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      Looking for Aces Guard Jackie Young? She’s Probably in the Gym.

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      Young, set to start in her first W.N.B.A. All-Star Game, is known for her competitive drive. “She’s going to try to beat everyone,” one teammate said.Las Vegas Aces guard Jackie Young has met success at every level of basketball. She has a high school championship, an N.C.A.A. Division I title at Notre Dame, and last summer, she claimed Olympic gold in the first 3×3 competition. Now, as a first-time W.N.B.A. All-Star, Young, an Indiana native, has added another accolade en route to her ultimate goal.“Everyone wants a ring. I definitely want a ring,” Young said, adding, “We’ve been close each year.”Young is in her fourth W.N.B.A. season with Las Vegas and has made the playoffs each year, including a trip to the finals in 2020. The Aces selected her No. 1 overall in the 2019 draft.Young is one of the top defensive weapons on the Aces and is posting the best offensive numbers of her career, which helped her earn a place as a starter in her All-Star debut this weekend. The All-Star Game is Sunday in Chicago.When Young came to Las Vegas in 2019, it was her first major move away from Indiana. She was the middle child, and both her older brother, Terrence, and younger sister, Kiare, played basketball, too.Jackie attended Princeton Community High School where she tallied 3,268 career points for the girls’ basketball team, a record for the girls’ and boys’ teams. From Princeton, Young traveled about 300 miles northeast to play for Notre Dame.Young won an N.C.A.A. championship with the women’s basketball team at Notre Dame in 2018.Michael Caterina/South Bend Tribune, via Associated PressAs a sophomore, she dropped a game-high 32 points in the 2018 Final Four semifinal game against Connecticut. In the championship game against Mississippi State, Young hit the game-tying shot and came up with the steal that led to her teammate Arike Ogunbowale’s game-winning basket. Young played one more season with Notre Dame before entering the 2019 W.N.B.A. draft.“It was always a dream of mine to play in the W.N.B.A., and it came down to making a decision for my family. I knew I needed to help my family, and that’s what I’ve worked for my whole life,” Young said.She described her family as “close-knit” and said she had uncles and aunts around to help her mother, Linda Young. Her extended family shared housing sometimes to stay afloat financially. Jackie Young’s decision to leave Notre Dame meant less financial burden for her family.“​​My mom, a single mother, made a lot of sacrifices for me and my siblings,” Young said. “She definitely went without to make sure we have food on the table, clothes on our backs, and so I knew if I had the chance to leave early I was going to.”Young will make about $72,000 this season and more than $165,000 in each of the next two seasons until she is an unrestricted free agent in 2025, according to Her Hoop Stats.Her transition from college to the W.N.B.A. was swift.Notre Dame narrowly lost to Baylor by 1 point in the 2019 N.C.A.A. women’s basketball championship in Tampa, Fla. Three days later, Young was in New York City being announced as the first overall pick in the W.N.B.A. draft.Aces forward A’ja Wilson had a similar transition to the W.N.B.A. the year before, but with an added twist: The Aces transitioned, too, from being the San Antonio Stars. The franchise spent 15 seasons in Texas, then moved to Las Vegas as the Aces for Wilson’s first season.“When I got drafted, we were such a new franchise,” Wilson said. “I didn’t have a quote-unquote vet that kind of knew the ropes.”Wilson decided to embrace the chance to be a big sister to Young.“Jackie was kind of like our first rookie that we had,” she said. “We already were pretty much established, in a sense, so I wanted to make sure that I could be that vet that I didn’t have for her and answer all the questions that she needed, making sure that she was comfortable.”Young, right, finished her college career just three days before the Las Vegas Aces drafted her No. 1 overall in 2019.Julie Jacobson/Associated PressNow Young is a veteran, and she is held accountable when she’s asked to assert herself by other players or Aces Coach Becky Hammon.“I talked with Becky about this earlier in the season, just talking about my court awareness and seeing things before it happens,” Young said. She added: “I think that would help us along the way, too, me just being more vocal. I’m just working on that every day.”The work hasn’t gone unnoticed by Wilson, who won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2020.“Jackie is someone where she understands her assignment, 100 percent. She is a pro at what she does and watching that growth, it’s been incredible, honestly, to watch,” Wilson told reporters recently. She added: “She’s locked in no matter what, and she makes sure that others around her are doing the same.”Another challenge for Young is to also know when to shut off her competitive edge.“She’s someone who’s in the gym all the time. I’ve got to kick her out,” Hammon told reporters before a recent win over the Minnesota Lynx.“I literally tell her to go home and take the ball and put it on the rack,” she added.Hammon, who retired as a guard for the San Antonio Stars, said she believed Young was en route to being considered for the M.V.P. Award this season. She trusts Young with defending the best perimeter shooters every night.“I really take pride in that,” Young said. “I know how to get stops, and I have a big assignment each night. So I think everyone knows that on this team.”Aces forward A’ja Wilson, right, described Young, left, as “locked in no matter what.” Aces guard Kelsey Plum, second from right, said Young “wants to win everything.”Ellen Schmidt/Associated PressThe next level of Young’s game, as Hammon sees it, is to be more demanding on offense. That goes hand in hand with her growing into a confident communicator on the court — a floor general.“I want her to be an animal. That’s what I want,” Hammon said, adding, “I want her to understand that she can impact a game like that and demand that kind of attention offensively.”Offensively, Young is posting career numbers in points and steals per game while continuing her reliable defense. She averages about 17 points per game, more than 10 points per game above her average in her rookie season. Her 46.9 percent accuracy from 3-point range is among the best in the league entering the All-Star break.On Sunday, Young will not only appear in her first W.N.B.A. All-Star Game, but she will also start opposite her Las Vegas Aces teammates Wilson and Kelsey Plum.Will the fun festivities in Chicago be a chance for the hard-working Young to shift into a lower gear? Not likely.“I don’t think there’s such thing as less competitive for Jackie,” Plum said. “I think she’s going to do what she does.”This will also be Plum’s first All-Star appearance, and she is ready to take on Young. They were both set to compete in the skills competition on Saturday.“I know she’s going to try to beat everyone including me, you know,” Plum said. “That’s just who she is. She wants to win everything. And if she doesn’t win, someone cheated.” More

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      For Some NBA Draftees, Making it to the Pros Runs in the Family

