Latest news with #Jaren
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Why Draymond was disappointed with Jackson Jr. in Warriors' win
Why Draymond was disappointed with Jackson Jr. in Warriors' win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area Draymond Green never will shy away from offering his NBA mentees advice. Even after he helps hand them a brutal loss. Advertisement The veteran forward spoke to reporters after the Warriors' 134-125 win over the Grizzlies on Tuesday at FedExForum and shared why he was 'disappointed' in Memphis center Jaren Jackson Jr., who fouled out after colliding with Golden State forward Jimmy Butler with 1:55 remaining in the fourth quarter. 'I'm disappointed in Jaren,' Green said. 'I've got a lot of love for him, that's my Spartan dog. He's too good to still be getting in foul trouble. A couple of them fouls he picked up, he can stay away from those. It's time for him to take that next step in that department, because it was huge for us for him to get out of the game. And I'm happy he did, but I am a Jaren fan. I'm always rooting for him. 'To see him still getting some of those fouls he's picking up, he can't do that. His team needs him out there … Jaren's got to figure that out, he's gotten too much better offensively and too hard to stop to be taking himself out of the game on the defensive side of the ball. That was disappointing, from the big brother in me. That was a little disappointing.' Advertisement Jackson Jr. himself seems to agree. 'You just can't do it, I'm too important,' Jackson Jr. said postgame. 'I have to be out there, and that's on me. I definitely let everybody down in terms of that and I'll own that. Green and Jackson Jr. developed a friendship after the Warriors forward took the young big man under his wing when he was selected by the Grizzlies with the No. 4 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. And even through the Warriors benefited from Jackson Jr.'s absence in the final minutes of Tuesday's game, Green wishes the former Defensive Player of the Year had stayed out of foul trouble. Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast
Fox News
17-02-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
College student wins $100K after beating NBA All-Star in 3-point contest
A "life-changing" moment will never be forgotten by 18-year-old college student Jaren Barajas, who can add to his young resume that he beat a perennial NBA All-Star in a 3-point contest. Jaren Barajas won the "MrBeast Logo Shot Challenge" on Sunday night, as he nailed a shot from deep to not only beat Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard but also win $100,000. "This is going to mean the world to me, it's going to help my family a lot and definitely my future," Barajas said, via The Associated Press. "Hopefully it'll help me pay for my education, which it will." Barajas just needed to hit one shot from deep, while Lillard was tasked with hitting three logo three-pointers. With the clock winding down, Barajas threw one up as the buzzer sounded and the multi-colored ball splashed through the hoop. The ball smashed off the backboard before going in, and as the expression goes, the bank was open. And it filled Barajas' own bank account in the process. "It was coming down to the wire, we had 30 seconds left and my dad always tells me, 'Use the backboard,'" Barajas explained. "That's what I had to do to make it go in." What's funny is Barajas had no clue he was going to the Chase Center to see the 2025 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday night, as he'd been hoping to go but didn't have it on the calendar. Michael Barajas, his father, found the ticket prices he was looking for and jumped at the opportunity to surprise his son. If that was a surprise to Jaren, imagine how he felt being asked to participate in the contest. "I got surprised with these tickets yesterday, so I didn't even know I was coming to the game, so to have this experience is so surreal. I'm so thankful," he said. Michael added, "He wanted to go to the game, prices were pretty high so I kept watching the prices come down and once I found them where I could afford them, I bought them and surprised him with them yesterday. I can't believe we're right here, but I'm glad I did it. He deserves it and I'm proud of him." The bank shot is something Jaren will never forget, especially as he celebrated with Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith on the court immediately after it went in. Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry was smiling ear to ear as the crowd roared. And Lillard found Jaren as well after the defeat to congratulate him, while also showering him with dollar bills. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
New York Times
17-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
NBA All-Star 2025 is over. Should the league stick with its new format?
