LeBron James will play basketball next season. But for whom?

The Los Angeles Lakers are the clear leaders. James picked up a $52.6 million player option over the weekend, which could have inspired little analysis if not for the cryptic statement that followed.

Now, an awkward situation would make anyone wonder — how would the league react if the best player of his generation, if not of any generation, became available? After all, this is the NBA, where it’s always worth monitoring two entities with diverging philosophies.

At 40 years old, James wants to win, and win now. Meanwhile, the Lakers just bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. They are still without a center and lost Dorian Finney-Smith in free agency. They have made it clear, both through their actions and their words, that they are building around the 26-year-old Luka Dončić. An organization that once revolved around James and only James now has other priorities.

And thus, a divide builds.

One side thinks more about the short term. The other considers years down the line.

“LeBron knows the Lakers are building for the future, and he also wants to compete for championships,” James’ agent Rich Paul said to The Athletic and ESPN shortly after James picked up his option. “We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what’s best for him. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we’ve had for eight years with (owner) Jeanie (Buss) and (general manager) Rob (Pelinka) and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.”

So, if James is evaluating what’s best for himself at this stage of his career, if he wants to make every season he has left count, and if he decides the Lakers can’t help him accomplish that, what’s next?

Most obviously, he and the Lakers could work together on a trade. Let’s break down the options.

One reason James would pick up the option, even if he were uncertain about his future, is for the money. He will make $52.6 million next season. No one else could pay him that on the open market.

The other reason is for security. James is one of two players in the NBA, along with Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal, to wield a no-trade clause. If James were to get dealt, he could choose his destination.

Trading James would be a headache. Given the no-trade clause, the list of teams couldn’t be long.

The San Antonio Spurs could cobble together the salaries to make a deal for him, but they won only 34 games last season. It would be difficult for him to argue that squad would have a better chance at a 2026 title than the more veteran one that costars Dončić. The Denver Nuggets could build a trade around Jamal Murray, but is there a contender in existence that needs an offensive hub less than the one that already employs the greatest one in the NBA, three-time MVP Nikola Jokić?

The James saga could end any way: Most likely in him remaining with the Lakers at least through the end of this season, but also, if the situation goes sideways, in a trade. Maybe if James wants a new home, the Lakers choose to do right by him, buying him out of his contract and sending him into free agency. Of course, the only motivation the organization would have to do this is for the good karma. Usually, if you say goodbye to an all-timer, you want players and/or picks in return.

Whether James would even consider a buyout could come down to how many more seasons he wants to play. If he believes he has three more years in him, then he’ll need another contract in 2026. Signing a cheap deal after taking a buyout this summer would make paydays in ensuing seasons more unlikely. But if he felt retirement was on the way in a year, that wouldn’t matter.

For now, though, James is a Laker. He is not negotiating a buyout with the team. He has not demanded a trade, and maybe he never will.

However, if he does eventually ask out and the Lakers comply, there are various franchises that could enter the conversation. Just as an exercise, let’s run through five of them (listed in no particular order), outlining how those teams could make James trades happen.

Cleveland Cavaliers

There is no team more obvious to throw on this list — from both James’ perspective and that of the Cavaliers.

On one side would be the romance. James could finish his career in the place he began it. On the other side is a squad that just won 64 games last season and sits in a conference that is falling apart.

The Cavs could be the favorites to win the Eastern Conference already. Add James to the mix, and they would vault into a tier of their own.

But it’s not that simple.

A hypothetical James-to-Cleveland trade is impractical, if not impossible.

Forgetting about James’ and Cleveland’s wants, the math it would take to get James traded back to Ohio would leave Pelinka writing on windows. The Cavaliers, as currently constructed, are the one organization certain to be above the dreaded second apron, a payroll threshold that limits a team’s resources, hinders the types of transactions it can pull off and forces significant luxury-tax payments.

Because of this, there is no way for the Cavs to trade for James without losing two of their top players: starting center Jarrett Allen and All-Star point guard Darius Garland.

One of the second-apron rules that dings Cleveland is about “aggregation.” The Cavaliers cannot aggregate players together to trade more than one at a time — unless they find a way to dump salary. At the moment, Cleveland is $23 million above the second apron.

