As winter approaches his business empire, Mark Cuban still has a sharp stick in his hands, looking for a defenseless eye to poke.

“When I got into the NBA, half of the fun was just f—ing up the NBA,” Cuban said the other day. “The fines, everything. Everybody did it this way, and I was like, no. No. That’s no fun. And I bought this to have fun, and if you don’t like it, fine me. And it worked out great. Same thing with the pharmaceutical industry and health care. What can be better? Hopefully, we won a championship in 2011, and won, hopefully, a championship in 2024. That’s good. But f—ing up the pharmacy industry? Changed health care? Who was that guy? That’s the real deal. That’s a big check the box.”

Cuban, who sold controlling interest in the Dallas Mavericks late last year to the Adelson and Dumont families, which run the Las Vegas Sands Casino Company, is still around the Mavs. He still owns $1 billion or so worth of the team. It’s just that he’s 65, and he and his wife have three kids, and … life. Going toe to toe with the NBA about its officials and marketing is no longer front of mind. Time makes some things more important; other things less so.

When the Mavericks clinched the Western Conference title over the Minnesota Timberwolves,…

INDIANAPOLIS — There isn’t too much scoring in the NBA — 70-point games and record-breaking team offenses be damned.

The players don’t like to see what happened to Joel Embiid, or even Tyrese Haliburton, but they support the spirit of a league requirement for games played to determine eligibility for awards like MVP.

Clippers or Celtics? Joker, Embiid or even … LeBron? And who wants to be NBA commissioner Adam Silver for a day?

The Athletic again put on its collective hard hat, grabbed a lunch pail and jumped head first into All-Star media day, a savage, unruly affair in which players sit up on a dais, behind a gate, having questions shouted at them by YouTube influencers, goofballs on top of other goofballs’ shoulders, rappers, WNBA players and, yes, traditional reporters.

From the practice court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Joe Vardon, Sam Amick, David Aldridge and Mike Vorkunov spoke to 18 players, most of them All-Stars, a couple from the Skills Challenge, 3-Point or Slam Dunk contests, and one second gentleman, to canvas them on who’s the NBA’s best player, the best team and what about the league needs to change.

Not everyone polled answered every question, but they all had plenty of ideas:

Who is the best player in the league?

Nikola Jokić, Joel Embiid — 3
Luka…

LAS VEGAS — This week, the NBA will descend upon Las Vegas in full force. Even for a city used to spectacle, it’s bringing something novel along with it. For the first time in decades, the league will hold real, live, actual — yes, they count — regular-season games in Sin City. It is a step into the breach unlike any other for the NBA.

Professional basketball has come to Vegas before. There have been exhibition games, the 2007 NBA All-Star Game, NBA Summer League, even a few Utah Jazz games in the 1980s, a playoff game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers in 1992, the NBA G League Ignite franchise since 2020 and, for the last six seasons, WNBA games. But the NBA has never put a product on display quite like the one it will on Thursday afternoon when the NBA In-Season Tournament semifinals tip off at T-Mobile Arena.

While it is a seminal moment for the league and the city, it is also one open to much conjecture and forecasting. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has tiptoed around expansion in recent years, and Las Vegas has come up as a potential home for a new franchise. This week will likely do little to silence those rumblings.

In July, Silver called Vegas “our 31st franchise;” now, everyone is waiting to see if Vegas will actually be the league’s…

Editor’s note: This story addresses mental health and addiction and may be difficult to read or emotionally upsetting. 

AVALON, N.J. — Phil Martelli eases back into his chair and sighs. He has been scrolling through his phone, reading text messages that span a two-year window. It is a one-sided conversation, all black and white from the sender, no blue responses from him.

It is a beautiful sunny day in New Jersey and just a week ago, Martelli and his wife, Judy, enjoyed an idyllic Jersey Shore weekend, their home stuffed with children and grandchildren as the kids’ exuberance ricocheted off the ceilings.

But on this August afternoon it is pin-drop quiet in the house. The kids have left and the mood is heavy as Martelli pages through the texts from a person he always considered part of his family. The messages all follow the same pattern: a desperate request for help, a pressing need for money – to pay the dope man, the bartender, or, to get off the streets and find safety.

Martelli used to answer, even send the money as requested. But then counselors advised him he wasn’t helping; that, in fact, he was hurting. Then the messages stopped, the last one coming more than a year ago now – in April of last year. “I’m really sad” is how it ends.

Martelli is sad, too….