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      Three of the top five picks in this year’s N.B.A. draft have parents who played professionally, including in the W.N.B.A.When the Houston Rockets selected Auburn’s Jabari Smith Jr. with the third pick of the N.B.A. draft on Thursday, it continued a tradition of basketball as a family inheritance.His father, also named Jabari Smith, played in the N.B.A. in the early 2000s.“My dad just told me it was time to amp it up a little bit, time to work even harder,” Jabari Smith Jr. said of his father’s reaction to the draft. “It’s a new level, whole new game. Just trying to get there and get to work.”For a cadre of N.B.A. players, having a parent or being related to someone who played in the N.B.A. or W.N.B.A. isn’t particularly unusual. And many players who aren’t related to someone who played professionally have parents who played college basketball.This past season, 30 second-generation players appeared in at least one N.B.A. game — a total that represents 5 percent of the league, and is nearly twice as many players as about two decades ago.Jabari Smith Jr., center, with his father, Jabari Smith, left, and mother, Taneskia Purnell, right.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesSmith was one of several players drafted this year whose father had N.B.A. experience. Among them was the University of Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis, whom the Washington Wizards picked at No. 10. His father is Mark Davis, who played in the N.B.A. briefly after the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted him in 1985. There was also Duke’s A.J. Griffin, picked at No. 16 by the Atlanta Hawks. His father is Adrian Griffin, who played in the N.B.A. from 1999 to 2008, and has since been an assistant coach in the N.B.A. The other was Colorado’s Jabari Walker, a late-second-round pick for the Portland Trail Blazers, the son of Samaki Walker, who played a decade in the N.B.A. and won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers.W.N.B.A. connections could also be found among top picks. Rhonda Smith-Banchero, the mother of the No. 1 pick, Paolo Banchero, played in the W.N.B.A. Banchero, who was drafted by the Orlando Magic, said his mother “stayed on me, always held me accountable and made sure I was on the right track.” The Detroit Pistons selected Purdue’s Jaden Ivey with the fifth pick. His mother, Niele Ivey, played in the W.N.B.A. and was a recent assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies. She’s now the coach of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team.“It’s actually an amazing story to have a mother who’s been in the league,” Jaden Ivey said. “You don’t see too many stories like that, and the bond that we have is special. I thank her for all the things that she’s done for me. I know I wouldn’t be on this stage, I wouldn’t be here, without her.”Niele Ivey, left, played college basketball at Notre Dame before her W.N.B.A. career. She’s now the head coach of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team.Photo by Vincent Laforet/The New York TimesSometimes the connection to professional basketball players isn’t parental. Midway through the first round, the Charlotte Hornets drafted Mark Williams out of Duke. His older sister Elizabeth Williams has been in the W.N.B.A. since 2015. In the second round, the Cavaliers picked Isaiah Mobley out of the University of Southern California, which will be convenient for family visits, as his brother, Evan Mobley, is already on the team. (Brothers are common in the N.B.A. See: the Lopezes, Antetokounmpos, Balls and Holidays.)In some cases, there were recognizable names who weren’t drafted but nonetheless received contracts. Scotty Pippen Jr., who played three seasons at Vanderbilt, is expected to sign a two-way contract with the Lakers. His father, Scottie Pippen, won six championships with the Chicago Bulls. Ron Harper Jr., a Rutgers alum whose father, Ron Harper, won three championships alongside Pippen, is expected to be offered a similar deal with the Toronto Raptors.But while the N.B.A.’s father-son connections were highlighted by this year’s draft class, the phenomenon is nothing new. Consider Golden State’s roster, which featured four second-generation players during the team’s championship run this year: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Gary Payton II.And some of their fathers were front and center.Each player has a family connection in professional basketball: For Paolo Banchero, left, it’s his mother; for Mark Williams, center, his sister; and for A.J. Griffin, right, his father.John Minchillo/Associated PressPaolo Banchero hugs his mother, Rhonda Smith-Banchero, who played in the W.N.B.A. Banchero was the No. 1 pick in the N.B.A. draft on Thursday.Arturo Holmes/Getty ImagesAs Payton got set to check into Game 2 of the N.B.A. finals against the Boston Celtics, he spotted his father, Gary Payton, a nine-time All-Star, sitting courtside with Detlef Schrempf, one of his former teammates. Father and son made eye contact — no words needed to be exchanged.“He just shook his head,” Gary Payton II said. “I know that means it’s time. You know, go to work.”And as the final seconds ticked away in Golden State’s championship-clinching win in Game 6, Curry embraced his father, Dell Curry, along one baseline. Stephen Curry broke down in tears.“I saw him and I lost it,” he said, adding, “I just wanted to take in the moment because it was that special.”In fact, the N.B.A. finals offered up a smorgasbord of generational talent. Among the Celtics: Al Horford, whose father, Tito Horford, played for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Washington Bullets, and Grant Williams, whose cousins, Salim and Damon Stoudamire, both played in the N.B.A. This season, Damon Stoudamire was able to keep a close eye on Williams as one of the Celtics’ assistants.Players and coaches have cited a number of factors in the steady, decades-long emergence of father-son pairings, starting with genetics: It obviously helps to be tall. But many sons of former players also benefited from early exposure to the game, from top-notch instruction from the time they could start dribbling and from various other perks. For example, Stephen Curry and his younger brother, Seth Curry, who now plays for the Nets, had access to a full-length court in their family’s backyard, complete with lights.But with certain privilege comes pressure — especially when you share a name with a famous father. Gary Payton II recalled how his father had learned to back off when it came to basketball so that his son could develop a passion for the game on his own. They simply stopped talking about hoops, and that has remained the case.“Nowadays, he really doesn’t say anything,” Gary Payton II said. “We just talk about life, family, other sports and whatnot.”But sometimes it can cause strains, like the one between Tim Hardaway Jr., a Dallas Mavericks guard, and his father, Tim Hardaway, a five-time All Star who played from 1989 to 2003. They have both publicly spoken about how their relationship was made more difficult as a result of how hard the elder Hardaway was on his son about the game.Scotty Pippen Jr., the son of the Chicago Bulls great, Scottie Pippen, was expected to sign a two-way deal with the Lakers after going undrafted.Mark Humphrey/Associated PressIt can also be a strain if your father is the coach, a situation that Austin Rivers was faced with when he played for his father, Doc Rivers, on the Los Angeles Clippers. Doc Rivers played in the league from 1983 to 1996 and is also an accomplished N.B.A. head coach. The younger Rivers called it “bittersweet.” Doc Rivers had his back as his father, but Austin Rivers told The Ringer that “everything else, man, was hell,” because it created an awkward dynamic with his teammates.A similar situation may repeat itself next season: The Knicks hired Rick Brunson, a former N.B.A. player, as an assistant coach and are expected to target his son, Jalen Brunson, one of the top free agents, as an off-season acquisition.Of course, it could work out just fine, as it did for Gary Payton. In the hours after Golden State won it all last week in Boston, he celebrated his son’s triumph by dancing through the hallways at TD Garden. More

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      From Tattoos to Malcolm X T-shirts, N.B.A. Hopefuls Talk Style

