Category: Basketball

The Brooklyn Nets are bringing timeless classics back to the hardwood. 

On Monday, the Nets unveiled their ABA-inspired Classic Edition uniforms and commemorative court ahead of the franchise’s 60th season. Both are set to debut on October 21 against the Charlotte Hornets.

The throwback kit features the red, white and blue worn by the Nets in their American Basketball Association (ABA) years. The design connects the franchise’s original roots to the 50th anniversary of the ABA-NBA merger. 

Here’s the full schedule of when they will wear them…

The Classic Edition uniform and court are part of a broader celebration planned throughout the 2026-27 season. Brooklyn will host six “Eras Nights” featuring alumni appearances, era-inspired entertainment, in-arena activations and giveaways.  For example, the Nets have reportedly invited all living players and coaches from their 1976 ABA championship to Barclays for the ABA celebration on November 18.

The Nets adopted their current name in 1968 and wore this version of their red, white and blue uniform through 1972. The look predates Julius Erving’s arrival and Brooklyn’s ABA championship runs.

Meanwhile, the court will feature several tributes to the franchise’s history. The Nets’ 60th-season logo, also red, white and blue, will appear at center court, while a logo incorporating past team branding will run along the sideline. The names of more than 575 players who have worn a Nets jersey will appear across the court apron, with the baseline recognizing the 50th anniversary of the ABA-NBA merger.

“The Classic Edition uniform and special-edition court give fans a new way to experience the history of this franchise,” said Becky Kimbro, Senior VP of Marketing, BSE. “This anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate every era of Nets basketball and the people who have shaped the franchise. From our ABA roots to the generations of players who have worn a Nets jersey, these elements honor where we have been while continuing to write the next chapter of Nets basketball in Brooklyn.”

It goes beyond jerseys, too. 

Latest on The Block

Per the Nets press release, “the Nets will bring back The Block, a dedicated lower-bowl fan section at Barclays Center that unites the team’s most passionate supporters to lead chants, energize the crowd and create an electric home-court atmosphere. The return of The Block celebrates the role fans have played in shaping the franchise’s history while giving them an opportunity to help build its next chapter in Brooklyn.”

The block is returning after a one-year hiatus.

New fan experiences at Barclays Center

The Nets are also introducing new technology at their October 21 home opener, which will feature a special show celebrating 60 years of Nets history with custom LED screens and 360-degree player footage.

Alibaba — the Nets’ new official technology and cloud partner and jersey patch partner — will introduce real-time 360-degree replays. Fans will also be able to visit the Nets Figure Lab to create personalized collectible cards using Alibaba technology. Joe Tsai, of course, is Alibaba’s executive chairman.

According to one report, the replays and other Alibaba technology will be rolled out throughout the season as the company and team use Barclays as a “testing ground for applications combining image processing, content personalization and cloud services.”

The home opener will coincide with the latest phase of Barclays Center’s five-year, $150 million-plus enhancement plan. Upgrades include a redesigned Main Atrium and box office, a 9,000-square-foot event-level club, a dedicated American Express card member entrance and lounge, and the first major control room upgrade since the arena opened in 2012.

The redesigned Main Atrium will feature WAVE, a newly commissioned airborne sculpture by artist Sarah Sze. At the new American Express entrance and lounge on Flatbush Avenue, there will be two large scale paintings by Rashid Johnson and Mark Bradford. The arena expects the updated entrance area to enhance the arrival experience for more than 70 percent of its guests.

***

The Nets joined the Nuggets, Pacers and Spurs in unveiling their 2026-27 Classic Edition uniforms and courts on Monday.  Whatever happens this year, at least the Nets will look good doing it.

Even a classic pose!

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Trae Young is in D.C. for the long haul. Your mileage may vary on the four-year max extension the Wizards handed him this summer, but it’s clear that the Wizards are committed to Young and his style.

That opens a range of questions around how (and whether) he molds his game to mesh with the Wizards’ young core. Here are some big ones I’ll be keeping an eye on.

