The Golden State Valkyries enjoyed a sparkling first season in San Francisco, and the hope is Portland and Toronto<\/a> will continue that trend. Such success from expansion teams undoubtedly will boost the value of every other WNBA franchise, which then leads to the league\u2019s plan for Boston.<\/p>\n If the Sun could fetch a $325 million price tag in 2026, how much would a Boston expansion team procure in seven years? And remember, the price of a new Boston franchise would be split amongst the league\u2019s owners. So why would the league\u2019s owners agree for the Sun to move to Boston when the tribe would be the only beneficiary from that deal? <\/p>\n The WNBA has Boston in its sights, but the owners want to profit off such a valuable market. So Boston\u2019s overall value damaged its chances of getting the Sun, to the point where it never really had a chance \u2014 especially with Fertitta\u2019s determination to bring a team to Houston and being squeezed out of the expansion race.<\/p>\n The WNBA\u2019s statement after the Pagliuca deal admonished Pagliuca and his team for not applying for an expansion team. The league said it views expansion and relocation in the same light, meaning Boston was not considered for the Sun because Houston was on the expansion list.<\/p>\n Also, there is definite league interest in having Celtics governor Bill Chisholm as a participating party in bringing a team to Boston. The WNBA is banking on its recent success with the influx of great talent such as Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, A\u2019ja Wilson, Angel Reese, and the drafting this week of Azzi Fudd, Flau\u2019Jae Johnson, and Lauren Betts as building blocks for long-term success. And in coming years, players such as Hannah Hidalgo, Sarah Strong<\/a>, and JuJu Watkins will also enter the league.<\/p>\n So if all goes as planned, the WNBA will eventually come to Boston, but it will also pad the pockets of more than one party.<\/p>\n Now the only party that could potentially have an issue with the Sun\u2019s sale is the tribe, which lost out on $25 million because of the WNBA\u2019s hardball decision. But their desire to get out of the WNBA business superseded their need for the extra $25 million that a sale to Pagliuca would have garnered.<\/p>\n So Boston will now have to wait, and WNBA and basketball fans will have to suffer because the league\u2019s owners all want a split of the healthy relocation fee.<\/p>\n NO-DOUBT FAVORITE<\/p>\n Thunder roar back to top seed<\/p>\n With Jalen Williams back, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander likely to win his second MVP award, and a supporting cast that has been nearly flawless, the Thunder raced to the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference<\/a> for the third consecutive year and clinched the NBA\u2019s best record.<\/p>\n But now comes the most arduous task, becoming the first team since the 2017-18 Warriors to repeat as champions.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, it\u2019s a great accomplishment,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. \u201cNo two seasons are the same, and this season was a lot of different experiences. We obviously started really hot, and then dealt with a lot of missed games (injury), especially in the middle of the season. \u2026 And when you win the championship, that kind of hangs over you as a team the next year.<\/p>\n \u201cMeaning everybody, including ourselves, you judge yourself against that, and it\u2019s incredibly hard to be present in the next regular season. And I learned so much from this team because of their ability to come in every day and just embrace the day and the challenge that we had that day and not look backwards, not look forwards. To attack every challenge together with a level of zest and joy, is really impressive, and it\u2019s why I think we have had the season we did because they bring that kind of energy to it. And I think it\u2019s really hard to do. So I give them a lot of credit, they are really deserving.\u201d<\/p>\n Gilgeous-Alexander was able to back up a stellar 2024-25 season with an even better one, breaking Wilt Chamberlain\u2019s 60-year-old record for most consecutive games with 20 or more points.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels better for sure, not only because we had to weather it a little bit more, but just like repeating something and doing it again is always a little bit harder,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little more challenging. The league gets better, players get better. For us to still have the best overall record through that, and the ups and downs, speaks volume to the team, speaks volumes to the guys in the summer time, getting better individually, coaching staff, getting better individually.