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USA Today
07-07-2025
- Business
- USA Today
The day the Boston Celtics became the Buffalo Braves, today's Los Angeles Clippers
On July 7, 1978, one of the weirder events in Boston Celtics and NBA history took place. The Celtics became the (then) Buffalo Braves, and the Braves became the Celtics. If you are confused, that is because it is a confusing event -- at least, that is, without the appropriate context to explain what that meant to the teams involved and the league that they played in. It was on this day that the NBA granted the owners of the Celtics and the Braves permission to swap franchises as a potential solution to allow then-Boston owner Irv Levin to move his team to the West Coast without relocating one of the cornerstone franchises of the league. It came about via the suggestion of former league lawyer and future commissioner David Stern, who pitched the concept to Buffalo owner John Y. Brown as a potential solution given Brown's dissatisfaction with his team's situation in upstate New York as well. The unprecedented move was handily supported by the league, who voted 21-1 in favor of the franchise swap (the lone dissenting team has been lost to history), with the two teams trading franchising rights and much of the other club's roster in the process. Strictly speaking, the franchise that won the bulk of Boston's titles from the founding of the organization up through the 1970s then moved to San Diego, California and later, Los Angeles, to become the Clippers. Keep that in mind the next time you want to rib the Los Angeles Lakers about their title accounting since leaving the state of Minnesota.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
The First Year of the NBA Lottery Was Also the Greatest Draft Ever
In 1985, the NBA introduced a lottery system to decide the draft order of non-playoff teams—a revolutionary development with a legacy that still lingers on the lottery's 40th anniversary. Before 1985, the team picking first overall had been determined through a coin flip between the worst teams in each conference. Under the new drawing method, envelopes containing names of all the teams that missed the postseason the prior campaign were mixed up in a sphere before then-commissioner David Stern reached in, grabbed one and revealed it to the world. Advertisement More from The New York Knicks were the first lottery winners, benefiting from a reach-and-grab that has been the subject of countless YouTube deep dives over the years. People have long speculated that the lottery was rigged for the big-market Knicks despite attempts from the NBA to shut down the rumors. Was New York's envelope frozen, or its corner bent to help Stern identify it? Probably not, but the massive exhale taken by the former commish before doing his duty added fuel to the decades-old theories. Conspiracies have remained a hallmark of the lottery ever since. That includes the evidence-deficient chatter this year after the Dallas Mavericks won the 2025 No. 1 pick—and the chance to take Duke phenom Cooper Flagg on Wednesday night—despite finishing with a record near .500. (The Utah Jazz—who held the worst record of the 2024-25 season at 17-65, a .207 winning percentage—will be picking fifth overall.) The lottery has evolved over the years. Envelopes became ping-pong balls, and the NBA tilted the odds heavily in favor of the worst teams in 1993 before returning to more flattened odds in 2019 to disincentivize tanking, which contributed to Dallas winning the Flagg sweepstakes. Advertisement While the clearest through-line from the 1985 draft to 2025 draft is the lottery, the event 40 years ago has a lot more intrigue to offer. For starters, the 1985 draft may well be the best of all time. The class as a whole produced 1,707 career win shares, a Basketball-Reference statistic which attempts to divvy up individual credit for team success. That's about 10% more than the next-highest class, which amazingly was 1984, featuring some guy named Michael Jordan. (When fans revel in the nostalgia of the late '80s and early '90s, they actually have a point!) The 1985 draft produced 10 All-Stars, tied for the most of any draft since the ABA/NBA merger in 1976. Four of those players became Hall of Famers—Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Karl Malone and Joe Dumars. Technically, Lithuanian Hall of Fame center Arvydas Sabonis was selected with the No. 77 pick, but the selection was voided because Sabonis was not yet 21 at the time of the draft. Advertisement Even with Sabonis excluded, the 1985 draft was a banner year for international prospects, with Detlef Schrempf, Uwe Blab and Bill Wennington among the first-rounders selected. And that list doesn't include No. 1 overall pick Ewing, who was born in Jamaica but moved to the U.S. at 13. A whopping eight foreign-born players were picked in the first 50 slots, a number that wouldn't be topped for more than a decade. Last year, 17 of the first 50 picks were born outside the U.S. Schrempf was the first