Luka Dončić put up a historic triple-double in the Dallas Mavericks’ thrilling 126-121 overtime win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old recorded a career-high 60 points and a career-high 21 rebounds to go with 10 assists, helping the Mavericks come from nine points down with just 33 seconds of regulation time remaining.
It is the first time in NBA history that a player has reached that stat line.
“I’m tired as hell,” Dončić said after the game. “I need a recovery beer.”
In the past 20 seasons, all 13,884 NBA teams that have trailed by at least nine points with 35 seconds or fewer remaining have gone on to lose the game, according to ESPN.
However, in a dramatic final play, Dončić intentionally missed a free throw and then secured the rebound, before scoring the putback to tie the game and force overtime.
The Slovenian star scored 10 points in the final minute of regulation time and added seven more in overtime to pull off the most improbable of wins.
Dončić also joins James Harden as the only other player in NBA history to score a 60-point triple-double, and also becomes just the sixth player to record six or more 40-point triple-doubles after Oscar Robertson, Harden, Russell Westbrook, Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James.
“We just saw it on the screen right now,” Dončić said of his scoring feat. “We were watching NBA TV. I mean, it’s just incredible to be in those comparisons and just to be with those guys, at any stage. It’s amazing for me.”
Dončić’s 60 points also set a new franchise scoring record for Dallas, overtaking the 53 points scored by Dirk Nowitzki against Houston in 2004.
“Just with age, he has a birthday coming up here in the new year, I think he’s seen it all at the age of 23,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said of Dončić becoming a leader. “But just his competitiveness to win is at a very high level – and you saw that displayed tonight.
“Things weren’t going well. Give the Knicks credit, they were making a lot of threes that we didn’t think were possible. They were playing harder. We were down 10. We’ve been in this position earlier in the season, when you talk about giving up a lead or giving up a game like this.
“Just to be able to stay together and trust, Luka had a big part in that. He never was discouraged that the game was over. As you can see, he’s picking up full-court, we had a big jump ball. There’s a lot of things we’ve learned from our losses in close games like this.”
The Mavericks improve to 19-16 on the season and climb to sixth in the Western Conference, while the Knicks have now lost four straight to sit sixth in the East.
LAS VEGAS — Usually the G League Winter Showcase marks a beginning point for a big chunk of the NBA’s trade conversations. Even in our networked/texting/Zooming world, face time matters. Nearly every exec in the league spends at least a day here hobnobbing.
Front office members and staffers see each other at the two courts where the event is held, and perhaps at the bar at the end of a long day, too, since virtually everyone is in the same hotel. Relaxed without the prying eyes of fans around, they trade bits of information and crop up conversations. Next thing you know, there’s a three-team, eight-player deal on the table. It still takes the urgency of the trade deadline in February to actually get these conversations to the finish line, but this week is often the catalyst.
This year has felt … different. The overarching theme is that things seemed quieter than usual.
“Quiet” isn’t the same thing as “dead,” of course, and flickers of trade market life could be detected if one looked closely enough. Teams spent the week kicking the tires on Chicago’s situation. Phoenix’s exiled Jae Crowder remains a target for several contenders. Oh, and have you heard Atlanta’s John Collins is available?
Nonetheless, the cold math remains: It’s tough to have buyers without any sellers, and there just aren’t many sellers right now. That may change as we get closer to the trade deadline and more teams see their preseason hopes collide with the realities of their rosters. Right now, however, the potentially interesting sellers are either straddling .500 or, in a few cases, clinging resolutely to the delusion that they can get there. Instead of actual trade talks, we’re left speculating about guys who might, maybe, at some point, want to be traded. Fun times.
Instead, it was a different transaction that got everyone’s attention this week.
Four billion dollars? Now that got people talking. That was the valuation Mat Ishbia agreed to this week in purchasing a controlling stake of the Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury.
It’s one thing when the LA Clippers go for billions, but Phoenix? A growing but transplant-heavy market, with a tired arena and lots of pro and college sports competition? That’s news. In October, Forbes rated the Suns the 13th-most valuable NBA property, at a value of $2.7 billion. Ishbia went much higher than that.
The sale of the Suns and Mercury should have a big impact on NBA business in two areas. First of all, it could precipitate moves in other markets. The working presumption by many insiders is that we would see a raft of sales after the new collective bargaining agreement and next TV deal are finalized, since secure labor peace and a potential TV money bonanza would likely increase valuations. (As would expansion fees that might happen concurrently, but more on that below.)
