CHICAGO — With the Chicago Sky eliminated from the WNBA playoffs, the team’s front office now faces the most important task of the year: filling the empty offices left by former coach and general manager James Wade, who unexpectedly departed the team midseason to take an assistant coaching job with the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.

The Sky ...Read more

MIAMI — The Miami Hurricanes’ historic run to the Final Four last spring continues to pay dividends.

Five-star shooting guard Jalil Bethea, one of the nation’s most coveted Class of 2024 recruits, announced Wednesday that he will attend the University of Miami.

He chose UM over his other two finalists, Kansas and Villanova. He announced ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — There was a time not too long ago when the idea of signing Kelly Oubre for the veteran minimum would have gotten you laughed out of the building. One of the rites of passage of the NBA offseason was listening to someone predict a breakout year from the former No. 15 overall pick. At a long 6-foot-7 and a quick-twitch 205 pounds,...Read more

NEW YORK — On to the next one.

The Liberty survived a wild Game 2 to secure a first-round series sweep against the Washington Mystics and advance into the second round of the WNBA playoffs.

It took an overtime period for Sandy Brondello’s team to edge the Mystics, 90-85, at Barclays Center on Tuesday night.

Breanna Stewart, who finished ...Read more

The 76ers are expected to sign Kelly Oubre Jr. to a one-year, veteran minimum deal, several sources have confirmed.

The swingman's addition brings the Sixers' training camp roster to the league maximum of 21 players. NBA teams can carry a maximum of 18 players in the regular season. That includes 15 on standard contracts and three two-way ...Read more

MIAMI — For more than a month, Cole Swider has been running alongside the Miami Heat’s latest set of developmental prospects, through drill work and scrimmages at Kaseya Center.

But to the forward who went undrafted out of Syracuse in 2022, the feeling is more that he is running alongside Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Orlando ...Read more

It was just over a decade ago that the Warriors were desperate to trade for Dwight Howard. Stephen Curry was one of the names Golden State lofted to the Orlando Magic in return for the then-superstar’s services. But Howard had no interest in a long-term future with the downtrodden Warriors and demanded a trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, ...Read more

As the Lynx's 2023 season began, you had to wonder whether they were tanking. Then you had to wonder why they weren't.

They lost their first six games. In a league filled with stars and topped with new-age super teams built via free agency, they struck out in free agency and the best player on the roster, Napheesa Collier, was recovering from ...Read more

In the wake of a tragedy, the Maui Invitational is returning to its roots.

The college basketball tournament, whose field includes UCLA, will be staged at Hawaii's Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu on Nov. 20-22 after devastating wildfires ravaged Maui this summer.

UCLA is part of what might be the strongest field in the history of the ...Read more

Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb is the 2023 WNBA Executive of the Year winner, the league announced Thursday.

Kolb and Dallas Wings executive Greg Bibb appeared on the most ballots (eight). From those eight ballots, Kolb received 20 points, beating out Bibb who received 15. The award is voted on by all 12 executives who aren’t allowed ...Read more

Kevin Porter Jr.'s immense talent for so long obscured his issues away from the basketball court. His latest incident likely will damage his NBA career.

The former USC star was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his girlfriend, former WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick, fracturing her neck vertebra and leaving her with a deep gash above her right ...Read more

There is too much coddling being done by the leaders of our major men's sports teams in Minnesota. The examples of this were egregious again in recent days, starting with Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell's reaction to events in his team's putrid 20-17 loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday in the Zygidome.

Right guard Ed Ingram forced one of Kirk Cousins' ...Read more

NEW YORK — Rising NBA star Kevin Porter Jr. was released on $75,000 cash bond Tuesday after prosecutors revealed his girlfriend’s vertebrae was fractured during a brutal Manhattan hotel beating, with the hoopster accused of repeatedly punching and choking the victim.

Porter, 23, appeared for his Manhattan arraignment in the Monday morning ...Read more

With NBA training camps looming, news surfaced from multiple reports Monday that the league’s board of governors is expected to pass stricter guidelines about resting players for national television games, or resting two stars — defined as players who have been named to an All-Star or All-NBA team in the past three seasons — in the same ...Read more

NEW YORK — Star NBA player Kevin Porter was arrested early Monday for beating up his girlfriend in a Manhattan hotel, according to police.

The 23-year-old Houston Rockets guard was charged with felony assault and strangulation.

Girlfriend Kysre Gondrezick, a former WNBA player, was treated at a hospital for a cut to the right side of her ...Read more

The medals had barely been hung on the necks of the German, Serbian and Canadian teams when word began to circulate about Team USA's savior assembling an Avengers-style group of colleagues to fix American basketball in the upcoming Olympics.

LeBron James, sources not authorized to speak publicly told The Times, is very interested in playing ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — Trayce Jackson-Davis and Brandin Podziemski had to duck their heads through the underground hallways of the old Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. These buildings weren’t built for NBA-sized players, though both recognized the abandoned structures from the “Call of Duty” video game.

But exploring the insides of one of San ...Read more

NEW YORK — It was probably the biggest missed opportunity of the last decade-plus for the Knicks. Definitely a pivot point.

They were the two-seed in the Eastern Conference, riding the best version of Carmelo Anthony to the most victories since 1997. But that run ended prematurely and disappointingly in the second round against the Pacers, ...Read more

CHICAGO — People can’t let things go, even when there’s no clear right or wrong answer (except in Chicago).

Last weekend I joined friends to watch college football at a bar. After the game, two of them got into a pretty lengthy debate about whether the Big Ten or SEC was the superior conference. But it didn’t end there, morphing into a ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Danny Green isn’t a point guard, so he doesn’t really change much for the Sixers as they continue to prepare themselves for a future without James Harden. He’s also 36 years old, and a year removed from major knee surgery, and coming off a season in which he played in just 15 games.

In other words, don’t bother waking ...Read more