马萨诸塞州斯普林菲尔德（美联社）——斯派克·李与拉里·伯德合影，并被名人堂裁判判罚技术犯规。
第一次来到篮球的诞生地，拿起一项他不知道存在的荣誉，真是不错。
这位电影制作人被加入了奈史密斯篮球名人堂的超级粉丝画廊。他曾去过纽约库珀斯敦的棒球名人堂，也曾把一些物品借给篮球名人堂，但直到有人告诉他，他对纽约尼克斯队的热爱让他获得了荣誉，他才去了名人堂。
“不过事情是这样的。我甚至不知道这个东西的存在，”李说。“所以当我接到电话时，我完全震惊了。”
李与杰克·尼科尔森、费城商人艾伦·霍维茨和比利·克里斯托一起加入了今年的新成员。在2024届球员入选前几个小时的仪式上，快船队球迷克里斯托告诉李，他已经进入了名人堂。
“你知道，我也在库珀斯敦。他们把我的电影《61》（星号）放进了电影资料馆，”克里斯托说，他指的是他执导的一部电影，讲述了1961年洋基队的罗杰·马里斯和米奇·曼特尔之间的本垒打追逐。
整个周末，李都穿着尼克斯队的橙色衣服，告诉任何愿意听他讲话的人，这是他们的一年。李说，他很高兴能在麦迪逊广场花园的前排座位上与他交谈了这么久的人交流。
“我和拉里·伯德合影，站在拉里和阿蒂斯·吉尔摩之间，”李说。“我和迪克·巴韦塔假吵了一架。他骂了我一句“T”，然后从口袋里掏出一个哨子吹了起来。迪克·巴韦塔和我是老交情了。他也来自布鲁克林，所以我们很喜欢，但见到这些人真的很开心。我看到他们坐在场边表演。”
在一个满是名人堂成员的房间里，文斯·卡特遇到了一个穿着熟悉的柏油鞋跟蓝的人。
“恭喜你,狗!”周六晚上，迈克尔·乔丹站起来与卡特握手，并在拥抱卡特时问他感觉如何。
卡特随后把他的家人介绍给了乔丹，乔丹在15年前入选了名人堂。
卡特在职业生涯早期被比作乔丹。他也曾在北卡罗来纳打球，赢得了一次扣篮大赛，并迅速成为NBA每晚精彩片段的制作人，并常年入选全明星。在2003年的一次全明星赛上，卡特把东部的首发位置给了乔丹，这样六次冠军得主就可以在他的最后一次全明星赛上首发了。
乔丹还热情地拥抱了在芝加哥和华盛顿执教他的道格·柯林斯。
“我知道他对你撒了一堆谎！”乔丹拍着柯林斯的肚子，对周围的人说。
事实上，柯林斯在他的就职演讲中讲述的关于乔丹的故事似乎得到了证实。
这是他执教公牛队的第一场比赛。柯林斯说，在他的球队对阵纽约尼克斯队的比赛中，他一直紧张地嚼着口香糖，当他要求暂停的时候，口香糖粘在了他的嘴唇上。
柯林斯模仿乔丹向前伸出的手说：“我浑身都是汗，头也痛，我抬头一看，看到一只黑手像这样伸出来。”“他说，‘教练，喝一口水，把你嘴里的东西洗干净。我不会让你输掉第一场比赛的。’”
Collins said the Bulls did win and Jordan scored 50. And indeed, Chicago beat New York 108-103 on Nov. 1, 1986, behind 50 points from Jordan.
Collins was about 25 minutes into a speech that would last nearly a half hour when he mentioned the importance of story telling when broadcasting games. That was advice Dick Ebersol gave him when he joined NBC.
Collins sure told a lot of stories.
He had a lot to cover while being inducted as a contributor, from his four All-Star appearances as a player with the 76ers, his memories of playing in the U.S. loss in the controversial 1972 Olympic gold-medal game, his two coaching stints and his time on television.
But he had gone on long enough for event organizers. A clock inside Symphony Hall read: 0:00 WRAP NOW!!!
Collins said felt like former North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano, who during his famous ESPY’s speech as he was dying of cancer refused to be rushed off stage.
“Do I care about that red light? Are you kidding?” Collins said.
When he finally finished, he was followed by former Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who immediately made clear he would be no Collins.
“I’m not a story teller,” he began. “I have former players back there that are doing the over/under on how many minutes I’m going to take.”
Michele Timms played in the WNBA’s inaugural season, one of the original players picked by the Phoenix Mercury. That’s all the way back in 1997, so of course the game looks different now.
But she’s blown away by just how different.
“Wow,” the Australian said. “Proud.”
Attendance was up nearly 44% from last season, with 37 WNBA games in the regular season drawing crowds of at least 16,000. Six different league television partners set viewership records this year for its highest-viewed WNBA game.
Much of that was due to the popularity of Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark. Timms, who cheers for her Mercury and supports the New York Liberty, coached by friend Sandy Brondello, is a fan.
“I mean, you can’t talk about the WNBA unless you talk about Caitlin Clark and she is absolutely phenomenal,” Timms said. “I mean, I’m a Phoenix girl and I love Phoenix and I love New York — well, not love them, I like New York — but I’ve watched every single Indiana game this season and it’s just an exciting time in women’s basketball and it’s grown and evolved since my time.”
The Liberty and Minnesota Lynx are tied 1-1 in the WNBA Finals. Seimone Augustus helped the Lynx win four championships while playing from 2006-20. She sees the growth since then, the future teams arriving in Golden State, Portland and Toronto, and said she couldn’t ask for much more that what the league has become.
“To be honest, they’ve checked off a lot of stuff that I wished I had when I was playing. Obviously charter flights, increase in pay, taking care of the mothers in our league,” Augustus said.
“So I mean, just continuing to head in the direction and put these young ladies in places that we haven’t been and be able to use their voices in ways that we have never been able to.”
