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      Nets Beat Cavaliers in Play-In and Will Face Celtics Next

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      For three quarters, the Nets again showed their best side. A matchup against the Celtics in the playoffs will require a more complete effort.For much of their N.B.A. play-in game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night, the Nets looked like the fearsome team that many observers had long said lay hidden behind their mediocre record. Kevin Durant was magnificent. Kyrie Irving didn’t miss a shot until the fourth quarter. Multiple teammates made significant contributions well above what was usually expected of them.And yet, the game still came down to the final minutes after Cleveland, which had trailed by 20 points after the first quarter and then by 22 in the third, cut its deficit to 6 with a just over a minute left.The job got done in the end: The Nets pulled out a 115-108 victory to claim the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference, and a matchup with the Boston Celtics in the first round. But the game was the latest example of a Nets performance that could be quantified as a head-scratching mix of world-beating talent and worrisome lethargy.For the glass-half-full crowd, the Nets stars Irving and Durant combined for 59 points on 31 shots while handing out 23 assists, another stat-sheet-filling display from one of the most talented tandems in the N.B.A. It was, again, a tantalizing glimpse into what their partnership could be at its peak — a summit that has been a rare sighting in their time together in Brooklyn.Kevin Durant scored 25 points against the Cavaliers, but needed 42 minutes to do it.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesBut it wasn’t just them. Bruce Brown, the team’s consummate role player, had 18 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists, often offering himself as a crucial release valve on offense when Durant and Irving would get blitzed by defenders. Andre Drummond punished Cleveland on the boards, scoring 16 points and grabbing 8 rebounds in only 19 minutes. Nic Claxton, the spry reserve center, added 13 points, 9 rebounds and 5 blocks off the bench.But the glass-half-empty set had evidence, too, after the Nets nearly blew yet another lead down the stretch against a lesser team. On Sunday at home against the Indiana Pacers, one of the worst teams in the N.B.A., the Nets endured a similar ending that became uncomfortably close. In the game before that — also against Cleveland — the Nets blew a double-digit, third-quarter lead. Before that was a game against the Knicks, another less talented team playing out the string; the Nets trailed by 21 points in the first half that time.All three of those games required fourth-quarter rallies to win, but all three repeated a pattern that has played out for much of the season: The Nets, while supremely talented in a couple of spots, are a squad that struggles to put together wire-to-wire performances. And in the playoffs, against the best teams in the league, that may be their Achilles’ heel.“That’s a part of our journey too,” Nets Coach Steve Nash said Tuesday of trying to find a way to change his team’s penchant for flirting with disaster. “It’s not just go out there and build 20-point leads. Turn it into 30.”In the opening game of their first-round series on Sunday, the Nets will travel to Boston and find a Celtics squad that is not the same team the Nets easily dispatched last season. And, thanks to the Nets’ Brown, the Celtics now will have some bulletin board material as motivation.Asked about the Celtics on Tuesday, Brown suggested the absence of Robert Williams III, Boston’s starting center and one of the league’s best defenders, would mean that “they have less of a presence in the paint.”Nets forward Bruce Brown drew a rebuke from Durant for some comments about the Celtics. Vincent Carchietta/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe comments did not sit well with Durant, who dismissed them as “caffeine pride talking.” Brown had said that, with Williams out, the Nets “could attack” Boston’s Al Horford and Daniel Theis, who round out the Celtics’ big man rotation. Durant grimaced and noted, “Them two dudes can do the same stuff.”Durant’s fitness is another lingering concern for the Nets entering the Celtics series. Just getting into the play-in tournament required a heavy workload for Durant, who played 42 minutes on Tuesday night. Since the All-Star break, Durant has averaged 38.6 minutes a game. While other stars around the league were able to manage their minutes — and save their legs — during the stretch run, the 33-year-old Durant had to expend more energy than usual just to drag his team into the playoffs.One way or another, the Nets will enter the playoffs much as they did last season: With high expectations and little time together. Last year, that was a result of injuries and a trade for James Harden. This year, it is a result of injuries and the decision to trade Harden away (not to mention Irving’s extended absence over his refusal to be vaccinated against the coronavirus).“We’re just such a new group,” Nash said. “I think that was like the seventh game those nine players tonight have played together. So every day is a day for us to learn about ourselves.”All season, though, the Nets have bet that talent trumps cohesion. It is why they shuffled players in and out of the rotation with frequency, why they were willing to trade Harden. Tuesday night’s victory showed a tease of the championship potential in the group.In the first three quarters, anyway. More

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      Herb Turetzky, Nets’ Official Scorer for 54 Years, Dies at 76

