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      N.B.A. Eastern Conference Preview: The Bucks Aren't Finished Yet

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      The Bucks might be better, while the Sixers and Nets are playing wait-and-see with key stars. The Eastern Conference could play out in several ways.Here lie the N.B.A.’s most compelling story lines.Potential contenders in the Eastern Conference scrambled during the off-season to assemble teams fit to knock off Giannis Antetokounmpo — now with a new, improved jump shot? — and the reigning N.B.A. champion Milwaukee Bucks. Even the conference’s perennial bottom feeders built rosters that will demand attention from basketball devotees. Some teams are just hoping that distractions don’t derail their seasons before they start.Many wonder how the Ben Simmons situation in Philadelphia will end. The 76ers seemed locked in a stalemate with Simmons, a three-time All-Star, who has wanted to be traded for months. Simmons ended his holdout midway through the preseason and reported to the team but has not played. The 76ers have said they want him on their roster, but if they persuade him to stay, can they really go forward with business as usual?Meanwhile, the Nets have a bona fide championship roster. They know this, and even with the distraction of Kyrie Irving’s murky status because he’s not vaccinated, they expect to hoist the Larry O’Brien championship trophy at season’s end.Could the N.B.A.’s balance of power, which has long rested in the West, be shifting to the East? Here’s a look at how the Eastern Conference shapes up this season.Miami HeatIn some ways, it seems so long ago. But little more than a year has passed since the Heat plowed their way to the 2020 finals before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers. Was it a fluke, aided by playing under the unusual conditions of a bubble environment, with no fans? The Heat were up and down last season before the Milwaukee Bucks ejected them from the 2021 playoffs in a lopsided first-round series.Jimmy Butler needs to be efficient. Duncan Robinson needs to be consistent. Tyler Herro needs to recapture his assertiveness. And Bam Adebayo needs to keep making the sort of strides that have pushed him toward becoming a perennial All-Star.The team should benefit from two additions: Kyle Lowry, who at 35 left the Raptors after nine seasons, and P.J. Tucker, who helped the Bucks win the championship last season.Philadelphia 76ersThe Sixers don’t need Ben Simmons to be competitive (they do have Joel Embiid, pictured), but they are better with him.Matt Slocum/Associated PressBen Simmons is, for now, back in the City of Brotherly Love.Simmons, who reportedly demanded a trade in late August and missed training camp, reported to the 76ers ahead of their third preseason game but did not play. Simmons’s future in Philadelphia remains unclear, though. He still has four years left on his maximum contract.With or without him, Philadelphia is antsy to win now. Joel Embiid is coming off the best season of his career, when he finished second in the voting for the Most Valuable Player Award. The 76ers were the No. 1 seed in last season’s Eastern Conference playoffs but collapsed in the semifinals, continuing their inability to turn regular-season wins into deep postseason success.Philadelphia is a better team with Simmons, 25, despite his offensive shortcomings. But even if he doesn’t play anytime soon, Embiid, Seth Curry, Danny Green and Tobias Harris should be experienced enough to keep the Sixers in contention.New York KnicksThe Knicks doubled down on last season’s roster, which unexpectedly made the playoffs then flamed out — albeit after a brilliant flare — in the first round. The veterans Derrick Rose and Taj Gibson are back, but Elfrid Payton, who triggered an influx of gray hairs for fans, is not. The additions of Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker are significant, and should help take the offensive load off RJ Barrett and Julius Randle, who signed a four-year contract extension in the off-season.This feels like a make-or-break year for the 23-year-old Mitchell Robinson, the center who is up for an extension and can jump through the roof. At his best, he protects the rim and is an excellent roll man. But he has had difficulty staying healthy. Look for bigger roles for Immanuel Quickley and Obi Toppin, who each showed promise off the bench as rookies last season.The Knicks should easily make the playoffs, but their bench depth is a question mark.Milwaukee BucksThe Bucks kept the band together. Same coach. Same star. Same core — mostly. And why not? Fresh off their first championship since 1971, the Bucks seem poised for a title defense.The challenge could be fatigue. Because of the pandemic, their postseason run stretched into July, and two starters — Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday — helped the U.S. Olympic team win gold in August. The Bucks also lost P.J. Tucker, invaluable in the late stages of last season, to the Heat in free agency.But Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time M.V.P., is still the face of the franchise and the