A Beautiful Iranian Wedding Ceremony in Long Beach

By the time Ghazal Ghaysar and Payam Doostzadeh tied the knot, the pair had been together for nearly 15 years. You read that right—they first met as young teenagers! "Our cousins were best friends, so we met through them," says Ghazal. "We were immediately drawn to one another and started dating shortly after. Fast forward to July 3, 2016, when Payam and Ghazal were on a trip to Big Sur, one of their favorite destinations to visit. As they wandered a flower-covered hill overlooking the ocean and Pixby Bridge, Payam got down on one knee‚ and Ghazal said yes!

The couple gave themselves over a year to plan their wedding, setting the date for November 4th, 2017. "We wanted to really enjoy the process, and keep it pretty mellow," says Ghazal of the 16-month engagement. They selected Ebell Long Beach, a Spanish-Revival building built as a women's club in 1924, as the setting for their celebration and invited 184 guests to join them. "We both come from big families, so while it was definitely a larger guest list than we'd intended to have, neither of us would change a thing," says the bride. The venue's historic aesthetic didn't need much decorating, making it easy for Ghazal and Payam to dress up the space just enough while still letting the innate details shine. They hosted a traditional Iranian ceremony, followed by a modern reception that was right at home in Long Beach. Photographer Faith Wright of Winsome and Wright captured the carefully selected details of this simple celebration, so keep reading for more!

The invitation embraced the evening's simplicity, with geometric shapes hinting at the Art Deco venue and pops of white and emerald green tying perfectly into the couple's palette.

Payam and his groomsmen arrived in Cali style, pulling up to Ebell Long Beach in a striking blue convertible.

The groom donned a classic tux from Suit Supply, pairing it with a soft bowtie and a textured boutonniere. The littlest flower girl wore a cozy white jacket over her dress.

Ghazal went high-fashion with her bridal ensemble, pairing a lace Yolan Cris gown with dramatic cut-outs and a pair of emerald Aquazzura boots. "I tried on so many dresses and nothing felt like me, until I slipped into this one," she says. "My mother's reaction helped too!"

She asked her bridesmaids to choose their own emerald green dresses, ranging from short and lacy to long, wrapped silhouettes.

Payam and Ghazal took a moment before the ceremony to take it all in and exchange gifts.

The couple wed in a traditional Iranian ceremony, which included a sofreh aghd (a spread of symbolic items) set on Lucite tables with palm accents. The older flower girls led the way down the aisle in white dresses and crowns of greenery.

The ceremony included honored rituals featuring coins to represent prosperity, candles to symbolize energy and clarity, and a sugar cloth and cones, Happily married women in the family are invited to rub cones of sugar over a lace fabric held above the couple's head to "shower them with sweetness."

Payam and Ghazal wrapped the ceremony up with personal vows they wrote to one another. "That was absolutely one of the most special moments," says the bride.

Inside the venue, tables were draped in white linens and topped with tall vases holding vibrant palm leaves. No one missed flowers with such striking displays throughout the room!

Payam's band, Young the Giant, took to the stage to play a few songs before toasts were made, then the couple took to the dance floor to John Legend's "Each Day Gets Better" for their first dance.

Looking back, the bride has this advice: "Don't be afraid to keep things simple," she says. "All that matters is the love you share with your partner!"

Time may not be on new-look Cleveland Cavaliers' side, but LeBron James is

A generation ago, Larry Nance, Sr., was a key part of a great Cleveland Cavaliers team -- one that Magic Johnson famously dubbed “The Team of the ’90s” in the late ’80s. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls snuffed that out. Now, almost 30 years later, his son, Larry Nance, Jr., has the league’s and the team’s permission to take his father’s jersey out of the rafters, where it was retired in 1995, and wear it again.

This time, though, the odds are more in Cleveland’s favor. The Cavs have this generation’s Magic, and there’s no Jordan to be found. There are assorted Kevin Durants and Stephen Currys; James Hardens and Chris Pauls, to be sure. But the Cavaliers, after shocking the NBA world at the trade deadline two weeks ago with three major deals that blew up the old, tired roster and revitalized it in one morning, have the only thing that matters: an engaged LeBron James, again bouncing on his toes. No one else on earth can bring in anyone as impactful.

Nance, Jr., and Jordan Clarkson came from the Los Angeles Lakers. Rodney Hood came from the Utah Jazz. George Hill came from the Sacramento Kings. Out went Isaiah Thomas and Dwyane Wade; Jae Crowder and Iman Shumpert; Derrick Rose and Channing Frye. Three huge cuts for first-year general manager Koby Altman, who also held onto the unprotected first-round pick the Cavs got from Boston (via Brooklyn) in the Kyrie Irving deal last summer.

Hill is the only newcomer who was put in the starting lineup. The others have revitalized Cleveland’s bench, giving Korver more room to operate as defenses suddenly have to stay attached to Clarkson’s attacks -- he’s sixth in the league in bench scoring, behind Lou Williams, Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon, Nikola Mirotic and Hood -- Hood’s spot-ups and Nance’s rim runs.

The small things that they don’t know -- the plays, the directions to practice (Clarkson got horribly lost the first day), where to live -- will have to be incorporated on the fly. There’s no time. There’s six weeks left in the regular season, and Kevin Love is still not back in the lineup, and there are some hungry teams right on Cleveland’s haunches in the East who’d love to surpass the Cavs for third in the conference.

Hill chased titles before in Indiana, against James’ Miami Heat teams, when the Pacers had a young Paul George and a tall Roy Hibbert and a tough David West and a crazy Lance Stephenson. Hood made the playoffs last year with the Jazz. But Nance and Clarkson were on Lakers teams with no expectations. Cleveland, of course, has the ultimate expectation, with James’ free agency looming.

LeBron James is youngest ever to join NBA's exclusive 30,000-point club

James became the seventh player with 30,000 career points when he hit a jumper with one second left in the first quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ game against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night.

James was recognized by the arena before the second quarter and got a standing ovation from Spurs fans. James patted his head and said “thank you so much.”

James needed seven points on Tuesday to get there. He missed his first two midrange jumpers before making two driving layups and a 20-footer. He hit the milestone jumper over Danny Green from 19 feet out.

The 33-year-old James joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points), Karl Malone (36,928), Kobe Bryant (33,643), Michael Jordan (32,292), Wilt Chamberlain (31,419) and Dirk Nowitzki (30,808) on the list.

At 33 years and 24 days, James is the youngest to reach the mark. Bryant was 34 years and 104 days when he got there. The 14-time All-Star has averaged 27.1 points since breaking into the league as an 18-year-old in 2003.

James’s achievement comes at a difficult time for the Cavaliers, with the team enduring a terrible run of form. They held an emotional pre-practice meeting on Monday in hopes of clearing the air.

We aired any grievances we had and we’re going to move forward,” said center Kevin Love, who is believed to have been the target of some of his team-mates’ ire after he left a game with an illness. “Hopefully we’ll be better for it, we have been in the past.”

