Final Remaining Teams In This Year's Stanley Cup Playoffs Shows Sabres What's Necessary To Have Success
Look, Ma! No NHL Division Winners In The Conference Finals. What Went Wrong?
For the first time since 2020-21, there will be nary a regular-season division winner in the NHL's Eastern and Western Conference finals. So let's take a moment to remember the Winnipeg Jets, Washington Capitals, Vegas Golden Knights and Toronto Maple Leafs.
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Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
SuperSonics fans feel no allegiance to the Thunder in these NBA Finals. Go Pacers, the scornful say
Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton celebrates after a teammate made a 3-pointer during the second half of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the New York Knicks in Indianapolis, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/AJ Mast) Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) reacts during the second half of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips) FILE - A skateboarder leaps onto a platform in front of KeyArena, a sports and entertainment venue and former home of the Seattle SuperSonics NBA basketball tean, Dec. 4, 2017, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File) FILE - Stacks of Seattle SuperSonics caps are displayed in a shop, Wednesday, May 15, 2013 in Seattle, near where a proposed basketball arena is to be built. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File) FILE - Stacks of Seattle SuperSonics caps are displayed in a shop, Wednesday, May 15, 2013 in Seattle, near where a proposed basketball arena is to be built. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File) Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton celebrates after a teammate made a 3-pointer during the second half of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the New York Knicks in Indianapolis, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/AJ Mast) Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) reacts during the second half of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips) FILE - A skateboarder leaps onto a platform in front of KeyArena, a sports and entertainment venue and former home of the Seattle SuperSonics NBA basketball tean, Dec. 4, 2017, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File) FILE - Stacks of Seattle SuperSonics caps are displayed in a shop, Wednesday, May 15, 2013 in Seattle, near where a proposed basketball arena is to be built. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File) SEATTLE (AP) — It's logical to think someone like Danny Ball is a fair representation of Seattle these days. Ball, a hoops fan who runs an Instagram account called 'Iconic Sonics,' is pulling for the Indiana Pacers over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals. Advertisement There are no deep ties between Seattle and Indianapolis. The Seahawks play the Colts this December, so the cities will be foes that weekend. Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever probably won't be warmly welcomed when they visit the Emerald City later this month to play the Seattle Storm. But right now, Seattle may as well be an Indy suburb. Seattle fans lost their NBA franchise, the SuperSonics, in 2008 when it was stolen from them and rebranded in Oklahoma City. For the scornful, that means one thing: Go Pacers. 'I'd love to see the Pacers pull it off in six games,' Ball said. The NBA Finals begin Thursday night. For some in Seattle, it'll be a heaping helping of fresh salt on the wounds that opened when the Sonics were taken away. And people like Ball, who grew up in Seattle hearing stories of Sonics legends like Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton, aren't exactly rooting for Oklahoma City right now. Advertisement The Thunder are heavy favorites to beat the Pacers. Should they pull it off, the Thunder would claim their first NBA title in Oklahoma City, but technically their second as a franchise after Seattle won the title in 1979. It's no secret the city wants the league to come back. Expansion is on the NBA's to-do list, and it's likely that talks — the first of many, many steps in this process — could start in earnest with interested cities in the next few months. Commissioner Adam Silver, however, hasn't fully committed to adding new teams. 'The issue I would not have anticipated at the time I sort of began talking about the timeline is how much unknown there is about local media right now,' Silver said earlier this year. 