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      Lakers Eliminated From Playoff Contention

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      The loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday sealed their fate. It’s the second time the Lakers will miss the postseason since LeBron James joined the team in 2018.The Los Angeles Lakers’ last glimmer of hope for this season is gone.With LeBron James watching from the bench, the Lakers lost to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night, ending their chances of making the playoffs. A win by the San Antonio Spurs over the Denver Nuggets earlier in the evening made the Suns game a mathematical must-win for the Lakers to stay in contention for the postseason.The Lakers lost seven consecutive games beginning in late March, allowing the Spurs to eclipse them for the 10th-best record in the Western Conference and a spot in the N.B.A.’s play-in tournament, which will decide the seventh and eighth seeds in the playoffs that begin April 16.During the Lakers’ seven-game slide, James and Anthony Davis played together only once, highlighting a problem they have faced all season.Davis returned April 1 after missing 18 games because of a right mid-foot sprain. James has been managing soreness in his left ankle, which has caused him to miss five of the team’s last seven games.Since the league’s All-Star break in mid-February, the Lakers have the second-worst record in the West, having won only four games. Only Portland has been worse.This marks the seventh time in the past nine years that the Lakers have missed the playoffs, a once-unthinkable stretch for the organization. Before the 2013-14 season, the Lakers had missed the playoffs only five times since the franchise’s inception in Minnesota in 1948.Anthony Davis had 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Lakers in the loss on Tuesday.Rick Scuteri/Associated PressIt is also the second time James has missed the playoffs since joining the Lakers in 2018, when he came to Los Angeles following eight consecutive appearances in the N.B.A. finals with Miami and Cleveland.During his first season with the Lakers, James joined a young team that featured Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Alex Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — all players who went on to be productive elsewhere.James injured his groin in a Christmas Day game that season and played in just 55 games. The Lakers went 37-45 and finished 10th in the West, which, before the advent of the play-in tournament, gave them no postseason hopes.They traded for Davis that summer and immediately won a championship in 2020, when the league finished its season in a bubble environment at Walt Disney World in Florida because of the pandemic.Last season, which was shortened because of the pandemic, Davis was injured and played in only 36 of the 72 games. The Lakers went 42-30 and lost to the Suns in the first round as the seventh seed.In the off-season, the Lakers looked to make themselves into championship contenders again. They traded young role players to the Washington Wizards for the aging nine-time All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook, whose $44 million salary made him the highest-paid player on the team this season. They hoped Westbrook’s playmaking ability would help the Lakers when they were without James, who typically runs the Lakers’ offense.“I’m coming to a championship-caliber team and my job is to make sure that I’m able to make his game easier for him,” Westbrook said at his introductory news conference when asked about how he would fit with James. “And I’ll find ways to do that throughout the game.”As the season began, very little went according to plan.James missed 11 of the Lakers’ first 19 games because of injuries, the first suspension of his career and a false-positive coronavirus test.Davis has played in only 40 games this season, missing several weeks with two different injuries — first a knee injury then the foot sprain.Westbrook has struggled to find his footing. That led to Lakers Coach Frank Vogel, who has experimented with lineups all season, moving away from Westbrook in the closing minutes of games.Westbrook’s 18.4 points per game are his lowest average since the 2009-10 season, his second year in the N.B.A. His rebounds per game (7.5) and assists per game (7.1) also dropped sharply from last season.Still, with James in contention for the league’s scoring title, the Lakers had the ninth-best record in the West at the All-Star break, and a chance to force their way into the playoffs. But they couldn’t make the necessary late-season push. More

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      As His CNN+ Show Debuts, Rex Chapman Fears His Own Success

