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MASTER YAN’AN HAS trained at the Shaolin Temple in the Henan province of China since he was 6 years old. He has climbed the roughly 1,500 stone steps up Wuru Peak to the Bodhidharma Cave thousands of times. None of the steps is the same size or height. Some are narrow; some are tall. During the day, tourists who visit the temple usually take one to two hours to reach the peak. It is not advised to climb at night. There are no lights along the trail, and one wrong step could send a hiker tumbling down the steep staircase.

But Master Yan’an had an unusual student last summer. San Antonio Spurs All-NBA center Victor Wembanyama was looking for a challenge that would test him in ways he’d never been tested before. He wanted to build his inner strength alongside his already prodigious physical strength.

His goals, he said, transcended mere athletic glory.

“I told him: You play basketball, and I do kung fu. If you want to be great, you have to do things that other people can’t do,” Master Yan’an told ESPN. “There are two parts to climbing the mountain. The daytime is for your body. Your endurance, your strength. The nighttime is for your mind. Your awareness.”

Wembanyama understood.

After darkness fell on the sixth night of his retreat at the Shaolin Temple last summer, he joined Master Yan’an and a group of monks for a hike to the Bodhidharma Cave.

“There were no lights anywhere,” Master Yan’an said. “You can’t see anything. The only way to go is step by step. Listen to your breath and listen to your heart. Feel each step with your foot. Use your awareness.”

Two staffers from San Antonio who had accompanied Wembanyama expressed their reservations. Master Yan’an worried, too. He’d been entrusted to train a global icon, a generational talent, and they were about to embark on a treacherous mountain path in total darkness.

“He’s really young, and he has a really great future in basketball,” Master Yan’an said. “He’s also very tall, so he hit his head on some of the trees along the path and had to lean forward to go under them.” But the entire point of this training, he said, was to free your mind from fear and trust your awareness to guide you.

The group walked and climbed for about an hour, a moving meditation in darkness and silence.

Throughout his time at the monastery, meditation had been the most difficult aspect for Wembanyama to embrace. It’s hard for someone 7-foot-4 to sit cross-legged at all, let alone silently for up to 90 minutes, without moving.

But he kept at it. Each night he slept in three single-size beds that had been pushed together to accommodate his frame. Each morning he rose at 4:30 to train. The monks would have him run through the forests near the monastery or along an uneven 200-meter hillside track, doing frog jumps, sprints and one-legged hops uphill and downhill to build his balance and stamina.

They taught him the Shaolin 13 Fist Form — one of the two basic forms of kung fu meant to teach efficient weight shifts, stability and striking principles.

Master Yan’an said he designed Wembanyama’s customized martial arts training to emphasize controlling his center of gravity, which would generate force from different positions and resist external forces, to mimic the double-teams and physical play he’d face from NBA opponents.

Several times a day Wembanyama meditated with 100 other monks, each session’s length determined by the length of the wick of incense that burned in the center of the room. Thirty minutes was doable. But sometimes the incense burned for 90 minutes, and it was agonizing for the then-21-year-old Wembanyama to sit that long.

“I knew he could do it,” Master Yan’an said. “Because when he trains, he always tries again and again until he is the best.”

Master Yan’an recognized then what the basketball world is recognizing now: that Victor Wembanyama has perhaps the most unprecedented set of skills and untapped potential anyone has ever seen, and that he requires a similarly unprecedented training regimen to realize it.

This is the story of how 34 generations of Shaolin warrior history trained a once-in-a-generation NBA superstar, one who looks poised to dominate for the rest of his nascent career.

WEMBANYAMA’S VISIT TO the temple had been kept as confidential as possible, but there is only so much that can be done to conceal a 7-foot-4 global superstar traveling through central China in Nike Tech sweats.

Hundreds of fans gathered outside the temple, cell phones in hand, on the day Wembanyama was set to arrive, and throughout his stay videos of him training went viral worldwide in real time. One of the most recognizable athletes on the planet was training in kung fu with Shaolin monks, wearing their robes and shaving his head as he embraced their monastic lifestyle.

It was a striking scene.

Wembanyama ate the same strict vegetarian diet as the monks while he was there, in accordance with Buddhist principles.

