9:09 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN TORONTO — After National Basketball Coaches Association president Rick Carlisle spent several minutes praising the winner of this year’s Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, former Utah Jazz coach and executive Frank Layden, he turned the microphone over to Layden to give his remarks. “Rick, how many more years you got
Ahead of a summer where many of the NBA’s top superstars are entering free agency, the 2019 NBA Finals will refreshingly feature the two best players in the NBA, both of whom have been more honest than any of their counterparts about what they want out of basketball. When Kevin Durant joined the Warriors, we
Sunday’s FanDuel slate: 8 p.m. ET: Golden State at Toronto My favorite plays of the day can be found on the following slides in FanSided’s FanDuel daily picks. Each day in order to offer a variety of price points at each position, you can find two slides for each position — one for high-salary options and
12:55 PM ET TORONTO — Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant will not play in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, but coach Steve Kerr acknowledged that it is “feasible” that Durant could participate in just one practice before being cleared to play in a game. “It’s feasible,” Kerr said. “But again,
The Cleveland Cavaliers landed the No. 5 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, which was disappointing. But it might work in their favor. The Cleveland Cavaliers enter an interesting offseason in 2019. Their first season without LeBron James didn’t go well at all, resulting in just 19 wins, and instead of winning the draft lottery
The 2019 NBA Draft is rapidly approaching. It is now a mere 19 days away and, as is often the case, a lot is left to be sorted out in the final three weeks. While all teams must make a final decision on each of their picks in the draft, there are a few decisions
1:37 AM ET Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says that Jerry West, the pro basketball great, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “The Great Jerry West will be receiving our Nation’s highest civilian honor, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his outstanding career, both on and off the court,” according to the
Mandatory Credit: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images UFC Stockholm: Aleksandar Rakic KOs Jimi Manuwa with violent head kick by Thomas Albano Ja Morant is getting a minor procedure done on his knee, but it could be just enough to drop him from the Memphis Grizzlies to the New York Knicks. The top three picks in the upcoming
The Toronto Raptors came out and established that they can more than hang with the Golden State Warriors, picking up a Game 1 win. Here’s how Twitter reacted. Before Game 1 of the NBA Finals even tipped off, there were some who thought that the Toronto Raptors would be a mere speed bump to the
Drake is definitely taking his role as a team ambassador for the Toronto Raptors seriously. The NBA had a conversation with Drake before the NBA Finals began that he should not be rubbing the shoulders of Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse during any games, and so the rapper and team ambassador decided to up his
4:54 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN TORONTO — When Kawhi Leonard was growing up in Southern California, he dreamed — like many others — of having the ball in his hands with the outcome on the line in the biggest of games. And as Leonard has gone through this playoff run with the Toronto Raptors, leading
The ratings for Game 1 of the 2019 NBA Finals were notably low, but there’s a pretty big catch. The Toronto Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors 118-109 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday night, which creates hope for an extended series and more games for ABC and ESPN to air and frame
Houston, we have a problem. Yeah, it’s an overdone cliche, but when is it not fitting to tie that quote into any problems going on in the Houston area? For the Rockets, it appears that things are not all too peachy at the moment. Despite both another MVP-caliber performance by James Harden and another hard-fought
11:31 AM ET Adrian WojnarowskiESPN Murray State guard Ja Morant — the projected No. 2 pick in the June NBA Draft — will undergo a minor orthoscopic procedure on his right knee on Monday, league sources told ESPN. Morant is expected to be fully recovered in three to four weeks, sources said . The scope
The Washington Wizards will look to add a promising young talent that can help dig them out of roster limbo with the Ninth pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. The Washington Wizards will enter the 2019 offseason with perhaps the bleakest outlook of any team in the NBA. The team’s franchise centerpiece, John Wall, tore