Was last year’s Hawks performance a mirage?

Young’s very brief 10-game stint with the Hawks last year was a big step back. He shot the ball poorly, played especially lackadaisical defense, and struggled to drive winning. The Hawks took off when he left. 

That is, to be fair, a 10-game sample, and in his even more brief Wizards cameo later in the year, he shot the ball well. But given their long-term commitment, the Wizards have to hope that Young can reach a gear of athleticism and quickness that we’ve seen from him in the past. His quick-twitch, shifty first step has helped him separate from elite defenders and poke holes in defenses. Much of his film from last year shows a player who lacked that same agility. The Wizards need him to find it again.

Is Young going to set some screens?

The Wizards profile as a different style of team than past Trae Young operations. His Hawks teams were stocked with shooters and off-ball players who fit inside of Young’s heavy pick-and-roll game. Washington, with AJ Dybantsa in the starting lineup, is oriented a bit differently.

With Dybantsa’s promising downhill game, there is going to be less appetite for endless Young pick-and-rolls. Dybantsa is too good to shuttle off to the corner and take catch-and-shoot threes. It will be important for the Wizards to weave in sets that unlock Dybantsa and others without leaving Young to wait around in a your turn, my turn offense.

One way to do that is by setting screens himself. Young, of course, is not exactly the most physical screen-setter out there. But he can ghost or slip screens, scrambling out at the last minute, to generate favorable switches and driving lanes for Dybantsa. It’s a way to leverage Young’s gravity as a shooter and create confusion at the point of attack. It also opens a bag of tricks for Brian Keefe — for example, Young could pop out of a screen, then immediately receive his own screen from a waiting big man. 

Young has notoriously been reluctant to engage in off-ball actions. The Wizards have too many other offensive options for him to stand inattentively off to the side when he doesn’t have the ball.

Who will be his favorite pick-and-roll partner?

If there’s one thing we know about Trae Young, it’s that he is a big man’s best friend. He has propped up many NBA big men in the past, and now has Alex Sarr and Anthony Davis (and Deandre Ayton) to work with.

He’ll have plenty of chances to develop chemistry with all of them, and he surely will. It will be interesting, though, to see which big he most often uses as a roll man in the starting lineup, and by extension, which one that Keefe pairs him with during bench minutes. There’s a case for both AD and Sarr, and that likely will be a fluid decision. 

Davis profiles as a more natural fit. He’s an elite play finisher and vertical threat at the rim — the platonic ideal of a big man partner for Young. Lineups with Davis at the five and shooting around them could score like gangbusters. (Ayton is a very nice luxury as a third big, but Keefe should resist the temptation to lean much on the AD-Ayton double-big combo.)

I also expect Young to unlock Sarr’s rim-running game, which has been relatively dormant as a result of the Wizards’ lack of high-level ball-handling. Sarr is immensely versatile; he can dive to the rim for dunks, hit floaters and jumpers on the short-roll, or pop for threes.

It will take time to develop chemistry and find the right rotations. Young has long been able to mesh with new players quickly and establish his style. We’ll see how he does it with this deep and versatile Wizards team.

Michael Jordan’s final championship with the Bulls came in 1998, and a piece of memorabilia from the NBA Finals that season sold for a record eight-figure price.

A game-worn autographed Jordan jersey from 28 years ago sold this week for $14 million, according to auction house Hunt Auctions. That represents the most ever paid for a single item of basketball memorabilia, the Pennsylvania-based company announced Monday.

Florida real-estate investor Ron Firman was identified as the winner of the private treaty sale for the red road jersey, which Jordan wore in the Bulls’ Game 2 victory in the ’98 Finals against the Jazz.

The Bulls took that series in six games to complete their second three-peat of the decade, also winning three straight titles from 1991-93.

Jordan earned Finals MVP honors during all six of those championship years, averaging 33.5 points in 1998 against Utah.

That year also marked Jordan’s so-called “Last Dance” in Chicago; he retired after the ’98 Finals before coming back for two seasons with the Wizards from 2001-03.

