NBA 2025 CHAMPIONSHIP AND DRAFT
Yes, the NBA Championship and Draft have been over for a couple of weeks now, but, with so much else going on in my life, (including reviews that needed to be published on time, and a fortnight of Wimbledon watching,) this is the earliest that I can share my thoughts on all of those proceedings.
The Champion Thunder. Photo by Karen Salkin, as is the one above.
But basketball is actually still pretty relevant right now because the Summer League just began, so everyone can get good glimpses of the upcoming rookies I’m going to tell you about.
First, one general observation, which I really appreciated. And that is that the broadcasts of both the NBA play-offs and Draft, (and actually the tennis, as well,) featured great music! It made me move at least a little bit in the midst of all my couch potato-ing.
NBA CHAMPIONSHIP
Even though I really wanted the Finals to be contested between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Denver Nuggets, I also thought it would be the most fair for the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the Championship because they were far and away the best team all year. So I was fine with that outcome.
The Pacers surrounding Haliburton when he went down with his tragic injury. Photo by Karen Salkin.
And even though I was happy that they beat the Indiana Pacers, I’m still sick for the Pacers’ main star, Tyrese Haliburton, who tore his achilles tendon during the very last game of the play-offs. It was devastating. Probably still is because that particular injury usually takes at least a year from which to fully recover. How incredibly sad. And it’s not just Tyrese who suffered that tear in the play-offs. Bucks’ star Damian Lillard and Celtics’ main dude Jayson Tatum did, too. I don’t think there’s a way to prevent it from happening time and time again, though—I think it’s just the luck of the draw. But it’s definitely something for the NBA medical staff to look into.
And by the way, I’m impressed with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, (more easily, for people in sportscasting, referred to as “SGA.”) He won both the Finals MVP and the overall season MVP titles, plus he led the league in scoring this year! And he did it all so peacefully! I’ve always been aware of him, but barely ever even heard mentions of him in the sextet of years he’s been in the NBA!
NBA DRAFT
This headline of the 2025 NBA Draft for me is that this seems to be the nicest group of guys ever! Mr. X, who usually doesn’t watch the Draft with me, but did this time, even noted that, as well. And the mind-boggling thing about it all is that most of these guys are basically still kids! (Seriously—the majority are still in their teens!)
ESPN sports analyst Brian Windhorst said, “For every team that is rising in the NBA, one must be falling.” And that’s basically how the Draft works—the lower teams each season get to draft the most promising new guys, so over time, there’s a shift in who’s at the top.
This is how it all unfolded over those two nights, including some of my random thoughts as they came up:
Luka Doncic good-naturedly showing his phone that he broke when he smashed it upon learning that he was traded from his beloved Dallas Mavericks. Photo by Karen Salkin.
I hate Dallas Mavericks G.M., Nico Harrison, for trading their star, my beautiful Luka Doncic, to the Lakers in the middle of the year. He even idiotically said later, “I did know that Luka was important to the fan base; I didn’t quite know to what level.” How does Nico still have a job?! But it was most likely saved by that team winning the Draft Lottery, which means they won the prize that is Duke’s Cooper Flagg with the #1 pick.
I’m so confused by who some of the family members were! I wound-up hours behind on the action because I had to keep looking everyone up on the internet, mainly to see if some of the women in attendance were mothers or girlfriends!
#3 pick VJ Edgecombe is darling—still a teen, he had already set-up scholarships for kids in his native Bahamas! So of course I love him. He also appeared to have the most grateful family, with his older brother seeming to be one of the two the happiest-for-their-bro siblings. (The next day, he said of his humble beginnings, “I won’t take anything for granted—every penny counts, every second on earth counts.” That’s a lesson for all of us!)
Ace Bailey and his dad were adorable together.
When Stephen A. Smith was going on and on, (all night, actually,) about how happy he was when Jeremiah Fears was drafted, fellow analyst Bob Myers said, “Okay, we got it; we’re well aware of how you feel.”
Collin Murray-Boyles and Chloe Kitts, (with a cameo from his grandma on the bottom left.) Photo by Karen Salkin.
Collin Murray-Boyles has a gorgeous *girlfriend! And it’s cute that he hugged his grandma before her. He’s also now the most grateful. *[Note: I found-out later that she’s more famous and feted than he is! She’s Chloe Kitts, a gold medal-winning college basketball player herself. Since I don’t follow women’s hoops, I had no idea of anything about her many accomplishments.]