Let’s say the Cavs trade Allen, an essential contributor, and Dean Wade, who combine to make $26 million next season, without taking any salary back, dipping them below the second apron. (Already, this is an aggressive move to make just to acquire a soon-to-be 41-year-old.) There would still be issues.

Because they would remain above the first apron, they would not be allowed to take in more money than they send out in a trade. The Cavaliers would need to compile enough salary to surpass $52.6 million and then some. If they flip four or five players for James, they need to leave enough room below the second apron to fill out the rest of the roster, since a trade where they aggregate players would hard cap them there.

De’Andre Hunter, Max Strus and Lonzo Ball combine to make less money than James does. And thus, Cleveland would need to include more players than just those three, but its remaining ones make make either too little (remember, sending out minimum salaries is not helpful in this scenario because the Cavs would just have to sign other minimum guys to replace them) or are too good to part with: Garland, Donovan Mitchell or Evan Mobley.

And thus, the only way a James acquisition could make sense for Cleveland would be if he somehow became a free agent and could sign there for cheap.

Dallas Mavericks

If there is one activity the basketball world has mastered, it’s connecting dots. The relationships are already in Dallas.

There’s injured All-Star Kyrie Irving, who James teamed up with for a title in Cleveland and who he has tried to play with again since. There’s 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis, who the Lakers flipped for Dončić only five months ago — and who James never hoped to see leave. Mavericks GM Nico Harrison is a former executive at Nike, where James has a lucrative shoe contract. As became front-page news after the Lakers acquired Dončić, the two guys who would negotiate this deal, Harrison and Pelinka, go back a long way.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks could make an offer of just role players — albeit, important ones.

Future Hall of Famer Klay Thompson along with versatile contributors Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington would get the deal done financially. Dallas could trade a future first-round pick, as well, though draft picks would become complicated in a trade for James. Teams wouldn’t be excited about giving up chunks of their future to acquire a 40-year-old, even if there has never before been a 40-year-old as good at basketball as James is now.

On the other side, Pelinka recently said that the Lakers are focused on creating significant cap space in the summer of 2027. Gafford just agreed to an extension that will stretch into 2029. If Los Angeles were picky enough about its cap situation that it lost an imperative role player, Finney-Smith, who signed a four-year deal with the Rockets, over long-term money, then it may not be so enthusiastic about taking on Gafford, even if he already has experience excelling alongside Dončić.

Golden State Warriors

Ease your brain. The mathematics in northern California are not nearly as strenuous.

James is close with two-time MVP Stephen Curry, with whom he finally played last summer, when the couple paired up at the Olympics. He and former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green share an agent. He played for head coach Steve Kerr with Team USA. And the Warriors have the lure of … well, the Warriors.

Golden State has one obvious offer for James: Jimmy Butler for the quadragenarian.

Butler makes a tad more than James does, marking the trade legal, though if it were constructed this way, it would hard cap the Lakers at the first apron, since they’d be absorbing more money than they send out in a deal. If the Lakers were fine with that, they could execute the one-for-one trade. However, they may want to maintain flexibility, which they could do somewhat easily.

Golden State and Los Angeles could find a third team willing to take on one of the Lakers’ minimum salaries (say, Jordan Goodwin’s) without giving any salary back. This way, the total money leaving the purple and gold is above Butler’s incoming salary.

Beyond Butler, Golden State wouldn’t have many options in a trade for James. It could combine Green with role players Buddy Hield and Moses Moody, but that package isn’t as enticing for the Lakers. Plus, Moody would present the same issue that Gafford would or Finney-Smith would have: He’s under contract beyond 2027.

The Warriors could try including talented 22-year-old Jonathan Kuminga, who is a restricted free agent at the moment. But signing and trading Kuminga comes with speed bumps. A deal like this would fall victim to a niche CBA quirk called “base year compensation,” which complicates any sign-and-trade involving a player who earns a raise of more than 20 percent, as Kuminga would. Essentially, Kuminga’s outgoing money for Golden State would be treated as a different number than his incoming money to Los Angeles, which creates even more obstacles.

LeBron and Steph together at last in the NBA? (Photo by Gregory Shamus  /Getty Images)

LA Clippers

Let’s get wild. James stays in Los Angeles — just not at Crypto.