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      With 1.2 million Twitter followers and a new show debuting Monday, the former N.B.A. player appears to have an enviable life. But he’s haunted by what happened the last time he was famous.Sitting in a Midtown Manhattan cafe after shooting B-roll for his new show on CNN+, Rex Chapman says he knows that he’s living a dream, and it’s making him uncomfortable. “I struggle with it,” he said.Chapman, a former pro basketball player now best known as a Twitter personality, loves doing the show, which debuts Monday on CNN’s new streaming service. The show is not the problem. Simply titled “Rex Chapman,” it features him in conversation with a diverse array of people who have faced challenges, as he has, and who now try to make the world better, as he says he is trying to do.Chapman has interviewed Jason Sudeikis in London, the N.B.A. forward Kevin Love in Cleveland, the actor Ben Stiller in New York City and the paralyzed former college football player Eric LeGrand in New Jersey. After this conversation, he was going to the bar next door to meet the comedian, writer and talk show host Amber Ruffin.So why the struggle?“People dream of doing this,” said Chapman, whose height (6 feet 4 inches), gleaming bald head and bright blue glasses make him conspicuous. “They dream of having their own show. I struggle with whether I deserve it or not.”He explains: “I’ve been through some things,” he said. “And I’ve put myself through some things. And, uh. …”He hesitated, his voice catching.“I’ve got four kids,” he went on. “Sitting here talking to you is probably easier than many of the conversations I have with my kids.”His son and three daughters — Zeke, Caley, Tatum and Tyson — range in age from 29 to 21. “And,” Chapman said, “not a day goes by that I don’t think about disappointing them.”Chapman, now 54, was once the best high school player in his home state of Kentucky, a superstar at the University of Kentucky, the first-ever draft pick (No. 8 overall) of the expansion Charlotte Hornets and a member of the U.S. national team. He estimates that he made $40 million in 12 seasons in the N.B.A.Chapman, who played with the Suns, Heat, Wizards and Hornets during a 12-year career, taking a shot in a game against the Seattle SuperSonics in 1999.Dan Levine/AFP via Getty ImagesBut the attention and scrutiny that came with success never felt right. When he was 10 years old, he quit swimming after other kids made fun of his Speedo. When he was 15 and a high school basketball star, students from another school stopped him in a mall, asked for his autograph and then tore it up in front of him.Love and success seemed to lead to pain.That feeling intensified in the N.B.A. After some injuries and surgeries, he ended up addicted to opioids, exacerbating his long-running gambling addiction. Retirement from basketball led to deeper addiction. Chapman burned through money. By his 40s, he was crashing on couches and shoplifting goods to pawn for cash. His wife, Bridget, divorced him in 2012.At the height of his addiction, Chapman was consuming about 10 OxyContin and 40 Vicodin pills per day, chewing them to get them into his bloodstream quicker.“At some point, I had just resigned myself to the fact that my life’s just going to be as a drug addict,” he said, adding an expletive for emphasis.In September 2014, he was caught shoplifting more than $14,000 worth of electronics and was arrested. His sister, Jenny, took him in, and with the help of friends persuaded Chapman to go to a rehab center in Louisville, Ky., where his college roommate, Paul Andrews, was an executive. “Saved my life,” Chapman said.After Chapman got clean, he began speaking in public about recovering from addiction. He found work covering Kentucky athletics on the radio for a regional media company around 2016. The company pushed him to be more active on social media, particularly on Twitter, but Chapman resisted. “The landscape was just toxic. Everybody hating each other,” he said.A dolphin video changed everything: “I saw a video one day of a school of dolphins swimming out to sea, and a guy on a paddle board coming in, and a dolphin jumped up and hit him in the chest and knocked him off. And I said to myself, ‘That’s a charge,’” Chapman said, adding another expletive. (The account that first shared the video is now suspended.)Chapman and his production crew filming B-roll for his new show.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesPeople responded well to the tweet, so he shared other slapstick videos, inspiring lighthearted debates about whether a given collision was, in basketball terms, a block or a charge. In time, he began posting “feel-good stuff” — videos of dogs, babies and animals interacting adorably — and paying two people to find content for him.Chapman, who now has 1.2 million followers, later ventured into tweeting about politics, with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky a frequent target.In 2019, his friend Steve Nash, the former basketball star and current coach of the Brooklyn Nets, called Chapman with an idea for a podcast about people rebuilding their lives after making terrible mistakes. Chapman was wary of seeking fame again — “I didn’t fare real well with it the first time around” — but went forward after his children told him it was OK to do the show.The podcast was called “Charges.” To make his guests more comfortable, and in the hopes of helping people, Chapman began publicly sharing more of his story. This was healing at times, painful at others. “There’s something really cathartic about it,” he said. On the other hand, he said, it never doesn’t hurt, because you’re telling a bunch of strangers the worst stuff in life.He added: “I still can’t believe it was me. But it was. So I have to deal with that constantly.”Worse, he knows his children do too. “If they had any reservations,” he said, “then I wouldn’t do any of this stuff.”In an interview, Chapman’s daughter Caley, 27, said: “After he retired, that was a dark time. But he was always still my dad. I have respect for him. I just wanted him to get better for himself. And he’s done that. So I’m proud of him.”She expressed concern that her father is too hard on himself.“He holds a lot of guilt,” she said. “But there was never anything to forgive him for. From my point of view, I just wanted him to do better. So he’s been forgiven. And I’ll continue to say that until he forgives himself.”Chapman’s son, Zeke, declined to be interviewed, but sent a statement by text.“I’m extremely proud of my dad and how he has bounced back after a very tough time for him and our family,” he said. “I’m super excited for his new show and know how hard he’s been working on it.”“Life’s weird, man,” Chapman said. “And life’s hard.”Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesChapman was approached about the CNN+ show late last year. Rebecca Kutler, the senior vice president and head of programming for the streaming service, sought him out because she liked his Twitter feed. Like many of his followers, she didn’t know much about his basketball life.“I found him to be an incredibly compelling human being,” she said. “He has come forward and talked about these challenges publicly, and really tried to use his experience to help others. That, along with his history as an incredible athlete, and the way that he’s been able to connect with an entire new generation of fans using social media, and sharing really uplifting content — I thought he would be a great person to bring new stories to CNN+.”The shows will range from 20 to 40 minutes per episode, with episodes to be released on Mondays.Chapman shooting an interview on Wednesday in New York.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesLeGrand, the former Rutgers football player whose spinal injury requires him to use a wheelchair, said he quickly felt a connection with Chapman when they met on campus in January. Chapman wore Nike Air Force 1s and a zip-up Jordan brand jacket, prompting LeGrand to say, “Look at you, all swagged out!” The two laughed and the conversation flowed.“When somebody else has been through a rough patch or overcome adversity in their lives, and they’ve been able to get through it and impact people in a positive way, it makes you open up,” LeGrand said. “It makes you feel that sense of comfort.”During the interview, Chapman asked what LeGrand dreamed about, a question no one had ever asked him before. LeGrand said: “When I’m dreaming, I’m always on my feet. I’m never in a wheelchair.”Chapman said he learned empathy from his mother, and from his own pain. He still wrestles with the guilt and shame of his past, particularly for not being a better father. “What they had to go through at school, and people knowing that their dad was in trouble and got arrested,” he said. Chapman said it “crushes” him.Now, he said, “I’m just trying to make up for lost time. I feel like I was gone for about 15 years.”This year, Chapman moved from Kentucky to Brooklyn, 10 minutes from his son. When his new success makes him uncomfortable, he reminds himself that it helps him be the father he wants to be for his children.“We have really no issues at this point,” he said. “Still trying to just show them a better me.” More

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      Why College Basketball Teams Are Turning to Alumni to Find Coaches

