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      WNBA Playoff Preview: The Aces and Liberty Are On a Collision Course

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      The Aces and the Liberty towered above the competition this season. Will they meet in the finals?Two superteams, the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty, dominated the W.N.B.A. season, as expected. They were so good that only two others teams in the 12-team league even managed a winning record.A final between them has the potential to be a classic. But first, they will have to make it through the six other teams in the W.N.B.A. playoffs.When do the playoffs start?The first game of the best-of-three quarterfinals, Minnesota at Connecticut, is on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern, with Chicago at Las Vegas following at 10 p.m. The Washington-New York and Atlanta-Dallas series will start on Friday.The best-of-five semifinals are scheduled from Sept. 24 to Oct. 3, and the finals will start Oct. 8 and run through Oct. 20, if all five games are necessary.What do the first-round matchups look like?The big two teams, the Aces (34-6 in the regular season) and the Liberty (32-8), are prohibitive favorites over the Chicago Sky and the Washington Mystics, though the Mystics have their former M.V.P., Elena Delle Donne, back from injury, and the Sky have a history of deep playoff runs after subpar regular seasons.The league’s third-best team has clearly been the Connecticut Sun (27-13), which would be expected to beat the Minnesota Lynx. In the final series, the Dallas Wings were three games better than the Atlanta Dream in the regular season and have home-court advantage, so should be the favorite.Who’s going to win it all?The Aces or the Liberty, the Liberty or the Aces? That’s been the question all season.The Aces are the reigning champions, and they have been even better this year. The Liberty managed to land Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot in the off-season to soar from an average team to greatness.The teams split their four regular-season league meetings, but the Liberty won a fifth game, the final of the new Commissioner’s Cup. The betting odds favor the Aces, but, in truth, it looks too close to call.Could the Sun spoil the party? A 1-6 record against the top two teams doesn’t bode well. The other five teams in the playoffs would need a run of form not seen all season to win the title.How can I watch the games?ABC and the ESPN channels will be telecasting the games.What’s this I hear about flights?Unlike in the N.B.A., travel in the W.N.B.A. is mostly commercial, which has been a point of contention between the players and the league. This year, the league announced that, for the playoffs at least, teams would fly charter.But there are limits, sources have reported: Charter flights would be allowed only once between series, allowing a team, for example, to fly home from a series by charter but not onward to the next series.Who are the players to watch?Just about every Ace who steps on the court. The star forward and reigning M.V.P. A’ja Wilson (22.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks a game, and a record-tying 53-point game) is complemented by the sharpshooting guard trio of Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray (seven assists per game).A longer W.N.B.A. season this year allowed Stewart to break the league record for points scored, though Jewell Loyd of Seattle broke her record a few days later. In addition to Jones and Vandersloot, the Liberty have Sabrina Ionescu, the top 3-point shooter in the league.The Sun are led by the versatile forward Alyssa Thomas, who led the league in rebounds, and nearly in assists. And she recorded six triple-doubles this season, a league record.What teams and players are missing?Candace Parker joined the Aces as a splashy off-season signing, but the two-time M.V.P. has been sidelined indefinitely with a fractured foot. She played the first half of the season but has been out since early July.It would have been fun to see the No. 1 draft pick and probable rookie of the year Aliyah Boston in action, but her Indiana Fever did not make the playoffs.After 10 straight seasons in the playoffs, the Phoenix Mercury finished last and did not qualify. That means no playoffs for Brittney Griner, who rejoined the league after spending 10 months in Russian prison on drug charges. Remarkably, she returned to make the All-Star team and average 17.5 points a game, just about her career average. More

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      Jamal Murray Is Learning to Unwind After Winning NBA Championship

