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They will not say her name. Not now, after what these players have been through. It is important not to give her recognition.Think of it as protest jujitsu.The W.N.B.A. finals have begun. On Sunday, the Seattle Storm defeated the Las Vegas Aces, 104-91, to take a two-games-to-none lead in their best-of-five series. Game 3 is Tuesday night.In its 24th year, the women’s league has some of the most incandescent players in basketball but still struggles for broad recognition and respect. In this strange season, which unfolded in a Florida arena without fans because of the coronavirus pandemic, the minimalist environment has provided a bright backdrop for the league’s evolving talent to shine.The legacy of the 2020 season, however, will not only be about on-court action and a championship won. It will also be about the W.N.B.A.’s continued leadership in the battle for human rights.In no way has this been clearer than in how its players have responded to brackish bullying from an unexpected source: the co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia.When they talk about her, they refuse to name her.Think back to June, to the raw-edged days after the killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. As the nation reeled and launched into self-examination, the W.N.B.A. was among the first professional leagues to say its upcoming season would be devoted to pushing for social justice and promoting the Black Lives Matter movement.That was not a surprise. Nearly 70 percent of the league’s players are Black and a significant number of its stars are lesbian. They are women who know all too well the full brunt of discrimination. That is why they have been leaders in the justice fight for so long.Nor was it a surprise when they faced blowback.The surprise was that the blowback came from within. To be specific, from one of the league’s most influential voices, Loeffler, a Republican who is running to keep her seat in the Nov. 3 election.Loeffler reacted by publicly scoffing at the league’s pledge to double down on social justice support in 2020. She scorned the decision to cover player jerseys with the slogan “Say Her Name,” meant to call attention to the deaths of Black women like Breonna Taylor at the hands of the police.In a letter to the W.N.B.A.’s commissioner, Loeffler wrote, “I adamantly oppose the Black Lives Matter political movement,” before listing a series of inaccurate claims, including that it “promoted violence and destruction across the country.”There was a method to Loeffler’s obstinate stance. She has been engaged in a hard-nosed battle for Republican voters in a conservative state. To gild her bona fides with the far right in her party, she cribbed from a well-worn playbook used by President Trump: To show toughness, verbally attack Black athletes and draw them into a fight.Even if it meant attacking everything that the players on her team — along with the entire league — have stood for.But things have not turned out as she planned. With each of the league’s dozen teams sequestered on a sports training campus near Tampa Bay, the players huddled together. They knew the W.N.B.A. commissioner’s office had denounced Loeffler’s views. They also understood that their cash-compromised league was not exactly in a prime position to demand she put her 49 percent stake in the Dream up for sale. Amid a pandemic and widespread economic calamity, who would be the buyer?So the players strategized, and took her on in their typically thoughtful manner.“We realized, ‘Oh, she wants us to get mad,’” said Sue Bird, Seattle’s veteran guard, remembering the moment as we spoke last week by telephone. “She wants us to try and kick her out. That would give her more attention. This is what she wants.”“We had to find a better way.”Instead of meeting force with force, providing fodder that would only fuel Loeffler’s campaign, the players decided to work around her.Just like jujitsu.Their first move was both decisive and quietly aggressive: In interviews, public pronouncements and on social media, they decided to stop saying the Atlanta co-owner’s name.They refused to give her the dignity.“Words are things,” said Nneka Ogwumike, the Los Angeles Sparks forward who is president of the league’s players’ association, as she walked me through the strategy. “Words have power. And to give energy to a name I think is very meaningful. So, we stopped saying that name.”The next move was more to the point.It began with leaguewide video calls featuring a cast of advisers including Michelle Obama and Stacey Abrams, who in her bid to become governor of Georgia in 2018 nearly became the first Black woman to be elected governor anywhere in the United States. The discussions centered on politics and power.The players began vetting Loeffler’s political opponents in the upcoming election, looking for a way to insert themselves into a race that could end up altering the balance of congressional power. They homed in on one candidate: The Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat and a pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was co-pastor.Once Warnock addressed the players over Zoom, there was no doubt. “It was clear to us immediately,” Bird told me. “He stands for everything that we stand for. You could literally go down the line of all the things we care about, and we were aligned with him. It was like, ‘Wow, we want this guy in the Senate. This is the candidate that we want in the Senate.’ ”Within days, nearly everyone in the league began showing up for their nationally televised games wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with two words: Vote Warnock.That kind of mass support for a single candidate opened a new chapter in the annals of athlete protests.“It’s unprecedented,” said Amira Rose Davis, an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University who specializes in race, sports and gender. Davis noted the many examples of individual athletes supporting politicians. That’s been the tradition in sports.“But this is different,” she said. “The coordination. The strategic part. The specificity, taking the time to meet a candidate and then to back that candidate as a group. That has never happened before.”After the player push, the Warnock campaign said it experienced a significant boost in enthusiasm and financial support: A spokesman said $236,000 flowed to the campaign in the days after the T-shirt endorsement began. Though it is impossible to draw a direct correlation with the W.N.B.A.’s activism, at least one major poll shows Warnock surging ahead of Loeffler and the other candidates for the first time.This Senate race is far from over. If no candidate gets a majority of votes, there will be a runoff in January with the top two vote-getters.“If Warnock wins and the byproduct is that a certain someone is not in the Senate, then, hey, we’re all happy,” said Bird, refusing, of course, to say that certain someone’s name.No matter how this season or the election turns out, women’s professional basketball has once again helped lead the way. This time by showing the best way to work around a bully. More

BRADENTON, Fla. — Breanna Stewart and an unselfish offense have the Seattle Storm on the verge of another W.N.B.A. championship.Stewart scored 22 points to lead five Storm players in double figures in a 104-91 victory over the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday in Game 2 of the best-of-five finals. The Storm will try to win their second title in three years on Tuesday night.“This is our moment to really finish the series and take home the championship,” Stewart said.The Storm, champions in 2004, 2010 and 2018, know it won’t be easy to close out the series.“Stay in the moment. They are good. The score doesn’t indicate it,” said Sue Bird, who ran the show on all three of the Storm’s titles.Two days after she set the W.N.B.A. finals and playoffs record with 16 assists, Bird, 39, had 10 to go along with 16 points. The team had 33 assists to set a W.N.B.A. championship-round record.“Having high assists isn’t abnormal for us,” said Alysha Clark, who added 21 points. “Thirty-three is amazing. Goes to show the unselfishness of everyone on the floor and the confidence we have in one another. Pass up a good shot to get a great shot. When you do those things, 33 assists happen. Wow.”Natasha Howard also had 21 and Jordin Canada added 10 off the bench to go along with Stewart, Bird and Clark’s double-digit efforts.“Our performance today was better than Game 1 having a balanced approach,” Stewart said.The Storm took over after Las Vegas had rallied from a 13-point deficit in the first half to take a 65-64 lead with 3 minutes 22 seconds left in the third quarter. Seattle scored 22 of the next 30 points over the next six minutes to go up double-digits again with Jewell Loyd ending the burst with a 3-pointer that made it 86-73 with just under seven minutes left.A’ja Wilson had 20 points to lead Las Vegas, while Angel McCoughtry and Emma Cannon added 17 each. Cannon provided a spark off the bench for the Aces, who were missing the sixth woman of the year, Dearica Hamby, with a knee injury. The Aces had 15 turnovers to the dismay of Coach Bill Laimbeer.“We’re our own worst enemies sometimes,” he said. “Our turnovers hurt us badly. They are a fine basketball team, and you can’t make those type of blunders against them.”Laimbeer’s team faced two elimination games against Connecticut in the semifinals before winning both to reach the championship round.“Our focus is winning one game,” he said.Trailing by 6 at the half, Las Vegas made a run to take a 53-52 lead on Kayla McBride’s 3-pointer early in the third quarter. The Aces led, 65-64, with 3:22 left in the period before the Storm closed with an 11-3 burst.Seattle held a 48-42 halftime lead behind 12 points from Stewart and Clark. The Storm, who had 17 assists on their 18 baskets, built the lead to 13 before Las Vegas rallied to the 6-point halftime deficit. More

