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Sanders became the first rookie in the Tyronn Lue era to start a game, play at least 35 minutes and score 20 points. The only rookies who did it for the Clippers in the Doc Rivers era, which lasted from 2013 to 2020, were Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Amir Coffey. “Just playing basketball for such a long time, you pick up IQ, you pick up just little things here and there,” Sanders said. “And then, just having teammates and coaches around you that know your game, that can instill confidence in you and then keep pushing you to get better every day. It just helps a lot.”
“I just think the biggest thing is the confidence instilled from my teammates,” Sanders said. “I keep harping on it, but that’s the biggest thing they keep telling me: to keep going, keep going. And I’m able to get more comfortable playing my game.”
And no, he isn't named after the late Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant. Sanders' parents named him for Kobe Japanese Steak House near Palm Springs, California, their favorite getaway spot. Kobe Sanders knew he was going to play a lot of minutes with Harden out, so he wasn't nervous about getting yanked if he made a mistake. "I think I felt that freedom most of the season," he said. "They instill a lot of confidence in me, telling me to be aggressive, telling me to keep going." Leonard is among those in Sanders' ear. "I always tell him to keep being aggressive in the game," Leonard told Snoop Dogg. "That's your time to get better right there so don't shy away from it, just keep executing."
Over the weekend, a new name was added to the victim list: Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders. While he was playing against Baltimore on Sunday at Huntington Bank Field, authorities say masked thieves broke into his suburban Cleveland home and took more than $200,000 worth of items. In a statement, Medina County sheriff’s deputies said thieves entered the home at 6:46 p.m. and left at 6:58 p.m., right around the time the Browns game against the Baltimore Ravens ended. Sanders played the second half, going 4 for 16 for 47 yards as the Browns lost 23-16. The thieves made off with “several high-value items,” police said.
That most recent break-in hit a little too close to home. “It’s just unfortunate,” Cavs star Donovan Mitchell told cleveland.com following a 118-106 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night. “Our lives are so publicized that we’re targets. Gotta find ways to make sure you’re always secure in any way possible. Need to have security measures in place. That’s awful about Shedeur.”
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At this time, local police do not suspect a gang or juveniles being involved in the Sanders burglary. “Bad things are going to happen in this world,” said Cavs reserve Lonzo Ball. “It’s just how it is. Obviously, where you live has something to do with it. Security, you could try to amp it up. “But at the end of the day, I do think that we are targets. I mean, people are always putting our business online. It’s always news for the public, so it’s always a possibility of it happening. I got dogs at my house. I got some security. Just hope for the best.”
Dylan Harper entered the 2025 NBA Draft as one of the top prospects. He and Duke forward Cooper Flagg were the consensus choices on mock drafts everywhere. Harper was a no-brainer for the San Antonio Spurs at No. 2. However, Harper and his Rutgers teammate, Ace Bailey, were scrutinized for months leading up to the draft. Harper spoke about the pre-draft process with Carmelo Anthony on Thursday’s episode of 7PM in Brooklyn. When he talked about how he approached the overwhelming attention he received, Harper credited two other young stars. Bronny James and Shedeur Sanders were both placed under the media’s microscope. However, each of them tackled it in different ways. Harper observed each and used their experience to inform his own decisions.
“I mean just learning. I think learning how to carry yourself go about certain things but at the end of the day like everyone is their own person. So like Bronny, he ain’t the most out loud spoken guy like Shedeur, very quiet,” Harper said about the stars that came before him. “But he still gets the same backlash gets. So at the end of the day you’re still going to get the backlash no matter what you do, whether it’s right wrong or anything else. So just having that mindset that like we’re the next generation of these superstar kids and there’s always going to be a spotlight on us no matter what and just going with that mindset just like being you honestly that’s how I look just being me.”
After a fruitful training session on Tuesday, Sanders rallied the entire Sixers squad during team dinner. In particular, Coach Prime expressed just how much he craves to see a matchup between Embiid and the reigning Finals MVP, especially when the heavyweight clash between the two best players in the league didn't materialize back in March when The Process decided to sit out. “It's a little different today. A lot of folks duck that smoke right now. […] If Embiid's playing the Joker, I wanna see Embiid versus the Joker,” Sanders said, via Alec Gwin. “And [Jokic] goes and gets it, right? I love it. I love that matchup. That's what I want to see.”
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Longtime NBA referee Monty McCutchen, who has been a vice president of referee development and training for the past six seasons, is remaining in his role and will work "in concert" with Sanders, the league said. Sanders will direct the NBA officiating program with responsibility for the recruitment, hiring, supervision and evaluation of all referees, and he will also oversee the NBA's Replay Center. While Sanders has a higher title than McCutchen, both of them will report directly to Byron Spruell, the NBA's president of league operations. "Albert is a proven team leader who excels at bringing key stakeholders together to engage on challenging issues and identify needs and opportunities," Spruell said in a statement. "Our officiating program will benefit greatly from his expertise in operations management and organizational strategy."
After being drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2010, Sanders said it became "an issue" for him as he tried to "conform to someone else's standards." "You know, I like living life on my terms because I can and thrive," he elaborated, adding, "Being talked to certain kind of ways, kind of that bought and sold atmosphere … I ain't really like that s--t."
Williamson met with Sanders in his office after the sermon. Sanders disputed the notion that Williamson seemed moody or uninterested in the New Orleans community. “I think he’s in great spirits because I literally had to have one of my deacons pull him out of the crowd. They didn’t want to let him go, and he didn’t want to let them go. He took a lot of pictures and talked with a lot of people. He didn’t seem to be in any way, shape or form distant. He’s ready to do what he came here to do, is what it appeared to me.”
While Sanders is doing well as an entrepreneur and businessman, he very much has the desire to return to the NBA — but the league’s policies on marijuana have to change in order for that to happen. “I feel like the stage is kind of being set,” Sanders believes. “The NBA is becoming more open-minded with their marijuana policy. Whether they're going to test or not. Whether they'll have guys in the drug program or not. I don’t know if people know how much of a factor that is for me.”