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      It was a Sunday afternoon in early July, and Jamal Murray had been in Las Vegas for a few days — enough time for the city to wear out anyone.“I’m a little hung over,” he said, smiling in apology as he tried — unsuccessfully — to remember some details of the post-championship interactions he’d had with Denver Nuggets fans. Murray, the Nuggets’ star point guard, was less than a month removed from helping the franchise win its first N.B.A. championship.He had spent the previous night feting his friend Alexander Volkanovski, U.F.C.’s featherweight champion, after Volkanovski won U.F.C. 290 to remain undefeated in the 145-pound weight class. Murray had joined him for several hours before the fight and had been struck by how at ease Volkanovski was. The fighter had been happy to laugh and joke with Murray despite an important bout awaiting him later that evening.“This is like a championship belt for him, right?” Murray said. “He was just so loose about it. It kind of brought me back to, like, I don’t have to take my routine as serious as long as I know how to flip a switch, turn it on and bring it when I need it.”Alexander Volkanovski celebrated his win over Yair Rodriguez at U.F.C. 290 in Las Vegas in July.Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC, via Getty ImagesThe lesson could come in handy for Murray as he prepares for his next N.B.A. season, with training camps beginning in about a month. Last week, he went to Sydney to attend U.F.C. 293, where Israel Adesanya lost his middleweight belt to Sean Strickland. Murray planned to spend some time training with Volkanovski while there.Murray befriended Volkanovski during a visit to Australia last August. They shot a video together, with each one going through the other’s training routines. Murray hit a heavy bag. Volkanovski shot some free throws.There are superficial differences between the two — Murray is nearly a foot taller than the 5-foot-6 Volkanovski, and Volkanovski is eight years older — but in Murray, Volkanovski saw someone who shared the work ethic and discipline on which he prided himself. Volkanovski instantly took to Murray.“I’m a Nuggets guy now purely because of our connection,” Volkanovski said in late July, a few weeks after Murray joined him for U.F.C. 290.Their friendship grew at a challenging time for Murray.Murray had missed the 2021-22 N.B.A. season as he recovered from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. He had to teach himself how to walk again, and he spent days wondering about his basketball future.Nuggets Coach Michael Malone later recalled that Murray, with tears in his eyes, had asked if the Nuggets were going to trade him because of his injury.In the fall of 2022, Murray began playing N.B.A. basketball again.Denver had the best record in the Western Conference for most of the season. As Murray grew more comfortable, he and Nikola Jokic, the team’s star center, became a fearsome tandem. During the playoffs, they became the first teammates to have triple-doubles with at least 30 points in the same game.“I’m still coming back, though,” Murray said in July. “I didn’t have a full off-season to recover. Or train on what I wanted to. My whole last summer was just working on my strength here.”He patted his knee.“And that was it. I didn’t get to work on my game.”He had thrown himself into his return, and he had also been gravely serious about his pregame routine, leaving no time for levity.The Nuggets won the N.B.A. championship in June, beating the Miami Heat in five games. That final night, as Murray left the arena in Denver, he sat in the passenger seat of a black car and occasionally rolled down his window to greet anyone who wanted to say hello. At one stoplight around 1 a.m., a fan spotted Murray as she was crossing the street. She sprinted over to Murray and hugged him through the car window. Rather than recoil at contact from a stranger, Murray returned the hug, smiling.“Everybody’s just trying to be a part of the moment, which is really cool,” Murray said.Murray bested his career averages in points and assists per game during the 2022-23 season, his return to play from a serious knee injury in April 2021.Bridget Bennett for The New York TimesAbout four weeks later, he joined Volkanovski for his own championship bout.There, Murray saw a different style of preparation than the one he’d employed during the season.“I’ll definitely have my moment throughout my car ride, ‘There’s no way that they’re taking this belt away from me.’ But I’m usually pretty chill,” Volkanovski said. “I’m happy to have a little laugh.”Volkanovski said he wondered if the violent nature of mixed martial arts might have made Murray more interested in his relaxed demeanor before the fight.“Probably he could look at that, I mean, like, ‘This guy’s about to go to war and he literally treats it as, like, you know, this is his job, he knows he’ll be fine,’” Volkanovski said. “‘He’s obviously confident in his preparation and all that.’”While Volkanovski appreciated hearing that Murray sought inspiration from his process, he respects Murray’s process as well.“Everyone has their own way of preparing for their — whatever they do,” Volkanovski said. “And you can never knock it, because obviously he’s playing some good basketball, so you don’t want to change much.”In July, Murray stayed for Volkanovski’s post-fight media appearances, then celebrated afterward at a gathering that Shaquille O’Neal also attended. The summer, at least, afforded a chance to unwind. More

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      Short-Handed Americans Lose to Germany in World Cup Semifinals

