NBA

8:00 AM ET God Shammgod springs to his feet in front of the Dallas Mavericks‘ bench, a big smile on his face, as he discusses one of his favorite subjects: dribbling. Specifically, in this instance a couple of hours before an Oct. 7 home preseason game, Luka Doncic‘s dribbling. Shammgod, a Mavericks player development coach

11:14 PM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Warriors unveiled their 2021-22 NBA championship banner and rings Tuesday night ahead of the season-opening 123-109 win against the Los Angeles Lakers. “It takes resiliency to win a title, and resiliency is what defines this Warriors team,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said during the

8:00 AM ET The NBA season tips off tonight, but we’re already looking forward to the postseason — and to a major milestone for an all-time great. Four months ago, the Golden State Warriors jumpstarted their dynasty with a six-game Finals victory over the Boston Celtics. And while our expert panel places the defending champs

When LeBron James passed Karl Malone for second on the NBA’s career regular-season points list, he set his sights firmly on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s current all-time leading scorer. James enters the 2022-23 season, his 20th in the NBA, needing only 1,326 points to surpass Abdul-Jabbar’s career total of 38,387. Given that James has scored

8:27 PM ET Atlanta Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter has agreed to a four-year, $95 million contract extension, his agents Thad Foucher and Joe Smith of Wasserman told ESPN on Monday night. The deal, agreed to ahead of the 6 p.m. ET deadline for rookie scale extensions, allows Hunter to avoid restricted free agency next summer.

1:59 PM ET NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets star forward Kevin Durant studies the game and its history as much as any top player in the NBA today. That’s why his praise of New Orleans Pelicans young forward Zion Williamson as a “one of one” type of talent speaks volumes about the kind of ability

8:00 AM ET What will the 2022-23 NBA season be remembered for? Some teams will look very similar, but the landscape of the league is never exactly the same two years in a row. An offseason full of big trades and a handful of star players returning from injury is bound to shake up the

7:08 PM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN SAN FRANCISCO — For the past two years, the Golden State Warriors have been vocal about their desire to bridge their current success with future success. And over the weekend, they put that into action, signing Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins to contract extensions. The Warriors signed Poole to a

11:43 AM ET Jamal CollierESPN Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Connaughton will miss at least three weeks with a right calf strain, the team announced Sunday. Connaughton missed the final two preseason games with a sore right calf that the team initially hoped wasn’t serious, before an MRI on Friday revealed the injury. Bucks coach Mike

8:00 AM ET When we last saw the Los Angeles Lakers, they were careening out of the playoff picture, losing eight straight games from late March through early April as a fetid topper to a rotten season. L.A. went from the oddsmakers’ NBA Finals favorite to missing the play-in tournament, as injuries and an ill-conceived

5:47 PM ET Adrian Wojnarowski Close Senior NBA Insider Host of The Woj Pod Joined ESPN in 2017 Kendra Andrews Golden State Warriors All-Star forward Andrew Wiggins has agreed to a four-year, $109 million contract extension, his agents, Drew Morrison and Steven Heumann of CAA Sports, told ESPN. The deal, which includes a player option

8:00 AM ET The vibes are good right now in Kyrie Irving‘s world. As he stands inside the Brooklyn Nets‘ locker room following Wednesday night’s preseason win against the Milwaukee Bucks, Irving lights up some sage from the side of the room and discusses his team and what he feels is the positive direction it

7:18 PM ET A former Phoenix Suns ticket manager was sentenced to one year in county jail and three years probation Friday on felony fraud and theft charges for illicitly selling more than 2,800 of the team’s tickets through a third party from 2017 to 2019. Jeffrey Marcussen, who worked for the Suns from 2004

11:30 PM ET Los Angeles Lakers guard Russell Westbrook left Friday’s game against the Sacramento Kings with a hamstring injury and will not return. Westbrook exited the court in the first quarter, but it was unclear how he suffered the injury. Westbrook was coming off the bench in the Lakers’ preseason finale, a move coach

8:00 AM ET Ben Simmons looks and sounds like he’s in a very good place with the Brooklyn Nets. Sitting in the padded courtside seats of Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum during shootaround on Wednesday, the 26-year-old swingman says, after nearly a year and a half away from an NBA floor, he is embracing his new role

8:51 PM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green returned to practice on Thursday following a week away from the team after the fallout from punching Jordan Poole last Wednesday. The Warriors opted not to suspend Green for the incident, and instead fined him. He will play in the Warriors’

9:50 PM ET EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — After several videos went viral making it appear Russell Westbrook was intentionally distancing himself from teammates during the Los Angeles Lakers‘ preseason loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, the veteran guard offered context to debunk any signs of discord. In one video, shot on a phone by

8:00 AM ET Here we go: The top 10 in our 2022-2023 League Pass Rankings! We revealed Nos. 30-11 on Tuesday, and you can read about the rankings formula there. 10. DALLAS MAVERICKS (35) Look at this soul-snatcher: That is the smile of someone who knows he has you. The Mavs’ offense is one-dimensional —