Rosalio “Yoyong” Martires, one of the pioneer stars of the PBA and a member of the last Philippine basketball team to play in the Olympics has died at the age of 77. His family announced his passing on Wednesday, reportedly due to complications from pneumonia. Martires had been attending gatherings with fellow legends and was
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Alinsunurin crafts draft plan but admits picking preferred name unlikely
Dante Alinsunurin may not be open as to who he plans to select in the coming Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Rookie Draft. But he was a little bit more forthcoming with his selection strategy, what with his Choco Mucho way down the picking order and with two vital holes to fill.
“We will also be looking at lesser desired players, whoever we can develop or what else we can do to solve the problem that we are having every time at the end of the season,” he said.
The Flying Titans will be missing middle blocker Cherry Nunag and foremost weapon outside hitter Sisi Rondina, who will be lent to Alas Pilipinas and, most probably, will be unavailable in July with the Nationals representing the country again in the Asian Volleyball Confederation Challenger Cup.
The UAAP champion coach knows what he’s losing in both standouts and will be looking to draft players who can supplant their contributions.
“We are hopeful to get a player that can help us in terms of our scoring and blockings to fill in what Sisi and Cherry have been doing inside the court,” Alinsunurin told the Inquirer in Filipino as he was hailed the UAAP men’s volleyball coach of the year by the Collegiate Press Corps on Monday night.
Manpower issues
But he was also realistic.
“Even though we know that the young ones performed well in the collegiate [ranks], it is still different once they are [in the PVL] so the adjustment can still be a problem,” he said.
Alinsunurin has previously said he has an idea who the team will be picking but prefers to keep those names in his back pocket since Choco Mucho will be on the block late in the draft and the chance of selecting highly desirable names remain slim.
The Flying Titans, who have yet to announce their import, finished with the silver in the last conference thus getting to pick a player near the end of round one just before champion team Creamline.
“Right now, we do have players in mind but we don’t know if we will have the chance to pick [them] because you and I know what our needs are and what are the needs of the other teams as well,” Alinsunurin said.
Choco Mucho encountered unfortunate manpower issues in the recent conferences with mainstays Des Cheng (outside hitter), Kat Tolentino (opposite) and Aduke Ogunsanya (middle blocker) suffering injuries.
Djokovic to play at Paris Olympics, says Serbia
Former tennis world number one, Novak Djokovic will play at the Paris Olympics, the Olympic Committee of Serbia said on Tuesday.
“Novak Djokovic and Dusan Lajovic have fulfilled the conditions according to ATP ranking and confirmed their participation at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris 2024”, the Serbian committee said on their website.
Djokovic has not yet publicly confirmed the announcement.
READ: Djokovic looking forward to Paris Olympics in hectic 2024
At the start of June, the 24-time Grand Slam winner withdrew ahead of his Roland Garros quarter-final against Casper Ruud after a scan revealed a torn medial meniscus in his right knee.
Two weeks ago, Djokovic confirmed he had undergone an operation on his knee and that it “went well”, but gave no timeframe for his return.
Djokovic has long said he will prioritize the Olympic Games this summer as he chases an elusive singles gold.
In October last year, he said winning Olympic gold next year is one of his main ambitions, while before the clay tournaments this year he reiterated his goal.
READ: No medal for Novak Djokovic for third straight Olympics
“The Paris Olympics are very important. The Olympics have always been a priority for me,” Djokovic said in April ahead of the clay swing in Monte Carlo.
He has played four Olympic tournaments and won a bronze medal in Beijing in 2008. He has since twice come close to another medal
He lost the bronze-medal match to Juan Martin del Potro in London in 2012. He lost again to the Argentine four years later in the first round in Rio.
At the last Games in Tokyo, Djokovic lost the bronze-medal match to Pablo Carreno Busta from Spain.
At the same tournament, he pulled out of the mixed doubles bronze medal match with a shoulder injury.
After his early exit at the Rolland Garros, Djokovic has slipped to third in the ATP rankings.
Lassiter says losing in PBA Finals worse than missing record
MANILA, Philippines—Marcio Lassiter missed out on some big stuff in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.