proud owner of a newly minted championship ring. And he may be better than ever, showing off an improved jump shot in the preseason. With a contract that runs through the 2025-26 season, he is not going anywhere anytime soon.Atlanta HawksAtlanta guard Trae Young led the Hawks on a surprising run through the first two rounds of the playoffs last season.Brett Davis/USA Today Sports, via ReutersAfter a surprising run to the Eastern Conference finals last year, the Hawks enter the season with the burden of expectations and the benefit of continuity. This team is deep and should compete to be one of the best in the East.Most of the key players are back. The Hawks locked in their two best players, Trae Young and John Collins, with long-term extensions. Coach Nate McMillan will be running the team from opening night, as opposed to being thrust into the job midseason as he was during the last campaign after Lloyd Pierce was fired.Atlanta almost pulled off a miracle run to the N.B.A. finals last season, after taking down the Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers, but were bedeviled by injuries against the eventual champions, the Milwaukee Bucks. Players who were unavailable or not 100 percent, like De’Andre Hunter, Cam Reddish and Bogdan Bogdanovic, are expected to start the season with clean bills of health. The Hawks also added some quality veteran bench pieces in Gorgui Dieng and Delon Wright, and an intriguing rookie they drafted late in this year’s first round, Jalen Johnson.Charlotte HornetsLaMelo Ball, last season’s rookie of the year, highlights Charlotte’s promising young core. He’ll likely be the Hornets’ primary facilitator and already has great court vision and playmaking ability, and he is continuing to improve his jump shot.Ball and forward Miles Bridges in the pick-and-roll were elite last season, with Bridges’s power at the basket and Ball’s precise lob placement on display. That pairing should only be better this season.The Hornets already had solid veterans in Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward, and they added Kelly Oubre Jr. and Mason Plumlee. Oubre is an inconsistent shooter, but could be impactful in transition. Plumlee is a versatile big man.This group won’t be knocking at the door of the N.B.A. finals this season, but the Hornets will be a fun team to watch, and have a real chance at a playoff berth.Brooklyn NetsWith the addition of Patty Mills and Paul Millsap, as well as the return of Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge, the Nets, on paper, are one of the best teams in N.B.A. history. In normal circumstances, they would be title favorites, given their Big Three of Kyrie Irving, James Harden and Kevin Durant. But that was the case last year too, and the Nets bowed out in the second round of the playoffs.Health will be the principle factor for determining how far the Nets go. All of the Nets’ top players have significant miles on their legs and have missed substantial time in recent years.If there is a potentially weak point for other teams to exploit, it is defensively, where the Nets struggled last season, and their off-season additions didn’t seriously address that. This could come back to bite them in the postseason, particularly in the frontcourt against players like Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who scored at will during last year’s playoffs, or Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid.But the offensive firepower is top notch. It’s hard to see the Nets being beaten in a seven-game series if they’re healthy.Chicago BullsDeMar DeRozan gives the new-look Chicago Bulls a threat from the mid-range.Kamil Krzaczynski/USA Today Sports, via ReutersChicago could be a sneaky-good team this season.Arturas Karnisovas, the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations, voiced displeasure with the team’s 31-41 record shortly after last season. Since then, he’s added DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso and Tony Bradley to a roster with Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic, whom Chicago acquired from Orlando at the March trade deadline.DeRozan is lethal in the midrange, but some have questioned how he’ll fit with LaVine, as both players are most effective with the ball in their hands. Chicago will have an upgrade at point guard with Ball, who is a deft passer. And Caruso will add a rugged spark off the bench. Coach Billy Donovan will have to figure out how they all fit on the court.In any event, Michael Jordan said that with the changes the Bulls made, they could compete in the East. How long has it been since those words were last spoken?Toronto RaptorsIt’s a new era in Toronto basketball. Kyle Lowry, perhaps the most lauded Raptor in franchise history, has gone to Miami. Without him, the Raptors are likely stuck between being too talented to get a top draft pick and not being so good that they’ll contend for a top seed in the conference.But there may be an opening for Toronto in the turbulent East: Scottie Barnes, whom the team surprisingly drafted at No. 4 this year, showed potential in the preseason. And the Raptors’ frontcourt, helmed by Chris Boucher and the newly