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3:27 PM ET Philadelphia 76ers ownership — including Josh Harris and David Blitzer — will meet with Doc Rivers in Philadelphia on Wednesday night on the franchise’s head-coaching job, sources tell ESPN. Rivers talked earlier Wednesday with general manager Elton Brand. Other top candidates — including Mike D’Antoni and Ty Lue — also met with

7:30 AM ET After much springtime bloviating, there will be no asterisk on this NBA championship. If anything, it will be more badge of honor — a mark of perseverance through isolation, mental strain, and the internal discord of performing a job in the entertainment industry while issues of social and racial justice roiled outside

6:09 PM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Like a parent being asked to rank their favorite children, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James wanted no part in assigning special value to a 2020 NBA championship, should he win it against his former team, the Miami Heat. “It’s no extra meaning to winning a championship,

6:45 AM ET An hour before the 2019 NBA Finals tipped off in Toronto — the first time the league’s showcase event had been played outside the United States — commissioner Adam Silver reminded those watching that basketball’s founder, James Naismith, was a Christian missionary who brought the game to China and Europe in the

11:38 AM ET Ramona Shelburne Close ESPN Senior Writer Senior writer for ESPN.com Spent seven years at the Los Angeles Daily News Ohm Youngmisuk Close ESPN Staff Writer Ohm Youngmisuk has covered the Giants, Jets and the NFL since 2006. Prior to that, he covered the Nets, Knicks and the NBA for nearly a decade.

5:18 PM ET Doc Rivers is out as head coach of the LA Clippers, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, following a season that fell well short of championship expectations after the team landed All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George last summer. Against the Denver Nuggets, the Clippers squandered a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference

7:50 PM ET The risk profile on next season, already trending toward the red, just got hotter for the LA Clippers. After a devastating postseason collapse along with the crashing realization that both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George can become free agents next summer, parting with Doc Rivers Monday has only increased the stakes. This

12:43 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — This season, the Boston Celtics reached the Eastern Conference finals for the third time in four years. Now, although there was one obvious difference about this trip — it came inside the NBA’s bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort — they find themselves facing

10:12 PM ET There aren’t many days that go by during the NBA season when LeBron James doesn’t use lessons he learned during his four years with the Miami Heat. One has proven to be the most important: Keep the main thing the main thing. It is one of the core tenets that Heat president

10:06 PM ET Associated Press LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — It was exactly one year ago Sunday when Jimmy Butler walked into the Miami Heat practice gym, took a seat on a makeshift stage and said he wanted to be part of the team’s next title run. He’ll have that chance. The Heat are going

7:20 AM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — In the NBA bubble, a quality cup of coffee is hard to come by. The sweets shop in the El Centro lobby on the way to the practice facility — which offered bitter dark roast — closed soon after players arrived in early July because it wasn’t

1:44 AM ET A year ago, the hardest thing in front of LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers was resurrecting a storied franchise that had missed the playoffs six consecutive seasons. And at the time, that seemed like a pretty steep hill to climb. There was no way to know what awful events lay

12:59 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — After the Boston Celtics walked into the locker room at halftime of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat, having produced a second straight lackluster first half in a series they trailed 3-1, they knew something had to change. So, before

7:00 AM ET All four teams are still afloat in the NBA’s conference finals — and things just keep getting spicier. The Boston Celtics kept their season going by beating the Miami Heat in Friday’s Game 5 121-108. The Denver Nuggets, meanwhile, are hoping to make yet another improbable comeback from a 3-1 series deficit,

11:13 PM ET For the Boston Celtics, the first half of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals was a tractor pull. They shot 25 percent from the field in the first quarter. Coming off a simple pick-and-pop with Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker sent the pass into the hands of assistant coach Scott Morrison on

6:43 PM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Los Angeles Lakers are one win away from going to the NBA Finals for the first time since Kobe Bryant led them past the Boston Celtics a decade ago. So, it was apt when, in describing how the Lakers are tempering their emotions in the moment,