European to ever be drafted in the top 10, and his successful career, which included an All-NBA nod in 1994-95 and an NBA Finals appearance in 1996, inspired teams to take more chances on overseas talent. Canadian big man Wennington was drafted fresh off a Final Four appearance with St. John's, one of three Big East teams to make the March Madness semifinals in 1985. That calendar year perhaps marked the absolute peak of the conference, as four Big East players were drafted in the top 10 for the first and only time ever. Advertisement In addition to the international talent wave, 1985 draftees foreshadowed other modern NBA trends. No. 5 overall pick John Koncak averaged just 4.7 points per game in 1988-89, but he nonetheless received a six-year, $13 million deal from the Atlanta Hawks that summer. Suddenly, big money wasn't just for superstars. Or stars. Or starters. Known ever since as 'Jon Contract,' the career backup was remarkably candid, and prescient, in an interview with Sports Illustrated at the time. 'Hey, I can't justify what they offered me,' Koncak said. 'But what was I supposed to do? Say no? The league is changing. I think maybe this is just the start.' Sportico wrote earlier this season about the latest phase of the league's 3-point revolution—ball-dominant guards pulling up more often from beyond the arc. But Michael Adams was doing that before it was cool. The 5-foot-10 , No. 66 overall pick in 1985 thrived under Denver Nuggets coach Doug Moe's breakneck pace and led the NBA in 3-point attempts for four straight seasons, a feat nobody else achieved until Steph Curry. A horde of other characters drafted 40 years ago deserve entire books written about them, but they will have to settle for just a sentence devoted to them here. No. 2 pick Wayman Tisdale averaged 22.3 points per game in 1990 for the Sacramento Kings and then went on to record eight music albums primarily as a bassist, including one that climbed to No. 1 on Billboard's contemporary jazz chart, before his death in 2009. Sudan's 7-foot-6 Manute Bol became the only player to ever retire with more blocked shots than points scored before becoming a political activist and humanitarian; Bol died in 2010. There's AC Green, best known for his iron man streak during which he played an NBA record 1,192 consecutive games—and only slightly less known for his claims of being a virgin throughout his career, until his marriage in 2002. Don't sleep on Terry Porter, who made only two All-Star games with the Portland Trail Blazers, but whose stats portray a playoff-riser, efficient shooter and low-turnover distributor who ranks 73rd all-time in win shares. Seventh-rounder and No. 160 overall pick Mario Elie played overseas for five years before finally getting a chance in the NBA, where he won three titles and made one of the most clutch shots in league history—a game-winning trey in Game 7 of the 1995 Western Conference semifinals. Advertisement There was lots of talent to be mined in the later rounds of the 1985 draft. Spaniard Fernando Martin, selected at No. 38, played just one NBA season but was the second-leading scorer for his 1984 Olympic silver medal-winning team. Another member of the single-season club, No. 41 pick Lorenzo Charles, will forever be known for his buzzer-beating put-back dunk in the championship game of the 1983 NCAA tournament to lift Cinderella North Carolina State to victory over heavily favored Houston. John 'Hot Rod' Williams averaged double-digit points for nine consecutive seasons and boasted one of the league's best nicknames—not bad for the No. 45 pick. Gerald Wilkins, chosen last in the second round, brought out the first prop in dunk contest history in 1986 when he jumped over a folding chair ('Isn't that incredible!?' the announcer exclaimed with more enthusiasm than Spike Lee watching Mac McClung jump over a car 39 years later). Speaking of dunk contests, the No. 87 overall pick, 5-foot-7 Spud Webb, won that 1986 event and carved out a role in the NBA over a 12-year career despite his stature. Today, players under 6 feet are nowhere to be seen (although the Grizzlies' 5-foot-8 Yuki Kawamura is trying his darndest). Remarkably, 1985 isn't the only superlative draft class celebrating a significant anniversary this year. The worst cohort of all-time by that simple win shares metric is 2000. Maybe Kenyon Martin and Stromile Swift can get together and crack open a bottle of champagne. Advertisement Best of Sign up for Sportico's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
USA Today
25-06-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Soaring team valuations mean WNBA can't cry poor in contract talks with players
