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New York Times
06-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Gregg Popovich is still laughing at himself as he steps back from coaching
SAN ANTONIO — It was easy to see Monday morning that Gregg Popovich, despite ongoing effects of a stroke he suffered in November, remains every bit the same 'Coach Pop' who won more games than any coach in NBA history — 1,592. The 76-year-old can still laugh at himself. Those who know the San Antonio Spurs' legendary coach and executive best understand how important that is to a man who loves a joke, often at his own expense. Advertisement Popovich's appearance at a news conference at which the Spurs announced Mitch Johnson would be Popovich's successor was a surprise to most. After opening remarks from Peter John Holt, the team's managing partner, Hall of Famers Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili escorted Popovich to the podium to address the public for the first time since the stroke. A few moments into the event, Popovich expanded on his new role. 'I'm no longer a coach,' Popovich said. 'Mitch Johnson will be the guy that forges (Spurs players') futures and I'll do everything I can to help him and help them, and I'll have a new job and I want to make them understand what the new job is.' At that point, Popovich took a step back from the podium and Duncan helped him take off a Spurs warmup jacket he had been wearing so he could reveal a black T-shirt emblazoned with 'El Jefe' on the front and 'Señor Popovich, President of Basketball Ops' on the back. The room laughed out loud, as did Popovich. ̶p̶r̶e̶s̶i̶d̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶b̶a̶s̶k̶e̶t̶b̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶o̶p̶e̶r̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ El Jefe 🫡 — San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) May 5, 2025 This was many people's first extended look at Popovich since his stroke. His gait was steady but slow; his speaking voice firm and controlled. 'Things are getting better by the day,' Popovich said of his health, 'but it's not good enough for what we plan ahead, and so it's time to make this change.' Popovich lauded the job Johnson had done after taking over just six games into the season. 'We saw him in action, and he was brilliant,' Popovich said. 'I couldn't be more thrilled for him.' His assessment of Johnson's work, under conditions unprecedented in NBA history, clearly had made it easier for Popovich to transition to new responsibilities. Additionally, the new job is really not new at all: It actually brings him full circle with the club. In 1994, then-new Spurs CEO Robert McDermott needed someone to run the team's basketball operations, and he made then-Warriors assistant coach Popovich his general manager and executive vice president of basketball operations. Popovich was also president of basketball operations throughout his 29 years as head coach, beginning in 1996. Advertisement Duncan and Ginobili were at Popovich's side throughout Monday's event. Both former Spurs have been with their coach and dear friend during every one of his rehabilitation workouts at the team's practice facility in the months that followed his release from the hospital. 'They say it's because they love me and they want to be there in case I fall, or they're going to catch me and that sort of thing,' Popovich said. 'I call it payback. 'They give the rehab people new ideas of things to do to me. So you're not fooling anybody, especially you,' Popovich said, staring at Duncan. Then, the Hall of Fame coach turned serious in addressing the team's fans. 'I want to thank the fans for being right next to us,' Popovich said. 'With every win and every loss over these many years, we feel a close bond with you, and we know that we have a big responsibility to you here in San Antonio, and we will never forget that. 'But, thank you for the years of your support and we won't let you down. We won't win every game, but we'll try to, and we'll do it with class, whether it's a win or a loss.'
