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With the NBA All-Star break over, teams are heading into the final stretch of the 2021-22 regular season with around 25 or so games remaining.

With that in mind, Yahoo Sports' NBA experts reset their preseason predictions for a number of awards, late-playoff matchups and what will be the most interesting storylines heading into the postseason.

Vincent Goodwill: Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers

Chris Haynes: Chris Paul, Phoenix Suns

Ben Rohrbach: Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers

Odds to win: Embiid is BetMGM's favorite for MVP at +125, followed by Denver's Nikola Jokic at +275 and Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo at +375.

Vincent Goodwill: Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers

Chris Haynes: Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers

Ben Rohrbach: Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers

Odds to win: Mobley is BetMGM's favorite for Rookie of the Year at -350, followed by Oklahoma City's Josh Giddey at +850 and Detroit's Cade Cunningham at +900.

Vincent Goodwill: J.B. Bickerstaff, Cleveland Cavaliers

Chris Haynes: Monty Williams, Phoenix Suns

Ben Rohrbach: Taylor Jenkins, Memphis Grizzlies

Odds to win: Williams is BetMGM's favorite for Coach of the Year at -250, followed by Bickerstaff at +325 and Jenkins at +650.

Vincent Goodwill: Phoenix Suns vs. Golden State Warriors

Chris Haynes: Phoenix Suns vs. Golden State Warriors

Ben Rohrbach: Phoenix Suns vs. Golden State Warriors

Odds to win: The Warriors are BetMGM's favorite to win the West at +175, followed by the Suns at +190 and the Utah Jazz at +600.

Vincent Goodwill: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Miami Heat

Chris Haynes: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Philadelphia 76ers

Ben Rohrbach: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Miami Heat

Odds to win: The Brooklyn Nets and Bucks are BetMGM's favorite to win the East at +280, followed by the 76ers at +350 and the Heat at +500.

Vincent Goodwill: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Golden State Warriors

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Chris Haynes: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Phoenix Suns

Ben Rohrbach: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Golden State Warriors

Odds to win: The Warriors are BetMGM's favorite to win the championship at +425, followed by the Suns at +450 and the Nets at +600.

Vincent Goodwill: Memphis Grizzlies

Chris Haynes: Cleveland Cavaliers

Ben Rohrbach: Los Angeles Lakers

Vincent Goodwill: The battle for playoff positioning in the Eastern Conference. Itll all come down to matchups compared to team excellence, and itll be interesting to see who avoids who in this.

Chris Haynes: Seeing if James Harden and Joel Embiid can succeed together in competing for a championship. The last few months of the season will be telling.

Ben Rohrbach: The jockeying for position in the Eastern Conference playoffs is going to be insane. The Brooklyn Nets would actually benefit from being a seventh or eighth seed, because of Kyrie Irving's vaccination status, and nobody is going to want to be the Nos. 1 or 2 seed as a result. It is going to be brutal, and the fight starts with the road each team lays out for itself over the final 25 games.

Vincent Goodwill: The Brooklyn Nets being a mess.

Chris Haynes: The Los Angeles Lakers are the mess we thought they would be.

Ben Rohrbach: I was wrong about the Lakers in 2019-20, when I said they were wildly overrated, and again in 2020-21, when I said they would repeat as champions, so I'll take a victory lap while I can, since I said they were more pretenders than contenders to start this season. (Now watch them win the title.)

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NBA predictions for the stretch run: MVP, Rookie of the Year and what to watch - Yahoo Sports

WASHINGTON You have to understand, George. Ukraine is not even a country.

Those were the jarring and, it would turn out, prescient words uttered by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in 2008, during a meeting with then-President George W. Bush. It was an unambiguous assertion of ownership over a sovereign nation, an assertion that has particular resonance 14 years later, as Putin has just recognized the independence of two Ukrainian regions and sent troops to bolster Russian-backed separatists.

The West is outraged by Putins current aggression, as well as by the logic for his seemingly inevitable full-scale invasion. Who in the Lords name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors? wondered President Biden in remarks delivered from the White House on Tuesday.