However, economists who believe in efficient market theory would tell you this knowledge should already be baked into bidders’ valuations. The Suns’ sale seems to be a perfect example. At first glance, it seems like a wild overvaluation, but it makes a lot more sense if one is looking at the post-2026 market.
So the question becomes: What other owners might realize that they don’t need to wait and can cash out right away? Certainly, Portland comes to mind. There may be other reasons for Paul Allen’s estate to wait a while longer, but getting a price in the $3 billion to $4 billion range right now could easily trump them.
Similarly, Michael Jordan in Charlotte has been whispered about for ages as a potential seller. Though the Hornets haven’t exactly set the league afire, he bought the team for relative peanuts in 2010 (a reported net price of $175 million) and would make a mint on a sale, perhaps 10 times what he paid. New Orleans is another franchise that many insiders mention as a sale candidate, although the search for a local buyer could stymie a transaction. Those are the known knowns, in Rumsfeld-speak.
But what about the known unknowns? Are there other owners who weren’t really thinking about selling a week ago, but now might suddenly be tempted if they can get a number like $4 billion?
And whither the T’wolves? The bizarre multi-installment sale from Glen Taylor to Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore is still creaking along toward its Dec. 31, 2023 completion date, but should anything go amiss, Taylor could seemingly make a lot more money from another buyer. Needless to say, if the new dudes so much as misplace a comma in a document, Taylor is massively incentivized to nuke the deal and start over. The valuation on that Timberwolves sale was $1.6 billion, so Taylor might make an extra billion if the team went back on the market! Fortunately, this is the Minnesota Timberwolves, so nothing crazy like that could possibly happen.
However, even that pales in comparison to the other important piece of the Suns’ sale news: what it means for expansion.
The chances of the NBA returning to Seattle keep growing. (Joe Nicholson / USA Today)
Basically, it makes it seem almost inevitable that we’ll have two new teams within the next half decade. (Not breaking any news here, but every single person I asked thinks those teams will be in Seattle and Las Vegas. My personal crusade for Bali and Kauai appears to have gained little traction.)
If you want to understand why the Phoenix sale is so important to this, do the math. The biggest obstacle to expanding from 30 teams to 32 is not a lack of available markets in which to sell tickets or pipe in local TV broadcasts. It’s because they dilute the national TV money.
The league’s national TV deal has become an increasingly large portion of teams’ budgets, and that amount is only expected to rise in the next TV deal. Adding two new franchises dilutes each one’s share of that piece by roughly 1/16, and does so in perpetuity. That would be fine if adding teams grew the TV pie proportionately, but it doesn’t, because the NBA already has more games than ESPN and TNT can possibly air. Sure, they might get slightly higher ratings in Seattle and Las Vegas than many other cities, but that’s a barely noticeable blip on a national level.
The only thing offsetting the loss of national TV money is the expansion fee, which is shared by the 30 current owners. That fee, alas, is only paid once, and not year after year, and thus needs to be many multiples of the lost annual TV revenue for the league’s owners to come out ahead — and thus, presumably, vote in favor of expansion. This is why some of my spies were pouring cold water on expansion speculation: The financial math wasn’t guaranteed to pencil out for the 30 owners.
The exact break-even point is a complex calculation based on projections of future TV revenues, future interest rates and investment returns, an estimate of the expansion fee and what economists call the discount rate for the time value of money, accounting for the fact you’d rather have your money today than 10 years from now.
Instead, let me make some grossly simplifying assumptions to walk you through the exercise. I have an economics degree and I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. This should go great.
The last TV deal was $24 billion over nine years. Let’s say the next one is $75 billion over nine years, which some have estimated.
Now, for some math. (Sorry). Divide by 30 and you have each team’s share of that package ($2.5 billion). Divide that number by nine and you have each team’s annual share ($277 million). That share, in turn, is diluted 1/16 by expansion. The dilution, then, is worth about $17.3 million annually. If an owner’s financial mandarins end up with a 10 percent annual discount on future revenues (this is a quasi-reasonable ballpark), they will want the expansion fee to be at least 10 times the diluted revenue to justify a yes vote.
And that is why an expansion fee in the $4 billion to $5 billion range is so important. It’s so much easier to pencil out the owners coming out ahead than if the fee were, say, in the $3 billion to $3.5 billion range.
Which, in turn, is much easier to imagine happening if an existing franchise just sold for $4 billion. Most observers I spoke with see a Vegas team as being of similar or slightly greater value than Phoenix, and a Seattle team as being worth considerably more. Suppose, for argument’s sake, it was $4 billion for Vegas and $5 billion for Seattle. That’s an instant $300 million windfall for every owner … and a roughly 17x ratio to the diluted TV money.