The only one crying more than I was when Khaman Maluach was drafted #10 was Khaman himself. I love that he and Cooper Flagg are best friends, meeting for the past year at Duke. What a thing for them to share this life-changing experience. I’m shocked by just how darling he is. He’s eighteen and he hadn’t seen his mother since he was twelve!
Khaman Maluach upon hearing his name called when he was drafted. Photo by Karen Salkin.
Derik Queen must have lost thirty pounds since April!
Carter Bryant is the absolute sweetest.
Thomas Sorber was crying like a baby to have done this for his mother, who raised him and his bro from when he was six and his father died from cancer. He said, “I did this for you, Ma. Just know you might not have to work another day in your life.”
Frenchman Joan Beringer, another very sweet guy, just started playing basketball…three years ago!!! And even that is only because…his feet grew too big for his soccer shoes! So he had to switch sports to accommodate his tootsies! And now he was drafted #17.
Danny Wolf’s brother when Danny got chosen. The image of the 2025 Draft! Photo by Karen Salkin.
I can say this because they’re members of my tribe: With picks #25 and #26, the Brooklyn Nets took 2 Jewish guys! And they both played for Israel at one point. That’s all so perfect for my hometown. I’m glad that Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf will have each other in the tough world of sports. (Danny’s brother crying for him is actually the best image of the entire draft!)
After pick #30, the Draft moved on to the next night, for only the second year, for Round 2. Last year, they did it all in some very light conference room someplace, which made the guys who were drafted then have a much lesser draft experience, once that basically sucked. So I was absolutely thrilled that they let the second round guys have the same experience at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn that their higher-ranked bros had. They must have read my rant last year, and realized the error of their ways!
Rasheed Fleming appears to be a really nice guy. And what a gorgeous voice he has!
It always boggles my mind that, with sixty new guys being drafted each year, that means that the same number of current players need to be axed! How does that work? They never even get mentioned again.
Photo by Karen Salkin.
In case you were wondering, (which I’m sure most of you were not,) there were only fifty-nine picks this year, (as opposed to the usual sixty,) due to a “tampering penalty” for the Knicks when they got Jalen Brunson in 2022.
I’m surprised that, after watching the entire NCAA tournament, I don’t remember some of these guys! One example is Will Richard, one of the stars of the National Champions Florida Gators.
A lot of French guys got taken, along with a quartet of Aussies. Those four being in the NBA next year means that I get to torture Mr. X with a statement I make in my Aussie accent, which he detests, many times next season.
I have to say that after the two nights of the Draft, I did not keep up with the trades, retirements, etc. in the league. I had to move on right away to tennis; Wimbledon began four days later, so, because I’ve been watching it for about twelve hours a day, with the Yanks and Mets games peppered in, so I missed most other sports news. But I do know that some of the teams have now traded the guys they literally just drafted to other teams. So we’ll just have to see how it all shakes out next season. The only absolute definite will be Cooper Flagg helping those snake-bit-this-past-season Dallas Mavericks. I wish all of them the greatest of luck!
CAITLIN CLARK
Caitlin Clark, watching her fellow Indiana players, the Pacers, on her time off. Photo by Karen Salkin.
Just a quick word on WNBA star Caitlin Clark. I don’t watch women’s basketball for even one second, but even I am aware that the jealous idiots in the league are disgusting! She’s being targeted and ruffed-up by opponents. It’s hard to believe that no higher-ups are stopping that treatment. She should serve them all right by getting out of that biz. On top of all that, the creepy national selection committee even left her out of the Olympics! And then her fellow players have ranked her only 9th best in the league this year! Bi-atches.
UPCOMING SPORTS
Early next week, I’ll share my very many thoughts on the Wimbledon tennis tourney, which is coming to an end this weekend after the fortnight—it has been the craziest one ever!
And the specialty-sports-on-TV fun continues right from the jump next week. Monday features baseball’s Home Run Derby, Tuesday is Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game from Atlanta, (including a sort-of nutty Red Carpet show, where the male commentators compliment the players on their outfits!,) and then Wednesday is the ESPYs, which is the major awards show for what ESPN thinks is for all sports, but is really for just some of them. (Have they never heard of Figure Skating???)
