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Mon Dieu! McDonald’s puts Beyond Meat’s plant-based McNuggets on French menu

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Mon Dieu! McDonald’s puts Beyond Meat’s plant-based McNuggets on French menu



McDonald’s is putting Beyond Meat’s plant-based chicken McNuggets on its French menu, marking an expansion of the El Segundo company’s European business.

The Veggie McPlant Nuggets, made from wheat and pea proteins, will be served at all of McDonald’s 1,560 restaurants in France on a permanent basis, the fast food company said this week.

“With a constant increase in the number of French people adopting a vegetarian or flexitarian diet, McDonald’s is responding to changing eating habits,” McDonald’s said in a press release.

Last year, the chain launched both its McPlant Nuggets and McPlant Burger, also supplied by Beyond Meat, in Germany, where they are now permanent menu items. The McPlant Burger is also on the menu to stay in the U.K., Netherlands, Austria, Baltics, Malta and Slovenia, Beyond Meat said.

“We are … proud to help bring more choice to the McDonald’s menu for consumers looking to diversify their proteins with plant-based options,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

A bellwether stock in the plant-based meat industry, Beyond Meat has been struggling as the novelty of the products has worn off and questions have risen about their healthfulness — something the company blames on a lobbying campaign led by the meat industry.

Beyond Meat’s sales have fallen since 2021 as their losses have grown. That has depleted its cash reserves, which along with short-term investments totaled $145 million at the end of the second quarter — after topping $1 billion in 2021, according to FactSet. Its stock is down more than 90% over that period, with shares trading around $6.50 Thursday on the Nasdaq.

John Baumgartner, an analyst at Mizuho Securities, said the announcement adds to progress Beyond Meat has already made in Europe — but the larger issue is its struggles making headway in the domestic fast-food industry.

“They haven’t been able to make it work in the U.S.,” he said, noting Beyond’s plant-based products have been discontinued at Dunkin’ Donuts and other North American chains.

McDonald’s tested the McPlant Burger at stores in the San Francisco and Dallas areas but they did not perform well and the company did not pursue a nationwide rollout, a McDonald’s executive said this year. However, McDonald’s plans to focus on plant-based chicken products where there is more demand, he added.

Last week, Beyond Meat announced that Panda Express was expanding the number of outlets serving a plant-based version of the company’s orange chicken to 600 stores across the country.

Beyond Meat this spring also rolled out a new version of its burger, with a lower fat content that garnered endorsements from leading health and nutrition groups — a key strategy in turning around its business. It will release third quarter earnings next month that will provide insight into how well the burger is selling.

It also has released a new product line called Beyond Sun Sausage that unlike the company’s core products does not seek to mimic and replace meat. The sausages are made of fruits, legumes and vegetables and are certified by the American Heart Assn. and the American Diabetes Assn.

Baumgartner said the new sausages appears to be a “hedge product” that appeals to traditional vegetarian and vegan consumers. He called the company’s turnaround efforts a “work in progress” that has improved the product line but has yet to show results.

“You’re still not seeing it in sales, and their cash position doesn’t give them a lot of wiggle room,” he said.



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British rapper and YouTuber Yung Filly charged with raping woman in Australia

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British rapper and YouTuber Yung Filly charged with raping woman in Australia


Yung Filly, a British YouTuber turned rapper, has been charged with raping a woman in September after he performed at a nightclub in a Western Australia suburb.

The Government of Western Australia announced Thursday in a news release that a man had been taken into custody in Brisbane earlier this week and was extradited to Perth for a court hearing on sexual assault charges. The charges include four counts of rape, three counts of “assault occasioning bodily harm” and one count of impeding a person’s “normal breathing or circulation by applying pressure on, or to, their neck,” according to the statement.

A representative for the 29-year-old rapper, real name Andrés Felipe Valencia Barrientos, did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment. The Western Australia Police Force did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for additional information.

Yung Filly allegedly raped a woman in her 20s in his hotel room in Perth on Sept. 28 after he performed a show in Hillarys, the statement said. The “Grey” and “Tempted” musician performed at Hillary’s Bar1 Nightclub on Sept. 27, according to several posts on the club’s Instagram page. He stopped at Bar1 as part of his Australian tour, which also included shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Gold Coast.

Perth barrister Seamus Rafferty SC represented Yung Filly in Perth Magistrates Court and applied for bail on the rapper’s behalf, the BBC reported.

Yung Filly was born in Colombia but is based in southeast London. He started creating online content as a teenager but gained popularity for his “Asking Awkward Questions” YouTube series. Despite his YouTube fame, the social media personality told Hunger Magazine in 2022 that his passion was always music.

“I think you just hear the music and you can just tell I am so in love with it and I understand it to such a high degree that you can’t compare me to no one else,” he said.

Yung Filly boasts more than 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube and 3.2 million followers on Instagram. He has hosted BBC Three’s “Hot Property” series, among other projects, and appeared on Channel 4’s “Great Celebrity Bake Off” Stand Up to Cancer fundraiser special in 2022.

Yung Filly and social media star Chunkz won the media personality prize at the 2021 Mobo Awards.





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Hezbollah faces backlash in Lebanon as Israel’s invasion widens

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Hezbollah faces backlash in Lebanon as Israel’s invasion widens


BEIRUT — 

As Israel’s invasion of Lebanon intensifies and brings more destruction on the Mediterranean nation, anger among the Lebanese with Israel is, not surprisingly, at an all-time high.

But displeasure with its foe, Hezbollah, is also growing.

With 1,400 Lebanese dead and more than 1 million displaced nationwide — a fifth of the country’s population — Hezbollah critics and supporters alike are voicing frustration over what many view as the group’s miscalculations.

“This is a war between Iran and Israel on Lebanese territory,” said Sami Gemayel, an MP with the Kataeb party, a long-time rival of Hezbollah.

“Unfortunately, today, we’re all stuck,” Gemayel said. “Hezbollah is continuing its war. It’s not willing to stop, and is taking the whole country to hell with it.”

Family members of those killed in Israeli attacks are also blaming Hezbollah — an Iran-backed militant group and one of Lebanon’s biggest political parties — for lacking adequate plans to evacuate, shelter or rescue them.

Slowly picking his way through the rubble of what was the six-story building in a Hezbollah-dominated Beirut suburb where his brother lived, Mohammad, 40, who asked only to be identified by his first name, wondered when recovery crew workers would finally arrive. He said the bodies of his brother, sister-in-law and nephew lay in the wreckage.

People and rescue workers search for victims after an Israeli airstrike hit two adjacent buildings east of the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on Sept. 29.

(Mohammad Zaatari / Associated Press)

Hezbollah officials told him he would have to wait because crews were already overburdened due to “the situation.” But workers, he pointed out, were actively recovering the bodies of Hezbollah members in a destroyed building nearby.

“We appreciate their sacrifice,” the man said. “But they chose this. Don’t tell me it’s ‘the situation’ when you get [Hezbollah members’ bodies] out and leave my family under the rubble. Why should my brother and his family wait to be buried? I know I won’t find their bodies. But give me some pieces of flesh I can put in a bag and go bury them.”

Many fault Hezbollah for starting the latest conflict with Israel.

A day after Palestinian militants from Hamas attacked southern Israel and sparked the Israel-Hamas war last October, Hezbollah joined the fight by launching a barrage of missiles and rockets at northern Israel. Hezbollah said it was seeking to aid Hamas and force Israel to fight on two fronts.

Some 60,000 people from northern Israel and 90,000 in southern Lebanon were displaced during a year of tit-for-tat border attacks.

The apparent assumption among Hezbollah leaders was that Israel’s exhaustion from its Gaza campaign would mean it had little appetite for an all-out war, especially against a well-armed adversary like Hezbollah. That assumption proved to be spectacularly wrong.

Late last month, Israel launched thousands of airstrikes across Lebanon, hitting Hezbollah-dominated areas in the south, east and the capital Beirut even as its forces began what the Israeli military called “a limited incursion.”

But Israeli evacuation orders keep expanding to new areas every few days, raising the specter of almost a third of the country being under occupation.

Nationalist and anti-Israel fervor is top of mind for most Lebanese, said Mark Daou, a Lebanese MP with a bloc not aligned with Hezbollah.

“All Lebanese want steadfastness against Israel,” he said. “If there’s an occupation, anyone who is Lebanese, no matter their sect, it’s their duty to fight and resist.”

But he added that such sentiments do not absolve Hezbollah of blame for pushing Lebanon into war and tying its fate to the situation in Gaza — all at Iran’s behest.

“More and more Hezbollah is looking like a purely Iran-aligned apparatchik, as opposed to a locally ingrained Lebanese party,” Daou said.

Much of the anger at Hezbollah springs from how quickly the group’s leadership appears to have been decimated, with Israel demonstrating its spying prowess time and again by picking off the group’s top-ranking officials. That includes longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a massive airstrike last month.

Men read mobile phone alerts telling the residents of southern Lebanon not to return to

Men read mobile phone alerts telling the residents of southern Lebanon not to return to their homes until further notice due to Israeli military operations against Hezbollah facilities Wednesday.

(Hussein Malla / Associated Press)

“It’s clear now none of this was calculated,” said Tony Chakar, a Beirut-based artist and architect who is not supportive of Hezbollah. “The basis for them entering the war was that they were prepared and had more than 100,000 missiles.”

“So where are they?” he asked. “If you have something, then show it.”

The criticism has extended to Hezbollah’s main patron Iran, with a growing suspicion among die-hard Hezbollah supporters that a lack of a meaningful response to Nasrallah’s killing was proof that the group was sold out by Tehran.

“This couldn’t have happened without betrayal,” said Ali, a Hezbollah supporter who lived in a Hezbollah-dominated area until his home was destroyed in an airstrike targeting what the Israeli military said was a weapons cache. He asked to be identified only by his first name. “Iran stabbed us in the back. It’s clear.”

So widespread is the dissatisfaction with Iran’s level of support that Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem addressed the issue in a televised speech Tuesday.

“Iran decides how to support and how to give, and it gave [a lot] over the years,” he said, adding that “the battle is not one for Iran and Iran’s influence in the region … but rather to liberate Palestine.”

With Israel focusing its campaign primarily on Hezbollah’s loyalist areas, most of the displaced have been from Lebanon’s Shiite community. They escaped north with little more than whatever they could cram into or atop their vehicles. Those who didn’t find space with family or hastily prepared shelters now camp out in public squares, parks and even on sidewalks along Beirut’s famous beach promenade.

The longer they stay, the more friction there will be, said Mustafa Alloush, a Sunni Muslim MP from the northern city of Tripoli, where tens of thousands of displaced have found refuge.