acquired Precious Achiuwa, will be a force.There are lots of questions for the Raptors entering the season: Is Pascal Siakam, who is expected to miss the start of the season as he recovers from shoulder surgery, a true franchise cornerstone? Will Lowry’s replacement at guard, the 35-year-old Goran Dragic, last the season in Toronto? Or will Masai Ujiri, the Raptors head of basketball operations, flip Dragic’s expiring contract?Detroit PistonsYou’d be hard pressed to find any Pistons fans who haven’t already crowned the rookie guard Cade Cunningham as their Magic Johnson. Johnson, of course, won an N.B.A. title as a rookie after the Lakers drafted him No. 1 overall in 1979.Detroit drafted Cunningham, a savvy scorer and shot creator, No. 1 overall earlier this year to hopefully lift itself out of years of irrelevancy. An ankle injury sidelined him in the preseason, and the team is being cautious.Detroit’s young group showed promise last season, despite finishing with the worst record in the East, but the Pistons are another team in rebuilding mode. Coach Dwane Casey has said that this season’s goal is to earn a spot in the postseason play-in tournament.Cleveland CavaliersOnly someone like LeBron James could render an entire franchise into an afterthought. But that was what he effectively did when he departed the Cavaliers for the glamour of Hollywood in 2018, leaving them to rummage through the wilderness without him. The Cavaliers instantly went from title contender to lightweight, though the team has some up-and-comers — highlighted by Collin Sexton and Darius Garland in the backcourt — who are cause for cautious optimism.None of this is to suggest that the Cavaliers will come anywhere close to sniffing the playoffs. But a slow, steady rebuild — augmented by smart draft picks — is the way back to respectability. And there is more good news: Kevin Love (remember him?) has just two seasons remaining on his gargantuan deal, which could make him a more appealing target on the trade market.Boston CelticsJayson Tatum has shown promise with Boston, but postseason success has so far eluded him.Jasen Vinlove/USA Today Sports, via ReutersFrom the start of training camp, Ime Udoka, the Celtics’ first-year coach, has had a particular emphasis: ball movement. He does not want the ball to stick. He wants his players to work together to generate the best shots.This must have been welcome news to fans who got tired of watching the Celtics’ offense devolve into isolation sets last season. Jayson Tatum, 23, and Jaylen Brown, who will turn 25 this month, form one of the most talented young tandems in the league, but fulfilling their promise in the postseason has so far eluded them.Perhaps Udoka can help them deliver. He replaced Brad Stevens, who moved to the front office after a posting .500 record and losing in the first round of the playoffs in his eighth season as the team’s coach.Washington WizardsWes Unseld Jr., Washington’s new head coach, has a tall task ahead of him.The Wizards are not a championship-caliber team, even after adding solid veterans like Spencer Dinwiddie, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell. So this season will be mostly about persuading Bradley Beal, who can become a free agent next summer, to make a long-term commitment to the franchise.It’s hard to win without multiple elite playmakers, and the Wizards have just one in Beal after trading Russell Westbrook to the Los Angeles Lakers. But even in a yet another bridge year, the Wizards should, at the very least, have a playoff team. They’ll have the promising center Thomas Bryant back from injury, and the team can hope for some growth from its last two lottery picks, Deni Avdija (2020) and Rui Hachimura (2019).Orlando MagicThe Magic have a young team with a first-year head coach in Jamahl Mosley. They’ve made just two playoff appearances in the past nine seasons, and traded away their best players, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic, in the middle of last season. Then they landed Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs at No. 5 in this year’s draft.Suggs joined a roster that is crowded at guard, with Markelle Fultz, who will return from a knee injury, RJ Hampton, Terrence Ross, Cole Anthony and Gary Harris. Suggs probably has the highest ceiling of those players, though, and he was solid in the summer league before injuring his thumb.The Magic will not be legitimate contenders for a while, so they have plenty of time to sort out their roster.Indiana PacersRick Carlisle, back for his second stint with the Pacers, is the team’s third coach in three seasons. Indiana could use some stability to help develop a young core that includes Malcolm Brogdon, Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis, already a two-time All-Star at 25.But the Pacers, who have not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2014, are coming off a 34-38 season, and Caris LeVert is out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his back.Carlisle coached the Pacers for four seasons, from 2003 to 2007, while guiding them to three postseason appearances. It will take some hard work to get them there again. More

