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      Jimmy Butler and Nikola Jokic Led Their Teams to the NBA Finals in Very Different Ways

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      Experts in leadership say the differing styles of Miami’s Jimmy Butler and Denver’s Nikola Jokic show there’s no one right way to be a leader.A few weeks after Caleb Martin joined the Miami Heat, he didn’t yet have much social capital with his teammates. But he had been a backup player for most of his career who knew that it was important to get along with the stars — and Jimmy Butler, a six-time All-Star and the team’s leading scorer, was unquestionably Miami’s biggest.Martin had heard that Butler had an aggressive personality, that he was known to bark at teammates and coaches. But Martin wasn’t thinking about the potential consequences of upsetting Butler during a pickup game on one of those early days. He made a move just as Butler was passing to him, and the ball sailed out of bounds. Martin could tell Butler was frustrated. He marched up to Butler and said, “Anything you got a problem with, come say it to me.”For a split second, Martin wondered if his boldness would irritate Butler. He wasn’t even on a full-time N.B.A. contract yet. But it didn’t.“He didn’t view it as disrespectful or nothing like that,” Martin said. “As much accountability as he puts on other people and holds other people to, he holds himself to it. It’s a two-way street. He allows feedback.”Butler’s reputation for being brash and aggressive is not without merit, and he has called out Martin’s mistakes plenty of times. Butler doesn’t shy away from airing his grievances, yelling in team huddles, at opponents, or sometimes at nothing at all. He’s just as loud with his encouragement.The Heat’s opponent in the N.B.A. finals, the Denver Nuggets, have a different type of leader in Nikola Jokic, who is quieter. He doesn’t make speeches or chastise his teammates, and he rarely shows much emotion during games.Their contrasting styles illustrate ideas that leadership experts have highlighted for decades. The underlying ethos that both players follow seems to matter more than how their leadership manifests.“It’s such a great example of avoiding this sort of static concept of ‘what does it mean to be the best kind of leader?’” said Peter Bregman, an author and executive coach who works with leaders of major corporations. “Because here you have two completely different people who lead in very, very different ways, equally effectively. And so it sort of betrays this concept that there’s a best practice in how to do this.”“I don’t want him to ever apologize for who he is and how he approaches competition,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said about Butler.David Zalubowski/Associated PressProfessional basketball offers a helpful guide to understanding leadership. The best N.B.A. players make split-second decisions in front of thousands of people live and millions more who watch on television. Their actions off the court are scrutinized, and sometimes they are blamed for their teammates’ mistakes. But no matter the results of their decision-making, they must often return to lead the very same people the next day.When Nuggets players are asked about Jokic’s leadership style, they say he leads by example, more than with words.“He’s professional in every aspect of the game,” Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said. “Just seeing that, seeing it on the court, makes everybody want to play basketball with him and want to play better.”When Butler’s teammates are asked about his leadership, they allude to the edge in his personality, but that edge comes from a passion they can understand. They say he holds people accountable, but their collective goal — to be the best team in the N.B.A. — is clear in Butler’s critiques.He also embraces the responsibility that comes with being the team’s leader.“He’ll do anything for you,” Miami Heat center Cody Zeller said.Some scholars might explain those differences using leadership language focused on tasks versus relationships. Afsaneh Nahavandi, a professor of management at the University of San Diego, sees Butler as a more task-oriented leader and Jokic as a more relationship-oriented leader.“He’s professional in every aspect of the game,” Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said about Jokic.David Zalubowski/Associated Press“Every leader is getting something done, so everybody has a task in mind,” Nahavandi said. “But do you approach it through pushing the task and pushing people? Or do you approach it through let’s just kind of let people develop their own thing and focus to make sure that people are happy?”That leadership framework was examined in the 1960s by the psychologist Fred Fiedler, who studied leadership among high school basketball players. Basketball offered a well-controlled way to understand how a group of people who needed to achieve one task together responded to different leadership styles.Fiedler also found that leaders’ successes are heavily dependent on their environment.Butler’s style hasn’t worked everywhere. When he played for the Minnesota Timberwolves, his teammates didn’t respond well to his demanding nature, and Butler left the team after insisting on a trade.But in Miami, the so-called Heat culture demands excellence, commitment and a thick skin.“My style of leadership works here,” Butler said, making air quotes around “leadership.” He added: “It really is a match made in heaven. I love it here.”Sometimes Butler’s style leads to explosions, like in March 2022, when Butler and Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra screamed at each other during a game and had to be held back by other players. Today, Spoelstra speaks about Butler with reverence.“I don’t want him to ever apologize for who he is and how he approaches competition,” Spoelstra said. “It’s intense. It’s not for everybody, and we’re not for everybody. That’s why we think it’s like an incredible marriage. We never judge him on that. He doesn’t judge us for how crazy we get.”The Nuggets demand excellence, too, but the language they use about one another is often gentler. They like to talk about their collaborative nature.“We have guys that understand that being selfless is a huge part of being a Denver Nugget,” Coach Michael Malone said. He added: “You have to have guys that get along — on the court, off the court — and come together and share in a common goal.”“You have to have guys that get along,” Nuggets Coach Michael Malone said.Kyle Terada/Usa Today Sports Via Reuters ConIt hints at a culture where a less confrontational style, like the one Jokic adopts, could work.Jokic’s teammates seem to respond well to that quieter form of leadership, though some have tried to help him tap into a more commanding demeanor at times.DeAndre Jordan, a 15-year veteran, pulled Jokic aside during training camp to encourage him to be more vocal.“At first he was like: ‘Brother, I don’t do that. You have to do it,’” Jordan said.But Jordan and other veterans kept encouraging him. A few months into the season, they saw him start to assert himself more in huddles and offer feedback to his teammates. He doesn’t take it beyond the bounds of what makes him comfortable, though.“We don’t want him to be somebody who he’s not,” Jordan said. “I’m sure he doesn’t want to be that as well.”Though Jokic and Butler use very different styles, they have earned the trust of their teammates.Chris Adkins saw clues to how they developed that trust when he watched some of their interviews. Adkins, the academic director of leadership development at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, saw a manifestation of research that he said has shown that “ability, benevolence and integrity” are three essential components of fostering trust.“Their players seem to buy in, whether it’s a more vocal or more quiet approach, because they know deep down this person has high ability, they’re consistent with great integrity, they practice what they preach, they walk the walk,” Adkins said. “But they’re also committed to us, not just to their own ego.”Jokic is well known as an unselfish player; he averaged 9.8 assists per game this season. He has often said that his basketball ethos came from a coach in Serbia who told him that when you pass you make two people happy, but when you score only one person is happy. He eschews credit when he speaks to reporters and is quick to praise his teammates.Butler grew up outside of Houston and was kicked out of his home as a teenager. After high school, with little interest from major college programs, he spent a year at a junior college in Texas, before going to Marquette. Though Butler makes fewer assists than Jokic, he also plays in an unselfish style, and he instills confidence in his teammates.“My style of leadership works here,” Butler said of Miami.David Zalubowski/Associated PressButler has balked at other Heat players being called “role players,” saying he prefers to simply think of them as teammates. When asked if he was too passive in the Heat’s Game 1 loss, when he scored just 13 points, Butler said he wasn’t and that he planned to keep looking for his teammates throughout the series.It can take Heat newcomers some time to understand how Butler operates.Kyle Lowry joined the Heat in 2021, two years after Butler did. Lowry was a six-time All-Star guard coming from a leadership role in Toronto, which won a championship in 2019. He made clear he loved Butler’s thirst for winning and his devotion to his teammates, but also said his personality is “very different.”“He may say some things or he may do some things that you might be like: ‘Oh. Whoa.’ But it’s coming from the best part of his heart,” Lowry said.How does he know?“We’re around him every single day,” Lowry said, before throwing in a good-natured dig. “Unfortunately. But fortunately.” More

