According to ESPN, Boston has emerged as a leading destination in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes. No deal is on the table (that we know of), but the mere possibility might raise a few concerns.
Northeast
Rep. Elise Stefanik labels NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani a ‘jihadist’
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U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, an Empire State Republican, called Democratic Big Apple mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani a “jihadist.”
“I call Zohran Mamdani a jihadist because he is. Zohran Mamdani is a raging antisemite. Mamdani is the definition of a jihadist as he supports Hamas terrorists which he did as recently as yesterday when he refused to call for Hamas terrorists to put down their arms – the same Hamas terrorist group that slaughtered civilians including New Yorkers on October 7, 2023,” the congresswoman claimed.
Fox News Digital emailed Mamdani’s campaign to request a comment from the New York City mayoral candidate.
HERE’S EVERYTHING YOU MISSED FROM ZOHRAN MAMDANI’S FIRST FOX NEWS INTERVIEW
Left: U.S. Ambassador Designate to the United Nations Elise Stefanik during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Feb. 26, 2025. in Washington, D.C.; Right: New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani visits “The Story With Martha MacCallum” at Fox News Channel Studios on Oct. 15, 2025, in New York City. (Left: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Right: John Lamparski/Getty Images)
Fox News Channel’s Martha MacCallum asked Mamdani during an interview earlier this week whether he believes Hamas should lay down arms and depart from leadership in Gaza.
Mamdani called for ensuring peace between Israel and Palestine.
But MacCallum pressed him again on the issue.
“But you won’t say that Hamas should lay down their arms and give up leadership in Gaza?” she asked.
FOX NEWS POLL: MAMDANI MAINTAINS SIGNIFICANT LEAD IN NYC MAYORAL RACE
“I don’t really have opinions about the future of Hamas and Israel beyond the question of justice and safety, and the fact that anything has to abide by international law,” he said.
Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen of New York referred to Mamdani as “Pro-Hamas Zohran,” asserting that he “is unfit to hold any office in the United States.”
But during a mayoral debate on Thursday when pressed about his comments and asked what he believes about Hamas, Mamdani, a New York State assemblymember, said, “Of course I believe that they should lay down their arms.”
MAMDANI FLIP-FLOPS ON KEY HAMAS POSITION ONE DAY AFTER REFUSING TO CALL ON IT TO DISARM
Mamdani describes himself as a “Democratic Socialist” in the biography section of his X account.
Read the full article from Here
SHELBURNE — Norman Rockwell lived for a time in suburban New York City and died and was buried in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. But for 14 years in between, the artist spent perhaps the most prolific period of his career in Vermont creating his best-known works.
That’s how Shelburne Museum curator Carolyn Bauer sees it — and how the museum’s latest exhibition treats the artist.
“Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont,” which opens June 20 and runs through Oct. 25, displays 40 of the 175 covers Rockwell famously created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine during his time in Vermont between 1939 and 1953.
Also on display are prints of “The Four Freedoms,” maybe his most famed works of all, which represent American ideals spelled out by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. Paintings in the exhibition include “The Young Lady with the Shiner” and “The Tattoo Artist,” both whimsical, recognizable pieces used as covers for The Saturday Evening Post.
“It’s very accessible work and approachable,” Bauer said.
The display features the three paintings that inspired the exhibition, given to the Shelburne Museum by Rock of Ages, the Barre granite quarry and monument maker. Those Rockwell paintings filled a significant gap in the museum’s art collection, which includes works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Grandma Moses and Andrew Wyeth but, until recently, none by Rockwell, perhaps the best-known artist to have lived here.
“It feels like a homecoming in many regards,” Bauer said.
Moving to southern VT, finding ‘the every American’
The exhibition frames Rockwell’s time in Vermont around the tenor of the times in America. As the Great Depression was ending, World War II was looming and the nation was growing more urban and industrialized, much of the public was yearning for greater simplicity, Bauer said.
Rockwell was among them, leaving New Rochelle north of New York City for the quietude of Arlington in southern Vermont.