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      The Americans, perennial favorites but without many top N.B.A. stars, were stopped short of the gold medal game. The team will look much different at the Paris Olympics.As the final buzzer sounded Friday night, the American players looked dejected. Hands on hips. Jerseys over faces. Sagging shoulders. Expressions of disbelief as they watched Germany’s players leap and hug in celebration at midcourt.Germany had shocked the United States, 113-111, in the semifinals of the FIBA World Cup in Manila. The United States, perennial gold medal favorites in this men’s tournament, looked a step behind the whole game, done in by a porous perimeter defense and a lack of rebounding. And Germany, led by guard Andreas Obst with 24 points and forward Franz Wagner with 22 points, had earned the biggest basketball win in German history.The loss on Friday served as a humbling status check on the U.S. men’s national program heading into the Paris Olympics next year. This was the first FIBA World Cup under the leadership of Steve Kerr, who has won four N.B.A. championships as coach of the Golden State Warriors. He has marquee assistant coaches, including Erik Spoelstra, who has won two N.B.A. titles coaching the Heat, and Tyronn Lue, who coached the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers to a championship.But on the court, there was far less experience. The World Cup does not hold the same prestige as the Olympic tournament, which meant fewer players were willing to spend part of their summer abroad after a grueling N.B.A. season. This roster did not feature a single All-N.B.A. player and was a combination of role players and up-and-comers. There were four total All-Star appearances combined (Tyrese Haliburton, Brandon Ingram, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Anthony Edwards). Only one player on the team had an N.B.A. championship, Bobby Portis.Germany repeatedly pummeled the United States in the paint, exploiting the United States’ choice to play with smaller lineups. Germany grabbed 12 offensive rebounds, compared with seven for the United States. It also shot well from outside, 13 for 30 from 3-point range.Germany outscored the United States by 35-24 in a pivotal third quarter, and maintained a double-digit lead for much of the rest of the game. But a late flurry by the United States, led by the forward Edwards, cut Germany’s lead to 3 points with just over three minutes left. Edwards led the Americans with 23 points but missed a 3-pointer that would have tied the game with two minutes left.Germany is the only unbeaten team in the tournament. It was the second loss for the United States, which had also been upset by Lithuania earlier this week.For the United States, the tournament did not attract many of the top stars from the N.B.A. But the team will almost assuredly look different for the Paris Olympics in 2024. This edition of the team will play only for a bronze medal against Canada, while Germany clinched a spot in the gold medal game against Serbia on Sunday.In the most recent tournament, in 2019, the United States had an even more disappointing run, failing to get a medal after a quarterfinal loss to France, after having won the tournament in 2014 and 2010. Before the loss to France, the United States had won 19 straight World Cup games.In many ways, the high expectations for the United States are of its own making. The standard was set by the 1992 team at the Olympics — the Dream Team led by Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing — and carried forward in subsequent Games, including the 2008 squad nicknamed the Redeem Team, which included LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony. For years, the Americans have been expected to romp through any and all international competitions.But as basketball has grown exponentially in other countries, the gap between the United States and the rest of the world has narrowed, meaning that if Americans aren’t sending their best players, they can no longer expect to glide to a gold medal.For the Olympics, the United States will still be a heavy favorite, and it is likely to have more perennial All-Stars. Stephen Curry, the Golden State star, has expressed an interest in joining the team in Paris.The past two World Cups have shown that stars of Curry’s caliber would be welcome for the Americans.“These games are difficult,” Kerr told reporters after the game. “This is not 1992 anymore.” More

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      Breanna Stewart Sets W.N.B.A. Points Record

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      She has scored more points this season than anyone else in W.N.B.A. history, but had more games to do it.Breanna Stewart of the Liberty has now scored more points than any other player in a single season in W.N.B.A. history. But is she really the league’s best scorer ever? It depends on how you look at it.Stewart scored 40 points in a 94-93 victory at the Dallas Wings on Tuesday night. That took her to 885 points for a season, more than any other W.N.B.A. player in history.But she has benefited from the new 40-game schedule, which was introduced this season. For most of its history, the league played 34 games.Diana Taurasi, whose record Stewart broke, scored 860 points in 2006, the third season in her long career with the Phoenix Mercury. But she did it in 34 games, for a scoring average of 25.3 points per game. Stewart took 38 games to reach her total, giving her a 23.3-per-game average.For Stewart to match Taurasi’s scoring average record, assuming she plays both of the remaining games on the Liberty’s schedule, she would need to average more than 60 points a game, a feat beyond even her skills, one would think.“I have this back-and-forth feeling with the scoring record, because any time I’m in the same limelight as D, it’s amazing, just because of what she’s done in her career and what she continues to do,” Stewart said after the game.“But obviously, it’s more games. More games is more points. As we have 40-game seasons, and we continue to build off that, there’s going to be a lot of records that are broken.”Stewart is not the only one racking up the points this season. Jewell Loyd of the Seattle Storm has 852 with three games to play. A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces has 846 with two games to play. Both should also sail past Taurasi’s mark, and there is no guarantee Stewart will even hold the record by season’s end.Longer season or not, it has been a boom year for individual scoring in the W.N.B.A. Stewart’s game on Tuesday was the 13th time this season a player had scored 40 or more points; last season, nobody did it. Wilson had a 53-point game last month, tying the league’s single-game scoring record.Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun has also been taking advantage of the longer schedule. On Tuesday night, she broke the single-season assist record with 304, topping Courtney Vandersloot’s 300 for the Chicago Sky in 2019. Thomas also has 375 rebounds, fourth on the single-season list with two games to play.It’s all a bit reminiscent of Roger Maris’s home run chase in 1961. As Maris approached Babe Ruth’s record of 60 home runs in a season, Ford Frick, who was the baseball commissioner, suggested Maris’s record could receive a “distinctive mark” in the record book, unless Maris reached 60 in 154 games, the traditional length of a season. The American League had lengthened its season to 162 games in 1961.Maris had 59 homers at the 154-game mark, and hit his 61st, breaking Ruth’s record, in the Yankees’ final regular-season game. As a result, many fans thought of Maris’s record as having an asterisk, although one was never actually applied officially.Stewart’s record is the latest accomplishment in a glittering basketball career. A 6-foot-4 forward, she won four national championships in four years at UConn and was the N.C.A.A. tournament’s most outstanding player each year. She had two titles in her six seasons with Seattle, won the league M.V.P. in 2018, and may do so again this season after signing with the Liberty as a free agent. She also has two Olympic gold medals.Stewart benefited from the longer schedule. But points do not score themselves. And for now, she has more of them in a W.N.B.A. season than anyone else. More

