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Imagine being an NBA front office executive watching these Western Conference finals. You see Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4, 22-year-old basketball alien who descended upon San Antonio just a few short years ago, dominating in the kind of way we’ve never seen against the historically great, reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder. And you wonder, while scanning…

Imagine being an NBA front office executive watching these Western Conference finals. You see Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4, 22-year-old basketball alien who descended upon San Antonio just a few short years ago, dominating in the kind of way we’ve never seen against the historically great, reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder. And you wonder, while scanning…

In an alternate reality where community is a greater motivating factor than personal prosperity, the NAACP wants Black boys to lead. It’s their bodies and their talent that propel and bankroll the dominant Southeastern Conference in football and basketball. And yet, across the South, it’s their people’s representation and their people’s rights under the 15th…

After an Eastern Conference final Game 1 that went into overtime, the New York Knicks handled Game 2 with much more aplomb. They beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-93 and never lost real control of the game. Despite that, New York heads to Cleveland as underdogs for Game 3. The Cavs are 2.5-point favorites with a…

NEW YORK — Kenny Atkinson and his players are on the same page. The right page? Mmm, that’s a whole other story. “Our process was right tonight,” Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell said after the Cavs were taken apart by the New York Knicks in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. Over and over…

As we reach the NBA’s summit in our Player Tiers project, there aren’t any surprises. But last year, I had 10 players in Tier 1. That’s not the case this year, even as I strived to be inclusive. The great thing about basketball is that no player is perfect. There might be perfect stories, which…

Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams will be evaluated daily as he continues to deal with a left hamstring injury, multiple sources confirmed to The Athletic on Thursday. Williams, who played only seven minutes in the Thunder’s victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday, will undergo treatment and…

Yasiel Puig’s dramatic three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning of Game 4 in the 2018 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox was a moment worthy of capturing on a baseball card. It just wasn’t a card most Dodgers fans wanted to pay $9.99 for in the…

The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. We don’t have numbers yet for last night’s Game 2, but the NBA announced that Monday’s Spurs-Thunder game was the most-watched conference finals Game 1 ever. It had a Total Audience Delivery (some…

OKLAHOMA CITY — If you’re a fan of either of the two superpowers knocking each other silly with haymakers in the Western Conference finals this week, I have good news and bad news. The good news is: even in our current era of aprons and free agency and whatnot, your team is built to stay…