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      Coaches of several N.C.A.A. tournament teams either attended their universities, like North Carolina’s Hubert Davis, or started their careers there, like Kansas’ Bill Self.NEW ORLEANS — Just before his senior season at Oklahoma State, Bill Self injured a knee while working as a basketball camp counselor at the University of Kansas. Each time he saw Larry Brown, who was then the Jayhawks’ coach, the limp got worse.Brown felt so badly for Self that when the camp ended he told Self that if there was ever anything he needed, he had only to ask. So Self did.“I said ‘I want to be your graduate assistant next year,’” Self said. “And he said, ‘You’re hired.’”It was not much of a job. Self read USA Today and passed along any articles he thought might interest his boss. He made sure a lane was reserved at a local bowling alley on game days, in case Brown wanted to blow off steam. And, mostly, he stayed out of the way.But during that year, Self built relationships — with an assistant athletic director, with a publicist, with the basketball secretary — and maintained them well enough that when Kansas’ head coaching job opened 17 years later, he had a small army of fans within the athletic department.“That probably played a role in me being able to come back here,” Self said.Taking advantage of those early connections hardly makes Self an outlier in college basketball, where it is increasingly common for former students, team managers, players and low-level assistants to have triumphant homecomings as head basketball coaches.Just look at the Final Four, where Self is joined by Villanova Coach Jay Wright, who caught the eye of Rollie Massimino when he worked his camps and returned to the Wildcats after building Hofstra into a N.C.A.A. tournament team. There’s also North Carolina’s Hubert Davis, who starred for the Tar Heels from 1988-92, then returned to Chapel Hill as an assistant after a lengthy N.B.A. career and dabbling in broadcasting. The other team here, Duke, will be coached next season by Jon Scheyer, a former captain of a national championship team and a current assistant who will succeed the retiring Mike Krzyzewski.Jon Scheyer, right, a captain on a Duke national championship team, will lead the Blue Devils after Mike Krzyzewski retires.Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesSimilar stories have dotted the entire bracket.Texas Tech’s Mark Adams, a 65-year-old basketball lifer, and Michigan’s Juwan Howard, a member of the fabled Fab Five who went on to have a decorated N.B.A. career, took their teams into the second weekend of the tournament with one thing in common: They were doing it at their alma maters.In all, 14 of the tournament’s 68 coaches were working at schools they either attended or began their coaching careers at. And the trend shows no sign of abating: Shaheen Holloway, the architect of St. Peter’s miraculous run to the East regional final this year, was hired on Wednesday by Seton Hall, the university where he starred as a slick point guard and later spent eight years as an assistant coach.Louisville, which has not won an N.C.A.A. tournament game since 2017, turned to Kenny Payne — a Knicks assistant and a reserve on Louisville’s 1986 title-winning team — to reverse the Cardinals’ fortunes. And at least six other people are taking over as head coaches at schools where they either played or served as an assistant.“I find myself watching the coaching carousel in all the sports, asking, ‘What’s their tie to the institution? Have they gone there before?’” said Nina King, the athletic director at Duke. “I think it’s something that we look at.”King said that while coaches who had no connection to Duke were discussed as Krzyzewski’s replacement, it was important to turn to someone from “the brotherhood,” where there was no shortage of possibilities, including the college coaches Bobby Hurley (Arizona State), Tommy Amaker (Harvard), Johnny Dawkins (Central Florida), Jeff Capel (Pittsburgh), Chris Collins (Northwestern), Kenny Blakeney (Howard) and Steve Wojciechowski (formerly of Marquette), or Quin Snyder of the Utah Jazz.Ultimately, Krzyzewski put his considerable thumb on the scale for Scheyer, who has continued to gain commitments from top recruits.“To be able to sit in a kid’s living room recruiting him and say ‘I’ve lived this — come throw in with me because I’ve lived Duke for X number of years,’ I think it’s important,” King said.Kenny Payne won a national title with Louisville as a player and left his job with the Knicks to try to revitalize the program.Timothy D. Easley/Associated PressAn increasing number of coaches can pitch more than a familial tie: They can cite N.B.A. experience. Often, though, that pro experience has not translated to the college game, where having connections to youth basketball power brokers are essential to recruiting elite talent. The job also requires glad-handing boosters and, more recently, navigating the transfer portal, duties that aren’t part of the N.B.A. ecosystem.It’s why former N.B.A. players like Clyde Drexler (Houston), Chris Mullin (St. John’s), Eddie Jordan (Rutgers) and Kevin Ollie (Connecticut) did not have enduring success at their alma maters, though Ollie did win a national championship before fizzling. And it is why Patrick Ewing has struggled at Georgetown, where his team lost its final 21 games this season.“Most of the guys that have been in the N.B.A., they’ve made so much money, they didn’t really care that much about coaching,” said Roy Williams, who retired last year as North Carolina’s coach after winning three national titles and cheered on Davis in Philadelphia last weekend.The Final Four in the Men’s and Women’s TournamentsCard 1 of 5The national semifinals. More

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      N.B.A. Basketball Returns to Chinese TV After a Long Absence