“So far everyone is behaving,” Alloush said. Some locals are wary of taking in the displaced for fear of unknowingly harboring a Hezbollah member and drawing Israeli fire, but others have opened homes without concern for sect.

“But if it goes beyond a certain point, a social explosion is possible,” Alloush warned.

A woman holds a sign that in Portuguese reads, "End the bombings in Lebanon," during

A woman holds a sign in Portuguese that reads, “End the bombings in Lebanon,” during a pro-Palestinian demonstration a day after the first anniversary of the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday.

(Bruna Prado / Associated Press)

Israel appears to be banking on disenchantment with Hezbollah. On Tuesday, in a televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the Lebanese people to “stand up” and take their country back from the group, warning them to “save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”

Analysts say Israel has a larger strategy aimed at turning the Lebanese against Hezbollah.

“The reason they’re not bombing other [non-Shiite] areas is because they want to create an environment for Hezbollah that is very inhospitable,” said Michael Young, an analyst at the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center. “This suggests a much more [ambitious] plan than just a matter of securing the border.”

Gemayel, the Kataeb MP, fears such a scenario could bring about a repeat of the sectarian bloodletting that engulfed Lebanon during its 15-year civil war.

“As long as there’s hope these people can return home, we can handle it,” he said. “But once Israel decides to stay, it’s another story. Then Lebanon will implode.”



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YouTube star Piper Rockelle’s mom reaches $1.85-million settlement with young influencers

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YouTube star Piper Rockelle’s mom reaches .85-million settlement with young influencers


Teenage content creators who claimed in a lawsuit that they were “emotionally, physically and sometimes sexually” abused by the mother of popular YouTube influencer Piper Rockelle have settled the case for $1.85 million.

The settlement, announced Tuesday, marked the end of an explosive saga that shed light on the murky, often unregulated world of child social media stars making large sums of money online.

In January 2022, 11 young actors known as “the Squad” and their guardians filed a complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that Rockelle’s mother, Tiffany Smith, did not properly compensate them for their work. Rockelle, who has 12 million subscribers on YouTube, generated much of her fan base through skits filmed with her friends in which they performed pranks, dances and challenges.

Although Rockelle made as much as $625,000 a month, former Squad members claimed in their lawsuit that they often worked without meal or rest breaks and were not given on-set schooling. A 2022 Times investigation into Rockelle’s business also reported more serious allegations: Some children said Smith offered to show an 11-year-old girl how to perform oral sex, mailed her daughter’s underwear to men and touched some Squad members inappropriately — sometimes impersonating the voice of a dead cat while doing so.

Smith and Hunter Hill, her then-boyfriend and colleague, denied the allegations in the lawsuit. They did not respond to a request for comment sent to their lawyer, Kenneth Ingber, this week.

Matthew Sarelson, who represented the Squad, said the settlement allowed the group to avoid a trial that he said would have taken months and “required the kids and their parents and their friends and their doctors to testify about things that the kids have put behind them.”

The plaintiffs originally were seeking at least $22 million in damages.

“I’m happy and relieved for my clients,” Sarelson wrote in an email, “11 kids who endured an abusive environment and had the courage to speak out publicly.”

Tiffany Smith and Piper Rockelle’s L.A. house, photographed in 2022. Many of the Squad’s videos were shot on the property.

(Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times)

At the heart of the lawsuit was what critics called the Wild West atmosphere of content creation, particularly when the creators are kids and teenagers working in private homes with the help of adults and other guardians. Child labor laws — which do apply to social media creators — are not often enforced. Child performer advocacy groups, including an L.A.-based group called BizParentz, have lobbied for regulatory reform but have had difficulty overhauling protections for kids working online.

Because Smith was essentially acting as the Squad’s employer, many of the children’s parents said, they trusted that she was following guidelines. California has some of the strictest child performer protections in the country, mandating a maximum eight-hour workday, three hours per weekday of on-set school instruction and a state-licensed studio teacher/welfare worker present at all times. In addition, child performers are supposed to keep 100% of their earnings. Many child content creators, however, occupy a legal gray zone.

“There is tremendous uncertainty about what labor laws apply in the context of filming a YouTube video at home, with an iPhone,” Smith’s lawyer, Ingber, told The Times during its investigation. “At what point is that a professional production?”

Before the Squad’s lawsuit, Rockelle was making between $4.2 million and $7.5 million a year. Following the allegations, YouTube demonetized her channel, which caused her business to lose $300,000 to $500,000 a month, according to court records. In 2022, Smith told The Times that she believed the claims arose from the plaintiffs’ “financial jealousy of a 15-year-old girl.”

A girl wearing headphones sits on a couch.

Sophie Fergi photographed at home in Los Angeles in 2022.

(Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

But Heather Trimmer, the mother of former Squad member Sophie Fergi, said Wednesday that “the lawsuit was never about money. It was about exposing an industry that is unregulated and the people taking advantage of it.”

In the legal complaint, Fergi — who lived in a home with Smith and Rockelle — alleged that she once saw Smith try to make out with Rockelle. She said Smith insisted on dressing the kids in provocative clothing and told them to “push their butts out,” “suck their stomachs in” and to “wear something sluttier.”

“A home is supposed to feel safe,” Fergi said after the settlement, “not being scared what’s gonna happen to you next.”



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Anderson Cooper hit with flying debris from Hurricane Milton during a live broadcast

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Anderson Cooper hit with flying debris from Hurricane Milton during a live broadcast


Anderson Cooper was hit by flying debris during a live broadcast Wednesday while reporting on Hurricane Milton in Florida.

The CNN anchor was reporting from the shore of the Manatee River in Bradenton, Fla., south of Tampa, describing the scene as violent winds blew past him and heavy rainfall drenched him and his equipment.

“The water now is really starting to pour over,” Cooper said as he trudged through the water, which was gushing over the bank he was walking on.

“If you look at the ground, whoa…,” he said, stopping short as a white object slammed into his torso. “OK, that wasn’t good.”

The “Anderson Cooper 360” host resumed his reporting, noting that he would probably go inside shortly. “But you can see the amount of water here on the ground. This is water from the Manatee River.”

The footage then cut to the CNN studio and “The Source” anchor Kaitlan Collins reassured viewers about her colleague.

“I do want to note for everyone watching who is very concerned obviously about all of our correspondents and anchors on the ground, Anderson is OK,” she said. “Just obviously understandably difficult to establish a connection when you’re seeing what’s happening with the wind and the rain. And obviously the deteriorating conditions by the minute.”

Cooper, who joined CNN in 2001, has repeatedly reported from the scenes of crises, famously decamping to the Gulf Coast for much of September 2005 to deliver emotionally wrought reports about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction.

Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key — a barrier island near Sarasota — around 8:30 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday. It left a path of destruction in its wake, with surges up to 10 feet and 120-mph winds that pounded communities across the state, flooded homes, downed trees and cut power to 3 million Floridians. Milton is the third hurricane to make landfall in Florida this year; it comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene barrelled into the rural Big Bend region of the state’s panhandle, then moved on to Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, killing more than 230 people across multiple states.

As Milton pulled offshore Thursday morning and moved onto the Atlantic Ocean, it weakened to a Category 1 hurricane, but officials warned that a large swath of the state’s east coast was still under threat. In St. Petersburg, the hurricane tore most of the fabric roof off Tropicana Field, the Tampa Bay Rays’ stadium. It also pushed a construction crane off the roof of a partially built luxury high-rise onto an office building that houses the offices of the Tampa Bay Times newspaper.

Times staff writer Jenny Jarvie and intern Sandra McDonald contributed to this report.



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Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy lived much of her life in his shadow, has died

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Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy lived much of her life in his shadow, has died


For years, the enduring public image of Ethel Kennedy was as the stoic widow of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who marked the passing years kneeling with their many children at her husband’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery, near that of his brother, President John F. Kennedy.

She was pregnant with their 11th child when the senator was shot June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after declaring victory in the California presidential Democratic primary. It was Ethel who calmly pushed back the surging crowd to give her dying husband air.

With her husband’s brother, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Ethel helped establish the advocacy organization now known as Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, in 1968. Its mission grew from finding creative solutions to poverty and political disenfranchisement in the U.S. to funding humanitarian and human-rights projects around the world.

Kennedy, who lived much of her life in her husband’s shadow, died on Thursday, her family said, according to the Associated Press. She was 96.

Kennedy had been hospitalized after suffering a stroke in her sleep on Oct. 3.

“It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother,” Joe Kennedy III posted on X. “She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week.”

The burden of loss she shouldered was enormous. Her parents and a brother were killed in separate plane crashes and, decades later, two of her sons died early deaths — one from a drug overdose, another in a freak skiing accident.

But a Catholic faith so strong that she once seriously contemplated becoming a nun helped sustain her. When her future husband heard of her quandary, he is said to have quipped, “I’ll compete with anyone, but how can I compete with God?”

Because of her religious beliefs, she never considered remarrying, according to friends.

“How could I possibly do that with Bobby looking down from heaven? That would be adultery,” Ethel told friends who suggested she marry again, People magazine reported in 1991.

Her husband’s sister, the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and others gave another reason.

“I don’t believe,” Shriver told People in 1998, “she ever thought any other man was as good as Bobby,” whom Ethel had married in 1950.

Friends said Ethel was more Kennedy than many born with the name — she truly loved politics and campaigning and, when her husband was assassinated, she presented a gallantly brave face to the world, much as President Kennedy’s widow Jackie had.

Privately, Ethel was overwhelmed with grief after her husband’s death and retreated to Hickory Hill, the McLean, Va., estate once owned by President Kennedy.

Ethel Kennedy, wife of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, arrives at Holy Trinity Church.

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

By most accounts, she struggled to raise so many children by herself. More than 17 years separated her eldest child, Kathleen, and her youngest, Rory, born about six months after her father died. Ethel’s enduring grief only intensified the task.

Her mood “swept from deep private despair to manic irritability to frenetic highs of ceaseless activity,” Laurence Leamer wrote in the 1994 biography “The Kennedy Women.”

The household in the 1970s was routinely described as a three-ring circus filled with rowdy kids, lost pets and haggard servants who often quit in frustration, saying Ethel was difficult to work for. Barbara Gibson, longtime secretary of Ethel’s mother-in-law, Rose Kennedy, once said the children “ran rampant.” Several struggled with substance abuse.

The three eldest boys — Joseph, Robert Jr. and David — bore the brunt of their mother’s “capricious temperament,” Leamer wrote. Her handling of the rebellious teenagers had an angry quality, as if their behavior were an insult to their father’s memory, friends later said.

Her ninth child, Max, said his mother meted out discipline in her own way, through healthy competition.

