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Chris Paul to retire after next season?
Q. How much longer do you intend to play? Chris Paul: At the most a year, you know, I just finished my 20th season, which is a blessing in itself. Yeah. I've been in the NBA for more than half of my life which is a blessing, but it's definitely, these years you do not get back with your kids, with your family. I'm born and raised in North Carolina, so my granny who watches every single game that I play, every single night, I just those moments, I just don't get to see her and hug her along with all my uncles and aunts as much as I love to. Q. So, okay, at most a year. Chris Paul: Yeah, sure, I’m not gonna lie to you.
Of the eight rejected bids, only two (Houston and Charlotte, N.C.) were backed by NBA team owners. The other six (St. Louis; Kansas City, Mo.; Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; Miami; and Denver) sent proposals without support from NBA ownership. While Miami and Denver have NBA teams, the ownership was not involved in the WNBA bid.
The Stein Line has likewise learned that the Charlotte Hornets also planned to make a run at Paul — who grew up in North Carolina — but have all but conceded internally that the former Wake Forest star will almost certainly decide to stay on the West Coast if he returns for a 21st NBA season.
CAA Co-Head of Basketball and agent Austin Brown notched the coveted first overall pick with Duke F Cooper Flagg heading to the Dallas Mavericks. The agency also dominated the closing eight picks of the draft with selections like North Carolina F Drake Powell (22nd pick), Michigan State G Jase Richardson (25th pick), Ratiopharm Ulm G Ben Saraf (26th pick), Michigan F Danny Wolf (27th pick) and UConn F Liam McNeeley. CAA and Wasserman last tied with the most first-round picks in the 2019 NBA Draft.
Flagg, his family and his representation wanted that major decision settled before he arrived on campus in Durham, N.C., so he could focus on hoops. That meant devising a solution: They’d hear pitches from three select companies, all on the same day, and then pick their future partner once the meetings concluded. “Like a movie,” said Naveen Lokesh, New Balance’s global marketing director of basketball and football, who also spearheaded the company’s pitch to Flagg. “Almost like ‘Air.’”
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Other players who have worked out with the Jazz over the last few weeks includeb Hansen Yang (Qingdao), Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB — withdrawn from draft consideration), Milos Uzan (Houston — withdrawn from draft consideration), Tamar Bates (Missouri), Ethan Taylor (Air Force), Samson Johnson (UConn), Trey Galloway (Indiana), RJ Davis (North Carolina), Sean Pedulla (Ole Miss), RJ Felton (East Carolina), Ian Martinez (Utah St), Deivon Smith (St. John’s), Matthew Murrell (Ole Miss), and Will Richard (Florida).
The former North Carolina star joined the Spurs last summer. In playing all 82 games for a third straight season, Barnes supplied the professionalism and temperament that's defined his reputation. It's a mindset that continued right into the final day of the season when he associated his team with future playoff appearances. “What are you going to do in the off-season and your preparation to get that point, to put yourself in position to be at that point. A lot of people just assume that come October, ‘I'm going to be ready to go,' but this is where the growth happens. October is simply where it's acknowledged. For us, this summer is a big summer to just continue to get better on and off the court.”
Larry Miller, a two-time ACC player of the year for North Carolina and 2022 inductee in the College Basketball Hall of Fame, has died. He was 79. The UNC athletic department said Miller died Sunday in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. No cause of death was given. An athletic department spokesman said Miller was in hospice care and dealing with medical issues for some time. Miller, a native of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, was a star forward on coach Dean Smith's first two Atlantic Coast Conference championship and Final Four teams in 1967 and 1968. He earned first-team All-America honors both seasons and was a consensus pick in 1968 along with UCLA's Lew Alcindor, Houston's Elvin Hayes, LSU's Pete Maravich and Louisville's Wes Unseld.
Perhaps the biggest winner from the athletic testing was North Carolina forward Drake Powell, who only measured 6-5 1/4 in socks but with a massive 7-0 wingspan. Additionally, his 37 1/2-inch no-step vertical was easily the best at the combine. (If you’re wondering, that is generally the leaping test you care about when projecting basketball players, although the “max vert” usually gets reported since it’s a bigger and thus sexier number.)
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Chris Washburn’s story isn’t just one of unrealized potential — it’s a portrait of pain, perseverance, and ultimately, personal redemption. A once-dominant big man at North Carolina State and a top-three NBA Draft pick in 1986, Washburn’s journey through basketball fame and addiction has been as public as it has been painful. Now, with a new book on the horizon and a clean bill of health after 24 years of sobriety, he’s telling his story — all of it — in his own words. “The book is about Chris Washburn’s struggles,” he says plainly. “Some of the bad decisions that he made; some of the bad decisions that other folks made for him… The main thing is that it was a party for one night — and that ‘party’ lasted for me 14 years.”
Rick Cordella: Very, very small amount people were actually in Chicago stadium, you know, hearing “Sirius” by the Alan Parsons Project and “6’6 from North Carolina”, etc. The reason why people know it so well, because NBC showed it. And so I think that’s part of it, too. Like, let’s get in and show the atmosphere. Make this seem like a big game. And so you’ll see that. And you know, we’ll have our talent on site at the arenas on Sunday nights. We have Sunday night basketball to just again, make it feel like this is a big thing. And similar to Sunday Night Football it is the game of the week.
Former NBA player and NC State standout Chucky Brown has filed a lawsuit against Saint Augustine’s University, an HBCU located in Raleigh, North Carolina, alleging breach of contract after he was terminated without full payment of his salary. Brown, who spent over a decade in the NBA and later transitioned into coaching, was hired by Saint Augustine’s in 2022 to lead the men’s basketball program under a three-year contract.
Drake Powell is leaving North Carolina to enter the 2025 NBA draft. Powell is considered one of the best perimeter defenders in the draft class.
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