Basket

The long-awaited reopening of the N.B.A.’s trade market on Monday delivered an immediate blockbuster that will send Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Paul to the Phoenix Suns to join Devin Booker in what has the look of a dynamic backcourt.Oklahoma City will receive the veterans Kelly Oubre Jr., 24, and Ricky Rubio, 30, from the Suns as the headliners of a package for Paul that also includes a 2022 first-round draft pick. The deal came together in the first hour after the N.B.A. permitted trades for the first time in more than nine months.On Sunday, the rebuilding Thunder struck a verbal agreement to trade the reserve guard Dennis Schroder to the Los Angeles Lakers, according to two people familiar with the agreement. Oklahoma City will also acquire Danny Green and the No. 28 pick in Wednesday night’s draft for Schroder, meaning that Thunder General Manager Sam Presti — once the trades are made official — will have amassed 16 first-round picks over the next seven N.B.A. drafts through 2026.“Chris has been the consummate leader and has left a tremendous legacy in a short period of time,” Presti said in a statement Monday announcing the trade.Rubio, fresh off helping the Suns have a surprising 8-0 winning streak to close last season alongside Booker, appeared to react to the trade on Twitter with some exasperation: “…what a business,” he posted, followed by an upside-down happy face emoji.The Thunder were one of last season’s overachievers after acquiring Paul in a trade with the Houston Rockets that netted two of those 16 future first-round picks as well as the right to swap first-round picks with the Rockets in 2021 and 2025. Yet it quickly became apparent, after the Thunder lost a first-round playoff series to the Rockets in seven games, that Presti was poised to commission a rebuild.Coach Billy Donovan left the Thunder in September instead of trying to hash out a contract extension and was hired shortly thereafter as the coach of the Chicago Bulls. More recently, Presti told Paul and his representatives that they could try to find a trade partner that would appeal to the All-Star guard, according to a person with knowledge of the arrangement who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.Paul, 35, who has two seasons and roughly $85 million left on his contract, wanted to remain in the Western Conference to be near his family, which stayed in Los Angeles last season while he played in Oklahoma City. Paul also has a strong relationship with Suns Coach Monty Williams, according to the person, after playing for Williams for one season in New Orleans.In addition to reuniting with Williams, Paul will now team with the Suns’ young cornerstone duo of Booker and Deandre Ayton to try to restore Phoenix to Western Conference relevance. The Suns have missed the playoffs for 10 consecutive seasons, the second longest active playoff drought behind Sacramento’s 14. But Phoenix was one of the surprise stories of the N.B.A. restart at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., after arriving with the second-to-worst record of the 22 teams participating yet only missing the postseason by a half-game after the 8-0 flourish.The trade is the latest milestone event in an eventful year-plus for Paul. During the 2019 off-season, Houston gave up four draft assets to persuade Oklahoma City to absorb Paul’s contract. This off-season, after Paul played at an All-Star level for the Thunder, Oklahoma City was able to acquire a first-round pick in trading him away.“Man, I’m 35 years old and I still get a chance to play basketball every day and say that’s my way of life,” Paul said last week when asked about trade rumors during an appearance in the Time100 speakers’ series. “That is crazy in itself, so regardless what happens, I’ll be ready.”Paul averaged 17.6 points and 6.7 assists per game last season in earning his 10th trip to the N.B.A. All-Star Game. Oubre averaged a career-best 18.7 points per game for the Suns last season but did not play in the N.B.A. bubble while recovering from knee surgery; Rubio averaged 13.0 points and 8.8 assists in his first season with the Suns after signing a three-year, $51 million contract in July 2019.Oklahoma City’s Schroder trade, as The New York Times reported Sunday, came together in part because the Lakers fear Rajon Rondo will command offers in free agency after a strong run in the playoffs, making it difficult for them to re-sign him given the reigning champions’ budget constraints. The Lakers see Schroder, who averaged 18.9 points and 4.0 assists per game as one of the league’s top sixth men last season, as a huge boost to their offense.The Lakers also have interest in signing Milwaukee’s Wesley Matthews Jr. in free agency to replace Green’s defensive ability, 3-point shooting and experience, according to a person familiar with the team’s plans who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. More

