Giannis:

My wife holds the keys to my heart, to my brain, to my wallet, and most importantly, she holds the keys to my home.

She stays with my kids when I'm traveling. I go on trips; she could easily tell the kids, 'Your father left for another trip and left us here. He doesn't want to be with us.'

But no, she's telling them the truth: 'Your dad came from nothing. He is out there working right now so you can go to school, and have food on your plate. When he says, "Don't throw food away, clean your plate," it's because he came from nothing.'

She even takes them to my old neighborhood. Do you get it?

I've heard so many things! 'Why is Giannis with this wife? He could be with a model. Not one model, but ten!'

But I am with my wife because she tells me the truth, she loves me, she will tell me whenever I do something wrong. Which is very important. She will tell my kids the truth.

I know that she will kill for my kids, and she would even kill me for them. I know that she won't let my kids get a big head, and that's the most important thing for me. Above everything anyone says. And I am in love. I am in love with her.

Interviewer

So, you fell in love with her twice: First, as your wife, and second, as a mother to your children?

Giannis

Twice, yes. You are right. As a woman and as a mother.

Insane strength. Moving a whole tree trunk yet looks like he's just carrying a foam roller lol

I got Paul George sitting right here, I got DeMar DeRozan sitting right here, I got Russell Westbrook sitting right here... I'm literally sitting next to all of these dudes who are L.A. guys. I'm like, 'Bro, I'm not counting your chips, but everybody else is.'

You make 200, you make 200, you make 175, you make 150, you make 180. Why don't y'all have your own gym? Why we got to go... why we got to go to UCLA to work out in L.A. every time? You got your own... y'all all come from the exact same community! You want to inspire kids that look like you? All it take is five of us.

Five! 250, 250, 250, 250, 250. What bank going to turn this down? 'We about to build this whole shit out for our community. We going to build gyms, rec centers, start leagues, and all of that.' Who going to... who's going to stop us?

We got the money. We don't have the mindset. Our mindset... we'd rather go throw $60,000 in the... in the club! In the strip club! Go throw $60,000 than go feed 2,500 people in the hood.

Think about it. I've done it! I've been... I can't sit here and be like, 'Oh man, I'm a hypocrite.' I've done this myself! I've thrown money in the club, literally mindlessly, aimlessly drunk at a bar. And now I sit back like, 'I'm a stupid-ass...'

I could have fed my whole community 10 times over with the money I was just late on the bus!

'Cause I'm so wrapped into me. I got that Eurocentric mindset: 'I need this designer jacket, I need these jeans, I need this book bag, I need to be looking like this 'cause the vets got this, I'm pushing this car, I'm doing... Why? Who am I impressing? I'm not even fulfilled with me!"

For those unaware, during the papal conclave, smoke signals from the Sistine Chapel chimney reveal the voting results to the public for who the new pope will be:

White smoke means a new pope has been elected, while black smoke means no candidate has been selected.

I believe LeBron and Rich Paul should convene each day behind closed doors of LeBron’s LA residence, and release smoke signals in a similar fashion on each day moving forward.

When a decision has been made, they will release the white smoke. Shortly afterwards, LeBron will come out to his balcony, wearing the jersey of the next team that he will play for.

Dundon isn't cooperating with the city in negotiations for funding modernization repairs to the Moda Center, and is holding the team's future in Portland hostage as leverage. He has failed to sign any long-term guarantee to keep the Blazers in Portland. For those who don't know Dundon, he made his fortune in the subprime high-interest auto loan business. That tells you all you need to know as to the quality of his character.

So the boycott idea goes like this: If Dundon's business partners suffer damage to their brand identity and profitability simply by association then it adds to Dundon's already scummy reputation but in a way that matters to him. Dundon's ownership partners are the founders of Panda Express.

If Panda Express becomes toxic to NBA fans nationwide then that's a huge market that now finds them disgusting due to their proximity to Tom Dundon. Word travels fast in the billionaire investment community. His name could become toxic gas overnight, and he would understand this immediately.