Even in a pandemic, Jalen Rose gets his hair cut about twice a week. He likes to look sharp when he’s on TV, and these days, he and his well-groomed head are highly visible. From the basement of his house in Connecticut, the ESPN analyst and former N.B.A. player tapes “Jalen & Jacoby,” his afternoon talk show with commentator David Jacoby. And at ESPN’s studio at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan, he helps anchor “NBA Countdown” before and during halftime of N.B.A. games — including the championship finals, which started this week between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat.Mr. Rose also has a new weekly column and podcast for The New York Post, and he makes frequent appearances on ESPN’s morning show, “Get Up.” His wife, Molly Qerim Rose, is a moderator for the network’s “First Take,” which means they have to share the home studio. “I need to dominate the morning before 10 a.m.,” Mr. Rose said, “because she’s live from 10 to 12 and I need to get out of the basement.”Mr. Rose arrived on the national scene as a member of the University of Michigan’s famed 1991 “Fab Five” recruiting class, which also included Chris Webber, the future All-Star, and Juwan Howard, who now coaches the Michigan team, and whom Mr. Rose recently hit up for an appearance on his show. In his 13-year pro career, Mr. Rose played for six N.B.A. teams, including the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks.On the air, in addition to game commentary, Mr. Rose also addresses the social and political moment. “It’d also be a great day to arrest the cops that murdered Breonna Taylor!” Mr. Rose said on the air during Game 4 of the Eastern conference finals, several hours after Kentucky’s attorney general announced that no police officer would be charged criminally with her death.“I’m not going to force topics, but I’m not going to run from them, either,” Mr. Rose said in an interview.He grew up in Detroit, and 10 years ago, he co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public, nonprofit charter high school in the city, whose graduates continue to get financial, academic and emotional support when they move on to college. Interviews are conducted by email, text and phone, then condensed and edited.Monday6:30 a.m. I was up early talent-booking and story-lining. I called the head coach of the University of Michigan basketball team and said, ‘Coach, can you come on ‘Jalen & Jacoby’?” Juwan was a player and a coach in Miami with LeBron James; I was in the locker room celebrating with them one year. So I thought I’d ask Coach Howard to talk about Pat Riley and LeBron — and maybe we can have some talk about injustice. We’ll see.8 a.m. I did my run-walk thing at a track about a mile and half from my house — I ran a few laps and walked a few laps. Then I did some push-ups, a little calisthenics. Nothing too “Men’s Health,” I’m just trying to live to 103 like Grammie did.10:30 a.m. I did “Jalen & Jacoby” and after that, I worked on my New York Post column. The new piece is about back-to-school and how the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy scholars are learning remotely for a couple of months. There is a large portion of the population that doesn’t have the internet and doesn’t have access to laptops. Arn Tellem, the vice chairman of the Pistons, provided laptops to every one of our scholars.3 p.m. Errands. I had to go to U.P.S. and also grab cashiers checks for a couple of gentlemen who drive for me. I was in my Jeep with the top off, at a red light, and I look up — and there’s a man leaning out of a third-floor window. He said, “I like the new column,” and I was like, “All right!”9 p.m. We watched “Monday Night Football,” with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens. I made popcorn, real popcorn. No microwave popcorn, oh no.Tuesday10:30 a.m. I did “J & J,” with Juwan Howard on. It’s a dream come true to look back at our evolution from young men to adults, just appreciating the journey and the obstacles we’ve overcome together and separately.12:30 p.m. I had lunch with my wife at home. I made us lobster — I am a lobster-tail eating fool. I do a little oven/grill hybrid. I’m a diva about leftovers. I won’t have them after 24 hours. After being poor, I earned that right. I grew up only having leftovers and sugar water.2 p.m. I drilled down on my New York Post responsibilities. Because this is the first week I have the podcast, I really need to put some work in, booking some talent. I got Cedric the Entertainer booked and Angela Yee from the Breakfast Club.3:30 p.m. This is my rest and recovery period every day. Today, I went to get a pedicure. My feet were so bad, it was like snowflakes were falling off the bottom. I had to give an extra tip. I like to sit in the massage chair, pay for the foot massage, return a couple texts. No polish.9 p.m. I watched the presidential debate. I am really into this stuff, much more than the average person. Let me tell you something — wow. My major takeaway, as a taxpaying citizen and a knowledgeable voter, is that our commander-in-chief failed to denounce white supremacy.Wednesday6 a.m. Game day. I made calls, did a little exercise and took a steam, sprayed some Vicks VapoRub, did a little meditating, thinking and praying.9:35 a.m. I did a spot for “Get Up,” to preview tonight’s “Countdown” and Game 1 of the N.B.A. finals.2:30 p.m. I get my hair cut on days I have “Countdown,” and today I did it in a little barbershop area in my man cave at home. Andy Authentic has been my barber for six years. He’s not my stylist. He’s