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      Denver Nuggets Role Players Get to Be Stars, Too

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      The Nuggets can sweep the Lakers in the Western Conference finals, and it’s not just because of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. The role players have been just as important.LOS ANGELES — To win a championship in the N.B.A., a team almost always needs at least one transcendent player.But the championship journey will also depend on how well a team’s role players do their jobs.The Lakers, with 17 titles, know this well. Would they have won in 2010 without Metta Sandiford-Artest, or in 2002 without Robert Horry? Shaquille O’Neal, who won three championships for the Lakers with Kobe Bryant, often talks about the importance of the “others” — the players who aren’t stars.The Lakers franchise has found itself on the unpleasant side of the calculus this year. In the Western Conference finals against Denver, Los Angeles has the weaker supporting cast. The Nuggets, who lead the best-of-seven series, 3-0, are not just beating the Lakers with the talents of Nikola Jokic, a two-time N.B.A. most valuable player, or Jamal Murray, their dynamic guard. Aaron Gordon’s toughness, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s poise, Bruce Brown’s versatility and Michael Porter Jr.’s persistence are helping them get it done.On Monday, the Nuggets will try to complete a sweep of the Lakers to go to the franchise’s first N.B.A. finals. There have certainly been moments when Jokic and Murray have carried Denver, but a critical part of the Nuggets’ success is that they haven’t always had to do that. When Murray and Jokic ebb, the team’s role-players flow, and together they beat back any tide the Lakers have sent at them.Nuggets Coach Michael Malone said forward Aaron Gordon had “checked his ego” to fulfill his role for the team.Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press“There’s a lot of guys that can go get it,” Gordon said. “So we just go with the hot guy.”Jokic is the engine that powers the Nuggets, but Gordon also called him “one of the most unselfish basketball players.” Jokic is averaging a triple-double in the playoffs, with 29.9 points, 13.2 rebounds and 10.1 assists per game. But even when he isn’t at his best, his mere presence changes the game. That happened on Saturday, in the Nuggets’ 119-108 win in Game 3 with the Lakers. Jokic had just 5 points and 2 rebounds at halftime, then got into foul trouble by committing his fourth less than halfway through the third quarter.“There wasn’t a panic,” Nuggets Coach Michael Malone said. “It was: ‘OK, he’s out. That means somebody else has to step up.’ I think that’s something our team has done time and time again.”The Nuggets’ players have not just accepted roles that require them to defer to others, but embraced them in service of winning a championship. Jokic was the team’s only All-Star this year and no Nugget made an All-Defensive team; Jokic has never played with someone who made those teams while playing with him.On Saturday, Caldwell-Pope scored 12 points in a critical third quarter when Jokic was in foul trouble and Murray had cooled off after scoring 30 points in the first half.The last time Caldwell-Pope played in the Western Conference finals, it was 2020 and he was a Laker tasked with defending Murray. The Lakers beat Denver to win the West, then bested Miami to win the title. Caldwell-Pope knows what it will take for Denver to win this year.“We’re No. 1 in the West for a reason,” Caldwell-Pope said. “I believed it from the jump that we could win a championship. That was everybody’s mind-set. We knew how we could jell together and play together.”Bruce Brown had 15 points for Denver off the bench in Game 3.Ashley Landis/Associated PressDenver’s Jeff Green, who played 23 minutes on Saturday, has been on nine teams in the past eight seasons. Porter, whom the Nuggets drafted in the first round in 2018, missed most of last season with a back injury. He scored 14 points and led the Nuggets with 10 rebounds on Saturday. Brown, who had 15 points off the bench, signed with Denver last summer.Gordon, drafted fourth overall by Orlando in 2014, was once best known for his impressive showing in the league’s dunk contests. His stats on Saturday didn’t look all that impressive — 7 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists — but his defensive contributions were key. He blocked a shot late in the third quarter that helped the Nuggets maintain the lead.“He has checked his ego at the door,” Malone said. “He knew coming into this year with Jamal and Michael back that his role would be different, and he never fought that.”That isn’t always the case on ambitious teams, and this N.B.A. season provided examples of the friction that can emerge. Golden State’s younger players, for example, clamored for more playing time. But Denver, which led the West for much of the season, is an example of how good it can be when the system works.“Everybody realizes when we need something, we need a spark,” Murray said. “Could be Joker, could be me, could be Bruce, Jeff off the bench — whether it’s a chase-down block or a charge or something. Everybody has something they can come in and impact the game with.”The Lakers were another example of a team that struggled to satisfy everyone in their roles this season. In February, they traded away Russell Westbrook, who had been unhappy in a bench role. He had joined the team less than two years ago in a multi-team deal that also sent Caldwell-Pope to the Washington Wizards from Los Angeles. Moving on from Westbrook was part of a larger effort to add several new role players, who have had many electrifying games. But against the Nuggets their shortcomings have been clear.The Lakers’ role players struggled in Game 3. D’Angelo Russell, left, was just 1 of 8 from the field.Ashley Landis/Associated PressThe starkest example was D’Angelo Russell, who scored just 3 points on 1-of-8 shooting in Game 3 and committed three turnovers.Lakers Coach Darvin Ham could offer only this about the performances of the Lakers’ role players: “I thought they did the best they could, all of them.”But sometimes it takes more, like what Sandiford-Artest gave the Lakers in the 2010 N.B.A. finals against Boston.In Game 7, Bryant, the team’s leading scorer during the regular season and the playoffs, made only 6 of 24 shots. The Lakers had mostly relied on Sandiford-Artest for his defense as a past defensive player of the year, but in that game he scored 20 points and hit a crucial 3-pointer with less than a minute left.On Saturday, Sandiford-Artest sat across from the Lakers’ bench, a powerful reminder of how important role players can be to win a championship. More

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      Golden State Falls to Lakers, Ending Title Hopes and Starting Uncertain Future