President Vladimir Putin addressing the Russian people on Tuesday. (Kremlin Press Service/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Such outrage, however, ignores a complex and uncomfortable truth: Many Russians recognize Putins sentiments about Ukraine as largely in keeping with established beliefs about the relationship between the nuclear superpower and its much smaller neighbor, which has a similar language and culture. That may explain why many Russians support military action against Ukraine, which they see as a necessary response to Western meddling.

America badly wants to start this war, an elderly Muscovite told the New York Times, citing as Putin has the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe as a prime reason for the current conflict. Ukraine isnt currently eligible for membership, but Russians have watched carefully as the Western alliance has crept ever closer throughout the last two decades.

Having grown up in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, I can safely say that most Russians view Ukraine as part of Russia. It is impossible to speak for a nation of 144 million people, especially long after leaving. However, the Russian view of geopolitics and history has, paradoxically, become more assertively nationalistic than it was during the Soviet era, when it tellingly embraced Joseph Stalin as a model leader.

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With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, 14 republics were freed from the Kremlins grasp, only to discover that genuine independence would prove no simple matter. Russia never accepted anything but conditional independence of the former republics, predicated on an alliance with Moscow and belonging to Russias sphere of influence, Serhii Plokhii, a Harvard professor of Ukrainian history, recently wrote in the Financial Times. Belarus hewed closely to Russia, while the three Baltic states sought (and achieved) close ties to Western Europe.

At the same time, Putin was never shy about exerting Russian force if he saw the more economically and culturally consequential of the former Soviet states straying too far afield. He invaded Georgia in 2008, then Ukraine in 2014. The current crisis can be seen as a redoubled effort to remind the former republics that there are consequences for defying the Kremlin.

In the United States and Western Europe, Putin has been described as a warmongering bully who deserves a strong brushback from the West. Youve got to punch him in the nose, former Central Intelligence Agency officer John Sipher told Yahoo News last week.

The West is preparing to do just that, with sanctions and military support to Ukraine. But none of that will erase Russian grievances that have festered for decades and are inarguably at work today. Understanding those grievances is crucial to engaging in what some are describing as a new Cold War.

A proud people with centuries of intellectual and artistic achievement, Russians despise being lectured by a West that has never fully accepted them as equals. Nor is Russia much interested in being chided by Washington about invading other countries, especially in the wake of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Kremlin gains domestic legitimacy from confrontation with the West, as long as bullets arent being fired, Samuel Greene, a British scholar of Russian society, told the Guardian.

And though democracy is nonexistent in Russia today, the 1990s-era flirtation with freedom was so unsettling and chaotic that many people have simply accepted autocracy as a fact of life.

Were not being invaded by Nazis and theres food in the stores, so as far as Im concerned hes doing a good job, a Russian villager said about Putin to Vice News in 2014. Despite occasional outbursts of protest, 70 percent of Russians approve of how he governs.

Shoppers in Moscow's Red Square. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

History for Russians is also a much more intimately lived experience than it is for most Americans, who tend to favor the present, with an eye to the future. Some of the tensions at work today between Russia and Ukraine go back centuries, as an intentionally provocative tweet from the U.S. Embassy reminded the world, in a series of memes, that Kyiv is an older city than Moscow.

The principality known as the Kievan Rus fell to the Mongols in the 13th century, to later become part of the Russian empire and, later still, of the Soviet Union. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, Ukraine and the other Soviet republics became independent a split that Russians saw, not without cause, as a rebuke.

The Lithuanian people reject lies, and they are not afraid, Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis said in 1991, as his nation pulled away from the Soviet Union and into Europes embrace. Native languages replaced Russian in government institutions and schools. At the same time, Russians who continued to live in the now independent nations worried that they would be punished for the cruel excesses of the Soviet regime.

Putin has stoked those fears by promulgating reports of violent persecution of Russians by Ukrainians. The Kremlins savvy propagandists understand that those reports which are exaggerated, outdated or simply untrue play on incipient Russian anxieties about the resentment directed toward them by former subjects in Ukraine and elsewhere.

More important, Putin has continued to reference the same sentiment he voiced to Bush in 2008: that Ukraine is a region of Russia that has no claim to independence. Modern Ukraine was entirely and fully created by Russia, Putin said earlier this week. The sentiment is obviously ahistorical, but it does hold an almost mystical appeal for Russians who see their nation as no less a regional beacon albeit in profoundly different ways than does the United States.

