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On this date in 2004, Vince Carter was traded by the Toronto Raptors to the New Jersey Nets. He joined Jason Kidd to form one of the most fun backcourts we’ve ever seen. The deal saw Alonzo Mourning, Aaron Williams, Eric Williams and two first-round picks going to Toronto. The picks ended up being Joey Graham and Renaldo Balkman (sent to the Knicks). Mourning never played for the Raptors. That’s a brutal return.
Final NBA Cupdate
Knicks take home the 🏆 and the 💰
The New York Knicks haven’t won a championship since 1973. But they have won an NBA Cup in the last 24 hours. A massive 35-19 fourth quarter fueled by their bench made the difference in this game, denying Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs’ young team of destiny. I think we’re about to find out just how big of a next step this is for the Knicks under Mike Brown.
There was great small stuff in the fourth quarter. Jordan Clarkson had eight points in the fourth. Mitchell Robinson had six offensive rebounds in the final period. Tyler Kolek had the same amount of points (six) as Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby in the final frame. And the Knicks just had an extra gear in Las Vegas which the Spurs couldn’t find. Or maybe New York just stymied it, the same way San Antonio did to OKC in the semifinals.
The NBA Cup means cash for the winning players and a banner that people will be confused about at the winning team’s arena. The Lakers won the first Cup in 2023 and finished with 47 wins, a Play-In Tournament victory and a first-round loss to the Nuggets in five games. The Bucks won it last year and ended up with 48 wins and a first-round exit at the hands of the Pacers in five games.
The Knicks are in a different position. They’re on pace for 59 wins and at least the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. If healthy, they should be the favorite to win it. They have an undeniable star, great role players and a coach taking them to the next level. It’s all there for them.
So what will this Cup mean on the way to the goal of competing for an NBA title? We’re not sure yet. We know they were too much for the Spurs. We know what they said they’ll do with the $530,000 prize money. We know that Josh Hart decided to have a celebration that Brunson didn’t seem to love.
And we know the Cup is here to stay. Despite mixed reviews, it’s gaining momentum, and the commissioner loves it. One of these years, a Cup winner will also win an NBA championship. Maybe that’s happening this season — or maybe it’s just a random event before Christmas.
The last 24
Is NBA expansion finally happening?
📩 Decision coming. Adam Silver said the league will make the call in 2026 about expansion. For Las Vegas and Seattle, this can’t be a tease again.
🏀 Trade SZN. Will Giannis or Jonathan Kuminga be moved before the deadline? John Hollinger has answers.
🏀 Ready for more. The Spurs are looking like they can make a leap. Ethical basketball is working.
💰 Not allowed? Terry Rozier paying for his friend’s lawyer in gambling case? That’s a conflict of interest. Meanwhile, the Heat remain in limbo on the question of whether Rozier can be traded.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
You’ve Got Mail
You, too, can get an email from the Warriors owner
Fans often want to voice their displeasure with a sports team they love when things aren’t going well. That can happen on sports radio. It can happen on podcasts or in comment sections. We will see fans boo at games when they’re especially fed up. Apparently, you can just email the owner of the team and get an immediate, genuine response. Not one of those automated messages back.
That’s what 27-year-old Warriors fan Justin Dutari did with Golden State owner Joe Lacob. He figured out what his email might be, thanks to some deductive reasoning. And then he decided to let Lacob know why he’s frustrated with a Warriors team that is just 13-14 on the season.
“Please do something about this team,” Dutari wrote in his email. “What [does] Steph need to do to win every night? Drop 50 points? …[Jimmy Butler’s] tools are being underutilized because he is playing as a power forward due to the small position players. We have no true center.
“I am so frustrated.”
That’s a pretty fair email and way tamer than I thought it might be. The biggest surprise isn’t that he found the email or sent it. It’s that Lacob responded to him. In two minutes! And his answer was interesting.
“You can’t be as frustrated as me,” Lacob wrote. “I am working on it. It’s complicated. Style of play. Coaches desires regarding players. League trends. Jimmy is not the problem.”
This kind of feels like he’s throwing Steve Kerr under the bus. Maybe he never thought this fan would post the reply on Reddit and have it go viral. But it’s pretty easy to assume that Kerr’s unwillingness to trust Jonathan Kuminga is one of the things Lacob is talking about here.