Acknowledging that no option would have been risk-free during a pandemic, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Friday that the concern shared by the league and its players surrounding next month's restart of the season is rising as coronavirus cases in Florida keep climbing.That said, the league and the National Basketball Players Association is moving forward — finalizing the deal that will bring the NBA game back and see teams start arriving at the Disney campus near Orlando, Florida in less than two weeks.Many of the details of the agreement were already known, such as how “stringent health and safety protocols” would be in place for the 22 teams that will be participating, that no fans will be present and that games will be held in three different arenas at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. But when those protocols were completed, the Orange County, Florida area — which includes Orlando — had seen a 5% rate of positive coronavirus tests over the preceding 10 days. In the 10 days that... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — William Wesley, known for his connections throughout basketball, has joined the New York Knicks as executive vice president/senior basketball adviser.A decision on a coach could be next, with the Knicks hoping by the end of July.New president Leon Rose announced the hiring of “World Wide Wes” on Wednesday, saying he has known Wesley for more than 40 years and considers him family.“He is one of the most well-connected and respected people in the basketball community and he will be a tremendous asset and resource to both myself and the New York Knicks,” Rose said.Rose worked closely with Wesley as a longtime player agent before he was hired by the Knicks in March, just before the coronavirus forced the suspension of the NBA season.It was expected since Rose was hired that Wesley would have a role in the organization, though it was unclear if it would be an official title because Wesley has often worked in the background.Together they will search for the Knicks' next coach.... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Lakers guard Avery Bradley has decided to sit out the NBA’s upcoming resumption of the season in Florida.He told ESPN on Tuesday night that he wants to remain with his wife and three children, including a 6-year-old son with a history of respiratory illnesses. By sitting out, Bradley figures to lose a projected $650,000 in salary.Bradley averaged 8.6 points and 2.3 rebounds while starting 44 games before the season was shut down in March due to the coronavirus. The Lakers are the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference heading into the 22-team restart.“I can't imagine making any decision that might put my family's health and well-being at even the slightest risk,” Bradley told ESPN. “As promised also, I will use this time away to focus on the formation of projects to help strengthen my communities.”Bradley and Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving have been vocal leaders of a players' coalition that has sought to keep a focus on social justice and racial equality issues.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kobe Bryant’s time in high school will be showcased when about 22 hours of footage of the late basketball star playing games and giving interviews will be sold on July 23 by the auction house Profiles in History.The footage is from the media library of Stu Ross, who produced “High School Sports Show,” a syndicated weekly television series seen in 35 cities.About 60% of the Bryant footage is of games involving the Lower Merion Aces from the Philadephia suburbs.Ross’ library includes 130 hours and more than 700 athletes, including LeBron James, Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, Ryan Braun, Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal. The footage will be sold in one lot, and the auction house estimates the price will be $250,000 to $350,000.Bryant, a five-time NBA champion and 18-time All-Star, died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. He was 41.The auction will take place at Profiles in History in Calabasas, outside Los Angeles.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

CLEVELAND (AP) — Kevin Love isn't slowing down his push to raise mental health awareness.The Cleveland Cavaliers forward, who has been outspoken in his own struggles with panic attacks and anxiety, committed $500,000 through his foundation to UCLA's psychology department on Monday. Love played one season for the Bruins (2007-08) and he's helping his alma mater's work in diagnosing, preventing, treating and destigmatizing anxiety and depression.Love's gift came one day after he received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs for his efforts in mental health.“I hope one day we are able to erase the stigma around anxiety and depression, and we can only do that by improving diagnosis and treatment, fostering public conversations about mental health and encouraging people to seek help when they need it," Love said.Love first went public with his personal battles during the 2018 season. Since then, he has been active in spreading information nationally on mental health issues. Love credited... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kobe Bryant’s time in high school will be showcased when about 22 hours of footage of the late basketball star playing games and giving interviews will be sold on July 23 by the auction house Profiles in History.The footage is from the media library of Stu Ross, who produced “High School Sports Show,” a syndicated weekly television series seen in 35 cities.About 60% of the Bryant footage is of games involving the Lower Merion Aces from the Philadephia suburbs.Ross’ library includes 130 hours and more than 700 athletes, including LeBron James, Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, Ryan Braun, Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal. The footage will be sold in one lot, and the auction house estimates the price will be $250,000 to $350,000.Bryant, a five-time NBA champion and 18-time All-Star, died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. He was 41.The auction will take place at Profiles in History in Calabasas, outside Los Angeles.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

CLEVELAND (AP) — Cavaliers forward Kevin Love will receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for his efforts in raising awareness about mental health.Love, whose openness about his life-long battles with anxiety triggered nationwide discussion and helped spur the NBA to do more to help players deal with emotional issues, will receive the award at Sunday's ESPYs in Los Angeles.“It is an absolute honor to receive this award and I am incredibly humbled by it," Love said. "In telling my story, if I can help just one child that is suffering to make sense of what they are experiencing, I know my efforts have been worth it. And I hope one day we are able to erase the stigma around mental illness, starting with public conversations around mental health and encouraging people to seek help when they need it, followed by research, action, and change.”Named in honor of the tennis champion, the Arthur Ashe Award honors “those who find ways through sports to make a difference far beyond the field of play and impact the world in indelible ways.”Previous winners include Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, Nelson Mandela, Pat Summitt and Caitlyn Jenner.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

