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      Luka Doncic Is Scoring More and Playing When He Doesn’t Have To

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      Even in pickup games, Doncic is showing a leap compared with last season, which ended with a disappointing exit in the Western Conference finals.LOS ANGELES — Jared Dudley, an assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks, put together a pickup game earlier this month when his team had an official day off.He invited players who usually don’t see much time on the floor, including Jaden Hardy, Theo Pinson and Frank Ntilikina, as well as A.J. Lawson, who had been on the team for less than a month. The goal was to get them a few extra minutes to play, and to let Dudley and other coaches help them build up the informal dynamics of working together.As Dudley organized the game, Luka Doncic noticed. “I want to play,” he said.Dudley was stunned because, in his experience, star players rarely add on to their workload in this way.He wondered if it was a good idea because Doncic had played 43 minutes (and scored 43 points) the previous night in a loss to the Clippers. But the team’s medical staff approved, so he let Doncic play.“Just loves to hoop,” Dudley said.Doncic’s passion has shown in the games that count, too.It had been clear since Doncic was drafted into the N.B.A. in 2018 that he was a special player. But five seasons in, he seems to have taken a superstar leap. Entering Friday, Doncic led the league with 33.7 points per game and was fifth in assists per game with 8.8. By his own evaluation, he came into the season more prepared than he has in seasons past, perhaps motivated by losing to Golden State in the Western Conference finals last season.“Until you win the championship, I think it always has to push you,” Doncic said. “And it will for me for sure.”On Jan. 11, when Doncic insisted on playing in the unnecessary pickup game in Los Angeles, he was in the midst of an astounding stretch of basketball.The next day he scored 35 points against the Lakers, which put his average over a 10-game stretch to 40.2 points. During that span, he scored 60 points against the Knicks, put up 51 against the San Antonio Spurs and had 50 against the Houston Rockets.Doncic scored 51 against the Spurs in a Dec. 31 game.Ronald Cortes/Getty ImagesAgainst the Knicks, Doncic also had 21 rebounds and 10 assists, making him the first player in N.B.A. history to have 60 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists in a game.“The history of the game is written by the players, and it was written again tonight,” Mavericks Coach Jason Kidd said after the Knicks game. “For a player, Luka, doing something that’s never been done before, it’s hard to do.”Kidd added: “Elgin Baylor, Wilt, he was in that class, and then he separated himself and made his own class.”The Mavericks needed every bit of his performance. They won that game by only 5 points in overtime. Doncic scored 18 in the fourth quarter, adding 7 in overtime, which outscored the Knicks entirely.“This kid doesn’t quit,” Kidd said.Doncic passed 50 points in a game for the first time last season, when he had a 51-point effort against the Clippers in February.This season, the Mavericks need him to score more. They lost the reliable scorer Jalen Brunson in free agency when he signed with the Knicks, and have had to weather injuries to other key players.Doncic also spent the summer playing with the Slovenian national team, then returned to Dallas prepared to take a big step.“I was way more ready than last year at the start, so that was really the most important thing,” Doncic said.Dudley saw that in numerous ways. Doncic was in better shape. He was more aggressive in early games. He leads the league in first-quarter scoring, averaging 11.4 points during that period.“He plays the whole first quarter now because we can play him at a higher rate,” Dudley said. “We believe defensively he can keep up with that. And shooting at such a high percentage. I think as confidence grows, he knows what he is as a player, he knows no one can stop him.”Dudley, who played the final stretch of his N.B.A. career with LeBron James on the Lakers, sometimes uses James as an example for Doncic. He knows Doncic will respect learning about James, because he was one of Doncic’s favorite players growing up. James and Doncic traded jerseys during Doncic’s rookie year, and Doncic has that jersey hanging in his house in Dallas.The maturity he shows in his play makes it sometimes jarring in moments when that lapses.“He’s way wiser than his age; he acts like he’s been here before,” Mavericks forward Dorian Finney-Smith, 29, said. “But, you know, sometimes you forget he’s only 23 years old. You forget until he does something crazy like kick the ball all the way up into the stands. Then you’re like, OK, all right. He’s 23.”Doncic and Dorian Finney-Smith have bonded over pickup games.LM Otero/Associated PressTo be fair, Doncic hasn’t been fined for kicking the ball into the stands since 2019. But he does have a quick temper on the court. He has been assessed 10 technical fouls this season, though one was rescinded.“Off the court, I’m not an angry person,” Doncic said with a smile.Finney-Smith has seen that up close.They became friends even though they came from very different places and started their N.B.A. careers in very different ways. Finney-Smith grew up in Portsmouth, Va., and joined the Mavericks as an undrafted free agent in 2016. Two years later, the Mavericks drafted Doncic, who had played professional basketball in Europe since he was 16, with the No. 3 overall pick.That off-season, Finney-Smith and Doncic spent a lot of time together and bonded over pickup games.“We worked out with each other a whole week straight, even on the weekends, and played ones all night, all day,” Finney-Smith said. “Played full court one-on-one.”Then, as now, Doncic just loved to hoop. More

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      Chris Ford, Who Made a 3-Point Mark in the N.B.A., Dies at 74