Derrick Rose Explains Why He Decided Not to Retire From the NBA

About a month ago, Derrick Rose took a leave of absence from the Cavaliersto contemplate his future in the NBA. At the time, there were rumors swirling around about how he was considering retiring from the league as a result of the slew of injuries he has been forced to deal with throughout the course of his career.

Since then, Rose has returned to the Cavaliers, but he hasn’t offered up a whole lot of clarity as far as why he chose to leave the team in the first place. That changed this week, though, when Rose sat down for a lengthy interview with The Undefeated about his decision to step away from basketball for a bit.

During the interview, Rose assured NBA fans that he is "not depressed," which was one of the reasons some people initially thought he decided to distance himself from the Cavaliers. He also promised that he will be back on the court at some point this season, even though he still can’t say when that will be. And Rose explained why he wants to continue playing in the NBA for the foreseeable future. As it turns out, it’s the injuries he’s sustained—and maybe more importantly, the effort he’s put into each and every rehab stint—that continue to motivate him.

"People forget that my first injury was my ACL. A lot of guys would have walked away after that," he said. "I already had my contract and all that taken care of, so a lot of guys would have walked away after that. I’ve had five surgeries, and I had an eye [socket] fracture. I’m too far in to just walk away."

Rose also told The Undefeated that, despite all the heartbreak he’s suffered in the NBA due to his injuries, he still loves playing basketball today just as much as he did when he first entered the league.

"I’m in love with the game," he said. "The love of the game. I still am a winner. I still love learning the game. Where else can you learn more than from Golden State or [Cleveland]? LeBron has been to eight Finals eight times and seven straight years. I played against him a lot of times. I’ve learned so much from him and the whole team. It’s just a fun experience being around this team."

Chris Bosh: 'I plan to keep my options open as a player'

Last summer, the Miami Heat officially parted ways with former All-Star big man Chris Bosh. He was waived on July 4, weeks after he and the team came to a final agreement on how to part ways and more than a year since his last NBA appearance because of blood-clot issues. His departure gave the Heat access to $26.8 million in salary-cap space for next season.

Bosh, who is expected to have his No. 1 retired by the Heat at some point, was on NBA TV's Players Only last night and made it clear he wants to stay around the game in some form.

"I'm always going to be around the game of basketball," Bosh said. "I plan to keep my options open as a player moving forward, but that's not coaching. Maybe front office work, working with teams and spreading the game, maybe teaching the game to young people, that's something that's a very big passion."

Bosh has a desire to pass along how to play without the ball and would ideally like to work with players who may not be the top option on their team.

"I would want to work with guys that maybe aren't starters, guys that are the fourth or fifth option," Bosh said. "To be honest, I'm looking at today’s game and I put myself in that position and how I would benefit from the faster basketball, more threes, catch-and-go opportunities, attacking the paint with more space, that's what kind of gets me juiced up and riled up when I watch today's game. I would really want to teach someone how to function without having to have plays called for you."

Back in 2014, Bosh signed a five-year deal to stay with the Heat -- shortly after LeBron James left Miami for a return to Cleveland. James, Bosh and Dwyane Wade went to the NBA Finals in all four of their seasons together in Miami, winning titles in 2012 and 2013.

Bosh's last Miami deal was worth $118 million. For that, he was only able to play in 97 games.

He appeared in 44 games in 2014-15, his season ending at the All-Star break when the first known clot episode started. A year later, he played in 53 games and - in an eerie similarity - his season again ended at All-Star weekend, when another clot was found shortly after he landed in Toronto for the 2016 All-Star Game.


Bosh hasn't played since, missing Miami's last 125 games. Overall, he played 13 NBA seasons, seven with Toronto and then six with Miami. He was part of Miami's massive free-agent haul in 2010, where the Heat not only kept Wade but landed James to form something that team president Pat Riley felt could turn into something dynastic. He averaged 19.2 points and 8.5 rebounds in his career.

From dazzling floor, Greek Freak's ceiling not the sole Bucks concern

MILWAUKEE -- As Jason Kidd prepared his Milwaukee Bucks for their much-awaited return to the Mecca on Thursday night, the future Hall of Famer was asked how the smaller arena environment compared to the professional arenas in which he spent a portion of his career playing.

"It's a little cozy," Kidd said before a 96-89 loss to the Boston Celtics. "It's 11,000 [capacity]. People say the Bucks had home-court advantage when we had players like Oscar [Roberston] and Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] playing. But I think it's gotten a lot bigger, there's a lot more fans. But it just shows how the game has grown from then to today. But it's always good to go back and have the opportunity to play in the Mecca or into the Garden because that's where the game and the history started."

As the Bucks celebrated their past, playing on a new replica Mecca floor like the one artist Robert Indiana made so famous back in the day, they also had another chance to cherish their present and future. As the Bucks embark on their 50th anniversary season, there's a realization around the league that the team is beginning a new renaissance of its own with all-everything big man Giannis Antetokounmpoleading the way. At 22, he hasn't just become the face of the franchise already, he has the type of transformative talent that can change the game. With his 28 points Thursday, he has accumulated more points (175) in the first five games of a season than any other player in Bucks history, and that includes Abdul-Jabbar's total of 166 points in 1970-71, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

But in the midst of all the pomp and circumstance of Thursday's festivities at the now dubbed UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, the Celtics reminded Antetokounmpo and the Bucks that he wasn't going to be able to dominate every single night. Aside from the sellout crowd's proximity to the floor, what really got intimate was the Celtics' defenders in and around Antetokounmpo's airspace. After watching the Greek Freak throttle their team to the tune of 37 points and 13 rebounds a week ago in Boston, the Celtics were determined not to allow the young star to have his way again.

That's why veteran Al Horford followed Antetokounmpo all over the floor and the Celtics were always ready with another body wherever he went. For the first time all season, Antetokounmpo was held under 30 points.
　　
"They're a very versatile team," Brogdon said of the Celtics. "They have [Jayson] Tatum and [Jaylen] Brown, 6-7, 6-8 guys that can really guard any position on the floor so that allows them to switch a lot. If you're not aggressive on those switches then they can really stop your offense."


As the Bucks new multimillion dollar palace rounds into shape down the street, dreams of future glory with Antetokounmpo leading the way will hover in the minds of Milwaukee fans who were lucky enough to see Robertson and Abdul-Jabbar lift the franchise to prominence the first time around. But for as much joy came out of seeing a new era of players race up and down the remake of a beautiful old floor, it was also a reminder that the elusive championship days are still a long way off unless the Bucks can get their young star some more consistent help. In the meantime, Antetokounmpo laid out some pretty simple advice when asked what his teammates can do when defenders are collapsing down around him.

Officially joined the Cavaliers Wade: hope and James three wins champion

Wade has come to the knight pre-season training camp and the team rendezvous Wade in a statement that, with James's deep friendship and the presence of pleasant cooperation experience, is his thunder, the Spurs, the old club heat and knight Important reason, "there is nothing more than here to let me continue to play a high level of content in the field, Cleveland also believe that my strength, as well as the players, leaders and competition for the championship contribution, I We are looking forward to playing with the good brothers LeBron, and we have won two championships, and I hope to win the third. "

Wade and James in addition to the 2003 ladies draft pick is also a friend, 2 people in 2011-14 years with the Heat won two championships, if the new season knight and then win, it will be Wade career fourth crown ( 2006 with Shaquille O'Neal wins the first crown) and the third crown with James.