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      Book Review: ‘Fly,’ by Mitchell S. Jackson

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      When I was growing up, there was a thing called “the ballplayer look.” It served two essential purposes: to show the world you were a hooper, and also that you were fly. It could be the way you rocked your socks and shorts, the sneaks you chose on the court, your haircut, the type of earring you wore. It all came down to a style that signaled basketball was your calling card.Michael Jordan at the N.B.A. All Star Slam Dunk Competition at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Ind., 1985.Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE, via Getty ImagesLeBron James in February 2023, on the night he became the highest scorer in N.B.A. history.Tyler Ross/NBAE, via Getty ImagesIn FLY: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion (Artisan Books, 221 pp., $40), the author Mitchell S. Jackson goes to great lengths to capture the evolution and meaning of that aesthetic. From Bob Cousy’s Rat Pack-inspired suits in the ’50s and ’60s, to Michael Jordan’s on-court style that ran the ’90s and LeBron James’s “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirt in 2014, to Jalen Green’s masterful Louis Vuitton/Damier combination during this year’s Paris Fashion Week, the book traces the sartorial eras that have come to define the N.B.A.Dennis Rodman wears a custom wedding dress and makeup by Kevyn Aucoin at a book signing in New York City, 1996.Evan Agostini/LiaisonAllen Iverson sucking on one of his “trademark devil-may-care lollipops,” at the M.C.I. Center in Washington, D.C., 2001.Doug Pensinger/Getty ImagesDue credit is given to the fashions of Walt Frazier, Jordan, Allen Iverson and Russell Westbrook. Missing are the contributions of Pat Riley and the late designer Cary Mitchell, the Black-power influence of Earl Monroe, and any mention whatsoever of the current W.N.B.A. as the most fashion-forward league in all of sports. But those are misses, not bricks. Because what Jackson does with “Fly” is canonize the cultural impact the “ballplayer look” has had all along.Kobe Bryant poses for GQ in 2009.Peggy SirotaMagic Johnson arrives at the 1988 All-Star Game in Chicago in fur.Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE, via Getty ImagesRussell Westbrook, in Thom Browne, “epitomizes the redefinition of masculinity” at New York Fashion Week in 2022.Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC ImagesWalt “Clyde” Frazier in a leather-trimmed hat and cape in New York, 1970.Walter Iooss Jr./NBAE, via Getty Images More

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      Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Future in Milwaukee Is Uncertain