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      He helped the Celtics win a title and coached them in the ’90s, but he may be remembered more for sinking what was hailed as the league’s first 3-point shot. Or was it?Chris Ford, who played guard for the Boston Celtics when they won the 1981 N.B.A. championship and later coached the team along with two others in the N.B.A., but who was perhaps best remembered for making the first 3-point shot in the league’s history, died on Tuesday. He was 74.Ford’s family announced his death through the Celtics but did not provide details. The Press of Atlantic City reported that he died in Philadelphia after having a heart attack this month.The N.B.A. instituted the 3-pointer in its 1979-80 season, borrowing the idea from the former American Basketball Association, which had merged with the N.B.A. in 1976. On Oct. 12, 1979, the opening night of the season, Ford was behind the arc when he caught a pass from guard Tiny Archibald and shot the basketball over the outstretched hand of the Houston Rockets’ Robert Reid with 3 minutes 48 seconds left in the first quarter.But Kevin Grevey of the Washington Bullets also hit a 3-point shot that night, in another early-evening game, against the Philadelphia 76ers. After that game, a reporter told Grevey that he had “just set a record that would never be broken,” according to an account by The New York Times in 2021.Three nights after those season-openers, the N.B.A. issued a news release saying that Ford was, in fact, the 3-point pioneer, since the Celtics-Rockets game had started 35 minutes before the Bullets-Sixers matchup. Still, it was unclear at what exact time of the evening each 3-point basket was made.The three-pointer went on to become perhaps the most dominant offensive weapon used in the N.B.A.Ford joined the Celtics early in the 1978-79 season in a trade with the Detroit Pistons. He played with Boston through the 1981-82 season. After serving as an assistant coach with the Celtics, he was the team’s head coach for five seasons in the 1990s. He later coached the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Clippers.Ford during a game in 1994. He coached several N.B.A. teams, including the Boston Celtics, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Clippers.Gary Stewart/Associated PressChristopher Joseph Ford was born on Jan. 11, 1949, in Atlantic City, N.J. He helped take Villanova to three N.C.A.A. tournament appearances, including a trip to the 1971 national championship game, where the Wildcats lost to U.C.L.A., coached by John Wooden.At 6 feet 5 inches, Ford was tall for a guard of his era. He averaged 15.8 points a game during his collegiate career and was selected by the Detroit Pistons in the second round of the 1972 N.B.A. draft.In his first season with the Celtics, Ford averaged what became a career-high 15.6 points a game and was voted the team’s most valuable player. He averaged 9.2 points a game with 3.4 assists for his N.B.A. career. He was an assistant coach for the Celtics for seven seasons under their former guard K.C. Jones, and then succeeded Jimmy Rodgers as the team’s head coach. Ford held the post from the 1990-91 season to 1994-95 season. He compiled a 222-188 record with four playoff appearances.He was the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks from 1996 to 1998, and of the Los Angeles Clippers from 1998 to 2000. He began the 2003-4 season as an assistant coach for the 76ers and coached the final 30 games of that season after Coach Randy Ayers had been fired.According to The Boston Globe, Ford is survived by his wife, Kathy; their children, Chris Jr., Katie, Anthony and Michael; and seven grandchildren.Kevin Grevey said he did not revisit the possibility that it was he, not Ford, who had made the N.B.A.’s first 3-pointer until more than a decade after those games, when he ran into the reporter who had told him in October 1979 that he had made history.Grevey said he would look into the matter further, but as he told The Times in 2021, “I swear I don’t care.”But 3-pointers were hardly the only weapon that Ford had.According to CBS Boston, Ford was reported to have dunked at least once on the Hall of Famer Julius Erving, one of the most famous dunkers in N.B.A. history, whose nickname was Dr. J. That inspired Ford’s teammates to give Ford a nickname of his own: “Doc.” More

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      The Brooklyn Nets Have So Much Talent but So Little Charm

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      The Nets are again one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams, with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant leading All-Star voting. So why is there so little joy in watching them?I watched the Nets play in Brooklyn last week, and a Boston Celtics home game broke out.“M-V-P, M-V-P, M-V-P!” rang the chants, aimed not at one of the Nets but at Jayson Tatum, Boston’s feather-touch, do-it-all forward, as he toed the free-throw line in the fourth quarter of what became a runaway victory for his team.This was one of the most significant rivalry tests of the N.B.A. season, a battle between two teams vying for the best record in the Eastern Conference. It was also the first of a spate of games the Nets would play without Kevin Durant. The team’s best player, and the core of the offense, Durant sprained his left knee earlier in the week and stands to spend at least two weeks recovering.In other words, it was the type of game that reveals a team’s DNA.With much in the balance, the Nets mounted only a tepid response, fading late and losing, 109-98. That may be why the fans at Barclays Center seemed muted, why they allowed a rival like Boston to roll into town and treat the arena like a personal penthouse. The team rolled over for the Oklahoma City Thunder at home Sunday night, dropping back to four games behind the Celtics in the East.High hopes have stuck to this Nets team since the summer of 2019, when Kyrie Irving signed on to be the franchise’s floor general and promised to persuade Durant, the 2014 league M.V.P., to join him. Both stars had won N.B.A. championships in the not-so-distant past. It stood to reason that Brooklyn would become a perennial contender.The Nets are again an elite team this season. When they are clicking, as they were in December, they are capable of winning a dozen straight games on the strength of hot shooting and stern defense.So why isn’t it more joyful and exciting to watch them?Brooklyn is the N.B.A.’s most enigmatic team — awkward to root for, understand, figure out and believe in. Over the past several seasons and into the current one, the high hopes for what the Nets could become have consistently been dashed by soap opera controversies.“If you love the Nets, you have to focus on the skill of the players,” one fan told me during the game. “It’s all about the skills of this team. That’s why you watch. Because their big stars all have, how do I say this, well, they have some baggage.”For the uninitiated, here’s a quick rundown of the plot twists.Steve Nash was hired as head coach in 2020 despite having no coaching experience. His first year went well enough: The Nets were a Durant 3-pointer away from making the Eastern Conference finals.The promise of this team never quite outpaces the spectacle. The 2018 league M.V.P., James Harden, arrived in 2021 thinking he would complement Durant and Irving perfectly. Break out the Champagne, N.B.A. titles here we come.But Harden beefed with Irving, partly because Irving — who seems to have never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t want to bear hug — refused to get vaccinated for the coronavirus as the pandemic raged. That meant Irving couldn’t play home games during a period when New York demanded immunization as a prerequisite for work.Kyrie Irving led all Eastern Conference guards in All-Star voting, despite being at the center of several controversies.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesSo the Nets shipped Harden to Philadelphia midway through last season. “There was no structure” in Brooklyn, Harden said, offering a parting shot. “And even superstars, they need structure.”He continued pulling back the curtain. “Internally, things weren’t what I expected when I was trying to get traded there,” he said.In trading for Harden, the Nets received Ben Simmons, a player talented enough to have once been viewed as Magic Johnson Lite.Problem is, Simmons arrived in Brooklyn so saddled by injury and self-doubt that he had become allergic to one of basketball’s most essential and elementary skills: shooting the basketball.Nash’s team stumbled through last season, dogged by injuries, a teamwide Covid outbreak and, yes, more drama, only to be swept ignobly by the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. Durant peppered the team with a demand: Fire Nash, or trade me. (He later relented.)When the Nets began this season losing five of their first seven games, Nash was let go.I haven’t even detailed Irving’s self-inflicted wounds. They’re enough to fill a book. To keep from dragging on, I’ll say that this season could have been a redemption tour until he started it by publicly backing a holocaust-denying documentary that blamed Jews for many of the world’s woes.No, the Nets don’t leave you with the warm and fuzzies — not in the way, for example, that Golden State, fronted by Stephen Curry, or the Denver Nuggets, led by Nikola Jokic, do. But the Nets’ stars remain popular, at least by one nonscientific measure. Durant and Irving are among the league’s vote leaders for this year’s All-Star Game.“It’s all about the skills” seems to have become a necessary mantra for the many fans willing to look past all of this team’s travails.What will the Nets’ future be? How can anyone be sure when, despite all that skill, the team remains such a work in progress?Simmons is 26, still capable of becoming the superstar he was billed as when he was drafted No. 1 overall in 2016. He put up quite a stat line against Boston: 13 assists and nine rebounds, the type of play vital to Brooklyn with Durant out.But there were times when Simmons was near the basket and attempted awkward layups. Clang. He tried again. Clank.All game, Simmons did not score a single point. As he sat on the bench in the fourth quarter, the Nets already having given in, Celtics fans filled Barclays Center with their loudest roars.In the news conference after the game, I asked him: What is this team’s identity?I wanted to know if the Nets had a trademark trait they could rely on, something not only excellent but sustainable in the crunch. All championship teams contain such a quality; if you ask me, all deeply embraceable teams do, too.Simmons leaned back, shook his head as if bewildered and paused for a beat.“We are still trying to give ourselves an identity,” he said. “So maybe at the end of the year, I will give you that answer.”Basketball fans have been waiting long enough. More