“If we were out sailing, we’d have more fun than anyone else in the harbor,” Max told People in 1998. “If we were memorizing a poem, we’d try to memorize as best as we possibly could.”

Ethel Skakel was born April 11, 1928, in Chicago into a family not unlike the Kennedys — big, boisterous, Catholic and rich. She was the sixth of seven children of George Skakel and his cheerful wife, Ann.

Her father owned the Great Lakes Carbon Corp., a coal brokerage that became one of the largest privately held corporations in America. Growing up, she mainly lived on a large estate in Greenwich, Conn.

At what was then Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, a school for women in New York, she roomed in 1945 with Jean Kennedy, who soon introduced her brother Robert to Ethel during a ski trip. He casually dated her bookish sister, Pat, before he turned to the outgoing Ethel.

After graduating with a degree in history in 1949, 22-year-old Ethel married Robert, then 24 and a law student at the University of Virginia.

With Ethel at his side, the sensitive Robert “blossomed,” his sister Eunice later said.

In “Robert Kennedy and His Times” (1978), historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. said the marriage “was the best thing that could have happened” for Robert.

“Her enthusiasm and spontaneity delighted him. Her jokes diverted him. Her social gifts offset his abiding shyness. … Her passion moved him. Her devotion offered him reassurance and security,” Schlesinger wrote.

As a Washington hostess, the spirited Ethel was known for her pranks, especially pool dunkings of well-heeled guests. Her collection of animals could outnumber her children and included a wandering armadillo that broke up tea parties and a pet hawk that once landed on the wig of a politician’s wife.

During the devastating aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, she later recalled that she and her husband never really considered pulling out of politics. Robert successfully ran for the U.S. Senate from New York in 1964, and Ethel strongly urged him to run for president.

In the midst of tense talks on the subject, she and their children rolled down a banner from the upstairs window that read “Kennedy for President” and played “The Impossible Dream” on the record player. The song became the campaign’s theme.

Even as a young widow — she was 40 when Robert died — Ethel vowed to spend the rest of her life honoring her husband’s memory, according to “The Kennedy Women,” and to keep living at Hickory Hill. When she put the estate on the market in 2003, Frank Mankiewicz, who was Robert Kennedy’s press secretary, compared it to “selling Mount Vernon.” It sold for more than $8 million in 2010.

At Hickory Hill, her children’s days had brimmed with well-planned activities, Brad Blank, a close friend of her children, told Vanity Fair in 1997. There was tennis at 9 a.m., sailing at 11 a.m., a full baseball game with 18 players at 3 p.m. every day.

“Dinner was promptly at 7,” Blank said. “Ethel would sit at the head of the table, and Joe, or whoever the eldest one was, would sit at the other. There was lots of conversation, and no lack of attention from their mother.”

Yet calamity and heartbreak often seemed to be around the corner.

In 1973, son Joseph, then 20, was charged with reckless driving when his Jeep overturned, severely crippling a passenger. Eleven years later, David — the child who seemed most haunted by his father’s death and had battled drugs for years — was found dead of a drug overdose in a Florida motel room.

Her son Michael, who ran the nonprofit Citizens Energy Corp. and had been in the news for having an affair with his children’s teenage baby sitter, was killed in 1997 during a dangerous game of touch football, played while skiing down an Aspen slope. He was 39.

Nephew John F. Kennedy Jr. died, with his wife and sister-in-law, when the plane he was flying crashed in 1999 in the Atlantic Ocean. They were en route to her daughter Rory’s wedding.

Granddaughter Saoirse Kennedy Hill — daughter of Courtney Kennedy Hill — was found dead of an accidental overdose in August 2019 at the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass. She was 22. Less than a year later, another granddaughter, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, and her 8-year-old son drowned in a canoeing accident in the Chesapeake Bay.

Another nephew, Michael Skakel, was convicted in 2002 of the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley, a 15-year-old neighbor, and served 11 years in prison before his conviction was overturned in 2013 and later vacated.

In the wake of grief or catastrophe, Kennedy relied on her faith to hold herself together, those close to her said. She attended Mass daily and typically tried to stay active — swimming, playing golf or engaging in charity work.

Many of her children committed themselves to public service.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend served as lieutenant governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. Joseph Kennedy II spent a dozen years in the U.S. Congress. Kennedy Hill became a human rights activist. Kerry Kennedy is a lawyer and president of the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights.

Son Christopher Kennedy helped run the Merchandise Mart, the downtown Chicago trade center started by his paternal grandfather. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became a lawyer and noted environmentalists who also promoted anti-vaccine propaganda during the pandemic, while Max, also a lawyer, co-founded the Urban Ecology Institute in Boston.

Her 10th child, Douglas, became a broadcast journalist and her youngest, Rory, a documentary filmmaker whose 2012 project, “Ethel,” focused on her parents’ relationship. In the film, her children laughingly remember their mother as a force of nature who made them aware of the needs of the broader world when their father was no longer there.

Ethel’s good works included the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Project in New York City that had been important to her husband. She also raised money for Earth Conservation Corps, which sponsors environmental cleanup programs; co-chaired the Coalition of Gun Control; worked with various human rights organizations; and hosted fund-raisers for political and other causes. In 2014, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama.

In her daughter’s documentary, Ethel conceded that she had endured “a lot of loss” but added: “Nobody gets a free ride. … So you have your wits about you and dig in and do what you can.”



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Hurricane Milton rips off Rays’ Tropicana Field roof. It was built to withstand 115-mph winds

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Hurricane Milton rips off Rays’ Tropicana Field roof. It was built to withstand 115-mph winds


Tropicana Field lost most of its roof Wednesday night as Hurricane Milton came and brought winds up to 120 mph to parts of Florida.

The St. Petersburg, Fla., stadium is the home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Its dome roof — which was constructed of large, triangular panels made of fiberglass and coated with Teflon — was largely shredded, with some sections missing entirely, exposing the inside of the only Major League Baseball stadium with a roof that is not retractable.

It was not immediately clear if there was significant damage inside the building.

The Rays said only essential personnel were inside the ballpark, and all of them were safe.

Earlier this week, the Florida Division of Emergency Management said the stadium would be used as “a 10,000-person base camp at Tropicana Field to support ongoing debris operations and post-landfall responders.” Rows of cots had been set up inside the ballpark, but all workers and equipment were removed after it was learned the roof might not stay intact under the force of Milton’s winds.

“As it became clear that there was going to be something of that magnitude that was going to be within the distance, they redeployed them out of Tropicana,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Thursday. “There were no state assets that were in Tropicana Field.”

According to the Rays’ 2024 media guide, the stadium’s roof was designed to withstand winds up to 115 mph.

The Rays finished the 2024 season last month with an 80-82 record. The team announced plans last year to build a new $1.3-billion stadium adjacent to the 34-year-old Tropicana Field, with hopes of moving there by the 2028 season.

Video out of Tampa on Wednesday night showed flooding on the field at the open-roof Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the NCAA football program the University of South Florida Bulls. The Buccaneers left Tuesday for their game in New Orleans on Sunday.

Earlier this week, South Florida postponed its scheduled home game against Memphis from Friday night to Saturday afternoon.

“We will assess the conditions & overall situation after the storm has passed to determine if any further adjustments are necessary,” USF football said Tuesday on X.



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Connor Bedard on his ceiling, the business of hockey and captaincy: ‘I can be pretty good’

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Connor Bedard on his ceiling, the business of hockey and captaincy: ‘I can be pretty good’


SALT LAKE CITY — Days off in the NHL are precious. Days off on the road in a new city are unheard-of. Connor Bedard has plans to enjoy the warm, sunny Wednesday following the season opener against the new Utah Hockey Club — lunch with his dad, Tom, before he catches an afternoon flight home, then dinner up in Park City with the boys.

But here he is, fresh off breakfast, wearing the standard hockey-player hoodie and slides, coming down the palatial hallway of the team’s five-star hotel for a rare sit-down interview. Make no mistake, perhaps no player in the league met the press more regularly than Bedard last year. He more than fulfilled his media obligations. But it was almost always in the dressing room, in a scrum setting. One-on-one time was very uncommon. Full-blown casual conversations were basically off the table.

And as any athlete, reporter or viewer will tell you, scrums are the absolute worst. As a bloc, we don’t always exactly cover ourselves in glory in those claustrophobic settings.

“It’s hard to show personality when you’re getting the same questions all the time,” Bedard said with a wry smile.

But now that he’s a second-year pro, a wily veteran at the ripe old age of 19, might we see more of that personality shine through? He’s showing it on Instagram videos, making football picks with his buddies. He’s kicking off snarky NHL commercials about Gen Z’s supposed flaws. And he’s starting to do occasional interviews like this one. It’s not exactly his style to be big and bombastic off the ice, but his comfort level with the NHL and with stardom is clearly on the rise.

Here’s part of our conversation, focusing more on the hockey side of things. It’s been lightly edited for clarity. Look for the rest of our chat in a future story.

You’re on pace for 164 points this season. Anything less than that will be a disappointment, I assume?

Yeah, I think probably for you guys, you’d be upset. The downfall! No, I mean, it was nice to just get back in the game. And it’s cool we got to be a part of that first game there. Obviously not a great outcome (a 5-2 loss), but I thought overall as the game went on we got a lot better. And it was just fun to be a part of that moment in history.

One of the things I heard in the run-up to the draft was that you’re ‘obsessed with greatness.’ I’ve heard that same thing said about Nathan MacKinnon in the exact same way — you have a singular mindset that you want to be great. Is that just an innate thing you have, where you can’t accept anything less than that?

I think so. Even as a kid. I was 5 years old and it’s really all I wanted to do. I think that’s the thing — it’s obviously a passion and I want to be the best I can be. But it just generally is what I want to be doing, and I want to try to improve, and I don’t want to look back one day and feel I didn’t reach my full potential.

What is that full potential? What do you see as your ceiling?

I don’t know. I think I can be pretty good. But we’ll see. I’m confident in myself and that confidence comes from the work I put in. I know that I’m not going to cheat myself and cheat that ability to get to the best I can be. How good is that? Who knows. But I think it’s pretty good.

It’s such a hockey player thing to be humble and downplay things on the outside. But all 700 guys in the NHL have to have this unwavering self-belief, this arrogance. You can’t get here without that. Connor McDavid talked about that a little bit (on the Amazon show), ‘When I’m at my best, it’s a tough level to match.’ You have to have that attitude, don’t you?

For sure. If you go out there thinking that you’re not going to do something good, then you already lost the battle. I’m really confident in myself and I don’t need to tell anyone what I think I can do or what I think I am as a player. I want to go show it. In my head before a game, I’m just going out there having fun, but also knowing I want to make a difference in the game. And I know I can.

