AS THE MOST important offseason of his career came to an end, Darius Garland took a break, heading to New York for Fashion Week in early September. Cleveland Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman, a Brooklyn native, happened to be visiting his hometown and reached out to the guard to set up an informal meeting.
The Cavaliers' business during a busy summer -- headlined by the hiring of coach Kenny Atkinson and signing perennial All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell to a three-year, $150 million contract extension -- had been handled a couple of months earlier.