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      Giannis Antetokounmpo carried around a small, black portable fan, which looked minuscule as it whirred in his 12-inch-wide hands. He was trying to counteract the hot sun at a hillside mansion as he watched his youngest brother, Alex Antetokounmpo, pose for photos near a basketball hoop overlooking Los Angeles for an ad campaign.“Alex, the eyes,” Giannis said. “Eyes of the tiger right there, and then you mix it in with a smile.”Giannis turned and grinned at a group of about a dozen people watching. He has been coaching Alex for most of his life. When Giannis began his N.B.A. career with the Milwaukee Bucks at 18, he soon brought his family out of poverty in Greece to live with him. Alex was 12 years old.“Sometimes I think I get annoying to him,” Giannis, 28, said later, though Alex, 21, shows no signs that that might be true. Giannis added: “He could be doing idiotic stuff, stupid stuff, but he’s going through a path that I’m really proud of him.”As Giannis ascended to N.B.A. superstardom — he’s won the Most Valuable Player Award twice and is the best player on a championship team — he strove to bring his family along for his journey. Three of his four brothers have played professionally in the United States.But over the past three years, he has brought them along for what he hopes can be a more lasting endeavor: taking ownership of their money and his future. A few months ago, Antetokounmpo launched Ante, Inc. to house the brothers’ projects and investments. It’s about Giannis’s life beyond basketball, though basketball still matters to him — a lot. In a few weeks, he will be eligible for a three-year extension worth about $173 million, but he doesn’t plan to sign one just yet.“The real question’s not going to be this year — numbers-wise it doesn’t make sense,” Antetokounmpo said. “But next year, next summer it would make more sense for both parties. Even then, I don’t know.”He added: “I would not be the best version of myself if I don’t know that everybody’s on the same page, everybody’s going for a championship, everybody’s going to sacrifice time away from their family like I do. And if I don’t feel that, I’m not signing.”Giannis Antetokounmpo has begun focusing more on business endeavors over the past three years as he’s become a bigger basketball star.Mark Abramson for The New York TimesThis approach and an increased focus on business investments with his brothers are part of Antetokounmpo’s evolution as he has begun to understand his own ambitions and goals more deeply.“From 2020 to 2023, people think I’ve taken a large jump on the basketball court, but I think I’ve taken 10X jump off the court,” he said.‘I gave everything.’It started in the spring of 2020 when the world shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. It wasn’t clear what would happen to players’ salaries or endorsement deals with the season in flux. He began to think of ways to diversify his sources of income.“We were sitting in the house. OK, now what?” Antetokounmpo said. “Basketball is taken away, what do I have?” He downloaded a stock trading app and started investing on his own for the first time. He began to reach out to successful people from other industries for advice and mentorship.It was an eventful year for him, which may have contributed to his interest in growing his income. His oldest child, Liam, had been born that February, and he had won his second M.V.P. Award, for the 2019-20 season, which the Bucks finished by losing in the Eastern Conference semifinals at the N.B.A.’s quarantined campus at Disney World.A few months later, Antetokounmpo signed a five-year, $228 million extension with the Bucks. But something was not right. He felt numb, and did not know why. He told the Bucks that he did not want to play basketball anymore.He had felt that way before. During his rookie year, he missed his family so much that he had insisted that the Bucks figure out a way to get them to Milwaukee, even threatening to go back to Greece if the team would not do it. He and his brothers had shared beds growing up. When Antetokounmpo left Greece for the N.B.A. draft in 2013, he said his father, Charles, told him: “No matter where you go in this world, doesn’t matter, don’t worry about that, I’ll find you. I love you, my son. Go have a great season.”“And I remember my mom was crying,” Giannis said. “I left. And then when I came here it wasn’t the same. I was in the hotel. It was the first time I felt lonely in my life.”Alex said the siblings are “pretty much each other’s best friends.”When Giannis thought about quitting basketball in the 2020-21 season, his brother Thanasis, right, reassured him.Elsa/Getty ImagesWhen Giannis felt down during the 2020-21 season, he was reassured when he told his older brother Thanasis about his doubts. By then, Thanasis was playing for the Bucks, too, and said that if Giannis was not happy he would leave with him.“I would have walked away in 2020,” Giannis said. “I care about joy and happiness. I care about my kids.”The Bucks recommended he speak to a sports psychologist, so Antetokounmpo tried it. Doing so helped him find ways to cope with the stress and pressure he felt. He rediscovered joy in playing basketball, and the Bucks won a championship that season.“I think it’s the best feeling that I’ve felt so far in basketball,” he said.He wants it again.The Bucks lost in the first round of last season’s playoffs, winning only one game against the Miami Heat as Giannis worked through injuries.Milwaukee fired its coach, Mike Budenholzer, and hired Adrian Griffin, who had been an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors. That change, Antetokounmpo said, is part of why he is unsure if he’ll sign an extension.“You’ve got to see the dynamics,” he said. “How the coach is going to be, how we’re going to be together. At the end of the day, I feel like all my teammates know and the organization knows that I want to win a championship. As long as we’re on the same page with that and you show me and we go together to win a championship, I’m all for it. The moment I feel like, oh, yeah, we’re trying to rebuild —”He paused briefly before continuing.