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      Kyrie Irving Defends Decision on Vaccine After Being Benched

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      Kyrie Irving, the N.B.A. star who has been indefinitely barred from practicing or playing with the Brooklyn Nets because of his refusal to get the Covid-19 vaccine, spoke out publicly on Wednesday night for the first time since the team decided to keep him off the court, saying his refusal was a matter of personal freedom.“You think I really want to lose money?” Irving, who is set to earn about $40 million in salary this season, said on his Instagram feed in a meandering monologue that included incorrect medical information. More than 90 percent of players in the league are vaccinated, a proportion much higher than in the general population of the United States.“You think I really want to give up on my dream to go after a championship?” Irving, 29, said. “You think I really just want to give up my job? You think I really want to sit at home?”On Tuesday, the Nets said they had barred Irving from playing until he becomes “eligible to be a full participant.” New York City requires most teenagers and adults to have at least one vaccination shot to enter facilities such as sports arenas, and Irving has not practiced with the Nets in Brooklyn. Irving joined the Nets in 2019 as they built a team of superstars that includes Kevin Durant and James Harden.Irving asked that his decision to remain unvaccinated be respected and said that he has no plans to retire. He couched his refusal to get vaccinated in his opposition to mandates, saying nobody should be “forced” to do it.Irving falsely claimed his decision to remain unvaccinated does not harm other people. The highly contagious Delta variant has quickly spread in areas with low vaccination rates. And hospitals in those areas have been overrun with unvaccinated patients, leaving few beds and staff members to treat other patients. More

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      Nets Bar Kyrie Irving Until He's Vaccinated

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      The barring of Irving complicates what looked like a surefire path to the finals for the Nets and could set up a battle with the players’ union.Kyrie Irving was supposed to be the starting point guard of the N.B.A.’s next dynasty. He was going to use his superb ball-handling skills to dish passes to Kevin Durant and James Harden, and together this Big Three would turn the Nets into champions season after season for years to come.Sure, Irving had suggested that the Earth was flat. But he had also delivered a championship to Cleveland alongside LeBron James, and he was a perennial All-Star. The Nets could stand a little quirkiness in pursuit of greatness.The Covid-19 vaccine, and Irving’s refusal to take it, could turn all of that upside down.As vaccine mandates roil workplaces across the country, a high-stakes stalemate in the N.B.A. took a dramatic turn on Tuesday when the Nets issued Irving an ultimatum: Get the shot, or stay home. In the process, the team has drawn a stark line over the issue of the vaccine with one of the more high-profile sports celebrities who has refused to get it.“Without a doubt, losing a player of Kyrie’s caliber hurts,” Sean Marks, the Nets’ general manager, said at a news conference. “I’m not going to deny that. But at the end of the day, our focus, our coaches’ focus and our organization’s focus needs to be on those players that are going to be involved here and participating fully.”Irving, 29, had faced the prospect of being able to play only on the road with the Nets this season because of local coronavirus ordinances in New York that require most individuals to be at least partially vaccinated to enter facilities such as sports arenas. The Nets play their home games at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.Marks said the decision to bar Irving from all games and practices had been made by himself and by Joe Tsai, the Nets’ owner.“Will there be pushback from Kyrie and his camp? I’m sure that this is not a decision that they like,” Marks said. “Kyrie loves to play basketball, wants to be out there, wants to be participating with his teammates. But again, this is a choice that Kyrie had, and he was aware of that.”The Nets’ decision to sit Irving for the road games that he is eligible to play in sets the stage for a potential battle between the team and the players’ union, which had already been pushing back on the league’s plan to dock the pay of unvaccinated players for games they miss because of ordinances in their home cities.Irving, a union vice president, is due to lose about $380,000, or around 1 percent of his base pay for the 2021-22 season, for every home game he misses. Marks said Irving would still be paid for road games this season. The N.B.A. players’ union did not respond to a request for comment.Irving has not spoken publicly about his vaccination status, asking instead for privacy, and the Nets danced around the topic for weeks until Tuesday. In response to a question from The New York Times about whether Irving was vaccinated, Marks said: “If he was vaccinated, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I think that’s probably pretty clear.”Although the union said last week that 96 percent of players had been vaccinated, a few have expressed hesitancy and most have not actively campaigned for others to be vaccinated. In late September, James, the game’s most famous player, said that he had gotten vaccinated after months of skepticism.“I think everyone has their own choice to do what they feel is right for themselves and their family,” James said.In his most recent public comments, Irving insisted that getting the shot was a matter of privacy.