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      Lusia Harris, ‘Queen of Basketball,’ Dies at 66

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      She was the only woman officially drafted by the N.B.A. and the first Black woman inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.Lusia Harris, a powerful center who led the Delta State University’s women’s basketball team to three consecutive national championships in the mid-1970s, died on Tuesday in Mound Bayou, Miss. She was 66.Her daughter Crystal Stewart Washington confirmed the death at a therapy facility, but did not know the cause. She lived in Greenwood, Miss.Ms. Harris was one of women’s basketball’s most accomplished players. She averaged 25.9 points and 14.4 rebounds a game at Delta State in Cleveland, Miss.; scored the opening points when women’s basketball was first played at the Olympics, in Montreal in 1976; was the only woman officially drafted by an N.B.A. team; and was the first Black woman inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.Pat Summitt, her Olympic teammate who went on to a Hall of Fame career as the women’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee, described Ms. Harris as “the first truly dominant player of modern women’s basketball, 6-foot-3 and 185 hard-muscled pounds of pivoting, to-the-rim force,” in her book, “Sum It Up” (2013, with Sally Jenkins).Ms. Harris, known as Lucy, played at Delta State before the N.C.A.A. held a women’s basketball tournament (its first one was in 1982) and before major universities began to dominate the sport.But there was a title for the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, and the Delta State Lady Statesmen won their first in 1975, defeating Immaculata University. During the next season, Ms. Harris scored 46 points against Queens College before 10,032 fans at Madison Square Garden.“She was just a giant,” said Donna Orender, who played for Queens College and later became president of the W.N.B.A. “There just weren’t that many women of that size and skill then. Down low, she was effective and efficient.”Ms. Harris scored the opening points when Olympic women’s basketball was first played, at the Montreal Summer Olympics, in 1976.ABC Photo Archives/Disney, via Getty ImagesDelta State soon after defeated Immaculata again to win the A.I.A.W. championship. Then, in 1977, the Lady Statesmen won the title over Louisiana State University.“The men’s team didn’t sell out as well as the women’s team,” Ms. Harris said in “The Queen of Basketball” (2021), a short documentary about her directed by Ben Proudfoot that premiered at the Tribeca Festival. “We began to travel on airplanes. As a matter of fact, the men didn’t fly. I guess the women were bringing in the money.”A few months after her final game at Delta State, Ms. Harris was chosen in the seventh round of the N.B.A. draft by the New Orleans (now Utah) Jazz. Only one woman before her, Denise Long, then a high school senior, had been drafted — by the San Francisco (now Golden State) Warriors, in 1969 — but Walter Kennedy, the N.B.A. commissioner, disallowed the pick.Ms. Harris declined to join a Jazz rookie camp; she was already married to her high school sweetheart, George Stewart, and pregnant. She also doubted that she could play successfully on a men’s team.“I knew that I couldn’t compete on that level,” she told The Undefeated last year.Born on Feb. 10, 1955, Lusia Mae Harris grew up in Minter City, Miss. Her parents, Willie and Ethel (Gilmore) Harris, were sharecroppers. Lusia picked cotton but also played basketball with her brothers in their backyard. She molded her game, especially her defensive skills, at Amanda Elzy High School, in Greenwood, before attending Delta State.By the time she was chosen for the 1976 United States Olympic team, Ms. Harris was a star. In addition to Ms. Summitt, the squad included Nancy Lieberman and Ann Meyers, two future Basketball Hall of Famers, and Gail Marquis. Ms. Harris scored the first points in women’s Olympic history in the opening game against Japan, which the United States lost.One of her biggest challenges was playing against Juliana Semenova, the Soviet’s 7-foot center.“She is so much taller, so much bigger and she didn’t jump,” Ms. Harris told the Kentucky Women’s Basketball Oral History last year. “All she had to do was extend her arms. And I mean, I’m only 6-3. The thing I figured out is that I would beat her down the court because she wasn’t that fast.”The Soviets routed the Americans, 112-77, with Ms. Semenova scoring 32 to Ms. Harris’s 18. The United States team nonetheless departed Montreal with a silver medal after defeating Czechoslovakia.In five games, Ms. Harris averaged 15.2 points and 7 rebounds.Ms. Harris graduated with a bachelor’s degree in health, physical education and recreation. But she had few opportunities to play professional basketball. The W.N.B.A. was two decades away. The men got the opportunities she craved. “Yeah, they’re millionaires, famous,” she said in “The Queen of Basketball.” “But I wanted to grow up and shoot that ball just like they would shoot it, and I did.”She worked as an admissions counselor and assistant women’s basketball coach at Delta State; played briefly for the Houston Angels of the short-lived Women’s Professional Basketball League during the 1979-80 season; and coached the Texas Southern University women’s basketball team from 1984 to 1986.Ms. Harris, pictured at the 2021 Tribeca Festival Premiere Shorts, made history when she was enshrined at the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.Cindy Ord/Getty ImagesShe earned a master’s in special education from Delta State in 1984, taught special education and coached high school basketball in Mississippi. She retired nearly 20 years ago.In addition to Ms. Stewart Washington, she is survived by another daughter, Christina Jordan; two sons, George Jr. and Christopher; her brothers Clarence Harris, Kendrick Blossom and Ronnie Blossom; her sisters Ethel James, Ella Harris, Darlene Lindsey and Linda Washington; and 10 grandchildren. Her marriage ended in divorce.Ms. Harris’s enshrinement at the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992 — where her presenter was Oscar Robertson, whom she idolized — was a reminder of how much impact she had as a player.“Lucy was mean underneath the boards,” Margaret Wade, her coach at Delta State, told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss. “When she wanted to score, she could score. But the thing I liked about Lucy was, she was a team player. She did what the team needed and that’s why we were successful.” More

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      LaMelo Ball Powers a Surging Charlotte Hornets

