News

11:56 PM ET Kevin WangESPN.com Six-time NBA All-Star forward Amar’e Stoudemire has signed a deal to play for Fujian Sturgeons in the Chinese Basketball Association this season, the team announced. The announcement came approximately a week after Stoudemire departed from the United States for Hong Kong, where he was greeted by team officials and then
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1:35 PM ET ESPN News Services HOUSTON — A Houston Rockets fan has been charged with assault after allegedly punching a New Orleans Pelicans coach at the end of a game between the teams. Prosecutors charged Manuel Garcia with misdemeanor assault for allegedly punching Pelicans assistant coach Joe Boylan in the face Saturday. Garcia’s girlfriend
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7:00 AM ET Nick DePaulaESPN There are 16 active NBA players with their own signature sneaker, and three of them call Brooklyn home. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have high-profile Nike lines, with regular releases of new models and colorways that drive millions of dollars in sales. Players around the NBA and at every level
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7:28 AM ET ESPN News Services Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James tweeted early Monday morning that he and his family has had to evacuate their house due to the wildfires that are blazing throughout California. Early Monday, a brush fire broke out along the west side of Interstate 405, north of Sunset Boulevard and
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10:41 PM ET Nick DePaulaESPN All-Star point guard John Wall and Adidas are engaged in ongoing buyout negotiations that will soon bring his five-year footwear and apparel endorsement deal to an end less than two years into the agreement, industry sources told ESPN. Since signing the deal in January 2018, Wall has been sidelined by
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10:36 PM ET HOUSTON — Russell Westbrook climbed a rung on the all-time triple-doubles list by recording his first with the Houston Rockets. Westbrook’s outing Saturday night against the New Orleans Pelicans was the 139th triple-double of his career, passing Magic Johnson for second all-time behind Oscar Robertson. Westbrook finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds
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1:51 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday will miss Saturday’s game against the Houston Rockets with a left knee sprain but should be day-to-day in his recovery, multiple sources told ESPN. Holiday injured the knee when he drove down the lane with 5:18 left in the third quarter in Friday’s loss
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2:56 PM ET Jimmy Butler‘s debut with the Miami Heat has been put off for a few more games. Butler’s girlfriend gave birth to the couple’s child Wednesday night, coach Erik Spoelstra said, so the Heat’s high-profile offseason addition will not travel with the team on its two-game road trip to play the Milwaukee Bucks
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1:31 PM ET CJ McCollum has doubled down on the Portland Trail Blazers‘ expectations for this season, leveling a championship-or-bust mantra after an offseason of unprecedented player movement within the rest of the NBA. McCollum, in an essay published by The Players’ Tribune, set NBA title expectations for the Blazers in a Western Conference he
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9:47 PM ET ESPN News Services HOUSTON — A group of fans at the Houston Rockets‘ season opener against Milwaukee held signs and wore shirts in support of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong on Thursday night. Houston general manager Daryl Morey angered China with a since-deleted tweet in support of the protesters earlier this month.
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1:14 PM ET Associated Press WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence took a swipe at Nike and the NBA in a speech criticizing China’s record on trade and human rights. Pence singled out the shoe company for removing Houston Rockets merchandise from stores in China after the team’s general manager angered the Chinese government with
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1:22 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers spent the offseason building a team focused on a very specific identity: being big and physical and imposing their will on their opponents at both ends of the court. And, if Philadelphia’s season-opening 107-93 victory over the Boston Celtics at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday
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8:46 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN CHARLOTTE — There were no first game jitters for former Kentucky star PJ Washington during his NBA debut for the Charlotte Hornets. The 12th overall pick made a huge splash on Wednesday against Chicago with seven 3-pointers in his career debut, the most in the NBA’s 3-point era since 1979-80,
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12:28 PM ET LaVar Ball is “restructuring” Big Baller Brand and plans to relaunch a new website, according to a company spokesman. The company has been effectively defunct for several months in the wake of a financial and legal dispute with his former business partner Alan Foster. The company’s previous website now redirects to a
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9:07 PM ET Chinese state television did not air the NBA’s opening night games Tuesday, and the league’s streaming partner, Tencent, reduced its schedule and was showing just the Los Angeles Lakers–LA Clippers game. CCTV has customarily shown the league’s opening night games but has pulled all NBA broadcasts in the wake of Houston Rockets
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6:59 PM ET Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles has agreed to a one-year, $14 million extension, keeping him under contract with the franchise through 2021-2022, agent Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports tells ESPN. Ingles, 32, had two years and $22.8 million left on his Jazz deal. The additional year secures one of the franchise’s most
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4:47 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN Zion Williamson‘s first dance with the New Orleans Pelicans will have to wait. The team announced on Monday afternoon that Williamson had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to treat a torn meniscus. The Pelicans expect Williamson will miss six to eight weeks. Williamson would miss approximately 20 games on
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12:29 PM ET Sacramento Kings guard Buddy Hield has agreed to a four-year, $94 million contract extension, league sources told ESPN. The deal includes $86 million in guaranteed money, eight million in exceedingly reachable bonuses and another $12 million in incentives that could elevate the deal to $106 million over the term of the deal,
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3:44 AM ET Associated Press About a dozen NBA players gathered for a teleconference with officials in the league office this summer, making their case about what they believe is one of the biggest problems in the game. Fan behavior, they said, is getting worse. The numbers show they’re right, and if that isn’t troubling
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2:47 PM ET Forward Pascal Siakam has agreed to a four-year, $130 million maximum rookie contract extension, agents Todd Ramasar and Jaafar Choufani told ESPN. Siakam, considered the cornerstone of the Raptors’ future, is the third player in the 2016 NBA draft class to agree to a maximum contract — along with the Philadelphia 76ers‘
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12:06 AM ET ESPN News Services MIAMI — Shooting guard Dion Waiters has been suspended by the Miami Heat for their season opener against Memphis on Wednesday night for what was described as “conduct detrimental to the team.” “There were a number of unacceptable incidents this week, culminating with his unprofessional conduct on the bench
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