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      Three top draft prospects — Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams — explained their approach to fashion. “I feel like I don’t really miss when I put fits on,” Holmgren said.Paolo Banchero lifted the right sleeve of his black hooded sweatshirt to point out the green tattoo ink on his forearm. His long arms make up most of the 7-foot-1 wingspan that positioned him as one of the top prospects in the N.B.A. draft on Thursday, but they also tell a story.His right arm is packed with tattoos that depict crucial parts of his upbringing and make statements about his style: the Space Needle and the rest of the skyline of his hometown, Seattle, sit on his right shoulder; “19th and Spruce” is written on his inner biceps as a nod to the Boys and Girls Club where he began playing basketball; and on his inner forearm is the logo for his friend’s Seattle-based Skyblue Collective clothing brand, which he sports often and says is “a part of him.”Banchero has a tattoo on his right arm that reads “19th and Spruce,” a nod to the Boys and Girls Club in Seattle where he grew up playing basketball.Bob Donnan/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBanchero, 19, who led the Duke men’s basketball team to the Final Four this year, uses his tattoos and outfits as a form of self-expression, a subtle way of sending messages. At a pre-draft style event at a Brooklyn barbershop on Tuesday, he wore an all-black luxury designer outfit, which he said was tame compared to what he would put together on draft night.On Thursday, he wore a bright purple suit as the Orlando Magic selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.Banchero and many of the top players in the 2022 draft class already have a public persona, but it will be boosted immensely if an N.B.A. team signs them. While playing well and winning championships are paramount in how an N.B.A. player is perceived, style and image are a close second. After all, this is the league in which Los Angeles Lakers forward/center Anthony Davis made his unibrow a celebrity in its own right, even trademarking the phrase “Fear The Brow” in 2012.N.B.A. athletes have made it easy for fans to appreciate their fashion sense, turning their pregame entrances into their own version of the Met Gala. Fans on social media quickly share photos and videos from players’ 30-second walks to the locker rooms from cars or team buses at N.B.A. arenas. GQ magazine crowned Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the N.B.A.’s most stylish player of 2022, over Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, because “the guy cares about getting dressed.”Jalen Williams, a forward from Santa Clara University and a potential first-round pick in the draft, is looking forward to the pregame catwalk. On his cellphone, he has multiple search tabs open for different clothing brands. He laughed and pointed at Jaden Hardy from the G League Ignite, another potential 2022 draft pick, when he saw that they were wearing the same black sweatpants from the brand MNML at the event on Tuesday.Williams said he tried to balance being conscious about what he wore while having fun with his style, because he knew that he would be judged by his outfits and appearance. He incorporates clothing from less popular brands into his wardrobe to encourage those who may look up to him to be “comfortable in their own skin.”Jalen Williams said fashion was important to him — even in video games.Young Kwak/Associated PressWilliams at the N.B.A. draft on Thursday.Arturo Holmes/Getty Images“I think that’s the biggest thing that gets misunderstood in fashion,” Williams, 21, said. “You feel like you have to please whoever or look a certain way, but whatever you like is what you like.”Williams said he also tried to support small brands and promote social-justice issues through his clothing. He sported a jacket from Tattoo’d Cloth, which made custom embroidered jackets for some draft prospects, and tagged the brand in an Instagram story. On Juneteenth, he wore a shirt featuring Malcolm X, and he frequently wears different kinds of apparel supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. “I think as athletes, it’s important to inspire people and kind of spark a change and use our platform,” Williams said. “Sometimes, not even saying anything but wearing the clothes is really important.”Williams’s style goes beyond his outfits, too. As a high school sophomore, he decided to don a single braid while keeping the rest of his hair unbraided, hanging the braid at eye level. That has become a popular style in the N.B.A.“I’m not going to say I started it, but I might’ve started it,” he said jokingly.Fashion has long played a significant role in Williams’s life, back to his childhood when he began using the My Player mode in the N.B.A. 2K video game, in which users create players and can style them for hanging out in a virtual park. He is serious about the fashion choices of his My Player.“You can’t pull up to the park in brown and gray,” Williams said, mocking the generic outfit given to the created players. “No brown shirts!”The Oklahoma City Thunder selected Williams with the 12th pick in the draft on Thursday. He wore a dark pinstriped suit and large sunglasses with his famous single braid draped over them.Chet Holmgren, who is seven feet tall, said it was hard to find clothes that fit his long and lanky frame when he was younger.Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports, via ReutersHolmgren at the N.B.A. draft on Thursday.Arturo Holmes/Getty ImagesFor the seven-foot center Chet Holmgren, who played at Gonzaga and was expected to be a top-three pick on Thursday, being fashionable was a challenge growing up. He could never find clothes that fit his long and lanky frame, and he could not afford the custom-fitted outfits he adored. He ridiculed his most impressive childhood outfit: Nike socks, basic T-shirts, basketball shorts and basketball shoes. In high school, Holmgren said, his style skyrocketed as he turned to resale websites and brands that had clothes in the large-and-tall sizing. Now, he is confident that he is the most fashionable prospect in this draft class.“In my opinion, I’m the swaggiest dude beyond just what I am wearing,” Holmgren said. He further explained that fashion was about more than just the pieces a person was wearing.“You could spend $10,000 on an outfit, but you might have a trash outfit on,” he said. “You might have the right pieces, but if you can’t put them together, the outfit’s not going to be great.”Like Williams, Holmgren is looking forward to the N.B.A.’s pregame runway, and he isn’t apprehensive about his style choices.“I feel like I don’t really miss when I put fits on,” Holmgren said. “So whatever I’m wearing, I’ll be all right.”Holmgren was drafted second overall to the Oklahoma City Thunder. His diamond chain, which featured a pair of dice, shone in Barclays Center as he walked to the stage. He chose dice for his chain, he said, because he was “big on betting on himself.” More

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      N.B.A. Draft Preview: A Deep Field Could Yield Surprise Stars