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      He recorded the statistics of more than 2,200 home games for the team in both New York and New Jersey, and in both the American and National Basketball Associations.Herb Turetzky, a passionate basketball fan who was the official scorer for nearly every home game played by the nomadic Brooklyn Nets franchise from its inception in 1967 until his retirement last year, died on Monday at his home in Whitestone, Queens. He was 76.His wife, Jane, said the cause was primary lateral sclerosis, which causes nerve cells in the brain that control movement to fail. In recent years, he attended games in a wheelchair.Over 54 years of meticulously keeping statistics, Mr. Turetzky recorded the field goals, rebounds, assists, fouls and free throws of Nets stars like Julius Erving, Rick Barry, Buck Williams, Jason Kidd and Kevin Durant. He became a forever Net, the team’s de facto historian and a gregarious friend to players and the news media.He took his seat at center court with his scorebook for more than 2,200 Nets home games, first when the team was in the American Basketball Association and later in the National Basketball Association, after the leagues merged.“He brought so much class and care to the scorer’s table, not a place where you necessarily look for that,” said Mr. Erving, who led the New York Nets to A.B.A. championships in 1974 and 1976. “The job is drudgery for some people, but not for Herb. He cared so much for it, and his reputation preceded him everywhere.”Mr. Turetzky was a senior at Long Island University in Brooklyn in 1967 when he took his future wife, Jane Jacobs, to the Teaneck Armory in New Jersey to see the first game in the team’s history. Then called the New Jersey Americans, they were playing the Pittsburgh Pipers in a matchup of two storied forwards from Brooklyn: the Pipers’ Connie Hawkins and New Jersey’s Tony Jackson, who, like Mr. Turetzky, was from the Brownsville neighborhood.“We had no money and he had free tickets, and we were going to watch the game,” Mrs. Turetzky said by phone.Before the tip-off, Max Zaslofsky, the Americans’ coach and general manager, noticed that the scorer’s table was empty and spotted Mr. Turetzky. He knew Mr. Turetzky from his attending games of an Amateur Athletic Union team that Mr. Zaslofsky had coached. He asked him if he could keep score.“Max, I’d love to,” Mr. Turetzky recalled saying, as quoted in a Sports Illustrated profile last year. “I’m here, so why not?” He added, “I’ve never left that seat since.”After one season in Teaneck, Mr. Turetzky followed the Nets to Long Island, where they played in three arenas, including the Nassau Coliseum; then to three homes back in New Jersey, including the Prudential Center in Newark; and finally to Barclays Center in Brooklyn.Between 1984 and 2018, he scored 1,465 consecutive games.“When I did my 900th straight game, they covered it on NBA TV,” he told the New Jersey newspaper The Record in 2012. “Charles Barkley was on, and when they made that comment to Barkley, all he said was: ‘Nine hundred straight Nets games? Boy, that man’s seen a lot of bad basketball.’”“I have seen some bad games,” he added, “but I’ve seen some great ones.”In 2020, when all the bad and great games — and those in between — added up to 2,206, Guinness World Records certified them as the most by an official scorer in N.B.A. history.Mr. Turetzky was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004.Herbert Stephen Turetzky was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 19, 1945. His mother, Rose (Pearl) Turetzky, was a bookkeeper for the maker of Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup. His father, Sam, was a plumber. Herb played basketball at the Brownsville Boys’ Club (now the Brownsville Recreation Center), where he also learned how to run a scoreboard and maintain a scorebook.After he graduated from L.I.U. in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, he was a teacher and then a principal at a Brooklyn elementary school. After that, he worked as a grants writer for the New York City Board of Education and owned a trophy business. He earned two master’s degrees, in education and in administration and supervision.All the while, Mr. Turetzky was traveling to Nets home games. His longest break from his scoring duties began in November 1968, when he was driving to a game in Commack, on Long Island. He lost control of his car on the Long Island Expressway, crossed a grass divider and crashed into an oncoming car. The driver was killed.“I was in a coma for about six weeks and broke my entire left side up, creating some muscular damage, had a concussion, broke my jaw,” he told The Asbury Park Press in 2005.He returned to the Nets the next season and rarely missed a game after that. Along the way, he and his family became part of the fabric of the team.He was pushed, fully clothed, into the showers at Nassau Coliseum and doused with champagne as the team celebrated its 1976 title. His family hosted the guard Levern Tart, known as Jelly, at their Thanksgiving dinners. The team’s mascot, Duncan the Dragon, was a guest at the bat mitzvah of Mr. Turetzky’s daughter, Jennifer. His son, David, was a Nets ball boy.In addition to his wife, Mr. Turetzky is survived by his daughter, his son and two grandchildren.Jennifer Turetzky recalled listening to her father call in the box scores of Nets games to the Elias Sports Bureau, the N.B.A.’s longtime official statistician.“A box score has a certain direction, and he delivered it in the same cadence, with each player on both teams, starting with minutes — say, 37 — then 5-for-12 and 6-for-9,” she said by phone, describing the field-goal and free-throw statistics. “Then the big number at the end, 45 points. He did it all through my childhood.” More