Say it this time with feeling: The Knicks have lots to look forward to this coming season — a stable management structure, talented young players to build around and a respected coach.OK, we said that last year, too. And the Knicks ended up among the worst teams in the league again. They cleaned house with most of management and fired their respected coach.So is there good reason to actually be bullish on the Knicks? Yes, with Patrick Ewing-size caveats.The Knicks’ basketball leadership, led by team President Leon Rose, General Manager Scott Perry (a holdover from last year) and Coach Tom Thibodeau, has crucial decisions to make this off-season. The team pretty much has a blank slate, with lots of cap flexibility, few contracts beyond 2021 and some intriguing trade pieces.Of course, every team has important considerations. But for the Knicks, a poor trade, draft pick or free agent signing will hamper the team’s credibility at a time when impatient fans are already tuning out. (Knicks attendance has declined steadily since 2016.) The team has not made the playoffs since 2013 and hasn’t won a championship since “All In The Family” was in its prime.Free agency officially begins on Nov. 20, two days after the draft, where the Knicks, as a result of an unlucky lottery, will draft eighth.Right now, the Knicks do not have a single player who can be considered a surefire contributor to a championship team. This isn’t ideal, but it’s not terrible, either. It means the Knicks aren’t closely tied to anyone, allowing for greater flexibility when it comes to trades. The closest to a cornerstone is RJ Barrett, who was drafted third in 2019. His rookie year was inconsistent, as he averaged 14.3 points, 5 rebounds and 2.6 assists while shooting about 40 percent. He did not make either of the two All N.B.A. rookie teams, but showed flashes of star potential.Here is a look at what the Knicks might be able to accomplish this off-season.How much cap space do the Knicks have?A lot, and maybe even more than they expect. The N.B.A. announced this week that the league salary cap would be $109.1 million and the luxury tax level would be $132.6 million. The Knicks have approximately $82 million tied up in salary right now, not including their first-round draft picks, leaving them as one of the few teams with substantial cap space (roughly between $20 million and $30 million). This is enough to acquire a player who commands a maximum level contract, either through trade or free agency. And that $82 million number is flexible, depending on what contracts the Knicks choose to guarantee next year.Surely some of that cap space will be used on the Knicks’ current players.The Knicks have several players who are either under a team option or non-guaranteed contracts for next season. They have team options on Bobby Portis’s $15 million contract and on Theo Pinson’s, which is slightly less than $2 million. Maurice Harkless and Damyean Dotson are both unrestricted free agents.Other players, like Elfrid Payton, Reggie Bullock, Wayne Ellington and Taj Gibson, have only a small portion of their contracts — about $1 million — guaranteed for next season.Bet on few, if any, of these players returning next season. (Gibson might return at a lesser salary, given his history with Thibodeau with the Bulls.)What’s the deal with draft picks?Aside from the eighth pick, the Knicks will pick again in the first round at No. 27, and again at No. 38 over all in the second round. They also have a bevy of future picks to offer in trade talks.This sounds promising. What do the Knicks need?Um, everything? The team needs more consistent playmaking, shooting and defense.That’s mean. Surely, they have some reason for optimism beyond players they might get.Maybe.The 22-year-old Mitchell Robinson made some strides last season. He led the league in field goal percentage (74.2 percent) and remained an excellent defensive presence around the rim. The knock on him is he gets into foul trouble, which actually improved last year. He’s also not much of an offensive threat beyond dunking. Robinson is entering the last year of his rookie contract, so don’t be surprised if extension talks heat up soon.Other young players like Kevin Knox, Frank Ntilikina and Dennis Smith Jr. have just not shown any sort of meaningful consistency.So what should the Knicks do?Relax and enjoy the ride.That isn’t something that owner James Dolan wants to hear, but this season will almost assuredly be a bridge year without a trip to the playoffs. In theory, this campaign will be more about installing good habits on the floor than wins and losses. It’ll be about development and seeing whether any of the Knicks’ young players are worth keeping long-term.And that’s OK.Do the Knicks have enough flexibility to sign a maximum contract superstar? Yes. Maybe even two. Should they? Absolutely not. This is a much different off-season than last year, when stars like Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant were on the market.The best unrestricted free agents that will be available are Montrezl Harrell and Fred VanVleet. They’ll want long-term deals. Both have been bench players for the majority of their careers and are not going to make a team