\u201d<\/p>\n A key to the Thunder\u2019s success is the step forward taken in Year 3 by Chet Holmgren, who earned his first All-Star berth and also carried more of a responsibility when Williams missed considerable time with wrist and hamstring injuries. Holmgren is shooting a career-best 55.7 percent from the field this season.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like my understanding of urgency with patience has gotten a lot better,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like, earlier on, I\u2019m trying to win the Super Bowl<\/a> on every single play. And now that I\u2019ve played a lot of games, I understand a lot more than just putting pressure on other teams all 48 minutes. They\u2019re going to make mistakes, you\u2019re going to find cracks, you\u2019re going to have opportunities. So it\u2019s not always about trying to force anything on one single play, but more so just about having the right amount of pressure that you put on the other team.\u201d <\/p>\n ETC.<\/p>\n Questioning NBA\u2019s motives<\/p>\n Just minutes after his team registered a rather unimpressive win over the lowly Kings, Golden State forward Draymond Green was asked about the play-in tournament, created several years ago to provide two extra playoff spots.<\/p>\n The Warriors are locked into 10th slot, and it\u2019s been that way for weeks. The teams behind Golden State \u2014 Memphis, Dallas, and New Orleans \u2014 all are in tank mode or just aren\u2019t very good. With no incentive to win in the final three games, the Warriors rested superstar Stephen Curry for their nationally televised matchup Thursday with the Lakers.<\/p>\n Golden State will start its play-in journey on the road, but it\u2019s been evident for weeks it would be relegated to the NBA\u2019s version of the First Four \u2014 and that doesn\u2019t thrill Green.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not exciting,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not. I\u2019m a competitor, and going into the game I\u2019m going to do all I can do to win, but it\u2019s not that exciting. You go on the road in a game you need to win, as a competitor, you\u2019re going to rise to the challenge. But I\u2019m not going to sleep saying like, \u2018Man we got this play-in next week, I gotta get my rest.\u2019 It ain\u2019t that exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n Like the 65-game rule<\/a> and the revised draft lottery, the NBA has devised ways to increase competitiveness and prevent tanking. Obviously these plans have failed, and the final few weeks of this regular season has been an abysmal example of porous competition and listless matchups.<\/p>\n \u201cI think [the play-in] worked initially, and now to have a team stuck in 10th, it ain\u2019t working,\u201d Green said. \u201cWe could have lost our last 15 games and been stuck in 10th. It ain\u2019t working. The play-in was made for teams not to tank.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s the part that everyone forgets. The play-in was made for teams that were like 12th or 13th to keep going, and they ain\u2019t keep going. They slowed down and then they hit the brakes.\u201d<\/p>\n And then Green addressed the Sacramento game \u2014 where the Kings, ahead by 1 with 3:15 left, intentionally fouled Seth Curry with the Warriors in the bonus. Sacramento coach Doug Christie said he was unaware the Warriors were in the free throw bonus and wanted to stop the clock so he could take his use-it-or-lose-it timeout before the 3-minute mark.<\/p>\n Some viewed it as the most disrespectful form of tanking. But Green lamented the lack of league discipline for teams who tank in comparison to players who commit flagrant fouls or are ejected from games.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw a team tonight foul Seth Curry with three minutes to go in the game for no reason, in the penalty. It ain\u2019t working, but we want to make the playoffs, so it works, I guess,\u201d Green said. \u201cI get fined when I do wrong. They fine the hell out of people. We love taking money from players. Keep fining teams. I\u2019ve seen two teams [get fined] and we all know everybody\u2019s tanking. But you\u2019ve seen two fines. If it was players, we\u2019d snatch that money in a heartbeat. Why isn\u2019t it the same?<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody loves money. The punishment for players is always let\u2019s take the money. Now it\u2019s times to punish teams and nobody knows what to do. Why not?