In the NBA, it’s already next season.
The offseason, technically, might have lasted for only about an hour. The Boston Celtics won the NBA Finals on Monday night, and when the clock rolled over to Tuesday morning, teams — in many cases — could start talking to their own free agents.
The on-court games are over, for now. Let the off-court games begin.
“This is a business,” Miami Heat President Pat Riley said when his team’s season ended last month, “as much as it is anything else.”
The champion Celtics and Jayson Tatum can agree on an extension that will be worth a record $315 million, though that record is probably going to get smashed annually over the next few years. There’s an Olympics that will have tons of NBA representation. The Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers still need to hire head coaches. LeBron James, who plays (for now at least) for the Lakers and used to play for the Cavs, can be a free agent. Bronny James — his oldest son — may be about to enter the league as a rookie, there’s a draft that starts on June 26, and the Atlanta Hawks hold the No. 1 selection in what will be one of countless dominoes to fall this summer.
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