James is also today after the team practice for the Cavaliers to find Wade move is very happy. "He is one of my best friends, he is the kind of you just go to school into the classroom is not sure who is your classmate, and then you see a friend there, you will have that" Fun, it will be a good class. "

With Isaiah Thomas-Kyrie Irving trade on hold, what's next for Cavs, Celtics?

The Boston Celtics were happy with the trade that netted them All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving from the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavs were happy with the deal that yielded another All-Star point guard in Isaiah Thomas, three-and-D wing Jae Crowder, promising young center Ante Zizic and Brooklyn’s 2018 first-round draft pick.
Given Irving’s desire to play elsewhere, it was a trade that satisfied both teams.
Until Thomas took a physical with the Cavaliers.

Today, no one involved in the trade is thrilled.
Happiness is fleeting.
The results of Thomas’ physical have given the Cavaliers pause – enough so that voiding the trade is one option, though that would be the nuclear choice in this blockbuster deal. Per NBA collective-bargaining rules, a team can void a trade if a player fails a physical

Thomas sustained a torn labrum in his right hip March 15 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, re-aggravated it in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Washington Wizards and aggravated it more against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2 of the conference finals.

Now, the Cavaliers are conducting a thorough review of the trade and plotting their next step, which may also include asking the Celtics for more compensation.

Thomas did not undergo surgery to repair his hip, and Celtics president Danny Ainge admitted on a conference call last week after the trade was announced that “there’s going to be probably a little bit of a delay for Isaiah as he starts the season this year, but – um – I think that Isaiah should be fine and healthy as the season goes along.”

Word out of Boston is that the Celtics aren’t thrilled with the idea of adding another piece to the trade and are adamant they were up front with the Cavs about Thomas’ injury. However, that doesn’t mean the Cavs’ medical staff sees it the same way the Celtics did. It’s possible the Cavaliers believe Thomas will miss more games than Boston did.

Report: Derrick Rose and LeBron James were in contact during recruitment process

Amid the drama surrounding the Cavaliers following the revelation that Kyrie Irvinghas requested a trade, Cleveland Cavaliers has reportedly agreed to a one-year, $2.1M deal with Derrick Rose. 

And while LeBron James has said that he will stay out of the trade discussions, letting the front office and new general manager Koby Altman handle things, The King was reportedly in contact with Rose throughout the recruitment process. 

It's hard to really tell too much from this, but it at least seems from the outside that the move was co-signed by LeBron. 

He's not actually the GM, despite what the Twitter dot com jokes may say, but James holds immense power and influence and largely dictates the way the team will play. If he didn't think that Rose would be a helpful addition, it's unlikely the Cavs would have signed him, especially given Rose's decline in recent years. 

Thunder's Russell Westbrook wins NBA MVP, but award show does him no favors

The NBA held its inaugural awards show to hand out the 2016-17 season hardware, highlighted by Russell Westbrook winning his first career MVP. USA TODAY Sports

　　Russell Westbrook deserved the hardware.


　　As we discussed more than two months ago, when this debate was front and center and the Oklahoma City Thunder star was putting the finishing touches on one of the more memorable MVP races in NBA history, his triple-double season for the ages deserved to be rewarded. But for the love of Oscar Robertson, was this timing tough or what?


　　It wasn’t Westbrook’s fault that the league decided to wait 75 days to settle the argument by way of the NBA Awards show on TNT, with the 28-year-old beating out fellow finalists James Harden of the Houston Rockets and Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs. But synergy was sacrificed in the name of the almighty dollar. And by the time Westbrook got his hands on the Maurice Podoloff Trophy that belonged to the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry these past two years – nearly seven weeks after the announcement last season – the optics changed on the MVP race in the kind of way that gave the formal crowning a hollow feel.
It’s all a disastrous disservice to the players who deserve better.

LeBron James Is Indestructible

For all the many things LeBron James is praised for, from his ability to set up his teammates to his capacity to take over a game, his most underappreciated quality may be his most obvious: He's always there.

Since entering the league in 2003, James has never sat out for more than 15 percent of a season (regular and playoffs combined). Among players of his caliber, past and present, that's unprecedented. Stephen Curry had ankle issues at the start of his career; both Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant experienced late-season injuries that forced them to miss the playoffs in, respectively, 2000 and 20131; and Michael Jordan broke his foot in his sophomore season. Then there's James. He's never missed a playoff game, and even though he has the sixth-most regular-season minutes of all time among players at the same point in their careers (within their first 14 years in the league), the most severe injuries he's incurred are a sore back and knee and some untimely cramps.

Quantifying a player's durability is a bit tricky because the NBA doesn't keep track of games missed due to injury, which leaves us no way to distinguish physical issues from other reasons for missing games, such as paternity leave or regular rest. The best we can do, then, is to look at the number of games a player appeared in as a portion of the number of games they could have appeared in. The higher the percentage of possible games played, the more durable the player is.2

This year, James appeared in 74 out of a possible 82 games during the regular season and has played in all 12 of the Cavaliers' playoff games — that's a 91 percent appearance rate. By itself, that statistic is unremarkable. But when you put it in context — James has played in at least 85 percent of his teams' games in every season of his career — you see something special.

Here's James compared to the five inactive players with the highest career win share since 1980.3

The only other past superstars who've played in a higher percentage of their teams' total games are Karl Malone and John Stockton. (It's fitting that a player nicknamed "The Mailman" appeared in 100 percent of potential games 10 different times in his career.) But even they had their injuries. In Malone's case, he tweaked his right knee in his final season and missed nearly half of the regular season. (To be fair to Malone, he was eight years older than James and five seasons deeper into his career.) Meanwhile, Stockton injured his MCL in 1997, forcing him to sit out the first 18 games of that year.4

He's been equally great when compared to the five other active players with the highest career win share.

Truth is, James has been even healthier than those numbers would suggest, because potential games played is a conservative estimate of durability. Some of the games James missed weren't because he was injured, but rather because a coach decided to rest him for meaningless games at the end of a regular season. (A philosophy that Malone is happy to remind people didn't exist in his day.)
All this is even more impressive considering the bruising style of basketball James is known for. Among active players, no one has gone to the free-throw line more than James. It's almost unbelievable that a player who plays such physical ball has stayed so healthy since, as we've seen in this year's playoffs with Blake Griffin, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard and Isaiah Thomas, it only takes one misstep to end someone's season.

Score Off The Down Screen Like Kevin Durant

Dr. Dish is back at it again with another amazing Drill of the Week! This week we are focusing on scoring from the mid-level down screen. Recently we broke down scoring using the flare screen action. Its very important to have some quick scoring moves when utilizing the down screen or pin down option.

The Golden State Warriors have mastered the down screen action and have continued to perplex teams with it. They have the incredible ability to make the correct reads off the down screen. In the video below we will break down 3 quick and effective ways to score off the down screen. Through diligent work on these basketball drills, players can become automatic when catching the ball off of the action.

