Ranking: Which city's natives have won the most NBA championships?

Throughout NBA history, New York City natives have won a combined 62 championships, far surpassing any other city worldwide, according to HoopsHype’s research. However, 58 of these titles were secured in the 20th century, with only four in the 21st – courtesy of Brendan Haywood, Lamar Odom and Metta World Peace. That tells you all you need to know about New York’s decline as the actual basketball mecca.

Led by Kobe Bryant‘s five championships, Philadelphia comes second, though many of its titles came way back in the day too.

The first international city in the ranking is Melbourne (Australia) at No. 20 with seven titles.

For the full ranking, as always, scroll down below.

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These are the NBA players with descending contracts

The hope for every worker is to have a better salary each year of their career. For NBA players, this is usually a given, starting with fixed rookie-scale contracts that increase annually. However, we find the opposite in some cases: players with decreasing contracts year over year. For NBA organizations, this is a valuable tool to maintain future flexibility, even if it means making sacrifices in the immediate present.

Here are the players whose salaries will decrease until their current contracts expire.

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Paul George on Clippers brass: They were awesome the whole time I was there

“I think it got kind of misconstrued or [the] narrative kind of wasn’t written correctly with the relationship with Lawrence [Frank], the relationship with Steve Ballmer,” George said before the Sixers had their morning shootaround at UCLA. “I mean, they were awesome the whole time I was here. “Kind of the reason why it was such a shocking decision how it played out at the end. But they were awesome. My time here, I think that was kind of refreshing to be alongside and have a partnership like that with a front office. And so I think that was probably the highlight of the whole [time with the Clippers]. Just how great they were in my tenure here.”
Source: ESPN What’s the buzz on Twitter? Law Murray @LawMurrayTheNU
Eric Gordon was Chris Paul’s teammate with Rockets for CP

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Steelers Inquired On Seahawks’ D.K. Metcalf

Had Christian Kirk not gone down with a broken collarbone, the Jaguars wide receiver may well have become the Steelers’ long-sought-after wide receiver solution. With Kirk’s Week 8 injury taking him out of the equation, Pittsburgh zeroed in on the Jets’ roster.

The Steelers had targeted Davante Adams, among many others, this year but assumed during talks with the Raiders that the Jets would end up with the ex-Aaron Rodgers target. They were right, leading to the Williams pursuit. While some posturing may have taken place on the Jets’ part after Allen Lazard‘s IR trip, but the Steelers sending over a fifth-round pick finished the deal to end a months-long WR pursuit.

Known more for selling than buying at the receiver position, the Steelers conducted a search that moved beyond Kirk, Adams and Williams. It involved both Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk, and after having trade parameters in place with the 49ers on Aiyuk, that failed deal preceded Cooper Kupp inquiry. The Steelers’ NFC West effort did not stop with the California teams; they are believed to have asked about D.K. Metcalf as well, ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler notes.

When a recent report surfaced indicating teams were inquiring with the Seahawks on Metcalf, it was safe to assume the Steelers were part of that mix. It does not seem like the Seahawks ventured as far down the trade road compared to the Rams or 49ers with their respective receivers, as Fowler adds Seattle closed the door on such a transaction quickly.

Having slipped to the back of the second round in 2019, Metcalf joined Samuel, A.J. Brown, Terry McLaurin and Diontae Johnson as higher-end starters from Day 2 of that draft. That batch all signed extensions during the 2022 offseason, with Metcalf tied to a three-year, $72MM deal that runs through 2025. This timeline gives the Seahawks an extra year to evaluate Metcalf in Ryan Grubb‘s offense, and while it would stand to reason teams will check in again come 2025 — perhaps the Steelers, as Williams’ contract expires at season’s end — the sixth-year veteran will not be easy to pry away.

The Seahawks saw Jaxon Smith-Njigba take a step forward in Metcalf’s absence Sunday, but the latter has been the team’s top wideout for a couple years. The big-bodied target has three 1,000-yard seasons on his NFL resume. Tyler Lockett is now 32, with Metcalf profiling as the more logical piece who will be tabbed to play alongside Smith-Njigba going forward. Metcalf, 26, is tied to an $18MM base salary in 2025. Three void years are on the contract, which would spike the dead money to $21MM in the event of a Hawks trade next year.

Williams will attempt to assimilate into Arthur Smith‘s offense alongside George Pickens, who becomes extension-eligible in 2025. The Steelers’ search for a longer-term WR2 figures to involve the draft, where the organization typically finds its receiver answers. Between this past draft and Tuesday’s trade deadline, however, the Steelers searched far and wide for a veteran to help Pickens in their now-Russell Wilson-led offense.