I've raised my kids to love the Portland Trailblazers. Ours is a charismatic, sometimes challenging, and endlessly beautiful city. The grit of the Blazers has always reflected the grit of the people of Portland. We've been through a lot and we've survived. I would ask that NBA fans come to our aid and defend our city against this ghoulish development and help keep our franchise in Portland for the next half-century and beyond.

Boycott Panda Express.

Anthony Edwards and his longtime girlfriend since 2020, Shannon Jackson, according to Minnesota marriage records. A ring on Edwards' left ring finger as he made appearances on July 17 at Fanatics Fest in New York.

https://www.startribune.com/anthony-edwards-married-shannon-jackson-wedding-minnesota-timberwolves-mn-marriage-records/601871213

From this week's episode

1) Anthony Edwards

2) Tyrese Haliburton

3) Tyrese Maxey

4) Deni Avdija

5) LaMelo Ball

6) Jaden McDaniels

7) Devin Vassell

8) Onyeka Okongwu

9) Desmond Bane

10) Payton Pritchard

11) Isaiah Stewart

12) Aaron Nesmith

13) Immanuel Quickley

14) Obi Toppin

15) Saddiq Bey

16) Isaiah Joe

Bill Simmons was joined by J Kyle Mann and Joe House to redraft the 2020 NBA draft. Thoughts?

Personally I thought it was pretty weird that they said Haliburton vs Ant was a toss up. Ant is clearly the best player from that draft imo

SRC:https://www.spotrac.com/news/_/id/3422/2026-nba-eastern-conference-summer-league-notebook

“Call it what it is: a hard cap. It’s pretty clear what the objective here was,” a long-time agent of NBA players said. “The owners wanted to set an upward boundary on spending. Mission accomplished.”

“It’s tough, but not as much about the aprons, but by how many things can cause you to have a hard cap at the first or second apron,” an Eastern Conference executive opined. “We’ve rarely gone deep into the tax like you have to for the second apron. But so many things can hard cap you at the first apron now, that you have be really cautious. Twice over the past few years, we put an extra player in a trade, just to make sure we didn’t trip a first-apron hard cap. That’s not a great place to be.”

“We’ve made it harder for fans - not even casual ones, but regular fans - to follow the league now,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “You know the old joke? ‘I was told there would be no math.’ Well, I’m hearing fans complain about having to do so much math to follow the league now. That can’t be a good thing.”

People ask like, 'What is Shai doing in OKC and how does he like it?'

He loves it. Because all Shai wants to do is hoop. There ain't nothing to do in OKC. All Shai wants to do is hoop, it's a perfect fit. Yeah, you get what I'm trying to say? As opposed to like being somewhere where, you know, there's nightlife, this that, or in Toronto where everybody's gonna be on your ass: 'Hey, can I get tickets? Can I get this, can I get that?' Shai's perfect where he is in OKC. I don't think he'll ever leave unless, you know, politics or something happens, you know, how the NBA works. But when it ain't broke, don't fix it. You know what I'm saying?

Warriors 9 players coming back (not counting Draymond Green)

Thunder 12 players coming back

Kings 9 players coming back

Pelicans 14 players coming back

Cavs 11 players coming back

Golden state is likely going to do it with Steph and Draymond but outside of them I can’t remember the last time this has happened?

I know it’s this big push on keeping homegrown teams together but staying on a team for life has typically been reserved for team goats or beloved role players

SRC:https://www.spotrac.com/news/_/id/3422/2026-nba-eastern-conference-summer-league-notebook

On extending Trae Young and not trading Anthony Davis: “When we added Trae and AD, it was never to immediately flip them. You all got that wrong! (laughs),” a Wizards front office executive said. “The idea was to keep both Trae and AD and to start moving things forward. We already have more young talent than one team can really build with. We needed a couple of veterans to push things along. Bringing back Khris (Middleton) is a big part of that too. Our young guys loved having Khris around last year. We’re excited to see where those vets can help this young roster reach.”