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      Fans may have heard of Chet Holmgren and Shaedon Sharpe, but others are ready for their shot: “I knew if I got good enough, the N.B.A. would find me,” one said.When the Orlando Magic hand their draft card to N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver, on Thursday night at Barclays Center, they’ll settle a debate that has raged in draft circles for the better part of a year: Who should be the No. 1 pick?The front-runner is Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren, a rail-thin but nail-tough seven-footer who can shoot, dribble, pass and defend with aplomb. But there are equally strong cases to be made for the Auburn big man Jabari Smith, who spent this past season sinking seemingly impossible shots, and for Duke’s Paolo Banchero, a creative shotmaker who is as polished in the paint as he is on the perimeter.“All three guys are incredibly talented,” said Jonathan Givony, founder of the scouting service DraftExpress an N.B.A. draft analyst at ESPN. “This draft has really great players at the top and really good depth, too.”Here are five more prospects to know.Nikola Jovic doesn’t mind being compared to Nikola Jokic. After all, Jokic is a two-time most valuable player, he said.Darko Vojinovic/Associated PressNikola Jovic6-foot-11, 223 pounds, forward, Mega Mozzart (Serbia)People ask Nikola Jovic about Nikola Jokic all the time. And it makes sense. Jovic and the Denver Nuggets star have quite a bit in common: They’re both Serbian big men who played for the same club, Mega Mozzart, and only a single letter separates their last names. But the comparison doesn’t bother Jovic, who is expected to be the first international player taken on Thursday.“People bring that up all the time,” he said. “I’m really cool with that. I think it’s pretty funny also because the chances of something like that happening are really low. At the same time, I feel good because people are comparing me to a two-time league M.V.P.”As a boy, Jovic wanted to be a professional water polo player. He spent his summers with his mother in Montenegro and loved swimming in the Adriatic Sea. When he was 13, his father introduced him to basketball. What started as a backyard hobby soon became an obsession and a profession. “I was getting bigger and bigger,” Jovic said, “and it was pretty easy to see that basketball would be a better choice than water polo.”Although many N.B.A. teams track European stars from their early teenage years, Jovic didn’t become a big name on draft boards until he broke out at the Adidas Next Generation Tournament in Belgrade in March 2021. Offensively, he could develop into a floor-spacing 4 who can shoot 3s, lead fast breaks and make smart passes. He said he is willing to remain in Europe after being drafted, but he hopes to land with a team that wants him to play right away.“Even if I need to play in the G League, that’s cool,” he said, referring to the N.B.A.’s developmental league. “But right now, I think the perfect fit for me is the N.B.A.”Dominick Barlow has gone from overlooked three-star prospect to a potential first-round pick.Kyle Hess/Overtime Elite, via Associated PressDominick Barlow6-foot-9, 221 pounds, forward, Overtime EliteWhen N.B.A. evaluators visited Overtime Elite this year, it was with an eye toward the future. The start-up league has potential top-10 players in the 2023 and 2024 drafts. But one player from the 2022 draft class took advantage of all that extra scouting attention and has worked his way from being an unheralded 3-star high school prospect to a potential first-round draft pick: Dominick Barlow.“The fact that this was OTE’s first year intrigued scouts,” Barlow, 19, said. “And once the scouts were in the building, they were able to see what I could do.”Barlow played for Dumont High School, a small public high school in Dumont, N.J. He didn’t land with a powerhouse Amateur Athletic Union program until the summer before his senior year, when a coach for the New York Renaissance spotted him playing at a public park. He surprised most basketball insiders in September when he left a prep program and declined several high-major offers to sign with Overtime Elite. It offers a six-figure salary to boys’ and men’s basketball players who are at least in their junior year of high school.Barlow hopes his story inspires other overlooked players to keep working. “I came in as a 3-star kid, and I’m leaving as an N.B.A. draft pick. Some 5-star kids struggle with getting to the N.B.A. one year after high school,” he said.Keegan Murray, who played for Iowa, was described as the “most productive player in college basketball this year.”Frank Franklin Ii/Associated PressKeegan Murray6-foot-8, 225 pounds, forward, IowaWhen Keegan and Kris Murray were going through the recruiting process for college basketball, the twin brothers told every coach that they weren’t a package deal. Their father, Kenyon, had played college basketball at Iowa in the early 1990s, and he encouraged them to each find their own path.Their father’s faith and knowledge helped the brothers remain buoyant even when they ended their high school careers with just one scholarship offer, to Western Illinois, a Summit League school that has never been to the Division I N.C.A.A. tournament.“Having a D-I player be your coach and teach you everything and guide you through the recruiting process is really helpful,” Keegan, 21, said of his father, who was an assistant on his high school team in Iowa. “He told us we were going to be pros, and we believed him.”After declining the Western Illinois offer and decamping to Florida for a year at a prep school, Keegan and Kris signed with their father’s alma mater, Iowa. Keegan showed remarkable efficiency as a freshman and started garnering N.B.A. draft buzz, but he wasn’t considered a top-flight talent until this past season. As a sophomore, Murray was the top scorer among Power 5 conference players, he had the second most rebounds in the Big Ten, and he shot 55.4 percent from the field and a solid 39.8 percent from 3.“He was the most productive player in college basketball this year,” Givony said, adding that he was good in transition and on defense. “Everybody’s looking for a player like him.”Keegan is projected to be a top-five pick, while Kris has decided to return to Iowa for another season. “Thinking about where I was three years ago and where I am today is surreal,” Keegan said. “I didn’t always know where or when all this hard work would pay off, but I knew it would pay off eventually.”Ryan Rollins, in blue, who played for the University of Toledo, is looking to follow the path of other mid-major players, like Ja Morant, to the N.B.A.Al Goldis/Associated PressRyan Rollins6-foot-3, 179 pounds, guard, ToledoRyan Rollins has heard people say that he should have returned to the University of Toledo for his junior season. With another year of experience, he would project as a likely first-round pick in 2023. But Rollins rejects that idea. He doesn’t see any reason to wait.“I feel like I’m one of the better players in the draft,” Rollins said. “If I don’t get picked first round, that’s fine. In the long run, I’m going to be very good for a very long time in this league. Whenever and wherever I end up going, I’ll be proud to be there.”A Detroit native, Rollins played for a prominent A.A.U. program, the Family. But the stacked roster, combined with some nagging injuries and his decision to commit to college early, kept him under the recruiting radar. “I always had the mind-set that I was where I was for a reason,” he said. “I kept working, kept trying to perfect my craft. I didn’t worry about the politics of basketball. I knew if I got good enough, the N.B.A. would find me.”Over two seasons at Toledo, he emerged as a mid-major showstopper, with a smooth handle, fluid footwork and a deadly midrange game. Now he’s likely to be a second-round pick with the potential to sneak into the first round. But he’s more worried about what he does when he arrives in the N.B.A. He hopes he can be the next mid-major player to become a superstar.He’s inspired by former mid-major players who are in the N.B.A., such as Ja Morant (Murray State), Damian Lillard (Weber State) and CJ McCollum (Lehigh University).“They went to small schools but have been able to make names for themselves,” Rollins said. “I feel like I’m next.”Shaedon Sharpe is expected to be a top-10 pick, even though he hasn’t played competitively in almost a year.Todd Kirkland/Getty ImagesShaedon Sharpe6-foot-5, 198 pounds, guard, KentuckyThere is no player more mysterious in the 2022 draft than Shaedon Sharpe. Although he’s listed as a Kentucky prospect, Sharpe never suited up for the Wildcats. In fact, he hasn’t played in a competitive basketball game in almost a year.The Ontario, Canada, native moved to Kansas to play for Sunrise Christian Academy in his sophomore year of high school, then transferred to Arizona’s Dream City Christian in 2020 for his junior season, when he was unranked in the class of 2022. Then a dominant performance with the UPlay Canada team in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League last summer made everyone take notice. The tournament is often a proving ground for future N.B.A. stars, and Sharpe averaged 22.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 28.3 minutes per game over 12 games.Sharpe graduated from high school a year early and enrolled at Kentucky this spring. Although there were rumors that he would join the team on the court, or return for the 2022-23 season, he has instead entered the N.B.A. draft. And there’s good reason: He will almost certainly be taken in the top 10.“In terms of physical ability and sheer talent, it’s all there,” Givony said. “He’s a dynamic shot maker, an aggressive defender, a smart passer.”N.B.A. teams haven’t been able to see much from him, but his 6-foot-11 wingspan, explosive athleticism and polished shooting stroke could have most N.B.A. teams outside of the top five ready to take the risk. More

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      He Saw. He Believed. Now He Can Be an N.B.A. Star.