In these basketball drills, we have the Dr. Dish All-Star pulled away from the basket at the top of the key to deliver game-like passes. There's no other shooting machine in the world designed for game-scenario passing!

Hesitation Dribble Into Running Floater

The first move we will break down is the hesitation dribble into the floater. Oftentimes the screener's man will help to prevent the curl action from happening. The defender will step out and try to deter the player from curling and will buy time for his teammate to recover back. One quick way to combat this is to use the hesitation dribble. When you catch the pass off the down screen you want to take a hard dribble as if you are retreating from the hoop. This will fool the screen defender into thinking he has done his job. As soon as you see that defender release, you want to take one more hard dribble towards the hoop and float it over that same defender. Your defender will be trailing you or will be on your hip. Make sure to protect the basketball with your body when attacking and focus on executing the floater. The key is staying patient and reading the defense.

Turn Around Fade-Away Jumper

The second move is one of my personal favorites. The turn around fade away jumper is more of an advanced move, but with proper technique and practice it can be a terrific way to score off the down screen. One important piece to this move is coming off the screen hard. You want your defender to try and fight through the screen because this will lead them to be off balance. You want to set them up with a hard dribble as if you are curling the screen and then spin back off the defender, pushing off on your back foot for a fade away shot. You only need a second of separation for the move to work, so its important to focus on the shot after doing the move.

Quick Change of Direction to Running Fade-Away Shot

The last move I will break down is probably the most difficult. This move requires great footwork, burst, and technique. Once again you want to come off the down screen hard so that you defender tries to fight through the screen. As soon as you catch the basketball of the down screen, you are going to do a quick behind the back towards the direction you just came from. At this point the number one option is to score at the rim, but if your defender gets back to you or the help side steps in you can use the running fade-away jumper. Kevin Durant does an amazing job selling the hard dribble to the hoop. This gets his defender off balance once again and allows him to create separation for the shot. This is a difficult shot because you are moving in one direction and fading to another.

These are all effective options out of the down screen/pin down action but ONLY if worked on diligently. It's essential to work at game speed with any basketball drills that you use. Focus on the your balance, footwork, and reading your defender and there's no doubt that you'll improve. Here at Dr. Dish basketball we train hard, train smart, and train with a purpose!

Expect Kristaps Porzingis to continue shooting three-pointers

Young Knicks forward Kristaps Porzingis averaged 14.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game as a rookie last season. Despite his height and position, he took a lot of three-pointers, hitting 81-of-243 (33.3%). Normally you don’t want a forward who is taller than most of the league’s centers to shoot many outside shots at all, let alone lots of three-pointers. Unless, of course, he can make them. On that note, here’s the New York Daily News reporting:

Expect even more three-pointers from Kristaps Porzingis this season

Given the green light by Phil Jackson, Kristaps Porzingis is heading into the season unafraid of releasing a pull-up 3-pointer.

The 7-3 Latvian demonstrated the shot in transition during a training-camp scrimmage Thursday, finding open looks as the trailer early in the shot clock. The Knicks hope to get these type of looks more often this season with quicker guards and a faster-paced offense.

“I think that’s a high percentage shot for me. Last year Phil Jackson, he told me that he likes that shot,” said Porzingis, who was left with a bloody nose during the scrimmage after being clocked under the basket. “I wasn’t so sure about it at first. It was early in the offense. I didn’t know if it was the best shot. But once we saw the percentages he said it’s a pretty good look if I get that. The bigs a lot of times, they’re giving me that space, then just take that shot. Once he said that I have his confidence in me and it was just let it go. I’ll probably do the same thing this year.”

4 Teams That Could Beat The USA's Basketball Team

The United States remains the undisputed champion of international basketball, but it might not be as easy in Tokyo in 2020.

The 2016 Rio Olympics taught us that even when USA Basketball sends its B-team, the rest of the world still isn't particularly close. Without LeBron James, Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis and many others, the U.S. still won the gold medal game by 30 points over Serbia. There were tight games and uninspiring stretches along the way, but the final result was never in real doubt because of Team USA's overwhelming talent advantage.

That could change by the time the U.S. is going for its fourth straight gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The United States will still have the greatest and deepest pool of players to choose from, but there is some serious young talent emerging around the world. The 2016 NBA Draft was the best example of this, as 10 of the first 16 players selected were born outside of the U.S.

There appear to be four countries in particular that could have some legit star power by the time the 2020 games arrive. With apologies to Spain, Serbia, Lithuania, Greece and Germany, here are the biggest threats to U.S. basketball supremacy.

4. France

 


Who's probably back: Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum, Nando de Colo, Thomas Heurtel, Joffrey Lauvergne

Who's probably out: Tony Parker, Boris Diaw

The next French team will have a distinctly different feel after the departure of Tony Parker, who announced his retirement from international competition last week. Parker has been the face of French basketball for the last decade, but it's possible the next generation could have even more success.

France should bring back a strong veteran core, led by Gobert's towering defensive presence. Nando de Colo (who would be 33) and Thomas Heurtel (who would be 31) could still provide offensive firepower in the backcourt, while Nicolas Batum provides two-way stability on the wing should he return at age 31 in the 2020 games.

France also has some exciting young players. Five French players were selected in the 2016 draft covering all five positions. Another wave of French-born talent is coming in the 2017 NBA Draft, with point guard Frank Ntilikina gaining hype as a potential top-10 selection and 7'2 center Jonathan Jeanne also currently projected as a first rounder.

The biggest addition of all should be Evan Fournier, who was strangely left off France's 2016 team in Rio because he skipped a preliminary tournament.

3. Croatia


Who's probably back: Bojan Bogdanović, Dario Saric, Mario Hezonja, Darko Planinić

Who's probably gone: Roko Ukić and/or Krunoslav Simon, who will each be 35 years old.

Let's recognize that Bojan Bogdanović is a star in international play. His 25.3 points per game were four more than any other player at the Rio Olympics. He'll be 31 in 2020 and should still have one more good run left in him. And by that time, Dario Saric and Mario Hezonja should be coming into their own in the NBA.

Saric and Hezonja might be the next great international duo. Saric played well as a 22-year-old in this tournament and has rare talents as a playmaking four. Hezonja has outstanding potential as a shooter and scorer and at 21 years old is only starting to scratch the surface. They will be ready to roll in Tokyo.

Dragan Bender is on his way, too. It's incredible to think Bender will still only be 22 years old for the 2020 games, but the fourth pick in the 2016 NBA Draft was outstanding for Croatia in junior competitions and should have already carved out an NBA role by then. Croatia also has Ivica Zubac and Ante Zizic, a pair of 19-year-old centers who were selected in the 2016 NBA Draft.

2. Australia


Who's probably back: Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova, Aron Baynes, Joe Ingles

Who's probably gone: Andrew Bogut, David Andersen

The Aussies watched their first Olympic medal slip through their hands in heartbreaking fashion in Rio, but a bright future should help alleviate the sting of the final minute against Spain. The Australians already have a quality system put in place by a good coach in Andrej Lemanis. They should have Patty Mills (Rio's second-leading scorer) and Matthew Dellavedova entrenched in the backcourt. They have a veteran shooter on the wing in Joe Ingles and a steady defensive anchor in the front court in Aron Baynes. Even without Andrew Bogut, that's the solid base.

