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      The N.B.A.’s Play-In Tournament Isn’t the Problem

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      Though stars like LeBron James and Luka Doncic have complained about the pre-playoff hurdle, the stress of the play-in matters less than injuries and the compressed season.The Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James, who lashed out about the All-Star Game staged in Atlanta in March, has a new source of league office ire. James said on Sunday that the forces behind the N.B.A.’s forthcoming playoff play-in tournament “should be fired.”Weeks before James voiced his displeasure, it was Mark Cuban, after voting for the play-in as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, who blasted the concept as an “enormous mistake.”I say they’re both wrong, and see the race to set up the N.B.A.’s play-in round from May 18 to 21 as the most invigorating aspect of a dour, draining, pandemic-skewed season.The idea here, though, is not to dwell on James or Cuban, two of the league’s most outspoken figures. They were offering emotional reactions to their teams’ increasingly unpleasant circumstances in the standings. Both surely know how self-serving it sounded to attack the play-in format only after their teams faced an acute risk of having to participate in it.Zoom in on what’s happening among the top 11 teams in each conference, and you will see that the format change is doing its job — and promisingly so. More teams are playing more games that mean something than we’re accustomed to with just under two weeks left in the regular season. A system that gives the No. 9 or 10 seed a last-ditch pathway into the playoffs — but only if one of those teams can win two play-in games in a row — has spawned new levels of jockeying for seeding position. That’s good for the game at large, even if it has, in Year 1, complicated matters for the injury-ravaged defending champions in Los Angeles.Adam Silver, in his seven-plus years as commissioner, has emphasized finding ways to make the regular season matter more. He has also sought to discourage teams from shifting into the familiar late-season mode of resting veterans and focusing on youth development to foster losing and improve draft position, better known as tanking. The combination of the play-in and changes to the lottery odds starting in the 2018-19 season is making a difference on both fronts. Before the 2019 draft, the team with the lowest winning percentage had the highest odds to get the No. 1 pick. The three worst teams now share an equal shot at the top spot.Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks said he didn’t “see the point” of playing the whole season if a play-in tournament could keep a team out of the playoffs.Nelson Chenault/USA Today Sports, via ReutersEntering Tuesday’s play, 24 of the league’s 30 teams were still in playoff contention because of the added play-in slots, although the chances seemed unrealistic for Chicago in the East and Sacramento in the West. In both conferences, in addition to the usual grappling for the No. 1 seed, there are fevered races to secure a top-six seed and avoid the play-in round, as well as crowded races to clinch a spot in the 7-to-10 range to extend the season.The play-in scenario calls for the No. 7 seed in each conference to play one game against No. 8 at home, with No. 9 playing No. 10 at home. The winner of 7 vs. 8 claims the No. 7 seed. The loser of that game plays the winner of 9 vs. 10 at home for the No. 8 seed, with the loser of 9 vs. 10 eliminated. The seventh- and eighth-seeded teams in each conference thus have to win just once to clinch a playoff berth. No. 9 or No. 10 must win two games in a row to advance.The Mavericks’ Luka Doncic lamented last month that he didn’t “see the point” of playing an entire season if “maybe you lose two in a row and you’re out of the playoffs.” That was what prompted Cuban’s “enormous mistake” comment, but on Monday he said that he had “no problem” with the play-in and that he welcomed the competitive boost it could lend to a standard 82-game season. Cuban’s dismay, he said both last month and Monday, is contained to this season because of the stress it heaps on already stressed teams. He contended that additional games with seeding implications compound the burden on teams chafing from cramming 72 regular-season games into five months while coping with daily coronavirus testing and extensive league health and safety demands.But the benefits, at least for fans, have been plentiful. There is a newfound incentive for teams to finish no lower than sixth, both to avoid the play-in and to gain several days of additional rest before the first round of the playoffs. The seeding scramble also features highly watchable players vying for play-in berths: Washington’s duo of Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook, New Orleans’s Zion Williamson, Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball and, most of all, Golden State’s scorching hot Stephen Curry. The prospect of stars like Curry, Portland’s Damian Lillard and maybe even Williamson headlining bonus high-stakes broadcasts presumably excites network executives as much as the possibility of an early Lakers exit scares them.In Washington’s case, Beal and Westbrook have been at the forefront of a 13-3 surge that has enabled the Wizards to overcome a 17-32 start and compete for something after a coronavirus outbreak in January essentially shut down the franchise for two weeks. As a counter to Cuban’s complaint, San Antonio’s bid to stay alive for a playoff berth despite a second-half scheduling crunch has been boosted by the play-in path. The Spurs must play 40 games in 67 days in the season’s second half, but they have clung to 10th in the West, ahead of Williamson’s Pelicans.Young players like New Orleans’s Zion Williamson, left, and Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball, right, have added intrigue to the races for lower seeds.Derick Hingle/Associated PressTanking has not been eradicated by the play-in chases, but there is certainly less of it. The numbing regular-season discourse about individual awards (and little else) has been mercifully balanced by a heightened focus on the playoff ladders and how meaningful, just to give one example, Boston’s regular-season finale against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on May 16 could be. Even fears that adding play-in berths would lead more teams to stand pat and thus chill the trade market proved mostly unfounded; deadline day on March 25 delivered a record number of trades (16).The most compelling argument against the play-in tournament is the one Cuban raised — that this wasn’t the season for such experimentation. I suppose, for some, it’s a step too far after the tight turnaround from last season, which carried into October, and all the virus-related demands that cut into players’ rest, rehabilitation and practice time.Yet the bulk of the additional stress is a byproduct of the league’s decision, in conjunction with the players’ union, to start this season on Dec. 22 and play 72 games in a compressed period. The rising concern among teams’ medical staffs about increased injury risk because of game density and scheduling logjams caused by game postponements would probably have manifested with or without the play-in wrinkle.As for suggestions that the East and West No. 7 seeds deserve more protection than the play-in system affords, based on their season-long body of work, let’s push back. The lowest seed to win a championship since the league adopted a 16-team playoff format in 1983-84 was sixth-seeded Houston in 1994-95 — when the Rockets were defending champions and traded for Clyde Drexler at midseason. The playoffs do not revolve around No. 7 seeds. If they can’t win one play-in game at home, when given two chances, how much playoff damage were they going to do, anyway?What no one envisioned was three of the four teams that reached last season’s conference finals tumbling into play-in territory, which is why the issue has caused so much angst. Miami (No. 6) and Boston (No. 7) in the East, among the teams that have been hit hardest by Covid-19 disruptions, might have to go the play-in route just to get back to the playoffs. The Lakers began the season as overwhelming championship favorites and duly started 21-6, but their subsequent struggles have played out in the most daunting way. James and Anthony Davis, as we warned, have not been able to make seamless returns from their long-term injuries.The Lakers will not look capable of a lengthy playoff run, even if they can avoid the indignity of a play-in game or two, until the health of their two stars improves. For all the attention on James’s harsh critique of the play-in games, he said something else on Sunday to suggest he had a firm grasp of the Lakers’ larger seeding plight.“If I’m not 100 percent, or close to 100 percent, it don’t matter where we land,” James said.The Scoop @TheSteinLineCorner ThreeA reader writes in with the hottest of hot takes: Stephen Curry isn’t that good.Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle, via Associated PressYou ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I’ll field three questions posed via email at marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you’re writing in from, and make sure “Corner Three” is in the subject line.(Questions may be condensed or lightly edited for clarity.)Q: To answer the question posed by last week’s newsletter, Russell Westbrook is not appreciated because he does not win. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson could have averaged 15 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists per game every season if that was their goal. Westbrook is a pretty amazing player, and a deserved All-Star, but teams looking to win it all don’t seem to be interested in him. — Noel MacDonald (Petaluma, Calif.)Stein: This is a popular sentiment about Westbrook, and there are some minds he will probably never change until he is part of a championship team, no matter what he achieves statistically.That Westbrook has been traded twice since winning the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2016-17 only amplifies the argument. Yet when Westbrook has gotten triple-doubles, his teams have won handily, so I would dispute the blanket statement that Westbrook “does not win.”Westbrook has 178 career triple-doubles in the regular season and a 134-44 record in those games, good for a winning percentage of .753. That equates to a 62-20 record in a typical season.Oklahoma City, Houston and Washington, then, have clearly benefited from his triple-doubles. Detractors are bound to say Westbrook could be chasing them in every game and hurting his team when he doesn’t achieve them, but I don’t think Westbrook is motivated by triple-doubles above all else. Teammates probably wouldn’t respect him the way they do if that were happening.All of these layers, and everything we covered last week, are why I’m so curious to see the reaction when Westbrook breaks Oscar Robertson’s career record for triple-doubles (181). Maybe this will be the moment that the league at large stops to appreciate someone who plays as ridiculously hard as Westbrook does, season after season after season, even if his résumé lacks a championship. Or maybe not.Q: Stephen Curry is great, but he’s the third-best Warrior ever. He’s not better than Rick Barry, and he’s not better than Wilt Chamberlain. Unless Curry adds another dimension to his game, he will not crack the top 10 or 15 all time. — @michaelbookit from TwitterStein: This is another bold opinion (or you were just trying to get a Twitter rise out of me). Whether or not I can persuade you to reconsider your stance, I strongly disagree.Chamberlain’s greatest successes as a player were as a 76er and as a Laker. Although the statistics he posted as a Warrior remain difficult to fathom, like the 50.4 points per game he averaged as a Philadelphia Warrior in 1961-62, his time in the Bay Area lasted less than three seasons. The Warriors even missed the playoffs in Wilt’s first San Francisco season.Barry has long been one of the game’s underappreciated stars, and his all-around excellence in leading Golden State to an unforeseen championship in 1975 cemented him as one of the game’s greats, but Curry’s résumé has it all. Three championships, five consecutive trips to the N.B.A. finals, back-to-back M.V.P. awards, longevity with one franchise, massive popularity with fans and seemingly limitless shooting range that changed the game — Curry really has no peer here.Q: I have assumed that teams that qualified for the playoff play-in round but did not advance further would not be considered teams that reached the playoffs this season. Then on Friday, according to the league’s official standings, Philadelphia was shown to have clinched a playoff berth when the 76ers had 10 games left on their schedule — but only an 8½-game lead over No. 7 Miami. Didn’t that mean that the Sixers conceivably could have still slipped to seventh?