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USA Today
18-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Blake Griffin thinks Lakers can win NBA title with LeBron James and Luka Doncic
Blake Griffin thinks Lakers can win NBA title with LeBron James and Luka Doncic In LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, the Los Angeles Lakers have an outstanding core that most other teams would do almost anything to have. But outside of their top four or five players, the Lakers are very thin and suspect, and that was the biggest reason they lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs to the Minnesota Timberwolves. They will undoubtedly look to improve their roster this summer. But there now seem to be some people who doubt they can become legitimate championship contenders next season. However, former Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin is a believer in the Lakers. He said in an interview that he feels if the team brings in more complementary players, it can get the job done. 'I definitely think so,' says Griffin in a one-on-one interview with Bookmaker Ratings when asked if he believes the Lakers can be contenders with the current core. 'I think you have to get creative. They're going to have to build that roster for the playoffs. I don't think that roster was built well for the playoffs at all. Luka and Austin Reaves on the floor at the same time, you watch the Wolves series, they're just going at one of them every single time.' Griffin knows that the Doncic trade in early February dramatically changed the trajectory of the team and that it now needs to complete its remodeling process. 'You give somebody 24 million a year, you're hoping that they can be on the floor for the majority of minutes in the playoffs,' says Griffin. 'Finding a way to build around Luka and LeBron a little bit better. I know the Luka trade sort of messed things up, right? Because they were built better defensively, much better defensively, before this (with Anthony Davis). Now this offseason, you have to get creative and figure out a way to really put the right pieces around them.' He also pointed out two roster weaknesses that need to be sorted out. 'Can't play Jaxson Hayes and (Jarred) Vanderbilt together at the same time,' says Griffin. 'Can't really play Austin and Luka together at the same time. That's why their regular season was great. They had a roster that was sort of built for that. But in the playoffs, it wasn't built for that.' The Lakers are very thin at the center position, and they could also use a 3-and-D wing who can start at one guard spot alongside Doncic. Some have suggested that they should trade Reaves, who is very productive but is also a weak defender and lacks athleticism, in order to get to the next level. Griffin played 13 seasons in the NBA, with eight of them coming with the Clippers, and he had career averages of 19.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists a game. He was the Rookie of the Year and won the Slam Dunk Contest during the 2010-11 season, and he ended up making the All-Star team six times.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Vince Carter joins NBC as studio analyst for the 2025-26 NBA season
Basketball Hall of Famer Vince Carter will join NBC as an in-studio analyst starting in October for the 2025-26 NBA season (John Jones/Imagn Images) Basketball Hall of Famer Vince Carter will join NBC Sports as a studio analyst when the NBA debuts on Peacock in October for the 2025-26 season. On Tuesday, the network announced that the eight-time All-Star will be in the studio at least once a week during the playoffs and will often work alongside Carmelo Anthony. Advertisement 'I could not be more excited and appreciative to have the opportunity to be a part of the historic return of the NBA to NBC and now Peacock,' said Carter. 'I am truly looking forward to joining Melo in the studio and the rest of the broadcast team overall, as we embark on bringing NBA fans best-in-class coverage of the league they love.' NBCUniversal regained rights to the NBA under a new 11-year contract beginning next season in July 2025. Since the announcement, NBC has hired a star-studded lineup for its NBA coverage. Apart from Carter and Anthony, Jamal Crawford and Reggie Miller were hired as game analysts. Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle will be play-by-play voices. Michael Jordan's involvement as a special contributor was also announced on Monday. Advertisement Vinsanity played 22 seasons in the NBA, with much of his career spent with the Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets. Later in his career, Carter had short stints with the Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Hawks before retiring in 2020. The Raptors and Nets have since retired his No. 15 jersey. Besides his All-Star appearances, Carter had two All-NBA selections, was the NBA Rookie of the Year and memorably shined in the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest. His athleticism also transcended the All-Star festivities as he is widely renowned as the best dunker in NBA history. He also sits 10th in the all-time made 3-pointers list with 2,290. Advertisement 'Vince is one of the most explosive players in NBA history,' said Sam Flood, Executive Producer, NBC Sports. 'His dynamic play on the court has translated seamlessly into his broadcasting career, where he will next be in the studio alongside Carmelo Anthony – a fellow Hall of Famer, perennial All-Star, and Olympic champion who's also played with or against the stars of yesterday and today.' Carter brings previous experience as an NBA and college basketball analyst for ESPN and Turner Sports into his new role at NBC.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Vince Carter joins NBC as studio analyst for the 2025-26 NBA season after network landed 11-year rights deal