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      NBA Has Sharp Rise in 50-Point Games

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      Donovan Mitchell’s 71 points in a game this week was the top mark since 2006, but a rise in offense (and a lack of defense) has made high-scoring games a routine affair.We don’t know who will do it, and we don’t know exactly when it will happen. But we do know that somebody sometime soon will score 50 points in an N.B.A. game. And then it will happen again. And again and again and again.The headlines have started to sound familiar. Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 55 on Jan. 3. Klay Thompson scored 54 and Donovan Mitchell scored 71 on Jan. 2. Luka Doncic scored 50 and 60 and 51. Pascal Siakam and Darius Garland have 50-point games this season. Lauri Markkanen just missed, with a 49-point game on Thursday. Who’s next? Kevon Looney?An event that was a rarity as little as a decade ago is now becoming commonplace, and this season in particular, players are going off for 50 or more regularly.Ten years ago, in 2012-13, only three players had 50-point games. Going back through the ’90s, ’80s and ’70s, the number of 50-point games per season was almost uniformly in the single digits.But lately, 50-point games have taken off, with an average of nearly 20 over the previous four seasons. So far this year, with a little less than half of the season complete, there have been 14.So what’s going on?To start with, teams as a whole are scoring more. The average N.B.A. team has scored 113.8 points a game this year, the highest total since 1970. Ten years ago the average was 98.1. The pace of games has also sped up, with teams averaging nearly 100 possessions every 48 minutes over the past five seasons, which had not been done since the 1980s. More possession, more shots, more points for everyone.Luka Doncic’s dominant performance against the Knicks last week included 60 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists.Tim Heitman/Getty ImagesA lot of that offense has been driven by a drastic increase in 3-pointers. In the late 1990s, teams made an average of four to six 3s per game. Ten years ago, they made 7.2. In 2017-18, the total passed 10 for the first time, and this season the average is 12.2, off 34.3 attempts.In eight of the 14 50-point games this season, the player made at least six 3s, with Thompson and Garland sinking 10 each. (Shout-out to Antetokounmpo for scoring 55 while shooting 0-for-3 from 3.)Golden State Coach Steve Kerr this week pointed to 3-point shooting and pace as key factors in the surge of 50-point performances. He also blamed defense.“Transition defense is at an all-time low in this league,” he said. “Every single night on League Pass, you see five guys standing there, somebody shoots, somebody runs long, and everybody goes: ‘Oh, the guy’s laying it up down there.’“We do it, every team does it. I think the game has gotten really loose and the players are so talented, it’s made for a lot of big scoring nights.”Saddiq Bey, a third-year player for the Detroit Pistons, has averaged 14.2 points a game in his career thus far, but he had 51 in a win over the Orlando Magic last season.Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressThe 14 games this season were accomplished by 10 different players, and the trend over the past few years has wrapped in players with far smaller profiles than that of Antetokounmpo or Doncic. Detroit’s Saddiq Bey had 51 points last March. Fred VanVleet of the Raptors did it in 2021, and T.J. Warren had 53 points in a game for Indiana in 2020.In the past, 50-point games were typically the reserve of the greats. Wilt Chamberlain had 118 of them (one of them, of course, reaching 100 points). Next are Michael Jordan with 31 and Kobe Bryant with 25.Though some less expected names are popping for 50 these days, the big names are actually doing it less often than the Chamberlains and Jordans and Bryants. Among active players, James Harden has 23, LeBron James has 14 and Damian Lillard has 12. Of the players who scored 50 this season, Stephen Curry is tops with 11 career 50-point games.As you might expect, with 50-point games up so much, so are games in the 40-to-49-point range. Ten years ago, there were only 33 such games. In recent seasons there have typically been about 100. But this season there are already 76.A single player scoring 40 points in an N.B.A. game? Ho-hum. More