You already told me you won’t tell me what your goals are for the season, but do you have goals like that career-wise, too? Do you have round numbers in your head where it’s like, ‘This is what I have to do to reach my potential?’

That’s so long-term. I think anyone’s goal in hockey ever since they were kids is to win a Stanley Cup. And that’s the main thing for everyone. So if that happens, it would obviously be the pinnacle. It’s hard to look at a full career and put numbers to it.

So you’re not just thinking 1,000 goals or something wild like that.

(Laughs) No, no, I don’t think so.

Is that part of this process, though? You come in and you want to win the Stanley Cup and you’ve been dominant at every level. Then you get to the NHL and it’s hard. You’re on a team that’s at the bottom, working its way up. Learning to lose, learning to handle going two or three games without a goal — is that difficult?

Yeah, losing sucks. I think you can ask anyone that was on our team last year, it wasn’t very fun. Especially by the end. You’re out and you’re still enjoying playing and there’s stuff you’re playing for, but we’re professional athletes and we want to be playing to win. That was really frustrating. I can definitely be a bit of a baby going through all those losses. But even losing the last game, it’s how we bounce back. That’ll be something that we show that we got a lot better at.

Jonathan Toews was a huge baby, too, when he first got into the league. He took his work home with him, yelled and screamed at his linemates on the bench, threw things in the locker room. It takes time to accept the ebbs and flows of the sport.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. My first year (in junior) we lost a good amount of games. And I remember I had a tough start. But after that in junior, it was smoother sailing. We had a better second year as a team and I had a good second year myself, I guess (laughs). It’s definitely different coming in and you’re just playing all the best players in the world. But that’s what’s so fun about hockey, the competitiveness and the challenge of going up every night against the best.

You have to be careful, too, right? Patrick Kane, his last couple of years here when things started going poorly, he was always worried about young players coming in and developing losing habits and a losing mindset. How do you fight that when Kyle (Davidson) is playing a long game? How do you learn to not accept losing, but to understand losing? It’s a fine line to walk.

I don’t even think you should understand it. We’re players, we go out there and we try to win and that’s our goal every night. You never accept it. I guess maybe in the summer you can look at the long term, but not really as players. You just go out there and you try to win and you try to play your best.

Did the captaincy interest you at all? Or is that something for down the road? Are you even too young to be a captain?

(Laughs) That’s not a question for me. I don’t think anyone was surprised with (Nick Foligno) getting it. He’s a great leader and he came in and made a big impact. No one was surprised at all with that. Down the road one day, that’d be great. But I didn’t expect it or anything. We all expected ‘Fliggy’ to get it.

Can you be that kind of captain? Some captains are the big, open, gregarious guys like Foligno, but some are very different.

I would be different. I wouldn’t talk as much as Nick does (laughs). I think I lead by example with how I approach the game. Talking comes with time. I definitely would have a little different approach, but I think you can learn stuff from all the leaders in the room.

With all the turnover on the roster, I’m sure it’s exciting that you’re bringing in all these quality players. But you lost a bunch of your good friends, too. Taylor Raddysh was one of your closest friends, he walks out the door. MacKenzie Entwistle is gone. Is that just part of life in the NHL?

It’s weird, for sure. It’s part of the business side of it, but you (never) really think about that too much when you’re playing. You just think you’re going to play with these guys forever. ‘Rads’ and ‘Twisty,’ I went for dinner with them every single time on the road. I was close with those two guys. It’s tough seeing everyone go. But they’re in good situations and you’re happy for them getting opportunities. But it’s tough, and you just stay in touch.

So are you enjoying being an NHL player? Is this what you dreamed it would be?

Yeah. I just want to play the game and play at the highest level I can. It’s pretty cool how we get treated and the opportunities we have, not only on the ice but how to impact a city or a community. We’re all pretty fortunate.

So 40 goals or 50 goals this year, what’s the target?

(Laughs) I don’t know, we’ll see, man.

All right. Had to try.

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)





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A former Colorado staffer’s rogue NIL trip to Saudi Arabia: Wild tale or sign of desperate times?

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A former Colorado staffer’s rogue NIL trip to Saudi Arabia: Wild tale or sign of desperate times?


MOUNT KILAUEA, Hawaii — The subject matter echoing across the floor of one of the most active volcanoes on the planet wasn’t the magma beneath just yearning to escape. It was the complexities of building a college football program in 2024, one that can contend for conference championships immediately and for the long term.

“I just wanted more money to win games, man,” said Trevor Reilly, the former Colorado staffer who was an unorthodox asset to the team’s unorthodox coach, Deion Sanders. “It’s not that complicated.”

Reilly was not a known commodity in the college coaching world before he joined. He played linebacker at Utah and in the NFL, and went from a last-minute addition to the Jackson State coaching staff as a graduate assistant in 2021 to building slideshow presentations for Sanders’ daily team meetings and then special teams coordinator at Colorado. The 36-year-old made rubbernecking news recently, however, when he revealed that he chanced an unauthorized trip to the Middle East in hopes of mining for funds to help the Buffaloes draw and maintain star talent.

In the name, image and likeness (NIL) universe — hastily constructed over the past three years after the NCAA was forced by the courts to allow it, and largely unregulated since — the top programs now must spend millions on their rosters annually.

It just so happens that Reilly, who said part of his job at Colorado was working in the NIL space, took it upon himself to explore corners of the world most wouldn’t dream of as places to promote American college sports. His rogue, self-funded trip to Jordan and Saudi Arabia last December featured pitch decks in search of tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments, a grandiose and perhaps far-fetched plan to pad Colorado’s NIL funds.

Once Sanders arrived at Colorado in December 2022, Reilly said he tried to help back up expectations by cultivating business opportunities.

“We talked a lot of s—, dude,” Reilly said. “And I’m part of the show.”

The show being Deion’s. The Pro Football Hall of Famer has altered modern-day roster building with a historic amount of player turnover. He added 69 new scholarship players after he inherited a 1-11 program and swiftly brought the Buffaloes stampeding back to relevancy with the swagger and starpower he’s carried with him since his days as an extravagant cornerback.

The amount of NIL funding from the school’s affiliated collective to spend on players, Reilly contends, remains lacking to spread beyond quarterback Shedeur Sanders, one of two of Deion’s sons on the team, and the two-way star Travis Hunter, both projected first-round picks in the 2025 draft. Reilly said that Colorado, currently 4-1, could turn into a steady force if it were maxing out on Coach Prime’s fame.

College athletics is tunneling deeper than ever in search of more money, from the third-party NIL collectives to the athletic departments themselves preparing for negotiated change in the House v. NCAA settlement. The schools may soon begin playing players directly through revenue sharing, capped at north of $20 million a year to start. Tennessee recently implemented a 10 percent “talent fee” onto its 2025 season tickets. One Big 12 athletic director told The Athletic in June that “every institution” is looking into future deals with private equity firms to find different streams of revenue to maintain a competitive advantage. A private equity firm is even pitching schools on a super league.

Reilly resigned Aug. 1 due to what he claims was a lack of effort and accountability by Colorado’s main NIL collective and the organization that runs it. The university has not said that the trip was a factor in his exit, or whether they would object to the potential partners he sought.

Steve Hurlbert, a University of Colorado spokesperson, said the athletic department and Sanders declined to respond to questions from The Athletic about Reilly’s claims and his trip. “According to Trevor Reilly himself, he acted on his own accord. He is no longer an employee of the university, and we have no further comment.”


Trevor Reilly has moved to Hawaii as the Colorado football season marches on. (Christopher Kamrani / The Athletic)

Reilly, who relocated to the island of Hawaii, nicknamed the Big Island, explained on the recent misty hike out of the Kilauea Iki crater why Colorado lost last year’s leading rusher Dylan Edwards, who transferred to Kansas State in late April.

“We couldn’t afford to pay Dylan Edwards what his value is,” Reilly said.

At the daily farmer’s market in nearby Hilo, two hours after leaving the floor of Kilauea, Reilly stuffed bananas, avocado and papaya in his bag before heading to lunch at a restaurant across the street from Hilo Bay. Informed that Kansas State was hosting Arizona, Reilly asked the bartender to put the game on the small flat screen.

Here in his new home, Reilly offered a real-time glimpse into why he says he sought out alternative ways to potentially garner funds, including unlikely alliances with foreign governments. On the screen, Edwards, now No. 3 on Kansas State, fielded a punt on a short hop and eventually zipped 71 yards untouched into the end zone.

“Go, baby! Go, baby!” Reilly screamed in the empty restaurant, his voice echoing the same as it did at the base of the volcano. “I wanted to pay that little s—!”

The way to formal power structures in the Middle East is having your boots on the ground. Or, in Reilly’s case, the warm red Jordanian sand.

In Jordan’s Central Desert, a little more than an hour north of the ancient capital city of Amman, weeks after Colorado’s 4-8 2023 season ended, Reilly helped members of a local Bedouin tribe milk camels while waiting for the opportunity to pitch his audacious business plan involving Buffs football.

The December trip could be characterized as a blend of cold calling, random hopeful emails, researched calculation and a tinge of good fortune. It helped, too, that Reilly joined a group heading to Jordan that had established personal and professional relationships in the region.

Reilly accompanied Ryan Coles, chief scientist of Daigle Labs at the University of Connecticut, who specializes in building business in emerging markets, who also is a business partner with Reilly’s cousin.

“In the gulf, they’ve become increasingly interested in sports as a way to elevate themselves, build reputation and attract entertainment and tourism,” Coles said.

Reilly embedded with a Bedouin family that has known Coles for many years. There the traditional power structure goes through spending days with Bedouin tribal leaders in order to eventually get a meeting at the minister of tourism’s office in Jordan. After a few days in the desert, Reilly was in Amman making his pitch.

Reilly said there was apprehension from Jordanian tourism officials to go further considering the ongoing war with Israel and Hamas in Gaza could impact tourism in the region. As Coles and his team were set to return to the United States, Reilly said he wasn’t joining them — he was going to Saudi Arabia to see if he could book some meetings on his own.


Trevor Reilly joined a group heading to Jordan that had established personal and professional relationships in the region, but he didn’t stop there. (Courtesy of Trevor Reilly)

On Dec. 25, Reilly flew to Riyadh. While waiting at the airport in Amman, Reilly emailed VisitSaudi.com and informed them of his intentions to get in touch with someone at the Saudi Tourism Authority. Emails and receipts reviewed by The Athletic confirmed Reilly’s travel timeline and his attempts to set up business meetings. Attempts to reach those Reilly spoke with in Saudi Arabia were unsuccessful.

