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Kevin Garnett: “I like young fella. Young fella is a throwback. Young fella could’ve played in our time, just because you had to be that type of dude. Matter of fact, Anthony Edwards reminds me of a lot of the guys. Name somebody — Gary Payton, AI, Steph, Jordan. Everybody you would name has an attitude like that. Everybody thinks Jordan is just some cool-ass billionaire now. Alright, yeah, he got that too. My point is this: you’ve got to have an unbelievable confidence in what you’re doing. And I really feel like the work builds up that confidence when you’ve been in the gym. I don’t think people understand. I don’t know today, because I haven’t been in the gym and worked with somebody for a very long time. But when you said you was in the gym, you was in the gym. Man, when I’m shooting in the gym — yeah, I was really in the gym, shooting in the gym.”
Fresh off a historic 40-point performance in the finals of the Unrivaled season, WNBA player Kelsey Plum is taking a different shot: an AI twin. Fans can now voice call with a digital version of the Los Angeles Sparks star. Plum announced the twin on her personal Instagram account on March 6, asking her AI self for advice on her ponytail and coffee versus energy drink. Plum is the first professional female athlete to launch a verified AI digital twin. It’s a move that’s earning plaudits as a way for women in sports to take control of their image and expand their reach. “The opportunity to have a twin that can connect with fans, with young people, people that love basketball, people that are just interested in sports. The range is endless,” Plum says. “It’s where we are in society, and I think you are either gonna get with it or get lost.”
Lou Williams when Sixers traded Allen Iverson: So, I had 40 on Monday. I had 40 on Wednesday. I had 40 on Friday. Got on a bus. 9 hours drive to Little Rock, Arkansas. I wasn't in my room 30 minutes. I get to my room in Little Rock, Arkansas. 30 minutes somewhere nearby. The GM called my room from the Philadelphia 76ers. He said, "Hey, there is a noon flight. We got to get you to Philly ASAP." I said, "What's up?" They said, "We ain't got time right now, but turn ESPN on." They had traded Allen Iverson. So the one week that I leave to the D-League, AI had got traded. So they scrambled. I get to Arkansas at 9:30. I'm on a flight at 12:00 going to Philly. I get there at halftime. They playing against the Washington Wizards. I played the whole third and fourth quarter and never turned back.
37 Partners, a talent and intellectual property services company co-founded and chaired by former NBAer Metta World Peace, on Wednesday is unveiling a new platform that seeks to help athletes and entertainers create, manage and monetize AI-generated digital likenesses of themselves. The platform is called Perpetual Celebrity Commerce (PCC) and powered by technology from Johnsmith.ai, a Chinese AI firm that specializes in digital twins and has worked with LVMH and Estee Lauder, among other major consumer brands. PCC will enable its users to generate AI avatars of themselves and license them for virtual brand activations (including multilingual translations), plus offer athletes legal support (e.g., cease-and-desist letters) against unauthorized use of their likenesses online.
Former NBA star Matt Barnes is pushing back on rumors that claimed he was scammed by an AI model. A rumor circulating around the internet got fresh air from another former NBAer, Gilbert Arenas, who addressed the gossip on his own podcast. Apparently, as the internet says, Barnes fell victim to a catfish who managed to walk off with $61,000 of his money. 'I've sat back and watched the internet lie about me the whole year,' Barnes said in a video posted to his Instagram account. 'The whole year -- lies from me being gay, to me talking abortion to me telling some girl not to do a reality show.' 'I get back from Dubai ... I see all of a sudden I'm suing an A.I. model, or I got played by an A.I. model.' 'You guys believe I got played by an A.I. model, and I'm suing 'em? Where the f*** did you guys get this from?!'
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Pablo Torre : So I checked in with Malik's parents, Michael and Deena. (They are lovely.) They now understand what happened. And Malik has deleted the above IG video. I also talked to @ClutchPoints. Which apologized and quickly corrected the post (see below). Now: how was this mistake made? I suspect that AI was used to scrape my episode's transcript, and it generated that erroneous summary. (You may recall my frustration with this from the Mark Cuban debates.) Because anyone who listened knows I never reported that. But I do admit I may be responsible, in part because this week, before all this, @pablofindsout hired an actual witch to curse AI. Quote: "AI needs to slip up so badly that everyone can see that this is a bad investment." I am now worried that this is a Monkey's Paw scenario.
Before the game, a fan gave Jordan Poole a signed Allen Iverson autograph. He said AI was his favorite player. Could Jordan Poole be an Iverson-type player for this team, maybe with better defense? Zion: First off, I’m going to give respect to AI—the Answer, a legend in the game. Me and Poole have talked about it. I’m pretty sure he has a tattoo of Allen Iverson—just out of respect. He definitely looks up to him, studies film. I think with the Iverson cuts we can set up for Poole, he can really take advantage. And I’ll say this—social media has kind of portrayed an image of him, but when you get around him, he’s a dog. He’s a competitor. He’s a good dude to be around. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I’m glad he’s on this team with us.
The creators of an AI tool and Discord community that allowed people to create AI videos of NBA stars says that it got a cease-and-desist letter from lawyers representing LeBron James. This marks one of the first known times that a high-profile celebrity has threatened legal action against an AI company for enabling the creation of nonconsensual AI imagery of their likeness. It is also one of the first times we’ve seen a celebrity take legal action against a type of nonconsensual but not strictly sexual type of AI-generated content, which is rampant on Instagram and other social media.
The NBA has invested in predictive analytics company nVenue through its venture vehicle, NBA Equity, with the league’s Head of Gaming and New Business Ventures, Scott Kaufman-Ross, joining as a board observer for the AI-powered startup. A graduate of the NBA Launchpad program earlier this year, nVenue is also launching a new collection of basketball micro-betting markets that will be licensed to sportsbooks.
“I didn’t build Reebok all by myself,” said O’Neal, who won three straight NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers and another with the Miami Heat. He signed with Reebok in 1992 and made the brand popular with his first signature shoe, called the Shaq Attaq. Iverson’s signature shoes, The Question and The Answer, were some of the top sellers in the industry. He signed a lifetime endorsement and marketing contract with Reebok in 2001. “I needed A.I. to be vice president because if you’re a guard, you want to see a legendary guard,” he said. “I wanted to do a show that’s not scripted. Not polished. I wanted it to be real work.”
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Marc J. Spears: A “surprised” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle on Tom Thibodeaux’s firing from New York: “Thibs went in and changed so much. You look at all that and what happened yesterday, I thought (the news) was a fake AI thing. No way possible. I know how the players feel about him, too.”
That reverence for greatness extended to another generational star: Allen Iverson. “To me, one of the BEST players that I’ve ever played with,” Kukoc said. “Just his size and the way he moved through the people he looked even faster… AI was different. If he could find a way to the rim, that was his first choice… AI was willing to go in and try to score layups and then get dunks and then get himself on the free throw line.”
The Rockets are partnering with artificial intelligence firm Theta Labs on a new AI agent called “ClutchBot,” which will be integrated into the team’s official website beginning with the 2025-26 NBA season. The bot will be trained specifically on Rockets and NBA data, enabling it to answer queries about anything from team news or statistics to ticketing and venue information. Theta and the Rockets call it a “mascot,” because it is named after the Rockets real-life mascot, Clutch the Rocket Bear.
Pablo Torre Finds Out: 76ers president Daryl Morey says he asks A.I. for input when making team decisions. "We absolutely use models as a vote in any decision."