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Brandon Rahbar: Sam Presti says OKC only had their healthy rotation for 8.5% of the season. "I think we were 3rd or 4th in most minutes lost due to injury. It was Dallas, Philly... one other team. I say that not to make an excuse. It's actually what forged us and accelerated our team."
Former NBA legend Vlade Divac breaks hip in motorcycle accident
Former NBA center Vlade Divac underwent emergency surgery after breaking a hip in a fall from his motorcycle in Montenegro, doctors said Friday. The accident happened Thursday on a road near the Montenegrin Adriatic Sea coast. Hospital officials said Divac sustained a fracture and that an artificial hip was implanted.
"During the day, a surgical procedure was performed," said Ljubica Mitrovic, a spokeswoman of the hospital in the town of Risan. "He is in a stable general and physical condition and is under a careful supervision of the medical staff." The 7-foot-1 Serbian center started and ended his 16-year NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers. He also played for the Charlotte Hornets and Sacramento Kings. He was an All-Star in 2001. He later served as general manager of the Kings.
ON FEBRUARY 6, 2024, Scot Pollard was dying. The day before, he and his wife, Dawn, had arrived at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, for a three-day heart transplant evaluation. Scot had already been registered on transplant lists in Indianapolis and Chicago. He was aiming to get on the list in Nashville -- 300 miles south of the Pollards' Carmel, Indiana, home -- hoping another transplant region meant a greater opportunity for a match. Dr. Jonathan Menachem, a cardiologist at the hospital, placed his hands on Scot's wrist. "Your pulse is slow," he told him. "Is it always pretty slow?"
Scot then laid down on a bed, where Menachem took his stethoscope and placed it on Scot's chest. "Do you get short of breath just laying like this?" he asked him. Scot closed his eyes and nodded. "Seeing someone lay down like that and getting so short of breath that quick is concerning," Menachem said.
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Scot was in end-stage heart failure. He was admitted to the intensive care unit, and an emergency search for a transplant began. "He was filled with fluid and didn't have enough blood flow going around his body," Menachem said. "They thought they were going home to Indiana. "We looked at each other," Menachem said of him and his colleague as they reviewed Scot's prognosis. "We were like, 'This guy cannot go home.'" Scot's heart was failing. He'd been suffering from cardiomyopathy, a disease that makes it difficult for the heart muscle to pump. With more strain on the muscle, and more blood required for his large frame, he weakened by the day. "I'm really attached to this heart," he said in the hospital. "I feel like it's the best one. That's the one I was born with. And the biggest fear is that the next one isn't going to be good enough."
Matt Dial stepped onto the court of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, raised a camera to his face, squinted his left eye and, through the lens, saw the blue and gold glory that used to flash in front of him as he photographed the Indiana Pacers. This night would be, without a medical miracle, the last time Dial walked into the hallowed halls of the arena he has always loved so much. His friends and an army of people came together last week to give Dial a chance to make one last, beautiful Pacers memory with his family at Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The man they saw in the photos, taken as the Pacers clinched a spot in the NBA Finals, made them smile. And those photos made them cry, too. Dial is 30 pounds lighter than he was just weeks ago. The nutrition he puts into his body isn't helping. Instead, it's feeding his terminal colon cancer. He has stopped chemotherapy and hospice has come into his home to make him as comfortable as they can. Much of the time, Dial is sleeping. But somehow, some way, Dial felt well enough to make the trip from his Zionsville home to Gainbridge last week for that historic, electric Game 6.
And everyone who knows Dial, a kind, wickedly smart, self-proclaimed technology nerd, lover of the Pacers and even moreso lover of his family and friends, are hoping fiercely that Dial lives long enough to see his beloved Pacers win an NBA title for the first time in history. Even if it is from a hospital bed. Dial, 48, has had time to come to terms with the hand he's been dealt, a diagnosis that came in February 2023 when doctors said his cancer was Stage 4 and gave him two years to live. He's gotten two years and four months to come to terms with it. Dial has planned everything out for his family, down to making sure his youngest son, 15-year-old Aaron, knows how to mow the yard and trim the weeds after he's gone. He recruited his good friend Todd Parrish to give Aaron driving lessons. He bought a guitar so he could learn to play with his oldest son, Noah.
He traded his BMW for a Tesla -- even though he is a BMW fanatic who was president of the local club until he couldn't be anymore -- so that his wife, Shelley, wouldn't have a car payment after he's gone. "He's been spending the last two years setting up their life," said Parrish, "knowing that eventually it's going to get him." And so Dial is realistic, if not the eternal optimist he has always been. His friend Marc Lebryk says Dial would love to live long enough to take Shelley on one last, romantic, fabulous trip to see the Backstreet Boys in Las Vegas at The Sphere in July. He has the tickets, though no one is sure he would be able to make that trip. If not that, Dial wants to live long enough to see the Pacers win a title. "I was going to cry anyway (if they won it), but I would cry even more because, you know, he's been waiting for this. And he might not see another run," said Dial's son, Noah, 25. "When we get through this and we win the championship, it's going be a memory I'll always cherish."
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Game 1 of the NBA Finals delivered elite drama from a basketball perspective as Tyrese Haliburton’s final-second shot led a stunning Pacers comeback over the Thunder. However, in the hours preceding that moment, the overall presentation left a lot of fans wondering what has happened to some time-honored traditions. The longstanding Finals patches are now on the back of the jerseys; they used to be on the front. And there are no indications on the floor that it’s the NBA’s marquee event.
The league removed the “NBA Finals” decal from the court over a decade ago, citing “player safety.” “There were a lot of considerations taken into account in making this decision, including player safety,” an NBA spokesman said in 2014 of removing playoff decals. “We decided to remove the playoffs logo from the court for a variety of reasons, including cleaning up the playing surface.”
Gilbert Arenas on his son's Cybertruck accident: Put a hammer in there or something that can break the window
Gilbert Arenas: He was at least in the car for 10 minutes. Once he started talking and doing all that just realized he couldn't break the window, started doing all the back search on the car. If you're a parent and your teen has this car (Cybertruck) you might want to put a hammer in that joint. Something that can break the window because physically… Matt Barnes: Not strong enough. Arenas: He said he was trying to kick the door the window and he couldn't. Barnes: Damn. Arenas: When he got home we had flowers for him and I gave him that speech. I said, ‘listen, you were a lucky one to see this. Most people don't get to see the flowers and how everybody reacts when something happens.’
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