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      Seeking the team’s first playoff appearance since 2016, Charlotte has gone all-in on a guard who can thrill and frustrate on any given play. It’s working so far.BOSTON — The carnival ride known as LaMelo Ball was slowing to a merciful crawl with 7.3 seconds left on Wednesday when a teammate informed him that he was painfully close to his fourth career triple-double.Ball is the hyperactive force who powers the Charlotte Hornets, and as soon as he learned that he needed one more rebound — just one more! — he cranked up the engine, chased down the final errant shot that the Celtics had tossed up and left for the visiting locker room with his stat sheet officially stuffed.Was that last rebound gratuitous? Sure. Was it really necessary for Ball, by his own admission, to box out his own teammates in pursuit of it? Of course not. Was it a fitting postscript to another entertaining evening courtesy of Ball and the rest of the Hornets, the Eastern Conference’s resident fun bunch? Absolutely.“I enjoy the process with these guys,” James Borrego, the Hornets’ coach, said after his team’s 111-102 victory over the Celtics. “They drive me crazy, and they’re going to put a lot of grays on me. But this is why we do it — just to see that growth.”Many teams in the East have muddled through the first half of the season with mediocre records, a development diplomatically known as parity. The Hornets, though, who are eyeing their first playoff appearance since 2016, are finding some momentum. They share they ball. They run the court. They are learning to defend. They play with style.“Everybody’s playing free,” Ball said.And there is little question that Ball, the N.B.A.’s reigning rookie of the year, is the fresh face of the franchise, and has so much room to grow. That might be the scary part. On Wednesday, he collected 15 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 8 turnovers. It was impossible to know, or even predict, what he would do next. He was not dull.“When Melo’s got the ball, you always got to be looking,” said the Hornets’ Terry Rozier, who had a game-high 28 points, “because if you ain’t looking, he’ll throw it off your head.”In just his second season, Ball is one of the rare players who is impossible to miss, a magnet for attention all the way down to his toes. Against the Celtics, he broke out fluorescent footwear — a green sneaker on his left foot, a pink one on his right — with a design inspired by the animated television series, “Rick and Morty.”And, of course, there was his colorful brand of basketball from the start. He blew past the Celtics’ Dennis Schroder for a layup. He curled a bounce pass through a maze of arms to Mason Plumlee for an uncontested dunk. He elevated for some sort of highly inventive (and arguably ill-advised) 360-degree floater and drew contact, sinking both free throws.The game was only minutes old, and the ball seemed liquid coming off his hands. It was Ball at his mesmerizing best.The Hornets, led by players like Ball, Miles Bridges and Terry Rozier, are 25-20 this season. Winslow Townson/Associated PressThe problem with Ball’s liquid basketball is that even he sometimes has difficulty controlling it. So there he was, heaving a pass the length of the court and out of bounds. And moving his pivot foot for a travel. And dragging a defender to the court after trying an errant 3-pointer. And dribbling the ball off his foot several ZIP codes from the basket.“I have to live with some of that,” Borrego said, adding: “I’ve got to let him be Melo and be creative and live in that improv world. But there’s also got to be some awareness from him, as well: ‘OK, I just tried it. It didn’t work out. Be solid now.’ ”As for Ball, he assessed the turnovers as correctable.“Just little missed passes,” he said. “Not like legit turnovers where you get ripped full-court.”The N.B.A. is populated by some very talented young point guards, a list headlined by two 22-year-olds: Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks and Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies. Doncic is already a two-time All-Star, and Morant has edged his way into the conversation as an outside candidate for the N.B.A.’s Most Valuable Player Award.Even so, acclimating to the league’s nightly grind is a process for even the most precocious players, and Ball, 20, is no exception. Before the start of training camp, Borrego identified a few points of emphasis for Ball. Borrego wanted his point guard to improve as a leader, to approach his job as a professional every day. He wanted him to improve as a game manager, to understand time and situation. He also wanted him to improve as a defender, to anticipate rather than react.Ball can sometimes be chaotic, but Coach James Borrego enjoys the complete package. “I have to live with some of that,” Borrego said, adding: “I’ve got to let him be Melo and be creative.”Paul Rutherford/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBall’s jump shot remains a work in progress — he was 5 of 15 from the field against the Celtics, and he has not made more than half his shots in any of his last eight games — though his 3-point shooting has improved since last season. As for the turnovers? Well, Ball has worked to cut down on those, too, a difficult task considering how much he has the ball in his hands.In a way, the Celtics should have been prepared for the Hornets’ up-tempo style, having recently played two other teams — the Chicago Bulls and the New Orleans Pelicans — who rank among the league leaders in fast-break scoring. But the Hornets “take it to another level,” Celtics Coach Ime Udoka said.On Wednesday, Ball was at the center of it all. In the third quarter, he found Rozier for back-to-back 3-pointers — the second after Ball rebounded his own miss and spotted Rozier behind the arc. Later, with just over two minutes remaining in the game, Ball sank a 3-pointer of his own to essentially seal the win.Before their game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday, the Hornets have won six of their last seven to improve their record to 25-20. Ball said he had outsize goals, which include “trying to change the culture, bring winning here.”Fun nights? A playoff push? Everything, including one more rebound, seems within reach. More

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      N.B.A.’s Warriors Disavow Part-Owner’s Uyghur Comments