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Who should win Defensive Player of the Year? We asked NBA coaches
The deep vein thrombosis that ended Victor Wembanyama's second season at the All-Star break did more than scuttle the San Antonio Spurs' hopes of reaching the postseason and temporarily deprive the NBA of its most heralded young star. It also upended the league's 2024-25 Defensive Player of the Year race. Advertisement Wembanyama, who had finished as the runner-up one year ago as a rookie, seemed like the clear frontrunner this time around. But because the league's collective bargaining agreement requires candidates for most major awards to play in at least 65 regular-season games (or a minimum of 62 games in a case of a season-ending injury), Wembanyama, who only played 46 regular-season games before being shut down, is ineligible for the award this year. The games-played threshold also eliminated other defensive standouts from consideration, including the Oklahoma City Thunder's Alex Caruso (54 regular-season games played), the Dallas Mavericks' Anthony Davis (51 games), the Los Angeles Lakers' Dorian Finney-Smith (63), the Denver Nuggets' Aaron Gordon (51), the Boston Celtics' Jrue Holiday (62), the Orlando Magic's Jalen Suggs (35) and the Detroit Pistons' Ausar Thompson (59). In addition, players like Orlando's Jonathan Isaac, who played enough games (71) to qualify, were tripped up by an additional criterion that requires players to play at least 20 minutes in at least 63 games (and two other games between 15-20 minutes). Which got us to thinking: With the Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) field as wide open as it's been in years, who should win when the official results are announced Thursday night on TNT? The three finalists for the 2024-25 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award: ▪️ Dyson Daniels of @ATLHawks ▪️ Draymond Green of @warriors ▪️ Evan Mobley of @cavs — NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 20, 2025 To gain some insight, we spoke with 13 NBA head and assistant coaches and asked them how they would have voted for first, second and third place. We granted them anonymity to give them full freedom to vote their consciences, without fear of reprisals and because teams typically don't allow assistant coaches to speak with members of the media. The coaches we surveyed were asked not to vote for their own players and to pick only from the field of players eligible for the league's official awards. Advertisement A panel of 100 sports writers and broadcasters who regularly cover the NBA vote for league awards, but we chose to poll coaches because they're the ones who are most well-versed with how well defenders wreck teams' game plans and because of the complexities involved with defense. The coaches pore over video of every game and monitor players' tendencies. The coaches' choice was clear: Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels finished first in The Athletic's polling, receiving 42 total points and six first-place votes. Daniels finished well ahead of the second-place choice, Oklahoma City's Luguentz Dort, who had 24 total points and four first-place votes. The Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green, with 18 total points and two first-place votes, finished third. Acquired from New Orleans last July in the trade that sent Dejounte Murray to the Pelicans, Daniels led all qualified players in steals at 3.01 per game, the highest average since the 1990-91 season, when Alvin Robertson led the league with 3.04 steals per game. At 22, the Australian was a revelation with an impeccable nickname — 'The Great Barrier Thief.' 'Dyson Daniels has established himself as one of the elite perimeter defenders in the league, leading the league in steals and doing some things we haven't seen in a long time,' a coach who gave his first-place vote to Daniels said. 'He has good instincts, he's opportunistic and he operates within the team defensive scheme. He picks his spots, and as you operate offensively, you have to be cognizant of where he is and how you protect the ball.' As another coach said of Daniels: 'That guy is a walking steal. He's so disruptive.' Another coach who voted Daniels first said: 'We were always on high alert when he was on the ball. Certain things that he does, you just can't really teach. He just has these catlike instincts that make an incredible impact for his team.' Dort, though, had some strong support, too, as the key man on Oklahoma City's top-rated defense (a 106.6 defensive rating this season). 'Draymond and Evan Mobley, their teams are very good defenses, a lot because of them,' said a coach who picked Dort first. 'I just think Lu Dort individually takes the challenge on the other team's best player, which I think from a coaching perspective is super important.' The coach cited Dort's ability to guard any of the five positions on the floor. Advertisement 'There's times he's guarding point guards. There's times when, due to injuries or guys out, they go small and he's guarding bigs,' the coach said. 