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      These N.B.A. Contenders Just Got Better

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      A look at the league’s top-tier contenders after a busy period of player movement.The N.B.A.’s trade deadline on Thursday featured more than a dozen trades — some surprising, some not so much. Several players named Gary were traded (Trent Jr., Clark, Harris). Miami was the biggest winner, acquiring Victor Oladipo and, separately, Nemanja Bjelica.Many of the top teams in the league stood pat. The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t trade for Kyle Lowry. Their rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers, traded backup point guards: Lou Williams to the Atlanta Hawks for Rajon Rondo. The Philadelphia 76ers added a solid veteran guard in George Hill from the Oklahoma City Thunder.But did any teams make any moves to vault themselves to title contender status? With roughly a third of the season left, a wide-open N.B.A. season is now showing more signs of a traditional hierarchy.In the Eastern Conference, entering Sunday’s games, the fourth and 11th seeds were separated by five and a half games. But the third-seeded Milwaukee Bucks were ahead of the No. 4-seeded Charlotte Hornets by five and a half games, establishing a clear top tier. In the West, there was less separation between the top seeds, with the No. 6-seeded Portland Trail Blazers seven games behind the No. 1-seeded Utah Jazz, leaving room for a lot of movement.Here’s a look at the top-tier contenders from each conference and where they stand after the trade deadline.The EastPhiladelphia 76ers (32-14)Simmons, center, and Tobias Harris, right, are keeping the Sixers at the top of the East, even without the injured Joel Embiid.Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports, via ReutersWhy They’ll Win the Finals:The Sixers are deep and well balanced to surround Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. They’ve gone 6-2 without Embiid, who hasn’t played since March 12 because of a knee injury. In that stretch, they beat the Spurs — a likely playoff team — by 35 points and the Kings by 24. In the playoffs, they’ll have Embiid, a matchup nightmare and a candidate for the Most Valuable Player Award. They have also had an elite defense all season, and been boosted by a career year for Tobias Harris.Adding George Hill, who led the league in 3-point shooting last season, was a good move by the Sixers’ front office. He plays solid defense, has a lot of playoff experience and gives Embiid and Simmons more room to work.Why They Won’t: Health. Embiid has missed roughly a third of the season and has had conditioning issues. Also, Embiid and Simmons have struggled in past playoffs to produce at a high level as defenses focused more on them. And as good as Embiid and Simmons are, if the Nets and the Bucks are healthy, Philadelphia won’t have the best top-end players on the floor if they meet.Milwaukee Bucks (29-16)P.J. Tucker, right, gives the Bucks perimeter defense and toughness.Jeff Hanisch/USA Today Sports, via ReutersWhy They’ll Win the Finals: The Bucks made a significant acquisition with P.J. Tucker, the gritty, defensive-minded forward who gives Milwaukee another perimeter threat. The team is finally showing itself to be the juggernaut it was predicted to be in the preseason, going 13-3 in its last 16 games. The Bucks are deep, and Giannis Antetokounmpo may very well win his third straight M.V.P. Award this season. They have one of the league’s best offenses and a top-10 defense.The Tucker trade freed up roster spots, giving the Bucks room to add a free agent. (Austin Rivers and Kelly Olynyk, who were recently traded, could be great fits here if they are bought out of their contracts or released.)Why They Won’t: Once again, the Bucks are having a great regular season. Ultimately, the Bucks will only advance if Antetokounmpo isn’t flummoxed by playoff defenses, as he has been. He is shooting only 30 percent from deep, so expect opposing teams to continue to pack the paint when he has the ball.Brooklyn Nets (31-15)James Harden has been the lone member of the Nets’ starry trio on the floor many times, as Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving miss games for injury and personal reasons. He has handled it just fine.Rick Bowmer/Associated PressWhy They’ll Win the Finals: The Nets are a cheat code. Since Feb. 14, they have had the league’s fifth best offense. Why is that date relevant? Because Kevin Durant has not played at all in that time because of an injured left hamstring. The Nets have an elite offense and they’re not even playing one of the greatest offensive players in the history of the game. James Harden has been exceptional. He leads the league in assists, despite not having Durant to pass to for most of his time with the Nets. The team is 17-3 in its last 20 games — almost entirely without Durant.And the Nets just added LaMarcus Aldridge in addition to their recent signing of Blake Griffin.Why They Won’t: It’s one thing to navigate the regular season without Durant. But in the playoffs, that creates different challenges. Is he definitely going to be healthy for the playoffs? And even if he is, given how ball dominant he is, will there be enough time to mesh with Harden and Kyrie Irving properly?Miami Heat (22-24)The Heat have struggled with and without Jimmy Butler, but a few trade deadline moves could help them make a run down the stretch.Joel Auerbach/Associated PressWhy They’ll Win the Finals: Yes, the Heat are under .500. But they did make the N.B.A. finals last year despite being a lower seed, and they have most of the same players this year. Their record is mostly a result of health. Jimmy Butler, their best player, missed a bunch of time this season and now is actually having the best campaign of his career, averaging career highs in field-goal percentage, rebounds and assists. The team also added Victor Oladipo, another playmaker, to help share responsibility with Butler.Why They Won’t It’s tough to capture lightning in a bottle twice, and the rest of the contenders have better top-level talent. In 20 games with Houston, Oladipo played poorly — averaging 21.2 points on only 40.7 percent shooting from the field. The Heat have lost six in a row, and in general have been inconsistent. It’s hard to believe that a sub-.500 team this late in the season can win a title.The WestUtah Jazz (34-11)Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert are in sync, and that has meant success for the Jazz this season.Alex Goodlett/Getty ImagesWhy They’ll Win the Finals: In the early stages of the pandemic, dysfunction swirled around the Jazz. Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell had a relationship that was on the rocks. But they began to reassemble their chemistry in the bubble, and now Utah has the best record in the N.B.A. Mitchell has emerged as a star — one who is fully capable of lifting his team into title contention. The difference this season is that he and Gobert have more help, and the Jazz are overwhelming teams from the 3-point line.Why They Won’t: Aside from their pockmarked playoff history, the Jazz play in a conference packed with championship-tested players, luminaries who are identifiable by their first names (LeBron, Kawhi) and know what it takes to make deep trips through the postseason. The Jazz, on the other hand, have not reached the conference finals since 2007.Los Angeles Clippers (31-16)Paul George has rebounded from postseason struggles last summer to keep the Clippers in the mix in the West.Darren Abate/Associated PressWhy They’ll Win the Finals: The Clippers faced questions after their meltdown in the bubble. (You’ll recall that they blew a 3-1 series lead over the Nuggets in the conference semifinals.) Paul George absorbed much of the criticism for his poor play. He has had his ups and downs this season — who hasn’t? — but appears to be in better form. The Clippers are contenders because of Kawhi Leonard, but George’s postseason play will determine if they are actually capable of winning it all.Why They Won’t: The Clippers hope that Rajon Rondo, whom they acquired at the trade deadline, can provide the sort of leadership they were missing last season. But they still lack depth at the point, and the team has been terrible in clutch situations, dating to last season’s bubble implosion. Championship teams are adept at closing out games. The Clippers are not.Los Angeles Lakers (29-17 entering Sunday)Why They’ll Win the Finals: LeBron James and Anthony Davis showed the damage they could do together last season when they rolled through the playoffs in leading the Lakers to their first championship since 2010. It was a resurgent season for James, in particular, and it proved (if anyone needed proof) that a team with two of the top players on the planet is a pretty safe bet to make a championship run, no matter the complementary pieces. James and Davis, of course, are back this season — and if they are healthy for the playoffs, look out.Why They Won’t: James (ankle) and Davis (calf) are not healthy, and that is an enormous problem — for now, if not forever. Davis has not played since Feb. 14, and Coach Frank Vogel said recently that Davis was “still a ways away.” The Lakers were already struggling without him when James sprained his ankle on March 20. He could be sidelined for at least another month. At the same time, a host of lesser Lakers have labored with their shooting strokes: Markieff Morris, Alex Caruso, Wesley Matthews, Dennis Schroder, Marc Gasol. Take your pick. Is it windy?Phoenix Suns (31-14)Why They’ll Win the Finals: In hindsight, the Suns’ nifty footwork in acquiring Chris Paul in the off-season was one of the best moves an up-and-coming team could have made. He brought experience, toughness and defense to a team that was making big leaps — the Suns closed out the 2019-20 regular season by going undefeated in the bubble — and he has allowed Devin Booker to play off the ball. The window is closing for Paul, an 11-time All-Star who, at 35, has never played in an N.B.A. finals. In this topsy-turvy, anything-goes season, perhaps this is the moment when he finally makes it happen.Why They Won’t: Inexperience. Booker, the team’s best player, has yet to get a taste of the postseason. The reality is that it’s asking a lot of a young group of players to make a very deep push in its first run through the playoffs, even if Paul is guiding the group.Denver Nuggets (27-18, entering Sunday)Why They’ll Win the Finals: Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray continue to evolve and improve, and the time is now for the team to capitalize. The Nuggets’ front office signaled as much at the trade deadline when it acquired Aaron Gordon and JaVale McGee, veterans who should help improve the team’s middling defense. Gordon also gives the Nuggets another scoring option.Why They Won’t: The Nuggets have been wildly inconsistent this season, and it didn’t help that they lost Jerami Grant and Mason Plumlee — two valuable role players — in free agency. Michael Porter Jr., who has surfaced as the team’s third scorer, has huge potential but has missed a lot of time and is still developing. More

