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He added that current star point guard and Brooklyn native Jose Alvarado will be one of three Knicks from this year’s championship group attending the new school’s ceremony Oct. 15. He did not divulge the other two Knicks who will be attending but said three players from its 1973 championship team — school namesake Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Bill Bradley — will also be on hand, along with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “It’s going to be like Elvis [Presley], [Bruce] Springsteen and The Beatles together,” Klores quipped of the appearing lineup.
To be sure, Clark is polarizing in her own right—she can be a complainer and flopper on the court, not unlike King James. But she’s also been on the receiving end of way too many cheap shots and hard fouls over her first three seasons—while refs have made a habit of looking the other way. At the same time, NBA commissioner Adam Silver notes that Clark has been exploited as a “political football” by both the Right and the Left in culture wars. That’s not going to change. She’s too polarizing; she generates too many clicks. Plus, there will always be overwrought critics like USA TODAY’s Nancy Armour who argue Clark’s on-court conduct contributes to the racist abuse other players receive. Conversely, there will always be Clark supporters who argue her frequent praise of league pioneers is never enough. Why is Clark constantly asked to genuflect to the “sisterhood” of the WNBA, they ask, when nobody else is?
Chris Mannix: "It struck me when I've had some phone calls, mostly with league officials, just how much leverage Tom Dundon believes he has. The Blazers need or the city needs the Blazers more than he needs the city. It's struck me and a lot of league officials who are you know, I'm I'm speaking more to the league side that I am to anybody in Portland, just the exasperation on a league level with how this is going. And I think that was reflected in Adam Silver's comments in Vegas uh during Summer League where he just usually the cherry-eyed optimist about some of this stuff, Adam would usually say it's going to get done, we'll work it through some stuff. Like watching his kind of face kind of go blank and seeing him deadpan like you know, there's this is off track, I believe was his phrase was really revealing to me and and told me where the league thinks that that this situation is. And and Dundon clearly believes that he's got a lot of leverage here and he's going to get whatever deal he wants or else he's going to do what he wants or at least try to do what he wants."
Oh No He Didn't: Baxter Holmes on the Kawhi/Clippers investigation: "I think the NBA wants to get this right. People have said to me all throughout that Adam Silver has forecast that in all his comments about how the burden of proof is on the league, that we're gonna follow the facts. They wanna be thorough so that at the end of the day, this process can look fair, transparent, accurate and that everybody can feel at peace with what happened"
Sources who have known and worked with Silver for years have repeatedly told ESPN that they do not expect him to be swayed by public attention in this case, one way or another. As one source explained, if the league ignored evidence that implicated the Clippers, then the cover-up would become a story; and if the league sought punishment without evidence, then the overreach would become a story. The source said they had full confidence that Silver would "play it straight," based on the facts, as Silver has said he would do throughout the inquiry.
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Did James really wait longer because he was annoyed at commissioner Adam Silver pressuring him to decide so the league could make the schedule? This is a firm no, according to sources. Silver's comments at Fanatics Fest in New York City last week might have been mildly annoying to LeBron James, but they did not affect his process.
Chus Bueno also addressed the NBA’s plans in Europe, revealing why he still believes cooperation would be a better outcome than direct competition between two rival leagues. According to Bueno, the franchise model is designed to provide long-term stability while opening the door to new strategic markets and investors. “When we scale our business, we want to do more, but also do it better. Not just scale for the sake of scaling, but scale the right way. When we think about franchises, maybe it makes sense to go to London, to Rome, to Berlin. Maybe it makes sense to rescue some big basketball IPs. Maybe they want to become franchises, so we offer them that opportunity. They’re going to have investors behind them because they’ll see certainty, a long-term project, and the chance to play against the best teams in Europe.”
Chus Bueno then outlined what he believes an NBA-EuroLeague partnership could look like in practice. “For me, it would be easier if we have the 13 teams, and then the five or six markets that they’re talking about. Then we have these 13 plus these five or six markets. I think that having all these teams together and going to the market to find somebody else would be better. The money that will be raised could compensate the people that have spent 26 years building this business, and we could also allocate some money for working capital and rebranding the partnership. I think that would be the normal way to do it in a partnership.”
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On 92.3 The Fan's Baskin and Phelps show, Cleveland radio host Andy Baskin revealed what a source shared about James' free agency decision. "Here's what I was told yesterday about the whole LeBron situation. Last week, LeBron's crew was probably ready to make an announcement, especially because they were in New York," Baskin said. "The world had their eyes on New York because of the World Cup as well. "They were probably comfortable making an announcement as early as last week. And then, people were telling them what to do. There's a little bit of irritation… Irritated was the word I was told, by the commissioner pushing them…so they decided to hold back."
NBA commissioner Adam Silver may regret calling out LeBron James to decide where he will play next season. Four-time NBA champion Draymond Green said that Silver urging James to make a decision soon might only make him take longer to announce it. “Adam saying that is not going to speed up LeBron’s decision at all,” Green said on the “Draymond Green Show.” “If I know Bron well, if anything, it may slow his decision down a little more because that’s just how Bron is.
Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged last week the league office can’t finish the schedule until LeBron James chooses a destination. That’s real power. James Harden remains unsigned while the Cleveland Cavaliers wait on yet another LeBron decision. The futures of other veterans like Draymond Green and Jonathan Kuminga remain murky because of him. Summer League is over. This is usually around the time the league goes into hibernation, when coaches and executives take their well-deserved vacations and get away from business for most of August. LeBron is now encroaching on that time as well.
Multiple sources familiar with James' thinking told ESPN that James is truly close to making a decision. Like Silver, many league and team personnel ESPN has spoken to are hopeful that decision will come next week.