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      NBA Christmas Day Games 2022: What to Know

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      The N.B.A. brings out its stars on Christmas. This year, there will be some new rivalries, too.The N.B.A. showcases its stars on Christmas Day, and this year there will be some big names to watch, like LeBron James, Jayson Tatum and Joel Embiid.There will also be a new face in the mix (Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant is playing on the holiday for the first time) and a familiar one missing (Golden State’s Stephen Curry is out injured).In each of the five games, there is something to look forward to, from young players trying to make their mark to older foes avenging playoff losses.Here’s what you need to know.All times are Eastern, and all games will air on ABC and ESPN. The statistics were current entering Friday night’s games.Philadelphia 76ers at Knicks, noonJames Harden missed several games for the Sixers with an injury, but he’s back and helping them stack up wins.Matt Slocum/Associated PressAfter rocky starts, these teams are finally clicking. The Knicks surged up the Eastern Conference standings on the strength of a recent winning streak, while Philadelphia was compiling a streak of its own.They met on Nov. 4, with the Knicks winning, but Philadelphia didn’t have its two best players: center Joel Embiid and guard James Harden. That makes Sunday’s game the teams’ first true matchup. The Knicks have played on Christmas more often than any other team, but this is the first time they will have Jalen Brunson, their big free-agent signing of the off-season.Brunson, a guard who spent his first four seasons in Dallas, leads the Knicks in assists and is the team’s second-best scorer, behind forward Julius Randle. For the first quarter of the season, the Knicks struggled to string together wins. But then December hit, and they found their stride.That’s when fortunes improved for the Sixers, too. Harden had missed more than a dozen games with a foot injury but returned this month to produce several impressive games with double-digit assist totals. The Knicks will, of course, have to watch out for Embiid as well. Last month, in a game against the Utah Jazz, he had this wild stat line: 59 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists and 7 blocks.Los Angeles Lakers at Dallas Mavericks, 2:30 p.m.Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic is in his fifth N.B.A. season but has already been named to the All-Star team three times.Emil Lippe/Associated PressFans can seemingly always count on seeing the Lakers on Christmas — this is the 24th year in a row — but nothing else about the team has been that consistent.Even as LeBron James, who will turn 38 on Friday, continues to defy reason with his youthful play, minor injuries keep tugging him to the bench. Then there’s the major injury to center Anthony Davis, who is out indefinitely with a sore right foot. Other ailments have rippled through the roster, and the Lakers’ sub-.500 record reflects that. But it also reflects an aging team that got off to a terrible start (0-5) and hasn’t settled into a high-performing rhythm since then.All of that is to say: The Lakers have been a little bit all over the place.Dallas has been, too. Luka Doncic is playing and scoring more than last season, but the Mavericks are losing to bad teams right after beating good ones. The Lakers could fall into either category on Sunday. At the very least, it should be a fun game, with Doncic and James battling to see who can put on the best show. They are both capable of making even the earliest risers hold off on a midday nap.Milwaukee Bucks at Boston Celtics, 5 p.m.Jayson Tatum led the Celtics to the N.B.A. finals last season and has followed that up with high-scoring play this season.David Butler II/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBoston’s Jayson Tatum has responded to his disappointing appearance in the N.B.A. finals last season in the best way: by playing better than ever before. He’s leading the league in minutes per game (37.2), and he’s putting them to good use, averaging a career-best 30.6 points per game by making about half of his shots.The Celtics will face a Bucks team with a not-so-shabby star of its own in Giannis Antetokounmpo. Last season ended in playoff disappointment for him, too, with Milwaukee falling to Boston in seven games in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Sunday will be his first chance for a little revenge.The Bucks and the Celtics are jockeying for first place in the East, though they are fighting with different strengths. Boston has the league’s second-best offense, while Milwaukee has the third-best defense. The postseason is still a ways off, but it would be a surprise not to see one of these teams in the N.B.A. finals. Their Christmas matchup should help each team see what it needs to work on to make sure it’s the one playing for a title.Memphis Grizzlies at Golden State, 8 p.m.Ja Morant has made the Grizzlies one of the most exciting teams to watch in recent years. Brandon Dill/Associated PressNo one can argue that the Grizzlies haven’t earned this, their Christmas debut.Point guard Ja Morant is the speedy, soaring, confident heart of the team, but Memphis is more than its brightest star — and Morant would be the first to say so. He’s averaging a career-best 7.8 assists per game as he and his teammates keep the Grizzlies near the top of a tightly contested Western Conference.They finished last season as the No. 2 seed in the West and could have made a run to the conference finals if Golden State (and injuries) hadn’t gotten in their way in the second round. Sunday will be the teams’ first meeting since then.Both teams have dealt with their share of injuries this season, but Golden State has an especially big one: Stephen Curry has been out since he hurt his shoulder against Indiana on Dec. 14, and it’s not clear when he will return.Golden State is currently ranked in the bottom half of the West, but the intensity of last season’s playoff series with Memphis should carry over and make Sunday’s game a good contest nonetheless.Phoenix Suns at Denver Nuggets, 10:30 p.m.Denver’s Nikola Jokic won the Most Valuable Player Award the past two seasons.Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesThe last game on a long day of basketball is easy to overlook. But Denver’s Nikola Jokic is sure to make at least one pass that will make staying up late worth it. That’s kind of his thing: One minute he has the ball, and then the next his teammate on the other side of the court does, and no one is quite sure how it happened. The Suns are a top-10 defensive team, but some things just can’t be stopped.Phoenix is also the league’s best on offense, which could be a challenge for the Nuggets, who are among the N.B.A.’s worst on defense. Suns guard Chris Paul is one of the best ever at getting the ball to his teammates. Paul led the league in assists last season, his fifth time doing so, and is averaging about nine per game this season.If this game’s late start isn’t a deal-breaker, it should be a nice chance to see some excellent passing and skilled shooters making good on the assist. More

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      With Suns Deal, Mat Ishbia Is Close to His Basketball Dream