into a championship contender. Using cap space for the sake of using it is not sound team-building.There are players with optouts, like Gordon Hayward and DeMar DeRozan, who might become available, both quality players on the wrong side of 30.What the Knicks do have is cap space, draft picks and young players with potential. Those three things combined make the Knicks an attractive trade partner for when a disgruntled star (or stars) makes his feelings known.Next year’s free agent class is far more interesting, with names like Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and Giannis Antetokounmpo all potentially targets for the Knicks.They should do nothing then?Not quite. Signing a bunch of players to one- or two-year deals, like before the 2019-2020 season, actually was very smart. That’s the way to go and see if someone sticks. Maybe Goran Dragic, Davis Bertans and Serge Ibaka (all unrestricted free agents) all can be had for pricey one- or two-year deals, allowing the team to keep its cap flexibility while also improving the team immediately. (This would complicate midseason trades, but that is probably fine.)Another possible use of cap space: Trading for players with bloated contracts that other teams don’t want, provided they attach draft picks to add to the Knicks’ bank.The Knicks are not going to win the championship in 2021. They are building for something beyond that. So being careful and measured with their moves — as opposed to pulling panic moves to win now — is the right path to take. Now it’s on the team’s fans (and its owner) to see that plan through and wait for the right time to cash in all the chips. More

Eddie Johnson, who fell from N.B.A. stardom into drug abuse and a life of crime that resulted in a life sentence for sexually assaulting a young girl, died on Oct. 25 in a state prison in Milton, Fla. He was 65.The Florida Department of Corrections reported his death, at the Santa Rosa Correctional Institution Annex, but did not give a cause.Johnson, who was nicknamed Fast Eddie for his explosive first step, was drafted out of Auburn University in 1977 by the Atlanta Hawks. He soon became one of the team’s top players and started the 1980 and 1981 All-Star Games.“He was built like a linebacker and was as fast as they come with the ball in his hands, putting it on the floor, attacking someone off the dribble,” Mike Fratello, who coached the Hawks during some of Johnson’s nine seasons with the team, said in a phone interview. “And he could defend because of his strength and his ability to move his feet.”Johnson began to use cocaine in college and continued using it during his N.B.A. career. During his professional playing days, he was charged with cocaine possession, writing bad checks and car theft; he was hospitalized at least twice for treatment of manic-depressive disorder; and he successfully fled two men shooting at him in a motel parking lot after what the police said was a drug deal gone wrong.In 1981, Johnson discussed his cocaine use in an interview with Sports Illustrated. “I partied a little extensively, but I wasn’t abusing it,” he said. “The whole idea of me abusing drugs is outlandish.”With his production deteriorating and his behavior growing increasingly erratic, Johnson was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in early 1986; a year later, he signed with the Seattle Sonics. After several violations of the N.B.A.’s antidrug agreement, he was banned from the league in 1987.In 10 seasons, Johnson averaged 15.1 points a game.Edward Lee Johnson Jr. was born on Feb. 24, 1955, in Ocala, Fla., and grew up in nearby Weirsdale. He was a star at Lake Weir High School, whose basketball coach, Hugh Lindsley, told The Associated Press in 2006 that Johnson had been a flashy but effective player.“I said, ‘You can throw a pass behind your back, but it dang sure better go where it’s supposed to go,’” he recalled. “And it usually did.”Johnson’s younger brother Frank, who survives him, played in the N.B.A. for the Washington Bullets (now Wizards), Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns. Information on other survivors was not immediately available.Eddie Johnson was among the Tigers’ leading scorers in all four of his years at Auburn. In his first season with the Hawks, he averaged 10.5 points a game; three years later, he was the team’s leading scorer, averaging 19.1.“There were very few days during the four years that I coached him that he couldn’t turn on the burners,” Hubie Brown, the Hawks’ coach from 1976 to 1981, told Sports Illustrated. “In the games, no matter what his mental situation was, he could always produce to his potential.”When there were no games left to play, Johnson’s life unraveled. By his own count, he was arrested at least 100 times. Between 1987 and 2001, he was convicted, among other crimes, of burglary, battery, drug sale and possession, violently resisting arrest and grand theft.He committed his most serious crime in 2006. Prosecutors said he had entered the unlocked front door of an apartment in Ocala where an 8-year-old girl and her three brothers were alone watching television; a babysitter had stepped outside.The girl testified at Johnson’s trial in 2008 that he had followed her to her bedroom, locked the door and pushed a dresser in front of it before sexually assaulting her. He was convicted of sexual battery and molestation. He received a mandatory life sentence. More