'So, I think his versatility plays a huge role in that, and his ability to just guard so many positions, I think, is super unique and super impactful in the modern NBA. Because of five-out offenses, there's a lot of (defensive) efforts that have to be made, (and) I think him being on the perimeter helps in a lot of different ways.' An assistant coach who picked Dort said, 'OKC has the best defense in the league, and he's a key piece to that. He's a great point-of-attack defender. He's so physical; he wears offensive players down.' But Green, looking for a second DPOY award after winning it in 2016-17, also has supporters. Said one assistant coach of the now 35-year-old Green: 'He's the heartbeat of their team, and he brings a level of physicality and toughness that is contagious for their group. I think his defensive versatility probably sets him apart, where we can literally guard one through five, and there are very few people in the NBA that are capable of doing that.' Among the others who received votes, the 23-year-old Mobley got some love for his role in anchoring the Cavaliers' eighth-ranked defense. 'I like the impact that he makes for Cleveland,' an assistant coach said. 'There's a lot of things that he does that do not show up in the stat sheet. Let's take away steals on the defensive end. Let's take away blocks. Let's take away defensive rebounds. Let's take away all those stats and just watch him switch on a guard, guard the ball, be off the ball and be in protection spots and basically take up one side of the floor.' Sign up to get The Bounce, the essential NBA newsletter from Zach Harper and The Athletic staff, delivered free to your inbox. (Top photo of Dyson Daniels: Jeff Hanisch / Imagn Images)
New York Times
28-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Victor Wembanyama jersey swap controversy explained: The viral moment, auction and legal action
When Victor Wembanyama swapped jerseys with a young fan after the San Antonio Spurs' 96-87 win over the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center on Dec. 27, it created a viral image that delighted the internet. What's followed has turned a sweet interaction into a hotly debated issue that reached New York's Supreme Court. Advertisement Here's what we know about the situation. The five-year-old boy, who was wearing a tiny Spurs Wembanyama jersey, and his father attended the game with a sign that read 'Victor Wembanyama will you swap jerseys with me?' After the game, they were invited onto the court where the swap was carried out in front of cameras, with the boy getting Wembanyama's game-worn City Edition top and the 7-foot-3 Wembanyama getting the comically small replica. Best jersey swap ever 🥹 — San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 28, 2024 On Jan. 14, it was announced the jersey would be a featured item in the Goldin 100 auction opening on Jan. 22, with a starting bid of $10,000. This sparked a public backlash. Many people who found the original interaction so endearing felt it was distasteful to cash in on the gifted jersey so quickly. However, those who defended the move pointed out that the jersey would likely bring in a significant amount of money for the family and potentially have a life-changing impact for the child. The day after the auction was announced, Wemby quote tweeted the news and added a crying emoji. So he didn't seem pleased by the decision. 😭 — Wemby (@wemby) January 15, 2025 On Feb. 22 — two days after it was announced that Wembanyama had suffered a season-ending injury — the auction concluded with the jersey selling for $73,200. While a significant sum, nine Wembanyama game-used jerseys have sold for more through the NBA's official auction partner, Sotheby's, including his first All-Star Game jersey, which sold for $228,600 on Feb. 24. The record sale for a Wembanyama game-used jersey remains one of the three jerseys he wore in his NBA regular-season debut, which sold for $762,000 in November 2023. While the swapped jersey was a part of a viral moment, there was nothing remarkable about his performance (19 points, seven rebounds, four assists, six blocks) nor was it a milestone game that night. Combine that with the negative public sentiment around the sale and his recent injury and the result was a value that fell short of the top-tier Wemby jerseys to date. Advertisement On Monday, after the auction had concluded, Frankie Desideri Sr., the father of the boy who swapped jerseys with Wembanyama, filed a lawsuit for a temporary restraining order against Goldin Auctions through the New York State Supreme Court to stop the sale, as first reported by Cllct. In the documents Desideri filed, he said that 'multiple attempts to withdrawal from auction (sic)' were made. He also said Goldin used images of him and his son to promote the auction 'despite clear, prior instructions that no images be attached to the sale,' which caused 'widespread exposure and emotional harm' as a result of 'public scrutiny and harassment' that led to his son suffering 'severe emotional distress, avoiding basketball games and believing his favorite player dislikes him after he posted about the sale