Rumors

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."

ESPN

Jorge Sierra: With Spurs falling in five, Dylan Harper will not be able to beat Kareem's record for most playoff points in a rookie season. He fell 27 points short of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 352. By the way, Kareem set the record in just 10 playoff games.

x.com

While James won’t directly make the case that he’s the most influential athlete of the past half-century, on the barroom debate about the basketball GOAT, he doesn’t hesitate. “I’m not taking nobody over me,” says James. “There’s no question. But I think Mike will say the same thing. Rest his soul, Kobe will say the same thing. Magic will say the same thing. Bird will say the same thing. Shaq could say the same thing. The late great Wilt. Kareem. I don’t think none of us are going to take somebody else. If there’s a general manager and he’s eyeballing all of us on a baseline, with the No. 1 pick, it’s gonna be hard not to take me, champ.”

TIME

Q. How do you think that your Showtime teams would do in today's game? James Worthy: The athlete today is a superior athlete. The stamina, the way they approach the game. But I still, for me, I mean if I had to pick a point guard to start my team, I got to pick Magic Johnson every time. Every time. And he could play today. He's got pace. He's got size. I'm not going to say we would dominate. A lot of people say, 'Oh, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic we…' No, I don't think we would dominate, but I think we could hold our own. I think we could we ran plays. Everybody had a play. Today's game, it's open and it's fluid like you said and that would be a problem, the way we guarded. Kareem would have to go out and guard some shooters. So, there would be some disadvantages, but I think we could adapt.

YouTube

NBA Communications: The Knicks' Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart could become the fifth set of teammates to win NCAA (Villanova) and NBA championships together. 🏆 Derek Anderson & Antoine Walker (Kentucky, Heat) 🏆 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Lucius Allen (UCLA, Bucks) 🏆 John Havlicek & Larry Siegfried (Ohio State, Celtics) 🏆 Bill Russell & K.C. Jones (San Francisco, Celtics) *Players must have played in at least one NCAA Tournament game and at least one NBA playoff game. The NBA Finals begin Wednesday, June 3 at 8:30 PM ET on ABC.

Twitter

‪NBA‬: Wemby in the WCF (Games 1-4): 👽 30.3 PPG 👽 13.3 RPG He joins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players in NBA history to average 30+ PPG, and 10+ RPG through their first four NBA Conference Finals games 🤯

bsky.app

Patrick Ewing: I mean people talk… When they talk about greatest of all time, they very rarely put him in there and what he did was special. I mean he was 7'2. He developed a shot that was virtually unstoppable.

YouTube

Tim Reynolds: Miami's Bam Adebayo has won the NBA's Social Justice Champion award for this season. He'll receive the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar trophy and $100,000 for his charitable work.

Twitter

Kevin Garnett: LeBron James is still in the 20s averaging and he took a lesser role and like what's next for Bron, what do you think is next. Paul Pierce: Man when I start thinking about it I look at all the GOATs, Bron is in these conversation like, when I think of Jordan, when Jordan came to the Wizards he never took a secondary role. The only one that really took a secondary role but kind of still was first role was Kareem with Magic. Kobe never took a secondary role. Bird never like it's like for LeBron to come back that's we're asking him to be the third best player. 

YouTube

Jorge Sierra: Players who rank in the Top 10 in NBA playoffs history in at least three of the main counting stats Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Shaquille O'Neal Tim Duncan LeBron James JAMES HARDEN Just an FYI.

bsky.app

NBA: As we honor the sixth year of the NBA Social Justice Champion award, join us in recognizing Bam Adebayo, Harrison Barnes, Jaylen Brown, Tobias Harris, and Larry Nance Jr. as the finalists for the 2025-26 season. This award honors NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his lifetime commitment to driving impactful change around social justice.

Twitter

But LeBron James, who played the past eight seasons in Los Angeles and helped deliver the franchise its 17th championship in 2020, saw Pelinka's priority in that moment as yet another example of the Lakers taking him for granted, sources said. Adding to James' ire, sources said, was the fact that the past dozen or so wins in that stretch came with James willingly taking a supporting offensive role behind Doncic and Austin Reaves.

ESPN

The win was the 1,229th of James' career and moved him past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most victories by any player in NBA history (combined regular season and playoffs). Not to mention, it came on a night when Luka Doncic topped 15,000 career points and Rui Hachimura reached 5,000. Still, James' celebratory mood didn't last long. Lakers coach JJ Redick had announced all the individual accomplishments in the postgame locker room, eliciting a cascading round of applause by L.A. players and assistant coaches. And then Rob Pelinka, the Lakers' president of basketball operations and general manager, addressed the team. He had the game ball in his hands. Rather than hand it to Hachimura or Doncic or James, Pelinka walked to the front of the room and presented the ball to Redick, who had just presided over his 100th coaching win.

ESPN

Run It Back: Tim Hardaway Sr. does NOT have LeBron in his top-5 of all-time "MJ, Kobe, Magic, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then you go from there. You got Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal."

Twitter