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      Golden State isn’t used to getting eliminated this early in the playoffs. Now, it will face questions about how to sustain its run since 2015 as a top contender.LOS ANGELES — Whoops, shouts, music and a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” were so loud inside the Lakers locker room that they could be heard out in the hallways. Outside Golden State’s locker room, there was silence, as those inside assessed what had gone so wrong this season.To the victor goes the noise. To the defeated goes an unusually early and sullen vacation.The reigning champion Golden State’s freewheeling, 3-point-centric style of play changed the N.B.A. and made Stephen Curry a household name. But on Friday night, the team couldn’t muster up one last overwhelming flurry of deep shots, bowing out to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games in the Western Conference semifinals.It marked the first time a West team had defeated Golden State in the playoffs during its dynastic run, which began in 2015 with the first of four championships led by Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. But this season was among the most difficult of the last decade, marred by long absences for key players, a confounding inability to win on the road, struggling young players, and the fallout from Green punching a teammate, Jordan Poole, before the season even started.LeBron James led the Lakers with 30 points in Game 6.Ashley Landis/Associated Press“This is not a championship team,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said after Game 6, which the Lakers won, 122-101. “If we were, we’d be moving on. So you can look at the year in total and see all the ups and downs, and there was all kinds of stuff that went on and adversity that hit. But our group stayed together and competed till the end and made a pretty good run.”But “pretty good” has long been below the standards of Golden State, given the stature of Curry, who is widely considered the best shooter in N.B.A. history. And now his team may have to contend with coming back down to earth. It’s the basketball equivalent of confronting mortality.“You’re disappointed and kind of shell shocked that it’s over,” Curry said. “You’ve poured so much into every season, but going off last year you’re trying to defend and give ourselves the chance to keep advancing. It’s a tough way for the season to end.”The series against the Lakers marked one of the most highly anticipated playoff matchups in years, pitting Curry against the Lakers star LeBron James for the first time since the 2018 N.B.A. finals, when James was on the Cleveland Cavaliers. But this series ultimately didn’t match the hype, with blowouts in four of the five games after a thrilling Lakers win in Game 1. Curry and Thompson struggled on Friday, combining to shoot an abysmal 14 for 47 from the field. Thompson, who made just three baskets in each of the last three games, said this was “probably the worst shooting series I’ve had in a long time.”Golden State now faces an uncertain summer; Curry called it “unfamiliar territory.” With one of the most expensive rosters in the league, and a new collective bargaining agreement aimed at curbing heavy spenders, Golden State is likely to try to bring down costs. It could be a stark transition for the team, given that it went from a rudderless middle-of-the-road franchise to one of the most financially valuable ones with Curry at the helm over the past decade.Draymond Green, center, has been a force on defense for Golden State, but he could opt out of his contract this summer.Ashley Landis/Associated Press“For us, it’s an opportunity to kind of take stock of where we’re at, keep the confidence that we can come back and be back at this stage next year,” Curry said.It might help if they get off to a better start. This season, Green punched the fourth-year guard Poole in the face during training camp. TMZ published a video of the punch, exposing the internal discord of a franchise known for continuity and harmony.“Every season is made up of events. Some are great, some are not,” Green said after Friday’s game. “I think for this team, more of the events that aren’t so great were so public, and, you know, that’s not something that you normally do. And so the world knows, you know, the tough times that this team has had.”Now Green’s career is at a turning point. A four-time All-Star, he has a player option for next year and is expected to test free agency. Green had one of his better seasons this year, but he turns 34 next March, and Golden State may balk at offering him a maximum contract. Green has shown a penchant for impulsive behavior, like punching Poole or racking up technical fouls, for which he ranked second in the league during the regular season. The resolution of his contract is the key domino in a summer of retooling.“I want to be a Warrior for the rest of my life,” Green said Friday. “I want to ride out with the same dudes I rode in with.”This season was a slog for Golden State. “It felt like we were swimming upstream from the beginning,” Kerr said.Golden State started the season 3-7. It finished at 44-38 for the West’s sixth seed and had one of the worst road records in the league, at 11-30. Andrew Wiggins, a key contributor to last season’s title run, missed more than half the regular season because of an injury and an undisclosed personal issue. Thompson, a five-time All-Star, struggled to find his shot in the first third of the season and he has noticeably slowed on defense after two major injuries in recent years.If Thompson, 33, has doubts about his future in Golden State, or any skepticism that this team can win again, he didn’t show it on Friday night. His contract expires after next season.“I can tell you, we gave it everything we had,” he said. “But I believe that we have greatness in our future still.”Curry went cold from 3-point range over the last three games of the series with the Lakers.Harry How/Getty ImagesGolden State will also have to decide what to do with the young players it has tried to develop while chasing a championship — a path criticized for placing too much of a load on the 35-year-old Curry. Poole, 23, struggled mightily in the playoffs, a problem given that Golden State signed him to a four-year contract extension in October worth up to $140 million. Other young players, like Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, both 20, were in and out of the lineup all season.In addition, the contract of Bob Myers, the team’s general manager for the last decade, ends this year. Carrying the dynasty into its next stage may fall to a different architect.If there was one bright spot for Golden State this season, it was its most magnetic figure: Curry. He played some of the best basketball of his career — which meant some of the basketball that anyone has ever played. In the first round of the playoffs, Golden State faced the third-seeded Kings in Sacramento for a decisive Game 7. Curry scored 50 points — the most ever in a Game 7 — and hit seven 3-pointers. It was a reminder of the magic that had made his teams so great.But Curry said Friday that reaching the conference semifinals was not “a moral victory.”“There’s a lot of pride in what we accomplished,” he said, “but there’s also an understanding that this is not good enough.” More

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      Golden State on the Brink Against the Lakers