Ukrainian protesters near the Russian Embassy in Kyiv on Tuesday. (Sergei Chuzavkov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Nothing unites Russians like memories of World War II. Every child growing up in Russia was inculcated with legends about the heroic defeat of Hitler, a victory that permeated every aspect of Soviet culture and of Soviet psychology. To grow up in Leningrad, as both Putin and I did, is to feel the war right at your door the Nazis laid siege to the city for nearly three years, in what came to be known as the 900 Days.

The Red Army that defeated Germany on the Eastern Front was constituted from all over the Soviet Union, not just Russia, but that fact has been intentionally forgotten. Even before the war began, Stalin saw the diversity of cultures as a threat to Bolshevik dominance. The war with Germany only intensified his desire to forge a single national culture, a project known as Russification.

Putin has seen to a determined rehabilitation of Stalins image, which suffered what seemed like a fatal blow from decades of revelations about the terrors to which he subjugated the Soviet Union. The more recent resurrection has been striking: Stalin now enjoys widespread popularity in Russia. Stalin was the best master. He won the war and built the country from ruins, a 44-year-old Russian businessman from central Russia said last year. Such attitudes could only further embolden Putin to pursue the kinds of policies Stalin would doubtless have approved of.

Ukrainians remember Stalin too: He oversaw the intentional starvation of 4 million Ukrainians in the 1930s, a brutal and prolonged famine known as the Holodomor. And while that atrocity is commemorated with a monument in Washington, D.C., and is recognized as genocide elsewhere, the Russian government steadfastly rejects responsibility.

And while most of the world sees Russia as the instigator in the present conflict, Putin insists that Western imperialism is to blame.

A portrait of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in Donetsk, Ukraine. (Aleksey Filippov/AFP via Getty Images)

Once again, they threatened us with sanctions, Putin said in Mondays speech, correctly predicting Bidens response. They will still impose those, the stronger and more powerful our country becomes. They will always find an excuse to introduce more sanctions regardless of the situation in Ukraine. The only goal they have is to contain the development of Russia.

It is an old idea, one pulled straight from Soviet history into the anxious and uncertain present.

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What the West doesn't understand about Russia or Ukraine - Yahoo News

With the second half of the NBA season starting this week, Joel Embiid insists he has put the Ben Simmons saga behind him.

I did a lot of chasing around trying to get him back and try to make him feel comfortable again, Embiid told ESPNs Malika Andrews on Tuesday of his former teammate. It was tough.

I didnt care anymore.

Simmons was involved in a messy exit from Philadelphia after he requested a trade and then sat out for months while racking up fines and refusing to play. He reportedly told the team in November that he wasnt mentally ready to play. He said earlier this month mental health had nothing to do with it.

Finally, Simmons was dealt to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for James Harden.

It was a bunch of things I was dealing with as a person in my personal life that I dont really want to go into depth with, Simmons said with the Nets last week. But Im here now. Its a blessing to be in an organization like this.

The 25-year-old did say that he has had some dark times over these last six months, but he didnt elaborate.

Meanwhile, Embiids feelings toward his former teammate changed over the standoff.

In October, Embiid said that I dont care about that man when Simmons first started his holdout. He then tweeted an incredible meme after the trade went down.

It's unfortunate that, for him, having his own team and, I guess, being the star, was more of his priorities, Embiid said after the trade. I always thought that everything was great, the fit was great, but unfortunately Ben thought that it wasn't. But, you know, we all move on.

So even though hes made it very clear how he feels about Simmons and everything that happened, Embiid said at this point hes all good and he feels like he did plenty to try and help Simmons when he was still in Philadelphia.

I could have said a lot of stuff, but I still did whatever I thought was good to do as a teammate, Embiid told ESPN.

Joel Embiid said he "did a lot of chasing" trying to get Ben Simmons to stay with the 76ers. (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

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Joel Embiid did a lot of chasing trying to get Ben Simmons to stay: I didnt care anymore - Yahoo Sports

After apparent silence between the two since CJ McCollum arrived in New Orleans, Zion Williamson has reached out to his new teammate.

McCollum was traded to the Pelicans earlier this month and played just five games with the team before the All-Star break. McCollum then revealed during the All-Star events on Saturday night that he had yet to speak with Williamson who is still injured and has yet to play this season.