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      Sister Jean's First Team Reflects on Their Cherished Chaplain

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      The Ramblers had a dismal record in 1994-95, the first season Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt was the team chaplain. Now in their 40s, players still find their voices catching when they talk about her.ATLANTA — Joe Estes just wanted to say hello to Sister Jean.For nearly a quarter of a century, he had been replaying the counsel she had doled out during his basketball days at Loyola-Chicago. But by March 2018, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt was 98 — still the team chaplain, but also the most celebrated nun in all of college basketball, a woman whose school would reach the Final Four and whose life had become a hurried blur of cameras and faces.“You remember Joe?” Tom Hitcho, a senior associate athletic director, asked the sister as Estes approached at the Sweet 16 in Atlanta in 2018.“Hit a 3-pointer to beat Northwestern,” she replied.With the Ramblers scheduled to play Oregon State in this N.C.A.A. tournament’s round of 16 on Saturday, Sister Jean, who turned 101 in August, is having a second star turn. But before all of that, before the bobbleheads and socks and scarves and shirts saturated in maroon, gold and the toothy smile of Sister Jean, there was her first team: a smattering of players, a coach in his inaugural season on Chicago’s North Side and a 5-22 record that relegated Loyola to last place in the Midwest Collegiate Conference.“Most of the world knows her from the fame perspective,” Derek Molis, a guard who redshirted that 1994-95 season after he transferred from Fordham, said this week, his voice catching and trailing off at times as he described how she had helped him cope with his mother’s death. “The rest of us simply know her as Sister Jean, the one person we knew we could always count on.”Sister Jean, a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, had been on Loyola’s campus for a few years before she assumed the basketball program chaplaincy around the time of her formal retirement. But job titles in college sports often capture just a portion of a person’s role. And so it was with Sister Jean, who found herself at 75 leading locker-room prayers, yes, but also nudging players academically, listening to them drone on about relationships and helping them navigate the pressures of Division I athletics.Players whose grades were merely average had to see her weekly, she said on Thursday. One early player said she had helped him learn how to write essays for exams, while another said she had coached him on time management. Theo Owens, a junior who was among the top scorers in that first year, recalled that when a player would tell teammates that he was headed to an appointment with Sister Jean, the response was always similar: “You better have everything lined up.”“Everyone had their unique relationship with her, but the bond with her was the same,” Owens said. “She always had time for you — I want to believe I was her favorite.”Sister Jean said this week that when Father John Piderit, Loyola’s president from 1993 until 2001, asked her to work with the men’s and women’s basketball teams, he said that they needed to “have encouragement all the time,” particularly around academics. Within a few years, she recounted, grades had improved enough that she could focus more on the traditional duties of a chaplain.She eventually began mixing scouting reports into her prayers, she said, and last week, she noted “a great opportunity to convert rebounds” against Illinois, a No. 1 seed. (Loyola went on to record 28 total rebounds, four more than the Fighting Illini, who had won the Big Ten conference tournament.)“Her role now, I think, is greater than it was when I was there,” said Chris Wilburn, a senior on the ’94-95 team.At the start of her tenure, she seemed dauntingly old to players. But Sister Jean was soon a fixture of the program, someone who was always there to greet the team in the moments after the few wins and the many more losses. She would sometimes surface in the locker room, maybe casting a glance and a forced smile when an explicit lyric would echo through, and she would transform into a person for basketball recruits to meet during their visits. Her office became a refuge, players said, and a more welcoming place than, say, sitting across from an assistant coach.“She’s not going to judge you, she’s not going to hold it against you,” Wilburn said. “She doesn’t care, per se, if it’s a basketball issue or a girlfriend issue or a lunch issue about how you didn’t get to eat that day.”Sometimes, players said, she would listen from behind her desk. At others, she would draw closer.“She’d always just smile and sit back and kind of cross her hands, just like you see now in that wheelchair,” Estes said. “She’d just sort of smirk and say, ‘Joe, if you keep doing what you’re doing, you’re going to keep getting what you got.’”These days, she might sometimes seem to rival Bob Newhart, who earned a business degree at Loyola in 1952, as the university’s most famous export. To her former players, though, she is even more a marvel.Wilburn’s children have shirts with Sister Jean’s likeness. Owens’s kids used to ask whether the Ramblers were winning because the sister was praying. Molis, much like Estes, told a story about how, in 2018, Sister Jean all but summoned the box score of a game he had not thought about in more than a decade.“I’ll tell Sister Jean stories til the day that I die,” Molis said. “I’ll them to my daughter — I do it all the time right now.”Then there is Estes, who grew up to become an educator. For years, he said softly a few nights ago, he has found himself repeating to the students the admonition Sister Jean would use when they met.“It would just instantly come to my head.” More

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      The N.B.A. Trades That Did, and Did Not, Happen