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      Mat Ishbia was a walk on at Michigan State 20 years ago before he became a wealthy businessman. His $4 billion deal to buy the Phoenix Suns could help him live his sports dream.At times, Jason Richardson may have regretted playing alongside his friend Mat Ishbia on the Michigan State men’s basketball team.“Mat was always the upbeat, the positive teammate that I hated to guard,” Richardson said, laughing. He added: “He’d get coach mad at us.”Ishbia was the shortest player, but he had boundless energy. When he ran the scout team, Coach Tom Izzo would sometimes yell at the starters.“Hey, if Mat can make you do this … ”“Why can’t you cover Mat?”Said Richardson: “We’re like, man, ‘Mat, chill out, man.’ Nope. He took his job seriously.”Richardson and Ishbia were freshmen during the 1999-2000 season, when Michigan State won an N.C.A.A. Division I championship. Four players from that team went on to play in the N.B.A., including Richardson, while Ishbia took his competitive fire to a desk job at his father’s small mortgage-lending company, United Wholesale Mortgage. Ishbia is now its billionaire chief executive overseeing thousands of employees, including a few of his old teammates.Ishbia, left, at a Michigan State during the 2000 N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament. Four players from that team went on to the N.B.A.Getty ImagesOn Tuesday, Ishbia agreed to purchase a majority stake in the N.B.A.’s Phoenix Suns and the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury, including the entire share of Robert Sarver, the disgraced majority owner. The teams were valued at $4 billion as part of the deal. Ishbia’s brother, Justin Ishbia, will be a major investor, and they are expected to bring in smaller investors.While Ishbia has long dreamed of owning a professional sports team, this opportunity arose only because of a yearslong scandal in the Suns organization with lingering effects that could prove daunting to whoever takes over. Sarver was pressured to sell the teams in September after an N.B.A. investigation by an independent law firm found toxic behavior by Sarver for years, from using racist slurs for Black people to treating female employees inequitably. Other employees, some of whom are no longer with the teams, were also found to have behaved inappropriately.If the N.B.A. approves the sale, Ishbia will become one of the youngest controlling owners in all of American professional sports at 42 years old. His mission will be to reboot the workplace culture of the Suns, while also bringing the franchise its first championship. The Mercury, who have won three championships, are trying to move forward after spending much of the year worrying about their star center Brittney Griner. She spent nearly 10 months detained in Russia on drug charges until she was released in a prisoner swap this month. The U.S. State Department said she had been “wrongfully detained.”The Phoenix Mercury had an up and down season this year while they were without Brittney Griner, who was detained in Russia on drug charges for nearly 10 months.Rebecca Noble for The New York TimesRichardson, who played for the Suns from 2008 to 2010, expressed confidence in Ishbia’s ability to handle the organization’s challenges.“Mat’s going to run it totally different,” said Richardson, who remains close to Ishbia. “It’s going to be upbeat. It’s going to be a family atmosphere. It’s going to be a team atmosphere. He’s going to do things to make that franchise valuable and successful.”Building capitalAfter graduating from Michigan State’s business school in 2003, Ishbia started working for United Wholesale Mortgage, which his father, Jeff Ishbia, founded in 1986 as a side business.“I went there with the concept that I was gonna be there for six months, a year,” Ishbia told Forbes last year. “No one likes mortgages. I don’t like them still.”He described it slightly differently last month in an interview on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”: “I learned that one, I could compete. Two, I could take all the things I learned from Izzo and, like, outwork everybody and be successful, and I saw the opportunity. And I’ve loved mortgages ever since.”The company had about a dozen employees when Ishbia started, according to a company bio. In 2013, Ishbia was named chief executive. Soon, the company was reporting more than $1 billion in mortgage sales. The company reported $107.7 billion in mortgage loans for 2019.Last month, U.W.M. passed Rocket Mortgage as the largest mortgage lender in the country. Rocket Mortgage was founded by Dan Gilbert, who owns the N.B.A.’s Cleveland Cavaliers.Dan Gilbert, who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers, founded Rocket Mortgage, a chief competitor for Ishbia’s company.Tony Dejak/Associated PressGuy Cecala, the executive chair of Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry newsletter, said that Ishbia and Gilbert were considered “mavericks” in the mortgage industry.“They’re very competitive with one another in mortgage lending and outside the mortgage-lending realm,” Cecala said.The two mortgage companies have publicly feuded. Earlier this year, Ishbia criticized Gilbert, in a post on LinkedIn, for reducing Rocket’s work force. Last year, U.W.M. announced that it would no longer work with brokers who also do business with Rocket Mortgage and another competitor, a decision that led to a pending legal challenge.When pressed about the decision on CNBC last year, Ishbia said it wasn’t about exclusivity. He suggested that the competitors were operating in a “gray area” he didn’t want to be part of. Gilbert was unavailable for comment.As Ishbia’s wealth grew through the mortgage business, he was active politically, donating to both Democrats and Republicans.He donated to the primary campaign of Alex Lasry, a Democrat, in this year’s Wisconsin Senate race. Lasry is the son of Marc Lasry, who owns the N.B.A.’s Milwaukee Bucks, and is a Bucks executive. Ishbia also supported both Republicans in the 2020 Senate runoffs in Georgia, including an incumbent, Kelly Loeffler, who owned the W.N.B.A.’s Atlanta Dream. Loeffler was in an open feud with her team’s mostly Black players, who backed her Democratic opponent after she disparaged the Black Lives Matter movement. She lost to that opponent, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is Black, and she later sold the Dream.Ishbia has also given back to his alma mater. Last year, he pledged $32 million to Michigan State. On “Real Sports,” he said an additional $14 million would go toward the $95 million salary of the school’s football coach, Mel Tucker.Two years ago, Izzo connected Ishbia with Dick Vitale, the college basketball broadcaster, who also raises money for pediatric cancer research. Vitale said Ishbia offered him $1 million during their first conversation, and then he and his brother, Justin, followed up with further seven-figure donations.