The Jordan jersey, however, does not represent the highest-paid figure among all sports. A game-worn Babe Ruth jersey from his supposed “called shot” home run in the 1932 World Series sold in 2024 for $24.12 million, according to the Associated Press.

The Raptors have split the outcome of their first two preseason games, but it seems they might have a leg up against their Atlantic division rivals with the first on-court appearance for the Raptors of Kawhi Leonard.

“He went through practice today,” said Rajaković about Leonard at today’s practice. “He’s feeling great. 
So, yes, he’s gonna be available for game tomorrow.”

The superstar’s status seemed to be somewhat ambiguous before today. When the question was raised about how Jamal Shead felt about facing the New York Knicks alongside Kawhi, he seemed surprised.

“I ain’t know that,” Shead said, with a laugh. “Yeah, I mean, it’s going to be cool… seeing him in that 1st group and see how they start the game and see, you know, where he’s at conditioning wise. I know that was one of his biggest focusses… He’s a talent. He’s who he is.”

The New York Knicks handily defeated the Raptors in all five of their regular season games last year, en route to the championship, but things are different with Kawhi back. Brandon Ingram, while indeed an All-Star and a talented scorer, is not the player Kawhi is from both an offensive and defensive perspective, and Leonard’s addition to the squad could make all the difference.

The Knicks and the Raptors share a love for defensive wings, but this time, Leonard brings a level of experience and offensive prowess that the Knicks’ forwards will be hard pressed to match.

Leonard playing his first game for the Raptors at home will mark the first time he’s played at Scotiabank Arena in a Raptors’ jersey since the 2019 Finals. While it’s possible that he could be held back at the last minute for load management, it’s likely that this matchup and its place on home court will mark the Klaw’s first steps back into the hearts of Raptors fans across the country.

It’s a not a new season without new alternate uniforms in this day and age, and the Spurs have released their new Classic Editions: a retro throwback to their ABA origins in honor of the 50th anniversary of the American Basketball Association’s merger with the National Basketball Association back in 1976.

“Honoring our ABA roots through this Classic Edition uniform gives us an opportunity to celebrate the history that helped shape the Spurs and our city,” said Jordan Mandelkorn, vice president of marketing, creative and retail at Spurs Sports & Entertainment. “From the original design worn at HemisFair Arena to the special court with the ABA 50^th anniversary logo, this season-long celebration will connect generations of fans to our past while carrying that legacy forward into the future.”

The uniform features a silver base, grounding the team in a core color that reflects the early identity of the franchise. The arched Spurs wordmark returns in its original form on the jersey, worn by the first players to ever represent the city in the early ‘70s and now carrying forward their legacy. Directly above the jock tag, a special ABA anthem tag honors the league that brought the Spurs to the NBA. The shorts will feature the original black diamond backdrop framing the Spurs logo. The team’s patch partner, Ledger, appears on each jersey, symbolizing the commitment they share with the Spurs to build upon past greatness as the next generation forges forward into the future.

The Dallas Chaparrals of the ABA first came to San Antonio in 1973. They were initially going to be renamed “The “Gunslingers” before it was changed to the Spurs (probably a good idea), although there is debate as to whether the change was the result of a contest or one of the owners being from the small town of Spur, TX. They soon joined the NBA as part of the ABA-NBA merger in 1976, along with the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and then-New York Nets. The Spurs saw early success in the ABA and NBA, led by George Gervin and James Silas, and although it would take until 1999, they because the first former ABA team to win an NBA title — five, to be specific — and held that distinction until the Nuggets won it all in 2023.

The Spurs will sport their new Classic Edition uniforms and court nine times during the 2026-27 regular season, beginning on November 4 when they fittingly host the Dallas Mavericks. What do you think of the new unis, Pounders? It’s far from their first grey/silver uniform, but these are pretty slick, and the extra meaning behind them definitely adds some significance. Plus, there couldn’t be a more rad duo for rolling them out than Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant.

Lead an NBA team in scoring one day, find yourself looking for work less than a week later.

