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NBA Finals roundtable: Is Nuggets center Nikola Jokic better than Celtics legend Larry Bird?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:30 GMT

Kiz: After Denver’s dominating victory in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, it feels as if the Heat is a prop in the championship coronation of the Nuggets. Sure, we could debate how Miami can play bigger in the paint with adjustments by coach Erik Spoelstra, or how difficult it will be for Denver to continue to keep Heat forward Jimmy Butler down. But I want to ask you geniuses to comment on a recent Twitter post comparing Nuggets center Nikola Jokic to Celtics legend Larry Bird by our old pal and former Nuggets coach George Karl. In the past week, Karl tweeted this bold prediction: “If Jokic wins a couple championships, all U Bird fans are going to need to accept Nikola > Larry … Start preparing yourself in advance.” Our little Joker is now being mentioned in the same breath as Larry Legend? Holy. Moly. I’m all for it. And I’m ready to boldly project Jokic will go down as one of the 20 greatest players in NBA history. But better than Bird? Is that cr...

Nuggets vs. Heat: Three keys to victory in Game 2 of NBA Finals 2023

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:30 GMT

The Nuggets are close to dropping a dime.One more win and they’ll be a perfect 10-0 at home in the 2023 playoffs. A victory over the Miami Heat in NBA Finals Game 2 on Sunday (6 p.m. MT, ABC) would also give Denver a 2-0 lead for the fourth consecutive series.Here are three keys to Game 2.1. Winning whistles: Game 1 presented a pleasant twist of fate for the Nuggets. In the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers attempted more free throws in all four games. Maybe it’s that LeBron James is out of the picture and Denver is the heavy favorite, or maybe the Nuggets were simply more aggressive Thursday, but they attempted 20 foul shots to the Heat’s two. “That was pretty interesting,” Miami’s Haywood Highsmith said. “I think we were aggressive, but we did shoot a lot of jump shots because we were open. It’s weird having two free throws. I’ve never seen that before.” Bam Adebayo subsequently quipped: “We made history.”...

Nuggets Podcast: Breaking down Denver’s NBA Finals Game 1 rout of Heat, and looking ahead to Game 2

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:30 GMT

In the latest edition of the Nuggets Ink podcast, beat reporter Mike Singer is joined by sports reporter Bennett Durando to break down Game 1 of the NBA Finals and preview Game 2 between the Nuggets and Heat. Among the topics covered:How did the Nuggets fare against the Heat’s famed zone defense? Can Denver again stifle Miami’s offense, which saw star Jimmy Butler struggle despite a terrorizing run through the Eastern Conference Playoffs?Durando and Singer are joined by Broncos beat reporter Parker Gabriel, who weighs in on the sights and sounds of Ball Arena, which like Los Angeles’ Crytpto.com Arena, was filled to the brim with local celebrities including Peyton Manning, Sean Payton and Ken Jeong.The trio look ahead at the likelihood that the Nuggets have already faced their toughest foe in the second round, the Phoenix Suns, much like their local NHL counterparts the Colorado Avalanche, who faced their stiffest competition in round two against the St. Louis Blue...

Metro Denver home prices defy gravity of higher mortgage rates in May

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:30 GMT

Metro Denver homebuyers were hit with a one-two punch of both higher mortgage rates and higher home prices last month, unexpected blows that could test their stamina in the weeks ahead, according to a monthly update from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.“Spring felt like a failure to launch, which has led to a summer kick-off where the natural rhythm of the Denver real estate market simply feels off,” said Libby Levinson-Katz, chairwoman of the DMAR Market Trends Committee, which compiled the report. “We thrive on predictability, and the current market feels uncertain.”After three months of robust gains, home prices are again zooming toward last spring’s record highs, despite 30-year mortgage rates near the 7% mark, which isn’t too far from the highs reached last November. Rather than home prices softening in the face of higher rates as they did in the second half of last year, and which is the expected pattern, monthly price gains remaine...

Brooks: Let’s smash the destructive college admissions process

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:30 GMT

Within days or weeks, the Supreme Court is going to render a decision on the future of affirmative action in higher ed. If things go as expected, conservatives will be cheering as these policies are struck down — and progressives will be wailing.But maybe we can all take this moment to reimagine the college admissions process itself, which has morphed into one of the truly destructive institutions in American society.The modern college admissions era was launched over half a century ago with the best of intentions — to turn finishing schools for the Protestant establishment into talent factories for all comers. But in the end, the elite universities merely exchanged one privileged elite for another. Today, you don’t need bloodlines stretching back to the Mayflower to have a decent shot at getting into an elite school, but you do need to be born into a family with the resources to make lavish investments in your early education.In 2017, research led by Raj Chetty found that students ...

