LA Vs. Nuggets

D’Angelo Russell had one of his best games as a pro Sunday night when the Lakers defeated the Denver Nuggets 124-115. He led all scorers with 33 points on 13-of-19 shooting while also adding three assists and three steals and only turned the ball over twice.

20 of Russell’s 33 points came in the first half. His backcourt mate Lou Williams also had a strong game, scoring 25 points on 8-of-15 shooting, and Jordan Clarkson led all Lakers bench scorers with 12 points and three assists in 19 minutes.

Positives of Brexit on the Stock Markets

As people feel greater uncertainty in the global economy, triggered by the Britain exit (Brexit), the global stock markets have been more volatile than usual. The market's initial reaction is to sell first.
However, the Canadian stock market held up better than the U.S. market because the former has greater exposure to precious metal-related stocks.
Specifically, the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index Fund(TSX:XIU), which is representative of the Canadian market, declined 1.9%, and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) declined 3.7%.
1. Gold- and silver-related stocks climbed
Gold and silver prices rose because precious metals are seen as safe havens as uncertainty rises. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:GLD) and the iShares Silver Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:SLV) rose 5% and 2.4%, respectively.
Because precious metal prices climbed, precious metal-related stocks also rose. Precious metals mining stocks such as Goldcorp Inc.(TSX:G)(NYSE:GG) and Barrick GoldCorp.(TSX:ABX)(NYSE:ABX) showed greater strength over precious metals streaming companies such as Silver Wheaton Corp. (TSX:SLW)(NYSE:SLW).
Goldcorp, Barrick Gold, and Silver Wheaton rose 6.4%, 7.9%, and 4.2%, respectively.
2. Utilities held up
A flight to safety occurred in the utilities sector. Utilities are viewed as being safe stocks with safe dividends. So, utilities generally held up better than the market. Top utilities such as Fortis Inc.(TSX:FTS), Canadian Utilities Limited(TSX:CU), and Emera Inc.(TSX:EMA) actually rose 1.6%, 1%, and 2%, respectively.
3. REITs held up
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) generally held up well because, like utilities, REITs are viewed as stable investments that offer high yields. Their cash flows from rental revenue are pretty stable.
Most notably, residential REITs with assets in stable regions rose as investors chose safety and quality. Namely, Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (TSX:CAR.UN) and Milestone Apartments Real Estate Invt Tr(TSX:MST.UN) both rose about 1.2%. However, investors should be careful with valuation and aim to not overpay for any company, no matter how high quality they are.
On the other hand, REITs with European exposure declined slightly. For example, Dream Global REIT (TSX:DRG.UN) fell 1.2%.
4. Better valuations
With the general market declining, investors should review their watch lists to update the buy price ranges for the companies they want to own.
For instance, the Big Five Canadian banks are quality businesses with long-term track records of profitability and dividend payments. They all declined 2-3% in a day, making them more attractive.
5. Higher dividends
Dividend investors should celebrate. Lower stock prices lead to higher starting yields. Of the Big Five banks, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (TSX:CM)(NYSE:CM) pays the highest yield of 4.8% after its decline.
However, cash is precious. Investors should see if they can get at least a 5.2% yield on the Canadian bank as more volatility is likely to come.

Barack Obama Insists 'We're Going To Defeat Islamic State'