I havent had conversations with him directly, McCollum said on TNT. Ive spoken with some people close to him and I look forward to sitting down with him sooner [rather] than later. I know about as much as you do right now, but Im gonna get to the bottom of it.

Though the details of their conversation arent known, Williamson reached out to McCollum after those comments and the two have spoken, according to ESPNs Malika Andrews.

Williamson is still recovering after he sustained a foot injury over the summer that required surgery. He was supposed to be ready to go by the start of the season, but hes faced multiple setbacks in his rehab that has kept him out. He also reportedly showed up to practice before the season at one point weighing more than 300 pounds.

Williamson has left New Orleans to focus on his rehab in Portland, Oregon, and he reportedly may need a second foot surgery which would undoubtedly delay his return even further.

Though hes no longer part of the Pelicans and now works as an analyst at ESPN, JJ Redick laid into his former teammate on First Take on Tuesday.

Redick, who played parts of two seasons alongside Williamson before he retired, said that Williamson just isnt invested and hasnt been throughout his entire NBA career.

There's a responsibility that you have as an athlete when you play a team sport to be fully invested," Redick said on ESPN. "You're fully invested in your body, you're fully invested in your work and you're fully invested in your teammates. That is your responsibility, and we have not seen that from Zion."

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Redick also said that he actually called out Williamson in front of the Pelicans during his rookie season.

This is a pattern of behavior with Zion that we are seeing again and again, Redick said on ESPN. I was his teammate, I can describe him as a detached teammate. That is an accurate statement.

If Williamson can get back on the court, Redick knows how much of an impact he can have for New Orleans. The former No. 1 overall pick averaged 27 points and 7.2 rebounds last season, after all.

His off-court issues, however, are overshadowing his game in Redicks eyes.

"Yes, he's been amazing when he's been on the court, 100%. He's amazing to watch, Redick said on ESPN. There's no one that can do what he does on a basketball court ... but as a teammate, there is a pattern of behavior, as a fully invested individual in New Orleans, there's a pattern of behavior. This is worrisome.

JJ Redick didn't hold back when talking about former teammate Zion Williamson on "First Take" on Tuesday. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

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Zion Williamson reached out to CJ McCollum, but ex-teammate JJ Redick isn't impressed - Yahoo Sports

The charts say stocks could have much further to fall as investors price in the three-headed monster that is elevated inflation, rising interest rates from the Federal Reserve and a potential Ukraine-Russia war.

"Every facet of my work continues to suggest that this is a chart book consistent with a 20% drawdown in the S&P [500]. While ephemeral relief rallies will occur as the conflict ebbs and flows, the seeds of the current decline were planted by policy and the pandemic long before troops massed on the border, and I urge you to fight the temptation buy when the cannons are firing for anything more than a traders bounce whilst still staring down the ominous specter of the highest inflation in 40 years and more hikes than meetings to combat said inflation," said veteran EvercoreISI technical analyst Rich Ross.

Ross' work shows (see chart below) the S&P 500 being vulnerable to a move down to 3,600 if the major stock index drops below the key 4,200 level.

"While bounces will occur (see Europe) as bulls attempt to defend the neckline of the well-defined head and shoulders top, the sum of the charts across asset classes is simply too much to bear," Ross added.

That 4,200 level on the S&P 500 could be tested shortly.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of Russian troops to two breakaway regions of Ukraine. The move seen by the West as a provocation came after Putin recognized their independence.

S&P 500 is lined up for a further drop, argues EvercoreISI technical analyst Rich Ross.

Countries wasted no time implementing fresh sanctions on Russia, providing a taste of what could happen economically should Putin invade Ukraine.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled a package of sanctions on Russia Tuesday morning. Germany halted the important Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that sends Russian natural gas to Europe.

The U.S. unveiled a first tranche of sanctions on Russia Tuesday afternoon.

All three major stock indexes fell as traders assessed how the situation will impact energy markets and Fed policy.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average really took it on the chin, falling nearly 700 points by 2:00 p.m. ET. Only three Dow components were in the green (slightly): Amgen, Travelers and McDonald's.

