Basketball Africa League holds first game

The 12-team Basketball Africa League opened its inaugural season on Sunday, and the first-ever game produced a clear-cut winner. Patriots Basketball Club of Rwanda routed Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers Basketball Club 83-60 at Kigali Arena. The key turning point for the Patriots occurred in the second quarter. The Rwandan hosts trailed 18-17 after the opening stanza,…

Read More

Vanessa Bryant gives emotional speech at Hall of Fame ceremony

Vanessa Bryant paid tribute to her late husband Kobe during the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony on Saturday in Springfield, Massachusetts. Speaking at the 2020 Hall of Fame class enshrinement ceremony, which was postponed due to the global pandemic, Kobe’s widow said this was the right occasion for her to heap praise…

Read More

NBA home-court win percentage this season is worst ever

Home-court advantage wasn’t much of an advantage in the NBA this season. The combined home winning percentage of NBA teams this season will be the worst in league history, which can at least partly be attributed to fan attendance being severely limited because of the ongoing pandemic and the protocols that the league had to…

Read More

NBA social justice award is named after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will have his name attached to a new annual NBA award honoring players committed to community action, social change, and justice. Each team will nominate one player from its roster for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion award, the winner being chosen by a committee of NBA legends, league executives, and leaders…

Read More

The 2021 NBA Draft Combine will take place in-person

The 2021 NBA Draft combine will happen in Chicago from June 21-27. The plan is to hold team interview sessions, five-on-five games, shooting drills, measurements, strength/agility testing, half-court drills, and medical evaluations. This is quite the change from the 2020 NBA Draft Combine. In 2020, the league postponed last year’s traditional combine amid the COVID-19 pandemic in…

Read More

Russell Westbrook becomes all-time leader in triple-doubles

Oscar Roberson’s record for most triple-doubles in a career stood for 47 years. Two days after he tied the Big O with his 181st career triple-double, Russell Westbrook grabbed sole possession of the top spot in Monday’s loss to the Hawks. With Bradley Beal (hamstring) sidelined, Westbrook had more heavy lifting to do as a scorer, and he finished…

Read More

Dragan Raca highest-paid coach outside of the NBA

Serbian basketball coach Dragan Raca became the highest-paid basketball coach outside of the NBA. At least, that is what his agent Minja Ilic claims. He announced that Raca had signed a three-year contract with the Chinese Wuhan Dangai worth 9.3 million. There are no publicly available records of the contract. Therefore, it is not clear…

Read More

University of Hartford sports drops from Division I to III

University of Hartford sports are dropping from Division I to Division III. The decision comes after the Hartford men’s basketball team won its first America East championship and played in the NCAA Tournament for the first time, losing to eventual national champion Baylor in the first round. Hartford President Gregory Woodward said the school wants…

Read More

Guangdong completes CBA Finals three-peat

The Guangdong Southern Tigers won their third consecutive Chinese Basketball Association Finals title on Sunday, beating the Liaoning Flying Leopards 110-103 in overtime in the decisive Game 3. Guangdong captured its 11th overall CBA crown. Game 3 was a pulse-rising contest in crunch time. The Flying Leopards’ Guo Ailun missed the second of two free…

Read More

LaMarcus Aldridge retires due to heart condition

Brooklyn Nets forward LaMarcus Aldridge has officially retired from the NBA. In an open letter, Aldridge explained that he experienced an irregular heartbeat in his final game against the Lakers. The seven-time All-Star wrote, “what I felt that night was still one of the scariest things I’ve experienced.”. Aldridge, who was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome — an…

Read More