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The veteran is adjusting to living in Melbourne and playing in the NBL after 12 years spent on the North American basketball rollercoasterBasketballer Joe Ingles appears as the archetype of the Australian larrikin. There is one box, however, he no longer ticks. The 39-year-old gave up alcohol in 2022 after suffering a serious knee injury, and he has now gone more than 1,500 days without drinking.“Stopping – that part of it – during rehab was very easy,” he says from Melbourne, after moving back to the NBL following 12 seasons in the NBA. At that point, it was just one aspect of aiding his recovery. Like staying healthy and avoiding junk food. Continue reading...

As the WNBA finals kick off Saturday in San Francisco, the pro-LGBTQ+ sports fanbase push a message of inclusion in the face of anti-trans attacksSign up for WNBA 30: a free women’s basketball newsletterAt Wilka’s Sports Bar in lower Manhattan, a crowd of mostly LGBTQ+ fans was fired up during a WNBA playoff game between the New York Liberty and the Atlanta Dream. When the Liberty’s Jonquel Jones blocked the Dream’s star forward Angel Reese at the basket, then chest-bumped her – leading teammates to separate them – the bar erupted in cheers. One fan quietly joked: “Now kiss!”“I love strong women, and I love supporting strong women,” said August, a trans organizer and Liberty fan who asked to go by their first name for privacy reasons. Continue reading...

Former Manchester City and Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola received a standing ovation from the crowd while attending Barcelona's EuroLeague basketball match against Olympiacos.

Former Manchester City and Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola received a standing ovation from the crowd while attending Barcelona's EuroLeague basketball match against Olympiacos.

Former Manchester City and Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola received a standing ovation from the crowd while attending Barcelona's EuroLeague basketball match against Olympiacos.

Former Manchester City and Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola received a standing ovation from the crowd while attending Barcelona's EuroLeague basketball match against Olympiacos.

Former Manchester City and Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola received a standing ovation from the crowd while attending Barcelona's EuroLeague basketball match against Olympiacos.

The London Lions became the first British club to face an NBA team but suffered a heavy 119-66 defeat to the Portland Trail Blazers in Oregon on Monday.

A Michael Jordan jersey from his 'Last Dance' season sells for $14m (£10.6m), a record for a piece of basketball memorabilia.

A Michael Jordan jersey from his 'Last Dance' season sells for $14m (£10.6m), a record for a piece of basketball memorabilia.

A Michael Jordan jersey from his 'Last Dance' season sells for $14m (£10.6m), a record for a piece of basketball memorabilia.

A Michael Jordan jersey from his 'Last Dance' season sells for $14m (£10.6m), a record for a piece of basketball memorabilia.

A Michael Jordan jersey from his 'Last Dance' season sells for $14m (£10.6m), a record for a piece of basketball memorabilia.

NBA star wore jersey during 1998 NBA finalsJordan memorabilia has attracted huge attentionA jersey worn by Michael Jordan during the 1998 NBA finals has been sold for $14m, an auction house announced on Monday, in what it said is the highest price ever paid for a piece of basketball memorabilia.Hunt Auctions said Miami real estate investor Ron Firman had bought the jersey in a private sale. Jordan wore the red jersey in Game 2 of the 1998 finals; he and the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz that night to even the series at a game apiece. Jordan and the Bulls would go on to win the series in six games, the sixth and final title of his Hall of Fame career. That 1997-98 season was the subject of the Last Dance documentary series, which became a hit on Netflix in 2020. Continue reading...

After years of mockery and doubts about her game, Reese has helped carry Atlanta to the WNBA’s biggest stage. Her critics might want to start forming an apology queueA lot of folks owe Angel Reese an apology after Friday night. They should probably form an orderly queue.Not that the bad-faith take merchants who have spent three years gleefully circulating her missed layups, likening her occasionally awkward footwork to “Bambi on ice” and marveling at the supposed comic genius of “mebounds” are likely to join it. The right-wing culture warriors who turned one of the WNBA’s most naturally gifted rebounders into a joke were never particularly interested in an honest assessment of her basketball abilities. But after Friday the punchline has never worn thinner. Continue reading...

Aminata Seck released on $2,500 bond after two monthsChinese player Qingfang Pang detained since SeptemberMississippi Valley State express concern for playerA Kentucky State University women’s basketball player from Senegal who was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been released after spending two months in custody.At a hearing on Tuesday, a judge granted Aminata Seck a $2,500 bond, which was posted on Wednesday after ICE declined to appeal, according to Hishem Alsalman, managing attorney of Alsalman Law Office. Continue reading...

Teams have always symbolized division within America. And the Fever have come to prominence during a time of dark political intensityIt’s over for now, but no professional sports team spent more time receiving and drawing attention to itself than did the Indiana Fever this season. The Fever has broken, the team eliminated by the defending champion Las Vegas Aces for the second straight season, but Indiana succeeded in being the WNBA’s canary in the coal mine, embodying both the obvious and unintended consequences of rapid growth, while also allowing themselves to be a season-long distraction: part-time professional basketball team, part-time right-wing culture war centerpiece. Less than a decade ago, Atlanta and Minneapolis were praised for their unified political stances. Today, Trumpism has replaced social justice as the defining characteristic of the league – and as the curtain closed on the 2026 WNBA regular season, Indiana stood at its epicenter.The Fever were the most polarizing team in professional sports, known less for their basketball than their culpability in pulling the league from its old cultural identity as a Black/queer league into its current climate of political divisiveness – a calculated and dangerous path to popularity. This season, there was the basketball of the WNBA, and then there was the Indiana Fever, the league’s Maga-friendly option.This article originally appeared on Howard Bryant’s Substack. You can subscribe here. Continue reading...

The White Sox were one of the worst teams in MLB history. Now they are just five wins from a place in the World SeriesThe postgame celebration songs pounded through the Bluetooth speakers in the Chicago White Sox clubhouse on Monday night, minutes after the team’s playoff victory over the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field.The White Sox, who lost 121 games two seasons ago, have made a remarkable turnaround. A team who were once so abject that they stopped tweeting out their results are now just five wins from the World Series. They can seal their progress to the American League Championship Series on Wednesday if they beat the Guardians in Chicago. Continue reading...

The Mohegan Tribe made the Sun the first Native American-owned franchise in pro sports. Fans say the team’s move to Houston echoes centuries of erasure and displacementWhen the Connecticut Sun played their final WNBA game last month, fans at Mohegan Sun Arena came together in an act of collective celebration and grief. The beloved franchise was leaving after 24 seasons, sold to a new ownership group in Houston, in a process so controversial that the state of Connecticut is considering legal action. The end of the Sun is a loss for the entire New England region, which is now without a WNBA team.The Sun entered the league in 2003 and brought professional women’s basketball to Connecticut, which is considered the “Basketball Capital of the World” – at least, according to signs along the state’s highways. The Sun were the first independently owned WNBA team, and the first Native American-owned pro sports franchise. Continue reading...

Moving beyond simple logo placement, the partnership between Pallacanestro Budrio and CMG Granulators is transforming amateur sports into a laboratory for environmental responsibility.