Such is the tough-luck life on the fringes of NBA rosters, which Miles Kelly experienced this week.

The 6-foot-5, second-year guard out of Auburn dropped 28 points in the Warriors’ preseason loss to the Trail Blazers last Wednesday. He came off the bench, drained six 3-pointers and posted a team-high plus-14 — the second-best on/off margin of any player — despite Golden State losing the game 123-118.

And, on Sunday, he was unceremoniously released.

Golden State opted to free up a roster spot to bring in Tyler Burton on a non-guaranteed deal — known as an Exhibit 10 — that can be converted into a two-way or minimum contract. Burton, a 6-foot-7 wing who went undrafted out of Villanova after a five-year college career, averaged 10.8 points and 4.2 rebounds in 10 games with the Grizzlies last season.

Burton provides more depth at a position of need for the Warriors, who are stocked full in the back court but will be without their top two wings, Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody, for the first portion of the season.

Still, the move may have come as a surprise for Warriors fans who watched Kelly’s impressive performance. Then again, anybody who tuned in would have been aware that Golden State was on the second night of a back-to-back and playing without seven of their typical rotation pieces.

Kelly scored six points in six minutes off the bench the previous night against the Lakers. He sank both his 3-point attempts and shot 8-for-15 from deep in three preseason games.

However, coach Steve Kerr apparently saw all he needed and left Kelly on the bench in the Warriors’ 111-106 exhibition win over the Kings on Saturday.

The next day, they cut bait.

After splitting their first two preseason games against the Nuggets, a new opponent is rolling into Salt Lake City. The San Antonio Spurs, runner-ups from last season and my pick for the eventual 2027 NBA champion, are coming to town, and will bring match-up problems that I can’t wait for the Jazz to try to solve. If Victor Wembanyama plays (and that is a big “if”), this preseason game will give us a unique opportunity to watch the Jazz, in a low-stakes environment, attempt to solve the player who seems destined to rule the West for the foreseeable future.

I’m particularly interested to see how what lineups the Jazz roll out in this one. Preseason is a time for experimentation, so I would not be shocked to see a starting lineup against the Spurs that Will Hardy has no intention of starting once the regular season comes around. Will Josh Okogie get his chance with the starters? Will Keyonte sit, giving Darryn Peterson some point guard reps? Will Hardy give Blake Hinson a shot with more established players? If ever he wanted to try these scenarios out, now is the time.

Once again, all eyes will be on Darryn Peterson. After he struggled in game 1 against the Nuggets, his shotmaking popped in the rematch. How will he fare against the notoriously physical Spurs backcourt? This is, once again, assuming that he plays – I would not be surprised if the injury report before this game looks eerily similar to what we became accustomed to during March and April of last season.

Utah Jazz vs San Antonio Spurs—How to Watch:

Who: Utah Jazz vs San Antonio Spurs

Where: Delta Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

When: 7pm Mountain Daylight Time

How to Watch: KJZZ, Jazz+ (in market) or NBA League Pass (out of market)

Green Bay Packers DE Micah Parsons (knee) is not expected to return to practice this week, according to sources. The team hopes that Parsons will be able to return at some point this month but there is no definite timetable.

SOURCE: Adam Schefter - ESPN

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Micah Parsons expected to remain sidelined

The Golden State Warriors-Kristaps Porziņģis saga continues to get even more mysterious.

“The Warriors say they don’t know where Kristaps Porziņģis is, exactly what he’s dealing with health-wise, or when he might be able to return to the court,” Danny Emerman of The San Francisco Standard wrote Sunday.

This puzzling update arrives just a few days after Warriors head coach Steve Kerr admitted that the 31-year-old forward wasn’t at Golden State’s practice on Friday and added, “Yeah, we’ve texted. Seems to be doing okay, but we haven’t gotten into into depth… He’s got to take care of his health, and again, we’ll support that and keep moving forward with the team.”

Kerr admitting that Porziņģis isn’t with the team for one practice is one thing. The fact that the organization doesn’t know where he currently is, now that’s another matter entirely.