"We believe investors should be very careful about viewing the intermediate-term prospects for the stock market through the prism of geopolitics alone," warned Miller Tabak chief markets strategist Matt Maley.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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Why this technical analyst sees a nearly 20% S&P 500 nosedive - Yahoo Finance

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Enough already.

If there was ever a pithy slogan or rallying cry suited for a leader in crisis, the above sentence would be perfect for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and could be applied on at least two fronts: working from home and the Big Apples skyrocketing violent crime.

In recent days, Hizzoner has called upon CEOs to curtail generous remote work arrangements that are hampering the citys recovery efforts (a subject weve hit in the Morning Brief recently). Meanwhile, Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul are moving to address deteriorating safety conditions on public transit.

Both issues are interconnected, and have emerged as flashpoints in the citys halting recovery. In order for workers to come back to offices where estimated occupancy rates are languishing below 30%, a few things need to happen.

Employers must incentivize staff to return to a pre-pandemic office culture that a growing number of sages believe is a relic of the past, at a time when it's become clear that workers are having a hard time letting go of Zoom/Google Meet work habits. But in order to do that, people also need to feel comfortable riding public transportation again, and venturing out into redoubts that increasingly resemble an untamed Gotham City (sorry Batman).

Even the relative safety of home isnt nearly as secure these days as it used to be (a fact to which I can attest personally, having recently intercepted a would-be "porch pirate" attempting to steal a package). That alone is leading people to flee for other (cheaper) cities and states that dont tax them for the privilege of living in squalor, bloodshed and generalized dysfunction.

Theres a very tight relationship between perceptions of crime and economic prosperity and dynamism, Rafael Mangual, a senior fellow and head of research at Manhattan Institutes Policing and Public Safety Initiative, told the Morning Brief in a recent interview.

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Traditionally, people have been willing to pay higher costs associated with living in expensive but thriving metropolises like New York, San Francisco (now beset by a crime wave so bad that voters are moving to recall its progressive district attorney), and Los Angeles (the scene of a series of brazen train robberies covered in explicit detail by Yahoo Finances Dani Romero).

However, Mangual explained living in these places involve trade-offs between public officials and citizens who ultimately pay higher taxes and living costs to enjoy a higher standard of living and convenience. The pandemic eras deteriorating quality of life has made many citizens question if it's worth the price, the researcher suggested.

There are all these things that really require you to feel safe and make that choice on a consistent basis, he said. If public order begins to deteriorate, the balance of what youre losing in terms of life in the city vs. the suburbs changes.

The COVID-era remote work boom means we all have significantly more choices. If you wanted to do certain types of work you had to be in NY or LA [but] thats no longer the case. The perception of safety is really key, ultimately if people dont feel safe, theyre going to act accordingly, Mangual told the Morning Brief.

To be fair, New York isnt a complete hellscape. The rebound from the darkest days of COVID-19 have been a testament to what UBS analysts referred to recently as New Yorkers exceptionally resilient character that weathered the aftermath of September 11 and the 2008 financial crisis.

We readily acknowledge that the appearance and subsequent spread of the Omicron variant has slowed the nascent economic recovery, The city's perennial budget challenges will prompt robust debate) as will questions over public safety and criminal justice, the firm wrote in a rosy analysis last month.

But we reject the idea that New York's best days are behind it and instead make a concerted argument that its unique attributes still offer investors an opportunity to benefit from its recovery, the authors added.

However, others arent nearly as optimistic.

Adams a former police officer has adopted a hard line on criminal activity, but Mangual suggested the mayor could find himself hamstrung by a City Council that has become increasingly radical, and a Manhattan district attorney thats also come under fire for being too permissive on crime.

You can have the right ideas but you need the right infrastructure to put those into practice, Mangual said, which means prosecutors, legislators and judges should be all on the same page. However, thats no longer a given. If all those working at cross purposes, there are limits to what can be achieved on the crime front, he added.

By Javier E. David, editor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him at @Teflongeek

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Rising crime and the work from home conundrum - Yahoo Finance

CLEVELAND He bathed in the applause, yelled to the heavens, earning the biggest cheers among all the current players in the All-Star Game.

Later, when LeBron James stood among so many of the NBAs greatest players in its 75 years, only a few could relate to being the face of the game.

One by one, they all played a part in molding the game into what it is: the texture, the depth and even its warts. But being an ambassador is something different.