— Jeff Pucillo (Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.)Stein: You are correct that teams that get to the play-in round will not be considered playoff teams unless they win the last playoff spot in each conference.The standings, though, did not convey the full picture of Philadelphia’s situation. The Sixers clinched a playoff berth as of Friday because No. 6 Boston and No. 7 Miami still had two games against each other — and the results of those forthcoming games, no matter what they are, will ensure that either the Celtics or the Heat can’t catch the Sixers.Numbers GameThe Sixers are 32-6 when Ben Simmons, center, and Joel Embiid play together.Darren Abate/Associated Press57It’s not your imagination: Major blowouts have been increasingly common this season. A record six games in April were decided by margins of at least 40 points, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, and Indiana promptly drubbed Oklahoma City by 57 points, 152-95, on Saturday, the first day of May.50When Utah scored 154 points in a 49-point rout of Sacramento last week, it was the eighth time over the past two seasons that an N.B.A. team had scored as many as 150 points in a non-overtime game. Over the prior 20 seasons, from 1999-2000 to 2018-19, it happened only four times, according to Elias.32-6Philadelphia is 32-6 this season when Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons are both in uniform. The 76ers’ .842 winning percentage in those games shows the team’s tremendous potential when the two stars are healthy, but their 38 games together mean Embiid and Simmons have been available as a duo for only 58 percent of Philadelphia’s schedule.8Of Utah’s 18 losses this season, eight were inflicted by three teams: Phoenix, Washington and lowly Minnesota. The Suns and Timberwolves went 3-0 against the Jazz, who also absorbed a 2-0 season sweep from the Wizards. In another quirk, Sacramento is 10-1 against Denver (3-0), Dallas (3-0), Boston (2-0) and the Los Angeles Lakers (2-1). The Kings are 17-36 against the rest of the league and will most likely soon miss the playoffs for the 15th consecutive season.96Golden State’s Stephen Curry sank 96 3-pointers in April to establish a league record for a single month. It was not until the ninth season of existence for the 3-point line in the N.B.A. that a player reached that total over 82 regular-season games; Boston’s Danny Ainge (148), Denver’s Michael Adams (139), Seattle’s Dale Ellis (107) and Ainge’s Celtics teammate Larry Bird (98) were the first to get there, in 1987-88.Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Send any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. More

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      Eric Collins, Voice of the Hornets, Is Creating His Own Buzz

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      Eric Collins, the TV play-by-play announcer for the Charlotte Hornets, has gained new fans this season with his high-energy broadcasts showcasing the rookie LaMelo Ball.Some basketball pairings sync seamlessly. Think Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Bill Russell and Red Auerbach and Eric Collins and LaMelo Ball.That last tandem might not be the first to come to mind. But Collins, the Charlotte Hornets’ television play-by-play announcer, has served as the ideal conduit to introduce Ball and his dynamic play to a wide N.B.A. audience.“He’s seeing the game five seconds ahead of everyone else,” Collins said.Collins calls games with an energy and exuberance that seem impossible to sustain over 48 minutes. “Here comes LaMelo Ball with his hair on fire!” he exclaimed during one otherwise mundane fast break.Collins has been widely appreciated among N.B.A. League Pass watchers who have tuned into the Hornets to watch Ball and have discovered Collins as a bonus. He’s just as excited for a Miles Bridges dunk — “Oh my goodness! Hum diddly dee! — as a 3-point attempt by center Bismack Biyombo.He is in his sixth season as a broadcast partner with Dell Curry, the former longtime Hornet and the father of Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Philadelphia’s Seth Curry. He was a sideline reporter when Michael Jordan, who owns the Hornets, won a second “three-peat” as a guard with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.Collins, who described his style as “quirky” and maybe “a little bit scary at some point,” recently spoke to The New York Times about his high-energy broadcasts and why he doesn’t listen to other announcers.This conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.What has it been like watching Ball, who recently returned from a fractured wrist, progress this season?I understood that he had a following, but I didn’t understand that he had a game that actually merited the following. And he’s just been unbelievable. I got a high bar. I’m always looking for greatness and looking for joy and looking for wonder and sometimes it’s hard to meet what I want. And he met it basically Day 1 with just the distinctiveness that he has.But I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before. He just plays with flair and élan, and I love it. And at age 19, he plays the game like his game is smiling, but then when he’s not on the floor, his body shows you that he’s smiling. He’s someone you want to be around.Have you noticed more interest in the Hornets this season and more people being introduced to your broadcasts?I’ve got a daughter who’s in high school, and for the first time in her life, she’s noticing that basketball actually exists here in Charlotte. She’s got friends who wear Hornets gear and talk about the Hornets and do what kids do on social media about the Hornets. And so, yes, it started hitting me more. But I don’t know if it’s just ’cause I’ve got a 15-year-old daughter in my house or because there’s actually a real phenomenon going on.And that’s partly because you don’t use social media, correct?I’ve always been a broadcaster that believes in the old school of “I want to broadcast to you.” And when you start broadcasting back to me, that changes everything that I’m about. I put in the time. I put in the thought, and I put in a lot of the man-hours to get my brain and my skill level to the point where I feel like I can broadcast outward with a certain amount of authority. And I don’t want to take any of that broadcast back in toward me because that affects how I do a game. I want to be in my own Eric Collins bubble.I don’t want to give people what they like, I don’t want to give people what they don’t like — I want to give people what’s me. And if they like that, then that’s great.“I don’t look like anyone else. I don’t have the same demographics as anyone else. I’m biracial, and that’s a huge part of who I am as a broadcaster”, said Eric Collins, left.Scott Cunningham/NBAE, via Getty ImagesThat goes in line with you also not listening to other announcers. Why did you start that policy?I was a sideline reporter for six years in the N.B.A. and I also used to dabble. I would be a sideline reporter and in-game reporter for the Chicago White Sox. And I started to do more and more play-by-play, and I was realizing that I was sounding like other announcers that were in my ear when I was doing games. And I said, “This is the absolute death of me.”I don’t look like anyone else. I don’t have the same demographics as anyone else. I’m biracial, and that’s a huge part of who I am as a broadcaster. I look different than everyone else, and I think it’s important for me to not shy away from that. And I don’t want to look like anyone else and I don’t want to sound like anyone else.So yeah, I haven’t listened to anyone since probably the late ’90s. I watch sports, and I don’t do pregame shows. I won’t watch a halftime show. I watch a highlight show. I form my own opinions. That’s what I believe in.How are you able to sustain your energy throughout the lengthy season?I just think it’s the way that I was born and the way I was raised, what’s in my body. To me, it’s easy to get excited and to be full of wonder at a basketball game, at a sporting event, at a baseball game, at a women’s volleyball game. I’m a competition junkie, and if people are putting in the amount of effort that it takes to get ready for a game and play the game, I always put enough energy and thought to get ready for that game. And once the ball is thrown up, I’m ready to go.You also did a stint as a news reporter, correct?I spent a year of my life at the CBS affiliate in Rochester, and I was doing news. I was going to City Council meetings. I was doing arsons. I was doing homicides. I was waiting out in blizzards telling people not to go outside. It was really tough. I got so much respect for people who can do that long-term because sometimes it’s not very bright.I think there’s a lot of young broadcasters who spend a lot of time worrying, ‘OK, I can’t say this’ or ‘I can’t go here,’ because they’re not confident about what journalistically they can do. I had that down. The amount of years that I spent getting into the business, I understood journalism, the rules, the ethics, all that kind of stuff. And that freed me for when I actually got a microphone and was able to start doing play-by-play, to just concentrate on being me because I understood the basics.The Hornets have put together a lot of highlight-worthy plays this season. Do you have a favorite call?I guess maybe the tail end of the Golden State game that the Hornets won. The one that Steph actually didn’t play. Terry Rozier hit a nice shot. And that’s one of the things that I liked just because play-by-play isn’t always about the exact words that you use. It’s about the way that you’re able to use your voice, and use the moment. Without fans, I think, sometimes that’s one of the things that I like to play with a little bit more this year — is just my voice and how I can bring it up and bring it down and staccato, and just the rhythm of what I’m trying to do. And I thought that we did a good job for that game winner by Rozier, just using the voice in an empty arena to make it as exciting as it was. More

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      Russell Westbrook Makes Triple-Doubles Look Easy. They’re Not.

