Christian Carlee, market president with First National Bank, was honored with the Business Person of the Quarter Award at the April 11 Destin Chamber’s Business Before Hours gathering. 

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has some decisions to make. If the NBA legend decides to run it back, will he return to the Lakers? And if James feels he has multiple seasons left in him, will another team have an opportunity to scoop up his services?

The latter possibility is reportedly on the table, as James would consider ending his career with a franchise other than the Lakers to pursue a fifth NBA championship, according to The Athletic.

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The Athletic broke down a number of issues facing the Lakers now that the team is officially in its offseason. James’ future with the Lakers was a major talking point.

So, might James think about finishing his career elsewhere in pursuit of a fifth ring? When posed that question, both league sources close to James and team sources would not rule that possibility out. And that was before the revealing elimination game.

It’s a tantalizing thought. James’ forays into free agency tend to dominate NBA offseasons. “The Decision” remains one of the biggest — and most controversial — moves by any NBA player. James’ return to the Cleveland Cavaliers and announcement he was joining the Lakers also stand out as major moments in not just his career, but the entire era in which he played.

There’s good reason for that, as James’ free-agent decisions have resulted in seismic shifts within the NBA. He — along with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — drastically altered how teams were built, ushering in an era of player empowerment after James joined the Miami Heat. His return to Cleveland and decision to go to the Lakers put those franchises back on the map as well. James led the Cavaliers to their first NBA championship and revived the Lakers’ status as a premier franchise after the team suffered through a tough stretch from 2013-18.

Despite his age, the 40-year-old James hitting free agency and deciding to leave the Lakers would be the biggest story in the NBA.

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With that said, there are a lot of qualifiers to The Athletic’s report. The first of which involves whether James wants to continue his career. The superstar wasn’t ready to discuss his plans after the Lakers were eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday. He didn’t show many signs of rust last season, and presumably still has plenty left in the tank if he wants to continue his career.

James’ easiest option is to exercise his one-year, $52.2 million option to return to the Lakers. In that scenario, James would play the 2025-26 NBA season in Los Angeles before becoming a free agent. At that point, James would once again decide whether he wanted to keep playing. If he wanted to play another year, he would have the ability to join any team. If James wanted to pursue another ring and felt the Lakers didn’t offer him that chance, that could lead to a situation where James finishes out his career with another franchise.

If the past few seasons are any indicator, James usually opts out of his player option with his eye on another one-year deal with an option, with his clear intention to re-up with the Lakers. He has until June 29, per Spotrac, to make that decision. But with the possibility of him considering other teams, that does change the calculus.

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One other caveat: Bronny James, LeBron’s son, who is under contract with the Lakers for at least two more seasons. How much does playing with his son enter into the equation of LeBron’s future?

While it’s certainly possible James winds up playing for another franchise before his career ends, there are too many variables involved to know exactly what will happen.

The only certainty here is that James’ career is going to end soon. As long as he continues to produce at a high level, he’ll be able to control when and where that happens.

If he can’t do that, any speculation about James’ intentions past the 2025-26 NBA season doesn’t really matter.

‘Triplete’ is the Spanish word for a treble of major trophies — and in Barcelona, it is being repeated a lot.

While most players do not want to talk about winning a clean sweep of trophies, the possibility hangs in the air.

“When you’re at La Masia (Barca’s famed youth academy), you always dream of winning the triplete,” midfielder Gavi said at the news conference before the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund.

On Saturday, Barca lifted the Copa del Rey after a 3-2 win against Real Madrid. During the celebrations, there was a subtle reference to the treble when the Coldplay song Viva la Vida played over the loudspeakers of the La Cartuja stadium — the soundtrack to the club’s first treble under Pep Guardiola in 2008-09.

Barcelona hold a four-point lead over Madrid in La Liga, with a Clasico at their temporary Montjuic home ground to come, and drew 3-3 in a madcap first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Inter. Winning all three competitions would give Barca the third treble in the club’s history after Guardiola’s first and another under Luis Enrique in 2014-15.

Only eight men’s teams have won their nation’s league, domestic cup and the European Cup/Champions League in a single season and Barca could become the only team to do it three times (they and Bayern Munich are the only teams to have done it twice).

But it is not just Hansi Flick’s team who could lift a treble for Barcelona this season.

The club’s women’s team are on course to achieve that feat for the second time in their history. And Barca’s Juvenil A under-19s completed theirs on Monday when they beat Turkish side Trabzonspor in the UEFA Youth League final in Switzerland, adding the youth equivalent of the Champions League to league and cup finals already sewn up this campaign.

It could even be a hat-trick of quadruples for Barca. The men’s and women’s teams have won their respective Supercopas de Espana — Spain’s equivalent of England’s Community Shield — and the Juvenil A team are aiming to claim the Copa de Campeones, where the winners of each regional league at that level meet in May to decide an overall champion.

In any case, it is turning out to be a historic season for Barcelona. Here, we talk you through how each team got here, what stands in their way and the links between the sides.

Barca completed the first leg of a potential treble in the Copa del Rey final (Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Men’s team

League position: 1st

Closest challengers: Real Madrid (four points behind)

Domestic cup: Won 3-2 after extra time vs Real Madrid (April 26)

Champions League: Semi-final vs Inter (drew first leg 3-3 on April 30, second leg on May 6)

This season was supposed to be a transitional one for Barca’s men’s team. Financial problems hang over the club, their squad is full of young players, the team are still playing away from the Camp Nou and they had to contend with the traumatic exit of club legend Xavi as coach at the end of last term.

But Flick has given the team a clear idea of how to play, with pressing from the front and an extremely high defensive line. Practically all the players have returned to form, with Raphinha, Ferran Torres, Frenkie de Jong and Jules Kounde transformed from the previous campaign. The other stars have been Pedri, Inigo Martinez and youngsters Pau Cubarsi and Lamine Yamal.

Barca are four points ahead of second-placed Real Madrid in La Liga and have scored 12 goals in three games against them this season, across the league and the Supercopa de Espana and Copa del Rey finals. They meet again in La Liga at Montjuic on Sunday, May 11 and hold the head-to-head advantage over Madrid after their 4-0 win at the Bernabeu earlier in the season (if teams are tied on points, La Liga separates teams based on their results against each other rather than goal difference).

That Clasico is crucial. Beating Madrid would virtually confirm Barca as champions: assuming they win their fixtures this weekend against Celta Vigo and Real Valladolid respectively, a win for the Catalans would put them seven points clear with three games left to play. That would mean a win in their following game against local rivals Espanyol on May 15 would make them champions.

The Copa is already in the bag with that win against Madrid after extra time in Seville on Saturday, secured thanks to Kounde’s last-gasp effort. “If they (Madrid) score one or two goals, it doesn’t matter,” Yamal told official club channel Barca One after that match. “This season, they can’t beat us.” He was asked about those comments in his first press conference for Barca on Tuesday, before the Inter game.

“While I keep winning, they can’t say much,” he said. “When they beat me, they will be able to.”

Yamal’s critics couldn’t say much about his goal against Inter (Joan Valls/Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

It all seems to come down to the Champions League, then, where the semi-final is finely poised. Barca travel to Milan for the second leg on Tuesday, hoping to reach the final at Munich’s Allianz Arena on May 31. They are looking to win the Champions League for the first time since 2015. In fact, this is the first time since Lionel Messi left the club that they have even reached the semi-finals.

Women’s team

League position: 1st

Closest challengers: Real Madrid (four points behind)

Domestic cup: Final vs Atletico Madrid on June 8

Champions League: Final vs Arsenal on May 24

Barcelona Femeni have dominated women’s football but this Liga F season has been one of the most evenly matched in recent years. Pere Romeu’s team have lost two games in the league, against UD Levante and Real Madrid – the latter their only defeat to the club’s arch-rivals in 19 attempts.

They have three league games left — against Deportivo La Coruna, Real Betis and Athletic Club. If they and Real Madrid win on the weekend, Barca could secure the league against Betis on May 11.

Barca thrashed Chelsea 8-2 on aggregate in the semi-finals and will face Arsenal in the final in Lisbon on May 24. They will be looking to lift the title for the fourth time in five seasons, having reached the final five years in a row.

If they have won the other two trophies, they could seal the treble on June 7 when facing Atletico Madrid in the Copa de la Reina final. Romeu’s team are still considered strong favourites despite that recent loss to Madrid.

Barca Femeni thrashed Chelsea to reach the Champions League final (Joan Valls/Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Yamal and Gavi have been seen attending women’s games this season. Yamal gets on very well with Vicky Lopez, the 18-year-old attacking midfielder with whom he shares a sponsor.

Double Ballon d’Or-winning midfielder Aitana Bonmati regularly watches the men’s Champions League matches in the Catalan town of Sant Pere de Ribes with a supporters group named after her, the Penya Barcelonista Aitana Bonmati. Bonmati has been one of Barca’s star players again but Patri Guijarro, fellow two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas, Ewa Pajor and Claudia Pina have been key in this final stretch of the season.

Under-19 team

League position: Winners

Domestic cup: Beat Real Zaragoza 5-0 in the final (March 16)

Youth League: Beat Trabzonspor 4-1 in the final (April 28)

Barca’s under-19 team — coached by Juliano Belletti, the former Chelsea and Brazil right-back who scored the winner in Barca’s 2006 Champions League final against Arsenal — have already won their treble.

Belletti with the UEFA Youth League trophy this week (Daniela Porcelli/Getty Images)

They were crowned youth Copa del Rey champions on March 16 after their rout of Zaragoza in the final, with striker Hugo Alba and winger Juan Hernandez both scoring twice. They secured the Division de Honor Juvenil league title on April 12 (they are 11 points ahead of second- and third-placed Mallorca and Catalan side Damm in their group) and lifted the Youth League title this week, inspired by 18-year-old Mali star Ibrahim Diarra.

The Juvenil A team — which is the age group below Barca’s ‘B’ team, Barca Atletic — is where Cubarsi, Yamal and first-team midfielder Marc Bernal could be playing, given they were born in 2007, and there are plenty of links with the first team. Pau Victor’s brother, Guillem, plays for them and the Barca backup striker is also good friends with Quim Junyent, a midfielder who has impressed for Belletti’s team in the Youth League this season.

Junyent and winger Jan Virgili have stood out. Belletti’s team will play the Copa de Campeones quarter-finals against Valencia next month, with the tournament’s final four taking place from May 26-June 1 in Ponferrada. They will be hoping to turn a treble into a quadruple.

(Top photos: Getty Images)

In December, Philadelphia made a historic commitment, announcing over $3 million in funding for youth sports initiatives aimed at preventing violence. In a city where a 14-year-old Black teenager has a one in eight chance of being shot or killed before his 25th birthday, this investment is a promising step, signaling a recognition of the vital role sports can play in keeping young people engaged and steering them away from violence outside of school.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: Without properly trained coaches, these millions could be wasted.

The transformative power of youth sports doesn’t come from new facilities or expanded leagues alone. It lies in equipping the mentors who work with our youth every day.

Without trauma-informed training, coaches are left to navigate the challenges of working with at-risk youth on their own. Many do so admirably, but too often, toxic coaching practices — whether intentional or not — persist.

Consider youth football, where aggression is often celebrated. Too many young athletes experience verbal intimidation from coaches who mistake humiliation for motivation. These approaches don’t build character — they damage it, contributing to the same cycles of emotional harm and aggression these initiatives hope to break.

This is why trauma-informed training must be a nonnegotiable, as vital to the game as helmets and other protective gear. It’s not enough for the city to simply allocate money to sports programs. We must also ensure that every coach receiving funding is equipped with the knowledge and skills to foster resilience, emotional intelligence, and positive behavior in young athletes.

Trauma training shows how to recognize signs of distress, de-escalate conflicts, and use sports to heal rather than harm. As a result, athletes feel understood and supported, and they are more likely to remain engaged and benefit from the positive aspects of being involved in sports.

The evidence speaks for itself, with ripple effects going beyond individual players. Cities that have integrated trauma-informed coaching into youth sports programming, such as Boston and Los Angeles, have reported reductions in youth violence by 25% to 40% over five years, according to the Urban Institute.

Too often, toxic coaching practices — whether intentional or not — persist.

At the organization I lead, Open Door Abuse Awareness and Prevention, we use these same techniques along with research-based practices to unlock the transformative power of coaches. Through a specialized curriculum, we equip them to help young athletes recognize and prevent domestic abuse at home and in school.

Through this work, I’ve seen firsthand how coaches do more than just teach the game. They serve as mentors, role models, and, in many cases, surrogate parents. When properly trained, coaches can identify the young athlete who arrives angry because of violence at home, channel that emotion constructively, and provide the consistent adult presence that research shows is critical for resilience.

Philadelphia stands at a crossroads. If we truly want to reduce violence and create lasting change, we cannot afford to take a surface-level approach. As we look forward to new fields and expanded sports opportunities, let us not forget that real transformation happens through the people who lead these programs. Trauma-informed coaching is not an optional add-on — it is the foundation upon which effective, impactful, and life-changing youth sports must be built.

Philadelphia has taken the first step. Now let’s make sure it counts.

Valencia Peterson, also known as “Coach V,” is the founder and executive director of Open Door Abuse Awareness and Prevention (ODAAP), a nonprofit organization that uses sports as a platform to teach youth about violence prevention, leadership, and healthy relationships.

What significance did sport have for the Nazis?

Sport played an important role for the National Socialists, although they did not speak of sport, but of physical education. Their primary goal was to promote health and performance for a productive national economy and ultimately to be fit for war. 

