4:17 PM ET The Brooklyn Nets, the consensus favorites to win the title, opened at a league-best 54.5 wins at Caesars Sportsbook after the NBA released its full 2021-22 schedule on Friday. The defending champion Milwaukee Bucks are next at 53.5. The Bucks host the Nets on opening night, Oct. 19. Milwaukee is an early
NBA
3:36 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN A trio of return games for All-Star point guards Russell Westbrook, Kyle Lowry and Kemba Walker highlights the NBA’s full schedule release Friday afternoon. Westbrook will head back to Washington with the Los Angeles Lakers on March 19, about a week after the teams meet in Los Angeles on March
3:06 PM ET Associated Press MIAMI — The Miami Heat announced Friday that all employees must be in the process of becoming fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 1. Exemptions will be available for those awaiting a second dose of a two-shot vaccine or those with “a qualifying medical condition or a sincerely held religious
1:00 PM ET Associated Press MIAMI — Ray Allen has taken a job as director of boys’ and girls’ basketball at Miami’s Gulliver Prep and will also serve as the school’s boys’ varsity basketball coach. Gulliver announced the hiring of the Hall of Fame player, two-time NBA champion and 10-time All-Star on Friday. Allen has
1:20 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN The Boston Celtics and center Robert Williams have agreed to a four-year, $54 million contract extension, agent Kevin Bradbury of REP1 Sports told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday. The deal will put Williams, 23, among the top half of centers in the NBA in terms of annual salary and is
9:00 AM ET Who are the NBA free agents to watch in 2022 and 2023? Most of the league’s superstars have signed long-term extensions with their current teams, leading some league executives to call 2022 “The Offseason of the Rotational Players.” Still, superstars like Bradley Beal, James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Russell Westbrook could become
6:22 PM ET Restricted free-agent swingman Hamidou Diallo has signed a two-year, $10.4 million deal to return to the Detroit Pistons, his agents Thad Foucher and Joe Smith with Wasserman told ESPN. Diallo, 23, arrived in a midseason trade with Oklahoma City and averaged 11 points and five rebounds in 23 minutes a game for
5:39 PM ET In a significant step, Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant announced a partnership and sponsorship deal with cannabis marketplace Weedmaps on Thursday and said he plans to use his platform to destigmatize marijuana use among athletes. Durant has been an advocate for the benefits of marijuana in the past and has invested in
4:25 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN LeBron James took to Twitter to react to ESPN’s offseason survey of 10 NBA scouts and executives leaving him without a single vote for the title of best player in the NBA. James responded to a tweet sarcastically saying he was washed-up as a player, then sent out a separate
4:20 PM ET ESPN News Services The Dallas Mavericks are hiring two-time WNBA champion Kristi Toliver as an assistant coach, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Toliver has previous NBA coaching experience. She spent parts of two seasons as an assistant on the Washington Wizards’ staff. Toliver is currently playing for the Los Angeles Sparks where
3:18 PM ET Former NBA guard Jason Terry is finalizing a deal to become the new head of the Grand Rapids Gold, the new G League affiliate of the Denver Nuggets, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Terry wanted to get on a path to becoming a head coach after an 19-year NBA career that included
10:32 AM ET Terry Rozier has agreed to a four-year, $97 million extension with the Charlotte Hornets, a source confirmed to ESPN. Rozier was the Hornets’ leading scorer last season, averaging a career-best 20.4 points on 45 percent shooting from the field and 38.9 percent shooting from three. Rozier also averaged career-bests with 4.2 assists
7:20 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN The past two seasons have seen the NBA — like the rest of the world — deal with unprecedented circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused as much upheaval across the NBA as any sports league in North America and beyond, with the 2019-20 season ending in a bubble inside the
7:40 PM ET Brianna Williams Video game publisher 2K Sports announced its first wave of ratings for NBA 2K22 on Wednesday morning, and a handful of NBA stars are less than satisfied with their overall standing. Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant had high expectations for his rating. In a video posted by NBA 2K, Durant,
4:37 PM ET Kevin Durant and Draymond Green both blamed Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and team president/general manager Bob Myers for mishandling the fallout from the players’ argument that ultimately contributed to Durant leaving the team following the 2018-19 season. In an interview posted Wednesday on Bleacher Report, Durant and Green both said
10:46 AM ET Longtime NBA journalist Jackie MacMullan will retire from ESPN on Aug. 31, ending a decade-long tenure with the company. MacMullan, who has been an NBA reporter for 40 years, joined ESPN in 2010 after a long career with The Boston Globe. She has appeared on every ESPN platform, as a senior writer
12:38 AM ET Associated Press LAS VEGAS — Louis King slammed home a two-handed dunk with a little more than two minutes left in the third quarter of the NBA Summer League championship game, let out a monstrous roar and promptly flexed with authority. Fittingly, it was King who dominated for Sacramento and finished with
10:28 PM ET Brianna Williams Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant has high expectations for his NBA 2K22 rating. In a video posted by NBA 2K, Durant, one of the cover athletes for the game’s 75th anniversary edition, explained why he believes his rating should be a 99 overall. “I work extremely hard,” said Durant, who