“Shocked the heck out of me,” Vitale said. “Are you kidding me? That is so rare. I wish I could get more entertainers and more athletes, more financially successful people to join me in my quest. But it’s not that easy.”Huddles, chants and mortgagesEvery so often, Ishbia will bring his three children, ages 8, 9 and 11, to the office. They’ll come to U.W.M.’s senior leadership meetings toting notepads.“It’s cute to look over and, you know, watch when they write things down,” said Melinda Wilner, who has been U.W.M.’s chief operating officer since 2015.Ishbia’s father sits on U.W.M.’s board of directors and still comes to some company meetings.“He instilled a strong work ethic in Mat for sure, and his brother,” said Sarah DeCiantis, U.W.M.’s chief marketing officer.When asked who Ishbia’s biggest influences are, DeCiantis didn’t hesitate.“His dad, his mom and Tom Izzo,” she said.Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, center, with the team Ishbia played on that won the N.C.A.A. championship in 2000.Brian Gadbery/NCAA Photos via Getty ImagesIzzo, she said, taught Ishbia how to hold people accountable and motivate them. Ishbia was a student coach under Izzo for his final season. The “Real Sports” segment last month showed that U.W.M. has borrowed some elements of sports culture for its workplace, like team huddles broken by chants.Izzo once visited on a Thursday and was told that Thursdays were Ishbia’s day to walk around visiting employees. He often asks executives for lists of people who have been performing well so he can call with his appreciation.He uses Izzo’s lessons on managing people with a younger set as well: his children’s sports teams. Blake Kolo, a close friend and an executive with U.W.M., whose children play on the same teams as Ishbia’s, said Ishbia’s one rule is to be positive.“If you join the team — it doesn’t matter if you’re a parent or a kid — we’re OK with so much, but you just can’t be negative,” Kolo said.Chasing sports ownershipKolo recalled a flight home from the Bahamas nearly a decade ago with Ishbia and a small group of friends. Ishbia asked everyone about their goals for the next year.Some did not know, but he gave them all a chance to share before it was his turn.“My goal that will always remain on my list is to be an owner of a sports team,” Kolo remembered Ishbia saying. “You know, that’s a long-term goal. That’s not my 12-month goal.”At the time, Ishbia was a wealthy man, but he didn’t have the fortune required to buy a team. Then, U.W.M. went public in 2021.Ishbia, center, took United Wholesale Mortgage public in 2021, which helped him gain the capital to seriously contend to buy professional sports teams.Business Wire, via Associated PressIshbia was part of a bid to buy the N.F.L.’s Denver Broncos this year, joining a group that included Alec Gores, who invested in U.W.M. and is the older brother of Tom Gores, the Detroit Pistons owner. Ishbia also had been mentioned as a possible suitor for the Washington Commanders in recent months.Richardson said he never expected Ishbia to buy a team so far from Michigan, where U.W.M. is based. “But that just shows you how bad he wanted to own the franchise and be a part of the N.B.A. team and help a franchise win a championship,” he said.According to a person close to Ishbia, he spent time in Phoenix as he researched the team and the market and became excited by what he saw as a strong opportunity to win. Ishbia plans to continue living in the Detroit area, the person said.The Mercury won W.N.B.A. championships in 2007, 2009 and 2014. The Suns have never won a championship, but they have been to the N.B.A. finals three times, including in 2021. They have been one of the league’s best teams for the past three seasons, led by guard Devin Booker, who grew up in Michigan.“I 100 percent know Mat Ishbia wanted to get a team to win a championship,” Izzo said. “Period.”Phoenix Suns guards Chris Paul, left, and Devin Booker, right, have helped the team find success over the past several seasons, including a trip to the N.B.A. finals in 2021.Matt York/Associated PressIzzo also teased, “He’s an athletically driven guy, that’s body isn’t as athletically driven.”Ishbia’s sale must be approved by three-fourths of the N.B.A.’s board of governors, which includes a representative from each of the league’s 30 teams. Before the vote, the league will vet his finances, conduct a background check and have a small advisory group of owners assess whether Ishbia’s ownership group would be a beneficial partner.Deals can fall through. In August 2011, Alex Meruelo, a California-based pizza-chain owner and real estate magnate, agreed to to buy a majority stake in the Atlanta Hawks. The league office had concerns about his finances, and about three months later Meruelo said that the sale was off by mutual agreement.But if Ishbia’s deal is approved, those who know him best say that he will bring a new energy to an organization in sore need of a reset.“You got to win pretty quick in sports, you know, or everybody’s mad at you,” Izzo said.He thinks Ishbia’s tenure with the Suns and Mercury will be similar to his time leading U.W.M. — that he’ll demand short-term success, and have a long-term vision and that he’ll be very hands on with the organization.“He’s a pit bull,” Izzo said. “With a very warm heart.”Sheelagh McNeill More