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      MIAMI — The training drill is named after LeBron James. Most people would be better off if they just let him do it.Dribble a basketball while sprinting full court. Dunk it. Rebound. No time to catch your breath. Turn around and do it again.Ten times.Is that how to spend a morning in Miami?Mark Williams walked into a gym tucked beside the bustling Interstate 95 in the Overtown neighborhood of Miami on a recent Thursday. The glowing lights of the gym were a poor substitute for the sunny skies in South Beach, where he could have been instead. But when you’re trying to make it to the N.B.A., some things have to wait.He sat on the first row of bleachers inside the gym and exchanged his slides for splashy Nikes — a little blue, a burst of purple, a lot of neon orange. He wrangled the shoelaces and made his way to a video room, slipping his 7-foot-2 frame through the doorway. Williams, 20, is tall enough to touch a basketball rim just by shifting onto his toes.He joined a handful of N.B.A. hopefuls to watch video of a pre-draft workout by the Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo from several years ago. The message? While Adebayo, now an All-Star and all-defensive team member, did not sink every one of his shots, his energy never wavered.Williams got the message.Williams is best known for his rim protection skills, but he’s been working on his shooting.Mary Beth Koeth for The New York TimesBaseline, sprint, dunk. Baseline, sprint, dunk. His black T-shirt and black shorts didn’t show it, but his face couldn’t hide the sweat. The LeBron James drill seemed to exhaust him. But Williams had enough in his tank to display some of the jaw-dropping athleticism that has him pegged as a potential first-round draft pick. Standing at the baseline, he jumped, rotated the ball under his legs and slammed it into the hoop.N.B.A. prospects a generation ago were largely on their own after either declaring for the draft or exhausting their college eligibility. Their agents scheduled workouts with teams before the draft, and the players, often by themselves, flew out for the visit. They did not think of altering their diet or agonize about how to answer questions from N.B.A. personnel. They often trained for the auditions of their life by joining whatever pickup games they could find.But the best players in Williams’s generation have little downtime while dangling on the cliff between childhood and adulthood, amateurism and the N.B.A. Their Thursdays are spent training. Their Mondays and Fridays, too, are at the gym. The hopefuls who sign with the same agent — in Williams’s case, Jeff Schwartz at Excel Sports Management — can become a team of their own. They may live with one another, attending workouts, recovery sessions and media training all aimed at preparing them for those fateful auditions and the complicated life that awaits an N.B.A. star.It can be an anxious time, a monthslong Christmas Eve.“I think it’s just the uncertainty about where I’m going to be,” Williams said. “When I get there, got to find somewhere to live. I got to find a car. I’m going to have new teammates, so just building a relationship with them, coaches. Just not knowing what’s going to happen. I feel like I embrace the uncertainty. It’s not like I’m nervous, but I’d say that’s the biggest thing.“You don’t know what’s going to happen.”Williams thought about entering the N.B.A. draft after his freshman season at Duke, but “I just wanted to go back and really prove myself.”Mary Beth Koeth for The New York Times‘Places where people can’t see’Williams grew up in Norfolk, Va., the youngest of three children. His mother, Margaret, was a nurse, and his father, Alex, is a gastroenterologist. Mark went to golf camp as a child. He played tennis for a summer. He dominated flag football for a while. No sport held his imagination like basketball did.Mark was almost 10 years old and already nearing 6 feet tall when he started shadowing his older sister Elizabeth, who at 17 was a basketball star in Virginia. She trained with Nadine Domond, a former W.N.B.A. player, who is an assistant coach for Rutgers’ women’s basketball team. Domond indulged the curious younger brother by letting him box out and practice his footwork in the post.“I’d be messing around looking, and she would teach me little tips and tricks,” Mark said.Mark started to envision his own basketball future when he attended the McDonald’s All American Game for top high school players in Chicago in 2011. Elizabeth had been chosen for the girls’ team.Mark surveyed the tall, young players on the boys’ team and asked one of them — the future eight-time N.B.A. All-Star Anthony Davis — to sign his basketball. He considered the path players such as Davis were taking toward the N.B.A. That’s what he wanted to do, too.He enjoyed watching James, who was with the Big Three in Miami, and Kevin Durant, who was beginning to harness his talents as a deadly marksman in Oklahoma City. Both were dominant, multifaceted players who seemingly did everything possible on the court. But Williams had no local N.B.A. team to follow.He could expend most of his energy being Elizabeth’s biggest fan.Mark Williams blocked the shot of a Virginia Tech player during a game in March.Brad Penner/USA Today Sports, via ReutersElizabeth Williams blocked the shot of a Stony Brook player during a game in 2014.Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty ImagesElizabeth finished high school in Virginia and began her 2011-12 freshman season at Duke, where she became the program’s first four-time all-American. Mark was a vocal fixture at her games. “He was super loud,” Elizabeth said. “It didn’t bother me. I loved it.”Elizabeth had figured her brother would be tall. She is 6 feet 3 inches tall, and they have a couple of uncles who are around 6-foot-9. But Mark did not simply have a growth spurt — it really never stopped. “I like being tall,” Mark said. “It’s nice. You get to see over everything, places where people can’t see.”A rising basketball star needs that kind of vision, both physically and metaphorically. Williams became a McDonald’s all-American like his sister — although the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of the game — and he chose to play basketball at Duke, too. Elizabeth’s No. 1 jersey was retired at Cameron Indoor Stadium after the Connecticut Sun took her with the fourth overall pick in the 2015 W.N.B.A. draft. She’s in her eighth W.N.B.A. season, her first with the Washington Mystics. Mark has his sights set on that kind of professional path as well. But others don’t always see what we see.Williams debated declaring for the N.B.A. draft after his freshman season, but returned when he was pegged as a borderline first-round selection.“I just wanted to go back and really prove myself and make it not up for debate anymore,” Wiliams said.Williams is learning how to navigate the increased recognition that comes with playing high-stakes basketball.Al Drago for The New York TimesHe flashed dominance as a rim protector and rebounder as a sophomore and grew more confident with each game. By the time North Carolina outlasted Duke in a memorable Final Four appearance in early April, he had known for a while that he would be off to the N.B.A. “Throughout the year, I really felt like I could be a pro,” Williams said.‘Setting a tone’The voices of Kanye West, Drake and DJ Khaled blared through the speakers of Core Fitness Miami, but Williams was tuned in to Andy Luaces.Luaces owns the gym on Northeast 25th Street in the Edgewater neighborhood of Miami. It’s near a juice bar and is lined with framed jerseys of some of the professional athletes Luaces has trained, including Terry Rozier and John Wall. The space has fake grass, rows of weights and no room for messing around.“If I let people start to get away with half-ass reps, then you’re setting a tone for your gym that quality here doesn’t matter,” Luaces said.Williams watches film with other N.B.A. hopefuls. One video showed a yearsold predraft workout of the Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo.Mary Beth Koeth for The New York TimesFueled by a bagel sandwich and a smoothie, Williams was there with four other N.B.A. prospects for an afternoon workout after the morning drills at the Overtown gym several miles south.Williams tossed a football back and forth with Ousmane Dieng, a French prospect who last played for the New Zealand Breakers, a professional men’s team based in Auckland. Luaces gathered Williams, Dieng and three others for what he called a feel-good workout. For the next hour, the group cycled through exercises that targeted their hamstrings and glutes.They started working out with Luaces at his gym a couple of months earlier. At the time, most still had lingering aches and pains from their seasons in college or overseas. Luaces had hoped to help them become healthy, stronger and faster to make their bid for the N.B.A.Now, with team tryouts on the horizon, he steered the workouts toward preserving their progress.Luaces watched closely as Williams collapsed before finishing the final repetition on a Nordic hamstring exercise. He told Williams to do it again. Williams grimaced and complied, letting out a long exhale upon finishing.Getting ready for the N.B.A. involves plenty of weight lifting and basketball, but there is more. It’s about learning to find time for balance — Williams and the hopefuls took a trip to the beach — and deciding how to craft an image. Williams picked his draft-night suit earlier that week, debating how flashy he wanted to be and what accessories he wanted to wear. He went to an Eastern Conference finals game between the Boston Celtics and the Heat in downtown Miami the day before.“I saw A-Rod at the game last night,” Williams told Luaces, referring to the former Yankees star Alex Rodriguez.Some fans asked Williams for selfies at the game. His height has always made him noticeable, but he also has a quick smile. Now he stands out by name, especially after the Final Four run. Williams hopes he can stir some of the same inspiration in children that his 2011 run-in with Davis spurred in him.The best big men in the N.B.A. are able to dunk and shoot from outside.Mary Beth Koeth for The New York TimesHis oldest sister Victoria Oloyede has a 2-year-old son named Tristan. “He’s a lot of fun,” Williams said. “Being an uncle is fun.”Just before leaving the gym to spend an hour in physical therapy next door, Williams asked Luaces if he had a tape measure.Luaces found one in a drawer. Williams held out one long arm and asked Luaces to measure his wrist. He planned to buy a new bracelet soon.“I would go 8 ½ or 8 ¾,” Luaces said. “Are you a bracelet guy?”“He’s about to be,” Dieng chimed in.‘Something I never experienced’Williams returned to the Overtown gym for another hour of shooting to close the day’s sessions. The final workout was shorter and looser, designed to develop a shooting rhythm and confidence by seeing the ball repeatedly splash home.Andrew Moran, a skills coach who works with Williams, sees him as more than a dunker and rim protector and said that N.B.A. teams would be surprised by the fluidity and accuracy of his outside shot.Ten years ago, a 7-foot-2 center wouldn’t need to spend months working on 3-pointers. But the demands are different now. The best big men are shooters — Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Karl-Anthony Towns — so prospects want that edge.And in this enlightened era of load management, they also want to rest sometimes.Williams has been projected to be drafted in the middle-to-late first round. The N.B.A. invited him to attend the draft in person.Mary Beth Koeth for The New York TimesAfter dunking and sprinting and activating his glutes, Williams planned to spend the rest of the day recuperating, possibly starting on a new show. He recently finished “Ozark” on Netflix.“It was crazy,” he said of the show’s final season.He thinks about how he would fit on various N.B.A. teams, the combinations cycling through his mind. He is projected to be drafted in the mid-to-late first round. Williams said he didn’t care where he went.Elizabeth will be at Barclays Center for the draft on Thursday after getting permission from the Mystics to miss a game to attend with her parents and sister.Mark is ready. He can already see it. “I’m looking good in my suit, and then when Adam Silver calls my name, it’ll just be surreal,” Williams said, referring to the N.B.A. commissioner. “It’ll be, I don’t know. I can’t even put into words that feeling. It’ll just be something I never experienced. A life-changing moment.”On most evenings, Williams asks himself if he had a good day before drifting to sleep. Soon, he will be living the dream. More