Yes, my math here involves sweeping assumptions and simplifications. Nonetheless, let’s exit the financial weeds here and conclude with the big-picture takeaway from this exercise. If the expansion fees were $3 billion, it would seem like a close call for the league’s owners to approve it.
If it’s at $4 billion? It’s a no-brainer.
The Knicks’ punishment for tampering with Jalen Brunson was as tame, as expected. (Brad Penner / USA Today)
Some other thoughts from the Showcase:
That’ll show ‘em, huh?
The other hot topic in league circles was the collective eye roll at the NBA’s decision to penalize the Knicks a 2025 second-round pick for tampering in signing Jalen Brunson. As many have already noted, giving up a second-rounder to sign a max-level free agent is a trade every team in the league would make in a nanosecond. Once you’re dealing with All-Stars and max players, there is no amount of second-round picks the league could penalize a team to disincentivize them.
On the flip side, league personnel I talked to recognized the impossibility of the league’s situation. The underlying issue isn’t that the Knicks (or Sixers, for that matter) cheated the letter of the rule this summer, but that the current rules on free agency are virtually unenforceable. There is only one rule most execs really care about: Tampering with a player whose team is still playing games remains an absolutely uncrossable red line, one that should be punished with a decades-long banishment to a dank, windowless cell, containing only a bed made of carpet from the visiting locker room in Oracle Arena and a big screen TV showing games from the 1998-99 lockout year.
As for jumping the July 1 deadline on contacting free agents by a few hours (or days, or weeks) …. whatevs. There are rules written on paper about audits and commandeering phones and whatnot, but nobody wants to actually do that.
In reality, the league’s de facto policy is “just don’t embarrass us.” Which is hard to write about, because we’ve become part of the problem.
News flash: Teams have been jumping the gun on free agency for years and years and years. The news just didn’t get out nearly as fast in the past. It worked in 2012. It doesn’t in 2022.
You can see the problem: The league doesn’t want news leaking of complicated sign-and-trades mere seconds into the alleged start of free agency, nor does it want breathless coverage of back-and-forth free agent negotiations on June 26. Well, good luck with that. Unless every social media outlet simultaneously fails while cutthroat reporters throttle back to Andrea Bargnani-esque tameness, it’s virtually impossible to keep the genie bottled.
The Elam ending factored prominently in the Showcase, even if the word Elam was never mentioned.
The G League has used it in overtime all year to generally positive reviews, requiring teams to score eight points rather than playing for a specified amount of time. That change got a thumbs-up from NBA personnel I spoke to, with the consensus being that NBA overtimes are too long right now and deflate drama from the end of the fourth quarter. The target score also eliminated the chance of multiple overtimes and the crazy player minute situations they can engender. The G League staffers all love it, too.
However, using it for the entire fourth quarter generated opposite reactions. Playing a fourth quarter with a “target” of 25 points more than the leading team’s score, rather than a set time, created a host of new issues. For starters, coaches were left guessing on substitutions without a clock to indicate how long players had played (or rested).
This was particularly true in lower-scoring games, a couple of which became interminable as teams struggled to hit the target score. And this was in today’s more open, offensive era! Imagine my Grizzlies playing, say, Utah in 2016, and try to figure out how long they’d need to play for one team to get to 25.
Secondarily, the target score produced some interesting strategy of its own. If your opponent is three points away from the target score, do you foul to eliminate losing on a 3-pointer? Concede a layup to do the same? (I saw a couple of teams in this situation hug all the shooters and leave gaping holes down Main Street). What about in a one-point game? Would any ref dare call defensive three seconds?
For those reasons, the Elam ending seems much more likely to gain eventual NBA-wide adoption in overtime than in regulation. Regardless, kudos to the league for continuing to use the G League as a lab to experiment with improvements to the game.
Tom Thibodeau was close with Jalen Brunson the person, having known him since he was a young child. He had only watched him from a distance as a player, first in high school, then college and later the NBA.
But almost immediately after Brunson agreed to join the Knicks, his new coach had a good idea of why Brunson was going to be so valuable as his new point guard.
“I’ll be honest with you, when we first signed him he started coming in immediately in the summer and I knew right then, just by what he was doing,” Thibodeau said. “Not by what he was saying. Not by anything other than the way he came in and the way he worked each and every day. I knew that was exactly what we needed.”
Through the season’s first 31 games — in good times and bad, when he’s at less than 100 percent, when games are on the line — it has become clear what the addition of Brunson has meant to the Knicks. After Brunson inked that four-year, $104 million deal to leave the Mavericks, there was a narrative that he was overpaid. So far, it has been the opposite.
