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Sources: NBA likely to pass tougher rules on resting starters
The NBA's competition committee recommended a plan that the league's board of governors is expected to approve Wednesday. It would ultimately give the league office authority for greater oversight over discipline for missed games and an ability to fine teams over $1 million for each instance of violating resting rules.

NBA board of governors approves tougher rest rule, penalties


The NBA board of governors unanimously voted Wednesday to approve tougher resting policy rules and punishments for star players who sit out games -- including those on national TV and in-season tournaments -- as well as multiple All-Stars sitting out together for regular-season games. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the Player Participation Policy is something that the NBA, the National Basketball Players Association and individual players and teams all want "to return to that principle that this is an 82-game league." As the league negotiates a new media rights deal, Silver has been determined to increase player participation. The league's goal is to strengthen the initial player resting policies that were adopted in the 2017-18 season and new rules that mandate players participate in 65 regular-season games to be eligible for postseason awards. In total, 25 teams and 50 players (nearly 11% of the league) are impacted by the new rules. Fifteen teams have multiple players who were named All-NBA or to the All-Star Game in the previous three seasons. The list of impacted players could potentially change after the 2024 NBA All-Star Game.

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Aussie prospect Rocco Zikarsky to join NBL Nest Stars program
Zikarsky, who turns 17 next week, is not eligible to declare for the NBA draft until 2025 at the earliest. The son of a 6-10 German Olympic swimming bronze medalist and a 6-1 Australian champion ironwoman, Zikarsky has been developing the past two years at the NBA Global Academy in Canberra, Australia.
 

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Magic Johnson says Knicks only NBA team he'd consider own
Johnson named the Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks as teams he turned down, rather than find himself in competition with the Lakers. "I think it would be intriguing," Johnson said Tuesday. "The only team I would actually probably think about is the New York Knicks."
 

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Chamberlain's 1972 Finals jersey fetches $4.9M at auction
Chamberlain was named Finals MVP, his first and only Finals MVP Award, which wasn't given out until 1969, a decade after Chamberlain started his NBA career. The previous record for Chamberlain memorabilia was the $1.792 million that his rookie-year Philadelphia Warriors uniform fetched with SCP Auctions in June.


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The $4.9 million uniform is the third-most expensive NBA jersey ever sold at auction, behind the autographed $5.8 million Kobe Bryant jersey from his lone MVP season (2007-08) and the $10.1 million "Last Dance" 1998 NBA Finals Michael Joedan jersey. All three were auctioned by Sotheby's.
 

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Blazers deal Damien]Blazers deal Damian Lillard to Bucks in blockbuster 3-team deal
Lillard leaves Portland after 11 seasons in which he made seven All-Star and All-NBA teams and led the franchise to the playoffs eight times, including a Western Conference finals appearance in 2018-19. He ranks first in team history in points and 3-pointers and second in assists.


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The Suns receive Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson as part of the trade package. 2029 unprotected first-round draft pick and unprotected Milwaukee swap rights in 2028 and 2030, the teams said in their release.
 

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Bucks emerge as NBA title favorites after Damian Lillard news
The Bucks moved ahead of the defending-champion Denver Nuggets and into the top spot in Caesars Sportsbook's odds to win the title. Milwaukee was +375 on Wednesday afternoon, after the deal was reported. The Nuggets were +425, followed by the Boston Celtics (+500) and Phoenix Suns (+550). No other teams had single-digit title odds at Caesars.
 

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Lakers LeBron James prepping dor 21st season 'like a rookie'
James, who will turn 39 in December, averaged 35.5 minutes per game last season, which was a tick down from the 37.2 minutes per game he logged in 2021-22 but was still more than he played in any of his first three seasons with the Lakers.

Kyrie Irving 'happy to come back' to Mavericks after free agency
Irving and the Mavs agreed to a three-year deal worth up to $126 million in the opening hour of free agency, a contract negotiated by his agent and stepmom, Shetellia Riley Irving.
 

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Bipartisan commission calls on NBA to end use of apparel made by forced labor in China


A bipartisan Congressional commission, citing the NBA's stated values, called on the league to ban the sale and use of shoes and other sports apparel made by forced labor in China and to meet with victims of the authoritarian government's repression. In a letter sent Friday to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, leaders of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China asked Silver to meet with various groups to "learn about the sad reality of genocide." The letter also called on the league to ban any NBA-branded gear made with forced labor from China and prohibit players from wearing shoes on game days that were made by Chinese companies using cotton from Xinjiang, a region where more than a million Uyghur Muslims are now held in barbed-wire camps. "NBA players should not be subsidizing genocide by endorsing or wearing shoes and gear from Chinese sportwear companies complicit in forced labor," wrote Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the commission chair and co-chair.

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Joel Embiid to represent Team USA at 2024 Parish Olympics
Embiid is a six-time All-Star and three-time All-Defensive team selection. Adding the 7-foot Embiid addresses the Americans' biggest weaknesses at this year's World Cup: size and defense.


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A litany of superstar players, including a pair of former league MVPs -- Golden State Warriors guard Srephen Curry and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James -- have expressed interest in joining forces to help Team USA next summer after the Americans failed to medal in their second consecutive World Cup, the first time that has happened since 1970.
 

