8:53 AM ET Tim Bontemps Tim MacMahon Close ESPN Staff Writer Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009 Covers the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks Appears regularly on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM AS SOON AS the NBA season had been indefinitely suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, Drew Hanlen’s phone lit up with a FaceTime call. It
NBA
12:54 PM ET USC freshman Onyeka Okongwu is entering the 2020 NBA draft, he announced Wednesday. “I am declaring for the draft, forgoing my final three years of school [and] planning on signing with an agent in the near future,” Okongwu told ESPN in a text message. Okongwu also posted a message to social media
9:11 AM ET Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he hopes the NBA resumes playing games in May, saying that the league’s restart can help bring people together amid the coronavirus pandemic. In an interview published Tuesday by Dallas television station WFAA, Cuban cited “people I’ve talked to at the CDC and other places” for
1:54 AM ET Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns says his mother has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Towns spoke about his mother’s condition in an emotional Instagram video Tuesday night, revealing she is in a coma and connected to a ventilator. He said he was told early last week that his mother was not feeling
8:00 AM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Khris Middleton took the pass from Donte DiVincenzo and slammed it home, cutting the Milwaukee Bucks‘ deficit to six points with 44 seconds left. The Phoenix Suns would go on to win, handing the Bucks the second of three consecutive losses. No one knew it at the time, but it
1:51 PM ET SEVENTY-TWO HOURS before the NBA shuttered its practice facilities to players, Denver Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly decided to streamline rounds of telephone conversations and text messages with his front office peers into a conference call. Most executives were working out of their homes, crisis managers on the front line
1:00 PM ET Brian Windhorst Close ESPN Senior Writer ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010 Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years Author of two books Tim Bontemps On Tuesday, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were officially postponed until 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. For USA Basketball, the postponement of the Games means the men’s
12:34 AM ET South Korea’s basketball league, the KBL, has elected to cancel the remainder of its season due to safety concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, a source told ESPN. The KBL has been suspended since Feb. 29. Officials from all 10 teams met Tuesday morning in Seoul to discuss whether to resume play
9:09 PM ET The Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils have notified non-contracted employees they will be subject to pay cuts starting as soon as next month, sources confirmed to ESPN. Both teams are owned by billionaire Josh Harris. The cuts will affect full-time employees who make $50,000 or more and would go as high
2:17 PM ET ESPN.com Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print As the NBA season’s suspension due of the coronavirus pandemic continues, teams are running video game simulations of their remaining games and players are passing the time working out, shooting rolled-up socks into mini hoops and doing plenty of trash talking. And then there
DRIBBLING THROUGH THE rocks and tire tracks at Jack’s hoop honed Curry’s ballhandling skills, while the unpredictable backboard and the unforgiving rim tested his touch and inspired the perfect, impossibly high parabolic arc of his shot. But the court also polished his composure; this is where he first obtained the Tao of Point Guard. “This
12:42 PM ET The decision to continue or resume playing international basketball — even without fans — in some countries is causing concern and second-guessing in some places. Japan’s B League, which had just resumed play, has now announced it will again postpone its season, this time until April 1, after what the Japan Times
9:59 AM ET Duke point guard Tre Jones — the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year — will enter the 2020 NBA draft, he told ESPN on Saturday. Jones, who was also voted the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, is rated among the projected first-round picks by ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony. The
11:31 PM ET The NBA plans to deliver players full salaries due on April 1, but left open the possibility of recouping future salaries for canceled games on April 15, according to a league memo shared with teams on Friday. As the coronavirus pandemic paralyzes the NBA and nation, the canceled games and loss of
12:06 PM ET Georgia Bulldogs freshman guard Anthony Edwards, the No. 1 prospect on ESPN’s draft board, is entering the NBA draft, he announced Friday on Twitter. “Georgia will always be my home but I am ready to take my game to the next level and have decided to declare for the 2020 NBA Draft,”
7:57 PM ET Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart and two Los Angeles Lakers players have tested positive for the coronavirus. Both teams released statements announcing the positive tests Thursday, though they did not identify the players by name. Smart posted a tweet later Thursday confirming that he had tested positive. I was tested 5 days
4:16 PM ET THE FIRST REPORTS started landing in NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s inbox at about the same time he was writing the eulogy for his mentor, David Stern. It was mid-January, and news of the coronavirus in China, where the NBA has 200 employees at offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei, had
8:47 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN Before the NBA suspended its season due to the coronavirus pandemic, LeBron James posted his best weekend of the 2019-20 season. He put up 37 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists in a win over the Milwaukee Bucks and reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, and followed that with a 28-point, 8-rebound,