The N.B.A.’s players on Thursday night tentatively approved the league’s plan to start the 2020-21 season on Dec. 22, which would require them to report to their teams for training camps in less than a month — barely seven weeks after the end of the pandemic-disrupted previous season.The union announced that it had tentatively accepted the scheduling elements of the league’s proposal to begin a shortened 72-game regular season before Christmas, a plan that only took shape two weeks ago at the strong urging of the N.B.A.’s television partners. The tentative approval came in a vote of the league’s 30 player representatives, one from each team.Negotiations to lock the new schedule in, however, are likely to continue into next week on some outstanding salary-cap and health and safety matters.“Additional details remain to be negotiated, and the N.B.P.A. is confident that the parties will reach agreement on these remaining issues relevant to the upcoming season,” the union — the National Basketball Players Association — said in a statement.The proposed schedule calls for training camps to begin Dec. 1. The regular season, 10 games shorter than usual, would then run through mid-May, with the playoffs lasting into July.The N.B.A.’s goal is to complete the 2020-21 season before the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled from July 23 to Aug. 8 in 2021. That would allow the league to avoid direct competition with the Olympics and set up the 2021-22 season to return to the N.B.A.’s usual October-through-June pattern. The plan is strongly preferred by the league’s primary media partners, Disney and Turner, following a summer and fall of dismal N.B.A. ratings in a crowded sports landscape, according to a person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.But there were unresolved talks about a new array of coronavirus protocols that will be needed because teams are planning to play in their home markets rather than in a restricted-access bubble, as they did when resuming the interrupted 2019-20 season. The league and the union are also still haggling over how much of the players’ salaries in the next two seasons will be placed into escrow.Each season, the N.B.A.’s 30 teams are required to spend roughly half of the league’s basketball-related income on player salaries. The N.B.A. typically holds 10 percent of each player’s salary in escrow until the income has been tallied. The money in escrow is used to make up the difference for the players, in case the total paid out was too low, or the owners, if the total was too high.The sides have been discussing a plan that would place roughly 18 percent of player salaries over the next two seasons in escrow. Amid fears that the escrow amount would be 30 percent or more, the union was pushing to spread the reductions over multiple seasons so players wouldn’t feel the salary pinch so acutely.Coming off the longest season in N.B.A. history, league officials have spent the past two weeks insisting that the December plan would reduce projected financial losses related to the coronavirus pandemic by at least $500 million in 2020-21. There is still a faction of players that prefers to start in conjunction with the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday holiday in mid-January, but the N.B.A. has prioritized the needs of its television partners in embracing the December start. The league also expects the season to be played in largely empty arenas because of the ongoing pandemic, which will sharply reduce revenue.The Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat, who contested a six-game N.B.A. finals series through Oct. 11, are facing an off-season of just seven weeks. In a typical year, finals teams have at least three months off, but the league is expected to make financial concessions to counter the pushback from players on those teams and others who wanted a longer break after the rigors of playing out the 2019-20 season in the bubble at Walt Disney World. Opening on Dec. 22 would enable Turner to broadcast its usual Tuesday night doubleheader to start the season, while also preserving Disney’s lucrative five-game slate that has become a staple of Christmas Day’s television offerings. The league, though, has not yet been able to set a date to start free agency — which teams have been expecting to begin shortly after the Nov. 18 draft — or to lift a freeze on trades in effect since the Feb. 6 trade deadline.The N.B.A. and the players’ association faced a Friday deadline to come to terms or allow the parties — presumably the league’s owners, in this case — to terminate the existing labor agreement and send the league into financial chaos. The deadline had been postponed four times since May.The N.B.A. informed teams and the players in recent days that it fell $1.5 billion short of projected revenue for the 2019-20 season, largely as a result of losses tied to the pandemic. The league maintains that the shortfall would have doubled to about $3 billion without the television money that was recouped during the bubble restart from July 30 to Oct. 11. The cost of arranging that bubble was an estimated $190 million. More