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      Westbrook, the Washington Wizards guard, is on track to average a triple-double for the fourth time in five seasons, making it seem almost routine. So why doesn’t everyone do it?Russell Westbrook and Scott Brooks huddled by phone late Sunday. After the Washington Wizards’ eighth consecutive victory, and with the second half of a back-to-back looming Monday night against San Antonio, Westbrook wanted to do some extra strategizing with his coach.It was only a few months earlier that six consecutive Washington games were postponed because the Wizards had been ravaged by a coronavirus outbreak. Their U-turn has been so dramatic, with Westbrook’s play reminiscent of his Oklahoma City best, that Brooks couldn’t resist interrupting the serious tone by needling his star guard.“I told him: ‘You’ve got to start rebounding the ball — only five tonight?’” Brooks said. “Just busting his chops.”Those five rebounds Westbrook managed in Sunday’s victory over Cleveland, to go with 14 points and 11 assists in 36 minutes, were indeed an anomaly. In nine of his previous 10 games, 13 of the previous 15 and 16 of the previous 20, Westbrook reached double figures in points, assists and rebounds.In his first season as a Wizard, at age 32, Westbrook is averaging 21.8 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists per game — with a league-leading 29 triple-doubles to hike his career total to 175. Denver’s Nikola Jokic, with 15 triple-doubles, is his closest pursuer this season. With seven more triple-doubles, Westbrook will pass Oscar Robertson as the N.B.A.’s career leader.This is where it’s important to note that Westbrook, who is on a course to average more than 10 rebounds per game for the fourth time in five seasons, stands 6-foot-3.The official stance of this newsletter is that Westbrook’s forthcoming achievement should be celebrated heartily, at the very least for his relentless rebounding at that size, but it’s hard to say how much fanfare awaits him when he eclipses the Big O. This isn’t even a record that Robertson knew he set at the time, since the term “triple-double” didn’t come into vogue until the 1980s.Another tricky variable: In my 28 seasons of full-time N.B.A. reporting, Westbrook is right there with Allen Iverson when it comes to the most polarizing players I have covered. Because of Westbrook’s ball-dominant style, fickle jump shot, high turnover rate, occasionally brusque demeanor and, most of all, zero championships, it is often easier to find his critics than his admirers.Westbrook is averaging 11 assists per game this season, the most of his career.Kim Klement/USA Today Sports, via ReutersAs Westbrook closes in on Robertson, there is also a rising tendency to dismiss triple-doubles as empty calories because they happen so frequently in the wide-open modern game. (Example: On March 17, Westbrook was one of six players to record a triple-double that day.) Westbrook’s triple-doubles in particular tend to be discounted in a way that others aren’t, which he brought up in a video session with reporters after Monday’s overtime loss to the Spurs.“I think it’s very interesting that it’s not useful now that I’m doing it,” Westbrook said.As covered in a recent piece by my colleague Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, there were only 18 triple-doubles leaguewide as recently as the 2011-12 regular season. This season’s total has already topped 100, for the fifth season in a row, pointing to the various offensive advantages enjoyed in today’s N.B.A. The faster pace of play creates more possessions, and thus more statistical opportunities, and restrictions on defenders have been designed to promote more freedom of movement on offense. Players are likewise encouraged to shoot 3-pointers at record rates, boosting scoring numbers and leading to more long rebounds. Old schoolers resistant to the 3-point revolution, in response, are prone to scoff at some of the gaudy stuff we see in box scores these days.Yet this is where I feel compelled to repeat that part about Westbrook standing just 6-3. He is the only player in league history at that size or smaller to average at least 10 rebounds a game over a full season.“It’s a lot harder at 6-3,” said Lafayette Lever, who went by the nickname Fat and amassed 43 triple-doubles from 1982-83 through 1993-94.Lever understands Westbrook’s challenge as well as anyone. He was a 6-3, 170-pound guard who rang up a league-leading 16 triple-doubles in 1986-87, ahead of both Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and he didn’t have Westbrook’s explosion.“Russell is so much more athletic than I was at any point in time,” Lever said in a phone interview, “probably from the day he was born.”Lever, though, had an exceptional knack for rebounding, which he credited to playing on a high school team with no one taller than 6-3. He still ranks 10th in career triple-doubles. It wasn’t until Johnson joined the Lakers, five seasons after Robertson’s retirement, that triple-doubles were seriously tracked and discussed, but among my N.B.A.-obsessed high school friends in the 1980s, we associated triple-doubles with Lever as much as with Magic or Bird, since he seemed like such an unlikely source for them.Lever accrued all 43 of his triple-doubles in a six-season span with the Denver Nuggets from 1984-85 to 1989-90 as one of the driving forces on a team that, like Westbrook, wasn’t always appreciated. Detractors at the time took issue with the freewheeling style those Nuggets played under Coach Doug Moe — and the wild scores and stats their games produced.Fat Lever, who led the league with triple-doubles for one season while he was with the Denver Nuggets in the 1980s, said what Westbrook is doing now is a “big deal,” even if people don’t appreciate it.Mike Powell/NBAE, via Getty ImagesTurbocharged statistical lines are a staple now in a league where 13 teams out of 30, entering Tuesday’s play, were attempting at least 40 percent of their shots from 3-point range. Cries of stat padding became commonplace in Westbrook’s later years with the Thunder, and the hyper-awareness of triple-doubles — and a corresponding urge to chase them — is another perceived advantage for the Westbrook generation. But Lever insisted that achieving the consistency of Westbrook’s board work is far harder than it looks.“It’s still a big deal,” Lever said, “because not everyone is able to do it.”Westbrook made similar statements after the Wizards’ winning streak was snapped by the 146-143 loss to the Spurs. Asked about his latest triple-double, which included 22 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists — albeit on 9-for-26 shooting — Westbrook said: “I honestly believe there is no player like myself. And if people want to take it for granted, sorry for them. But I’m pretty sure if everybody could do it, they would do it.”It’s difficult to argue with that logic, although many try. In 2016-17, Westbrook became the first player since the 6-5 Robertson in 1961-62 to average a triple-double for an entire season. That feat helped Westbrook, starring for the 47-win Thunder, become the N.B.A.’s first Most Valuable Player Award winner from a sub-50-win team since Moses Malone in 1981-82.With a boost from his recent surge, Westbrook is on a course to average a triple-double for the fourth time in five seasons, which in theory should position him as an M.VP. candidate. The reality is much colder: Westbrook has seemingly normalized averaging a triple-double and has been traded twice during that run, suggesting to some that triple-doubles aren’t especially valuable. Or, worse, that he is not a player to build around.Washington acquired him from Houston on Dec. 2 in a swap of disgruntled backcourt stars that sent John Wall to the Rockets. In January and February, Westbrook’s play was alarmingly inefficient and turnover-laden, with noticeably fewer rushes to the rim. Since the All-Star break, Westbrook has consistently played at a top-30 level, and Washington has a net rating of plus-4.4 points per 100 possessions with both Westbrook and Bradley Beal on the floor.Concern persists over Westbrook’s five turnovers per game, and his curious slippage at the free-throw line to a career-low 62.8 percent from 76.3 percent last season, but the constant thrust Westbrook plays with has made the Wizards hard to guard. His presence has not hindered Beal’s scoring, as some surmised when the trade went down; Beal is locked in an almighty battle with Golden State’s Stephen Curry for the league’s scoring title.In March and April, Westbrook became the first player to register at least 300 points, 150 assists and 150 rebounds in consecutive calendar months since Wilt Chamberlain in February and March of 1968, according to research from the statistician Justin Kubatko. Westbrook will never be for everybody, especially without a ring, but Brooks couldn’t have lobbied harder for the Wizards to reunite them when the trade opportunity arose. He coached him through nearly all of Westbrook’s first seven seasons in Oklahoma City,“The rebounding is the most incredible thing,” Brooks said. “He goes and gets them. He just has that knack. It doesn’t matter who’s in front of him; he always has one more step on his ladder. The will, the athleticism the competitive drive — I knew what our team needed.“Eleven rebounds a game for guy 6-3? We’ll never see a player like him ever again, not in my generation or my kids’ generation.”Corner ThreeJulius Randle has been big for the Knicks this season, and so have RJ Barrett, left, and Immanuel Quickley, right.Matt Slocum/Associated PressYou ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I’ll field three questions posed via email at marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you’re writing in from, and make sure “Corner Three” is in the subject line.