'Having said that, though, I would just say again to our many fans in Seattle, and I hear from them often, and the legacy of the Sonics is still very strong and it's a fantastic basketball market, is that we are very focused on it. … We don't take those fans for granted. We're thankful that the interest has remained over all these years.' Any mention of expansion sends fans into a tizzy. Steve Ballmer, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, spoke to the crowd before a preseason game in Seattle — his hometown — in 2023, and made a thinly veiled reference to how fans need to remind the league's New York office how much the city loves the game. Advertisement 'All night long, it better be loud enough in this building to hear us all the way back in New York, if you get me,' Ballmer told the crowd. 'Let's make sure we're loud tonight.' And then came the Ballmer bellow: 'Go Seattle,' he screamed. It's something Seattle takes seriously, as Mayor Bruce Harrell learned earlier this year in his address to the city. 'Right now, at this moment, I have an announcement to make,' Harrell said, reaching into the lectern where he was standing and pulling out a basketball, spinning it in his hands as he displayed it to the crowd — which began roaring. 'Ah, I'm just kidding.' Advertisement The crowd wasn't amused. Harrell later was interviewed by Seattle's KOMO News and apologized for the attempt at humor, getting reminded that residents of the city aren't happy that the NBA hasn't returned yet. 'Count me among them,' Harrell said. A very real void has been left in the SuperSonics' absence. The NHL's Seattle Kraken entering the fold has helped, as has the success of the WNBA's Seattle Storm, both of whom play at Climate Pledge Arena, which sits on the site of the SuperSonics' former home. That same arena received a significant remodel ahead of the Kraken arriving, which could make it suitable for NBA games. That would ultimately be up to the association to decide one day, but Ball hopes it would be the Sonics' former home in the Queen Anne neighborhood they get to triumphantly return to one day. Advertisement 'A lot of Sonics fans that I know I'm sure never got over the wounds of what happened here 17 years ago with them leaving (for) Oklahoma City,' SuperSonics fan Eric Phan said. 'All of the Sonics fanbase (is) rooting for the Indiana Pacers.' Seattle seemed to have a chance at getting a team back in 2013 when the Maloof family put the Sacramento Kings up for sale. But investor Chris Hansen's bid to relocate the team to Seattle was rejected by the NBA's Board of Governors. For fans like Ball and Phan, hope lives on. Ball recognizes that's partially because he is an inherently positive person, and he's hoping for a Hollywood ending. 'It would be poetic if the year that OKC wins the finals — if that occurs — is in the same summer that the league comes out and says, 'Hey, we're forming an expansion committee to start really exploring this process,'' Ball said. 'I think that would help damper or therapize the feelings and emotions that would come along with seeing the Thunder hoist the Larry O'Brien.' Advertisement Phan pointed out that just because the Sonics don't play in Seattle, it doesn't mean the team is truly gone. 'You can see people walking the sidewalks and streets of Seattle, and even the suburbs,' Phan said. 'People are wearing Sonics gear like they never really left.' ___ AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Oklahoma City contributed. ___ AP NBA:
CBS News
27 minutes ago
- CBS News
Philadelphia Flyers re-sign Noah Cates to 4-year contract extension after career season
The Philadelphia Flyers have re-signed center Noah Cates to a four-year contract with a $4 million annual average value, general manager Danny Briere announced Tuesday. Cates is the latest in a string of restricted free agents the Flyers have reupped. Cates, who was scheduled to become an RFA on July 1, is coming off a career-high 16-goal season in which he established himself as one of the club's leaders. The 26-year-old forward finished the 2024-25 season with 37 points and averaged 15:53 of ice time with a plus-3 rating, which was second on the Flyers. Cates has 102 points in 235 career games since being drafted in the fifth round of the 2017 NHL draft. Cates is the third RFA-to-be that the Flyers have re-signed this offseason. Last week, the orange and black re-signed Tyson Foerster to a two-year, $7.5 million extension and defenseman Helge Grans to a two-year, $1.575 million deal. Cam York, a 2019 first-round draft pick, forward Jakob Pelletier and minor-league forwards Zayde Wisdom and Elliot Desnoyers are the team's remaining RFAs. Last month, the Flyers hired Rick Tocchet as their new head coach. When introducing Tocchet, a member of the team's Hall of Fame, Briere said he viewed the 61-year-old as their "long-term solution." By signing Cates to a four-year deal rather than a bridge deal, it's safe to say the Flyers' front office views the center as part of the rebuild's finished product. The Flyers have 11 selections, including seven in the first two rounds, in the 2025 NHL draft coming up at the end of the month.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