Opinion: Congress should freeze historically high Pentagon spending

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:30 GMT

The debt ceiling deal reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has now been passed into law, and the winner is – the Pentagon.While the rest of the federal discretionary budget is slated to be frozen at roughly this year’s level, the Pentagon and related spending on nuclear weapons at the Department of Energy will be exempted from the freeze. Military spending has been set at $886 billion, the amount requested by the Biden administration for fiscal year 2024. This represents an historic high – hundreds of billions of dollars more than at the peaks of the Korean or Vietnam wars or the height of the Cold War, adjusted for inflation.An analysis of the agreement by the Wall Street Journal demonstrates that the Pentagon and veteran’s spending – neither of which will be subject to the freeze – will top $1 trillion, while all of the remaining discretionary programs will be left to split $637 billion. This means that public health, environmental protection, nutrition,...

There are ways to deal with the overwhelming weight of being a successor trustee

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:30 GMT

Regarding your March 24, 2023, column titled “Successor trustees need to recognize the value of presale seller inspections” on The Mercury News and East Bay Times websites:Question: My elderly aunt passed away in March. As the successor trustee to my aunt’s estate, I’m overwhelmed by the volume of paperwork, personal property and preparing the property for sale. The home is as she left it. It is full of belongings, furniture, art, clothes, et cetera. She had exquisite taste, but there might not be a market for her possessions.Many of my relatives named in the will believe my deceased aunt’s possessions are valuable. I question that belief. The elder law attorney says we must appraise the home “at the time of death” and all personal property. The thought of storing or shipping items to designated relatives is disconcerting. How do we appraise the personal property while emptying my aunt’s whole house during our 12-day stay at a nearby hotel? Answer: I’ve seen many successor trustees ...

Minjee Lee shoots 8-under 64, shares 2nd-round lead with Cheyenne Knight at Liberty National

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:30 GMT

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — Minjee Lee matched the tournament best with an 8-under 64 for a share of the lead Friday in the LPGA Tour’s weather-delayed Mizuho Americas Open.Cheyenne Knight had a 68 in the inaugural event to join Lee at 7-under 137 atop the tightly bunched leaderboard that features five top-10 players and promising newcomer Rose Zhang.Play was suspended late in the afternoon for 1 hours, 47 minutes because of dangerous weather conditions near Liberty National and the last groups barely finished before darkness on the course adjacent to the Hudson River with a spectacular view of the New York City skyline and the Statue of Liberty.The fifth-ranked Lee, from Australia, birdied eight of the first 12 holes in a bogey-free round that moved her from 55th to the top spot. Her score was nine shots better than her opening round.“I think Liberty National is kind of a course where if you play it more, the better idea you have,” said Lee, an eight-time winner on the LPGA Tour...

Los científicos están “estupefactos” por unas misteriosas estructuras halladas en la Vía Láctea

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:30 GMT

(CNN) — Un equipo internacional de astrofísicos descubrió cientos de misteriosas estructuras en el centro de la Vía Láctea.Estos hilos cósmicos unidimensionales son cientos de filamentos horizontales o radiales, cuerpos delgados y alargados de gas luminoso que potencialmente se originaron hace unos pocos millones de años cuando el flujo de salida de Sagitario A*, el agujero negro supermasivo central de la Vía Láctea, interactuó con los materiales circundantes, según un estudio publicado el viernes en The Astrophysical Journal Letters.Los filamentos tienen una longitud relativamente corta, de entre 5 y 10 años luz cada uno.Los hallazgos se producen casi 40 años después de que Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, autor principal del estudio, y otros investigadores descubrieran otra población de casi 1.000 filamentos unidimensionales, verticales y mucho más grandes, de hasta 150 años luz de longitud cada uno, cerca del centro de la galaxia.Yusef-Zadeh y sus colaboradores también hallaron otros ci...

Biden set to sign debt ceiling bill that averts prospect of unprecedented federal default

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is expected to sign legislation on Saturday to raise the debt ceiling, dodging Monday’s deadline when the Treasury warned that the United States would start running short of cash to pay all its bills.The bipartisan measure, passed by the House on Wednesday and the Senate on Thursday, averts the potential of an unprecedented government default that would have rocked the U.S. and global economies. Raising the nation’s debt limit, now at $31.4 trillion, will ensure that the government can borrow to pay debts already incurred.“Passing this budget agreement was critical. The stakes could not have been higher,” Biden said from the Oval Office on Friday evening. “Nothing would have been more catastrophic,” he said, than defaulting on the country’s debt.The agreement was hashed out by Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, giving Republicans some of their demanded federal spe...