Life after LeBron James: who will inherit the NBA’s future?
That the NBA is reckoned in seasons is apt.To measure a legacy this way is as much existential as it is symbolic.Martin Heidegger argued that time is not something we pass through, but the condition of our being – less a pathway than a pressure.Heavy stuff, yes, but the NBA has always operated under similar weight.The millennial superstars who stabilized the league for two decades are now entering their twilight: LeBron James (who turned 41 on Tuesday), Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Chris Paul.
In their wake comes something genuinely new,For the first time, the league’s next dominant generation is unmistakably international,The NBA’s gen Z elite now emerge from Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Canada and France,America’s domestic pipeline still produces talent, but the excesses of AAU culture, one-and-done college basketball and eroding fundamentals have dulled its once overwhelming edge,In a garden crowded by its own overgrowth, the question is which strain ultimately thrives.
Each of the millennial stars now plays under the pressure of finitude,Heidegger described this as living toward an ending – an awareness that sharpens responsibility rather than diminishing it,That sense defines the league’s aging icons,For them, responsibility means one more run,Collectively, this group has won 10 championships and appeared in 23 Finals, but the odds of one last triumph are slim.
Curry is straining to extend a dynasty time is quietly dismantling.LeBron is both the Lakers’ largest contract and no longer their centerpiece.Westbrook chases relevance on a lottery-bound roster.Harden remains productive but unsettled.Only Durant, newly aligned with a rising Houston team, appears plausibly positioned for one more push.
The question of succession is unavoidable.Elder statesmen Nikola Jokić (30) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (31) understand the clock well enough to know urgency has arrived.Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (27) looks capable of anchoring something durable in Oklahoma City, with Luka Dončić (26) and Victor Wembanyama (21) pressing close behind.The American presence has not vanished, but it has dimmed since the 1990s.Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards, Cade Cunningham and Jayson Tatum keep the idea of domestic succession alive, while 19-year-old Cooper Flagg now complicates the hierarchy entirely.
The NBA has never struggled to define its image.From its rise into national consciousness, the league’s authority flowed through Black American players who made the game modern and irresistible, even while navigating deep economic contradictions.But dominance erodes.The world has caught up.Generation Z moves differently.
Previous generations were asked to embody systems that rarely worked in their favor.These players arrive as brands unto themselves, unburdened by history.American moxie still matters, but it no longer travels alone.For decades, only Hakeem Olajuwon briefly disrupted American supremacy, and even that required Michael Jordan’s retirement.Now the balance has shifted.
The millennial generation reshaped the sport – stretching shooting, flattening positions, weaponizing collectives – but even golden eras end, and their fading has left a vacuum no single nation can easily fill.There is an uncomfortable symmetry to the timing.As American authority softens on the global stage, so too does its basketball hegemony.Players from countries once peripheral to the sport now produce its gravitational centers.Can an American reclaim the mantle? Until recently, the answer felt unconvincing.
Then Cooper Flagg arrived.As his shooting stabilizes, his path becomes clearer – and it begins where greatness has always been defined: defense.Across generations, the truly defining stars shared not just brilliance, but responsibility on both ends of the floor.Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James could dominate a game while guarding its most dangerous opponent.That same two-way versatility distinguishes Flagg.
It is what gives his ceiling historical weight.Thrown immediately into the burden of replacing Dončić-level expectations, Flagg initially wavered.But after Dallas moved on from general manager Nico Harrison, the collective exhale allowed him to find his footing.The Mavericks sit on the fringes of the play-in picture, but Flagg already checks the league’s most important box: trust.What makes him viable as the NBA’s next face is the rare blend of responsibility, versatility and control at an age when most players are still learning how to stay on the floor.
He plays the basketball the league prefers to elevate – two-way, connective, portable.His defensive impact resembles that of elite bigs, while his offensive reads mirror those of primary creators.He spots mismatches early, toggles between force and patience, and resists rushing possessions into waste.The NBA crowns players it can trust.As the youngest player in the league, Flagg already plays like an old one.
If the NBA is shaped by contingency rather than ceremony, then the passing of the torch is not an event but an obligation.LeBron’s generation carried the league until their bodies gave way.The world has stepped forward to claim it.But as Heidegger reminds us, what matters is not the future we imagine, but how we handle it once it arrives.The league is not waiting for Cooper Flagg to become something else.
It is already responding to what he is,
China forecast to have sold one in every 10 new cars in UK in 2025
Chinese brands are on course to account for one in every 10 new cars sold in Britain during 2025, a marked increase on last year as sales increase across Europe.Manufacturers led by MG, BYD, and Chery are on track to break the 200,000 mark in UK new car sales in 2025, meaning they are very likely to account for 10% of the market, according to Matthias Schmidt, an analyst tracking electric cars across Europe.Spain and Norway also get a tenth of their new cars from Chinese brands, with the average across western Europe at 6%, Schmidt said.China has taken a commanding lead in the global industry for electric vehicles (EVs) thanks to years of heavy government subsidies, dominance of the supply chain for lithium ion batteries, and cheaper labour. The increase in Chinese sales has alarmed EU countries, particularly Germany and France, who fear losing millions of automotive jobs if the industry shrivels
Eurostar restarts services in Channel tunnel amid continued risk of disruption
Eurostar passengers have been warned that continued delays and cancellations are possible on Wednesday despite the resumption of services after a power supply issue halted Channel tunnel train trips connecting London to the European mainland.Thousands of passengers in the busy run-up to the new year faced hours of delays after the train operator cancelled services between London, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels on Tuesday because of an overhead power supply problem and a failed LeShuttle train.Some services had resumed on the single available line on Tuesday evening, with Eurostar saying there were “further issues with rail infrastructure overnight”.A statement on the Eurostar website on Wednesday said: “We plan to run all of our services today, however due to knock-on impacts there may still be some delays and possible last-minute cancellations.”The first train on Wednesday from St Pancras in London to Gare du Nord station in Paris, scheduled for 6
Snap decisions: why crowding into a photo booth with friends is still a magical experience | Nova Weetman
Last New Year’s Eve, I was out with a friend. We had no plans, so we met at a local cinema and then wandered the long street between our houses, pausing for a drink or two in various bars and chatting to strangers doing the same. We stopped when we became hungry and shared a plate of curries and drank beer in the window of an Indian restaurant, watching the parade of partygoers outside. Then we walked to the top of the hill to watch the fireworks lighting up the sky.It was after midnight as we strolled back but we weren’t quite ready to call it a night, and we found ourselves in a games arcade where a bunch of women were cramming into a photo booth to take a strip of black-and-white photos together
We still don’t really know what Elon Musk’s Doge actually did
When Elon Musk vowed late last year to lead a “department of government efficiency” (Doge), he claimed it would operate with “maximum transparency” as it set about saving $2tn worth of waste and exposing massive fraud.Today, with Musk out of the White House, Doge having cut only a tiny fraction of the waste it promised, and dozens of lawsuits alleging violations of privacy and transparency laws, much of what the agency has done remains a mystery.The effects of Doge’s initial blitz through the federal government – which included dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID), embedding staffers in almost every agency and illegally firing people en masse – are still playing out. Contrary to Musk’s promises, Doge’s success is vague and tough to quantify. Measuring the full impact and determining whether the agency even exists as a centralized entity anymore is difficult, complicated by an ongoing effort from the government to block disclosure of documents, which is itself a symptom of the chaos that the department created
Spin bowling on the back foot with pace dominating quickfire Ashes
Disappointment can be found in all corners of this Ashes series. England’s victory came too late. Australia may have secured the urn again but Glenn McGrath’s usual prediction didn’t hold. It’s been a serious letdown for the neutral, never mind that a 3-2 scoreline is still in the offing. This was meant to be the one where England had a shot, where the Sydney finale would actually have something on the line beyond World Test Championship points
Bullish Bristol believe Rees-Zammit’s NFL spell has improved his rugby
The Bristol director of rugby, Pat Lam, has said Louis Rees-Zammit’s recent NFL tilt made him a stronger and more dangerous player.The Wales back joined the NFL’s international pathway programme in January 2024, and was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs before a spell at the Jacksonville Jaguars. He returned to rugby after 18 months without playing an NFL match, signing for Bristol in July. Lam said that since signing for the Bears, the 24-year-old has been working to reach match fitness, but that his increased power has made it harder for opponents to stop him.“It’s made him a more rounded player,” Lam said
Two new subtypes of MS found in ‘exciting’ breakthrough
A&Es in ‘big trouble’ because of ‘normalised’ corridor care, says leading UK medic
To say ‘six-seven’ is to embrace idiocy | Letters
From Adolescence to the manosphere: has 2025 been the year of the boy?
Gen Z shunning the pre-flight pint for matcha green tea, airports say
UK medical regulator warns against buying weight-loss jabs from social media channels