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      The Golden State Warriors distanced themselves from a minority stakeholder, Chamath Palihapitiya, who said “nobody cares” about the Uyghurs, the ethnic group that has faced a deadly crackdown in China.The N.B.A.’s Golden State Warriors on Monday distanced themselves from a partial stakeholder in the team after he said “nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs,” the predominantly Muslim minority that has faced widespread repression in China’s western Xinjiang region.Chamath Palihapitiya, a billionaire venture capitalist who owns a small stake in the Warriors, made the comments on an episode of his podcast “All-In” that was released on Saturday. During the podcast, Mr. Palihapitiya’s co-host Jason Calacanis, a tech entrepreneur, praised President Biden’s China policies, including his administration’s support of the Uyghurs, but noted that the policies hadn’t helped him in the polls.Mr. Palihapitiya replied: “Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs, OK. You bring it up because you really care, and I think it’s nice that you care — the rest of us don’t care.”Later in the podcast, Mr. Palihapitiya, the founder and chief executive of the venture capital firm Social Capital and a former executive at AOL and Facebook, called concern about human rights abuses in other countries “a luxury belief.” He also said that Americans shouldn’t express opinions about the violations “until we actually clean up our own house.”On Monday, the Warriors minimized Mr. Palihapitiya’s involvement with the team.“As a limited investor who has no day-to-day operating functions with the Warriors, Mr. Palihapitiya does not speak on behalf of our franchise, and his views certainly don’t reflect those of our organization,” the team said in a statement.In recent years, China has corralled as many as a million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities into internment camps and prisons, part of what Chinese authorities say is an effort to tamp down on extremism. The sweeping crackdown has faced a growing chorus of international criticism; last year the State Department declared that the Chinese government was committing genocide and crimes against humanity through its use of the camps and forced sterilization.Mr. Palihapitiya’s comments could be the latest chapter in what has become a fraught relationship between the N.B.A. and China, where the league hopes to preserve its access to a lucrative basketball audience. In 2019, a team executive’s support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong prompted a backlash from China in which Chinese sponsors cut ties with the league and games were no longer televised on state media channels. The league later estimated that it lost hundreds of millions of dollars.On Monday, Mr. Palihapitiya, 45, who was born in Sri Lanka, moved to Canada when he was a child and now lives in California, said in a statement posted to Twitter that after re-listening to the podcast, “I recognize that I come across as lacking empathy.”“As a refugee, my family fled a country with its own set of human rights issues so this is something that is very much a part of my lived experience,” he said. “To be clear, my belief is that human rights matter, whether in China, the United States or elsewhere. Full stop.”Nevertheless, his original comments were condemned by several public figures who have spoken out against China’s human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.Enes Kanter Freedom, a Boston Celtics player whose pro-Tibet posts caused the team’s games to be pulled from China in October, said on Twitter that “when genocides happen, it is people like this that let it happen.”“When @NBA says we stand for justice, don’t forget there are those who sell their soul for money & business,” he said.Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican who has often criticized the N.B.A. for its approach to China, tied the league to Mr. Palihapitiya’s comments.“ALL that matters to them is more $$ from CCP so NBA millionaires & billionaires can get even richer,” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.The discussion of human rights took up the largest portion of the 85-minute podcast episode. After Mr. Palihapitiya said that he did not care about the Uyghurs, David Sacks, a co-host, suggested that people cared about the Uyghurs when they heard about what was happening in Xinjiang, but that the issue was not top of mind for them.Mr. Palihapitiya then dug in.“I care about the fact that our economy could turn on a dime if China invades Taiwan; I care about that,” he said. “I care about climate change. I care about America’s crippling, decrepit health care infrastructure. But if you’re asking me, do I care about a segment of a class of people in another country? Not until we can take care of ourselves will I prioritize them over us.”He continued: “And I think a lot of people believe that. And I’m sorry if that’s a hard truth to hear, but every time I say that I care about the Uyghurs I’m really just lying if I don’t really care. And so I’d rather not lie to you and tell you the truth — it’s not a priority for me.”Mr. Calacanis said it was “a sad state of affairs when human rights as a concept globally falls beneath tactical and strategic issues that we have to have.” Mr. Palihapitiya countered that it was a “luxury belief.”“The reason I think it’s a luxury belief is we don’t do enough domestically to actually express that view in real, tangible ways,” he said. “So until we actually clean up our own house, the idea that we step outside of our borders with us sort of morally virtue signaling about somebody else’s human rights track record is deplorable.”The N.B.A. is heavily invested in not attracting the kind of messy blowback it received in 2019, when Daryl Morey, then the general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted in support of Hong Kong protesters. China removed N.B.A. games from state media channels, with games returning to air a year later.LeBron James, perhaps the league’s biggest star, faced widespread backlash when he appeared to side with China, saying Mr. Morey “wasn’t educated on the situation at hand” in Hong Kong. More

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      How Pat Riley Quit on the Knicks