The reason Australia's basketball future is so exciting is because of who is joining them. It starts with Ben Simmons, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft and possibly Australia's first NBA superstar. Point guard Dante Exum, the fifth pick in 2014, could be a very good NBA player in his own right by then. There's also the great unknown that is Thon Maker.

There also seems to be quality Australian players entering the college ranks every year. Deng Adel is expected to be a breakout player for Louisville as a sophomore, while Isaac Humphries should crack Kentucky's loaded frontcourt rotation. Another name to remember is Harry Froling, a 6'9 stretch forward set to debut for SMU this season.

1. Canada


Canada hasn't qualified for the Olympics since 2000, but it's impossible to ignore the young talent base that's been accumulating for our neighbor to the north. Since 2011, there have been 10 first-round draft picks from Canada, with seven selected in the lottery. That includes two No. 1 overall picks on distinctly different career paths at the moment.

While time is running out for Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins looks like a future All-Star as he enters his third NBA season. With Wiggins holding down the wing, Canada should also have go-to offensive options in the backcourt and front court. Trey Lyles is a 6'10 forward coming off a promising rookie year for the Jazz, while Jamal Murray comes to the Nuggets as the No. 7 pick in the draft after a great offensive season at Kentucky.

Canada also has a group of solid young veterans who have already realized their potential in the NBA. Point guard Cory Joseph has turned into a great defender for the Raptors, the Celtics' Kelly Olynyk has proven to be a capable shooter in the front court and Tristan Thompson is already one of the NBA's best rebounders. Each will only be 29 years old in 2020.

The wildcard here could be R.J. Barrett, currently the top-ranked high school sophomore in the world. He was born in 2000 and would be 20 years old in Tokyo. We're all so old.

It would require a massive jump for Canada to go from a non-qualifier to an Olympic contender in just four years, but the talent is there. Team USA remains on top of the world, but they can't get too comfortable.

Why LeBron James is Nike's for life

LeBron James has said in the past that he is tired of being compared to Michael Jordan, but the new deal he signed on Monday means that he may well be seen as stepping into Jordan’s shoes, or more specifically, his Air Jordans.

James has just signed a lifetime deal with Nike, which will potentially earn the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar more than $60m (£40m) a year. Like Jordan, James has been working with the company since his youth, signing his first $90m deal with them when he was just out of high school after a bidding war between Nike, Adidas and Reebok.

“I’m just grateful that Nike and [Nike co-founder] Phil Knight and everyone over there just believed in a skinny 18-year-old kid from Akron, Ohio,” James told reporters on Monday.

So what does a contract for life involve and who gets them? Karl Lagerfeld is said to be so important to Chanel that he has one with the label. Ditto Annie Leibovitz, whose contract with Vanity Fair publisher Condé Nast is supposedly worth $5m a year. Jordan, who first signed a deal in 1984, has been working successfully with Nike for 12 years since his retirement. His Air Jordan line sold $2.5bn worth of shoes in 2012, and Jordan is thought to earn $100m a year thanks to the range. David Beckham, meanwhile, will make more than $160m from the lifetime contract with Adidas that he signed in 2003.

David Abrutyn, an executive vice president at the media marketing agency Bruin Sports Capital, says that the deal reflects James’s importance to the company. “They are very purposefully defining that they have done a lifetime deal with LeBron and I think that speaks volumes about what he means for their business,” he says. “I’m sure if you talked to the people at Nike they would tell you that of the thousands of athletes they represent, more than a few of them have asked for a lifetime deal.” He says that it is likely to be Nike’s biggest deal since its “de facto” lifetime contract with Jordan.

The world of sponsorship hasn’t always been plain sailing for Nike, whose shareholders were reported to have lost tens of millions of dollars after standing by Tiger Woods during his infidelity scandal. Lance Armstrong and Oscar Pistorius, who lost their Nike sponsorship in 2012 and 2013 respectively, have also caused headaches for the company.

Despite this, Abrutyn thinks that Nike envisages this deal being successful, perhaps even to the grave. “As with Jordan, what you’re seeing here is a reflection of the business that LeBron helped drive,” he says. In other words, nice work if you can get it.

The Joy of Six: the NBA's hard menc

 
1) Bill Laimbeer

The funniest thing about the basketball’s biggest tough guys is that away from the game they could be very nice. It’s just when they got on the court something took over. They were rugged, fierce and willing to throw anyone out of the way. And few men in professional basketball played that role better than the center of the late 1980s and early 90s Detroit Pistons.

Perhaps you have to consider the setting with Laimbeer. He was the muscle on a team called the Bad Boys. He had no choice but to be rough. Fortunately, he had no trouble fitting the role. At 6ft 11in, with thick shoulders and dark eyes, he looked mean. When he wore clear plastic mask as he often did, the scowl was even worse. Whether real or not he appeared to enjoy driving an elbow in an opponent’s side.

Perhaps Dennis Rodman (we’ll get to him in a bit) summed it up best in his book As Bad As I Want To Be when he wrote: “He was more than a thug but that’s what he’ll be remembered for.” He was a four-time All-Star, once led the NBA in rebounding and averaged nearly 10 boards a game for his career – but that’s not what people will recall. Instead, when they think of Laimbeer they will think of him for moments like this.
That escalated quickly.

Ironically, Laimbeer has become an outstanding women’s basketball coach with three WNBA titles in 11 years – all with the Detroit Shock. To see him now as coach of the New York Liberty, laughing on the sidelines, imploring his players to hurry up the court you have to wonder: Is this the same guy?

2) Xavier McDaniel

With a nickname like the X-Man how can you not be a tough guy? The essence of McDaniel can be summed up in a single photograph. In the picture, McDaniel, then with the Seattle SuperSonics, has Lakers guard Wes Matthews pinned against the scorer’s table and is choking him. Matthews’ eyes are wide with shock and his mouth is open as if gasping for air.

McDaniel also had a handful of memorable confrontations with the Chicago Bulls, and Michael Jordan in particular, when he played for the Knicks in the 1990s. Though he started off as a big scorer with the Sonics in the 80s, he came to fit best in a role as a reserve willing to set heavy screens, make a defensive stop, get a rebound and generally annoy opposing players and coaches.

The X-Man was always one of the game’s more interesting players. In keeping with the theme, he named his son Xavier and his daughter Xylina. He also dabbled in television with an appearance on Married With Children and a handful of reality shows. But his finest screen performance was in the movie Singles, which might be the best athlete cameo ever.

3) Maurice Lucas

So much of professional basketball history is centered around the modern era we don’t pay enough attention to the past. Since Lucas played in the 1970s there’s isn’t as much video evidence of his career as there is for contemporary players, but there was a tine when the last person you wanted to tussle with on the court was the man they called: “The Enforcer.”