(Questions may be condensed or lightly edited for clarity.)Q: The Knicks have overperformed this season. The front office did not make any splashes at the trade deadline. Jeff Van Gundy recently mentioned on television that the Knicks were “still incredibly limited” talent-wise. Their best player is Julius Randle, but the N.B.A. has been a perimeter-based league for some time. How will Leon Rose address this? — Wallace Leeth (Paterson, N.J.)Stein: April has been a month for Knicks fans to savor. Genuine optimism and joy are tangible at Madison Square Garden for the first time in years. I suppose it was inevitable that someone would inject a sober dose of pragmatism into the conversation, but it’s also difficult to quibble with the patient approach — so far.The Knicks are ahead of schedule and well positioned to pursue signings and trades to bolster an offensively challenged roster, with considerable salary-cap space and two first-round picks forthcoming in the off-season. Team officials know they still have plenty of work to do to upgrade the overall talent, but that wasn’t imperative at the trade deadline in March. It’s not like there was a difference-maker they missed out on.It’s true that this front office will ultimately be judged on its ability to sign or trade for at least one certifiable star to pair with Randle, which means persuading an established player to embrace the challenge of playing in New York as heartily as Randle did. Rose and his management team also have to brace for ongoing second-guessing about their first draft pick if the rookie guard Tyrese Haliburton continues to blossom in Sacramento, since they could have drafted Haliburton at No. 8 rather than Obi Toppin.The Rose regime, though, has done many good things in its first year. The Knicks appear to have hired the right coach in Tom Thibodeau, helped usher Randle to All-Star status and can point to promising development from RJ Barrett and the rookie Immanuel Quickley to offset the injuries that have derailed Mitchell Robinson’s third season.There have been whispers for weeks that the Knicks’ flirtation with the East’s No. 4 seed has helped restore their reputation to the point that star players are finally prepared to consider them a destination franchise again. If that proves true, they will have multiple pathways to address the concerns you raised, whether it’s by trying to sign a savvy former All-Star like Kyle Lowry or DeMar DeRozan on a short-term deal as a bridge to free-agent classes more star-laden than this summer’s, or by using future draft picks (perhaps packaged with Toppin) to construct a meaningful trade.Things could always go askew if the Knicks rush into the wrong deal, as they have been known to do over the years, or if the team’s owner, James L. Dolan, decides he needs to get involved after abiding by the organization’s plan to let Thibodeau and on-court results do all the talking. But I would say that the Knicks have certainly earned a grace period through the end of this surprising season. This is a time for Knicks fans, surely, to revel in what’s going right.Q: Do they really get the Oscar itself? Kobe Bryant was very involved in co-creating his film, which is why he was given an Oscar. Executive producers frequently provide financing and aren’t involved as hands-on producers. In any case, good for them. — @FromMeadows from TwitterStein: In my exuberance Sunday night, I tweeted that Kevin Durant, Mike Conley Jr. and Rich Kleiman, Durant’s business manager, joined Bryant as Oscar winners from the N.B.A. because they were listed as executive producers for “Two Distant Strangers,” which won the best live action short film category at Sunday’s Academy Awards. That’s incorrect.They were part of an Oscar-winning film, but did not get awards themselves. Kobe took home an Oscar trophy in 2018 for the animated short film “Dear Basketball,” which was based on a poem Bryant wrote in 2015 to announce his retirement at the end of the 2015-16 season.Q: I’ve never seen so many tweets and stories about a team signing a guy to a 10-day contract. We’ve seen posts about Mike James about 50 times over the past week. — @MrWright1218 from TwitterStein: There are some good reasons for that.It’s partially a function of where we are on the regular-season calendar. There just aren’t as many roster moves happening this close to the postseason, especially involving title contenders, so the ones that do happen generate extra coverage.Yet it’s also a byproduct of the circumstances. James was one of the most prominent Americans playing abroad, with a high-profile European club (CSKA Moscow), and he had a complicated contractual situation to negotiate — as well as six days’ worth of health and safety protocols to complete — before he could actually join the Nets on Friday. The fluidity of James’s status led to more frequent updates.Numbers GameThe Denver Nuggets are holding on, even with Jamal Murray out for the season, because of Nikola Jokic.Steve Dykes/Associated Press50Recording 50 wins in an 82-game season is a traditional marker for N.B.A. excellence. Winning 50 games in a 72-game season is obviously harder, but six teams still have a chance to do so with 19 days remaining in the regular season: Utah (44-17), Phoenix (43-18), the Los Angeles Clippers (43-20), the Nets (42-20), Philadelphia (40-21) and Denver (40-21). Of those six, only the Jazz (52) and the Suns (51) are currently on a pace to do so.61Nikola Jokic’s M.V.P. case will undoubtedly be bolstered by his durability in this pandemic season. Jokic has played in all 61 of Denver’s games and has led the Nuggets to a 6-1 record since Jamal Murray’s season-ending knee injury on April 12. Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, widely regarded as Jokic’s closest pursuer in the M.V.P. race, has played in 42 of the 76ers’ 61 games.9Monday’s home loss to the Suns, the No. 2 seed in the West, brought a halt to the Knicks’ nine-game winning streak. The Knicks have had only one longer unbeaten run in the 21st century, winning 13 consecutive games late in the 2012-13 season, which featured the club’s last playoff berth.37.5The Knicks’ Julius Randle leads the league at 37.5 minutes per game. Coach Tom Thibodeau has faced criticism for years about overplaying his best players; Thibodeau most likely would counter that Randle, at 26, is young enough to handle the workload.13This is Seattle’s 13th season without an N.B.A. team. The W.N.B.A.’s Seattle Storm have won three championships in that time, but the wait for a new franchise to replace the SuperSonics will soon take on a new dynamic when the Seattle Kraken join the N.H.L. next season. We’re less than three months away from the Kraken’s expansion draft on July 21.Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Send any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. More

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      N.B.A. Power Rankings: The Utah Jazz Are Hitting All the Right Notes

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      Once a season, Marc Stein provides a more detailed assessment of the N.B.A.’s 1-to-30 landscape than the standings do.The funky basketball calendar in use this season has thrown everyone off in the N.B.A. That includes writers unaccustomed to covering a regular season broken into halves, with the All-Star Game and trade deadline in March and a postseason that doesn’t begin until mid-May.Running my once-a-season N.B.A. Power Rankings in January made little sense this season, when opening night fell on Dec. 22. So we pushed our annual team-by-team progress report closer to playoff time — with the goal, as always, to present a more detailed assessment of the league’s 1-to-30 landscape than the standings do, measuring what is happening in the present against each team’s big-picture outlook.The rash of injuries sustained by so many high-profile players, particularly on teams expected to compete for a championship, complicated evaluations for the Committee (of One), as it was named at its inception entering the 2002-3 season. Yet there was one clear choice for the committee: The Utah Jazz had to be ranked No. 1.For all the valid questions about its playoff credentials, and how Donovan Mitchell will bounce back from a significant right ankle sprain, Utah has earned that status through its unerring solidity in a season that, because of the pandemic challenges, has made consistency such a scarce commodity.Statistics were current through Saturday’s games.1. Utah JazzDonovan Mitchell has led the Jazz to the top of the pack, where Bobby Portis and the Bucks have also established position.Alex Goodlett/Getty ImagesGolden State’s Steve Kerr warned people in January that Utah was “where we were three or four years ago.” Utah has duly held the N.B.A.’s best record for more than 80 consecutive days since Feb. 2, and is the only team that ranks in the top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency. The Jazz are optimistic Donovan Mitchell’s recent ankle injury was not as severe as it looked, but they also know they can’t truly hush skeptics until they perform in the playoffs more like Golden State.2. Phoenix SunsThe Suns quickly progressed from last season’s darlings in the Walt Disney World bubble to a full-fledged fascination. They are rarely mentioned as a championship contender because the team, which hasn’t made the playoffs in a decade, is virtually bereft of postseason experience beyond Chris Paul and Jae Crowder. But after Paul landed in the backcourt alongside Devin Booker, Phoenix is a tidy 34-9 since its 8-8 start and has been healthier than any other team in our top 10.3. Los Angeles ClippersThe Clippers are the healthier of the two title contenders in Tinseltown — barely. Kawhi Leonard (foot) and Paul George (toe) have been in and out of the lineup, Serge Ibaka (back) has been sidelined since mid-March, and then there’s the team’s psyche. Even during a 17-3 surge, skepticism persists about how this group will respond to postseason adversity. Last summer’s second-round collapse against Denver in the bubble was that gnarly.4. NetsAs if the Nets weren’t sufficiently fascinating with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, they traded for James Harden in January to lean into chasing a championship with little regard for defense. Yet recurring injury woes for Harden and Durant mean they will also be trying to win it all without continuity, as those two have played alongside Irving in only seven games. Some comfort for Nets fans: This team is 26-8 when only two of its three stars play.5. Philadelphia 76ersBen Simmons’s offensive struggles since the All-Star break are easier to stomach when Joel Embiid is mounting a serious push to win the Most Valuable Player Award. A 2-1 record this season against the Nets, good for the tiebreaker over them in the race for the East’s No. 1 seed, doesn’t hurt, either. The Sixers’ case to be labeled East favorites, however, is weakened by their own health concerns: Embiid has missed 19 games, Simmons 12.6. Milwaukee BucksThe Bucks have Giannis Antetokounmpo to anchor their roster for a while.Aaron Gash/Associated PressThe Committee has said often that persuading Giannis Antetokounmpo to sign a five-year, $228 million contract extension was on par with winning a championship for the small-market Bucks. They likewise improved their chances of winning the actual championship by acquiring Jrue Holiday and P.J. Tucker to flank Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. The problem: Without the No. 1 seed that it earned the previous two seasons, Milwaukee might have to beat the Nets and Philadelphia just to reach the N.B.A. finals.7. Denver NuggetsOne of the worst aspects of Jamal Murray’s tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee is that it didn’t just severely dent the Nuggets’ title hopes this season. Because the N.B.A. intends to return to its usual October-to-June schedule, Murray could miss most of next season, too. It’s such a dispiriting blow after the Nuggets, buoyed by Nikola Jokic’s ascension to M.V.P. favorite, had just made a go-for-it trade to acquire Orlando’s Aaron Gordon before losing Murray.8. Los Angeles LakersAnthony Davis can’t help the Lakers if he’s injured.Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesThe Lakers’ ceiling is simply too high with LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the lineup to drop them out of the top 10. It has also been so long since we’ve seen the reigning champions’ twin pillars healthy that it’s hard, for the moment, to put them any higher. Not until Davis (who missed 30 games with Achilles’ tendon and calf issues) and James (out since March 20 with a high ankle sprain) show us they’ve truly healed.9. KnicksJulius Randle has sparked the Knicks’ unlikely resurgence, and at this point could probably be elected mayor.Wendell Cruz/USA Today Sports, via ReutersNine consecutive wins have led to an unexpected top-10 berth for the Knicks, who finished in the bottom 10 in defensive rating for four successive seasons before Tom Thibodeau’s hiring as coach. With the relentless Thibodeau getting maximum effort from an unremarkable roster, the Knicks are ensconced as a top-five defensive team. Factor in the significant improvements made by the newly minted All-Star Julius Randle and, more recently, RJ Barrett, and you have the recipe for just the Knicks’ fourth winning season in the 21st century.10. Boston CelticsJayson Tatum and the Celtics are bouncing back.Brad Penner/USA Today Sports, via ReutersAn 8-3 surge helped the Celtics shed their status as the most disappointing team in the league and rejoin the hunt for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Jayson Tatum has bounced back strongly from having Covid-19, though he said he has had to use an inhaler before games for the first time in his life. Also: Jaylen Brown continues to have a breakout season, Kemba Walker looks more like himself lately after persistent knee trouble and Danny Ainge, Boston’s under-fire team president, upgraded the roster with Evan Fournier and Jabari Parker, albeit after striking out on bigger targets.11. Atlanta HawksNate McMillan has guided the surprising Hawks.Derick Hingle/Associated PressPutting Nate McMillan in charge has made such a difference that he may actually snag some votes for the Coach of the Year Award without coaching the whole season. Since McMillan replaced Lloyd Pierce on March 1, Atlanta is 19-7, with a finally healthy Bogdan Bogdanovic (21.5 points per game in April) and Clint Capela (38 double-doubles this season) emerging as key contributors who prevent the opposition from loading up on Trae Young. Capela merits much more support than he’s getting to be named defensive player of the year.12. Dallas MavericksThe good news: The Mavericks have one of the league’s easiest remaining schedules, according to Tankathon. The troubling news: They appear to need the help, judging by disturbing home losses to the Knicks and the Kings right after Luka Doncic stole a game against the Grizzlies with a stunning 3-point fling at the buzzer. Despite Doncic’s usual dominance, Kristaps Porzingis has missed 20 of 59 games and Dallas squandered repeated opportunities to capitalize on Portland’s recent funk before finally swiping the West’s No. 6 seed.13. Miami HeatFor all the understandable focus on the Lakers’ injury woes and the challenges posed by the shortest off-season in N.B.A. history, Miami has been coping with the same problems since losing to Los Angeles in last season’s finals. A steady stream of their own roster disruptions and struggles for various members of the Heat’s supporting cast might have already cost them the opportunity to seize the East’s up-for-grabs No. 4 seed now that teams around them are heating up.14. Golden State WarriorsStephen Curry has regained his M.V.P. form at age 33.Michael Dwyer/Associated PressHe tends to resist such compliments because he believes there’s always another gear to hit, but Stephen Curry is playing the most spectacular basketball of his life at age 33. He’s averaging 38.2 points per game in April and should get the short-handed Warriors to the play-in tournament, even though he is routinely enveloped by the thickest of defensive swarms with Klay Thompson still sidelined.15. Memphis GrizzliesIn a loaded West, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see the Grizzlies fail to match last season’s ninth-place finish. A defiant Ja Morant, helped by a resurgent Jonas Valanciunas and under-the-radar coaching savvy from Taylor Jenkins, has kept Memphis in the playoff hunt. Jaren Jackson Jr., widely regarded as Memphis’s second-best player before injuring his knee at the end of last season, only just returned to the lineup last week.16. Charlotte HornetsGordon Hayward is healthy and helping the Hornets.Doug Mcschooler/Associated PressThe Hornets are Knicks Southeast, meaning they’re the other feel-good story in the Eastern Conference — with much less fanfare compared with what’s happening in Gotham. After initial fears that he might miss the rest of the season, LaMelo Ball is nearing a return from a broken wrist that should cement him as the league’s rookie of the year. Gordon Hayward, when healthy, has lived up to his four-year, $120 million contract. And Coach James Borrego has held this team together through its numerous injuries.17. Portland Trail BlazersThe Blazers survived the extended injury absences of Jusuf Nurkic (10 weeks) and CJ McCollum (eight weeks), largely thanks to frequent offensive detonations from Damian Lillard. But a recent slide has put Portland at risk to land in the playoff play-in round — just like last season — after a lengthy stay in the West’s top six. Defenses are swarming Lillard with greater success as the season wears on, while Portland’s porous defense has dipped to a lowly 29th.18. San Antonio SpursGregg Popovich, who turned 72 in January, is getting the most out of a team that wasn’t expected to do much — to no one’s surprise. DeMar DeRozan has expanded his game, as a playmaker and leader, to supplement San Antonio’s top-10 defense. No team, though, faced a more unenviable second-half schedule, with the Spurs required to play 40 games in 67 days after they were hit by a coronavirus outbreak in February.19. Washington WizardsBradley Beal’s insistence on staying with Washington and delaying potential trade conversations until the off-season is making more and more sense. Russell Westbrook’s recent renaissance (13 triple-doubles in his past 15 games) and improved team defense have established surging Washington as a likely qualifier for a playoff play-in spot. None of that seemed plausible during the team’s 3-8 start and subsequent coronavirus woes.20. Toronto RaptorsA list of teams most disrupted by the coronavirus must include Washington, Miami, Boston, Memphis and Dallas — and it must be topped by Toronto. The Raptors have spent this entire season in Tampa, Fla., with several players and coaches sidelined by health and safety protocols, and appear increasingly unlikely to avoid a trip to the draft lottery just two years removed from a championship run.21. Indiana PacersMyles Turner, a fearsome shot blocker, is out with a toe injury.Aj Mast/Associated PressFew teams illustrate the wacky nature of this pandemic season and a leaguewide erosion of home-court advantage better than the Pacers. They are an unsightly 11-17 at home, yet have clung to a spot in the East’s top 10 with a 17-14 road record. The challenge now is hanging on for three more weeks to advance to the play-in round after losing the imposing Myles Turner, who leads the league in blocked shots, to a toe injury. The All-Star forward Domantas Sabonis (back) is also ailing.22. New Orleans PelicansIn Year 2, Zion Williamson made his first All-Star Game, established himself as a ridiculously efficient offensive force and more than met the lofty expectations he generated coming out of Duke. Trouble is, for all the damage Williamson does inside overpowering opponents and shooting 61.8 percent from the field, New Orleans is fading out of contention for the West’s final play-in spot. Stan Van Gundy’s hiring as coach hasn’t had the desired impact.23. Chicago BullsBulls fans eager to see a big swing from the new front-office regime led by Arturas Karnisovas finally got one at the trade deadline when Chicago acquired the All-Star center Nikola Vucevic to team with Zach LaVine. Ending the fans’ wait for a return to the playoffs for the first time since 2016-17, when the Bulls still had Jimmy Butler, is proving to be trickier. Even with the productive Vucevic, Chicago is a shaky 6-11 since the trade and facing questions about the timing it chose to make a win-now trade.24. Sacramento KingsTwo nine-game losing streaks have overshadowed the productive play De’Aaron Fox has delivered since signing a $163 million contract extension in November, setting up the Kings to miss the playoffs for a hard-to-believe 15th consecutive season. More than half of that depressing drought will belong to Vivek Ranadive, who is in his eighth season as the Kings’ owner.25. Oklahoma City ThunderYou have to go back to the Thunder’s maiden season in Oklahoma City in 2007-8 for the last time they had a losing streak as long as their current 13-gamer. Check back in July, after the draft lottery, if you wish to see the Thunder thriving, since they are clearly (and understandably) prioritizing draft position these days. They have amassed 18 first-round picks, 17 second-rounders and the right to swap four more first-rounders in the next seven drafts — all part of a long-range plan like no other.26. Detroit PistonsJerami Grant gives hope to long-suffering Pistons fans.Carlos Osorio/Associated PressJerami Grant has played so well in his first season as a Piston that teams were trying to persuade Troy Weaver, Detroit’s new general manager, to immediately trade him. Some of Weaver’s roster choices have been questioned, but promise from the rookies Saddiq Bey (one Eastern Conference Player of the Week Award already to his credit) and Isaiah Stewart (17.3 points and 13.3 rebounds per game in one recent three-game stretch), on top of Grant’s progress, have long-suffering Pistons fans feeling cautiously optimistic.27. Minnesota TimberwolvesThe Timberwolves’ new coach, Chris Finch, who worked in Denver as Nikola Jokic was rising to prominence, is trying to similarly expand Karl-Anthony Towns’s game. Towns and his good friend D’Angelo Russell are finally both healthy, Anthony Edwards is a constant presence in highlight reels and Alex Rodriguez (yes, that A-Rod) is trying to buy the team. There’s a lot going on, but sadly nothing to make you forget that this will be Minnesota’s 16th playoff miss in 17 seasons.28. Orlando MagicAt this early stage, Orlando has reason to feel hopeful about its decision in March to trade away the long-tenured threesome of Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier. More telling grades will depend on how Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz recover from their serious knee injuries, but Wendell Carter Jr., acquired from Chicago in the Vucevic trade, is off to a promising start.29. Cleveland CavaliersIn early February, with the Cavaliers at 10-11, Collin Sexton wrote a piece for The Players’ Tribune titled “Back on the Map.” The team promptly lost its next 10 games and has spent the last two months mired in losing and an injury crunch. Kevin Love, one of the last remaining links to Cleveland’s glory days, has averaged 13.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game in April, but remains difficult to trade with two years and $60.2 million left on his contract.30. Houston RocketsAfter waiting 20 years to get his first head coaching job, Stephen Silas has endured the longest of rookie seasons. James Harden’s holdout, Russell Westbrook’s trade to Washington, six roller-coaster weeks coaching Harden, Harden’s trade to the Nets — and all of that followed by copious amounts of losing, injuries and scrutiny. The indignity of it all: Houston loses its top draft pick to Oklahoma City if it falls outside the top four of the draft lottery. More

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      Anthony Edwards Will Dunk on You. And Beat You in Ping-Pong?

