For much of the country, this past June was hot — sometimes dangerously hot. In Boston, record-setting temperatures and the heightened risk of heatstroke prompted the city to declare a heat emergency, end school days early and open cooling centers. As heat waves become more common in the region, city officials have created a plan to prepare our infrastructure and communities for the hotter days ahead. GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath discussed Boston’s heat resilience plan with Zoe Davis, a climate resilience project manager with Boston’s Environment Department, and Matt Kearney, the deputy chief of the Office of Emergency Management. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Arun Rath: To start off, we’re already seeing the effects of climate change in the city, right? It’s not our imagination. It feels that summers have been getting much, much hotter.

Zoe Davis: That is definitely true. In the city of Boston we have historically had about ten days over 90 degrees in Boston’s more recent history. But due to the impacts of climate change, we are expecting to see more days over a 90-degree threshold and even more days of chronic heat, which are days over 80 degrees.

Rath: In terms of the city specifically, we hear this term that Boston is a “heat island.” Can you talk about what that means and how different communities in the city might experience heat waves differently?

Davis: So, relative to the state of Massachusetts, the Greater Boston area and Boston itself is considered to be a heat island because it’s hotter than the surrounding area. So we do say that the city of Boston is itself a heat island, but within the city there are these temperature hotspots: areas that are within the city that are hotter than others. So some of these areas are typically areas of higher building density, areas where there’s expansive roadway or dark hardscape. These often follow our transportation corridors, areas where there’s large buildings. Then areas that are cooler in the city, by contrast, are parks, typically, and also along the coastline edge and areas that are near bodies of water.

Rath: Matt, how is the city preparing for this? Something that that goes beyond what we’re used to preparing for.

Matt Kearney: Yeah, it takes a whole city approach. So on the Emergency Management side, our work is looking at the short-term response, [to] this heat that’s occurring earlier in the year and later in the year. I know we declared a heat emergency in September last year, which is uncommon. So it’s on us to work with the Environment Department, Boston Planning Development Agency and all the other stakeholders that are taking these long-term projections, and getting a sense of where those resources are needed now in the city. So we’re taking a look at these heat islands that we know are impacting certain neighborhoods, ensuring that they have the adequate cooling resources, as well as other resources that we can make available to those residents because their neighborhoods are hotter than other areas within the city.

Rath: Other sorts of adaptations we’ve been making to climate change from energy conservation to cleaner forms of energy have obvious other benefits. Aside from the direct ones we’re talking about when we’re upgrading infrastructure for heat resilience, are there other additional side benefits to doing that as well?

Davis: Yes. We look at co-benefits of integrating heat resilience broadly. So for example, when we’re thinking about integrating heat resiliency to our roadway infrastructure, there are opportunities to also integrate green infrastructure, which then can have a positive impact on how we are managing stormwater. There’s also elements in this example of making sure to integrate elements around safety, wayfinding and accessibility. I think, similarly, when we’re thinking about improvements to our buildings — as you had mentioned, integrating energy efficient elements into our buildings, as well as coordinating that with decarbonization efforts — is a part of a holistic approach to being climate-resilient, which includes heat resilience as well.

Jayson Tatum is coming off an incredible season.

He made his fifth NBA All-Star Game and averaged 26.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.0 steals per contest while shooting 47.1% from the field and 37.6% from the three-point range in 74 games.

On Monday, Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported that Tatum will sign a contract extension with Boston.

Via Charania: “Boston Celtics All-NBA star Jayson Tatum is finalizing a five-year, $314 million super maximum contract extension through the 2029-30 season, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. This is now the largest deal in NBA history.”

Front Office Sports laid out how much Tatum will make per season on the new deal.

Via Front Office Sports: “Jayson Tatum’s annual salary through 2030—the largest deal in NBA history:

2025-26: $54,126,450
2026-27: $58,456,566
2027-28: $62,786,682
2028-29: $67,116,798
2029-30: $71,446,914″

During the final two seasons of the contract, Tatum will make over $800,000 per game.

The Celtics are coming off a year where they were the first seed in the Eastern Conference with the best record in the league (64-18).

They beat the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals to win their first title since the 2008 season when Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce were on the roster.

Tatum was the third pick in the 2017 NBA Draft after one season of college basketball at Duke.

Through his first seven seasons in the league, he has been to the NBA Finals twice and the Eastern Conference finals five times.

Buy low, sell high.

That seems to be the strategy at work in recent sales of NBA teams, the most recent being the storied Boston Celtics. The club’s ownership group, Boston Basketball Partners L.L.C., announced today its “intention to sell all the shares of the team.”

The sale is likely to set a record for an NBA franchise.

The announcement comes just weeks after the Celtics won a record 18th NBA Championship. It also comes just hours after the team locked in the core players who won that championship, including Jayson Taytum, who got the largest contract in league history today (a five-year, $315 million deal) and Derek White (a four-year, $125.9 million extension).

In fact, many observers say the league has never been this stacked, talent-wise, with foreign players expanding the talent pool and a potential must-see prodigy now attached to one of the league’s flagship franchises after 20-year-old (and 7’6″) Frenchman Victor Wembanyama signed with the San Antonio Spurs.

Also fortuitous: The NBA is on the cusp of what should be it’s biggest media rights deal ever, thought to be worth about $76 billion. That deal is expected by many to be the peak of such agreements for the league, with subsequent deal totals declining. It is further expected to be coupled with exorbitant expansion fees in coming years as the league looks to expand its number of teams. Those fees are shared among owners of existing franchises. The last NBA media rights deal had a nine-year term. The upcoming agreement is expected to be along those lines, time wise.

Case in point is the team the Celtics beat last month to win the championship. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban — no slouch himself at the art of “buy low, sell high” — received approval in December to sell the team for about $3.5 billion. That’s a cool $3-plus billion over his purchase price and Cuban will reportedly retain 27% of the team and may well retain control of basketball operations.

According to Yahoo Sports, Cuban has expressed concern that the broadcast deal after this one (likely after 2030) could fall victim to the sports broadcast rights bubble bursting.

The record valuation for an NBA team is the $4 billion Matt Ishbia agreed to in 2022 for the Phoenix Suns. While Phoenix is a hot market with and has a good roster, it doesn’t come close to the reigning champs, who have better players from top to bottom, a rabid fan base and arguably the greatest lore of any team in the league.

Sources cited by Sports Business Journal “suspect the team could sell for well above $5B, after Forbes valued the franchise at $4.7B in 2023.”

Boston Basketball Partners LLC said the sale is being made “for estate and family planning considerations. The managing board expects to sell a majority interest in 2024 or early 2025, with the balance closing in 2028.”