Basketball Hall of Famer Vince Carter will join NBC as an in-studio analyst starting in October for the 2025-26 NBA season (John Jones/Imagn Images) Basketball Hall of Famer Vince Carter will join NBC Sports as a studio analyst when the NBA debuts on Peacock in October for the 2025-26 season. On Tuesday, the network announced that the eight-time All-Star will be in the studio at least once a week during the playoffs and will often work alongside Carmelo Anthony. Advertisement 'I could not be more excited and appreciative to have the opportunity to be a part of the historic return of the NBA to NBC and now Peacock,' said Carter. 'I am truly looking forward to joining Melo in the studio and the rest of the broadcast team overall, as we embark on bringing NBA fans best-in-class coverage of the league they love.' NBCUniversal regained rights to the NBA under a new 11-year contract beginning next season in July 2025. Since the announcement, NBC has hired a star-studded lineup for its NBA coverage. Apart from Carter and Anthony, Jamal Crawford and Reggie Miller were hired as game analysts. Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle will be play-by-play voices. Michael Jordan's involvement as a special contributor was also announced on Monday. Advertisement Vinsanity played 22 seasons in the NBA, with much of his career spent with the Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets. Later in his career, Carter had short stints with the Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Hawks before retiring in 2020. The Raptors and Nets have since retired his No. 15 jersey. Besides his All-Star appearances, Carter had two All-NBA selections, was the NBA Rookie of the Year and memorably shined in the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest. His athleticism also transcended the all-star festivities as he is widely renowned as the best dunker in NBA history. He also sits tenth in the all-time made 3-pointers list with 2,290. Advertisement 'Vince is one of the most explosive players in NBA history,' said Sam Flood, Executive Producer, NBC Sports. 'His dynamic play on the court has translated seamlessly into his broadcasting career, where he will next be in the studio alongside Carmelo Anthony – a fellow Hall of Famer, perennial All-Star, and Olympic champion who's also played with or against the stars of yesterday and today.' Carter brings previous experience as an NBA and college basketball analyst for ESPN and Turner Sports into his new role at NBC.
Black America Web
02-05-2025
- Health
- Black America Web
Nate Robinson Opens Up About His Kidney Transplant & Meeting His 'Guardian Angel' Donor
Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty After years of keeping his health issues private, former NBA player Nate Robinson has been sharing his journey of searching for a new kidney. He received a transplant in February, and now he's opening up about the process with his donor, Shane Cleveland, whom he now considers a member of his family. The Slam Dunk Contest champ first told his story on the Playmakers YouTube channel and then returned to explain the whole story, which began with Cleveland's love for sports. In the video, Cleveland's wife says he went to a Washington Huskies football game with his daughters when the Jumbotron displayed a message about Robinson needing a kidney. He scanned the QR code, and his wife—who had donated a kidney years prior—was on board as he underwent more tests to prove he was a match. While recovering, Robinson reveals his initial reaction to the surgery's approval, a call that came on Christmas Day. 'The first person I called was my dad because he went through kidney failure, and he got a kidney [transplant] last year. And I called him and I told him,' he remembers. 'They told me Christmas day. [It was] by far the best present I ever got in my life. Literally, I cried for like three days, and I was just thankful. And when I was in my room, I just dropped to my knees and thanked God.' Heartwarming moments also show Cleveland and Robinson meeting in the hospital the day after the procedure, and the NBA player thanking Cleveland's kids for his chance to live longer and become a grandfather. Now that he's on the road to recovery, Robinson is ready to get back in shape, coaching, training his daughter in the gym, and return as a sports analyst. 'I want to treat my body right, I want to look better than my kids,' he says with a laugh. 'I just want to stay youthful and stay appreciative.' Nate first went public with his kidney failure back in 2022, after doctors told him he didn't have long to live. However, he'd learned he had renal issues more than 20 years ago while still in the league, knowing he'd one day need a transplant. Nate Robinson Opens Up About His Kidney Transplant & Meeting His 'Guardian Angel' Donor was originally published on