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      The Heat, a Long Shot in the Playoffs, Pull Even with Long Shots

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      Miami, usually outgunned by the Denver offense, made 17 3-pointers to even the N.B.A. Finals series at one game apiece.Michael Malone is generally the kind of coach who would leave a negative Yelp review after vacationing in Shangri-La. But his worry was warranted this time.On Saturday, the day before Game 2 of the N.B.A. finals, Malone lamented his team’s poor defense in the first game of the series against the Miami Heat. The Nuggets had given the Heat looks at a lot of wide-open 3-pointers — a bad sign, Malone said, even though good shooters like Max Strus and Duncan Robinson kept missing and Denver won the game.On Sunday, Strus and Robinson combined for six of Miami’s 17 3-pointers. On a night when the Heat mostly seemed outmatched, their 3-point shooting helped them steal a victory on the road to tie the series at one game apiece. Somewhat appropriately, they won by 3 points: 111-108.“There was miscommunication, game plan breakdowns, personnel breakdowns,” Malone groused afterward. He added: “We got lucky in Game 1. Tonight, they made them.”The Heat have frustrated all of their playoff opponents this year by making jump shots they had missed during the regular season. Most teams over the last decade have focused on generating points from the most efficient shots: 3-pointers, free throws and shots at the basket. Miami has followed that trend to an extent, but it was one of the worst 3-point shooting teams during the regular season and had been more likely to grind out points — led by Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo — by focusing more on midrange baskets.That’s likely a doomed strategy against Denver, an offensive juggernaut. The Heat cannot match the playmaking of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon. For the Heat to win, they have to remain hot from 3-point range, just as they have been during the postseason.Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said shooting long balls gave his team its best chance against the Nuggets.Kyle Terada/Usa Today Sports Via Reuters ConOn Sunday, Miami Coach Erik Spoelstra said that the Heat had been “more intentional” in their offense, suggesting that the plan had been to lean into their 3-point shooting.“That doesn’t guarantee you anything either,” Spoelstra said. “But at least you give yourself the best chance.”The Heat have seized on their chances this postseason, shown by their unlikely run to the N.B.A. finals as a No. 8 seed. Kevin Love, who joined the Heat midseason, said he wasn’t aware of the team’s 3-point struggles until he came to Miami.“I always feel like there’s something to closing the door to the regular season,” Love said, adding: “You just kind of get to reset. And I think guys felt that. They just had another level of confidence and understanding that if we go out there and just be ourselves and play free and play fluid, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win.”During the regular season, Miami ranked third in shots taken between 10 and 14 feet from the basket, and 10th for shots between five and nine feet. That’s not to say the Heat didn’t shoot enough 3s: They were 10th in attempts per game. They just didn’t make them.In the second quarter on Sunday night, the Nuggets led by as many as 15. The game was on the verge of turning into a blowout. But Kevin Love, who hadn’t played in the last three games, hit a deep shot to keep the Nuggets within sight. Miami shot 8 for 17 from 3-point range in the first half — which helped the Heat stay within 6 points of Denver at halftime.Nikola Jokic’s 41 points and 11 rebounds weren’t enough to hold off the Heat.Mark J. Terrill/Associated PressThe Heat continued to bomb 3’s and tied the game relatively early in the third quarter. Denver still led going into the fourth quarter, but the 3s helped the Heat keep the game within reach, allowing for a comeback.In the final frame, it was Robinson’s turn. His two 3s in the opening minutes cut the Nuggets’ lead to 2. Miami’s eventual victory was its seventh of this postseason run after being down by at least 10 points. It has matched the 2022 Golden State Warriors and the 2011 and 2012 Heat for the most double-digit comebacks in one postseason in the last 25 years.While the Heat do have some strong shooters, they do not include the team’s best players, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. In addition, guard Tyler Herro, one of the team’s best shooters, has missed almost the entire playoff run with a right hand injury.Miami’s offense often centers on Adebayo grabbing the ball at the elbow and using his passing skills, or Butler driving the baseline and using shot fakes and strength to create space for himself.In the playoffs, Miami flipped a switch. Suddenly, its 3-pointers have begun to fall at an elite clip. Entering Game 2, the Heat had been the best 3-point shooting team in the playoffs at 38.7 percent. In the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics, the Heat shot 43.4 percent from 3 over seven games.Asked if he had knew why the Heat suddenly improved their shooting, Cody Zeller, Miami’s reserve center, said he thought that the regular season “was inaccurate.”“The playoffs are more accurate as far as how good of a shooter our guys are,” Zeller said. “We haven’t been surprised by guys making shots in the playoffs. We’re more surprised by not making shots during the regular season.”The 3-pointer, which teams are more reliant on than ever, is a high variance shot. Offenses can create many open looks, but players are still shooting a ball into a circle that is 10 feet off the ground. You’re more likely to miss than make them. But if a team gets hot over a couple games, it doesn’t matter what the other team does defensively. The Celtics saw that and so did the Nuggets in Game 2.The Nuggets have more offensive weapons than the Heat. For the Heat to keep pace, the answer is to keep shooting more and more 3s.“In terms of the shooters, that’s pretty simple: Let it fly. Ignite. Once they see two go down, it could be three, it could turn into six just like that,” Spoelstra said Saturday, while snapping his fingers.“Let it fly. Ignite,” Spoelstra said after the game. Max Strus took his advice in Game 2, hitting four 3-pointers.Mark J. Terrill/Associated PressIn the regular season, the ideal tactic to defend the Heat was to focus on Butler and Adebayo and gum up the middle, forcing the ball to the perimeter. After all, during the regular season, the Heat shot 34.3 percent — a low-ish number — from 3 on shots considered open, according to the N.B.A.’s statistics. No N.B.A. defense can take away everything from an opposing offense.Strategies are generally to push teams toward what they’re not great at. The Celtics did just that, and Miami made them pay at a rate of 42.1 percent on open 3-pointers.The temptation when a team goes cold on its deep shots is to focus more on getting shots near the rim. In Game 2, the Heat rarely went to the rim, only shooting 10 times in the restricted area.Miami heads home with the series tied at one game each. Once again, the Heat won a playoff game they weren’t expected to win on shots they weren’t expected to make.“That’s what this game is,” Butler said. “Make or miss game. Make or miss league. We made some shots. They didn’t.” More