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      Mat Ishbia to Acquire Phoenix Suns and Mercury For $4 Billion

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      Ishbia, the chief executive of United Wholesale Mortgage, would replace Robert Sarver as the teams’ majority owner. Sarver was pushed to sell amid a workplace misconduct scandal.Mat Ishbia, the chief executive of United Wholesale Mortgage, and his brother, Justin Ishbia, have agreed to buy a majority stake in the N.B.A.’s Phoenix Suns and the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury in a deal that values the teams at $4 billion.Mat Ishbia and Robert Sarver, the majority owner of the teams, announced the agreement Tuesday night. Sarver had said he would sell the teams in September, after an N.B.A. investigation found that he had mistreated employees over many years, including by using racist language.The deal is for more than 50 percent ownership, including all of Sarver’s stake. It will not be finalized until it is approved by the N.B.A.’s board of governors.“Mat is the right leader to build on franchise legacies of winning and community support and shepherd the Suns and Mercury into the next era,” Sarver said in a statement.The valuation of $4 billion is about 10 times what a Sarver-led group paid for the teams in 2004 and would be a league record. The previous high price was Joe Tsai’s full acquisition of the Nets in 2019 that valued the franchise at $2.35 billion. It is the second-most expensive acquisition of an American sports franchise in history, behind only the sale of the N.F.L.’s Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion earlier this year.In September, the N.B.A. suspended Sarver for a year and fined him $10 million — the maximum allowed — after an investigation found that he had used racial slurs and treated female employees inequitably over many years. The punishment generated significant backlash, with players and fans saying that it was not harsh enough. Amid that pressure, Sarver said he would sell the Phoenix basketball teams, citing an “unforgiving climate.”Ishbia, 42, who played for Michigan State’s men’s basketball team, has wanted to buy a professional sports team for some time. Justin Ishbia is a managing partner at the Chicago-based investing firm Shore Capital. Last month, Mat Ishbia announced that he was interested in purchasing the N.F.L.’s Washington Commanders. He had also bid for the Broncos before they were sold in June to the Walton and Penner families.Ishbia began researching the Suns organization after Sarver decided to sell his stake, and he spent time in Phoenix during the past two months to better understand the market, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Ishbia “fell in love” with the market and decided to aggressively pursue purchasing the team, the person said. Ishbia lives in the Detroit area, where United Wholesale Mortgage is based, and would not move to Phoenix if he is approved to buy the teams, the person said.In a statement Tuesday, Ishbia said he was “extremely excited” about the deal to buy the teams. “I have loved experiencing the energy of the Valley over the last few months,” he said. “Basketball is at the core of my life.”Ishbia was a guard for Michigan State, where he won a national championship in 2000. He told Crain’s Detroit Business in 2020 that he was the “14th best player on a 14-person team.” After graduating from business school at Michigan State in 2003, Ishbia began to work for United Wholesale Mortgage, which his father, Jeff Ishbia, founded in 1986. Mat Ishbia was named chief executive in 2013, and the company went public in 2021.Now Ishbia hopes to take over the Suns organization, which has been in the spotlight since ESPN published a story in November 2021 in which several current and former employees accused Sarver of fostering an inappropriate work culture. The N.B.A. commissioned an investigation, conducted by an independent law firm, which found that Sarver “clearly violated common workplace standards.”According to the investigators’ report, Sarver used a racial slur at least five times; told a pregnant employee that she would be “unable to do her job upon becoming a mother”; and often made crude jokes about sex and commented on women’s bodies.In one instance from 2011, according to the report, Sarver brought a female employee to tears after berating her about a video she had produced. Later, Sarver asked the employee, “Why do all the women cry around here so much?”Sarver said that while he disagreed with parts of the report, he accepted the league’s decision and apologized for his “words and actions that offended our employees.” Suns guard Chris Paul was among the players who called for a tougher punishment than the fine and suspension the N.B.A. issued. As pressure mounted, Sarver announced that he would sell the Suns and the Mercury.The Suns have been among the best teams in the Western Conference for the past three seasons. Led by the star guard Devin Booker, they made the N.B.A. finals in 2021 and lost in six games to the Milwaukee Bucks. During the 2021-22 season, they set a franchise record for wins in a regular season with 64 but lost in the second round of the playoffs.This season, Phoenix had a 19-12 record as of Tuesday afternoon, tied for the most wins in the West.The Mercury, who share a practice facility with the Suns, have not missed the playoffs since 2012. They won the W.N.B.A. championship in 2014 and lost to Chicago in the W.N.B.A. finals in 2021. Last season, the Mercury went 15-21 as they coped with the absence of one of their stars, Brittney Griner.Griner was in custody in Russia from Feb. 17 until Dec. 8, when the U.S. State Department negotiated her release through a prisoner swap. She had been detained outside of Moscow when customs officials said they found hashish oil in her luggage. Griner was convicted on drug charges and began serving a nine-year term in a prison colony this November. The State Department said in May that she had been “wrongfully detained.”Upon returning to the United States, Griner was taken to a military hospital in Texas that helps soldiers and civilians dealing with trauma with their recoveries. Griner left to go home on Friday and rode home with three members of the Mercury organization who surprised her at the airport: Diana Taurasi, a fellow star player; Vince Kozar, the team president; and Jim Pitman, the general manager. More

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      The Inside Story of N.B.A. Players and Their Socks