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      The Minnesota Timberwolves are not good this season. But Edwards, their rookie No. 1 draft pick? He is giving fans many reasons to watch (and listen).As a senior at Holy Spirit Preparatory School in Atlanta, Anthony Edwards commuted about an hour each way from his home in the southern reaches of the city. In addition to the geographical distance, the challenge was that he had no reliable mode of transportation. So he would lean on friends, family members, neighbors and coaches to ferry him back and forth. They wanted to help.“People just enjoyed being around him,” said Tysor Anderson, Edwards’s coach at Holy Spirit, who was among those who gave him occasional rides.Anderson, though, was more impressed that Edwards somehow made it work — that he was resourceful enough to find his way to school each morning. “He figured it out,” Anderson said.Edwards’s ability to figure things out is a skill that he has been working to apply this season as a first-year shooting guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves, a longtime fixer-upper franchise. As the top overall pick in last year’s N.B.A. draft, Edwards, 19, has been the center of attention for a struggling team, offering the Timberwolves’ fans some hope for the future.Glimpses of that future have come in the form of a 42-point performance against the Phoenix Suns and highlight-reel plays, including a dunk against the Toronto Raptors that was so explosive Edwards immediately peered toward the Jumbotron above center court so that he could watch a replay.“I was like, ‘Damn, that’s crazy,’” he said.Edwards, who appears to be 6 feet 4 inches and 225 pounds of tightly coiled springs, is averaging 18.3 points and 4.3 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who are 16-44 ahead of their game against the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.Edwards has come to be seen as an interesting character off the court as well.Steph Chambers/Getty ImagesEdwards has already revealed himself to be one of the league’s more engaging personalities, a player who has managed to elevate humdrum, pandemic-era video conference calls to high art. There was an interaction with an Irish reporter that went viral after his accent drew admiration from Edwards — “I want to learn how to talk like that,” he said — and, more recently, the rookie’s introduction to Alex Rodriguez, who is nearing a deal to become one of the Timberwolves’ new owners.“I don’t know who that is,” Edwards said in a call with reporters this month.Edwards has since familiarized himself with Rodriguez’s body of work (he used to play baseball), and they even had an exchange on social media.“He was like: ‘What’s up, Anthony? I’m Alex,’” Edwards said. “And I was like, ‘What’s good?’”There are also moments when Edwards sounds like the most confident person on the planet. He is convinced, for example, that he could have played professional baseball. Or football, for that matter. (Once upon a time, he said, he was the best 10-year-old running back “in the world.”) Mere months into his career in amateur table tennis, he considers himself the best player on the Timberwolves. He would like to get involved in the rap game — as a producer and a performer, because why not?“I love music,” he said with a disarming smile.In a way, Edwards seems unaffected by the pressure that comes with being a top pick who will go a long way toward dictating the future of an N.B.A. franchise. And those who know him best say that his temperament makes him uniquely equipped for the role.“I’ve always been struck by how effortlessly himself he is,” said Anderson, now an assistant coach at Jacksonville State. “He laughs. He talks. If he has questions, he asks. If he has an opinion, he opines. And if he doesn’t know about something, he won’t pretend that he does.”Edwards during his career-high 42-point performance against the Suns.Michael Gonzales/NBAE, via Getty ImagesIt has not been an easy season for N.B.A. rookies. Summer league was canceled because of the pandemic, and training camp was abridged. Now the schedule of games is compressed. Timberwolves Coach Chris Finch, who replaced Ryan Saunders on Feb. 22, said that he had been able to organize about a half-dozen practices since he took over and that half of those had been walk-throughs without much on-court activity.In other words, Edwards is learning on the fly against a buffet of far more experienced opponents. Finch, though, has found him to be highly coachable — perhaps too coachable at times.A few weeks ago, Finch stressed to his players that he wanted them to “play through” Karl-Anthony Towns, the team’s starting center and another former No. 1 overall pick. Edwards took the message to heart.“He kind of went through this period where he wasn’t aggressive at all because he was just trying to get the ball to KAT all the time,” Finch said, referring to Towns by his nickname.Edwards, though, is still a teenager who is not all that far removed from Holy Spirit, where he established himself as a star. Shortly after Anderson was hired by the school in 2018, Edwards attended the Pangos All-American Camp in California and made an impression.“Just destroyed everybody,” Anderson said.Edwards was soon on his way to another elite summer showcase, the National Basketball Players Association’s Top 100 Camp, and Anderson knew he had to be there — if only so he could actually meet Edwards. He wanted to make sure that Edwards did not transfer to another high school before the start of his junior season. But the camp was a tough ticket. Anderson called his grandfather, the longtime college coach Lefty Driesell, who had connections.Edwards while he played for Holy Spirit Prep.Gregory Payan/Associated Press“Granddad,” Anderson recalled telling him, “I don’t ask you for much, but I’ve got to get in the building.”Driesell delivered, and Anderson took Edwards to dinner, where they bonded over a conversation about the video game Fortnite. Anderson soon learned more about Edwards and the hardships he had experienced. When Edwards was 14, his mother, Yvette, and his grandmother Shirley both died of cancer. They were enormous figures in his life.“They made me happy,” Edwards said. “So I just try to stay happy.”Edwards wound up staying at Holy Spirit, but only for a season. He was so dominant that he reclassified as a senior so that he could graduate early and enroll at Georgia.“You didn’t have to be a genius to watch one of his games and figure out that this guy didn’t need any more high school basketball,” Anderson said. “He barely needed college basketball.”With the Timberwolves, Edwards has discovered that each game presents a fresh challenge. The N.B.A. is not the N.C.A.A.’s Southeastern Conference.“Everybody on the court is good,” he said. “That’s the difference. Everybody can go.”After Finch got the job, he talked to Edwards about eliminating some of the low-percentage shots cluttering his games — the midrange pull-ups and the 3-pointers that he was launching off the dribble. Finch wanted him to get to the rim, seek contact and attempt more catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, because he was already making a solid percentage of those.“We wanted him to be more efficient,” Finch said. “So much about being a good shooter is getting rid of the bad shots.”Timberwolves Coach Chris Finch has been trying to help Edwards become a more efficient scorer.Stacy Bengs/Associated PressEdwards feels more comfortable now than he did through the first few months of the season, when rookies “don’t know anything,” he said, and his production reflects it. Since the N.B.A. All-Star break in March, Edwards has averaged 23.3 points while shooting 43.5 percent from the field and 34.5 percent from 3-point range — solid numbers that reflect improvement over the season and still show room for development.For his part, Edwards said he did not have specific goals other than to “be the best version of myself.” And what does that look like? “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m just 19.” More

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      James Harden's Injury May Keep Him Sidelined Until Playoffs

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      A healthy Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have barely played together for the Nets.After a setback for the star guard James Harden in his recovery from a hamstring injury, Nets Coach Steve Nash made the painful admission on Tuesday night that Harden might be sidelined until the start of the N.B.A. postseason next month.The Nets have had a healthy Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving all on the court for just 186 minutes this season across seven games since acquiring Harden from the Houston Rockets in a Jan. 14 trade. Even if Harden can come back before the Nets complete their 14 remaining regular-season games, they will be chasing the first championship in the franchise’s N.B.A. history with less on-court time together for their three stars than any team of recent vintage regarded a title contender.“He’ll be back when he’s back,” Nash said. “That may not be until the playoffs. It may be sooner. I don’t know.”Harden is one of the N.B.A.’s most durable players and played some of the best all-around basketball of his career in his first three months as a Net before missing the Nets’ first two games in April with a strained right hamstring. He has missed nine of the Nets’ last 10 games; missing seven games with Houston during the 2017-18 season was the previous longest absence of Harden’s career. Before their 134-129 victory on Tuesday night in New Orleans, the Nets announced that Harden had suffered a setback during an off-court rehabilitation session on Monday that will keep him out indefinitely.“He just felt it,” Nash said. “He didn’t fall or stumble or anything out of the ordinary. He just felt something maybe in the ballpark of a strain. Then the scan revealed he did suffer a setback. So not much more to it other than just disappointment and that we have to rebuild and get him going again.”Durant also missed the New Orleans game as he recovers from a thigh contusion he sustained in Miami on Sunday when he absorbed a knee from the Heat’s Trevor Aria. Durant only recently returned to the lineup after missing 23 games with a hamstring strain of his own that brought an abrupt end to his hot start this season in a comeback from the torn right Achilles’ tendon that cost him all of last season.After scoring 32 points in the victory over the Pelicans, Irving acknowledged the growing possibility that the “reps” he said he hoped to get alongside Durant and Harden before the playoffs begin may not materialize. “If we’re not able to get that, then we’ll have to figure it out,” Irving said. He added that “it’s not easy to just take games off and come back in — for anyone.”Harden last played on April 5, when he left a victory over the Knicks after logging just four minutes. He is averaging 25.2 points, 8.0 rebounds and 10.9 assists as a Net. Durant is averaging 27.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists but has played in only 24 of the Nets’ 58 games.The Nets were also rocked last week by the sudden retirement of LaMarcus Aldridge, a recent signee and seven-time N.B.A. All-Star. In his 15th season and after just five games with the Nets, Aldridge decided to leave the sport immediately because of an irregular heartbeat.The New York Times reported on Monday that the Nets are in advanced contract talks with the former Phoenix and New Orleans guard Mike James, with a signing expected by week’s end after James satisfies the league’s Covid-19 testing requirements based on its health and safety protocols. After a tumultuous season with CSKA Moscow in Russia, James was recently released from his contract to pursue N.B.A. opportunities. More