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      China Central Television stopped showing the games in 2019 after a Houston Rockets executive expressed support for pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong.China Central Television, China’s state-run TV network, has begun to broadcast N.B.A. games again, signaling that the rift between the league and the authoritarian government that has persisted since 2019 appears to be coming to an end.The news was first reported by Global Times, a state-run Chinese media outlet, and confirmed by a spokesman for the N.B.A.The first game this year on state TV, according to Global Times, was Tuesday night’s matchup between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Utah Jazz. According to Global Times, the broadcast was the start of a full return of the N.B.A. to China’s airwaves. The league has been almost entirely off the air on Chinese state television since 2019, except for a lone finals game in 2020. Games have been broadcasting on Tencent, a digital streaming platform based in China.“N.B.A. games have aired in China continuously for nearly 35 years, including this season on a number of other services,” Mike Bass, an N.B.A. spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday. “We believe broadcasting games to our fans in China and more than 200 other countries and territories is consistent with our mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the game of basketball.”The league said it was informed on the day the game was played that it would be broadcast.The dispute between China and the N.B.A. began in the fall of 2019, when Daryl Morey, then an executive with the Houston Rockets, shared an image supportive of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. He posted it just as the Los Angeles Lakers and the Nets were getting set to play a preseason game in China. The social media post angered the Chinese government, causing games to be pulled off the air and Chinese companies to pull sponsorships from the league.The league came under withering criticism at home from politicians all across the ideological spectrum because of what some saw as its deference to China. Morey later issued a statement saying he did not intend to cause offense and he was also rebuked by the owner of the Rockets, Tilman Fertitta. The league issued a statement that said it was “regrettable” that Morey’s post had offended many of the N.B.A.’s “friends and fans” in China. A Chinese translation of the N.B.A.’s statement suggested that the league was apologizing to the Chinese government, further feeding domestic criticism that the N.B.A.’s response was not forceful enough in standing behind Morey.“We have always supported and will continue to support members of the N.B.A. family expressing their views on social and political issues,” Bass said in his statement on Thursday.Since Morey’s post, the N.B.A. has often become a target for criticism, particularly from elected Republicans who have assailed the league’s willingness to make money off a repressive government accused of a litany of human rights violations.It wasn’t just the response to Morey that invited detractors. In 2020, ESPN reported that there was rampant abuse of children at basketball academies in Chinese-government-run facilities co-sponsored by the N.B.A. A league spokesman recently said that the league was no longer affiliated with those academies.The broadcasting of N.B.A. games on Chinese television opens up a revenue stream of hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the league. The league’s relationship with China came under more scrutiny in recent months as Enes Kanter Freedom, an N.B.A. center most recently with the Boston Celtics, criticized the Chinese government and the league for its business interests in the country. Freedom was traded by the Celtics to the Rockets, who cut him in February.Kristen Looney, an assistant professor of Chinese politics at Georgetown, said in an interview that the Chinese government’s decision may be a result of enough time passing or a larger geopolitical calculation.“It could mean that enough time has passed that things have kind of blown over,” Looney said. “From a macro perspective, it could mean that China is trying to signal that it still wants to maintain good economic relations with the United States despite differences in opinion on the Russia-Ukraine crisis. It’s possible that China is fearful that its close relationship with Russia would have ripple effects on its economic relations with the United States and the rest of the Western world that is on the side of Ukraine.”The N.B.A. has targeted China — and its population of 1.4 billion — for roughly a half-century. China now has more fans of the league than there are in the United States, a country of 330 million. Before the pandemic, the N.B.A.’s top stars routinely traveled to the country between seasons to promote sneakers. Since 2004, the N.B.A. has played dozens of games there.Adam Silver, the N.B.A.’s commissioner, has steadfastly maintained the N.B.A.’s position on China, despite the critics. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Silver said he believed the league was being unfairly singled out for criticism given how many companies in the United States do business with China.“Virtually every American uses products manufactured in China,” Silver said. “And in many cases, they are the products that we are most reliant on. Our computers, our phones, our clothes. Our shoes, our kids’ toys. So then the question becomes why is the N.B.A. being singled out as the one company that should now boycott China?” More

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      Wesley Matthews Does Dirty Work for Milwaukee Bucks

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      Wesley Matthews does the little things for the Milwaukee Bucks. “We talk about trying to make everything difficult,” said Coach Mike Budenholzer.PHILADELPHIA — After spending last season with the Los Angeles Lakers and the first few weeks of this season out of work, Wesley Matthews returned to the Milwaukee Bucks in early December. The day after he signed his new contract, he found himself coming off the bench for the team in a lopsided win over the Miami Heat.“Which was fine for me,” he said in an interview this week. “I like jumping into the fire.”Matthews was familiar with the Bucks and their system, having played for the team two seasons ago. But at this stage of his career, he seems more than willing to take on whatever responsibilities are asked of him. He rattled through the list: “Coming off the bench, starting, playing 20 minutes, playing 15 minutes, playing 30 minutes.”And for a player who grew up in Wisconsin and starred at Marquette, helping the Bucks repeat as N.B.A. champions would be a career-defining moment.“That would be a really great story, to put him in a position to achieve such a monumental goal,” the Bucks’ Pat Connaughton said.Make no mistake, contenders need players like Matthews: defense-minded veterans who ply their trade in the shadows. It should be noted that Giannis Antetokounmpo casts a particularly long shadow, and he was at his all-world best for the Bucks in their 118-116 win over the 76ers on Tuesday night, finishing with 40 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks, none more important than his game-saving swat of Joel Embiid’s layup attempt in the closing seconds.Matthews, on the other hand, assembled a smorgasbord of small delights. The Bucks were trailing by 10 when Matthews fought for an offensive rebound on the opening possession of the second half, the ball eventually finding its way to Brook Lopez for a layup and a 3-point play. A few minutes later, Matthews knocked down a 3-pointer.Matthews, 35, does not stuff a box score but he does countless little things every game to help his team win.Matt Slocum/Associated PressIn the fourth quarter, with Milwaukee’s comeback in full swing, Matthews met the 76ers’ James Harden at the scorer’s table so that he could help defend him for the game’s final 6 minutes 46 seconds. Matthews finished with 5 points, three rebounds and an inordinate number of hustle plays.“We talk about trying to make everything difficult, to make everybody earn everything they get on us,” Bucks Coach Mike Budenholzer said, “and he embodies that.”Not that he views his career this way, but Matthews has had brutal timing. When he was with the Bucks two seasons ago, the Lakers won it all. When Matthews joined the Lakers last season, they were undone by injuries and lost to the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the playoffs — while the Bucks won their first championship in 50 years.“I wanted them to win,” Matthews said. “Phoenix beat us, so I definitely didn’t want them to win, even though I’ve got friends over there. But yeah, I was happy for these guys, I was happy for the city, and I was happy for the state and the organization. Everybody’s good people.”Matthews, 35, coped with uncertainty at the start of the season, which began without him. He worked out by himself at home and kept in periodic contact with Jon Horst, the Bucks’ general manager, along with a few other teams. Matthews was fairly confident that his career was not finished — not yet, anyway.“You obviously don’t know anything for certain, but I had a good feeling,” he said. “It was just going to be a test of how badly I wanted it.”In some ways, he was accustomed to the grind. Back in 2009, he started his N.B.A. career the hard way — by going undrafted. He subsequently signed a nonguaranteed deal with the Utah Jazz, then spent his first couple of months with the team living out of a hotel. He later upgraded to a small apartment with a month-to-month lease. He has since earned more than $100 million over 13 seasons with seven teams.“He brings that energy, that tenacity, that camaraderie — a little bit of everything,” Connaughton said. “I think the ability to have an impact on the game, without necessarily scoring and without necessarily doing it with statistics, is super impressive. It’s something I’ve always admired.”Matthews, center, spent last season with the Los Angeles Lakers. The injury-riddled team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.Harry How/Getty ImagesThe Bucks were 23 games into their season when Matthews officially joined them on Dec. 3.Training camp? Forget it. Matthews had not even practiced when he took the court against the Heat.“I mean, you’re in the best shape you can be without playing in the N.B.A.,” he said. “I was working every day, staying ready for this moment, for this opportunity.”On Tuesday, Matthews was in the starting lineup so that he could match up with Harden for stretches — no small task. It was the first time the Bucks had faced the 76ers with Harden on their roster. Like many teams around the league, the 76ers are still figuring things out as they head toward the playoffs. The Bucks and the 76ers entered the game with identical 46-28 records, part of an enormous logjam near the top of the Eastern Conference.“We just need to get better continuity,” Doc Rivers, the coach of the 76ers, said before the game. “We haven’t been together long.”In fact, Rivers said he thought that there were only two teams that were fully prepared for the playoffs: the Bucks and the Suns, who faced each other in last season’s N.B.A. finals.“Those two teams know exactly who they are, and they know exactly what to do,” Rivers said. “They’ve been through the fire.”Back with the Bucks, Matthews has made it look as if he never left: defending, rebounding, energizing, winning. More

