NEW YORK — Hall of Famer and 2008 Boston Celtics champion Paul Pierce has little faith in the new-look Knicks’ championship prospects, going so far as to say that he doesn’t expect the franchise to win an NBA title during his lifetime.

On a recent episode of his podcast with fellow Hall of Famer and former teammate Kevin Garnett, Pierce ...Read more

DETROIT — Detroit Pistons team owner Tom Gores is expanding his business outside of the NBA.

Gores is planning to buy a 27% stake in the Los Angeles Chargers, a league source confirmed Friday to The Detroit News. Pro Football Talk was first to report the planned purchase.

PFT reported that Gores would have no "day-to-day involvement" with ...Read more

CHICAGO — The tailspin for the Chicago Sky continues.

After rumors swirled Thursday on social media, the team officially announced Friday they had fired coach Teresa Weatherspoon less than a year after hiring her.

When Weatherspoon was hired 11 months ago, the Sky had zero draft assets thanks to trades done by former GM/coach James Wade, who...Read more

The banners above the practice court, the names of legends on the wall and, most important, the trophies in Jeanie Buss’ window in the Lakers’ practice facility tell the story of the team’s past.

As the organization nears the start of the 2024-25 season, general manager Rob Pelinka reiterated it.

Excellence is the standard that helped ...Read more

Connecticut Sun star Alyssa Thomas was asked Wednesday night about her team's ability to "shut out the noise" that has come on social media during its WNBA playoff series against the Indiana Fever.

Thomas gave a thoughtful answer that ended with a plea to the league to help shut down the noise.

After Connecticut's series-clinching 87-81 win ...Read more

Sixteen years after igniting a frenzy of fandom when the Bulls selected him with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, Chicago native Derrick Rose is retiring from basketball.

Rose leaves a legacy of hope and heartbreak. Two state championships with Simeon. An MVP trophy, Rookie of the Year award and three All-Star selections with the Bulls. Four ...Read more

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The Connecticut Sun are headed back to the semifinals of the WNBA Playoffs for the sixth consecutive season after sweeping the Indiana Fever with a decisive 87-81 win in Game 2 of the first-round series Wednesday at Mohegan Sun Arena.

The Sun advance to face the winner of the first-round series between the No. 2 Minnesota ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The banners above the practice court, the names of legends on the wall and, most important, the trophies in Jeanie Buss' window in the Lakers' practice facility tell the story of the team's past.

As the organization nears the start of the 2024-25 season, general manager Rob Pelinka reiterated it.

Excellence is the standard that...Read more

CHICAGO — Four years into the job as Chicago Bulls vice president of basketball operations, Artūras Karnišovas isn’t changing his messaging.

The Bulls enter this season carrying the sour taste of missing the playoffs via the play-in tournament for two consecutive years — and the weight of an impending draft pick that hinges on another ...Read more

BOSTON — It will come as no surprise to anyone who watched him during it, but Joe Mazzulla loved the Celtics’ championship parade through the streets of Boston. Loved it.

The weeks that followed? Not so much.

“I mean, I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the offseason,” Mazzulla deadpanned Tuesday during Celtics media day. “I enjoyed the ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mitchel Robinson is missing games, and the season hasn’t even started yet.

Robinson, the spry seven-foot center who endured a pair of stress fractures to his left ankle last season, is not expected to be available to start the season with the Knicks targeting a December-January return date, a league source confirmed to The New ...Read more

Caitlin Clark scored 11 points Sunday during her WNBA postseason debut. That's well below the Indiana Fever star's season average of 19.2 points a game.

She made only 24% of her shots and 15% from three-point range, also well below her season averages of 42% and 34%.

At one point during the third quarter of her team's 93-69 loss to the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Napheesa Collier played 39 minutes, 51 seconds of a possible 40 minutes on Sunday. She scored 38 points, second most in Lynx playoff history to Maya Moore’s 40 in the 2015 Western Conference finals.

She also made 10 consecutive free throws before missing her 11th attempt during the fourth quarter. She ended with 13 made free ...Read more

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Behind a triple-double from superstar Alyssa Thomas, the Connecticut Sun routed the Indiana Fever 93-69 in Game 1 of their first-round WNBA playoffs series at Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday.

Thomas finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists, marking the fourth postseason triple-double of her career. She accounts for ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Throughout his two weeks in Paris this summer, throughout an Olympic tournament in which he fashioned a few marvelous moments and derived so much glee from antagonizing France's basketball fans, Joel Embiid would do something curious and revealing.

Whenever the only Philadelphia-based writer covering the Games asked him a ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Sometimes, she puts a hand in their face. Sometimes, she rebounds. Always, she needles, cajoles, jokes.

“Sometimes,” Katie Smith said, “I think the best defense of all is to make them laugh.”

For an hour before most every Minnesota Lynx practice, Smith, the team’s associate head coach, works on shooting with Kayla ...Read more

ATLANTA — The Hawks head into the regular season with a couple of questions they need to answer.

They’ll have to figure out the best backcourt partner for star guard Trae Young. They also have to decide who will round out the front court alongside Jalen Johnson and Clint Capela.

The team has less than two weeks until training camp opens ...Read more

MIAMI — The ads, texts and emails have become ubiquitous, how voting for a specific candidate could swing the U.S. Senate, Congress or even state houses.

At the moment, it seemingly is all about swing votes.

A case could be made that the same could be at hand for the Miami Heat, with training camp just over a week away.

The known quantities...Read more

SEATTLE — Sooner than most expected, the Storm are back in the playoffs.

Think about where they were at this time last year.

Seattle finished next to last in the WNBA at 11-29 following a forgettable season in which they lost the most games in franchise history.

To return to prominence, all they had to do was re-sign star Jewell Loyd and ...Read more

Last season’s Celtics championship should have been a coronation for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. And in many ways, it was.

They’ll go down as franchise legends for leading Boston to its first NBA title in 16 years and doing it in dominant, unforgiving fashion. And the years of calls to break up their pairing – that Celtics were ...Read more