But several times a day, his team arranged for a Sprinter van to pull into the monastery, pick up Wembanyama and drive him outside the walls of the temple, where someone would deliver a high-protein meal from a local restaurant. He would eat it inside the Sprinter van, dispose of any remaining meat, then be driven back inside the temple.

Every bit of the experience seemed authentic, which made it that much more unbelievable to witness.

Why was he there? What was he looking for? What did he find?

Over the past year, Wembanyama has given several different answers to those questions. In late June he said that he’d gone there to “put my body through things it isn’t used to” during a live episode of “The Shop” at Fanatics Fest.

In December he told ESPN’s Malika Andrews that he was intrigued by the way the monks trained and believed it would help him fulfill his potential by developing his mind and body in new ways.

“I was just looking at this video of a monk holding the feet of the guy and he goes up and down the stairs … and I was just thinking, ‘I’m not able to do these things physically right now. My body still has some areas to fill and some areas to develop.’

“It’s always been — I can’t say always been — [but] for some years it’s been very important for me to develop my body into what it can be and fulfill the potential as much as possible.”

Master Yan’an has a different theory.

“If you dare to fight, you should have courage,” he said. “So, we are teaching how to be courageous. To build courage.”

Master Yan’an watched Wembanyama’s transcendent 41-point, 24-rebound performance in the Spurs’ Game 1 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder from Shanghai. He noticed Wembanyama’s endurance in playing a career-high 49 minutes. He noted the body control Wembanyama displayed in making off-balance, one-legged shots as he was being shoved by defenders.

He’d trained Wembanyama to keep his center of gravity intact through contact, even off one leg.

But mostly he noticed the resolve in Wembanyama’s eyes, he said.

“He’s so special, you can feel that from his eyes,” Master Yan’an said.

Through a video chat on WeChat, Master Yan’an seemed to mimic the steely gaze Wembanyama makes when he is in the peak of his basketball flow.

“Power comes from inside,” he said. “I would look at him and say: You are not a cat; you are a tiger. For power to come out, you have to change the inside first.”

Once Wembanyama did, Master Yan’an said, he could challenge him to do something nobody else could do.

One day he told Wembanyama to dribble a basketball up another dangerous mountain route to Sanhuangzhai, a monastery deep in the Song Mountains. The hike traversed cliffside plank paths, suspension bridges and ancient forests, and was five times as long as the one to Bodhidharma Cave. The trail forces you to climb roughly 2,500 feet in elevation across uneven ridges and stone.

Master Yan’an said it would take an average person seven to eight hours to reach the end.

Wembanyama did it — while dribbling a basketball — in four and a half.

“Talent is not enough,” he said. “You need to put in the work, too. Victor has both. He has hard work, and he has talent.”

Master Yan’an has a different theory.

“If you dare to fight, you should have courage,” he said. “So, we are teaching how to be courageous. To build courage.”

Master Yan’an watched Wembanyama’s transcendent 41-point, 24-rebound performance in the Spurs’ Game 1 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder from Shanghai. He noticed Wembanyama’s endurance in playing a career-high 49 minutes. He noted the body control Wembanyama displayed in making off-balance, one-legged shots as he was being shoved by defenders.

He’d trained Wembanyama to keep his center of gravity intact through contact, even off one leg.

But mostly he noticed the resolve in Wembanyama’s eyes, he said.

“He’s so special, you can feel that from his eyes,” Master Yan’an said.

Through a video chat on WeChat, Master Yan’an seemed to mimic the steely gaze Wembanyama makes when he is in the peak of his basketball flow.

“Power comes from inside,” he said. “I would look at him and say: You are not a cat; you are a tiger. For power to come out, you have to change the inside first.”

Once Wembanyama did, Master Yan’an said, he could challenge him to do something nobody else could do.

One day he told Wembanyama to dribble a basketball up another dangerous mountain route to Sanhuangzhai, a monastery deep in the Song Mountains. The hike traversed cliffside plank paths, suspension bridges and ancient forests, and was five times as long as the one to Bodhidharma Cave. The trail forces you to climb roughly 2,500 feet in elevation across uneven ridges and stone.

Master Yan’an said it would take an average person seven to eight hours to reach the end.

Wembanyama did it — while dribbling a basketball — in four and a half.

