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…

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Good morning! Just one WNBA superteam remains.

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Breakups

The Sixers and James Harden are so over

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James Harden and the 76ers decided to break up yesterday. It’s stunning news that will have a butterfly effect on the NBA free agent market, but I keep coming back to this one, small detail from the initial report:

The 76ers made it clear throughout the process that the franchise did not see a long-term future with Harden, sources said.

Oof. It’s a simple (and quite mature) move, but still brutal. Hey, we wanted to let you know as soon as possible that we don’t want you. Thanks. You never really want such clarity from a partner when they’re breaking up with you, right? But the Sixers left nothing to the imagination.

Harden will move on from Philly, two early playoff exits after he forced a trade from Brooklyn. Yesterday’s news was a little surprising too, because entering this offseason, we all thought it would be Harden leaving the Sixers — the Houston reunion was discussed often — and not the other way around.

• Where’s he heading? Late last night, Sam Amick published the definitive account of what went wrong between the…

Michael Winger can trace his path to the Washington Wizards’ front office through three NBA cities: Cleveland, Oklahoma City and Los Angeles. But perhaps none of those formative experiences ever would’ve occurred if, nearly 22 years ago, he didn’t first pause to read a poster on the Miami University campus in Oxford, Ohio.

There, on a routine walk through a school building, he and another undergraduate spotted a placard: Ron Shapiro, a powerhouse agent for baseball players, was scheduled to give an on-campus talk. All students could attend.

Winger wanted advice on how to enter the sports business. He gained so much more. Over the next several years, Winger and Shapiro developed a bond that endures. Shapiro became not just a mentor but also a father figure. And the Shapiro family — which includes Shapiro’s wife, Kathryn Adams Shapiro, and seven children — treated Winger like one of their own. 

“That underscores Ron and Cathi,” Winger says. “That’s just who they are as people: ‘Stray cats? Bring ’em in.’ And I was a stray cat.”

Winger is 43 now, with a wife and children of his own, and no one within the basketball industry would describe him as a “stray.” Late last month, Ted Leonsis, the CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment and the Wizards’…

The Los Angeles Clippers are promoting Trent Redden to general manager and Mark Hughes to senior vice president/assistant GM, they announced Monday. Here’s what you need to know:

• The promotions come nearly two weeks after general manager Michael Winger left the Clippers to become the president of Monumental Basketball, the parent company of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, the WNBA’s Mystics and the G League’s Capital City Go-Go.
• LA hired both Redden and Hughes as assistant general managers in 2017.
• Hughes and Redden will have expanded responsibilities as part of their promotions while continuing to largely do what they’ve done for the last six seasons.

Why the Clippers made these moves

The Clippers were confident in their plan to move forward as a front office despite the departure of Winger. President of basketball operations Lawrence Frank is still the top personnel executive in the organization, and he still had Redden and Hughes in place.

The trust Frank has in Redden and Hughes is now solidified by promoting both of them to elevated roles. Redden takes Winger’s spot as the general manager, and Hughes adds a senior vice president of basketball operations to his assistant general manager duties. The Clippers will not be adding anyone else at the senior executive…

WASHINGTON — With the Washington Wizards underperforming and lacking a clear path back to national relevance, Ted Leonsis has decided to hire LA Clippers general manager Michael Winger, a lawyer by training who has experience dealing with superstar players, high-powered agents and the nuances of the collective bargaining agreement and salary cap.

Leonsis plans to give Winger wide latitude to expand and revamp the Wizards’ infrastructure — and potentially launch a full rebuild of the roster — said league sources who were granted anonymity because Winger’s hiring, though agreed to in principle, has not been made official yet.

Leonsis will name Winger the president of Monumental Basketball, a new position that will give Winger oversight of not just the Wizards and the G League’s Capital City Go-Go but also the WNBA’s Washington Mystics.

Winger, 43, will take over a Wizards team that has missed the playoffs in four of the past five years, is set to pay shooting guard Bradley Beal up to $208 million over the next four seasons and faces an offseason in which forward Kyle Kuzma intends to become an unrestricted free agent and center Kristaps Porziņģis can become an unrestricted free agent.

According to a league source, Winger will have full authority over constructing…

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Good morning! You’re the No. 5 seed in my heart.

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While You Were Sleeping

Clips solve the puzzle

The Clippers edged the Lakers, 125-118, last night in what might’ve been the most important game between the two teams in years. Both entered the night tied in the Western Conference standings. How things stand:

• The Clippers — who have won 11 straight against the Lakers somehow — stay in the top six and place the Lakers firmly in the Play-In. The Pelicans are tied with the Lakers in the standings, but don’t have the tiebreak advantage. The Warriors and Clippers are tied just above them.
• The Bucks clinched the best record in the NBA with a win over Chicago, while Denver sealed up the No. 1 seed in the West thanks to the Pels’ win over the Grizzlies.
• Dallas is still alive, which feels incredible. A huge win over Sacramento gives the Mavs a chance to snag the No. 10 seed from the Thunder with two games left.

See the full standings here. Buckle up.

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TV Guide

Quiet in the gallery

The Masters officially begins this morning. We aren’t quite at March Madness levels of work avoidance on the official Pulsemeter, but it’s in the neighborhood. Pull up a stream or put it on TV in the background.

Some notable tee times:

• 10:18…

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…