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      Golden State’s stars made several uncharacteristic errors down the stretch against the Lakers in Game 4. The role players haven’t helped much either.LOS ANGELES — With 37 seconds left in the fourth quarter Monday night, Stephen Curry was isolated with Lakers center Anthony Davis guarding him one on one.The Lakers were up by 1 point in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series, and the Golden State Warriors needed a basket to keep from being pushed to the brink of elimination. It should have been a mismatch: one of the greatest scoring guards in N.B.A. history matched up against a slower center. But Curry was stymied twice on the same possession. First, Davis, a top defensive player, poked the ball away. Then Curry missed a fadeaway. After an offensive rebound, Curry missed a 3-pointer over Davis again.Those were two of several fumbles by Golden State in the closing moments of an ugly affair in which the team did not show the championship mettle that led to four N.B.A. titles since 2015.With nine seconds left, forward Draymond Green threw the ball away with Golden State down 3. On an ensuing jump ball, Curry came down with possession, and instead of calling a timeout, he threw the ball away.“I actually felt like somebody was behind me,” Curry said after the game. “I kind of just let it go. But bang-bang play. I wish I had a little bit more awareness to maybe call a timeout knowing we’ve got enough time, but, you know, it just didn’t go our way.”Golden State let an opportunity slip through its fingers, having led by as many as 12 in the third quarter. Instead, the Lakers won, 104-101.Curry finished the game shooting 12 for 30. Klay Thompson, Curry’s teammate, was 3 for 11. That, combined with not getting playmaking from Golden State’s role players, has placed the team in dire straits, down, three games to one, against a rejuvenated Lakers team. The late possessions were emblematic of a season-long deficiency that has plagued Golden State, particularly on the road: an inability to sustain effort through long stretches.Perhaps this is the reality of having a core anchored by Curry, 35; Thompson, 33; and Green, 33: It’s easier to get tired and make mental mistakes. But if Golden State doesn’t dig deep to resurface the magic of the last decade, its dynasty will be extinguished on Wednesday in San Francisco.This isn’t the first time Golden State has been down 3-1 in a playoff series. In 2016, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder went up, 3-1, in the Western Conference finals before Golden State came roaring back and won the series. Three years later, Golden State found itself down, 3-1, against the Toronto Raptors in the finals. But with injuries to Durant, who was then a teammate, and Thompson, the team lost in six games.“It feels like what it is: three to one,” Coach Steve Kerr told reporters after Game 4. “You go home and you take care of business and you get a win and the momentum is right back in your favor. So that’s all it is. Somebody has to win four times, and that’s why you play it out.”It hasn’t helped that Golden State’s younger players have not been able to fill the void left by an off night by Curry. For the Lakers, Lonnie Walker IV, 24, a guard in his fifth year, scored 15 points, including crucial baskets in the fourth, to keep Golden State at bay. The second-year guard Austin Reaves, also 24, chipped in 21 points.Those kinds of contributions have eluded Golden State this postseason. Instead, Golden State has had to rely as much on Curry at age 35 as it did when he was 25, a recipe for trouble this late in the season.For years, the Golden State front office has been selling a two-timeline plan of development. It would try to chase championships in the present on the backs of Curry, Thompson and Green, while also developing young talent like Jonathan Kuminga, 20 (drafted seventh in 2021); Moses Moody, 20 (14th pick in that same draft); James Wiseman, 22 (second pick in 2020); and Jordan Poole, 23 (28th pick in 2019).It was a risky maneuver with mixed results. It has meant not trading young, developing talent for veterans who could help the team now, and placing more of the load on Curry in the back half of his career. Golden State traded Wiseman this season as injuries and inconsistency left him without a firm role in the rotation. Moody and Kuminga, each in his second year, have been yanked in and out of the lineup this season, though Moody has had playing time in this series. He scored 7 points in 19 minutes Monday night.That’s not abnormal for players barely out of their teenage years. But Golden State has one of the best players in the history of the N.B.A. playing at a high level right now. It needs Moody and Kuminga to be better immediately to take advantage of Curry’s window.Poole has been flummoxing. At times in his four-year career, he has been Golden State’s best player. When the team’s top stars have faced injuries, he has been counted on to fill their absences as a reliable scorer. Last year, he was a core part of a Golden State team that won a championship, and he started a majority of games during the regular season. Poole was a concrete example of investment in a young player that worked for Golden State.In October, Golden State invested in Poole further, rewarding him with an extension reported to be worth nearly $140 million. He was slated to be the bridge to the future — a potential All-Star replacement for a franchise looking forward to a life after Curry, Green and Thompson.But Poole’s production has become as unpredictable as his decision-making on the floor. While he averaged a career-high 20.4 points a game during the regular season, his shooting percentages dipped and his turnovers increased. His shot selection has drawn immense criticism.In the playoffs, Poole’s play has cratered. Against the Sacramento Kings in the first round, he shot a dismal 33.8 percent from the field. On Monday night, he missed all four of his shots and played only 10 minutes. One shot was an air ball near the basket.Andrew Wiggins of the Warriors guarded by Lonnie Walker IV of the Lakers.Etienne Laurent/EPA, via ShutterstockPoole’s play was clearly a sore spot for him after the game on Monday. When approached by a reporter in the locker room, a frustrated Poole tersely said, “I’ve got nothing for you, big man.”After being cajoled by a Golden State press representative, Poole took questions, though he would not physically face reporters, creating an odd spectacle of reporters aiming recorders at the back and side of his head.“Work ethic doesn’t change,” Poole said. “Routine doesn’t change. Maybe opportunity changes. But you can only control what you can control. We’ve got another game in a couple days at home.”Curry, asked about Poole, said it wasn’t about any one player.“We get questions about him a lot and it’s our whole team,” Curry said. “We’re all together in the sense of trying to figure out how to win playoff games. And we all have to make adjustments. We all have to play better, considering we’re in a 3-1 hole. So there’s no sense of isolating him in this situation.”Golden State has already overcome one playoff deficit this postseason. After being down, 2-0, in a first-round series against the Kings, Golden State found its footing. But it took Curry scoring 50 points in Game 7 for his team to win the series, the most he had ever scored in a playoff game.If Poole or the rest of Curry’s teammates don’t offer more support, Curry may need to reach into reserves that most 35-year-olds don’t have. And that means the Golden State dynasty may go out with a whimper rather than a bang. When Curry was asked after the game whether he let himself think about the larger implications of a series loss, he didn’t let the reporter finish the question.“No,” Curry said.“Just a 3-1 series deficit?” the reporter asked.“Yes. Thank you.” More