He played for seven teams in 14 years, which doesn’t say enough about how dominant a player he was on the floor. While he averaged 14.4 points and 8.8 rebounds in his NBA career he was best known for using his 6ft, 9in, 250lb body to clear players away from the basket. To understand how powerful Lucas was as a player, Bill Walton named his son Luke after Lucas – in part, a testament to the role Lucas played in helping Walton and the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA title in 1977.
Advertisement

“He really liked being the enforcer-type player,” Portland’s coach in those days, Jack Ramsey, said after Lucas died in 2010. “A great rebounder. A great outlet passer. Then he could score on the post, make jump shots on the perimeter. But mostly it was his physical persona that he carried with him that made us a different team.”

Perhaps Lucas is best remembered for his role in this fight with Darryl Dawkins in the 1977 NBA Finals. “More than anything else in my career, I’ve been reminded of that incident and reminded of the fact that I was a real physical player,” he later said. “I’m not reminded of the fact that I was the leading scorer on those teams that I played on. But the old saying goes, ‘As long as they remember you, you can’t be mad.’”

4) Dennis Rodman

In later years Rodman became such a sideshow it is easy to forget the ferocious rebounder and defender who played alongside Laimbeer in Detroit and helped the Pistons establish their relentless reputation as much as anyone. He won five NBA titles, was twice the league’s defensive player of the year and was named to the all-defensive team seven times.

Of course, he is rarely glorified for these things. Instead, he is best known for wearing a wedding dress, his celebrity pals and multi-colored hairstyles. In many ways, he became bigger after basketball than he ever was as a player. This is unfortunate.

Nobody was better at stopping another team’s top scorer than Rodman. A lot of this came from an intense desire to be great at basketball. Not even considered for his high school team in Dallas, he gave the game a try after school when he suddenly grew several inches. While other players had been heavily recruited by big college programs, he went from working at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport to junior college, to little-known Southeastern Oklahoma State. So when he finally made the NBA at 25 he was determined to stay.

If that meant fighting his way through the league then that was what he would do. But to win five championships in what was essentially a 13-year NBA career says something about how good a defender and rebounder he really was.

5) Charles Barkley

To see him now on television, laughing through the halftime show, is to not remember how rough, aggressive and downright irrepressible he was as a player. One doesn’t average nearly 12 rebounds a game as a 6ft 5in forward and not be tough.

After establishing himself as a star over eight seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, he won the MVP in 1993 in his first season with the Phoenix Suns and came within two wins of the NBA title that would forever elude him. Getting him away from the basket was impossible, he took his 252lbs that gave him the nickname ‘The Round Mound of Rebound’ and knocked people away. He was as good at grabbing a rebound and laying it back in as he was as shooting a fadeaway jumper. In some ways he was probably best with three players around him.

But he was also a polarizing player. He tussled with several opponents, shouted at fans and seemed to operate without a filter. When Nike introduced a commercial campaign in which he declared “I am not a role model”, people were furious. Why couldn’t he learn to behave?

That was Barkley. His most notorious incident might have been the time in 1991 when he spit at a fan in New Jersey, missing the man with his saliva and hitting a little girl instead. He was fined $10,000 and suspended. He apologized to the girl and later said the incident was his greatest regret.

6) Charles Oakley

Though his career roughly shadowed Barkley’s, this Charles was not as famous. He was three inches taller than Barkley and not nearly the accomplished scorer and yet he might have been the most aggressive player of his era. If Isiah Thomas had Laimbeer and Rodman, Michael Jordan had Oakley in his early years.

Oakley served as the young Jordan’s protector, clearing away big defenders and showing little regard for those who did not appreciate his ferocity. But it was after Oakley was traded to the Knicks in 1988 that he became widely known for his aggressiveness, especially against Chicago and Miami. This 1996 fight with Barkley embodies Oakley’s 10-year career in New York.

He could also score, averaging in double figures several times, but since he played most of his career in the NBA’s Eastern Conference he was usually needed to protect teammates, get rebounds and clear opponents away from the basket. He played this role perfectly. He never got the Knicks to an elusive title but he came close and became an essential stopper on a team built for defense first.

Dave Meyers, U.C.L.A. Basketball Star, Dies at 62

Dave Meyers, who led U.C.L.A. to the 1975 N.C.A.A. basketball championship as the team’s lone senior in John Wooden’s final season as coach, and who was later part of the trade that sent Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Los Angeles Lakers, died on Friday at his home in Temecula, Calif. He was 62.    

His death was announced by U.C.L.A., which said the cause was cancer.

Meyers, a 6-foot-8 forward, led U.C.L.A. in scoring with 18.3 points a game and in rebounding with 7.9 a game in his final season, helping the Bruins to a 28-3 record. He had 24 points and 11 rebounds in U.C.L.A.’s 92-85 victory over Kentucky in the N.C.A.A. title game, which was played in his hometown, San Diego.  

He was chosen by the Lakers as the second overall pick in the 1975 N.B.A. draft. (David Thompson of North Carolina State was drafted first, by the Atlanta Hawks, although he instead signed with the Virginia Squires of the rival A.B.A.)

Shortly after the draft, Meyers was part of a blockbuster trade: He was sent, along with Junior Bridgeman, Brian Winters and Elmore Smith, to the Milwaukee Bucks for Abdul-Jabbar — who was already a three-time most valuable player and who is now widely regarded as one of the greatest players in N.B.A. history — and Walt Wesley.

Meyers played well for Milwaukee, averaging 11.2 points and 6.3 rebounds a game, but retired after four seasons.

David William Meyers was born on April 21, 1953, in San Diego. His survivors include his wife of 40 years, Linda; a daughter, Crystal; a son, Sean; his mother, Pat; three brothers, Mark, Jeff and Bobby; and five sisters, Ann Meyers Drysdale, Patty Meyers, Cathy Meyers, Susan Meyers and Coleen Lindsey.

Ann Meyers Drysdale was also a star basketball player at U.C.L.A. and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.

Lovetron beckons: legendary dunk artist Darryl Dawkins dies at 58

Darryl Dawkins of the Philadelphia 76ers dunks during a 1980 playoff game against the Atlanta Hawks. Photograph: Rusty Kennedy/AP

The biggest surprise about Darryl Dawkins’s death on Thursday is that it came at age 58. He always seemed destined to either die early or live on forever.

We were lucky that Dawkins came along before sports was ruined by image-makers and professional basketball athletes dared to show personality. Few men made basketball more fun then the 6ft 11in center for the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, Detroit Pistons and whatever minor league team was willing to extend his career long after it had burned out in the NBA.

Dawkins died Thursday in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania hospital. No cause was of death was given, an inglorious end to an oversized life.
Darryl Dawkins’s ferocious dunks became his calling card.

He claimed to have come from a planet called Lovetron and called named himself Chocolate Thunder, claiming the nickname was given him by Stevie Wonder. He was also Dr Dunkenstein and Sir Slam. The nicknames forever changed depending on how he felt. And when he dunked basketballs he did so with a ferociousness few had ever seen. Today, players regularly battle to see who can dunk the hardest, but the late 1970s when Chocolate Thunder roamed the courts, Dawkins was slamming the ball through rims in a way other players never dreamed.