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2023-24 NBA Preseason Power Rankings
The Bucks and Celtics will look drastically different, the Nuggets could look the same, and who knows what to expect from the Sixers? We rank and tier all 30 teams as the regular season approaches.

Rankings - Team, Last season record
No.1: Denver (53-29)
No.2: Boston (57-25)
No.3: Milwaukee (58-24)
No.4: Phoenix (45-37)
No.5: Los Angeles Lakers (43-39)
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No.26: San Antonio (22-60)
No.27: Portland (33-49)
No.28: Detroit (17-65)
No.29: Charlotte (27-55)
No.30: Washington (35-47)

The NBA championship landscape felt a jolt last week with two blockbuster trades, one sending Damian Lillard to Milwaukee and the other shipping Jrue Holiday to Boston.
 

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NBA pushing '82-game' mindset to players ahead of regular season


NBA executive vice president and head of basketball operations Joe Dumars said the league has communicated to its players and teams that "we are really emphasizing that this is an 82-game season" and that the league has data indicating player rest doesn't necessarily translate to players being healthier. "I think it was a given conclusion that the data showed that you had to rest players a certain amount and that justified guys sitting out," Dumars said Wednesday during a conference call with national media. "We've gotten more data, and it just doesn't show that resting, sitting guys out, correlates with lack of injuries or fatigue or anything like that. Dumars' comments come as the NBA is trying to increase participation among its top players heading into this season and also as the league is beginning the process of negotiating its new national broadcast rights deal, with the current one contract to expire after the 2024-25 campaign.

The NBA's new "player participation policy" -- which ties players winning the league's MVP award and other top individual honors to competing in at least 65 games -- includes a fine system for teams that intentionally rest players without any injury issues. The new policy stems from an ongoing trend over the past several years wherein teams have placed a greater emphasis on resting players in an attempt to avoid injuries, particularly when it comes to playing games on back-to-back nights. Last season, there were several instances, including the past two NBA champions -- the Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets sitting virtually their entire starting lineups on one-half of a road back-to-back, depriving fans in those cities from seeing players like Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokic compete.

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NBArank 2023: Player rankings for 2023-24, from 10-1
NBArank is back for its 13th season counting down the best players in the league. In fact, the race for the top spot was one of the tightest in the history of NBArank, as the gap between Nos. 2 and 3 was nearly 16 times larger than the one between Nos. 1 and 2.

No.10: PF Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers
Coming off a renaissance season with the Lakers, when he posted career bests in field goal percentage (56.3%) and rebounds per game (12.5) and was rewarded with a three-year, $186 million contract extension, Davis appears ready to dominate again.
 

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Boston Celtics hire Jeff Van Gundy as senior consultant
Van Gundy, 61, was let go by ESPN in a cost-cutting move in late June after 16 years with the network. He coached 11 seasons in the NBA, going 430-318 with the New York Knicks (1995-2002) and Houston Rockets (2003-07). His teams went 44-44 in the playoffs, and he led the Knicks to the Eastern Conference championship in 1999.
 

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Adam Silver says NBA mulling East vs. West for All-Star Game


NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in an interview with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN's "First Take" that the league is considering going back to the East vs. West format in the All-Star Game this season, after having the top vote-getters in each conference serve as captains for the past several seasons. "We're looking at some potential changes in format in Indianapolis this year," Silver said about the 2024 All-Star Game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. "Maybe a return to something more traditional in terms of how the teams are presented. We went to sort of this captain and draft notion, but clearly historically it was East vs. West. So that's maybe something we are looking at." Silver's comments came after Joe Dumars, the NBA's head of basketball operations, said last week that reviving interest in the All-Star Game and All-Stars playing harder are priorities for the league.

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Stephen Curry an owner of San Fran team in virtual golf


Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry is part of the ownership group that will represent San Francisco in TGL presented by SoFi, the new tech-infused golf league being developed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIIroy, the league announced on Thursday. Curry, a two-time NBA MVP and nine-time All Star, is leading the new ownership group with Marc Lasry's Avenue Sports Fund. Lasry is a co-founder and CEO of Avenue Capital Group, a global investment firm, and a former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. Curry, Iguodala and Thompson join a growing list of athletes and celebrities who have a stake in TGL, which is scheduled to begin play in January at a purpose-built arena in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Other team owners include Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank (Atlanta Drive GC), Boston Red Sox owner John Henry (TGL Boston), Serena and Venus Williams (Los Angeles Golf Club) and New York Mets owner Steven A. Cohen (TGL New York).

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NBArank 2023: Player rankings for 2023-24, from 10-1
NBArank is back for its 13th season counting down the best players in the league. In fact, the race for the top spot was one of the tightest in the history of NBArank, as the gap between Nos. 2 and 3 was nearly 16 times larger than the one between Nos. 1 and 2.

No.10: PF Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers
Coming off a renaissance season with the Lakers, when he posted career bests in field goal percentage (56.3%) and rebounds per game (12.5) and was rewarded with a three-year, $186 million contract extension, Davis appears ready to dominate again.

No.9: SF LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
The 38-year-old James continues to press the limits of his prime to unprecedented levels. He will become just the sixth player in league history to reach his 21st season and will be an important piece on a championship contender.
 
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