Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Tatum said that the league is “looking for ‘great operators’ who will invest in new stadiums,” adding that there are “only ‘two to three world-class’ basketball arenas in all of Europe.” The NBA is “considering how to intermingle NBA Europe teams with its existing North American teams.” In the short term, Tatum said that NBA Europe teams “could play teams based in the U.S. and Canada in the preseason.” Then, over time, teams across the two leagues “could meet up in the Emirates NBA Cup.”
This team Leon Rose built is the NBA's first to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy and NBA Cup double in the same season. It just beat the Spurs four times in five tries despite spotting a double-digit lead to San Antonio in the first quarter of all five games. And it joins only Toronto in 2018-19, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, as NBA champions with four starters acquired via trade. These Knicks and those Raptors are also the league's only two teams, per Elias, to open a Finals-clinching game with five players it didn't draft.
Get this: The Knicks also posted a blistering 123.0 offensive rating in their two regular-season games against San Antonio, and they torched the Spurs in the NBA Cup championship (which doesn't officially count in the standings). While the Spurs ranked third in defensive efficiency during the regular season, they conceded more points per possession to the Knicks than any of their opponents. This Finals will be decided by San Antonio's ability -- or inability -- to slow the New York juggernaut. The Knicks enter the Finals on an 11-game playoff winning streak and with full confidence they can execute against Wembanyama, the 2026 Defensive Player of the Year.
Josh Hart, in fact, took the comedic route in explaining why there's nothing for the Knicks to glean from that game. “I mean, that was December. I don't think that's really gonna be equivalent to what the atmosphere and energy is going to be like,” Hart said, via SNY. “Technically, that game didn't happen, so I don't think there's anything that we can learn from.”
Advertisement
Tim Reynolds: Josh Hart, one of the smartest players in the league, was asked today at Knicks practice about what the team can learn from playing the Spurs in the NBA Cup final. "Technically, that game didn't happen," Hart said. (It didn't count in season standings or stats, so he's right.)
In four regular-season games against the Spurs, Chet Holmgren made only 38.7 percent of his shots. He scored just 42 combined points. In the Thunder’s December loss to the Spurs during the NBA Cup, he fared slightly better, with 17 points and seven rebounds — but it still wasn’t as good as Wembanyama’s 22 points and nine rebounds (in only 21 minutes). In this Western Conference finals series, the matchup wasn’t close. Eight points, 13 points, 14 points, 10 points, 16 points, 10 points and, in Game 7, four points. Nearly all of them were forgettable. They don’t tell the entire story — the game is more than putting the ball in the basket — and the Thunder’s willingness to sacrifice self for team is part of what got them one win away from another trip to the NBA Finals.
In February 2024, the NBA announced it had reached a multiyear global marketing partnership with Emirates, naming the company its “Official Global Airline Partner” and the title sponsor of the NBA Cup. Soon after the announcement, Edalat alleges, VanDeWeghe—who had stepped down from his executive vice president role with the NBA in 2021 to become a special advisor—reached out. “You need to look into this,” VanDeWeghe told Edalat, according to Edalat’s attorney. According to the complaint, Edalat’s attorney reached out to the NBA in April 2024 seeking confirmation of Edalat’s compensation. A league lawyer responded that the NBA had “no record” of any agreement with Edalat.
Shams Charania: Magic president Jeff Weltman, who signed a contract extension just before Orlando’s run to the NBA Cup final four, will lead the team's search for the next head coach. Mosley led the Magic to two division titles and three consecutive winning seasons while dealing with a litany of injuries to key starters, particularly over the last two years.
Weltman does not appear to be in jeopardy of losing his job. Two league sources said Weltman signed a contract extension during the first half of the season, around the time the team reached the NBA Cup semifinals.
Advertisement
The Bucks announced Rivers’ departure in an April 13 statement. Milwaukee will pay Rivers his eight-figure salary for the 2026-27 season, sources told ESPN. The recently named Naismith Hall of Fame coach told Andscape it was “100 percent my decision” to leave. Rivers had a 97-103 record during his two-plus seasons with Milwaukee, leading to two first-round playoff exits and missing the postseason this season. The Bucks won the 2024 NBA Cup under Rivers, but they had a 32-50 record this season, with All-Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo playing just 36 games. “It wasn’t a hard decision. It’s probably on your mind your last couple years,” Rivers said. “It had nothing to do with the season or anything like that. There’s times where you feel like you’ve had your run. I still love it. I still love coaching. But I don’t ever want my job to become work. I guess that is the best way of saying that. It’s more of a labor of love. So, I just felt like it was time. It was not like some lightning strike or something like that. I told ownership that a while ago.
Antetokounmpo: "Anybody that thinks that without having a person next to you, to share that load, and to bounce off ideas and play - he does not know basketball.” At least one. Antetokounmpo: “Yes. You have to have to have a guy. Like, the period that me and Dame was healthy, we won the NBA Cup. Ying and Yang. You need to have that guy and then you need to have everyone fill their roles.”
By suiting up Saturday against the Magic, LeBron James not only became the player with the most regular-season games in NBA history... he also became the winningest. The Lakers' win against Orlando, courtesy of a Luke Kennard three-pointer, was the 1,074th of his career in the regular season. Adding his 184 playoff wins (tops all-time), three play-in victories, and one NBA Cup final triumph brings his combined total to 1,229 - one more than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 1,228 across regular season and postseason.
The lawmakers urged Silver to consider Las Vegas’ 20-year partnership with the NBA through hosting the Summer League and NBA Cup championships. “As you consider the future of the NBA, we strongly urge you to build on the League’s local momentum by selecting Las Vegas as a site for a future league franchise,” the letter reads in part.