His brilliant first season as a Knick continued Tuesday, in the form of a 22-point, five-assist, no-turnover masterpiece that led the Knicks to a 132-94 blowout of the defending champion Warriors and extended their NBA-leading win streak to eight. For the first time in nine meetings at the Garden, the Knicks beat the Warriors. This time, they had the star point guard on their side, as Golden State was without Stephen Curry due to a left shoulder injury, and they treated the Warriors like a sparring partner, instead of the other way around.
Brunson set the tone — with his scoring in the first half and passing after the break. He had plenty of help, four teammates in double figures. Immanuel Quickley snapped out of a shooting slump to hit five 3-pointers and score 22 points, Quentin Grimes had 19 points as he continued his impressive play and RJ Barrett contributed 18 points and five assists. Julius Randle was again a force inside, notching 15 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Jordan Poole led the Warriors (15-17) with 26 points.
After averaging over 27 points on the recent 3-0 road trip, Brunson picked up where he left off. He scored 16 points in the opening half on a variety of midrange jumpers, and went on a personal 9-0 run in the second quarter that gave the Knicks their largest lead of the first half at 57-43.
The ball moved well in the opening half, the Knicks racking up 15 assists on 24 made field goals and shooting a blistering 52.2 percent from the field. They hit 10 of their 19 3-point attempts, three apiece from Grimes and Quickley, and were dominant on the glass, owning a 22-14 edge. The lead was 13 at the break, and really could’ve been larger had the Warriors not shot so well from deep, making eight of 21 attempts.
There was a scare late in the first half that halted the positive vibes momentarily. Grimes landed on the foot of Warriors guard Ty Jerome, and appeared to turn his right ankle. Jerome was assessed a Flagrant 1. Grimes hit two free throws, came out of the game, but started the second half.
Brunson used the pass instead of the shot in the third quarter, stacking up four assists in the early portion of the period as the Knicks threatened to run the Warriors off the Garden floor. After hitting a jumper, Brunson set up a Grimes 3-pointer and Barrett layup on consecutive possessions, keying a 16-6 run that pushed the Knicks lead to a then game-high 21. It nearly doubled from there, ending in a 38-point win.
Jalen Brunson certainly didn’t look like someone limited by an injury Wednesday night. A game-time decision, Brunson wasn’t going to miss out on playing in front of family and friends so close to where he spent a large portion of his childhood.
After resorting to isolation ball with Julius Randle to close out regulation, the Knicks put the ball in Brunson’s hands in the extra session, and he didn’t disappoint. He scored seven of his 30 points in the final five minutes as the Knicks knocked off the Bulls, 128-120, at the United Center after blowing a five-point lead in the final 2:07 of regulation. The victory, the Knicks’ sixth road victory in eight tries, gave them a season-high five-game win streak and moved them to two games over .500 at 15-13 for the first time since late October.
Quentin Grimes hit arguably the game’s biggest shot, a 3-pointer that caromed off the front of the rim and fell in to give the Knicks a six-point edge with 1:04 to go. Brunson then hit another 3-pointer after leaving Alex Caruso on the floor with a crossover. He showed rare emotion, celebrating the big shot by shouting towards his high school coach, Pat Ambrose, and two close friends who were sitting under the basket.
“Pretty special,” was how Brunson described the evening.
As recently as Monday, Brunson was in a walking boot after Davion Mitchell landed awkwardly on his right foot in the Knicks’ win over the Kings on Sunday. He didn’t finish that game and wasn’t able to practice on Tuesday. But against the Bulls, he logged 39 minutes and was at his best in overtime.
In hindsight, it seemed silly that there was even a question about his status.
“I don’t want to give anyone the notion that I’m healthy, but I just didn’t want to take today off,” said Brunson, who also had seven assists. “Me as a leader, if I’m able to walk and I’m able to play, I’ve got to bring it.”
As a group, the Knicks brought it in overtime, especially on the defensive end. They held the Bulls to just three points on 1 of 7 shooting after allowing them to shoot 58 percent over the first four quarters. It was similar to their previous four wins when the Knicks held three opponents under 100 points.
“It was nice to see,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I’d prefer to see it earlier.”
Randle scored a team-high 31 points — his third 30-point effort in four games — to go along with 13 rebounds and seven assists, and RJ Barrett had 22 points before fouling out late in regulation. Grimes chipped in 14 points, five rebounds and a team-best plus-14 rating. DeMar DeRozan scored 32 for the Bulls (11-16), who had their three-game home winning streak snapped.