The Clippers could toss together a trio of shooting guard Norman Powell, who was sneakily better than ever last season, bench scorer Bogdan Bogdanović and defensive stopper Derrick Jones Jr., who was a starter next to Dončić on Dallas’ 2024 finals team. However, doing so would eat into the depth that made them so dangerous a season go.

Presumably, they would not want to part with starting center Ivica Zubac, who made his first All-Defensive team in 2025-26 and who they reportedly would not entertain in conversations with the Suns about former MVP Kevin Durant only a couple of weeks ago.

There’s another way the Clippers could go about this too — and yes, it’s one that would happen only in fantasyland. They could trade their highest-paid player, two-time finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, for James.

As he showed at the end of this past season, Leonard can still annihilate teams on both sides of the court when healthy. But he is often hurt. The goal is to forget about the first 82 games, to make sure his body is in its best shape come April. In that sense, even an older James projects to hold up better throughout a season.

The swap could clean the Clippers’ books, too. Leonard’s contract expires in 2027. James’ expires next summer.

With James’ money coming off the roster in 2026, the Clippers would enter what could be a star-studded free agency with enough cap space to sign a max player and then some.

However, the Lakers might not want to absorb more than $50 million of 2026-27 money for an oft-injured player who will be 35 years old by then. Unless the Clippers sweetened the deal with draft picks, Los Angeles may rather hold onto James in this scenario.

The Lakers may have a difficult time extracting draft picks from anyone, too, considering front offices around the league are locked into Giannis Antetokounmpo’s situation with the Milwaukee Bucks — if Tuesday’s moves didn’t change things. Parting with picks while also giving up the salary slots it could take to acquire Antetokounmpo may not be worth it for some of these organizations who are waiting to pounce if the two-time MVP were to become available.

New York Knicks

This is another situation that combines basketball with cleaning up the finances.

Purely from a standpoint of matching salaries, the Knicks could construct various types of offers for James. The most chaotic deal would be flipping All-NBA big man Karl-Anthony Towns for James, straight up — two teams betting on the other’s star. Of course, this could leave the Knicks center-less, given Mitchell Robinson’s injury struggles.

They could pair a couple of wings, OG Anunoby and either Josh Hart or Mikal Bridges, in a trade for James. They could piece together a trio to offer for James: Anunoby, Robinson and point guard Miles “Deuce” McBride.

But Anunoby will make $45 million in 2027-28 and has a player option for the following season, which would eat into the Lakers’ possible cap space two summers from now. Meanwhile, the Knicks — or any other team — may not want to part with three key rotation pieces (and three of their four best defenders) for a 40-year-old.

The Knicks could justify Towns-for-James with a similar financial argument the Clippers could use in a Leonard-for-James one. New York owes Towns $110 million over the next two seasons. The five-time All-Star has a $61 million player option for 2027-28. Meanwhile, the Knicks are at risk of climbing into the second apron next season, a possibility that does not excite them but could be inevitable if they keep their current top five or six together.

Bridges, who is eligible for an extension now, can become a free agent in 2026. His new salary could drive the Knicks past that feared threshold.

James could double as a basketball fit, as well as a giant expiring contract to avoid the second apron in 2026-27 and maybe beyond. In Los Angeles, Towns and Dončić could destroy any defense they face.

But the Knicks are also made up of prime-aged contributors. This would make them older. Like in the other hypotheticals, a James trade to the Knicks, even in a world where both he and the Lakers agree it’s best for the two to part ways after seven years, isn’t likely. The Knicks didn’t get in on the hunt for Kevin Durant. Like so many others, they could be saving up salary and assets for a guy in Milwaukee. They may not handle this hypothetical much differently.

(Top illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photo: David Liam Kyle / NBAE via Getty Images)

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Athletics ● The mystery over the “official” time of 4:06.42 for Kenyan star Faith Kipyegon at the Nike “Breaking4″ event and the shown 4:06.91 event time was explained by Runner’s World.

The 4:06.91 time was the standard measurement of the time from the firing of the starter’s pistol to the time that Kipyegon crossed the finish line. The 4:06.42 time is a “chip time” from when Kipyegon actually began her race effort, to the time she finished.

This is seen often in mass road races, where some runners do not cross the start line for quite a while, but not in something as short as a mile. But now you know.