It's practically a given for leagues and owners to cry poverty at some point during contract talks. David Stern famously did it in 2011, saying the NBA was losing money. Adam Silver raised similar concerns four years later. Major League Baseball's current contract doesn't expire until the end of next season, yet Rob Manfred is already putting the idea out there. The implication of this kind of hand-wringing, of course, is that the leagues can't possibly have the money needed to give the players what they're asking. But it's usually more negotiating tactic than reality, a way of moving the bar lower. The WNBA won't have that luxury this time around. Sportico released its latest valuation of the 13 WNBA teams on Tuesday, and the numbers are jaw-dropping. The Golden State Valkyries lead the league with a $500 million valuation, which is a whopping 10 times what owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber paid to get the expansion team just two years ago. The average valuation is $269 million, and six teams are worth $250 million or more. Now, those numbers pale in comparison to the $10 billion the Los Angeles Lakers sold for last week. But aside from the fact the W is still playing catchup, beginning 50 years after the NBA, that average valuation of $269 million is a 180% increase from last year. And that, according to Sportico, is more than double the previous record gain by a sports league. To put it simply, the W is a growth stock. A rocket-fueled one. And the players know it. "This is a defining moment for the WNBA. As the league grows, it's time for a CBA that reflects our true value,' Chicago Sky veteran Elizabeth Williams said over the weekend, echoing a message shared by several other player reps. 'We're fighting for a fair share of the business that we built. It's business. We're not fighting for anything unreasonable. We're fighting to share in the growth that we've created,' Williams added. "Every other category across this business has grown: Media rights, ticket sales, team values. The only thing that's still capped is player salaries. We deserve our fair share. We're demanding salaries that reflect our true value. Again, it's business.' Negotiations between the WNBA and the Players Association are private, so it's unclear what prompted the collective warning from players over the weekend. Maybe they got wind of Sportico's valuations. Maybe it's a result of the op-ed in the New York Times earlier this month by Noble Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin, who said W players are making 1/80th of what NBA players make rather than the one quarter or one third that would be required for equitable pay. And before the peanut gallery chimes in, W players are not asking for LeBron money. They're not even asking for Cooper Flagg money, assuming he's the No. 1 pick that he's expected to be Wednesday night. What they are asking for is a fair share, and the W and its owners are going to have to open their wallets to get them there. Currently, W players get about 10% of the league's revenues. That's less — way less — than the roughly 50% of revenues that players in the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL get. Yes, the W has stepped up, finally providing charter flights last year for the entire season and boosting the payout for the Commissioner's Cup. Some individual teams now have their own practice facilities, an 'amenity' that's been a given in men's sports for years. But there's more to be done. Much more. This isn't a charity project, either. The Sportico valuations confirm what has been evident for the last five years: There is money to be made in women's sports. A lot of it. But sports are driven by stars, not owners. Fans are shelling out for tickets, merch and the league pass because of Caitlin Clark, A'ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, Angel Reese, Breanna Stewart and Paige Bueckers, not because of any owner. Which means the players need to be equal partners. 'The current system is unsustainable for us and that means it's unsustainable for the business that we created. Nothing short of transformational change will do for the future we see and the fans clearly see,' Williams said. 'So we're paying attention.' The W players know their value. More importantly, they know the value of the league and its teams, too. Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
New York Times
22-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
With NBA Finals Game 7, league gets the night and spotlight it's been seeking
When the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers tip off in a winner-take-all game Sunday for the NBA title, it will not just be a coda to one of the most thrilling NBA seasons in recent memory. Game 7 will also be a capstone to a years-long drive by the league to make this kind of scenario possible. Advertisement This is the game that the NBA has long wanted. The NBA and commissioner Adam Silver have spent the last decade trying to make things more competitive and more egalitarian. To make market size less determinative and chaos more predictable. The league has centralized its media strategy and nationalized its opportunity, where any team with enough luck, pluck and competence has a chance to make a title run. It is the NFL-ification of the NBA, for better or for worse. The NBA came to prominence as a mostly bi-coastal and big-city league. This year, it has the smallest market finals ever, a testament to the effects of successive collective bargaining agreements and what the league wants to entrench, Mark Walter's billions notwithstanding. The 2023 CBA installed a second-apron payroll threshold, which is considered a hard cap by many around the league. It imposed punitive monetary penalties for luxury-tax repeaters. It pushed to squeeze teams into the financial middle. 