\u201d<\/p>\n NBA commissioner Adam Silver levied fines to the Jazz ($500,000) and Pacers ($100,000)<\/a> for their actions in either holding players out of key stretches of games or holding out healthy players entirely. After a brief investigation, the league cleared the Kings of any intentional wrongdoing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe league\u2019s investigation determined that Christie mistakenly believed that the Warriors were not in the penalty and therefore instructed his team to foul in an attempt to stop the clock and utilize one of the team\u2019s remaining timeouts. The investigation found that Christie made no intentional effort to give the Warriors a shooting foul, or to cause the Kings to lose the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Basically, Christie didn\u2019t tank, but he did commit coaching malpractice, which isn\u2019t finable.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know exactly what to do when somebody gets a technical foul or suspended for a game,\u201d Green said. \u201cBut all of a sudden we\u2019ve got team issues and nobody knows what to do. What happened to the take the money stuff? Everybody\u2019s trying to reach a quota too, but when it comes to player discipline, you want to snatch the money as fast as we can. <\/p>\n \u201cCome to team discipline, when you\u2019ve seen 12 teams tanking, you\u2019ve seen two fines. If my math serves me correctly, that\u2019s 10 that ain\u2019t been fined. We don\u2019t keep that same energy when it comes to teams, when it comes to officials. Everybody but players, we don\u2019t keep that same energy, but it\u2019s a player\u2019s league.\u201d<\/p>\n The next few days will be interesting in Detroit as Cade Cunningham returned to the lineup Wednesday, making a remarkable recovery from a collapsed lung. Cunningham was expected to miss the rest of the regular season and perhaps the first round of the playoffs. But he\u2019s back, and now the NBA may have an issue on its hands. If Cunningham plays in the Pistons\u2019 final three games, he will reach 64 games played \u2014 one game shy of the league minimum mandated for winning awards. Would the NBA play hard ball and not allow Cunningham on the MVP or All-NBA ballot, perhaps impacting his future earnings and a super max contract? Can the Pistons\u2019 lobby for Cunningham to be included? The NBA appears content with the 65-game rule, but it hasn\u2019t faced a situation like this where an MVP candidate could finish one game short. Meanwhile in San Antonio, Victor Wembanyama reached his 65-game plateau in Friday\u2019s win over the Mavericks to be eligible for awards such as MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards. Wembanyama left San Antonio\u2019s win over the 76ers with a bruised rib and missed Wednesday\u2019s game against the Trail Blazers \u2026 Remember Tyler Burton, the Uxbridge native who scored a career-high 23 points against the Celtics<\/a> while on a 10-day contract with the Grizzlies? Well, since many NBA teams would rather sign players to 10-day deals rather than rest-of-the-season contracts, the Grizzlies allowed Burton\u2019s second 10-day deal to expire and signed former first-round pick Dariq Whitehead to a 10-day deal to finish the regular season. The Celtics liked center Charles Bassey, but did not want to commit to a rest-of-the-season contract, so they allowed him to join the Warriors and opted for a standard NBA deal with Ron Harper Jr., making him eligible for the playoffs. In Houston, former Celtic JD Davison, on his third year of a two-way contract, hit his 50-game limit with the Rockets and signed a standard NBA deal, making him playoff eligible \u2026 Now that the WNBA has reached a new collective bargaining agreement<\/a> with the players, free agency began Monday<\/a>, with more than 75 percent of the league on the market. One player who is committed to a contract is Angel Reese, who was traded by the Chicago Sky to the Atlanta Dream<\/a> for two future first-round picks \u2026 Farewell and kudos to the all-time great NBA play-by-play man Mark Jones, who will announce his last game for ESPN on Sunday, calling Magic-Celtics in Boston. He is expected to call Kings games full-time, but the national NBA audience will miss out on his creative style that opened doors for a new generation of play-by-play callers, especially of color and women.<\/p>\n Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Shai](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4GGGMLHPMF2ZJRCYFHDLWSLM5E.jpg\")
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has once again led the Thunder to the best record in the NBA. Caroline Brehman\/Associated Press<\/p>\n![\"Draymond](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PSWJ35W72GJ3HQFYN4ZNO3DMHY.jpg\")
Draymond Green always speaks his mind, no matter the consequences. Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez\/Associated Press<\/p>\n![\"Shockingly,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WLZBG25QU45HNM2QCBBW2PLHD4.jpg\")
Shockingly, Pistons star Cade Cunningham (left) returned to the lineup Wednesday against the Bucks, even though he was expected to miss more time due to a collapsed lung.Duane Burleson\/Associated Press<\/p>\n