SAN FRANCISCO — If shooting is an art form, then Chris Hines is a sculptor of gilded frames. A basketball craftsman. A steward of strokes.

As an assistant coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves, he watches his latest masterpiece from the sideline: the shooting of Anthony Edwards.

“The crazy thing now, and it sucks for me,” Hines said, “I know when it’s not going in. So I’m watching from the bench like, ‘Damn it!’ as soon as it leaves his hands.”

His pupil doesn’t have such issues.

“I think I’ma make that b—- every time. I’m not gon’ lie,” Edwards said, flashing that soda-commercial smile from the visitors locker room at Chase Center on Sunday.

Embedded in the braggadocio is evidence of his sophistication. To be clear, Edwards can feel when his form goes awry and a miss is likely. But he’s gotten his mechanics to a point where he doesn’t feel that often.

“The majority of the time,” he said, “when it leaves my hand, I’m like, ‘Damn, that b—- felt good.’ Because I’ve been working on it, man. I’m not even being funny. I’ve been working on my trey ball so much. … I’m happy where it’s at.”

Behind all of his flair, Edwards’ diligence is visible in his form. Though his magnetism suggests superstardom comes easy, his vastly improved shooting underscores a maniacal work ethic.

This art has functionality. Edwards left the Bay Area this week — after splitting a two-game series at the Golden State Warriors — with the most made 3-pointers in the NBA at 103, and his 241 attempts were one behind the Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum for the most 3s taken as of Tuesday morning. Just over a quarter of the way through the season, Edwards is one of the best 3-point shooters in the league — a potent counter to his reputation for attacking the rim.

But do not miss the aesthetics of his polished jumper. Appreciate the artistry of Edwards, the engineering of Hines.

It perhaps goes missed because of Edwards’ highlight dunks and viral quotes. But he has developed quite the picturesque shot.

“Hell yeah,” Edwards said. “Super pretty. Shout out to C. Hines.”

3rd player in NBA history to hit 100 threes in first 23 games.

special. 🐜 pic.twitter.com/S9JCNRq95s

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) December 9, 2024

The springs hidden in his legs are already alluring. He just floats, or so it seems, as if time slows when he’s in the air. Edwards rising for a jumper looks as if something cool is unfolding. He has already developed a classically attractive midrange.

The mechanics of his jumper have gotten much cleaner. It’s an efficient transition from pickup to release. Smooth. Effortless. Contrary to the shot of typical leapers, who reach the peak of their jump before unfurling something clunky. Edwards has worked on his form until it’s one fluid motion, consistently replicated, capped with a portrait-worthy follow-through and a snap of the net.

Ant-Man has authored another avenue for awe. One of the league’s most captivating players added to a bag of brilliance already brimming with personality.

“It’s not the prettiest,” he declared, giving the nod to Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. “They’ve got some pretty-ass jumpers. I’m not trying to have the prettiest jumper. I just want it to go in. Yeah, it looks good. But as long as it goes in, it looks better.”

However, beauty comes with a cost. For Edwards, it was paid through a process as methodical as it has been relentless.

Hines and Edwards pieced it together as a long-term project. Like so much with Edwards, his capacity was obvious. The talent drips off him like Jheri curl juice. The last four years were dedicated to harnessing his all-world abilities, as will be the next 10 years.

Edwards resisted at first. Some days, he would despise Hines, the torturous teacher.

“He hated me,” Hines said with a proud smile. “From the beginning. He’s like, ‘C. Hines, you not finna change my game.’ I’m not trying to change your game. Let me fine-tune it, and you’ll be fine.”

Hines earned Edwards’ trust by not changing the canvas but appreciating it. Edwards often heard what he couldn’t do, how he had to change — people steadily telling him how to paint his game. Hines instead affirmed Edwards only needed refinement, not reconstruction. They went to work on the structure, framing his shot around the game that made him special.

Hines began by cleaning up Edwards’ strengths. His handle. His finishing packages. His footwork. His touch at the rim. Those were foundational elements on which to build.

“He already had a pretty decent, solid, strong shot,” Hines said. “We just wanted to tighten up everything around his shot. Small stuff. … How is he picking up into his pocket? Is it clean? How do you find the laces without looking for ’em? Small things of that nature. So tightening all that stuff up, it’s been really fun to watch the process.”