my barber, my surgeon.4 p.m. I headed to the city. I don’t need to be at the studio until 6 p.m., but I don’t like to be rushing — I like to sit and take notes and write down my bullet points.7:30 p.m. Preshow meeting with the “Countdown” team.8:30 p.m. The show. I was not nervous. Enthusiastic, like a kid at Christmastime. I can’t wait for the game. I idolize the current NBA players for what they’re doing right now — the ultimate dual sacrifice to act as champions for social justice and to complete a regular season and playoffs amid a pandemic. I so appreciate Adam Silver (the N.B.A. commissioner), Michele Roberts (the executive director of the N.B.A.’s players’ union) and Chris Paul (the president of the union).They’ve got “Black Lives Matter” written on the court. That means something. What the N.B.A. is showing me is that incremental progress is happening.9 p.m. We watch the game in what we call a war room, just off the studio. We sit on couches and comfortable chairs, and we all give our unfiltered analysis. Then producers come in to find out what we want to talk about at halftime. For me, the Lakers seemed to be in an altogether different weight class than the Heat. Then, in the second half, it’s rinse and repeat.Thursday1:30 a.m. The Lakers beat the Heat 116-98. The game didn’t end till after midnight, and I got home about an hour later. Red wine; got to decompress from the day. I got the steam shower going. I called my producer for “Jalen & Jacoby” and we talked for a half-hour. Then I steamed, prayed, meditated and stretched before bed.5:15 a.m. My wife woke up for work, and it’s hard to stay asleep when the person who is in charge of the house doesn’t tiptoe. I cured into the fetal position and slept for another 43 minutes.9 a.m. I was in the studio for my “Get Up” spot, but then there was breaking news about the Titans-Steelers football game getting postponed this weekend because of Covid-19. This may be important to the N.F.L., but it’s more important to me because I play in a big fantasy football league. The Warriors’ Draymond Green is in the league. Maverick Carter, LeBron’s business partner, is in it. I needed to reach out to the commissioner. That’s really important. I need to know what happens when games get canceled. He said he’s going to circle back to me.11 a.m. I did my podcast interview with Angela. As popular as she is, Angela is really underrated. Hip-hop is not an easy world for women, not simple for women to succeed. There’s lot of sexism.12:30 p.m. On the phone with DJ Premier. I asked him if I could get permission to use “Come Clean,” which he produced, for the theme music on the podcast. He said yes, and I got to chat with him for about 30 minutes.7 p.m. Another podcast interview, this one with Cedric. See, I am rolling them out! I am about providing quality content to the consumer!8:20 p.m. I had to watch Thursday Night Football even though I knew it was going to be a terrible game, because the New York Jets are terrible (they were 0-3) and Broncos are terrible (they were also 0-3). It’s my job, so I watched, but this game did not merit popcorn. I ate my Detroit-made Better Made BBQ potato chips. More

After a disappointing playoff run for the Los Angeles Clippers, Doc Rivers is no longer the head coach of the team, he said Monday.“Thank you Clipper Nation for allowing me to be your coach and all your support in helping making this a winning franchise,” Rivers said in a statement posted on Twitter. “When I took this job, my goals were to make this a winning basketball program, a free agent destination, and bring a championship to this organization.“While I was able to accomplish most of my goals, I won’t be able to see them all through.”A statement from the team referred to parting with Rivers as “a mutual decision.” Steve Ballmer, the Clippers’ owner, said he was “immeasurably grateful” to Rivers.“Doc has been a terrific coach for the Clippers, an incredible ambassador, and a pillar of strength during tumultuous times,” Ballmer said. “He won a heck of a lot of games and laid a foundation for this franchise.”The Clippers, who have never made it to the conference finals in the playoffs, entered the season with arguably their best roster ever, stretching back to the 1970-71 season when they were known as the Buffalo Braves. Last summer, they acquired Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, giving the team a fearsome duo to go toe-to-toe with the other starry Los Angeles pair, LeBron James and Anthony Davis of the Lakers.But the Clippers seemed to have difficulty gelling all season. Even so, they were the second seed in the Western Conference and were on the doorstep of the conference finals, up 3-1 on the Denver Nuggets. But for the second consecutive series, the Nuggets reeled off three straight wins to advance to the next round, shocking the Clippers.Rivers joined the Clippers in 2013, five years after winning a championship with the Boston Celtics. In his first year, Rivers led the Clippers to 57 wins and a first-round playoff win. This would be his most successful season.The next year, Rivers was promoted to president of basketball operations — giving him the rare authority over