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      He Saw ‘Greatness’ in the Lakers When They Were at Their Worst

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      You’d have to look closely or you’d miss the homemade sign nailed to a telephone pole outside the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo, Calif.It’s right outside the entrance to the players’ parking lot, but many of them miss its blue-and-yellow words as they drive in.“I SEE GREATNESS IN YOU,” it says.The sign gives no indication of who “I” might be, who “you” are or what kind of greatness you possess. But in a small yet meaningful way, the message has inspired Lakers Coach Darvin Ham as he leads the team in their Western Conference semifinal series against the Golden State Warriors.Ham has even forged an unlikely friendship with the man who posted the sign: Terrance Burney, a basketball-loving airline employee whose home is filled with inspirational signs. Burney’s unceasing positivity has charmed prominent athletes and entertainers.“It’s not just a slogan he’s trying to get picked up by some corporate sponsor or something,” Ham said. “It’s something he actually believes in. I love it.”Burney lives in Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Crystal Lewis.Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesNeither rich nor widely known, Burney, 40, works for Delta Air Lines and lives in Los Angeles with his German shepherd, Ziva, and his girlfriend, Crystal Lewis.He stands outside of Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles after most Lakers home games holding a handmade sign bearing his message, hoping that whoever sees it feels happier, lighter or maybe even newly confident.“When I tell people, ‘I see greatness in you,’ it means, ‘I see God in you,’” Burney said. “So this is something that God told me to do, you know?”Burney first held up a similar sign 15 years ago on a street corner in Highland Park, Mich., a small city surrounded by his hometown, Detroit. He said prayer led him to do it.In the years since, he has taken his sign all over the world, flying for free as an airline employee. He has shared his message on street corners and during protest marches, in small gyms and outside professional arenas. He has shouted it as a contestant on “The Price Is Right.”“He’s like the Forrest Gump 2.0,” said Morris Peterson, a former N.B.A. player who grew close with Burney after a charity event Peterson hosted with the rapper Snoop Dogg to support people affected by the water crisis in Flint, Mich. “He’s just everywhere. He’s everywhere. You might see him in Paris with the sign.”Burney played basketball for one year at Prairie View A&M University, and in the years after he’d often get asked to participate in pickup games and workouts. In 2007, he was preparing for a workout with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, then the G League affiliate of the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons, when he spotted Rasheed Wallace, then playing for the Pistons, sitting at the bar of a T.G.I. Friday’s.Burney said he hoped his signs gave people confidence.Allison Zaucha for The New York Times“Excuse me, sir, your turnaround jump shot is the best in the history of a turnaround jump shot,” Burney recalled telling Wallace. “How do you get it over people who are taller than you?”Wallace got up from his seat and demonstrated his method. The two of them drank a few beers together and a friendship began.Wallace and Ham, the Lakers’ coach, had become close over the years through N.B.A. circles. Early this season, Wallace planned to visit Ham’s home. He asked if Burney could join.The Lakers had started the season 2-10. Ham was struggling to make the most of the team’s two best players, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Not many people would have used “greatness” to describe anything happening with the Lakers. But Burney did.“He said: ‘Don’t worry, coach. You’re going to be great. We’re going to be great. I see greatness in you,’” Ham said.Ham trusted his read on Burney, so they stayed in touch. Burney sent text messages to Ham to inspire him. The Lakers’ fortunes began to change, which likely had more to do with their dramatic makeover at the trade deadline than with Burney’s sign. But he believes something larger was happening.Before Game 4 of the Lakers’ first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies, Burney sent a text to Ham that read: “Your PEACE gives PEACE to others!! I SEE GREATNESS IN YOU!!”Burney outside the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo, Calif.Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesThe Lakers were 6 points greater than the Grizzlies that day.“Everyone wants to be thought of in a positive light and have — not just in basketball, N.B.A. basketball, in life in general — you need good vibes, good energy, people that believe in you,” Ham said. “And he represents that.”The sign outside the Lakers’ practice facility has been there for weeks. Davis saw it for the first time on May 1, just before the Lakers left Los Angeles for their series against Golden State in San Francisco.He assumed a fan had left it there and gave it little thought.The next day, Davis scored 30 points with 23 rebounds, joining only four other big men in Lakers history with at least 30 points and 20 rebounds in a playoff game. His performance helped the Lakers beat the Warriors in Game 1 of their series.“Sooooo he saw the Sign before he had a RECORD setting win??” Burney said in a text message.He could not be convinced that it was a coincidence.Allison Zaucha for The New York Times More

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      Bronny James Commits to U.S.C. as Father Dreams of N.B.A. Meet-Up