Indianapolis Star
28-04-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
'Fight fire with fire.' Myles Turner's dunk on Giannis, blocks set tone in Pacers' Game 4 win
MILWAUKEE -- Obi Toppin stood out of his bench seat at the moment Myles Turner 's right foot hit the paint because he could see what was coming. The Pacers' 10th-year veteran center had the ball in his hand and a full head of steam, and all that was standing between him and the rim was one of the three best basketball players in the world and possibly the most dominant physical force in the game. The 6-11, 242-pound marble-chiseled frame of Giannis Antetokounmpo was coming right at Turner, but Turner was coming at him with even more momentum and at that point Turner couldn't have decelerated into a floater if he wanted to. There was going to be a mid-air collision of two 6-11 humans combining for just under 500 pounds, and Toppin — himself a Slam Dunk Contest champion — couldn't help but get out of his chair to see who was going to get the better of it. So when Turner glanced off of Antetokounmpo's body without altering his flight pattern, kept control of the ball and threw down a violent right-handed tomahawk dunk, Toppin jumped in the air almost as high as Turner did. He then hopped around in a circle turning back toward the sideline looking for anybody else to hug him as the rest of the Pacers' bench similarly lost its collective mind. "That dunk definitely set the tone for the second half," Toppin said. "He came out here and he ran through one of their best guys to dunk the ball. Obviously, that got everybody on the bench — I don't know if y'all got the reaction to that — but everybody on the bench was going crazy. That was just juice that filled us." Turner had already set a tone long before that dunk, which came on the Pacers' first offensive possession of the second half. As a collective, Indiana came into Sunday night's Game 4 of the first round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs determined to make sure it was a lot different than Game 3, but Turner — the longest-tenured Pacer — was particularly determined after a fairly brutal individual performance. After making just 1-of-9 field goals and turning the ball over four times in that defeat and making a relatively limited defensive impact by his lofty standards, Turner scored a team-leading 23 points 9-of-13 shooting, grabbed five rebounds, dished out three assists and came through with four mammoth blocks in the Pacers' 129-103 win in Game 4 at Fiserv Forum. The victory gives Indiana a 3-1 series lead an an opportunity to close it out at home Tuesday in Game 5. "He was big-time," Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton said of Turner. "I think if you ask him, he probably didn't have the game he wanted to have last game. I felt like he got a lot of good looks, he just didn't knock them down. There was no panic for us after Game 3." There was, however, a point of emphasis, a decision on behalf of Haliburton, Turner and the Pacers in general to be aggressive about putting Turner in more advantageous spots, to get him going early with shots closer to the basket, and allow him to build out from there. The Pacers as a whole ended too many plays in isolation situations and settled too much in Game 3. Turner's only bucket in the game was a layup, but he took just three shots inside the arc and two in the paint while taking and missing six 3-pointers. Some of those were wide open looks he wouldn't have dreamed of passing up, but he didn't use his 6-11, 250-pound frame to impose any real will and he didn't use his mid-range jumper which is also an important weapon. Turner is coming off his best 3-point shooting season, shooting a career-best 39.6% from beyond the arc with a career-high 156 made 3-pointers — 40 beyond his previous career-high — but he can also be a problem between 5 and 20 feet. His ability to score at three levels is the reason he's been such an effective ball screen partner for Haliburton as the best three scoring seasons of his career have been the three seasons since Haliburton was acquired including his 15.6 points per game this season. So on Sunday, Turner got his game started in the mid-range. He caught a pass on a screen-and-roll from Haliburton in the middle of the paint and stepped back to around 13 feet to hit a fadeaway over Bucks center Brook Lopez with 10:15 to go in the first quarter. He then hit an 18-footer on a short roll, then got a layup in transition past Lopez with Antetokounmpo stuck in the backcourt after he fell over trying to block out Turner. In the first 3 minutes and 4 seconds of