“Everything will be released at a due date and once we get this cleared up,” Irving said during a virtual meeting with reporters on Sept. 27, adding: “I’m a human being first. Obviously, living in this public sphere, it’s just a lot of questions about what’s going on in the world of Kyrie. I think I just would love to just keep that private, handle it the right way with my team and go forward together with the plan.”Irving has long been known as one of the league’s more mercurial figures, expressing unconventional opinions on a variety of topics since he joined the Cleveland Cavaliers as the top overall draft pick in 2011.But he also has outsize influence within the league, and he led a bloc of players who disagreed with the N.B.A.’s decision to resume the 2019-20 season in a Florida bubble because of the pandemic, expressing concern that the move would limit the players’ social justice efforts after the police killing of George Floyd.Last season, Irving missed several games for unspecified personal reasons. During one of the stints when he was away from the team, video surfaced of him attending his sister’s birthday party without a mask, in violation of the league’s health and safety protocols. A few days later, while his teammates were preparing to play against the Denver Nuggets, he appeared on a Zoom call for supporters of the Manhattan district attorney candidate Tahanie Aboushi.Still, Irving’s talents seemed to overshadow any distraction. Despite having little time to develop on-court chemistry because of injuries and other absences last season, the Nets appeared primed for a deep playoff run. But injuries to Irving and Harden hindered the Nets’ postseason hopes, and they lost to the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.The Nets are still contenders this season — with or without Irving — though his presence would clearly help.But Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks play, require all employees and guests 12 and older to show proof of having received at least one vaccine dose, to comply with a city mandate, unless they have a religious or medical exemption. San Francisco has a similar requirement that applies to Chase Center, where the Golden State Warriors play. The mandates in both cities mean that the players from the Knicks, Nets and Golden State cannot play in their teams’ 41 home games during the regular season without being vaccinated.The ordinances in New York and San Francisco do not apply to players from visiting teams. Jonathan Isaac of the Orlando Magic and Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards, for example, have been vocal about their refusals to be vaccinated.Either way, unvaccinated players face a host of rules and restrictions this season. With limited exceptions, they are required to remain at home or at the team hotel when they are not at games or practices. They also are not permitted to eat with vaccinated teammates, who have far more freedom to dine out and interact with the public.Golden State’s Andrew Wiggins was unvaccinated when he arrived for training camp but relented when he was faced with the local ordinances that would have barred him from games and cost him a great deal of money.“The only options were to get vaccinated or not play in the N.B.A.” Wiggins said after Golden State’s preseason opener this month. “It was a tough decision. Hopefully, it works out in the long run and in 10 years I’m still healthy.”For now, Irving has remained steadfast. In the past, he stated that he wants his legacy to be about service rather than his work as a basketball player. He has gone to great efforts in that regard, although many of his inroads are outside any media spotlight.Irving purchased a home for Floyd’s family, according to the former N.B.A. player Stephen Jackson. During the W.N.B.A.’s bubble season, Irving started an initiative to provide $1.5 million to players who did not participate and would not be paid. His K.A.I. Family Foundation also teamed with City Harvest to donate 250,000 meals in New York.On Tuesday, Marks said he would be willing to welcome Irving’s return to the team “under a different set of circumstances.” More

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      Candace Parker Is the Calm, and the Storm, for the Chicago Sky

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      Parker has known both adversity and success in her long W.N.B.A. career. The mix has become a potent weapon as the Sky vie for their first championship.It was a loaded way to start the W.N.B.A. finals.Commissioner Cathy Engelbert was on hand in Phoenix before tipoff of Game 1 Sunday between the Chicago Sky and the Phoenix Mercury to honor the 25 best players in league history, as decided by media members and “women’s basketball pioneers and advocates.” Engelbert also recognized Mercury guard Diana Taurasi, one of the 25, as the greatest player of all time, as voted by fans. But amid the hubbub at center court, Sky forward Candace Parker, also among the 25, looked on from the bench. Here she was, in her 14th season, vying for the second championship of her W.N.B.A. career in her first year with a new team.In the off-season, Parker, 35, a native of Naperville, Ill., signed with the Sky after 13 seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks. Her home state crowd welcomed her with open arms.For Lorri Gyenes, a Sky season ticket-holder affectionately known as Sky Mayor Redhead Lorri, getting to witness Parker’s “full-circle story” is the stuff of dreams.“Everyone knew that Candace was special in high school,” Gyenes said. “The Sky were unable to draft Candace, but I hoped that we could trade Elena Delle Donne for her back in the day — largely for her skill, but also for her ability to sell tickets.”When a Delle Donne trade didn’t happen — she was instead sent to Washington — Gyenes wrote off the idea of ever getting to see Parker play in Sky blue.“It is so excellent now to have Candace return home,” Gyenes said. “Not only is she a legend, she can still play. She is also a superstar beyond women’s basketball. Everyone knows her. She brings so much attention and respect to our organization.”And then there is the matter of Parker’s leadership. The Sky’s Kahleah Copper credits Parker for challenging her daily and expressing faith in her abilities. The result for Copper has been increased confidence that has been evident all season in her electric and speedy drives to the hoop. It is appropriate, then, that Copper, not Parker, emerged from the Sky’s 91-77 win in Game 1 in Phoenix as the top scorer, with 21 points.After trailing in the first, Chicago bounced back, allowing only 10 points in the second quarter of Game 1 of the W.N.B.A. finals.Rebecca Noble for The New York TimesAfter the game, Parker described how she has grown over her career. “I think it’s the biggest thing for me that I don’t think I understood when I was younger is that you have to be the calm for the storm and you have to be the storm when everyone’s calm,” she said.Copper and Sky Coach James Wade told reporters that Parker was the only player to suit up for Game 1 without pre-finals jitters. But Parker said that wasn’t the case. “I don’t care how many you’ve been to, there’s still the jitters you’re going to get, so that’s not true,” she said. But her experience in these high-pressure moments helped to her shake off the nervous energy.