Nets guard Patty Mills has won this season’s Sportsmanship Award, according to a league press release. The annual award is designed to honor a player who best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court.
Each NBA team nominated one of its players for the award and current players selected the winner from the list of six finalists. Bam Adebayo, Mikal Bridges, Darius Garland, Jeff Green and Jaren Jackson Jr. were the other finalists.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- Thunder general manager Sam Presti is a proponent of an in-season tournament, Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman notes, saying it shows the league is “thinking big picture.” Presti called an in-season tournament “necessary to have a better business and a better game in the future.” He feels that it would appeal to a non-traditional or younger fan base as well as improve competitive parity.
- Overtime Elite has landed the top recruit in ESPN’s Class of 2024. Naasir Cunningham told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony about his reasons for joining Overtime Elite, which was confirmed in a press release. “This is best place for me to develop as a player, while getting the right education to fall back on at the same time,” the 6’7” Cunningham said. “Overtime built a relationship with my family and I, which was a big factor in trusting them with my future.” Cunningham will be the first player to decline a salary by OTE, which should preserve his eligibility to play college basketball after graduating from high school.
- While many players are testing the draft waters, some prominent prospects have chosen to return to college. Sports Illustrated’s Jeremy Wood looks at five such players, including UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez and UConn’s Jordan Hawkins.
In-season tournament is rubbish and waste of resources and time!! This ain’t soccer dummy Silver. NBA needs to shorten the regular season to 58 games. There is no need for Heat to play Pistons four times during regular season for example. That’ll reduce injuries hazard and travel. Also, playoff should be five games instead of seven. They choosing quantity over quality and now it’s going downhill because players don’t want do their job no more!
58 is drastic. It’s not that bad. 66-70 range is better.
To make the in-season tournament really worth it, they should aware the winner the fourth highest lottery odds
No the winner should be guaranteed a 1 or 2 seed, I think that’s fair
Nah then you won’t have bottom-dwellers who weren’t planning to make the playoffs trying at all midseason either
I’m surprised to read Presti speaking about competitive parity as if it’s a good thing. He must mean it’s a good thing for the other 29 teams.
The tournament, so far, appears to be a Silver type (bad) idea. But one could work if it were combined with a higher overall emphasis on the pre-playoff season in determining playoff qualification/seeding, and – mercifully – fewer playoff games.
Cunningham on joining OvertimeElite:
“Over time they built a relationship with my family…”
I’m sure they did, and are now profiting from it.
Is he saying his parents are making him sign up? Perhaps getting a piece of the action themselves?
He’s not 18 yet.
When he is, he will find NIL to be just another set of rules.