For one, Lassiter and San Miguel fell short of defending its title against Meralco, which won its first PBA title after six games.
Then Lassiter also missed out on his dream scenario of being atop the leaderboard for most three-pointers made by a PBA player in history this oncference.
READ: PBA: Classy San Miguel core looking forward to next challenge
Lassiter, though, isn’t even concerned about the record. For him, losing the title stung much worse.
“I’m not even thinking about that,” said Lassiter, pertaining to the three-point record.
“All the individual awards, I have never won. I’ve never come here and say I want to be a mythical player, obviously you want to be but I’ve never come into situations where I say I want to be that. It’s always a team thing for me.”
Lassiter dropped 11 points in the Beermen’s last gasp effort of forcing a do-or-die, only to absorb an 80-78 loss at the hands of the Bolts in Game 6 at Araneta Coliseum on Sunday.
READ: PBA Finals loss fuels CJ Perez to get better
It certainly didn’t help Lassiter’s cause that he didn’t sink any triples in the season-ending loss.
Prior to the Finals, the veteran sniper had 1,224 recorded triples.
Lassiter sank 12 money balls across six games to go up to 1,236 but is still at third behind legends Allan Caidic (1,242) and record-holder Jimmy Alapag (1,250).
Despite inching closer to the top, Lassiter said that next season, he will focus on bouncing back and not gaining the bragging rights of being the league’s best shooter in history.
“Obviously, this one hurts. I wanted to win so bad.”
“At least I get to recover, come back and get back to it. The love for the game’s still there. Whatever happened, has already happened and I’ll go from there. I’ll keep on chipping away with that chip on my shoulder.”
Willie Mays, Giants’ electrifying ‘Say Hey Kid,’ has died at 93
Willie Mays, the electrifying “Say Hey Kid” whose singular combination of talent, drive and exuberance made him one of baseball’s greatest and most beloved players, has died. He was 93.
Mays’ family and the San Francisco Giants jointly announced Tuesday night he had died earlier in the afternoon in the Bay Area.
“My father has passed away peacefully and among loved ones,” son Michael Mays said in a statement released by the club. “I want to thank you all from the bottom of my broken heart for the unwavering love you have shown him over the years. You have been his life’s blood.”
READ: Baseball’s Hank Aaron, who held home run record, dies at 86
The center fielder, who began his professional career in the Negro Leagues in 1948, was baseball’s oldest living Hall of Famer. He was voted into the Hall in 1979, his first year of eligibility, and in 1999 followed only Babe Ruth on The Sporting News’ list of the game’s top stars. The Giants retired his uniform number, 24, and set their AT&T Park in San Francisco on Willie Mays Plaza.
Mays died two days before a game between the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals to honor the Negro Leagues at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama.
“All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we are gathered at the very ballpark where a career and a legacy like no other began,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise. From coast to coast … Willie inspired generations of players and fans as the game grew and truly earned its place as our National Pastime.”
Few were so blessed with each of the five essential qualities for a superstar — hitting for average, hitting for power, speed, fielding and throwing. Fewer so joyously exerted those qualities — whether launching home runs; dashing around the bases, loose-fitting cap flying off his head; or chasing down fly balls in center field and finishing the job with his trademark basket catch.
Over 23 major league seasons, virtually all with the New York/San Francisco Giants but also including one in the Negro Leagues, Mays batted .301, hit 660 home runs, totaled 3,293 hits, scored more than 2,000 runs and won 12 Gold Gloves. He was Rookie of the Year in 1951, twice was named the Most Valuable Player and finished in the top 10 for the MVP 10 other times. His lightning sprint and over-the-shoulder grab of an apparent extra base hit in the 1954 World Series remains the most celebrated defensive play in baseball history.
“When I played ball, I tried to make sure everybody enjoyed what I was doing,” Mays told NPR in 2010. “I made the clubhouse guy fit me a cap that when I ran, the wind gets up in the bottom and it flies right off. People love that kind of stuff.”