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      Why Denver Loves the Nuggets Star Nikola Jokic

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      Jokic, the Nuggets center, may be the best player in the N.B.A., but he avoids the spotlight. Still, in his own way, he has endeared himself to a city hungry for someone to believe in.About two miles from downtown Denver, the yellows, oranges and reds of a spray-painted mural fill the cracked, gray cement wall of a building that houses a temporary employment agency. The mural rises about 20 feet and depicts an expressionless Nikola Jokic next to a much more emotive Jamal Murray, his eyes narrowed and arms extended as though he is wielding a bow and arrow.Thomas Evans, a 38-year-old artist, finished the mural of the two Denver Nuggets stars recently as the team prepared to begin the N.B.A. finals. On Thursday afternoon, hours before Game 1 of the championship series against the Miami Heat, Damien Lucero was blaring his song “It’s Nuthin” while recording a rap music video in front of the mural. Lucero, 21, goes by Dame$, pronounced “Dames” (not to be confused with Dame D.O.L.L.A., the rap name of Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard). He said the mural inspired him and some collaborators to write the song as a tribute to Jokic.He rattled off some of his favorite lines:“Clean sweep, yeah, it’s all me.Had to smoke him out like I puff trees.Four mo’ dubs then we pop rings.Triple dub, ain’t no joke, he the new king.”The old king — at least to those who want to describe him that way — is LeBron James, whose Los Angeles Lakers were swept by the Nuggets in the Western Conference finals. James is the biggest star in the N.B.A., with four championship rings, piles of endorsement deals and a constant presence on social media and television. Jokic has none of that.“I see a lot of myself in him,” said Evans, who also goes by Detour.“I’m in the studio all day working on my artwork, and I’m not really front-facing as much as other artists may be,” he said. “I don’t always want to be in front of the cameras. I don’t always want to be in magazines. I want to actually just do my work and let that speak for itself.”Thomas Evans finished the mural of the Denver Nuggets stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray during the team’s run to the N.B.A. finals.In the N.B.A., stars often take on their city’s identity — or imbue the city with their own. Magic Johnson’s love of luxury and glamour made him a perfect fit for Los Angeles; James’s embrace of celebrity has made him the same. Patrick Ewing’s physicality screamed New York City. Jokic, a 28-year-old Serbian who may be the best player in the N.B.A., is a bit of an enigma, similar to Tim Duncan when he was in San Antonio. And that suits Denver and Colorado just fine, according to those who live here.“The kind of talent that he is, you know, a modest talent, not somebody who is searching out the spotlight, a team player, somebody who’s down to earth,” said Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado. “I think Denver and Colorado, we view ourselves as down to earth.”On Thursday, Bennet wore a Nuggets warm-up jersey in Washington, D.C., on his way to vote to raise the debt ceiling.Stars like Jokic, who has won two Most Valuable Player Awards, can be close to a one-man stimulus for a city. The mayor of Denver, Michael B. Hancock, estimated that the Nuggets’ playoff run alone this year could bring in a $25 million economic boost.Even so, Jokic has almost no cultural footprint off the court as the Nuggets jockey for attention locally with the N.H.L.’s Avalanche and M.L.B.’s Rockies (all of which are overshadowed by the N.F.L.’s Broncos). But this obscurity is apparently by his own design. Talk of stardom appears to bore him. Asked whether he was the best player on the Nuggets, Jokic told reporters on Wednesday: “Sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not. I’m cool with that.”Murray, whose nickname is Blue Arrow because of his basketball shooting skills, appears to be more comfortable in the spotlight than Jokic. He’s personable, expressive and active on social media. When Jokic is not Denver’s best player, Murray almost certainly is. He has promoted at least 10 brands over the past year, according to SponsorUnited, compared to just two for Jokic. It’s unusual for a top player like Jokic to be so elusive off the court.“I don’t know how much influence he really has because he doesn’t put himself out there,” said Vic Lombardi, a Denver sports talk radio host.Fans outside Ball Arena in Denver before Game 1 of the N.B.A. finals between the Nuggets and the Miami Heat. Denver won the game, 104-93.Jamie Schwaberow/Getty ImagesJokic rarely does interviews outside of mandatory news conferences, where he gives mostly anodyne answers. He has a deal with Nike but does not have a signature shoe. He doesn’t host a podcast, and his politics are a mystery. He has appeared in a handful of commercials in Serbia. Jokic said recently that basketball was “not the most important thing” in his life and probably never would be.“I would think he would be more connected just because it’s required when you’re a player of that caliber,” said Andre Miller, who played for the Nuggets in the early 2000s and again a decade ago. He added: “I think he approaches it as, I’m just a basketball player. Mild-mannered. He goes and plays ball and he goes home. So it makes his job a little easier and it keeps all the distractions out.”Jokic doesn’t do many interviews or commercials, which is unusual for a top star.Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports, via Reuters ConNuggets forward Jeff Green said, “His job is to play basketball, not to meet everybody’s needs.”Vlatko Cancar, another teammate, chuckled when asked about Jokic as a public figure.“When you’re a star at that level it’s just so hard to please everybody,” he said. “I feel like he would like to sign autographs for everybody and shake their hands and take pictures with everybody. But it’s just too hard because it’s one of him and it’s millions of others.”Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado called Jokic “a rarity in the modern sports age.” He said people in Colorado “admire him all the more for not being an off-court distraction like other so-called stars are, you know, too often in both basketball and other sports.”Senator John Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado, said that Jokic was like a “large bear that can do ballet.”“And that is a great look for Colorado, because we’re a former cow town — a mining town,” Hickenlooper said. “We come from honest, hardworking roots. Denver now is pretty athletic, and I’m not sure we’re quite up to ballet yet, but we’re getting there.”Jokic had 27 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists in Game 1 of the finals.Pool photo by Kyle TeradaWhite N.B.A. stars are often described in positive terms that are less frequently applied to Black players, such as gritty and unselfish. Still, discussions with those who know and follow Jokic suggest his reputation as a willing passer is deserved. Jokic has said he prefers to pass rather than score.His approach to stardom creates a challenge for the N.B.A., which is constantly looking to expand its reach. But the league doesn’t always help itself: The Nuggets, even with a two-time M.V.P., were not on national television during the regular season as much as some less-talented teams.In addition, a portion of Colorado residents have not been able to watch Nuggets games for the last four years because of a dispute over carriage fees between Altitude, the regional sports network, and Comcast. N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday that it was a “terrible situation.”Hancock, the mayor, called it “really unfortunate.”“That robs these great young players of the notoriety they deserve and particularly in this season where they have done just phenomenal things,” he said.Stan Kroenke, who owns the Nuggets and the Avalanche, also owns Altitude. Polis, the governor, said he had “called upon both sides to work it out.”In Serbia, Jokic’s home country, the N.B.A. is popular. When he is home for the off-season, he lives as he does in Denver: away from the public, according to Christopher R. Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Serbia. But Jokic is someone “everyone is talking about right now,” he said.“The games tend to be at 2 o’clock in the morning,” said Hill, who lived in Denver for a decade before leaving for his post in 2020. “People stay up for those. It’s incredible. I’ll be talking to somebody in the Serbian government and they’ll start yawning — ‘Sorry, I was watching Jokic last night.’”The Serbian journalists Nenad Kostic and Edin Avdic have reported on Jokic since he was a teenager and now consider him a friend. They traveled to Denver to cover him in the finals, and had dinner with him the night before Game 1. They said celebrity makes him uncomfortable.“It’s not about money,” Avdic said. “It’s not about fame. It’s — I think — too much hassle for him. No, it’s too much of a burden for him.”Kostic said that Belgrade, Serbia’s big-city capital with nightlife, often becomes home for famous Serbian athletes, even if, like Jokic, they are from smaller towns.“Nikola is not like that,” Kostic said. “He likes to spend his days in Sombor, in the small city where he was born, where everybody knows him and they leave him alone.”Jokic was named the most valuable player of the Western Conference finals after the Nuggets swept the Lakers in four games.Ashley Landis/Associated PressTwenty years ago, the Nuggets drafted a player who was almost the polar opposite of Jokic: Carmelo Anthony. He was a more traditional franchise star, doing commercials, selling jerseys and putting out signature shoes. Starting when he was at Syracuse University, he made waves in popular culture, with his style and confidence. He spent more than seven seasons in Denver, coincidentally wearing No. 15, which Jokic wears now.Kiki Vandeweghe, the Nuggets executive who drafted Anthony, said both players’ approaches to stardom worked just fine for the franchise from a business perspective because of how well they performed on the court. He said Jokic “makes his team better.”“He comes with it every night,” said Vandeweghe, who played for the Nuggets in the 1980s. “He represents in many ways what the city’s all about and his team wins. And that’s a successful franchise.”Evans, the muralist, said he typically doesn’t paint celebrities, but found Jokic’s growing relevance worth the art. He finished his first mural of Jokic in February in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver. He added Murray in his second, the one finished just before the N.B.A. finals.Caroline Simonson, a 22-year-old Nuggets fan from Boulder, said she paid $810 to attend Thursday’s game and sit in the bleachers. She said Jokic’s public persona “limits his connection to maybe N.B.A. fans across the country, but not to the city of Denver.”“We’re prideful. We know what Colorado is,” she said. “If other people don’t know what it’s worth, we know what we’ve got here. It’s special to us. Sometimes we want to keep it to ourselves. We get to keep Jokic to ourselves.” More

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      The Nuggets or Heat Will Get a Trophy. But Will Either Get Respect?