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      In a book excerpt, a writer details the Knicks’ infighting and the tense contract negotiations that led Coach Pat Riley to leave for the Miami Heat in 1995.The following are excerpts from “Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks” by Chris Herring. They have been edited and condensed. The book was released Tuesday. Herring is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated.The infighting within the Knicks’ locker room seemed to be catching up with them.Perhaps it was the stress of getting so close — one win away from the 1994 N.B.A. championship, before a crushing Game 7 loss to Houston — only to watch it all slip away. Or perhaps it was the new campaign getting off to a rocky start, with a pedestrian 12-12 mark by Christmas and a five-game losing streak — their longest in Coach Pat Riley’s four years there.Whatever the reason, the squabbles were apparent.In early December, Riley got into it with the veteran guard Doc Rivers, with the men loudly trading expletives in Riley’s office during a spat over Rivers’s role. The argument ended with Rivers asking Riley to release him from the team.During a separate standoff that month, Riley’s two best players, Patrick Ewing and John Starks, traded barbs in Atlanta after Ewing declined to pass to an open Starks, drawing his ire.When Starks yelled at Ewing, Ewing snarled back, essentially telling Starks to know his place. The blowup was a breaking point, as Starks felt teammates had frozen him out of the offense during his recent slump. And while some players felt Riley had previously given Starks too much leash to shoot, no one felt that way after the loss to the Hawks.“Who are you to ever question anyone’s shot selection?” Riley screamed at Starks inside the visiting locker room. “Did anyone here ever say a word to you about [Game 7]?” The coach was referring to Starks’s disastrous 2-for-18 showing against Houston in the finals.Starks, almost in tears during the dressing-down, would be benched the following game.But deep down, Riley was the one beginning to feel distant. And change felt inevitable.‘He went quiet on us’Dave Checketts, left, the former president of Madison Square Garden, and former Knicks General Manager Ernie Grunfeld, right, discuss the resignation of Pat Riley on June 15, 1995.Marty Lederhandler/Associated PressDuring that last week of December, Riley gave his players time off from the grind. He took time for himself, too, chartering a jet on New Year’s Eve to Aspen, Colo., to visit Dick Butera, a longtime friend and wealthy real estate developer.Riley had a weighty issue to discuss. “I don’t know if this [situation with the Knicks] is going to work out,” Riley told Butera and other friends while at the developer’s home.As Riley dropped his bombshell, Butera countered with one: He and a group of deep-pocketed acquaintances planned to make a run at buying the Miami Heat. Riley said he’d consider being the team’s coach, Butera said.With a contract extension offer from the Knicks already in hand, Riley was far from desperate. But knowing he had a friend with a decent chance of purchasing a team may have emboldened him in his dealings with the Knicks. In January, after the Aspen trip, he sent a counteroffer to the Knicks, asking for a stake in ownership and a promotion to team president. These asks — which Riley said would assuage his concerns about the Knicks’ frequent ownership changes — were in addition to the $3 million salary New York had already offered.In late January, Riley met with Rand Araskog, the chief executive of ITT, which controlled 85 percent of the Madison Square Garden properties. (Cablevision owned 15 percent.) Garden president Dave Checketts gave Araskog a heads-up that Riley would likely request a 10 or 20 percent share of the Knicks as part of his extension.“I have to discuss something with you,” Riley said, pulling out a leather briefcase to talk numbers. Before he got another word out, Araskog stopped him. The answer was no.Riley pursed his lips. “I’m sorry to hear that. But I understand,” he said, declining to press the issue. The meeting concluded shortly after.“He went quiet on us after that,” Checketts says. “He’d only talk basketball with us.”‘I’m finished in New York’In “Blood in the Garden,” Chris Herring reported that Riley wanted an ownership stake in the Knicks as part of a contract extension but was denied.Ron Frehm/Associated PressIt was mid-February 1995, the first game after the All-Star break, and the Knicks were getting drilled on the road by a Detroit club 12 games under .500. By halftime, they trailed by 25. A red-faced Riley responded by punching a hole in the visiting locker room’s blackboard.The team’s play that night wasn’t all that was bothering Riley. Butera had just been informed he wouldn’t be getting the Miami Heat. “He’d kept telling me, ‘I’ll definitely come with you if you can buy the Heat,’ ” Butera recalled.But even after that plan fell through, a different opportunity remained.That same month, Micky Arison, chairman of Carnival Cruise Lines, took over as the majority owner of the Heat, and had a series of calls with Butera, phone records would later show. And while it’s not clear what was discussed — Butera denied Riley was the topic of conversation — it wasn’t long after that Arison sought to meet Riley when the Knicks were in town.On the morning of Feb. 16, Arison, who’d grown up a Knicks fan, arrived at Miami Arena early. He waited in a corridor that led to the court, wanting to watch the Knicks’ shootaround. Riley was fiercely competitive and private, so no, Arison couldn’t stay.“I was curious, based on his reputation,” Arison said. “The fact that he refused? I respected it.”But as Riley prepared to leave with his players, the new owner was standing at the exit. He pulled Riley aside, asking if he could talk with him for a few minutes.Arison’s persistence stopped Riley in his tracks. Since he’d taken the Knicks job, Riley had prioritized loyalty. The idea of being all the way in, or all the way out. Riley didn’t believe in fraternizing with anyone outside the team. So could he really agree to meet with Arison now, after a team workout, just hours before a game?Surprisingly, Riley nodded. Yes, he’d meet with Arison in the tunnel.But just for a few minutes.Arison didn’t need long, though. All he needed to know was that Riley was open to a conversation — one they could presumably finish at a later point.That point came in May, after the Knicks suffered a bitter Game 7 loss to Reggie Miller and the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Maybe an hour after the Knicks’ season ended, Butera’s phone rang. It was Riley.The Indiana Pacers pile on Reggie Miller after they defeated the Knicks in Game 7 of the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals.Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images“Are you still friendly with the guy who owns the Heat?” he asked Butera.“Yeah, I am. He’s a good guy. Why?”“Because I’m done. I’m just done,” Riley responded. “All I can tell you is, I’m finished in New York.”Butera wanted more detail. The agitated tone in Riley’s voice suggested something aside from the defeat itself had taken place. And Butera could hear noise in the background of the call. So he asked Riley where he was calling from — especially while discussing such a potentially explosive subject.“I’m calling you from my cellphone. I’m on the team bus,” Riley said.That struck Butera. Riley was so angry, he didn’t care that he might be within earshot of other people.“Make it happen,” Riley told Butera. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”‘That’s just how Pat is’Riley, left, signed his new contract to be head coach and president of the Miami Heat on Sept. 2, 1995, while Micky Arison looked on.Andy Newman/Associated PressButera met with Arison in Long Beach, Calif., on one of Arison’s cruise ships.“What does he want?” Arison asked.“He wants $50 million for 10 years,” Butera said.Arison laughed. No N.B.A. coach, not even Riley, was making $3 million a year, let alone $5 million. “What does he really want?” Arison asked.Butera reiterated his stance. Riley, already the highest-paid coach in the sport at $1.5 million a season, wanted $50 million over 10 years to run the show for Arison in Miami.Arison sat still for a moment. The asking price was a small fortune. But paying it — and getting perhaps the best coach in basketball to take over a listless organization — could prove worthwhile if Riley turned the Heat into a winner.“OK,” Arison said. “What else does he want to get this done?”Butera and Riley soon compiled a list of asks in a four-page, 14-point memo. Riley wanted an immediate 10 percent ownership of the team and another 10 percent share over the course of his deal. He also wanted Arison to loan him money to pay taxes on the initial 10 percent stake.He also wanted complete control over Miami’s basketball operations, and to be named the team president. Riley wanted Arison to purchase his sprawling homes near Los Angeles and New York City. He wanted a limo service to and from games in Miami. He wanted credit cards and a $300 per diem.Butera took a copy of the memo to Arison at a bar at Los Angeles International Airport on June 5. Arison’s eyes narrowed when he saw the per diem.“He couldn’t understand how someone getting a deal worth tens of millions would ask for such a nickel-and-dime sort of thing,” Butera recalled. “But that’s just how Pat is.”‘Wind this up’Riley had one year left on his contract with the Knicks when he left for the Heat.Robert Sullivan/AFP via Getty ImagesAs Butera and Riley were solidifying things with Arison in early June, Riley’s agent, the Los Angeles attorney Ed Hookstratten, was more than hinting to Checketts that Riley had finished his Knicks career, despite having another year left on his contract.“You and Pat have got to wind this up,” Hookstratten told Checketts during a June 7 meeting in Beverly Hills, urging him to let Riley out of his deal for a clean divorce. But Checketts wanted to talk with Riley.Checketts said when he and Riley met two days later at the coach’s home in Greenwich, Conn., Riley was noncommittal. “I’m having a hard time with [the Indiana] loss,” Riley said. “I’m having a hard time figuring out the extension. I’m having a hard time with all of it.”Checketts backed off, thinking he needed to give Riley space to decide.One day went by. Then a second. And a third. Around then, Riley asked assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy to quietly grab Riley’s things from his office. The following day, June 13, Riley met with his assistants to inform them: He was planning to resign, but wanted them to keep the news private for a few more days, as he wasn’t ready to tell the front office or the media.By June 15, Riley was ready. That day, Ken Munoz, the Knicks general counsel, was in his office when a fax came through his machine. It was a letter from Hookstratten’s law firm.Riley, one of the N.B.A.’s greatest coaches, and the Knicks’ best since Red Holzman, had faxed his resignation.And with that, the man who had taken a 39-win Knicks club and squeezed 51, 60, 57, and 55 victories out of it in four years while coming up just short of a championship was officially out the door.By the time the fax arrived and began making waves throughout the New York media, Riley was at 40,000 feet on a flight to Greece, likely to tune out the noise of the sonic boom he’d just triggered. More