For millions in the 1950s and ’60s and after, the smiling ball player with the friendly, high-pitched voice was a signature athlete and showman during an era when baseball was still the signature pastime. Awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2015, Mays left his fans with countless memories. But a single feat served to capture his magic — one so untoppable it was simply called “The Catch.”
In Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, the then-New York Giants hosted the Cleveland Indians, who had won 111 games in the regular season and were strong favorites in the postseason. The score was 2-2 in the top of the eighth inning. Cleveland’s Vic Wertz faced reliever Don Liddle with none out, Larry Doby on second and Al Rosen on first.
With the count 1-2, Wertz smashed a fastball to deep center field. In an average park, with an average center fielder, Wertz would have homered, or at least had an easy triple. But the center field wall in the eccentrically shaped Polo Grounds was more than 450 feet away. And there was nothing close to average about the skills of Willie Mays.
Decades of taped replays have not diminished the astonishment of watching Mays race toward the wall, his back to home plate; reach out his glove and haul in the drive. What followed was also extraordinary: Mays managed to turn around while still moving forward, heave the ball to the infield and prevent Doby from scoring even as Mays spun to the ground. Mays himself would proudly point out that “the throw” was as important as “the catch.”
“Soon as it got hit, I knew I’d catch the ball,” Mays told biographer James S. Hirsch, whose book came out in 2010.
“All the time I’m running back, I’m thinking, ‘Willie, you’ve got to get this ball back to the infield.’”
“The Catch” was seen and heard by millions through radio and the then-emerging medium of television, and Mays became one of the first Black athletes with mass media appeal. He was a guest star on “The Donna Reed Show,” “Bewitched” and other sitcoms. He inspired a handful of songs and was named first in Terry Cashman’s 1980s novelty hit, “Talkin’ Baseball (Willie, Mickey & The Duke),” a tribute in part to the brief era when New York had three future Hall of Famers in center: Mays, Mantle of the Yankees and Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Giants went on to sweep the Indians, with many citing Mays’ play as the turning point. The impact was so powerful that 63 years later, in 2017, baseball named the World Series Most Valuable Player after him even though it was his only moment of postseason greatness. He appeared in three other World Series, in 1951 and 1962 for the Giants and 1973 for the Mets, batting just .239 with no home runs in the four series. (His one postseason homer was in the 1971 National League playoffs, when the Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates).
But “The Catch” and his achievements during the regular season were greatness enough. Yankees and Dodgers fans may have fiercely challenged Mays’ eminence, but Mantle and Snider did not. At a 1995 baseball writers dinner in Manhattan, with all three at the dais, Mantle raised the eternal question: Which of the three was better?
“We don’t mind being second, do we, Duke?” he added.
Between 1954 and 1966, Mays drove in 100 or more runs 10 times, scored 100 or more 12 times, hit 40 or more homers six times, more than 50 homers twice and led the league in stolen bases four times. His numbers might have been bigger. He missed most of 1952 and all of 1953 because of military service, quite possibly costing him the chance to overtake Ruth’s career home run record of 714, an honor that first went to Henry Aaron; then Mays’ godson, Barry Bonds. He likely would have won more Gold Gloves if the award had been established before 1956. He insisted he would have led the league in steals more often had he tried.
“I am beyond devastated and overcome with emotion. I have no words to describe what you mean to me,” Bonds wrote on Instagram.
Mays was fortunate in escaping serious injury and avoiding major scandal, but he endured personal and professional troubles. His first marriage, to Marghuerite Wendell, ended in divorce. He was often short of money in the pre-free agent era, and he received less for endorsements than Mantle and other white athletes. He was subject to racist insults and his insistence that he was an entertainer, not a spokesman, led to his being chastised by Jackie Robinson and others for not contributing more to the civil rights movement. He didn’t care for some of his managers and didn’t always appreciate a fellow idol, notably Aaron, his greatest contemporary.
“When Henry began to soar up the home-run chart, Willie was loathe to give even a partial nod to Henry’s ability, choosing instead to blame his own performance on his home turf, (San Francisco’s) Candlestick Park, saying it was a lousy park in which to hit homers and this was the reason for Henry’s onrush,” Aaron biographer Howard Bryant wrote in 2010.
