markelle-fultz Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Youth is wasted on the young, unless you are these NBA teams
So, who has the hottest young talent in the league? We’re analyzing the five teams who have built the best through the draft across positions and skill sets. No room for wannabes here – gotta be 25 or below to even join the party. We’re also looking for impact players, not DNPs, with dreams bigger t...

Don’t let the In-Season tourney distract you from Orlando and Minnesota
The story of this early NBA season in the In-Season Tournament for no other reason than the league wants to cram it down our throats. However, this is not another diatribe about that mockery of a cup. That’s been done, so allow me to present to you the real stories at the quarter-ish mark of the sea...
![Disney-sponsored Orlando Magic say $50k donation to Ron DeSantis' PAC came before presidential bid [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/b3603fb90aecd1832bb1a38e66b05618.jpg)
Disney-sponsored Orlando Magic say $50k donation to Ron DeSantis' PAC came before presidential bid [Update]
Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have been engaged in a blood feud for more than a year. On Tuesday DeSantis’ self-appointed governing board of the Walt Disney World district in Orlando dismantled all of the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in it. In February, Disney decided to canc...

Victor Wembanyama won't be NBA Rookie of the Year
Every betting site has Victor Wembanyama installed as the runaway favorite to earn Rookie of the Year. In case you want to start engraving Victor Wembanyama’s name on the award already, take a moment to consider this. Rookie of the Year hasn’t always gone to the incandescent talent from every draft ...

The Charlotte Hornets are where the 2023 NBA Draft begins
Many of the franchise-altering garden of forking path moments in NBA history began with contentious debates over the No.1 pick. In the rare situation where a phenom takes the reins, the second pick becomes the 2023 NBA Draft’s initial pivot point. A month ago, the Charlotte Hornets were left crestfa...

Anthony Bennett and the NBA Lottery's biggest draft busts of the last decade
Every day, fans of Aleksej “Poku” Pokusevski, Josh Green, or James Wiseman swear next year is the year their favorite players are not the bums the rest of the NBA thinks they are. I went through the last decade, from 2013-2023, and highlighted the 10 players who are on track to be the biggest busts ...

After winning the Victor Wembanyama lottery, San Antonio’s work is only just beginning
The conventional thinking is that Victor Wembanyama will be in safe hands with Gregg Popovich in San Antonio. But there’s no guarantee that the Wembanyama era will be anywhere as fruitful as Pop’s last dynasty or that he’ll have the best career out of any prospect in this draft, but I wouldn’t bet a...

For the Sixers, it’s never sunny in Philadelphia: 'The Process,' 10 years on
On a Tuesday afternoon in May of 2013, the Philadelphia 76ers officially entrusted their organization’s rebuild with a Stanford-educated egghead who had a bold vision for the future....

These are the top 10 young cores in the NBA right now
The “middle class” of the NBA is slowly eroding. Surprisingly, it’s not totally a bad thing. Almost every team has a talented young core with potential, raising parity within the NBA. Even the teams at the bottom of the standings have enough young players to have something to look forward to in two ...

ESPN’s top draft analyst is mocking mock drafts by anointing Bronny James as a future top-10 pick
There’s no high school basketball LeaguePass — yet. Aside from the Bronny James hypebeast machine, the top prospects in the upcoming draft are previewed to the general public through the diligent scouting done by professional analysts or scouts who scour camps, national showcases, and high school gy...

2023 NBA Anti-All-Stars: The dregs of the East
The NBA All-Star Game is an honor bestowed upon the most distinguished hoopers every season. Unfortunately, that’s not what we’re doing here. Their time will come. However, the NBA’s worst rotation players deserve to receive their dead flowers too. Stare into this dark void with me and commemorate t...

The best games on the NBA schedule this week — only one back-to-back
Don’t let anyone tell you the NBA schedule during the regular season is a poor entertainment product. Of course, a single game does not impact a team’s overall record the same way that it does an NFL team. In the NBA teams play multiple games per week. That is not changing anytime soon, especially w...

NBA Players As <i>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever</i> Characters
Warning: Spoilers ahead...

Can you Phil the love tonight?
Love is certainly not the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Philadelphia — despite it being called the City of Brotherly Love or having a statue of the word. I don’t care how high of a note Musiq Soulchild hit in his 2000 Billboard Top 100 single....

Catching up with the soap opera drama of the NBA
The NBA is one of the longest-running unscripted nighttime soaps on television. Even outside of tip-offs and the final buzzer, its headliners are some of the most accessible figures in professional sports. The rosters are smaller, their faces aren’t obstructed, their games air nightly for at least h...

Danny Ainge has turned the Utah Jazz into a League Pass offseason team
Now in his third decade as a general manager or team president, Danny Ainge is in the next stage of what’s been a blessed NBA existence. As a supporting player on a pair of championship Celtics teams, he was one of the league’s first 3-point specialists, and reached the NBA Finals with Portland, the...

Jabari Smith could put Orlando back on the right track
The Orlando Magic seems to have finally figured it out. Since Dwight Howard left in the clumsiest way possible in 2012, the franchise has been mired in mediocrity. They have been the poster child for the dreaded NBA purgatory. Since Howard’s departure, they’ve made the playoffs twice, losing in the ...

Thunder, Magic luck out in a top-heavy NBA draft
After three years of embarrassing tanking, GM Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City Thunder have returned to relevance. They came into the NBA Lottery with the sixth-best odds at the top pick in the 2022 NBA Draft and ended up with the second pick in the draft. The Orlando Magic won the first pick and wi...

Is it finally winning time for Philadelphia?
On Saturday, the 76ers began the postseason by breezing past the Toronto Raptors with a ho-hum 131-111 drubbing. The 2022 playoffs is a significant crucible for Philadelphia. The legacy of The Process is at stake. If HBO ever decides to expand its foray into NBA biopics beyond the Showtime Lakers’ W...

James Harden says he's finally found a ‘home’ in Philadelphia — give me a break
James Harden made his much-anticipated home debut for Philadelphia on Wednesday in a win over the hapless Knicks. He delivered a casual 26, 9 and 9, and could be seen smiling and giggling like a sociopath who just stepped on a couple children to get to the front of the ice cream line. ...