“Talent is not enough,” he said. “You need to put in the work, too. Victor has both. He has hard work, and he has talent.”

OVER THE PAST three decades, Ndiaye has represented some of the best players to come from France: Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum, Evan Fournier. He has known Wembanyama’s family for almost as long. Wembanyama’s mother, Elodie, even coached Ndiaye’s son when he was just 5 years old.

He always has understood the responsibility in representing a player with Wembanyama’s natural athletic and mental gifts. But as Wembanyama has grown into his extraordinary talent, Ndiaye has also come to see it as a privilege.

“I am always trying to think ahead and see how we can train this kid differently, because he’s different,” Ndiaye said. “We have to do something for him, not just do something with him.”

Last April, he called Los Angeles Lakers general manager and president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka, who represented Kobe Bryant for much of his career, and scheduled a lunch.

The reason was simple.

“The way they think is different,” Ndiaye told ESPN. “The way they play, the way they stretch themselves. Just their curiosity. How they study and watch things. They’re both very creative on how to solve a problem.”

Wembanyama’s problem to solve last spring, Ndiaye said, was how to be more physical on the court without bulking up. How to get stronger without losing the flexibility and athleticism that make his body so unique. How to move differently so he could impose his will and his length and his prodigious skill set inside the 3-point line, where his opponents usually choose a player 30 to 50 pounds heavier to rough him up.

“Basically he wanted to have a physical transformation so he can run forever and use his physical tools to get closer to the basket,” Ndiaye said. “And then he wanted to be challenged.”

Mentally, physically, spiritually. Challenged in every way a supremely conditioned athlete who already pushes himself harder than most humans can be challenged.

Pelinka listened while Ndiaye talked. He knew the type.

Bryant used to do that, too, he told him. One summer Bryant had become obsessed with studying how great white sharks hunt and attack their prey. So it became Pelinka’s job to find him the best place in the world to do that — which is apparently Guadalupe, an island 150 miles off the coast of Baja, Mexico, where you can go cage diving in the crystal-clear waters.

Bryant would later write in The Players’ Tribune in 2017 that his study of great whites helped him defend Allen Iverson.

Then there was Bryant’s obsession with the Sistine Chapel. Pelinka arranged for him to travel there one summer for a private tour guided by an art historian.

Bryant was fascinated by how Michelangelo had painted a three-dimensional masterpiece while lying on scaffolding in a space without abundant natural light, Pelinka told Ndiaye.

The lesson was not about the techniques used but the vision and perseverance to create something extraordinary under impossible conditions.

Ndiaye nodded along as Pelinka recounted these stories, both men delighting in the intellectual curiosity each of their star clients brought to their craft.

“I wanted to understand how Kobe did things,” Ndiaye told ESPN. “So that we could learn from him. Victor is not like anybody else. We have to be creative to build programs that are unique to him.”

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LEGEND HAS IT that Bodhidharma, the monk credited with bringing Zen Buddhism to China, climbed Wuru Peak in 527 A.D. and meditated in a cave near the top, facing a stone wall, for nine years.

There were no steps back then, only a wild, mountainous trail. Over the past 1,500 years Shaolin monks have cleared the thick forest trail and laid stone steps so others can also make the pilgrimage.

Ndiaye can’t say if Wembanyama’s nighttime trek up that peak is what led him to have the kind of night he did in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals — or the kind of season he had.

But he can say that his client looks and plays differently this season — Wembanyama averaged three fewer 3-point attempts per game than last season — more than ever before.

He’s moving differently, like a tiger. Like he has already arrived.

“The way that he’s behaving in terms of mental strength is something that I haven’t seen before,” Ndiaye said. “There’s pressure in all these situations now. He has the awareness of that pressure and that he’s an important piece of a team that is trying to win a championship. And I think he’s leading perfectly — which is leading without being an a–hole.

“No. 2, his conditioning is second to none. We’re getting into that period of the year where you’re playing every other day, and Victor is still looking so good physically, and I think this is the result of all this work.

“He was running every day last year, every day. Running everywhere, always outside, up the walls in China, up the mountains, in the forests. When he got back to the States. He just ran everywhere, and he’s so fast. No one can follow him.”

And if he keeps going down these paths, maybe no one ever will.

Just over a month ago, everything seemed to be clicking for the Chicago Cubs.

The offense was wearing down opposing pitching staffs with its depth. The defense was taking away would-be hits from opposing hitters. And despite some early injuries, the rotation was still getting the job done. It all added up to a 27-12 start and a perch atop the National League Central.

Then it all came crashing down.

Chicago’s bats went quiet and injuries finally took their toll on the pitching staff and, suddenly, the Cubs had traded in their division lead for a spot in the basement.

After dropping the first two games of a series in Colorado this week, the Cubs became the earliest team by the calendar to fall to .500 after being 15 games over in a season, according to ESPN Research. Only the 1996 San Diego Padres have come close, but after a 35-20 start, the Padres fell back to .500 in late June. The Cubs did it on June 10.

Veteran pitcher Jameson Taillon was asked if doubt has crept into a once confident and vibrant locker room.

“I don’t know about doubt,” the injured starter answered. “We all know what we’re capable of still. It’s a matter of ‘What’s it going to take to get us back to being a good team?’ I don’t doubt we can be that good team. That being said, it would be nice to see it soon.”

Now that Chicago has won consecutive games for the first time since May 28, is the team that had Chicago abuzz just over a month ago due to return to that form? Or has this case of whiplash brought with it a wider realization — that the 2026 Cubs are just not good enough?

Let’s examine the topics that will decide where the season goes from here.

The offense

From Opening Day through May 8, the Cubs had the highest scoring offense in baseball at 5.51 runs per game. Since then, they’ve scored a paltry 3.4 times per game — good for 29th in the sport over that timeframe.

Chicago’s biggest offseason splash, Alex Bregman, recently shouldered the blame for the lineup’s swoon after posting a .686 OPS and career-worst 16.7 strikeout rate over his first 68 games with the team.

“I haven’t executed all year,” Bregman said last week. “Runners in scoring position, I’ve been god-awful. I need to be better. If I’m better over the last how many games, we probably win the majority of them… They brought me here to play good baseball, and I haven’t played good baseball. I need to figure it out.”

While Bregman’s meager production is not what the Cubs had in mind when they signed the 32-year-old infielder to a $175 million deal last offseason, he is not the only star in Chicago’s lineup who isn’t getting the job done at the plate.

Shortstop Dansby Swanson was benched for a couple games earlier this week as his offensive woes continue to mount. Of 158 qualified hitters, Swanson’s .178 batting average is the second lowest behind only San Diego’s Manny Machado. Second baseman Nico Hoerner is hitting under .200 since May 8 after a hot start to the season, and Matt Shaw and Moises Ballesteros have struggled to find consistency while being shuffled in and out of the lineup.

“The backbone of our team is our position players,” Cubs president Jed Hoyer said. “They have to play well for us to be a good team.”

If the Cubs are going to turn it around, they know it starts with getting power from all over the lineup — just as they did a season ago. Since their ride to the bottom of the standings began on May 8, Cubs hitters rank just 23rd in the sport in home runs, and their four home run leaders from last season (along with Bregman) are all on pace for fewer long balls.

“Michael Busch hit 34 home runs last year,” Hoyer said. “Pete [Crow-Armstrong] hit over 30. Seiya [Suzuki] hit over 30. Ian [Happ], Dansby in the 20s. Bregman should hit homers. Our guys that hit homers are not hitting homers and ultimately that is the challenge.”

The Cubs are also seeing many more breaking pitches during their slump, from 33% early in the season to 37% over the last month. That’s led to a collective higher launch angle — 13.9 degrees to 16.9 — as those pitches create loft, in part, because hitters are getting out in front of the ball.

“A lot of it has to do with some of the sliders and breaking balls we’ve seen and the uptick in change ups,” Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly said. “I don’t want super high launch angles. I want line drives in the gap, but no, guys aren’t selling out.”

The importance of collective production from up and down the lineup is heightened because even when things are going well, the Cubs don’t feature the type of superstar hitter who can carry their offense for weeks at a time like some teams atop the standings do. Think Aaron Judge for the New York Yankees, Shohei Ohtani for the Los Angeles Dodgers or even another top slugger the Cubs got a firsthand look at last week.

“There is no doubt, watching [Athletics first baseman] Nick Kurtz in that series, that is a superstar middle-of-the-order bat, and every time he’s up, if you’re a fan, you can’t look away, and if you’re me, you’re hoping for a good result,” Hoyer said. “I don’t think we have that kind of middle-of-the-order slugger. There’s not a lot of those guys out there.

“But we have one of the deepest offenses in baseball. Period.”

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The rotation

Getting the best version of that deep offense is paramount, because while many of Chicago’s lineup problems have potential solutions, the Cubs are running out of options to fix their pitching issues. Rival scouts and execs point to the team’s mounting injuries and lack of pitching depth as the long-term issues that could ultimately sink the Cubs.

“Even during their 10-game losing streak, which was mostly because of a lack of scoring, it never felt right on the mound for them,” one scout said.

Long before that skid, injuries first hit the rotation when budding star Cade Horton was lost for the season on April 3. Veteran left-hander Matthew Boyd hit the injured list with a knee injury a month later and suffered a recent setback when he started experiencing shoulder soreness that will delay his return. Then Taillon went on IL this week with a hamstring strain that leaves the Cubs without 60% of their Opening Day rotation.

The two remaining members of that group — Shota Imanaga and Edward Cabrera — have also struggled over the past month. Imanaga finally offered some reason for optimism with five scoreless innings in Colorado after allowing 26 runs over his previous four starts and Cabrera, likewise, pitched well against the Rockies after allowing eight runs over 3⅔ innings against the Giants on June 5.

All told, the Cubs’ starting staff ranks only ahead of the Rockies in ERA in the NL while giving up an MLB-high 67 home runs.

There has been one clear bright spot though: right-hander Ben Brown, who has posted a 1.44 ERA over six starts since being moved into the rotation from the bullpen. But the 26-year-old who has made just 29 career starts isn’t going to carry the rotation by himself, and the question remains who is going to step up to help Chicago climb back up the standings.

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What it means for the trade deadline

One thing should be clear to the 26 players in the Cubs’ clubhouse right now: The trade deadline isn’t going to solve their problems for them — especially in the lineup.

Hoyer recently said that the deadline is “the furthest thing from my mind” while also acknowledging that help on the mound will be their trade focus over adding an impact bat.

“Our position player group is deep, and it’s pretty set,” he explained. “We’ll be looking at pitching at that point. [But] sitting here talking about the deadline, given how we’ve played, is the wrong thing to talk about.”

The much more pressing topic is if the Cubs can start stacking enough wins to give their front office a reason to make a splash at the deadline. According to FanGraphs, the Cubs’ playoff odds have fallen to 43.8% and with the Brewers distancing themselves at the top of the NL Central, Chicago’s division odds are down to 6.9% with only a 1.6% chance of earning an opening-round bye.

“Your World Series odds are probably going to be correlated to your odds of getting a bye, and getting a bye is such a big deal,” Hoyer said. “A lot of that aggressiveness is based on that ability to get the bye.”

But Hoyer also maintains it is too early to say goodbye to the Cubs’ hopes in 2026 completely.

“Sometimes when you’re winning, winning kind of finds you,” he said recently.

And, as Chicago has found out over the past month, sometimes it’s the opposite.

BOURNEMOUTH, England (AP) — Scotland midfielder Ryan Christie is staying with Premier League club Bournemouth.

The 31-year-old Christie signed a three-year contract extension through the 2028-29 season, Bournemouth announced Saturday ahead of Scotland’s opening game in the World Cup.

“Ryan has made a hugely important contribution to the football club since arriving here and we’re delighted he has signed a new contract,” said Tiago Pinto, the club’s head of soccer operations. “He is a key part of the leadership group in the dressing room and has consistently shown his value to the team through his performances, experience and commitment.”

Christie has made 177 appearances across all competitions for Bournemouth, scoring 10 goals and setting up 17 more since joining from Celtic in August 2021.

Last season, Christie made 26 Premier League appearances, scoring against both Crystal Palace and Manchester United, to help Bournemouth finish sixth — its best-ever finish and enough for its first qualification for European competition.

BOURNEMOUTH, England (AP) — Scotland midfielder Ryan Christie is staying with Premier League club Bournemouth.

The 31-year-old Christie signed a three-year contract extension through the 2028-29 season, Bournemouth announced Saturday ahead of Scotland’s opening game in the World Cup.

“Ryan has made a hugely important contribution to the football club since arriving here and we’re delighted he has signed a new contract,” said Tiago Pinto, the club’s head of soccer operations. “He is a key part of the leadership group in the dressing room and has consistently shown his value to the team through his performances, experience and commitment.”

Christie has made 177 appearances across all competitions for Bournemouth, scoring 10 goals and setting up 17 more since joining from Celtic in August 2021.

Last season, Christie made 26 Premier League appearances, scoring against both Crystal Palace and Manchester United, to help Bournemouth finish sixth — its best-ever finish and enough for its first qualification for European competition.

MIDLAND, Mich. (AP) — Nelly Korda found the perfect tonic for the week after the biggest win of her career. The U.S. Women’s Open champion is playing with good friend Olivia Cowan of Germany in the Dow Championship, two shots out of the lead Friday held by Polly Mack and Celine Borge.

The final two days at Midland Country Club also includes Juli Inkster, the 66-year-old Hall of Famer who became the oldest player to make the cut when she teamed with 27-year-old Angel Yin for a 68 in fourballs.

“I’m happy I played,” said Inkster, born 10 years after the LPGA was founded. “Sometimes you’ve got to put yourself out there and I felt like I did that this week.”

Mack and Borge were among the late starters and posted a 60 to reach 12-under 128 and zoom past the Japanese duo of Ayaka Furue and Yuna Nishimura (61).

Korda and Cowan shot 60 to finish two shots behind, with Korda doing most of the damage and Cowan stepping in for a 20-foot birdie putt on their final hole.

“We just wanted to go out and have some fun. That’s when we play our best,” Korda said. “Last week was a great week. This is the perfect week to back up that week. It’s just a little more relaxed. It’s been a blast.”

Korda said there wasn’t a lot of golf talk, mostly trying to finish to get lunch and head for their favorite coffee shop.

The U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera was her fourth win of the year, and fourth career major, solidifying her perch atop women’s golf. She played the part most of the second round in fourballs with several birdie putts.

“Nelly made a lot of putts today,” Cowan said. “I felt like I needed to make the last one.”

JoAnne Carner holds the LPGA record for individual events, making the cut in 2004 at age 64. The Dow Championship counts as official, so Inkster goes into the record book as the oldest.

This also could be a big week for Cowan, who would get a two-year exemption on the LPGA if she and Korda were to win.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Yordan Alvarez became the first player to hit a grand slam and multi-run homer in the first inning of an MLB game, pulling off the feat for the Houston Astros in a 10-8 win over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.

He became the eighth player to hit a grand slam and a multi-run homer in an inning and the first since Angels slugger Kendrys Morales did it against Texas in 2012, according to Sportradar.

The left-handed Alvarez drove in two runs with an opposite-field homer early in the inning and cleared the bases with a two-out shot to center, giving him six RBIs in Houston’s nine-run inning.

With his two-homer inning, Alvarez moved into a tie with Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead at 24.

The 28-year-old designated hitter, who is from Cuba, was the AL rookie of the year in 2019 with Houston. The three-time All-Star was the AL Championship Series MVP in 2021 and led the Astros with six RBIs the next year when they won the World Series.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Victor Wembanyama, the tallest man in these NBA Finals, is about to face the tallest order of his basketball career.

And he’s fine with that.

Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs — who just became the first team in NBA Finals history to lead a game by 29 points and still lose — need to win the next three games, or they’ll watch the New York Knicks celebrate an NBA title at their expense. And when the Spurs gathered for practice on Friday, Wembanyama insisted the belief within the Spurs camp is still there.

“Everybody thinks, everybody knows, we’re going to do it,” Wembanyama said.

If he was nervous, he hid it well. The 7-foot-4 French star has helped the Spurs stave off elimination twice already in these playoffs, after San Antonio won Games 6 and 7 of the Western Conference finals against Oklahoma City and ended the Thunder’s reign as NBA champions.

Now, the Spurs have to do it again on Saturday in Game 5 against the Knicks. And if they win Saturday, they’ll have to do it again in Game 6 on Tuesday. And if they win Tuesday, a Game 7 awaits next Friday.