CLEVELAND (AP) — When Collin Sexton learned that the NBA — and not a pandemic — had prematurely ended his second season, the Cavaliers guard had a guttural reaction.“I was sick,” he said.The league's decision to invite only 22 teams to resume play at Disney World in Florida next month and a season interrupted by COVID-19 was a body blow for players on the omitted squads — the Delete 8.And although they've had time to process the exclusion, Sexton, Cavs star forward Kevin Love and their teammates are still struggling with the reality that their season is over while hoping they get to do something together this summer.“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Love said Friday on a Zoom call from New York. “But from a league’s perspective, being safe and navigating this time, I totally understand that.”Perhaps no team feels the sting of being denied a chance to complete the season more than the Cavs, who went through a midseason coaching change — John Beilein stepped down at the All-Star break — and... [More]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Golden State Warriors expect to have a better idea about how Klay Thompson’s recovery from reconstructive left knee surgery is going once the team can finally reconvene after the long separation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.For now, general manager Bob Myers is encouraged Thompson has experienced no setbacks during the extensive rehabilitation process.“I think we’ve got to take a look at him when we see him," Myers said Monday on a conference call. “There’s different versions of 100% — 100% for you or I when we walk around the street is not 100% of an NBA basketball player playing basketball. So until we kind of test him and see him and he’s starting one-on-one and then two-on-two — and obviously the pandemic has not allowed him that opportunity to do those type of things.” Thompson tore the ACL in his left knee on June 13 during Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors and had surgery July 2. He was reevaluated over the All-Star break and the... [More]

Seven-time All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge will miss the remainder of San Antonio’s season while he recovers from surgery on his right shoulder, a major blow to the Spurs' postseason chances, assuming the season continues as planned.The Spurs announced Monday that Aldridge had the surgery on April 24, stemming from an injury he suffered in a game at Utah on Feb. 21.San Antonio is one of the 22 teams will that report to the ESPN Wide Wide Of Sports complex at the Disney campus near Orlando, Florida, starting next month, when the NBA plans to resume its season. The Spurs have been to the playoffs in 22 consecutive seasons, matching the longest streak in NBA history.When play resumes, the Spurs will be among four teams — the others being Portland, New Orleans and Sacramento — that are all separated by a half-game in the race for ninth place in the Western Conference and potentially a berth in a play-in series. The gap between those four teams is .010 percentage points.Aldridge played in two more... [More]

Seven-time All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge will miss the remainder of San Antonio’s season while he recovers from surgery on his right shoulder, a major blow to the Spurs' postseason chances, assuming the season continues as planned.The Spurs announced Monday that Aldridge had the surgery on April 24, stemming from an injury he suffered in a game at Utah on Feb. 21.San Antonio is one of the 22 teams will that report to the ESPN Wide Wide Of Sports complex at the Disney campus near Orlando, Florida, starting next month, when the NBA plans to resume its season. The Spurs have been to the playoffs in 22 consecutive seasons, matching the longest streak in NBA history.When play resumes, the Spurs will be among four teams — the others being Portland, New Orleans and Sacramento — that are all separated by a half-game in the race for ninth place in the Western Conference and potentially a berth in a play-in series. The gap between those four teams is .010 percentage points.Aldridge played in two more... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Durant won't play for the Brooklyn Nets if the NBA season resumes.“My season is over,” Durant told The Undefeated on Friday. “I don’t plan on playing at all. We decided last summer when it first happened that I was just going to wait until the following season. I had no plans of playing at all this season.”Durant ruptured an Achilles tendon a year ago for Golden State in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against Toronto.He also had COVID-19 this year.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

The NBA took a major step toward getting back on the court Thursday, with the league’s Board of Governors approving a 22-team format for restarting the league season next month at the Disney campus near Orlando, Florida.The vote was 29-1, with Portland casting the dissenting vote, said a person with knowledge of the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the league did not publicly release voting details. The National Basketball Players Association has scheduled a meeting for Friday to vote on the plan.Teams would arrive at Disney around July 7 and play an eight-game slate of games starting July 31 at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports complex. All teams will stay, practice and play at Disney and the NBA Finals — which would have started Thursday if not for the coronavirus pandemic that caused the NBA to suspend its season on March 11 — will likely stretch into October.“The Board’s approval of the restart format is a necessary step toward resuming... [More]