“There will never be hard feelings with the Milwaukee Bucks,” he said. “I believe that we’ve had 10 unbelievable years, and there’s no doubt I gave everything for the city of Milwaukee. Everything. Every single night, even when I’m hurt. I am a Milwaukee Buck. I bleed green. I know this.“This is my team, and it’s going to forever be my team. I don’t forget people that were there for me and allowed me to be great and to showcase who I am to the world and gave me the platform. But we have to win another one.”He is halfway to his goal of playing 20 N.B.A. seasons, and he said he would like to spend them with one team, the way Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan did.“But at the end of the day, being a winner, it’s over that goal,” he said. “Winning a championship comes first. I don’t want to be 20 years on the same team and don’t win another championship.”He didn’t mention any motivation for winning another championship outside of his competitive fire. But the cultural relevance that comes with winning can also elevate his growing off-court profile.‘We came from nothing.’Giannis couldn’t help but launch into a sales pitch as he sat in the living room of the home where he and Alex were doing the photo shoot. He was hyping a pain-relieving balm made by a company called Flexpower, which the Antetokounmpo brothers partially own. He has always considered himself to be a great salesman, back to when he was a child trying to help his parents sell sunglasses on the street in Athens.During the photo shoot, Giannis flitted around like a proud mother hen, beaming at Alex. Working with the company was Alex’s idea.“I knew you when you were a baby!” Giannis said, holding his hands out as if rocking a baby.Later, Giannis pondered when it was that he started thinking of Alex as an adult.“Might be today,” he said.Giannis and Alex shot photos for an ad campaign at the home of Jimmy Goldstein, an N.B.A. superfan, in the Beverly Crest neighborhood of Los Angeles.Mark Abramson for The New York TimesFour of the brothers are listed as co-founders on the Ante, Inc. website, but Giannis is the chairman. They have different roles, by virtue of their personalities. Alex describes Thanasis, 31, as very driven and bold in his style. Kostas, 25, has a quieter personality, but Alex said he excels at brainstorming.Giannis involved his brothers in discussions about his new Nike contract, which he said he negotiated himself this summer. One of his earliest investments was in the Milwaukee Brewers, in 2021. The brothers have invested in a candy company, a nutritional company and a golf team co-owned by Venus and Serena Williams and Serena’s husband, Alexis Ohanian. They have a production company in the works, like so many other N.B.A. players do.This year, Giannis became a co-owner of some funds with Calamos Investments, whose chief executive, John Koudounis, is of Greek descent. The joint venture donates 10 percent of its profits to financial literacy organizations.“He spent a lot of time talking about how he wishes that he had known about investing earlier,” said Jessica Fernandez, Calamos’s chief marketing officer. Antetokounmpo doesn’t manage the portfolios, but he does pepper those who do with questions about why and how they choose certain stocks.Earlier this year, the Antetokounmpo brothers joined the ownership group of Major League Soccer’s Nashville SC.“We came from nothing,” Antetokounmpo said. “And sitting in the owners’ suite with the other owners and enjoy the game, cheering for our team. Our team. Not just a team — our team. It’s insane.”Soccer was their first love; their father, who died in 2017, briefly played professionally. Their foundation, the Charles Antetokounmpo Family Foundation, seeks to help disadvantaged people in Greece, the United States and Nigeria, where their parents grew up.‘Protect the family.’The idea that someone with Giannis’s salary would worry about money might strain credulity, but he is thrifty — cheap, he’ll admit.“I need my kids to spend my money,” he said, smiling.He said he wants six children, and is almost halfway there. He and his fiancée, Mariah Riddlesprigger, have two sons, Liam and Maverick, and Riddlesprigger is pregnant with their third child, a girl.Antetokounmpo gets concerned when his children are pulled into the spotlight with him. In the United States, his fame is perhaps not as overwhelming as it would be were he playing in a bigger city. But in Greece things are different.“The way LeBron James is or Michael Jordan is for the States, the same way I am for Greece,” he said. “Maybe larger.”He has noticed people filming his children in their stroller and at a birthday party. He wants his children to be able to decide whether they want to live lives in the public. On social media, he typically covers their faces.When he thinks about growing his wealth, he is thinking about his children’s futures, too.The brothers try to make business decisions as a group, often on a messaging thread titled “Antetokounbros” (which is also the name of a store they have in Athens; they’re opening one in Milwaukee soon). They save personal texts for a different thread titled “F.O.E.,” which stands for family over everything.Giannis, left, with his brothers, left to right, Kostas, Thanasis and Alex in 2019 when Giannis won the Most Valuable Player Award.Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE, via Getty ImagesHe said he has felt taken advantage of in the past by some of the people hired to handle his life, money or off-court interests, and was confident that will never happen with his family.“I see it with my teammates, some of my teammates,” Antetokounmpo said. “‘Oh, my cousin did this. My mom did this.’ You see it. It’s public. Moms arguing with their sons, suing one another for property that doesn’t belong to them. You see it every day.”He added: “The way we were raised in Greece and the things that we went through every single day to provide for our family, all those moments brought us close. They knew that at all costs I would protect the family, take care of my brothers. And I did.”Mark Abramson for The New York Times More