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      Both the Denver Nuggets and the Miami Heat believe they have been disrespected and are using that as motivation as they compete for a championship.The Denver Nuggets’ mascot, Rocky, an anthropomorphic mountain lion with a lightning bolt for a tail, dragged a pickax as he stormed around, trying to figure out where all the chatter was coming from. He needed to quiet the voices. They were disrespecting his team.For weeks, the Nuggets had dominated the N.B.A. playoffs. And for weeks, they thought, no one in the news media had given them their due. Not when they beat Minnesota and Phoenix in the first two rounds. Not when they swept the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.Now Rocky was ready to avenge them — metaphorically, at least — in a video the Nuggets played during a break in Game 1 of the N.B.A. finals on Thursday night.In an audio montage of slights from pundits, Nuggets Coach Michael Malone lamented the national sports coverage during the conference finals. “And all everybody talked about was the Lakers!” he said just before Rocky found a television in a room and smashed it with his pickax. He kept smashing items until the video showed a framed picture of an unidentifiable Lakers player lying shattered on the ground.Denver’s finals opponent, the Miami Heat, didn’t fare much better at the start of the championship round on Thursday. The Nuggets led by as many as 24 points and won, 104-93. They entered the series as heavy favorites, an unfamiliar position.Nuggets guard Jamal Murray was averaging a career-best 27.7 points per game in the playoffs entering Game 1 of the N.B.A. finals.Jack Dempsey/Associated Press“Even when we win, they talk about the other team,” Nuggets guard Jamal Murray said. He added, “It fuels us a little more and will be sweeter when we win the chip.”Neither the Nuggets, the West’s top seed, nor the Heat, the East’s eighth seed, feel that their abilities have been fully respected this postseason, and both teams have used that as motivation. Turning perceived disrespect into fuel is a common technique in sports, even when the slights are only imagined, or perhaps even deserved.Michael Jordan made disrespect a theme of his speech when he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, bringing up a time when he was cut from the varsity team at his high school. Later in his career, Jordan invented a moment of disrespect from an opponent named LaBradford Smith, who he said taunted him after scoring 37 points in a game for Washington against Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in March 1993. Intent on humiliating Smith, Jordan scored 47 points against Washington the next night.The Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal would often tell a story about the Spurs great David Robinson snubbing him for an autograph when O’Neal was young. He said that snub motivated him in his playing career, but later admitted it never happened.“David, I want to say I apologize for making up that rumor,” O’Neal said during an N.B.A. video conference in May 2020, nine years after O’Neal had retired. Robinson, who was on the call, burst out laughing.While Jordan and O’Neal concocted tales of offense, the Miami Heat saw a disregard that was real.Miami slipped into the postseason, which is why few expected them to make the run that they did. They lost their first game in the play-in tournament before winning the sudden-death second game to get into the playoffs as the eighth seed.Few people expected the Miami Heat to make it to the N.B.A. finals even with Jimmy Butler, right, a six-time All-Star, on the team.Isaiah J. Downing/USA Today Sports Via Reuters ConDuring the Eastern Conference finals, when Miami faced the second-seeded Boston Celtics, Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra took issue with the news media coverage his team received during the regular season.“I guess nobody is really paying attention,” Spoelstra said, when asked why the team kept believing in itself even when it struggled. He added: “Whether that turns into confidence or not, sometimes you don’t have the confidence. But at least you have that experience of going through stuff and you understand how tough it is.”The Heat beat the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs, and upset the Celtics in the conference finals, taking the decisive Game 7 on the road in Boston.Even during that series, they showed why people had doubts. They raced out to a 3-0 series lead against Boston, which led to the Celtics treating themselves like underdogs. But then the Heat dropped three straight games as they turned the ball over and struggled offensively — what you might expect from an eighth seed against an experienced team like the Celtics, who went to the N.B.A. finals last season.On the other hand, the Nuggets have held steady in their strengths — the all-around play of Nikola Jokic, who has won the Most Valuable Player Award twice; the dynamic scoring and passing of Murray; the fluid offense and hustle from role players like Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. They’ve been the best team in the West since December.But even then, as Malone and Murray said, they felt much of the attention from the news media and basketball fans had been devoted to, well, everyone else. Like the Lakers.Therein lay another example of the pervasiveness of using perceived disrespect as motivation: The Lakers did it, too. Lakers Coach Darvin Ham often reminded his team that few believed they could make the playoffs early in the season. He left out that the lack of belief in their ability was based not on bias, but on performance. The Lakers started the season 2-10 and played consistently better only after overhauling the roster in January and February.The motivational technique worked all the way until they met the Nuggets in the conference finals.Denver’s Nikola Jokic had a triple-double in Game 1, with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists.Jack Dempsey/Associated PressThe Heat have undergone an even sharper turnaround. Their best player, Jimmy Butler, has become known for elevating his play in the postseason, and round by round they have defied expectations to get to the finals.It’s perhaps why the Nuggets aren’t giving the Heat the opportunity to feel disrespected by them.“Who said that we are favorites?” Jokic said on Wednesday. “The media?”He was told that Las Vegas betting odds counted the Nuggets as favorites.“I think we are not the favorite,” Jokic said, having become more comfortable as the underdog. “I think in the finals there is no favorites. This is going to be the hardest game of our life, and we know that.”Mostly, it was not the hardest game of their lives. The Nuggets had a 24-point lead in the third quarter and used their size advantage to disorient the Heat.But as the Nuggets expected, Miami fought back. The Heat cut the Nuggets’ lead to 9 points with 2:34 left in the game. Miami used a mixture of defensive techniques that have helped them to comeback wins at other points in the postseason just when their opponents felt safe to discount them.“We knew they were going to do that,” Murray said. “That’s how they play and that’s how they win games, is just be relentless in that sense.”Often fueled by disrespect themselves, the Nuggets understood the perils of disrespecting an opponent. More