personnel decisions and on-court play. But in 2017, Rivers lost the front office job after the Clippers continued to falter in the playoffs, even with the All-Stars Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan in their primes.Rivers has been an N.B.A. coach for two decades and compiled a regular-season record of 943-681. In 2000, his first year as coach, he won the Coach of the Year Award with the Orlando Magic. With the Clippers, Rivers went 356-208, a .631 winning percentage. He led the franchise to its best stretch in its history: six playoff trips in seven seasons, and three postseason series wins. But Rivers also has a dubious distinction: He is the only N.B.A. coach to ever lose three seven-game series after leading, 3-1.He cemented a reputation as a players’ coach after the 2008 championship with Boston, when he melded three All-Stars — Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen — who hadn’t found success leading their own teams separately. He also won plaudits for guiding the Clippers after Donald Sterling, the former team owner, was recorded making racist statements and was forced to sell the team to Ballmer. Rivers also played point guard in the N.B.A. from 1983 to 1996 and made an All-Star appearance in the 1987-88 season.The Clippers job will be highly sought after. It is likely that the candidates will include current team assistants Tyronn Lue and Sam Cassell. Lue won a championship as coach of the James-led Cavaliers in 2016. Cassell played for the Clippers for almost three seasons starting in 2005, and has been an N.B.A. assistant for more than a decade. Just this month, Cassell received a vote of confidence from Rivers himself.“Sam Cassell should be a head coach, period,” Rivers said. More

The Miami Heat are on their way to the N.B.A. finals, continuing one of the more improbable postseason runs in recent years. They beat the Boston Celtics on Sunday, 125-113, to win the Eastern Conference finals in six games.In the deciding game, the Heat were led by Bam Adebayo, who scored 32 points, snatched 14 rebounds and dished five assists. Jimmy Butler added 22 points and eight assists, and Andre Iguodala provided a spark off the bench, scoring 15 points on 5 of 5 from the field.Miami, the fifth seed in the East, will now get the chance to try to become one of the lowest-seeded teams in N.B.A. history to win the championship. In 1981, the Houston Rockets entered the playoffs with a 40-42 record, which made them the sixth seed, back when only six teams from each conference made the playoffs. They made the finals and lost to the Celtics in six games.More than a decade later, in 1995, the Rockets won the championship after entering the playoffs with a 47-35 record, again making them the sixth seed. Four years later, the Knicks made the finals in a strike-shortened season as the eighth seed. The 1995 Rockets are the only team lower than the No. 4 seed to win a championship.Miami not only made the finals but also did so with a dominating playoff run. The Heat swept the Indiana Pacers in the first round, then easily dispatched the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, who had the best record in the N.B.A., in five games. And Miami beat the Celtics in the conference finals in six. All three teams that the Heat defeated had better regular-season records than Miami. Both of Miami’s losses in the playoffs were by less than 10 points. One was in overtime.That this Heat team made the finals was quite unexpected, even with the addition of Butler, a five-time All-Star, last summer. But Butler’s strong play and the surprising contributions of several young players on the team — Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn — buoyed the Heat, even without the star power of other teams in the league. There were also the midseason acquisitions of the veterans Jae Crowder and Iguodala, who will now play in his sixth straight finals. Iguodala was named most valuable player of the 2014-15 finals, when he won a championship alongside Stephen Curry with the Golden State Warriors.Herro, a 20-year-old rookie, has been an especially strong playoff performer for Miami. He routinely frustrated the Celtics during the conference finals, most notably with a 37-point performance in Game 4 off the bench. On Sunday, he scored 19 points.That this roster has gone this far is also a feather in the cap of Pat Riley, the team president, who was tasked with rebuilding the Heat after LeBron James left in 2014 and Dwyane Wade, the longtime franchise cornerstone, retired in 2019. More

