1:58 AM ET LOS ANGELES — There has never been an NBA game like the one that took place Friday at Staples Center between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers. It has been five days since Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people died in a helicopter crash in
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11:57 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Just over 25 minutes before a game unlike any other ever played at Staples Center tipped off, a celebration of Kobe Bryant began. There were two moving and powerful video tributes, R&B artists Usher and Boyz II Men and cellist Ben Hong performed, an emotional LeBron James addressed the
10:34 AM ET MYCHAL THOMPSON HAS hardly been able to sleep since he woke up to a nightmare on the Los Angeles Lakers‘ charter flight Sunday afternoon. Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter accident, and Gianna was with him. She’s gone, too. The Lakers broadcaster had been asleep on the trip home from Philadelphia
7:30 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN This year’s NBA All-Star Game will mark a changing of the guard of sorts, as — for the first time in a decade — there will be nine players making their first appearance in the league’s annual midseason showcase. In addition to the three starters named to their first team
7:14 AM ET AS SOON AS he appeared on screen, stomach lurching, he uttered the lament. “Oh no.” Jayson Tatum instinctively withered in his seat, shrinking lower as if that would somehow make him invisible. It didn’t. And as Kemba Walker, Khris Middleton and Donovan Mitchell turned their attention to Tatum with equal parts sympathy
8:19 PM ET ESPN News Services In her first public comments since the death of her husband, Kobe, and daughter Gianna on Sunday, Vanessa Bryant thanked the millions of fans who have shown support during what she called a “horrific” time. She also announced the formation of a fund to help support the other families
7:09 PM ET PLAYA VISTA, Calif. — When Kawhi Leonard returned to the Los Angeles area to play for the Clippers, he called his friend and mentor Kobe Bryant for advice. Still in disbelief and trying to process Bryant’s death, Leonard recalled Wednesday how he talked to Bryant about everything from basketball to where to
8:18 PM ET LOS ANGELES — An emotional Shaquille O’Neal broke down in tears Tuesday, knowing that he won’t be able to have another conversation with Kobe Bryant or celebrate his former teammate’s induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. “I haven’t felt a pain that sharp in a while,” O’Neal said during a TNT
8:34 PM ET Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant died Sunday at age 41. Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, a source confirmed to ESPN. Bryant entered the NBA straight out of high school in 1996 and won five championships and one regular-season
10:53 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Before moving forward, the Los Angeles Lakers had to take a look back. The Lakers gathered their players and coaches at the team’s practice facility in El Segundo, California, on Tuesday for the first time since Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others died in a tragic
8:22 AM ET The text from an unfamiliar 949 number arrived at some ungodly hour in the spring of 2016. I don’t have it anymore. I wish I did. “It’s Kobe. Call me.” I assumed it was a hoax. I called my colleague Ramona Shelburne. I recited the number. She said it was the real
9:54 PM ET LeBron James, in his first public reaction to the death of Kobe Bryant, said he will take on the legacy of the Lakers great as his own responsibility. James, in a lengthy post to Instagram, said he was “heartbroken and devastated” by the death of Bryant and his daughter Gianna’s deaths Sunday
8:49 AM ET Don’t get comfortable. The 2020 NBA trade deadline is Thursday, and by the time these Power Rankings return, many of these rosters might look very different. The Milwaukee Bucks are the first team to clinch a winning record this season, despite a rare loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday. The Los
4:11 PM ET Mechelle VoepelespnW.com Close Mechelle Voepel covers the WNBA, women’s college basketball, and other college sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996. HARTFORD, Conn. — Chicago Sky guard Katie Lou Samuelson couldn’t hold back her emotions Monday. Growing up in Huntington Beach, California,
12:42 PM ET I wanted to go last. To let everyone else write their stories on Kobe Bryant as he approached retirement and then top them all. It was an audacious gamble. But that was my pitch to him in the winter of 2016. I thought the audacity would appeal to him. He’d admire the
7:00 AM ET Editor’s note: This story was originally published on Nov. 25, 2015. Kevin Garnett will be inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the 2020 class. WATCHING WAS WASTEFUL, he thought, counterintuitive. Kevin Garnett loathed it. He’d spit at anyone who implored him to embrace it, even