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Australian returns on AU$4.9m contract after season on sidelinesFormer No 1 pick hopes to reignite basketball career with fourth clubAustralian former No 1 overall draft pick Ben Simmons has taken a significant step towards resurrecting his NBA career, agreeing a one-year deal with the Sacramento Kings.The Melbourne-born guard returns on a US$3.5m (AU$4.9m) contract after sitting ‌out the entire 2025-26 campaign while rehabilitating back and leg injuries that have hampered him in recent years. Continue reading...

The Mountaineers' non-conference roadmap has transitioned from speculation to a set-in-stone reality. With North Carolina added to the mix and a high-stakes road trip to the Sunshine State Classic looming, the path to Big 12 relevance starts now.

Ukrainian Kate Koval says she left Louisiana State University's basketball programme because of the team's decision to sign a Russian player.

Ukrainian Kate Koval says she left Louisiana State University's basketball programme because of the team's decision to sign a Russian player.

Ukrainian Kate Koval says she left Louisiana State University's basketball programme because of the team's decision to sign a Russian player.

Ukrainian Kate Koval says she left Louisiana State University's basketball programme because of the team's decision to sign a Russian player.

Ukrainian Kate Koval says she left Louisiana State University's basketball program because of the team's decision to sign a Russian player.

Ukrainian Kate Koval says she left Louisiana State University's basketball program because of the team's decision to sign a Russian player.

Alex Eala has become the Philippines’ biggest sporting star since Manny Pacquiao. Now the 21-year-old’s traveling army of fans have descended on Flushing MeadowsThe crowd began to swell in Louis Armstrong Stadium a half hour before 2pm. A fair number of fans were probably there to see Taylor Fritz and Terence Atmane practice, but it was the session after theirs that was the headline attraction on the Friday of the US Open’s fan week. The blue, red and white throughout the stands, spotted on bucket hats and posters and basketball jerseys and flags, signaled who these people were here to see.This has been the year of Alex Eala, the 21-year-old sensation who has taken the tennis world by storm. At No 18, she is the Philippines’ highest-ranked player ever, its biggest sports celebrity since Manny Pacquiao. The country’s president hosted a reception to celebrate her success, and called for a national celebration after she won her first tour-level title last month at the DC Open. Forbes estimates Eala’s off-court earnings for the past year to exceed $5m, plus $1.7m in prize money, and her agent predicts she will be the world’s second-highest-paid female athlete by 2027. Continue reading...

Basketball Australia refers proposed rule changes to FibaIdea aimed at delivering more highlights met with mixed reactionsThe slam dunk has long been a staple of basketball, its biggest billboard, showcasing the athleticism and ferocity of its athletes. Now, some within the game want more.The Australian men’s professional league, the NBL, has lodged a request with the sport’s rule-makers about trialling a way to deliver more of these highlights in a proposal that threatens to alter the game’s fine balance. Continue reading...

After a split from the men’s team, CEO Hannah Buckley is overseeing an ambitious rebuild with WSL promotion firmly in sightAs radiant, August sunshine glistens around a peacefully silent Ashton Gate before Bristol City Women’s pre-season media day, Hannah Buckley takes a seat, pitch side, with a gleam in her eye, surveying the scene. The sight of a top-class venue makes her beam in a way that perhaps only somebody whose CV includes job titles such as regional facilities manager and head of infrastructure, safety and sustainability can. Nice stadiums, particular ones used by women’s sports teams, give her a kick.But after more than 20 years in football, the past eight at the Women’s Super League, Buckley is working on building something rather different: a club capable of thriving independently from the auspices of a men’s club. She was appointed as the WSL2 side’s chief executive in May, starting her role in June, at a fascinating time in the team’s history, after they were taken over by the investment group Mercury13 last year to break away from the Bristol Sport group that oversees Bristol City’s men’s team and the city’s rugby union and basketball sides. Continue reading...

Center Kate Koval departs after one season with TigersAnna Minaeva of Russia joined team earlier this monthKim Mulkey hoped two could be ‘ambassadors’ for peaceUkrainian center Kate Koval is leaving LSU less than two weeks after the Tigers brought in a player from Russia.LSU coach Kim Mulkey said Monday night that Koval was leaving for “personal reasons”, adding that the program will “respect her privacy on her decision”. Continue reading...

Nearly a decade after I watched him defy Erdoğan at great personal cost, the ex-NBA player is using his hard-won freedom to turn transgender people into a punchlineNine years ago, I watched Enes Kanter ask America to take him in. It was May 2017, inside the National Basketball Players Association’s offices in midtown Manhattan. Kanter had just returned from a frightening detention at Bucharest airport, where Romanian border police told him Turkey had canceled his passport. He’d just turned 25, an NBA center with a green card and no country he could safely call home.“I’m open for adoption,” he joked from the head of a table in a nondescript conference room, addressing a dozen reporters hastily summoned by his manager. Then he turned serious: “My next move is to just become an American citizen.” Continue reading...