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      A’ja Wilson’s 53-Point Game Ties the W.N.B.A. Record

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      Wilson, of the Las Vegas Aces, became just the third W.N.B.A. player to score at least 50 in a game.Fifty-point games in the N.B.A. can almost be ho-hum: There were 25 last season alone, and they are increasing in frequency. But in the W.N.B.A., they are nearly unheard-of.A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces didn’t just score 50 on Tuesday night in Atlanta; she made four free throws in the last minute to reach 53, tying the league record.Wilson’s is just the third 50-point game in W.N.B.A. history, following a 53-point game by Liz Cambage of the Dallas Wings in 2018 and a 51-point game by Riquna Williams of the Tulsa Shock in 2013.There have been only 33 games in which a player has scored 40 points or more in the league’s history, which dates to 1997. But as in the N.B.A., the trend line is upward. A third of those games have come this season.After her heroic individual effort, Wilson chose to spread the credit. “I didn’t do this alone,” she said. “My teammates get all the glory because without them I don’t even get the basketball.” Chelsea Gray had 12 assists, and Kelsey Plum had seven for the Aces.Wilson, a 6-foot-4 forward, shot 16 for 23 from the floor with one 3-pointer and made 20 of 21 free throws. Defensively, she found time to record a game-high four blocks. The Aces defeated the host Atlanta Dream, 112-100.When it comes to putting up high-scoring totals, N.B.A. players have the distinct advantage of playing 48-minute games, rather than the 40-minute games of the W.N.B.A.N.B.A. teams also score more efficiently, averaging 114.8 points per 100 possessions last season, compared with 103.8 in the W.N.B.A. this season. (Or looking at it another way, W.N.B.A. players are more efficient defensively.) And N.B.A. teams also play at a slightly faster pace, averaging 2.06 possessions per minute compared with 1.98 in the W.N.B.A.That all adds up to higher scoring games: 114.7 points per team in the N.B.A. versus 82.5 in the W.N.B.A. in the most recent seasons.Looking at it that way, Wilson’s 53 points amounted to 64 percent of an average W.N.B.A. team’s point total. The equivalent percentage in the N.B.A. would be a 73-point game, something that has happened only six times in N.B.A. history and only once in the years since the W.N.B.A. was founded.The game was an outlier even for Wilson, a two-time league M.V.P. and an Olympic gold medalist in Tokyo. Her previous career high, 11 days before, was 40 points, and she has only 10 games of 30 points or more in her six-year career.Wilson also has the advantage of playing for the Aces, the league’s best team, with a gaudy 29-4 record, and the defending league champions. If they could win all of their remaining seven games, their 36-4 mark and .900 winning percentage would match the record set by the 1998 Houston Comets, who were 27-3 in a shorter season. More

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      James Harden Did Not Start the Problems for the Philadelphia 76ers

