PAT RILEY

They brawled in 1997.

Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem is toward the end of what has been a 20-year NBA career.

Pat Riley puts it this way.

The Golden State Warriors are NBA champions once again, topping the Boston Celtics 103-90 for their fourth title in the last eight seasons.

Somewhere, Gregg Popovich must be pleased.

Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka and Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra have enormous respect for each other and a bond that stems from their shared history in the sport.

Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers would probably need hours to explain everything that he’s learned from Miami President Pat Riley over the last three decades.

Bam Adebayo scored 23 points, Jimmy Butler had 22 points and 12 assists, and the Miami Heat beat the Philadelphia 76ers 119-103 on Wednesday night for a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

In Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s mind, the injury situation with Joel Embiid doesn’t doom the Philadelphia 76ers.

When the 1980's began, the NBA “was in trouble.”.

Four months after the pandemic-delayed induction of the Class of 2020, the Basketball Hall of Fame gathered to enshrine 16 more new members.

Charles Oakley has a memoir coming out next year that includes a brief assist from former Chicago Bulls teammate Michael Jordan.

Erik Spoelstra and Gregg Popovich have often spoken of how much they enjoy coaching against one another.

Miami Heat President Pat Riley has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for being too clear that he’d eagerly welcome a reunion with LeBron James.

Tom Thibodeau got the New York Knicks back to the playoffs, guiding the team to its second-best record in 20 years.

The postgame routine between San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich and Miami’s Erik Spoelstra is almost always the same.

There will be no more coffee customers with the bubble closing down, though he kept it open far longer than expected with some of the most inspired NBA Finals play seen in years. Butler carried the Miami Heat all the way to Game 6 against the favored Los Angeles Lakers but the weight of his efforts seemed to leave him with little energy Sunday. “I didn’t win so none of the stats matter,” Butler said. But Butler made no excuses, not only saying the Heat could win, but that they should win. Denying Butler the salesman was easier for Vogel than clamping down on Butler the basketball player.

Harris was revealed Friday as this year’s winner of the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, as presented by the National Basketball Coaches Association. Harris coached in the NBA for 32 seasons, 14 of them as a head coach with Houston, Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Lakers. “I get introduced as Kobe’s first coach, Magic’s last coach and in the movie Space Jam,” Harris said. ON OLYMPICSSilver, in the same NBA TV interview, also addressed how the planned Tokyo Olympics next summer could affect next season's NBA calendar. GAME 2 REFSThe NBA selected James Capers as crew chief for Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Friday night.

Get ready for the NBA Finals — a title series like none other, to end a season like none other. The Heat won the Eastern Conference title Sunday night, finishing off Boston a day after the Lakers won the Western Conference crown. So, for the first time — well, excluding the league’s inaugural season — two franchises that missed the playoffs the previous season will meet in the NBA Finals. “We know why I came here,” said Lakers All-Star forward Anthony Davis, whose first finals trip comes in his first L.A. season. The last Lakers’ championship was in 2010, when Bryant got his fifth and last title.

I felt like I took it up a level in the fourth quarter," Butler said. Bam Adebayo had 12 points, 17 rebounds and six assists for the fifth-seeded Heat, who are 3-1 overall against the top-seeded Bucks this season. Khris Middleton scored 28 points for Milwaukee, which also dropped Game 1 of its first-round series against Orlando. Kyle Korver added 11 for the Bucks, who scored 40 points on the way to an 11-point lead after the first quarter then managed 64 the rest of the way. Bucks: Milwaukee is now 20-32 in Game 1s.

Those games went final shortly before San Antonio was playing its final game of the season, against Utah. The 76ers, starting as the Syracuse Nationals before moving to Philadelphia, went to the playoffs every year from 1950 through 1971. This is how long the streak, all of it with Gregg Popovich as head coach of the Spurs, went: David Stern wasnt even halfway through his 30-year run as commissioner when the Spurs streak started. And the Spurs won 170 playoff games in that span; only seven franchises have more playoff wins in their entire history. There were 102 players who got into at least one Spurs playoff game during the streak, including current NBA head coaches Jacque Vaughn, Steve Kerr and Monty Williams.

Weve never posted about Juneteenth, but it is always the right time to do better than before," read a tweet posted by the New England Patriots. The Miami Heat celebrated the day with a pledge to make financial contributions and other commitments to organizations trying to eliminate racial inequality. Hockey's San Jose Sharks told fans that it was fine to not know where to start when it comes to understanding the significance of Juneteenth. In recognition of Juneteenth, our front office is starting a new tradition," read a statement on the Sharks' site. As an organization, we will be dedicating time on this day each year to actively participate in Juneteenth.