The Slovenian is one of the best players on the planet. But factors largely beyond his control have started to turn his career into a slogLuka Dončić must feel as though, these past few months, he’s been twirling in a washing machine. He announced a separation from his fiancee in March; reports followed of a prolonged custody battle over their two daughters. As Dončić plays in the NBA and his children live in Slovenia, he doesn’t see them much as is. But after the reports of the rift with his ex emerged, he started playing some of the best basketball of his life: he led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 15-2 record in March, a stretch that included a torrential 60-point display against the Miami Heat. Behind Dončić’s brightening star, the Lakers seemed to be sharpening into a real contender. Then Dončić tweaked his hamstring in April and the illusion shattered. He watched from the sidelines as the Lakers limped out of the playoffs with an inevitable second-round defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder.Actually, Dončić must feel as if he’s been in turmoil for the past few years. He made his first – and so far only – NBA finals in 2024, leading the Dallas Mavericks there with a barrage of awesome shotmaking. As the best offensive player on the court while playing through multiple injuries, Dončić and his Mavs lost to the far deeper Boston Celtics in five games. As thanks, the Mavericks traded Dončić to the Lakers, citing defensive concerns, when what had really doomed them against the Celtics was that no one aside from Luka – who led his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals in that series – could play at the requisite level to win. Continue reading...

As athletic departments lock in their slates for the 2026-27 college basketball season, early schedule releases reveal fascinating tactical blueprints, high-stakes tournament pairings, and brutal travel burdens across the country.

The WNBA has attracted grifters who care little for basketball – and whose latest stunt exposes the hollowness of their supposed concernI regret to inform you that yet another dildo has hit a WNBA court. The Chicago Sky v Golden State Valkyries game was sullied by sex toys being chucked on to the playing surface on Friday. Aren’t we tired of all this yet? To paraphrase the Sky’s Natasha Cloud, it takes a lot of effort to bother with such a juvenile act.This is yet another controversy for the WNBA, a league that up until a few years ago, most media observers ignored. The WNBA is full of incredibly talented players and has a rich history, but most sports fans treated all but ignored it for the majority of its 30-year existence. But when Caitlin Clark went pro, the league surged. Ratings, attendance, and interest exploded. But not all attention is good attention. Continue reading...

The transfer portal has transformed college basketball into a high-stakes free agency market where costs are rising and the stakes for roster construction have never been higher.

Germany's hosting duties for the Basketball World Cup in Berlin have been complicated by a major roster blow: star Satou Sabally is officially out.

Europe’s biggest amateur sports event for children – that has drawn celebrity ambassadors ranging from Sean Dyche to Alastair Campbell – has marked its 30th birthday in SplitOn a dais overlooking the Adriatic, 20 children are playing chess. Arranged in a circle, they are competing not against each other but against the grandmaster Nigel Short, who passes awkwardly around the group playing one move each time. The children are no slouches, the best young chess players from the Balkans. But, in a twist, they can also call on the support of celebrity coaches. And so we have the unusual sight of precocious chess talents being coached through their games not just by the former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic, but by the former Burnley manager Sean Dyche and, in quite the eyebrow-raiser, the rightwing tech billionaire Peter Thiel.This is just one event at the Plazma Youth Sport Games (YSG), which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in the Croatian city of Split this month. Described by some of its more esteemed visitors as “the Davos of sport”, it brings eminent figures from the world of sport and politics to the Dalmatian coast each summer. More important, it is also the biggest amateur sports event for children in Europe. Just under half a million young people from across Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia and North Macedonia took part in qualifying for this year’s event. The finals in 10 sports – from chess to 3v3 basketball – are then held over the course of a week in Split. Alongside the competition, children are encouraged to learn lessons in teamwork, collaboration and putting phones away. The organisers describe Plazma as both a sporting event and a “social project”. Continue reading...

Kai Spears incorrectly linked to death of young motherTimes says it had not lost libel case in more than 50 yearsAn Alabama jury has awarded $9.25m in damages after finding that the New York Times defamed a college basketball player by incorrectly reporting that he was at the scene of a fatal shooting.Kai Spears, who played for the University of Alabama men’s team, sued the Times in 2023 after it published a report, citing a person familiar with the investigation, that said he was a passenger in a car involved in the shooting. The Times reported that the person had spoken “on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.” Continue reading...