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      Kyle Lowry and Lonzo Ball are staying put (for now), but Victor Oladipo, Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and others are on the move. Here’s what you need to know.Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry was heavily pursued by three of the N.B.A.’s presumed title contenders — Philadelphia, Miami and the Los Angeles Lakers — before Thursday’s trade deadline. Yet Lowry, on his 35th birthday, did not get traded.The Raptors’ decision to hold firm and keep Lowry, even though he will become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, was perhaps the biggest surprise of a frantic trade deadline day in which 16 reported deals were struck.After Toronto ultimately decided that none of the three primary bidders had met its demands for a trade package for Lowry, the league’s two Florida teams — Miami and Orlando — and the Denver Nuggets emerged from the deadline having made the most significant moves.A breakdown of Thursday’s most notable business:Why Kyle Lowry Is Still a RaptorLowry, widely regarded as the only player who both was likely to be traded this week and had the ability to affect the championship chase, acknowledged after the Raptors’ win Wednesday over the Nuggets that he might have played his last game with the franchise he helped win a title in 2018-19.Amid all of Thursday’s activity, Lowry’s fate remained the greatest source of intrigue. The Raptors appeared to be clearing roster space to take the Lowry offer they found most palatable by agreeing to three trades to send Matt Thomas to Utah, Terence Davis to Sacramento and the much-coveted Norman Powell to Portland for Gary Trent Jr. and Rodney Hood.Then the deadline passed with no trade. The Heat were unwilling to include the highly rated guard Tyler Herro in their offers for Lowry, while the Lakers refused to include the blossoming scorer Talen Horton-Tucker, according to a person with knowledge of the talks who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. Other factors contributed to the nontrade: Any team trading for Lowry naturally wanted to be sure it could re-sign him this summer, and Raptors officials went into the deadline pledging to send Lowry only to a destination he approved.“We owe him that respect as a person,” Masai Ujiri, Toronto’s president of basketball operations, said Thursday night.The Toronto Raptors did trade a guard on Thursday, but it was Norman Powell, right, not Kyle Lowry, left.Kim Klement/USA Today Sports, via ReutersToronto ultimately decided to take its chances with letting Lowry finish the season as a Raptor, with the hope that it can either sign him to a new deal in the summer or construct a sign-and-trade deal that prevents the Raptors from losing perhaps the most popular player in team history without compensation.Miami Pivots to Victor OladipoAfter its best Lowry offer was rebuffed by the Raptors, Miami turned instead to Houston to make a deal for Victor Oladipo, a two-time All-Star guard and another soon-to-be free agent, according to a person with knowledge of the trade who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The Heat also agreed to a trade with Sacramento for the versatile forward Nemanja Bjelica after acquiring the veteran swingman Trevor Ariza last week.As the deadline neared, Miami signaled it was out of the Lowry hunt by packaging the veterans Kelly Olynyk and Avery Bradley for Oladipo, as well as granting Houston the right to swap a 2022 first-round pick with Miami.After just two months as a Rocket, and still recovering from the serious leg injury that sidelined him for more than a year in Indiana, Oladipo did not generate nearly as much trade interest as Houston had hoped when it acquired him from the Pacers in January as part of the four-team blockbuster trade that sent James Harden to the Nets.Orlando Blows It All UpRavaged by injuries this season after a promising 4-0 start, Orlando broke from its reputation for operating in a measured fashion by aggressively embracing a rebuilding posture and trading away three players it has relied on heavily for years: center Nikola Vucevic, forward Aaron Gordon and guard Evan Fournier. Vucevic, the only 2021 All-Star dealt on Thursday, was traded to the Chicago Bulls. Gordon is bound for Denver, and Fournier is on his way to Boston.Nikola Vucevic to ChicagoAfter weeks of pessimism in rival front offices that Vucevic would be made available, Orlando gave deadline day an early jolt by packaging Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu to the Bulls for Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr. and two future first-round picks. Chicago is eager to team Vucevic with Zach LaVine, another 2021 All-Star.Nikola Vucevic is headed to the Chicago Bulls.John Raoux/Associated PressAaron Gordon is headed to the Denver Nuggets.Julio Aguilar/Getty ImagesAaron Gordon to DenverDenver, coming off a trip to the Western Conference finals, fortified its roster for another playoff run by outbidding the Boston Celtics to strike a deal with the Magic for Gordon. The Nuggets, who also agreed to acquire the veteran center JaVale McGee from Cleveland in a separate deal, are sending the veteran swingman Gary Harris, the rookie guard R.J. Hampton and a future first-round pick to the Magic for Gordon and Gary Clark, according to a person with knowledge of the trades who was not authorized to discuss them publicly.Evan Fournier to BostonDespite missing out on Gordon, Boston made good on its vows to shake up its roster in the midst of a disappointing 21-23 season by sending two future second-round picks and the veteran guard Jeff Teague to Orlando for Fournier, according to a person with knowledge of the trade. The Celtics were better positioned than the Knicks and other interested teams to absorb Fournier’s $17 million salary because of a $28.5 million trade exception they created in a sign-and-trade deal to send Gordon Hayward to Charlotte in November. Such trade exceptions allow teams to take in extra salary in trades rather than adhere to the league’s usual salary-matching rules.The Hawks and Clippers Swap GuardsThe Los Angeles Clippers, who had interest in higher-profile point guards like Lowry and Lonzo Ball of the New Orleans Pelicans, addressed their need for more playmaking by striking a deal with the Atlanta Hawks to acquire the four-time All-Star Rajon Rondo.The Clippers had coveted Rondo in free agency last fall but lost out when Rondo signed a two-year, $15 million deal with the Hawks. The trade calls for the Clippers to send the high-scoring veteran guard Lou Williams and two future second-round picks to Atlanta for Rondo, who has missed games because of injury and made minimal impact as a Hawk.Lou Williams will bring some much-needed scoring to the Atlanta Hawks.Brandon Dill/Associated PressDeals, and No DealUnwilling to go overboard in its Lowry pursuit, Philadelphia found a different path to fortifying its backcourt by assembling a three-team trade with Oklahoma City and the Knicks to acquire George Hill of the Thunder. The trade cost the 76ers two future second-round picks to each team and will also route the Knicks’ Austin Rivers to the Thunder.Cleveland and San Antonio, as expected, were unable to find palatable trades for two former All-Stars with large contracts, Andre Drummond ($28.75 million) and LaMarcus Aldridge ($24 million). San Antonio immediately agreed to a contract buyout with Aldridge that will make him an unrestricted free agent if he clears waivers, with Drummond widely expected to follow the same path.The Nets did not find a trade for the injured Spencer Dinwiddie. Despite a likely season-ending knee injury, Dinwiddie is expected to decline his $12.3 million player option for next season and become a free agent, which had the Nets looking for a potential deal to add to their depth and to avoid losing Dinwiddie for nothing.It was the N.B.A.’s fourth consecutive deadline day to generate a double-digit number of trades. The frenzy hushed fears that the deadline would be quieter than usual in part because of the league’s new playoff format, which gives 10 teams a shot at the postseason instead of the longstanding norm of eight.Entering Thursday’s play, only four of the league’s 30 teams were more than four games out of contention for the No. 10 spot in each conference: Orlando, Detroit, Houston and Minnesota. Numerous league executives have said that, in past years, teams more naturally fell into place as buyers or sellers with fewer clubs in playoff contention. More

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      Tony Murray, Moral Support for a Gay N.B.A. Player, Dies at 60

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      Mr. Murray, along with his husband, helped their nephew Jason Collins become the first player in the league to come out publicly. He died of Covid-19.This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.When Jason Collins stepped onto the court on Feb. 23, 2014, as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, it was a historic event: He was the first openly gay player in the National Basketball Association, and this was his first time in uniform since he had come out.Among the thousands cheering him on in Los Angeles, in a game against the Lakers, were his uncle, Mark Collins, and Mark’s husband, Tony Murray. “Congratulations,” they said to Mr. Collins over drinks after the game. “We love you.”They were more than just supportive family members. Mr. Collins and Mr. Murray married in 2013, the same year Jason Collins came out in a cover story in Sports Illustrated. In that article, and in many other places, he talked about how important his uncles were to him as examples of gay men — and, as he began to tell people about his sexuality, how valuable they were as guides and advisers.“For a confused young boy,” Mr. Collins wrote, “I can think of no better role model of love and compassion.”They also paved the way for Jason to come out to his family by showing them that gay men were nothing to be afraid of. Some relatives had difficulty accepting that Mark Collins was gay — until they met Tony.“I think once we saw how Mark and Tony were, the love they had for each other, we knew Mark was going to be fine,” Mr. Collins, who played for six teams in a 13-year N.B.A. career, said in a phone interview.Mr. Murray died on March 16 at a hospital in Valley Stream, N.Y. He was 60. The cause was Covid-19, Mark Collins said.Antoine Murray was born on Nov. 16, 1960, in Philadelphia. His father, William Murray, was unemployed; his mother, Phyllis (Turner) Murray, worked as an office clerk at a supermarket.Along with his husband and nephew, he is survived by his sisters Cynthia and Darlene and his brothers William and Brian.Mr. Murray graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in communications and received a master’s in education from West Chester University in Pennsylvania.While in college he interned at WCAU, a TV station in Philadelphia, and was later hired there as a mail clerk. He rose steadily, becoming its manager of community relations.It was that job, which involved a heavy dose of educational outreach, that took him to an educators’ conference in Philadelphia in 1995. Also in attendance was Mr. Collins, who is a social worker for the Hempstead, N.Y., public schools.The two began a long-distance relationship, visiting each other and taking trips to explore their respective home states. They both loved casinos, and traveled to Atlantic City and Las Vegas.They loved food, too. Along with vacations to foodie-friendly cities like New Orleans, Mr. Murray cooked for them at home, lavishly and often. His tastes were eclectic, but he had a spot for making huge spreads of soul food.“When he cooked, he always cooked for 30 people,” Mark Collins said. “He didn’t know how to cook in small portions.”After Mr. Murray moved to New York in the mid-2000s to work in administration for the YMCA, the couple settled in the Far Rockaway section of Queens. There they would host neighborhood barbecues on their front lawn, with Mr. Murray essentially catering the whole spread. He became one of the most popular people in the neighborhood, Mark Collins said.Jason Collins played center for the Brooklyn Nets in a game against the Toronto Raptors in 2014. “Tony was so proud of Jason,” Mark Collins said of his husband. Kathy Kmonicek/Associated PressBoth Jason and Mark Collins described Mr. Murray as an old soul, relaxed and somewhat reserved, committed to his Baptist faith but adamant in defense of gay rights.Mr. Murray and Mr. Collins marched every year in the New York City Pride parade, and in 2013 they traveled to Boston to join Jason Collins in his first Pride march. The basketball player was there at the invitation of Rep. Joe Kennedy III, his former college roommate, who was leading a contingent in the parade.His uncles smiled as the crowd cheered for Jason.“It was a beautiful day,” Mark Collins remembered. “Tony was so proud of Jason. He was just humbled by the whole experience.” More

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      Why These Players Should Start Packing at the NBA Trade Deadline

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      Toronto’s Kyle Lowry, Houston’s Victor Oladipo and Lonzo Ball of the New Orleans Pelicans are popular figures as the league’s trade deadline approaches Thursday.The N.B.A. trade deadline, typically a February enterprise, is uncharacteristically competing with March Madness for the basketball public’s attention this year.The buildup to the deadline on Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern time has been equally untraditional. Numerous front-office executives have said that trade chatter was slower to percolate this season because they had fewer opportunities to meet face-to-face on the road while scouting college games — and especially with front offices devoting so much attention to the daily challenges of managing their rosters and adhering to Covid-19 health and safety protocols as teams play through the pandemic.The league’s new playoff format, which gives 10 teams in each conference a shot at the playoffs rather than the longstanding norm of eight, has further muddled the marketplace, persuading more teams than usual to keep the status quo. In past years, with fewer teams in playoff contention, teams more naturally fell into place as buyers or sellers.Yet you can safely expect the typical flurry of trades before the buzzer sounds, despite the complications, because deadline day in the modern N.B.A. is known for sparking teams into action and delivering frantic activity. No one is predicting a blockbuster deal on the level of James Harden being traded to the Nets, but there will be action. Our breakdown of what to expect:The HeadlinerWith Harden already in Brooklyn, and Washington adamant it won’t consider offers for Bradley Beal until at least the off-season, there is a strong likelihood that no current All-Stars will be dealt this week.The jockeying between Philadelphia and Miami for Toronto guard Kyle Lowry, six times an All-Star but not this season, is nonetheless significant. Thursday also happens to be Lowry’s 35th birthday, and the signals were getting stronger, as of Monday night, that a trade to the 76ers or the Heat could materialize.The Sixers crave Lowry’s floor leadership and defensive savvy after losing out to the Nets in the Harden sweepstakes. The Heat want to team Lowry, who will be a free agent this summer, with his good friend Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo in what would be a rugged three-man core of noted two-way players. The Raptors could still offer Lowry a new deal but have quietly pledged to help route him to a preferred destination if the sides agree that his long-term future lies elsewhere — provided the trade returns meaningful help for Toronto.The Raptors hope to avoid the criticism they received when they traded DeMar DeRozan, who, like Lowry, was hugely popular among Toronto fans.Darren Abate/Associated PressTyrese Maxey, Philadelphia’s promising rookie guard, is a natural target for Toronto in talks to send Lowry, a Philadelphia native, home. The Sixers, though, made Maxey untouchable in their talks with Houston for Harden in January, refusing to add him to a package that included the defensive ace Ben Simmons, a three-time All-Star. If that stance holds, it could take some creative maneuvering for Daryl Morey, Philadelphia’s president of basketball operations, to get Lowry again. In a 2009 trade as general manager of the Rockets, Morey pried the guard from Memphis in a deal he has pointed to as one of his better moves in Houston.The Heat are trying to win the Lowry race while also keeping the veteran guard Goran Dragic and the promising second-year shooter Tyler Herro out of any deal. The success of Miami’s pursuit of Lowry could thus hinge on Toronto’s interest in a young player like the sharpshooting Duncan Robinson or the rookie Precious Achiuwa packaged with Kelly Olynyk’s $12.6 million expiring contract. The Sixers have the edge when it comes to first-round draft picks to sweeten a trade offer.This much is clear: Toronto won’t just trade Lowry anywhere. He is considered Raptors royalty in his ninth season with the franchise and management treats him accordingly after Lowry’s pivotal contributions to Toronto’s 2018-19 championship run — and with fresh memories of the criticism for trading a devoted DeMar DeRozan to San Antonio for one season of Kawhi Leonard.Although it might be easier, emotionally, for everyone to part ways in the off-season, Philadelphia and Miami are both in need of a forceful response to the moves of other Eastern Conference contenders. The Nets have raised the bar at the top of the East by teaming Harden with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, and the Milwaukee Bucks are finally surging now, too, after their November acquisition of Jrue Holiday and last week’s addition of P.J. Tucker.Marquee Names in PlayHouston badly wants to trade Victor Oladipo, a two-time All-Star who will become a free agent at season’s end. But with Oladipo receiving middling reviews for his play this season, and his durability in question, the Rockets face challenges in generating an encouraging return. Orlando’s Aaron Gordon and New Orleans’s Lonzo Ball, by contrast, are generating considerable interest.While the Magic have talked to several teams about Gordon — most notably Boston — it remains unclear how willing the Pelicans are to trade Ball, even when it is widely believed that Ball is poised to attract offers in restricted free agency this summer that exceed what New Orleans is willing to spend to keep him. I reported on Friday that the Los Angeles Clippers, despite their lack of future first-round picks to offer, have been exploring potential multiteam trade scenarios to get Ball.Lonzo Ball has attracted interest from several teams, including the Los Angeles Clippers.Craig Mitchelldyer/Associated PressThe Celtics and the Clippers rank as the two most desperate teams at the deadline, given the playoff expectations they carried into the season and both clubs’ recent struggles. No less an authority than Danny Ainge, Boston’s president of basketball operations, said in a February radio interview that “we don’t have a good enough team,” essentially putting public pressure on himself to do something about it.Boston has duly pursued a variety of big men whose teams are resistant to deals: Sacramento’s Harrison Barnes, Atlanta’s John Collins and Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic. The Celtics now appear focused on Gordon, or perhaps more affordable options like Sacramento’s Nemanja Bjelica or Toronto’s Norman Powell.The Buyout MarketCleveland’s Andre Drummond and San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldridge are two more former All-Stars who have been heavily shopped, but their hefty salaries make it difficult for their teams to trade them. Neither the Cavaliers nor the Spurs want to take long-term salary back in a deal. If no trade materializes in either case, Drummond ($28.75 million) and Aldridge ($24 million) could become unrestricted free agents by negotiating buyouts.There is a growing belief around the league that the Los Angeles Lakers have an edge over the Nets to sign Drummond if he makes it to free agency, and the Heat are widely regarded as the leaders to sign Aldridge.The Lakers only can afford to offer Drummond a minimum deal, but they have a bigger role to offer him than the Nets. After he and the Cavaliers mutually agreed a month ago that he would not play while the team sought deals, Drummond needs playing time to enhance his marketability entering free agency. That has given the Lakers confidence they can trump the offers of the Nets, who can use a $5.7 million disabled player exception from Spencer Dinwiddie’s season-ending knee injury or a $5.6 million midlevel exception left over from last off-season.Other players who could soon reach free agency through a buyout if they are not traded in the next two days include New Orleans’s JJ Redick, Cleveland’s JaVale McGee, Memphis’ Gorgui Dieng, Sacramento’s Hassan Whiteside and the Knicks’ Austin Rivers.The Nets and Lakers are interested in signing Andre Drummond if he is bought out of his contract in Cleveland.Tony Dejak/Associated PressSpencer Dinwiddie could still draw significant offers from other teams despite his knee injury, if he opts out of his contract this summer.Michael Dwyer/Associated PressVeterans Likely on the MoveSacramento’s Bjelica, Oklahoma City’s George Hill, Detroit’s Wayne Ellington, Miami’s Olynyk, Indiana’s Aaron Holiday and the Orlando duo of Evan Fournier and Terrence Ross are all prime contenders to be moved. Hill and Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio have been mentioned frequently as secondary targets for the Clippers, after Ball.Thunder General Manager Sam Presti has a well-known aversion to granting buyouts, so expect Hill to finish the season with the Thunder if no trade coalesces.The Nets are working the phones to trade Dinwiddie, who is poised to become a free agent by declining his $12.3 million player option for next season because he is expected to have numerous suitors in spite of his knee injury. Trading Dinwiddie now is the surest way for the Nets to fortify their roster yet again before the playoffs and protect themselves from losing him for nothing in the off-season.The Knicks are likewise bound to be involved in at least one deal, no matter what happens with Rivers, thanks to $15 million in cap space they carried into the season that can help facilitate trades.The Scoop @TheSteinLineHouston is shopping Victor Oladipo, though he has been only so-so this season.Pool photo by Troy TaorminaCorner ThreeLaMelo Ball was having a sensational rookie season for the Charlotte Hornets before he broke his wrist against the Clippers over the weekend.Mark J. Terrill/Associated PressYou ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I’ll field three questions posed via email at marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you’re writing in from, and make sure “Corner Three” is in the subject line.(Questions may be lightly edited or condensed for clarity.)Q: I was curious to know if you feel like Charlotte’s recent success (before a difficult West Coast trip) and the excitement of having LaMelo Ball and Gordon Hayward means we’re finally turning a corner. Could this help us in free agency? Will Michael Jordan, as the Hornets’ owner, be willing to break the bank again on a proven player? — Glenn Gibson (Mount Holly, N.C.)Stein: Glenn sent this in early last week. Then came the news on Sunday night that Ball’s sensational rookie season likely came to an abrupt end when he broke his right wrist on Saturday in a hard fall against the Los Angeles Clippers.The turn of events was so deflating that I decided to run the letter anyway to pay tribute to the unexpected playoff bid for Charlotte that Ball was leading.The Hornets have been one of this season’s fun surprises and, thanks largely to the drafting of Ball and the much-criticized signing of Hayward in free agency, quickly became known among NBA League Pass aficionados as the most watchable Charlotte team in decades. No one was ready to proclaim that Charlotte had suddenly become a free-agent destination after one strong half-season from Ball. Yet his arrival helped illustrate why teams relish the ability to put multiple playmakers on the floor — and why Kyle Lowry and Lonzo Ball, LaMelo’s brother, are in such high demand as Thursday’s trade deadline approaches.Along with Terry Rozier, Ball and Hayward gave the Hornets three players who could routinely make good things happen for themselves and those around them. In the East, where the Nets, Philadelphia and Milwaukee look dangerous but conference depth is an issue, that’s enough for Charlotte to overcome a suspect frontcourt and be in playoff contention.It’s no secret that the Hornets have been seeking a quality big man such as Indiana’s Myles Turner in the buildup to Thursday’s trade deadline. They were also one of the teams to register rebuffed interest in the Orlando All-Star Nikola Vucevic. Upgrading their frontcourt remains a priority for the Hornets, and Ball’s injury does not rule out a trade this week, but the wisest course is pursuing deals that align with Charlotte’s bright Ball-led future rather than chasing the short-term high of a playoff berth without him.Q: I have a semantics question about how the N.B.A. views the naming of its teams. When we talk about the New York Knicks or the Brooklyn Nets or the Indiana Pacers, the first part of the team name is the city where the team plays. Is the second part — Knicks, Nets, Pacers, etc. — considered to be a team name or a team nickname? In other words, if I said that the Knicks are finally turning things around, would you say that I used the team’s name or its nickname? Given that you have a degree of access and institutional knowledge most of us don’t have, I’d very much appreciate if you could clarify this matter. — Adam Ginsburg (Toledo, Ohio)Stein: Congratulations, Adam, on posing a question no one has ever asked me. I had to look into it on that basis alone.The league, though, has no official policy on this, based on my checking. Semantics was a good word choice by you, because the distinction you’re seeking can’t be easily made and likely depends on the person — provided there are others who want this matter clarified.Knicks, Nets and Pacers, which you termed nicknames, are also part of the team’s trademarked name. On the league’s official website, you can find a detailed history lesson, for example, about how the Knicks became known as the Knicks. But the word “nickname” doesn’t even appear there.Also: We can’t even say the first part of a team always denotes the city where a team plays as long as Golden State represents a whole region.Q: Love your newsletter, but it was “Run TMC” when the Warriors had their beautiful three-year run with Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin — not “Run DMC.” — Mitch Perry (St. Petersburg, Fla.)Stein: Thanks for pointing out one of the most dispiriting typos in newsletter history. A week later, I’m still in a funk over it.Numbers GameDevin Booker and the Phoenix Suns are excelling this season and have a better record than the defending champions, the Los Angeles Lakers.Harry How/Getty Images15Entering Tuesday’s play, home teams had won both games in a two-game, baseball-style series just 15 times in 60 tries, according to data compiled by Ben Falk of the ever-handy Cleaning the Glass website. Home teams have lost both games 12 times and split the two games 33 times. This new scheduling wrinkle — designed to reduce travel amid the pandemic — so far appears to have contributed to a leaguewide erosion in home-court advantage..541Playing in front of reduced crowds — and, often, mostly empty buildings for much of the season — home teams have won 54.1 percent of games this season entering Tuesday, which would represent a new single-season low. Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press reported in February that last season’s 55.1 percent was the lowest. From 2003-4 through 2018-19, according to Falk, that figure was 59.6 percent.8Atlanta won its first eight games after Nate McMillan replaced Lloyd Pierce as head coach but still fell six victories shy of a league record. The Nets won their first 13 games in the 2003-4 season after the rookie coach Lawrence Frank replaced the ousted Byron Scott.34-12Before a surprising home loss to Minnesota on Thursday night, Phoenix was on a 34-12 tear including its 8-0 record in seeding games during last summer’s N.B.A. restart at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla. That run also includes an 18-4 stretch going into the Minnesota loss. The Suns, at a surprising No. 2 in the West, are in line for their first playoff berth in 11 seasons.15If you are prepared to write the Suns into the playoffs now, like us, that leaves Sacramento with the league’s only double-digit playoff drought, which appears headed to reach a 15th consecutive season. The Knicks are on course to end the league’s third-longest current drought after seven straight nonplayoff seasons.Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Send any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. More