The Philadelphia 76ers and Daryl Morey seem like an ideal match.For the Sixers, who introduced Morey on Monday as president of basketball operations, he is an executive who gives their front office instant credibility. And for Morey, the job is a chance to transform a franchise with marquee players into a championship contender.But transformations require institutional buy-in from all corners of a franchise. Morey’s track record as an analytics-driven tinkerer willing to blow up “good” in order to be “great” may not jibe with other parts of the organization — the ones that judge or are judged on straight wins and losses, or that need wins to make money. And Philadelphia has been here before: Sam Hinkie, a Morey acolyte, took the reins of the Sixers in 2013 for an ill-fated partnership. Yet, with Morey, this can and should work. He will give the franchise much needed stability and direction. But it will require something owners always say they have but often don’t: patience.The Morey pursuit began in earnest two years ago, when Philadelphia made a push for him to replace the ousted Bryan Colangelo but was rebuffed. Morey, who helped usher in the analytics movement in the N.B.A., finally made his way to Philadelphia after unexpectedly announcing his intent last month to resign from the Rockets in Houston, where he had been general manager since 2007.But just adding a big name to the front office won’t magically fix the Sixers, who were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Boston Celtics despite preseason championship aspirations. Afterward, the Sixers’ general manager, Elton Brand, announced that changes needed to be made “top to bottom” — including in the front office.Morey is one of those changes. The Sixers also announced Monday that Brand had signed a multiyear contract extension, but he will most likely answer to Morey, and it is unclear how that dynamic will shake out. In August, Brand said “collaboration days didn’t work too well” with the front office last season.Philadelphia, under Brand’s leadership, doubled down on going big in the frontcourt — with Joel Embiid, a franchise cornerstone, and Al Horford — while the rest of the league trended toward a smaller and faster style of basketball supported by analytics. No team embraced the concept more than Morey’s Rockets, who traded a productive center in Clint Capela in February to play a smaller lineup. While the Rockets often relied on 3-pointers for their offense, Philadelphia’s other franchise player, Ben Simmons, has shot just 24 of them in three seasons.“The best way to win in the N.B.A. is to take your talent and figure out how to utilize them best,” Morey said at a news conference on Monday. “It’s not to take your talent and hammer it into a particular system.”One insight into Morey’s style of thinking comes from before his time in Houston, when he was an executive with the Celtics. In the 2003-4 season, the Celtics were 36-46, made the playoffs as an eighth seed and were swept in the first round.On whether the Celtics should have tanked, Morey told ESPN last year: “We should have. We didn’t. We were trying to win every game. But that would have been a year to not be in the eighth seed.”That’s Morey, at least partly. He would rather start from scratch than languish in mediocrity. (He has also since spoken out against tanking, saying it is bad for the N.B.A.)There is an open question as to how radical the team’s ownership group will allow Morey to be. He made 77 trades in his 13 years in Houston, and his influence has made an impression in Philadelphia. In 2013, the Sixers hired Hinkie as team president and general manager, commencing an era known to Sixers fans as the Process. Hinkie based roster decisions on analytics and eschewed short-term gains for bigger, future ones. (Or, in N.B.A. terms: The Sixers tanked.) He honed that approach working alongside Morey in Houston from 2005 to 2013.Hinkie focused on accumulating higher draft picks and tradable contracts rather than wins. While Hinkie’s supporters argue that the Process was successful because it netted the Sixers Embiid and set up the pick to draft Simmons, his detractors said his strategy was detrimental to the league. In 2016, Hinkie resigned. When he was in charge, the Sixers were among the worst teams in the N.B.A. Two years later, Embiid and Simmons led the Sixers on a surprising run to the second round of the playoffs, which only further entrenched Hinkie as a cult hero among Sixers fans.On a recent podcast with ESPN, Hinkie spoke glowingly of his friend Morey’s willingness to make unpopular moves.