2025 NBA Finals: Step aside, millennial stars, we're about to crown our first Gen Z champion
When Michael Jordan hit the clinching shot over Utah in the 1998 NBA Finals, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wasn't even born yet. When Kobe Bryant threw the iconic 'oop to Shaquille O'Neal in the 2000 Western Conference finals, Tyrese Haliburton was just a few months old. Feeling old yet? Advertisement Millennials certainly do. But nothing makes this millennial feel older than the following fact: The 2025 NBA Finals winner will be the first Gen Z champion in league history. Welcome to the Zoomers NBA. Headlining these Finals are two youthful teams — the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers — whose franchises haven't won a title in decades and whose average age makes them too young to qualify for the millennial cohort. The rotations of the Thunder and Pacers hardly have any 30-year-olds. The playoffs used to be the domain of older, savvy vets deep into their 30s, but the league has gotten younger, and the best teams seem to be heading in that direction more rapidly. Advertisement Is contending for a title increasingly becoming a young man's game? (Amy Monks/Yahoo Sports Illustration) The first Gen Z champ While there is no official separating line between Gen Z and millennials, leading think tank Pew Research Center has defined 1996 as the last birth year for the millennial generation based on their demographic work looking at technological, economic and social shifts throughout the last century. For the first time in NBA history, all four conference finalists — based on minutes-weighted average age, which accounts for playing time — will fit into the Gen Z category. This postseason, the Celtics' minutes-weighted average age was 29.9 years old, a birth year of 1995, making them the last millennial team that was remaining in the playoff field. The much younger and healthier Knicks squad (27.7) ousted them in six games after Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles in Game 4. (For the research study, ages are derived from Basketball Reference's historical pages using a player's age on Feb. 1 of the season.) If current trends hold, the Celtics will be the last millennial team to ever win the championship. Advertisement The kids are doing more than alright. Led by 26-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder's minutes-weighted average age clocks in at 24.7 years old. That gives the West's No. 1 seed a 'team' birth year of 2000, three years after the 1997 cutoff for Gen Z. The 25-year-old Haliburton represents the face of the speedy Pacers, who, at an average of 26.2 years old, blitzed past the slightly more senior Cleveland Cavaliers (26.5) and Milwaukee Bucks (28.1) in earlier rounds. If you've been paying attention, the NBA's elder statesmen have all been kicked to the curb this postseason. There is no LeBron James, no Stephen Curry, no Jimmy Butler left. No Kevin Durant, who didn't even make the play-in tournament. Not even Jrue Holiday, who won a title with both the Celtics and Bucks; the 34-year-old might as well be known as Uncle Jrue around some of the remaining youngsters. With an 80-18 record including the postseason, the Thunder are redefining everything that older generations thought they knew about what championship contenders look like. If OKC were to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy this season, it would be the second-youngest NBA champion ever, trailing only the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers (24.2) led by a 24-year-old Bill Walton. A modern precedent to these Thunder doesn't really exist if they pull it off. The youngest championship team of the 21st century was the 2015 Golden State Warriors, who were 26.3 years old, almost two full years older than the current OKC squad. Advertisement With the Thunder leading the way, the average age of the two finalists stands at 25.5 years old, which is the lowest on record. As recently as 2014, that same figure was 30.4 years old. This continues a surprising trend that has seen the NBA get younger and younger in its final stages of the season. A Gen Z champion was only a matter of time, but if late 1990s roster trends held firm, we'd be about 2-3 years away from reaching that point. With these four teams, we're way ahead of schedule. While it's true the league, in