Coles and his friends in Jordan let some contacts in Riyadh know that Reilly was arriving, too.

“We did our best to let Trevor have an at-bat, and he did swing for the fences,” Coles said.

Reilly did not disclose the identities of all those he met with, but said one 90-minute meeting in Riyadh featured two government employees educated in the United States. One attended the University of Miami and the other Indiana University, he said. They both knew who Deion Sanders was and understood the value of college football in America.

After they met, he stopped in Dubai for a few days and attempted to organize meetings with the country’s office of tourism, according to emails reviewed by The Athletic, but his attempts were unsuccessful.

No deals resulted from his travels.

“Me being over there, it doesn’t mean that they were willing to do business,” he said. “It just means that they understood that this was a possibility. Which, what’s wrong with that, man?”

The concept of an expedition to the Middle East to seek out millions of dollars to help a college football program may be jarring to some considering Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, but it is entirely predictable to others as the country’s Public Investment Fund has invested in sports worldwide.

“You want to talk about the wild, wild West? I’m surprised more people haven’t gone out to the Middle East,” Reilly said. “It’s oil money there, or it’s oil money here: T. Boone Pickens at Oklahoma State or T. Boone Muhammad in Riyadh.”

Which is exactly why Reilly says he went. To seize on his boss being one of the most marketable sports personalities in America.

Colorado was the most-watched team in college football last season until the penultimate week. An estimated $343 million was generated off the program’s exposure. The city of Boulder brought in an estimated $113 million in economic impact during Colorado’s six home games in 2023 alone. Sanders, 57, was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year for 2023.

The athletic department saw a $14 million rise in season ticket revenue since Sanders arrived and the university recorded a record-breaking 68,000 student applicants for the fall of 2024, a 20 percent jump from the previous year. USA Today projected last fall that Sanders was worth an estimated $280 million to the university in ticket sales, donations and media exposure.

Sanders’ arrival provided a necessary jolt to an otherwise obsolete program. Colorado announced that in 2023 the Buff Club, its main fundraising arm, raised nearly $8 million more than in 2022.

So as figures and estimates climbed, why did a fairly low-level staffer feel compelled to take it upon himself to try and change the essence of Colorado’s NIL future in one very big leap?

Reilly said he did not tell Sanders of his plans to visit the Middle East after the conclusion of the 2023 season, but said he informed members of Sanders’ personal staff of his intentions. He also had made it clear to tourism officials in the Middle East that he could never himself strike a deal, but his goal was to serve as an introductory middleman between Colorado’s collective and potential partners.

Sanders was asked about Reilly on the “Outta Pocket with RGIII” podcast hosted by former ESPN analyst and NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III.

“It’s interesting, because I’m trying to take care of him because I love him. I love him as a man, I love him as a father,” Sanders said on Aug. 27. “My prayers for Trevor is just that it comes back together. We didn’t fire Trevor. And everybody knows Trevor’s my guy. And I have love for Trevor. I try to support him in every way imaginable.”

Since that interview aired, Reilly said he and Sanders spoke at length on the phone and have kept in touch via text message, adding, “he has about 70 percent of the details of the things I did for him at Jackson and Colorado, which is good.

“Not everyone has time to know 100 percent of everything, right?”


Trevor Reilly, left, was drafted by the New York Jets in the seventh round out of Utah in 2014. He played four seasons in the NFL. (Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)

Reilly was technically a quality control analyst who helped with special teams but never coached on the field due to previous NCAA regulations that limited staffs to 10 on-field assistants.

He couldn’t recruit off-campus either, so he spent time scouting players in states like Utah, Arizona and Nevada. Reilly said he negotiated his hybrid role with members of Sanders’ staff, including his salary and the role of seeking out potential NIL deals for players.

Reilly’s attempts go back to the week that Hunter, the top recruit in the 2022 class, stunned college football by flipping his commitment from Florida State to Jackson State. According to emails reviewed by The Athletic, Reilly was in talks with a Utah-based energy drink company to partner with Hunter soon after he signed to play for Sanders.

Reilly facilitated an NIL deal between Shedeur Sanders and safety Shilo Sanders with Utah-based dealership Truck Ranch, owner Jadon Wagner confirmed. Wagner, a former BYU football player who played with Reilly’s brother, Drew, said that without Reilly being on staff, a deal with the Sanders family would be nearly impossible. Reilly was the intermediary between the Sanders brothers, their representatives and Truck Ranch.

“Without Trevor, who am I? I’m one of a thousand car dealerships,” Wagner said in a recent phone interview. “The best way to do business is through mutual acquaintances and referrals.”

Such an approach helped Reilly land meetings in the Middle East.

According to Reilly, some Colorado staffers were stunned at his leap to jet across the globe and called the notion “a little crazy,” but also asked for more details.

Reilly said he left contacts he made in the Middle East with the leaders of the Colorado collective who said “no to the Saudis slowly, and we lost traction over there.”

Documents obtained by The Athletic revealed breakdowns of the money at the disposal of Colorado’s main NIL collective, the 5430 Alliance, named after Boulder’s elevation above sea level.

The 2023 summary from the alliance showed that $3.6 million was funneled to 25 Colorado football players a year ago. Its acquisition budget for 2024 ballooned to $5.1 million and was expected to be spread among 38 players on the roster.

Reilly said the staff was informed that funds could eventually reach as high as $8 million at some point in 2024. While specifics are sparse on how collective funds are allocated to individual players, Reilly said he believed both Shedeur Sanders and Hunter, who has emerged as a Heisman Trophy contender, were each making at least around $1 million through the collective. Realistically, Reilly said, splitting what would then be about $3 million among 30 or so players is not enough to field a conference-contending team on an annual basis.

A pitch deck said the average compensation for other players on the roster was $73,000 in 2023.

While collectives avoid sharing official numbers, it’s becoming clearer the cost of building a Playoff-caliber roster. This year, powerhouse Ohio State spent a reported $20 million in NIL on its roster through its various collectives, which few programs nationally would be able to match.

The Athletic reported Florida State invested $12 million in its 2024 roster, but the Seminoles have been one of the biggest disappointments in the sport this year, starting 1-5. While addressing fans at the Little Rock Touchdown Club in September, Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek estimated it needs $12 million in NIL donations to field a competitive football team each year.

But more change is coming with the House settlement ushering in revenue sharing as early as next July with formal approval. The role of collectives would morph again, as the new financial model puts the mantle for paying players on the schools. Athletic departments will be hunting for new revenue streams in response.

Colorado hired Blueprint Sports in March to oversee its NIL operations. Reilly said the company has failed to capitalize on Sanders as a marketing phenomenon. Reilly claims he repeatedly told 5430 Alliance executive director Natalie Sharp, who was hired in April, and director of business operations Reggie Calhoun Jr. that if the collective couldn’t find alternative means of fundraising that the football program would fall further behind the status quo.

Sharp and the 5430 Alliance, through Blueprint Sports, declined The Athletic’s request for comment. Calhoun did not respond to messages seeking comment. The Athletic sent Blueprint a series of detailed questions regarding Reilly’s claims, but the organization said through a spokesperson it would not address questions individually but issued a statement:

“Our policy is to avoid addressing unsubstantiated, old claims made by former, dissatisfied coaches. We are dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of professional conduct and fully support the hardworking 5430 Alliance staff who are committed to the success of CU student-athletes.”

During a news conference this week when asked about the direction of NIL, athletic director Rick George said, “We might’ve been a little late to the party … the 5430 Foundation has really put us at a point where we can compete with other schools.” He noted the collective will shift in-house and work to create business partnerships for athletes after the House settlement.

Reilly’s claims raise a question about the man in charge: Should Sanders, who can sell himself to anyone, be committed to helping the NIL cause on a larger scale? He has been critical of the concept of NIL collectives in the past.

“I want the kid to get compensated,” Sanders said in an interview with Fox’s Joel Klatt in June 2023, “but you’ve got to balance the fine line. Is he still going to want it like that when you’ve just given him that (money) and he didn’t have to earn it?”

Asked about Sanders’ approach to NIL, Reilly said:

“Deion’s time is worth a lot of money. Deion doesn’t have time for this s—, man.”

At every stop on the Big Island, Reilly routinely circled back to this point: “It’s not Deion’s fault.”

He said it at an evening jam session of hippies playing Peter Frampton and Bob Marley in the mountains below the volcano. He said it again in a downpour at the Hilo Zoo. And again at a deep tidal pool near a black sand beach where turtles sometimes float. And once more at a local pub where he tells locals that he played with Tom Brady and, up until this summer, was coaching the team on the screen.

A year ago, Reilly was on the sidelines in Boulder for Colorado’s double-overtime victory over Colorado State. Now he’s well across the Pacific Ocean watching Hunter haul in yet another highlight-reel interception as the Buffaloes are topping the Rams again. Three weeks since The Athletic’s visit, Colorado is two games from being bowl eligible for the first time since 2020 and hosts No. 18 Kansas State on Saturday.

Reilly said he and Sanders “had a great relationship but were not great friends. We were great coworkers.” While at Jackson, Sanders came to a youth basketball game for Reilly’s oldest daughter. Sanders’ sister, Tracie, was an influence on Reilly’s children the past several years, too.

As tensions mounted between Reilly and those involved with Colorado’s collective, he said he felt like he was becoming a distraction for the team and the staff. He emailed a resignation letter to Sanders and George on Aug. 1, citing challenges working with Colorado’s NIL team. Days later, Reilly said he returned to the CU Champions Center to retrieve the last of his personal items, when he engaged in a fight with Colorado graduate assistant Josh Jynes. Reilly said Jynes was hindering him from gathering his items. The fight was captured on film and was reviewed by The Athletic.

Reilly said he knows his exit may seem chaotic and his views eccentric to some. But Reilly said he believes he put the players and program first. Even after he left, the program incorporated some of his ideas on behalf of the players.

Now, even living in the shadow of volcanoes, he can’t escape the pull of the sport. He volunteers as an assistant defensive football coach for nearby Keaau High School.

He bought an aging Ford Crown Victoria for $1,800, helps locals eradicate aggressive feral pigs and is teaching his puppy, Bullah, to be less of an introvert. He’s working part time at a Japanese restaurant washing dishes a few days a week.

It’s about as far away as you can get from worrying about a football program’s NIL budget and mulling whether a player may or may not be affordable.

His life in Hawaii is far different. Reilly showed up to a beach-side barbecue hosted by the school’s coaches, and the grill simmered with ribs, chicken and pineapple-filled sausage links. He was met with hugs and questions about schemes for upcoming opponents. A whiteboard was lifted from one picnic table and placed in front of him next to the sumptuous sliced meats.