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      BOSTON — Several years ago, Kevin Porter Jr., then a high school basketball star in Seattle, made a profound decision, one that would affect his life. He was creating his own team for the video game NBA 2K, and he decided to outfit one of the players in super long, over-the-calf socks.“I really liked it,” Porter said, “so I tried it in real life. And I was like, ‘Yeah, this is my new look.’ ”Porter has remained loyal to the style. Now a fourth-year guard with the Houston Rockets, he often complements his high socks by covering his knees with compression sleeves that are designed for his arms.“So my legs can stay warm,” he said. “A lot of people make fun of having high socks. But honestly, it’s kind of like a ’70s or ’80s look. I’m different, and I like expressing that.”Kevin Porter Jr., of the Houston Rockets, first experimented with high socks by putting them on players in a video game.Carmen Mandato/Getty ImagesClad in their oversize sweaters, avant-garde scarves and bespoke suits, N.B.A. players have long moonlighted as style-conscious trendsetters. Before games, arena corridors double as fashion runways. And once fans find their seats, the league’s stars function as billboards for the hottest sneakers on the market.The N.B.A., though, has seldom allowed players much wiggle room when it comes to an undervalued component of their in-game attire: socks. Players, after all, are required to wear those manufactured by Nike, which has been the league’s sock partner for six seasons.But even within that relatively confined world, players are constantly finding ways to tailor their approaches. Some pull their socks high, while others scrunch them low. Some want a brand-new pair every game, while others are fine cycling through the same laundered pairs for weeks.There are even a few players who purposely take their Nike socks, which are labeled left and right, and wear them on the wrong feet — a practice that has always puzzled Pat Connaughton of the Milwaukee Bucks.“I’ve asked, and nobody’s given me a good answer,” he said.And while it seems most players prioritize function, some favor fashion — perhaps illustrative of a generational divide.“I think there’s a culture change with the younger guys,” said Tony Nila, who has spent 30 seasons with the Rockets, including the last 16 as the team’s equipment manager. “I don’t know if they have so many sock routines or pet peeves. I think they’re more about looking good.”For decades, most players simply wore the socks that teams gave them — sometimes lots of them. Mel Davis, a forward for the Knicks and the Nets in the 1970s, was known to throw on six pairs — six! — before lacing up his sneakers, which was a source of intrigue for opponents and teammates alike.“When I hear sock stories, he’s the first one who comes to mind,” said Kenny Charles, 71, a former guard with the Buffalo Braves and Atlanta Hawks. “Everyone was responsible for their socks. And if you lost them on a road trip, you didn’t say anything. You’d just wait until shoot-around and take a pair out of someone else’s bag.”Sock protocols became more formalized in 1986, when the league created a line of products that included socks, replica jerseys, shorts and warm-ups. It did not take long for the league to mandate that its players wear socks that were produced by its sock licensee, a company called Ridgeview.In the late ’80s and early ’90s, the socks were basic. Some had a couple of stripes around the ankle. Others had the team name running up the side. In 1999, the league began using an Indiana-based company called For Bare Feet, which made socks that were easily identifiable: plush and white with a small N.B.A. logo.A Denver Nuggets player wore socks bearing stripes and the N.B.A. logo during a game in 2005.Brian Bahr/Getty Images“Great sock,” said Eric Housen, Golden State’s vice president of team operations. “Guys loved those.”Before the 2015-16 season, the N.B.A. dropped For Bare Feet in favor of Stance. The Stance socks, though more playful and vivid, were not nearly as popular.“Stiff,” Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics said. “Hurt your feet. Wasn’t too big on them.”The Stance experiment lasted just two seasons. Philadelphia 76ers forward P.J. Tucker was not enamored with the brand. So, he procured several dozen pairs of thick, padded socks from his favorite sock purveyor, Thorlos — “Most comfortable socks ever,” he said — along with several dozen pairs from Stance, and had them delivered to a tailor for surgery: She cut them all in half, then stitched the tops of the Stance socks to the bottoms of the Thorlos socks.The result was that the Stance design and the N.B.A. logo were still visible while affording Tucker the comfort of his Thorlos down low, where it mattered. It was an ingenious way of skirting league rules.“Socks are super important, bro,” Tucker said.Nike, which did not respond to repeated requests for comment, does offer some selection within the margins of its game-sock cosmos. Its socks, which are a polyester, nylon, cotton and spandex blend, come in four lengths: no-show, quarter, crew and tall. (Housen could not think of a current player who wears the no-show socks; the last player who did, he said, may have been Luke Ridnour, a journeyman guard who announced his retirement in 2016.) Players can opt for a type of sock called “Quick,” which is thinner, or “Power,” which has more padding.And there are different sizes. When Boban Marjanovic, a 7-foot-4 center, joined the Rockets in an off-season trade, Nila, the team’s equipment manager, was grateful that he had some size XXXL socks on hand.When Boban Marjanovich was traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Houston Rockets, the Rockets’ equipment manager was ready with the right socks.Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesZion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans flips down the tops of his socks so the orange stripe will show.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesBut while there is flexibility in terms of the style and fit of the socks from game to game, teammates must wear the same color. As they rotate through different uniforms, some franchises mix it up: purple socks one game, black the next. Others keep it simple. Keen observers of foot fashion may have noticed, for example, that the New Orleans Pelicans strictly wear white socks, which forward Brandon Ingram prefers. Zion Williamson, Ingram’s teammate, adds pizazz by flipping down the sock tops to expose a colorful thread that runs along an inside seam.“I like the orange stripe,” he said.Of course, getting players to color-coordinate their socks can cause the occasional complication. One N.B.A. equipment manager, who requested anonymity to protect the sock-wearing behaviors of the team’s players, recalled a long-ago playoff series when the team busted out black socks for the first time. During an early timeout, one of the players opined that they must have been made of burlap: Why are we wearing these?The player was so irritated that he removed his black socks in the huddle and replaced them with white ones. The equipment manager panicked, then lopped off the top of the player’s black socks and slid them over the white ones like wristbands to obscure the clashing color — all in the middle of a playoff game.Lest anyone think the N.B.A. is lax about its sock policies, consider Smart’s experience at the start of the 2017-18 season, when Nike was the league’s new partner. For the season opener, he folded the tops of his socks down because they felt more comfortable that way, he said. The problem was that he wound up hiding the Nike swoosh.“I got a call from the league, and they said that Nike said I did it on purpose,” said Smart, who was sponsored by Adidas at the time. “So they were like, ‘You’ve got to wear your socks the right way or you’ll be fined.’ ”How much? “I didn’t want to find out,” said Smart, who now has a deal with Puma.Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics once folded down the tops of his socks, obscuring the Nike logo. He said he was threatened with a fine.Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty ImagesTeams typically order their socks from Nike about a year in advance. Last month, Housen ordered about 2,500 pairs of socks for Golden State — about 150 per player — for next season. Each team gets an annual stipend for Nike gear.“But based on the amount of product we need, it only covers about 20 to 25 percent of the overall spend,” said Housen, who added that game socks tend to last “as long as you launder them well.”Golden State has a warehouse in San Francisco where Housen houses heaps of team gear for players like Stephen Curry, a star who sometimes opts for crew-length socks but usually wears quarters under his ankle braces.A decent segment of the league wears two pairs. But within that subset are variations. Connaughton said he began doubling up when he was in high school because he believed it helped prevent blisters. Jabari Smith Jr., a first-year forward with the Rockets, wears a pair of Adidas socks underneath his Nike ones.Sometimes, it depends on the sneaker. Larry Nance Jr., a forward with the Pelicans, said one pair of socks typically sufficed when he wore LeBron James’s signature Nike shoes. But he wears two pairs whenever he reaches for his Air Jordan 10s, which are “a little flimsier,” he said.Tucker, who has an enormous sneaker collection, gets why all of this may sound so strange. Most people can get away with wearing crummy socks, he said. But professional athletes are different.“Your feet got to feel right,” he said. “If your feet don’t feel right, forget it.” More