6:42 AM ET ERIK SPOELSTRA COULD have winged it. If anyone was qualified to give a talk on how to deal with a case of imposter syndrome, it was the former video coordinator who worked his way up to become head coach of the Miami Heat. But Spoelstra had come to know his young sharpshooter,
NBA
12:50 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Only minutes after Donovan Mitchell was lying face down on the court inside AdventHealth Arena, he plopped himself down in front of a video camera, his eyes still red from tears he shed after his Utah Jazz saw their season end with a heartbreaking 80-78
5:24 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Disappointment has begun to mount among Milwaukee Bucks players inside the NBA bubble and it doesn’t have anything to do with basketball or falling behind 1-0 to the Miami Heat. The Bucks suffered a 115-104 loss to the Heat on Monday, but on the same day in Wisconsin, there was
7:12 AM ET Through six volcanic NBA playoff games against the Utah Jazz, Jamal Murray has: Averaged 34 points. Put up 50, 42, then 50 again — the last two in season-saving wins, as the Denver Nuggets look to become the first team since the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers to rally from a 3-1 deficit. (Do
11:41 PM ET In his first moment in the spotlight as a member of the Miami Heat last fall, Jimmy Butler failed. It was the rigorous conditioning test the Heat put players through before training camp that is legend within the league. Some athletic trainers claim it’s the most demanding such test in all of
7:03 PM ET New Orleans Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award on Monday. Ingram, 22, received 42 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters and earned 326 total points. He beat out Miami Heat big Bam Adebayo, who finished in second place with 38 first-place votes (295
2:04 AM ET The Western Conference quarterfinals matchup between the No. 3 Denver Nuggets and No. 6 Utah Jazz is going to a Game 7. After the Nuggets swept the regular-season series against their Northwest Division rivals 3-0, the Jazz took a 3-1 series lead — only for the Nuggets to tie the series. While
1:51 AM ET As he walked up the ramp back to the Denver Nuggets locker room, Jamal Murray, stopped and sat alone in a crouching position for a moment before using his jersey to wipe his face. Helping stave off elimination again by scoring 50 points for the second time in three games, Murray forced
4:46 PM ET LA Clippers forward Marcus Morris Sr. was ejected late in the first quarter of Game 6 due to a flagrant 2 foul committed against Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic, a continuation of the heated rivalry that has developed between the two players in the first-round series. As Doncic drove to the basket,
7:10 AM ET The Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat all swept their way into the Eastern Conference semifinals, while the Milwaukee Bucks, after a Game 1 hiccup against the Orlando Magic, cruised through the rest of a five-game series to the second round. Here’s where the battle to win the East gets interesting.
9:13 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN News of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday didn’t reach reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo until days later with the Milwaukee Bucks star, who is on a social media blackout for the postseason. Once he became informed that Blake, who is Black, was shot seven times
5:33 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown says he’s skeptical that NBA owners will back up their pledges to support NBA players in their push for social justice. “I’m not sure,” Brown said on a Zoom conference call Saturday afternoon. “I can’t speak for everybody. I can
7:17 AM ET After three days off, the 2020 NBA playoffs resume Saturday when the Milwaukee Bucks face the Orlando Magic. These games were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday but were postponed after the Bucks chose not to play Wednesday afternoon in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, with teams across the
10:25 PM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Following a contentious players’ meeting Wednesday that left the NBA bubble on the verge of bursting, LeBron James and Chris Paul led a subcommittee of players who reached out to former President Barack Obama for advice. The Los Angeles Lakers star, along with his good friend and
4:12 PM ET Before the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced Friday that the postseason will resume with players and the league working collectively toward social justice goals, we reached out to more than a dozen leaders to ask how they would advise NBA players to use their influence to translate political passions
7:24 AM ET NBA Insiders NBA players spent the past week publicly and privately grappling with the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, before refusing to play in games Wednesday, setting off protests by athletes across American sports. What does this historic week mean for the NBA and other leagues? What were
4:00 PM ET THE FIRST TIME someone called me the N-word on a basketball court was in seventh grade. I remember dribbling the ball on the wing in front of the visitors bench. This girl, whose name I never knew, said I was a “stupid n—–.” I looked over my shoulder, still dribbling, at her
9:36 AM ET This story was reported and written by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Malika Andrews and Zach Lowe. WE HEARD IT in their voices. The pain. The anger. The desperate cry for justice. The video of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black father of six, being shot seven