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12:04 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN BOSTON — Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving says he plans to burn sage before every game this season to honor his Native American heritage. Irving was seen burning sage on the court at TD Garden during warm-ups before his Nets beat the Boston Celtics 113-89 on Friday night in the

3:58 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN The Los Angeles Lakers will repeat as NBA champions, according to a survey of NBA general managers. That prediction was one of many takeaways from NBA.com’s annual survey of all 30 front offices prior to the start of the new season. The survery featured 33 questions, ranging from what player

12:26 PM ET Marc Spears NBA free agent guard Jeremy Lin is expected to sign a deal to play with the Golden State Warriors‘ G-League team, a source told The Undefeated. Lin averaged 11.6 points and 4.3 assists in 480 games in the NBA from 2010-19. The former Harvard guard began his career with the

7:28 PM ET The NBA is investigating allegations made against Jerry West and the LA Clippers involving the free-agency recruitment of Kawhi Leonard in 2019, a league source confirmed to ESPN. TMZ Sports reported this week that a man who claims to be close to Leonard filed a lawsuit against West and the Clippers, alleging

6:18 PM ET Adrian Wojnarowski Close Senior NBA Insider Host of The Woj Pod Joined ESPN in 2017 Ramona Shelburne Close ESPN Senior Writer Senior writer for ESPN.com Spent seven years at the Los Angeles Daily News The Houston Rockets are increasingly expanding trade discussions on All-NBA guard James Harden beyond his preferred destinations of

10:59 AM ET Eric WoodyardESPN A new NBA season will tip off Tuesday, but the league’s mission to support empowerment for the Black community, as demonstrated in the Orlando bubble, hasn’t been forgotten. The NBA Board of Governors in early August announced a $300 million initial contribution to establish the NBA Foundation, dedicated to creating

4:23 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Gordon Hayward‘s bad luck with injuries appears to have followed him to Charlotte. Hayward, who signed a four-year, $120 million contract with the Hornets last month after spending the past three seasons with the Boston Celtics, suffered an avulsion fracture of the fifth metacarpal on his right (shooting) hand in

7:15 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN It was a normal Tuesday for Giannis Antetokounmpo, outside of inking a big business deal. He ate dinner with family, visited the Buy Buy Baby store in Wisconsin to shop for toys and clothes for his infant son, Liam, then went home and fell asleep, only to wake up for

6:48 AM ET THE HOUSTON ROCKETS‘ culture in the James Harden era, which bridges two owners and now four head coaches, might be best summed up by a former staffer’s three words: “Whatever James wants.” Unless they were on the front end of a back-to-back set, it was essentially a sure thing that the Rockets

11:45 PM ET Houston Rockets superstar James Harden made his preseason debut Tuesday night but has yet to speak to the media since requesting a trade and briefly holding out of training camp. Harden, who was cleared to practice Monday, is in violation of the NBA’s media access rules after declining to make himself available

1:30 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Back-to-back NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has committed to the Milwaukee Bucks long-term. Antetokounmpo agreed to sign a five-year, $228 million supermax extension with the Bucks on Tuesday, he announced on Twitter, with the terms being confirmed by agent Alex Saratsis to ESPN. The deal includes an opt out after the

3:57 PM ET First-year Houston Rockets coach Stephen Silas said he had a “good conversation” with James Harden before the perennial All-Star’s first practice of the season Monday, but they did not discuss Harden’s reported desire to be traded. “You can ask him about his commitment and all that sort of thing,” said Silas, who

11:15 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN When Zion Williamson told reporters about not having any sort of restrictions on him this season, he was happy. The smile on his face was bright and his happiness shined through on the video call last week. After the New Orleans Pelicans‘ 114-92 win over the Miami Heat in their

7:08 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN After a chaotic offseason that saw the NBA draft and free agency compressed into a single week — followed almost immediately by abbreviated training camps amid teams adjusting to newly implemented COVID-19 testing protocols — the chase is on to see if the Los Angeles Lakers will be able to