also.' Desideri said it was the use of their images that prompted him to revoke consent to the auction prior to it concluding. In addition, the filing said the jersey was gifted to the boy, making him sole owner of it and that 'under New York law, contracts involving minors are voidable at the discretion of the legal guardian.' In Goldin's court filings in response, the company said Desideri contacted Goldin two days after the swap took place and 'voluntarily and without solicitation' entered into a consignment agreement to auction the jersey. It also accused Desideri of 'experiencing seller's remorse.' The filing went on to say the jersey was 'sold, paid for, and shipped to the buyer' before Goldin was made aware of the suit. It also contended the company should not be subject to New York law since it is based in New Jersey. Goldin said that on Feb. 14, 'Mr. Desideri texted his consignment director and expressed concern that the auction might not eclipse a $50,000 sale price.' A screenshot of that text was included in the company's filings. It went on to say that Feb. 21, one day before the end of the auction, 'Goldin received a letter from a lawyer representing Petitioners requesting that Goldin withdraw the jersey from its auction. 'It appears that Mr. Desideri changed his mind about the auction because he was concerned about the price of the jersey, as Mr. Desideri's sudden change of heart came right on the heels of an announcement on the previous day that Victor Wembanyama had a blood clot and would miss the rest of the season,' Goldin alleged. According to Goldin's court filings, the buyer paid for the jersey on Feb. 23 and it was shipped to them the following day. Advertisement The identity of the buyer in auctions like this is never made public unless that person chooses to make themselves known. After the sale, a rumor spread on social media that Wembanyama bought the jersey back himself, but Goldin's court filings say the jersey was shipped to the buyer in Maryland, which would seem to rule out the buyer being Wembanyama. The court declined to grant the temporary restraining order at a hearing on Thursday, according to Jonathan Parente, partner at Alston & Bird and legal counsel to Goldin. The suit remains ongoing, however, and is scheduled to proceed in March, with dates set for the 12th and 13th. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence in all our coverage. When you click or make purchases through our links, we may earn a commission.
New York Times
21-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
From Anthony Edwards to Harrison Barnes, ‘Euro stop' has become all the rage in NBA
The NBA is a copycat league, and for good reason: Once players discover something that works, they aren't shy about borrowing it. Thus, a move that might only be the province of one or two players can quickly catch on around the league, sometimes to the point that the originator barely gets a whiff of notice. Over the course of two decades, for instance, a 'Euro step' move mastered and popularized by Manu Ginobili quickly became part of virtually every perimeter player's arsenal. (He's also from Argentina, not Europe, but whatever.) Similarly, Jarrett Jack's lethal rip-through move became Kevin Durant's and Chris Paul's, until the league legislated away the advantage. Advertisement Of late, there's a new trendy move that builds on the Euro step, a hesitation move on the way to the rim that nearly every young perimeter player is feverishly working on adding to his game. But every trend starts somewhere, and when I started digging, it seemed this one may have started with … Nemanja Bjelica? Yes, really. The Serbian forward is long gone from the NBA and retired from his international career in March 2024, but his legacy lives on in a move that, perhaps, started with him. Since then, however, it has been adapted, modified and improved to the point that it's almost unrecognizable from its origin point. The move is what a lot of players call a 'Euro decel,' for the deceleration at the end, but that isn't a new phenomenon. Players like Kyle Anderson and Luka Dončić have been doing that for years. More recently, however, a very particular application has become the rage — what I call the 'Euro stop.' This isn't just a player slowing down or speeding up on their way to the rim, a la Anderson or Dončić. Instead, the player comes to a dead stop in the middle of the move, often hanging awkwardly with one leg in the air as a defender flies by. Here's one of the league's leading practitioners, the San Antonio Spurs' Harrison Barnes, pulling it off to draw a foul on the Boston Celtics' Jayson Tatum. Notice how Barnes mixes in a shot fake in the middle of his stops and then comes to a stop at the end, with his right foot staying airborne and left leg planted, before going into his shot: It took years to get from players like Bjelica and Anderson slo-mo ambling their way to the rim to the types of steps and fakes that Barnes and his rookie teammate Stephon Castle now routinely incorporate. Castle, in fact, has become one of the league's heaviest practitioners of the Euro stop, routinely pausing mid-move to wrong-foot defenders. Advertisement They are now teammates in San Antonio, but how we got from Barnes to Castle is a much windier pathway than you might think, even if the end product looks remarkably similar. Let's let Barnes retell some of it: 'It's funny, 2019, I was in Dallas. We had played Sacramento, at home, and Nemanja Bjelica hit me with that move,' Barnes said (though it appears he's referring to this game on Dec. 16, 2018). 