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      Kyrie Irving Makes His Brooklyn Return

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      With new vaccine rules in place, the Nets can finally play their star guard at Barclays Center.Kyrie Irving basked in it — a crowd eager for his return, and his belief that he had won the battle he fought this season against vaccine mandates. When asked about the game, after Sunday night’s 119-110 loss to the Charlotte Hornets, he smiled.He called it “historic” — being able to play for the Nets in Brooklyn. He said he had tried to stay grounded as he prepared for the warm reception he would receive.“I don’t take for granted what happened tonight,” Irving said.Just in time for baseball season, and for the N.B.A. playoffs, New York City created an exception to its private-sector coronavirus vaccine mandate that allows local athletes and performers to work in the city regardless of their vaccination status. That announcement on Thursday meant that Irving, who has declined to be vaccinated against Covid-19, could finally play at home.“Now we can move on,” Irving said. “Now that everybody can move on, especially in the locker room. Limited distractions, no fear. Next game we’ll be better.”His team, which began the season with championship expectations, is now fighting for a playoff berth. Irving’s return might give the Nets some stability, finally, after a season mostly without it. But in his first game back at Barclays Center, the Nets lost, and time is running out for them to develop the cohesion they will need to make a run this postseason.“This is the situation that we’re in,” forward Kevin Durant said. “Put our heads down and go to work. I mean, you know, it’s a challenge. Everybody’s going through challenges this season as a team. This is what we’ve got in front of us.”It had been nearly 10 months since Irving played in the Nets’ home arena. On Sunday night, the crowd of 18,166 people — a record number for a Nets game at Barclays Center — hailed him.Before the game, a fan shown on the video board simply yelled, “Kyrie,” stretching out the final vowel. Irving got the loudest cheer of any player when the starting lineups were introduced.Just before tipoff, he stood on the Nets’ logo at midcourt with the scoreboard camera fixed on him. The fans roared and Irving pointed up at them, turning to acknowledge each side of the arena.“It was great to see him out there,” Durant said. “Good to see the fans excited for him.”When Covid-19 vaccines became available, the N.B.A. created separate protocols, making it significantly easier for players who got a vaccine to stay active and participate in team activities. Although New York City’s law, and the N.B.A.’s insistence that teams follow local guidelines, had prevented Irving from playing at home, he was allowed to play on the road while observing stricter testing protocols.The Nets at first said they weren’t interested in a part-time participant, but then changed their mind. Since Jan. 5, Irving has been a part-time player, suiting up for road games.His stance against getting a coronavirus vaccine is unusual in the league. The N.B.A. and its players’ union now say 97 percent of players have been vaccinated and 75 percent have received a booster shot against the illness that has led to more than 40,000 reported deaths in New York City.Recently, as the city began loosening restrictions, Irving’s teammates began itching for his return for home games. Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, said the law didn’t make sense because it allowed unvaccinated players on visiting teams to play.On Thursday, suspiciously close to the start of baseball season, Mayor Eric Adams of New York announced an exception for local athletes and performers, setting up Irving’s Barclays debut.“It’s not just the talent that Kyrie has, the continuity he provides playing at home,” Coach Steve Nash said. “But the amount of minutes and the amount of burden in the roles that guys have to assume when he’s not here.”The date of his debut was not ideal. The Nets got home shortly before dawn on Sunday after playing Saturday night in Miami.Irving missed his first five shots and was 6 for 22, but that didn’t quiet the crowd’s vocal appreciation for him.“You feel the, kind of, anticipation,” Irving said.Irving missed his first five shots and was 6 for 22 in his return to Barclays Center.John Minchillo/Associated PressHe made only two of his first 17 shots, but was more efficient in the fourth quarter, making three shots in a row to tie the game at 104. He was fouled on his next attempt, and when he stood at the line, the crowd chanted his name.Early this season, even without Irving, the Nets found themselves in the top quarter of the conference, with Durant and James Harden contributing to wins. But they lost Durant for 21 consecutive games because of a knee injury. Harden was traded to Philadelphia in February for Ben Simmons, who has yet to play for the Nets.Only seven regular-season games remain for the Nets. They are now tied for eighth in the Eastern Conference and would rank ninth on tiebreakers if the season ended today. That is a seeding position that would require them to win two play-in games just to make it into the playoffs.It was noted to Nash that the Nets might now have a starting five they can count on having for the rest of the season. He smiled wryly at the suggestion.“We’re very hesitant to pretend that that’s just going to be the way it is,” he said.Their season has been too unstable for Nash to rely on that. More

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      Timberwolves Pushing Toward the NBA Playoffs