He was not alone. Contemporary artists including Mead Schaeffer, John Atherton and Gene Pelham would settle in Arlington too, creating what Bauer termed “the golden illustrator days” in Vermont.
Rockwell’s art, as the 152-page hardcover catalogue accompanying the exhibition notes, shows “how Vermont itself came to embody American ideals in the national imagination.”
Rockwell and his fellow Arlington artists used each other as models in their creations. “They really would work collaboratively,” Bauer said.
Pelham’s daughter, Melinda, is shown in the exhibition in two works: “The Babysitter,” a painting of a girl holding a crying baby that’s on loan from The Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont and an admission submission Rockwell sent to Kellogg’s of a girl clutching a cereal-laden spoon to her mouth.
Doctors, mail deliverers and shopkeepers from Arlington populated his work. Bauer said Rockwell usually gave models $5 and a can of Coca-Cola.
“He was recycling and using just about everybody in town,” Bauer said. That included himself: Rockwell added his own visage to the multiple faces in “The Gossip,” which shows him lashing out at a woman who’s started the rumor-mongering.
Bauer said Rockwell wanted to cultivate a sense of place by using Vermonters known for their austere self-reliance at the forefront of his work. He also found “the every American” ideal in town, Bauer said, though his art reflected a pronounced lack of diversity.
In later work, Rockwell would confront race and segregation as the Civil Rights Movement swept the U.S.
“He was progressive,” Bauer said.
Inspired by paintings donated by Rock of Ages
“Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont” was inspired by the 2025 museum acquisition of a trio of Rockwell works that once hung in the Barre offices of Rock of Ages. The granite company contacted the museum asking if it could donate the paintings, Bauer said, prompting staffers to wonder momentarily, “Is this real?”
Rockwell created advertisements for Rock of Ages and gave the paintings upon which the ads were based to the company. “Kneeling Girl” from 1955, making its debut at the Shelburne Museum, takes place in front of a gravestone engraved with the name Newton.
Rock of Ages donated two versions of 1963 work “The Craftsman,” a muted draft and a more luminous final version that were first displayed at the museum last year. They depict Rock of Ages stonecutter George Seivwright working in the shadow of a memorial bearing the name “Norwell,” a portmanteau of Rockwell’s first and last names.
Bauer called the paintings “incredible works of art that were circulated widely” in ads, brochures and pamphlets touting Rock of Ages and its world-famous Vermont granite. Though Rockwell had left Vermont for Massachusetts by the time he created those paintings, they do what Rockwell had done when he lived in Arlington — show the nation and the world what Vermont and Vermonters are capable of.
“We are just eager for our visitors to see these paintings,” Bauer said.
If you go
WHAT: “Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont”
WHEN: June 20 through Oct. 25
WHERE: Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education, Shelburne Museum
INFORMATION: $8-$25 museum admission; free under age 5 and for active military and Shelburne Museum members. shelburnemuseum.org
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@burlingtonfreepress.com.
“It’s been 53 years. I’ve been waiting that long.” “It’s been a very long time, a long time coming. And I’m so excited that my Knicks finally brought a championship home.” “Let’s go Knicks.” “I had to wake up at six o’clock.” “Knicks in five.” “Let’s go, Knicks.” “Let’s go, Knicks!” “We just moved to D.C. a few years ago, but we’re so happy to be back in New York, celebrating. Once we won we were like — we’re absolutely coming home. So, we had to bring Chester with us. I mean, he’s the biggest puppy Knicks fan there is. Chester, can you say Knicks in 5? Knicks in five.” “I got hurt a couple weeks ago, but this is the first time they’ve been to the finals since I was a year old. And so to be able to be here, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.” “My man’s out here with a boot and a Josh Hart jersey. My man’s got heart.” “It feels so overwhelming but overwhelming in a good way, where, like, I want to be — I want to, like, shoot some balls. I want to, like, just vibe with everyone because everyone’s here for one purpose, and that’s celebrating the Knicks.” “This has been like a uniting situation for New Yorkers, and I just can’t wait to feel the love from everybody.” “I think it’s a great equalizer, right? It brings everyone together. It doesn’t matter if you make $900,000 a year, if you make $50,000 a year. You’re united because of the Knicks.” “So often when this city comes together, it is because we are forced to by a moment of tragedy or adversity. What a gift it is to be brought together by pure, unfiltered joy.” “Most importantly, thank you to the fans. I’m not going to lie though, y’all all are some pretty hard critics, but we appreciate it. At least I do, appreciate it a lot.”
