DENVER — The NBA’s Mount Olympus comes with a two-trophy cover charge.

Bill Russell notched 11 titles. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar got six. Tim Duncan landed five. Shaquille O’Neal won four. Hakeem Olajuwon and Wilt Chamberlain? Two apiece.

“The Nuggets kind of drive me a little crazy,” George Karl, the Hall of Fame basketball coach whose ...Read more

DENVER — Nikola Jokic’s greatest statistical season will not be decorated with the commensurate laurels.

Despite stamping himself as the third player and first center in NBA history to average a triple-double in a season, Jokic fell short of a fourth career MVP trophy, the league announced Wednesday. The 30-year-old Nuggets big man was ...Read more

The Florida basketball team’s final moment together was another winning performance, only this time on an even bigger stage than last month’s NCAA championship game.

President Donald Trump welcomed coach Todd Golden and the Florida Gators to the White House Wednesday to celebrate their 2025 national title, showering players with praise ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — With a tight rotation, balanced scoring and some extraordinary ball movement that made up for a slew of turnovers, the Minnesota Lynx did something that hasn’t happened since 2019.

They have started the season 3-0.

Their 85-81 victory over Dallas in their home opener Wednesday at Target Center — with an announced attendance...Read more

NEW YORK — The Knicks had been the kings of comebacks this postseason.

But in Wednesday night’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, they received a bitter taste of their own medicine.

The Knicks led by 17 points with 6:26 remaining in the fourth quarter and by nine points with under a minute left, only to lose, 138-135, in overtime at...Read more

NEW YORK — It’s the matchup Tyrese Haliburton wanted — one-on-one with the Knicks captain — and with just under five minutes left in the third quarter of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals matchup between the Knicks and Pacers, Indiana’s All-Star guard dialed his own number.

Haliburton, bothered by Knicks stopper OG Anunoby’s ...Read more

MIAMI — To call this vindication would be way too simplistic, considering how it ended for his own team.

So leave to others whether Miami Heat president Pat Riley got his joy back on Wednesday night when Jimmy Butler was eliminated from the playoffs with his Golden State Warriors.

And yet, as with almost everything in the NBA, ultimate ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — Like the rest of his Warriors teammates, Jonathan Kuminga sat down with general manager Mike Dunleavy and coach Steve Kerr on Thursday in the wake of their elimination from the NBA playoffs and talked about where he fit on their roster heading into the summer.

These exit interviews are typically routine. But Kuminga’s ...Read more

DENVER — Jamal Murray interrupted himself.

Running on autopilot, he had tripped over his words. The cost of a confident instinct. “It sucks,” he was saying after the Nuggets lost a painful Game 5 in Oklahoma City, pushing them to the brink of elimination. “It’s sports, man. But the greatest thing is, in a day and a half, we get to ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s the question that will keep Stephen Curry up at night this summer.

“It’s the great ‘What if?’ ” Curry pondered Thursday morning inside the Warriors’ home arena, where the only signs of life were the WNBA’s Valkyries getting ready for their season opener. The Warriors’ season came to an end Wednesday ...Read more

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Wings are too smart to publicly announce it, but one playoff berth altered the direction of this franchise in a way that it can only guess what might have happened.

By making the playoffs in ‘23, which ended in a semifinals sweep, it kicked them out of the WNBA’s lottery in 2024, and the chance to pick ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — I don’t know how good Kentucky basketball will be next season. Neither do you. Neither do the so-called experts churning out their way-too-early Top 25 rankings for the 2025-26 campaign, which doesn’t officially begin for another six months.

ESPN has Kentucky at No. 10 in its latest rankings. “Kentucky is absolutely ...Read more

Kelsey Plum gets it.

Ideally, the management of her new team will get it as well.

Plum, 30, is a former No. 1 draft pick, a three-time All-Star, a two-time WNBA champion, a two-time Olympic gold medalist (in 3-on-3 competition in 2021 in Tokyo and with the full U.S. women’s team in 2024 in Paris) and the former NCAA career scoring leader ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — There are moments in the life cycle of every NBA franchise when courage must overcome comfort and when boldness must break the bonds of the slow, careful grind of development.

For the Orlando Magic, that moment may be now.

The Magic, fresh off another first-round exit in the postseason and still in search of playoff relevance...Read more

For the first time in the Anthony Edwards era, the Timberwolves had an opportunity to close out a playoff series in Target Center.

The pressure and the emotion of the moment in games like this can weigh on a team, especially one that hasn’t been in this position before. But despite some hairy moments in the fourth quarter, the Wolves allowed ...Read more

BOSTON — Forty-eight hours after losing their centerpiece superstar to a potentially career-altering Achilles injury, the Celtics delivered an emphatic message to the New York Knicks:

Even without Jayson Tatum, they’re still the defending champs. And they’re not dead yet.

Facing elimination on its home floor, Boston steamrolled the ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mere months ago, it would have been difficult to envision the Indiana Pacers in this position.

When the calendar turned to 2025, the Pacers were just 16-18 and in eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

Tyrese Haliburton had endured an uneven start to the season.

Aaron Nesmith was two months into a left ankle sprain that ...Read more

Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry has been cleared for light on-court workouts in his recovery from a Grade 1 hamstring strain during the team’s series against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The team announced his updated status after re-evaluating him Wednesday morning. Curry partook in low-speed shooting drills while also rebounding for ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS – Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green will have to pay a hefty fine for gambling-related comments made during Game 3 of the team’s second-round series with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The NBA announced it is fining Green $50,000 after he was seen telling teammates during a television broadcast that the point spread ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. — Former UConn guard Kaitlyn Chen has been waived by the Golden State Valkyries, the team announced Wednesday.

The move was made as WNBA teams look to trim their rosters down to 12 for the start of the season. Golden State also waived four other players: Laeticia Amihere, Chloe Bibby, Elissa Cunane and Migna Touré. They had ...Read more