2:08 PM ET The NBA’s cleanest method of resuming its season is to bring the 16 current playoff teams to its designated “campus,” seed them as they are now — eight East, eight West — and play the NBA’s normal postseason. Sticking to 16 limits the number of bodies, which cuts the chance of COVID-19
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11:41 AM ET Old audio of Michael Jordan has surfaced in which he says he told NBA executive Rod Thorn, who was part of the USA Basketball selection committee, that he wouldn’t play on the Dream Team in 1992 if Detroit Pistons star point guard Isiah Thomas was also selected to the team. “Rod Thorn
12:00 PM ET The final, fleeting fight for 30 teams to resume the NBA’s season is raging through these last days of indecision. Hours of commissioner Adam Silver’s time are being spent engaging owners and high-level executives who are making the case for how the league should march into the summer’s playoffs, including those desiring
8:13 AM ET IT’S STILL DARK when George Hill drives up the dirt road. It is 5:30 a.m., and Hill parks his Dodge pickup, trudges over to a small hut perched 12 feet above the ground, climbs the ladder and settles in to watch the sunrise. Wearing Wrangler jeans and a hoodie emblazoned with the
6:25 AM ET In team-by-team virtual calls with players this week, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts said the “overwhelming” sentiment has been that “they really want to play” and resume the 2019-20 season, most likely in late July at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida. “It’s time. It’s time,” Roberts told ESPN.
6:17 PM ET Cleveland Cavaliers big man Andre Drummond left a big tip for a waitress at a Florida restaurant on Sunday. Kassandra Diaz, a server at Che Restaurant in Delray Beach, said she didn’t know who the customer was until she saw that he had left a $1,000 tip on a $164 check. “When
1:11 PM ET Georgetown Hoyas men’s basketball coach Patrick Ewing is recovering at home after a weekend stay at the hospital with the coronavirus, he told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. On Monday, Patrick Ewing Jr. tweeted that his father’s coronavirus symptoms are being watched and that he is “now home and getting better.” It was announced
8:00 AM ET It has been two and a half months since we’ve seen a poster dunk, an ankle-breaking move or a buzzer-beating shot on an NBA court. And, while there is some hope of a potential restart, plenty of hurdles remain in the league’s mission to save the season amid the coronavirus pandemic. But
12:46 PM ET Associated Press New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says teams in his state can return to their facilities for training after a pause of more than two months. “Starting today, all the New York professional sports leagues will be able to begin training camps,” the Democratic governor said during a news conference Sunday.
8:00 AM ET Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Sept. 7, 2017. Tracy McGrady turns 41 years old on Sunday. From the moment Tracy McGrady first appeared on The Jump, ESPN’s Rachel Nichols has always introduced the seven-time All-Star as “Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady.” That title became reality in 2017, when McGrady
10:41 AM ET ESPN News Services Jerry Sloan, a bulldog as a player for the Chicago Bulls and coach of the Utah Jazz, died Friday at the age of 78. The Jazz announced that Sloan had died from complications from Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia, which he had revealed diagnoses of in April 2016.
12:35 PM ET The NBA has entered into exploratory conversations with the Walt Disney Company about restarting the remainder of its season at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida, in late July, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said Saturday. “The NBA, in conjunction with the National Basketball Players Association, is engaged in
12:59 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 After 10 weeks of suspension of the NBA season due to the coronavirus, the idea of a bubble site where games could be played has taken the next step.
7:19 PM ET Among marketplaces where governmental restrictions are keeping practice facilities shuttered, teams are asking the NBA whether players can bypass returns to those cities and report directly to the league’s proposed campus environment for the start of training camps, sources told ESPN. Most teams in regions still adhering to stay-at-home policies amid the
4:34 PM ET Don Nelson, the winningest coach in NBA history, had just finished a stroll on the beach in his beloved Hawai’i on Friday when a reporter informed him that his coaching contemporary Jerry Sloan had died from complications of Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia at age 78. “Oh, he was a dear
9:00 AM ET “The Last Dance” is over, but let’s lead off our five NBA things with some unfinished business: 1. Dishonoring a champion With precious few exceptions, great teams have a life cycle. They gain experience, win a lot, age, and get bad. There are ways to mitigate the pain, but almost never to
7:00 AM ET What if the Splash Bros. had Wilt Chamberlain playing center? How many titles would the Lakers have won if Magic Johnson was running the break with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal? Imagine Hakeem Olajuwon and James Harden teaming up in Clutch City. We asked our NBA writers to come up with an
3:26 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Coming to America from Greece, as a teenager, was not always the smoothest transition for Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. Before “Giannis” became a household name, those who couldn’t pronounce his last name, in addition to his rare freakish athletic ability and ball-handling skills at his size, often called the
6:23 PM ET New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson‘s lawyers have asked a federal judge in North Carolina to void his marketing agreement with Gina Ford and Prime Sports Marketing, who sued him for $100 million in damages for breaching their contract. In a motion filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
9:41 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Lakers forward Jared Dudley says it’s a “misconception” that the NBA would resume its season in a bubble location that is so closely monitored that players would be restricted from exiting the premises until all the games are finished. “You will be allowed to leave,” Dudley said Wednesday on
4:11 PM ET NBA teams are expecting the league office will issue guidelines around June 1 that will allow franchises to start recalling players who’ve left their markets as a first step toward a formal ramp-up for the season’s resumption, sources told ESPN. Teams expect a similar timeline from the league on when they’ll be
7:00 AM ET What if Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen could’ve played alongside prime Derrick Rose? How many titles would the Celtics have won if Larry Bird and Bill Russell were on the same team? Imagine LeBron James taking his talents to South Beach to team up not only with Dwyane Wade, but Tim Hardaway
4:33 PM ET Former Chicago Bulls forward Horace Grant has fired back at claims Michael Jordan made about him during “The Last Dance” documentary series on ESPN. In a radio interview with Kap and Co. on ESPN 1000 in Chicago on Tuesday, Grant said it “is a downright, outright, completely lie” that he leaked much
May 16, 2020 Kane Pitman The Illawarra Hawks’ 2019-20 NBL season began with unprecedented hype and ended with a $2.4 million debt as the league commits to saving the foundation franchise. What transpired in between was a LaMelo Ball-driven rollercoaster ride that projected the league into the worldwide spotlight as hoops fans from across the
7:00 AM ET YEARS AGO, AFTER a bad hurricane hit Wilmington, North Carolina, Michael Jordan came back to help the recovery effort. Jordan doesn’t go home very often, but he had some friends with him on that trip and wanted to show them where he’d grown up while they were in town. The house, a
10:22 PM ET Many basketball fans enjoy debating who was better between Michael Jordan and LeBron James. But when the Los Angeles Lakers‘ star fantasizes about playing with Jordan, it’s as his teammate, not his adversary. “Me personally, the way I play the game — team first — I feel like my best assets work
4:55 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN The NBA’s draft lottery won’t take place Tuesday in Chicago as was originally planned, but whenever it does happen it is likely to look the same as last year, league sources told ESPN. Since play was suspended March 11 due to the coronavirus pandemic, teams at the top of the
6:43 AM ET NEARLY 22 YEARS have passed since Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf took one last shot at keeping the team together, but he remembers the meeting like it was yesterday. “I remember the date,” Reinsdorf said. “It was July the 3rd in 1998.” The Bulls had won their third straight NBA title and
10:45 PM ET NBA Insiders What will be the legacy of “The Last Dance”? ESPN’s 10-part documentary series about Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls concluded on Sunday night, offering unprecedented access to one of the greatest dynasties and players of all time. With the NBA season on hold, Jordan and that era of
6:52 PM ET Associated Press LOS ANGELES — The pilot flying Kobe Bryant and seven others to a youth basketball tournament outside Los Angeles did not have alcohol or drugs in his system, and all sustained immediately fatal injuries when their helicopter slammed into a hillside, according to autopsies released Friday. The reports by the