'It was very intentional,' Silver said when the NBA Finals started. 'It didn't begin with me. It began with (longtime commissioner) David (Stern) and successive collective bargaining agreements that we set out to create a system that allowed for more competition in the league, with the goal being having 30 teams all in position, if well managed, to compete for championships. That's what we're seeing here. The goal is that market size essentially becomes irrelevant.' Whether it's the Thunder or the Pacers, the NBA will have its seventh different champion in seven years. Eleven teams have made the finals since 2019; eight teams reached the finals in the 13 years before that. It is fitting that this series will give us the first NBA Finals Game 7 since 2016. That night was the apotheosis of the superteam era. LeBron James won a title as the centerpiece of a constellation of stars for a second franchise. The Golden State Warriors, after they lost, added Kevin Durant to a 73-win team a few weeks later. Advertisement The Thunder may well add a championship to a 68-win regular season, but they are about to enter a few years of hard financial and team-building questions. If they don't win, they can add months of soul searching to that list. The Pacers, if they win, will be one of the most unlikely champions ever: a No. 4 seed that upset a 64-win team (Cleveland Cavaliers) and the country's biggest media market (New York Knicks) in successive rounds. If they beat Oklahoma City, it will be the biggest upset in finals history, as no team has ever won a ring with a bigger difference in regular-season victories (18). This series was supposed to be a Thunder coronation; instead, it is the final chapter in one of the most dramatic playoffs ever. The on-court product has not suffered, and the basketball has been amazing. The league is in its parity era and loving it. There are trade-offs, of course. Big markets and big fan bases still help business the most. The TV ratings for this series have been at record lows, and there has been plenty of clamoring for better production of the game itself. While the NFL can throw any two teams into its championship and get dozens of millions of people to care, other professional sports leagues can't. Dynasties built the NBA, and some argue are still best for it, but those are now harder to build and to maintain. The league already has its next media-rights deal, with $76 billion accounted for, and next season will begin its arrangements with ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video. But the league needs to consider where it's going in the future, where ratings won't be the only thing that matters. The NBA will have to drive Peacock subscriptions and get people to pay for, potentially, a local league pass in their market. For that, it matters whether the neighborhood team is not only competitive but also has a chance to win big. A Thunder-Pacers finals sells hope. Advertisement It also sells Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton, and Jalen Williams and Pascal Siakam. Gilgeous-Alexander may win MVP and a title in the same season, which can turbocharge his profile. Haliburton can conclude a hero's tale, not just with his litany of game-winning daggers but by helping the Pacers notch their final two wins on a creaky calf. The NBA needs a reliable cast of stars, now and certainly in a few years when James, Steph Curry and Durant retire. The next generation of stars isn't as big and isn't as culturally relevant. Time will tell whether that's for now or for good. Maybe Victor Wembanyama can be the next global pillar, but reaching that level seems harder. The monoculture is dead, and the league's media partners have focused their broadcasts and shows on drama instead of promotion. On Sunday, though, what matters is the game, the Larry O'Brien Trophy and the team that will lift it at the end of the night. This is what the NBA has been looking forward to, and now, it gets to revel in it. (Top photo of Adam Silver: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
Washington Post
06-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
NBA set to have 9th franchise win a title in Adam Silver's 12 seasons as commissioner. Parity reigns
