NBA

5:03 PM ET LAS VEGAS — The NBA board of governors is expected on Tuesday to approve the play-in tournament as a regular part of future league seasons, sources told ESPN. The NBA had been voting on the play-in’s inclusion on a year-to-year basis for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons, but the support exists ahead

8:00 AM ET NBA insiders The first weekend of Las Vegas Summer League is in the books, and the NBA hasn’t disappointed. Paolo Banchero and Jabari Smith Jr. kicked things off with a highly anticipated meeting between the lottery draft picks. No. 2 overall pick Chet Holmgren carried his momentum from Utah into Saturday’s 90-88

5:39 PM ET After clearing waivers, free-agent forward Danilo Gallinari has agreed to a two-year, $13.3 million deal with the Boston Celtics, his agent, Michael Tellem of Excel Sports, told ESPN on Sunday. Gallinari’s deal includes a player option on the second year and will be fully guaranteed, Tellem told ESPN. Gallinari, who’ll join an

11:27 PM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN LAS VEGAS — As Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga started to attack the hoop, he hooked the ball over his head to find a cutting James Wiseman. In one motion, Wiseman caught the ball in mid-air and threw down a dunk. It was the first possession of the Warriors’

12:53 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAS VEGAS — Oklahoma City Thunder forward-center Chet Holmgren and Houston Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. didn’t put on much of an offensive display Saturday night, but both showed the all-around games that made them such attractive choices at the top of last month’s draft. In one of the most

LAS VEGAS — Set to play alongside Kawhi Leonard and Paul George next season, John Wall said he is delighted to be joining a loaded LA Clippers team that won’t need him to be “Batman every night for us to win.” In his first comments since officially signing a two-year, $13.2 million deal with LA,

11:02 PM ET LAS VEGAS — Damian Lillard has made it clear over the years that he wants to stay with the Portland Trail Blazers throughout his career and will live with it if the organization can’t win a title during his playing career. Lillard, speaking Saturday at a news conference announcing his two-year extension

8:00 AM ET NBA 2K23 Summer League kicked off Thursday night with a matchup between Orlando’s Paolo Banchero and Houston’s Jabari Smith Jr., the No. 1 and No. 3 picks, respectively, in last month’s NBA draft. The Magic won 91-77 in the first meeting between two of the NBA’s most anticipated rookies, with Banchero notching

3:33 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Los Angeles Lakers coach Darvin Ham knows that the team he has now could look significantly different by the time he is coaching games that count in the fall, but he is embracing his current group just the same. “We love everyone on our roster,” Ham told reporters Friday

5:32 PM ET Star point guard Damian Lillard has agreed to a two-year, $122 million contract extension with the Portland Trail Blazers that will tie him to the franchise through the 2026-27 season, sources told Andscape’s Marc J. Spears and ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Lillard is expected to sign his deal Saturday in Las Vegas, a

1:53 PM ET Marc J. Spears Former long-time NBA referee Hugh Evans, a member of the 2022 Class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, passed away on Friday morning his wife, Cathy, told ESPN’s Andscape. Evans was officially named to the Hoop Hall on April 2, on his third try. He was an

1:44 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAS VEGAS — Before his lone season at Duke, Paolo Banchero tattooed a message to himself on his left forearm: “No pressure.” Naturally, the No. 1 pick in last month’s NBA draft said that while he was excited for his first game in an NBA uniform Thursday night, in a

5:55 PM ET Aron Baynes, who suffered a spinal cord injury after a freak fall while playing for the Australian national team in the Tokyo Olympics last summer, has resumed his career and will be working out for NBA teams Friday in Las Vegas. Baynes was in hospitals in Tokyo and Brisbane for nearly two

12:57 PM ET Memphis Grizzlies guard John Konchar — once armed with a single scholarship offer and ultimately undrafted out of Purdue-Fort Wayne — has agreed to a three-year, $19 million contract extension, his agent, George Langberg, told ESPN on Thursday. The extension takes Konchar, who has two seasons left on his contract, through the

7:42 PM ET ESPN News Services Rudy Gobert reads Twitter comments, so he’s aware that Minnesota fans didn’t like him very much during his first nine NBA seasons. And he also heard Timberwolves coach Chris Finch complain regularly about the way he sets screens. Those perspectives are probably going to change. “Now we’re on the

6:57 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN NEW ORLEANS — What a difference a year makes. Last year on July 6, his 21st birthday, Zion Williamson found out he had suffered a broken right foot, an injury that ended up costing him the 2021-22 season. This year on July 6, his 22nd birthday, the New Orleans Pelicans‘

8:00 AM ET IT WAS AUG. 11, 2021, and inside the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, what appeared to be an ordinary NBA summer league game between the Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies was anything but. This was sudden death, after the NBA had seven years prior changed the rules for summer league games that

11:42 PM ET ESPN News Services SALT LAKE CITY — Oklahoma City Thunder rookie Chet Holmgren shined in his professional debut, scoring 23 points and setting a Summer League record for blocks and 3s in a game. The No. 2 pick in the draft also had seven rebounds, four assists and six blocks in 24