Even before he wrote the poem on which the Oscar-winning short “Dear Basketball” was based, Kobe Bryant was interested in animation. He approached the former Disney animator Glen Keane after seeing his film “Duet.” Bryant explained in an interview in 2017, “Animation can capture the emotion in the story in a much more compelling, visual […] More
Kobe Bryant, the retired Los Angeles Lakers basketball star who was one of the greatest to play the game, and his 13-year-old daughter were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday outside Los Angeles, rocking the sports world and generating an outpouring of grief and shock across the country. n Speed: 62 […] More
“Tonight is for Kobe,” Lizzo declared at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards, belting out the lyrics to “Cuz I Love You” as the show kicked off. The “Truth Hurts” singer’s performance gave way to Alicia Keys, who is hosting the show for the second time and took a moment to honor the retired Los Angeles […] More
Months before Cathy Engelbert had been hired as the commissioner of the W.N.B.A. — and even longer before she had settled a landmark collective bargaining agreement with its athletes on Jan. 14 — she met with Terri Jackson, executive director of the players’ union. After Lisa Borders had stepped down as the league’s president in […] More
NEW ORLEANS — Zion Williamson was apprehensive in the first half of his first regular-season game with the Pelicans. He deferred to teammates. He passed out of traps. He did not use his 6-foot-6, 284-pound frame to demolish smaller defenders or propel the crowd to its feet with his dunks. Instead, he seemed determined to […] More
Maya Moore, the W.N.B.A. star regarded as one of the greats of the sport, will sit out for a second straight season and remove herself from contention for the Olympics so she can continue to push for criminal justice reform and the release of Jonathan Irons, a man she believes is innocent of the crime […] More
Want more basketball in your inbox? Sign up for Marc Stein’s weekly N.B.A. newsletter here. Don’t even start with the Rookie of the Year Award stuff. Beginning with his scheduled return from injury Wednesday night against the San Antonio Spurs, Zion Williamson can, at most, play 38 games for the New Orleans Pelicans in his […] More
NEW ORLEANS — As Zion Williamson spent the past three months recovering from knee surgery, he tried to be patient. It did not always work. “It was a lot of times when I wanted to just punch a wall or kick chairs,” he said, “because it’s frustrating to not be able to move your body […] More