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We’re poised for an incredibly epic WNBA Finals, friends.

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Prepare For Aces-Liberty

Three questions with Sabreena Merchant

Yes, we’re waiting for the 2023-24 NBA season to start, but the WNBA Finals begin this Sunday. And this WNBA season will end with a bang. Two of the most dominant regular-season teams in WNBA history — the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty — will vie for the title.

The Liberty hadn’t made the Finals since 2002 and have the most wins in league history without a title (450). The Aces are defending champions with three Finals trips in the four years and are seeking to become the first repeat WNBA champs since the 2001-02 Los Angeles Sparks. I asked Sabreena Merchant three questions about this epic showdown.

Question: No surprise that we have Liberty and Aces in the Finals. Was there any real threat to either team not making it to this point?

Sabreena: The Connecticut Sun deserve credit for taking Game 1 in New York and putting a real scare in the Liberty in Game 2, but the Sun had no counter once New York switched up its defense. That was the problem for non-super teams this year — while they’ve had to…

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will enshrine its 2023 class on Aug. 12 in Springfield, Mass. Eleven individuals and the 1976 Women’s Olympic team will take their place among the greatest to ever play the sport. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of this weekend’s ceremony.

When and where will the Hall of Fame induction ceremony take place?

The induction will begin at 7 p.m. ET at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. According to the NBA, 45 Hall of Famers will be on-hand for the event.

Who is being inducted? Who will be presenting them?

1976 Women’s Olympic Basketball Team, presented by Ann Meyers (Class of 1993), Nancy Lieberman (‘96)

The first women’s team to compete in an Olympic Games. Composed entirely of college players, they paved the way for future generations of female basketball players to pursue their dreams of being on the biggest stage.

Coached by Hall of Famer Billie Moore, the roster featured fellow inductees in Lusia Harris-Stewart (1992), Ann Meyers Drysdale (1993), Nancy Lieberman (1996) and Pat Summitt (2000). They earned the silver medal, losing to the Soviet Union in the championship matchup.

Becky Hammon, presented by Sheryl Swoopes (‘16), Teresa Weatherspoon (‘19)

Hammon played point guard in…

NBA legends Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade, along with San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, are among the 2023 class to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this summer, the Hall of Fame announced Saturday. Here’s what you need to know:

• Pau Gasol, Tony Parker, Gene Keady, Gene Bess and David Hixon are also in the Class of 2023, as are Becky Hammon and Gary Blair, who headline the Hall’s selections for the Women’s Committee.
• The 1976 Olympic women’s basketball team, which won the silver medal in the inaugural appearance for women’s Olympic basketball, is also headed to the Hall of Fame, as well as 1983 NCAA champion and broadcaster Jim Valvano, who is recognized posthumously.
• Inductees required 18 of 24 votes from the Honors Committee for induction in the Class of 2023.
• The Class will be enshrined in Springfield, Mass., on Aug. 12.

Introducing the Class of 2023. #23HoopClass pic.twitter.com/at27SyXUsI

— Basketball HOF (@Hoophall) April 1, 2023

Career snapshots of the inductees

• Nowitzki won the 2011 NBA Finals with the Dallas Mavericks, with whom he spent his entire 21-year NBA career with. He made 14 All-Star Games and was voted league MVP in 2007.
• Wade was a 13-time All-Star and won three NBA championships with the Miami Heat…

If you have questions about the future of your team’s live games on your local cable, satellite or digital provider, particularly those on Bally Sports channels, we’re here to answer with what we know so far.

Diamond Sports Group, the Baltimore-based corporate parent of the 19 Bally Sports channels that air 47 NBA, MLB, NHL and WNBA teams, announced Feb. 15 that it would skip a $140 million debt payment due that day and use the month-long grace period as part of its effort to financially reorganize itself.

Many observers interpret the move as a precursor to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, though that is not a certainty. Diamond has $8 billion-plus of debt, incurred as part of parent Sinclair’s 2019 purchase of the regional sports channels, and lost $1.2 billion in the most recent fiscal quarter.

“Certainly more likely that they will file bankruptcy because they did not make the payment,” said Schuyler Carroll, a bankruptcy attorney who is not connected to Diamond. “But not necessarily that they will file bankruptcy. They are still continuing discussions with their creditors to try and avoid bankruptcy. But those can often be difficult.”

Diamond in a Feb. 15 statement said it “intends to use the 30-day grace period to continue progressing its ongoing…