Admirers of Aaron, who died in 2021, would contend that only his quiet demeanor and geographical distance from major media centers — Aaron played in Atlanta and Milwaukee — kept him from being ranked the same as, or even better than Mays. But much of the baseball world placed Mays above all. He was the game’s highest-paid player for 11 seasons (according to the Society for American Baseball Research) and often batted first in All-Star Games, because he was Willie Mays. From center field, he called pitches and positioned other fielders. He boasted that he relied on his own instincts, not those of any coach, when deciding whether to try for an extra base.
Sports writer Barney Kremenko has often been credited with nicknaming him “The Say Hey Kid,” referring to Mays’ spirited way of greeting his teammates. Moments on and off the field sealed the public’s affection. In 1965, Mays defused a horrifying brawl after teammate Juan Marichal clubbed Los Angeles Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with a bat. Mays led a bloodied Roseboro away and sat with him on the clubhouse bench of the Dodgers, the Giants’ hated rivals.
Years earlier, when living in Manhattan, he endeared himself to young fans by playing in neighborhood stickball games.
“I used to have maybe 10 kids come to my window,” he said in 2011 while visiting the area of the old Polo Grounds. “Every morning, they’d come at 9 o’clock. They’d knock on my window, get me up. And I had to be out at 9:30. So they’d give me a chance to go shower. They’d give me a chance to eat breakfast. But I had to be out there at 9:30, because that’s when they wanted to play. So I played with them for about maybe an hour.”
He was born in Westfield, Alabama, in 1931, the son of a Negro League player who wanted Willie to do the same, playing catch with him and letting him sit in the dugout. Young Mays was so gifted an athlete that childhood friends swore that basketball, not baseball, was his best sport.
By high school he was playing for the Birmingham Black Barons, and late in life would receive an additional 10 hits to his career total, 3,293, when Negro League statistics were recognized in 2024 by Major League Baseball. With Robinson breaking the major league’s color barrier in 1947, Mays’ ascension became inevitable. The Giants signed him after he graduated from high school (he had to skip his senior prom) and sent him to their minor league affiliate in Trenton, New Jersey. He began the 1951 season with Minneapolis, a Triple-A club. After 35 games, he was batting a head-turning .477 and was labeled by one scout as “the best prospect in America.” Giants Manager Leo Durocher saw no reason to wait and demanded that Mays, barely 20 at the time, join his team’s starting lineup.
Durocher managed Mays from 1951-55 and became a father figure — the surly but astute leader who nurtured and sometimes pampered the young phenom. As Durocher liked to tell it, and Mays never disputed, Mays struggled in his first few games and was ready to go back to the minors.
“In the minors I’m hitting .477, killing everybody. And I came to the majors, I couldn’t hit. I was playing the outfield very, very well, throwing out everybody, but I just couldn’t get a hit,” Mays told the Academy of Achievement, a Washington-based leadership center, in 1996. “And I started crying, and Leo came to me and he says, ‘You’re my center fielder; it doesn’t make any difference what you do. You just go home, come back and play tomorrow.’ I think that really, really turned me around.”
Mays finished 1951 batting .272 with 20 home runs, good enough to be named the league’s top rookie. He might have been a legend that first season. The Giants were 13 games behind Brooklyn on Aug. 11, but rallied and tied the Dodgers, then won a best-of-3 playoff series with one of baseball’s most storied homers: Bobby Thomson’s shot in the bottom of the ninth off Ralph Branca.
Mays was the on-deck batter.
“I was concentrating on Branca, what he was throwing, what he might throw me,” Mays told The New York Times in 2010. “When he hit the home run, I didn’t even move.
“I remember all the guys running by me, running to home plate, and I’m saying, ‘What’s going on here?’ I was thinking, ‘I got to hit!‘”
His military service the next two years stalled his career, but not his development. Mays was assigned as a batting instructor for his unit’s baseball team and, at the suggestion of one pupil, began catching fly balls by holding out his glove face up, around his belly, like a basket. Mays adopted the new approach in part because it enabled him to throw more quickly.