The Knicks led by as many as 14 points in the first half and were up five in the final two minutes. But they couldn’t finish off the Bulls in regulation as Randle air-balled a baseline fadeaway, leaving Chicago with 0.7 seconds left to win it. Randle, though, read the lob play well, and got in between Patrick Williams and the rim, forcing overtime.
“Sometimes you have to win games in different ways, and the bottom line is just find a way to win,” Thibodeau said.
The Knicks left no doubt from then on. Brunson made sure of that, bad right foot and all, producing his fourth 30-point game of the season.
“It says a lot about him. It’s everything,” Thibodeau said. “Coming in, [getting] multiple treatments every day. That becomes his game, it becomes his practice. He’s been through so many different things. He has a strategy for everything. He just gets out there and gets it done.”
NBA teams are just about one month from a marquee date on the trade market calendar, Dec. 15, and front-office executives are monitoring the buyers, sellers and available players. As The Athletic’s Sam Amick and John Hollinger have recently written, the early season’s strong play by the Utah Jazz and other surprising starts by rebuilding franchises like the Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs are a far cry from the tanking many clamored about during training camp. As always, the buyers and sellers will reveal themselves as the season goes on.
Across the league, multiple teams are tracking the Phoenix Suns in the trade market as they work to find a home for disgruntled forward Jae Crowder. The Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks have been engaged with the Suns on a potential Crowder deal in recent weeks and months, but recently there’s been a new wrinkle across the trade landscape.
The Hawks have opened up preliminary trade discussions around forward John Collins, as interested teams inquire, league sources tell The Athletic. The Suns are a team showing desire in Collins, those sources have added, but they appear uninclined to take on the long-term money of Collins, who is in the second season of a five-year, $125 million contract. The Hawks don’t have an imminent deal in place involving Collins, those sources say, and executives around the league believe a potential deal will be weeks and potentially months in the making ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline.
The Suns have a handful of first-rounders to move, but given the team’s impending ownership change, it’s also uncertain how many future assets the current regime can move. In addition, the Suns expressed interest in forwards such as Sacramento’s Harrison Barnes, Washington’s Kyle Kuzma and Houston’s KJ Martin, league sources have said.
The Suns engaged in rookie extension negotiations with Cam Johnson prior to the regular season, with a final offer of four years in the range of $66 million, sources say. Phoenix refused to move higher toward the figure Johnson had desired. He is currently sidelined after undergoing surgery to remove part of his right meniscus.
“Negotiations are interesting, especially when ownership is unclear,” Johnson said when the extension deadline expired without a deal. The Suns’ valuable starting forward will now enter restricted free agency in July as one of the most versatile and sought after players in the open market.
The inclusion of Collins in the trade talks is not uncommon. For several years now, the Hawks have had a bevy of suitors for Collins, who has established himself as a highflying impact talent in the frontcourt. Collins battled through multiple hand and foot injuries last season, and after an offseason of trade chatter, returned to the organization with a new All-Star backcourt of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray.
Off to a 9-6 start, Atlanta has the ability to be judicious in its approach to discussions from interested parties. So far this season, Collins is averaging 12.6 points (the lowest since his rookie season in 2017-18) and a career-low 22.7 percent 3-point range to go along with 7.7 rebounds per game.
More NBA news and notes…
Knicks willing to move guards
The Knicks have shown a willingness to discuss Derrick Rose and Immanuel Quickley in trade talks, league sources say, as a way to sort out the team’s glut at the guard position over the course of the season.
76ers officials have begun their usual check-ins with teams across the league ahead of the Dec. 15 date for players who signed contracts in the offseason to be traded, when trade talks begin to intensify. Philadelphia’s Tobias Harris has come up in the 76ers’ conversations with clubs so far, league sources said.
In his 12th NBA season, Harris has adapted to a new role and has been regarded as a model teammate and leader for the 76ers. He’s averaged 14.7 points and 6.2 rebounds while attempting 12.1 field goals per game — the lowest since his 2015-16 season in Orlando.
The NBA released its newest slate of City Edition jerseys, the ones teams will wear for the 2022-23 season. These uniforms, from jersey to shorts, usually carry some kind of thematic tie to the franchise’s home city.
The Athletic spoke to Jesse Alvarez, Nike’s product director of men’s basketball, to get a sense of how some of the most notable City Edition jerseys were designed and the details fans should look for when watching their teams play.
I want to start with the Spurs jersey. Can you walk me through the design and the inspiration for it?
Photo courtesy of the NBA.