“I feel like we need to isolate that one game and take it one game at a time,” Wembanyama said. “I think it would be a mistake to waste our energy on multiple games. It’s one game at a time.”

The Spurs led Game 1 by 14 points and lost by 10. They led Game 2 by 12 points and lost by one. They won Game 3 by four, then had the 29-point lead in Game 4 and lost by one.

Clearly, they know how to get into position to beat the Knicks.

They just haven’t finished it off in three of the four games. And now, they will try to be just the second team in NBA Finals history to successfully rally from a 3-1 series deficit; Cleveland did it against Golden State in 2016. The other 37 teams that have tried to do so all failed.

“It definitely matters,” Spurs guard Stephon Castle said. “I feel like we’ve made history all year, and we’ve proven that with our backs against the wall that we can step up. So, I don’t really expect this to be any different.”

Neither does Wembanyama.

The Spurs know they’re good enough. They’ve had the leads. They’ve won every first quarter, then frittered those advantages away. In Game 3, they recovered. In Games 1, 2 and 4, they didn’t. In Game 5, they’ll have to — or else.

“You said all of it,” Wembanyama said. “We’re very confident. I wouldn’t say it was so hard to shake off (Game 4). Harder than any other game before, by far, for sure. I mean, now we’re over it. It’s the playoffs. There’s no time to regret things for too long.”

CALEDON, Ontario (AP) — Ben James holed a 25-foot eagle putt to start his round and never let up until he had a 7-under 63 for a one-shot lead in his professional debut at the RBC Canadian Open.

James was an All-American all four years at Virginia and led the PGA Tour University ranking to earn a card through the 2027 season.

“It all kind of came together today. It was just one of those days,” James said. “The putter was good, hitting fairways, had good numbers, and was able to capitalize on a pretty tricky scoring day.”

James was at 10-under 130, one shot over a group of five players that included Sam Burns, who played in the final group at the Memorial last week and tied for fourth.

Brooks Koepka had a 68 and was two shots behind, along with Tommy Fleetwood.

James played bogey-free on the Osprey Valley course at TPC Toronto and goes into the weekend having not made a bogey in his last 33 holes. This is his 10th PGA Tour event, including two U.S. Opens, but first one as a pro.

“I wasn’t really thinking about results at all this week. Just worried about getting comfortable, making new friends and having fun, and just seeing where everything kind of falls,” James said. “Obviously, I have some stuff to work on, just trying to see where everything goes. Because this is just the baseline, it’s my first professional debut. Had a great two days, but just trying to get better.”

Burns had a 67 and was at 131 along with Jackson Suber (65), Haotong Li (64), Keith Mitchell (64) and Jesper Svensson (65).

Tommy Fleetwood, who lost in a playoff at the Canadian Open three years ago when Nick Taylor holed that memorable 72-foot eagle putt, had a 65 and joined Koepka in the group two back that included defending champion Ryan Fox (66).

Koepka was slowed at the start of his round when he lost his tee shot on the 13th and had to scramble for double bogey, and then bogeyed the par-3 14th. He also had four birdies and an eagle on the back nine — he started on No. 10 — the latter coming off a 379-yard drive on the par-5 18th.

He was thinking more of the drive that went sideways.

“I would like to have that tee ball back on 13,” Koepka said. “I just stood there for 10 minutes and tried to hit a low fade and then it turned into a high draw. When you stand there and start thinking too long, that was kind of the issue. I would love to have that one back. But other than that, played solid, it was fine. The ball striking hasn’t been phenomenal, but it’s good.”

Eric Cole, who was part of the six-way tie for the lead after 18 holes, started with a triple bogey and his day never got much better. He shot 76 to miss the cut, meaning he will have no chance to play in the U.S. Open next week. Cole came into the week at No. 63 in the world, and the top 60 earn an exemption to Shinnecock Hills.

James made it through 36-hole qualifying in New York to earn a spot in his third straight U.S. Open. His focus now is on the fifth-oldest championship in golf — the Canadian Open dates to 1904 — and his professional debut.