Porziņģis was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, in 2025. The belief is that his absence from the team is a byproduct of his health, but that has not been confirmed by the org.

The Warriors and the rest of the NBA were aware of this diagnosis when signing Porziņģis to a two-year, $40 million extension this offseason, yet they surely were hoping to have some more clarity about his status than they’ve received at this point.

Porziņģis is sure to turn up eventually. The Warriors don’t appear to know when that will be.

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It’s only been 16 years since Joe Lacob led an investment group that, using an exploding offer, shockingly purchased the Golden State Warriors for $450 million.

And now, less than two decades later, Lacob and Co. have seen their investment not double, not triple, but … 32uple? I’m not sure there’s a word for that.

Sportico recently released their valuations of the major sports franchises, and the Warriors topped the NBA at a staggering $14.5 billion, more than 32.2 times larger than the figure that Lacob, Peter Guber, and a group of investors gave to Chris Cohan in July of 2010.

Which brings us to an intriguing question: how much higher can they go?

The Warriors have, it seems, utilized every tool to max out their valuation. They employ one of the most popular players on the planet, Steph Curry, who recently signed an extension. With a dynasty still fresh in everyone’s minds, they remain supremely popular with a loyal fanbase, and led the NBA with nearly $900 million in revenue last season. And then there’s the big kicker: the state of the art arena, the Chase Center, that the ownership group erected in 2019, and the other supremely popular basketball team that plays there.

Just two years into their existence, the Golden State Valkyries top Sportico’s WNBA valuations at a whopping $850 million. While the Valkyries are also owned by Lacob and his team of investors, they are a separate entity from both the Warriors and the Chase Center. Which means that when calculating the value of the Warriors, one has to delve into the highly unlikely hypothetical that Lacob sells the Warriors but not the Valkyries. In that case, the new owner would be purchasing the Dubs and the Chase Center (which was privately funded), knowing that the Valkyries are a money-printing tenant at the arena.

The Valkyries, of course, aren’t the only outside entity bringing money to the ownership group via the Chase Center. By building a high-end arena in a trendy part of town, the Warriors have become the landlords to the biggest concerts in the Bay Area. Just in the next few weeks, the Chase Center will play home to Doja Cat, Phoebe Bridgers, the Jonas Brothers, and Journey, among others.

It’s hard to imagine how the Warriors could maximize their franchise valuation any more than they already have, which brings us to a final point: when will the NBA bubble burst? In 2014, Steve Ballmer purchased the LA Clippers for what was, at the time, considered an outrageous price of $2 billion. Fast forward 12 years and the least valuable team in the NBA, the Memphis Grizzlies, is valued at $4.2 billion. The market is, quite simply, exploding. Curry is a year older and the Dubs are a year further removed from their dynasty, and yet their valuation rose by 28% year-over-year.

For now, there’s no end in sight, but eventually the bubble will pop. Until that happens, we’re left to wonder just how high it can climb.

Then again, I’m reminded of a quote that Lacob had the first time the Warriors’ valuation surpassed the 10-figure mark. When asked how he felt about the team being valued at that figure he said, in essence, that the number was false, because there’s no chance he would sell the team for that figure. All these years later, that remains true. Offer Lacob $14.5 billion for the Warriors and the Chase Center and he’ll say no in a heartbeat; offer him $850 million for the Valkyries and he’ll say no just as quickly.

But everyone has a price. I wonder what Lacob’s is?

Traditionally, the point guard has one job: make everyone better.

Few guards have embraced that role more than James Harden. He’s brought his masterful blend of scoring and playmaking to an 18th season, making it easier for all of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ moving parts to fall into place.

“You don’t have to worry about who is out there with [Harden],” said head coach Kenny Atkinson. “He makes the game look so easy… he makes everyone better, that’s the biggest compliment you can give someone.”

The Cavs look very different than they did a year ago.

In addition to seismic changes at the previous trade deadline, they also added a new member to their starting lineup (Peyton Watson) while pivoting to rely on a handful of unproven role players to fortify their bench. All of this means Atkinson is trying to push the right buttons with different lineup configurations to see what sticks.

