Category: Sports News

7-foot-6 big man headlines Sixers' three training camp additions originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Sixers announced they’ve added three players to their training camp roster Tuesday, signing Tacko Fall, Jameer Nelson Jr. and Saint Thomas.

All three reportedly signed Exhibit 10 contracts, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

Exhibit 10 deals are essentially training camp contracts that can be converted into two-way deals before the regular season. The Sixers currently have two of their three two-way spots filled by Caleb Love and Rayan Rupert. Players who do not make the NBA roster often remain in the organization and join its G League affiliate.

Fall, 30, is the most recognizable name of the group — and one of the tallest players in NBA history.

The 7-foot-6 center was born and raised in Dakar, Senegal before moving to the United States at 16. He attended high school in Texas and Florida before playing four seasons at UCF.

Fall set three records at the 2019 NBA Draft Combine. He measured 7-foot-7 in shoes with an 8-foot-2¼ wingspan and a 10-foot-2½ standing reach, all the largest measurements in the event’s history.

Fall went undrafted in 2019 but became a fan favorite during two seasons with the Boston Celtics. He later joined the Cleveland Cavaliers and made his first NBA start against Boston on Dec. 22, 2021, grabbing a career-high 10 rebounds.

He has not appeared in an NBA game since the 2021-22 season. Fall played 37 games over three seasons with Boston and Cleveland, averaging 2.2 points and 2.4 rebounds in 6.1 minutes.

Fall spent the past four seasons overseas, primarily in China. He most recently played for the Ningbo Rockets and averaged 11.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in 18.1 minutes across his international stops.

He also played for the Xinjiang Flying Tigers and Nanjing Monkey Kings in China, along with the New Zealand Breakers of Australia’s National Basketball League.

Nelson, 25, brings strong local ties.

The Haverford native is the son of former Saint Joseph’s star and NBA All-Star Jameer Nelson, who now serves as the Sixers’ executive vice president of basketball operations. The elder Nelson played 14 NBA seasons after leading Saint Joseph’s to an undefeated regular season and an Elite Eight appearance in 2004.

Nelson Jr. attended The Haverford School and played five college seasons. He began his career at George Washington, transferred to Delaware and earned All-CAA honors in both of his seasons with the Blue Hens. He finished his college career at TCU in 2023-24.

The 6-foot-1 guard averaged 18.9 points on 47.5 percent shooting, 3.4 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 25 games for the Stockton Kings last season.

Nelson scored a career-high 45 points off the bench in March, shooting 62 percent from the field and making eight three-pointers. He previously played for the Austin Spurs in the G League and has also spent time professionally in Canada, China and Puerto Rico.

Thomas, 23, is already familiar with the Sixers’ organization.

The 6-foot-7 forward is from Omaha, Nebraska and attended Millard North High School. He played four college seasons across Loyola Chicago, Northern Colorado and USC.

Thomas earned first-team All-Big Sky honors and was named the conference’s Newcomer of the Year during his lone season at Northern Colorado. He went undrafted in 2025 and joined the Delaware Blue Coats.

According to the Sixers, Thomas averaged 12.5 points on 46.6 percent shooting, 5.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 60 appearances for the Blue Coats last season.

He remained with the organization during the 2026 Summer League, averaging 4.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.0 assist in four games.

Training camp really is on the horizon. The Sixers announced the signings of Tacko Fall, Jameer Nelson Jr., and Saint Thomas. Adam Aaronson of PhillyVoice.com was the first to report that these are indeed Exhibit-10 deals, and will be eligible for two-way contracts. That last bit is notable, as Aaronson reported earlier this summer that the Sixers third and final two-way spot is likely to be kept open heading into camp.

The gigantic Fall of course comes with the most NBA experience. After going undrafted in 2019 he spent two seasons with the Boston Celtics and one with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He averaged 2.2 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks in 6 minutes a game during his NBA career. He’s spent the last four seasons bouncing between teams in the Chinese Basketball Association and the Australian National Basketball League.

