ATLANTA — The Hawks gave Trae Young nearly everything he wanted during the offseason. The exception is a contract extension. The inaction signals that general manager Onsi Saleh wasn’t ready to make a long-term commitment to Young before seeing if the All-Star makes this reconstructed team a title contender.

So, it’s likely now or never ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The extraordinary athlete stepped on to the Crypto.com Arena court baseline during the first quarter of the Lakers season opener Tuesday night amid great buzz.

When his smiling face was later shown on the video board, he was enveloped in the night's loudest individual cheers.

Luka Doncic? LeBron James?

No, Blake Snell.

One ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The Sixers have figured out the key to a stress-free life.

You can’t let anybody down if they don’t have any expectations.

It would be a fitting twist if this was the year the Sixers finally lived up to the hype of the last decade. They spent eight years as a Snapchat-filter contender, entering each season with the ...Read more

DALLAS — Rick Welts has been the CEO of the Mavericks for less than a year, or more than enough time to hear that the city of Dallas made a mistake.

A mistake when city leaders made minimal attempt to keep, or bring back, the Cowboys to Dallas and instead allowed the most popular football team in America to head to Irving, and now Arlington. ...Read more

DENVER — David Adelman is a wizard on the whiteboard.

In charge of the Nuggets’ offense since 2017, Adelman creates transition buckets and motion to exploit opponents. But, at its core, Denver’s foundation is simple.

“If you are on our team and you play selfishly, it sure as (heck) shows up,” Adelman said last week. “We move the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES – On one side was a brilliant offensive talent, a singular force wearing purple and gold. On the other side, donning blue, was an effective collective.

On Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena, the Warriors’ team-centric approach to scoring the ball prevailed over the Lakers’ all-Luka Doncic, all the time tactics in a 119-109 ...Read more

DENVER — He’s a marble doorstop chiseled by Michelangelo. A lead guitarist playing bass. A soloist propping up the chorus. Aaron Gordon is an All-Star who dresses up as a “role player” every Halloween. Only his Halloween lasts nine months.

“We have so much talent on the offensive side. I’m not even really worried about it,” Gordon...Read more

MIAMI — Among seismic sports television changes during the past 50 years, the NBA’s new media rights deal, one that officially begins this week, isn’t quite as earth-shaking as CBS losing the NFL to Fox in 1994 or ABC losing Monday Night Football in 2005.

But it’s pretty close.

In ditching TNT and parent company Warner Brothers ...Read more

NEW YORK — Just how formidable has the St. John’s-UConn rivalry become? That depends on who you ask.

Sure, the schools have taken turns dominating the Big East over the past two seasons.

Yes, the head-to-head meetings between Rick Pitino’s Red Storm and Dan Hurley’s Huskies have frequently gone down to the wire.

And no doubt, the ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid sat in front of reporters at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday night and shared his new definition of success. And for the 76ers star, that thought process isn’t necessarily measured by offensive output.

He preached teamwork after earning seven consecutive All-Star berths, two straight scoring titles and the 2023 ...Read more

MIAMI — Somewhere between being named to NBA All-Star teams and U.S. Olympic teams, between helping the Miami Heat to NBA Finals and being selected to NBA All-Defensive Teams, Bam Adebayo had a gnawing thought.

“I need to work more,’’ he said.

That was based on a simple idea.

“I’m not the most talented guy out there,’’ he said...Read more

LAS VEGAS — A’ja Wilson hurled herself into a huddle of her excited teammates once the final buzzer sounded in their Game 4 road win over the Phoenix Mercury, signaling the completion of a 2025 WNBA Finals sweep for the Aces’ third championship win in four years.

As the celebratory scene unfolded, it was hard to ignore a sneaky sense of ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It might be the most anticipated preseason game in the history of college basketball.

That’s exactly the vibe that Matt Painter and Mark Pope were going for when they set it up.

On Friday night in Rupp Arena, the ninth-ranked Kentucky Wildcats will host the Purdue Boilermakers, who enter the 2025-26 season as the No. 1 ...Read more

NEW YORK — Maximizing Karl-Anthony Towns’ offensive gifts was one of several reasons the Knicks moved on from Tom Thibodeau and hired Mike Brown as head coach. The vision: an up-tempo, motion-based attack built on spacing, cutting, and freedom — a system designed to make the game easier for one of the NBA’s most versatile scoring men.

...Read more

DENVER — Peyton Watson and the Denver Nuggets did not reach a contract agreement before Monday’s deadline for 2022 first-round draft picks to sign their rookie extensions, league sources told The Denver Post.

Watson, 23, is now set to become a restricted free agent next offseason. This traditionally favors the incumbent team, as the process...Read more

LOS ANGELES — They remain two of the NBA's biggest stars, and whenever LeBron James and the Lakers face Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors it is must-see TV.

The Lakers and Warriors will open the regular season against each other Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena, but James will not play because he's dealing with a sciatica nerve ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Luka Doncic strolled onto the Crypto.com Arena court about an hour before the Lakers' final preseason game Friday night to do his pregame shooting drills, the Latin and then the Serbian music blaring as he went through his routine, the fans inside the arena oohing and aahing over his collection of shots.

Doncic finished his ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Chicago Bulls will start the season without their longest-tenured player as guard Coby White remains sidelined with a right calf strain.

White returned to practice Saturday after missing training camp and all five preseason games. At the time, White and coach Billy Donovan told reporters they planned for him to be available for ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — LeBron James no longer has to worry about having to appear in small claims court over the hundreds of dollars a Lakers fan spent on tickets while under the impression that the superstar player was retiring at the end of the season.

Norwalk, Calif., resident Andrew Garcia filed Monday with Los Angeles County Superior Court to ...Read more

DENVER — Consider Christian Braun an official member of the Nuggets’ core.

Braun has agreed to a five-year, $125 million extension that will keep him in Denver through the summer of 2031, a league source told The Denver Post. His second NBA contract will take effect in 2026-27 after he makes $4.9 million this upcoming season, the last of ...Read more