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      The Lakers star LeBron James, 38, has made it clear that he intends to team up with his son in the N.B.A. someday.LeBron James’s immediate goal is to win another N.B.A. championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. But longer term, he wants to play in the league with his older son, LeBron Jr., who goes by Bronny, beginning in 2024.“I need to be on the floor with my boy,” James told ESPN in January, recalling a situation from his childhood in which Ken Griffey and his son, Ken Griffey Jr., played for the Seattle Mariners. “I got to be on the floor with Bronny.”Bronny James, a 6-foot-3 guard, kept that goal on track Saturday by verbally committing to playing college basketball next season at the University of Southern California. He was seated at courtside Saturday night as the Lakers took a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series with the Golden State Warriors.“First of all, congratulations to my son on his next journey and picking a great university in U.S.C.,” LeBron James said after posting 21 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists as the Lakers won Game 3, 127-97, in Los Angeles. “I’m proud of him. This is an incredible thing.”LeBron James added that he believed Bronny would be the first member of his family, the “first one out of the James gang,” to attend college.Bronny James made his announcement on Instagram, where he has more than seven million followers. His account had a picture of him standing in the Southern California locker room along with the caption “Fight On #committed.” U.S.C. is sponsored by Nike, which has invested heavily in his father since he entered the N.B.A. as a generational phenom in 2003.At U.S.C., Bronny James plans to join a Sierra Canyon classmate, Juju Watkins, the top-rated girls’ prospect in the senior class. Both players have endorsement deals with Nike, and Bronny James also has one with Beats by Dre.Memphis and Ohio State, the school LeBron has said he would have attended had he gone to college instead of going straight to the N.B.A. from high school as the No. 1 overall pick, were among the other universities linked to Bronny James. He visited Ohio State with his father in September, and fans at the football game that weekend chanted, “We want Bronny.”Bronny James had less fanfare as a prospect than his father did (of course, few high school players get the treatment LeBron James had). He is ranked as a four-star prospect by the recruiting site 247Sports, which rates him as the No. 26 prospect in the senior class.He won’t be the highest-ranked recruit for U.S.C. That honor belongs to Isaiah Collier, a five-star prospect from Marietta, Ga., who is rated as the No. 1 point guard in the class.Still, Collier was busy recruiting Bronny James during the recent showcase circuit.“‘Stay home,’ that’s my pitch,” Collier told reporters at the Nike Hoop Summit last month in Portland, Ore., where both players competed. “Why leave L.A.?”The book so far on Bronny James is that he has a keen basketball I.Q. and an improved jump shot, but that he lacks elite athleticism. He averaged 14 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game last season at Sierra Canyon, but was a second-team all-league selection.“He’s solid,” said Thaddeus Young, who finished his 16th N.B.A. season and sponsored a grass-roots team that competed against James at last summer’s Nike Peach Jam. His assessment was largely echoed by college coaches and N.B.A. scouts. “Obviously, probably not the elite of the elite. But he’s athletic, he’s strong, he plays defense, he can shoot the ball well, he can run the point guard position, he can play off ball,” he said.LeBron James’s older son, Bronny, right, averaged 14 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game last season at Sierra Canyon in Los Angeles.Gregory Payan/Associated PressStill, some colleges were wary of recruiting Bronny James. There were multiple factors in play for any coach that considered taking him. What happens if he doesn’t play well enough to merit significant playing time? What if the team does well but he struggles? What if the team doesn’t do well at all? How will security and locker room access be handled when LeBron James and his wife, Savannah, attend games? Considering Bronny has significant potential for individual endorsement deals, will there be added pressure to play him?Bronny James, who turns 19 in October, is widely expected to spend one season in college before entering the N.B.A. draft in 2024, when his father will turn 40. Under the league’s current rules, players cannot enter the draft until they are 19 and one year removed from their high school graduation class. That rule was renewed in a recent collective bargaining agreement between the N.B.A. players’ union and team owners, despite some campaigning in college sports for athletes to be able to turn pro right out of high school.LeBron James was asked on Saturday if it remained his goal to play alongside his son.“We’re going to support him whatever he decides to do,” he said. “Because that’s my aspiration and my goal doesn’t mean it’s his. And I’m absolutely OK with that. My job is to support my son, whatever he wants to do.”Bronny James is projected as an N.B.A. lottery pick by some draft experts. The Lakers, however, do not have a first-round pick in 2024, and LeBron has a player option for the 2024-25 season.That all makes it unclear how Bronny James can end up on the same team as his famous father.Sopan Deb More

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      Stephen Curry and LeBron James Meet in the Playoffs, Maybe for the Last Time

