Author: rb809rb

Each week during the 2025-26 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.

Last week: The Thunder won the trade deadline

Fact or Fiction: The NBA’s response is enough to curb its tanking epidemic

The NBA’s tanking problem, it seems, creeps earlier and earlier into the season, to the point that two teams were fined on Thursday for violating the league’s tanking policies.

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“Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory?” NBA commissioner Adam Silver asked himself during a media availability on Saturday. “Yes.”

In consecutive games against the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat, the Utah Jazz removed Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. prior to fourth quarters that were still in doubt and never reinserted either former All-Star into the contests. The Jazz blew a 17-point lead in the final 13:49 of a 120-117 loss to the Magic and actually held on to defeat the Heat 115-111.

Asked how close he came to subbing Markkanen and Jackson back in, Jazz coach Will Hardy said plainly, “I wasn’t,” blatantly baiting the league into taking action against them.

As Miami’s Bam Adebayo, whose Heat are vying for a play-in berth, conceded afterward, “We’ve got to find a way to win against teams that are, I guess you can say, trying to lose.”

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So, there you had it: The Jazz were clearly undermining the integrity of the game, and an opposing player called them on it, which resulted in a $500,000 fine for Utah’s franchise.

“Overt behavior like this that prioritizes draft position over winning undermines the foundation of NBA competition and we will respond accordingly to any further actions that compromise the integrity of our games,” Silver said in Thursday’s press release. “Additionally, we are working with our competition committee and board of governors to implement further measures to root out this type of conduct.”

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The league’s board of governors plans to meet in March, when tanking will be a hot topic.

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“We’re all in this together,” Silver added on Saturday, urging the NBA’s teams to follow its rules. “We want to have fair competition, we want to have fair systems and to keep an eye on the fans, most importantly, and their expectation that we’re going to be putting the best product forward.”

Exactly. And faith in what is a broken system is no solution. Nor are fines.

Jazz governor Ryan Smith is worth an estimated $2.6 billion, which means that $500,000 is about the same as $1 to someone who has $5,000 in his savings account. This is hardly a disincentive when the prize on the other end of their tank job — a high-end pick in what is considered a loaded draft — could increase the franchise’s value by hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars. Consider what Stephen Curry did for the Golden State Warriors.

As long as losing is the way to get the most ping-pong balls in the NBA’s annual draft lottery, teams that have no hope for the playoffs are going to intentionally lose games.

This is an epidemic. As much as a third of the league has every incentive to lose from here on out, especially the Jazz and Washington Wizards, who each owe their first-round picks to other teams if they do not fall in the bottom eight. The playoff fields in each conference are all but set — with two months to go in the regular season. There is little left to play for.

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The season is too long, and there are financial reasons why team owners would not want to give up regular-season games — for the gate receipts. But what are they selling to fans? Stars are resting for all or parts of these games, and the product is, at best, watered down. At worst? Some of the product is essentially rigged, with one or both teams trying to lose.

Think a $100,00 fine against the Indiana Pacers for resting a healthy Pascal Siakam is going to dissuade Indiana from trying everything in its power to secure a top-three pick — and the rights to AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson or Cameron Boozer — in the draft? Think again.

The Pacers are hoping and praying that Dybantsa, Peterson or Boozer, or whomever they get, eventually commands half a billion dollars in salary and is worth every penny to them.

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If the NBA must fine teams, it must fine them ping-pong balls, hitting them where it counts in the lottery and removing the incentive to lose. Teams will learn real quick not to tank.

“There is talk about every possible remedy now to stop this behavior,” conceded Silver.

Maybe it is time to scrap the lottery entirely. Make it a wheel. Drastic measures are required to root out a serious problem. What the NBA does about gambling, salary cap circumvention and its All-Star Game are other matters, but this issue seems fixable.

“We’ve got to look at some fresh thinking,” Silver added on Saturday. “What we’re doing, what we’re seeing right now is not working; there’s no question about it. Yes, is there more I can do? Have I attempted not only to respond to behavior we’ve seen but send a clear message that we’re going to be scrutinizing everything we see going forward? Absolutely.”

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As is, the Jazz assigned season-ending surgery to Jackson for a non-cancerous growth in his knee. Even though the procedure is necessary, Utah’s actions leave us to wonder if the team might have elected to postpone Jackson’s surgery if it had any incentive to win.

Likewise, the Wizards apparently traded for both Trae Young and Anthony Davis with the reported intention of resting both stars for the remainder of the season. What is the NBA going to do — convince Young that a lingering quad injury is no longer a concern? Tell Davis not to worry about the hand and groin injuries that he sustained on the Dallas Mavericks?

It is too easy for teams to find reasons to rest their stars in pursuit of losses. Anyone can have some sore soft tissue, and no amount of NBA investigation may discover otherwise.

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As Silver conceded, “It’s so clear that the incentives are misaligned.”

So, what to do if you are the NBA? Incentivize winning, maybe. Give the No. 1 pick to the non-playoff team that wins the most games after the All-Star break, or something like that. This is hardly a revolutionary idea, and it would surely lead to more problems (for example, would not teams try to duck out of the play-in tournament?), but it is at least something.

And something is better than what we have now, which is a gamble — accepting the league’s fines in hopes of landing a franchise savior — that billionaires are willing to take.

Otherwise, fans will have to take the issue into their own hands and stop going to or tuning in to these games. Paying $1,000 for a family of four to see a game that may or may not feature its star players is, on the other hand, a gamble most fans may no longer make.

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Determination: Fiction. Obviously.

If Damian Lillard participating in the NBA 3-point contest while still recovering from a torn Achilles was a surprise, what he actually did in the NBA was a shock.

The Portland Trail Blazers star, who hasn’t played an NBA game since April 27, won his third NBA 3-point contest Saturday, joining Larry Bird and Craig Hodges as the only three-time winners of the event. He had previously won back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024.

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Lillard defeated Devin Booker and Kon Knueppel in the championship round, with Norman Powell, Bobby Portis Jr., Jamal Murray, Donovan Mitchell and Tyrese Maxey falling short in the first round.

Lillard, going last in the eight-player field in the first round, actually appeared in trouble after three racks. He needed to catch Mitchell at 24 just to reach the final, but had only 13 points when approaching his final 10 balls. He then made nine of those 10 shots to stun the Intuit Dome crowd.

Knueppel was the first to go in the championship round and posted only 17 points, far fewer than his 27 in the first round. Lillard was up next and this time, never looked vulnerable. He made at least four shots in every rack but his last one, making a statement with 30 points.

Then came Booker, who topped the first round with 30 and soon looked on his way to a victory. The 2018 3-point contest champ had 27 points and three balls left, all of them moneyballs. He needed to make two for the win — and got zero.

“I was praying on his downfall,” Lillard said after the contest.

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Basketball hasn’t been kind to Lillard in recent years, between his struggles with the Milwaukee Bucks and then the Achilles injury. He rejoined the Blazers last offseason on a three-year, $42 million deal after the Bucks waived and stretched him, with the understanding that he might not make an appearance this season.

Fortunately, even as he waits for that Achilles to reach 100%, he could still shoot. And now the Blazers have a little more reason for confidence they’ll be getting one of the NBA’s best shooters back when he’s ready.

Providence was up by one point before bedlam erupted in Amica Mutual Pavilion less than six minutes into the second half of the Friars’ Saturday afternoon game against No. 17 St. John’s.

Friars graduate forward Duncan Powell committed a Flagrant 2 foul on a driving Bryce Hopkins, a Red Storm graduate wing who spent the previous three seasons at Providence.

That led to a fight that resulted in six of the game’s seven ejections. A raucous Friars student section had front-row seats to the unhinged altercation, which eventually shifted toward the Red Storm bench and then, notably, saw Powell try to swing on St. John’s forward Dillon Mitchell, who ducked out of the way beneath the basket just in time.

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Hopkins had been hearing jeers from the Providence crowd well before Powell took a hack at him on the break. Following a stoppage in play that lasted close to 20 minutes while the referees sifted through the punishments, St. John’s (20-5, 13-1 Big East) took control of the game and took down Providence (11-15, 4-11) 79-69 in the testy affair.

The seventh ejection came later in the second half when Providence’s Jamier Jones was thrown out after he was called for a Flagrant 2 foul on St. John’s forward Zuby Ejiofor.

Here’s the complete list of ejected players:

• F Dillon Mitchell (St. John’s)

• G Kelvin Odih (St. John’s)

• F Ruben Prey (St. John’s)

• F Sadiku Ibine Ayo (St. John’s)

• G Jaylin Sellers (Providence)

• F Duncan Powell (Providence)

• F Jamier Jones (Providence)

The six-ejection scuffle headlined the heated Big East contest, though. Four St. John’s players were booted, and two Providence players got the hook because of that skirmish.

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In the wake of the lengthy delay, the officials informed the coaches of the appropriate mid-game discipline, and Friar faithful chanted, “Duncan Powell!”

As for the game itself, St. John’s rebounded from Providence’s rally that started at the end of the first half and continued into the beginning of the second.

The Red Storm, who have now won 11 games in row, were led by Dylan Darling’s 23 points.

St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino, who led Providence to a Final Four in 1987, told reporters postgame that the league will handle Saturday’s altercation and that he didn’t want his players to be asked about it.

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But, naturally, there was still some reflection.

“I feel like we responded in the best way possible,” St. John’s forward Zuby Ejiofor said, per The Associated Press.

“Coming into this game we knew exactly how rowdy this environment was going to be — not only for [Hopkins], but for all of us. We knew it was going be tough. You have to have a great mindset to come in here and win, and I think that’s what we did.”

The popcorn at a concession stand at Oklahoma’s Lloyd Noble Center got a tad too toasty on Saturday.

The Sooners’ men’s basketball game against Georgia was delayed briefly early in the first half after a popcorn machine caught fire. Seriously.

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Take a look.

The fire happened during the first TV timeout of the game and sprinklers quickly put it out.

That video might not accurately represent how big the fire was in its early stages, either. Here’s a closer angle.

Given how much we all know how a burnt popcorn smell can linger, fans in the sections near that concession stand probably had to deal with the smell of that fire for a while after it was put out. Thankfully (in this case), the arena didn’t appear to be at max capacity, so fans could easily have found other seats to watch the game.

Oklahoma came back to win the game, too. Georgia led 43-41 at halftime, but the Sooners outscored the Bulldogs 53-35 in the second half for a 94-78 win. It was just Oklahoma’s third SEC win of the season and the loss dropped Georgia to 5-7 in SEC play.

Ole Miss quarterbacks coach Joe Judge released a statement Saturday after a quote from a court appearance went viral, insisting that his comments about fathers of newborns prioritizing their sleep were “taken out of context.”

The comments were given Thursday during the hearing for Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss’ request for an injunction to play a sixth season of college football. That injunction was granted Friday.

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One clip of Judge’s testimony took off in particular, in which Judge recounts telling the partners of players with young children that they need to prevent those children from waking them up in the middle of the night.

Notably, that clip identifies Judge as an Ole Miss coach and refers to unspecified players, but what it does not mention is the conversation at the time was about Judge’s experience dealing with sleep disorders while in NFL player development with the New England Patriots.

In his statement, Judge clarified that the conversations about playing football while raising a child were only in the NFL, never the collegiate level:

“Some of my comments from Thursday have been taken out of context, so l’d like to provide some clarity. In a discussion about Trinidad’s sleep apnea, I was trying to point out the importance that the NFL places on sleep for recovery and performance in addition to the education of balancing family dynamics during the football season.

“These are discussions I was a part of at the professional level from veteran players based on their own experience managing similar situations. These are not discussions we’ve had at the collegiate level. As a husband and father of four children, I understand those challenges first hand and would never diminish the commitment to family. We share that same dedication to family with our players and always support them through any challenges they face in their personal.”

Judge worked under Bill Belichick from 2012 to 2019, became head coach of the New York Giants in 2020, then moved back to the Patriots after his firing in 2022. He joined Ole Miss in 2024 and currently holds the titles of quarterbacks coach and “head coach of offense” (John David Baker is the offensive coordinator under head coach Pete Golding).

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In the interest of clarity and not taking Judge out of context, here is the larger exchange about dealing with NFL players with sleep disorders:

Q: “Can a sleep disorder affect a player’s ability?”

Q: “Has that occurred in your past where you have encountered players with sleep disorders?”

Q: “And what did you do for those players?”

A: “Well, we got them the CPAP machines. We tracked their sleep. We made sure they were evening out their sleep cycles, that they’re properly rested. That was several players over the course of years.

“And then there was also the players that we would have to educate — this is always a tough conversation to have. It’s not a popular opinion, this is the truth, we would have to educate significant others who may have been pregnant during the season, or were going to have a baby during the season, and you’d have to educate them on — you have this baby in the middle of the season, that father has to play good football. It’s a day-by-day production business. He has to be ready to perform and go out there and play, and when I say that is, you need to let him sleep. He needs to be in another room, detached.

“You have to explain to the mother, ‘Listen, he ain’t waking up for the midnight feedings. After the season, he’s full metal jacket. You can do whatever you want with him, he’ll change every diaper. In season, he’s got to have a different priority.

“Now, there were examples to use from that. We had some older veteran players — I can or can’t share names if you want me too — who had multiple children who would sleep in other rooms. Their wives would bring in family or a nursing aid to help throughout the night, and those players continue to play high-level football. We had other players who are young who quite simply did what every other father in the world does, waking up, changing diapers, doing feedings, and led to injuries, led to soft-tissue injuries, not being rested, not being recovered, not being ready to roll.”

Q: “That never occurred to me, that newborns can affect injuries on the football field. But who had to deliver that message?”

Q: “And to whom did you deliver the message?”

A: “To the pregnant women.”

A: “About as good as you’d expect (laughs).”

After the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers were both fined six figures for “overt” tanking, NBA commissioner Adam Silver told reporters two days later during All-Star Weekend in Inglewood, California, that the league’s observed worse tanking behavior this season than it’s seen in recent memory.

That’s what led to those hefty fines, Silver said at the podium Saturday.

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Silver was later asked if more severe punishments, such as taking away draft picks, could be levied in response to purposeful losing.

“There is talk about every possible remedy now to stop this behavior,” Silver emphasized.

For now, he believes the fines will send a message. Exposed for their nefarious roster management in recent games, the Jazz were slapped with a $500,000 fine, and the Pacers had to pay $100,000.

“We’re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams’ behavior and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice,” Silver said.

Silver, who was clear that he won’t tolerate teams prioritizing draft position over winning in his statement on Thursday, explained Saturday that he feels the problem is rooted in the structure of the draft.

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“The incentives are not necessarily matched here,” he said. “I think that the tradition in sports, where the worst-performing team receives the first pick from their partners — when any economist comes and looks at our system, they always point out you have the incentives backwards there.”

Silver, who took over for the late David Stern in 2014, was especially candid about his league’s lottery, which has been reworked over the years but, in its current form, determines the order of selection for the first four picks in the draft, whereas the remaining 10 spots in the top 14 are filled out by the other lottery-eligible teams in reverse order of their regular-season records.

Each team that misses the playoffs is eligible for the lottery and assigned odds. Teams that finish with worst regular-season records have higher odds to land the No. 1 pick than their more successful counterparts, but the teams with the three-worst records all have the same chance to collect the top selection. There’s no guarantee that an egregiously bad record will earn a top-three pick, as evidenced last season when the Jazz clocked out with a league-worst 17 wins but ended up with the fifth pick. Conversely, the Dallas Mavericks, who took part in the play-in tournament, won the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes despite just a 1.8% chance to do so.

There’s a randomness that comes with the ping-pong-ball selection process, and it often begs the question if the draft is even setting the league up for the parity it desires.

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“It’s something that we’ve been spending a lot of time on with our competition committee, outside consultants, advanced analytics,” Silver said Saturday.

“The issue is, if teams are manipulating their performance in order to get higher draft picks, even in a lottery, then the question becomes, ‘Even if teams were rewarded for draft picks purely according to the predicted odds of the lottery, are they really the worst-performing teams?’

“And my sense is, talking to GMs and coaches around the league, there’s probably even more parity than reflected in our records. And that goes to the incentive issue. It’s not clear to me, for example, that the 30th-performing team is that much measurably worse than the 22nd-performing team, particularly if you have incentive to perform poorly to get a better draft pick. So it’s a bit of a conundrum.”

There’s clear competition for at least the top-four picks in this year’s draft. Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Duke’s Cameron Boozer and UNC’s Caleb Wilson could all help move the needle for star-needy teams looking to right the ship, after all.

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That competition manifests in tanking. The Jazz and Pacers were called out for it, except other teams are participating as well. The Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards, and Sacramento Kings also mounted fewer than 20 wins by the All-Star break.

“The All-Star [Game’s] 75 years old, the league is 80 years old. It’s time to take a fresh look at this and to see whether that’s an antiquated way of going about doing it,” Silver said of the draft.

“Ultimately we need a system to fairly distribute players. I think it’s in the player’s interest, as well as the teams’, that you have a level of parity around the league. There’s only so many jobs in so many cities, but we got to look at some fresh thinking here.”

Silver added: “What we’re doing, what we’re seeing right now is not working. There’s no question about it.”

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Aspiration-Kawhi Leonard scandal

Notably, Silver was also asked Saturday about the Aspiration-Kawhi Leonard scandal, which centers around their owner, Steve Ballmer, and the Los Angeles Clippers, who are hosting this year’s All-Star Weekend at the Intuit Dome.

Ballmer was sued by 11 investors in Aspiration, a green banking company that filed for bankruptcy in March 2025. Ballmer allegedly used what was essentially a $28 million no-show marketing deal between Leonard and Aspiration to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap rules and pay the now-seven-time All-Star forward more, according to a report from journalist and podcast host Pablo Torre.

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Ballmer has insisted the company “conned” him, and his attorneys have been seeking to dismiss the suit, per a Jan. 16 ESPN report.

Silver said he hasn’t come to any decisions on the matter before clarifying that the league office isn’t directly running the investigation.

“That’s being overseen by a law firm Wachtell in New York,” he said.

“From everything I’ve been told, the Clippers have been fully cooperative, but, as I said, I’m not involved day-to-day in the investigation. And I think, as I’ve said before, it’s enormously complex. You have a company in bankruptcy, you have thousands of documents, multiple witnesses that have needed to be interviewed.”

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Silver added: “I will say, just in case anyone’s wondering, the fact that All-Star is here this weekend has had no impact on the timeline of the investigation. Our charge to the Wachtell law firm is to do the work and then come back and make recommendations to the league office, and that’s where things now stand.”

Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game is under a new format in which an international team is featured against two teams consisting of American players.

The very fact that the league has evolved to the point where an international team can be justified, and even favored at BetMGM, is the result of decades worth of global investment and marketing to turn basketball into a sport with immensely broad appeal.

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International talent is here to stay

The shift in global power isn’t lost on NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Mark Tatum.

“There has never been more talent in the NBA than there is today, which is in large part due to the fact that basketball is more global than ever,” Tatum told Yahoo Sports.

With the All-Star Game now featuring a whole team of non-American players, questions do linger in regard to how American observers will receive international stars such as Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić and Victor Wembanyama.

But Tatum doesn’t waver.

“At the end of the day, our fans are drawn to elite talent and compelling stories, no matter where a player is from,” Tatum said. “A great example is Victor Wembanyama, who is the fastest player in NBA history to reach more than 1 billion views on social media.”

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Historically speaking, Tatum’s point is sound. The league has been littered with international stars before, even if the sheer volume of current stars is unparalleled.

Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Pau Gasol and Manu Ginobili spearheaded the early-to-mid-2000s and laid the foundation within the league to embrace talent that wasn’t developed within the confines of the United States.

The fact that all four players won championships allowed for an easier transition, especially for front offices, to look overseas and open their minds to new ideologies and development patterns.

This approach has been rewarded with Jokić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Antetokounmpo winning titles.

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Tatum notes that “roughly 30%” of players in the NBA are international, which the league believes makes for adequate representation with the three All-Star-team format.

International expansion

The next step for the NBA in embracing basketball globalism is, of course, a new league based in Europe, which has been widely discussed for years and is in the early stages of development.

There has been some concern from people within European basketball communities in regard to how the NBA will implement a league and whether it’ll respect the history of European basketball.

Tatum believes the NBA is indeed taking those considerations seriously.

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“We are being very intentional to ensure that our plans in Europe are built on the strong foundations that already exist on the continent. Celebrating, fostering, and elevating the rich traditions and history that make European basketball so special is fundamental to everything we want to create,” Tatum said. “Working closely with FIBA, we’re confident we can design a league that is authentically European — built by Europeans, played by Europeans and designed for European fans — while bringing that experience to more fans across the continent and creating new traditions.

“Our proposed league would give every team in a FIBA-affiliated domestic league in Europe a merit-based pathway to qualify on an annual basis, which we think will benefit players, domestic leagues, the broader ecosystem and, most importantly, fans.”

It’s crucial that Tatum and NBA commissioner Adam Silver stay true to their planned approach, as that is unquestionably the biggest challenge in front of them in regard to developing an “NBA Europe.”

If European fans feel their history being pushed away, they likely will reject and protest the presence of an American league taking over their traditions and basketball habits.

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But getting a taste of international competition through this All-Star format could be a small step for the NBA to appeal to an international and particularly European audience.

Global NBA tournament?

The NBA founded a league in Africa in 2019 called the BAL, which had its inaugural season in 2021.

With another league presumably being developed in Europe and the presence of the NBA in North America, could the league be looking at making a huge intercontinental tournament with teams from each league?

Tatum isn’t closing the door on that idea, even looping the concept into the fabric of the NBA Cup.

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“That’s something we’re still looking at, but in general we think there is a tremendous opportunity to reach even more fans by creating a new tournament or competition between NBA teams and teams from other leagues around the world, including the BAL and our potential league in Europe,” Tatum said. “And further down the line, I think we could potentially see teams from Europe and around the world participating in competitions like the NBA Cup. While there is nothing imminent, conceptually we’re open to anything that helps continue to elevate the sport worldwide.”

The NBA is thinking big, and looking at ways to activate more fan bases.

Adding international teams into the NBA Cup makes a lot of sense and could be a streamlined way of introducing different teams to a global audience.

We’ll see how it all materializes, but there’s no question that the NBA is thinking outside the box and beyond borders.

Day 8 of the 2026 Winter Olympics saw the United States return to the podium after a tough Day 7 in which the Americans did not add to their medal count. On Saturday, however, one of Team USA’s brightest stars increased his growing legend. And the U.S. lost out on another gold, demonstrating how thin the line between first and second place can be.

Here are the top five stories of the day:

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Jordan Stolz speeds to second gold in Milan Cortina

Speed skater Jordan Stolz came into the Milan Cortina Games with an opportunity to join Eric Heiden among the greatest in U.S. history. He’s halfway to fulfilling his ambition of winning four gold medals after sprinting to victory in the 500 meters.

Stolz set an Olympic record on his dash to gold, finishing with a time of 33.77. That overtook Gao Tingyu’s 34.32, set at the 2022 Beijing Games, for the fastest in Olympics history. Stolz needed that record time to win as the Netherlands’ Jenning de Boo was only 11 hundredths of a second behind him. Laurent Dubreuil of Canada earned bronze, finishing a half-second behind Stolz.

Men’s hockey beats Denmark

Denmark played the U.S. tough in the first period and closed the margin to one goal at the end of the second. But Team USA increased its offensive pressure in the Danish zone, resulting in five goals over the final two periods and an eventual 6-3 victory.

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Six players scored goals for the U.S.: Matt Boldy, Brady Tkachuk, Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin, Jake Guentzel and Jack Hughes. Team USA fired 47 shots on net, while Denmark managed 21.

Up next for the U.S. is Germany as pool play continues Sunday at 3:10 p.m. ET.

Slight mistake costs Jaelin Kauf gold in women’s dual moguls

Despite tripping over a mogul, U.S. freestyle skier Jaelin Kauf finished her semifinal race in women’s dual moguls against France’s Perrine Laffont. However, in the final, Kauf slightly bobbled when her left ski slipped out for just a second. That was enough for Australia’s Jakara Anthony to overtake her to win on the scorecard, 20-15, and earn the gold medal.

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Kauf’s silver medal is her second of the Milan Cortina Games and teammate. Elizabeth Lemley took bronze over Laffont, adding to the gold she won in women’s moguls on Wednesday.

Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen first South American to medal at Winter Games

History occurred during Saturday’s men’s giant slalom with Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen winning gold. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, Pinheiro Braathen became the first-ever South American athlete to earn a medal at the Winter Olympics.

With a combined time of 2:25.00, Pinheiro Braathen beat out Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt, who won gold in 2022 at Beijing. Before competing for Brazil, Pinheiro Braathen began his Alpine skiing career representing Norway, his father’s home country. After retiring for less than a year, he returned to competitive ski racing for Brazil. He was one of the country’s flag bearers at the Opening Ceremony.

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U.S. women’s curling continues ascent; American men rebound

After defeating Canada on Friday for the first time since women’s curling was introduced to the Olympics in 1998, the American women improved to 3-1 in round-robin competition on Saturday with a 7-4 win over Japan. At the moment, they are tied for second with Switzerland. Sweden is first and unbeaten.

The U.S. men’s team had dropped back-to-back games entering Saturday but returned to the win column with an 8-6 victory against a Germany squad that was 2-1 entering the weekend. Now the Americans and Germans are tied for sixth, meaning they’re both on the outside looking in at the four-team playoffs at the moment. Round-robin play is far from over, though. The U.S. still has five games left.

Team USA medal count is now up to 17

Highlight of the day

Stolz’s thrilling finish takes the cake. He barely held off de Boo and needed quite the final push to win his second gold. Four days earlier, Stolz overtook the Dutchman on the final lap of the men’s 1,000 meters.

One more thing

The Olympics are full of inspiring stories, including those of perseverance. Another of that kind was on display Saturday when Swedish cross-country skier Ebba Andersson raced on one ski for about half a minute during the women’s 4 x 7.5km relay. Sweden entered the event as gold medal favorites, and remarkably, still won silver. But amid the second leg of the event, Andersson fell — more than once, actually, and ultimately lost her right ski. She retrieved it, except it was broken. She kept going, trudging through the course until a Swedish technician, after falling himself, handed her another working ski. By the time Andersson reached the handover zone, Sweden had plummeted to eighth.

Frida Karlsson followed with a strong third leg. Jonna Sundling brought the relay home and Sweden all the way back to second. Andersson’s relentless effort, however, will be remembered as well. She now has three silvers in these Games.

The Miami Heat’s Keshad Johnson won this year’s NBA Dunk Contest, despite San Antonio Spurs forward Carter Bryant nailing a between-the-legs dunk in the first leg of the final that saw him receive 50s across the board.

The competition appeared to be Bryant’s to lose, but he couldn’t land his final planned dunk — a reverse slam following his own pass off the backboard — instead opting for a 360 that he showcased to start the night. Bryant needed only a 47.5 to win, but his last-ditch repeat effort resulted in a mere 43.

Johnson’s final dunk saw him soar from inside the key for a high-flying yet somewhat underwhelming throwdown, especially since Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes attempted a similar dunk in the first round. But the running windmill was a nice touch, and it came in the wake of his between-the-legs dunk from underneath the basket that wowed.

Johnson went undrafted in 2024 and has played in just 21 games with the Heat this season. He’s averaged 3.1 points per outing in those appearances.

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That said, he accounted for Miami’s fourth NBA Dunk Contest title, and its first since Derrick Jones Jr. won the event in 2020. Harold Miner placed first in the competition while with the Heat in 1993 and 1995.

Johnson’s biggest competition, Bryant, also played college basketball at Arizona, except they didn’t overlap there. The Spurs selected Bryant with the No. 14 overall pick in last year’s draft, and he’s posted 3.4 points per contest in his 43 appearances with the Spurs so far.

Bryant kicked things off in the first round with his first 360, complete with a left-leg kick out and a right-handed jam. He followed that up with a windmill slam that earned him 50s from Dwight Howard and Dominique Wilkins and an average score of 49.2, the highest of any dunk in the first round, clinching his spot in the final.

Johnson joined him after settling for a baseline reverse dunk that demonstrated every bit of the wingspan that accompanies the former Arizona and San Diego State forward’s 6-foot-7 frame. Johnson’s first dunk was more impressive. Not only did he leap over Bay Area rap legend E-40 in the paint, but he did so while positioning his left hand behind his head, as if he was relaxing on the beach. That earned him a score of 47.4, the second highest of the first round.

They both cleared the combined scores recorded by Hayes and Orlando Magic guard Jase Richardson in the first round.

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The judges table was made up of Howard, Wilkins and fellow former dunk contest champions Brent Barry and Julius Erving, as well as longtime Clippers standout Corey Maggette.

Saturday’s festivities began with the 3-point contest and the shooting stars event.

First up was the 3-point contest, which marked the first time Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard took the court in an official capacity this season as he continues to rehab an Achilles injury. He delivered, putting up 27 points in the first round, then 29 in the final round to take down Devin Booker.

It was Lillard’s third 3-point contest title after back-to-back wins in 2023 and 2024. He joins Larry Bird and Craig Hodges as the only three-time winners in NBA history.

Charlotte Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel also advanced to the final round but scored just 17 points. Lillard went next and surpassed his first-round score. Booker missed what would have been the tying shot on his final attempt and finished with 27 points. He had 30 in the first round.

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In addition to Lillard, Booker and Knueppel, Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers), Tyrese Maxey (Philadelphia 76ers), Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets), Bobby Portis Jr. (Milwaukee Bucks) and Norman Powell (Miami Heat) also participated.

Next up was the shooting stars contest, where four teams consisting of two current NBA players and one NBA legend competed in two rounds, scoring points while rotating through different shooting locations around the court. Team Knicks — Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns — was victorious, taking down Team Cameron, which featured Kneuppel and Jalen Johnson.

Here’s how the dunk and 3-point contests went down in real-time on All-Star Saturday:

Live coverage is over44 updates

• Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:47 PM PST

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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:51 PM PST

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  Carter Bryant came up short in the dunk contest after missing multiple dunks, scoring just a 43 on his last dunk.

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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:50 PM PST

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  Keshad Johnson scored 47.8 on his final dunk attempt. He followed it with a dance as he did after every dunk.

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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:46 PM PST

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  Carter Bryant followed up Keshad Johnson’s dunk with a perfect score on his between-the-legs dunk.

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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:43 PM PST

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  Keshad Johnson scored 49.6 on his first dunk in the finals on a between-the-legs reverse dunk.
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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:37 PM PST

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  Keshad Johnson’s 45.4 points on his second dunk were enough for him to advance to the finals to face Carter Bryant. Johnson was able to pick up his points on an impressive reverse dunk.
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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:34 PM PST

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  What a dunk from Carter Bryant on his second attempt. The judges gave him a round-high 49.2 after windmilling off a self-lob. Bryant and Keshad Johnson head to the finals.
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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:31 PM PST

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  Jase Richardson scores 43.4 points on his second dunk after multiple mistimed lobs on his dunk attempts. After taking a scary fall, Richardson decided to try another dunk, which he was able to finish.
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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:26 PM PST

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  That was better. After a missed attempt and a few mistimed self-lobs, Jaxson Hayes scored a 47.2 on his second dunk.
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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:23 PM PST

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  Jaxson Hayes’ first dunk would be acceptable in a regular game, not a dunk contest. After Hayes’ pedestrian one-handed dunk, even he winced. Hayes scored 44.6, with Dwight Howard giving his fellow big man a 47.
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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:18 PM PST

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  Miami Heat rookie Keshad Johnson takes the lead with a 47.4 score despite missing his first dunk attempt. Johnson jumped over rapper E-40 and dunked while having one hand behind his head. Johnson celebrated by doing the dougie.
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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:11 PM PST

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  Orlando Magic rookie Jase Richardson opened the dunk contest with a reverse dunk on a self-lob. He scored 45.4. Richardson is the son of Jason Richardson, who won back-to-back NBA dunk contests in 2002 and 2003.
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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:09 PM PST

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  San Antonio Spurs rookie Carter Bryant opens the dunk contest, scoring 45.6 on his first dunk.
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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:06 PM PST

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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:05 PM PST

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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 3:51 PM PST

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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 3:41 PM PST

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  Multiple 7-point shots from Jalen Brunson and Allan Houston helped the Knicks win the Kia Shooting Stars challenge. The Knicks now have a Kia Shooting Stars trophy to go along with their trophy from the Emirates NBA Cup.
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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 3:36 PM PST

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  Corey Maggette carried. Maggette scored three 7-point shots in a row to lead Team Cameron to 38 points in the second round.

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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 3:30 PM PST

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  The Knicks take the lead with 31 points after multiple shots from deep. The Knicks were led by Jalen Brunson, Karl Anthony Towns and Allan Houston.
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  Sat, February 14, 2026 at 3:28 PM PST

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  The Harpers are in second place after an 18-point performance from Ron Harper Sr., Ron Harper Jr. and Dylan Harper.

The 2026 NBA Slam Dunk Contest came and went on Saturday, with Miami Heat forward Keshad Johnson — who is averaging 7.6 minutes per game this season — winning the event with four dunks ranging from acceptable dunk to good dunk.

Like in many years previous, the dunk contest field was an array of relatively anonymous players: Johnson, San Antonio Spurs forward Carter Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes and Orlando Magic rookie Jase Richardson.

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A notable absence from the field (in addition to every All-Star of the past five years) was Mac McClung, the G League veteran who has won the last three contests and could have made history with an unprecedented fourth. He announced last month he was sitting this one out for “a bunch of reasons.”

However, McClung did decide to show off the four dunks he would have brought to the contest had he participated. Here they are:

By comparison, here are all the dunks Johnson landed in the actual competition.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the McClung dunks are both more interesting and more impressive, though we should also note we are only watching the video McClung’s camp decided to record. Half the difficulty of the dunk contest is being able to pull off acrobatic moves on command, with a panel of NBA veterans to somberly shake their heads at you if you fail.

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That said, McClung certainly has the benefit of the doubt given that he has landed 12 such dunks in the actual competition.

What does this all mean for the dunk contest? It’s certainly not the best look that its three-time champion responded to the actual competition with a superior group of dunks, but it’s hardly the contest’s biggest problem.

The contest has alternated from dying to watchable for the last decade and a half or so. When there’s a McClung, an Aaron Gordon or Zach LaVine, the audience has something to grab onto. When there isn’t, you certainly start to wonder why all this pageantry is put into what is essentially four lesser-known players trying to cosplay as stars. It’s been a long time since LaVine and Gordon faced off in 2016, and even longer since Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins were doing it.

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Maybe that’s harsh, but we saw how full that arena was on Saturday.