The shots are too incessant to be counted, the hours too blurred to be logged. Shooting is a meticulous craft. It’s feel and form. Technical and creative. It remains true to the uniqueness of the shooter while beholding universal laws.

Hines went to work simplifying Edwards’ shooting stroke. First, they had to break his habit of dropping the ball too low. Now, by sheer muscle memory, his process begins with the ball near his navel.

Then they amended his high release. Edwards had a long range of motion, lifting the ball from his crotch to behind his head, creating plenty of opportunity to disrupt the result. The longer one’s form, the harder to replicate.

So by raising the starting point and bringing forward the release point, his motion became more efficient.

Another thing Hines fixed: Edwards’ habit of bringing the ball close to his body, restricting his range of motion. Hines drilled him to keep his elbows L-shaped instead of V-shaped so as not to lose power and flow. Hines ingrained in Edwards the need to keep his elbow over his eyebrows at the top of his form.

The follow-through was another significant component. Edwards now has a pronounced snap of his wrist, as if he’s dipping his hand into the rim. It gives his ball an emphatic spin that splashes the net.

“We be in the gym four or five times a day just shooting,” Edwards said. “Just shooting. Just shooting. So I’ve been trying — trying to perfect it. Because when I came in the league, the main thing was, ‘He could get downhill, but he can’t shoot. He can’t shoot. He can’t shoot.’ So I’ve been trying to knock that off my name for a long time. It’s still kind of on it a little bit, but I feel like I’m trending in the right direction.”

Last month, Edwards sent a voice message to Curry, seeking to glean some off-the-ball wisdom from his Team USA homie. This was after a summer of picking the brain of Durant, his favorite player.

The threat of Edwards’ aggressive drives, which have produced a montage of highlights, prompted defenders to back off him, conceding the jumper to prevent the poster. His rise to an MVP candidate increased the amount of double-teams he faces.

Thus, his next level of growth is being a threat off the ball. The cadence of dribbling into a shot is much different without the rock. Keeping the same form while catching and shooting requires repetition and precision drilling.

Edwards said he wants to shoot well enough for long enough that his pump-fakes get defenders in the air, opening lanes for his drives.

“In order for me to be able to score without the ball,” Edwards said, “I’ve got to be able to shoot. You know what I’m saying? Make ’em respect it. … Just being ready to shoot on the catch, that makes you another threat on the offensive end. Because guys gotta respect it now because I want to catch and shoot. So now if you run me off the line, now I’ma get to where I really want to go, which is downhill.”

This takes thousands of shots, hours and hours, for years and years. Hines didn’t want to rush the process. He was intentional about not skipping steps, mastering a skill before advancing to the next one.

The pursuit of grandeur is antithetical to haste. A masterpiece transcends time by being committed to quality.

A player has to want this. Really want it. For this level of improvement, the grind is inescapable. The amount of work Edwards invests is illustrated when he pulls up. Suspended in air. Fluid mechanics. Pretty rotation. Silky splash. His weakness has become a work of art. You can tell by how it was framed.

(Top illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photo: Adam Pantozzi / NBAE via Getty Images)

Two NBA legends have joined the NFL as owners. 

Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter are among a group of minority stakeholders joining the ownership group of the Buffalo Bills, the team announced Wednesday. 

Jozy Altidore, the former U.S. men’s national soccer team star, is also in the group of 10. 

This is the first time in franchise history the Pegula family has brought in secondary shareholders for their team. The Pegulas remain the principal owners. 

According to the Bills, the private equity firm Arctos is also entering the fold as part of the new ownership group. Arctos has stakes in many leagues, including the NHL, NBA, MLB and MLS. 

NBA LEGEND VINCE CARTER TO GET 2 JERSEY RETIREMENT CEREMONIES DURING 2024-25 SEASON: REPORTS

It is unclear just how much each new shareholder paid for a piece of the team, which is valued at $4.2 billion, according to Forbes. 

For McGrady and Carter, ownership runs in the family now. They are cousins who played as teammates early in their illustrious NBA careers with the Toronto Raptors.