BRADENTON, Fla. — Breanna Stewart scored a career-playoff-high 31 points, tying Seattle’s franchise playoff record, Sue Bird had 16 points and 9 assists, and the Storm beat Minnesota, 92-71, on Sunday to sweep the Lynx and advance to the W.N.B.A. finals.Stewart added six rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two blocks. Mercedes Russell tied her season high with 10 points for the second-seeded Storm.Bird and Stewart combined to score or assist on 13 points during a 17-0 run that gave Seattle a 24-8 lead when Sami Whitcomb made a layup with 54.2 seconds left in the first quarter. Stewart made a short jumper to push the Storm’s lead to 18 points with 1 minute 5 seconds left in the first half, but Minnesota scored 16 of the next 21 points, including 6 by Crystal Dangerfield and two 3-pointers by Odyssey Sims, to make it 48-41 about three minutes into the third quarter.Stewart answered with back-to-back layups and, after Jewell Loyd made another layup, Stewart converted a 3-point play and then hit a 3 in a 12-0 run that made it 60-41 with about four minutes later. Minnesota trailed by double figures the rest of the way.The fourth-seeded Lynx, who came in averaging a playoff-low 11.0 turnovers per game, committed 19 on Sunday. They made 27 of 59 from 3-point range in the first two games of the series, but hit just 7 of 22 (31.8 percent) on Sunday.Napheesa Collier led Minnesota with 22 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocks. Damiris Dantas and Dangerfield — the 2020 W.N.B.A. rookie of the year — scored 16 points apiece, and Sims added 10 points.The Storm will play either top-seeded Las Vegas or No. 7 seed Connecticut in the finals, which begin on Friday. Seattle lost both regular-season matchups with the Aces — including an 86-84 loss in the regular-season finale — and won its two regular-season games against the Sun by an average of 18 points.Aces Force Game 5Angel McCoughtry scored 16 of her 29 points in the third quarter as Las Vegas took control and the Aces beat the Sun, 84-75, on Sunday in Game 4 of their best-of-five W.N.B.A. semifinal series.McCoughtry finished with six assists, five rebounds and three steals. A’ja Wilson, the 2020 league most valuable player, had 18 points, 13 rebounds and 4 assists for top-seeded Las Vegas, and Danielle Robinson also scored 18 points.Game 5 is Tuesday.McCoughtry scored 14 of the first 18 second-half points for Las Vegas and assisted on the remaining 4 as the Aces turned a 1-point halftime deficit into a 55-46 lead midway through the third quarter. Connecticut trailed by at least 9 points the rest of the way.Las Vegas was without the reigning two-time W.N.B.A. sixth woman of the year, Dearica Hamby, who will most likely miss the remainder of the playoffs with a knee injury.Jasmine Thomas made a career-high six 3-pointers on 11 attempts and finished with 25 points for the Sun. Alyssa Thomas added 15 points and DeWanna Bonner had 10 points and a season-high 15 rebounds. More

Poor LeBron James. There he is again, battling into the deep muck of the N.B.A. playoffs, leading his team oh-so-close to a world title. And there he is: An omnipresent force in purple-striped high-tops, so consistently great on the biggest stage that we have come to expect nothing less.His Los Angeles Lakers are now vying with the Denver Nuggets for a spot in the N.B.A. finals. After Sunday’s 105-103 victory over the Nuggets — sealed by Anthony Davis with a buzzer-beater but fueled by James’s hot start — Los Angeles is now up two games to none in the best-of-seven series.Should the Lakers advance, it would mean that James has pushed teams from three cities — Cleveland, Miami and Los Angeles — to the league’s championship round in nine of the past 10 seasons.Within that time, he has won two title rings with the Miami Heat, and one with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the cloister of the N.B.A.’s Disney World bubble, he is making a credible run for a championship with the Lakers. The burden of great expectations is not new. As a high school junior, he was cast as a basketball messiah. What athlete has ever delivered so thoroughly on such early hype?And what athlete presents more of a modern-day paradox? He is among the most successful sports stars in history, on his way to billionaire status, influential, admired and connected to at least 120 million followers on social media. Despite all of this, there are far too many who take him and his success for granted.Just last week, the N.B.A. unveiled the winner of its Most Valuable Player Award for this pandemic-laced season. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee’s kinetic 25-year-old star, was no doubt worthy of the award. But James was, too. He bounced back from a rare, injury-plagued season to help return the Lakers to dominance. We have never seen a 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward lead the N.B.A. in assists. He did it while his team mourned the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others in a helicopter crash in January. He did it when the league returned to play amid a world torn by a pandemic and unrest.He did it at age 35.A case can be made that this season is a grander opus than any he has ever conducted. So how is it that he lost the M.V.P. vote in a landslide? James flashed a cutting bitterness when asked about the award after the first playoff game against Denver. “Out of 101 votes, I got 16 first-place votes,” he said, noting his anger at the absurdity of not even coming close.The mantle of greatness is not easy to hold. James knows his worth to the league and the way his presence has long altered the landscape. He has won the M.V.P. a total of four times now. Were it not for the desire to recognize players who for all their greatness operate in his shadow, he should have won eight — at the