¶

The Times of London reported on an e-mail message from Grand Slam Track Senior Director of Racing Kyle Merber sent to athlete agents on Tuesday (1st) concerning appearance and prize-money fees owed to athletes who competed in the Kingston, Miramar and Philadelphia Slams:

“We’d like to provide the following update regarding payments for the athletes who competed in Grand Slam Track events this year. Our plan is to make payments for Kingston prize money before the end of July and the remaining payments due by the end of September, which includes the honoring of Los Angeles appearance fees.”

The final meet, scheduled for UCLA’s Drake Stadium in Los Angeles for 28-29 June, was canceled over financial concerns, despite more than 10,000 tickets being sold for the two days combined, with more than two weeks to go.

● Football ● Much attention continues to be paid to the attendance figures at the FIFA Club World Cup, with the first round of playoff matches completed.

The group stage had 1,667,819 in attendance across 48 matches for an average of 34,746.

For the eight Round-of-16 playoff matches, Inside World Football offered a table showing 342,006 in attendance for an average of 63.28% of capacity (550,744). Of the eight matches:

● 2 had from 20-26,000
● 2 had from 30-35,000
● 1 had from 40-45,000
● 3 had from 60-65,000

OK, not great. Eight matches are left.

¶

The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the guilty verdicts against former Fox International Channels head Hernan Lopez and Full Play Group SA dealing with television rights, wire fraud and money laundering for multiple major football tournaments, including the FIFA World Cup and Copa Libertadores. Full Play was also convicted on charges related to Olympic qualifying matches and the Copa America tournament.

All of the convictions had been thrown out in September 2023 by District Judge Pamela Chen (Eastern District of New York), citing a May 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision. But the appeals court ordered her to reinstate the convictions and to continue the proceedings in line with their opinion.

Lopez’s attorney promised to continue their appeals.

● Swimming ● The ancient suit by U.S. swimmers Michael Andrew and Tom Shields and Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu against World Aquatics (then FINA) for restrictions of trade over a planned 2018 meet in Italy, will apparently come to trial at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, California beginning on 12 January 2026.

World Aquatics has energetically opposed the suit and it appears to be thrown out at one point, but a September 2024 ruling by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held the matter to be sufficient to be tried.

● Table Tennis ● After the disruption, screaming and shouting that caused the International Table Tennis Federation’s Annual General Meeting in March to be suspended, the ITTF is obligated to convene the meeting once again to finish voting on several offices. On Wednesday, the federation noted:

“Given the complexity of this situation, the ITTF engaged a leading law firm to ensure the continuation of the AGM is managed in full compliance with ITTF statutes and Swiss law, where the federation is headquartered. The date and details of the AGM’s continuation will be announced as soon as possible.”

It can be expected that at the re-convened meeting, a continued challenge to the Presidential vote will be made. ITTF Senior Executive Vice President Khalil Al-Mohannadi, the loser in the election by 104-102, has already announced an appeal to the ITTF Tribunal and to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

¶

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Early in the school year, it was clear that Dartmouth men’s heavyweight rowing’s varsity eight had the makings of a special season.
 
“Having a good core group of guys returning — along with Billy [Bender] coming back from the Olympics and having a really good first-year group joining us — it felt like there was certainly potential,” said Wyatt Allen, Betsy and Mark Gates 1959 Head Coach of Men’s Heavyweight Rowing.
 
The Head of the Charles in October was an early reminder of that potential. The Big Green showed the speed to be one of the best crews in the country, finishing third overall in the Championship Eight as the second college finisher.
 
Success would follow in a big way. Flash forward to the end of the spring when the Big Green would finish second at the Eastern Sprints and third at the IRA National Championship, barely over a second behind national champion Washington. It was the heavyweight rowing program’s best finish since 1992.
 
And now, they will have one last opportunity to row together, at the Henley Royal Regatta which runs from July 1-6 in Henley-on-Thames, England. Racing for the Big Green kicks off on Friday.

How it Happened
Getting to this point has been months in the making. Senior Julian Thomas was optimistic entering the season.
 
“We realized we had the opportunity to medal and compete for a national championship after the Charles,” he said. “It validated that we had a talented group and motivated us to continue pushing hard through the winter seasons, when generally motivation is low.”
 
A strong winter and spring training camp led to a historic start to the spring at Yale, as the Big Green captured the Olympic Axe for the first time in the Axe’s 21-year history.
 
The varsity eight’s resiliency was on full display. In less-than-ideal conditions (rain and wind), the Big Green defeated the Bulldogs.
 
“The Yale result was another big step forward for them in terms of believing,” said Allen.
 
Keep the word resiliency in mind.

Check out the end of the varsity eight’s win today to claim the Olympic Axe for the first time in its 21-year history!#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/r9Y3HNfQKv

— Dartmouth Men’s Heavyweight Rowing (@BigGreenHeavies) April 5, 2025

Resilience wasn’t only on full display against the Bulldogs, but also has been for the entirety of these student-athletes’ careers.
 
“Julian (Thomas), Munroe (Robinson), Sammy (Houdaigui), Miles (Hudgins) — guys who came out of the varsity last year — were really disappointed with the way things ended,” said Allen. “It would have been really easy to not fully invest in this year the way they did.”
 
The Big Green varsity eight finished 11th in the nation in 2024 and were determined to improve in 2025.
 
“They continued to trust the training and our program, as well as me and our staff,” said Allen. “It is a resilient group, and they came back this fall with an ‘all-in’ approach. Their approach and hard work were converted to belief and momentum through big early-season results.”
 
After Yale, the Big Green varsity defeated Boston University for the Bill Cup, then hosted the Lake Morey Invitational where they beat Syracuse, Wisconsin and Columbia over the course of two days. A win over Northeastern wrapped up an undefeated dual season.
 
The Eastern Sprints led to a true moment of resilience. Despite a tough start during the grand final, the Big Green roared back to earn silver, 1.3 seconds behind Harvard. Below are the final results.

1. Harvard – 5:33.895
2. Dartmouth – 5:35.577
3. Princeton – 5:37.575
4. Yale – 5:38.275
5. Brown – 5:38.783
6. Penn – 5:39.133
 
“For them to be in sixth place coming through the 500 and be able to stick together, trust their base speed and row themselves back into silver-medal position, that was a huge moment,” said Allen.
 
First-year Lucas Maroney explained the resilience the crew had to show.
 
“It’s so easy to just give up on a race when you’re down six seats off the first couple strokes, but it really showed a lot staying together through that and rowing through such a competitive field,” he said. “That was an awesome experience and a good show of what we can do together.
 
“We definitely carried a lot of momentum out of that.”
 
In the end, a negative (slow start to the race) turned into a positive (further belief in their speed).
 
“I believe the easiest thing to fix in terms of race execution, is getting better out of the blocks,” said Allen. “They did that between Sprints and IRAs.”  

Full coverage from a strong showing at Eastern Sprints on Sunday, featuring medals in our 1V, 2V and 4V.

| https://t.co/3MkofT0LzJ#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/MVz5dUDGWI

— Dartmouth Men’s Heavyweight Rowing (@BigGreenHeavies) May 19, 2025

 At the national championship, the Big Green took care of business in their heat and a challenging semifinal. That set the stage for the grand final, which Dartmouth hadn’t qualified for in the varsity eight since 2004.
 
The feeling entering the grand final was, as Thomas said, one of “immense gratitude.”
 
“There was also excitement that the work we’d put in throughout the year had given us the opportunity to compete for a national championship with the best in the country,” he said. “There definitely were nerves as well. Everybody went out with the intent to give it their all.”
 
A tight race was expected and saw the Big Green finish in third place with a time of 5:30.90, just 0.15 seconds behind Harvard and only 1.12 seconds behind Washington in first. Dartmouth was 1.3 seconds ahead of fourth-place Princeton.
 
“To be going against the top collegiate crews and racing against teams like Washington and Harvard was really cool,” said Maroney. “I remember growing up and watching these races.”

Bronze medal for the varsity eight at the IRA National Championship!

Check out the final strokes of a very tight final #GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/bVmgvKCbwp

— Dartmouth Men’s Heavyweight Rowing (@BigGreenHeavies) June 1, 2025

 Maroney was not only a relatively recent addition to the varsity eight, but it also marked his first time ever rowing in an eight.
 