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      Nobody Saw the Knicks Coming

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      Behind Julius Randle, the Knicks have become one of the N.B.A.’s most surprising — and best defensive — teams. Kristaps Porzingis, who?If the Knicks had known how well Julius Randle would play for Coach Tom Thibodeau, presumably they would not have selected Obi Toppin, who essentially plays the same position, with the eighth overall pick in November’s N.B.A. draft.If Knicks fans had known what Randle would become in his second season in New York, maybe they would not have despaired to such extremes when Kristaps Porzingis was traded to Dallas in January 2019.If anyone had known Randle could transform himself from a career 29.5 percent shooter from 3-point range into a 40.5 percent shooter this season, and dared to say so, chances are such bold souls would not have been believed. Randle’s improvement from deep, after all, is the most significant midcareer increase in long-distance shooting proficiency in league history.You can look it up: Randle is on pace to become the first N.B.A. player to enter a season with a 3-point success rate below 30 percent (on more than 500 attempts) and then shoot 40 percent or better on 3s (with a minimum of 150 attempts), according to research from the noted statistical expert Justin Kubatko.“The big thing is, when he added the 3-point shot,” Thibodeau said last week, “that just opened up everything else.”Thibodeau was referring to Randle’s game, but he might as well have been talking about the entire franchise. Ignited by Randle’s improvement, the Knicks are having the kind of enjoyable season that so many teams, even with better records, have not had because of pandemic challenges and injury woes.It’s a season that, based on pretty much any reputable projection in December, was supposed to end with, at best, 25 wins for the Knicks. After Tuesday’s victory over Charlotte, they are 32-27 and hold a seven-game winning streak that ranks as the N.B.A.’s longest active unbeaten run. The Nets are New York’s championship contenders, but the Knicks — the city’s true basketball love — appear headed, at worst, for a spot in the playoff play-in round after missing the postseason for seven consecutive years.The Knicks, largely at Thibodeau’s urging, chased Gordon Hayward in free agency, when the gruff new coach wasn’t sure that his team had a foundational player. Hayward chose to sign with the Hornets, who were willing to go to a financial level ($120 million over four years) that Thibodeau’s bosses deemed too rich, given Hayward’s age and injury history. Randle soon illustrated that the roster wasn’t nearly as barren as feared.“The biggest thing is Ju is setting the tempo every night with putting pressure on the rim, putting pressure on the defense, and we’re trying to play around him,” said Derrick Rose, the former All-Star acquired by the Knicks from Detroit in February to bolster the bench.In March, Randle became the Knicks’ only current All-Star when he was named to the team for the first time. As of Monday, 58 games into the 72-game schedule, he had played in 57 and was averaging 23.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and 6.1 assists, while shooting that 40.5 percent from 3-point range. Those offensive numbers have been matched or exceeded by only one player this season — Denver’s Nikola Jokic, a favorite for the Most Valuable Player Award — and only one player reached them before this season: Larry Bird in 1984-85, one of three M.V.P. seasons for the Boston Celtics star.After four consecutive 30-point games, something no other Knick had managed since Carmelo Anthony in 2014, Randle on Monday was named the N.B.A.’s player of the week in the Eastern Conference. Yet it was Friday’s masterpiece in Dallas, Randle’s hometown, that gave the Knicks their most significant jolt of positivity since, well, who can even remember?Lined up against Porzingis, and a Mavericks team many thought had fleeced the Knicks in the Porzingis deal, Randle rumbled for 44 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists in the Knicks’ 117-109 victory. Perhaps it’s no accident that Randle had such a big game in his lone appearance of the season back home. The franchises and their fan bases have seemingly been locked in a staredown since the trade, constantly seeking validation that their team chose the right course. Dallas is also where Randle did most of his shooting and fitness work in the off-season.While performances like that can’t undo how little the Knicks got out of the Porzingis trade, Randle’s improved shooting and playmaking have allowed fans to stop dwelling on the aspects of the deal that didn’t work out. That means focusing on the two first-round draft picks that the Knicks received in the deal from Dallas, rather than Dennis Smith Jr.’s disappointing play until he was traded to Detroit for Rose — or how DeAndre Jordan, instead of helping to recruit Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to the Knicks, wound up joining them with the Nets.One season of strong 3-point shooting certainly doesn’t put Randle in the same sentence as Golden State’s Stephen Curry, but one thing Randle and Curry share is that they made the most of extended off-seasons after their teams failed to qualify to play at last summer’s N.B.A. restart at Walt Disney World. Curry told me in February that he’d had the most productive off-season of his career. The same holds for Randle, who recently described himself as “obsessive over” broadening his shooting range before this season.“He’s prepared himself for this,” Thibodeau said. “You can’t forget that.”This pairing of player and coach also turned out to be a better-than-anticipated match. Randle was regarded for years as a major defensive liability but has responded the hard-driving Thibodeau’s prodding with more engaged defense. For all the skepticism about Thibodeau’s ability to nurture a younger team, the Knicks awoke Tuesday with the league’s third-best defense.Thibodeau, as a result, is up there with Phoenix’s Monty Williams and Utah’s Quin Snyder as a contender to be named coach of the year, while Randle is a favorite for the Most Improved Player award — and a potential All-N.B.A. selection.I must reiterate that I still find it jarring to see Randle wearing No. 30, which the Knicks should have retired long ago in tribute to Bernard King. Full disclosure: King was my favorite player throughout high school, but he also won an N.B.A. scoring title in 1984-85 and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. Those achievements trump any suggestion that he wasn’t in New York long enough for his number to hang in the Madison Square Garden rafters.I called King on Tuesday to get his view. “It’s always strange for me, just a little bit, when I see No. 30 running up and down the court,” he said, but added that he is a Randle admirer who watches every Knicks game he can from his home in Atlanta.“I’m a Knick,” King said.For those of us who have lost hope that the Knicks will ever remove those digits from circulation in King’s honor, there is a hint of consolation in the knowledge that Randle, the fourth player to wear No. 30 since King left the Knicks for Washington in 1987, is the first to perform at a level reminiscent of King.What it says on the front of the jersey apparently means just as much to Randle, too.“I’m damn proud to be a Knick,” Randle wrote in March in an essay for The Players’ Tribune.The Scoop @TheSteinLineCorner ThreeA reader said that he was a fan of Julius Erving (6) in the 1970s and that “nobody I’ve ever watched since has recreated that kind of excitement and electricity.”Associated PressYou ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I’ll field three questions posed via email at marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you’re writing in from, and make sure “Corner Three” is in the subject line.(Questions may be condensed or slightly edited for clarity.)Q: Knowing your fondness for both basketball and soccer, what was your perspective on the proposed European Super League? The idea that there would be reserved slots in a breakaway soccer league for 12 to 15 founding clubs and a few rotating slots set aside for qualifying teams looks very much like the current EuroLeague basketball setup. Why is this format deemed OK in basketball but not soccer? — Stew Levine (Plano, Texas)Stein: If European basketball had all the best players in the world, as do the elite teams in European soccer that wanted to break away from UEFA and form their own version of the Champions League, there would be a similarly raucous outcry about the EuroLeague template. EuroLeague basketball doesn’t have anywhere near the same mass following as soccer’s Champions League because the best basketball players in the world are overwhelmingly in the N.B.A.Yet it’s great that you brought up the EuroLeague, because the link here wasn’t being mentioned enough. Many in Europe described the Super League proposal as a desire among the owners of the 12 breakaway clubs in England, Spain and Italy to adopt an American major league sports model, at least in part because of the influence of American owners in the group who also own N.F.L., N.B.A. and Major League Baseball franchises. Another handy way of looking at it was that they wanted to adopt a EuroLeague basketball approach, in which Europe’s traditional powers were essentially assured of staying in the league no matter how they fared in their domestic leagues, with elements of the American franchise system mixed in.Owners of the richest soccer clubs abroad surely envy many things when they compare the Champions League to the N.B.A. or the N.F.L. They want a league that their teams don’t have to qualify for every season, that carries no threat of relegation, and that has the most high-profile clubs playing each other more often — all to collect more television and commercial revenue without having to share as much as they do now. Even though their ambitions swiftly unraveled this week, I think we can safely presume that they would prefer the EuroLeague structure, which still falls under FIBA’s jurisdiction, over fully embracing the N.B.A.’s template.To truly adopt the American model for major league team sports would mean signing up for a salary cap (with luxury-tax penalties) and, if not some sort of draft procedure, likely a league office headed by an independent commissioner to keep order. The teams at the heart of the Super League proposal don’t have to deal with any of that now and are presumably prepared to go only so far in reinventing themselves.Also: There is an interesting N.B.A. footnote to all of this. Leading up to the Champions League final, I wrote this piece in May 2019 about the N.B.A.’s growing interest in working a soccer-style cup competition into the middle of its regular-season schedule. The N.B.A.’s thinking: Adding an extra trophy for teams to chase might give the 82-game regular-season grind more meaning and excitement.Financial distress for even soccer’s richest clubs because of the pandemic was certainly a factor in the Super League proposal, but I can’t say I expected the Champions League’s existence to be challenged so overtly before the N.B.A. could launch its experiment.Q: He’s still playing? What is he, like, 50? — @BoltBill from TwitterStein: I’ve been getting this question a lot since I reported on Monday that the Nets were in advanced talks to sign Mike James, the former Phoenix and New Orleans guard.This is the Mike James, 30, who played briefly in the N.B.A. during the 2017-18 season, spent much of the past two seasons at CSKA Moscow in Russia and has mostly played overseas since turning professional in 2014-15.The Mike James you referred to in your question is 45, last appeared in the N.B.A. in the 2013-14 season and played on 11 different teams, including two stints each