The Spurs, I think, as a lot of people remember, have one of the most iconic All Star Game uniforms that we’ve done, just in the world of jersey culture. So you can see some pretty clear nods to that in terms of just the color and the vibe. That was really the focus for that one, to be able to tie that in. You asked about some of the details: I think the belt buckle ‘SA’ and the Spur logos on the belt hook was just like a really nice way to round out and add a subtle detail to highlight the All Star uniform that they’ve been synonymous with.
So I recognize the coloring for that when I’m looking at those jerseys. The Pistons ones are green, a color I don’t associate usually with Pistons colors. What happened there?
Detroit has an amazing story. One of the things about that story is St. Cecilia. So St. Cecilia is really a place where players used to go run and play pickup basketball. And so that color, the green, is inspired by the actual St. Cecilia. That, coupled with the iconic details of the short patch, you’ll actually see like a stained glass or a grab that’s inspired by the stained glass that shows up at St. Cecilia, with a 313 logo at the center of it just as a way to weave those stories together. The mantra of St. Cecilia was ‘Where stars are made, not born.’ So it just really packages that story all together to bring that to life.
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Did you guys send people there to kind of look through the gym and just walk through it?
Yeah, so we actually partner with the team, and so the team was over there. They’re sending us pictures, you name it. Anything that we needed, we got to be able to really bring that to life. Like with any uniform, really, it starts with the team. They know their fan bases the best. And so that’s where all those points of inspiration are coming from.
Photo courtesy of the NBA.
For you, do you have a favorite jersey?
You know, it’s funny, I was just telling someone it’s hard to have a favorite. Especially, they all feel like your kids. But I think, just right behind you, Chicago. I really like Chicago. I think how the municipal Y shows up in a number of different ways. And the symbology behind it, like uniting a city and how the Bulls at the center of the the Y on the side profile. I think this is a great representation of how a team is at the heart of a city. So Chicago is where I live.
I liked the color pattern on the Timberwolves one, but obviously it’s not something that’s associated with the Wolves. What is that about? What makes that unique?
One of the unique things about City Edition (jerseys) just in general, before I answer your question, is that with each story from an organization, they get to take it to wherever place they want to go. So Minnesota is known as being a creative hotspot for artists of all sorts. That (jersey) is a nod to some of the creative community. So one of the things that makes that uniform unique is that the pattern that you see in the uniform, it actually gets cut in a different way for every uniform. So every uniform is a unique one, just kind of as a way that each creative is unique in their own way. So that’s really how that story comes to life.
So you guys have like a big pattern of all these colors. Each swatch is different for each uniform?
Think about it more in in terms of when you think about how a uniform was made, each piece gets cut, so no two pieces are the same. So when they’re sewing those things together, every uniform is going to be slightly different, just like a fingerprint.
Photo courtesy of the NBA.
I know sometimes you guys collaborate not only with teams but with like certain individuals on creating the jerseys. Is there anyone notable here that helps you with the creation, with the ideation of some jerseys?
Yeah, Detroit’s a great example. Big Sean is the creative director with the Pistons, so he’s somebody who helped bring that to life. Right behind you, you have KITH with the New York Knicks. Those are those are the two teams that are top of mind. Just kind of highlight some of the names that also work with organizations to bring their city edition uniforms to life.
I was looking at the Hornets’. That’s the angriest hornet I’ve ever seen in my life.
It’s an aggressive hornet. Really cool story, I think, centered around the Mint. So one of the cool things — I’m not sure if you were able to take a look at it — but the pinstripes are actually a nod to the Mint. The Mint is, you know, the source of inspiration for that uniform. The gold lettering with the mint trim, just harkens back to the financial inspiration with the Mint being in Charlotte.
Heat City Edition jersey” width=”1022″ height=”1024″ /> Photo courtesy of the NBA.
And the last one, I heard you talking about the Heat jersey. Can you kind of walk me through that one, especially the rope on the side. That seems to be a really cool detail.
So if you’ve ever turned on a game for the Heat, you’ll see that there’s actual yellow rope that surround the cord. They use the yellow piping to be able to be inspired by that yellow rope that you will see during the game. Their concept is kind of their chapter two of their mashup that they introduced last year.
This year, they flipped the color to white and then they took different components from previous iconic elements of their identity and mash those up together to be able to have this customized look. So you’ll see elements of their Floridians, their white hot, vice versa. All those different kinds of stamps in time that have made up the Heat organization, all mashed up into one uniform.
This isn’t the Julius Randle of two years ago. It’s more like Julius Randle 2.0.