“There’s no reason to flip out,” Parker said.The Mercury jumped to an early lead and held a 5-point advantage after the first quarter. The Sky’s ability to stay calm, however, enabled them to stun the Mercury in the second quarter, when Chicago outscored Phoenix, 26-10.Parker praised her teammates for how they have handled adversity this season. As much as the team learned about its potential from a seven-game regular-season winning streak, Parker said she believed the Sky learned even more from the seven straight losses they tallied while she was out with an injury. If the Sky could overcome those losses, finish the season with a 16-16 record, make the playoffs as the sixth seed, and make it to the finals, Parker said they would be able to overcome whatever difficulties the final brings.“I think that’s the biggest thing during the playoffs is bouncing back and fighting through adversity,” she said. “I think we know our potential. We know how we can play and how we want to play, and we know our identity.”But Parker’s familiarity with adversity precedes her time in Chicago.Her blockbuster move to the Sky left Sparks fans stunned. Since Parker’s 2008 rookie season, when she won both the Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year Awards, her name had been synonymous with the team. And with Parker still playing incredible basketball well into her 30s, winning the Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2020 and helping the Sparks to a No. 3 playoff seed, the Los Angeles fan base believed another championship banner in the Parker era was possible.But when the Parker era in L.A. ended without another championship, people needed someone to blame, and it wasn’t her. That person was Coach Derek Fisher, who infamously benched Parker during the deciding game of the 2019 semifinals.Kahleah Copper, right, has credited Parker for helping her build confidence this season.Rebecca Noble for The New York TimesSpeculation about when Parker might retire began circulating after the 2019 season. Instead of hanging up her high tops, Parker showed in the 2020 season just how much juice she has left. Months later, in an introductory news conference with the Sky, Parker said, “The lessons I’ve learned being gone have brought me back home.”Parker averaged 13.3 points per game during the regular season, second behind Copper for Chicago, and led the Sky in per-game rebounds (8.4) and blocks (1.2). She has held steady across seven playoff games that included two single-elimination matchups. In a decisive semifinal victory over the top-seeded Connecticut Sun, Parker had 17 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists to help secure a surprising upset for a Sky team that, with a .500 record, was not assured of making the playoffs.By carrying the Sky this season to within two wins of a championship, Parker has again demonstrated her staggering heights. Parker was criticized for the first eight years of her career for failing to lead the Sparks to third franchise title, which she did in 2016.Now, she hopes to finish closing the circle, on her season and potentially on her career, with a title. But, win or lose, Parker’s impact in Chicago is a surprise to no one, not even within the Sparks organization.“Candace Parker is a prime example of creating your own success story, for herself and the W.N.B.A.,” said Fred Williams, a Sparks assistant coach. “She is a game-changer for women’s sports and for the W.” More

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      Rucker Park, a Basketball Mecca, Gets New Life

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      As a child, Michele Roberts occasionally found herself at Holcombe Rucker Park when her older brothers, who were supposed to be babysitting her at home in the South Bronx, would take her to Harlem instead.Roberts could not see over the heads of those who stacked the park’s sidelines shoulder-to-shoulder. But she soaked in the excitement and energy from the crowd, the laughter from the bellies, the yelling from the lungs, in what amounted to one large block party at West 155th Street and what was then known just as Eighth Avenue, with basketball as the eternal soundtrack.“If you grew up in New York probably ever, but certainly in the ’60s and ’70s when I grew up, you could not help but understand what the Rucker meant to New York basketball,” said Roberts, 63, now the executive director of the N.B.A. players’ union.Over generations, the asphalt court honed its reputation as a siren calling and name-making mecca for soon-to-be N.B.A. legends like Wilt Chamberlain, Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Julius Erving, who went by the nickname the Claw at the park long before he was known as Dr. J. They mixed with playground legends whose colorful nicknames matched their outsize games: Earl “the Goat” Manigault, Herman “the Helicopter” Knowings, “Jumpin’” Jackie Jackson and Pee Wee Kirkland.“If you’re a hooper, your dream was to play at that park,” said Corey Williams, who goes by the nickname Homicide and turned impressive performances at the Rucker and other playgrounds into a lengthy international professional career. “Everybody wanted it.”Roberts visited Rucker Park after moving back to New York when she became the executive director of the players’ union in 2014.She wondered if her memories had deceived her into a sunny nostalgia. Rucker Park, in her estimation, looked decrepit, with the blacktop cracked and uneven and the bleachers in disarray.Teams play at Rucker Park during the summer before renovations.