“I’ve been at some big competitions, but this was my first year actually learning to sweep row,” he said. “That was a pretty steep learning curve, but it was really fun.”
 
Maroney’s growth over the course of the year is a testament to not only his talent, but also the coaching — led by Allen and assistant coaches Sabrina Bohrer and Jack Smith. Allen was recently named the IRCA National Coach of the Year.
 
Thomas touched on the belief Allen has instilled into the Big Green.
 
“Wyatt has taken this program from the bottom of the Ivy League to competing for a national championship in a very short time,” said Thomas. “Year after year, he has inspired this belief that we can compete with anybody on any given day. And this was the year when it all came to fruition.”
 
Reasons for the success were both tangible and intangible.
 
“Rowing is a very hard sport; it’s not fun all the time,” said Thomas. “You go out early in the morning, it’s cold, it’s wet at times and the work’s very hard, but we have a group of guys who manage to find fun within the process — whether it’s joking with each other or playing pranks on each other throughout the year.
 
“That has really kept it light-hearted when perhaps people are down or when you forget why you’re doing it,” Thomas continued. “On top of it, we all are very competitive, and we’ve all kept the goals we set at the start of the year in mind — beating crews that we hadn’t historically beaten.”
 
How did that happen? 
 
“The capacity and ability of the guys, and the depth of the team — not limited to the nine guys in the top boat — was obviously a big factor,” said Allen. “Having someone like Billy in the stroke seat, having his experience and his rhythm, was a big piece of it. Having the senior leadership leading that group throughout the year was another big piece of it as well. Lastly, the way the personalities fit in the crew and the respect they have for one another was a big contributor to the success of the crew over a long season.”

Recap from a thrilling end of the season for the varsity eight and the Big Green!

| https://t.co/5myRFBs8Cr#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods

— Dartmouth Men’s Heavyweight Rowing (@BigGreenHeavies) June 1, 2025

Looking Ahead to the Henley
The Big Green are aiming to continue the chemistry at the Henley Royal Regatta. Dartmouth’s eight will be competing in the Ladies’ Challenge Plate, which includes a mix of international and United States crews, one of which is Harvard.
 
“It’s always a matter of perspective, but I would say the Olympics are the biggest stage in our sport, and it’s arguable that Henley is the second biggest stage for our sport internationally,” said Allen. “To have a Dartmouth crew representing the boathouse and the college is pretty incredible. Having that exposure for international recruiting is huge as well.”
 
“We were obviously thrilled with the result at the IRA and the Eastern Sprints, but I definitely feel like there was some unfinished business,” said Thomas. “We definitely have more in us, and we’re very grateful for the opportunity. I’d like to thank the donors who gave us the opportunity to go race at Henley.”
 
The regatta gives the five seniors in the boat one last opportunity to represent the college they love. It also gives one junior and three first-years more valuable experience they can draw from heading into next season.
 
“This has been a big bucket list race of mine for a long time,” said Maroney. “I’m really excited to once again prove ourselves one more time with this crew.”
 
Allen called the Henley “icing on the cake” after Sprints and the IRA.
 
“I’m proud of them, and psyched that they were able to win medals, both at Sprints and the IRA and earn this opportunity,” said Allen.
 
“One of the best things about coaching at Dartmouth, and coaching in our boathouse, is the incredible alumni support,” Allen continued. “The fact that we had several key individuals step up right away and make this trip possible for the guys is incredible and something none of us take for granted.”

A talented local AAU boys basketball team is gearing up for their last three tournaments of the season, with the stated goal of winning a national championship.

The D1 Minnesota 17U team features six players who play their high school basketball here in the northwest suburbs.

All nine players on the roster have received Division 1 college basketball offers with four of them verbally committed.

D1 Minnesota will play in a Minnesota tournament this weekend before going later this month to South Carolina for the Adidas Nationals and finishing the summer at the Adidas Invitational in Los Angeles.

The local players on D1 Minnesota are Wayzata’s Nolen Anderson and Christian Wiggins, Dothan Ijadimbola of Totino-Grace, plus a trio of Maple Grove players- Baboucarr Ann, Max Iversen, and Jack Thelen.

The rest of the roster features Cedric Tomes, who’s committed to the University of Minnesota, Ryan Kreager, and Jaidyn Coon.

