about winning. But that, of course, doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of losers out there. That’s most evident every year in the NBA around the first day of spring. With about a dozen games left in the regular season, it’s obvious which teams are also-rans – and they have probably known that for some time. But when a team are losing and losing often, how does that affect the roster? How do the players deal with the constant lows?
“When you lose,” says former NBA All-Star Xavier McDaniel, “it’s like getting a life sentence. I knew for me, losing, it started me to drink beer. Losing created a lot of bad habits. Losing can be a disease. We were losing so much [my rookie season] that by January I was drinking beer!”
Growing up, McDaniel was seemingly destined for the pros. Tall, tough and talented, the X-Man led his high school and college teams to victory after victory. In the 1985 draft, he was picked No 4 overall by the Seattle SuperSonics. When you’re a top selection like that, you’re often entering a lowly team. That was the case for McDaniel. His rookie season, the Sonics finished 31-51. They improved in his sophomore season and for most of his career in the league, McDaniel was on winners. But there were a few seasons later in Boston and New Jersey when times were equally as tough.
“I would say [you can tell a losing season is unfolding] when you get about 30 games in and you’re struggling,” he says. “You see you’re going nowhere fast. For me, [losing] feels like shit. When you’re losing, everything is bad. The food is bad, everything is bad.”
If you’re young and on a bad team, you can hope that the roster will get reinforcements via the draft in the coming summers. But if you’re a vet on a loser, you may as well start packing your bags. Bad teams want to showcase the young guys and deal the vets. Or it could be a case that the temperaments on the team just don’t mix. “One thing about the NBA,” says McDaniel, “you’ve got to find guys who play well together.”
When he started his career, Scott Williams barely knew what it was like to lose. In his first three seasons, the undrafted player out of the University of North Carolina won three titles with Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. But in subsequent years, he found himself languishing on bad Philadelphia teams. Those squads, he says, didn’t care about the idea of the team. That was their downfall.
“A lot of times,” says Williams, “I’ve found that it’s [about the] character of the makeup of the team. In basketball, really only about eight dudes determine the success or failure of the season. And if you got one or two or three dudes on a team that don’t have the [right] character, you’re going to have a losing year.”
In the NBA, Williams says, everyone is talented. So it is often attitude that separates winners from losers. “If your star doesn’t have good character, if he doesn’t want to put in work, the preparation, the consistence,” says Williams, “if he doesn’t have resiliency, you’re going to struggle.”
Williams remembers his days with Jordan. “There was nobody that had more intensity and stronger will and a passion to work than Michael Jordan,” says Williams. “Everyone has to come along if the superstar is doing it.”
Williams played on 60-plus-win teams and teams that have won games in the teens. There is no greater high in his life, he says, with perhaps the exception of the birth of his children, than winning an NBA title. It’s the culmination of so much work, time and sacrifice. But the opposite is true when you’re on a team going nowhere. Such was the case when he was in Philly on squads helmed by a young Allen Iverson.
“When you’re in a losing season – man, you can’t wait for the freaking year to end,” Williams says. “You’re showing up every day with dudes with negative attitudes who are me-first people. It’s miserable to be around them. You count the days until your contract is finished so you can get out of there.” It’s hard to stay motivated, he says. “It weighs on you. To fight that defeatist mentalist is hard – especially in your 20s when you haven’t had as many life lessons.”
What’s worse, when you’re on a losing team with players who don’t care about improvement, Williams says, it can make you question your own effort. “Why would I want to risk diving for a ball and banging my knee when we’re down 15 when the dude next to you won’t even help you up off the floor after you do it?” he says. “But there’s certain things you have to fight through and realize there’s a bigger picture.”
In 1981, Cedric Maxwell was named the NBA finals MVP. Surrounded by guys like Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish and Tiny Archibald, it was Maxwell who won the hardware when his Boston Celtics beat the Houston Rockets. The win, though, came after several years of rebuilding, including the first two years of Maxwell’s career when the Celtics went 32-50 and 29-53. Boston were in the middle of an overhaul, despite playing in the Eastern Conference finals in 1977. Injuries and ageing players plagued the roster. So, in the hopes of turning things around, Celtics coach Tom Heinsohn looked to his rookie.
The team had lost six games in a row to start Maxwell’s rookie campaign. But he got in and played 30-plus minutes in a game on 11 November against Buffalo. He scored 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds. “I came in that game and played really well,” says Maxwell. “And I remember [veteran Celtic] John Havlicek came up to me and said, ‘Hey, rook, just keep it going!’” But despite his good play, the Celtics never flipped the script that year. “The [vets] were convinced we’d turn the thing around, like, ‘We’re going to get on a streak!’ But we never did.”
All the losing led Maxwell to feel down, he says. But that’s when the team’s veteran big man offered his own bit of philosophy. “I remember Curtis Rowe saying to me after I felt depressed about one game – Curtis said to me, ‘Rook, there ain’t no Ls or Ws on them checks.”
But while some guys don’t live and die with the results, for Maxwell, winning is everything. “I’ve always been a competitor,” he says. So, he did what he could: he focused on himself and his own self-improvement. He focused on what he could control. “I was going to find a way to make myself better,” he says. He watched his teammates and their bad habits. He made sure that he didn’t follow in their footsteps.
“During the late 1970s, drugs were big in the NBA,” Maxwell says. “I was asked multiple times did I want to get some coke or do some blow. But I had a strong enough constitution to know that wasn’t something I wanted. Those bad habits, those things I was able to avoid.”
Looking back, Maxwell can sum up his position on losing with one piece of advice. Don’t let the noise and negativity affect your game or the way you look at the world. Because right around the corner could be an upswing, the playoffs, a chance at a title.
“The best thing,” says Maxwell, “is to be your own person. As my mom and dad used to say, ‘Be a leader. Don’t be a follower.’ That was something that helped me out in what I wanted to do. So, to any rookie out there, just be true to yourself.”