with Houston and Chicago.Q: My N.B.A. fandom started in Southern California when my parents amazingly got a television for my brother’s and my bedroom in 1968. Wilt Chamberlain had joined the Lakers, Jerry West was the resident star and I was hooked. Then in 1976, I lived for three months in Park Slope in Brooklyn in a rent-controlled apartment. One of the residents on our floor had the Nets’ games on local television and a bunch of us would crowd into the apartment to watch games.I vividly remember that, at least once a game, Julius Erving would do something unexpected and breathtaking. Nobody I’ve ever watched since has recreated that kind of excitement and electricity. As good as Dr. J was in the N.B.A. with Philadelphia, it doesn’t compare to how good he was as a Net in the A.B.A. The next tier for me would be Connie Hawkins, Vince Carter and Zion Williamson, but Erving was at a different level. — Richard NeumanStein: Sometimes a nostalgic story is as good as an insightful question. I think we’ve established by now how much I love to reminisce about the 1970s and 1980s N.B.A., so thanks for sending this in.Talk about the 1970s Nets has picked up in recent weeks given the team’s emerging status as championship contenders and the fast-approaching 45th anniversary of the Nets’ last A.B.A. game on May 13, 1976.Allow me to refer you to this wonderful recent piece from my colleague Harvey Araton, the retired New York Times columnist, on how some of the principles from the Nets’ glory days (Kevin Loughery, Rod Thorn and Dr. J himself) still wonder about what might have been if the Nets hadn’t sold the rights to Erving to fund their move into the N.B.A. in 1976.Numbers GameBernard King won the league’s scoring title in the 1984-85 season.Larry C. Morris30The four players to wear No. 30 for the Knicks since Bernard King left the franchise in 1987 are Frank Williams (2003-4), Earl Barron (2010), John Jenkins (2019) and Julius Randle, starting in the 2019-20 season.19,951LaMarcus Aldridge, who abruptly announced his retirement last week because of a heart condition, was drafted in 2006. Since that draft, Aldridge and LeBron James are the only two players to record at least 19,000 points and 8,000 rebounds. With 19,951 career points, Aldridge was 49 shy of 20,000 when he walked away.12One of the most notable achievements in Aldridge’s N.B.A. career was not statistical: He was the most coveted player in the N.B.A.’s 2015 free-agent class and lured San Antonio back to the marketplace after Coach Gregg Popovich — foiled in his attempt to persuade Jason Kidd to leave the Nets in July 2003 — had essentially sworn off competing for top free agents for more than a decade.42When he scored 42 points in a recent loss to Utah, Luguentz Dort became the first Oklahoma City player to reach the 40-point plateau before his 22nd birthday since Kevin Durant, who did it 12 times in his first three seasons with the Thunder franchise, including once as a rookie in Seattle. Dort, a noted defensive specialist, also hounded Utah’s Donovan Mitchell into a 7-for-16 shooting performance in the same game. Mitchell had averaged 40.5 points in his previous four games.39.1Golden State’s Stephen Curry entered Monday’s game at Philadelphia having averaged 39.1 points on 54.6 percent shooting over his previous 10 games. The last player to assemble a 10-game stretch that matched Curry in both categories was Chicago’s Michael Jordan, who averaged 39.4 points on 59.4 percent shooting over a 10-game stretch late in the 1989-90 season, according to Basketball Reference.Curry then scored 49 points in a victory over the 76ers on Monday and his April tear (nearly 41 points per game) has hiked his scoring average for the season up to a league-leading 31.4 points per game. Curry, who turned 33 in March, is on track to join Jordan on the short list of players to average at least 30 points per game for an entire season at age 32 or older.Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Send any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. 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      Kobe Bryant’s Nike Contract Expired. The Implications Are Complex.

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      The end of the deal has no analogue in basketball or sneaker history, opening a hole in the market as Bryant’s shoes have been used heavily by N.B.A. athletes and have seen high demand among the public since his death.The most popular shoes on the N.B.A. hardwood for the last several seasons were not the signature sneakers endorsed by the top active players, like Nike’s LeBron James or Adidas’s Damian Lillard. They were not the shoes endorsed by the man who practically invented the modern sneaker game, Michael Jordan.Instead they were Nike’s line of Kobe Bryant’s signature sneakers, which were worn by 103 players last season — about 20 percent of the league’s players — according to the sneaker website Baller Shoes DB. Many W.N.B.A. players, like the Seattle Storm’s Jewell Loyd, also wear Bryant’s signature sneakers.But soon those players will need to find new shoes, at least if they want to play in brand-new pairs. Nike confirmed Monday that its contract with the estate of Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash last year, expired last week.“Kobe Bryant was an important part of Nike’s deep connection to consumers,” a Nike spokesman, Josh Benedek, said in a statement. “He pushed us and made everyone around him better. Though our contractual relationship has ended, he remains a deeply loved member of the Nike family.”In the uncertainty over Bryant’s continued endorsement deal for basketball shoes and apparel, a number of issues collide: what professional basketball players wear on the court, the demand from consumers for Bryant merchandise and how a person’s name and image are used, even after their death.Nike has a short window in which it can continue selling the shoes and apparel featuring Bryant that it has already manufactured, but soon that merchandise will disappear from Nike’s website and store shelves.Switching shoe companies is not uncommon for top basketball players, whose sneaker contracts can pay tens of millions of dollars annually and rival or even exceed their N.B.A. contracts in value. Bryant signed with Adidas before he entered the N.B.A., in 1996, then signed with Nike in 2003 after his Adidas deal ended. Even as some major sponsors dropped Bryant when he was accused of sexual assault, Nike, which had signed Bryant shortly before he was arrested, stood by him.The current situation with Bryant’s estate has no analogue in basketball or sneaker history. Signature basketball shoes really only began to gain prominence in the late 1980s, and barely any N.B.A. superstars from that era or later have died, let alone at a young age like Bryant, who was 41.Different versions of Nike shoes were left at a mural honoring Bryant shortly after his death.Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York TimesThe closest comparisons are perhaps Chuck Taylor, the namesake of Converse’s famed Chuck Taylor All-Stars, whose shoes remain popular 50 years after his death, or Maya Moore, the W.N.B.A. star and Jordan Brand endorser, who has sat out the past few seasons to focus on social justice. But the strained analogies suggest the past provides little hint of what will happen next.Almost all N.B.A. players are endorsed by one sneaker company or another. But only a handful have lines of shoes named after them, fewer have popular lines that sell tens or hundreds of millions of dollars worth of merchandise annually and even fewer stay popular in retirement. In the 1990s, a handful of W.N.B.A. stars had shoe deals, including Sheryl Swoopes, who was the first female athlete to have a signature basketball sneaker.Nike clearly believed that Bryant’s appeal extended into retirement, signing him to a new five-year agreement on the day of his final N.B.A. game: April 13, 2016. Bryant played his final season in the Kobe 11s, the 11th edition of his sneaker line. After his retirement, Nike released a new line of sneakers styled as Kobe A.D., or anno Domini, the Latin phrase that means “in the year of the Lord.”Nike’s Jordan brand, and its continued release of Air Jordan sneakers, remains quite popular, but as everyday fashion shoes; N.B.A. players rarely wear Air Jordans during games these days. Bryant attempted to buck that trend in retirement, with Nike releasing Bryant “protro” shoes: retro Bryant shoes updated with modern professional performance features.While they were popular with basketball players, Bryant’s sneakers were not always the most popular off the court, worn with jeans or sweats.Before Bryant’s death, the market for his shoes was fairly niche, said Chad Jones, the co-founder of Another Lane, a marketplace for sneaker collectors. “Performance wise, a lot of performance athletes loved Kobe shoes, but fashion wise is really the predictor for how well it will sell to the masses,” Jones said.Nike did not sign Bryant to what is effectively a lifetime contract, like it has done with Jordan and James, raising questions about how much continued value it saw in his name. The Kobe shoes N.B.A. players wore were often limited editions or unique colors that average consumers could not buy, partly explaining why their popularity on the court did not necessarily translate to popularity on the street.Since Bryant’s death, Nike has released new Bryant merchandise, but mostly in limited quantities through its SNKRS app. The shoes have sold out almost immediately, and then showed up for much higher prices on resale markets, leading to accusations that Nike was allowing resellers to profit from Bryant’s death.“When people don’t get them on retail, but on a resale platform for five times or two times the price, they are upset,” Jones said.In a statement posted to Instagram on Monday night, Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s widow, wrote that she was “hoping to forge a lifelong partnership with Nike that reflects my husband’s legacy,” and hinted that she will find a way to continue to sell Bryant’s products, perhaps in greater quantities.Vanessa Bryant during the memorial for her husband, Kobe Bryant, and their daughter Gianna Bryant last February.Robert Hanashiro/USA Today Sports, via Reuters“My hope will always be to allow Kobe’s fans to get and wear his products,” she wrote. “Kobe’s products sell out in seconds. That says everything.”If Vanessa Bryant cannot come to an agreement with Nike on a new contract, building a new brand around Kobe could be a challenge. Nike, including brands it owns like Jordan Brand and Converse, controls more than half the sneaker market, with companies like Adidas and Puma as distant competitors. Under Armour, which is endorsed by Golden State’s Stephen Curry, has struggled to break through.Many sneakers are promoted through elaborate back stories about how the player inspired specific design details or guided the design process, and through player-focused advertising campaigns.But what really sells sneakers is players’ connection to culture, or the feelings they evoke in potential consumers, not necessarily winning N.B.A. championships or a shoe’s performance features. Allen Iverson’s rebellious, me-against-the-world persona made his “Answer” shoes from Reebok popular sellers in the 2000s, even though he never won an N.B.A. title.Bryant was not always a popular player, and his early shoes were not top sellers. Through repeated trips to China and success in the Olympics he found fame outside of America’s borders, and as he aged a generation of players entered an N.B.A. that revered him.If the year since his death has shown anything, it is that even into retirement Bryant’s popularity was growing as he made new connections in Hollywood, opened a sports academy and became a prominent and vocal supporter of women’s basketball. More