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      Kyrie Irving Defends Decision on Vaccine After Being Benched

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

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      Rucker Park, a Basketball Mecca, Gets New Life

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

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

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

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      N.Y. Charter School Prepares Students for Basketball Careers

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

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      LeBron James Says He Had Been Vaccinated Against Covid

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      LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, said Tuesday that he had been vaccinated against the coronavirus, after evading questions about his vaccination status last season. Several other high-profile N.B.A. players have resisted getting vaccinated ahead of the start of the N.B.A. season next month.“I think everyone has their own choice to do what they feel is right for themselves and their family,” James said. “I know that I was very skeptical about it all, but after doing my research and things of that nature, I felt like it was best suited for not only me but for my family and my friends, and that’s why I decided to do it.”James did not say which vaccine he had taken, or the number of doses he had received. He also said he would not use his platform to publicly encourage others to be vaccinated.“We’re talking about individuals’ bodies,” he said. “We’re not talking about something that’s political or racism or police brutality and things of that nature.”He added: “So I don’t feel like for me personally that I should get involved in what other people should do for their bodies and their livelihoods.”Rob Pelinka, the general manager of the Lakers, said last week that he expects the team’s entire roster to be fully vaccinated ahead of its season opener against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 19. Kent Bazemore, one of the team’s new players, said he was reluctant to be vaccinated before Pelinka persuaded him to receive his first dose. More

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      NBA Vaccine Skeptics Speak Out

