More stories

  • in

    Luka Doncic Is Good, in Any Language

    CHICAGO — After Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks revealed that Kobe Bryant hit him with some Slovenian trash talk from courtside during a game, admiration for Bryant’s linguistic versatility was a common reaction. Bewilderment was another. Bryant had long been known to speak Italian and Spanish in addition to English. What was never clearly […] More

  • in

    Kobe Bryant Is a Finalist for the Basketball Hall of Fame

    Kobe Bryant, the former Los Angeles Lakers star whose death last month continues to cast a pall over the N.B.A., was among eight finalists announced on Friday for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Bryant, who was 41, retired from the N.B.A. in 2016 after spending his entire 20-year playing career with […] More

  • in

    Kobe Bryant Memorial Tickets to Sell for as Much as $224

    Fans hoping to attend the official memorial for the late N.B.A. superstar Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, in Los Angeles this month will face a difficult time obtaining tickets, and they might have to spend big. A “limited number of tickets” will be on sale to the public on Tuesday for as much as […] More

  • in

    He Is Building a Home. And a Career in the N.B.A.

    MILWAUKEE — Pat Connaughton has crammed enough high-flying acrobatics into his drives down the lane as a reserve guard for the Bucks that he was invited to compete in Saturday’s slam dunk contest at N.B.A. All-Star weekend. He loves playing for the Bucks. He loves playing for them so much, in fact, that he is […] More

  • in

    A BlackBerry Brought D’Angelo Russell to Minnesota

    Want more basketball in your inbox? Sign up for Marc Stein’s weekly N.B.A. newsletter here. Amid the havoc wreaked by three trades he made last week, involving seven other teams and 23 players, Gersson Rosas of the Minnesota Timberwolves missed one of the most important news bulletins of his professional life. Three days before the […] More

  • in

    The Knicks Are Trying Something New: a Rebrand

    “The New York Knicks are the premier global brand in basketball, period,” Steve Stoute, a music executive and the founder of the ad agency Translation, declared recently over breakfast. That night, the Knicks were blown out at home by the Memphis Grizzlies. Fans at Madison Square Garden chanted “Sell the team!” at James L. Dolan, […] More

  • in

    The Rockets Tried Small Ball. Did It Work? Well, They Beat the Lakers.

    LOS ANGELES — Among his many pregame duties whenever the Houston Rockets are on the road, Tony Nila scrawls each player’s nickname on a strip of masking tape and affixes it to the top of that player’s locker. Nila, the team’s equipment manager, refers to Russell Westbrook as “Why Not.” Tyson Chandler goes by “OG.” […] More