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      Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards have helped Minnesota improve over the last year, but the play-in tournament could add a fresh hurdle to their playoff bid.Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns played coy when a reporter asked if he had learned something about how to win tight, important games during his team’s 125-116 loss to the league-leading Phoenix Suns on Wednesday.“For sure, for sure,” Towns said, before pausing as if thinking about whether to reveal what exactly he’d learned.He thought better of it.“For sure,” he said, “there’s definitely something I realized.” He added, “I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”Towns is an unusually forthcoming interviewee for an N.B.A. star, but these days he has to make a calculation he’s rarely had to consider before: Whatever he reveals about his process could wind up offering an advantage to a playoff opponent.After nearly two decades of dwelling in the bottom half of the N.B.A.’s Western Conference, the Timberwolves (42-32) are establishing themselves as energetic, young newcomers who might have some staying power as a playoff contender. That is, if they can avoid the traps of the league’s play-in tournament.“We know we’re in this stretch where we’re playing all these top teams,” Timberwolves Coach Chris Finch said. “We said from the beginning when we started, this is what we wanted. We’re learning about ourselves. We’re learning what we need to do at this time of year to play against these teams.”With eight games remaining in the season, Minnesota has more wins than in all but one of the previous 16 seasons (2017-18). Two of those seasons were shorter than the standard 82 games: The Timberwolves played just 64 games in 2019-20 because of the pandemic, and 66 in 2011-12 because of a labor lockout. Even so, their winning percentage this year will be better than those shortened seasons even if they lose the last eight games.That 2017-18 season, with Jimmy Butler leading the way to a 47-35 record, was also the only one in the past 17 when the Timberwolves made the playoffs.Their postseason futility often earned them favorable draft positioning, including the No. 1 overall pick twice — in 2015, when they drafted Towns, and in 2020, when they drafted Anthony Edwards.Edwards has brought energy with his play and personality, averaging 21 points per game in his second N.B.A. season and thrilling both teammates and fans with his buoyancy, particularly before injuring his knee in January.Towns has embraced his leadership role. He’s been particularly effective in March, starting the month with a 39-point effort against the Golden State Warriors, and scoring 60 points last week against the San Antonio Spurs.The Timberwolves have relied on the veteran guard Patrick Beverley for his defense and the advice he can offer as someone with extensive playoff experience. Beverley has appeared in seven postseasons, including last year, when he was with a Clippers team that reached the Western Conference Finals. Minnesota’s growth from last season is apparent, but it has also progressed since earlier this season. Minnesota lost seven of its first 10 games and had a season-worst six-game losing streak during that span.But now, in March, the Timberwolves are 9-3 and have compiled winning streaks of four and six games since the All-Star break in February. They’ve hovered close to capturing at least the sixth-best record in the Western Conference, which is now the only way to ensure a playoff berth.In the past, the league would simply include the top eight seeds in each conference in the playoffs. But last season, the N.B.A. introduced a play-in tournament for the bottom of its playoff bracket. In it, the teams with the seventh- through 10th-best records in each conference play in a mini tournament for the final two playoff spots.The league liked the change so much it kept it this year, and it has created an uncommon level of late-season intrigue in both conferences. The Lakers, who have toggled between ninth and 10th place in the West, now have a cushion that gives them a second life even if they finish outside the top eight. For the Timberwolves, though, the play-in form has added a hurdle that didn’t exist through most of their playoff drought.Anthony Edwards is averaging 21 points in his second season. His energy has been critical to Minnesota’s success this year.Andy Clayton-King/Associated PressAs the standings sit now, the Timberwolves are the seventh seed and would host the eighth-seeded Clippers in their first play-in game. If Minnesota won, it would become the seventh seed in the playoffs. If it lost, it would play the winner of a game between the ninth and 10th seeds for the right to be the eighth seed in the playoffs.Last season, the format allowed the Memphis Grizzlies to sneak into the playoffs with play-in wins over San Antonio and Golden State, despite finishing the regular season with the ninth-best record in the West.Such a fate is perhaps a rude reward for a Timberwolves team that has taken such strides this season.Against the Suns on Wednesday, the Timberwolves saw what a team looks like when it has experience with closing and imposing its will. The Timberwolves led by 15 points in the third quarter, but were outscored by 22 in the second half. Technical and flagrant fouls called against Minnesota were part of the story, but so was Phoenix’s poise in its comeback effort.With a six-game lead over the eighth-seeded Clippers, the Timberwolves are unlikely to finish lower than seventh, but they trail the sixth-seeded Nuggets by just a game and a half.Capturing that sixth seed and being safely out of the play-in tournament will be challenging given the difficult schedule that remains. The Timberwolves have now lost consecutive games to the Mavericks and Suns. They’ll face Dallas again on Friday, then the Boston Celtics, who have gone 19-3 since the beginning of February. They’ll also face Chicago, Toronto and Denver — all in the top seven in their conferences — before the end of the season.Denver would have been in contention for the Western Conference title this season if not for injuries, particularly the one to point guard Jamal Murray. In their path, Finch, who was on the Nuggets staff during the 2016-17 season, sees a point of comparison for the Wolves about what can be required to become a fixture in the postseason picture.“It just takes time,” Finch said. “Especially when you have a young team, a young core.” More

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      Enes Kanter Freedom and the Consequences of Speaking Out