“That kind of being willing to do the hard right thing, I think, is the kind of thing Daryl will help with a bunch,” Hinkie said. “He’s proven with patient ownership that he can be successful.”Under Morey, the Rockets never had a losing season. He often opted to rapidly retool rather than wholly rebuild, such as by swapping Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook — “often” being the operative word. Morey kept the team competitive, seamlessly transitioning from the era of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady to one led by James Harden. To acquire Harden, though, Morey overhauled the roster, trading away several productive veterans and letting others leave in free agency.The Rockets made the playoffs 10 times during Morey’s tenure, including two trips to the Western Conference finals. But Houston never made the N.B.A. finals with Morey, and critics have questioned whether his approach can build a champion, given that other teams rebuilt themselves and won rings in less time.So there may come a time when Morey looks at Philadelphia’s dire salary cap situation and inconsistent superstar production and determines that retooling won’t be good enough, as he did before maneuvering to get Harden. The Sixers have no cap space, and two players, Horford and Tobias Harris, are signed to expensive, long-term deals that do not seem justified by their production last season.“Our championship team probably isn’t going to have the same exact players that we have right now,” Morey said Monday. “Do I think that the players we have right now are very good and we can build around and continue to grow from there? I do believe that, absolutely.”Morey is the kind of executive willing to pull the trigger on deals that would make his competitors squeamish. He is open to grand experiments, provided there is a statistical justification. Owners with egos and billions at stake might not take kindly if the results aren’t there right away.Morey is likely aware of that. Take, for example, when he shared a tongue-in-cheek image of Hinkie on Twitter in May: His caption read, “He never got a chance to build.” More

Gail Miller, whose family has owned the Utah Jazz for 35 years, has agreed to sell a majority interest in the franchise to Ryan Smith, the co-founder of Qualtrics, a Utah-based software company.Miller, 77, who along with her late husband Larry bought a 50 percent stake in the Jazz in May 1985, announced the agreement Wednesday. The sale includes the majority interest in the Jazz, Vivint Smart Home Arena, the Salt Lake City Stars of the N.B.A. G League and management of the Class AAA Salt Lake Bees minor league baseball team. ESPN reported a purchase price of $1.66 billion.“After much soul searching, lengthy discussions and extensive evaluations of our long-term goals, my family and I decided this was the right time to pass our responsibility and cherished stewardship of 35 years to Ryan and Ashley, who share our values and are committed to keeping the team in Utah,” Miller, in a statement, said of Smith and his wife.Smith, 42, is a Utah native and longtime Jazz fan. Qualtrics, which SAP bought for $8 billion in January 2019, became the team’s jersey sponsor in the 2017-18 season but opted to put a patch for the cancer research campaign “5 For The Fight” on the jersey rather than the company’s logo.Larry Miller, a successful car dealer in Utah, purchased the first 50 percent stake for $8 million in 1985 and the remaining 50 percent of the Jazz for $14 million in 1986, quelling fears that the team would relocate to Miami or Minnesota. Led by Coach Jerry Sloan and the ultra-durable star duo of Karl Malone and John Stockton, Utah quickly established itself under Miller’s stewardship as one of the league’s steadiest franchises.Under the Millers, Utah accumulated nine division titles and made two trips to the N.B.A. finals, in 1996-97 and 1997-98, losing both to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. The Jazz have won only four playoff series since their trip to the Western Conference finals in 2006-7, but they continue to be regarded as one of the league’s well-run franchises, led by the team president Dennis Lindsey and Coach Quin Snyder.Smith, though, will have some significant decisions to make early in his ownership tenure, once approved. Both of Utah’s All-Stars — guard Donovan Mitchell and center Rudy Gobert — are eligible for lucrative contract extensions heading into the new season.The Jazz endured a tumultuous 2019-20 season after Gobert’s positive coronavirus test on March 11 before a game in Oklahoma City led to the N.B.A.’s shutdown. Mitchell subsequently tested positive as well, leading to tension within Utah’s locker room about Gobert’s self-described “careless” behavior in the days preceding the positive tests. Utah appeared to recover during the N.B.A. restart at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., and took a 3-1 series lead over Denver in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, only to suffer an agonizing defeat.Another challenge for Smith will be ensuring that there are no repeats of the March 2019 incident in which Russell Westbrook, then playing for Oklahoma City, was racially abused by a fan courtside. The Jazz banned the fan for life in response and another fan for a separate incident involving Westbrook during the 2018 playoffs, but Utah’s fans remain under scrutiny after Mitchell was met with some hostility in June in the wake of an Instagram post in recognition of Juneteenth.“There’s a certain stigma — there’s no secret about that in Utah — and obviously the comments didn’t help,” Mitchell said in July. “But us as athletes want it to be known that we won’t stand for any of the racism and whatever else comes with it.” More

