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…

Former Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. reached a deal with prosecutors in a Manhattan court Tuesday, pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault and a harassment violation in the case involving his former girlfriend and WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick, per the Associated Press and Porter’s attorneys.

Porter, 23, agreed to a charge of reckless assault in the third degree and harassment in the second degree, per a statement from Porter’s attorneys. He must complete a 26-week Abusive Partner Intervention Program, according to the Associated Press, abide by a limited order of protection, attend all court dates and have no further arrests. After a year, if Porter complies, he will be allowed to withdraw the plea, effectively clearing his criminal record.

“The resolution will allow Mr. Porter to put this incident, which involved false felony allegations and false facts, behind him with no criminal record and move forward,” Porter Jr.’s attorneys, Phillip Jobe and Stephanie Kelemen, said in a statement.

Porter was arrested on Sept. 11 and charged with assault and strangulation of his girlfriend. A New York Police Department spokesperson said a 911 call was placed from the Millennium Hilton Hotel at 6:45 a.m. ET that morning. When officers arrived, the woman was at the location…

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…

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’…

WASHINGTON — The Washington Wizards will hire Oklahoma City Thunder executive Will Dawkins as the franchise’s No. 2 basketball operations executive, reporting to Michael Winger, a league source told The Athletic on Monday.

Dawkins, 37, recently completed his third year as one of the Thunder’s two vice presidents of basketball operations and his 15th year overall with the organization. Dawkins’ title with the Wizards will be general manager, said the league source, who was granted anonymity because Dawkins’ forthcoming hire has not been announced yet.

In Washington, Dawkins will reunite with Winger, who on May 25 was named the president of Monumental Basketball, overseeing the Wizards, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and the G League’s Capital City Go-Go.

Winger and Dawkins worked together in Oklahoma City from 2010 until 2017, when Winger left Oklahoma City to join the Clippers as L.A.’s general manager.

One of Winger’s first priorities in his new role in Washington has been to hire a No. 2 executive, and Winger chose Dawkins.

When Winger left the Thunder, he knew Dawkins was an up-and-coming fast riser who only needed an opportunity to blossom and grow on his own. After Winger’s departure, and after Oklahoma City’s then-vice president/general manager Troy…

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…

LOS ANGELES — Tuesday night, LeBron James further cemented his place in history by surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, finishing with 38 points to put him at 38,390 for his career.

And just as people remember that Kareem hit his signature skyhook over 7-foot-3 Mark Eaton, they will remember Kenrich Williams was the man defending James when he hit one of the NBA’s most memorable shots, a stepback fadeaway.

EVERY ANGLE of the bucket that made LeBron James the NBA’s all-time leading scorer #ScoringKing pic.twitter.com/BVUr9x78BH

— NBA (@NBA) February 8, 2023

When they make posters of the shot or people use the freeze frame as the lock screen on their phones, Williams will be the player on the print or the screen with James.

This shot.

(: Andrew D. Bernstein) pic.twitter.com/PUtdY9bTA1

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 8, 2023

Informed of this after the game, Williams sounded comfortable with the idea.

“OK, that’s what’s up,” Williams said excitedly. “I told my wife you can take it two ways, you know? You hold him under what he needed to score — what was it, 36? — or you can be a part of history. So, I guess I’m always looking at the positives. I’m a part of history.”

But speaking with Williams…