general, has gotten younger across the decades, the final teams used to be far older than the also-rans. Nowadays, the age gap is narrowing to the point where, especially this season, there doesn't seem to be much of one at all. What's going on? Zooming out, this could be a function of injuries weeding out the old man. Previously, I pointed out the postseason is being riddled with injuries to star players more than ever. Heading into this postseason, the NBA averaged seven injured All-Stars over the previous five postseasons, a rate that has increased more than sevenfold since the late 1990s (0.8 per season). Advertisement Older stars like Stephen Curry (hamstring strain) and Damian Lillard (Achilles tear) were knocked out due to leg injuries while other veteran-led teams like the L.A. Clippers and L.A. Lakers only lasted a round. Can millennial bodies still hold up and go the distance in today's pace-and-space era? It's a question that has gnawed at Steve Kerr. The Warriors head coach was almost 33 years old when he won the 1998 NBA Finals as a player with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. That's roughly the same age as T.J. McConnell, the elder statesman of the Pacers who turned 33 in March. On that veteran-laden Bulls team, McConnell would have been just one of the guys. Scottie Pippen was 32. Jordan and Ron Harper were 34. Dennis Rodman was 36. The babies on the team were Toni Kukoc and Luc Longley, who were both 29 years old — the same age as Knicks 'veteran' big Karl-Anthony Towns is now. The Bulls' average age on that team was 32.1 years old. There's not a single 32-year-old or older player on the OKC roster. Advertisement Kerr has taken notice. Steve Kerr wonders if the schedule impacted Stephen Curry. (Photo by) (Ellen Schmidt via Getty Images) When I asked Kerr to compare the league back then to now, the nine-time champion immediately pointed to the pace — the number of trips up and down the floor in each game. In the 1998 playoffs, the game was played at a snail's pace, just 85 possessions per 48 minutes. Today, with teams favoring an uptempo playing style, playoff teams average about 95. Kerr then points out how the 3-point shot — 'the pace and space' — has broadened the physical demands of today's defenders. It's not just the frenetic pace of today's game; it's the expanding dimensions of bodily activity and psychological attention. He's not totally surprised Curry, Lillard, Tatum and others have fallen victim to injury in today's environment. Advertisement 'Who's more likely to be able to withstand the rigors of the pace and space and the game-every-other-day schedule — the younger players or the older players?' Kerr said. 'The younger guys are.' Pace is indeed up, and according to player-tracking research, players are putting about 9% more mileage on the court per 48 minutes compared to a decade ago. Throw in the fact the NBA has wedged an in-season tournament and a play-in tournament into the schedule, and it's hard to see where top vets can find enough recovery time. 'The most important point of all of this,' Kerr says, 'is the pace and space and how much more mileage that players are covering. You see all these injuries ... I don't think players get enough rest anymore.' Advertisement Kerr, whose Warriors were ousted in the Western Conference semifinals, brings up the 37-year-old Curry, who lasted only 13 minutes in Game 1 of the series against the Timberwolves before his hamstring gave out, the first time in his 16-year career he suffered a hamstring strain. It's of Kerr's belief the schedule was a significant factor to blame. It was Curry's third playoff game in five days, with travel in between all three games. With the season on the brink, Kerr leaned on the two-time MVP for 42 minutes in Game 6 in San Francisco and a game-high 46 minutes in Game 7 in Houston. And then they traveled again, jetting up to Minnesota. It's a condensed workload that maybe a 27-year-old Curry might have been able to handle, but 37? In the aftermath of Curry's injury, Kerr consulted his team doctors and performance staff. He asked Rick Celebrini, the team's longtime director of sports medicine and performance, about the circumstances surrounding Curry's first-time injury. Advertisement 'Do you think Steph pulling his hamstring has anything to do with playing 48 hours after logging 46 minutes of Game 7 in Houston?' he asked. 'One hundred percent,' Kerr remembers Celebrini telling him. 