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12:51 PM ET ESPN News Services Potential early-entry candidates for the 2020 NBA draft will have until Aug. 17 to declare that they are entering the draft, according to a memo obtained by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Saturday. The new deadline is pending the NBA finalizing an agreement with the players’ union on system rule

11:58 PM ET Baxter Holmes Close ESPN Senior Writer Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) is a senior writer for ESPN Digital and Print, focusing on the NBA. He has covered the Lakers, the Celtics and previously worked for The Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times. Zach Lowe Close ESPN Senior Writer Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) is a senior

4:26 PM ET All-Star guard Victor Oladipo plans to ramp up activity with the Indiana Pacers starting next week and evaluate his repaired torn quad tendon prior to making a final commitment to playing in the season’s restart in Orlando, he told ESPN on Saturday. Oladipo, 28, is hopeful to return to play with the

10:51 AM ET NBA Hall of Famer Wayne Embry, who was the first African American to become a general manager in pro sports, believes players should use their voices by continuing to play during the current protests while supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. “I’ve always been a proponent of sports being a model of

6:57 AM ET Associated Press BEIJING — The Chinese basketball league has restarted after an almost five-month shutdown for the coronavirus pandemic, with fewer foreign players and no fans in the stands. The CBA was suspended on Jan. 24 after the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, a week before it was scheduled to return following a

7:58 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN For Memphis Grizzlies swingman Justise Winslow, the idea of playing out the rest of the season in Orlando, Florida, is “tricky.” Winslow spoke with former NBA forward Caron Butler on the league’s Twitter feed on Friday afternoon and expressed concern about the continuation of the season, the same way he

2:40 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Wizards guard Bradley Beal is a star at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C., but away from it he has had to go through some of the same frightening interactions with law enforcement that countless black people in this country have. At the “Together We Stand” march — hosted by

12:27 AM ET Weeks after the team issued a statement condemning “racism, bigotry, violence and prejudice in all its forms” the Los Angeles Lakers announced a pair of moves to aid in their mission to spur positive social change. The Lakers announced the hiring of Karida Brown as the team’s director of racial equity and

5:43 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Bucks guard Sterling Brown, who was tased by Milwaukee police in 2018 after being cited for a parking violation, sees the NBA’s restart in Orlando as an opportunity to campaign for issues of social justice and racial equality. “A lot of eyes will be on us while we’re in Orlando,”

2:11 PM ET Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says if his players take a knee during the national anthem, he hopes to join them. In an interview with ESPN’s Outside the Lines on Thursday, Cuban was asked how he would react if he saw his players not standing for the anthem. “If they were taking

5:37 PM ET The NBA Coaches Association fears new league standards and guidelines that could bar team staffers in high-risk categories for the coronavirus from attending the season’s restart in Orlando could “severely jeopardize” their future employment opportunities. NBCA executive director Dave Fogel and president Rick Carlisle have concerns that several assistants and three head

8:21 PM ET NBA Insiders Who will be the most important and exciting players to watch when the NBA returns next month? The league is set to restart action on July 30 in Florida with eight seeding games for each of 22 teams before a potential play-in series and then the standard playoffs. LeBron James

10:09 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Any athlete who has a positive test for COVID-19 will have to rest and refrain from exercise for two weeks from the later of the date of the player’s first positive test and/or resolution of their symptoms, if they have any, according to the NBA’s health and safety protocol for

1:03 AM ET Brian Windhorst Close ESPN Senior Writer ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010 Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years Author of two books Tim Bontemps After months of work, the NBA released its health and safety protocol for the resumption of the 2019-20 season on Tuesday. It covers the teams’ ramp-up over the next

7:00 AM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Jason Miller/Getty Images While lying on the court in pain after tearing his left Achilles tendon on Dec. 6, Rodney Hood began to contemplate his basketball future. “The initial thought is like, ‘Damn. Most guys used to retire after the Achilles injury,'” the Portland Trail Blazers swingman told ESPN this

11:49 PM ET Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone had the coronavirus in March but wasn’t informed of it until months later, he told CBS Denver 4 in an interview Monday. “I’d say around March 20, I started not feeling well, and we began reaching out to team doctors to see if I could get a

10:40 PM ET With a group of players concerned about the NBA restarting its season amid a pandemic and social unrest around the country, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he is listening and his sense is that the league and its players will be able to “work through most those issues over the next few

6:06 PM ET Adrian Wojnarowski Close Senior NBA Insider Host of The Woj Pod Joined ESPN in 2017 Malika Andrews Close ESPN Staff Writer Staff Writer Joined ESPN in 2018 Appears regularly on ESPN Chicago 1000 As a growing faction of NBA players remains uncertain about committing to the league’s plan for restarting the season

7:00 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN Next month, the NBA is set to descend upon Walt Disney World to attempt to finish out the 2019-20 season. And while winning a championship will be the goal for all 22 teams, plenty of what transpires could have enormous implications and reshape the league. Because of the unusual circumstances

3:42 PM ET San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich criticized NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for caving to Donald Trump in the past on the issue of player protests during the national anthem. “A smart man is running the NFL and he didn’t understand the difference between the flag and what makes the country great —

6:18 PM ET LOS ANGELES — After Friday’s NBA players’ group call revealed just how adamant a faction of the league is against resuming the season in Orlando next month, members of the Los Angeles Lakers insist that ample time remains to get their team on the same page. “[There’s] no divide,” one Lakers player

2:56 PM ET Former Murray State star Ja Morant is asking a Kentucky judge to remove a Confederate monument in downtown Murray. Morant, who was drafted with the second pick in the 2019 NBA draft by the Memphis Grizzlies, led Murray State to a conference championship in 2019. “Murray felt like a second home from

12:13 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN The NBA informed teams in a memo Saturday that COVID-19 testing for players and staff taking part in the league’s restart will begin June 23 and take place every other day. The memo, which was obtained by ESPN, says players and “essential team staff” — any coaches, trainers or medical

5:47 PM ET The debate about whether the NBA season resuming would benefit or distract from the Black Lives Matter movement continued Saturday with players weighing in on social media. Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers made the case on Instagram that NBA players earning their salaries would allow them to financially aid the cause while

8:29 PM ET When the National Basketball Players Association conducted a conference call and vote on restarting the season a week ago, Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving was an active participant — although his questions were of a mundane nature. Sources say Irving asked, as an injured player, if he would count among the Nets’

9:59 PM ET In theory, you could pull it off without a hitch: about 1,500 people test negative for the coronavirus — several times — before entering the NBA’s proposed “bubble” at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, they interact with almost no one else, and the league emerges three months later

7:28 AM ET What will happen in the 2020 NBA draft lottery, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 25? This will be the second lottery since the NBA flattened the odds, which introduced more uncertainty at the top of the draft order. Last season, the New Orleans Pelicans, Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Lakers all jumped from

12:44 AM ET When San Antonio Spurs guard Lonnie Walker IV cut his signature hairstyle this week, he was parting with more than just several inches off the top. Walker said he was attempting to free himself of painful memories. Walker, 21, revealed on Instagram on Thursday that he started to grow out his hair

6:16 PM ET As the NBA firms up its 22-team Orlando restart schedule, 14 of the teams will be eliminated within 53 days of arriving — and only four teams will remain after 67 days, sources said. The NBA has been working to make clear to players that the actual commitment of time for most

6:49 AM ET Nine NBA teams will head to the Orlando bubble in Florida looking to make a final push for a playoff spot. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Wednesday that some players on non-title-contending teams are hesitant to restart. Rosters might be tweaked as a result, but the potential for a surprise postseason run