Jameer Nelson Jr., obviously the son of the Sixers’ new executive vice president of basketball operations, was an undrafted free agent in 2024. He’s spent a year with the Spurs G-League affiliate and the Kings G-League affiliate, with a half a season in the Canadian Elite Basketball League in between. In 25 games for the Stockton Kings last season, he averaged 18.9 points on 47.5-percent shooting, along with 3.4 assists and three rebounds per game.

The final signing, Saint Thomas, has been in the Sixers organization since going undrafted in 2025. As a member of the Delaware Blue Coats he’s been on Philadelphia’s Summer League roster the past two years. He put up 12.5 points on 46.6-percent shooting, five rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game last season for the Coats in 60 appearances. In four summer league games this season he averaged 4.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, and one assist in 15.5 minutes per game.

It’s a big day for Mavs Moneyball. Today, the SB Nation app is live, and it’s the best way to follow the Mavericks. 

You can download it by searching SB Nation for iOS or Android.

A year ago we made some big changes to our community, including offering fewer ads and the addition of the Feed. Today, we want to give you even more community tools and fewer ads with this app. It will make starting and joining conversations here as simple as posting to your favorite social media platform.

You can check out the video below showing off some of the useful features of the app, and we’ll dig into them below. 

Why should I download the app?

The app will be the easiest way to interact with everybody else in the community: 

• All your favorite teams’ posts in one dedicated feed
• Notifications when someone replies or recs your post
• New game thread section, with an  experience that’s smoother and faster
• Fewer ads
• Easily navigating between your favorite communities with a swipe

It will be the fastest way to read every post from our community.

How do I download the app?

Head over to the Apple store or the Android store to download the app. Today, the app is only available for US users.

Now that Golden State Warriors legend Steph Curry is 38 years old, the question about his potential retirement isn’t going anywhere.

That is, until Steph’s wife, Ayesha Curry, made a telling claim about her husband’s basketball future during a recent interview.

“Of course, Steph is the hardest-working man in the room. He has no days off. He hasn’t stopped since last season ended. He’s ready. He’s ready to get out there. I think we’re going to be in for some fun surprises over the next couple of years,” Ayesha Curry told NBC Sports Bay Area.

Ayesha mentioning “the next couple of years” seems to hint that Steph still has at least a few seasons left in the tank. And this makes sense, given that he’s still one of the world’s best players and a lethal sharpshooter.

Perhaps the bigger question was whether Steph wants to stay in Golden State. The Warriors’ have only won two playoff series’ since securing the 2021-22 NBA Championship, and Steph surely wants to chase another championship before hanging up the sneakers for good.

But the Warriors legend set the record straight regarding his intention to stay in Golden State, saying in the same interview, “There’s no question I want to be here the rest of my career, and I’m pretty sure that’s going to happen.”

Curry is eligible to sign a two-year, $136.7 million extension that would keep him with Golden State through the 2028-29 season.

If Steph were to sign this contract, it would mean he’s under contract with the Warriors for three more seasons (including this upcoming campaign, where he’s set to make $62.6 million). That seems to align with Ayesha’s “next couple of years” comment, and serves as further proof that Steph could have three NBA seasons remaining.

Jonathan Kuminga’s decision to sign with the Wolves left the Lakers with a glaring hole in the front court.

The discussion around it has largely ranged from making a trade to internal options. Little thought has been given to the free agent market, largely because the Lakers aren’t in a position to sign one with the team already at 16 guaranteed contracts.

However, one name long connected with the team is available. While his links to the Lakers were largely tied to the LeBron James-Anthony Davis era, Bruce Brown has long been chased by the purple and gold.

Despite having a statistically successful season last year with the Nuggets, including playing all 82 games, Brown has remained on the free agent market with few rumors about him. However, his name popped up in a recent live stream by Jake Fischer on Bleacher Report as a potential option for the Lakers.

