3:17 AM ET LOS ANGELES — LeBron James sat out the final eight minutes of the Los Angeles Lakers‘ 116-109 opening night loss to the LA Clippers after rolling his left ankle, but afterward insisted he will be clear to play on Christmas Day. “I turned it pretty good, but I don’t think it’s going
NBA
7:00 AM ET Ryan Hockensmith ON A SWELTERING Sunday in July, a 14-year-old basketball superfan walks to a mailbox in central Connecticut. He holds 14 letters and fans them out like a poker hand, before pushing them through the mail slot. Some are addressed to his favorite NBA and WNBA players. Others, to his favorite
9:42 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Jason Arasheben, aka Jason of Beverly Hills, waited 10 years for a chance to design another Los Angeles Lakers championship ring. And then when the jeweler got his opportunity, Arasheben had to turn the ring around in just four weeks, rather than the customary three to four months he
10:20 PM ET The LA Clippers had to cool their jets pregame while their in-arena rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, received their last reward for winning the NBA 2019-2020 title — their championship rings. But they’d already picked up some pretty sweet swag of their own before they even set foot on the court. Small
9:22 PM ET NEW YORK — Ahead of the Nets’ season opener against the Warriors, Golden State coach Steve Kerr sat down to watch some film of his former player, Kevin Durant. He pulled up Brooklyn’s preseason game against Boston and took in Durant’s first competitive games since tearing his Achilles in June of 2019.
11:59 PM ET Golden State Warriors rookie center James Wiseman lived up to the hype in his NBA debut Tuesday night. The No. 2 overall pick out of Memphis scored 19 points and grabbed six rebounds in 24 minutes during Golden State’s otherwise forgettable 125-99 loss to the Brooklyn Nets in New York. The big
8:01 PM ET Associated Press CLEVELAND — Cavaliers forward Kevin Love will miss the season opener Wednesday night against Charlotte because of a strained right calf. The team officially ruled Love out on Tuesday, hours after Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said he was preparing not to have the five-time All-Star in the lineup. Love got
6:17 PM ET Associated Press The NBA is still looking at scenarios that could allow teams to play in Europe and China again next season, deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said Tuesday. Tatum also said the NBA’s season-opening doubleheader Tuesday night would be shown in China on Tencent, a league streaming partner. But the coronavirus pandemic
3:23 PM ET LOS ANGELES — When ABC announcer Mike Breen called the closing seconds of the Los Angeles Lakers‘ NBA Finals-clinching victory in October, he proclaimed, “Banner No. 17 will soon hang in the rafters.” He was right about the hanging part. What Breen didn’t know was that when the Lakers open up the
3:15 PM ET Paul Pierce, Doug Collins, Michael Cooper and Lauren Jackson headline the group of first-time nominees for the 2021 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class, announced Tuesday on ESPN’s The Jump. Also joining the first-time group is Howard Garfinkel, Lou Henson, Val Ackerman and Yolanda Griffith, to go with popular returning candidates