-
1 week ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
IndianapolisWhen Game 6 of the NBA Finals tipped off, things looked bleak for the Indiana Pacers. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
-
1 week ago | 
tovima.com | Byzantine walls |Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell |Jared Diamond
The NBA’s most glamorous franchise is changing hands—and becoming the world’s most valuable sports team in the process. Jeanie Buss and her family, who have owned the Los Angeles Lakers since Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979, on Wednesday agreed to sell majority control of the storied team to Mark Walter , the sports investor and CEO of Guggenheim Partners, at a valuation of $10 billion, according to a person familiar with the deal.
-
1 week ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell |Jared Diamond
The NBA’s most glamorous franchise is changing hands—and becoming the world’s most valuable sports team in the process. Jeanie Buss and her family, who have owned the Los Angeles Lakers since Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979, on Wednesday agreed to sell the storied team to Mark Walter, the sports investor and CEO of Guggenheim Partners, at a valuation of $10 billion, according to a person familiar with the deal. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
-
1 week ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
Oklahoma CityWhen the NBA Finals began, the Indiana Pacers weren’t merely underdogs. They were afterthoughts. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
-
2 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
During the regular season, they set an NBA record by winning by an average of 12.9 points per game. As they’ve blazed through the playoffs, they’ve notched wins of 30, 40 and even 50 points. But what’s remarkable about all those blowouts is that the Thunder pull them off by behaving exactly like a bully on a grade-school playground. They simply take the ball away. The Thunder force more turnovers than anyone else in the NBA, pressuring opponents into coughing up the basketball 17 times a night.
-
3 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
Oklahoma CityFor pretty much the entire night, in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday, the Indiana Pacers played like garbage. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
-
3 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
The Oklahoma City Thunder don’t have the advantages of glamour teams like Los Angeles or Miami. But they have arguably the biggest single edge in the NBA: general manager Sam Presti. The NBA is built for the Oklahoma City Thunder to lose. In a league historically dominated by glamour teams from big cities on both coasts, the Thunder make their home in flyover country.
-
3 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
Two Oklahoma City Thunder stars have people in Canada quietly hoping someone changes the channel to basketball. Fat chance. When the Stanley Cup Finals begin on Wednesday night, fans across Canada will rally around the Edmonton Oilers as they try to become the first team from the country to win the trophy since 1993. Puckheads in the hockey-mad nation will gather in pubs, in houses and in public squares—wherever there’s a TV showing the game and enough Labatt’s to go around.
-
3 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
But as the NBA Finals get under way this week, George may be the single most important player in the series—even as he’s nowhere near the court. That’s because, years before they got ready to square off with the championship on the line, the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder both got their star players in the exact same way. By trading away Paul George. For the Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams have turned into the modern-day version of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
-
1 month ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
Indiana point guard Tyrese Haliburton has led the Pacers to the brink of the NBA Finals. He hasn’t needed the basketball in his hands to do it. There’s a straightforward rule for playing good offense in the NBA: simply give your best player the basketball. In the postseason, when every possession is crucial, superstars hog the ball, surveying defenses and taking the lion’s share of shots. Which makes the best playmaker left in the playoffs something of a curiosity.
