Jayson Tatum was already a proven winner before last season.
In Tatum’s first six seasons, no NBA player won more games with one team than he did. Tatum played in 334 wins with the Boston Celtics over that span, including playoffs. He was a five-time All-Star, a legitimate MVP candidate, a four-time All-NBA pick, even an Olympic gold medalist.
He just wasn’t a champion.
“I had to listen to all the (stuff) that people said about me,” Tatum said.
That’s all in the past now. The Celtics are champions, coach Joe Mazzulla leading them to that crown, and when the season starts on Tuesday night in Boston — where last season ended — Tatum doesn’t seem to be considering it the start of a title defense. He’s looking at it as the start of a chase for a 19th title, and according to BetMGM Sportsbook, the Celtics are the favorite to claim the 2025 championship.
“It was never just about trying to just win one,” said Tatum, who added a second Olympic gold to his collection this summer. “Now you get to be mentioned with — at least be in the same room with — the other Celtics great teams, great players. All the guys that I looked up to growing up at least won one championship. Now it’s just a conversation of: ‘How great are you trying to be? What room or what tier are you trying to be mentioned in when it’s all said and done?’”
That journey starts with ring night in Boston, where the Celtics take on New York in the first game of a doubleheader to formally open the league's 79th season. The nightcap is Minnesota at the Los Angeles Lakers, a game that will see LeBron James tie Vince Carter by playing in a 22nd NBA season — and potentially the first official game where a father and son are teammates, with Bronny James entering his rookie season.
There will be challengers to a Boston repeat, and a lot of them. New York (adding Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns) and Philadelphia (adding Paul George) loaded up to try to supplant Boston atop the Eastern Conference. And there are rising teams in the East as well, like the Paolo Banchero-led Orlando Magic and Donovan Mitchell-led Cleveland Cavaliers — who made Round 2 of the playoffs last season.
“We've just got to keep our foot on the gas,” Mitchell said. “We've got to keep going.”
And the Western Conference also has several contenders.
BetMGM has Oklahoma City — the No. 1 seed in the West last season, led by MVP hopeful Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — as the narrow favorite to win that side of the league, with 2023 NBA champion Denver, reigning West champion Dallas and a Minnesota team that went to the West finals a season ago all in the mix.
“You have to be careful with expectations put on outcomes,” Thunder forward Chet Holmgren said. “Around here we really emphasize putting expectations on processes, how we show up every day, how we go about our work, what we do, and the attention of detail that we do it to. That’s what we’re really focused on.”
Golden State's Stephen Curry helped the U.S. win Olympic gold this summer; the Warriors can never be counted out. And with James, neither can the Lakers.
“We’re the hunters, amongst many other teams,” Curry said. “What can this team do to maximize every skill set that we have in that locker room? That’s the challenge for us.”
The West is just loaded. But these Celtics — who return virtually intact from a year ago — know what it takes to be the last team standing.
“Boston can say whatever they want to say. They’ve earned it. They beat all of us and they were crowned,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So, they can feel however they want to feel going into this season. With that said, (they) still have to earn it. But it’s a new season, new year. There’ll be a bunch of teams that are gunning for that title.”
JJ Redick was coaching the fourth-grade team at Brooklyn Basketball Academy earlier this year. He's now coaching the Los Angeles Lakers.
Redick is one of three coaches about to make their NBA debuts, joining Charlotte's Charles Lee and Brooklyn's Jordi Fernandez.
Other coaches who have new jobs entering this season are Mike Budenholzer in Phoenix (a franchise he led Milwaukee past for the 2021 NBA title), along with Kenny Atkinson in Cleveland and JB Bickerstaff in Detroit. Bickerstaff coached the Cavaliers last season and the schedule-makers just happened to have the Pistons as the opponent for Cleveland's home opener on Friday.
Technically, Brian Keefe is a new coach as well. He finished last season as Washington's interim coach for the final 39 games, and had the interim tag removed over the offseason.
Half of the league's coaches — 15 of the 30 — enter this season having completed two years or less with their current clubs.
Some notable events this season:
—Nov. 2: Miami plays Washington in Mexico City.
—Nov. 4: All 30 teams will be in action, with all start times staggered 15 minutes apart.
—Nov. 5: For the third straight year, no games will be played on Election Day.
—Nov. 12-Dec. 17: The NBA Cup is back for a second season, with the semifinals on Dec. 14 in Las Vegas and the title game there three days later. The Lakers are the defending champions.
—Dec. 25: The Christmas games are San Antonio at New York, Minnesota at Dallas, Philadelphia at Boston, Lakers at Golden State and Denver at Phoenix.