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      Enes Kanter Freedom has condemned human rights abuses in Turkey for years. Now he claims the N.B.A. is blackballing him as he focuses on abuses in China.“My activism actually started when I was 9 years old,” Enes Kanter Freedom told a rapt audience of pro-democracy activists that included Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion known for his opposition to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.Freedom was at the Olive Tree Cafe in Greenwich Village on Feb. 23, dressed in a sport coat over a dark T-shirt that read, “Freedom For ALL.”“My mom told me — I remember when I was a kid — ‘Believe in something and always stand up tall for it. Even if it means sacrificing everything you have.’”Freedom used to be known as Enes Kanter, a serviceable N.B.A. center who has publicly defied President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, where Freedom was raised. But in recent months, the player has made headlines mostly by calling out China’s human rights abuses and ripping the N.B.A. for doing business with the country. In November, he changed his name, choosing Freedom as his surname, and his activism now overshadows his identity as a player.It has also made him a political weapon that right-wing politicians and pundits have used to bludgeon the N.B.A. and its biggest star, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, a frequent conservative target whom Freedom has singled out for criticism.But Freedom’s allies aren’t just on the right. Many left-leaning pro-democracy activists, like those at the Greenwich Village event, have also embraced him. Because he brings attention to their cause, they have looked past his appearances with right-wing television hosts like Laura Ingraham, who welcomed Freedom on her show but once told James to “shut up and dribble.”At the moment, Freedom is not in the N.B.A. No team has signed him since he was traded and cut last month, and to hear him tell it, his activism is the reason. He has invited comparisons to Colin Kaepernick, the former N.F.L. quarterback who in 2016 began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and who has accused the N.F.L. of colluding to keep him out of the league.For decades, the N.B.A.’s plans for global expansion have included China, where there are more fans of the league than there are in the United States. Before the coronavirus pandemic, top N.B.A. stars routinely traveled there to promote shoe brands. China accounted for a steady stream of television and sponsorship revenue for the N.B.A. until the league’s relationship with the Chinese government frayed in 2019.Freedom declined to be interviewed by phone or in person, but agreed to answer questions over text message.“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize why I got little playing time and was released,” he said. “But it does take people with a conscience to speak out and say it’s not right.”The perception — whether true or not — that Freedom is being punished for his political beliefs has become pervasive among his allies.Jeffrey Ngo, a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist in Washington, said Freedom’s criticism of China “must have at least played a role” in his not playing.“All of a sudden there’s all this attention and people telling him to stop talking about it or there would be consequences,” Ngo said. “And then those consequences came.”Adam Silver, the commissioner of the N.B.A., said in an interview that the league’s position on China had not changed. He also denied that the league had blackballed Freedom, saying that comparisons to Kaepernick were “completely unfounded and unfair.”The Great ReadMore fascinating tales you can’t help but read all the way to the end.Brash and funny, Emily Nunn uses her popular Substack newsletter, The Department of Salad, to hold forth about ageism, politics and, oh yes, leafy greens.For years, a virus hunter worried about animal markets causing a pandemic. Now he’s at the center of the debate over Covid’s origins.A few years ago, Nicola Coughlan was working in an optician’s office in Ireland. Now, with “Bridgerton” and “Derry Girls,” she’s starring in two of the most beloved shows on Netflix.“We spoke directly about his activities this season,” Silver said, “and I made it absolutely clear to him that it was completely within his right to speak out on issues that he was passionate about.”Freedom said Silver characterized their conversation wrongly, but — in what has become a trend for him — he wouldn’t offer specifics.‘Always Full of Joy’Freedom never ended up playing for Kentucky but was still drafted into the N.B.A. with the No. 3 pick in 2011.James Crisp/Associated PressEarly in his career, Freedom gave little indication that he would become an outspoken human rights advocate.Raphael Chillious, then a Nike executive, first met Freedom at a basketball camp in Greece when Freedom was about 16. Freedom, who was born in Zurich, was one of the best rebounders on the floor — and shy, Chillious recalled.“I don’t think he was confident in his English at that point,” Chillious said. “So he wouldn’t initiate conversations.”Freedom played for a professional team in Turkey before going to the University of Kentucky in 2010. But because he had been paid by the Turkish team, the N.C.A.A. ruled him ineligible.“He was heartbroken,” Orlando Antigua, an assistant coach with the program, said through a university spokesperson. “It was very difficult. It was difficult for all of us.”Freedom instead served as a student assistant, improving his English by watching the Nickelodeon cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants.”The Utah Jazz selected him with the third overall pick in the 2011 draft even though he never played a college game. Brandon Knight, a college teammate, described Freedom as “super goofy” and “always full of joy.” After his rookie year, Freedom, no longer shy, posted a message on Twitter asking “for a blonde” to join him for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.“Once he got used to being here and around his teammates, he’s a really loyal guy,” said Tyrone Corbin, who coached Freedom on the Jazz.‘Shut Up and Stop Talking’A protest in front of the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee in February.Arnd Wiegmann/ReutersFreedom’s foray into public political activism began in 2016 with his denunciations of Erdogan, who detained thousands of people in Turkey after a failed military coup. Erdogan blamed the coup attempt on Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher and former ally. Freedom is Gulen’s supporter and friend, and he has referred to Erdogan as the “Hitler of our century.”Turkey canceled Freedom’s passport and issued a warrant for his arrest. Freedom’s father, Mehmet Kanter, wrote a letter disowning him and was later arrested, and acquitted, on terrorism charges in Turkey. Freedom has not been back to Turkey since 2015.A chance encounter at a basketball camp in New York last summer turned the player’s attention to China.“I took a picture with this kid, and her parents called me out in front of everybody and said, ‘How can you call yourself a human-rights activist when your Muslim brothers and sisters are getting tortured and raped every day in concentration camps in China?’” Freedom told the crowd at the Olive Tree, referring to allegations commonly made by Uyghur rights activists of abuses by China in Xinjiang, a region in northwest China. The State Department, under the Trump administration, labeled it genocide, and the Biden administration has maintained that position.Freedom, who is Muslim but knew little about the Uyghurs, threw himself into the cause. Tahir Imin, a Uyghur activist in Washington who met Freedom at a Capitol Hill rally, said that Freedom “boosted the morale of Uyghur activism.”That was just over a week after Freedom opened the N.B.A. season with the Boston Celtics, in October. Ahead of their first game, Freedom posted a video on Twitter with a caption referring to China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as a “brutal dictator.” During the game, he wore shoes designed by the Chinese dissident artist Badiucao that said “Free Tibet,” referring to the region Chinese troops invaded and seized in 1951. The N.B.A.’s response, Freedom said, was to try to silence him. In several media appearances after that game, he said two league officials demanded that he take off the shoes, and he refused. At the Olive Tree, he changed the story, saying the officials were with the Celtics.He also said the N.B.A. players’ union separately tried to get him to stop wearing the shoes.