Sunday's game, he had seven points — one more than he had all day Friday — and he scored nine of the Pacers' first 13 points before the Bucks' Doc Rivers called a timeout. "I was aggressive offensively, just picking and choosing my spots," Turner said. "Tyrese did a good job of getting me the ball in the pick-and-roll and I made some shots. It was exactly what we talked about last game. Sometimes it's a make or miss league. I missed a lot of shots last game, made a lot of shots this game. The difference was just that." But it wasn't just that. Turner's process was different and he continued to find more opportunities to score that weren't his bread-and-butter pick-and-pop 3s. He wasn't afraid to drive at Lopez or Antetokounmpo or to try to score over them, but he also hunted mismatches on switches and in transition so he could either blast through or shoot over smaller wings and guards. "Being intentional running the floor," Turner said when asked how he was able to create some of those mismatches. "I think when you run the floor at times and you get out, at times guards have to take you. Even if I don't get the ball, it makes guys have to look in and there are shots on the perimeter and what not. Just continuing to mix it up and run the floor in the flow of our offense." The dunk on Antetokounmpo came because Turner was running the floor hard after a missed layup by Milwaukee's Kyle Kuzma. And it came because Turner had made a decision not to back down from Antetokounmpo and to try to match his physicality on both ends of the floor. The Pacers generally don't use Turner as a primary defender on Antetokounmpo but as the Pacers' rim protector he has to deal with him plenty on the defensive end, and scoring in the paint against the Bucks often means going through the two-time MVP. Antetokounmpo had won most of the head-to-head battles between the two in the first three games, and Turner knew changing that dynamic meant bringing more force. "Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire," Turner said. "I think that you have to bring the fight to him at times and go at him defensively as well." Turner was physical with Antetokounmpo on defense. The first two of his four blocks were on Antetokounmpo's shot attempts. On the first, he came from the weak side when Antetokounmpo spun around Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith and Turner pinned his shot against the backboard. On the second, he met Antetokounmpo driving down the left side of the lane, got his hands on the ball and forced a tie-up. Turner helped the Pacers hold Antetokounmpo to just eight points on 3-of-10 shooting in the first half. The two-time MVP dialed it up a notch in the second half with fellow All-Star Damian Lillard out after suffering a potentially devastating leg injury in the first half, scoring 18 points in the third quarter alone to finish with 28 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. However, that was the lowest scoring game and least efficient night of the series for Antetokounmpo and Turner had a lot to do with that. Turner has been around long enough to know just how hard it is to slow down Antetokounmpo. In 44 career regular season games against the Pacers, he's averaging 24.7 points, 10.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game, and that's with his first three seasons holding down the average. In each of the past five seasons, Antetokounmpo has averaged at least 30 points per game against the Pacers including 42.2 per game in 2023-24 when he set a franchise record with 64 points in a win and also scored 54 in a loss. He's still averaging 33.8 points per game on 62.2% shooting and 14.3 rebounds per game in this series, leading all players in the playoffs in both categories. "I think it's just experience," Turner said. "Having to guard him for a long time, he's gotten the better of me quite a bit. But studying film and studying tendencies, I think that's a big part of it. Once you're actually out there in the fire, you either sink or swim. I think I'm starting to figure some things out, but at the same time, he's still a great player. Just as you figure out one thing one night, that doesn't mean it's going to be the same thing the next night." But on Sunday night the Pacers figured out enough to put them in a position to not have to deal with what coach RIck Carlisle called the "impossible" problem of Antetokounmpo much longer. The Pacers shot 60.2% from the floor including 46.2% (18-of-39) from 3-point range, putting eight players in double figures with 36 assists on 50 baskets for a robust 1.35 points per possession for their highest scoring and most efficient night of the series. "It's just the power of moving the ball," Turner said. "After watching the film of the third quarter of last game, I think that we didn't necessarily take bad shots, but it just wasn't our brand of basketball. I think we did an amazing job of moving the ball tonight. When the ball hums like that, great things happen for us." Great things also happen for the Pacers when they get the best version of Turner, the one who is willing to fight fire with fire.