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      The Time Dad Locked Down Elgin Baylor

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      Elgin Baylor’s N.B.A. legacy will loom large in basketball history. But the time our columnist’s father managed to defend Baylor for a half became a cherished part of family lore.Memory fades, but simple tales we hear as children can drill so deep down into us we do not forget. It’s because of such a tale, short and sweet and told with some regularity by my late father as I grew up, that I will always hold tight to the memory of the basketball great Elgin Baylor, who died this week at 86.“Did I ever tell you about the time I played Elgin Baylor?” my father would say as he looked into my eyes, filled with wonder no matter how many times he’d begun this way.“Elgin couldn’t score on me, no he couldn’t. Not in that first half he couldn’t.”There would be more to this parable, which my three older brothers also grew up hearing. It would turn into a lesson about humility and a meditation on witnessing greatness, but that start was how dad hooked me in the years not long after Baylor’s 1971 retirement from basketball, when the Lakers’ great was still widely known as a star. With that opener, and the account that followed, Baylor came to be one of the great pillars of my early imaginings.This week, there will be many fond remembrances told about Baylor. Most will focus mainly on his All-Star years in the N.B.A. This is as it should be for a player who helped revolutionize basketball with his high-flying athleticism and all-around skill. Baylor’s decade of dominance in the 1960s foreshadowed Julius Erving, Michael Jordan and the dazzling, acrobatic game we love today.Less attention will be given to Baylor’s unusual college years in the 1950s, spent far from well-known training grounds like Kansas, North Carolina or U.C.L.A.Raised in Washington D.C., Baylor was overlooked by the major powers during an era when segregation was rampant in basketball and integrated teams tended to have no more than one or two African-American players. He ended up playing for the College of Idaho. Yes, the College of Idaho.Then he transferred to another western school, Seattle University, a small Jesuit university with a lightly regarded basketball team that he promptly led to the finals of the 1958 N.C.A.A. tournament.Memories fade. Baylor, one of the most superb men’s basketball players in history, graced Seattle with his talent for years. But in the city of my birth, the city where I grew up and now live, few outside of old-timers and rock-solid sports fans know of his history here.Elgin Baylor in a game against Gonzaga while he played for Seattle University.Associated PressAlso fading from collective recall are the 1950s years when A.A.U. basketball — then a nationwide league backed by local businesses and stocked with ex-college stars who could hold their own against counterparts in the still-fledgling N.B.A. — was a force.That’s where my father went shoulder-to-shoulder with Baylor.Mel Streeter was a talent in his own right then. He had played at the University of Oregon in the early 1950s, when he was the only Black player on his teams. (Imagine that as you watch the Ducks, bursting with Black talent, in the Sweet Sixteen of the men’s tournament.) After moving with my mom to Seattle, he thrived in the fast-paced, wide-open style favored in Seattle’s powerful A.A.U. league, where games were played in front of packed crowds and were often featured prominently in the sports pages.Baylor was a part of that mix. He suited up for a powerhouse A.A.U. team: Westside Ford.I wish now that I had asked my father more about his one-and-only game against Baylor, more about that league and those times. But dad died 15 years ago. As close as we were, some of his history will always be cut off from me. I don’t know what team he was on when he played against Baylor. I don’t know if it was a big game with high stakes — like the battles that helped decide who would head off to the A.A.U. national championship.Thankfully, I have a firm recollection of the look on my father’s face as he spoke of how, in a head-to-head matchup between two tall, lithe and powerful forwards, he held Baylor to two first-half points. Oh, and dad never let any of his four sons forget that while he was holding down Baylor, he was lighting up the scoreboard. Even before my older brother Jon knew I was writing this column, the moment he heard about Baylor’s death he sent me a text with his own recollections of our family’s well-told tale: “Dad scored 11 in the first half!”But how did the game end?Whenever he came to the story’s backstretch, my dad would always smile and bring me close, letting me know that this short fable was not actually about him.As it turned out, angered at being shown up, Baylor came out in the second half determined to teach Mel Streeter a lesson. As dad told it, the entire back half of the game was essentially a blur as Baylor whipped past my father for layups or arcing, orbital jump shots. Baylor didn’t just turn the tables: He made known that he was simply a different kind of cat. He shut down dad with lockdown defense, and torched dad for 24 points.Whenever my father told this story, which was usually while we shot hoops on the basket that hung over our old garage, he never ended it sounding defeated. His smile widened and his face lit up as looked straight at me and spoke of Baylor with awe. “There was nothing I could do,” dad would say. “He was just too much.”Dad had witnessed true genius, true athletic genius, right up close, shoulder-to-shoulder under the rim inside a packed Seattle gym. And he had loved every second of the opportunity, even as he got scorched.That’s what I’m left with. My father’s thankfulness.If only he’d still been alive to hear about the first time I met Baylor, who I crossed paths with while in my role as a reporter roughly a dozen years back. It happened in Los Angeles, at the old training center for the Clippers, which Baylor struggled to run as general manager for just over 20 years.As I introduced myself, he thought for a moment about my name.“Streeter, huh?”I could see he was thinking back, working his memory to make a connection.I nudged him a bit. Without going into details, I reminded him that he’d played Mel Streeter in an old A.A.U. game.Then he put it all together.“Your dad,” he said, “let me tell you, he could play. He could really play.” More

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      Myles Turner Will Block Your Shot. If T.J. McConnell Doesn’t Pick Your Pocket First.

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      Turner and McConnell of the Indiana Pacers lead the N.B.A. in blocks (Turner) and steals (McConnell), a rare feat for teammates and a headache for everyone else.In some obvious ways, Myles Turner and T.J. McConnell couldn’t be more different as basketball players. Turner is a 6-foot-11 center who does much of his finest work above the rim. McConnell is a 6-foot-1 point guard who plays a more earthbound brand of the game. Turner swats shots, while McConnell picks pockets. One is an ominous presence in the paint; the other, a self-described “pest” who roams the perimeter.But in a challenging season for the Indiana Pacers, Turner and McConnell have come together to press, strip and thwart opponents, a two-man misery machine. In the process, they could become the first pair of teammates to lead the N.B.A. in blocks and steals since the 2000-1 season, when Theo Ratliff (blocks) and Allen Iverson (steals) of the Philadelphia 76ers did it.“The defensive end is just about effort,” said McConnell, who has come off the bench to average a league-leading 1.8 steals per game. “That’s truly what it comes down to, and that’s something I can control. I can always give as much effort as possible.”Turner, who is averaging a league-leading and career-best 3.4 blocks per game, gave the Miami Heat enormous problems in back-to-back wins over the weekend, blocking a total of 10 shots. On Sunday, he had two of them in overtime to help the Pacers seal their 109-106 victory.“No shot is safe around him,” McConnell said.They say they have made each other better players — “Knowing that you have someone who is going to match or even amplify your intensity only helps you,” Turner said — and they have probably played a part in boosting each other’s league-leading totals.McConnell feels that he can jump into passing lanes and be even more aggressive, he said, because he knows Turner is stationed behind him as a safety net. Turner has gone so far as to encourage McConnell and the team’s other guards to funnel players in his direction.“He’s always talking to me about how we can kind of get each other going,” McConnell said. “He’s even giving me angles to send players toward the rim. If I foul someone, he’ll come up and be like: ‘Hey, don’t foul. I got you. I’ll block the shot.’ ”Anything can happen ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline, especially for a struggling team like the Pacers, who fell to 19-23 after losing to the surging Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night. Several teams are reported to have interest in Turner, though the price would be high.T.J. McConnell went undrafted in 2015 but has since ascended to lead the league in steals.Darron Cummings/Associated PressFor now, Turner and McConnell continue to cultivate their on-court bromance — one that began to take shape in 2015 when they found themselves in three of the same pre-draft workouts, including one for the Pacers. They already knew of each other, having both played big-time college basketball — McConnell at Arizona and Turner at Texas.In their workout for the Pacers, they teamed up in a game of three-on-three — and dominated, McConnell said. The Pacers selected Turner with the 11th pick that year. McConnell went undrafted.“He always jokes about it: ‘I’m the one who got you drafted here,’ ” Turner said.McConnell eventually signed with the 76ers, who were wading through the thick weeds of their notorious tanking epoch. It was an experiment that gave McConnell an opportunity to prove himself in the 2015-16 season, one that he did not waste. In addition to operating as a pass-first distributor — he averaged 4.5 assists in 19.8 minutes a game — he collected 95 steals.He stuck with the 76ers for four seasons, and occasionally found himself bumping in to a familiar figure: Turner, who had quickly emerged as one of the league’s most fearsome interior defenders. McConnell considers himself fortunate that he never had any of his shots blocked by Turner. And in a way, McConnell may have one-upped Turner by stealing one of his passes when they were first-year players.“I will make sure he is aware of that stat,” McConnell said.In their second season, though, Turner erased a potential assist for McConnell. The 76ers were playing the Pacers when McConnell ran out in transition and tossed a lob to his then-teammate Robert Covington for what nearly everyone in the arena must have assumed was an easy alley-oop layup. But at the last moment, Turner came from behind to swoop through the lane and rejected Covington at the rim.“A lot of people in that situation would be scared to get dunked on,” Turner said. “But I don’t care if get dunked on. You have to develop that mentality as a shot blocker. All the great shot blockers get dunked on.”McConnell, who signed with the Pacers before the start of last season, and Turner, who has spent his entire career in Indiana, both say that a lot of what they do on defense cannot be taught. Turner described his shot-blocking ability as “a gift.” McConnell said his type of defense was a mind-set.“I just want to make it as hard as possible for guys to get into their offense, for them to get over half court — anything,” he said. “You come into the game, and I’m not physically imposing or all that quick. But I’ll pressure you.”Turner said the key to defense is being “in the right spot at the right time.”Frank Franklin Ii/Associated PressWhile they lean on instinct, timing and effort, they have refined their skills. In college, Turner said, he was often more athletic than the players he defended. But when he entered the N.B.A., he discovered a league populated by decathletes like Russell Westbrook — players who could bound past him or over him. So Turner polished his positioning with the help of Dan Burke, a former assistant coach for the Pacers who now works for the 76ers.“You have to be in the right spot at the right time,” Turner said. “You have to get there first.”McConnell was around basketball from an early age. His father, Tim, was his coach at Chartiers Valley High School outside Pittsburgh, where the players occasionally did defensive slides while holding bricks.“We wouldn’t do it that often,” McConnell said. “But we definitely did it.”As he got older, McConnell would study Chris Paul’s defensive prowess — “He just makes it so hard on guys,” McConnell said — while earning his way into the N.B.A. with the same sort of resolve. McConnell is routinely underestimated by opposing players, Turner said.“Especially by the young guys coming into the league,” Turner said. “They look at him, like, ‘Who is this white boy in front of me?’ But T.J., it’s like he takes that to heart. He loves the challenge — the challenge of people looking at him that way.”Earlier this month, before the All-Star break, McConnell had one of the best games of his career, finishing with 16 points, 13 assists and 10 steals in a win against the Cleveland Cavaliers. During one extraordinary stretch of the first quarter, he had steals on five straight possessions. He set an N.B.A. record with nine steals in the first half.“That’s as good of a game as you’re going to see,” the Pacers’ Malcolm Brogdon said.McConnell also leads the league in deflections, though he doesn’t want to know his tally in real time during games, he said, because he worries that he might become “overzealous.”At the same time, McConnell has managed to block 14 shots. Every time it happens, he said, it comes as a total surprise. And for the briefest moment, he gets a glimpse at what life must be like for his taller teammate.“It’s kind of like, ‘Did I just do that?’ ” McConnell said. More

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      Elgin Baylor, Acrobatic Hall of Famer in N.B.A., Dies at 86

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      Foreshadowing the likes of Michael Jordan, he was a star with the glamorous Lakers and was voted to the all-N.B.A. team for the league’s first 50 years.Elgin Baylor, the Lakers’ Hall of Fame forward who became one of the N.B.A.’s greatest players, displaying acrobatic brilliance that foreshadowed the athleticism of later generations of stars, died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 86.His death, at a hospital, was announced on Twitter by the Lakers. The team did not specify a cause.In his 14 seasons with the Lakers, first in Minneapolis but mostly in Los Angeles, with another pair of Hall of Famers, Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain, as teammates, Baylor played with a creative flourish that had never been seen in pro basketball.He was only 6 feet 5 inches — relatively short for a forward even then — but he played above the rim when he soared toward the basket. His ability to twist and turn in midair on his way to the hoop previewed the freewheeling shows put on by stars like Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James.When Baylor arrived in the N.B.A. in 1958, an All-American out of Seattle University, the pros usually scored on one-handed set shots or running hooks. Baylor added a new dimension.“You could not stop Elgin from driving to the basket,” the Hall of Fame guard Oscar Robertson recalled in his autobiography “The Big O” (2010), adding, “You sure couldn’t out-jump him, or hang in the air any longer than he did.”“Elgin,” Robertson wrote, “was the first and original high flier.”Baylor’s sturdy 225-pound frame complemented his finesse. He could muscle his way to the basket, and he followed up his missed shots by maneuvering to score over bigger players. He was also an outstanding rebounder and passer.Baylor driving to the hoop against Tom Sanders of the Boston Celtics, the Lakers’ perennial nemesis, in the 1962 championship series. Boston won, as it so often did against the Lakers. Associated PressBaylor was voted to the all-N.B.A. team for the league’s first 50 years. He was a 10-time N.B.A. first-team All-Star selection and averaged more than 30 points a game for three consecutive seasons in the early 1960s.He set a league record by scoring 64 points against the Boston Celtics in November 1959, then scored 71 against the Knicks in November 1960, only to see Chamberlain score 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors against the Knicks in March 1962.Baylor joined with West and later with Chamberlain to turn the Lakers into a glamour team. He played in eight N.B.A. final series, but the Lakers lost seven times to the Celtics in the Bill Russell era and then to the Knicks in a memorable Game 7 at Madison Square Garden in 1970.He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977.But Baylor had little success when he turned to coaching and front-office positions. He coached three losing teams with the New Orleans Jazz (now the Utah Jazz) in the 1970s and later spent 22 mostly frustrating seasons as the general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers.In the days when the N.B.A.’s TV coverage was limited, Baylor had never viewed a pro game before he played in one.“I had never seen anyone else do my moves,” he told Terry Pluto in the N.B.A. oral history “Tall Tales” (1992). “It starts with talent; you have to be able to jump. But more than that, things I did were spontaneous. I had the ball, I reacted to the defense.”And he had a nervous facial twitch that sometimes made defenders think he was setting off in one direction only to find him heading the other way.As the center Johnny Kerr put it, “You didn’t know if it was a head fake or what was going on.”Baylor, second from right, as coach of the New Orleans Jazz in 1979. With him, from left, were Kent Benson of the Milwaukee Bucks and Tommy Green and Jimmy McElroy of the Jazz.Associated PressElgin Gay Baylor was born in Washington on Sept. 16, 1934. He was a high school basketball star, then played for one season at the College of Idaho and two seasons at Seattle University, leading his team as a senior to the 1958 N.C.A.A. tournament final, a loss to Kentucky.The Minneapolis Lakers selected Baylor as the league’s overall No. 1 pick in the 1958 draft. He took them to the 1959 N.B.A. final series, where he averaged nearly 25 points a game in a losing cause, the Lakers being swept by the Celtics. He was named rookie of the year.The Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960, the year West arrived to provide an outside game to go with Baylor’s all-around skills.Baylor was eventually hampered by knee surgery that diminished his spring, but he remained an offensive force. He retired after his injuries limited him to two games in 1970-71 and just nine at the outset of the 1971-72 season, when the Lakers went on to defeat the Knicks for the championship.“Winning that championship was marred for me by the sad, conspicuous absence of Elgin Baylor,” West recalled in his memoir “West by West” (2011), written with Jonathan Coleman. “The guy that shared all the blood, sweat and tears wasn’t there to realize what it felt like.”Baylor averaged 27.4 points and 13.5 rebounds for his career and played in 11 All-Star Games.He was fired as the Jazz coach in 1979. He became the head of basketball operations for the Clippers, essentially their general manager, in 1986.The Clippers made the playoffs only four times in Baylor’s tenure, which ended before the 2008-09 season opened. The Clippers said he had resigned, but he filed a lawsuit in March 2009 against the Clippers’ owner, Donald T. Sterling, and the N.B.A., maintaining that he had been fired as a result of age and racial discrimination.The lawsuit contended that Sterling had described Baylor as “a token” and that he had wanted the team to be composed of “poor black kids from the South” with a white head coach. The N.B.A. was accountable, according to the suit, because league officials knew of a large salary disparity between other general managers and Baylor, an African-American.A jury decided in the Clippers’ favor, concluding that Baylor had lost his job because of the team’s poor showings.But in April 2014, the N.B.A. imposed a lifetime ban on Sterling shortly after a recording obtained by TMZ caught him making racist comments in a conversation with a female acquaintance. The team was sold to the businessman Steve Ballmer in August 2014.Baylor is survived by his wife, Elaine; a daughter, Krystal; two children from a previous marriage, Alan and Alison; and a sister, Gladys Baylor Barrett.Long after Baylor’s playing days ended, his reputation endured.Tom Heinsohn, the Hall of Fame forward on Celtic teams that bested Baylor’s Lakers, marveled at his feats.“Elgin Baylor as forward beats out Bird, Julius Erving and everybody else,” Heinsohn told Roland Lazenby in his biography “Jerry West” (2009), referring to the Celtics’ Larry Bird. “He had the total game: defense, offense, everything, rebounding, passing the ball.” (Heinsohn died in November at 86.)Bill Sharman, the Celtics’ sharpshooting guard who coached Baylor in his brief, final season, was even more succinct, telling The Los Angeles Times back then, “Elgin Baylor is the greatest cornerman who ever played pro basketball.”Alex Traub contributed reporting. More