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      Pelicans Choose to Remain Upbeat, Not Beaten Down

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      New Orleans guard Josh Hart is assembling his most complete pro season under a new coach who is relentlessly positive, and for a team that is still missing Zion Williamson.BOSTON — Josh Hart has experienced quite a bit. He won a national championship at Villanova. He played alongside LeBron James with the Los Angeles Lakers. He reached great heights and scrambled for minutes. But Hart got a dose of something new at the start of this N.B.A. season with the New Orleans Pelicans: relentless positivity.It hardly mattered that the Pelicans had lost 12 of their first 13 games, or that they were scuffling through a series of blowouts, or that the team’s fans seemed preoccupied with the one player — Zion Williamson — who was absent from the lineup. No matter the circumstances, Willie Green, the team’s first-year coach, was going to remain upbeat.“I think he was almost overly positive,” Hart, a fifth-year guard, said in an interview. “But this is a new group with a lot of young players, and we knew it was going to take time.”That process, as evidenced by the Pelicans’ 104-92 loss to the Celtics on Monday in Boston, is continuing. But there has been progress. Since their brutal start, the Pelicans have gone 15-16 behind the efforts of unsung players like Hart, who, at 6 feet 5 inches, defends and rebounds, and has joined his teammates in focusing on what they can control.“Obviously, we want Z to get back as quickly as he can and get 100 percent,” Hart said of Williamson. “But we can’t sit here and be like, ‘We’ve got to keep the ship afloat in hopes of a Zion grand return.’ That’s just not the mentality to have. The mentality is: We’re not going to have him for the season. That’s how we’re looking at it, and we’ve all got to step up and hoop and take advantage of our opportunities. And if he comes back? Perfect, we’ll be even stronger.”Williamson, a first-time All-Star last season and one of the N.B.A.’s most explosive players (when in uniform, which is increasingly rare), has had a series of setbacks since he had off-season surgery to repair a fracture in his right foot. A planned return to practice in December was abandoned when he reported soreness. Medical imaging revealed what the team assessed as a “regression” in the healing process, and he has since been rehabilitating in Portland, Ore. He has yet to play in a game this season, and there is no timetable for his return.“He’s still recovering, still trying to get healthy,” Green said on Monday.It is a credit to Green and his players that the Williamson story line has not ballooned into something bigger. Winning a few games has helped. But so, too, has Green’s approach.“I go back and forth sometimes myself on how much positivity I should show,” Green said. “But there have been studies. If you show people positive ways in which to do things versus the negative, their growth is tremendous. And it just happens to be a part of who I am. It’s not like I’m not holding them accountable. But I would prefer to be positive.”After a brutal start to the season, Coach Willie Green’s Pelicans have gone 15-16 behind the efforts of unsung players like Hart.Mary Schwalm/Associated PressHart said he did not feel especially valued last season under Stan Van Gundy, who was then the team’s coach. At times, Hart said, it felt like his only job was to stand in the corner and shoot the occasional 3-pointer. As the losses piled up, so did the bad vibes, Hart said. (He recalled a teammate being yelled at for calling a timeout after he dived for a loose ball.)Van Gundy was fired after the Pelicans went 31-41 in his lone season as the team’s head coach. Hart, meanwhile, waded into restricted free agency after having missed the team’s final 25 games with a hand injury. Still, he was hopeful that he would receive interest from teams around the league. Those lucrative offers never materialized. He wound up signing a three-year extension with New Orleans. The deal could be worth as much as $38 million, but it comes with a big caveat: Only the first year is guaranteed.“I know it’s very easily tradable,” Hart said, “so that’s always in the back of your mind.”Hart had been hoping for more security, and, for the first time in his adult life, he took a break from basketball over the summer. He got married. He spent some time away from the game, banking on the belief that distance would give him fresh perspective. He also began preparing to play for yet another head coach — his fourth in five seasons. Hart acknowledged that cycling through so many philosophies and management styles can take a toll on a young player, especially one trying to find his niche.“Some coaches are positive, and some are negative,” he said. “Some keep it real with you, and some kind of don’t.”Hart said he was still feeling “skeptical” about his place in the organization when he met Green for the first time over dinner before the start of training camp. Green, a former assistant with the Warriors and the Suns, said he approached the meeting with an agenda. First, he wanted to listen: What had happened with Hart over the summer? What were his frustrations? How could he help? Second, he wanted to convey that he loved Hart’s competitive nature — “He has made every team he’s played for better,” Green said — and viewed him as a leader.“I walked away feeling encouraged that he wasn’t going to limit me or put me in a box, that he was going to let me play the game the way I love to play it,” Hart said. “For a basketball player, that’s what you want to hear — that you have the confidence of your coach.”Hart is assembling his most complete season as a pro, averaging 13.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists while shooting a career-best 51.5 percent from the field.“I believe in them,” Green said of his players. “Even when it doesn’t look great, I know we’ll get there.” More