OKLAHOMA CITY — In the entirety of David Stern's 30-year tenure as the NBA's commissioner, eight different franchises won a championship. Adam Silver is in Year 12 of his run overseeing the league — and a ninth different franchise is about to win a title on his watch. The parity era in the league is not new, and it most certainly lives on this year, with either the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Indiana Pacers set to become NBA champions. The winning team in these NBA Finals will be the seventh different champion in the last seven seasons, a run the likes of which the league has never experienced before. 'We set out to create a system that allowed for more competition around the league,' Silver said Thursday night in his annual news conference before Game 1 of the finals. 'The goal being to have 30 teams all in the position, if well managed, to compete for championships. And that's what we're seeing here.' In Stern's 30 years, the eight championship-winning franchises were the Los Angeles Lakers (eight times), Chicago (six), San Antonio (four), Boston (three), Miami (three), Detroit (three), Houston (twice) and Dallas (once). For Silver, the chart looks much different. Golden State has won four titles since he became commissioner, and Milwaukee, Cleveland, Boston, the Lakers, Denver, Toronto and San Antonio have one. Oklahoma City or Indiana will be the next entry on that list. 'David used to joke early on in his tenure as commissioner,' Silver said. 'He said his job was to go back and forth between Boston and L.A. handing out championship trophies.' And this run — seven champions in seven years — started in 2019, immediately after Cleveland and Golden State played in four consecutive finals and the league heard plenty of grumbling about a lack of unpredictability. In that seven-year span, 11 different franchises (out of a maximum of 14, obviously) have been to the finals at least once, with the Thunder and Pacers the newest names on that list. 'It's healthy for the league for all 30 teams to be constantly positioning,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'If you're good, you have to navigate being good. If you're not good, there's systematic things that can help you. I think generally that's good for the league. We're not focused on what's good for the league. We're focused on what's good for the Thunder. We're trying to operate within that environment.' In other matters covered by Silver on Thursday: There is a board of governors meeting in Las Vegas next month, and Silver thinks it's likely that those owners will decide at that time whether or not to take the next official step toward expanding the league in the coming years. Officially exploring the notion of adding teams seems likely. 'It will be on the agenda to take the temperature of the room,' Silver said. 'We have committees that are already talking about it, but my sense is at that meeting they're going to give direction to me and my colleagues at the league office that we should continue to explore.' That does not mean it will definitely happen, even though there are certain markets — Seattle and Las Vegas among them — that are known to want NBA teams. 'I'd say the current sense is we should be exploring it,' Silver said. 'I don't think it's automatic.' Silver said he and the league office have gotten numerous calls from groups about potential expansion, with the standard response — until now — being that the NBA appreciates the interest but isn't ready for any real talks. That's what will likely change, with the plan — if the owners give the go-ahead — set to include engagement with outside advisors evaluating market opportunities, media opportunities and other factors. Speaking on the topic of next year's All-Star Game for a second straight day, Silver said he hasn't given up on finding a formula that works. Silver revealed in an interview on FS1 on Wednesday that a U.S. vs. the world game is possible in some form for next year's All-Star Game, which will be aired in mid-February on NBC — smack in the middle of the Winter Olympics, also on NBC. So, the U.S. vs. World theme would fit perfectly with Olympic coverage. 'I think we're on to something,' Silver said. The idea — U.S. vs. World — has been bandied about for months, and top international players like San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama and Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo have said they would be intrigued by such an idea. 'We are looking at something that brings an international flavor into All-Star competition,' Silver said. 'We're still experimenting internally with different formats and talking with the players' association about that. I don't think straight-up U.S. vs. World makes sense, but that's not what they did in the NHL either.' Silver was referring to the 4 Nations Face-off, which was a smashing success during a stoppage during the NHL season this past February. After a postseason where injuries hit a number of top stars — Boston's Jayson Tatum, Golden State's Stephen Curry and Milwaukee's Damian Lillard among them — Silver said the league isn't looking at reducing the current 82-game regular season in an effort to lower workload on players. 'Money's part of it. There's no question about it. We're a business,' Silver said. 'But having said that, I don't really see the benefit to reducing the number of games. ... We have absolutely no data to suggest that.' ___ AP NBA:
