HOUSTON -- A year ago this month, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau exited Toyota Center on the season's final night muttering something about 13 consecutive fruitless seasons and how he was sick of the losing after living through only one.

On Wednesday night, he and his team left the same arena with their first playoff season since ...Read more

SEATTLE -- Because she's Sue Bird, the 37-year-old reigning matriarch of the USA Basketball women's team, she must address two pertinent topics that will dog her until the day she retires.

No. 1, how is your health? And No. 2, speaking of retirement, when do you plan to step away from the game?

"So far, so good," Bird said about her health ...Read more

OAKLAND, Calif. -- They feature red-hot big man Anthony Davis and free-wheeling point guard Rajon Rondo. They have the NBA's best midseason acquisition in Nikola Mirotic and they play at a whiplash-inducing pace.

The New Orleans Pelicans present a totally different playoff challenge for the Warriors starting Saturday at Oracle Arena.

Your ...Read more

CLEVELAND -- The final five seconds of Wednesday night's NBA playoff game at Quicken Loans Arena belonged to LeBron James.

With the score tied at 95, James stepped up on the defensive end and on offensive end when his teammates needed him most.

And he did so in dramatic fashion.

James blocked a layup attempt by Victor Oladipo and, after a ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Nearly seven months after federal authorities made their investigation into corruption in college basketball public, the game's recruiting landscape has changed.

Perhaps lost amid the various reports of wrongdoing that have trickled out in the aftermath of the federal probe -- and as the Commission on College Basketball report...Read more

Pelicans practice is over. An intriguing matchup with the defending NBA champion Warriors begins Saturday. And New Orleans weather is cooperating enough that the voice on the other end of the phone is sitting poolside.

Yes, life is good for Nikola Mirotic these days.

"All good, man," Mirotic said by phone Wednesday. "All good."

Since the ...Read more

With college basketball reeling from scandal, an independent NCAA task force has called for widespread reform of a game that has become a multibillion-dollar business fraught with bribery and fraud.

The Commission on College Basketball focused much of its report on ending the "one-and-done" situation that has top players reluctantly enrolling ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Loyola Chicago and Porter Moser have come to an agreement on a multiyear contract extension, rewarding the Ramblers coach for the team's NCAA Tournament run that ended in the Final Four, the Tribune has learned.

Details will be forthcoming, but it is believed Moser received a hefty raise from his annual salary of $420,000.

Moser was...Read more

This isn't quite a 2016 redux. But there are enough similarities in play when it comes to another Dwyane Wade return to the Miami Heat.

When the future Hall-of-Fame guard closed the curtain on his 2017-18 season, he spoke in the wake of the playoff loss to the Philadelphia 76ers of holding off on a decision of whether there would be a 16th NBA ...Read more

With two of college basketball's model student-athletes, David Robinson and Grant Hill, sitting closest to her, Condoleezza Rice laid out a future of the sport that looks to eliminate the type of malfeasance that attracted a federal investigation while maintaining its amateur structure.

The Rice-led Commission on College Basketball took on the ...Read more

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Golden State Warriors love Klay Thompson partly because of his low-maintenance. So it hardly seems surprising Thompson only needed a tune-up to fix his engine.

The Warriors finished with a 99-91 Game 5 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday at Oracle Arena, and it did not require coach Steve Kerr to burn some ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- The 76ers are Eastern Conference semifinals-bound.

They punched their tickets there for the first time since 2012 with a 104-91 win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of their conference quarterfinals on Friday at Wells Fargo Center.

They await the winner of the Boston-Milwaukee series, which the Celtics lead 3-2. Game 6 will be ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Rapper Meek Mill attended the Sixers' playoff game on Tuesday night. After hours of uncertainty on when he would be released from prison, Mill arrived at the Wells Fargo Center at about 7:15 p.m. and went directly into the Sixers' locker room.

Mill, wearing a Joel Embiid jersey, was the ceremonial bell-ringer during the pre-game...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- A single playoff victory. Nothing more.

In the end, that is all the Miami Heat were left with after sticking with a core that showed more promise at the end of the 2016-17 season than at any time this season.

The question now is not whether change is coming, but how much, with Tuesday night's 104-91 loss to the Philadelphia ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic will have surgery to repair a slight tear of the medial meniscus in his left knee Tuesday, the team announced.

A "minimally invasive debridement procedure" will be performed at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, and Bogdanovic is expected to make a full recovery, the team said....Read more

Udonis Haslem said Tuesday that he has discussed both the short view and the long view with Miami Heat teammate Dwyane Wade as their 15-season careers wind down.

First up at the close of the playoffs? A tutorial on the links.

"He's going to try to teach me how to play golf," Haslem said Tuesday of Wade's latest passion. "I don't know how in ...Read more

Strong words from NCAA officials about making changes in college basketball in light of the FBI investigation that has rocked the sport could begin to morph into action on Wednesday.

The findings and recommendations of a committee headed by former U.S. Secretary of State and Stanford University provost Condoleezza Rice, called the Commission on...Read more

Joel Embiid was asked a simple question. The 76ers' franchise player responded with a telling answer.

Following Monday's practice, he was asked what the Sixers want to show the rest of the NBA about where the franchise is right now, knowing its past struggles.

"A lot of people say that we have a bright future," Embiid said. "But I think our ...Read more