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      Tim Hardaway knows stars when he sees them. Hardaway, a Hall of Fame point guard, battled against his share of them, including Michael Jordan, during a 14-year N.B.A. career.So when he sees Stephen Curry and LeBron James encountering each other yet again in the N.B.A. playoffs, only one comparison comes to mind.“Michael Jackson and Prince,” Hardaway said. “You must see that. That’s how big of a star they are. They command the crowd.”James, with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Curry, with the Golden State Warriors, have the attention of the basketball world in the Western Conference semifinals. It’s not the biggest stage, like when they faced off in four straight N.B.A. finals from 2015 to 2018, as James played for Cleveland. But in the N.B.A., any stage they are on is the biggest one. Together and apart, they have for a generation defined a league whose individual stars can determine a team’s fate and shift the broader culture more than stars in other team sports can.The Cleveland Cavaliers drafted James No. 1 overall in 2003. He’s been a headline star ever since, winning championships in Cleveland, Miami and Los Angeles. Clara Mokri for The New York TimesA playoff series headlined by Curry and James is the basketball equivalent of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles touring together. Or Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier, except with a touch more gray and way more mutual respect. Or, in basketball terms, this is Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird in the 1980s.But this year’s matchup is especially significant. James, at 38, and Curry, at 35, are nearing the end of careers that have revolutionized basketball, with no clear heirs to continue the progression. Curry’s mastery of the 3-pointer ushered in a new era of long-distance shooting as a primary offensive attack, at all basketball levels. James, a powerful 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds, has been nearly impossible to duplicate physically, but he changed the way basketball stars viewed their own ability to bend teams to their will and create political and social capital for themselves off the floor.Their playoff matchup this year may be the last time fans see two basketball players of this level of influence competing against each other in the postseason, which may be why ticket prices are breaking records for a non-championship series.“What is it going to be like when those two guys — obviously two of the biggest names in the league, if not the biggest — are gone?” said Dell Curry, Stephen Curry’s father and a former N.B.A. player. “I think the league is very healthy as far as star power, but who takes the lead in that role?”Clara Mokri for The New York TimesFor much of the past two decades, James and Curry have been the N.B.A.’s largest draws, generating revenue through television ratings, sponsorships, and jersey and ticket sales. In 2009, when Golden State drafted Curry, Forbes estimated that the team was worth $315 million — the 18th most valuable N.B.A. franchise. Last year, after Curry led the team to its fourth championship in eight years, Golden State was ranked No. 1 with an eye-popping $7 billion valuation.Tamika Tremaglio, the executive director of the N.B.A. players’ union, said in an email that Curry and James “have fueled economic prosperity in the cities they play in.”“From an equity standpoint, our players are powerful, and Steph Curry and LeBron James are living proof of that truth,” Tremaglio said.New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum, the president of the players’ union, said, “What they’ve done is astronomical to our game in terms of viewership, in terms of globalizing the game.” He added, “Our league is in a better place because of it.”Curry and James faced off in the N.B.A. finals for four straight years, from 2015 to 2018. Curry’s Golden State teams won three times.Photo by Bob Donnan/Pool/Getty ImagesJames’s presence has been a boon at each stop in his career, from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat and now to Los Angeles. He has become a symbol of modern fandom, in which many fans follow players and not teams. And Curry, whose pregame shooting routines draw even opposing teams’ fans, has shown how transcendent talent can test even the staunchest loyalties.“The basketball impact is like every kid especially that is coming into the league now, those are the two guys you want to be like,” said guard Isaiah Thomas, who has played with James and had to defend Curry. “I’ve seen younger guys come in the league and be in awe of these guys and they’re competing against them.”Jamal Crawford, who recently retired after two decades in the N.B.A., said Curry’s physique — 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds — made him seem like he was like “the boy next door” compared to bigger athletes.“He’s the guy — the kid — that every kid can look up to and say: ‘You know what? If I work hard on my game, if I work on my skills, if I believe in myself, I can accomplish unbelievable things,’” said Crawford, now a TNT analyst. “If you look at LeBron, you say, ‘Wow, he is a force of nature, something we’ve never seen before.’”Curry broke Ray Allen’s career 3-pointers record last season. He is widely considered the greatest shooter ever.Clara Mokri for The New York TimesSince they last met in the N.B.A. finals in 2018, Curry and James have expanded their influence on the culture. Curry spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, and James endorsed Joe Biden for president that year and launched a voting rights group. They have been outspoken against gun violence, and Curry has helped with public health outreach during the coronavirus pandemic. James is the first active N.B.A. player to become a billionaire. And through production companies — James’s SpringHill Company and Curry’s Unanimous Media — both players have found opportunities to bolster their legacies, perhaps veering into hagiography.The documentary “Stephen Curry: Underrated,” directed by Peter Nicks and co-produced by Unanimous Media, debuted at the San Francisco International Film Festival last month and will stream on Apple TV in July. Curry, a top-10 draft pick out of Davidson, has won two Most Valuable Player Awards — one by unanimous vote, for the only time in N.BA. history. To get there he struggled through ankle injuries early in his career, but he is now widely considered the best shooter ever.In June, SpringHill, James’s company, is releasing the feature film “Shooting Stars” on Peacock, based on his high school team, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. It is an adaptation of a 2009 book by James and Buzz Bissinger.James has played for the Lakers since the 2018-19 season. He led the Lakers to the franchise’s 17th championship in 2020.Clara Mokri for The New York TimesThe projects underscore the two players’ vastly different paths to stardom. James was already a sought-after star as a teenager. Sonny Vaccaro, the former shoe-marketing executive, once flew James out to a Lakers playoff game in a private plane from Adidas while he was in high school. James was enthralled, recounted Jeff Benedict, who recently released an independent biography of James titled “LeBron.” He said James had long understood that “basketball isn’t just a sport.”“It’s like show business,” Benedict said. “It’s a very high form of public entertainment in the United States.”The cultural impact of Curry and James has also rippled out to the theater in independent plays unaffiliated with the stars. This summer, Inua Ellams, a playwright based in Britain, will debut a play called “The Half-God of Rainfall” at the New York Theater Workshop. The plot combines mythology and basketball: A half-god comes to Earth and becomes the biggest star in the N.B.A. Ellams, a longtime N.B.A. fan, said the character is loosely based on Curry and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.In another play, Rajiv Joseph’s “King James,” which makes its Off Broadway premiere this month at the Manhattan Theater Club in New York, James looms but doesn’t appear, an indication of his influence. The piece chronicles the friendship of two Cleveland-based men who idolize James.Joseph, a Cleveland native and lifelong sports fan, said the idea for the play came to him after James won a championship with the Cavaliers in 2016.James and Curry last met in the playoffs in 2018, in the N.B.A. finals.Gregory Shamus/Getty Images“It always felt to me, as I came to think about it, is he was almost like this deity who, when he smiled upon our fair little land in Cleveland, crops thrived and rivers ran clear,” Joseph said. “And then when he left, everything kind of dried up. Now, that is an exaggeration, but from a sports perspective, it certainly felt that way.”Ellams said the N.B.A. will feel a “cavernous” loss when Curry and James are gone. In February, James broke the league’s career scoring record, which had been held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar since 1984. Last season, Curry broke Ray Allen’s career 3-pointer record in 511 fewer games.“It’s going to be half a century before anyone comes close to what they have done — what they are actively doing,” Ellams said. “This isn’t history in the making. This is punching holes out of mountains.”James is in his 20th season, far past the time when most players’ careers are over. He and Curry, in his 14th season, have staved off the need for the N.B.A. to fully transition into a new era of stardom. But those in and around the league are bullish about its future.Led by Curry and his teammates Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, Golden State won four championships in eight years. The last was in 2022, against the Boston Celtics.Clara Mokri for The New York Times“There’s always a next, even though we can’t see it,” said Candace Parker, one of the most accomplished players in W.N.B.A. history.She added: “That’s what we asked ourselves after Michael Jordan retired. After Magic and Bird retired. It just seems like there’s always that next coming.”Parker, who plays for the Las Vegas Aces and is an N.B.A. analyst on TNT, cited players like Antetokounmpo, Dallas’s Luka Doncic, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and Victor Wembanyama, the French prodigy expected to go first in this year’s N.B.A. draft, as possible torch carriers.Oscar Robertson, one of the best guards ever to play in the N.B.A., said part of the reason Curry and James were able to maintain their influence was because of how well they were still playing at their ages.“Some players when they are 29, they’re even too old. Some players when they are 34, they’re too old,” Robertson, 84, said. He added: “Guys try to rise to the occasion to play against these two athletes. And I’m so glad that these two athletes are meeting that challenge every time they go on the court.”But so far, no other current player in the N.B.A. — or likely anyone else in American team sports — is in the same orbit of stardom and influence as James and Curry.“We just have to enjoy these guys in the present because who knows how much longer they’ll play?” Crawford said. “But what we do know is we won’t see two like this ever again. So we should savor every moment.”Clara Mokri for The New York Times More

