LAS VEGAS — France could be the second best team at the Rio Olympic basketball tournament. The USA are heavy gold medal favorites, but France can hang with an aging Spanish team (minus Marc Gasol), Lithuania, Serbia, and the other medal contenders. It’s a team that will feature Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum, Boris Diaw, Nando De Colo…
And now Utah’s Rudy Gobert, who announced on Twitter Monday he will represent France in Rio. The 7’1″ shot blocking center didn’t play in the qualifying tournament but will be added to the team for the Games.
“I wanted to go, I just wanted to make sure it was the right decision,” Gobert said at Summer League, where he was watching the Utah Jazz rookies. “After a few days thinking about it, I always dreamed about it. You’ve got some guys I have a lot of respect for, like Tony and Boris, it’s probably going to be their last opportunity to get a medal in the Olympics. I was like, we can do something great, so let’s do it.”
By great, he means get a medal.
“I don’t go there just to go there, I go there to win,” Gobert said. “To win it all, to get a medal. Just go there to win.”
Could he and his French teammates beat the USA?
“If I go there I think we can beat them,” Gobert said. “It’s not going to be easy, they have a great team, but I go there to win.”
Gobert said the Jazz have been supportive, in part because he has had success playing for his national team before — he kind of broke out during the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain (where France won the bronze). The following year got a lot more run with the Jazz and he has quickly developed into one of the best rim-protecting bigs in the Association. He thinks he could see a regular season bounce out of playing in Rio as well.
“I always love to play for the national team. It was great (at the FIBA World Cup) because I wasn’t playing a lot during the season, I got the opportunity to play at the highest level, and we were one of the best teams in Spain. It was a good experience and it always makes me better as a player.”
A number of NBA players (and professionals in other sports) have backed out of these games, in part over health concerns surrounding the Zika virus in Brazil. Gobert is not one of them.
“Zika is not that big of a concern for me,” Gobert said. “Most injuries are on the court, it can happen anywhere, it can happen in the first practice of training camp. I’m not going to stop playing basketball because I think I can be hurt.”
The USA and France are in the same group and will play on Aug. 14. You can be sure Kyrie Irving isn’t thrilled to know that when he drives the lane in that game
An NBA game in Mexico City was an annual ritual and part of the NBA schedule for more than a decade — since 1992 the league has been coming to the largest city in North America to showcase the game and make inroads in a massive market.
Then the pandemic hit.
Saturday, for the first time since 2019, the NBA is back in Mexico City with the Spurs taking on the Heat. The game tips off at 5 p.m. Eastern on NBA TV.
Take a look back at some of the top plays from recent NBA Mexico City Games! #NBAenMexico: Spurs vs. Heat – Saturday (12/17) at 5pm/et on NBA TV pic.twitter.com/4jPnYBRsvb
— NBA History (@NBAHistory) December 16, 2022