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      More than 90 percent of players have received at least one dose of the vaccine, but some, like Nets guard Kyrie Irving, won’t say if they have been or plan to be vaccinated.More than 90 percent of N.B.A. players have been vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the league, and all referees and key team personnel without exemptions will be, too, by the season’s start in three weeks. But a few high-profile players, including the Nets star guard Kyrie Irving, have expressed skepticism about vaccines or been evasive about their vaccination status.Because the Nets are projected to be a top championship contender, and the team is one of just three whose players must be vaccinated to play in their home arenas, Irving’s vaccination status could be as much of a factor in the N.B.A. rankings as his team’s play.“I would like to keep all that private,” Irving told reporters on Monday in response to a question about whether he expected to play home games this season. “Please just respect my privacy. All the questions leading into what’s happening, just please. Everything will be released at a due date once we get this cleared up.”While the Nets held their media day at Barclays Center on Monday, Irving answered questions from reporters by video conference instead of in person. Multiple reports said that Irving was not present because of the league’s health protocols. In Rolling Stone magazine over the weekend, Irving’s aunt Tyki Irving was quoted as saying that Irving was unvaccinated for reasons “not religious-based, it’s moral-based.” It’s not clear when the interview took place.Since Sept. 13, Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks play, have required all employees and guests ages 12 and up without a religious or medical exemption to show proof of having received at least one vaccine dose, to comply with a mandate from Mayor Bill de Blasio regarding sports arenas.A similar requirement in San Francisco applies to Chase Center, where the Golden State Warriors play. These mandates mean that the players from the Knicks, Nets and Golden State cannot play in their teams’ 41 home games without being vaccinated, which the N.B.A. and the New York arenas are defining as having received at least one dose. At Chase Center, players must be fully vaccinated. The N.B.A. has said that teams do not have to pay players for missing those games because they are not vaccinated. For Irving, who is in the third year of a four-year, $136 million contract, that could mean a substantial loss.The N.B.A. players’ union has not agreed to a vaccine mandate for its members, but the referees’ union did agree to one. All league and team personnel who come within 15 feet of players must be fully vaccinated unless they have religious or medical exemptions. In the W.N.B.A., 99 percent of players were fully vaccinated by June. The women’s league does not have a vaccination mandate.At least one N.B.A. player has tried to obtain a religious exemption to forgo the vaccine: Golden State guard Andrew Wiggins. The league said Friday that it had rejected his request. Like Irving, Wiggins would not discuss his vaccination status on Monday, during Golden State’s media day.“Who are you guys where I have to explain what I believe?” Wiggins said. “Or what’s right or what’s wrong in my mind?”In Washington at the Wizards’ media day, however, guard Bradley Beal explained why he is unvaccinated. The three-time All-Star missed the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for the coronavirus. Beal told reporters of the experience: “I didn’t get sick at all. I lost my smell, but that was it for me. Everybody is going to react differently.“Some people have bad reactions to the vaccine. Nobody likes to talk about that. What happens if one of our players gets the vaccine and can’t play after that? Or they have complications after that? Because there are cases like that.”There are no publicly known cases of professional basketball players missing time because of side effects related to the vaccine, and severe side effects are rare for anyone. However, some athletes have spoken about lingering respiratory and muscle issues after having Covid-19. The N.B.A. and the players’ union reported more than 75 positive coronavirus tests among players during the 2020-21 season, most of them before vaccines were widely available.Another vocal vaccine skeptic is the Orlando Magic’s Jonathan Isaac, a 23-year-old forward, who told Rolling Stone he was unvaccinated, and confirmed it on Monday to reporters.“At the end of the day, it’s people,” Isaac told the magazine, referring to the scientists who developed the vaccines. “And you can’t always put your trust completely in people.”.css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-1kpebx{margin:0 auto;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1kpebx{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1gtxqqv{margin-bottom:0;}.css-16ed7iq{width:100%;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;justify-content:center;padding:10px 0;background-color:white;}.css-pmm6ed{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}.css-pmm6ed > :not(:first-child){margin-left:5px;}.css-5gimkt{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.8125rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.03em;-moz-letter-spacing:0.03em;-ms-letter-spacing:0.03em;letter-spacing:0.03em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#333;}.css-5gimkt:after{content:’Collapse’;}.css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;-webkit-transform:rotate(180deg);-ms-transform:rotate(180deg);transform:rotate(180deg);}.css-eb027h{max-height:5000px;-webkit-transition:max-height 0.5s ease;transition:max-height 0.5s ease;}.css-6mllg9{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;position:relative;opacity:0;}.css-6mllg9:before{content:”;background-image:linear-gradient(180deg,transparent,#ffffff);background-image:-webkit-linear-gradient(270deg,rgba(255,255,255,0),#ffffff);height:80px;width:100%;position:absolute;bottom:0px;pointer-events:none;}.css-19zsuqr{display:block;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}According to Rolling Stone, Isaac was “studying Black history and watching Donald Trump’s press conferences” to inform his vaccine stance. (Former President Donald J. Trump was vaccinated in January, but states that he won in the 2020 election have much lower vaccination rates than those that favored President Biden.)On Monday, Isaac disputed the magazine’s characterization of him.“I’m not anti-vax. I’m not anti-medicine. I’m not anti-science. I didn’t come to my current vaccination status by studying Black history or watching Donald Trump press conferences,” Isaac said. “I have nothing but the utmost respect for every health care worker and person in Orlando and all across the world that have worked tirelessly to keep us safe.”Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, who helped lead his team to the finals last season, announced on a Twitch livestream over the weekend that he had Covid-19 and had lost his senses of taste and smell. He is expected to miss at least part of training camp, which begins this week, as a result.“I’m not going to tell you guys if I have the vaccine or not, but you can still get Covid with the vaccine,” Booker said on the stream, adding, “Educate yourself.”Several players have participated in campaigns encouraging people to get vaccinated, including Jrue Holiday of the Milwaukee Bucks and Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves, whose mother died of Covid-19. Commissioner Adam Silver said in the spring that he expected most players to get vaccinated.Several of Irving’s teammates said on Monday that they were not worried about his vaccination status.“That’s on Kyrie, and that’s his personal decision,” Nets forward Kevin Durant said. “What he does is not on us to speculate what may be happening, but we trust in Kyrie. I expect us to have our whole team at some point.” More