Individual sport was relegated to the background in favor of the collective, the masses, the so-called national body, to which every German should contribute as an individual in the best possible way. True to Nazi ideology, it was always about strength and fortitude.

“The weak must be hammered away,” begins a quote attributed to Adolf Hitler. “In my Ordensburg [educational facilities for the Nazi elite], a youth will grow up that will terrify the world. I want a violent, imperious, fearless, cruel youth. (…) I will have them trained in all physical exercises.”

These physical exercises were therefore compulsory in many of Nazi organizations, such as the Deutsches Jungvolk (DJ), the Hitler Youth (HJ), the League of German Girls (BDM) or Strength Through Joy (KdF). It was also recommended that young people join sports clubs.

In the Hitler Youth, but also in school sports, physical exercise was used to teach boys about being a soldier and military behavior, and to filter out young people who could later be considered for a leadership positions in the armed forces.

The Nazis were critical of international competitive sport, especially early on during the Weimar Republic. “Internationality, the Olympic movement, togetherness, international understanding, that was ideologically rejected,” historian Ansgar Molzberger from the German Sport University Cologne told DW.

Why did the Nazis still organize the Olympic Games in 1936?

In 1931, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the Olympic Games to Berlin during the days of the Weimar Republic. The Nazis, who came to power in the interim, however, were overt opponents of the Olympic movement.

The cosmopolitan idea of the Olympic Games was incompatible with their world view. Sporting competitions with members of the “enemy nations” from the World War I went against their sense of honor, and they rejected the IOC regulations on racial grounds.

However, those in power quickly realized — especially Hitler — what an opportunity the Games offered to present themselves to the world as a peace-loving, open, young state.

“There was a breathtaking turnaround,” says historian Molzberger. “Just as the Olympic movement, with its ideals of international understanding, had been strictly rejected until the end of the Weimar era, they [the Nazis] now presented themselves as great supporters of the Olympic movement.”

They also wanted to use the Games to demonstrate their own strengths of good organization and sporting success.

Were there any sports the Nazis promoted?

“One sport that can be emphasized in the context of school was boxing, which the National Socialists made compulsory for older boys,” says Molzberger. “Everyone had to learn to box in school sports.”

Team sports such as football and handball still existed, but the idea of fighting was always emphasized. “It was about fighting back, daring to do something together,” says Molzberger. “This was a repeated point of emphasis in team sports.”

What did physical exercise look like for women and girls?

Sporting activities for women were also strongly influenced by ideology. Women were primarily limited to their role as mothers and housewives. In order to fulfill these roles well, they were also expected to train their bodies, improve their health and fitness and strengthen their discipline.

The League of German Girls (BDM), in which girls between the ages of 10 and 18 were organized, also offered physical exercises intended to train them not only physically but also ideologically and prepare them for their future role in society.

Were Jews allowed to continue playing sports?

Shortly after the seizure of power, a law was passed on April 7, 1933, according to which civil servants and public employees who were Jews, non-Aryans or political opponents were no longer allowed to work in the civil service.

This so-called “Aryan paragraph” was gradually extended to oust Jews from professional and social life, including doctors, students and radio stations, the press, theaters, other cultural institutions and associations.

In principle, the paragraph also applied to sports clubs, but in view of the upcoming Olympic Games, Nazi leadership initially did not consistently demand its implementation. They did not want to make negative headlines before the 1936 Games and provide reasons for a possible withdrawal from or boycott of the Olympics. Nevertheless, there was criticism and calls for a boycott did follow. These intensified once again after the Nuremberg Race Laws were passed in 1935, which later formed the legal basis for the persecution and extermination of the Jews.

Nevertheless, many sports clubs and associations whose leaders were particularly convinced by the ideas of National Socialism implemented the Aryan Paragraph early on of their own accord and in anticipatory obedience. For example, the German Gymnastics Association, the largest German sports association at the time with 1.5 million members, excluded Jews just one day after the law was passed.

Other associations, such as the swimming, rowing and skiing associations, followed suit. The German Football Association (DFB) reacted less radically and continued to allow Jews to play. However, they were no longer allowed to hold leadership positions in soccer clubs. One prominent example is Kurt Landauer, who was club president of Bayern Munich for many years during the Weimar period and had to give up his position in 1933.

As a result of the exclusions, purely Jewish sports clubs experienced a real boom between 1933 and 1936, with a large increase in membership. Once the 1936 Olympic Games were over, however, the situation for Jews in Germany worsened.

“After the games, the mask could be dropped,” says Molzberger. “When the actual persecution of Jews began in 1938, Jewish sport was also systematically destroyed.”

This article was adapted from German.

Edited by: Matt Pearson