Barack Obama has insisted "we're going to defeat" Islamic State (IS) and said he will sketch out a plan to do in a speech later this week.
Without revealing details of any planned US action, he said America would engaged in something "similar to the kinds of counter-terrorism campaigns that we've been engaging in consistently over the last five, six, seven years".
He will give his speech on Wednesday, the day before the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Speaking to NBC's Meet The Press today, Obama, who was elected president on a platform of getting US soldiers out of Iraq, said: "This is not going to be an announcement about U.S. ground troops. This is not the equivalent of the Iraq war.
"The good news is is that because of American leadership, we have I believe, a broad-based coalition internationally and regionally to be able to deal with the problem."
Obama has been accused of being indecisive over IS as it has torn through Syria and Iraq. He told reporters last month "we don't have a strategy yet".
The strategy he will announce on Wednesday will have political and military elements, he said today, which would "systematically degrade" the terror group.
He said: "We are going to be as part of an international coalition, carrying out air strikes in support of work on the ground by Iraqi troops, Kurdish troops.
"We are going to be helping to put together a plan for them, so that they can start retaking territory that ISIL (former name of IS) had taken over."
He said the West would "have to work hard" to attract back Sunni tribes in Iraq which were shunned by the Malaki government, which favoured Shia muslims with government appointments and alienated the Sunnis - who enjoyed more power under Saddam Hussein.
He continued: "So there's going to be an economic element to this. There's going to be a political element to it. There's going to be a military element to it.
"And what I want people to understand, though, is that over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of ISIL.
"We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities. We're going to shrink the territory that they control. And ultimately we're going to defeat them."
Obama was speaking after attending the Nato summit in Newport, Wales with other leaders of Nato countries.
Last week, former UK foreign secretary Jack Straw gave a withering critique of the president's foreign policy, saying: "Much though I respect him, I think, if you like, he is very long on analysis and not quite as fleet as foot at being decisive, and you need a balance if you are the president of the United States."

Spurs beat Heat 104-87 in Game 5 to win NBA title

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, the winningest trio in NBA postseason history, shared hugs.
Players wrapped themselves in flags from around world, a reminder that the San Antonio Spurs look far beyond the border to build champions, as confetti fell from above.
Painfully denied 12 months ago by the Miami Heat, this victory party was worth the wait.
''It makes last year OK,'' Duncan said.
The Spurs finished off a dominant run to their fifth NBA championship Sunday night, ending the Heat's two-year title reign with a 104-87 victory that wrapped up the series in five games.
''We had a great first quarter, but from that point on they were the better team, and that's why they're the champions in 2014,'' said LeBron James, who led the Heat with 31 points and 10 rebounds.
San Antonio erased an early 16-point deficit and routed Miami for the fourth time in the series, denying the Heat's quest for a third straight championship. A year after the Spurs suffered their only loss in six finals appearances - a heartbreaking seven-game defeat - they turned the rematch into no match at all.
''We wanted to redeem ourselves. I'm just glad we were able to do that,'' Parker said.
Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Spurs, who added this title to the ones they won in 1999, 2003, '05 and '07. They nearly had another last year, but couldn't hold off the Heat.
''I've said many times, a day didn't go by where I didn't think about Game 6,'' Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of the turning point in last year's finals. ''So I think, just in general, for the group to have the fortitude that they showed to get back to this spot, I think speaks volumes about how they're constituted and what kind of fiber they have.''
Not to mention tons of talent, and perhaps the best coaching in the game.
''They played exquisite basketball this series and in particular these last three games and they are the better team. There's no other way to say it,'' Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
The Spurs won four titles in nine years, but hadn't been back on top since 2007, making Foreigner's ''Feels Like the First Time'' an appropriate song choice after the final buzzer.
Duncan and Popovich have been here for all of them, and it was the fourth for Parker and Ginobili, who with Duncan are once again the reigning the Big Three in the NBA.
Chris Bosh finished with 13 points and Dwyane Wade just 11 on 4-of-12 shooting for the Heat.
The painful conclusion to last year's NBA Finals served as the fuel for this one, powering the Spurs to a league-best 62-win season and a rematch with Miami - the first in the finals since Chicago beat Utah in 1997-98.
Round 2 went to the Spurs, but both teams have challenges to navigate if there is to be a rubber match.
San Antonio will face questions - as it has for years - about the age of its core, and whether Duncan, Ginobili and Popovich want to stick around. The Heat will brace for the potential free agency of James, Wade and Bosh, and will need younger, fresher pieces around the three All-Stars if they all stay.
But this moment belongs to the Spurs.
Playing a methodical, albeit winning, style for many years made San Antonio respected, but never beloved. The Spurs were TV ratings killers, casual viewers finding them not much fun to watch.
But Popovich opened up the offense a few years ago, making the Spurs an easy-to-like, tough-to-beat group that thrives on ball movement and 3-point shooting.
''You showed the world how beautiful this game is,'' Commissioner Adam Silver told the Spurs during the postgame award ceremony.
A decade and a half after winning their first title in 1999, when Duncan was in his second season, the Spurs remain the NBA's model organization, a small-market team that simply wins big and hardly ever does it with a high draft pick. Instead, they found players overseas or in other organizations who would fit the Spurs' way of doing things and mesh with the Duncan, Parker and Ginobili, who have teamed for 117 postseason victories.
That included Leonard, acquired in a draft-night trade with Indiana after playing at San Diego State, and Patty Mills, an Australian national who scored 17 points off the bench.
In the end, the Spurs made winning their fifth title look stunningly easy - much to the delight of the home crowd. After the slow start, they had their fans standing, chanting and dancing much of the second half.

NBA final: Spurs rout Heat to take 3-1 series lead

MIAMI—One of the big questions after the San Antonio Spurs dismantled the Miami Heat in Game 4 of the NBA final was if they could possibly duplicate the feat in Game 5.
They could.
And more.
In another display of near-perfect offensive basketball coupled this time with brilliant defence — not to mention a shocking capitulation by the two-time defending champions — the Spurs are now within one win of the fifth title of the Tim Duncan-Gregg Popovich era.
San Antonio’s thorough, wire-to-wire 107-86 rout of the Miami Heat here Thursday night — which included the Heat being booed off the court by their home fans at halftime — gave the Spurs a 3-1 lead and they can close out the series Sunday at home.
No team in NBA final history has ever come back from down 3-1 to win and there is no suggestion off the last two games that the Heat would be capable of being the first.
They once again played with no passion and little energy, down 19 points at halftime and never able to get closer; they were dismantled by the brilliant Spurs offence and unable to crack a San Antonio defence that played its best game of the series.
The Spurs, meanwhile, did what they do. They executed a ball-movement offence to near perfection, got outstanding production from so-called role players and did not let the Heat get anywhere close to back in the game after taking control early.
Even a 19-point third quarter from LeBron James couldn’t help Miami, which got little or no production from anyone else. Despite that outburst by James, San Antonio was able to stretch a 19-point lead at the half into a 24-point bulge going into the fourth.
The Heat never made a run in the final 12 minutes and saw a streak of 13 straight playoff wins following losses come to an end.
Tony Parker, the Spurs point guard who is beating up Miami’s Mario Chalmers in an incredibly one-sided matchup, had 19 points for San Antonio while Boris Diaw had another old-school outstanding night with eight points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
Kawhi Leonard, once again playing good defence against James, finished with 20 for the Spurs.
The game was so lopsided that James and Wade watched the final three and a half minutes in disgust from the bench. James had 28 points but Wade was just 3-for-13 from the field and had 10 points.
The Spurs picked up in the first half of Game 5 right where they left off Game 4.
They didn’t shoot 76 per cent from the floor — as they did in a 71-point first half on Tuesday — but they didn’t have to thanks to a stifling defence that held James to nine points, Wade to four and the Heat to 36 points as a team.
The off-day message was heard loud and clear.
“That’s what we spent all of our time on was the defence, because I thought we did a pretty mediocre job,” said Popovich. “It’s always like that. Doesn’t matter whether you win or lose, coaches always find something to moan and groan about.”
The Heat, on the other hand, were strangely dispassionate in the first half, lacking any sense of urgency despite the significance of the game.
They knew what they did wrong on Tuesday and did nothing, really, to correct it, allowing 55 first-half points on 56 per cent San Antonio shooting from the field.
They had a message and apparently ignored it.
“I have a report, but it was pretty obvious the things we needed to do better,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said before the game. “We don’t need all the analytics that I get, 25 pages worth, to see we had 28 turnovers (for) 23 points, (the Spurs) flattened us out offensively, and then defensively them shooting a record-high field-goal percentage.
“That has to change. I don’t have to look any further than that.”

Will players of Indian descent start cracking rosters in North American pro sports?

When Jaskaran Dhillon was drafted in the third round by the Toronto Argonauts last month, he was deluged by ethnic media outlets in Vancouver celebrating the occasion since players of Indian descent are rare in the CFL.
On Wednesday, Sim Bhullar, a 7-foot-5 centre, worked out for his hometown Raptors, also attracting a media horde. He’s a 21-year-old who can dunk while standing on his tip-toes.
And last month, the movie Million Dollar Arm came out, based on the story of an agent who went to India in 2008 to recruit two talented cricket players with the hope of developing them into major league pitchers.
Even if their pro dreams die, these athletes are the leading edge of what some hope will one day be a wave of athletes with Indian backgrounds filling roster spots on North American pro sports teams.
The Toronto-born Bhullar, whose family is from the state of Punjab, hopes to be the first Indo-Canadian ever drafted into the NBA on June 26. He left New Mexico State following his sophomore year where he was voted Western Athletic Conference tournament MVP in leading the Aggies to the championship.
The interest in the Indian and the Punjab communities in Canada was so big for his Raptors workout, local ethnic media showed up excitedly at the Air Canada Centre to interview Bhullar. His college games were covered in Toronto’s Punjabi newspaper, Parvasi.
Bhullar said he hopes he can do for India what Yao Ming did for basketball in China, where the game became even more popular with kids and consumers in the world’s largest economy.
“Hopefully if I can make it and get to the next level, I can really go back there and impact the community,” Bhullar said. “I want to give back to the community out there. Especially growing up being a little kid, I always wanted to one of the NBA players to come to my community.
“I really want to be a role model for the kids and just open their eyes and know they can do anything they want. Anything they put their mind to.”
Bhullar said he doesn’t feel any pressure carrying the flag for India and wants to be a role model for others.
He’s used to such talk. In 2011, the New York Times wrote that Bhullar was poised to become the world’s first prominent men’s basketball player of Indian descent.
“There’s not really any pressure for me,” he said. “I had it for this long this far.”
He said there are more players in India with basketball talent, but they are lacking a place to showcase their skills.
Bhullar wants to make a difference in that area.
Bhullar said basketball courts are being built across the country and many more are picking up the game.
“It’s more pride,” he said. “I just want to be the best I can be and inspire some young guys. It really helps our community take a step forward. It brings a positive light to our community.
Dhillon, at 6-foot-3 and 290 pounds, can also trace his family roots to the Punjab area.
Dhillon felt family pressure to play soccer growing up in B.C., but he didn’t really like it. He fell in love with the gridiron game watching the NFL and the Denver Broncos became his favourite team.
Rupan Bal, of Punjab-based PTC (PTCnetwork.ca) that broadcasts out of Toronto, grew up playing basketball in India and cautions that developing more talent will take time.
He played high school basketball in Amritsar, and the only reason he played was that it was a Canadian-oriented school. He started playing basketball in Grade 5, but “it was not really that great.”
He said the national basketball program is on a par with high school basketball in Canada.
Social media is also responsible for raising the profile of emerging stars like Bhullar in the Punjab community.
“In Canada, in every Punjabi community, he (Bhullar) is really popular because of his height and the fact that he is the first one to make it to the NBA draft,” Bal said. “People want to take pictures wherever he walks.”
Bal added that he thinks there is pressure on Bhullar to do well in basketball because of his heritage.
“As Punjabi Canadians, we are looking for someone from our community to break the barrier and bring two generations together. What happens is the generation from my parent’s era didn’t really support sports. They don’t believe in sports. Studies is the only option. So someone breaking through this, they will visualize a new picture.”

NBA moving forward with Steve Ballmer purchase of Clippers

The NBA has called off a hearing to oust embattled Los Angeles Clippers co-owner Donald Sterling in advance of a vote on a potentially record-breaking deal negotiated by his wife Shelly Sterling to sell the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion US.
Shelly Sterling negotiated the deal despite objections expressed through her estranged husband Donald Sterling's attorneys. She said in a statement late Thursday that she agreed to sell the team to Ballmer "under her authority as the sole trustee of The Sterling Family Trust, which owns the Clippers."
The NBA said in a statement Friday that the league, Shelly Sterling and The Sterling Family Trust had "resolved their dispute over the ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers."
"Under the agreement, the Clippers will be sold to Steve Ballmer, pending approval by the NBA Board of Governors, and the NBA will withdraw its pending charge to terminate the Sterlings' ownership of the team," it said.
The ownership hearing had been scheduled for next Tuesday.
Donald Sterling was stripped of his ability to act as a trustee of the family's fortunes, including the Clippers, after two neurologists determined he was suffering from dementia earlier this month, according to a person close to the Sterling family.
The individual, who is familiar with the trust and the medical evaluations but wasn't authorized to speak publicly, said Sterling was deemed "mentally incapacitated" according to the trust's conditions because he showed "an inability to conduct business affairs in a reasonable and normal manner."
Donald Sterling made voluntary visits to two prominent neurologists who conducted extensive tests, including brain scans, earlier this month, the person said. Though Donald Sterling is no longer a co-trustee of The Sterling Family Trust, he still retains his 50 percent ownership and still receives proceeds from the sale, the individual said.
"There is specific language and there are protocols about what to do, and steps in order to get a sole trustee position and that's what took place in the last couple of days," the individual said.
Sterling can try to reinstate his trusteeship by appealing to the California Probate Court.
Donald Sterling's attorneys contend, however, that as a co-owner he must also give his consent for the deal to go through. They say he won't be giving it. His attorney, Bobby Samini, said "the assertion that Donald Sterling lacks mental capacity is absurd" and that he'll fight to not sell given the NBA's conduct.
The NBA's statement said that Shelly Sterling and The Sterling Family Trust also "agreed not to sue the NBA and to indemnify the NBA against lawsuits from others, including Donald Sterling."
Ballmer said in a statement that he is honored to have his name submitted to the NBA for approval and thanked the league for working collaboratively with him throughout the process.
Shelly Sterling negotiated the sale after Donald Sterling made racist remarks that were made public. The remarks included Sterling telling girlfriend V. Stiviano not to bring blacks to Clippers games, specifically mentioning Hall of Famer Magic Johnson.
Franchise sale prices have soared since the current collective bargaining agreement was ratified in 2011. The Milwaukee Bucks were just sold to New York investment firm executives Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens for about $550 million, an NBA record.
Failed bid for Kings
Last year, Vivek Ranadive's group acquired a 65 percent controlling interest in the Sacramento Kings at a total franchise valuation of more than $534 million.
This is not Ballmer's first foray into potential NBA ownership. Ballmer and investor Chris Hansen headed a group that agreed to a deal to buy the Kings from the Maloof family in January 2013 with the intention of moving the team to Seattle, where the SuperSonics played until 2008.
But Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson lobbied the NBA for time to put together a bid to keep the team in California, and though the Ballmer-Hansen group later increased its offer, owners voted to deny the bid for relocation and the Kings were sold to Ranadive.
The former Microsoft CEO helped Bill Gates transform the company from a startup with fewer than 40 employees and $12 million in annual revenue into the world's most valuable business. The pair met in 1973 while living down the hall from each other in a Harvard dorm.
During his tenure at Microsoft, Ballmer was known for his competitive drive and wild displays of emotion and hand-waving.

Yao Ming eyeing deal to buy Clippers

Retired Chinese superstar Yao Ming is lining up investors to make a bid for the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers if embattled owner Donald Sterling has to sell, ESPN.com reported on Friday.
Yao is just the latest celebrity to be linked to a potential Clippers bid since Sterling was engulfed in a scandal over racially charged remarks that became public in April.
ESPN, citing unnamed sources, said that Yao and another former NBA player, Grant Hill, were working separately to find investors to launch bids.
The Clippers are valued at nearly $600 million by Forbes magazine and could fetch substantially more given the publicity surrounding the team and its location in a major US market.
Yao became an NBA star with the Houston Rockets, who made him the first pick in the 2002 NBA draft.
Although his size was his strength, the rigors of top-flight basketball proved too much for Yao's massive 7 foot 6 inch (2.29 meter) frame and his career was marked by lengthy absences from the court due to a succession of mostly foot and leg injuries.
He announced his retirement in July of 2011 following a trail-blazing career that made him China's best-known athlete and helped spur the game's growth all across Asia.
He owns a team in China, the Shanghai Sharks, and maintains close ties with the NBA.
Hill is just completing his first year in retirement after a 19-season career that ended with the Clippers after seven All-Star berths.
Other big names said to be interested in purchasing the clippers include software billionaire Larry Ellison, entertainment mogul David Geffen and television powerhouse Oprah Winfrey, along with former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson and unbeaten boxer Floyd Mayweather.

Cavaliers continue remarkable lottery luck, win No. 1 pick for second straight year

NEW YORK, N.Y. - The Cleveland Cavaliers' lottery luck just keeps going.
The Cavaliers continued their remarkable run Tuesday, winning the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft for the second straight year and third time in the last four. They moved up from the ninth spot, when they had just a 1.7 per cent chance of winning the top selection.
"It seems surreal," Cavs vice chairman Jeff Cohen said. "This is three out of four years and we had a 1.7 per cent chance of coming up with the first pick and we pulled it off again."
They drafted Kyrie Irving first in 2011 and will hope to do better with this win than last year, when they took Anthony Bennett, who had a forgettable rookie season.
Nick Gilbert, the son of Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert, was on the podium for the previous two wins, but general manager David Griffin was there this time.
Griffin had a pin on his lapel from his late grandmother and was carrying one of Nick Gilbert's bowties, which was as lucky in his breast pocket as it was with Nick wearing it.
The Cavs can now choose among the likes of Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid of Kansas, Duke's Jabari Parker, or another player from what's considered a deep draft.
"This means everything," Cohen said. "This is the deepest draft arguably since LeBron (James) and Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony came out."
The Cavs won that one, too, in 2003, when they picked James. But they have been lottery regulars since he bolted for Miami in 2010, and they want that to stop.
"Rebuilding is a process and we lost a player a number of years back that it was going (to take) some time. Quite frankly it's taken a little bit longer then we'd like, but we've been patient," Cohen said.
"I think now is the time we're going to reap the rewards of our patience."
The Milwaukee Bucks fell one spot to second and the Philadelphia 76ers will draft third. The Bucks had a 25 per cent chance of winning after a league-worst 15-67 record, but the team with the best odds hasn't won since 2004.
The expected strength of the class led to speculation that teams were tanking in hopes of getting a high pick. But the Cavs had playoff expectations, hoping a strong season could make them attractive to James if he was interested in returning home as a free agent.
Nick Gilbert said last year he expected the Cavs to be done with the lottery, but they were right back in Times Square after a disappointing season that resulted in them firing Mike Brown after just one year and a 33-49 record in his second stint with the team. Another top selection surely will make Cleveland more attractive to prospective coaches.
The city of Cleveland may be on a 50-year championship drought, but sure does have this lottery thing figured out.
The 2011 win was also a stunner, when the Cavs moved up from the No. 8 spot with a pick they had acquired from the Los Angeles Clippers.
And by moving up this year, they hurt the Detroit Pistons, who started eighth but by falling back, had to trade the pick to Charlotte as part of a deal for Ben Gordon.
Orlando dropped a spot to fourth and also will have the No. 12 pick from Denver. Utah is No. 5 and the Lakers and Boston Celtics couldn't make the most of rare lottery appearances, with Los Angeles at No. 7 and Boston at No. 6.
The 76ers couldn't move up even with Hall of Famer Julius Erving representing them, but they will have two top-10 picks: their own and New Orleans' at No. 10 from last year's trade that sent Jrue Holiday to the Pelicans.
"If we had No. 3 alone, I would be a little disappointed and so would our group. But the fact that we also have the 10th pick, we may have done better than anyone else," Erving said. "We can get two players out of this draft or leverage those two picks."
Nick Gilbert was the hit of the 2011 lottery, his big glasses and bowtie charming viewers. This time it was Mallory Edens, the 18-year-old daughter of incoming Bucks co-owner Wes Edens. She gained thousands of Twitter followers after her brief on-camera interview.
But her Bucks pin wasn't lucky enough to end the run of back luck for the worst teams.
"I was really nervous, but I'm really happy we got the second pick," Mallory Edens said.
Things kept rolling for the Cavs, who duplicated the feat of Orlando, which went back-to-back at No. 1 in 1992-93. The latter win, after the Magic had gone 41-41 in Shaquille O'Neal's rookie season, caused the league to change the lottery to a weighted format that gave the worst teams the most chances.
The tanking talk has led to discussions to change it again, something Commissioner Adam Silver has said will be discussed this summer. But he has also said that if there was an ideal solution, the league would have implemented it by now.

How do the Knicks Decide Who gets Courtside Seats?

The Knicks stink. But celebs still flock to Madison Square Garden to sit courtside at games. You see them every night: How do they get those tickets? Do they pay for them or are they free? And what if every celeb in the city wants to sit courtside to see LeBron? Who gets a seat and who gets a "sorry"? And who makes the decision?
Well, first off, some celebs pay for their seats. Even Carmelo Anthony's wife, LaLa. But for the rest of them, there's an entire celebrity-handling team with a SERIOUS system in place to determine who gets a seat, and where that seat is.
“If you’re an A-level person and we know the fans are going to go bananas when your picture goes up on the scoreboard, then there’s a value having you there,” Barry Watkins, the executive vice president for communications and administration for MSG's parent company, told The New York Times.
“We think it’s a big part of the brand. Win or lose, it’s one of the reasons people come to the games.”
So the A-listers get the seats on Celebrity Row, along with the celeb perks -- a special entrance and elevator, an usher who shows them to their seats, plus access to Suite 200, where they can enjoy an open bar, fine cuisine and other amenities.
Of course, nothing is really free. Celebs usually are asked to do promo spots for the team, appear at employee events or perform other small services. James Gandolfini appeared in character as Tony Soprano to woo LeBron James and Amar'e Stoudemire when they were free agents.
And if you don't play ball, well, prepare to face the consequences. Woody Allen apparently is banned from Suite 200 because he refused to film a short promo, according to his spokesperson. And Allen "understood completely," she added.

Rodman takes a vist to an alcohol rehab

Former basketball star Dennis Rodman, facing a backlash for a series of visits to North Korea, has checked himself into an alcohol-rehab facility, according to US media.
"He has been in rehab most of this week, and I am very proud of him," Darren Prince, his agent, was quoted as saying by CNN.
"His drinking escalated to a level that none of us had seen before. When he came back (from North Korea), I discussed with him on a personal level how concerned I was. We sat down and decided for him to go to rehab. It is a 28- or 30-day facility."
The 52-year-old Rodman apologized earlier this month upon his return from his latest visit to secretive North Korea for saying a fellow American imprisoned there may have caused his own fate. Rodman blamed alcohol for his comments.
Rodman, who reportedly entered a rehab center on the US East coast on Wednesday, took a team of former National Basketball Association players to North Korea for his most recent visit and sang "Happy Birthday" to leader Kim Jong-Un inside a packed sports arena.
The former NBA star was widely criticized for refusing to bring up human rights abuses or the plight of detained US missionary Kenneth Bae during his latest week-long visit.
Rodman had said he planned to return to North Korea next month.
Rodman has developed an unlikely friendship with the young North Korean leader since making his first trip there last February, when he declared Kim a "friend for life."
Kim, who was educated in Switzerland, is reported to be a huge fan of basketball and especially of the Chicago Bulls, with whom Rodman won three NBA titles alongside Michael Jordan in the 1990s.