Carrying the torch of what the NBA is currently and aims to be in the future is almost as tough a task as saving a franchise, or resurrecting one, or assimilating into one and James has done all three while being That Guy.

Ive held that title of ambassador, James said. Nobody told me to do it, but I felt like if I wasnt gonna do it, who was gonna do it? So I took that responsibility, and Ill continue to do it till Im done playing the game.

Hes the games biggest name, even if hes no longer the games best player being usurped by those one could say were influenced by his style. He still commands any room hes in, he drives all the conversation and even through his missteps, the NBA world is so irresistibly drawn to him.

It wont last forever, even though it seems his greatness is indefatigable. Hell walk away or the game will usher him away.

LeBron James bathed in the cheers at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland on Feb. 20, 2022. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

James opened the door to yet another return to Cleveland over the weekend, ensuring the requisite reaction equal parts eye rolls and intrigue. Like that gorgeous ex whose call youll always take no matter how many times youve been loved and left, talking about him is so alluring even when its exhausting.

Its a responsibility for sure, James said. Somebody did it before me. And putting it in a position to [keep] it where it was and make it better than it was. Represent the league with the utmost respect.

Theres so many generations that look for inspiration. And its always cool to see guys who come into our league, and he said, favorite player growing up is LeBron James. That means something to me, because I feel like [it] has so much more to do than just playing the game of basketball.

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He plays the hits, but he gives the league what it needs at times, too.

He knows exactly what hes doing, steering conversation because he can and whether the NBA wants to admit it or not, it has fueled this recent era, for better and perhaps worse.

Hardly anyone carries that sway in todays NBA, and the argument can be made that his presence overshadows the league pushing its energy toward someone else.

When hes engaged, he can capture and make a moment all his own or put considerable energy toward a movement.

Julius Erving was a classy statesman when the NBA needed it, stable and almost regal in his presence. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were charismatic, more the former than latter, but in concert they helped make the league credible during the burgeoning 1980s, leading to the expansion and riding a growing television popularity.

Then, of course, came Michael Jordan, who embraced James following the halftime ceremony in a moment that was captured for the world and will be captioned for days and weeks to come.

LeBron James and Michael Jordan shake hands after the NBA celebrated its 75th Anniversary Team at halftime of the 2022 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland on Feb. 20, 2022. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Jordans stature still captivates, and his presence still makes grown people stop in their tracks and gasp. There seemed to be smooth transitions from one ambassador to the next, but even James is still chasing that high, that feeling Jordan produces just by showing his face.

The league wobbled for a while after Jordans Last Dance retirement, unable to find its own traction let alone wrapping its arms around a universal figure. It wasnt about basketball excellence, because plenty of talented players took up that real estate.

But it took someone special with a blend of artistry, background and desire to shape a narrative to give the NBA its next.

And while the league has probably learned from its mistakes of trying to manufacture the next Michael Jordan and wont go down that path with a James replacement, it needs to start thinking of a life without him.

I want to be absolutely clear. I am not prepared to talk about the post-LeBron era, NBA commissioner Adam Silver told Yahoo Sports recently. And I don't think it's because I'm in denial. He won a championship less than a year and a half ago. From my standpoint, LeBron is still playing at the very highest level in the league.

At some point, a new player or players will emerge, I think, [to] take that leadership mantle in the league. It seems they always do. I'm just not prepared, even in the slightest, to start thinking about the league without LeBron, because he continues to be as committed as ever to the competition, to the league overall.

Kevin Durant is too inconsistent a personality to be part of the conversation, even when he has his moments.

Stephen Curry seems as fit as anyone, as stable as any star in this wayward era, to continue on if he chooses to. He draws a distinction between being a face of the league and ambassador, but appears to understand its a heavy weight to carry with additional weight added that one cant bargain for.

He was booed mercilessly for obvious reasons, even though he was sharing a stage with Ohios favored son. Curry carried the evening with those sky-touching triples and James fadeaway finished it, producing an appropriate film, but one that wasnt quite a passing of the torch.

The way I approach it, its a tremendous honor to know, like if you say something, do something that moves the needle because of the way that you played a game, Curry said. And doors open and the impact that you have, and I want to respect that with everything that I do. And understand that there's an amazing opportunity with amazing responsibility.

