Author: Michelle Hernandez

Jonathan Kuminga weighs 225 pounds and is 6 feet 7 inches tall. On paper, those figures are respectable but not particularly noteworthy—many NBA forwards have comparable lists. Kuminga’s use of that frame is what sets him apart. He moves with a fluidity on the court that sometimes contrasts with the physicality he displays when driving to the rim. It’s not a coincidence that he plays larger than his measurements indicate. Kuminga, who was born in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on October 6, 2002, began playing basketball at the age of two. Although this seems almost too good to…

There was a tense atmosphere in the Rupp Arena conversation when Mark Pope accepted the Kentucky position. The obvious question mark was recruiting. Pope had established something genuine at BYU, but luring five-star prospects to Provo is not the same as vying for the top players in the nation with Duke, Kansas, and his own predecessor, John Calipari. There was real doubt about his ability to perform at this level. Although it hasn’t completely vanished, that uncertainty appears to be much less than it was a year ago. The summer of 2026 significantly altered the situation. Currently, Kentucky has more…

Rick Pitino has never been one to wait for approval. And his most recent action, acquiring Keyshawn Hall, a transfer from Auburn, almost perfectly fits that pattern. On Tuesday nite, Hall tweeted that he was joining “one of the best coaches of all time.” Simple, straightforward, and sincere. It’s a completely different matter entirely whether it translates into actual game minutes this season. Hall is a truly remarkable athlete. The 6-foot-7 forward shot 45% from the field and 38% from three last season while averaging 19.3 points and 7.1 rebounds at Auburn. He finished ninth in the country with six…

In NBA discussions, Kyle Singler’s name is rarely mentioned. He averaged 6.5 points per game during his six professional seasons before retiring in 2019. He was never the type of player whose highlights are remembered years later. Nevertheless, Singler had earned more than $21 million in NBA salary by the time his final check from the Oklahoma City Thunder arrived in 2023. It’s a figure that sparks curiosity, raises eyebrows, and provides insight into the real workings of professional basketball contracts. By all standards, the start was unremarkable. After graduating from Duke, where he had been truly outstanding in college,…

Sibling rivalry can take a different form and remain in the driveway. Then there’s what the Ball brothers have, which followed them from Chino Hills, California into professional arenas where real stakes, real crowd noise, and real stat lines awaited them. In the NBA, Lonzo and LaMelo Ball have faced off five times. That figure seems both insufficient and, at the same time, perfectly appropriate for everything it represents. The games have been really good basketball. In those five games, LaMelo, who is four years younger than his opponent, averaged 20.2 points, 9.0 assists, and 5.2 rebounds. These stats show…

Minnesota is not a quiet state. The Timberwolves had a functional core going into this offseason, but by trading Julius Randle, acquiring LaMelo Ball, and landing Jonathan Kuminga at the end of the summer following an intense recruiting campaign that reportedly included Anthony Edwards making personal calls and team president Tim Connelly traveling to Miami for a four-hour sit-down, the team was virtually unrecognizable. For a franchise that spent three years meticulously developing something with the same group, that’s a lot of movement. Minnesota’s projected starting five now appears to have been put together to garner the greatest amount of…

In one version of recent NBA history, Bruce Brown played his final three seasons in Los Angeles rather than Denver, Indiana, and Toronto. According to him, it almost did. Brown was ready to sign a three-year contract with the Lakers after winning a championship with the Nuggets in 2023, where he would play point guard alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. After that, Indiana called and offered more money up front, and that was it. In the end, Gabe Vincent was signed by the Lakers. As they say, the rest is history, and neither side’s history is particularly favorable. The…

In the NBA, late August often feels like the calm following a storm. The rosters are largely set, the majority of the big names are gone, and the remaining moves have the distinct smell of desperation. The Los Angeles Lakers are currently in that situation after 23-year-old forward Jonathan Kuminga, who was their top target for the majority of the summer, decided to sign with the Minnesota Timberwolves. According to Shams Charania, the agreement is a $13 million, two-year contract with a player option for the second season. It appears modest on paper. In contrast, the Lakers had offered Kuminga…

A few years ago, Matt Ryan posted on social media about draft nite in 2020. Ryan was at work while other players watched their names be called and embraced their families in front of the cameras. running outdoors. taking pictures in a driveway. He would lift in any gym. Due to the pandemic, the draft was postponed until November of that year, and his name was never mentioned. There was also no invitation to the G League bubble. For a few weeks, he drove DoorDash. He was employed at a Yonkers cemetery. He continued to fire. The Yonkers cemetery is…

At Kentucky, Mark Pope has been quietly and steadily creating something that doesn’t always make news until it does. Five-star point guard Nasir Anderson has narrowed his recruitment to ten schools, and the Wildcats made the cut. This is the most recent development worth keeping an eye on. The list, which also includes programs from North Carolina, UConn, Providence, Syracuse, Indiana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia, gives you a complete picture of how Anderson’s recruitment is regarded across the country. Anderson, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound guard who plays for Prolific Prep in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, truly stands out from the majority…