Back for another Take 5, sports writers at The Pitt News discuss hot topics from MLB Opening Day to the NCAA tournament’s gender inequity controversy.

From program superstars like Steven Adams to transfer departures like Ryan Luther, find out how former Panthers are performing at the professional level.

With a record-tying 17th Los Angeles Lakers championship in the rearview, the NBA rapidly approaches its start of the season on Dec. 22. To accommodate the altered schedule, the NBA draft will take place Thursday. An incomplete college season will make prospects harder to evaluate, but most of the top 10 picks should come easily.

July 2020 marked two months since the killing of George Floyd, four months since the killing of Breonna Taylor and the start of one of the most controversial professional sports seasons in recent history.

News flash — College basketball isn’t going anywhere. Even before a pandemic-induced shutdown and subsequent cancellation of the annual championship tournament, questions about the sport’s future bubbled below the surface as both federal authorities and NCAA leadership conducted investigations into top programs and coaches. These questions boiled over when three top recruits were lured away from the traditional road to the NBA by lucrative offers to spend a year of professional development with a startup team in the G League, the NBA’s minor league, before becoming eligible for the draft next year.

Top high school basketball players, like five-star prospects Jalen Green, Isaiah Todd and Daishen Nix, shocked basketball fans this commitment season by foregoing the traditional college route to play in the NBA’s G League. It’s a smart move, especially for players with serious dreams of lengthy NBA careers.

The league has grown massively in popularity over the past decade. Despite its upward trajectory, there is still one nagging obstacle that holds the NBA back — an 82-game regular season.

With the NBA season starting on Oct. 22, The Pitt News sports staff takes on several basketball-related topics such as the potential of Zion Williamson and the league’s improving parity.

LeBron James recently addressed Daryl Morey’s comments and the ensuing fallout from China, resulting in a stunning display of tone-deafness from an individual typically known for adept social commentary.

Less than a week ago, the Houston Rockets were one of the most popular basketball teams in China. Today, they are an enemy of the Chinese state. The same team once loved by Yao Ming, NBA Hall of Famer and current chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association, is now the focal point of a Chinese blacklisting of the NBA.