A person with knowledge of the situation says the NBA’s Board of Governors has approved a 22-team format for restarting the league season in late July at the Disney campus near Orlando, Florida.The format calls for each team playing eight games to determine playoff seeding plus the possible utilization of a play-in tournament for the final spot in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference postseason fields, said the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday because the league had not yet revealed the vote result publicly.It is the most significant step yet in the process of trying to resume a season that was suspended nearly three months ago because of the coronavirus pandemic. There are numerous other details for the league to continue working through — including finalizing specifics of what the testing plan will be once teams arrive next month at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports complex and the calculating the financial ramifications of playing a shortened... [More]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Longtime Sacramento Kings TV broadcaster Grant Napear resigned Tuesday after he tweeted “ALL LIVES MATTER” when asked by DeMarcus Cousins for his opinion on the Black Lives Matter movement.The 60-year-old Napear also was fired by KTHK Sports 1140 in Sacramento. He had co-hosted a show on the AM radio station with former Kings player Doug Christie.Bonneville International, the station's parent company, said Napear's “recent comments about the Black Lives Matter movement do not reflect the views or values of Bonneville International Corporation. The timing of Grant's tweet was particularly insensitive."There have been demonstrations across the country since George Floyd, a black man, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck while Floyd was handcuffed and saying that he couldn’t breathe.Cousins was drafted by Sacramento and played for the Kings for six-plus seasons before he was traded to New Orleans in February 2017.Cousins,... [More]

SACRAMENTO, Calif (AP) — Longtime Sacramento Kings TV broadcaster Grant Napear resigned Tuesday after he tweeted “ALL LIVES MATTER” when asked by DeMarcus Cousins for his opinion on the Black Lives Matter movement.The 60-year-old Napear also was fired by KTHK Sports 1140 in Sacramento. He had co-hosted a show on the AM radio station with former Kings player Doug Christie.Bonneville International, the station's parent company, said Napear's “recent comments about the Black Lives Matter movement do not reflect the views or values of Bonneville International Corporation. The timing of Grant's tweet was particularly insensitive."There have been demonstrations across the country since George Floyd, a black man, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck while Floyd was handcuffed and saying that he couldn’t breathe.Cousins was drafted by Sacramento and played for the Kings for six-plus seasons before he was traded to New Orleans in February 2017.Cousins,... [More]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wes Unseld was an undersized NBA center known more for his bruising picks, tenacious rebounding and perfectly placed outlet passes than any points he produced.He thrived in his role as a workmanlike leader.“I never played pretty,” Unseld said when elected to the Hall of Fame in 1988. “I wasn’t flashy. My contributions were in the things most people don’t notice. They weren’t in high scoring or dunking or behind-the-back passes.”Unseld, who began his pro career as a rookie MVP, led Washington to its only NBA championship and was chosen one of the 50 greatest players in league history, died Tuesday after “lengthy health battles, most recently with pneumonia,” his family said in a statement released by the Wizards. He was 74.He spent his entire 13-season playing career with the Bullets-Wizards franchise, then was its coach and general manager. The team was based in Baltimore when he was drafted; he and his wife, Connie, opened Unselds’ School in that city in 1978.“Wes Unseld... [More]

The NBA Board of Governors met again without a consensus opinion emerging on how many teams should be back on the floor for the planned late-July resumption of the pandemic-interrupted season, three people familiar with details of the call said Friday.The people, speaking on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because no details of the call were publicly released, said Commissioner Adam Silver is still collecting information on multiple options ranging from 16 to 30 teams returning to action when the season begins again at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex near Orlando, Florida.One person said the idea of bringing back 20 teams — possibly a few more, but not all 30 — continues to resonate as the most likely scenario, as of now. Another plan discussed Friday, the person said, would bring any team within six games of a playoff spot back for the resumption of the season, a scenario where based on the current standings 13 teams from the Western Conference and nine from the Eastern... [More]

DENVER (AP) — Truth: George Karl hasn’t felt this healthy in 15, maybe even 20 years. He’s playing plenty of golf, bike riding and finding time for yoga.Basketball: The longtime NBA coach who has fought cancer three times is keeping the door open for getting back into the business, maybe as a head coach or possibly as an assistant. Truth + Basketball: The title of the 69-year-old Karl's new, speak-his-mind podcast that he's finding “soulful.” He may be leading a quasi-retired lifestyle but make no mistake — he's not retired.“I love the game as much as I ever have," said Karl, who hasn't coached in the league since being let go by Sacramento following the 2016 season. "If the right situation came up, I might coach again.” Karl has been quenching his thirst for hoops through his son, Coby, who's the head coach of the South Bay Lakers, a G League club. George Karl caught quite a few of his son's games in person before the season was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. When he wasn't there,... [More]

The NBA is in talks with The Walt Disney Company on a single-site scenario for a resumption of play in Central Florida in late July, the clearest sign yet that the league believes the season can continue amid the coronavirus pandemic.The National Basketball Players Association is also part of the talks with Disney, the league said Saturday. Games would be held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, a massive campus on the Disney property near Orlando.NBA spokesman Mike Bass said the conversations were still “exploratory,” and that the Disney site would be used for practices and housing as well.“Our priority continues to be the health and safety of all involved, and we are working with public health experts and government officials on a comprehensive set of guidelines to ensure that appropriate medical protocols and protections are in place,” Bass said.The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a 255-acre campus with multiple arenas that could host games simultaneously and has been home... [More]