“I’ve never been in this position, so I’m very excited to find out,” James said about the weekend. “One thing I wanted to do I was, like, ‘Let’s try and get in that last group.’ I just want to feel what that feels and just see what happens out there in that situation. Being so young, I’m just excited. I have no expectations. I’m going to play the best I can like I did the last two days.”

MANILA – Justin Brownlee put up a heroic performance not seen in 32 years to lead Ginebra to a 100-95 overtime win against TNT and a 3-2 lead in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven finals in front of 18,039 fans at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City on Friday.

The 38-year-old import finished with a career-high 54 points which, according to league data, was the most in a finals game since Swift import Tony Harris also dropped 54 against Alaska in Game 3 of the 1994 PBA Governors’ Cup championship.

The six-foot-six swingman carried the fight for the Gin Kings, scoring 35 of his points in the second half, when they managed to fight back from 11 points down, and through overtime.

Brownlee also had 14 rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block.

RJ Abarrientos added 13 points, two rebounds, four assists and one block.

Ginebra can close it out on Sunday night, also at the Big Dome. If needed, Game 7 will be played Wednesday night at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City. 

Chris McCullough led TNT with 38 points, 16 rebounds, one assist, two blocks, and one steal.

RR Pogoy added 23 points, six rebounds, three assists, and two steals.

The scores:

GINEBRA 100 – Brownlee 54, Abarrientos 13, J.Aguilar 12, Rosario 10, Thompson 6, Holt 2, Abis 2, Pinto 1, Torres 0, Cu 0, Gray 0.

TNT 95 – McCullough 38, Pogoy 23, Heading 13, Oftana 9, Castro 6, Ganuelas-Rosser 2, Nambatac 2, Galinato 2, Williams 0, Khobuntin 0

Quarters: 25-17; 48-50; 75-70; 89-89 (reg.); 100-95 (PNA)

MANILA – Leonard Grospe on Saturday broke the national record in men’s high jump at the ICTSI Philippine Open at New Clark City Athletics Stadium in Capas, Tarlac.

The 2025 Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) bronze medalist registered a personal best 2.23 meters to improve the 2.22m he set during the NCAA Season 101 competition held at the same venue on May 5.

“I’m very happy to break the record because it was the standard in the last Asian Jumps,” he said, referring to the winning jump of 2.23m by Qatari Mutaz Aissa Barsham last month in Chongqing, China.

Meanwhile, Paris Olympian Lauren Hoffman clocked 13.55 seconds to rule the women’s 100m hurdles event over reigning SEAG champion Dina Aulia (13.63) and Army’s Jelly Diane Paragile (14.16).

Two-time SEAG men’s 110m hurdles gold medalist Clinton Kingsley Bautisa retained the title in 14.26 seconds, prevailing over teammate Tochukwu Okolo (14.43) and Papua New Guinea’s Robert Oa (14.51).

In the men’s 400m hurdles, Fil-Am Gabe Borado won in 47.05 seconds.

Mico del Prado (47.29) and Francis Patanpatan (47.79) took the silver and bronze, respectively.

Fil-Am Amanda Javellana dominated the women’s hammer throw with a 51.12m heave.

MANILA — The mother of Rene Baterbonia did not fully accept head coach Tab Baldwin’s apology statement via video regarding the incoming Ateneo de Manila University rookie’s tragic death on Monday.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Rovelyn Baterbonia insisted that something was not right when her son, 19, drowned near the coast of Dipaculao, Aurora during the Blue Eagles’ teambuilding activity.

“My son’s death cannot be brought up in apologies, so that you know what I want you to say. Why do you say that what happened to my son was just an accident? I don’t think it was just an accident,” Mrs. Baterbonia said in Visayan.

She also said that as of posting, Baldwin has not yet communicated to her personally.

In his video statement Friday, Baldwin said sorry for his leadership failure that led to the death of the former Ateneo de Davao University senior high school standout and foreign student-athlete Divine Adili.

“You haven’t updated me on what happened. You posted on social media that my son is dead. You haven’t sent me a picture yet,” Mrs. Baterbonia said.

Ateneo de Davao is holding a public viewing for Baterbonia at Christ the King Chapel, Bangkal Campus until Sunday.

“In grief, we gather. In love, we hold on. In hope, we remember,” the Davao City school posted on Facebook.