McGrady was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017, and Carter entered in October.

Workers clear snow in Highmark Stadium in preparation for a game between the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers in Orchard Park, N.Y., Dec. 1, 2024.  (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

McGrady was a seven-time All-Star, seven-time All-NBA selection and a two-time scoring champion over his 15-year career. 

“T-Mac” spent his first three years in Toronto after being taken ninth overall in the 1997 NBA Draft. But his All-Star seasons — seven straight — came with the Orlando Magic over four seasons, followed by the Houston Rockets, where he was an All-Star three out of his six seasons with the team. 

McGrady also played for the New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons and the Atlanta Hawks before ending his career in 2012. 

Carter spent 22 seasons in the NBA, earning eight All-Star bids and two All-NBA nods. Most of his seasons came with the Raptors, who just retired his No. 15. He averaged 23.4 points per game over 403 games with the franchise.

Former Toronto Raptors player Vince Carter reacts during the ceremony to retire his number at halftime of a game against the Sacramento Kings.  (John E. Sokolowski/Imagn Images)

Carter moved on to the New Jersey Nets, followed by the Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Atlanta Hawks, Magic, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns. Carter retired after the 2019-20 campaign. 

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Plans to expand Wimbledon are set to go before the U.K. High Court.

The All England Club (AELTC), host of the third Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season, wants to add a third stadium court and 38 further courts to its footprint, tripling its size in works expected to cost over £200million ($254.8million).

The Greater London Authority (GLA) granted planning permission in September, but campaign group Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) has now instructed lawyers to challenge the decision, which could ultimately lead to a judicial review in the High Court.

It has “sent a lengthy formal letter setting out our case to the GLA, copied to both Merton and Wandsworth Councils and to the AELTC,” according to a spokesperson’s statement seen by The Athletic Wednesday December 11.

The letter is required as part of the “pre-action protocol” for a judicial review. In it, SWP’s law firm, Russell Cooke, invites the GLA to confirm it will reconsider the planning permission. This would involve quashing the grant. The firm requests a “substantive reply” by December 16; the letter is dated December 6.

A spokesperson for Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said: “The Mayor believes this scheme will bring a significant range of benefits including economic, social and cultural benefits to the local area, the wider capital and the UK economy, creating new jobs and cementing Wimbledon’s reputation as the greatest tennis competition in the world.

“City Hall will respond to Save Wimbledon Park’s letter in due course.”

Separately, the AELTC confirmed December 1 that it will challenge a key tenet of SWP and other residents’ groups objections to the plans in the High Court. SWP argues that when AELTC bought the freehold to the Wimbledon site and the adjacent park in 1993, it fell under a statutory trust which requires that land to be kept free for public recreation.

The AELTC argues that “there is not, nor has there ever been, a statutory trust affecting the former Wimbledon Park Golf Course land”. It will now take this argument to the High Court in a bid to prove itself right.

The AELTC bought the golf course — whose lease was set to expire in 2041 — for £65million (now $87.1m) in 2018. This led to each member receiving £85,000, and the AELTC argues that it being a private club voids the concept of a statutory trust.

“We have been pointing out for a considerable time that the statutory public recreation trust on which the AELTC hold the heritage golf course land is a fundamental block on the proposed AELTC development,” an SWP spokesperson said.

“We are glad to hear that the AELTC now recognise our point of view and note that they wish to take this to litigation rather than engage in any discussion.”

The AELTC believes its plans will ensure that Wimbledon does not fall behind the Australian, French, and U.S. Opens in terms of prestige.

One of the 39 new courts will be an 8,000-seater stadium, and the other 38 will allow the AELTC to bring the qualifying event on-site. That event is held the week before the main tournament starts, and Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam of the four not to already have its qualifying event on-site. Wimbledon’s third show court, No. 2 Court, is the smallest of the third courts across the majors.

Planning permission for the expansion went to the GLA after Merton and Wandsworth councils failed to agree on them. Merton granted permission in October 2023, before Wandsworth refused it a month later. There is no expected timeline for the AELTC’s case, nor for the judicial review proposed by SWP. AELTC chair Deborah Jevans has said that it wants the new courts in play by the early 2030s.

(Julian Finney / Getty Images)