Reilly grabbed the black marker and got to work.

(Top image: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos: Chris Leduc / Icon Sportswire / Getty, iStock and courtesy of Trevor Reilly)



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2025 NBA mock draft: Cooper Flagg leads strong group of prospects. But is it a ‘superclass’?

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2025 NBA mock draft: Cooper Flagg leads strong group of prospects. But is it a ‘superclass’?


The 2025 NBA Draft cycle is officially here. International teams have tipped off their regular seasons, and college teams have started preseason practices. NBA scouts and executives are out and about, seeing teams practice and traveling worldwide to find players.

Much has been written about excitement regarding the 2025 draft. It does look drastically better at the top of the class than the 2024 iteration. There is plenty of room for excitement for tanking teams looking to replenish their youth.

But I will preach a bit of caution. I wouldn’t get hyperbolic and say this is a superclass. I would say it looks like a fairly average draft class. The depth remains a significant question for teams. Beyond that, there are some differing opinions about how good the top five of this class projects to be. Some love it and see multiple all-stars. Others believe there are real questions about players such as Cooper Flagg, Ace Bailey, Dylan Harper and V.J. Edgecombe. Can Edgecombe be a primary option? Can Flagg create enough for himself to be a worthy No. 1 pick? Can Bailey make anything easy for himself?

All these players have tremendous potential, but I tend to agree with the scouts who don’t see this group as a generational crop of talent right now. Coming into the season, I think it would be difficult to rate the top end of this class ahead of the 2023 group, which had Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson and Amen Thompson entering the year as potential franchise players, with Brandon Miller joining them in that projection. As great as Flagg looks, it would be hard to rate him within the same tier of player as Wembanyama, and I have yet to hear from a single evaluator within league circles who believes that.

So while there is every reason for enthusiasm about this group — and indeed, I am excited to watch these players as the season gets underway — I would pause before pinning your team’s entire hopes on this class the way many did two years ago when Wembanyama came through.

A few quick notes on the structure and format of this mock draft:

  • The draft order here is based on the Vegas win total over/under projections. We used BetMGM’s lines. This felt like the fairest projection of standings before anyone has played a competitive game.
  • Team needs are not taken into account. There’s not much reason to do that at this stage given that trades will likely occur throughout the year and rosters will look different than they do now.
  • If you don’t see a freshman you think should be here, it’s likely because I’m a bit skeptical as to whether they’ll be able to go one-and-done in 2025. For instance, Duke’s Isaiah Evans has a difficult runway toward playing time given the Blue Devils’ depth. Alabama’s Derrion Reid also is playing on a loaded squad with two returning forwards from a Final Four team in Jarin Stevenson and Grant Nelson, an incoming center in Cliff Omoruyi, plus a couple of older wings and guards in Houston Mallette and Chris Youngblood. I’d like to know a little more about how the Crimson Tide’s rotation will shake out. Maryland’s Derik Queen has some defensive questions he’ll need to answer early. There are certainly others.
  • Player ages are as of the projected draft day in 2025 (June 25).

Cooper Flagg | 6-8 forward | 18 years old | Duke

Since he reclassified into this recruiting class following his sophomore campaign, Flagg has been seen as the almost surefire player to go No. 1. I wouldn’t quite go as far as to say he’s a certainty, but he has the most qualities attractive to NBA teams as he enters his freshman season at Duke at just 17 (he turns 18 in December).

First and foremost, Flagg is among the best defensive prospects I’ve ever evaluated. He’s competitive beyond all belief, with a motor and tenacity that never ceases for a second on the court. He imposes his will upon the game on and off the ball defensively. He’s tremendous as a help defender, blocking a ridiculous number of shots and covering the opposite side of the floor, with serious skill for finding steals. On offense, his game has shown drastic improvement over the last couple of years. His handle has improved over his time in high school, and he’s capable of creating makeable pull-up jumpers, particularly from the midrange area. He is an awesome cutter and offensive rebounder. Just by being an elite transition player, cutting, and getting offensive rebounds, Flagg should average double figures.

GO DEEPER

Cooper Flagg’s Duke debut just the beginning in season full of highly anticipated steps

Whether he goes No. 1 will come down, in part, to how well-developed his ability to create for himself looks by the end of the year. NBA teams constantly look for players who can create advantages for their team. Flagg is not the best player in the class at doing that at this stage of his development, but it is important to remember how young he is. He’s quite early in his career, even more so than anyone else in this class because of his age. Still, evaluators would like to see a continuation of the growth he showed during his final season at Montverde (Fla.) Academy in attacking and creating shots off the bounce.

Ace Bailey | 6-9 wing/forward | 18 years old | Rutgers

Bailey is the name that comes up most often when you ask scouts, “Who could challenge Flagg at No. 1?” From a tools perspective, it’s easy to see why. The 6-9 wing looks and feels more like an NBA star than anyone in this class. He’s enormous for a pull-up shot creator and pairs that with some serious athletic explosiveness. He looks every bit like that Paul George-style wing whom teams scour the globe to try to find. Beyond that, his footwork and pick-ups as a pull-up shooter are well-developed for someone this young. In the last decade, I can count the number of players on one hand who are this big and can get into pull-up midrange and 3-point jumpers with as much flow, balance and efficiency as Bailey can.

So what are the issues? They’re two-fold. First, Bailey seems to tend to fall in love with the hard shots. He doesn’t seem to create as many easy shots as you’d like. His handle is creative and crafty; it’s just loose right now and can be a bit high, which results in him not getting the most out of his drives. He also plays upright, which means he doesn’t always access his athleticism. Defensively, he can be a bit hit or miss with taking full advantage of his tools, with some moments of high-flying blocks and others where he looks to disengage.

Every tool is there for Bailey to mount a serious challenge for the top pick. But he needs to prove he can be efficient at the college level with the style he plays first.

Dylan Harper | 6-5 guard | 19 years old | Rutgers

Harper is the more polished of the two top-three Rutgers prospects. His footwork is pristine, and his handle is creative, with the ability to craft multiple counters together off drives depending on how defenders play him. He’s often been deployed as a scorer early in his career, and he has that ability. His pull-up game has been quite good, but more than that, his ability to create crafty advantages out of ball screens has scouts excited. He’s an excellent passer and playmaker, something scouts have noticed since his performance at the Under-19 World Cup back in 2023 when he was often asked to run the show while playing up multiple years in terms of age group. He only averaged three assists but had a ridiculous seven-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio.

What are the worries? Mostly, it involves his athleticism, as he is not a wildly explosive player. He doesn’t have a ton of vertical pop, and his first step is not that impressive, meaning he needs to get by with that level of craft all the time. His footwork and polish are good enough to get consistent separation, but the finishing craft can sometimes let him down. Scouts also want to see what his level is as a shooter. There have been marked improvements in his pull-up game over the last 18 months, but scouts want him to confirm that ability.

V.J. Edgecombe | 6-3 guard | 19 years old | Baylor

Edgecombe is one of the most exciting prospects in this class, a highlight waiting to happen. There are few more explosive leapers within the greater basketball community worldwide; he’s a powerful athlete who will throw down thunderous dunks or rotate across the court for massive blocks at least once or twice per game. He’s also proven to be an excellent shooter off the catch to this point in his career, and his game off the bounce is developing. He plays well with his right hand in ball-screen situations now. Defensively, Edgecombe is terrific across the board in the backcourt. Similarly to someone like Cason Wallace, Edgecombe is skinny but has the power through his chest to hold up against multiple different player types and the quickness to defend the fastest players in the world.

But maybe the biggest swing skill in this class will be the development of his left hand. In high school, if you could force Edgecombe toward his left, it was a serious issue. His handle was drastically looser, as was his ability to control the ball through any sort of contact. He also struggled finishing around the basket with his left hand. That skill right now is the one that holds him back from being a primary lead option as opposed to more of a secondary playmaker, shooter, athlete and defender. Right now, he’s a bit more in the Wallace or Gary Harris mold (just with more explosiveness). That could all change, and Edgecombe is on an upward trajectory. He gets better and better every time scouts see him. But without the left hand, it’s hard to see Edgecombe challenging in any way for that top slot.

Nolan Traoré | 6-3 guard | 19 years old | Saint-Quentin

Traoré has had an up-and-down run since his terrific spring, when he impressed several scouts at Nike Hoop Summit, then went on to play well at the Adidas Next Generation Tournament and late in the 2023-24 season for Saint-Quentin. He was a bit uneven at the European Under-18 Championships, leading the competition in assists but struggling some with his efficiency as a scorer and his turnovers while being surrounded by a French roster with no shooting skill. Then in the early stages of his 2024-25 season for Saint-Quentin, he’s had a couple of monster games (a 20-point, 10-assist showing against Nancy and a 27-point outburst against Kolossos), and a couple of poor games (going 3-of-15 with nine turnovers in his first two games).

What scouts will be looking for more from Traoré is how his ability to score efficiently from all areas of the court develops. Can he become a dynamic, three-level scorer? He’s comfortable taking those shots, but can he consistently make them? He has not always been a consistent shooter, and his finishing leaves something to be desired at times with how far he’ll try to score away from the rim. Traoré doesn’t have a monster first step or a ton of vertical explosiveness, so he will need to be dialed in with the details of his game.

Jakucionis comes in at No. 6 because he is the player I’ve received the most positive feedback on outside of that top group from sources connected to both college basketball and the NBA. The 6-5 guard is expected to run the show for Illinois this season following a terrific Under-18 campaign with Lithuania this summer. The idea here is a big, multi-skilled guard who can play with or without the ball in his hands. He is a maestro in ball screens and a tremendous passer. He shoots it well both off pull-ups and off the catch. The concerns here are that he’s not overly athletic, but he knows how to use his frame in ways that allow him to maintain advantages when necessary out of those screening actions.

NBA teams see him as a great bet to have a tremendous season because of the intersection between his skill and feel for the game. Given the way the NBA is going, where those two things continue to prove themselves as being valuable, it’s easy to see the excitement building around him already. Expect a big season.

Asa Newell | 6-9 forward/big | 19 years old | Georgia

Newell is a terrific big man who played with Flagg at Montverde. He’ll get to step out of that shadow and potentially emerge as one of the primary options at Georgia, a team I think is quite underrated heading into the 2024-25 season. There are a lot of comparisons to be made here to a guy like Taylor Hendricks, who was taken in the top 10 a couple of years ago. Newell is a terrific athlete and shot-blocker at 6-9 and makes winning plays with his positioning and motor on that end of the court. On offense, he has a terrific, burgeoning perimeter game where he can knock down shots from the perimeter and straight-line drive to finish inside.

