Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Q. Do you see an agreement between the NBA and the Euroleague possible for the creation of a new unified tournament? George Aivazoglou: I would say I see it the same way I have seen it for a while. The NBA has been very consistent that it wants to get involved with the Euroleague, and with all the European players, and bring them together as part of this new effort. I would say that the last few months have been very encouraging, with my good friend Chus Bueno. We have been in contact very often. We were together a few days ago in Geneva, and there is a very positive and very healthy exchange. From there, I would say, and Adam Silver and Mark Tatum also mentioned this, the NBA's decision is to move forward with this tournament with or without the Euroleague. But right now, there is a lot of focus, a lot of intention and energy going into those discussions, which will hopefully lead to a very positive outcome. But we still have a lot of work to do, that's the honest answer.
The Spurs succumbed to the same maddening script in their Game 5 loss, squandering a 16-point lead to dash Victor Wembanyama's dream of winning his first championship. Wembanyama was active early and finished with 19 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks, but he faded again with the season on the line. Brunson, the Finals MVP, outscored him 15-3 in the series-deciding fourth quarter. Nevertheless, Wembanyama ranked first in Player Efficiency Rating (26.3) during his first postseason run and led all players in total rebounds and blocks while finishing second to Brunson in points. Wembanyama's playoff averages of 23.8 points, 10.9 rebounds and 3.5 blocks have only been matched by Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon among players who reached the Finals. As NBA commissioner Adam Silver noted shortly before Game 1 of the Finals, Wembanyama is "ahead of any timeline that people had in mind."
Oh No He Didn't: Adam Silver: "It's a new era of NBA basketball. This will be the 8th different team that won a championship over the last 8 years. We've always talked about this parity of opportunity where teams can win multiple championships in a row? Great. But we want a league where every team has an opportunity to compete...it just really speaks to the state of NBA basketball and the state of the future of the game. There's just so much talent everywhere"
NBA Courtside: Adam Silver on Wemby: “I’m amazed at Victor. Not just his play on the floor, but he’s such a curious young man. He’s a pleasure to talk to. He’s ever worldly. He’s really dedicated to his craft. He’s got such a bright future ahead of him.”
Adam Silver on flopping: "When we put the flopping rule in place, there was what I would call egregious flopping. Players are taught to sell the call where there's actually a foul, but they're trying to draw the officials' attention. We're going to look in the offseason. We have a 2 day competition committee meeting in Vegas around the summer league, will watch 1000 plays literally over 2 days and see if we should set that line in a different place"
Advertisement
Trump, invited to attend Game 3 of the finals by Knicks owner James Dolan, was seated in a suite near midcourt, halfway up the stands, in a box surrounded by bulletproof glass constructed for his visit. NBA commissioner Adam Silver joined the suite in the second quarter and spoke with Trump, who was snacking on a bucket of fries and sipping from a Diet Coke bottle. Trump’s granddaughter Kai Trump was also spotted in the suite, as were Dolan, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino, among others. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani was also at the game — he said he paid $1,000 for a standing-room-only ticket near the rafters.
As Silver detailed even further, the league’s internal data suggests that extended rest might be part of the problem rather than the solution. “On so-called load management, I think that the only place where we see an uptick in injuries is not towards the end of the season when guys have played more games,” Silver continued. “The only place we see upticks is after the All-Star break. … Whether it’s just correlation, or it turns out there’s causation, it may be because (players) are not getting appropriate load during those days they take off.
LA Clippers star Kawhi Leonard and his uncle and business adviser Dennis Robertson have been interviewed by NBA investigators amid the league's probe into allegations the team circumvented the salary cap to compensate Leonard, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the investigation. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and other team executives have also sat for interviews, those sources said, as have executives for Aspiration, the now-defunct green banking company at the center of the allegations.
Privately, some Clippers officials have grown frustrated trying to prove innocence for a violation that they say they didn't commit, according to several sources with knowledge of their thinking. Despite their certainty that they did nothing wrong, team officials seem less certain about the outcome of the high-profile investigation or whether the league's richest owner will face punishment, the sources said.
Two of the sources said that if Silver tried to administer punishment to the Clippers without clear evidence of guilt, other teams and owners could consider it a worrying precedent. "I respect Adam, and I don't think he's stupid," said one of the sources, who has worked closely with Silver through the years. "If Wachtell delivers the report that says, 'Well, we don't have it,' I don't think Adam is going to push it further."
Advertisement
In the past, that would have been able to keep him under wraps to some degree. “In fact, in the old days, I think a player like Victor Wembanyama might not have attracted the kind of attention he (has) had until he won,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver told The Athletic on Thursday. “But these days, given social media and given even the uniqueness of who he is, his background, his size, maybe even a world before social media, he still would have commanded enormous attention.”
“When you cannot walk the street, and it happened at an early age with him, we all realized what was going on because he cannot hide himself under the hoodie like (Kylian) Mbappe, for example,” Medjana said. “(For) Victor, it’s impossible.” Early on in their marketing plans, Camp Wemby leaned into that fascination. The “alien” concept with Nike fell in their lap early, so they went with it. And while the decision to carefully and deliberately roll him out to the world as a complete public figure was in part to respect his priorities as an athlete, it also built the value of scarcity to the mystery that is Wemby. Louis Vuitton has crafted moments around him, often as part of a broader athlete campaign that includes fellow French soccer star Kylian Mbappe and LeBron. He recently starred in a Fanatics commercial leading into the finals and will be on the cover of NBA 2K27.
He followed in the paths of his Spurs forefathers and starred in the iconic H-E-B commercials, the Texas supermarket that has been making comedic ad spots with Spurs players for well over a decade. But he is not a ubiquitous figure in the commercial space yet. “I think what Victor understands is not to be distracted by all of the fanfare around his career,” Silver said. ”Because he will be defined by championships, not by commercial opportunities or the platform he has to speak out on issues he cares about.”
There’s one thing almost everyone agrees with — to reach that level of stardom, an athlete must do one thing above all else. “Ultimately, for a player to take that mantle, they have to win,” Silver said. “And in the conversations I’ve had with Wemby, I’ve emphasized that, but I’m not sure I had to tell him that. The precondition to being a leader on the global stage is winning.” Wemby has the opportunity to do just that, starting with Friday’s Game 2 against the Knicks, which could tie the series. See this thing through, and he would immediately ascend to new heights. “The championship part of it and the sports greatness part of the legacy is what speaks to my instinct. It’s really what drives me forward,” Wembanyama told The Athletic earlier this season. “It’s the locomotive of my life and my direction.”