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      Gene Shue, All-Star and Longtime N.B.A. Coach, Dies at 90

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      He had a seven-decade pro career, starting as a guard with the Pistons before coaching for 22 years, leading the Bullets and the 76ers to the finals.Gene Shue, an All-Star N.B.A. guard of the late 1950s and early ’60s who went on to turn losers into winners in 22 seasons as a pro coach, died Sunday at his home in Marina del Rey, Calif. He was 90. Shue’s death was announced by the NBA. His partner, Patti Massey, said he had been treated for melanoma.Shue embarked on his pro career playing with the old Philadelphia Warriors in 1954, the year the 24-second shot clock was adopted. He was an N.B.A. presence for seven decades in a journey with second and even third acts.Long after joining the Warriors as a first-round draft pick out of Maryland, Shue returned to the city twice, as a coach of the 76ers (formerly the Syracuse Nationals) and later in front-office roles. He had two stints playing for the Knicks.He ended his playing career with the Baltimore Bullets and later coached them in Baltimore and Washington. He coached the Clippers in San Diego and Los Angeles. He was an All-Star for five consecutive seasons with the Detroit Pistons, twice averaging more than 20 points a game. And he was named a first-team all-N.B.A. guard in 1960, along with the Boston Celtics’ Bob Cousy.Shue was twice N.B.A. coach of the year, with Baltimore in 1969 and with Washington in 1982, and he coached the Bullets and later the 76ers to the N.B.A. finals.“I’ve never had a perfect team, and I’ve always settled for something less,” he told The Boston Globe in 1985. “My whole history involves taking weak teams and turning them around.”Eugene William Shue was born on Dec. 18, 1931, in Baltimoreto Michael Shue and Rose Rice. When he played basketball in grammar school, the court’s ceiling was barely higher than the hoops, so he developed a line-drive feet-on-the-floor set shot. He went on to average more than 20 points a game at Maryland in his junior and senior seasons.A slender 6 feet 2 inches, Shue was selected by the Warriors as the third overall pick in the 1954 N.B.A. draft. But after six games with them, he was sold to the Knicks and spent two seasons in New York playing in a backcourt with Carl Braun and Dick McGuire.The Knicks traded Shue to the Pistons in 1956, during their final season in Fort Wayne, Ind., when the N.B.A. still included medium-size cities and travel was hardly luxurious.“Every time we flew from Fort Wayne to the East Coast, we had to stop in Erie, Pennsylvania, to gas up or we’d run out of gas over the Great Lakes,” he told Terry Pluto in the oral history “Tall Tales” (1992), recalling trips on the owner Fred Zollner’s DC-3.Shue was an All-Star with the Detroit Pistons from 1958 to 1962. He played his final two seasons with the Knicks and the Bullets, then retired with a scoring average of 14.4 points a game for 10 seasons.He began his coaching career with Baltimore in 1966, taking over a Bullets team that had won 16 games the previous season. His Bullets went 57-25 in 1968-69 behind Earl Monroe and Wes Unseld, whom Shue selected in the two previous drafts. They won the Eastern Conference title in 1971 with a seven-game playoff victory over the Knicks, the defending N.B.A. champions. But they were swept in the finals by the Milwaukee Bucks of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson.Shue became the coach of the 76ers in 1973, when he was asked to resurrect a team that had gone 9-73. He coached them to the N.B.A. playoff finals in 1977 behind Julius Erving, but they lost to the Portland Trail Blazers in six games. When the 76ers got off to a 2-4 start the following season, Shue was fired.Shue, right, was an All-Star guard for the Detroit Pistons when he drove to the basket by Richie Guerin of the Knicks during a game at Madison Square Garden in 1961. At left was the Pistons center Walter Dukes.BettmannHe became the coach of the San Diego Clippers in 1978-79 after they won 27 games as the Buffalo Braves. He took the Clippers to a 43-39 record, but he departed midway through the following season when they were losers once more.Shue had a costly run-in when his Clippers were facing the Bulls in Chicago in January 1980. After referee Dick Bavetta called a technical foul on the Clippers for having too many men on the court, Shue shoved him.Commissioner Larry O’Brien fined Shue $3,500 and suspended him for a week without pay.“I am a mild-mannered man,” Shue said afterward, “but sometimes you have to stand up and assert yourself.”Shue spent nearly six years in his second stint with the Bullets after they moved to Washington. He finished his coaching career with the Clippers in Los Angeles in 1989 after a season and half of losing basketball.His teams won 784 games and lost 861 over all.Shue stressed defense as a coach.He “taught the right defensive theories — overplaying your man, helping out, double-teaming the ball,” the Bullets’ forward Gus Johnson told Pete Axthelm in “The City Game” (1970).Shue’s two marriages ended in divorce. In addition to Ms. Massey, his survivors include his daughters, Susan and Linda Shue, and a grandson. His son, known as Greg, died in 2021.Shue returned again to Philadelphia in July 1990 as general manager of the 76ers.“There’s no such thing as nine lives,” he told The Philadelphia Daily News. “I spent 20 years in coaching, and so much can happen when you do that job. You can get fired, you can leave, but it doesn’t reflect on your abilities.”The 76ers’ owner at the time, Harold Katz, said, “Some guys survive. There are people like that, who continuously show up.”Shue remained in the post until May 1992, when he was reassigned as director of player personnel.He was still at it into his 80s — this time searching for the next N.B.A. phenom as a 76er scout. More