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      Pat Riley, Once Front and Center, Reigns in the Background

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      Riley’s decades in the N.B.A. have given him plenty of stories to tell. But the formerly flashy coach of the Knicks, Heat and Lakers is keeping a low profile — “the boss he thinks you should be.”The network camera was drawn to Pat Riley after Jimmy Butler’s 22-foot jumper landed like a kick to the collective groin of the Milwaukee Bucks late in Game 4 of Miami’s first-round playoff series upset. While Butler, soon to complete a 56-point masterpiece, pranced in full-throated fashion, there sat Riley, a gray-haired Buddha, arms folded across his suit jacket and tie, smiling without celebrating, blinking but not moving.No surprise, really. By this point in a long basketball life, what has Riley not already seen that would make him compromise on his veneer of calculated, unflappable control?Circulating online, the clip was another striking visual to add to the Riley collection. From the 1966 national championship game in which a Texas Western squad dominated by Black players defeated his all-white Kentucky team to his tenured role as the Heat’s president, Riley has been tethered to basketball history of tectonic magnitude.True, the 1970s version of Riley is most memorably recalled as a role player practically riding piggyback on the great Jerry West while leaving the court upon the Los Angeles Lakers’ clinching of the only title West ever won as a player. From the 1980s on, Riley moved front and center, stylishly coifed.Riley coached the Heat to a championship in the 2005-6 season, with Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal leading the team on the court. Miami beat the Dallas Mavericks in six games.Rhona Wise/European Pressphoto AgencyHe has played, coached or been chief executive for a team in a championship game or series for an extraordinary seven consecutive decades — the most recent being the Heat’s 2020 N.B.A. finals loss to the Lakers. Had there been an award for most venerable personality, the man who inspired Michael Douglas’s Gordon Gekko look for the 1987 film “Wall Street” would have to be its inaugural designee.Riley’s run as a coach and executive is arguably the most remarkable of all, given the generational shifts he has withstood. West is a front-office Lakers legend but was a reluctant three-season coach. Phil Jackson has more than double the head coaching titles (11-5), but he took on only star-laden rosters and was a bust as Knicks president. Red Auerbach deserves credit for coaching or assembling 16 of the Celtics’ 17 title teams, but most were achieved in a nascent league in which players had no freedom of movement.Riley coached the Lakers from 1981 to 1990, winning four championships with the future Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, right, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, left.Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE, via Getty ImagesRiley didn’t win a championship during his four seasons with the Knicks in the early 1990s, but they made it to the N.B.A. finals in 1994, when they lost to Houston in seven games.Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE, via Getty ImagesRiley did inherit a championship cast in Los Angeles, but he steered it to dynastic prominence and four titles. He made the Knicks matter again in the 1990s, however tortured — his word — he remains from not getting them across the finish line in the 1994 finals. He turned Miami’s nowhere expansion franchise into a contender and three-time champion.But we likely won’t hear much, if anything at all, from Riley on himself, the injury-plagued Heat or the Knicks during their Eastern Conference semifinal series. It’s not breaking news that he has ceded the organizational microphone to Erik Spoelstra, the coach he handpicked to succeed him in 2008 and who has remained in place well beyond the four-year Miami residency of LeBron James and the franchise’s last title in 2013.As far back as 2012, I sampled the Heat locker room for a column on how Riley had stepped away from the spotlight that once couldn’t resist him. Dwyane Wade, who joined the Heat in 2003, said, “For the most part, he stays back, stays out of the way when it comes to the players, and he’s been doing that for a couple of years.”Riley rarely speaks publicly anymore, but he has come out to support Wade, right, who spent more than a decade with the Heat.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesRiley declined a request to talk about why his once-commanding voice is now seldom heard with rare exceptions — typically to acknowledge revered service, as in the recent cases of Wade’s election to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Heat veteran Udonis Haslem’s upcoming retirement. Feelers to others affiliated with the Heat were met with a familiar refrain: Riley does not want anyone but Spoelstra and his players speaking publicly during the playoffs.Better then to consult someone whose employment doesn’t depend on him. Jeff Van Gundy, a Riley protégé who became his coaching antagonist after Riley’s stormy departure from New York in 1995, said: “He morphed into the boss that he always wanted, the boss he thinks you should be. Stay behind the scenes. Do your job.”Dave Checketts, who in 1991 hired Riley to coach the Knicks, recalled a phone conversation in which West, with whom Riley occasionally clashed during the Lakers’ Showtime era, warned him, “You’re going to have to figure out how to handle the press because Pat will lose his mind when someone says something he doesn’t want out there.”Said Checketts: “And Pat did say when he came, during hours and hours of conversation, that we needed to speak in one voice. That’s why I give him tremendous credit for what he’s done in Miami — he’s lived by what he’s espoused. And Spoelstra has been a great spokesman, too.”Six years ago, during my last extended conversation with Riley, he did veer off the agreed-upon interview topic — Magic Johnson’s brief ascension to the Lakers’ presidency. When I complimented him for refusing to tank, for remaining competitive despite losing James to Cleveland and Chris Bosh to a medical issue, Riley said:LeBron James, Wade and Chris Bosh spent four seasons together on the Heat, winning two championships. Riley was team president, after handing the coaching reins to Erik Spoelstra in 2008.Hans Deryk/Reuters“Players come and go, great players. When LeBron left, that was the most shocking thing to me — not to say he was right or wrong — and the most shocking thing to the franchise. But our culture is the same. You have your up years and your down years, but what can’t change is the way you do things.”That wasn’t necessarily the whole truth. After the Heat lost to San Antonio in the 2014 N.B.A. finals, Riley, undoubtedly referring to James’s looming free agency, told reporters: “You’ve got to stay together if you’ve got the guts. And you don’t find the first door to run out of.”James still exited, stage left. An old Riley tactic — challenging players’ manhood — fell on deaf, new-age ears. Most spiels grow old. And Riley, 69 at the time, is now a more muted 78, a stealth operator, Godfather Riley more than Gordon Gekko Riley. Yet he remains indisputably relevant, still resplendent, while watching and waiting for the auspicious occasion that will merit his last hurrah. More