“The notion that the park would be in any state of disrepair is a heartbreaker to me,” she said.When Roberts asked members of the players’ union’s executive committee if they had interest in renovating the Greg Marius Court at Rucker Park, the players asked how soon they could begin.In August, the players’ union announced it had joined with the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, among others, to give the court a substantial face-lift that would cost $520,000 and to create a recreation position for Rucker Park and the nearby Jackie Robinson Recreation Center.Crews worked on the court starting in August, leveling the asphalt and installing black bleachers, a state-of-the-art scoreboard and N.B.A. custom baskets donated by Spalding. The new black-and-gold court features a mural designed by ASAP Ferg, an artist and Harlem native, and produced by Set Free Richardson, an artist and filmmaker.The court formally reopened on Saturday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, youth basketball clinics and games. Williams, now a commentator for the Australian National Basketball League, served as the M.C. for the reopening, which was attended by Erving, Kirkland, Nate Archibald and a number of others who had forged their reputations on the court.“It’s something that needs to be preserved,” Williams said. “You treat Rucker Park like you treat Central Park, the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty. The red tour buses come to Harlem and go to that park. It’s iconic. It’s a landmark in New York City. It’s a staple. That is the Madison Square Garden of street basketball courts in the world.”The goal of the players’ union is to restore the park as a community asset and attract N.B.A. players.Not long ago, players like Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson and Vince Carter made the pilgrimage to West 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard to a court that is tiny in area, but large in cultural and historical significance.“It’s paved the way for so many people,” Williams said. “It’s gotten people out of trouble. Crime stopped for four hours, four days a week in that area. It’s no secret it’s across the street from one of the most dangerous housing projects in New York City, the Polo Grounds. But when those games were on, everybody stopped.”Roberts said that the renovation would also extend the legacies of those who brought fame to the park and court.“The basketball players, the kids that are aspiring to be in the N.B.A. or just love the game who may live in the vicinity of the park and may not fully appreciate its history, and if that’s the case, then we hope that this project will revive the history,” she said. “We’ll be telling the history.”Holcombe Rucker, a playground director, established a youth basketball league and summer tournament nearly 70 years ago to keep children away from temptation even as others warned him to disregard a sport designed for the winter.Crews spent about two months renovating. Michele Roberts, below, the executive director of the N.B.A. players’ union, checked in on the progress.Rucker mentored children, building a program from scratch, always keeping his busy schedule in his pocket. As his tournament gained in popularity and the Rucker League transformed into a summer pro-am, Rucker managed his connections to secure hundreds of college scholarships for the teenagers he viewed as students before athletes.He died of cancer in 1965 before he turned 40. The park was renamed after him as the Holcombe Rucker Playground in 1974. It’s commonly referred to as Rucker Park or just the Rucker.Chris Rucker, Holcombe Rucker’s grandson, said that “the park is a symbol and reference point to what my grandfather did and what he accomplished over the years, so without a basketball court in good working order, the legacy wouldn’t be complete.”He added, “Rucker Park is as much a part of the Harlem community as the Apollo Theater.”By the 1980s, N.B.A. players had mostly stopped playing at Rucker Park out of fear of risking their increasingly lucrative contracts.Greg Marius, a former hip-hop artist, revitalized the atmosphere by starting the Entertainers Basketball Classic in 1982. Soon, he invited pros back, enlivening the experience with the addition of bombastic play-by-play callers, booming hip-hop soundtracks and corporate sponsors.Marius died at 59 in 2017. That June, Mayor Bill de Blasio named Rucker Park’s basketball court the Greg Marius Court.Stacey Marius, Greg’s sister, said that her brother “had this vision of bringing his love for hip-hop and basketball and getting them together and having tournaments, but in a place where it was a high-profile tournament that everybody could enjoy.”Some believed that part of the purity Rucker had striven for suffered when the park was commercialized. But the stars returned, and not just on the court. Former President Bill Clinton once stopped by to watch the action. Hip-hop luminaries like Fat Joe and Diddy backed teams.“You come in that park, and while the tournament is on, you might be able to see any star,” said Gus Wells, the chief executive of Entertainers 155, which operates the street ball tournament. “You’ll see N.B.A. players playing out there. You will see a celebrity sitting in the audience out there. And the biggest thing is it’s for free. You can’t get that for free basically nowhere else like that.”N.B.A. players learned through the decades that they could not just own the court by reputation alone. Bryant, the former Los Angeles Lakers superstar who died last year, earned both cheers and jeers from a lively crowd during his 2002 appearance.Tim Gittens, a Harlem native, earned his nickname — Headache — at the park and is now an assistant coach for the W.N.B.A.’s Dallas Wings.“All these guys came down there because it was basically mano a mano,” he said, “with you against somebody, not being told how to run a set, but your best skill against my best skill, and your knowledge against my knowledge, on this even playing field where the crowd can become an opponent too.”Julius Erving and the rappers Fat Joe and ASAP Ferg spoke at the park’s reopening after renovations.He added, “You was pushed into a different level of playing because you didn’t want to fail in front of all of these people, and you want them to see you perform, because it gave you so much more energy and more life, and then your legend grew.”Wells recalled the time Carter, who recently retired after a 22-year N.B.A. career, matched against Adrian Walton, better known as Whole Lotta Game. “He was shocked that a little 18-year-old kid was giving it to him like that,” Wells said. “He had to tie his sneakers a little tighter.”The former N.B.A. All-Star Baron Davis made sure to get some shots up on the court the evening before he played at Rucker Park, Gittens said.Wells recalled that in 2011, Kevin Durant made an appearance at Rucker Park during the N.B.A.’s lockout and amassed 66 points in a memorable performance.“You would think this was video for a movie, because every time he came down, they made sure he got the ball, and he was just firing it from way beyond the 3-point line,” Wells said. “It wasn’t like he was off. It was automatic.”Jamar Jones, whose nickname is Papa, was anticipating playing on the renovated court after its reopening Saturday. He has witnessed players like Bryant, Durant and Klay Thompson performing there.For Jones, a 16-year-old resident of Harlem, it’s still just his home park, the one he has played at ever since he can remember. The renovation has meaning for him beyond just the return of celebrities and N.B.A. players.He is looking forward to sharpening his game on a functional court.“It was kind of tough, because one side of the court was uneven, so if you would run downhill, one side would be deeper than the other,” Jones said. “It would be hard to shoot if you would go to the corner.”He added, “So I’m excited.”Wells is hopeful that the renewed interest in Rucker Park will restore the court’s allure.In recent years, Wells said, some summer tournaments that used to come to the Harlem court have started to go elsewhere.“It’s not just the renovation,” Wells said. “It’s all the relationships that will hopefully come back and support the brands that’s out there and the tournament’s that’s out there, and that will help bring back the mystique of what it was and what it is. It needs the relationships and the connections with other brands and the support. It needs to have the support that we used to have.”That mystique may be gone. But Rucker Park has always been home to true ballers who forge their identities, as Williams said.“We don’t care who you are,” he said. “We don’t care what you do. We don’t care where you from. We don’t care about your accolades and credibility in the N.B.A. It’s just us today in the park. That’s why that park is special. We don’t come there giving you roses. You got to earn it. Many players came to that park and got booed. Trust me. Many of them.” More

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      18 Former N.B.A. Players Are Charged in $4 Million Insurance Fraud Scheme

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      Federal prosecutors said Glen Davis, Sebastian Telfair and Tony Allen were among the players involved in a plot to file millions of dollars’ worth of fraudulent medical claims.Greg Smith had been out of the National Basketball Association for about two years in December 2018, when the former power forward for the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks had what appeared to be a long day at a dental office in Beverly Hills. Invoices submitted on his behalf showed that he received IV sedation and root canals, and had crowns placed on eight teeth.But the invoices, totaling $47,900, were fake, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Thursday. Mr. Smith was actually thousands of miles from California, playing basketball in Taiwan at the time, the prosecutors said, adding that they had evidence to prove it, including box scores showing he had appeared in games there.Mr. Smith was one of 18 former N.B.A. players who were charged in what federal authorities portrayed as a brazen conspiracy to defraud a health care program extended to current and former N.B.A. players.The claims submitted by another defendant, Sebastian Telfair — a Brooklyn high school legend who went on to a journeyman’s professional career — suggested truly woeful dental problems. His claims showed he had received root canals on 17 teeth in a year’s time, the indictment said. He pleaded not guilty on Thursday and was released on bond.“The defendant’s playbook involved fraud and deception,” Audrey Strauss, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a news conference on Thursday announcing the charges.“Their alleged scheme has been disrupted and they will have to answer for their flagrant violations of law,” Ms. Strauss said.She and Michael J. Driscoll, the head of the F.B.I.’s New York office, each added that the investigation was continuing.The prosecutors said that the former players — and one player’s spouse who was also charged — submitted claims totaling $3.9 million, and they ultimately received about $2.5 million in fraudulent proceeds.While none of the defendants were superstars, several were well-known players, like the defensive stalwart Tony Allen, and Ronald Glen Davis, who went by his middle name and was nicknamed “Big Baby.” Both played on the Boston Celtics team that won the N.B.A. championship in 2008. Another defendant, Terrence Williams, who prosecutors said had orchestrated the scheme, found some success during his college years at the University of Louisville but had an unremarkable professional career after being drafted in the first round by the New Jersey Nets in 2009.Mr. Williams also received kickbacks of at least $230,000 from 10 of the former players accused of participating in the scheme, the indictment said. The defendants were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, and Mr. Williams was also charged with aggravated identity theft. The conspiracy count carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, the government said. Lawyers for many of the defendants could not immediately be identified on Thursday for comment. Mr. Telfair’s lawyer, Deborah A. Colson, declined to comment.In a statement, the N.B.A. called the allegations “particularly disheartening” and said it would cooperate fully with the investigation. The league’s players union said it was aware of the indictment and was monitoring the case.According to the indictment, Mr. Williams first submitted a fraudulent claim seeking reimbursement of $19,000 for services he purportedly received from a chiropractor in Encino, Calif. After the claim was approved and he received $7,672, he began to recruit