“I don’t know if I call it experimenting, but just seeing what stuff looks like,” Atkinson said of his mix-matched rotations during the preseason.

Harden makes that process seamless. Whether it’s building chemistry with new teammates or polishing his relationship with the others. He can do it all.

“He’s one of those players for me; it’s kind of easy to play off him,” said Jaylon Tyson. “Just because [Harden] can make every pass in the book and, obviously, his scoring ability. Everyone is so worried about him offensively that a player like me, catch-and-shoot, just playing off the cut, it makes it so much easier when he’s on the court.”

Having a generational talent, even at 37 years old, is something that unlocks new possibilities for an offense.

Harden, paired with Donovan Mitchell, gives the Cavs two crowned jewels to play off of. Their creativity breeds innovation within an offense that can be hard for defenses to contain.

“Unpredictable,” answered Peyton Watson on how Cleveland’s offense differs from Denver. “In this offense, it’s all about instincts and knowing how to play the game around two elite offensive players — whereas with [Nikola Jokic], I knew every time down he was gonna have the ball… and the play would be for me to do this or that… here, there are more possibilities and things that I can do.”

Finding where you fit is easier when you have a leader like Harden. That’s one aspect of his game that his teammates say goes unnoticed.

“When you’re his teammate, it brings it to a whole new level,” said Donovan Mitchell. “Seeing his influence on the group, seeing his passion and intention behind what he does, it really puts into perspective how BS a lot of the narratives [about Harden] are.”

When Fred VanVleet went down with a season-ending injury before the start of the Houston Rockets’ 2025 training camp, the Rockets looked for a backcourt player to step up and replace their on-court leader.

The Rockets tried multiple players, including Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard, and even Aaron Holiday. Each player had different levels of success, but overall, the Rockets couldn’t find anyone to replace the significant loss of VanVleet. The Rockets lacked the backcourt flexibility and depth to withstand the loss of their starting point guard.

That issue reared its ugly head in the playoffs as the Rockets watched multiple late-game leads evaporate. It played a big part in the Rockets’ second straight first-round loss, this time to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers were without their best player, Luka Doncic, but they still had LeBron James, who did what he has done his entire career: led his team to a playoff victory.

However, it wasn’t just James who helped lead them to a series win; Marcus Smart also contributed significantly, especially early in the series. Smart did a little bit of everything in their first-round victory, and the Rockets coaching staff and front office had front-row seats to what Smart brings to a team.

Marcus Smart gives the Rockets the flexibility they need in the backcourt

In their first-round matchup, the Rockets saw a player who could run an offense one minute, grab an offensive rebound for an easy basket, guard a center the next, and then hound a point guard for 84 feet, forcing a turnover. Smart has built a career as a multifaceted player; like a utility player in baseball, he can do whatever a team needs.

Smart gives the Rockets not only backcourt insurance but also a player who can help win games in more than one way. Smart can play either guard position and, as needed, small forward. He can lead the offense or shut down the opponent on defense. In his Rockets debut on Sunday, Smart led the Rockets with 20 points and added five rebounds and four assists, but the Rockets fell to the Mavericks 132-117 in China.

Yes, it is just preseason, and you can never take too much from these games, but Smart did exactly what he’s done his entire career: fill the box score. The Rockets’ coaching staff, especially Ime Udoka, knows Smart’s game well, since he won Defensive Player of the Year in the 2021-22 season with the Boston Celtics, a team Udoka coached. Smart has made every team from the Grizzlies to the Lakers better, and even though that seems like a skill every player should have, it isn’t always the case.

That made signing Smart this offseason an easy decision, even with VanVleet returning. Smart gives the Rockets another defensive-minded veteran that you need to win close games, especially in the playoffs. Smart’s addition may have been buried by bigger moves this offseason, like LeBron James going to the Philadelphia 76ers or LaMelo Ball heading to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Still, it could be one of the offseason’s biggest moves.