The Lakers would need to make a host of moves in the next four weeks before training camp to get to a point where signing Brown would even be feasible. As things stand, they already need to consolidate the roster, whether by waiving someone or trading two players for one.

To get to a point where they’d have an open roster spot, it’d be two players released to sign one or trading three players for one, which is basically a non-starter. You could combine the two options as well to get an open roster spot, but you’re starting to see how complicated it would be to get Brown on the roster.

At that point, the question would be whether he’s worth all that, too. He’s an imperfect fit on the roster, even if he’d provide some value with his unique skill set.

There is the chance that Brown starts the season not on a team with the hopes of signing during the season. In that case, perhaps the Lakers could make one or more moves that’d open up a roster spot. But that’d be months away.

It’s not a surprise the Lakers have interest in Brown. But it remains a long shot that he’ll don the purple and gold this season.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.

The Dallas Mavericks are just weeks away from year-two Cooper Flagg and a new look roster taking the court for training camp. In the calm before the upcoming storm that is the NBA season, basketball-related news is quiet, but that leaves plenty of room for things like… jersey leaks.

It’s no secret that the NBA loves to pump out multiple jerseys for each team around the league, enlisting Nike to help them do just that. Originally having an eight-year deal, Nike and the NBA didn’t even finish their first contract before extending their partnership an additional 12-years through the end of the 2037 season.

Since Nike took over jersey duties, the notion of home and away uniforms has gone by the wayside. Instead, there are five categories of jersey for each team.

• Association Edition: Formerly known as the “home” jersey; the standard white color scheme.
• Icon Edition: Formerly known as the “away” jersey: the standard primary team color.
• Statement Edition: Formerly known as the “alternate” jersey (back when there were only three), which features a more dramatic look and the Jumpman logo.
• City Edition: Features designs that harken to local culture.
• Classic Edition: These are “throwback” jerseys that reference a team’s past classics.

That is a lot of jerseys to go around every team for 82 games, but fans generally seem to like the notion of a changeup from the usual home and road options. Of course, there are plenty of alternate jerseys that meet the ire of a given fan base season-to-season. This year, it seems as though Nike is looking to avoid any new options receiving criticism by giving the league retreads. Case in point, the Mavericks are rumored to be bringing back the gold and white Pegasus jerseys for their City Edition this season.

Dallas has had a mixed bag of City Editions over the years, but the Pegasus jersey seems to be generally well-liked, despite not having any real tie to the historic blues and greens the Mavericks are known for. The Pegasus jersey does adequately give a nod to the city by way of the famous Pegasus that was adorned atop the Magnolia Building in 1934 (with modern appearances outside the Magnolia Hotel and the Omni Dallas Hotel), making it one of the better city tie-ins, per se.

Although the jersey makes sense based on a nearly 100-year connection to Dallas, the rehash is somewhat ponderous. Just last year, Nike revamped the Pegasus jersey into a black and blue version, which fit better with the Mavericks’ traditional color scheme while still connecting to the city at large. Now, barely 10-years after the start of their partnership with the NBA, and with more than 10-years remaining, Nike isn’t even doing something new. 10 years is a long time, but it seems too soon to bring back what we’ve already seen. Anyone who missed out the first time should be happy, but anyone with long term goals of having a 20-year collection of different City Editions is going to have a duplicate!

Jests aside, this is a weird look for Nike. They position themselves as one of the premier shoe and apparel companies of all time, but this just feels like they are somehow out of ideas and mailing it in. Already we’ve seen different color schemes of the same design, but now we’re getting outright exact duplicates? One would think Nike would have at least the next few years of new designs in the bag in advance, yet here we are.

For my part, I’d be plenty happy with three jerseys. Give me a home, an away, and an alternate that changes (into something new!) every year. Keep it simple. Keep it fresh. If we’re out of ideas already, maybe five different uniform variations is too much.

I invite you to follow me @_80MPH on X, and check back often at Mavs Moneyball for all the latest on the Dallas Mavericks.