Ben Saraf | 6-6 wing | 19 years old | Ratiopharm Ulm

Of this cycle, Saraf is already one of the more complicated evaluations. He had an enormous Under-18 European Championships while playing for Israel, winning MVP of the event. He had multiple 40-point games and averaged 28 points, five rebounds and five assists. There aren’t many players quite like him on the world stage right now, a lefty with serious creation ability in large part because of his elite deceleration levels. His ability to use a slow step on his drives and gathers going toward the rim allows him to be impactful as a scorer. He’s also an excellent passer who makes plays for his teammates all over the place.

Yet it’s been a bit more up-and-down for Saraf so far this year with Ulm in Germany. He’s getting a significant number of reps as the team’s primary option at lead guard, and the inefficiency is showing. The jumper isn’t quite there yet; he needs to iron out the mechanics and make them just a bit smoother. That also leads to questions about what his role will be if it turns out he’s not quite good enough to be an on-ball creator in the NBA.

Saraf’s stock is polarizing. Most see him as a first-rounder at this stage, but I’ve gotten a blend from top 10 all the way down to the end of the first round.


Kon Knueppel might be Duke’s best offensive player this season — yes, even better than Cooper Flagg. (Grant Halverson / Getty Images)

Kon Knueppel | 6-5 guard | 19 years old | Duke

Knueppel is another player whom scouts continue to rave about after seeing Duke. He’s often noted as being the team’s second-best player behind Flagg, and some have even said he’s the team’s best offensive player right now. A tremendous scorer at the EYBL and high school levels, Knueppel, with a thicker frame, doesn’t necessarily look the part of a high-level draft pick, and he doesn’t look overly long. However, he knocks down shots at a high level. It wouldn’t be a stunner to see him shoot 40 percent from 3 this year. He can also drive and attack off the threat of that shot at a high level. Given the way shooting is valued in today’s NBA, it’s easy to see him being considered a lottery pick if he has a strong season.

10. San Antonio Spurs

Liam McNeeley | 6-6 wing | 19 years old | Connecticut

McNeeley is entering the perfect situation at Connecticut. The Huskies have won back-to-back national championships and proven they know how to use players with the skill set McNeeley possesses. He’s an elite shooter for a teenager, and the third player from last season’s Montverde team to be projected here in the top 10. McNeeley can hit shots off movement, but more than that, he has a terrific feel for the game. He’s not the most athletic player in the world, but he’s big and makes the right decisions every time he gets the ball or is on the defensive end of the court. UConn is quite deep on the wing this year, but I would expect McNeeley to end up playing significant minutes as the Huskies go for a three-peat.

Collin Murray-Boyles | 6-7 wing/forward | 20 years old | South Carolina

Murray-Boyles is a perfect encapsulation of this draft class in a lot of ways. Most of the scouts I speak with bring up Murray-Boyles as a player whom they see as a first-round pick. But few have him as a lottery grade and instead say that they’d love to select him in the back half of the first round. Why? As of right now, they see a guy who will likely play in the NBA for a while, but not a guy with a ton of star power. He’s 6-7 with long arms and has a massive physical frame that allows him to bully opponents even at 19 years old.

And yet, he hasn’t proven he can shoot from distance yet, and most of his offense tends to come on the block or in mid-post face-ups. Those aren’t actions NBA teams run all that much. However, the real reason they’re excited about Murray-Boyles comes on defense, where he’s outstanding both in one-on-one as well as in team settings. Still, the worry is that there isn’t a ton of upside here. He’s a good bet to be a first-rounder if he showcases any improvement with the jumper, but it might end up a bit lower than this after other players emerge.

Freeman was a riser later in his high school career, a late bloomer physically who was skinny (and still is, to some extent) before adding a bit of weight and a lot of twitchy explosiveness. The idea here is a big wing/forward hybrid who already has shown real ability to knock down midrange jumpers and is seeming to add the ability to knock down 3s. On top of that, he’s wiry and has a ton of bounce. He will put up some fun highlights throughout the season. Freeman does have a bit of a way to go, though. The handle is going to have to improve, as is his overall defensive awareness. But if you’re looking for an upside swing in this class, Freeman is one of the names scouts get most excited about before anyone has played this year.

Drake Powell | 6-6 wing | 19 years old | North Carolina

Powell is an athletic wing with long arms who looks to have a solid spot at North Carolina. It’s a perfect fit for him, as the team needs a strong two-way wing to play with R.J. Davis, Elliot Cadeau and Ian Jackson. Powell, at 6-6, has always profiled as a terrific two-way wing who is conscientious on defense (with upside to be a serious impact player on that end) in addition to being a shot-maker with some ability to drive off the bounce. I am a bit skeptical that we’re going to see that ability to drive and score all that much outside of transition this year in Chapel Hill, and Powell does need to prove he can consistently hit open catch-and-shoot 3s. But he profiles perfectly in-between the two guards in their starting lineup as well as Cade Tyson as a floor-spacing bigger wing in the frontcourt. Scouts who have been through to North Carolina have noted that he looks to fill the combination for the team of filling a need and of readiness to play.


Miami freshman Jalil Bethea won the 2024 McDonald’s All-American Game slam dunk contest. (Maria Lysaker / USA Today)

Jalil Bethea | 6-3 guard | 19 years old | Miami (Fla.)

One of the best scorers in the 2024 recruiting class, Bethea can put the ball in the bucket. He’s a terrific pull-up shot-maker with range already out to the NBA 3-point line. If you get him some space, he has a ton of shiftiness to be able to get to his spots. The key for Bethea is how it all looks in half-court settings when he has to try to get paint touches this year. He’s still quite skinny. He’s explosive when he has a chance to load up, but I haven’t yet seen that ability to play through contact at a high enough level. If that comes along — as well as the passing and decision-making — Bethea could end up as an upside swing in the top 10 for someone looking for serious scoring punch. But there’s a bit more risk here until we see what he looks like on a college court playing against significant athletes every single night.

15. Oklahoma City Thunder (via MIA)

Dink Pate | 6-6 guard | 19 years old | Mexico City Capitanes

Pate is truly one of the swing guys in this draft. His upside is immense if he can figure out how to efficiently score in the G League this season — the dissolution of the G League Ignite program has resulted in him playing with the Mexico City Capitanes. Pate has serious on-ball skill and is a real playmaker in ball screens. He can pass and make plays for his teammates in addition to getting real paint touches. But the key for Pate is the jumper. It’s never looked clean, and that showed up last year. He posted just a 43.1 true shooting percentage last season, in large part because the half-court finishing also hasn’t quite translated. If he can figure out to put the ball in the hole with consistency and efficiency, he’ll be a high draft pick. If he doesn’t, then it’ll be interesting to see where he ends up.

Hugo González | 6-6 wing/forward | 19 years old | Real Madrid

González is coming off a solid Under-18 European Championships in which he showcased much of what has made him such a highly sought-after prospect but also some of the flaws teams are concerned about heading into his pre-draft season. González is known as a tremendous defender who plays with immense tenacity and a high motor. All of that played up in those games on the wing, where he showed the ability to guard multiple positions and make high-level plays on that end. He averaged a ridiculous 2.7 steals and two blocks per game. González’s anticipation on defense is absurd, as he seems to see things a split second before they happen. Having said that, the jumper remains the question. González doesn’t project as a particularly high-level creator in the NBA, so he’ll need to knock down 3s. He made just 20.8 percent from distance taking seven attempts per at the Under-18s. The volume and his willingness to take them, however, drastically exceeded anything he’d shown previously. But that will be his swing skill as an overall prospect. González has to make 3s to showcase he has a role on offense in the NBA.

Motiejus Krivas | 7-2 big | 20 years old | Arizona

Another super giant, Krivas looks like an awesome breakout bet based on how he played as a backup behind Oumar Ballo last season. Big men aren’t supposed to move the way he does. He has great coordination and footwork and showcases outstanding touch. He’s also willing to initiate contact and play through it. He seals his man when he can on the block and also moves well in ball screens when rolling to the rim. He also makes his free throws and has soft hands that seem to catch everything in his area. He rebounds well on both ends of the court. In this Arizona scheme that accentuates big men, Krivas has a chance to be the best one who has come through in Tommy Lloyd’s tenure.

One of two players on whom I had a first-round grade last season who did not declare for the draft, Sallis is a former five-star recruit who had a breakout third collegiate season at Wake Forest, following a transfer from Gonzaga. He averaged 18 points, four rebounds and 2.5 assists, but more importantly, he saw an enormous leap with his 3-point jumper. He hit 40.5 percent of his 3s last season after two years below 26 percent at Gonzaga. NBA teams want to see him consolidate that 3-point number, as well as get back to being the high-energy defender he was at Gonzaga early in his career when he came off the bench. It also wouldn’t hurt if he started to showcase better passing vision. But overall, there’s a lot of reason for Sallis optimism entering the year.

Alex Karaban | 6-8 wing | 22 years old | Connecticut

Karaban is the other player who had a first-round grade on my personal board last season but returned to school. I had him in the late 20s, and it’s easy to see what his role will be in the NBA. He’s a terrific shooter, having made 39 percent of his 3s over his two years at Connecticut. But more importantly, he’s a consummate winner. He does all of the little things you can ask a player to do on the court. He’s a terrific team defender who is cutting off angles and passes on the weak side. He cuts well off the ball on offense. He is in motion within that Connecticut offense. On top of that, his experience is tremendous, as he started 77 of his 78 games for the back-to-back national champions. It’s easy to say, but he looks like a guy who will slot into an NBA rotation for a while. UConn will be counting on him to be more than that this year, as he’ll step into the spotlight following the departure of most of his teammates. Any growth that he could show with the ball in his hands would be a real positive for him with scouts.

Khaman Maluach | 7-1 big | 18 years old | Duke

I’m not quite as high on Maluach as many seem to be in the preseason after having seen him at Nike Hoop Summit earlier this year. I just have some concerns about his readiness for the college game. He struggled to catch and finish on the move at the higher speed of the game he faced against better competition all week in practice. On defense, it’s clear Maluach is still learning the intricacies of drop coverage and in ball screens. He doesn’t quite have a great feel yet for managing the space between the roller and the ballhandler.

Here’s the thing, though: Maluach is enormous. It’s hard to overstate how big he looks out there. Many NBA scouts were also impressed with his play for the South Sudanese national team this past Olympic cycle during the actual event as well as in warm-up games. They mentioned his ability to slide his feet and move along the perimeter at his size. I’m a bit lower on him than this, but I don’t think it would quite be an accurate representation of where the NBA scouting community is currently to have him outside of the top 20. They’re interested in him and will be at Duke early and often to check him out.


