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Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Shams: LeBron James likely to opt in to player option for next season
LeBron James has a big decision to make over the next month or so. He has a player option for next season that he can either play on or turn down in order to sign a new contract. Just about everyone expects him to be back this fall for his 23rd NBA season. But whether James opts in or opts out of that player option will have ramifications for the Los Angeles Lakers, mostly when it comes to their salary cap situation. Advertisement ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania went on "The Pat McAfee Show" and said he's been told the superstar is likely to opt in to that player option. 'I'm told he's likely to opt in. He's got a player option of about $54 million, a massive player option. That's likely. That's the plan. But again, his option date is June 29. So he still has about a month to figure it out. He still has to have some hard conversations that are gonna happen between him and the Lakers to see what this team looks like. Because listen, LeBron James, whether he plays one more season or a few more seasons, he wants to be in a competitive environment. And I said it when I came on when their season ended, he's probably gonna opt in because the option is so big and then that gives you flexibility to figure out, do you extend off that number, or this is the final year if this is the last hurrah essentially. Year 23 for No. 23, they have All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles. So to me, it's very storybook if that's the way it goes. But, that's a decision that he's gotta make.' After the Lakers were knocked out of the NBA playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves, James was asked how much longer he will play, and he said he couldn't give an answer. One has to figure that no matter how much longer he wants to remain in the league, he will let it be known beforehand when his final season will be, as one has to expect that he will want some sort of farewell tour. This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Shams: LeBron James likely to opt in to player option for next season
Times
01-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Times
Decca Aitkenhead: My epic, basketball-themed trip to San Francisco
Basketball is a beautiful sport, but to be a British fan can be frustrating. To see it played at the highest level you need to get on a plane to the US. But the league, the NBA, is infernally complicated. Every season is decided by a best-of-seven series between the winners of the eastern and western halves of the country, alternating between their home venues. So it's impossible to predict, long in advance, where and when the season's very best players will be on court together. For most of my life this wasn't a problem, but the sport is growing fast among British youngsters and my teenage sons are obsessed. The solution is the NBA All-Star Weekend. This annual basketball jamboree is a glitzy gathering of the sport's elite, which fans can book well in advance, and this year's venue was San Francisco. Having last been there 25 years ago, before tech billionaires inflated house prices to the point where, if the doom-mongers are to believed, this one-time Californianjewel has been reduced to a dystopian homeless horror show, I was as curious to revisit San Fran as my 15-year-old, Jake, was frantic to see LeBron James, Steph Curry, Victor Wembanyama and co in action. We find the city centre transformed into a basketball mecca. Outside our hotel, the Beacon Grand, Union Square has been converted into an outdoor court; All-Star Weekend stewards stand on every street corner; lines of tall men in hoodies and Air Jordans snake around the block, queuing for pop-up shops selling trainers. In a nearby diner, TVs screen basketball on a loop, and the Beacon Grand's bar stays open late to accommodate tables of excitable fans arguing over whether Curry or Lebron is the Goat (room-only doubles from £167; Jake is in ecstasy. At last he is among his tribe. On Saturday we head to a cavernous waterside arena for Lunch with a Legend, one of the weekend's events, at which two former NBA point guard stars, Gary Payton and Mugsy Bogues, trade anecdotes and memories before a hushed crowd of reverential fans. It's funny to hear them talk about the game as the poor relation of American sport, ranking below American football and baseball in US cultural hierarchy. Compared to its status in Britain, here it feels like a national religion. All public transport has been made free for the weekend, and our Metro train to the 18,000-capacity Chase Center that afternoon is crammed with fans. The contrast with British football supporters is rather confronting. Young, old, male, female, multiethnic, there is no dominant demographic equivalent to the white men who fill our Premier League, and the atmosphere is more carnival than competition. The All-Star Weekend is a celebration rather than a serious contest, and the nonpartisan joy this generates is charming. The problem this creates for the NBA, however, is how to make its players take the weekend seriously. The 7ft 3in Frenchman Wembanyama is the star act in the evening's skills challenge contest, a sort of obstacle race, the obstacles being bounce passes, chest passes, dribbling and shooting. Wembanyama tries to beat the clock by not bothering to even aim his shots, which would have been clever had it not got him disqualified immediately, and is not what anyone came to see. The three-point shooting contest is more fiercely contested, and mesmerising, but the sensation of the night is the slam dunk contest. The winner, Mac McClung, brings the Chase Center to its feet by leaping like a grasshopper over an actual car, over a 6ft 1in player and, for his finale, over a man standing on a ladder. Everyone goes berserk. We spend Sunday in another convention centre for NBA Crossover, a vast subterranean basketball wonderland of merchandise, exhibition stands, guest appearances by players, shooting contests, panel talks and general hoopla. My son keeps spotting famous basketball YouTubers in the throng, a category of online influencers to which I'd been hitherto oblivious, but who generate mass hysteria here. Then we head back to the Chase Center for the main event, joining a human river of fans flooding the arena. • The 17 tips that will save you thousands on your next US trip The weekend finale is a tournament of four hand-picked teams of NBA stars, one coached by the legendary Shaquille O'Neal. The format was changed from previous years in a bid to inject a more competitive edge, so instead of playing four quarters, each game is a race won by the first team to score 40 points. It still can't match the intensity of a real NBA game, and LeBron pulls out injured at the last minute, but Curry steals the show, even scoring from the half-court line. Between plays we get dance troupes, a bizarre ice skating duo from Las Vegas, drummers, mascots, stunt shots and robotic dancing dogs. A random teenage boy is pulled from the stands by the YouTube star MrBeast and wins $100,000 by beating an NBA player in a — somewhat rigged — half-court shooting contest. The comedian Kevin Hart commentates, Spike Lee and Ivanka Trump are in the crowd, Bay area rap artists perform. America may be changing, but it still knows how to do razzmatazz. If you love basketball, this really is the weekend of dreams. When the NBA circus rolls out of town on Monday, I'm rather reluctant to check out of the Beacon Grand's dazzling art deco splendour, so sumptuous that when we get home I redecorate my own bedroom the colour of our wood-panelled room. But when we check into the Four Seasons a few blocks away on Market Street, my son practically faints. At home Jake has to shlep across London to one of the city's few decent indoor courts. This Four Seasons has its own full-size, high-spec one just an elevator ride from our room, where he spends most of the following 48 hours, playing nonstop with a rotating carousel of friendly tech bros (room-only doubles from £360; So far I've been wondering what the doom-mongers have been on about. The regular hair-raising reports of San Fran's decline into crime-riddled squalor in no way tally with the futuristic opulence we've seen. Driverless taxis swish along clean and quiet streets, luxury brands fill Union Square's shop windows, and although I did see one homeless man defecate in the street on night one, he'd done so discreetly in a doorway. I'm curious to see the Mission District, a vibey hipster/Latino neighbourhood where I'd stayed 25 years ago, so set off on foot along Mission Street. Just three blocks from the Four Seasons, I start to wonder if I've made a terrible mistake. The tech bros and luxury brands have vanished. Horrifyingly disfigured and mentally ravaged, the homeless lining the pavements have been stripped of any vestige of human dignity. Hookers in thigh-high boots tout for business, like extras in a gangster movie set in 1970s New York. The stench of urine is overwhelming, a semi-naked couple smoke a crack pipe, and a fresh corpse flat out on the pavement is covered with a sheet by police, who show up with no more sense of drama than mechanics would to tow a broken-down car away. Almost as startling as the homelessness is San Fran's ability to accommodate the disaster and keep going. 'No restroom' posters plaster every shop and restaurant window, even toothpaste is locked behind Perspex in the pharmacies, and only fools like me stray on to the worst streets. So it's still perfectly possible — if slightly surreal — to have a lovely time here. • Read our full guide to the US The Mission District still feels buzzy, like a Latino version of Hackney, if a little rougher round the edges nowadays. Haight-Ashbury, the epicentre of 1960s hippy culture, is still a lot like Camden Market, full of vintage clothing and vinyl record stores and long-haired teenagers in baggy jeans getting high. A bike tour across the Golden Gate Bridge up to the pretty seaside town of Sausalito is enchanting. San Franciscans' languid gift for irony lives on in every conversation with everyone we meet, reminding me why I first fell in love with this city. In our final hotel, 1 San Francisco, you'd never guess President Trump was promising to drill, baby, drill (room-only doubles from £317; A luxury temple to eco-chic, it has beehives and herb gardens on the roof terrace, and fabric-wrapped gifts sourced from local female-owned businesses for sale in the lobby. If the message from Washington is that woke is over, it hasn't reached San Francisco yet. Trump's trade wars may be raging, but the NBA is working hard to export its sport, so next season there will be a Global Games event outside of the US. Recent locations have been Mexico City and Paris and the 2026 venue, rumoured to be Manchester, will be announced imminently. Los Angeles will host next year's All-Star Weekend, and my sons are already begging me to take them. When America feels less loveable than it used to, basketball is still a good reason to Aitkenhead was a guest of the Beacon Grand, which has room-only doubles from £167 ( Four Seasons San Francisco, which has room-only doubles from £360 ( and 1 Hotel San Francisco, which has room-only doubles from £317 ( She was also a guest of Virgin Atlantic, which flies from Heathrow to San Francisco from £505 return, and NBA Experiences ( By Siobhan Grogan Spend Christmas in the sunshine watching England and Australia in the fourth Ashes Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This package includes nine nights in the city's five-star Pullman Melbourne City Centre, with its modern rooms and rooftop bar. You'll have three free days to explore, perhaps heading to Yarra Valley for wine tasting or lounging on St Kilda's beach, before five days at the cricket, a half hour's walk from your Nine nights' B&B from £2,795pp, including transfers and five-day Ashes ticket, departing on December 22 ( Fly to Melbourne See the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix in style by dropping in halfway through a luxury cruise. After a night in a four-star hotel in Nice, the swish Azamara Journey will sail onwards to Santa Margherita for Portofino and Porto Venere then Livorno for Florence. The ship will then return to Villefranche on the Côte d'Azur so you can swan into Monaco and take your seat for the big race. Afterwards you'll sail onwards to Palma and Barcelona before flying home. Details Nine nights' — eight all-inclusive on the ship, one room-only in a Nice hotel — from £4,299pp, including flights, transfers and Grand Prix tickets, departing on June 1, 2026 ( • 9 of the best luxury cruises for 2025 Team Europe heads Stateside in September to try to retain the biggest prize in team golf. This package includes four nights at a Midtown Manhattan hotel plus ground passes to all three days of the competition and return train transfers from New York's Penn Station to Long Island, in easy reach of the Bethpage Black course. Squeeze in some sightseeing between golf, whether you fancy visiting the Empire State Building or hitting the shops of 5th Avenue. Details Four nights' room-only from £5,595pp, including flights, train travel and three-day Ryder Cup tickets, departing on September 25 (
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lendistry Small Biz Shot Clock Contest Offers $5,000 to Winning Woman-Owned Business at WNBA All-Star Event This July
Nominations are open now in five states, and finalists will be invited to pitch their businesses to a panel of judges for a chance to win INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA / / May 21, 2025 / Lendistry announces today that nominations are open for its 2025 Small Biz Shot Clock Contest, which will be held in Indianapolis on Friday, July 18th during the WNBA All Star Weekend. With time counting down on the shot clock, finalists selected from the nominees will pitch their existing businesses to a panel of judges. The first-place winner will receive $5,000 and two runners-up will receive $2,000. The panel will include small business experts and WNBA personalities. "You can't win if you don't take every shot that comes your way, and we're excited to provide this opportunity for women, who have been consistently leading business formation since 2019," says Lendistry CEO and panel judge, Everett K. Sands. "I advise our finalists to show us their impact and innovation, and show up ready to impress." Lendistry has been the Official Small Business Lender of the WNBA Los Angeles Sparks since 2024. Azurá Stevens, Sparks forward-center and Lendistry brand ambassador, will join the panel of judges, drawing on her family experience in business ownership. Eligible businesses must be woman-owned, in operation for at least two years, and located in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, or Kentucky. Read the official rules and nominate a business by June 27 at About Lendistry Lendistry ( is a tech-enabled small businesses lender, grant administrator for private and public agencies, and a trusted resource for undercapitalized entrepreneurs including people of color, veterans, and those in rural communities. Founded in 2015, Lendistry has used technology and community partnerships to deploy over $10 billion in its first ten years. Lendistry was recently named the winner of the LA Area Chamber of Commerce Corporate Leadership Award, BankRate's Best Minority-Led Business Lender, and one of American Banker's Best Places to Work in Fintech. Lendistry has both Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Community Development Entity (CDE) certifications, is an SBA Preferred Lender and is now the #2 non-bank SBA 7(a) lender in the country. In collaboration with The Center by Lendistry, a nonprofit business education organization, Lendistry helps business owners achieve their goals and prepare to scale. Contact Information Kate Kearns Sr. Communications Managercommunications@ SOURCE: Lendistry View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
"I'm probably never going to do it again" - Stephen Curry explains why he might never compete in the 3-point contest again
There is perhaps no tighter connection in basketball than Stephen Curry and the 3-point line. He mastered it and rebuilt the league around it. The moment he crosses halfcourt, defenders tense up. And when All-Star Weekend rolls in, the 3-point contest becomes a stage uniquely his. Curry made the long ball feel like a layup and when his name" in the lineup, opponents might as well start engraving the trophy. But now, that moment might have seen its last light. Leaving the contest At 37, the Golden State Warriors point guard is still launching daggers from way beyond the arc, still leading the league in deep-range attempts and accuracy. But the contest — the spectacle, the ritual, the repetition — is no longer calling his name the way it once did. Advertisement "I love it so much I'm probably never going to do it again," Curry said of the 3-point contest. Curry has turned the 3-point contest into something of a ceremony. He never needed to win to prove his dominance — his in-game resume speaks louder than any trophy — but every time he showed up, it became must-watch TV. His rhythm in that setting was hypnotic. The way he moved from rack to rack, barely missing a beat, was just brilliance. But even the greatest know when to leave the stage. The four-time NBA champion has already revolutionized the game and the new generation is now shooting from beyond the arc. It's only right he let them take center stage during the All-Star weekend. Advertisement Related: Erik Spoelstra called out the rest of the NBA for being hypocrites: "If they had the opportunity to sign three players the way we were able to, they would have without any hesitation" Curry's 3-point contest legacy Steph has entered the 3-point contest seven times, walking away with the crown in 2015 and 2021. In both of those years, he took over. "The two times I've won it, you feel, you hear the crowd and you know it's just you," Curry recalled. "And you just saying, 'How long can I keep this going? Get to the last rack, get to the last ball.' That's one of the best feelings in the world." Advertisement That 2021 performance was unforgettable. He dropped 31 points in the final round, edging out Mike Conley in a buzzer-beating finish that had the arena shaking. It was vintage Curry — clutch, smooth, surgical. And the crowd fed off it like a wave. The contest has evolved since his first entry in 2010. The rules changed, the racks changed and even the money balls shifted locations. But Curry stayed constant. Whether he walked away with the trophy or not, his presence elevated the event. In truth, his absence will echo louder than any loss. He walks away with the second-most appearances in contest history — only behind Craig Hodges and holds one of the highest career averages per round. But that stat sheet isn't what defines his time there. It's the energy he created every time he walked on that floor. The way the other shooters measured themselves against him. The way fans expected magic and almost always got it. There's nothing left to prove. Until he retires, Steph will still be making 3s when the lights are brightest — just not during All-Star Saturday night. For now, that part of his journey is closed, like a chapter that ended with a perfect final sentence. And fittingly, it ends with satisfaction. Related: "It's like you went and watched Cirque Du Soleil" - Draymond Green says NBA is lucky to have Stephen Curry