'So when I get traded to Sac, me and Bely became good friends, but he would always do that move. And he kind of walked me through the steps, like 'Brother, I'm not as athletic as you guys, I'm not gonna go dunk it, so I have to figure out ways to do it, all these shot blockers want to go and block my shot so I have to figure out ways to manipulate my shot.'' Barnes spent the 2019 offseason working on his move with then-Kings assistant Noah LaRoche, but it took a while to perfect. Barnes broke it out occasionally but not nearly as often as he has the past two seasons in San Antonio. He was still figuring out how to apply it in live action. 'We just worked on that move, just tried to manipulate it, different ways to mix up the variability of the shot,' Barnes said. One of the first times he broke it out in a game, ironically, was against his old coach in 2019-20. 'One time in Cleveland I did it on a break, and like three people ran by, and [former Kings coach] Luke Walton was assistant coach at the time and was screaming for a travel,' Barnes said. 'I went right by him and said, 'You've seen this move before!'' Most notably, Barnes didn't incorporate the mid-move shot fake until a year and a half later, and even that part was nearly dead on arrival when he tried it in a game on Nov. 7, 2022. Here's the clip: 'One of the first times I did it was in Golden State; I actually got called for a travel,' he said. 'I was like, 'Look, I didn't put the other foot down.' When you show the ball, you're still moving; referees at that point weren't used to seeing it. Now, so many guys do it, they know what to look for. and they're not going to call it as much.' Advertisement That's one of the most controversial parts of the Euro stop approach. Some coaches insist it should be called a travel — especially when an opponent does it — and nailing down the steps so that it's legal is a fairly technical process. I asked Monty McCutchen, the NBA's senior vice president, head of referee development and training, about it, and he explained everything that goes into the move and what makes it (usually) legal. The key is that, if a player comes to a full stop mid-move, they can't restart; some players come close, especially with the mid-move shot fakes that players like Barnes and the Minnesota Timberwolves' Anthony Edwards have incorporated, but if you watch the tape, they're still progressing. 'You can't stop a move in the middle — truly stop, not just go super slow — and restart another no-move. That would not be allowed,' McCutchen said. 'The shot fake after the first step is fine as long as they keep moving. They can't stop there and do nothing then decide they're going to take another step. '[But] stopping on that second step is allowed. If they put the third step down, then that should be called a travel. If that move is slow and it comes to the end on one foot on the second count, they can just stop there as long as they keep that right foot [for a right-handed move with left leg planted] up in the air.' Barnes was an early adopter, but probably not the one fans are most used to seeing these days. Players such as Aaron Gordon of the Denver Nuggets and Edwards have incorporated it as well and have more opportunity to get to the rim than Barnes. Heading into the 2023-24 season, Edwards tried it in a preseason game in New York, and it worked so well that he kept it in his rotation: Edwards has continued to develop it, even though he's not getting to the rim as much this season. The clip below from November might be the finest example of the entire trend, an absolutely filthy adaptation of Barnes' move. Edwards was in the midst of an off-ball cut when he attacked the rim, hard-stopped after one step instead of two and ended it with a floater off one leg. Gordon, meanwhile, said the move became important for him due to 'getting old' and that it happened organically during the course of a game. Unlike most players, the 29-year-old has done the move with either leg as a plant foot (most right-handed players will only do the 'stop' on their left leg). 'I did it one time in Phoenix, and then it just clicked for me, and now it can do it both ways,' Gordon said. 'I like to do it off the glass. It just came natural.' Advertisement The real growth in usage of the Euro stop, however, has been in the league's younger contingent. LaRoche, Barnes' assistant coach in Sacramento, has since moved on to Memphis and began teaching the young Grizzlies the same steps. Rookie Jaylen Wells has been a prominent early adopter. 'I used to always slow-step. That was kind of my thing; everyone compared me to Kyle Anderson because of how slow I moved on my layups,' Wells said. 