Hes careful about wanting the responsibility but uses it judiciously, like putting his influence behind the NBAs involvement with HBCUs and his personal commitment to growing the game of golf with those colleges.

Its understandable to not want that level of scrutiny, to be in that fishbowl every day. You have to almost crave that attention in ways the most obvious candidate, Giannis Antetokounmpo, seems to shy away from in this new era of microwaved attention, criticism and reward.

But James has lived his life in that bowl, and doesnt mind stirring it.

The playoffs begin in less than two months, and by the time some casuals are ready to join the party, the Los Angeles Lakers and James wont be around to watch.

The league hasnt broken its addiction to Jordan, and if the NBA isnt careful, its codependency on James will end abruptly without a plan for what comes next.

And that day is coming sooner than we think.

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LeBron James has swayed the NBA for better or worse. What happens when he's gone? - Yahoo Sports

Now that the NFL's coaching carousel has come to an end, fans and bettors are turning their attention to the QB carousel which will soon spin into motion. In anticipation of that event, BetMGM posted prop lines for six different teams, asking which QB will take the first snap in Week 1 of the regular season.

Murray scrubbed his social media like someone looking for a new job, following the Cardinals' 34-11 playoff loss to the Rams. These situations involving a quarterback under contract most often end with that player under center to start the season, prompting an opening line of -2000 on Murray to take Arizona's first snap in Week 1. The public is fading the No. 9 pick in the 2018 MLB draft, though, reflected by the more than 80% of tickets betting that "Any other quarterback" will start for the Cardinals.

Here's the timeline since last offseason: Wilson's camp complained about the ineffectiveness of the offensive line, a list of acceptable trade destinations was released in conjunction with reports of Wilson's unhappiness in Seattle, Wilson suited up for the regular season as the Seahawks allowed the seventh-most sacks and finished a distant last place in a loaded NFC West, and now Wilson is being linked to possible trades to the Broncos, Eagles, and Commanders. More than 81% of public money is betting that Wilson won't take the first snap in Week 1.

The Broncos have a phenomenal young running back on a rookie contract, one of the better receiving corps in the league, a strong defense and nearly $48 million in cap space. The only piece Denver's missing is a good quarterback. If the Broncos can work a deal for Aaron Rodgers or Wilson, they'll be instant contenders in the AFC.

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Winston is arguably the best quarterback among this year's group of unrestricted free agents. That's not saying much, but the LASIK patient's limited 2021 performance spoke plenty loud. Winston tossed 14 touchdowns to just three interceptions before tearing his ACL in Week 8. Almost 98% of public money is betting on Winston to re-sign with New Orleans and start in Week 1. Is he what the Saints need, though? Sean Payton is gone and New Orleans owns the NFL's worst cap space situation. Signing Winston to a big contract is more likely to delay a Saints rebuild than it is to get them into the Super Bowl.

Wilson had about as much fun in 2021 as the guy who claimed he found shrimp tails in his Cinnamon Toast Crunch. The Jets rookie finished with the league's worst QB rating, throwing nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 13 games. Only Joe Burrow was sacked more times per contest. It's too early for New York to give up on Wilson without getting a look at him behind a decent offensive line.

I'm surprised this is on the board, especially at this low of a price. New York doesn't have the cap space to sign a better quarterback, it's highly unlikely to draft one that it would play in Week 1 and Jones is light years more talented than any of the other QBs on the roster. Out of all six props, this is the only one where at least 50% of the public is betting on the juiced favorite.

Stats provided by Pro Football Reference, spotrac.com and teamrankings.com.

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SINGAPORE A teenager who sexually assaulted 10 minors over two-and-a-half years was exposed after one of the victims publicly called him a rapist on Twitter in 2020.

After seeing this girl's Twitter thread, many of the victims reached out to her. They then gave the girl permission to share their accounts of being assaulted on the thread, which later gained momentum. The 17-year-old victim shut down her Twitter account before investigations began.

When the teen, now 18 and a student, was investigated, he was found to have committed 33 sexual offences against 10 girls, aged between 12 and 16, between July 2017 and February 2020. He was aged between 14 and 16 at the time of the offences.