He may be producing similar numbers to that fantastic season when the bruising yet athletic forward led the Knicks to a surprising fourth-place finish in the Eastern Conference, but he is doing so in a different manner.
“The year two years ago obviously he had a great year and a big part of that, I think, was his shooting,” coach Tom Thibodeau said on Tuesday after practice. “It opened up a lot of things for him. But then I think the league sort of caught up and now I think he’s caught up to what they were doing.”
A major part of that change was a different offensive philosophy under Thibodeau predicated on pace and ball movement, and the arrival of new point guard Jalen Brunson. It meant less isolation for Randle and a new focus on playing uptempo.
Randle is rarely bringing the ball up and pounding it into the floor. Instead, he’s getting transition opportunities, shots by moving without the ball and Brunson’s fast start has taken some of the defense’s focus away from Randle. He’s seeing fewer double-teams and getting more open shots.
“His approach has been totally different,” Derrick Rose said. “The way he’s reading the floor is totally different. His passing has been unbelievable, like getting to spots and not forcing shots and understanding that we’re trying to get up a certain amount of 3’s. He’s finding the shooters.”
He’s also made notable adjustments, in particular arriving for training camp leaner and more prepared to get up and down the floor faster. At the start of camp, Randle spoke of his excitement for this new offensive philosophy and teaming up with Brunson, and he has backed up that talk, producing 17 assists and just four turnovers in the preseason. In three regular-season games, he is averaging 21.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and only 1.7 turnovers.
“I’ll say this: Julius is a tremendous athlete and I know from having coached against him what you don’t want to see is Julius flying up the floor, attacking the rim, playing with speed like he’s playing,” Thibodeau said. “You’d rather defend him stationary with the ball. I think because of that, [since] he knows the different things he’s been through, he wants to play fast, and so I think that’s huge. He can help sell it to the rest of the team when he’s moving the way he’s moving. It gets the whole team moving that way.”
Late in Monday’s victory over the Magic the biggest change for the Knicks was on display. A 14-point lead had been cut to six with 4:28 left in the fourth quarter. In past years, it was obvious where the ball was going — to Randle in isolation. Not in this instance. The Knicks ran a high screen-and-roll with Brunson, and it resulted in a made Brunson jumper in which he also drew a foul that iced the game. The Knicks have become less predictable.
“For [Jalen] to take that pressure off me is huge,” Randle said. He added, in general about his play: “I’m just trying to lose myself in the team. Lean on guys like [Brunson], RJ [Barrett], just play for my team. The only thing that matters is winning.”
Brunson, an ego-less lead guard known for making the right play, has had a major impact on Randle. The two started to develop chemistry even before training camp, both of them spending plenty of time in August and early September at the MSG Training Center. It shows. They have played well together, registering a combined plus-30 rating this season.
Brunson recently had Randle and other teammates over to watch a big Eagles-Cowboys game. Brunson roots for the Eagles and Randle is a Cowboys fan. A recent press conference featuring the two players ended with them being asked who will win the NFC East. They both laughed and talked trash about the other’s team.
The only thing the two stars don’t see eye-to-eye on appears to be their favorite football teams.
Three-time NBA slam dunk champion and former guard Nate Robinson has announced he is battling kidney failure.
“I am currently undergoing treatment for Renal Kidney Failure and have been privately dealing with it for the last four years,” Robinson said through a statement Saturday evening.
Robinson, who spent the first five years of his career with the Knicks, said the reason for coming public with his battle was to shine a light on the disease.
“I’m sharing this now because I want to be the voice for all those who are having trouble speaking about this illness and come together for a greater cause – our health,” he added.
Known for his short stature on the court, the 5-9 University of Washington graduate, said he was never one to speak out. But he hopes to lead a united fight over kidney failure.
“I was never a vocal leader on the court,” Robinson admitted. “I preferred to lead by example, but now it’s time for me to speak up and help all those affected by or dealing with Kidney Disease.”
Robinson, 38, also expressed his gratitude for the medical care that he has been receiving over the last four years. “I am grateful for the care I’ve received and continue to receive during this process and hope through this announcement that I can help others like me.
Robinson holds the league record with three NBA Slam Dunk Contest titles, the last coming in 2010.
He suited up for eight teams over the course of his 11 seasons and last appeared in the NBA during the 2015-16 season, where he played two games for the New Orleans Pelicans.
After his basketball career, Robinson tested out boxing, making his professional debut against Jake Paul in an undercard bout for Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr. Paul won the fight in a second-round knock-out.