READ: Pujols 2 HRs, passes Mays for fifth place
He returned full time in 1954, hit 41 homers and a league-leading .345. He was only 34 when he hit his 500th career homer, in 1965, but managed just 160 over the next eight years. Early in the 1972 season, with Mays struggling and the Giants looking to cut costs, the team stunned Mays and others by trading its marquee player to the New York Mets, returning him to the city where he had started out in the majors.
Mays’ debut with his new team could not have been better scripted: He hit a go-ahead home run in the fifth inning against the visiting Giants, and helped the Mets win 5-4. But he deteriorated badly over the next two seasons, even falling down on occasion in the field. Many cited him as example of a star who stayed too long.
In retirement, he mentored Bonds and defended him against allegations of using steroids. Mays himself was in trouble when Commissioner Bowie Kuhn banned him from the game, in 1979, for doing promotional work at the Bally’s Park Place Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Kuhn’s successor, Peter Ueberroth, reinstated Mays and fellow casino promoter Mantle in 1985).
But tributes were more common and they came from everywhere — show business, sports, the White House. In the 1979 movie “Manhattan,” Woody Allen’s character cites Mays as among his reasons for living. When Obama learned he was a distant cousin of political rival and former Vice President Dick Cheney, he lamented that he wasn’t related to someone “cool,” like Mays.
“Willie Mays wasn’t just a singular athlete, blessed with an unmatched combination of grace, skill and power,” Obama said Tuesday on X. “He was also a wonderfully warm and generous person — and an inspiration to an entire generation.”
Asked about career highlights, Mays inevitably mentioned “The Catch,” but also cherished hitting four home runs in a game against the Braves; falling over a canvas fence to make a catch in the minors; and running into a fence in Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field while chasing a bases-loaded drive, knocking himself out, but still holding on to the ball.
Most of the time, he was happy just being on the field, especially when the sun went down.
“I mean, you had the lights out there and all you do is go out there, and you’re out there by yourself in center field,” he told the achievement academy. “And, I just felt that it was such a beautiful game that I just wanted to play it forever, you know.”
Mbappe breaks nose in France Euro 2024 win
Kylian Mbappe will not need surgery but will wear a mask when he returns to action after the France captain suffered a broken nose in his team’s 1-0 Euro 2024 win over Austria on Monday, the French Football Federation said.
Mbappe’s head violently collided with the shoulder of Austrian defender Kevin Danso as they competed for the ball in the air late in the Group D opener in Duesseldorf.
The star striker left the pitch in the 90th minute as blood poured from his nose, with a source close to the player later saying it was broken.
Philippe Diallo, president of the French federation (FFF), told reporters that Mbappe would “not require an operation”.
READ: Mbappe rules out representing France at Paris Olympics
A statement published by the FFF confirmed the extent of the injury, saying Mbappe had undergone tests at a hospital in Duesseldorf before rejoining the France squad at their base in Paderborn, a two-hour drive to the east.
“A mask will be made which will allow (Mbappe) to contemplate a return to action after a period of treatment,” the FFF said.
However, it is not clear if that means Mbappe will be able to play in France’s next game, against the Netherlands in Leipzig on Friday.
France coach Didier Deschamps was not optimistic when he spoke to reporters after Monday’s match, which was decided by a Maximilian Woeber own goal late in the first half.
“He is in a bad way. He is not well. His nose is a mess, that’s for sure. That is the black mark of the evening for us,” Deschamps said of Mbappe.
Play had initially continued after the accidental collision, with Mbappe prone in the opposition box until Austria goalkeeper Patrick Pentz signaled to the referee that the Frenchman required attention.
READ: Kylian Mbappe finally joins Real Madrid
Mbappe was treated by the France medical team and his white shirt was streaked with blood as he wandered down the touchline holding his nose.
The new Real Madrid signing came back onto the pitch and promptly sat down as the referee brandished a yellow card in his direction for re-entering the field of play without permission.
Mbappe was then replaced by veteran attacker Olivier Giroud.
“It is not a little scratch. I know he is always being talked about but I can’t say more,” Deschamps added, before expressing hope that his star player would not be sidelined for any length of time.