6:51 AM ET DWYANE WADE SPENT just one season playing alongside Jimmy Butler in Chicago, but that was all that was needed to form a deep — and familiar — impression. “He’s a Heat guy,” Wade later told Erik Spoelstra, the coach of Wade’s longtime franchise, the Miami Heat. Spoelstra probably didn’t need the future

2:44 AM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — If Jamal Murray was going add yet another comeback victory to the Denver Nuggets’ dream postseason run, he was going to have to go through LeBron James to do so. With the Los Angeles Lakers clinging to a four-point lead with just more than five minutes remaining

8:50 PM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Dwight Howard will start at center for Game 4 of the Western Conference finals, the Los Angeles Lakers announced shortly before tipoff Thursday. Howard replaced JaVale McGee in the first unit to begin the second half of Game 3. L.A. leads the Denver Nuggets 2-1 in the

6:44 AM ET Eric WoodyardESPN THE NIGHT BEFORE the Denver Nuggets faced the LA Clippers in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals, backup guard Monte Morris had another Los Angeles team on his mind. He was on a FaceTime call with childhood friend Kyle Kuzma, whose Los Angeles Lakers had already punched their ticket

12:37 AM ET The 2020 playoffs have been a showcase of shocking comebacks, ungodly individual exploits and buzzer-beaters, and beautiful team performances. But not every postseason game can be a work of art. Those instant classics linger in our memory, but every team that advances to the NBA Finals trudges its way through a bog

1:46 PM ET ESPN News Services A Kentucky grand jury on Wednesday indicted one police officer for shooting into neighboring apartments but did not move forward with charges against any officers for their role in Breonna Taylor’s death. A grand jury in Louisville announced that Officer Brett Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton

6:49 AM ET A year ago, Jimmy Butler was changing teams for the third time in three years. He didn’t make the All-Star Game for the first time in four years, and he had developed a reputation as an irritant or a malcontent or a difficult teammate — or all three. These days, Joel Embiid

12:00 AM ET Just four minutes and thirty-eight seconds into the second quarter of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic retreated to his team’s bench having committed his third foul of the game. That’s when the team knew their 7-foot passing savant was in trouble. Five-thousand miles away, Dejan

6:01 PM ET Billy Donovan has agreed to a deal to become the next coach of the Chicago Bulls, sources tell ESPN. Chicago Bulls executive VP of Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas aggressively pursued Donovan in the aftermath of Donovan’s leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder after five seasons, sources said, selling Donovan on a partnership and

6:57 AM ET Anthony Davis is used to individual success. The 2012 No. 1 overall pick is a seven-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA player. This season, he finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting and sixth for MVP, while being named first-team All-NBA and first-team All-Defense. But the 2020 NBA playoffs in the

9:06 PM ET NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan announced Monday night that they will field a car for the 2021 Cup Series season. Their driver: Bubba Wallace. “Bubba has shown improvement since joining the Cup series, and we believe he’s ready to take his career to a higher level,” Hamlin wrote. Added Jordan:

3:37 AM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — After his shot dropped to beat the buzzer, win the game and lift the Los Angeles Lakers to just two wins away from their first NBA Finals appearance since 2010, Anthony Davis shouted out one word that said it all: “Kobe!” Davis’ 3-pointer from the left wing

7:00 AM ET ON THE FIRST floor of a gray, block-like, four-story structure on the campus’ northwest corner, a dozen students shuttle into a three-hour class taught once a week on Monday mornings. It’s the early fall of 2015, and inside Tolman Hall, the longtime home of the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School

10:59 PM ET When the Los Angeles Lakers took a 16-point lead with 8:12 left in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals against the Denver Nuggets, it seemed like they would cruise to a victory, similar to Game 1. But the Nuggets kept playing, cutting the Los Angeles lead to 82-78 entering the fourth