Motiejus Krivas looks primed for a breakout season at Arizona. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)

Tre Johnson | 6-5 wing | 19 years old | Texas

Johnson is a serious shot-maker. Few players in this recruiting class can get buckets at the level he can. He’s aggressive, constantly probing and attacking defenses to see if a crease is available. If not, he’s comfortable pulling up in the midrange area and has started knocking down shots from distance. The concern here, though, is that Johnson isn’t a great athlete compared to other shot-creators in this mold. He has long arms and is willing to use his frame to play through and even initiate contact. But he’s not all that explosive. And the defense has left something to be desired. The good news is that he’s an aggressive rebounder for a guard, but he needs to showcase this year that his game without the ball in his hands can keep up at the NBA level, given that no NBA team is going to roll out the ball for him early in his career.

22. Utah Jazz (via CLE)

Rocco Zikarsky | 7-3 big | 18 years old | Brisbane Bullets

Zikarsky is one of the most intriguing big prospects in the world right now, a legitimate 7-3 giant of a human who also moves well and has excellent hands. In his second season for the Brisbane Bullets in the NBL, Zikarsky hasn’t quite found his footing yet. He dealt with a few minor ankle injuries early in the season that didn’t allow him to get quite as many reps in practice as you would have hoped, and you can see just how raw he is in games. He needs to get more experience to keep improving upon the intricacies of being a big man, like his screening, positioning in drop coverage against ball screens, and his closeouts. More than anything, though, I think he’s just a bit of a project. I believe in him being an NBA player at some point, but it might take some time for him to reach that potential. He’ll be 18 on draft day this year, so he’s one of the youngest players in the class. It’s worth being patient and checking back later this year to see how he’s developed. I broke all of that down in a video with tape from his recent game against Sydney here.

Egor Demin | 6-8 guard | 19 years old | BYU

This is higher than where I would have Demin. But much like with Maluach above, it wouldn’t quite be an accurate description of where scouts are at this stage if I didn’t rank him in the top 30. There is significant interest in Demin’s ability to be a 6-8 point guard and playmaker at BYU this season. Where I’m worried is that I’m not totally sure how he scores the basketball yet. At any level, he’s never proven the ability to finish consistently on the interior or knock down shots. He’s willing to take them, but there hasn’t been much efficiency. I believe in the passing and vision in a big way, and that’s why he shows up here. The novelty of a potential point guard at this size makes him one of the players I’m most interested in watching this season. But there are some real questions scouts are looking for him to answer, even with their interest levels.

24. Brooklyn Nets (via MIL)

Alex Toohey | 6-8 wing | 21 years old | Sydney Kings

Toohey has been one of the early-season breakout players on the international scene, playing well for the Sydney Kings. Throughout the summer, he was the player who I got the most positive feedback on from sources among the younger players who went through the Australian Olympic camp, and that includes recent Indiana Pacers draft pick Johnny Furphy. Starting for a team considered the favorite in the NBL this year, Toohey has averaged 16 points per game while shooting 54 percent from 3-point range. The shooting won’t quite hold at that number, but Toohey does look to be a serious shooter after having added significant strength throughout both his upper and lower halves this offseason. He’s also turned into a good defender in a team construct who is rarely out of position and whose length (at 6-8, he posted a 9-foot standing reach at Hoop Summit in 2023) covers a lot of ground.

25. Orlando Magic (via DEN)

Kwame Evans Jr. | 6-8 wing/forward | 20 years old | Oregon

Evans is a player whom scouts were enthused about at different points last season because of his length and willingness to play with effort and energy on the defensive end. He was a defensive playmaker at the four position last year, averaging a steal and a block in just 21 minutes per game. On top of that, he rebounded the ball well on both ends while playing next to a terrific big man in N’Faly Dante. The key for Evans will be the development of the jumper. Believers within NBA circles will point to his 79.5 percent mark from the foul line as signs of his serious touch, whereas those more concerned will point to his 26.7 percent mark from the 3-point line. Showcasing the ability to fire from distance will be the swing skill that either pushes Evans into the first round, or sees him return to college again.

26. Oklahoma City Thunder (via PHI)

Lowe played next to first-round pick Bub Carrington last season and was quite good in his own right as a freshman guard. He came into his own as the season progressed, averaging 12 points and 3.7 assists versus 1.6 turnovers during ACC play last year while hitting over 40 percent from 3. He’s a steady presence out on the court with real speed who can make excellent decisions. He’ll get a chance to run the show for Pitt this season without Carrington around. I’d expect a serious jump in production, with 15 points and five assists per game not in any way out of the question. The key number will be his 2-point percentage and percentage at the basket. Scouts want to see him consistently finish on the interior given that his size is a real question mark heading into the year.

27. Utah Jazz (via MIN)

Noa Essengue | 6-9 forward | 18 years old | Ratiopharm Ulm

Essengue has already shown to be one of the more productive European prospects this season. Similar in age to Flagg, Essengue won’t turn 18 until December. And yet he’s averaging 8.8 points and 4.8 rebounds for Ulm. There is excitement about the 6-9 athlete’s blend of production and coordination, and he was also quite good at the Under-18 European Championships for France next to Traoré. The concern here is what his best position is. With a 6-11 wingspan according to the Basketball Without Borders camp this past all-star break, Essengue isn’t quite big enough to be a five. However, he’s also not really a four, as his jumper needs a ton of work and his ballhandling leaves some real questions. Defensively, scouts do see some real switchability on defense that brings excitement, though. Essengue is a player whom scouts are just interested in tracking his progress more than anything throughout the season. At such a young age, he has a ton of time. If he shows he’s answered some of these concerns by the time June rolls around, he’ll have a real shot to go in Round 1.

28. Brooklyn Nets (via NYK)

Michael Ruzic | 6-10 forward | 18 years old | Joventut

Ruzic is one of the more experienced rising draft prospects, having already seen close to 700 minutes in the ACB and Eurocup competitions for Joventut in Spain. A Croatian big man, the idea behind Ruzic is pretty simple: he’s a skilled big man who can step away and shoot as well as play with the ball in his hands a bit for a bigger player. He averaged about five points and three rebounds in 17 minutes per game last year in Spanish league competition and has the kind of skilled, fluid athleticism NBA teams covet from potential developmental bigs. He also seems to have long arms, which should allow him to find more success defensively given that he moves well and has solid instincts in team concepts.

29. Brooklyn Nets (via OKC)

Ian Jackson | 6-4 guard | 20 years old | North Carolina

Jackson is one of the more interesting top-10 recruits in the class, heading to North Carolina this year to add to what is already a loaded backcourt with R.J. Davis and Elliot Cadeau. Jackson is about as aggressive a guard as you’ll find, constantly looking to attack and pressure the basket. He just always seems like he’s trying to get downhill and trying get paint touches, either in transition or in half-court settings as a driver. The good news is that he also brings that high-level intensity to the defensive end, as well. Ultimately, it’s going to come down to the shot. Jackson makes shots in bursts but doesn’t always have the kind of consistency that you’d hope for. My guess is that this ends up leading to him being a superb sixth man for the Tar Heels this year, with his ability to change the tempo of the game by entering off the bench. That seems like the tailor-made role for him on this team.


Kam Jones should put up big numbers at Marquette this season. (Tim Heitman / USA Today)

Jones is a polished scorer who enters the college season as a real candidate to make an All-America team. He has superb touch from all three levels, and he made 67 percent of his shots at the rim and 39 percent from 3 last season. He also showed some real potential at lead guard during Tyler Kolek’s late-season absence, averaging 4.5 assists per game during that six-game stretch. NBA scouts would love to see him be more consistent as a playmaker as well as a better defensive presence. That’s the big question. Who does Jones guard? Can he prove he can guard ones? Is he big enough to guard wings? Showcasing real improvement there will be the key to solidifying his stock. But he seems like a good candidate to be drafted this season.

SECOND ROUND

31. Brooklyn Nets: K.J. Lewis | 6-3 guard | Arizona

32. Washington Wizards: Mackenzie Mgbako | 6-7 wing | Indiana

33. Sacramento Kings (via POR): Boogie Fland | 6-1 guard | Arkansas

34. Detroit Pistons: JT Toppin | 6-9 guard | Texas Tech

35. San Antonio Spurs (via CHI): Jarin Stevenson | 6-9 forward | Alabama

36. Minnesota Timberwolves (via UTA): Johni Broome | 6-10 big | Auburn

37. Charlotte Hornets: Bogoljub Marković | 6-10 forward | Mega

38. Dallas Mavericks (via TOR): Xaivian Lee | 6-3 guard | Princeton

39. Portland Trail Blazers (via ATL): Adou Thiero | 6-7 wing | Arkansas

40. San Antonio Spurs: Milan Momčilović | 6-8 wing/forward | Iowa State

41. Los Angeles Lakers (via LAC): Tyrese Proctor | 6-4 guard | Duke

42. Golden State Warriors: Payton Sandfort | 6-7 wing | Iowa

43. Memphis Grizzlies (via HOU): Dailyn Swain | 6-7 wing | Xavier

44. Los Angeles Lakers: Jamir Watkins | 6-7 wing | Florida State

45. Brooklyn Nets (via MIA): Mark Sears | 6-0 guard | Alabama

46. San Antonio Spurs (via NOP): Darrion Williams | 6-6 wing | Texas Tech

47. Washington Wizards (via PHX): Cade Tyson | 6-7 wing | North Carolina

48. Indiana Pacers: Nique Clifford | 6-6 wing | Colorado State

49. Sacramento Kings: Ryan Kalkbrenner | 7-1 big | Creighton

50. Orlando Magic: Rasheer Fleming | 6-9 guard | St. Joseph’s

51. Oklahoma City Thunder (via MEM): Baye Ndongo | 6-9 big | Georgia Tech

52. Cleveland Cavaliers: Sion James | 6-4 guard | Duke

53. Dallas Mavericks: Ben Henshall | 6-5 guard | Perth Wildcats

54. Cleveland Cavaliers (via MIL): Izan Almansa | 6-9 big | Perth Wildcats

55. Denver Nuggets: Tucker DeVries | 6-6 wing | West Virginia

56. Charlotte Hornets (via PHI): Saint Thomas | 6-6 wing | USC

57. Atlanta Hawks (via MIN): Michael Ajayi | 6-8 forward | Gonzaga

58. Houston Rockets (via OKC): AJ Storr | 6-7 wing | Kansas

59. Orlando Magic (via BOS): Noah Penda | 6-7 forward | Le Mans

(Note: The New York Knicks have forfeited their 2025 second-round pick due to free-agency shenanigans.)

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photos of Dylan Harper, Cooper Flagg and V.J. Edgecombe: Lance King, Cameron Browne / Getty Images)





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