1:12 AM ET The NBA 2K Players Tournament started with a bang Friday night on ESPN. No. 16 seed Derrick Jones Jr. upset No. 1 seed Kevin Durant 78-62 to lead off the evening. Jones and Durant faced off in a tense matchup — this time not on the court, but on the sticks —
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1:03 AM ET Day 1 of the 16-player NBA 2K Players Tournament on ESPN concluded Friday night after four first-round matchups. For each matchup, the players had a chance to choose which team they wanted to control. The winners cannot use the teams they played with Friday night in future rounds. What follows is some
6:47 PM ET NEW YORK — When 18-year-old Fahad Saleem’s home caught fire in early March, his belongings went up in flames. The only one of Saleem’s things that survived the blaze was a black Kyrie Irving Brooklyn Nets jersey. In an interview with Anthony Puccio, Saleem said that he was in school when he
5:54 PM ET As part of larger corporate cutbacks amid the coronavirus pandemic, layoffs are underway within the Utah Jazz. Those cutbacks include non-basketball personnel, and some employees are taking salary reductions, sources told ESPN. The Jazz are one of approximately 80 companies within the Larry H. Miller Group, which confirmed the layoffs as “a
9:19 AM ET Nick DePaulaESPN This year’s Basketball Hall of Fame class is led by a trio of NBA legends: Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett. And while all three racked up countless on-court accolades, they also each enjoyed notable successes in the sneaker world. In fact, this year’s group marks just the second
2:27 PM ET Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid is establishing a funding campaign for COVID-19 antibody testing for front-line health care workers through Penn Medicine, he told ESPN on Friday. A week after publicly pressuring Sixers ownership to reverse course on a plan to cut organizational salaries by 20%, Embiid is joining with team managing
2:38 PM ET Associated Press Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse is “100% committed” to remaining Canada’s coach once qualifying for the Tokyo Games resumes after the coronavirus outbreak. Nurse led the Raptors to the NBA title in his first season as coach last year. He took over the Canadian team two weeks after Toronto’s NBA
1:44 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Inside Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s Wisconsin home, the reigning MVP has been cooking, cleaning, spending time with family and working out since the NBA suspended its season because of the coronavirus pandemic. What he hasn’t been doing is playing basketball. “So, I don’t have access to hoop,” Antetokounmpo said during a conference
1:30 PM ET The Chicago Bulls have embarked on a formal search process to hire a new top executive with full authority on basketball decisions, sources tell ESPN. Among the Bulls’ initial plans will be to seek permission to interview Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas and Toronto GM Bobby Webster, among other candidates, sources
11:05 PM ET Although the Los Angeles Lakers revealed this week that all of their players, including the two who previously tested positive for COVID-19, were symptom free following a two-week self-isolating period, coach Frank Vogel admitted he has no way to be sure whether he or any of his coaching staff ever had the