Twice, he broke backboards dunking in games. Each time he shattered the glass into little shards that looked like tiny bits of ice strewn around the court. The NBA introduced collapsible rims not long after that, leaving Dr Dunkenstein to perform more traditional assaults on basketball rims.

Dawkins so loved his dunks that he often named them. His first backboard-breaking dunk deserved an outrageous nickname, therefore he called it: The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam. Others were comparatively subtle even if they seemed just as ridiculous. Who could forget the In-Your-Face-Disgrace? Or the Spine-Chiller-Supreme?

But for all the laughs and outlandish dunks Dawkins did not have the dominating career many assumed for him when he came to the league straight from high school in 1975. He was the fifth overall pick in the draft that year and helped the Sixers make three NBA finals before his trade to New Jersey in 1982.

For his NBA career he averaged 12.0 points and 6.1 rebounds a game. Decent numbers but not the kind of Hall of Fame career his immense talent said he should have had. He seemed a player who should have gone to college, maybe maturing before coming to the NBA. Instead, he had to learn as a pro, struggling through his first few seasons. When he finally established himself, injuries kept him from basketball greatness.

He drifted for several years, floating through Italy and the Continental Basketball Association and even had a brief run with the Harlem Globetrotters, not fully retiring from basketball until 2000.

Still, few players can say they left a mark – literally – on the game and inspired perhaps the biggest equipment change in 50 years with collapsible rims.

Not bad for a kid from Lovetron who never went to college.

Maya Moore and Minnesota searching for answers as WNBA playoffs loom

Maya Moore drives to the basket during Friday’s game at Madison Square Garden. Photograph: Joel Plummer/ZUMA Press/Corbis

There’s a cognitive dissonance in asking what’s wrong with the Minnesota Lynx, who entered Friday night’s game against the New York Liberty with a 19-9 record, best in the WNBA.

But it is universal: the Lynx are performing short both the standard the team itself set since 2011, also known as the Maya Moore Era. And the Lynx weren’t merely supposed to excel in 2015, but dominate after a midseason trade brought star center Sylvia Fowles to town.

A 19-9 record looks less glamorous in the franchise index, considering the Lynx have never lost as many as 10 games with Moore. A 7-6 mark since Fowles came to town put the Lynx superteam talk on hold, even more following an 81-68 loss to the Liberty Friday in which the Lynx never really challenged late.

Even the MVP campaign of Moore, fourth in the league in Player Efficiency Rating at 25.5 and ninth in the league un Defensive Rating, has been filled with questions over an uncharacteristic drop in her shooting percentage.

So while the Lynx have an undeniable collection of elite talent – Moore and Fowles only begin the list of Olympians on the roster, from Lindsay Whalen to Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson to Asjha Jones, a full majority of the team USA Basketball veterans – turning a champion on paper into a force within a hugely competitive league hasn’t been simple.

And remember, too, the new combination of talent means the Lynx are trying to win differently: the offensive force with solid defense is morphing into a team that wins defensively with just enough offense instead.

“We are different,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said, standing at midcourt an hour before Friday night’s showdown. “A big part of our offense came through elbow actions. And my starting post players now, it’s not really their forte. So we look a little different, and certain lineups, we look a certain way, and we sub and look another way.
Advertisement

“It’s different, and four of my nine rotation players haven’t been Lynx before. This is a bigger picture for us than people realize. There’s years past, you can’t help measuring us against past years. Luckily, our players realize our measuring stick is this season, against the other teams in the league, right now.”

The changing cast, emphasized by the three-team deal that brought Fowles to the Lynx, is reflected in the team emphases. The DRating of 95.9 for the Lynx is 2015 is second in the league, trailing only the Liberty, who are playing at a historic pace. But the ORating is 101.6, just fourth in the league and well off the pace of either Lynx WNBA championship teams from 2011 or 2013.

“If our offense isn’t going to be as high-powered, than our defense has to be better than it’s been,” Reeve said it simply.

So the statistical benchmarks have changed. The Lynx are grabbing 76.8% of the available defensive rebounds, good for second in the league, and easily the best mark for the Lynx since Moore entered the league. A lot of that happened before Fowles, the second-best defensive rebounder in the history of the league. And yet, for Reeve, that emphasis needs to intensify over the final few games of the regular season and playoffs.

“Efficiency on offense is down,” Reeve said. “We’re turning the ball over too much. Our field goal percentage is down. So now we’re in transition defense a lot. And that’s creating problems for us at the other end. And quite frankly, that’s creating frustration, a lack of focus on finishing plays.”

The personification of that drop in field goal percentage – which, again, has cratered the Lynx all the way down to ... second-best in the league – is Moore, whose field goal percentage dropped from 48.1% last year to just 41.9% this year entering Friday’s game. It’s otherwise been a vintage Moore season. The reigning MVP is actually defending at a career-best rate, with a DRating of 93, while all her other rate stats are stable. Moore even captured the all star game MVP last month, scoring 30 in the win. But the shots simply aren’t falling the way they have in the past, and Moore has a pretty good idea why.

“The way I get my shots happens before I touch the ball,” Moore said. “And it’s a great mindset for me to have, and it’s the way I was taught to play basketball. You do a lot of cutting and screening, and you get easier shots. So that doesn’t necessarily come to pass when I’m catching in tough spots, or trying to create myself a lot more.”

Put another way, teammates more familiar with what Moore likes and where she’s going at any moment will help find her more easily. But that takes time.

It didn’t happen much on Friday night. Moore shot 8-for-20, mostly on shots she created herself, with hands in her face. If this were simply the result of facing the Liberty, it would be one thing. But Reeve pointed out this has become the new normal for her team.

Unsurprisingly, the need for more consistent, effortless communication on the offensive end carries over to defense, where conversation between teammates is central to any defensive unit.

“Getting everybody connected is our main issue on defense,” Moore said. “To make sure everybody’s defensive instincts are together.”

Moore, though, is the best she’s ever been at that end, to the point that Reeve has been working with her to figure out ways she can conserve energy on defensive tactics that don’t ultimately benefit the team as much – Reeve pointed out Moore’s charging to meet her opponent at midcourt, giving her that much more ground to cover without appreciably changing the task of the offensive team, or extra gambling for steals.

So what exactly does it look like when these Minnesota Lynx, not the championship teams of the recent past, reach their potential?

“These guys know when it feels good,” Reeve said. “When you’re moving in sync. We have a lot of possessions where we have maybe two players over here, and then these three over here,” and Reeve gestured toward the front court, “one over here, the other on top of the other one, and there’s not a recognition of, you’ve got to move jointly. And it’s the same on defense.”

That’s asking a lot of any team – again, forgetting that this is a Lynx team that’s clinched a playoff berth already and has the inside track on home court advantage throughout the playoffs through all the challenges – and Reeve sees approximately two weeks left to figure out the rest.

“By the time the playoffs start – we play September 11, and how we feel at the end of that game is going to determine a lot,” Reeve said. “So we have a six-game season. That’s how we look at it. And this is game 1, getting that rhythm. It’s going to be hard to do.