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      NBA Delays Releasing Ja Morant Gun Investigation Results

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      Commissioner Adam Silver said he could announce the findings now, but it would be “unfair” to the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat, who are still competing.N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver on Thursday said that the league would wait until the conclusion of the finals to announce the findings of its latest investigation into the behavior of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, as well as any potential discipline of him.On May 13, Morant appeared to brandish a firearm in public for the second time in just over two months, prompting the investigation. Silver declined to say whether Morant would be available to play for the Grizzlies at the start of next season.“I would say we probably could’ve brought it to a head now,” Silver said at a news conference in Denver before Game 1 of the championship series between the Nuggets and the Miami Heat. “But we made the decision, and I believe the players’ association agrees with us, that it would be unfair to these players and these teams in the middle of the series to announce the results of that investigation.”The Grizzlies suspended Ja Morant indefinitely last month after a video on social media appeared to show him holding a gun in a vehicle.Gary A. Vasquez/USA Today Sports Via Reuters ConMorant is a two-time All-Star and already one of the league’s most exciting players at 23 years old. In March, the N.B.A. suspended him for eight games without pay for conduct detrimental to the league after he appeared in an Instagram Live video “holding a firearm in an intoxicated state” while visiting a nightclub near Denver, according to a league statement. Soon after the video’s streaming, Morant left the team and checked into a counseling facility in Florida. Following his return to the Grizzlies, Morant told reporters that he had spent his time at the facility learning how to better deal with stress and improve himself.But last month, a new Instagram Live video appeared to show Morant flashing a gun, this time while riding in a vehicle. The Grizzlies, who had already been eliminated from the playoffs by the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round, quickly suspended Morant from all team activities pending the league’s review of the video.On Thursday, Silver said the league had “uncovered a fair amount of additional information,” but he did not elaborate.Silver was also asked whether he thought the league’s initial eight-game suspension had sent a strong enough message to Morant. At the time, Silver said, Morant seemed “heartfelt and serious” in his conversations with league officials.“But I think he understood that it wasn’t about his words, that it was going to be about his future conduct,” Silver said. “So, I guess, in hindsight, I don’t know. If it had been a 12-game suspension instead of an eight-game suspension, would that have mattered?”He added: “It seemed appropriate at the time. Maybe, by definition, to the extent — we’ve all seen the video. It appears he’s done it again. So I guess you could say, maybe not. But I don’t think we yet know what it will take to change his behavior.”The N.B.A. has penalized players for similar types of acts. During the 2009-10 season, for example, Gilbert Arenas of the Washington Wizards was suspended 50 games for bringing guns into the team’s locker room, which violates league policy. Arenas, who was a three-time All-Star at the time, also appeared to make light of the situation by making finger gun gestures at a game while the league was still investigating his behavior.Silver described Morant as “a fine young man” who has “clearly made some mistakes.”“But he’s young,” Silver said, “and I’m hoping now that once we conclude at the end of our process what the appropriate discipline is, that it’s not just about the discipline, that it’s about what we, the players’ association, his team, and he and the people around him are going to do to create better circumstances going forward. I think that’s what’s ultimately most important here.”Sopan Deb More

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      NBA Quiz: Where Is the Pass Going?

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      Few aspects of basketball capture the joy of the game like great passes. The most exciting ones require communication, improvisation and a little luck. This year’s N.B.A. finals will feature one of the sport’s best at getting the ball to his teammates: Denver’s Nikola Jokic. Can you see the court like the pros? Try to […] More

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      The Nuggets Want You to Forget What You Heard About the Nuggets