—Jan. 20: The league celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Among the highlight games are Minnesota at Memphis and Boston at Golden State.
—Jan. 23 and 25: Reigning rookie of the year Victor Wembanyama returns to Paris, with San Antonio taking on Indiana in two games there.
—Feb. 6: The trade deadline.
—Feb. 16: The NBA All-Star Game takes place in San Francisco.
—April 11 and 13: The last two game days of the regular season, with all 30 teams in action both days.
—April 15-18: Play-in tournament, followed by the playoff openers on April 19.
—June 5: The 2025 NBA Finals begin.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
New York Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns (32) celebrates a basket behind Minnesota Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo (0) during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick reacts during the first half of an NBA preseason basketball game against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
FILE - Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) reacts during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers, Sunday, March 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent, File)
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba's capital was largely paralyzed on Monday and the rest of the island braced for the fourth night of a massive blackout that has generated a handful of small protests and a stern government warning that any unrest will be punished.
Hurricane Oscar was crossing the island’s eastern coast with winds and heavy rain after a night that saw protests of several dozen people in urban neighborhoods like Santos Suárez and central Havana.
Some banged pots and pans in the streets, while others demonstrated from their balconies. Protesters who said they have no water blocked at least one street with garbage.
The Cuban government has a low tolerance for civil disobedience and President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned on national television Sunday that “we're not going to allow any vandalism, or let anyone disturb people's tranquility."
The prolonged nationwide blackout followed a massive outage Thursday night, part of energy problems that led to the largest protests in Cuba in almost 30 years, in July 2021. Those were followed by smaller local protests in October 2022 and March 2024.
It's all part of a deep economic crisis that has prompted the exodus of more than half a million Cubans to the U.S., with thousands more heading to Europe.
The Cuban government and its allies blame the United States' 62-year-old trade embargo on the island for its economic problems but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that the Cuban government’s “long-term mismanagement of its economic policy and resources has certainly increased the hardship of people in Cuba.”
Power remains relatively cheap but increasingly unavailable. The Cuban government has said that it’s producing 700 megawatts when peak demand can hit 3 gigawatts. About 50% of Havana has intermittent power.
Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said in a news conference he hoped that more reliable electricity will be restored by Monday or Tuesday morning but classes remained closed through at least Thursday.
He said that Oscar, which made landfall on the eastern coast Sunday evening, will bring “an additional inconvenience” to Cuba's recovery since it will touch a “region of strong (electricity) generation.” Key Cuban power plants, such as Felton in the city of Holguín, and Renté in Santiago de Cuba, are located in the area.
Oscar later weakened to a tropical storm but its effects were forecast to linger in the island through Monday.
Many of Havana's 2 million people resorted to cooking with improvised wood stoves on the streets before their food went bad in refrigerators.
In tears, Ylenis de la Caridad Napoles, mother of a 7-year-old girl, said she is reaching a point of “desperation.”
The failure of the Antonio Guiteras plant on Friday was the latest problem with energy distribution in a country where electricity has been restricted and rotated among different regions at different times. The status of Cuba's other power plants was unclear.
People lined up for hours on Sunday to buy bread in the few bakeries that could reopen.
Some Cubans like Rosa Rodríguez had been without electricity for four days.
“We have millions of problems, and none of them are solved,” said Rodríguez. “We must come to get bread, because the local bakery is closed, and they bring it from somewhere else.”
The blackout was considered to be Cuba’s worst since Hurricane Ian hit the island as a Category 3 storm in 2022 and damaged power installations. It took days for the government to fix them.
The Cuban government announced emergency measures to slash electricity demand, including suspending school and university classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces and canceling nonessential services.
Local authorities said the outage stemmed from increased demand from small- and medium-sized companies and residential air conditioners. Later, the blackout got worse because of breakdowns in old thermoelectric plants that haven’t been properly maintained, and the lack of fuel to operate some facilities.
Cuba's energy minister said the country's grid would be in better shape if there had not been two more partial blackouts as authorities tried to reconnect on Saturday. De la O Levy also said Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Russia, among other nations, had offered to help.
Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Residents play dominoes during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents endure the heat during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents pass the time during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents line up to buy bread during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A resident walks his bicycle during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents pass the time at the malecon during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents pass the time during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents walk on a street during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents walk on a street during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents walk on a street during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A resident walks his bicycle during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A resident looks at his cell phone on the street during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents walk on a street during a blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents protest by banging pots and pans in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