Concern numero uno is obvious. Giannis is one of the handful of players capable of altering the championship picture by himself. Pairing him with Jayson Tatum would create an impressive combination of size, athleticism, versatility, and star power. The question is whether Brad Stevens and the Celtics can actually pull it off without creating a new set of problems for themselves.
Boston’s path to Giannis is narrower than it first appears. The Celtics would almost certainly need to move Jaylen Brown, either directly to Milwaukee or through a third team. Reports indicate Brown has little interest in joining the Bucks (in paraphrase: “Milwaukee?! Yuck!”), which complicates matters further. We start moving from a blockbuster trade to a three-team puzzle involving contracts, draft compensation, and competing agendas.
Even if Boston finds a way through that maze, there’s no guarantee the resulting team will succeed.
Giannis may be a better asset than Brown, but championships are not won by comparing players one-for-one. They’re won by building complete teams (case in point: YOUR WORLD CHAMPION NEW YORK KNICKERBOCKERS ).
Brown averaged more than 28 points per game last season while defending multiple positions. He can create his own offense, punish smaller defenders, and absorb primary scoring responsibilities when Tatum is unavailable (as Tatum was for most of last season, recovering from a torn Achilles). Replacing him with Giannis raises Boston’s ceiling, perhaps, but also changes the structure of the roster.
The Celtics have spent years building an ecosystem around two star wings. Remove one and the supporting cast suddenly becomes more important, which means Stevens would have many more decisions to make before the start of training camp.
What catches me up is, if the Bucks believed that Giannis has more great years ahead of him, would they so quickly offload him to a conference rival? Might he actually be a distressed asset?
Giannis will turn 32 this season. He has generally been durable over his career but has dealt with increasing lower-body issues (especially calves and knees) in recent years, leading to more missed time. To wit:
• 2022–23: 63 GP / 19 missed
• 2023–24: 73 GP / 9 missed
• 2024–25: 67 GP / 15 missed
• 2025–26: 36 GP / 46 missed
Wouldn’t that just be the worst if the Celts parted with Brown to get him, and then Giannis missed extended time due to injury? Like, the absolute worst? (Insert diabolical laughter.)
A healthy Tatum-Giannis pairing would present unique challenges for New York. The Knicks would need to defend relentless downhill pressure while also containing one of the league’s best bucket creators. But, given their depth, New York may be better equipped than most teams to handle it.
So if the Celtics’ pursuit of Giannis causes an initial flutter of worry, you can let that just drift on by. The scenario only noses toward Red Alert if Boston nabs him while somehow also acquiring a guard who makes up for what they’d lose with Brown’s departure.
But wait! This just in: Chris Haynes has pushed back on the idea that a Giannis Antetokounmpo-to-Boston deal is close. He writes that Boston does not appear to be a promising destination and suggested the situation could extend into July. Additionally, Marc Stein reported that the Celtics are frustrated by speculation involving Jaylen Brown, while Brian Windhorst said Brown has not been formally offered in a trade. So, to quote the great William Goldman (also a Knicks fan), “Nobody knows anything.”
It’s worth noting that the Miami Heat are also reportedly in the mix. We’ve heard that the lack of income tax is alluring to the Greek Freak. Plus Florida offers sunny, warm weather, which is not a defining feature of Wisconsin. In the end, though, joining Boston would allow Giannis to keep all his favorite green-themed items in his wardrobe, and shouldn’t looking good be a priority, too?
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