others, the indictment said.Some of the medical claims made by the former players were identical, straining credulity, prosecutors suggested.Mr. Davis, Mr. Allen and a third defendant, Tony Wroten, for example, all claimed to have had root canals on the same six teeth on the same date in April 2016 — and crowns on those teeth a month later, the indictment said.Some of the claims filed as part of the scheme resulted in large reimbursements, prosecutors said. Four of the former players were each paid more than $200,000 after claiming to have visited the same chiropractor Mr. Williams had, according to the indictment. One of the four, Shannon Brown, received $320,000. Glen Davis, a fan favorite during a long career in the N.B.A., was among 18 former players charged by federal prosecutors.Tim Warner/BIG3, via Getty ImagesBut the nearly $4 million that prosecutors said the defendants sought in the scheme is still a fraction of the tens of millions of dollars some of those indicted earned in their N.B.A. careers. Several of the defendants played at least part of their career for New York-area teams, including Mr. Brown with the Knicks, and Mr. Williams, Antoine Wright and Chris Douglas-Roberts with the Nets.Mr. Telfair, a cousin of the former N.B.A. star Stephon Marbury, graced magazine covers as one of the best high school players in the country when he played at Brooklyn’s Lincoln High School in the early 2000s, even appearing beside a teenage LeBron James on a cover of Slam magazine in 2002. But he was dogged by legal troubles related to weapons during his professional career, which included early stints with the Portland Trail Blazers and the Celtics.In 2008, Mr. Telfair pleaded guilty to illegal handgun possession and was sentenced to three years’ probation. In 2019, he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for gun possession, this time stemming from an arrest two years earlier, when he was found with four loaded guns and a bulletproof vest. The indictment unsealed on Thursday noted that in order to receive benefits from the health care program, players were required to have spent at least three seasons on an N.B.A. team roster. That may be one reason the names of many of those charged in the scheme prompted recognition, and even nostalgia, from dedicated N.B.A. fans — for whom they were like memorable, if minor, character actors.Among those indicted was Milton Palacio, a former Boston Celtic, who in 2000 hit a wild buzzer beater against the Nets after stealing a pass. Now an assistant coach for the Portland Trail Blazers, Mr. Palacio was placed on administrative leave after the charges were announced, according to a statement from the team.The defendants also included promising prospects whose careers did not reach the heights that had been expected, like Darius Miles and Mr. Telfair, who were each drafted out of high school. And there was Ruben Patterson, who spent his rookie year with the Los Angeles Lakers and was said — perhaps apocryphally — to have called himself the “Kobe Stopper,” for his supposed ability to slow down Kobe Bryant when Mr. Patterson guarded him later in their careers.Perhaps the most accomplished player to be indicted was Mr. Allen, who made a number of all-defensive teams between 2011 and 2017. Next year, he is scheduled to have his number retired by the Memphis Grizzlies.Sopan Deb More

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      N.Y. Charter School Prepares Students for Basketball Careers

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      The Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School opened its doors in September in the Bronx with an unusual focus for a charter school: career paths related to the game.From the moment Naimah Pearson heard there would be a new charter school in the Bronx focused on basketball, she wanted to go. She did not know much about Earl Monroe, the Hall of Fame player for whom the school is named, and was aware she would have a complicated, hourlong commute from the South Bronx to get there every day.But a school centered on basketball, with a curriculum devoted to every aspect of the sport’s vast and growing ecosystem? That was surely for her, she told her parents. So she entered a lottery and won a spot in the first ninth-grade class at the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School, temporarily located in Pelham Bay.“I love it so far,” said Pearson, a 15-year-old with ambitions to attend Harvard, play in the W.N.B.A., dance and act. “I didn’t think I could go to a school that was just about basketball, but I’m here.”Playing basketball is certainly an activity offered at the school, which opened its doors in September. But the school’s founders and administrators insist it is not the focus, and never will be. What makes the school distinct — they say it is the only one of its kind — is that the focus is on everything surrounding the game, not on playing it, and that aspects of the game are employed to help the children learn.The concept emerged from the fertile, basketball-infused mind of Dan Klores, the Brooklyn-raised filmmaker who devoted eight years to bringing the school to life and who asserts, almost proudly, that it will probably never win a city basketball championship.“There are a million schools for kids to play basketball,” he said. “This school is for kids who may not play professionally, but who still love the game and could participate in the greater world of basketball in some form.”With a curriculum resembling a specialized college program, students can learn about coaching, uniform design, marketing, analytics, player representation, journalism and nutrition in addition to math, language arts, science and history.The school’s projected permanent home is on Elton Avenue near Third Avenue in the South Bronx.David Dee Delgado for The New York TimesPearson is one of 110 ninth graders who entered the school in September. Over the next three years, it will add another 110-student ninth-grade class each year, capping out at about 440 students. The school will eventually move to its permanent home in the South Bronx, perhaps in two years.For now, it is housed in what was once a Catholic school, and on a recent afternoon last month, students were preparing for Regents exams.In a math class, a teacher used the arc of a Stephen Curry 3-pointer to explain a parabola. In another class, students interviewed one another for a project on broadcast journalism, centered on basketball.The idea is to use the sport to inspire students not only to learn the core subjects, but also to learn in a vocational sense — providing them the tools needed to embark on a career in the basketball business.