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      How the N.B.A. Forgot Dwight Howard

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      Howard went from being a dominant defender “the world revolved around” to an overlooked sub on the Lakers. What happened?The people who watched Dwight Howard dominate the N.B.A. up close don’t need reminders of how great he once was.They remember when he and LeBron James were the best players in the league. They remember what made Howard a three-time defensive player of the year, an eight-time All-Star and a member of the All-N.B.A. first team five years in a row.When they saw the N.B.A.’s 75th anniversary list of the best players ever, selected by a panel of media, players and coaches, they realized someone had been forgotten: Howard.“That was kind of crazy,” said Otis Smith, the former Orlando Magic general manager, who built teams around Howard.Said Stan Van Gundy, who coached him at his peak: “Whatever the reason that he got left out, there’s something more than basketball to it.”In the decade since Howard dominated the league, he has gone from centerpiece of a finals team to disappointing star to doubted role player. The N.B.A.’s 75 best list, which ended up with 76 players because of a tie, was just one example of how Howard’s once-undeniable impact is now challenged.Howard is now part of a Lakers team hailed for being filled with players almost certain to make the Hall of Fame. During those conversations, the players cited are usually Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony. But Howard’s name is often left out, despite a list of accomplishments few can match. Among this group of Lakers, he plays the least, at around 15 minutes per game, and his legacy is questioned most often.The man who was once James’s greatest adversary has faded into the background.“Why do you think people don’t like you?” Charles Barkley, in his role as a TNT analyst, asked Howard during a studio show in 2016.After a bit of back and forth, Howard answered: “I think I was very likable in Orlando, and the way that situation ended, I think people felt I’m just this bad guy.”Howard, in a Superman cape and shirt, won the N.B.A.’s dunk contest during All-Star Weekend in 2008.Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto AgencyHe spent eight seasons with the Magic, who drafted him No. 1 overall out of high school in 2004. Despite his outsize physique, basketball acumen and talent, he faced critiques even then — often about whether he smiled too much.“Our core group, we understood each other and if it was time to not joke, we would just tell him, ‘Not right now,’ or he could sense it,” said Jameer Nelson, the Magic’s starting point guard while Howard was there. “We were winning so many games during that time it’s almost like, how can you tell somebody not to joke when you’re still winning? You’re still statistically one of the best teams in the league on both ends of the floor.”Howard led the Magic to the N.B.A. finals in 2009 after beating James’s Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals. The Magic lost to the Lakers in the N.B.A. finals, and lost in the Eastern Conference finals in 2010.Then trouble started. There were rumblings Howard wanted out of Orlando. Nelson recalled trade rumors emerging about other players. Sometimes those players wondered if Howard was behind them.“It was a painful time even coming to work,” Nelson said.One day, Van Gundy told reporters Howard was trying to oust him, and Howard, not knowing what had just been said, playfully crashed Van Gundy’s news conference with a smile. The awkward moment — Howard with his arm across the shoulders of a soda-sipping Van Gundy — became a meme.“I’m not trying to run from it,” Van Gundy said in a phone interview recently. “I don’t think the incident that he and I had — we only had one — I don’t think it reflected real well on either one of us.”The Magic traded Howard to the Lakers before the 2012-13 season. The Phoenix Suns had traded guard Steve Nash to the Lakers a month earlier, and the pair appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated together with a now-infamous headline: “Now This Is Going to Be Fun.”Nash, who had won two Most Valuable Player Awards in Phoenix, broke his leg in the second game of the season. Howard struggled through injuries and clashed with Kobe Bryant, the face of the team. The Lakers went 45-37 and Howard was an All-Star again. But after the season ended with a first-round loss in the playoffs, he moved on as a free agent, leaving behind an enraged fan base.Howard chose Houston, another team that expected him to help it win a championship and that had even staged a special news conference with Hakeem Olajuwon and Yao Ming. But this team, with a talented guard in James Harden, also wouldn’t be built around Howard.“You could tell it was different for him,” said Corey Brewer, who joined the Rockets in Howard’s second year there.There were reports of discontent between Howard and Harden.“They were just different,” Brewer said. “I wouldn’t say it didn’t mesh. Just different personalities. I don’t feel like they had any problems that I knew of. We were trying to win.”Stan Van Gundy, left, who coached Howard in Orlando, said he believes Howard should make the Hall of Fame.Chuck Burton/Associated PressWith Howard and Harden, the Rockets made it to the Western Conference finals during the 2014-15 season and lost to Golden State. Critiques of Howard’s game continued; Barkley, for example, said often that Howard never improved his game after his time in Orlando.All the while, the sport was changing, making traditional centers like Howard less effective. After one more season in Houston, Howard spent the next five years on five teams — the Atlanta Hawks, the Charlotte Hornets, the Washington Wizards, the Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers. He was also traded to the Grizzlies and the Nets, then waived before playing any games. He returned to the Lakers this season for a third stint.One evening in Washington, after a game early in his lone season there, an arena worker screamed “Brick!” when Howard missed practice free throws, according to The Washington Post and The Athletic.Howard didn’t spend much time physically with the Wizards, sidelined for most of the season after back surgery.He became seen as a player who would be a problem, who would complain about his minutes and opportunities. He was booed in Orlando and booed in Los Angeles.When the Lakers signed him in 2019, they gave him a non-guaranteed contract, which provided little security for Howard if the reunion went poorly.“He came in every day, pounded everybody, said hi to everybody, made sure everybody knew he was happy in the situation he was in,” said JaVale McGee, who started ahead of Howard with the Lakers during the 2019-20 season. “He constantly was the ultimate professional.”McGee added, when asked if showing that quality seemed important to Howard: “I definitely think it was important just because of hearsay and the way people talk about you in the league, especially G.M.s and coaches. It can really mess up your image.”Howard’s first foray with the Lakers, in the 2012-13 season alongside Steve Nash, center, and Kobe Bryant, right, ended in a disappointing first-round playoff loss.Steve Dykes/European Pressphoto AgencyThe Lakers won a championship in 2020 with Howard coming off the bench throughout the playoffs.“You look at him right now, he’s a sub,” said Smith, Howard’s former general manager. “He comes in, he adds some energy, plays some defense. But if you go back to in his prime when the world revolved around him and teams have to account for him before they account for anything else because he’s such a presence on the inside. Everyone had to adjust for that. The game has changed so much.”The way the Lakers use their centers reflects that change.Howard started this season coming off the Lakers’ bench for DeAndre Jordan, who started at center. But Jordan has only played in one game since Christmas. In that span, Howard has played in only five of eight games and averaged 13 minutes per game. Lately, LeBron James has been the Lakers’ starting center.Perhaps time has dulled his past accomplishments. Perhaps Howard’s complicated journey has affected his legacy.“I have people ask me like, ‘Oh, do you think he’s a Hall of Famer?’” Van Gundy said. “Do I think he’s a Hall of Famer? Are you kidding me?”Van Gundy rattled off Howard’s All-N.B.A. and defensive awards.“Go check and see how many people have done that,” he said. More

