Imagine being 17 years old, not yet able to vote, and walking onto an NBA court to guard grown men in their physical prime. For a brief window in basketball history, that actually happened. A handful of teenagers were drafted straight out of high school before they had turned 18, and one of them remains … Read more
Every NBA Draft has a number one pick, showered with attention and expectation. It also has a final pick, the very last name called, a player no team valued above anyone else in the entire class. Borrowing a term from the NFL, that player is often called “Mr. Irrelevant.” And most of the time, the … Read more
Every spring, before a single draft pick is made, fourteen teams gather in a sealed room and watch ping pong balls decide their future. The NBA draft lottery is the closest thing the sport has to a game of pure chance, and the stakes could not be higher: the winner walks away with the number … Read more
Every NBA season ends with one team cutting down the nets, but every offseason begins with a different kind of prize: the number one overall pick. It is the most valuable single selection in the sport, the reward for a rough season and a lucky lottery, and a chance to land a franchise-altering talent. Some … Read more
Every spring, the fate of NBA franchises comes down to a bunch of ping-pong balls bouncing in a machine. The draft lottery decides which struggling teams get the first crack at the next generation of stars, and it is designed to keep teams from simply losing on purpose to land the top pick. So how … Read more
In the NBA, banners are forever. A single championship can define a franchise for decades, and a collection of them builds a dynasty that echoes through the history of the league. For more than 75 years, two storied franchises have stood far above the rest, while a handful of others have built their own impressive … Read more
It looks like the best seat in the house. You are courtside for every game, a few feet from the biggest stars in basketball, and you are technically on the payroll of an NBA team. So it is no surprise that one of the most searched questions about life around the league is a simple … Read more
There is no stage in basketball brighter than the NBA Finals, which is what makes a comeback there feel almost impossible. The defense tightens, every possession is scrutinized, and a big lead is supposed to be safe. So when a team claws back from 20 or more points down on this stage, it becomes instant … Read more
An NBA arena on a packed night is one of the loudest, most electric places in sports. But not every building holds the same crowd. The gap between the league’s largest arena and its smallest is more than 4,000 seats, which is the difference between a cavernous big-market house and a tighter, louder room. So … Read more
Walk into any sporting goods store and you will find basketballs in at least four different sizes, each meant for a different age. Hand a six-year-old a full-size men’s ball and they physically cannot shoot it with proper form, which builds bad habits that are hard to fix later. So which size does a 9-year-old … Read more