And-Ones: Ishbia, J. Porter, J. Johnson, 65-Game Rule

Appearing on Wednesday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, Suns owner Mat Ishbia said he’d be willing to put up $1MM in prize money for the winners of the slam dunk contest and three-point contest on All-Star Saturday, with another $1MM going to charity for each event, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. The goal, as Ishbia explained, would be to bring back more star power to those competitions.

“Let’s get the best guys in,” Ishbia said. “Let’s make it awesome.”

Unfortunately, as Windhorst notes, it wouldn’t be as simple as Ishbia simply putting up that prize money himself. The bonuses for winning those events are negotiated as part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and require the approval of NBA owners and the players’ union. The current CBA calls for dunk contest winners to receive $105K and three-point contest champions to get $60K.

While Ishbia didn’t consult with the league office before sharing his proposal on The Pat McAfee Show, he’s motivated to find a way to get more stars into those All-Star Saturday competitions, Windhorst writes, so he could reach out to the NBA to explore the idea further.

We have more odds and ends from across the basketball world:

• Banned from the NBA for his participation in an illegal betting scheme, former Raptors forward/center Jontay Porter plans to join the Seattle Superhawks of the United States Basketball League, according to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. Porter, who is still awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to a federal felony charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in 2024, previously attempted to join Promitheas B.C. in Greece for the 2024/25 season but had that request turned down by a federal judge. The USBL season tips off on March 6.
• Veteran NBA forward James Johnson will join the BIG3 for its upcoming season and play for DMV Trilogy, the team coached by Stephen Jackson, the 3-on-3 league announced on Wednesday (via Twitter). A 16-year NBA veteran, Johnson appeared in 12 games for the Pacers in 2024/25 but hasn’t been in the league at all this season.
• With Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander both increasingly in danger of falling shy of the 65-game minimum to qualify for end-of-season awards, Eric Koreen of The Athletic argues that the rule is backfiring and could result in the wrong player being named Most Valuable Player this spring. In his latest MVP check-in, Zach Harper of The Athletic ranks Jokic, Gilgeous-Alexander, and Victor Wembanyama as his top three candidates, but they’ve missed 16, 11, and 14 games respectively. They’d be ineligible for award consideration if that number reaches 18.