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      Derrick White’s Celtics’ Run Has His Group Chat Going Crazy

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      There was lots of talk about “beautiful basketball,” said one friend of the Boston Celtics guard, who is competing — improbably — in the N.B.A. finals.SAN FRANCISCO — After his junior season at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Derrick White knew he needed to have a difficult conversation with Alex Welsh, his best friend and teammate. And Welsh, for his part, knew the conversation was coming, not that that made it any easier.It was the spring of 2015, and Welsh had become acutely aware that White was too good of a player for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference — at least one opposing coach had begun calling him “the R.M.A.C. LeBron” — and for Division II basketball. It was time for White to transfer in order to play against tougher competition.“I remember when he told me, and it was like he was super nervous,” Welsh said. “And he asked me, ‘Are you mad at me?’ And I was like: ‘No, I’m not mad. But I’m sad!’ ”The N.B.A. finals are cluttered with former lottery picks who long ago seemed bound for greatness. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, two of White’s teammates on the Boston Celtics, were can’t-miss stars coming out of high school. Golden State teammates Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry grew up watching their fathers play in the N.B.A.And there is White, a guard who was overlooked by Division I coaches coming out of high school and was offered only a preferred walk-on spot at U.C.C.S. because the team had run out of scholarships. His college debut was a 27-point loss in front of 211 fans in Winona, Minn., roughly speaking, about a billion miles from the N.B.A.But late bloomers can thrive, even on the glitziest of stages, and with Jay-Z and Barry Bonds sitting courtside, White made an immediate impact in the finals, scoring 21 points off the bench for the Celtics in their Game 1 victory over the Warriors on Thursday night.“He fits in so well with the rest of their personnel,” said Jeff Culver, the coach at U.C.C.S. “He scores when he needs to, and he plays just as well off the ball as he does with the ball.”Ahead of Game 2 on Sunday night, White’s friends from U.C.C.S. reflected on the old days, as White emerged from obscurity to become one of the most decorated Division II players in the country. There were early flashes of brilliance, said Alex Koehler, one of his former teammates.“We always knew he had a shot,” Koehler said. “But I didn’t know he would be this type of player.”White, playing at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in 2014.University of Colorado Colorado SpringsBefore arriving on campus, White joined several of his future teammates for a game in a pro-am league outside Denver. He showed up with chipmunk cheeks because his wisdom teeth had been removed that morning. He insisted on playing, Welsh said, and wound up scoring about 25 points. One of the referees made a point of getting in touch with Culver to pass along his scouting report.“Hey, your new guy has been the best player in the gym,” the referee told him.Culver needed clarification: Which new guy?“I didn’t know who he was talking about,” he said.Culver had every intention of redshirting White as a freshman so that he could add some bulk to his lanky frame. (He had had a late growth spurt.) Culver even emailed White’s father, Richard, to make sure they were on the same page. Without White, U.C.C.S. played in a preseason exhibition game against Northern Colorado, a Division I program, and got “spanked,” Welsh said. At the same time, it was becoming clear at practice that White was one of the team’s best players. Culver had a quick chat with Jeff Sweet, one of his assistants.“We can’t redshirt this kid,” Culver recalled telling him.By the time U.C.C.S. made the trip to Minnesota for its season opener against Bemidji State University, White was in the starting lineup. A crowd of dozens turned out to watch the Mountain Lions get drubbed. It was not the most auspicious start to a season. White shot 5 of 12 from the field and scored 14 points.U.C.C.S. went on to finish with a 5-21 record, losing seven games by three points or fewer. Many of the team’s narrow losses had a similar feel. White and Welsh would lead the way for 38 minutes, Culver said, then muck up the final two minutes by doing “dumb freshman things.” But their potential was enticing.“We just couldn’t finish,” Welsh said. “We were so young, and we didn’t have any experience, and we would crumble in crunchtime.”Yet, the season set the foundation for White’s rise. As a sophomore, he led the team to a 21-9 record and became the program’s first all-American selection. He christened his junior season by dunking over a newly arrived transfer at the team’s first practice, prompting Culver to blow his whistle — “That’s a wrap!” he yelled — before White could inflict any more psychological trauma on his teammates.“It was like a preview of what was to come,” Welsh said.Koehler recalled trying to defend White at practice that season.“It was a nightmare,” Koehler said. “He could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.”During games, Welsh said, he would set “100 ball screens” for White, who would dissect his defenders (plural) in a variety of ways, depending on how they were playing him. He could launch a 3-pointer, or drive to the basket, or find Welsh rolling for an open shot. So many open shots.“He made my life really easy,” Welsh said.Jeff Culver, White’s first college coach, intended to redshirt him his freshman year so he could bulk up, but White proved too talented for the bench.University of Colorado Colorado SpringsAs the Mountain Lions sailed to a 27-6 record, White’s mother, Colleen, supplied the team with freshly baked cookies for its road trips. In the first round of the N.C.A.A. Division II tournament that year, White collected 50 points, 14 rebounds and 8 assists in a win over the Colorado School of Mines.Having outgrown Division II basketball, White left to play his final season of his college eligibility at the University of Colorado Boulder. Welsh felt his absence on the court.“He would draw so much defensive attention,” Welsh said. “I remember texting him after a preseason tournament: ‘Dude, this is so much harder without you.’ ”Transfer rules meant White had to sit out for a season, and he spent months working to add weight. He set alarms on his phone so that he remembered to eat meals at odd hours. White was in attendance when Welsh broke U.C.C.S.’s record for career scoring. After the game, they posed together for a photograph, as White held a sign that Welsh’s family had made for the occasion: “NO. 25 IS MY HERO.”After a standout season at Colorado, White joined the San Antonio Spurs as the 29th pick in the 2017 draft, and soon developed into a rotation player. The Celtics traded for him in February.“Derrick is such a smart basketball player,” Tatum said. “He could fit in anywhere.”White is part of a group chat with eight of his former teammates from U.C.C.S. They sent each other enthusiastic texts during Thursday’s series opener. There was lots of talk about “beautiful basketball,” Koehler said. White was busy during the game, so he responded afterward by thanking his friends — “He usually says something like, ‘Y’all are crazy,’ ” Koehler said — and sending three fist-bump emojis.On Friday morning, he chatted via FaceTime for an hour with Welsh, who asked him about appearing on NBA TV’s postgame show with Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Smith and Grant Hill.“He was mad they put him in a short chair,” Welsh said.Culver said he was hoping to be in Boston for Game 3, while Welsh and his wife, Brooke, are planning to be in Boston for Game 4. Welsh’s dream of a Celtics sweep was still alive after the series opener.“He wants them to win so he can be in the parade,” Culver said.For White, it would be the latest step in an improbable journey. More

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      Bob Lanier, a Dominant Center of the 1970s and ’80s, Dies at 73

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      Playing for the Detroit Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks, he held his own against titans of the era like Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Willis Reed.Bob Lanier, who as a center for the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks in the 1970s and ’80s parlayed a deft left-handed hook shot, a soft midrange jumper and robust rebounding skills into a Hall of Fame career, died on Tuesday in Phoenix. He was 73.The N.B.A. said he died after a short illness but provided no other details.Lanier, who stood 6-foot-11 and weighed about 250 pounds, excelled in an era of dominant centers like Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Nate Thurmond and Wes Unseld.“Guys didn’t change teams as much, so when you were facing the Bulls or the Bucks or New York, you had all these rivalries,” he told NBA.com in 2018. “Lanier against Jabbar! Jabbar against Willis Reed! And then Chamberlain and Artis Gilmore and Bill Walton! You had all these great big men, and the game was played from inside out.”He added: “It was a rougher game, a much more physical game that we played in the ’70s. You could steer people with elbows. They started cutting down on the number of fights by fining people more. Oh, it was a rough ’n’ tumble game.”As a Pistons rookie in the 1970-71 season, Lanier shared time at center with Otto Moore. In his second season, as a full-time starter, he averaged 25.7 points and 14.2 rebounds a game, putting him in the league’s top 10 in both categories.“He understood the small nuances of the game,” Dave Bing, a Pistons teammate and fellow Hall of Famer, said in a video biography of Lanier shown on Fox Sports Detroit in 2012. “He could shoot the 18-to-20-footer as well as any guard. He had a hook shoot — nobody but Kareem had a hook shot like him. He could do anything he wanted to do.”Lanier wore what were believed to be size 22 sneakers. In 1989, however, a representative of Converse disputed that notion, saying that they were in fact size 18 ½. Whatever their actual size, a pair of Lanier’s sneakers, bronzed, is in the collection of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.During nine full seasons with the Pistons, Lanier played in seven All-Star Games. He was elected most valuable player of the 1974 All-Star Game, in which he led all scorers with 24 points.But the Pistons had only four winning seasons during his time with the team and never advanced very far in the playoffs. The roster was often in flux. Coaches came and went. Lanier dealt with knee injuries and other physical setbacks.“It was like a life unfulfilled,” he told Fox Sports Detroit.In early 1980, with the Pistons’ record at 14-40, the team traded Lanier to the Milwaukee Bucks for a younger center, Kent Benson, and a first-round 1980 draft pick. Frustrated by the Pistons’ lack of success, Lanier had asked to be sent to a playoff contender.“I’m kind of relieved, but I’m kind of sad, too,” he told The Detroit Free Press. “I’ve got a lot of good memories of Detroit.”Lanier averaged 22.7 points and 11.8 rebounds a game with the Pistons.Lanier in his college years at St. Bonaventure, resting during a game against Marquette in 1969. A pair of his exceptionally large sneakers is in the collection of the Basketball Hall of Fame.AP PhotoRobert Jerry Lanier Jr. was born on Sept. 10, 1948, in Buffalo to Robert and Nannie Lanier. Young Bob was 6-foot-5 by the time he was a sophomore in high school, and he played well enough there to be wooed by dozens of colleges. He chose St. Bonaventure University in upstate Allegany, N.Y.He was a sensation there, averaging 27.6 points and 15.7 rebounds over three seasons.In 1970, the Bonnies defeated Villanova to win the East Regional finals of the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament, sending them to the Final Four. But Lanier injured his knee during the game, forcing the Bonnies to face Jacksonville in the national semifinal game without him. St. Bonaventure lost, 91-83.“I didn’t even know at the time I tore my knee up,” Lanier told The Buffalo News in 2007. “But when I ran back down the court and tried to pivot, my leg collapsed. I didn’t know at the time I had torn my M.C.L.”Lanier was still recuperating from knee surgery when the Pistons chose him No. 1 overall in the N.B.A. draft; he was also chosen No. 1 by the New York (now Brooklyn) Nets of the American Basketball Association. He quickly signed with Detroit.Although he had statistically better years with the Pistons, Lanier enjoyed more team success with the Bucks (and also played in one more All-Star Game). Under Coach Don Nelson, the Bucks won 60 games during the 1980-81 season, and they advanced to the Eastern Conference finals in 1982-83 and 1983-84.Lanier was also president of the players’ union, the National Basketball Players Association, and helped negotiate a collective bargaining agreement in 1983 that avoided a strike.Lanier at an N.B.A. roundtable discussion before Game 5 of the 2005 finals between the Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs. In retirement, he worked with the N.B.A. as a global ambassador and special assistant to the commissioner.Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty ImagesEarly in the 1983-84 season, his last as a player, Lanier became angry with Bill Laimbeer, the Pistons’ center, for riling him under the boards at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich. Lanier retaliated with a left hook that leveled Laimbeer and broke his nose.The act not only earned Lanier a $5,000 fine; it also delayed the retirement of his No. 16 jersey by the Pistons until 1993. The Bucks retired his number in late 1984.He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.In retirement, he owned a marketing firm and worked extensively with the N.B.A. as a global ambassador and special assistant to David Stern, the league’s longtime commissioner, and Adam Silver, his successor. Lanier was also an assistant coach under Nelson with the Golden State Warriors during the 1994-95 season and replaced him as interim coach for the final 37 games of the season after Nelson’s resignation.Information on survivors was not immediately available.Lanier said that after he retired, he was less likely to be recognized by the public than when he was a player. After Shaquille O’Neal, one of the league’s most dominating centers, came along in the early 1990s, people figured he must have been O’Neal’s father, he told NBA.com in 2018.“‘You’re wearing them big shoes,’” he said people would tell him. “I just go along with it. ‘Yeah, I’m Shaq’s dad.’” More

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      W.N.B.A. Draft: Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard Goes No. 1 to Dream

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      Howard, a senior guard, was the top pick after Atlanta made a deal with the Washington Mystics to move up in the draft.The Atlanta Dream, looking for a versatile player to help rebuild their roster, selected guard Rhyne Howard from the University of Kentucky as the No. 1 pick in the W.N.B.A. draft on Monday at Spring Studios in New York.Ahead of the draft, Dream General Manager Dan Padover said the team was looking for a player who brought “fresh energy and sparks something underneath our franchise.”The Indiana Fever selected NaLyssa Smith, a senior forward from Baylor University, with the No. 2 overall pick. At No. 3, the Washington Mystics chose Shakira Austin, a center from the University of Mississippi.Howard said she planned to bring to the Dream the same “competitive spirit” she had with Kentucky, where she made sure to stay “calm, cool and collected.”“I think that’s what really helped me to become successful, and I just really want to have an impact on the team,” Howard said, adding that she will “continue to make everyone better” in Atlanta.There is very little Howard can’t do. She is in the top 10 of almost every statistical category at Kentucky, and has scored the second-most points in program history for women and men. Last month, Howard led Kentucky to its first Southeastern Conference tournament title since 1982 when the team handed South Carolina, the 2022 national champion, its second and final loss of the season. Howard, who is from Chattanooga, Tenn., finished her senior year at Kentucky averaging 20.5 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.Kentucky, a No. 6 seed in this year’s N.C.A.A. Division I women’s basketball tournament, lost to No. 11 Princeton in the round of 64. But Howard’s career at Kentucky has helped draw attention to the women’s basketball program at a university best known for its powerhouse men’s team.“I’m very versatile, so whatever position I’m playing, I like to match for those positions,” Howard said.The Washington Mystics, who traded the No. 1 pick to the Atlanta Dream, used the third overall pick to select Shakira Austin, a center from the University of Mississippi.Adam Hunger/Associated PressTo be able to select her, the Dream shook up the draft last week by acquiring the No. 1 pick in a trade with the Washington Mystics. In return, the Mystics received the Dream’s No. 3 and No. 14 overall picks. The Mystics also have the right to swap first-round picks in the 2023 draft, which is expected to draw deep talent from around the country.Atlanta finished last season 8-24, the second-worst record in the W.N.B.A., and has missed the playoffs for the past three seasons. Adding Howard to the Dream’s roster immediately bolsters their perimeter game, which should help after the team traded guard Chennedy Carter to the Los Angeles Sparks in the off-season.“Some drafts are top-heavy; some are deep,” Padover said. “This one is probably the most deep more than anything.” He added that this year’s draft offered the best talent since 2018 or 2019.The Liberty selected Nyara Sabally, a 6-foot-5 forward from University of Oregon, at No. 5 overall. Sabally, who is from Berlin, scored a career high 31 points in Oregon’s final game of the season, a first-round loss in the N.C.A.A. tournament. She averaged 15.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in the 2021-22 season.“It’s amazing to be drafted by New York. It’s very surreal,” said Sabally, who joins the league two years after Dallas drafted her sister and college teammate, Satou. “I love that women’s basketball is growing and people recognize it, especially in such a big city like New York. I’m just happy that I get to play on a team like that.”Nyara Sabally, a 6-foot-5 forward from the University of Oregon, was the first pick for the Liberty, at No. 5 overall.Adam Hunger/Associated PressNyara Sabally averaged 15.4 points per game for Oregon during the 2021-22 season.Wade Payne/Associated PressThis year, 108 college players renounced their remaining N.C.A.A. eligibility to be considered for the draft, more than double than in 2021. International players and those who are no longer eligible to play in the N.C.A.A. will also be considered. But the chances of getting a spot on a roster are slim: There are 36 draft slots for the W.N.B.A.’s 12 teams, which have just 12 roster spots each. With only 144 roster spots in all, many players and fans are calling for bigger rosters and more teams, wishes the W.N.B.A. has resisted.One reason for the increase in college-eligible draft prospects may be the pandemic. College athletes are normally eligible to play four seasons over the course of five years. After the pandemic disrupted schedules, the N.C.A.A. added a special bonus year of eligibility for any athlete who lost playing time during the 2019-20 season.Should they not make it to the W.N.B.A. this year and still have a season of eligibility, athletes can return to their college (assuming there is still a place for them on the roster).Julie Roe Lach, the commissioner of the Horizon League, said this year’s draft class mimics the parity seen in the 2022 N.C.A.A. women’s basketball tournament, which saw six double-digit-seeded teams make it to the round of 16. None of the three top draft picks advanced beyond the round of 16.“You’ve got some of the names you would expect to see, but we’re seeing more schools with players that look like strong draft prospects,” she said. “That speaks to the increase of talent we’re seeing across the country of these great women basketball players.”Kierstan Bell, a guard from Florida Gulf Coast University, was drafted No. 11 overall by the Las Vegas Aces.Adam Hunger/Associated PressW.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert opened the draft by acknowledging Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner, who has been held in Russia since mid-February on drug charges that could carry a sentence of up to 10 years if she is convicted. “Getting her home is a top priority,” Engelbert said.This was the first in-person draft since 2019, and players and guests did not hold back from celebrating. Colorful pantsuits, rhinestone jackets and plenty of high heels and sneakers alike filled the TriBeCa event space. The Hall of Famers Dawn Staley, the South Carolina head coach, and Lisa Leslie posed with draft prospects before the ESPN coverage began. Oregon’s Sedona Prince lived up to her TikTok fame and was capturing scenes throughout the night.The draft capped a weekend of W.N.B.A. events across New York City, including shoot-arounds at neighborhood playgrounds and a visit to one of the city’s top sneaker shops. As the W.N.B.A. tries to increase its visibility, the league got the strongest New York City boost of all: The Empire State Building lit up Monday night in orange, the signature color of the W.N.B.A.The 2022 season starts May 6 with eight teams in action, including the reigning champion Chicago Sky. More