least.There are many reasons he is taken for granted. Silly arguments over who is better, James or Michael Jordan, distract from the ability to see him for what he really is.Race is part of the mix. There are still too many who cannot see beyond James’s physicality, his uncommon blend of size and strength and speed. Still too many who see him without nuance, first and foremost as a body. A Black body.That allows the easy dismissal of the dedication he has always put into staying in shape — and the disregard of his sheer intelligence. James is said to possess a photographic memory. He can recall plays that occurred years ago with little trouble, and he has forged a remarkable and successful business and entertainment company, not to mention a school in his hometown Akron, Ohio. To watch him is to watch an athlete attuned to the flow, feel and probability of every move and every moment. John Coltrane meets Albert Einstein meets a point guard in a power forward’s body.The genius of James, the beauty of his game and the joy he exudes playing it, has shown itself in vivid Technicolor during this playoff run. The blocks, dunks, spinning pirouettes and sprinting fast breaks. The tips, screens, fall-aways and sudden passes that cut across the court as if rocketing along on a zip-line.He has been doing this for 17 years. Consider the span of that journey. Think of 2010. That’s the year of “The Decision,” James’s nationally televised announcement that he was leaving Cleveland for a Miami team stocked with All-Stars. Remember how he was scorned and vilified? How a single line from that pronouncement — “taking my talents to South Beach” — became a punchline, code for narcissism and disloyalty?But James was actually coming into his own. He was tapping into a longing that is at once universal and felt at a particular, bone-deep level in Black America: the longing to break bonds, the urge for freedom of movement, the need for self-determination and control.The reverberating power of that decision gets lost in the haze of memory. Remember that among the players to whom he is most often compared, no one had made such a move in the prime of his career. Not Magic. Not Kobe. Not Michael Jordan.Even lesser players faced scorn for exercising their right to change teams. Now that kind of movement is part of the N.B.A.’s lifeblood.How easy it is to forget the ways in which James changed the paradigm. His shift to Miami was the dawn of an era during which he became a leading voice for African-American empowerment. “The Decision” heralded a new day coming for the N.B.A. It would take a while longer to fully achieve, but no longer would the athletes play second fiddle to owners, or bend to the forces that want to keep the stars in a league, brimming with Blackness, from speaking out.The backlash to this new power has been predictable, led by the “shut up and dribble” chorus that continues to chide James for demanding dignity.He has always laughed off such inane demands. He has doubled down on the notion that he can be a beacon in the fight. “We are scared as Black people in America,” he said after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., unafraid to show vulnerability. He is combating that pain by helping to lead a multimillion-dollar push to staff underserved election polling sites.Poor LeBron James?He may be fine without the extra adulation. But in a year full of despair, we would be wise to take stock of all that he is — all of his powerful, steady brilliance — and stop taking him for granted. More

The opener of the W.N.B.A. semifinal playoff series between the Seattle Storm and the Minnesota Lynx was postponed nearly 90 minutes before its scheduled tipoff Sunday because of inconclusive coronavirus test results for Storm players.“Players with inconclusive results have undergone additional testing today and are currently in isolation,” the league said in a statement, adding that the postponement was “out of an abundance of caution.”The Lynx already had arrived at the arena and some of the players had been warming up when they were told the game was postponed.The league didn’t immediately announce when Game 1 of the best-of-five series would be played. It was to be the second of two playoff games on Sunday; the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces lost to the Connecticut Sun, the No. 7 seed, in the first game, 87-62.The second games in both series were scheduled for Tuesday night.The W.N.B.A. made it through a shortened 22-game regular season with a few false positive tests for the coronavirus, but no players had tested positive once the season started. The season is being played inside a bubble environment at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.Everyone inside the bubble has been tested for the virus every day.The Storm, the No. 2 seed, are led by Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird. They tied with the Aces for the league’s best record at 18-4 but lost the tiebreaker for the top overall seed in the playoffs. Seattle is up against the No. 4 seed, the Minnesota Lynx, who have this season’s award winners for rookie of the year, Crystal Dangerfield, and coach of the year, Cheryl Reeve. More