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      Julius Randle Is Playing With Passion. But Where Are the Points?

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      Randle’s scoring average in his third season in New York is his lowest with the Knicks.For much of the Knicks’ thrashing of the Dallas Mavericks, Julius Randle was A Problem, in basketball parlance.He bullied his way to the basket on Wednesday, like when he absorbed contact from three defenders to finish a layup in the first half. He pushed the ball up the floor. He deftly found open shooters (eight assists). He was engaged defensively. He grabbed 12 rebounds. The Knicks ended the game outscoring Dallas by 29 points when Randle was on the floor.There was one hole: Randle shot a dismal 6 for 17. It didn’t matter much in the 108-85 win against Dallas, but it has been part of a season-long trend of poor offense by the Knicks’ highest paid player.For most of the season, Randle, 27, has been a problem for the Knicks, not A Problem for other teams. After signing a long-term extension with the Knicks over the summer, he is having one of the worst seasons of his career. It’s a key reason the Knicks are only at .500, when they were expected to build on last year’s surprising run to the playoffs. And it could mean long-term trouble for the Knicks, who have committed a significant portion of their salary cap to Randle for at least three more seasons.Randle is averaging 19 points a game, his lowest since the 2017-18 season. His field-goal percentage — 41.4 percent — is a career low. His assists (4.9 per game) are down from last season (6.0 per game) and he is averaging a career high in turnovers (3.5 per game). Multiple key players on the Knicks, including Mitchell Robinson and Alec Burks, have performed better without Randle in the game. Last month, Randle said that he had “to be better,” and that he “took responsibility for myself.”His go-to move, the step-back jumper, hasn’t been reliable — which has made it easier for defenders to crowd him or force him into more out-of-control drives.Randle’s struggles came to a head last week when he made a thumbs down gesture toward Knicks fans during a game against the Boston Celtics. Afterward, he told reporters, using a profanity, that it meant for the crowd to shut up. He apologized in an Instagram post. The N.B.A. fined him $25,000 for “egregious use of profane language during media interviews.” Asked about the fine and the gesture after practice on Tuesday, Randle was brusque, saying that he had “already addressed it.” That came a day after his 2-point performance against the San Antonio Spurs.Asked if the team needed to do more to involve him, Randle was similarly short: “I’m happy we got a win yesterday.”Randle’s stretch of underwhelming play began in last season’s first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks, a team he had dominated during the regular season but couldn’t solve in the postseason. Still, his struggles this season have been confounding. There’s no indication that his conditioning is off or that injuries are playing a role.Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau said Wednesday that Randle has remained steady, despite the dip in his numbers.Randle is averaging 19 points per game this season, down from 24.1 per game last year.Noah K. Murray/Associated Press“Julius is a pro. He’s navigated the ups and downs of this league for a long time,” Thibodeau said. “He knows where he stands in this league and he knows what he has to do and there is no change in his approach in practice.”Often, the cause of a player’s struggles can be easily pinpointed. Maybe a star player’s teammates aren’t hitting their jumpers or taking enough of them, which is forcing the player to face more double teams and take tougher shots. The Knicks faced this issue last year, with Randle as the star player, though he played well and made the All-Star team. But this season, he has more shooting around him, with new additions like Evan Fournier, and is mostly able to get the same looks as before. They’re just not falling.Randle is still an impactful player even when he’s not scoring, Thibodeau said after practice on Tuesday, because of the defensive attention he draws.“When he gets the ball out against the overload,” Thibodeau said, referring to double teams that Randle faces, “it’s going to be the second or third pass that gets us the shot.”In fact, some of Randle’s worst numbers are from when a defender is nowhere near him. He’s shooting only 26.6 percent on shots when a defender is at least six feet away from him, according to the N.B.A.’s tracking numbers. That number was at 44.4 percent last year at right around the same amount of shots per game. When a defender is four to six feet away from him — still considered open — Randle is shooting 41.1 percent — down from 45.1 percent last year. Open shots make up more than half of Randle’s field-goal attempts.That gives something to both the glass half-full and the glass half-empty Knicks fans. If you’re an optimist, you assume that missing this many open shots is a fluke for Randle, that there is no way an N.B.A. All-Star will continue to shoot less than 27 percent when open, that it’s just a matter of when, not if, he breaks out of the shooting slump. A scientist might consider last season a control group: If Randle is getting the same shots as he was last year with better shooters around him, surely his stats will improve. After all, he’s still rebounding at a high level (10.2 a game) and the rest of his numbers are more or less where they need to be.And as Thibodeau said, “You’re going to get great effort from Julius every day.”If you’re a pessimist, Randle’s shooting struggles represent a regression to the mean — that last year was the fluke. Randle is a career 33.6 percent 3-point shooter who somehow turned himself into a 41.1 percent marksman last year. For the glass half-empty folks, this season’s poor performance lines up with Randle’s struggles in his first year as a Knick. That means that in two of his three years in New York, Randle hasn’t played well, a worrying sign given that the team has invested in him long-term.There isn’t a systemic fix for Thibodeau. There’s no game plan that will get Randle’s shots to stop rimming out if he’s open. If Randle isn’t a shooting threat, Thibodeau could work more through him in the post. But Randle has had a habit of dribbling into double teams closer to the basket and forcing bad passes. This happened on Wednesday night against Dallas, when he had five turnovers. When Randle isn’t hitting jump shots, it can make scoring more difficult for the Knicks because his frontcourt teammate Robinson plays only at the rim — which is partially an indictment of Robinson’s inability to expand his range.The bright side is how the Knicks are heading into the second half of the season. They’ve gone 7-3 in their last 10 games. At 21-21, they have the same record as they did last year at this point, before they ripped off a dominant second half. But it’s difficult to see how the Knicks sustain a rise in the standings without their best player producing at a high level. In the meantime, Thibodeau is projecting that the best approach for Randle is business as usual.“Julius is passionate about the city, our fans, the game, winning. And that’s all that matters,” Thibodeau said, adding, “Keep moving forward.” More

