CNN
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Jimmy Butler’s talents have been lauded this postseason. From his toughness to his elite shot-making, there is a reason he has earned the nickname ‘Himmy Buckets.’

But one talent we didn’t know the Miami Heat star had was clairvoyance. But according to tennis star and Heat fan Coco Gauff, Butler is either excellent at predicting the future or just extremely confident.

In the lead up to the French Open, Gauff hinted she had a “funny story” about Butler but was “going to save it” to avoid jinxing it.

However, after her victory in the first round at Roland Garros on Tuesday and, more importantly, the Heat’s dominant Game 7 win over the Boston Celtics to book their ticket to the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets, Gauff said she was finally ready to tell the story.

Gauff, who said she didn’t watch Game 7 as it was on in the middle of the night before her first round match but was “very relieved” to see the result, explained that before the playoffs, Butler reached out to her to offer her tickets for the final home game of the season in April, before contacting her a few weeks later offering her tickets for the postseason.

“I said: ‘I won’t be here. I’ll be in Madrid and then Rome and then France,’” Gauff told reporters.

“And then he said: ‘OK, when we make the Finals, let me know if your family wants some tickets.’ So this was before [the Heat] were even in the playoffs.

“This is before we lost to the Hawks for the first Play-In game. Everybody is like we have a 3% chance of making the Finals, but when he sent me that, I knew we were making the Finals because he didn’t say, ‘If we make the Finals,’ he said: ‘When we make the Finals.’ Now that we are in the Finals, I can say that story.

“But I remember screenshotting it and sending it to my family and I was, like: ‘Oh, we’re going to the Finals!’”

Butler’s confidence stuck with the 19-year-old, as she said: “I just really like that mentality of him.”

Gauff also revealed she took heart from the Heat’s resolve in Game 7 having relinquished a 3-0 lead to the Celtics in the series only to come out on top.

“Honestly, today, I told myself if Jimmy Butler didn’t freak out when they were up 3-0 and all of a sudden it’s 3-all, then I shouldn’t freak out after losing the first set,” Gauff said on court after her comeback win against Rebeka Masarova.

Butler has played a vital role in the No. 8 seed Heat’s miraculous run to the NBA Finals, beating the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks, the No. 5 New York Knicks and most recently the No. 2 seeded Celtics.

The NBA Finals begin on Thursday in Denver.

CNN
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It began with 128 contenders, but now the women’s draw at the US Open is down to just four.

After almost two weeks of grueling action in the searing heat in New York, the semifinalists have been confirmed for the fourth and final grand slam of 2023.

American teenager Coco Gauff faces Czech world No. 10 Karolína Muchová, while world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka takes on local favorite Madison Keys.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the US Open women’s semifinals.

Gauff and Muchová kick off proceedings in Arthur Ashe Stadium at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, with Keys and Sabalenka following them.

Viewers in the US can watch all the action on ESPN, while Sky Sports will broadcast the matches in the UK.

For those eagle-eyed fans, you might remember this specific match-up taking place very recently.

The two took to the court just under three weeks ago in the final of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, with Gauff winning in straight sets to claim to biggest title of her career.

Her victory in Ohio came in the midst of Gauff’s best period of form in her blossoming tennis career, momentum she’s continued into the US Open.

The American’s most recent outing at Flushing Meadows was another impressive performance, beating Jelena Ostapenko with ease for her 10th victory in a row.

It has been somewhat of a coming-of-age tournament for Gauff, who looks like a serious contender to win her maiden grand slam title, but she insists she’s not getting ahead of herself.

“There’s still a lot of tennis left to play,” Gauff said. “I’m still in the mindset that I’m in the beginning of the tournament. Before I would think close to the end, but right now, I have the mentality that I told myself I still have another two weeks to play.

“Right now, I feel emotionally fresh, which I think was the problem in the past in grand slams. I would emotionally be drained.”

Muchová is very much seen as the underdog against Gauff, despite also showing excellent form recently to rise up to a career-high ranking of No. 10 in the world.

The Czech, who lost in the final of the French Open earlier in the year, has only dropped one set en route to the semifinal as she continues an extraordinary comeback season after suffering a series of injuries last year which threatened her career.

“Mental strength … how would I describe it?” Muchová asked. “I always feel that I’m a pretty tough cookie in life. That helps with tennis. But yeah, some days are better; some days not.

She added: “I don’t really want to say all the keys with the tactics. So I’ll just focus on myself. She’s very athletic. She never gives up. Runs for every ball. Doesn’t do many mistakes. She has all the strokes.”

The second semifinal of the day will also see an American with the crowd behind her taking on a European as Keys faces Belarus’ Sabalenka.

No. 17 seed Keys is enjoying a revival at the tournament, having lost in the final to Sloane Stephens in 2017.

She has already beaten three seeded players on her way to the semifinals, most recently blitzing past Wimbledon champion Markéta Vondroušová in the quarterfinals as she continues to draw on the home crowds to inspire her victories.

“I think I have had just a really good mindset going into the matches. I’ve been trying to be maybe just a little bit more emotionally balanced,” Keys said on her US Open success after her victory over Vondroušová.

It was her 26th career victory over a top-10 player and sets up a heavyweight clash against Sabalenka, who is currently the in-form player in women’s tennis having not dropped a set on her path to the semifinals.