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      Denver is unraveling its reputation for playoff disappointment one win at a time.The Denver Nuggets have spent the past few months hearing that they weren’t to be trusted in the playoffs, that Nikola Jokic, a two-time most valuable player, couldn’t lead them to postseason success, that their record, the best in the Western Conference for most of the season, was some kind of mirage.Nobody was scared of them in the playoffs, or so the narrative went.But in the first two rounds of the playoffs this year, the Nuggets had defied their reputation of fading in the postseason by easily dispatching Minnesota and Phoenix. They seemed to be doing the same to the Lakers on Tuesday night, as they dominated for most of Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. But as the second half wore on, Denver left room for doubts about their playoff toughness to creep back in.Fair or not, what’s at stake for the Nuggets in this series, which they lead, 1-0, after a 132-126 win on Tuesday, is their ability to prove that their elite play is not an illusion that disappears in May.“We’re a long ways away from what we’re trying to do,” Nuggets Coach Michael Malone told his team in the locker room after the game.Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, right, spent more than a year recovering from a knee injury and missed his team’s playoff runs the past two seasons.Isaiah J. Downing/Usa Today Sports Via Reuters ConThe Nuggets have never been to the N.B.A. finals, and they haven’t competed in a championship round since their last season in the American Basketball Association, in 1975-76. Most of that disappointing history can’t be blamed on their current group.But even now, something happens year after year to prevent the Nuggets from competing for a title, and they have been blamed for that.Jokic has been an All-Star for the past five seasons, but Denver has been to the conference finals only once in that time, in 2020. The Nuggets lost to the Lakers in five games that year, which played out at a closed site at Disney World in Florida because of the coronavirus pandemic. They fell out of the postseason even sooner in each of the next two years without their talented point guard Jamal Murray, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee about a month before the 2021 playoffs.Then this season’s Nuggets started to look unbeatable.They were in or tied for first place in the West from Dec. 20 through the end of the season. Jokic had another M.V.P.-caliber year, though he lost the award to Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid. Murray was resurgent after a year and a half spent recovering from his knee injury. The Nuggets won 75 percent of their games in January and February.Perhaps it was their lackluster effort in March, when the Nuggets were 7-7, that convinced observers that they weren’t as dominant as a top seed should be. Or perhaps they were just being punished by public opinion for past playoff performances.They seem ready to change the conversation this time, though they claim to ignore it.They cruised past the Timberwolves, then humiliated the Suns in the second round with a 25-point win in the series-clinching Game 6.“I guess I don’t know how a championship team looks,” Jokic said after the series, “but I think that’s how it’s supposed to look. We were so focused on every detail.”But now the matchup against the Lakers has evoked memories of a Denver team these Nuggets don’t want to look like: the one that lost to the Lakers in the conference finals in 2020, the last time they met in the playoffs. Now both teams are almost entirely different except for the stars: Jokic and Murray for the Nuggets and LeBron James and Anthony Davis for the Lakers. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a key role player for the Lakers in 2020, is now a key role player for the Nuggets.They are all older, for better or worse. Before, the Lakers were driven by James’s play. Now, Davis’s role matters much more than it used to.For two and a half quarters of Tuesday’s game, this year’s Lakers seemed to be no match for this year’s Nuggets, and skepticism about Denver’s championship aspirations felt silly.Denver scored 72 points and led by 18 at halftime. Jokic already had 19 points, 16 rebounds and 7 assists.“It took us a half to get into the game,” James said. “That was pretty much the ballgame right there.”In the Lakers’ previous series this postseason, against Memphis and Golden State, Davis’s mere presence scared opponents out of the paint. That wouldn’t happen against the Nuggets. For much of the game, Davis was chained to Jokic in a way that prevented him from being the force he had been against the Warriors.Lakers forward Anthony Davis battled with Jokic throughout Game 1, ending with 40 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.Jack Dempsey/Associated PressThe Lakers hadn’t played someone like Jokic yet in the playoffs, in part because there is no one quite like him — a big man who passes as effortlessly as he scores. It’s why Lakers Coach Darvin Ham had jokingly suggested on Monday that perhaps the only way they could stop Jokic was to kidnap him.Midway through the third quarter Jokic had already notched a triple-double.Then, to stop a Lakers’ run late in the third quarter, he hit an off-center, step-back 3 at the buzzer, with a smothering Davis waving his arms. Davis left the court wearing a wry smile. He’d done all he could and it still wasn’t enough to stop Jokic.Jokic finished with 34 points, 21 rebounds and 14 assists. Davis had 40 points and 10 rebounds.In the Nuggets’ locker room after the game, Malone addressed his team with pride and caution. Good win, he said in comments aired on ESPN, but also: Play better defense.Ham hinted that he hadn’t shown all of his potential adjustments in Game 1. Malone said that he would rather fix mistakes after a win than after a loss.What will ultimately matter more for legitimizing the Denver Nuggets as a championship threat is not how they win these games, but that they do. More

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      Trae Young and Jaylen Brown Feel the Heat of NBA Stardom

