NBA

9:06 AM ET TOKYO — Devin Booker, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday arrived in Japan on a private jet just before 11 p.m. Saturday, less than 24 hours before Team USA opens Olympic play against France in a vital game out of the gate. It was a brutal travel day after an exhausting playoff stretch,

7:10 PM ET The Los Angeles Lakers made their first move in what promises to be a busy offseason by extending a qualifying offer to second-year guard Talen Horton-Tucker, the team announced Thursday. The qualifying offer for Horton-Tucker is $1.9 million, according to ESPN front office insider Bobby Marks, and will make the 20 year

7:51 PM ET Associated Press CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers extended a qualifying offer Friday to center Jarrett Allen, making him a restricted free agent. The team had until Aug. 1 to make the offer to Allen, a 23-year-old acquired last season in a trade from Brooklyn and viewed as one of Cleveland’s core pieces. The

12:53 AM ET TOKYO — The trio of players making the unprecedented jump from the NBA Finals to the Olympics are all scheduled to be in Japan by Saturday. The hope is for Devin Booker, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday to be available when Team USA opens play Sunday against France, according to coach Gregg

3:29 PM ET Associated Press MILWAUKEE — Thousands of fans lined downtown Milwaukee streets on Thursday to catch a glimpse of their beloved Bucks in a parade to celebrate the city’s first NBA championship in half a century. Six police officers on horseback clopped past cheering fans at the head of a procession that included

3:55 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN The New Orleans Pelicans officially named Willie Green as their next head coach Thursday. Green is coming off a stint as an assistant with the Phoenix Suns, who just made a run to the NBA Finals, which delayed the timing of the Pelicans’ announcement. “After an extensive and collaborative search,

8:18 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Television ratings for the NBA Finals and playoffs posted sizable increases over last year. But that was the only good news for the NBA as far as viewer numbers. According to Nielsen, the NBA and ABC on Wednesday, the six-game series between the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix

11:58 PM ET Atlanta Hawks center Onyeka Okongwu — the sixth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft — underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder on Wednesday and will miss approximately six months, sources told ESPN. Okongwu’s role grew as the season wore on for the Hawks, but a lingering

12:17 AM ET The Milwaukee Bucks are the 2021 NBA champions after rallying from a 2-0 series deficit against the Phoenix Suns. Now what? We’re not wasting any time spinning forward to next season, where a host of current contenders and potential superteams will aim to unseat Giannis Antetokounmpo & Co. in 2022. What will

7:35 AM ET Associated Press MILWAUKEE — Two shootings in downtown Milwaukee early Wednesday as crowds celebrated the Milwaukee Bucks‘ first NBA championship in 50 years left three people wounded, police said. The shootings both happened at about 12:42 a.m. at two locations near Water Street, police said in a statement. TV station WISN had

11:26 PM ET James Jackson The Milwaukee Bucks are the 2020-21 NBA champions and have snapped a 49-year title drought, the league’s fifth longest entering this season. This ring proved to be hard-fought as Milwaukee is just the third team in Finals history to win four straight after trailing 2-0, joining the 2006 Miami Heat

11:44 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN MILWAUKEE — Eight years ago, a skinny teenager stood between his parents on the court inside Bradley Center here and gazed up at the rafters, where the retired jerseys for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson hung in the rafters. “Maybe in 15 years, 20 years,” the young man said, “maybe

3:49 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN MILWAUKEE — As Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns prepare for Game 6 of the NBA Finals Tuesday night, they do so knowing they’ll see a very familiar face when the game begins. Scott Foster, who has officiated 11 straight postseason losses in games Paul has played in, will be

5:18 PM ET MILWAUKEE — Before the Phoenix Suns even arrived in Milwaukee for the biggest game of their lives in Tuesday’s Game 6 of the NBA Finals (9 p.m. ET, ABC), their coach could sense his team’s hangover had cleared from Saturday’s tough loss in Game 5. “When we got on the plane, the

4:21 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN MILWAUKEE – For eight years, Giannis Antetokounmpo has worked toward the moment he and the Milwaukee Bucks find themselves in right now: one win away from an NBA championship. So it should come with little surprise that Monday afternoon, a little more than 24 hours before playing the biggest game

Jul 17, 2021 Who are the NBA free agents to watch in 2021 and 2022? The 2020 free-agent class featured less star power than normal, as the league blitzed through a condensed transaction period featuring the draft and free agency in the same week. The 2021 class has thinned out after Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert

2:14 AM ET PHOENIX — If there ever was a time for Monty Williams to come up with one of the adages he has been heralded for, it was after his Phoenix Suns‘ 123-119 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Saturday. The defeat was Phoenix’s third in a

11:09 PM ET LAS VEGAS — Team USA built some needed momentum for the Olympics with a quality win over current world champion Spain, 83-76, Sunday night in their final exhibition game before heading to Tokyo. After falling behind by as many as nine points in the first half, Team USA showed off his shooting