The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic's daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. A dude named Jaren hit a logo 3-pointer in a mini contest with Damian Lillard to win $100,000 and avoid an incredibly awkward Mr. Beast moment. Year 1 of the new format: How'd it go? The new format for the 74th annual NBA All-Star Game hit our televisions and streaming devices on Sunday, and it was certainly different. Remember last year, when commissioner Adam Silver was less than enthused following a 211-186 victory by the East? The league tweaked the format from two 12-man teams from opposing conferences to four teams in a mini-tournament. Advertisement Three of the teams were composed of eight All-Stars each, and the fourth team was the winning squad (plus a young player added) from the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday night (we'll get to that controversy in a bit). The mini-games were a race to 40 points. Shaquille O'Neal's OGs team won the 'All-Star Championship' by first beating Candace Parker's Rising Stars 42-35 and then Chuck's International Stars 41-25 in the final. Steph Curry was named the Kobe Bryant All-Star Game MVP. LeBron James (ankle) and Anthony Edwards (groin) ended up not playing for their respective teams. Did everybody buy in? Damian Lillard said he felt the games were 'a little bit more competitive' compared to last year. And, for the most part, the players did put forth a better effort this year than what we saw in previous matchups. We should also remember that's a very low bar to clear. Earlier in the weekend, Draymond Green expressed his disgust over the Rising Stars being allowed to compete on Sunday. Just in case you think he might've been misquoted, he doubled down as a member of the TNT broadcast last night after the first mini-game. 'You work all year to be an All-Star, and you get to play up to 40 [points], and you're done. This is so unfair to Victor Wembanyama, who just took this game really seriously. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who just took this game really seriously. When you talk about chasing after the points records, Melo and Kobe and all these guys, who have had great scoring nights. They don't get the opportunity to do that with this game. All so we can watch some Rising Stars. We're about to watch the Olympic team, now we get the treat of watching the Olympic team play against a U-19 team. Come on, what are we doing? This is ridiculous.' Charles Barkley didn't agree with Draymond, either as a company man for TNT or just because he understands why we're here. He likened it to kids being mad they have to clean up a mess they made. The players in previous years did not compete in the other format, so the league changed it. Advertisement Was it a better product? For the television audience, kind of? In a three-hour window, we only saw about 45 minutes of basketball between the three games. I would imagine in the arena, it was a weird, slow night. It takes some getting used to, but the competitive aspect of it did seem improved. Is the All-Star Game fixed? No, not at all. The night wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It was clunky, which can be smoothed out in future iterations (if this format stays). It's only fixed when the players consistently care, though. I highly recommend the No Dunks crew recapping the All-Star tournament. Spoiler alert: they hated it. 😆 2025 Hall of Fame finalists have been named 👏 Closer to Springfield! Carmelo Anthony, Sue Bird, Dwight Howard and Maya Moore headline the list. Marques Johnson deserves enshrinement! 🏀 Curry at Oracle. If you're a basketball fan of any sort, you should always read Marcus Thompson writing about Curry, who enjoyed being back where he became an icon. 🫂 Empathy for Dallas. Silver addressed the Luka Dončić trade and how Mavericks fans are feeling. But he's empathetic to the franchise too? 🗣️ Dubs' fifth title coming? Green says the Warriors will win it all this season. They are 10th in the West. We should shame stars into competing in it Mac McClung became the first participant in NBA Dunk Contest history to win three straight titles. Nate Robinson is the only other player to win three contests, but they weren't in a row. The 26-year-old G Leaguer put on another fantastic display of creativity and jumped over people holding the ball for him. Maybe the craziest one of all four of his perfect 50s was recreating and improving upon the time Blake Griffin leaped over a KIA. At least McClung didn't jump over the hood. This is undoubtedly insane. But if I may be a bit of a curmudgeon for a minute, as impressive as McClung has been in these contests, there is a part of me that gets sick of him pushing off of his prop participants when grabbing the ball to get a bit of a boost. I do not doubt that these are hard things to do, but the replays usually take me out of it a bit. The thing is, it keeps working for him, so why stop? Plus, he's a G Leaguer who keeps winning $100k in these contests, so that part of it is a cool story. Advertisement Stephon Castle of the Spurs had a couple of brilliant dunks (this required ridiculous timing) but couldn't compete with McClung. Maybe the best part of the night was the potential for shaming the stars into actually doing the contest. Ja Morant has never participated in the dunk contest, but he tweeted that McClung made him want to do it. Then, he asked Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon if they were interested. At least LaVine seems to be considering going for his third dunk title, even though he hasn't participated since 2016. McClung started getting thrown into forced conversations about maybe being the best NBA dunker ever. Re-f—ing-lax on that. His three wins don't equal what Vince Carter did in Oakland 25 years ago, and they don't hold a candle to the show LaVine and Gordon put on in 2016. I'm not even sure McClung surpassed Jason Richardson's efforts. Even though McClung was great in his own right, he won three of the weakest contests we've ever seen. If it gets the stars to come back to the competition and not pull a LeBron (getting caught up in the moment and teasing us with something he never ended up doing), then maybe McClung's dunk legacy grows beyond these three straight wins. More from the weekend's events How was the Rising Stars challenge? It was fine! The G League squad made it to the final but lost to Castle's squad. Castle won Rising Stars MVP. Who won the Skills Challenge? The Cavs won with Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell besting Draymond and Moses Moody in the final. Mobley and Mitchell now officially have the most NBA skills. So, it was boring? Not at all! Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul tried to game the system by not actually taking shots and just throwing the ball toward the rim. They were disqualified, and an NBA official awkwardly denied sideline reporter Allie LaForce an interview with the Spurs on live TV. What happened in the 3-point contest? Fun but a bit anticlimactic. Buddy Hield (31 points) put on a dazzling show in the first round. He was joined by Tyler Herro and Darius Garland in the final. Herro put up 24 points, and Hield needed to make his entire final rack to win. He missed the fourth shot to finish one behind Herro, your new 3-point champion. One quick, easy fix: Eight contestants should turn into four in the second round. Then, the contest should have a final between two players, not three. Nuggets, Celtics trending the finals Even coming out of the All-Star Weekend, the market trends in the NBA matter. In fact, they matter now more than ever because this is the final stretch run of the regular season for everybody. Two teams we expected to face off in the NBA Finals last year are trending toward making that a reality this year. Here's your latest NBA Stock Market! Advertisement 📈 Nuggets (36-19): This is worthy of a deeper dive in a future edition of The Bounce, but the Nuggets look like contenders again. Since Dec. 8, they have gone 25-8, have been the third-best team in the NBA (when considering record and net rating), and they're within a whisper of the No. 2 seed. 📉The Suns (26-28) have been in a bit of a slump. In the month of February, they are 1-6 with losses to Portland (twice), and then very understandable losses to the Thunder, Nuggets, Grizzlies and Rockets. Their one win in this stretch is an overtime victory against the Jazz. I'm not sure they have it in them to turn it around. 📈Celtics (39-16): They're baaaaaaack! The defending champions have won seven of their last eight games. After two months of shooting a paltry league average (35 percent) from 3-point range, they're up above 38 percent in the month of February. The Celtics won't catch the Cavs in the standings, but Cleveland can't feel great about how Boston is playing. 📉Heat (25-28): In the last two weeks, the Heat have the same record as Charlotte and Toronto. No, they haven't been killing it. Miami is 1-5 in its last six games and rode a four-game losing streak into the All-Star break. The Jimmy Butler trade drama certainly contributed to this, but the post-trade version of this team still can't score. 📈Pistons (29-26): We might be looking at a team that goes from one of the worst in NBA history a year ago to a top six team in the East. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has done an excellent job, and we've seen Cade Cunningham take a leap in learning how to close games out. The Pistons' first five games after the break are tough, but their offense and defense have both been great lately. 📉Rockets (34-21): I'm not totally concerned about the Rockets because they're well-coached and have so much talent. With that being said, Houston has seen a recent dip by losing seven of its last nine games. The Rockets' defensive slippage has been noteworthy. They're currently down to fourth in the West and sit 3.5 games ahead of Minnesota. 📫 Love The Bounce? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters.
Associated Press
17-02-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
College student Jaren Barajas beats Damian Lillard in 3-point shooting contest, wins $100K
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Jaren Barajas shoots on his backyard hoop maybe once a month these days. He's a busy 18-year-old college student now, so basketball has taken a backburner to academics. On Sunday night with the world watching, Barajas somehow beat Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard in a 3-point shooting contest during the All-Star Game and won $100,000. 'This is going to mean the world to me, it's going to help my family a lot and definitely my future,' he said. 'Hopefully it'll help me pay for my education, which it will.' Lillard needed to make three long logo 3s to win, while Barajas had to hit just one basket from way back — and with the clock winding down and Lillard having missed after they'd announced those would be the final attempts by both players, Barajas let it fly once more and sunk his shot. Off the backboard, no less, just as his father had always taught him: use the glass. It was his sixth or seventh attempt, neither Barajas nor his dad could remember for sure. Barajas wasn't even supposed to be here, even though he had been hoping to attend ever since Chase Center became the 2025 host for the NBA's midseason showcase. 'I got surprised with these tickets yesterday, so I didn't even know I was coming to the game, so to have this experience it's so surreal,' Barajas said. 'I'm so thankful.' His dad, Michael, monitored ticket prices then finally found something in his range Saturday and went for it. He shared the great news with his son and they arrived early to the arena from the East Bay suburb of Oakley, then by sheer luck Jaren asked whether he might like to participate. The father and son couldn't believe their good fortune. 'He wanted to go to the game, prices were pretty high so I kept watching the prices come down and once I found them where I could afford them, I bought them and surprised him with them yesterday,' Michael Barajas said. 'I can't believe we're right here, but I'm glad I did it. He deserves it and I'm proud of him.' Former Warriors star Baron Davis came by to congratulate Jaren, while many strangers cheered him and asked for photos. 'Oh, man, that was amazing, clutch performance at the buzzer, Steph Curry-style,' a beaming Davis said. 'In the Bay Area. Give this man his money.' The NBA said it would donate $50,000 to Oakland native Lillard's newly established scholarship fund benefitting nine high schools in the East Bay as well as $50,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland and San Francisco. Michael Barajas, who describes himself as 'semi-retired,' knows the prize money will not only help with his son's college expenses but also provide Jaren a chance to give back in some way. The teen is a freshman studying business at Los Medanos College, a two-year school in nearby Pittsburg. 'It was all luck, meant to be, I don't know,' Michael Barajas said, 'I can't believe it.' Jaren was still just trying to catch his breath after the experience of a lifetime. 'I just beat Damian Lillard.' ___
