Category: NBA

Mark Cuban Tells Story Of First Time Gambling With Michael Jordan — NESN.com

As we’re without sports due to the coronavirus pandemic, all attention has been diverted to “The Last Dance,” the documentary series produced by ESPN about the legendary Michael Jordan. And part of his legend, the extent of the Jumpman’s gambling “hobby,” was the focus of the sixth episode, shocking some people to see the big…

Mark Cuban Tells Story Of First Time Gambling With Michael Jordan — NESN.com

Tech billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, can attest to that, and he did on Friday’s episode of “Pardon My Take.” Here’s what he had to say about one of the first times he got to hang out with Jordan, along with other stars of the NBA, NHL and pro tennis: It was a golf tournament in Reno, and I had never been to Reno. So, Charles Barkley says, “We’re going down to play Blackjack, so come on down.” And it was the craziest moment. So, there’s Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, Pete Sampras, Mario Lemieux, and me at this blackjack table. And I pull out 100 bucks, because, you know, I didn’t bring money. Jordan looks at me and goes, “What the (expletive)? You can’t play $100 at this table,” because he’s playing like $10,000 and Barkley’s playing $5,000. And (Jordan) goes to the casino guy … give Mr. Cuban a $1 million line of credit.  The casino guy goes, “Mr. Cuban, would you like a $1 million line of credit?” I’m like, “sure!” You know, I played 1,000 bucks a hand, which was like the most I had ever played at that point, and it was a blast. And then we ended up with Charles Barkley, we went to, with all the guys, actually, this party they had, and Charles literally bought 50 bottles of tequila and was handing them out, oh my god. One of the best party nights ever. Cuban said he walked out of the casino up that night, though only by two grand “or whatever like that.” Relative to his counterparts that wasn’t very much, but the story is priceless.

Read more at: https://nesn.com/2020/05/mark-cuban-tells-story-of-first-time-gambling-with-michael-jordan/

Lakers plan to reopen practice facility, but for now Dwight Howard will stay in Georgia with family — Daily News

Dwight Howard, for one, won’t be on hand Saturday when the Lakers plan to reopen their practice facility, with the blessing of L.A. County health officials. On a limited basis, the team is expected to open their doors at the UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic…

Lakers plan to reopen practice facility, but for now Dwight Howard will stay in Georgia with family — Daily News

“I’m in Georgia right now,” Howard said Friday afternoon on a Zoom video conference with reporters. “Probably will stay here right now until everything is cleared up, until we can leave. I would love to go back to L.A. and start working out with the team and everything like that, but I’ve been training here and once everything opens up, then I can travel on to L.A. and start working.”
In accordance with those set forth by public health officials, the NBA has issued guidelines for teams that have begun reopening their training facilities for voluntary, social-distanced workouts:

• No more than four players will be permitted at a facility at any one time;
• No head or assistant coaches can participate;
• Group activity (including practices and scrimmages) remains prohibited;
• Players continue to be barred from using non-team facilities (such as public health clubs or fitness centers) to work out.
Howard — who is surrounded by family at his Georgia home as he grieves the loss of his son’s mother, Melissa Rios, a few weeks ago — said he and his teammates don’t have concerns about the NBA’s rules for returning. They’re most concerned with getting back to their championship chase, he said.



“I think everybody’s anxious to get back playing,” Howard said. “I think we’ve all felt like this was our season and this was our time. It’s more so everyone’s just anxious to play.”
As for how Howard feels about potentially playing at a single site, sans fans, as some have suggested?
“I want to go to L.A.,” said the 6-foot-10 showman, who famously feeds off the crowd’s energy. “I want to play in front of Laker Nation, that’s what I want to do. I don’t know how we could play a game without our fans, I don’t know how anybody could … it’s like that’s the energy — we feed off that, we feed off the crowd. Especially at home.”
Games without fans might most disadvantage the Lakers, considering widespread support they’re used to in every NBA city.
“Everywhere’s at home for us,” noted Howard, who was averaging 7.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in fewer than 20 minutes per game when the season was suspended with the 49-14 Lakers sitting atop the Western Conference standings.
“When we’re hearing ‘Ko-be, Ko-be” or whatever we’re hearing, that gives us more energy. ….

Should NBA Go With Mark Cuban’s Idea And Start NBA Season On Christmas Full Time? — NESN.com

The coronavirus is going to change sports in ways we can’t even comprehend yet. One potential change that is gaining more and more momentum right now is not only a short-term tweak to the NBA schedule but perhaps a permanent alteration to the hoops calendar. As the NBA begins to ramp up its efforts in…

Should NBA Go With Mark Cuban’s Idea And Start NBA Season On Christmas Full Time? — NESN.com

The coronavirus is going to change sports in ways we can’t even comprehend yet. One potential change that is gaining more and more momentum right now is not only a short-term tweak to the NBA schedule but perhaps a permanent alteration to the hoops calendar. As the NBA begins to ramp up its efforts in an attempt to find a safe date and way to resume its season after pausing due to COVID-19, the league is doing so with a measured approach. NBA commissioner Adam Silver insists the league has plenty of time to make a decision, as the parties involved are more than content with postponing the start of next season in order to crown a 2020 champion. Most of the conversation has centered around starting next season on Christmas Day. That would mean one of two things: Either the 2020-21 season will be shortened, or next season will extend through late summer. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban hopes it’s the latter, and he hopes that’s a schedule the NBA adopts full time. “I’ve been saying that for 15 years, and the reason I’ve been shot down is there’s a thing called H.U.T.: households using television,” Cuban explained during an appearance on the “Pardon My Take” podcast Friday. “During the summer, that drops, right? A lot fewer people are watching TV because they can be outside. In the past, that was a big deal, so you wanted to end by June to maximize when people would watch on TV. But you guys know as well as anybody, TV’s changed. TV has changed a lot. So we’re gonna have a lot more options and a lot more flexibility to start later and end later. Rather than taking on football with our (early-season) games, let’s let them get close to the playoff and go wholeheartedly starting Christmas Day.” More: Here’s What NBA Players Poll Revealed About Resuming Season Whether the NBA makes that change full time remains to be seen, but perhaps they could use this year as a trial balloon. Everything is trending in that direction already. As Cuban explained, that sort of timeframe would give the NBA a pretty big window to finish the current season, with Cuban saying they could restart the league as late as July. “Let’s just assume we don’t start next season until Christmas Day,” he said. “If we work backward from there … let’s just say we happen to have 60 days (in between seasons). So, November, October and then a training camp — so we’d have to be done (with this season) by mid-September. … If we start sometime in July, we might be able to make it.” That certainly would be an interesting scenario. If this became a full-time thing, sports fans desperate for something other than regular-season baseball in late summer would also have the NBA playoffs to watch. As Cuban says, the goal is to be done by mid-September, which is right when the NFL season begins. Maybe the NBA tweaks its schedule so that the final game of the playoffs couldn’t be played before the football season begins, and we’d time it up perfectly so maybe Game 7 of the NBA Finals is on Labor Day weekend, and the NFL begins the very next weekend. All the while, you’d also have the MLB stretch run. Not bad, huh? Of course, the more pressing issue right now for the NBA and every league is to ensure a safe return to play. But if they’re willing (and even preferring) to wait, they might give themselves their best chance of getting it done, which could potentially set up a change that forever alters the sports landscape.

More: NBA Hopes Majority Of Team Facilities Will Be Open By May 18

Read more at: https://nesn.com/2020/05/should-nba-go-with-mark-cubans-idea-and-start-nba-season-on-christmas-full-time/

Celtics’ Grant Williams Launches Virtual Mentoring Program During Pandemic — NESN.com

Grant Williams is giving back to Boston from afar. The Boston Celtics forward started mentoring high school kids last month as a way of making a positive contribution to his new community, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. From his hometown of Charlotte, N.C, where he has been living with Celtics teammate Kemba Walker during the…

Celtics’ Grant Williams Launches Virtual Mentoring Program During Pandemic — NESN.com

Lakers’ practice facility will reopen on limited basis Saturday — Press Telegram

With the blessing of L.A. County health officials, the Lakers will reopen their practice facility on a limited basis Saturday for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic suspended the NBA season March 11 and subsequently shuttered team training centers, reported the Athletic’s Shams Chanaria on Friday morning. The facility will be open to players…

Lakers’ practice facility will reopen on limited basis Saturday — Press Telegram

Celtics’ Danny Ainge Hopeful NBA Will Finish 2019-20 Season, Open Practice Facilities — NESN.com

Danny Ainge shares the same hope of every NBA fan. The Celtics president of basketball operations joined ESPN’s Zach Lowe’s “The Lowe Podcast” on Thursday to talk all things basketball, including how he hopes Boston’s practice facilities will re-open next week if Massachusetts loosens the stay-at-home restrictions. “Massachusetts has been one of the slowest in…

Celtics’ Danny Ainge Hopeful NBA Will Finish 2019-20 Season, Open Practice Facilities — NESN.com

NBA involvement in last-chance Olympic qualifier highly unlikely now — Toronto Sun

Canada’s last chance at a berth in next summer’s Olympics has been rescheduled and thus the likelihood of any NBA involvement is almost certainly gone. Read More

NBA involvement in last-chance Olympic qualifier highly unlikely now — Toronto Sun
Canada’s last chance at a berth in next summer’s Olympics has been rescheduled and thus the likelihood of any NBA involvement is almost certainly gone.
Canada needs to win it’s six team-qualifier to get in and the chances of that happening were given a huge lift when Victoria was named one of the four tournament sites for the four remaining Olympic berths.
Under normal circumstances the tournament would not start until the NBA playoffs were over but that’s unlikely given the expectation that the 2020-21 season likely won’t be starting until December because of the coronavirus pandemic that shut the league down back on March 11.

Canada is in a group with Greece, China, Uruguay, the Czech Republic and Turkey and already had NBA commitments from the likes of Jamal Murray, Shae Gilgeous-Alexander, Dillon Brooks, R.J. Barrett, Dwight Powell and Chris Boucher among other Canadian-born NBA standouts. But if the tournament overlaps with the NBA regular season or playoffs as it appears it would, none of those players would be available.
There is also the likelihood that Nick Nurse, the head coach of Canada’s national men’s team will not be able to fulfill those duties as the expectation is he will still be running the bench of the Raptors.
The tournament will now be played June 29-July 4 in Victoria.




An NBA superstar conference call was oddly missing the game’s greatest scorer, James Harden — Onboard 2020

With each passing day, there is a new development between NBA players and owners, with both sides working on resuming the 2019-2020 season. And on Monday, some of the league’s biggest stars came together for a conference call to help provide a united front for the players in their quest to finish what they started. Yahoo Sources: […]

An NBA superstar conference call was oddly missing the game’s greatest scorer, James Harden — Onboard 2020

With each passing day, there is a new development between NBA players and owners, with both sides working on resuming the 2019-2020 season.

And on Monday, some of the league’s biggest stars came together for a conference call to help provide a united front for the players in their quest to finish what they started.Chris Haynes✔@ChrisBHaynes

Yahoo Sources: NBA superstars LeBron James, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard and Stephen Curry held private conference call on Monday and established united front in favor of resuming season. https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-nba-superstars-establish-united-front-on-private-conference-call-to-resume-season-210518262.html …

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The call featured Chris Paul, the President of the National Basketball Players Association, as well as former league MVPs LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

But there was one noticeable omission that immediately caught the eyes of fans and pundits alike.

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There hasn’t been any explanation for why 6-time All-NBA performer and 2018 NBA MVP James Harden wasn’t on the conference call, but that hasn’t stopped the speculation, with some wondering if he was excluded due to his rocky relationship with Paul, his former teammate in Houston.

The two played together from 2017-2019, and their first season together produced a league-best 66 wins and a trip to the Western Conference Finals, where they would lose in seven games to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors.

After an injury-riddled second season in Houston, in which Paul would miss 24 games, the Rockets would once again be eliminated by the Warriors, this time in six games in the 2019 Western Conference Semifinals.

In the postgame press conference after Game 6, Harden alluded to changes that needed to be made to the roster.

Doc Rivers says LeBron James ‘may have been the greatest football player ever’ — My worldwide

Doc Rivers says LeBron James ‘may have been the greatest football player ever’ How many times have you heard the question asked, “What if LeBron James had chosen football over basketball?” Even at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, where James was one of the top football recruits in the state of Ohio, it was clear […]

Doc Rivers says LeBron James ‘may have been the greatest football player ever’ — My worldwide

Even at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, where James was one of the top football recruits in the state of Ohio, it was clear his future was on the hardcourt. His run of dominance in the NBA has been so profound since 2003, however, that even today, at 35 years old, James has people thinking about what might have been.

So it is for Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who interviewed with Austin Rivers on Wednesday and said that James “may have been the greatest football player ever” had he chosen that route.

“Michael (Jordan) was a super athlete, so was Kobe (Bryant), so was Kawhi (Leonard),” Rivers said. “I don’t know that there’s ever been an athlete like LeBron James in our league. I really believe if LeBron James had have played football, he may have been the greatest football player ever, at whatever position.”

Austin Rivers & Doc Rivers agree on LeBron James being the greatest athlete of all-time

“I really believe if LeBron James had to play football, he may have been the greatest football player ever.”

(🎥 @uninterrupted ) pic.twitter.com/T48KRneg0z

— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) May 13, 2020

MORE: Jordan vs. LeBron — the key stats you need to know in the GOAT debate

Per this news clip James shared to his Instagram page, he caught 60 passes for 1,200 yards and 16 touchdowns as a junior (The New York Times reports that he actually caught 61 passes for 1,245 yards and 16 touchdowns; an improvement from his 42-catch, 820-yard, seven-touchdown season as a a sophomore).

With James standing at a listed 6-8, 232 pounds, it’s easy to see how he would have been one of the most coveted high school recruits in the nation, regardless of position. It stands to reason that James — an Akron, Ohio native — probably would have gone to powerhouse Ohio State had he chosen football as his career choice. James’ football career ended the summer before his senior year after he broke his wrist in an AAU game.

Celtics’ Enes Kanter ‘Definitely Becoming’ WWE Wrestler After NBA Career — NESN.com

Enes Kanter already knows what he wants to do once his NBA career is over. The Boston Celtics center spoke with The Athletic’s Shams Charania about his life after basketball — and he apparently already has an offer on the table. “Oh, I’m definitely becoming a WWE wrestler, for sure,” Kanter told Charania. “I actually…

Celtics’ Enes Kanter ‘Definitely Becoming’ WWE Wrestler After NBA Career — NESN.com