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

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

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

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

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      Enes Kanter Freedom and the Consequences of Speaking Out

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

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      Tissot Celebrates the N.B.A.’s 75th With Team Straps

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      The line includes a Wilson strap, made from the same leather as the league’s basketballs.For those who want to wear their basketball passions on their wrists, Tissot has created a line of leather straps for its Supersport watches to mark the N.B.A.’s 75th anniversary season.“Our partnership with the N.B.A. serves as inspiration for our watches and we are proud to be able to create models that channel that free spirit and street style that illustrates the N.B.A.,” Sylvain Dolla, chief executive of Tissot, wrote in an email. Since 2015, the brand has been the league’s official timekeeper.The 23 strap designs were inspired by the uniforms of 11 teams, including the Miami Heat, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks (its straps are to debut this month). The range also includes the Wilson strap, crafted from the same leather used to make the N.B.A.’s basketballs. The straps are 22 millimeters (almost nine-tenths of an inch) wide and sell for $45 each on the Tissot website and the brand’s three New York City boutiques.Sports has long been a popular theme for watch and watch accessory brands. In February, Hublot introduced the Big Bang e Premier League, a limited edition of the brand’s connected watch with the league’s lion logo in its signature purple color. In 2020 the strap company Everest suggested a series of watch band-and-face combos that paid homage to Major League Baseball teams. And since 2019 Invicta has partnered with the N.F.L. on a series of watches featuring team logos on the dials and straps in team colors. At the lower end of the market, there are a wide variety of licensed silicone straps for Apple watches that are designed around sports logos and uniforms.Tissot said it planned to release three new models in the Supersport line this year, including a black version with a yellow second hand, and another with blue and silver features, all of which would be able to accommodate the N.B.A. straps.“You can keep the steel bracelet for business occasions and switch it up for the weekend,” Mr. Dolla said. More

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      As the N.B.A. Turns, the Phoenix Suns Keep Chugging Along

