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1:02 PM ET San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said the “country is in trouble” and he’s “embarrassed as a white person” to know that George Floyd could die in such a horrific way as a police officer with a knee on Floyd’s neck went about his job in such a “nonchalant … casual” manner.

5:31 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN As the NBA continues to prepare for its return to the court next month in Orlando, it has determined that the order in the standings will be determined by winning percentage, league sources told ESPN. That decision could play a pivotal role in how the race to take part in

6:22 AM ET NBA Insiders The NBA board of governors voted in favor of a 22-team return-to-play proposal on Thursday and the NBPA gave its approval on Friday, setting the resumption of the season in motion. The season will conclude with eight regular-season games per team in Orlando, Florida, with the possibility of a playoff

11:52 PM ET Fearful of significant setbacks in the development of young players over months of inactivity, several teams left out of this season’s regular-season resumption in Orlando have proposed ideas for regional mini-summer leagues, training camps and OTA’s, sources tell ESPN. As the rest of the NBA prepares to re-start the 2019-2020 season with

5:22 PM ET National Basketball Players Association representatives approved the NBA’s 22-team format to complete the 2019-2020 season, the NBPA announced Friday. The NBA and NBPA will work through a number of details in the next week on the season’s resumption at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, but sides are ready to move

10:30 AM ET It has been nearly three months since the last NBA game was played. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and man, there’s a lot to love about every team that’s going to compete for the 2020 NBA championship in Orlando next month. Now that the league’s board of governors has

6:54 PM ET AS THE NBA’S plans to restart its season at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida, were coming into focus last week, Chris Paul and Bob Iger went for a walk. Paul, the president of the National Basketball Players Association, and Iger, the executive chairman of the Walt Disney

3:40 PM ET Tim Bontemps Brian Windhorst Close ESPN Senior Writer ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010 Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years Author of two books The NBA has announced its return 86 days after suspending the season due to the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, the NBA’s board of governors overwhelmingly approved a proposal for

12:31 AM ET Just days away from Thursday’s vote of the NBA board of governors to approve a plan to restart the season with 22 teams in Orlando, Florida, several of the franchises considered to be title favorites are internally discussing how to retain some semblance of the home-court advantage they fought to earn through

5:58 PM ET Golden State Warriors stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were among several members of the organization who marched in Wednesday afternoon’s Walking in Unity protest event in Oakland, California. As the Warriors noted in several social media posts, Golden State swingman Juan Toscano-Anderson organized the rally that went around Lake Merritt, the

11:51 AM ET The NBA’s Board of Governors has a 12:30 p.m. ET call on Thursday with the intention of approving the league’s plan for a 22-team return in Orlando, sources told ESPN on Wednesday. Each of the 22 teams will play eight regular-season games in Orlando for seeding purposes for the playoffs, sources told

6:45 AM ET THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION knew it needed to step in and help. As the NBA has become more international in recent decades, its ranks have grown in kind. About a quarter of players on opening night rosters — 108 of 450 — hail from 38 countries and territories other than the

5:32 PM ET As the NBA models a 22-team format for the season’s proposed resumption beginning July 31 in Orlando, a timeline shared with teams as a last possible date for a Finals Game 7 lands on Oct. 12, sources told ESPN. Commissioner Adam Silver is expected to have a proposal to take to a

Wes Unseld, who died Tuesday at the age of 74, spent more than three decades in the NBA as a player, coach and executive. He helped lead the then-Washington Bullets to their only NBA championship in 1978, earning Finals MVP honors. He, along with Wilt Chamberlain, is one of two players to win the league’s

6:55 AM ET The NBA’s return-to-play plan, which includes a likely 22-team field competing in Orlando, Florida, in regular-season games and a play-in tournament to decide postseason berths, is expected to pass in a Thursday board of governors vote. The Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic were holding the No. 8 seeds in their respective conferences

8:48 PM ET NBA Insiders Who are the favorites for MVP, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and the other major NBA awards for the 2019-20 season? The league is expected to approve a return-to-play plan on Thursday, with growing support for a 22-team field that likely will play regular-season and play-in

1:30 PM ET Near the end of the NBA’s board of governors call on Friday, Oklahoma City Thunder owner Clay Bennett delivered an impassioned soliloquy on why the league and owners needed to consider the competitive and financial plights of smaller-market teams that could be left out of the season’s summer resumption in Orlando, Florida

7:25 AM ET When speaking with players, coaches, executives, referees and even typically skeptical agents in recent weeks, their display of support for Adam Silver reveals a remarkable building of capital in his six years as NBA commissioner. Under his leadership, the league and its partners have gotten richer. Silver has expanded support of players

8:45 PM ET NBA Insiders As the NBA prepares for a possible return to play in the midst of a hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, which awards races are still in play? The NBA is expected to approve a return-to-play plan on Thursday, with growing support for a 22-team field that will include regular-season

5:48 PM ET Charlotte Hornets owner and Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan joined the chorus of athletes, coaches and executives expressing their grief and outrage over the death of George Floyd. “I am deeply saddened, truly pained and plain angry,” Jordan said in a statement Sunday. “… I stand with those who are calling out

8:00 AM ET Editor’s note: This piece was originally published on June 1, 2018. Two lead changes. Three ties. A controversial replay reversal. A potentially series-changing blunder. The final minute of regulation in Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals featured just about everything. We let the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors tell the

10:11 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown led a peaceful protest march through Atlanta on Saturday night. Brown, who streamed part of the march live via his Instagram account and also posted videos of speeches to his page, said during the livestream that he’d driven 15 hours from Boston in order to

5:24 PM ET Detroit Pistons coach Dwane Casey lived through desegregation in Kentucky and said he knows what it has felt like to go into a new school unwanted and unwelcome. He’s seen the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. On Saturday, Casey, who is black,

2:37 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN As the NBA’s board of governors met Friday afternoon to assess options for how to restart the season, the league’s general managers have expressed their preference to go straight to the playoffs. In a survey of all 30 general managers, which was viewed by ESPN, 16 said they would prefer

7:17 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 NBA is planning a Thursday vote of the league’s Board of Governors — with owners expected to

2:59 PM ET ESPN News Services Former NBA player Stephen Jackson spoke at a rally Friday afternoon in Minneapolis in remembrance of his friend George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died in police custody after pleading that he could not breathe. “I’m here because they’re not gonna demean the character of George Floyd, my

6:50 AM ET MICHELE ROBERTS HAD just stepped out of an Uber when her phone started buzzing. It was a little after 8 p.m. on March 11, and the National Basketball Players Association executive director had left her New York office after meeting with NBA commissioner Adam Silver to discuss the next steps amid the

6:20 PM ET Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard believes a play-in tournament for teams on the outside of the playoff picture “would be perfect” as the NBA considers options for how it could potentially restart its season. The Blazers were 3½ games behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the final playoff spot in the Western

9:12 AM ET ESPN News Services LeBron James and other high-profile athletes have taken to social media to voice their outrage over the death of a black Minnesota man who was pinned down by police. George Floyd, 46, died Monday night while in Minneapolis police custody. A bystander’s video showed an officer kneeling on the

5:48 AM ET DAMIAN LILLARD HAS never entered the Portland Trail Blazers‘ training center through the media entrance, but there’s nothing natural about May 8, the first time he walks into the facility since the NBA shuttered it March 20 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Wearing a mask, Lillard steps into a makeshift check-in area,