“Instead of advocating on my behalf, I have encountered the union telling me I need to shut up and stop talking about the human rights violations in China,” Freedom said to The New York Times.Freedom’s story is difficult to corroborate because he would not disclose the names of his antagonists. The union would not comment on the specifics, but said in a statement that it supported Freedom and other players’ speaking out on important issues.Brad Stevens, the president of basketball operations for the Celtics, said team staff members merely asked whether the shoes were a violation of the league dress code.“Even the next day, I just walked up to him and said, ‘Hey, you always have our support to freely express yourself and say what you want,’” Stevens said. Freedom confirmed this exchange.Even if Freedom’s criticisms were not an issue for the Celtics, they have hit a sore spot in China. Tencent, which streams N.B.A. games in China, pulled Celtics games, evoking memories of 2019, when China stopped broadcasting N.B.A. games on its state television network after a Houston Rockets executive shared a Twitter image supportive of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. The Chinese government was outraged, and the N.B.A. drew bipartisan criticism in the United States for what some saw as a weak response.The N.B.A. said the 2019 episode cost the league hundreds of millions of dollars. Silver, the commissioner, said that he wants the N.B.A. to normalize relations with China, despite the criticism. “Virtually every major U.S. company” does business there, he said.“So then the question becomes,” Silver added, “why is the N.B.A. being singled out as the one company that should now boycott China?”The league did, however, recently pull business out of Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. The difference between China and Russia, Silver said, was that the U.S. government instituted an economic boycott of Russia.“It’s very difficult for the league to practice foreign policy,” Silver said.‘Money Over Morals’Shoes Freedom has worn with protest slogans during games.Getty Images and Associated PressFreedom has criticized some iconic players, including Michael Jordan, who owns the Charlotte Hornets, and James, the Lakers star, for their business with Nike, which has deep ties to China. During a game against Charlotte on Oct. 25, Freedom wore white Nike Air Jordans that said “Hypocrite Nike” and “Made With Slave Labor.” The Washington Post reported in 2020 that some Nike shoes were being made with Uyghur labor. (In a statement at the time, Nike said that it was “concerned” about reports of forced labor, but that the company did not find any Uyghur labor or that of other ethnic minorities from the region in its supply chain.)Freedom has accused James of choosing “money over morals” by associating with Nike, and he wore custom shoes that mocked James — much to the delight of prominent Republicans who have attacked James, who is Black, for his social justice advocacy. A spokesman for James declined to comment, and a representative for Jordan did not respond to an inquiry.As Freedom’s new identity and activism have raised his profile, he has drawn a backlash for his choice of targets and allies.In December, the former N.B.A. player Jeremy Lin announced that he would play for the Beijing Ducks for the 2021-22 season, drawing a stinging reply from Freedom.“Haven’t you had enough of that Dirty Chinese Communist Party money feeding you to stay silent?” Freedom wrote on Twitter. “How disgusting of you to turn your back against your country & your people.”Lin, who is Taiwanese-American, was born in Torrance, Calif., and the suggestion that Lin’s country was not the United States was met with disapproval on social media.In late November, Freedom appeared on Fox News with Tucker Carlson, the conservative host who has frequently denigrated immigrants and social justice activists. Freedom had just become an American citizen, and Carlson asked him whether people who grew up in America were as likely to “appreciate the freedoms” offered by the United States. Freedom’s response — that American critics “should just keep their mouth shut and stop criticizing the greatest nation in the world” — seemed to please Carlson, but clashed with Freedom’s portrayal of himself as a champion of free expression.Uriel Epshtein, an executive director at the Renew Democracy Initiative, which hosted Freedom at the Olive Tree, said the criticisms of Freedom’s appearance on Carlson are “relevant,” but “they pale in comparison to the simple fact that Enes has taken unbelievable personal, professional and security risks to do what he thinks is right.”The Carlson appearance, combined with Freedom’s attacks on James and Jordan, who is also Black, brought a sharp response from, among others, the journalist Jemele Hill.“Taking shots at prominent Black athletes who have done significant social-justice work will not help Freedom advance freedom,” Hill wrote in a column for The Atlantic. “All he’s doing is empowering right-wingers who delight in silencing social-justice advocates.”Freedom has also been criticized for agreeing to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, which this year hosted several conspiracy theorists and election results deniers. He later backed out, saying he needed to focus on basketball.‘I Don’t Want to Retire’Charles Krupa/Associated PressIn February, the Celtics traded Freedom to Houston, which immediately waived him. Stevens, the Celtics executive, said the trade “was a basketball-driven decision, one thousand percent.”The Rockets declined to comment.Sen. Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, said Freedom’s release was a “disgusting example” of the N.B.A.’s “cowardly appeasement toward Communist China.” Freedom reposted the Twitter messages of other elected Republicans who expressed similar sentiments. Others on the right have explicitly likened Freedom to Kaepernick.The comparison is, at best, inexact. Some in the N.F.L.’s largely white fan base have described the protest of Kaepernick, who is biracial, as unpatriotic — even though he began kneeling during the national anthem at the suggestion of a former Green Beret. Freedom’s criticisms of the Chinese government, though pointed and perhaps irritating to the league, are largely popular in the United States.The athletes are different, too. Kaepernick was four seasons removed from a trip to the Super Bowl as a starting quarterback. Freedom, a journeyman center, is a strong rebounder with a soft touch around the rim. But his plodding, physical style of play has fallen out of favor in the N.B.A., which is now weighted toward shooters who are fast and can play multiple positions. Freedom is none of those things, and he struggles defensively. The Celtics signed him to a minimum contract to be a situational backup center before he began his China activism. He averaged 11.7 minutes in 35 contests — roughly in line with what a player in that role would receive — and scored 3.7 points a game.Freedom was not the least skilled player in the league when he was cut, but his role on N.B.A. teams began to shrink well before his China activism. He has not been a full-time starter since 2018. And many other players who have talents more suited than his to the current style of play also are not in the league.At the Olive Tree, a man in the audience asked Freedom what he wanted to do next.“I don’t want to retire at the age of 29,” Freedom said.“Sometimes,” he added, “sacrifice is a very important word, so there are bigger things.”Mike Wilson More