New York Knicks guard RJ Barrett is finalizing a four-year rookie extension that could be worth up to $120 million, his agent Bill Duffy of BDA Sports and WME Sports told ESPN on Monday, complicating the franchise’s offseason trade pursuit of Utah Jazz All-Star Donovan Mitchell.
Barrett’s deal — which makes him the youngest $100 million player in Knicks history at 22 years old — ends several weeks of trade discussions for Mitchell between New York and Utah, and forces the two organizations, if they choose, to start over talks with significantly different considerations because of the “poison pill” provision now in Barrett’s deal.
New York president of basketball operations Leon Rose set a Monday night deadline with Utah to reach an agreement on a trade for Mitchell or the Knicks would commit to the Barrett extension, sources said.
While the Jazz-Knicks trade talks intensified and the gap on deal points that included Barrett in the package tightened over the weekend and into Monday, there remained a gulf on reaching a trade for Mitchell, sources said. Once the Knicks and Jazz exhausted discussions Monday night, Rose and Duffy finalized the extension eligible to players out of the 2019 NBA draft class.
Barrett’s deal ends a remarkable 23-year drought for the Knicks: He’s the franchise’s first draft pick to agree to a multiyear contract extension after his rookie deal since Charlie Ward in 1999, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Barrett averaged 20 points, 5.8 rebounds and three assists for the Knicks a season ago. He was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2019 draft out of Duke, behind New Orleans’ Zion Williamson and Memphis’ Ja Morant.
Barrett is one of only five players in NBA history to amass 3,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 200 3-pointers before his 22nd birthday, joining Kobe Bryant, Luka Doncic, Kevin Durant and LeBron James.
The Knicks did include Barrett in trade proposals for Mitchell, sources said, which is why the process to complete the extension lasted several additional weeks. Barrett was a staple of several different trade variations discussed, but hurdles remained Monday about the total of unprotected first-round picks in the deal and the inclusion of Knicks guard Quentin Grimes, sources said.
Nevertheless, the Jazz greatly valued Barrett as part of any Mitchell deal with New York, and a deal without him would require the Knicks to relinquish far more draft assets than they’ve shown a willingness to do, sources said.
Once the Knicks committed to Barrett’s extension, management became resigned to the fact that there’s a much more difficult path to an offseason deal to acquire Mitchell. Nevertheless, neither Utah or New York is ruling out restarting the talks before the start of training camps in late September, sources said.
The sides have been discussing a trade on and off since early July. Out of the 179 players in NBA history who’ve had the poison pill provision, only one — Devin Harris in 2008 — was moved.
For trade purposes, the poison pill is computed with a formula that would put the Knicks’ outgoing salary for a Barrett trade at $10.9 million but require the incoming salary for a team acquiring him to be $26.2 million. The restriction will be lifted on July 1.
For Barrett to be included in a trade to the Jazz, the Knicks would need to find a third team with salary-cap space to redirect Evan Fournier’s $37 million contract.
The Jazz aren’t seriously engaged elsewhere on a Mitchell deal now, sources said, which makes real the possibility that he could still be on the roster for the start of training camp.
The Jazz are committed to starting a rebuild after trading All-Star center Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves for five first-round picks in July. Mitchell, 25, is a three-time All-Star and greater New York native who would instantly become the franchise’s best player.
ESPN Front-Office Insider Bobby Marks contributed to this report.
The Lakers appear willing to get creative to try to shed Russell Westbrook and his massive $47 million contract before the start of the season.
NBA insider Marc Stein reported in his Sunday newsletter, per Yahoo Sports that if the Jazz choose to trade superstar Donovan Mitchell to the Knicks or any other team, there is a “decent chance” the Lakers would be involved as a third team.
According to Stein, the hope for Los Angeles would be to get quality role players back as their 2027 and 2029 first-round draft picks — the only ones the Lakers have under their control this decade — would be of interest to the pick-hungry Jazz. The Lakers, however, are only interested in trading those picks in a deal that would help make them a true NBA title contender after missing the postseason all together last season.
Having multiple teams involved would widen the talent pool they could pull from compared to a two-sided transaction. Stein offered up the hypothetical of Los Angles landing Bojan Bogdanovic from the Jazz and Evan Fournier from the Knicks and whether that would be enough to pry the picks from the Lakers.
The Knicks and Jazz, according to The Post’s Marc Berman are locked in a trade stalemate over the number of first-round picks that would be included in the potential package for Mitchell, while the Lakers traded for guard Patrick Beverley this past week. The deal signaled the possibility that Westbrook’s days in L.A. continuing to be numbered as the team has reportedly tried to deal him all offseason.