“When you watch a game, you see the players and the referees on the court, sometimes the coaches,” said Monroe, 76. “This school is about what you would see if you pulled the camera back and showed everything else.”That could include front office executives, agents, reporters, broadcast technicians, athletic trainers, public relations staff, nutritionists, ticket sales representatives and statisticians.On a recent visit to the school’s projected permanent spot on Elton Avenue near Third Avenue, a busy intersection in the South Bronx, Monroe pointed to the row of commercial storefronts that will be demolished to make room for the five-story, 60,000-square-foot school bearing his name.“This area could use a shot in the arm,” he said. “The school will give it an anchor.”Later, Monroe gave a modest shrug when asked about the giant banner emblazoned with his name at the entrance to the current location. He recalled how, during his Knicks career from 1971 to 1980, when he was called Earl the Pearl, he ran a basketball camp that provided attendees with instruction beyond playing the game.So when Klores asked him to be a member of the board of trustees — and later have the school named in his honor — Monroe understood the mission.The school is named after Earl Monroe, who won an N.B.A. title with the Knicks in 1973 and is a school trustee.David Dee Delgado for The New York Times“If basketball is what inspires kids, then let’s use that to help them achieve,” he said. “Not necessarily on the court, because we all know the odds of a kid becoming a professional player is pretty small. But there are so many other opportunities out there in the ecosystem.”Aside from his work on the board, Monroe said he had no specific role, except to do whatever Klores asks him. That includes fund-raising, he said. But Klores, who collaborated with Monroe on documentaries like “Black Magic” and “Basketball: A Love Story,” has also cast a wide net for philanthropists and corporations like Nike and the N.B.A. to help out financially and otherwise.Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, is an advocate, taking over an advisory role from David Stern, his predecessor in the N.B.A. Before Stern died, in 2020, he was a founding member on the school’s board. Marv Albert, the retired broadcaster, is also on the board. Nike offers help, too, including a proposed visit from the Nets star Kevin Durant.“That’s really generous, and the kids would remember it forever,” Monroe said. “But we don’t necessarily need that right now. We don’t need 20 new basketballs. We need your designer to come speak to the kids. We need your 29-year-old corporate attorney to come and give a presentation.”The Monroe school is one of 272 charter schools in New York City. Enrollment at them is expanding, even as some charter schools face a backlash over their methods and impact. While enrollment in New York public schools has dipped in recent years because of several factors, including the coronavirus pandemic, the city’s charter schools reported a 7 percent increase during the last school year, according to the New York City Charter School Center, a charter school advocacy and advisory group. It says about 145,000 students are currently enrolled in the charter schools, some of them specialized like the Monroe school.Klores, who attended Abraham Lincoln High School in Coney Island, Brooklyn, originally envisioned the project as a public school. But, he said, educators warned him that the school district could take over and distort his goals.Students participated in a science class at the school last month. In another class, 3-point shots were used to explain parabolas.David Dee Delgado for The New York Times“No one was going to take my vision out of this,” he said.At specialized charter schools and public schools, students have options for fashion, performing arts, fine arts, the sciences, culinary arts and more. But according to James Merriman, chief executive of the New York City Charter School Center, many of the specializations at charter schools are eventually subsumed by the overwhelming task of preparing students for mandatory state requirements.“I love the idea,” said Merriman, whose organization has advised and observed the school’s early development, but not as a paid consultant. “But they also understand the essential element of the school is academic, and that part of it can be all-consuming and really, really hard.”He also noted that some students might not have a passion for basketball. But their families see a charter school, any charter school, as a better alternative to a public high school, so they enter the lottery. The lottery odds of children from the school’s district and from New York City gaining a spot are favorably weighted, and the school has no control over who wins one.While it can be fun, inspirational and maybe even practical to learn about the physics of shot making or the role of a player agent, Merriman has found that specialized schools are often forced to push those aspects aside as they ensure students grasp reading, math, English, science and a foreign language.“That’s the battle right now,” said the principal, Kern Mojica, who played football at the University of New Hampshire. “Especially after the pandemic, a lot of the kids are behind in the basics, and we need to get them caught up quickly.”Pearson is taking algebra, history, language arts, Spanish and living environment. Her only basketball-related class is called “Sports Foundations,” a survey class taught by James Ennis, a 29-year-old graduate of John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx.Some of the topics in Ennis’s class — digital media, corporate finance, marketing, law, kinesiology, sports psychology and coaching and recruitment — are expected to be added as full classes in the coming years as the school and its curriculum expand.“It was fun researching everything to come up with a syllabus,” Ennis said. “I wish I could have studied this when I was in high school.” More

