NBA

7:05 PM ET The NBA and National Basketball Players Association are planning to paint “Black Lives Matter” on the court inside both sidelines in all three arenas the league will use at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, when it resumes the 2019-20 season late next month, league sources told ESPN. The WNBA

7:00 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN Next week, 21 of the 22 teams participating in the NBA’s restart will begin trickling to Orlando to start isolating. But one team from beyond the state’s borders has already traveled to central Florida and kicked off what could amount to nearly four months away from home. While the Toronto

7:00 AM ET WEARING AN IMPECCABLY tailored cream jacket, a light-blue button-down shirt and a jet-black tie with a contrasting platinum clip, LeBron James walked through the players’ entrance at Miami’s AmericanAirlines Arena for the first time. The day before, July 8, 2010, on The Decision broadcast, James told a national TV audience that he

5:36 PM ET Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert still has trouble smelling after testing positive for the coronavirus in March, he told French newspaper L’Equipe. “The taste has returned, but the smell is still not 100%,” Gobert said in quotes published Wednesday. “I can smell smells, but not from afar. I spoke to specialists, who

4:31 PM ET NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets forward Wilson Chandler has informed the team that he is opting out of playing in Orlando, Florida. Chandler cited spending more time with his family — particularly his grandmother, who raised him, and three children — as the primary reason for sitting out. The Nets will be

1:04 AM ET Marc J. Spears Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Paul, president of the National Basketball Players’ Association, told ESPN’s The Undefeated on Saturday that the union and the league are collaborating to allow players to wear specialized jerseys with a personalized social justice, social cause or charity message on the back instead of

8:15 PM ET The idea for ESPN’s The Decision show 10 years ago, in which LeBron James declared he’d take his “talents to South Beach” wasn’t LeBron’s idea or his agent’s or his inner circle’s or anyone at ESPN’s. It turns out the show’s idea came from a 38-year-old Detroit Pistons fan from Columbus, Ohio,

8:34 AM ET NBA Insiders After Friday’s release of the new 2020 NBA schedule, it’s time to look ahead at the games, players and teams that will be most compelling when the season resumes on July 30 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. Which playoff races are most important, which

8:24 PM ET Nick Friedell Close ESPN Staff Writer Nick Friedell is the Chicago Bulls beat reporter for ESPN Chicago. Friedell is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and joined ESPNChicago.com for its launch in April 2009. Tim MacMahon Close ESPN Staff Writer Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009

7:38 PM ET The NBA season will resume with LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and Zion Williamson highlighting a double-header to open the restart in Orlando, Florida. The NBA released its schedule for games in Orlando with the season resuming on July 30. Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans tip off the restart against the Utah

11:11 AM ET Of the 302 NBA players to take tests on Tuesday, 16 have tested positive for the coronavirus, the NBA and NBPA announced in a joint statement Friday. Any player who tested positive will remain in self-isolation until he satisfies public health protocols for discontinuing isolation and has been cleared by a physician.

1:55 PM ET Dallas Mavericks center Willie Cauley-Stein informed the team that he will opt out of the restart of the NBA season, opening up a roster spot the Mavs intend to fill by signing point guard Trey Burke, sources said. Cauley-Stein, who expects to become a father in July, averaged 5.2 points and 4.6

9:59 AM ET Vince Carter confirmed that he has retired from the NBA, ending his 22-year career. Carter announced his retirement on the Ringer’s “Winging It With Vince Carter” podcast, saying he is “officially done playing basketball professionally.” Carter, 43, initially announced last year, when he signed a one-year deal with the Atlanta Hawks, that

2:06 PM ET It started eight months ago with a tweet: Chris Murphy, a Democratic U.S. senator from Connecticut, told the world how much he enjoyed Draymond Green‘s op-ed in The Washington Post labeling the NCAA “a dictatorship” and calling for increased compensation to college athletes. Green reached out to Murphy’s office to thank him

10:39 PM ET NEW YORK — New York Knicks president Leon Rose said Wednesday that he intends to have the next permanent coach of the franchise in place by the end of July. Speaking in his first interview since being hired in March, Rose told MSG Network’s Mike Breen that he intends to have “two

7:48 PM ET Forward Jabari Parker and center Alex Len, both members of the Sacramento Kings, said Wednesday they’ve tested positive for the coronavirus. “Several days ago I tested positive for COVID-19 and immediately self-isolated in Chicago which is where I remain,” Parker said in a statement released by the team. “I am progressing in

12:50 AM ET Free-agent guard JR Smith, out of the NBA for two years, has emerged as a leading candidate to replace Avery Bradley on the Los Angeles Lakers‘ roster for the season’s Orlando restart, sources told ESPN. Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka and Smith’s agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, were discussing

6:51 AM ET Tim Bontemps Andrew Lopez While other NBA players started working out in their home markets this week to prepare for training camp, Zion Williamson never left. The New Orleans Pelicans‘ rookie phenom has been working out at the team’s facility throughout the hiatus, one of several players the league granted exceptions to