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      The uncertainty surrounding the Lakers and interpersonal dramas among the Sixers, Nets and others have obscured the Suns’ steady pursuit of the N.B.A.’s best record.Think about how the N.B.A. is consumed these days. Think about what draws buzz and eyeballs, and social media clicks.The league doubles as a soap opera and a business transaction wire. For many fans, that’s the allure: All the hype about who hates whom, what star player wants to force his way to another team, which front office executive has the boldest plan to resurrect a franchise and is willing dish to reporters — without attribution, of course.Hence this year’s fascination with James Harden’s trade demands, Joel Embiid’s beef with Ben Simmons, Zion Williamson’s injured foot and eating habits, and whether Mayor Eric Adams will allow unvaccinated Kyrie Irving to play home games in Brooklyn.Hence the speculation about every member of the Los Angeles Lakers, the parsing of each utterance by LeBron James, the job security of Coach Frank Vogel. What’s wrong with Russell Westbrook and Jeanie Buss? At this rate, it will not surprise me to see television hype merchants frothing about whether the Lakers should trade the team’s cook.In a sports ecosystem that places such a high value on sizzle, where does this leave the Phoenix Suns? The N.B.A. is currently investigating allegations of racism and misogyny against the team owner Robert Sarver, a high-stakes conflict that seems to have been lost beneath the churn of minor dramas.Amid all that, Phoenix’s fuss-free players and coaches have been impeccable. And underappreciated.The Suns have compiled the N.B.A.’s best record despite losing Chris Paul to a hand injury and playing without Devin Booker, who has been in Covid-19 protocols.Stacy Revere/Getty ImagesIt would not have seemed odd if Phoenix had struggled to shake last season’s N.B.A. finals meltdown against the Milwaukee Bucks. Coughing up a two-game lead on the sport’s biggest stage isn’t exactly easy to put in the past. But Phoenix — led by the head-down coach Monty Williams, the unrelenting will of Chris Paul and the grit and grace of his mentee, Devin Booker — has done just that.After hammering the Portland Trail Blazers by 30 points last week, the Suns became the first team in the league to reach 50 victories, which shouldn’t be a surprise since they’ve had winning streaks of 18 and 10 games this season and were undefeated in November.Their 51-13 record through Sunday is eight and a half games better than the Eastern Conference-leading Miami Heat.In the West, they stand seven and a half games better than the second-place Memphis Grizzlies.Even with Paul sidelined most likely through the end of the month with a broken thumb, even with their leading scorer, Booker, out with Covid-19 — and even after a rare, stumbling loss on Sunday when the Suns were defeated, 132-122, by the Bucks — there appears little chance Phoenix will lose its grip on the top seed and home-court advantage when the playoffs begin in April.But unless you’re a die-hard N.B.A. watcher, you probably are either unaware of how the Suns have dominated this season or you see them as a plucky team of overachievers with no way on earth to actually walk off with a championship.We’re just over a month away from the start of the N.B.A. playoffs, where we’ll find out if the Suns can puncture the public consciousness.During Tuesday’s game against the Trail Blazers in Phoenix, the Suns honored their longtime radio announcer, Al McCoy, the dean of N.B.A. broadcasters, who at 88 has been calling Suns games since 1972. Think of all the memorable Suns players whose on-court brilliance he has witnessed: Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson, Paul Westphal and Alvan Adams, Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire on the “Seven Seconds or Less Suns,” who helped revolutionize the modern game.Phoenix has come startlingly close to a championship, making the N.B.A. finals three times, beginning with the “Shot Heard Round the World” series against the Boston Celtics in 1976. (If you’re too young to remember, check YouTube for a treat.)What other N.B.A. franchise boasts Phoenix’s pedigree while lacking championship hardware? They are pro basketball’s version of the N.F.L.’s Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings, destined always to come oh-so-terribly close to winning it all.Coach Monty Williams’s even-keeled approach has helped the Suns bounce back from a collapse in last season’s N.B.A. finals.Morry Gash/Associated PressBut this version of the Suns can write a new chapter. This squad has a special mojo. “These guys all like one another and they just enjoy having fun playing the game together, and you just don’t see that in sports anymore,” McCoy said when we spoke last week. “A lot of teams, there’s always one or two guys that are upset about something — salary or playing time or something else. But these guys just hang together, and that’s the way they play.”It’s the sports world’s natural order: Winning can undoubtedly draw attention even in today’s hype-besotted world, but that means winning it all. That’s part of the reason we know more about the Lakers this season than the Suns: 17 championship trophies can make a franchise important to people.The same is true of Golden State, a titan of the 21st century grooved into our collective synapses on the strength of three N.B.A. titles and five straight trips to the finals. (It doesn’t hurt to have must-see stars like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and a walking hype machine like Draymond Green, three players whose every other move and machination seem ready to go viral.)Those championship squads each had a discernible style that each member seemed to uphold. To win it all, the Suns will need to stay true to theirs: a team-first style that Williams, a former Spurs player who learned to coach under the watchful eye of Gregg Popovich, could’ve cribbed straight from San Antonio’s glory years.Like those Spurs, everyone on the Suns has a role, everyone follows the script. The ball moves and moves and moves some more. Seven Suns are averaging double digits in scoring this season. Two others are scoring 9 points per game.Those Spurs of old weren’t flashy and filled with angst, drama and uncertainty. There was no soap-opera narrative.They just got the job done. Tellingly, the Spurs’ last championship was a stunning win over the Miami Heat in 2014. It came the season after losing a heartbreaker to the Heat in the finals — courtesy of Ray Allen’s miracle step-back 3-pointer.The Suns are now trying to do something similar to those title-winning Spurs. Capturing an N.B.A. championship after suffering a searing loss is as tough a task as there is in sports.Should the Suns finally win it all, don’t expect them to receive the attention and respect they are due. More likely, a week later, fans will talk more about Zion Williamson’s weight, James Harden’s nightlife and whether LeBron James will soon be taking his talents back to Cleveland. More