Ann and Thelen will be high school juniors this coming year while the other seven will be seniors.

The team’s record is 18-5 with losses coming to other nationally ranked teams.

Maple Grove Senior High School

Totino-Grace High School

Wayzata High School

Basketball

CCX News – Daily Sportscast

The twins may be the same height, wear braces, and have similar opinions, but Lia and Mia say they are not identical.

For one thing, they point to their heads.

Mia parts her hair on the right; Lia parts hers on the left.

They aren’t even the only world-class divers in their family. The twins’ older sister, Suri, competed at last fall’s junior world championships in Rio de Janeiro and placed 10^th on the 1m springboard in the B Group (for 14- to 15-year-olds) while the twins kept training.

Five months later, all three sisters were eligible for the 2025 World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico, where the twins rocketed to a silver medal, placing second, 25.71 points behind 2024 Olympic gold medalists and three-time world champions, Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen of China.  They were also 12.23 points ahead of third-place finishers Maddison Keeney and Alysha Koloi of Australia.

One day later, Lia placed fifth individually in 3m.

At 14, the twins are defeating women on the world stage who are nine or 10 years older.

Just to make the World Cup roster, Lia said, “They made a competition in Mexico to [decide] who will come here – and we won, so we came.”

As partners, “synchronization comes easily for us,” Mia said.

Lia verbally counts down the pair as they prepare to dive. The reason, she said, is because “I speak louder…and I’m older,” adding that “the difficult part is the exit of the dive and entry to the water.”

Both say that the most important people in their lives are their family, which includes a younger brother, parents, and grandparents.

“We all believe in each other, so we get confidence in ourselves,” Lia said.

They also agree that their silver medal from Guadalajara is their most valuable possession to date.

“If I lost that medal in the airport or something,” Lia said, “I would be so sad.”

“It’s my first international medal,” Mia explained. “And behind that medal is a lot of training –  eight or nine hours a day” split between two daily sessions, both of which include pool time and gym time. 

They share a coach, Ivan Bautista, but they don’t have any nicknames yet.

“Most people just call us the twins – or “gamelas” in Spanish –  because they don’t know who is who,” said Mia.

Asked if each had a secret talent, Mia said, “I’m good at writing because I have a good imagination.”

Lia said, “I’m good at dancing,” specifically, whatever’s trending on  TikTok. She sometimes posts her own moves on the channel at @LIAYATZIL    

If there’s ever a day when they don’t feel like going to practice, Mia said, “the things that have happened here [at the World Cups] is the motivation to continue training every day.”

Lia agreed. “We are motivated to learn more about the other divers, and to beat the Chinese and the other divers.”

It’s already starting to happen for their Mexican teammates. Osmar Olvera Ibarra, for example, captured two medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics (a bronze in 3m and the silver in 3m synchro with Juan Manuel Celaya Hernandez).

The twins watched it unfold on TV while vacationing with their family in Cancun.

Mia said she was excited but not surprised: “We expected Osmar to win one or two medals in Paris. In synchro they were so near to the Chinese. [It came down to the last dive.] And that’s why we think we can beat the Chinese also in some years.”

To that end, Olympic medalists have shared some advice.

“Osmar and Gabi [Agundez Garcia] told us to get motivated and enjoy the competition in both Guadalajara and Windsor, and that if you don’t make a good dive, don’t worry about it because it’s your first competition,” Lia said.

The twins have already qualified for the World Cup Super Final in Beijing, and if they make Mexico’s roster for the 2025 world championship in Singapore, they may have the additional opportunity to check out what excellence looks like in some of the other World Aquatics disciplines.

Outside of diving, Mia said her favorite would be artistic swimming. “It’s elegant,” she said. “I like how the routine looks. But I would not be able to wear all that makeup and hair gel.”

Lia said surfing was her favorite (non-diving) aquatic sport. But it won’t be contested in Singapore because it’s not governed by World Aquatics, so her next-favorite event would be men’s and women’s water polo. But then she quickly changed her answer to swimming “because I like to see their speed.”

Her favorite swimmer at the moment? “The Italian one, Thomas Ceccon,” Lia said.

Asked why, she just giggled.

Prompted by a guess: “Guapo?”  she nodded heartily, giggled some more, and went on her way.