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Austin Ainge: "Leadership is different. Sometimes we have a narrow definition, and Keyonte George is a really happy, nice person. He gets along with everybody and he shows up for everybody. He's maybe not a screamer and a yeller type of guy, he's not a taskmaster, he's still very young learning his own way in the league, but he shows up for everybody, he is there for everybody, he is smile and work ethic every day. That's his way of leading and that's awesome."
Guard Keyonte George has agreed to a five-year, $157.5 million contract extension with the Utah Jazz, sources told ESPN. The deal does not include a team or player option, sources said. The terms were finalized Friday after months of negotiations between George's agent Jason Ranne of The Team and Jazz president of basketball operations Austin Ainge. George's new deal will account for approximately 16 percent of Utah's salary cap.
Jake Fischer: One note on Keyonte George's five-year, $157.5 million dollar contract extension with the Jazz: There's $500K each season, a combined $2.5 million, of bonuses in that total, per sources.
Shams Charania Just in: Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George has agreed on a five-year, $157.5 million rookie-scale contract extension with the franchise, sources tell me and @BannedMacMahon.
Ira Winderman: In an interesting twist, the Heat's affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, have acquired the G League rights to center Mo Bamba. As part of the deal, the Heat have traded away their G League rights to Trevor Keels to the Wizards' affiliate.
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Gough shook the hobby again last month when he consigned a Michael Jordan “Last Dance” jersey worn during Game 3 of the 1998 NBA Finals to auction house Joopiter. Among the most important pieces of Jordan memorabilia to surface publicly, the jersey has a pre-sale estimate between $10-$15 million. A $10 million bid (more than $12 million, including Joopiter’s buyer’s premium) on Tuesday has ensured the Jordan shirt will top the public record of $10.1 million for a basketball jersey when the auction closes on Sept. 29. The previous record sum was spent on the jersey worn by Jordan in Game 1 of the 1998 Finals — a 88-85 Utah Jazz win over Jordan’s Chicago Bulls — at Sotheby’s in 2022. Gough’s Game 3 jersey was worn for a record-setting 96-54 Bulls win, which gave Chicago a 2-1 series edge, behind 24 points from Jordan. Chicago would go on to win Game 4 and Game 6 to secure the team’s second three-peat and sixth title in eight years. Neither of those jerseys have surfaced at public auction.
Michael Scotto: The New York Knicks have signed Ochai Agbaji to an Exhibit 9 deal, team says. Agbaji has averaged 7.2 points in four NBA seasons with the Utah Jazz, Toronto Raptors, and Brooklyn Nets.
While there was interest in a return to the Utah Jazz, the former NBA star is reportedly seeking to join a contending team, according to NBA insider Jake Fischer. "I think there was some interest in him to go back there from the Jazz. But I think, as he truly holds on to the final couple stretches of his playing career, I think there's some real desire from his side to get to a winning situation as well," Fischer said in his latest Bleacher Report updates.
NBA rookie and Chattanooga native Ace Bailey returned home over the weekend to host his first basketball camp at East Hamilton High School. The camp gave local high school players a chance to get on the court with Bailey, who says he sees himself in many of the young athletes taking part.
Jokic was simply asked to clarify who is the best defender against him in the NBA. Serbian center shortly said "Everyone," before naming a full list of different players: "Everyone. Some teams defend very well as a unit, while others have excellent individual defenders. Zubac guards me really well, and so does Nurkic. I guess they’re just bulkier, so I can’t move them when we’re battling for position," he said. "I think Rudy Gobert is a great defender, even though I’ve historically played well against him. Jalen Duren, he’s undersized but tricky. Wendell Carter Jr. is also on the shorter side, and Myles Turner blocks a lot of shots. There’s no need to even talk about Wembanyama. They’re all good; the league is talented on both ends of the floor."
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The booming trading card world fascinated NBA veteran Mo Bamba from the jump when simply serving as a special guest at an Austin card shop a few years ago. The experience hooked the former Texas standout immediately, and the wonderment only grew from there. “People from age 13 to 45 were all in there, and they all commonly shared a joy for the hobby,” Bamba said. “I’ve always seen how kids like to experience their sports heroes, but I didn’t know how directly correlated it was to the sports card industry world. I used to hear about people having a sports card collection or having this vintage Babe Ruth card or having these signed Kobe (Bryant) cards. “Since then, the wheels kind of started spinning about how much I could get involved in it.”
Bamba has now gone from interested spectator to collector to card shop owner. Mo Bamba Sports Cards & Collectibles will open Friday in north Austin, near the University of Texas, where Bamba played for one year before becoming the No. 6 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. After years of professional athletes’ involvement in the sports card space being limited to posing for the pictures on the cards, signing autographs and making convention appearances after retirement, many are now taking a far greater interest in it. For a growing number, that interest is leading to investment in brick-and-mortar operations. As Bamba will open his own trading card shop Friday, hobby darling Cooper Flagg, last season’s NBA Rookie of the Year, will crack the doors to a trading card shop called Flagg Trading Co. in his hometown of Bangor, Maine, on Saturday.
Tom Brady has become the most notable athlete to branch out into the trading card space. CardVault by Tom Brady, of which he is a co-owner, has 17 locations across the country — and aims to reach 100-plus — and has become a hit within the sports and entertainment world. Brady has corralled new investors such as New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, musician and entrepreneur Jay-Z, Fenway Sports Group owner John Henry, The Kraft Group, Boston Celtics CEO Wyc Grousbeck and UFC president and CEO Dana White. “You know, at the end of the day, it’s the industry, but we love sports,” Brady said. “And we love sports that bring people together, communities together. We’ve been sitting in stadiums for a long time watching fans of every economic background, race, religion, come to the stadiums to cheer us on. And I think sports in our communities, it brings people together in ways nothing else can. I want everybody to be a collector.”
Community also played a role in the location of Mo Bamba Sports Cards & Collectibles. Bamba, who signed a two-year contract with the Utah Jazz in July, spent only one season playing basketball at Texas, but he still lives in Austin during the offseason. Other locations were initially considered, but putting a shop in the city Bamba loves most and right near campus in north Austin became a “clear-cut choice.” Bamba said he’s incorporating elements from his life into the shop, like a mural of his 7-foot-10 wingspan on the wall, as well as images celebrating his Ivorian-American roots and Austin (specifically an “I love you so much” mural, like on South Congress Avenue).