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      Atlanta’s Trae Young, Boston’s Jaylen Brown and the Nets’ Mikal Bridges are learning to handle the praise and the pressure of rising stardom.The crowd at TD Garden in Boston was serenading the star Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young with chants of “overrated!” It was late in Game 2 of Atlanta’s first-round playoff series against the Celtics, and the Hawks were down by double digits and well on their way to another loss in the series.It was a far cry from just two years ago, when Young was the up-and-coming N.B.A. darling who unexpectedly led the Hawks to the Eastern Conference finals after the team had missed the postseason three years in a row. This time, Young gave the Celtics fits — averaging 29.2 points and 10.2 assists over the series — but Boston dumped Young’s Hawks from the playoffs in six games.Now Young, who just finished his fifth season, is facing an existential challenge more daunting than any one playoff round: the Narrative. It once made him a star. It can also take that distinction away.“I understand there’s always the fiction in the narrative of, ‘That’s the superstar; that’s where he should be; and X, Y, Z,’” Hawks General Manager Landry Fields said in an interview before Game 4 against Boston. “And I understand that from the broader perspective. But for us internally, we see Trae, the human. Trae, the man. And how is he continuously taking his game 1 percent better, 2 percent better over time? So the expectation is really to grow.”In basketball, where individual players arguably have more impact on the game than in any other team sport, stars become lightning rods as they become more established, and playoff failures are magnified further. Every year, the Narrative adjusts its star player pecking order based on some amorphous combination of stats, team success and factors out of the player’s control, such as injuries. Narrative Setters — loosely defined as the news media, fans and league observers, like players, coaches and executives — shape the perception of a player’s evolution from rising star to star with expectations.Players like Young, 24, and Boston’s Jaylen Brown, 26 — top-five draft picks and two-time All-Stars — are undergoing this transition as so many other top-level players would expect. But others, like Nets forward Mikal Bridges, 26, have been thrust into the metamorphosis unexpectedly.Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young, center, scored at least 30 points in four of the six games against Boston in their first-round playoff series.Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images“Consistency, your work ethic and your confidence puts you in that category,” said Gilbert Arenas, a former N.B.A. All-Star turned podcast host. “Now, what ends up happening is it’s outside influence that puts: ‘Oh, he needs to win a championship. He needs to do this.’ But reality will speak different. If my team is not a championship team, then that goal is unrealistic. So as a player, you don’t really put those pressures on you.”If a player fails, criticism often loudly follows. On ESPN’s TV panels. On Reddit. On Twitter. In living rooms. At bars. Through arena jeers and chants of “overrated.” On podcasts like the one Arenas hosts.By his mid-20s, Arenas, a second-round draft pick in 2001, had come out of nowhere to make three All-N.B.A. and three All-Star teams and was one of the most exciting young players in the league. But injuries dogged him for the rest of his career, and his decision to jokingly bring a gun into the Wizards locker room marred his reputation. With minimal playoff success for Arenas, the Narrative switched to questions about his maturity and his commitment to the game.Jeff Van Gundy, the ESPN analyst and former coach, said criticism and greater expectations usually came when a player signed a big contract or regressed after playoff success. He added that stars were also judged on their attitudes with coaches, teammates and referees.Young’s name surfaced in trade rumors on the eve of the playoffs, even though he is in the first year of a maximum contract extension. Young said in an interview on TNT that he “can’t control all the outside noise.”“I can only control what I can control, and that’s what I do on this court and for my teammates,” he continued, adding, “let everything else take care of itself.”He is on his third permanent head coach in the last three seasons, and while his regular-season offensive stats are stellar (26.2 points and 10.2 assists per game), teams often exploit him on defense. He was not named to the All-Star team this year.Young, of course, isn’t the only star with perpetually shifting perceptions. Some players are seen as ascending — like the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who carried his young team to the play-in tournament. Others players are on the dreaded descending side, like Dallas’s Luka Doncic, who failed to make the playoffs a year after going to the Western Conference finals.Gilgeous-Alexander, Doncic and Young are all the same age, but Doncic and Young receive far more criticism, despite their superior résumés. If that sounds illogical, welcome to sports fandom, said Paul Pierce, a Hall of Famer who hosts a podcast for Showtime.“This is what comes with this,” Pierce said. “Guys get paid millions of dollars, so we can voice our opinions.”In the 2000s, Pierce emerged as one of the best young players in the N.B.A. He was a 10-time All-Star, but short playoff runs prompted some to say he was overrated. He quieted most critics when he helped lead the Celtics to a championship in 2008 alongside Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.“Most players who reached the star status were players who come up in the league,” Pierce said. “They were McDonald’s All-Americans. They were the top player in their high school. So they expect to be in that position. So for me, I was like, ‘Shoot, I’m going to get there eventually.’”Bridges, the Nets guard, stepped into the spotlight after Phoenix traded him to the Nets in February as part of a deal for Kevin Durant. He was a reliable starter in Phoenix, but in Brooklyn, the fifth-year guard was thrust into the role of No. 1 option. He averaged a career-best 26.1 points per game in 27 games with the Nets while remaining one of the best defensive guards in the league.But the Nets quickly fell into a 2-0 series hole in their first-round playoff matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers. In an interview before Game 3, Bridges said he couldn’t worry about outsiders’ opinions. “You can’t control what they feel and think about you all,” Bridges said. “All you control is how hard you work and what you do, and personally, I know I work hard.”Mikal Bridges, left, suddenly became the No. 1 scoring option for the Nets after the Phoenix Suns traded him to the team in February for Kevin Durant.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesBridges played well during the series, but the Nets as a whole struggled to generate offense, and defenders keyed in on Bridges. The Sixers swept the Nets, the last victory coming in Brooklyn. Afterward, Bridges told reporters that he needed to get better and promised his team that he would. “I love my guys to death, and I told them that’s just on me,” he said. “I told them I’m sorry I couldn’t come through.”For Brown, the Celtics star, the disappointment came last year, when his team lost to Golden State in the N.B.A. finals. This season, his career highs in points and rebounds have made him a strong contender to make his first All-N.B.A. team. He has always been viewed as a dynamic wing, and the Celtics have never missed the playoffs during his seven-year career. Now the Celtics are the odds-on favorite to make the N.B.A. finals from the East — especially with Milwaukee’s having lost in the first round — and Brown has, at times, been their best player.“When I was younger in my career, I was the guy looking to make a name in the playoffs, looking to gain some notoriety,” Brown said.He has done that. But that means it’s no longer enough for him to be simply dynamic. He has to carry the franchise, alongside the four-time All-Star guard Jayson Tatum.“Part of his ascension is he’s really talented,” the Celtics’ president, Brad Stevens, said. “Part of it is he has got a great hunger. And part of it is he works regardless of if he had success or hit a rough spot.” He continued: “Then I think part of it is he’s been on good teams all the way through. And so, then you have a responsibility of, like, doing all that.”Players often say they don’t feel external pressure to meet outsiders’ expectations. But then there’s the pressure from their co-workers.“All of us want to be the best N.B.A. player ever,” said Darius Miles, a former N.B.A. forward. “All of us want to be Hall of Famers. All of us want to be All-Stars. And once you get in the league, you want all the accolades. So that’s enough pressure alone on yourself that you have.”Boston’s Jaylen Brown averaged a career-best 26.6 points per game this season, helping the Celtics secure the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.Brynn Anderson/Associated PressThe Clippers drafted Miles No. 3 overall in 2000; 15 picks later, they also took Quentin Richardson. Together, they made the previously adrift franchise exciting and culturally relevant. But injuries derailed Miles’s career. Decades later, the two close friends, like Arenas and Pierce, are Narrative Setters themselves as co-hosts of a podcast.“I think going to the Clippers, being the worst team in the N.B.A., we wanted to be accepted by the rest of the N.B.A.,” said Miles, who hosts a Players’ Tribune podcast with Richardson. “We wanted to be accepted by our peers. We want to be accepted by the other players, to show that we were good enough players to play on that level.”Pierce said social media had added a different dimension to how stars are perceived.“I really feel like social media turned N.B.A. stardom and took a lot of competitive drive out of the game,” Pierce said. “Because people are more worried about how they look and their image and their brand and their business now. Before it was just about competing. It was about wanting to win a championship. Now everybody’s a business.”But social media can also provide a much-needed and visible boost to young stars in their best moments. In Game 5 against the Celtics, Young went off for 38 points and 13 assists, stretching the series for one more game. Sixers center Joel Embiid tweeted, “This is some good hoops!!!” and added the hashtag for Young’s nickname: #IceTrae. It was a glimpse of the kind of play that has made Young so popular: His jersey is a top seller, and he was invited to make a guest appearance at a W.W.E. event in 2021.Rising stars, Van Gundy said, are always going to have ups and downs as they develop.“If your expectations are never a dip in either individual or team success, yes, that’s a standard that is ripe to always be negative,” he said. But, he added, “if your expectations are that guys play when they’re healthy, they do it with a gratefulness, a genuine joy and a team-first attitude — no, I don’t think that’s too much to expect.” More