Whether he’s massaging Nick Nurse, trolling Steph Curry, or talking trash with Draymond Green, Drake is living the life of a fan we wish we all had. For those of us not part of the Illuminati, putting ourselves into the game the way Drake has in the NBA playoffs is just a dream. Drake doesn’t
3:32 PM ET The NBA has fined the LA Clippers $50,000 for violating the league’s anti-tampering rule when Clippers coach Doc Rivers commented about the Toronto Raptors‘ Kawhi Leonard. While the league did not specify which comments, Rivers compared Leonard to Michael Jordan during an appearance on ESPN’s NBA Finals preview show on Tuesday. “[Leonard]
Houston, we have a problem. Yeah, it’s an overdone cliche, but when is it not fitting to tie that quote into any problems going on in the Houston area? For the Rockets, it appears that things are not all too peachy at the moment. Despite both another MVP-caliber performance by James Harden and another hard-fought
After Jusuf Nurkic suffered a season-ending leg injury late in the regular season, the story about the Portland Trail Blazers had been written in permanent marker: Damian Lillard would need to carry this team. Once Portland beat Oklahoma City in the first round, that much seemed true. Box-score sheets would have to read something like
6:28 PM ET Associated Press TORONTO — The NBA correctly anticipated that television ratings would dip for Game 1 of the NBA Finals, for two very important reasons. There’s no LeBron James. And Canadian numbers don’t count. ESPN said Friday that the Game 1 of the Toronto-Golden State series drew a 10.1 overnight rating, the
In the first NBA Finals game in franchise history, the Raptors took a 1-0 lead over Golden State behind a career game from Pascal Siakam. The Raptors won both of their regular-season meetings with the Warriors — one in a thrilling overtime finish and one in a blowout — but the results proved no more
Kevin Durant will be out of the lineup for a hot minute, and that puts the Golden State Warriors in a tough spot. The Golden State Warriors will have to pull it together to be competitive in the 2019 NBA Finals, and they must channel the chemistry they had in their last series against the
8:24 AM ET TORONTO — Kevin Durant was long gone by the time the Golden State Warriors‘ locker room opened after Thursday night’s 118-109 loss to the Toronto Raptors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. His locker looked well worn, however, because this is where he sat, and paced, as his teammates lost the
In this week’s 2019 NBA Mock Draft, the dust clears from the combine as prospects spread out across the country for workouts, and we start to re-evaluate the top of the class. Players like Nassir Little and Darius Bazley helped themselves over the past few weeks getting the chance to meet with teams and the
It’s funny how life works, isn’t it? For the first month of the playoffs, including two full series and half of the games played in the Eastern Conference Finals, Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet was mired in one of the worst shooting slumps in his NBA career. Aside from the postseason opening loss to the
3:15 AM ET TORONTO — When you are champions, you stick with what got you here. For the Golden State Warriors, the formula in these 2019 playoffs had been fairly transparent: identify the best player on the opposing team — see James Harden and Damian Lillard — and harangue him into a night of frustration
With the 2019 NBA Finals set to tip off Thursday night, here’s a look at the TV schedule for the series. For the first time in almost a decade, we’re about to witness an NBA Finals that does not include LeBron James. And for the first time in four years, the Finals won’t feature the
7:00 AM ET As the Golden State Warriors try to navigate the beginning of the NBA Finals without star Kevin Durant, team leader Draymond Green acknowledged that his role within the framework of the team is dramatically different without Durant on the floor. “It completely changes,” Green told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols in an interview that
The Toronto Raptors are making their first-ever appearance in the NBA Finals. The key to them claiming the title as their own? Defense. For the last few years, there was a LeBron James-sized hump that the Toronto Raptors couldn’t seem to get over. DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry revitalized the franchise and former head coach
It’s going to be a busy next few weeks for Kerwin Roach II. The senior point guard from Texas is in the process of preparing for the NBA Draft on June 20. He’s already had a workout with the Charlotte Hornets, attended the Portsmouth Invitational and he took part in the Pro Basketball Combine last