The Belarussian eased past Zheng Qinwen in the quarterfinals to reach her fifth consecutive grand slam semifinal and continue her remarkable record in major quarterfinals – she has now won her first seven grand slam quarterfinal matches, second on the all-time list behind Chris Evert who, amazingly, won her first 48.

The 25-year-old will be crowned as the new world No. 1 when the new rankings are released on Monday and, after claiming her first grand slam title at the Australian Open earlier in the year, Sabalenka is the favorite to win her second of the year.

She’s the first woman to reach the semifinals at all four grand slams in a year since Serena Williams in 2016 and says she has learned a lot from her prior results.

“I had a couple of really tough losses this year,” Sabalenka said. “But as I said, we’re not losing, we’re learning. I’m just getting more experience and getting stronger.”

Editor’s Note: This story was updated with the final sale price and other details following the auction.

CNN
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In 1998, Michael Jordan laced up a pair of his iconic black and red Air Jordan 13s to bring home a Bulls victory during Game 2 of his final NBA championship — and now they are the most expensive sneakers ever to sell at auction.

The game-winning sneakers sold for $2.2 million at Sotheby’s in New York on Tuesday, smashing the sneaker auction record of $1.47 million, set in 2021 by a pair of Nike Air Ships that Jordan wore earlier in his career.

The sale arrives during “Jordan Year” — a reference to the NBA star player’s iconic jersey number 23. In January, Air Jordan partnered with Sotheby’s to auction off 13 pairs of retro sneakers that were designed in memory of The Notorious B.I.G. All lots outsold their high estimates of $5,000 by multiples, with the highest selling for more than $32,000.

Last year, Jordan’s Game 1 jersey, also from the 1998 finals, became the most expensive item of worn sports memorabilia to sell at auction when it fetched $10.1 million at a Sotheby’s sale.

Jordan’s farewell run with the Chicago Bulls is often referred to as “The Last Dance,” after the title of an ESPN and Netflix documentary that chronicled the season. Jordan announced his (second) retirement weeks before the finals, leading to the six-game series against the Utah Jazz becoming the most-watched in NBA history, based on Nielsen TV ratings. (Jordan would later return from 2001 to 2003 to play with the Washington Wizards, but did not win another championship).

“Michael Jordan game-worn sports memorabilia has proven time and time again to be the most elite and coveted items on the market,” said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectables, in a press release prior to the sale. “However, items from his ‘Last Dance’ season are of a greater scale and magnitude as seen with our record-breaking sale of his Game 1 jersey in 2022.”

The pair of sneakers sold Tuesday were worn during Game 2, in Salt Lake City, which the Bulls won 93-88 after losing Game 1, with Jordan scoring 37 points. They are the last pair of black and red Air Jordan 13s that Jordan ever wore on the court for an NBA game, a press release from Sotheby’s noted.

Following Game 2, Jordan signed and gifted the set of worn shoes to the ball boy in the visitor’s locker room, as he was known to do, according to Sotheby’s.

The Air Jordan 13 sneakers starred in a sports memorabilia sale called “Victoriam,” which featured items worn by athletes including Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant and Roger Federer. Several other Jordan items were included in the two-part auction, with a game-worn 1998 Bulls jersey and a pair of 1985 Air Jordan 1s fetching $508,000 and $127,000 respectively.

Other top lots included one of Kobe Bryant’s LA Lakers shooting shirts, which sold for over $406,000, and a soccer jersey, worn by the late Pelé on his debut for the New York Cosmos in 1975, that sold fetched over $177,000.

Top image: The Air Jordan 13 sneakers signed by Michael Jordan.

CNN
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The Boston Celtics became the first team in the NBA this season to reach 30 wins after beating the New Orleans Pelicans 125-114 at TD Garden in Boston on Wednesday night, largely behind a combined 72 points from the team’s stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

Brown scored season-high 41 points and had 12 rebounds while Tatum had 31 points and 10 rebounds as the Celtics won their fourth straight game.

Brown specifically attacked the Pelicans from the mid range, crediting extra muscle added in the offseason for allowing him to handle contact with bigger opponents, as he makes a concerted effort to not settle for attempts from deep.

“I think I can get to the rim at a good rate this year,” Brown told reporters afterwards, per the Celtics website. “I definitely want to keep that up.

“I don’t want to let the defense off the hook, but I feel good about a lot of the shots I took from three. Some of them went down, some of them haven’t. But I definitely still think I’m going to look to get to the basket a lot more for sure just for the remainder of the year.”

Celtics forward Al Horford reiterated the point: “When (Brown) drives, I feel like people feel it.

“When he’s hitting you when he’s driving, that’s real. So it’s good to see him play at that level and have his mind made up that he’s going to attack the paint.”

It was Brown’s sixth 40-point game of his career, moving him past Sam Jones and Isaiah Thomas for the sixth-most in Celtics history.

Together with Tatum, the two wing players have become the driving force behind Boston’s recent success.

The team reached the NBA Finals last season, eventually losing to the Golden State Warriors, and is again one of the best in the league this year.

In both scoring at least 30 points and 10 rebounds in the same game, Brown and Tatum became the first Celtics players to achieve that stat line since Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker in 2001.

Drafted a year after one another – Brown was drafted with the No. 3 pick in the 2016 draft and Tatum was selected with the No. 3 pick in 2017 – they have built up an understanding together about dissecting defenses.

“They continue to grow in front of our eyes,” Horford said of the star duo after the victory. “They feed off each other, and that’s what really drives our team.”