“I have always said that the France team will be stronger with Kylian in it.”
Deschamps was at least pleased with the result, as France kicked off with a victory in their quest to win a first European Championship title since 2000.
“It is good to start with a victory against such opponents,” he said.
“We could and should have done better with certain opportunities. But overall, it was positive, and we showed we were up for the fight as well.
“That is important. We have quality and talent, but we need to remain solid as well.”
Canada denies fan favorite Japan in five sets
VNL 2024 SCHEDULE: Week 3 Manila, Philippines leg
MANILA, Philippines — Most of the Filipino crowd may have been cheering for Japan, but Canada got the last laugh in their crucial Volleyball Nations League (VNL) 2024 Week 3 match on Tuesday evening at Mall of Asia Arena.
In front of a good weekday crowd, Canada denied Japan’s fightback in five sets, 25-21, 20-25, 25-15, 20-25, 15-10, to keep its Final Eight chances on track with an improved 5-4 record in seventh place.
Thousands of Filipino fans may be on the side of the Japanese, who are playing in their third straight VNL in Manila, but Stephen Maar, who led the collective effort of the Canadians with 24 points, was dauntless.
READ: ‘Great expectations’ ahead for Japan in VNL Manila leg
“Sometimes it’s nice to be the villain so I enjoy that,” Maar said after drilling 22 kills and two aces.
Canada’s Eric Loeppky shares his thoughts after beating Japan in five sets. #VNL2024 | @LanceAgcaoilINQ pic.twitter.com/CCov12z171
— INQUIRER Sports (@INQUIRERSports) June 18, 2024
Eric Loeppky had fun in his first game in the country, delivering 15 points built on 13 kills and two blocks as Canada also played in Manila for the third straight year.
“It’s the first game of the week. You never kind of know what you’re gonna expect and I think we came out really strong and they’re a good team so we battled,” Loeppky told reporters. “The fans were awesome here it’s my first time in the Philippines so I really enjoyed that but we’re really happy we came out with the win.”
“I wasn’t here last year, unfortunately. I’ve heard legendary stories all year about how amazing the fans are and I finally got to see it and they can really make some noise. So it’s awesome and it’s a fun environment and I really enjoy playing,” he added.
Arthur Swarc also scored 15 points off 12 spikes, two blocks, and an ace, Pearson Eshenko and Danny Demyanenko chipped in eight points each as Canada got its act together in the fifth set, pulling away with a 10-6 advantage en route to a big win.
Loeppky puts a premium on consistency as they battle Germany on Thursday at 11 a.m.
“I think for us it’s consistency. Last week, we were able to get big wins but in the following game we struggled a bit. I think that’s our next goal to see how consistent can we play for the next match,” he said.
Japan slid to a 6-3 record still in No.6 despite the efforts of Yuji Nishida and Yuki Ishikawa. Ran Takahashi added 13 points before its next match against the Netherlands on Friday.
It takes time to win–a lesson Luka Doncic is dealing with
Michael Jordan needed seven seasons to win his first title. LeBron James needed nine seasons and two futile trips to the NBA Finals before he became a champion. Shaquille O’Neal got swept in his first finals. And the newly crowned champion Boston Celtics lost the finals in 2022 and lost in the Eastern Conference Finals last year before now breaking through.
The lesson, as everyone knows: Winning the biggest prize almost always takes time. Not always. But usually.
Such is the reality for Luka Doncic. At 25, he’s already one of the best players in the world, if not the very best of the bunch. But he’s not a champion. Yet.
READ: Luka Doncic: NBA Finals loss can be springboard for Mavericks
The wait for his first championship will now extend until at least 2025, which really shouldn’t be all that surprising. Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks weren’t a logical pick in this series against the Celtics; one was a 50-win team that caught fire at the end of the regular season, the other was a 64-win team that was better than everyone from the very beginning. The smart money said Dallas would fall in these finals, and that’s what happened. It ended Monday night in Boston, the Celtics winning 106-88, an 18-point margin for their record-setting 18th title.
