NBA

11:41 PM ET In his first moment in the spotlight as a member of the Miami Heat last fall, Jimmy Butler failed. It was the rigorous conditioning test the Heat put players through before training camp that is legend within the league. Some athletic trainers claim it’s the most demanding such test in all of

7:00 AM ET The conference semifinals are underway — in the East, at least. While the West waits on the results of two first-round series, the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat tip off their second-round series on Monday night, and the Boston Celtics already took Game 1 from the defending champion Toronto Raptors. Who will

2:04 AM ET The Western Conference quarterfinals matchup between the No. 3 Denver Nuggets and No. 6 Utah Jazz is going to a Game 7. After the Nuggets swept the regular-season series against their Northwest Division rivals 3-0, the Jazz took a 3-1 series lead — only for the Nuggets to tie the series. While

9:24 PM ET As the LA Clippers watched a 23-point lead shrink to six with just over nine minutes left in Game 6, Kawhi Leonard didn’t need to say much. The reigning NBA Finals MVP closed out the Dallas Mavericks by making four consecutive shots to fuel a series-clinching 17-7 run and propel the Clippers

4:46 PM ET LA Clippers forward Marcus Morris Sr. was ejected late in the first quarter of Game 6 due to a flagrant 2 foul committed against Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic, a continuation of the heated rivalry that has developed between the two players in the first-round series. As Doncic drove to the basket,

3:38 AM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — As Jacob Blake Sr. remembers it, barely any time had passed from the time the Milwaukee Bucks decided not to play their game Wednesday in protest of the shooting of his son by the police to when his phone rang and the Bucks were on the line.

9:13 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN News of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday didn’t reach reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo until days later with the Milwaukee Bucks star, who is on a social media blackout for the postseason. Once he became informed that Blake, who is Black, was shot seven times

3:37 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Milwaukee Bucks wing Wesley Matthews said the team is not “apologetic” for boycotting Game 5 of their first-round series against the Orlando Magic Wednesday, a decision he said the team made organically. “I feel like we did what any team would’ve done in that situation. And we’re not apologetic for

7:17 AM ET After three days off, the 2020 NBA playoffs resume Saturday when the Milwaukee Bucks face the Orlando Magic. These games were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday but were postponed after the Bucks chose not to play Wednesday afternoon in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, with teams across the

4:12 PM ET Before the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced Friday that the postseason will resume with players and the league working collectively toward social justice goals, we reached out to more than a dozen leaders to ask how they would advise NBA players to use their influence to translate political passions

12:53 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Michele Roberts released a joint statement Friday announcing that the NBA playoffs will resume Saturday, and that the NBA and its players will work together on several initiatives to promote voting access and combat

7:24 AM ET NBA Insiders NBA players spent the past week publicly and privately grappling with the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, before refusing to play in games Wednesday, setting off protests by athletes across American sports. What does this historic week mean for the NBA and other leagues? What were

12:02 PM ET NBA players have decided to resume the playoffs, a source tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Thursday’s three playoff games will be postponed. A resumption of the season could come as soon as Friday, but there is expected to be a return to the play by the weekend according to sources. Players held a

9:36 AM ET This story was reported and written by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Malika Andrews and Zach Lowe. WE HEARD IT in their voices. The pain. The anger. The desperate cry for justice. The video of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black father of six, being shot seven

1:51 AM ET For the last six years, the NBA has bathed in the congratulatory spirit of compromise, the model for commissioner-player communication. In ousting the racist former LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling, both the players and the league could claim satisfaction. The player voice was heard so powerfully that for the first time in

6:05 PM ET The Milwaukee Bucks have boycotted Game 5 on Wednesday against the Orlando Magic to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The NBA announced shortly after that all of Wednesday’s playoff games — including Game 5 between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder and Game 5 between the

1:56 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — With Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors just over 24 hours away from its scheduled tip, the possibility of boycotting the game remains on the table for both teams in the wake of the police shooting of

1:58 AM ET It took 13 months from when they started believing they were going to win a championship that the LA Clippers had to finally play a truly meaningful game. Oh, there were important games, like the first few in their series with the Dallas Mavericks. There were games they badly wanted, like opening