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      Klay Thompson Returns to the Warriors

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      He barked at officials. He launched 3-pointers. He played off the crowd. And he soared for an emphatic dunk.Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors has never been known as a leaper. He used to have a running competition with Zaza Pachulia, a former teammate, to see who could finish each season with the most dunks. As more of an earthbound athlete, Thompson knew his dunks were cause for celebration.And that was before he missed the past two-plus seasons with a pair of serious injuries.On Sunday, after 941 days away, Thompson was back in uniform. His hair was longer, and he had added a headband — part of a rebrand that had been born out of months of relative “solitude,” he said — but he was characteristically fearless in front of an adoring crowd at Chase Center in San Francisco.That much was clear late in the second quarter, when he found himself being guarded on the perimeter by Jarrett Allen, a 6-foot-10 center for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Recognizing the mismatch, Thompson blew past Allen with a crossover dribble, accelerated toward the hoop and then dunked over two other defenders.this belongs in a museum#KlayThompson || #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/PrzeThHwMK— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) January 10, 2022
      “It felt so good to throw that down,” Thompson said. “I did not expect that.”About an hour after Golden State’s 96-82 win, Thompson was seated on a dais at his news conference as he glanced at a box score. He checked his numbers: 17 points in 20 minutes, 7 of 18 shooting from the field, 3 of 8 from the 3-point line. But his production was not important.Not after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in Game 6 of the 2019 N.B.A. finals, then rupturing his right Achilles’ tendon before the start of last season. Not after missing so many games, and enduring so many hours of physical therapy, and spending so much time away from the court.There were moments, Thompson said, when he wondered whether he would ever find his way back. Would his surgically repaired limbs have the same pop? Would he regain his feel for the ball? Would his body hold up through the rigors of rehab?On Sunday, joy was a box score and seeing his name again, proof that the game did not desert him.“I’m proud of myself for persevering,” he said, adding: “It’s only up from here.”Thompson has long been one of the league’s most popular players — respected by opponents, revered by teammates, beloved by fans. A three-time champion and five-time All-Star, he loves hoops, the ocean and his bulldog, Rocco. He reads the newspaper. He rides an electric bike. He considers himself a concerned citizen, going so far as to share his opinions about faulty scaffolding with local reporters.“Everybody connects with him,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said, “because he’s just authentic. Klay is just Klay.”Which is one of the reasons his absence was such a bummer. How long was Thompson gone? The N.B.A. wrapped up a pandemic-stricken season at Disney World. The Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks won championships. The Warriors moved into a new arena, then rebuilt their roster after plunging to the depths of the league standings.Thompson, meantime, played chess and bought a 37-foot fishing boat. He signed a five-year contract extension worth about $190 million, determined to one day make good on Golden State’s investment. He made cameos with NBC Bay Area’s broadcast crew, offering game analysis and updates on his progress.“Just a little bored at times,” he said during a game last season.Mostly, though, he rehabbed. And rehabbed. And rehabbed some more, fighting the twin demons of self-doubt and impatience. In late November, after Golden State won another game without him, he draped a towel over his head as the arena emptied out, and remained on the bench by himself for about a half-hour. By then, the road back had been too long and too hard. His return was close, but not close enough.“Nobody could possibly know what he went through,” Kerr said before Sunday’s game.Thompson dunked in the second quarter.Thearon W. Henderson/Getty ImagesYet Thompson’s familiar hunger was always there, lurking behind all those squats and sprints, and when he was omitted from the league’s 75th anniversary team this season, he expressed his dissatisfaction before donning a No. 77 jersey for subsequent workouts. (A total of 76 players were selected for the team.)At a news conference in November, Thompson alluded to the challenges he had faced in recovering from his injuries, describing many of the obstacles as more mental than physical, though he stopped short of sharing specifics.“I try not to revisit those times,” he said, adding: “I’m lucky I play in the era I do because technology and science have allowed athletes to come back better than ever.”He wanted to return as the type of player who was capable of supplying terrific defense. He wanted to return as the type of player who could score 37 points in a single quarter. He wanted to return as the type of player who could help his team make a deep postseason run. He did not, in other words, want to return before he was ready, as a shell of his former self. He knew who he once was, and who he could be again.“Which is one of the best players in the world,” he said.Golden State branded Sunday as #KlayDay. His teammates showed up to the arena wearing Thompson jerseys. Fans cheered for Thompson every time he took a shot — in pregame warm-ups. He savored being introduced as one of the team’s starters. He proceeded to cram five field-goal attempts into his first 4 minutes 23 seconds of playing time.“He wasn’t shy, was he?” Kerr asked.Thompson took a 3 on Sunday night.John Hefti/Associated PressThompson found his rhythm as the game wore on. He barked at officials. He launched 3-pointers. He played off the crowd. And he soared for that dunk, which had his teammates tumbling off the bench.“When Klay had perfect knees and Achilles’, I don’t remember him dunking like that,” Kevon Looney said.“It was vicious,” Stephen Curry said.In the process, the Warriors improved to 30-9, having already reasserted themselves as contenders. Thompson might be back — a huge personal victory — but he said he still had big goals. Why not chase another title? He now knows what is possible. More