'Once I got to the league, they showed me how you can just hold a zero step, hold a one step, hold a two step. That's all we did with [LaRoche].' One of the other assistants with LaRoche in Memphis in 2023-24 was player development coach Mike Noyes, who went to San Antonio this past offseason where he began working with Castle on … you guessed it … the Euro stop. Castle has proven an avid student, breaking it out early and often this year. In a game in early November, he got the Utah Jazz's mammoth shot-blocker Walker Kessler with it twice: 'It's just a way to combat your unathletic-ness,' Golden State's Brandin Podziemski said, 'a way to throw off the timing for shot blockers.' Podziemski said he started working on the move in his final year in college, but it took a lot of practice to master. He also noted Dončić, Castle and two other young Grizzlies — Scotty Pippen Jr. and Santi Aldama — as players he's seen use it effectively. And that list keeps getting longer. This Euro stop is a move that's developing in real time. Like, how about an athletic big man doing it off his non-dominant leg? Watch Cleveland's Evan Mobley busting it out just before the All-Star break, as Minnesota's bewildered Naz Reid turns to his bench as if to ask, 'What am I supposed to do about that?' Because it takes off-court work to master, plus the strength in the left leg (for a righty finish) to stop momentum and hold a step without traveling, we may see a big change in this move's popularity between seasons when players can spend more time in the lab … much as Barnes did after his fortuitous meet-up with Bjelica. We're likely to see even more creative ways of pulling this out as well; once you break down the steps, you can see how many options there are. Advertisement On that front, let's give Barnes the final word on the strategy and why it ultimately works. 'I think, physically, it's the practice — slow and methodical and just trying to get the steps down. But it's also just having an awareness of how bigs play defense,' Barnes said. 'A lot of shot blockers time steps, they're not looking at the ball. … So it's figuring out different ways of … getting that finish. Maybe you add a ball fake, maybe it's a shot fake, maybe it's go off the first step, second step, whatever it may be. It's different ways to throw the defense off. And maybe, if enough players do it, things will come full circle? 'When bigs start recognizing that and saying down on that,' Barnes said, 'then the normal layup is there.' (Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; photos: Michael Gonzales, Jordan Johnson, Darren Carroll / NBAE via Getty Images)
CNN
21-02-2025
- Health
- CNN
NBA All-Star Victor Wembanyama can't finish the 2025 season. Here's why
A dangerous blood clot has taken San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama out of play for the rest of the 2024-2025 basketball season, the NBA announced Thursday. Wembanyama, a 21-year-old French professional named Rookie of the Year last season, has deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder — a serious condition that occurs when a blood clot forms in a vein deep in the body. Such clots can break loose, travel through the bloodstream and lodge in the brain, heart, lung and other organs, according to experts. A clot in the heart can lead to a heart attack, while a clot that lodges in the lung and blocks oxygen can cause another life-threatening condition known as pulmonary embolism. Deep vein thrombosis is most commonly associated with clotting in the legs, which can occur after hours of sitting in one position, such as in a car or on long plane flights. Lying in bed for extended periods of time, such as when recuperating from an accident or surgery, can also increase risk, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states on its website. Although rarer, such clots can develop in the veins of the upper arms and torso. Risk factors for any type of thrombosis include severe muscle injuries, fractures and major surgery, the CDC said. Those most at risk for the condition include people older than 40 years of age and those with cancer, heart, lung and inflammatory bowel disease and certain autoimmune conditions such as lupus, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Other risk factors include smoking, inherited clotting disorders and a family history of deep vein thrombosis, being overweight or obese, being on oral birth control or estrogen treatment for menopause, and a previous case of deep vein thrombosis, the American Heart Association states on its website. Diagnosis and treatment Doctors will look for signs of a clot such as swelling, pain and tenderness, and redness and warmth in the skin, according to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. An ultrasound or scan of the area may also occur, along with blood tests that check for clotting factors in the blood. Treatment includes medications to thin the blood, which often must be continued for a few months, and use of compression stockings or bandages. In some cases, surgery may be performed to remove the clot.
