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Times
4 hours ago
- 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
5 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Jalen Brunson, Sports World Reeling After Devastating Jayson Tatum Injury
The New York Knicks got the result they wanted on Monday night, going up 3-1 in their second-round series against the Boston Celtics following a 121-113 victory at Madison Square Garden. However, that was not the focus of the evening. Jayson Tatum was having a phenomenal game against the Knicks. The Celtics superstar got up to 42 points, eight rebounds, four assists, four steals, and two blocks before his night came to an abrupt end. Advertisement Tatum went down with an injury that many are prognosing to be a torn right Achilles tendon. No official word has been given yet. However, the outlook does not appear to be promising. Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0)© Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images Brunson, others weigh in on Tatum injury When Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges hit the podium for their postgame interviews, the Knicks point guard interrupted the first reporter question to send a message to Tatum. "Sorry, real quick ... prayers out to JT man," Brunson said. "I just wanna say that first and foremost. Thoughts and prayers with him. [I'm] just praying for the best." The Knicks star ensured everyone knew what the most important aspect of the human side to this basketball game was. Advertisement Several NBA players joined in on social media to send their best wishes to Tatum. LeBron James, Dejounte Murray, Grant Williams, and others all chimed in on the situation. It was not exclusive to basketball stars either. NFL superstars like Patrick Mahomes, former players like Robert Griffin III, and others all sent their best to the Celtics superstar as well. Related: Knicks Need to Monitor Giannis Antetokounmpo Sweepstakes After Latest NBA Report On the basketball side of things, the result on Monday will likely propel the Knicks to their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2000. That will be hard to celebrate in the moment now. Achilles injuries are some of the worst an NBA player can suffer. If that is the injury at play here, everyone will hope Tatum has a successful recovery. Related: Kristaps Porzingis Details Injury During Knicks-Celtics Series
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Lakers Fans Excited Over LeBron James, Luka Doncic News
Lakers Fans Excited Over LeBron James, Luka Doncic News originally appeared on Athlon Sports. In one of the most controversial trades in NBA history, the Los Angeles Lakers acquired Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks in a blockbuster three-team deal finalized in early February. The Lakers received Doncic, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris, while the Mavericks obtained Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. Advertisement The trade was reportedly driven by the Mavericks' concerns over Doncic's conditioning and the looming financial implications of a potential supermax extension. Despite the surprise move, Doncic was quick to adapt to life in LA, averaging 28.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 7.5 assists per game over 28 regular-season appearances. Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) and forward LeBron James (23)Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images Despite Doncic's impressive individual performance, the Lakers faced challenges in building consistency, culminating in a first-round playoff exit against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Amidst the offseason introspection, LeBron James and Steve Nash announced that Doncic would be the next guest on their "Mind the Game" podcast, set to air on Sunday. This announcement has generated significant buzz among NBA fans, eager to gain insights into Doncic's experiences during his inaugural season with the Lakers and his perspective on the team's future. "LeBron getting Luka on the pod? This is going to be great," one fan wrote. Advertisement "Oh y'all are about to trigger ESPN with this one!" another fan added. 'Luka not going anywhere and ring #5 for Bron confirmed," a third fan remarked. "That's so awesome, can't wait to watch it!" another fan posted. 'Bron and Luka ring szn next year confirmed," another fan mentioned. Despite uncertainties surrounding James' future with the Lakers, the upcoming podcast episode offers a platform for both stars to reflect on their partnership and the team's direction. Fans are hopeful that the synergy between James and Doncic will evolve, positioning the Lakers as strong contenders in the upcoming season. Advertisement Related: Luka Doncic, Bulls Report Turns Heads After Lakers' Loss in NBA Playoffs Related: Lakers Predicted to Part Ways With One Player After LeBron James News This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on May 31, 2025, where it first appeared.
Time of India
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Dončić is set to appear in LeBron James and Steve Nash's podcast Mind The Game
LeBron James and Luka Doncic via Instagram With the NBA season gradually inching towards the D-day, the Los Angeles Lakers had to witness an early exit from the postseason. Undoubtedly, the Lakers have a phenomenal fan following across the globe and even have a history of nurturing the best talents in the world of the NBA. As the Lakers are gradually moving towards an important off-season, from fans to basketball critics and analysts, all are curious about the roster as well as the future of the team in the upcoming NBA season. With the buzz around Luka Dončić in the Lakers' roster, the Slovenian star is all set to join LeBron James and Steve Nash on the widely watched podcast Mind the Game. Luka Dončić would be sharing a seat with LeBron James and Steve Nash on Mind The Game The great chemistry between the Lakers' legend LeBron James and Luka Dončić is not only evident on the basketball court but also can be spotted beyond the clubhouse. According to a recent update, Dončić would be sharing a seat alongside LeBron James and Steve Nash on the widely watched podcast Mind the Game. BREAKING: Luka Dončić will be a guest on LeBron James' 'Mind the Game Podcast' on Sunday, alongside LeBron's co-host, Steve Nash! The Los Angeles Lakers fans cannot contain their excitement and are looking forward to witnessing the great camaraderie between Luka Dončić and LeBron James alongside co-host Steve Nash this weekend. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Switch to UnionBank Rewards Card UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo With Doncic being in the spotlight, accompanied by the NBA icon LeBron James, it is quite understandable that the podcast episode would be more about the plus points and loopholes of the Los Angeles Lakers as well as their interesting yet organic chemistry. Previously, Mind The Game was hosted by the Los Angeles Lakers' coach, JJ Reddick, and LeBron James. However, after becoming the face of the Lakers, Reddick decided to discontinue his job as a basketball podcaster and started focusing more on the overall performance of the Los Angeles Lakers. Also Read: 5 LeBron James' achievements Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Dončić is yet to achieve
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Big Luka Doncic Announcement Turns Heads on Saturday
Big Luka Doncic Announcement Turns Heads on Saturday originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Los Angeles Lakers recently capped off their first season with Luka Doncic rostered, getting eliminated early in the playoffs. Advertisement Doncic was acquired by the Lakers ahead of the NBA's trade deadline in a move that sent Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks. After one of the most shocking trades in NBA history, the Lakers entered the playoffs as a No. 3 seed in the West. But LA was quickly dismissed 4-1 by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round. After the season, players and coaches have the chance to recuperate. While many around the league use the offseason as an opportunity to travel and spend time with loved ones, LeBron James and Doncic are also giving fans an exhilarating collaboration. On Saturday, James' "Mind the Game" podcast account on X announced that Doncic will be featured as the next guest of the show. Upon the release of the announcement, some fans took to social media, sharing their thoughts on the offseason collaboration with LeBron James and Luka Doncic. Advertisement "LeLuka. I like it," said one fan. "Luka not going anywhere and ring #5 for Bron confirmed," said another fan. "LETS GOO," mentioned one fan. "Bron and Luka ring szn next year confirmed," commented one fan. "The greatest basketball player in the world," said one fan. "LeBron getting Luka on the pod? This is going to be great," said another fan. Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic (77).Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images In 2024-25 with the Lakers and Mavericks, Doncic averaged 28.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 7.7 assists in 50 regular-season games. Related: LeBron James Had No Words for Savannah James' Personal Announcement Related: LeBron James' Wife Savannah James Makes Emotional Statement on Friday This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on May 31, 2025, where it first appeared.