More Than a Vote, the collective of athletes headlined by the basketball star LeBron James, on Wednesday will introduce its final political push before Election Day, a rapid response and advertisement operation meant to combat the spread of misinformation among younger Black voters.The initiative, which is a collaboration with the political group Win Black and includes some celebrity partners, will seek to educate younger Black voters on how to spot false political statements spreading on social media. The goal is to provide advice that culminates in young people making a plan to vote — either by absentee ballot or in person.Called “Under Review,” the effort will be featured on Snapchat through Election Day, and will include videos from celebrities and activists like Desus and Mero, Jemele Hill and the athletes involved in More Than a Vote.It comes after the group has invested in recruiting more than 40,000 poll workers, helping formerly incarcerated people regain their voting rights and aiding the push for N.B.A. arenas to be converted into polling locations.In a statement, the co-founders of Win Black said the videos would take on political misinformation targeted at suppressing the Black vote, a problem that federal agencies identified in the 2016 presidential election.“Harmful disinformation is being weaponized to block the voices and votes of Black Americans — but we have the power to stop it,” said the co-founders, Andre Banks and Ashley Bryant. “Through this partnership, Under Review will urgently flood the zone with the facts we need to counter the targeted attacks coming from bad actors at home and abroad.”In a phone interview with The New York Times, Mr. James discussed the importance of voting, and how he sees his evolving role as both an athlete and a social activist. Mr. James, who as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers recently won his fourth N.B.A. championship, framed off-the-court activism as a key part of how he views his legacy. More

Finally — finally — the N.B.A. off-season is here. Sure, it’s October, months removed from when the off-season would typically begin if there wasn’t a pandemic. And of course, the Los Angeles Lakers are still trying to figure out if they can throw a Zoom championship parade after conquering the Walt Disney World bubble.(They can. But you just know that J.R. Smith would forget to mute himself during LeBron James’s speech.)This means that 30 N.B.A. teams are about to reload, retool or reset through trades, free agency and the draft, though the league still needs to sort out the financial impact of the pandemic and set the salary cap for next season.The Western Conference is a particularly tough nut to crack. The Lakers won the championship and should be assumed to be the favorites to win again, given their dominant playoff run. But other teams with young stars might have something to say about that.So for all the general managers out there, we have some suggestions for one thing every team in the West needs to do this off-season.The ContendersLos Angeles LakersAnthony Davis has a player option this off-season, and if the Lakers persuade him to sign an extension, that’s a success. With Davis and LeBron James, the team would remain title favorites even with Statler, Waldorf and me rounding out the starting lineup.Los Angeles ClippersThe Clippers were an expensive Hollywood production with A-list stars meant to win it all during awards season. But instead, they were upstaged by less established talent. In other words, they were Netflix’s “The Irishman.”Their path forward is not ideal: They probably won’t have much cap space. Montrezl Harrell, the sixth man of the year, and Marcus Morris are unrestricted free agents. They don’t have a first-round draft pick, and their two stars, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, can leave after the 2020-21 season.The Clippers have to bank on one thing: fixing their chemistry. It was an issue all season, so in theory, a new coach could come along and mend that, given Leonard and George’s talent.Denver NuggetsThe Nuggets are in one of the better positions in the league: Their franchise cornerstone, Nikola Jokic, is locked up through 2022-23. He has a solid, if inconsistent, secondary player in Jamal Murray, signed through 2023-24. They have some big contracts coming off the books, freeing cap space.But their most crucial move might be right under their noses. Jerami