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      Anthony Davis Leads Lakers Past Golden State

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      Only Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal previously had 30 points and 20 rebounds in a Lakers playoff game.SAN FRANCISCO — Anthony Davis sat next to LeBron James, watching as James heaped praise upon him.“The Lakers franchise over the years, over the course of their existence, has always had dominant big men, dominant guys that have been a force at the rim,” James said, after a dominant performance by Davis in the Lakers’ Game 1 win on Tuesday night in their Western Conference semifinal series against the Golden State Warriors. “That’s why their jerseys are in the rafters. A.D. will be up there when he’s done playing.”James went on for another minute in the same vein. Once he finished, Davis patted him on the back.“I’ll take my watch next week,” James said, smiling at his joke about a quid pro quo. “Or a car.”This series is one that has stirred nostalgia for the years when James and Warriors guard Stephen Curry used to face off every June for the N.B.A. championship. But it could hinge on Davis, who has the potential to be the best player in the series. On Tuesday night, Davis showed just what his dominance can mean to the Lakers, as he pushed them to a 117-112 win on the road over the defending champion Warriors, wresting away home-court advantage.Curry finished with 27 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists while two other Golden State guards, Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole, also eclipsed 20 points.Davis finished the game with 30 points, 23 rebounds and 4 blocks. With at least 30 points and 20 rebounds, Davis joined elite company in Lakers playoff history: Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal. The most drastic statistical difference between the teams was a direct result of Davis’s play: The Lakers outscored the Warriors inside the paint by 54-28.“He’s everything for us,” Lakers guard Dennis Schroder said. “Defensively, offensively, big part for this organization. I mean, wasn’t an All-Star, wasn’t the defensive player of the year. He’s taking it serious, doing everything for us, and he’s the anchor.”That James and Curry were the narrative center of this series made sense. They are two of the best to have ever played in the N.B.A., and each has won four championships. They played against each other in the finals every year from 2015 to 2018, and each has won a championship since then as well — James in 2020 and Curry last season.This is the first time since 2018 that the two have faced each other in the playoffs, and there were plenty of moments Tuesday night when they commanded the stage.Before the game, the two shared a laugh at the scorer’s table. Midway through the second quarter, while Davis was shooting free throws, James wandered down the sideline with Curry, who was heading to the Golden State bench. James stayed by Curry’s side until he sat down, and even then continued talking to him.“He was just joking around about having to guard me all the way till I got to the bench,” Curry said.But at halftime, James was with Davis. The two of them walked off the court together, shoulder to shoulder, stride for stride.The scene was reminiscent of their first season together, the 2019-20 championship season, when Davis and James hardly went anywhere without each other and waited for each other to finish their on-court interviews after every game.The Lakers gave up a lot to acquire Davis the summer before that season, including players who would become critical pieces for other franchises, and Davis seemed to reward them right away. He was named first-team All-N.B.A. that year, as well as the All-Defensive first team. He was a candidate for defensive player of the year. He fit perfectly on James’s team.Part of what made that partnership work so seamlessly was the way their personalities meshed. Davis never needed to be the center of attention. James didn’t mind it, even thrived in it.“We’re not jealous of each other,” James said during the 2020 N.B.A. finals.That dynamic came into play on Tuesday night when James and Curry were the center of attention.Davis might not seek attention, but on the court he requires it, especially when he plays the way he did in Game 1.“We know that’s what he’s capable of,” Lakers Coach Darvin Ham said. “It’s great. We needed every bit of all those points and rebounds and blocked shots, assists as well.”Despite 27 points from Stephen Curry, Golden State is down, one game to none.Cary Edmondson/USA Today Sports Via Reuters ConThough Davis excelled at defending inside the paint, he made his presence felt all over the court. Late in the game, he thwarted the Warriors shortly after Curry tied the game with a heart-stopping 3-pointer with 1 minute 38 seconds remaining that capped a 14-0 run.Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell scored, getting the lead back for the Lakers. Moments later, Curry tried again, this time driving toward the basket, only to have his shot blocked by Davis. With 39.3 seconds left and the Lakers up by 3, Davis grabbed a rebound off a miss by Poole.Davis was aggressive offensively as well and seemed tireless despite playing 43 minutes 50 seconds, more than any other player. He played the entire second half.Ham credited the load management in which the Lakers had engaged earlier in the year for being able to play Davis big minutes in the playoffs.Davis’s critics have questioned his durability and his consistency, and not without reason. He has missed games because of injury in every year of his career and played in only 56 games this season.“It doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “I don’t care what no one thinks. Only the guys in the locker room, coaching staff, only opinions that I care about. Other than that, I just go out and play basketball, do what I can do to help the team win.”Davis and James were two of the last remaining players on the court Tuesday night, Davis doing a postgame interview with TNT and James speaking with the Lakers’ regional broadcast channel. Davis briefly interrupted James’s interview to do a personalized handshake before leaving the court.“It’s going to be a different game,” Davis said, when asked about Game 2 on Thursday. “They’re going to make adjustments; we’re going to make adjustments.” He added: “I’m going to continue to be aggressive.” More