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      Discontent is not new for star players, but it has become very public for the Philadelphia 76ers at a moment when their fans are running out of patience.For Philadelphia 76ers fans, this is The Bad Place.“Disgust among Sixers fans is at one of the highest levels I have ever seen here in Philadelphia,” Joe DeCamara, a Philadelphia radio host, said in a recent interview.A confluence of misfortune and bad strategy has almost left the team where it was in the mid-2000s at the end of the Allen Iverson era: adrift with no path to contend for a championship. Whatever plans Daryl Morey, the team’s president of basketball operations, had when he took over in 2020 seem to have unraveled.“We feel like people are underrating the Sixers right now,” Morey told reporters at his introductory news conference, “but we need to go out there and prove it.”What has been proved, in fact, is quite the opposite, punctuated recently when James Harden, the team’s second-best player, publicly trashed Morey as part of his quest to force a trade to another team.Discontent is not new for star players, but in the Sixers’ case it has become very public at a moment when their fans are at their wits’ end. The broader public has developed an appetite for this brand of superstar drama because it pops up every summer, but the Sixers, perhaps more than other N.B.A. teams, are poorly positioned to plea for patience because the organization has put its fans through a decade of stops and starts, including the rebuilding plan known as The Process.Harden is one of the most talented offensive players in the N.B.A., but he has come up short in the playoffs.Bill Streicher/USA Today Sports Via Reuters ConHarden’s relationship with the Sixers became a Good News-Bad News situation this summer. The Good: Harden, a 33-year-old guard, opted into the last year of his contract. The Bad: It was on the condition that the Sixers trade him to the Los Angeles Clippers, according to two people familiar with the request but not authorized to discuss it publicly. To make matters worse, videos that emerged on social media this week appeared to show Harden disparaging Morey while speaking to reporters at an Adidas event in China.“Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of,” Harden said in the videos. Harden’s agent and Adidas did not respond to requests from The New York Times seeking to confirm the authenticity of the videos. A Sixers spokesperson declined to comment.The exact nature of Harden’s anger at Morey is unclear, but his displeasure is an extraordinary setback nonetheless. Harden is one of the greatest offensive players ever, and few defenders can guard him alone because of his combination of ball handling and size. He is one of a small number of players who can will a team to victory by themselves — when he chooses.Harden and Joel Embiid, the star center who is Philadelphia’s best player and the reigning Most Valuable Player Award winner, share some of the responsibility for the Sixers’ lack of success. They often underperform at crucial moments in the postseason, and did so again this spring, when the Sixers lost to Boston in the second round.This has brought even more pessimism to Philadelphia, where sports-related despair is as essential to the city’s identity as the hoagie.“As a fan, it’s simple: I want the team to win,” said Amos Lee, a folk singer-songwriter and avid Sixers fan. “I want them to spend all of the money and get all of the best players and put the coolest people on the team and that’s it. But I don’t know what this franchise is.”Lee added, “It has been for a long time really poorly managed.”Daryl Morey, the president of the Philadelphia 76ers. He traded with the Nets for James Harden in February 2022.Matt Slocum/Associated PressThe Sixers have not made it to the Eastern Conference finals since 2001, and Doc Rivers, who was hired as head coach a few weeks before Morey joined the team, had a history of falling short in the playoffs. Still, Morey kept him for three seasons. And after Ben Simmons, the star point guard drafted two years after Embiid, demanded a trade out of Philadelphia, Morey resisted before swinging a trade for Harden, who was trying to force his way off his second straight team. Now Philadelphia is his third.According to a person familiar with Morey’s thinking, the plan remains to bring Harden back after the Sixers ended trade negotiations with the Clippers when they could not reach what they believed would be a suitable deal.That is not a plan — that’s unjustified hope. Harden has shown that he is willing to hold out or loaf on the floor if he does not get the trade he wants. And even if Harden returns, the team did not make any real improvements this off-season and, in fact, lost several rotation players to free agency. If the 76ers could not get out of the second round last year, how will they do next season with a less-talented team and an unhappy Harden?If Harden does go, he will be the latest in a string of Sixers stars who have left the team under acrimonious circumstances, stretching back to Charles Barkley in 1992. Before Simmons and Harden, Iverson was frustrated with the franchise when he was traded in 2006, as was Andre Iguodala when he was traded in 2012.Morey has long shown little interest in fielding a struggling team. When he was an executive in Houston in 2019, he traded Chris Paul and multiple first-round picks for Russell Westbrook after the Rockets lost in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. Before that, Morey dismantled a middling Rockets team that included a young Kyle Lowry. Those moves allowed the Rockets in 2012 to acquire the star who would push them toward true contention: Harden.If Morey decides to hit the eject button on the Embiid and Harden era in Philadelphia, after less than two full seasons, he has shown a willingness to make hard choices. But that requires patience Sixers fans do not have, and asking the team’s ownership to accept a near-term regression and financial hit while they are planning for a new arena.Joel Embiid won his first Most Valuable Player Award in the 2022-23 season.Winslow Townson/USA Today Sports Via Reuters ConBut the clock is not just ticking on what to do about Harden. It is also ticking on Embiid. He said recently that he wanted to win a championship whether it was in Philadelphia “or anywhere else.” He later suggested that he was not serious, though that has not eased the anxiety of some Sixers fans.On one hand, fans could understand his restlessness. He has endured several different front office heads, a coaching carousel and unhappy stars without even a conference finals appearance to show for it. But on the other hand, those same coaches, executives and teammates have had to endure his disappointing playoff performances, too.“They have not done a great job around him,” said Spike Eskin, co-host of “The Rights To Ricky Sanchez,” a Sixers fan podcast that is unaffiliated with the team. “The organization has been a mess for the entirety of his career. But he is as much to blame for their lack of success in the playoffs as anybody is.”But for now, Morey does not have many options. That is partly on him. The best option in a sea of bad ones may be to engage in some wishful thinking: Maybe Harden shows up to camp in great shape and reconsiders his desire to leave. Maybe Embiid puts together another M.V.P.-level season and does not get hurt, as he so often has.Maybe they can even get out of the second round. More