Grant was a solid contributor on both ends and can test the free-agent market. The Nuggets would do well to keep him.Golden State WarriorsAll the Warriors have to do this off-season is wrap Stephen Curry in cellophane. If the Warriors are healthy next season — this means a rested Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green — Golden State will be a solid title contender.The MaybesHouston RocketsThe Rockets need to surround James Harden and Russell Westbrook with shooting. They showed that their miniball style can work, but Westbrook’s jump shooting woes became an issue in the postseason, and Houston needs someone to take the pressure off Harden.The Rockets, with no cap space, will have to solve this either through trade or free agency on the cheap. Kyle Korver and Isaiah Thomas might fit the bill here offensively, but defensively — yikes.Oklahoma City ThunderThis is an attractive franchise: a bevy of future draft picks, compelling young talent like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a head coach opening. And Chris Paul, at 35, showed he was still one of the best point guards in the game.There is not much for the Thunder to do, other than try to hit home runs with their two late-first-round draft picks. Relax and enjoy the ride. See the light at the end of the tunnel. They do not have enough cap space to attract a top-tier free agent to play alongside Paul. The team’s most tradable asset is Steven Adams, who has a roughly $27.5 million expiring contract. But the team is best off letting it expire rather than taking on other contracts. Be as competitive as you can until 2021-22, when you will have cap space, draft picks and maybe Paul to make a legitimate run.Utah JazzThe Jazz are capped out, both in salary and their talent ceiling. They’re not good enough to play with the Lakers, but they’re not bad enough to get lottery picks. Rudy Gobert has a $27.5 million expiring contract, and given his pandemic-related tensions with Donovan Mitchell, it’s worth asking whether the team would be better off with a center who can space the floor.Dallas MavericksUpgrade defensively. They’ll have their midlevel exception and a first-round draft pick to do so. They have two franchise blue chips in Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, but the team was 18th defensively last season. (A caveat: Porzingis just had surgery to repair a meniscus injury in his right knee. He has had trouble staying healthy for most of his career, but he really showed his potential in the playoffs.)Bonus: Give Boban Marjanovic more playing time. Because the world is suffering and we need a smile.Portland Trail BlazersThis team barely got to an eighth seed, an underwhelming campaign. But if Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins can be healthy for a full season, the Blazers will be formidable. Maybe. Or Portland can hope that an opposing star insults Damian Lillard’s rap talents, fueling an aggrieved run for the ages.Memphis GrizzliesPoke the bear. Constantly remind Ja Morant that one basketball writer out of 100 did not choose him to win the Rookie of the Year Award. Text him every morning. Mention it at every practice. Send him an accidental email with the subject line: “Man, I wish we had Zion Williamson. He might’ve had a better rookie year.”Phoenix SunsMove the team’s home arena to Walt Disney World, where the Suns went 8-0 in the bubble. Aside from that, the Suns are one of the few teams with lots of cap space and a lottery pick. It’s a less top-heavy draft class than usual, but Danilo Gallinari and Montrezl Harrell are legitimate free-agent targets for them.The Maybe-NotsSan Antonio SpursPromise Coach Gregg Popovich that he won’t have to do any more sideline interviews, and the Spurs will go 82-0. Aside from that, much of their off-season will hinge on whether DeMar DeRozan will opt in for the final year of his contract. The Spurs should hope he stays. Under the radar, DeRozan has played some of the best basketball of his career in San Antonio.Sacramento KingsTrade Buddy Hield, who has not so subtly suggested he wants out of Sacramento, and hand the keys over to Bogdan Bogdanovic, a restricted free agent. Hield is a young, talented guard on a reasonable contract who can net the Kings some assets. If this drags on, the Kings will lose leverage.New Orleans PelicansFind the right coach for Zion Williamson. Players are more likely than ever to force their way off teams, even when locked into contracts. Any year of Williamson’s prime squandered with a coach who doesn’t mesh with him is an invitation for Williamson to try to leave when he can, as LeBron James did in Cleveland.Minnesota TimberwolvesMinnesota has the No. 1 pick in the draft, as well as a Nets first-rounder. The Timberwolves have one of the best young players in the league, with Karl-Anthony Towns, and a talented guard beside him, D’Angelo Russell. Minnesota cannot whiff on the first pick. Go get James Wiseman. His athleticism will allow him to play three positions on the floor and Minnesota needs both wing and frontcourt help. More