7:59 AM ET Ramona Shelburne Close ESPN Senior Writer Senior writer for ESPN.com Spent seven years at the Los Angeles Daily News Adrian Wojnarowski Close Senior NBA Insider Host of The Woj Pod Joined ESPN in 2017 The arrival of John Wall has left All-NBA guard James Harden unmoved and uninterested in pursuing a new

11:27 PM ET NEW YORK — After a year and a half of Achilles rehabilitation, Kevin Durant returned to the basketball court for the first time on Sunday night for the Brooklyn Nets preseason game against the Washington Wizards. “I was anxious, nervous,” Durant said afterward. “I visualized this moment for so long. Nine, ten

8:17 AM ET The 2020-21 NBA season has arrived. Preseason games tipped off last week, and the regular season is scheduled to begin Dec. 22, just 71 days after the NBA Finals ended. After successfully finishing the 2019-20 season in a bubble environment at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, the league —

1:34 AM ET Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors are back. For the first time in more than nine months, Curry and his team were back on an NBA floor in a 107-105 preseason win over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night. Curry went 3-for-10 from the field, scoring 10 points in 21 minutes,

4:11 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Saturday that he is unsure the team’s biggest addition this offseason, center Tristan Thompson, will be ready to play in time for Boston’s season opener at home against the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 23. “I think that’s hard to say right now,” Stevens said after

7:04 PM ET Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green and No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman are both “very unlikely” to play in the team’s three preseason games, coach Steve Kerr said Thursday. “Neither one will play Saturday and very unlikely to play either game in Sacramento, too,” Kerr said during a video conference call

11:41 PM ET John Wall vowed that he’d return to his previous All-Star form after missing almost two years because of heel and Achilles tendon injuries. His preseason debut with the Houston Rockets on Friday night at least hinted at that hope being possible. It was also quite an encouraging first step in a Rockets

4:44 PM ET Bradley Beal says he won’t study film of how Kevin Durant, Paul George and James Harden played alongside Russell Westbrook to get tips or insight into his new backcourt mate. The Washington Wizards guard says his first week with Westbrook has been “smooth sailing” so far and he wants to learn Westbrook’s

2:37 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Last season, then-Indiana Pacers assistant coach Dan Burke wasn’t much of a fan of Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid. These days, however, Embiid said things are a lot different, for one big reason: They’re now on the same team. “It’s easy to say stuff when you’re playing against somebody,” Embiid

7:35 PM ET NEW YORK — Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets have each been fined $25,000 by the NBA for failure to comply with the league’s media rules. “The fines result from Irving’s refusal on several occasions this week to participate in the team media availability,” the NBA said in a statement Thursday. The

1:17 PM ET Six-time All-Star forward Paul George has signed a maximum contract extension with the LA Clippers that guarantees him as much as $226 million over the next five years, his agent, Aaron Mintz of CAA Sports, told ESPN. The Clippers are extending George’s contract for an additional four years at $190 million on

11:28 PM ET As the Golden State Warriors get ready to start playing basketball again for the first time in over nine months, star guard Stephen Curry acknowledged that he is looking forward to the challenge of trying to lead the team back to the top in the wake of the major roster shuffling Golden

3:42 PM ET Houston Rockets star James Harden must have six consecutive negative COVID-19 tests before the NBA clears him to practice with the team, a league source told ESPN. Harden, the eight-time All-Star who has requested to be traded to a contender, did not report to the Toyota Center for COVID-19 testing until Tuesday,

4:57 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN There’s a multimillion dollar question looming over the NBA that only Giannis Antetokounmpo has the answer to. However, the Bucks superstar didn’t put to bed any speculation on his long-term future in Milwaukee on Wednesday, instead saying he will put faith in his agent and the team’s front office to

8:25 PM ET After a conference call with the NBA on Tuesday night, the National Basketball Coaches Association told ESPN its full membership is prepared to participate in the upcoming NBA season despite high rates of coronavirus infection and spread in many parts of the country. “As we enter the season, all of the protocols

5:54 PM ET LOS ANGELES — With the Los Angeles Lakers‘ first preseason game looming Friday against the LA Clippers — which will be just six days into training camp and 61 days since their clinching Game 6 NBA Finals victory — coach Frank Vogel sounds like he’s calling off the big guns. “We haven’t