“They’re a great team. They have been together for a long time, and they had to go through everything, so we just got to look at them, see how they play, the maturity, and they have some great players,” Doncic said when it was all over Monday night. “We can learn from that. We’ve got to fight next season.”
Let’s be clear: losing these NBA Finals should in no way be an indictment of Doncic. He could have played better, of course. Smarter at times, for certain. He spent some of the finals arguing too often with referees. He knows that. That said, letting a finals loss take anything away from the first six years of his body of NBA work would be ridiculous.
He’s scored 11,470 points so far, 15th-most of anyone through their first six NBA seasons. Throw in his 3,472 rebounds and 3,317 assists, and Oscar Robertson is the only other player with such stats through Year 1 through Year 6. James came close. Jordan came close. But they didn’t have those numbers.
READ: A postseason like almost none other for Doncic, even without NBA title
It’s not like this needs explaining, but just in case: Doncic — already a five-time All-NBA first-team selection — is on an absolute Hall of Fame trajectory.
“He’s played as best as he can despite the circumstances, just injuries and stuff,” Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving said earlier in these finals. “He’s been giving it his all.”
Doncic played through knee and ankle issues in the playoffs. He had a thoracic contusion that required painkilling injections to get through the NBA Finals. He wasn’t at his best, and he would have had to be otherworldly for Dallas to have had a real chance in this series.
He finished the playoffs as the leader in points, rebounds and assists anyway. Not the Mavs’ leader. The NBA’s leader.
“He’s one of the best players in the world, and so I think the biggest thing for him is that we all would like to be healthy, but there’s going to be bumps and bruises along the way,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “So, for him at the age of 25 to get to the finals, to be playing his basketball at the level that he’s playing, now it’s just being consistent. … When you have one of the best players in the world, you should be always fighting for a championship.”
The Mavs felt that Doncic was the real MVP of the league this season, and their argument was compelling even though it didn’t resonate much with voters. Kidd says Doncic’s greatness gets taken for granted, which may be true. When Doncic gets it going, it’s must-watch TV. He makes scoring look as easy as anyone has in this generation. He’s not a high-flyer like Jordan, not someone who plays with the force, flair and power like James does. But when he’s on, forget it.
He might not be “the” face of the league. But he’s in the conversation, especially globally. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver watched Doncic closely on the day before the finals started and, in his own words, came away with yet another “example of how international this league is.”
“Someone who grew up in Slovenia and trained in Madrid and Spain was doing interviews in three different languages,” Silver said. “Again, many of you spend time with him, but he’s an exemplar of the modern NBA.”
The Mavs bristled at criticism Doncic took during the finals, but in some ways, that’s welcome-to-the-club stuff. Jordan heard doubters. James still does. The Celtics, until Monday night, did as well. They don’t doubt nobodies. Comes with the territory, and Kidd hopes Doncic converts it into fuel for his future.
“When you’re on the biggest stage, someone’s got to poke a hole,” Kidd said. “This will only make the great ones better. When you look at … LeBron, Michael, the greats, the GOATs, they all were poked at, and they came back stronger and better. I truly believe Luka will come back stronger and better.”
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Salenka, Jabeur rule out Paris Olympics to avoid risking health
BERLIN — Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka and two-time Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur ruled themselves out of the Olympic Games in Paris on Monday.
Both top-10 players said they didn’t want to switch from grass at Wimbledon back to clay at Roland Garros for the Olympic tournament and then immediately start the hard-court season in North America.
World No 3 Sabalenka from Belarus said she’d rather have a break.
READ: Sabalenka overpowers Zheng to retain Australian Open crown
“It’s too much for the scheduling and I made the decision to take care of my health,” she said in Berlin, where she’s warming up for Wimbledon.
“I prefer to have a little rest to make sure physically and health-wise I’m ready for the hard courts. I’ll have a good preparation before going to the hard-court season. I feel that this is safer and better for my body.”
— Ons Jabeur (@Ons_Jabeur) June 17, 2024
World No. 10 Jabeur from Tunisia wrote on X that not being able to play at a fourth consecutive Olympics was unfortunate.