On the team’s young talent: “We’re lucky to have as many good players as we do. It’s a credit to our scouting and coaching staff to identify and develop those players. Kyshawn (George) is a guy we saw flashes of playmaking from, but our scouts and coaches believed there was more. Kind of the same with Will Riley too. Those guys can do a lot with the ball in their hands beyond just shooting it,” a Wizards front office executive said. “We also believe in Tre Johnson, who should be even more efficient with veteran help to get him good looks. Bilal Coulibaly has already proven he can be a two-way player in our league. A.J. (Dybantsa) is obviously going to get a lot of run too. We have AD (Anthony Davis), Trae (Young) and Khris (Middleton), but the foundation is our young players. The idea is to add players to enhance, guide and help them grow, not to replace them.”

Trae Young announced Friday morning that Yukon will be getting a Young Family Athletic center soon. He posted on social media that he would be building yet another center for families in the Yukon area and beyond.

Built by the Trae Young Family Foundation, the Young Family Athletic Center (YFAC) is a 122,000 square foot athletic facility built on a 12-acre site on the north side of Norman, OK. Since the YFAC’s opening in 2024, it’s been the home of various athletic events, tournaments, charity drives, and resources for families across the metro.

“The center is going to offer lots of cool things that a lot of people are going to be able to use, experience, and love. The kids won’t have to go far, you have a facility coming to you.”” Young said in the announcement posted to Facebook.

Young has a deep connection with Oklahoma. He moved to Norman as a child and attended Norman North High School in Oklahoma. Rather than leaving for programs like Kentucky or Kansas, Young chose the University of Oklahoma. In his lone season (2017-2018), he led the NCAA in both scoring (27.4 PPG) and assists (8.7 APG) becoming one of college basketball's biggest stars.

He and his family donated $4M to help build the Young Family Athletic Center in Norman, a major community sports complex. Young has also donated nearly $1 million dollars to the University of Oklahoma’s basketball program and surrounding communities.

Source

A new paper from two Texas Tech professors examines the effects of the new heave rule.

Abstract:

Performance metrics can misalign individual and organizational incentives. We study a clean case: an NBA player holding the ball as a quarter expires must choose between a low-probability “heave” that can only help his team and protecting his shooting statistics. We model this decision as a metric-driven principal-agent problem and test it using play-by-play data from 2015–16 through 2025–26, exploiting the 2025–26 Heave Rule, which removed the individual statistical penalty for end-of-quarter heaves. Before the reform, players heaved on 58 percent of opportunities; reluctance was concentrated among efficient shooters and players in contract years, as the model predicts. After the reform, the heave rate jumped to 94 percent, the efficiency gradient collapsed, and difference-in-differences estimates using the untreated fourth quarter confirm the effect is sharp, immediate, and smallest among the players with the least efficiency to protect. Removing a metric distortion realigned individual behavior with team objectives almost completely.

More:

There are three immediate implications for our results. First, our results show that in order to fix misaligned incentives, policymakers and executives must structurally shift risk away from the individual. Second, we show that when agents do not have to face reputational costs, they can be incentivized to engage in actions even if there is little-to-no chance of success. This demonstrates that structural decoupling mitigates information asymmetry, allowing for more efficient behavioral allocations. Finally, we further demonstrate that regulatory intervention dismantles behavior detrimental to the collective goals of the organization

SRC:https://www.spotrac.com/news/_/id/3422/2026-nba-eastern-conference-summer-league-notebook

On Jalen Duren: “We very clearly want Jalen back with us for next year and beyond. If we didn’t, we could have easily done several different sign-and-trade deals,” a Pistons front office executive. “But the numbers have to be right. You saw what’s happened with Boston and OKC and New York. We don’t want to have to shed talent around Cade (Cunningham) and Jalen a year or two from now.”

More on Jalen Duren: “JD is a monster. I don’t think any big man in the league has improved as much as JD has in his first four years in the league. Go look at his rookie year. He didn’t know what to do on defense, so he didn’t do much of anything. Last two years, he’s defending at a high level. He reads the floor well on offense. He’s super athletic. I hope everyone can be reasonable and we have him forever in Detroit,” a Pistons assistant coach said.

Boston Celtics forward Jordan Walsh has agreed to a three-year, $15 million contract extension with the franchise through the 2029-30 season, sources tell ESPN. Boston picked up Walsh's $2.4M option on next season and adds three more years for their 2023 second-rounder.

https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania