";s:4:"text";s:3998:"Three potential first-round picks in the N.B.A. draft in October — R.J. Hampton, Tyrese Maxey and Jahmi’us Ramsey — came through the Drive Nation program, as did the highly rated 2021 draft candidate “There’s no magic wand for this,” O’Neal said.
âTheyâre trying to say LeBron can be the greatest Laker ever!â Dust off this throwback: Shareef Abdur-Rahim in Vancouver. Photos by Associated Press and USA Today Sports, via Reuters Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. This newsletter is OUR newsletter. “I was truly blessed to have a core of people around me that helped me get through my struggles, but I guarantee you not one team I played for knew that about me. “We’re like brothers.”“It was our first time sitting down and having a conversation,” O’Neal said. coaching change either during or after the 2016-17 season was never going to become a trend . The next season, as his 29th birthday approached, he needed microfracture surgery on his left knee. The way things played out with Leonard, steadily deteriorating over a full year and change and ultimately ending with a stunning trade to Toronto, amounted to a true first in the Gregg Popovich era. To be on top and have a career-changing injury and you don’t even get to have a discussion with your father about going through those things — do you know how difficult that is?”After earning seven All-Star selections and winning two N.B.A. “Do you know how hard it is to be an elite player in this league, to be considered a superstar, and then you have a career-changing injury? They said they hoped to recruit players entering the 2021 N.B.A. Supported by. O’Neal driving to the hoop in the 2006 playoffs against the Nets. head coaches. legend have a hand in fixing the Clippers once and for all? The former All-Stars, who both entered the N.B.A. So please weigh in with what you’d like to see here. All-Star Game in Denver.O’Neal when he played for the Indiana Pacers, and McGrady when he was with the Orlando Magic, their second stops in the N.B.A. seasons, McGrady played for four teams and never averaged more than 9.4 points per game. McGrady (who lives in suburban Houston) and O’Neal (who lives in suburban Dallas) found themselves, in O’Neal’s words, with “time to process and think hard — together” about how they could help young players, particularly young Black players, the most.“We think it’s needed, and we have a passion for it,” McGrady said. The Rockets traded him to the Knicks in February 2010, and in his last three and a half N.B.A. scoring titles, McGrady began having serious knee issues with the Houston Rockets during the 2007-08 season. By MARC STEIN. You can’t name another pair of people who have had the level of success and the ups and downs that we’ve had in our careers.”In what became an emotional conference call as they discussed the new venture, McGrady and O’Neal opened up about the various pressures they felt even at the peak of those careers. Marc Stein is an American sports reporter for The New York Times, covering the National Basketball Association (NBA) nationally. Armstrong said in a telephone interview that similar motivations persuaded him to become an agent after a stint as a Bulls executive, when he recognized that incoming N.B.A. They went to an Applebee’s restaurant in Portland, Ore.O’Neal was in his second season there with the Trail Blazers, who had selected him out of high school with the 17th pick in the powerhouse “It was just a natural connection,” McGrady said. “We’re not trying to say we’re the magic wand.