'If he had an extra day or two … we can't prove this, but I have no doubt based on our understanding of the scientific literature that the hamstring injury was the result of inadequate recovery and fatigue.' Kerr relents that it's impossible to know what would have happened if the two rounds were more spaced out. But he certainly nodded along when he heard millennial and former NBA champion Aaron Gordon speak on the issue following his own hamstring injury. After the Denver Nuggets lost to the Thunder in the conference semifinals, Gordon was critical of the schedule that also required his Nuggets to play a Game 7 and Game 1 in a 48-hour span. 'I would really, really appreciate it if there were a couple of days in between games in the playoffs instead of every other day,' Gordon told reporters. 'The product of the game would be a lot better. You'll see a high level of basketball. Probably less blowouts.' Advertisement Kerr hopes the league takes action and either spaces out the existing schedule by adding a week to the season calendar or cutting regular season games. But in his discussions with the league both publicly and privately, he hasn't gotten very far. I think all the complaints of the wear and tear, and the scheduling, are all valid. But they all fall on deaf ears because of the dollar sign. Warriors coach Steve Kerr 'I think all the complaints of the wear and tear, and the scheduling, are all valid,' Kerr says. 'But they all fall on deaf ears because of the dollar sign. I don't think the league's constituents are willing to give up any money, that's the problem. But we all know this is not healthy or sustainable if you want guys to survive out there and not have injuries.' Teams around the league are studying the issue ahead of the draft and free agency. Said another longtime assistant coach: 'Experience matters. So does strength. But with how the game is played, being able to move has skewed the importance more towards athleticism and youthful ability to recover more.' Kerr hopes every stakeholder will look in the mirror — including coaches. Advertisement 'We've got to try something,' Kerr says. 'It's going to take representatives from the players' association, the coaches association, the owners, the league and the TV partners to actually acknowledge all of this.' Kerr doesn't want to take away from the terrific play — and superior health — of the remaining teams. He isn't resistant to the idea of leaning on younger players — Golden State's 22-year-old Brandin Podziemski was the youngest starter in the conference semifinal field. The Gen Z takeover is happening whether the millennials are ready or not. Where does the league go from here? With the Thunder being the odds-on favorite to win it all at BetMGM, it does seem like a generational shift is occurring before our very eyes. If younger teams are indeed outpacing their older foes, it holds important implications on long-term planning projections around the league. Advertisement That's especially true for the teams hailing from the state of Texas. The Houston Rockets, whose 52-win core relied heavily on players barely of drinking age, may have reservations about giving up the farm for Durant, who turns 37 in September and has one year remaining on his contract with the Phoenix Suns. How much should they read into Butler's fast decline in the postseason with the Warriors? Up the road in San Antonio, the Spurs have already signaled they see Victor Wembanyama's title window as appearing sooner than initially assumed. At the trade deadline, the team acquired 2022-23 All-NBA guard De'Aaron Fox to upgrade from the 40-year-old Chris Paul, who provided a steady hand as the team's point guard. With Paul set to become a free agent, Harrison Barnes, 32, remains the team's only player older than 27. Advertisement It'll be fascinating to see how the Spurs complement Wemby, who missed half the season with deep-vein thrombosis. Do they put Stephon Castle and/or their No. 2 pick in the 2025 draft in a potential package for Giannis Antetokounmpo, who will be 33 years old by the time his contract expires in 2027-28? And then there's Dallas, which could make Golden State's two-timeline experiment look timid by comparison. Does it make sense for Dallas to add an 18-year-old Cooper Flagg to a team anchored by a trio approaching their mid-30s in Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Anthony Davis? Or does Dallas cut bait on the millennial core? Despite Kerr's misgivings about the rigors of the NBA season, it doesn't seem like reform is on the way. Looking at the remaining teams in the postseason, it does seem like it's a young man's game now. Kerr feels conflicted in going that far. 'I wouldn't put a blanket comment saying, 'It's a young man's game,' because in some ways that's always been true,' Kerr says. Advertisement He gives it another thought. 'Maybe now,' he says, 'they're going to be taking over the league a little bit earlier than they were 10, 20 years ago.'