“And this team needs some signature wins, where we can say ‘Oh, that was hard.’ Because sometimes when you win, and people talk about you in a certain way, you start believing that it isn’t hard. And it’s always been hard to win games in this league. It was never easy for us, and I think some of that has crept in for us.”

So Reeve shifted some tactics, “change course” as she put it. Even with the best record in the West. Because to her, the Lynx are not a championship team the way they are going.

“Because staying the course wasn’t working. And some of it is a mindset, not Xs and Os. I’d say more than half of it is a mindset. And I’ll know when they get it. The outside thinks whatever, that we should win every game. And we know we have a little ways to go. And we’re going to work hard to get there. I think we can. We have great leaders.”

The leader among leaders, Moore, echoed Reeve. She said she is certain she and her teammates have figured out what is necessary to be “as great as we know we can be.” There’s still plenty of season left.

“Being great every year is a challenge,” Moore said, “And it’s a challenge we haven’t lost yet.”

LSU Tigers star Ben Simmons: ‘I definitely want to be the No 1 pick'

From slumber parties to the heights of global basketball, Dante Exum and Ben Simmons have shared quite the journey since meeting over a decade ago. Once regulars on the courts of Melbourne, the Australian duo are now excelling in the US: the former a rising talent with the Utah Jazz (notwithstanding recent injury misfortune), the latter a college player widely tipped to be the No 1 draft pick in 2016. Despite busy schedules and the distance between them, they remain close friends.

Ben Simmons has been settling into Baton Rouge life. Photograph: Kelly Kline/Getty Images

“I usually call Dante every month,” recent Louisiana State University addition Simmons says following a training session. “We met when I was seven and have been really good mates ever since. We grew up together: training, having sleepovers, playing on the same team.”

The pair share many similarities. Both were born in Melbourne to American fathers whose pursuit of the basketball dream led them to Australia, where they became team-mates at the Melbourne Tigers. Exum and Simmons both spent time at the Australian Institute of Sport, a national basketball academy, while each possesses a not dissimilar mix of envious physical attributes.

There is, though, one stark difference: Simmons will never be an ‘international man of mystery’. Unlike his friend, a largely unknown quantity when he was drafted at No 5 in 2014, Simmons will have been scrutinised from every angle by the time he nominates for the NBA.

At present, these assessments points to one thing: Simmons being the most sought after player at the draft’s 2016 edition.

The 19-year-old’s rare combination of size, speed and ball-handling has scouts salivating, and a quick look at the innumerable highlight compilations on YouTube provide ample justification. Despite standing at 6ft 10in, Simmons is as confident running the floor or leading transition play as he is finishing under the basket – Sports Illustrated aptly described him as a “point center”.

The list of accolades earned by Simmons is similarly impressive: in 2015 he was Gatorade National Player of the Year, Naismith Prep Player of the Year and starred in the McDonald’s All-American game. With past Naismith winners including LeBron James and Kevin Love, Simmons is already in rarefied company.

But the path from high school awards to NBA success is littered with pitfalls, and Simmons is aware of the challenges ahead. While he defiantly declares: “I definitely want to be the No 1 pick – I’m always going to back myself over someone else,” he quickly acknowledges that “there is lots of work to do and much more pressure to come.”

Pressure – whether from the team, media, fans, or within – is a difficult beast. Chatting to the Guardian not long after being drafted, Simmons’ friend Exum looked slightly jaded, and spoke candidly about the intense media spotlight. Although Simmons has had a longer adjustment period, thanks to his decision to play on the American school circuit rather than remain at the less-visible Australian Institute of Sport, he admits to having mixed feelings about dealing with the hype.

“It gets easier day-by-day, but it becomes harder long term: the better you get, the more attention that is focused on you,” Simmons observes. “I’m fine with it, though: it’s all part of the experience.”

One factor keeping Simmons firmly rooted is his strong family network. As the youngest of six children and with an ex-professional providing fatherly guidance, Simmons has an effective barrier against an over-inflated ego. His godfather and now assistant coach at LSU, David Patrick, joked recently that “at home, he’s ranked nothing,” and Simmons shares this sentiment.

“I’m just Ben at the end of the day,” he laughs. “My family have always been there to support me – they have never put me on a pedestal and said I was this or that. Whenever I’m with them, I’m back to being the youngest in the family.”

Simmons also enjoys the support of a broader network at LSU, including alumnus Shaquille O’Neal. The four-time NBA champion described the college’s new recruit as “the best player in the world”, and even had time to pass on his best wishes via telephone.

“I spoke with him for a few minutes on the day I signed,” explains Simmons. “He just said congratulations and welcomed me to the family. It is awesome to know that he’s always there for me to ask questions.”

Having now officially joined LSU – almost nine months after he put pen to paper and took O’Neal’s call – Simmons has been busy settling into Baton Rouge life. In between summer school: “I have been taking kinesiology [the study of human movement], but I would like to major in sports management”, a controversial new marketing campaign and training sessions, Simmons has been preparing his colleagues for their pre-season visit to Australia (they departed last week).

“The team is looking great: we are still building up chemistry, but by the time we leave we will be ready to play,” he says. “I have been telling my team-mates about Australia every day! I haven’t been back in a year, so am really excited.”

Simmons does not, however, harbor particularly fond memories of his last trip home. After training with Australia’s national team before the Fiba World Cup, he was a surprise omission from the final Boomers squad. Asked whether he put this disappointment to good effect, Simmons responds bluntly.

“I did not really use it as motivation because I felt like I should have been on the team – I didn’t have any doubts about it,” he declares. “I walked away knowing that I was definitely a good player, but I had to focus on my next step. I just kept playing and working on my game.”

Despite this sour experience, Simmons retains a desire to play for the national team, perhaps as early as next year in Rio de Janeiro. With an exciting mix of young talent and a collection of experienced NBA regulars, the Boomers could mount a serious challenge to perennial favourites USA.

“Playing at the Olympics has always been a dream of mine,” Simmons admits. “But as soon as college finishes I might be focusing on the draft, or if not another season at LSU – so I have to take it one day at a time. But I would definitely go to the Olympics if I was healthy and fresh enough to perform.”

If Simmons is available and selected, one likely team-mate in Brazil will be the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Matthew Dellavedova. The pair trained together during last year’s pre-World Cup camp, before Dellavedova had burst into the collective consciousness, and Simmons speaks glowingly of Australian basketball’s man of the moment.

“It is always good to train with someone of his calibre,” he notes. “It has been great to see him succeed and compete with the top players. For him to get to the level and do really well is just awesome.”

Rewind a further year to 2013, and Dellavedova was without a club after going undrafted, Exum was still at school, and the hype surrounding Simmons had only just begun to surface. In a small arena in Canberra, all three shared the floor in a game against New Zealand, only days following Exum and Simmons’ national team debut. That fixture may have seemed inconsequential at the time, but it represented a major step as the duo sought to fulfil a shared basketball dream.

As kids, Exum and Simmons would often discuss their aspirations of playing professionally. Yet even these two self-assured and confident young men could not possibly have predicted the progress each would make towards basketball stardom.

“We have always talked about playing in the NBA, and now I just have to do my part,” says Simmons. “Playing against Dante – or with him – would be amazing.”