He would get to know the girls through school, mutual friends, or social media, before asking them to visit him in secluded areas such as his flat or in the vicinity. He would then sexually assault them.

The teen pleaded guilty on Thursday (24 February) to four counts of sexual penetration of a minor under 16. Another 29 counts of a similar nature will be considered for his sentencing.

District Judge Kessler Soh called for a reformative training pre-sentencing report to assess the teens suitability for the sentence, which is a more serious punishment meted out to offenders under 21, as compared to probation.

Both the man and his victims cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the identity of the latter.

The teen got to know one victim, then aged 12, in 2017 after chatting with her on Instagram. She agreed to have sex with him as she thought this meant he recognised her as his girlfriend. The two began having intercourse, sometimes unprotected, once a month from June 2018 to January 2019.

The teen befriended another victim, then 15, on Instagram in 2019. They began chatting daily and the teen invited her to his flat for a study session in August 2019. While the girl was reaching for her study materials, the teen hugged her from behind and began molesting her. He had sex with her without a condom.

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This victim saw the Twitter thread in June 2020 and realised there were others who had been sexually assaulted. She decided to lodge a police report at the advice of her mother.

After the incident, this victim began hurting herself and attempted suicide by overdosing on her antidepressants. She was diagnosed with depression and post traumatic stress disorder and reported feeling ashamed of her body.

The teen befriended another victim, 14, also via Instagram and asked to tutor her in chemistry. The victim accepted and went to his flat. He then made sexual advances on the unwilling victim.

He sexually assaulted another victim he met through Instagram, at the staircase landing of a HDB block, even after promising her they would not be having sex that day. This victim, 13, was eventually referred to psychologists for counselling.

On 21 June 2020, a girl created a thread on Twitter by posting a photo of the teen with the caption, A rapist requested to follow me on Instagram, should I expose what he did to me?.

After seeing the thread, many victims reached out to this girl privately and shared their own accounts of sexual assault. These were later shared on the Twitter thread with the victims consent.

In total, four police reports were lodged against the boy, including one from a witness who was part of a WhatsApp chat group created for the purpose of bringing together his victims.

The prosecution and the teens lawyer both asked the court to order a reformative training suitability report.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jane Lim asked that the teen not be considered a first-time offender due to the sheer number of offences he committed. Another aggravating factor was that his victims were all young and had been exposed to the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Some had also suffered psychological harm.

The teens lawyer Hashim Siraj argued that his client should be treated as a first-time offender as he had not been convicted in a court of law before. He conceded that his clients addiction to porn at a very young age could have caused him to commit the offences.

The lawyer listed several mitigating factors, including how his client was still young, and did not have his mother with him during most of his childhood as she was incarcerated.

The teen will return to court on 3 March for sentencing matters.

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Boy sexually assaulted 10 minors, exposed by victims on Twitter - Yahoo Singapore News

Rampant inflation has made the gold trade hot again, and the best way to play the momentum may be through ETFs and owning the physical metal, says one commodities industry veteran.

"The ETFs are probably the easiest way. You can buy equity ETFs and you can also buy the physical gold. The physical gold is a very safe bet, but you don't get the premium that you get in a good equity," said Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow on Yahoo Finance Live.

To say the gold trade had been dead in the water for almost two years may be an understatement, as investors rotated into high growth stocks in a bid to drive returns during a sharp economic recovery.

Gold prices haven't yet reclaimed their more than $2,000 an ounce highs seen in late July 2020. Prices dipped to as low as $1,728 an ounce in Sept. 2021.

Gold - Metal, Stock Market and Exchange, Ingot, Consumerism

But with inflation staying elevated, traders have plowed back into gold as a safe-haven, store-of-value trade.

Gold prices have popped by about 6% since late January to nearly $1,900 an ounce. The SPDR Gold Shares ETF is up 5% in the last four weeks.

Shares of gold producers have shot up even higher.

Barrick Gold shares are up 20% in the last month, while Newmont Mining has shot up 10%.

As for Barrick Gold, its stock got a lift this week as it declared a dividend and signaled it will stay disciplined in how it approaches potential M&A.

Added Bristow, "The last 50, 60 years gold has always been a stabilizer in a portfolio. You should have around 5% of your portfolio in some sort of gold package. That really helps you through difficult times."

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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