The NBA’s greatest growth over the next decade will be international and the NBA is again reaching out to those markets. Mexico City is one of the world’s great cities for food, history, architecture and more, a vibrant big city that unfortunately often gets an unfair rap in American media. However, the NBA has recognized the market’s potential — basketball is the second most played sport in the country according to a recent survey — and set up a dedicated regional office based in Mexico City. There’s also an NBA Store in a trendy shopping district (Mexico is the fourth largest market outside the United States for NBA.com sales).
The Spurs, in particular, have reached out into that market to try and expand their base. To help with that, the NBA also hosted a youth basketball experience and a coach’s clinic in the city.
However, the NBA has potential bigger ideas as Mexico City continues to come up as a secondary option if (when?) the NBA decides to expand in a few years. NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum said this week that Mexico City “has to be in consideration” for potential expansion (Seattle and Las Vegas remain the clear frontrunners to land teams).
As a trial run, the NBA now has a G-League there, the Mexico City Capitanes. After COVID forced them to play last season in the United States, they are playing their home games in Mexico City now and teams from the states (and Canada) are traveling to play them. It lets the NBA gauge the experience for teams, players and fans.
For now, the fans in Mexico City will get treated to a rivalry from the last decade, when the Spurs and Heat were atop the NBA.
Adam Silver thinks it’s time.
Multiple NBA teams have interviewed women to be their head coach, but as of yet no woman has been given the job and become the first female head coach of a major men’s American sports franchise. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said recently on the NCAA’s official podcast it’s time, and he hopes it will come in the next five years (hat tip Real GM).
“I would be hugely disappointed if, certainly, in five years we haven’t seen our first female head coach in the NBA…
“I’ve said this before, as much as professional sports has led, and the WNBA and NBA have led in certain areas, we’re a bit behind in this area,” Silver said. “We should have more women head coaches. We should have a female head coach right now. We should have more women referees. It’s something we’re working very hard on right now.”
There are currently five female assistant coaches in the NBA: Teresa Weatherspoon (Pelicans), Kristi Toliver (Mavericks), Jenny Boucek (Pacers), Lindsey Harding (Kings) and Sonia Raman (Grizzlies).
The name most associated with getting an NBA head coaching job first — and the woman most interviewed for those jobs — is long-time Spurs assistant Becky Hammon. Some around the league were unsure if she was the right fit as a head coach, but she returned to her roots in the WNBA this season and led the Las Vegas Aces to the title.
However, the name that has popped up most in conversations with league sources over the years is Dawn Staley, coach of the current defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks as well as head coach of USA Basketball’s gold medal winning women’s team (plus she won three golds as a player). Some executives believe she has not only the basketball acumen to do the job, but also the presence and personality to command an NBA locker room. Whether she would leave to take the job is another question.
Silver doesn’t say things by mistake, he threw this out in the universe as a heads-up to team officials. Silver wants to see this barrier broken. Whether a team will make that move in the next five years remains to be seen.
It was maybe the best game the Lakers have played all season. There was ball movement, balanced scoring with seven players in double figures, LeBron James put up 30 and Russell Westbrook had a triple-double, plus this time the Lakers held onto their lead in a win over Denver.
However, the focus is on Anthony Davis, who sat out the second half with a foot injury.
There are few details on the injury — the X-rays were clean — but Davis will undergo an MRI Saturday to determine what he is dealing with. There is hope that this is just some “discomfort” and not something more severe, reports Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Still, Davis has missed more than half the Lakers games the previous two seasons due to an assortment of injuries, so any time he comes up hobbling it’s a cause for concern.
The injury occurred in the first quarter. Davis was bothered by it but stayed on the court for a while. He came back in the second quarter but was not the same player, going 0-of-1 shooting and looking slowed.
Anthony Davis scored 10 PTS in 17 MINS before leaving the game with a right foot injury. pic.twitter.com/cIa4ivrFYw
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) December 17, 2022

Davis’ injury was a cloud over an otherwise impressive Lakers win. LeBron was at his best, both hitting tough shots in the clutch and stepping up and playing some center in the second half, guarding Nikola Jokic (who still finished with 25 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists). It was LeBron who refused to let the Lakers give up their lead and who keeps making plays a 37-almost-38-year-old should not.
LEBRON WITH AUTHORITY ON ESPN 👑 pic.twitter.com/Jd9S8bKQfG
— NBA (@NBA) December 17, 2022

It was the kind of win the 12-16 Lakers need to build on (they host their old friend Kyle Kuzma and the struggling Wizards on Sunday). However, the Lakers will need Davis — their best player this season, averaging 27.4 points a game on 59.3% shooting, plus 12.1 rebounds a night — to use this game as a springboard.
Jacque Vaughn wanted to draw up a game-winning shot for Kevin Durant, but KD wanted to get the ball in the hot hands of Kyrie Irving.
Durant chose wisely. Irving capped off his 32-point night with a game-winner step-back-3 over Fred VanVleet.
KYRIE IRVING WINS IT FOR THE NETS WITH THE #TissotBuzzerBeater!#TimingEmotions pic.twitter.com/lG3ZQiAHQr
— NBA (@NBA) December 17, 2022

“Honestly, I was thinking basket,” Irving said after the game, via the Associated Press. “I saw Juancho (Hernangomez) come over a little bit earlier so I decided to pull it back and took my time, got my balance underneath me.”
Another look at Kyrie’s game-winning #TissotBuzzerBeater from earlier 👀#TimingEmotions pic.twitter.com/IuxfaOrIOt
— NBA (@NBA) December 17, 2022

Irving finished with 32, while Fred VanVleet finished with 39 for Toronto.
Kyrie went OFF in Toronto:
32 PTS
3 REB
5 AST
3 3PM
Game-Winner pic.twitter.com/wti3pdLLPG
— NBA (@NBA) December 17, 2022

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