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      Career Night for Diana Taurasi Gets the Mercury Back on Track

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      The Phoenix Mercury tied their semifinal series against the Las Vegas Aces at one game apiece thanks to long-range sharpshooting from Taurasi.Diana Taurasi grimaced on the court as her Phoenix Mercury teammates carefully pulled her to her feet late in the third quarter of Game 1 of the W.N.B.A. semifinals.On the preceding play, she’d bumped into Las Vegas Aces forward Dearica Hamby while trying to dribble, skidding awkwardly to the floor. Taurasi limped up and down the court in the fourth quarter, favoring the left ankle that had kept her out of the last four regular-season games and the first round of the playoffs. She clenched her teeth and flexed the ankle on the Phoenix bench during the first part of the fourth period. Still, Taurasi finished with 20 points and six assists in the game, a 96-90 loss to the Aces.Afterward, when asked how her ankle felt, Taurasi’s answer was brief.“Great,” she said.Her proof? A 37-point, eight-3-pointer onslaught 48 hours later in the fifth-seeded Mercury’s 117-91 rout of the No. 2 Aces at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday. The best-of-five series now heads to Phoenix tied 1-1. Game 3 is on Sunday.Despite Taurasi’s lingering health concerns, the Mercury charged through the first two rounds of the playoffs, knocking off the Liberty — in a game Taurasi missed — and the Seattle Storm, the defending champions, in single-elimination games. Their next assignment is a high-powered Las Vegas offense with A’ja Wilson, last season’s Most Valuable Player, and a bevy of other scoring threats.The Aces earned a double-bye to start the playoffs after a 24-8 regular-season record, the league’s second best. They’d held off the Mercury in Game 1 with potent shooting from guards Kelsey Plum, who won this season’s Sixth Player of the Year Award, and Riquna Williams.Before Thursday’s game, Mercury center Brittney Griner told reporters that she was treating it like a single-elimination game.“You’ve got to win this game to stay alive. It is a series, but you definitely don’t want to drop two going back home. You’ve made it a lot harder for yourself,” she said.The result was a 25-point performance. She had 16 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists in the first quarter.“Brittney’s a beast. We’ve asked her to do so much this year,” Taurasi said on the TV broadcast after the game, likely referring to Griner’s ability to handle double teams and take on tough defensive assignments.Griner finished second behind the Connecticut Sun’s Jonquel Jones in the M.V.P. voting this season, averaging a career-high 9.5 rebounds per game along with 20.5 points per game. She’s the Mercury’s defensive anchor, with a 7-foot-3.5 inch wingspan, a height and an athleticism that make her nearly impossible to shoot over.Griner’s responsibility this series has been to guard Aces center Liz Cambage, whose dominance in the post and rim protection seems rivaled by only Griner’s.Cambage terrorizes opponents with her ability to pivot, score and pull down rebounds in the post as defenders hack at her body. And the way she can alter shots on defense was one reason the Aces never allowed more than 99 points during a regular-season game this season. The tandem of Cambage and Wilson in the frontcourt had many people sure at the beginning of the season that Las Vegas was primed for another deep playoff run.Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner has had to fight through swarming defenses all season. She averaged a career-high 9.5 rebounds per game during the regular season.David Becker/Associated PressHaving been swept by the Storm in last year’s finals, the Aces had the motivation to cruise through the regular season with seven players who averaged double figures. They were without Cambage for a stretch after she tested positive for the coronavirus, but now, at full strength, the Aces are pushing to claim the title that eluded last year’s injury-ravaged team.But they have to get past a Mercury team that is equally determined to make a finals appearance. Phoenix is at its best when its core players of Griner, Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith knock down shots from all over the floor the way they did Thursday night. Griner made a handful of midrange jumpers. Diggins-Smith scored at all three levels, and as for Taurasi, well, the W.N.B.A.’s leading career scorer did what she typically does.Taurasi said after the game that after an aggressive, physical outing from the Aces on Tuesday, the Mercury responded in kind in Game 2. They built a 17-point lead in the first quarter and never relinquished it, unlike in Game 1 when their early lead fizzled before the end of the first period. Taurasi said that with so many shots going in, “it makes the game easier for you. It was a big test for us in a lot of ways, and I think we played the right way.”Aces Coach Bill Laimbeer told reporters afterward that the team couldn’t give Griner open looks outside the post.“In the post, she’s going to do her thing. That’s who she is,” he said. “But the open shots that she made tonight hurt us a lot. We’ll take that shot at times, but they went in. And we’ll take some of Taurasi’s shots some nights, too, but they went in. That’s who they are. They’re great players, and when they’re going like that, that’s what makes Phoenix’s team.”Even when it appeared that the Mercury couldn’t sustain their high-percentage shooting, they added free throws to their arsenal. Their first miss from the free-throw line didn’t come until the third quarter, and they made 23 of 24 free throws.Wilson said after the game that Las Vegas wasn’t “locked in at all to our assignments.” She added: “It seems as if we were a step behind. You can’t do that against a good Phoenix team.”The Aces, with one of the best defenses in the league, had no way of stopping Taurasi on the perimeter. Her eight 3-pointers were a playoff career high.After the game, Ros Gold-Onwude of ESPN asked Taurasi how she felt about going 8-for-11 from 3-point range.Taurasi’s reply, again, was succinct.“I only shot 11?” she said. More