“We (and my medical team) have decided that the quick change of surface and the body’s adaptation required would put my knee at risk and jeopardize the rest of my season,” Jabeur wrote.
READ: Andy Murray uncertain if he’ll play in Paris Olympics
“I have always loved representing my country in any competition, However, I must listen to my body and follow my medical team’s advise.”
Jabeur competed at the last three Olympics without winning a match.
Postseason like almost none other for Doncic, even sans NBA title
Luka Doncic’s first trip to the NBA Finals didn’t result in his first championship. That said, the Dallas star most definitely left his mark on these playoffs.
Doncic finished the postseason as the NBA’s leader in points (635), rebounds (208) and assists (178).
He’s only the second player in NBA history to finish the postseason as the leader in all three of those categories. It also happened last year — when Denver’s Nikola Jokic pulled off the feat.
“I’m proud of every guy that stepped on the floor, all the coaches, all the people behind (the scenes),” Doncic said. “Obviously, we didn’t win the finals, but we did have a hell of a season and I’m proud of every one of them.”
Doncic also joined another very small club, that being players to score 3,000 points in a single season. His 28 points on Monday in the season’s finale, Game 5 against the Boston Celtics, gave him 3,005 this season, including the playoffs.
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He became the 11th player to do that. Michael Jordan had 10 such seasons, Wilt Chamberlain had five and nine other players — Bob McAdoo, Elgin Baylor, James Harden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Rick Barry, Shaquille O’Neal and now Doncic — have each done it once.
Holiday History
Boston’s Jrue Holiday won an NBA title in 2021, then won an Olympic gold medal later that summer. He’s got a chance to do it again.
Holiday and Boston teammate Jayson Tatum will be part of USA Basketball’s squad at the Paris Games, with camp starting early next month in Las Vegas.
Holiday could be the third player to win an NBA or WNBA title, and then an Olympic or FIBA World Cup gold medal, in the same calendar year on more than one occasion. Sue Bird did it three times and Scottie Pippen did it twice.
Celtics Record
Boston’s 16-3 record in these playoffs represents the 10th-best postseason mark by a team in NBA history.
The top of that list: Golden State was 16-1 in 2017, the Los Angeles Lakers were 15-1 in 2001 and Philadelphia was 12-1 in 1983.
Also ahead of Boston’s run this season: the 1999 San Antonio Spurs, 1991 Chicago Bulls and 1989 Detroit Pistons (all 15-2), the 1971 Milwaukee Bucks and 1982 Lakers (both 12-2) and the 1950 Lakers, then in Minneapolis (11-2).
The previous best playoff record in Celtics history was 15-3, done in the 1986 postseason.
Back On Top
Move over, Lakers. Boston is back atop the NBA’s all-time list for most titles won.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ latest championship — in the bubble in 2020 — pulled the franchise into a tie with the Celtics for the most in NBA history, 17 apiece.
READ: Celtics rout Mavericks to win record 18th NBA championship
The Celtics beat the Lakers in the 1963 NBA Finals, giving Boston its sixth title to the Lakers’ five. And for the next 57 years, the Celtics remained alone atop the list of most championships.
When the 1986 season ended, Boston had 16 titles to L.A.’s nine. The championship count since is Lakers 8, Celtics 2 — good enough to give the Celtics sole possession of the No. 1 spot again.
Still Waiting
After 186 playoff games in his career, Al Horford is finally a champion — and finally off a list that he probably didn’t aspire to be part of.
No active player had appeared in more playoff games without a championship than Horford, the Celtics’ center.
Now that he’s off the list, the new leaders in playoff games played without winning their first title yet are James Harden (166), Chris Paul (149) and Russell Westbrook (122).
Nice Check
The Celtics’ players (and probably some staff) are going to get a nice check for winning the title.
Boston’s share of the NBA’s playoff pool is $12,059,435. That’s the most a team has ever won from the postseason pile of bonus money, which was a record $33,657,947 this season.
Some of that gets distributed to each of the 16 playoff teams. Dallas’ share was $5,899,422.
The bonus pool is typically split in some way among players and staff from the playoff teams.