Author: Shekari Philemon

Russell Westbrook announced his retirement from professional basketball on Wednesday after 18 NBA seasons, choosing to step away on his own terms after declining opportunities with the Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards, ending one of the most statistically dominant careers in league history. The 37-year-old announced the retirement on social media, accompanying his post with a video of his career narrated by actor Michael B. Jordan. He described the feeling of the ending with characteristic directness, conveying that the conclusion had already happened before anyone knew it, and that it was now over. He had been in discussions with the…

Doc Rivers spent time working on the speech he will deliver Saturday when he is formally inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and what he discovered during the writing process surprised him. The speech, it turned out, had very little to do with him. He said that when you go through the process of writing something like that, you realize it is not about you in a very good way. The people in your life got you there, he said, and the speech becomes a celebration of them rather than of yourself. He described…

The New York Knicks will face the Philadelphia 76ers and LeBron James again on Oct. 30, the opening day of NBA Cup play, the league announced Wednesday as it released the full schedule and the 15 nationally televised games that will air on ESPN, Prime Video and NBC/Peacock. The matchup between the defending NBA champions and the 76ers, who also met on opening night Oct. 20, gives the league a marquee fixture to launch the tournament portion of the season. The Lakers visiting the Golden State Warriors also headlines the Oct. 30 slate, the first of the Friday game windows.…

Women’s IBF lightweight champion Elif Nur Turhan has signed with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, joining a growing roster of elite women’s fighters at the promotional company that now holds the prospect of staging some of the biggest unification bouts in the division. Nur Turhan, who carries a 14-0 record with eight knockouts, becomes the second fighter to join MVP from Matchroom Boxing under a recently announced strategic alliance between the two promotional organizations. Australian featherweight champion Skye Nicolson moved to MVP earlier under the same arrangement. The Turkish champion’s most significant victory came in December when she stopped the…

Chicago Bears safety Coby Bryant will miss four to six months after undergoing knee surgery on Aug. 7, coach Ben Johnson confirmed Tuesday, delivering a significant blow to a secondary that has been ravaged by injuries throughout training camp. Bryant hyperextended his left knee during one-on-ones on Aug. 3, sustaining a bone bruise and small fracture. He was driven back to the building on a cart. Johnson said the Bears sought multiple opinions on the injury before determining that surgery was required. The coach expressed optimism that Bryant would be in a hurry to return before the end of the…

The Minnesota Vikings named Kyler Murray their starting quarterback on Tuesday, ending a training camp competition that was competitive on paper but had been trending toward this outcome from the moment Murray signed in March. Coach Kevin O’Connell confirmed the decision and said Murray had shown enough command of the offense to merit the starting role. He said that despite the competition being open, he had always intended to make this call before the preseason began so the team could move forward with clarity. He will make his first appearance Saturday in the preseason opener against the New York Giants,…

The NBA will open its new season on Oct. 20 with the New York Knicks raising their championship banner against LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers in what promises to be one of the more anticipated opening nights in recent memory, a matchup that puts the defending champions against a franchise remade over the summer around James and two other major additions. The NBA announced Tuesday that the Knicks-76ers game tips off at 7 p.m. ET as the marquee game of a tripleheader. The Boston Celtics visiting the Detroit Pistons opens the night at 3 p.m. ET on NBC in…

Golden State Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy expressed confidence on Tuesday that Stephen Curry intends to finish his career with the franchise, with the all-time three-point leader eligible in three weeks to sign an extension worth up to $136.7 million over two years. He is entering his 18th season with the Warriors on an expiring $62.5 million contract. He becomes eligible on Aug. 29 to sign an extension, and team and league sources continue to express optimism that a deal will get done. The five-time champion has publicly said he wants to play at least a couple more seasons and…

When President Donald Trump left Turkey last month, the world saw him board a familiar aircraft on the tarmac in Ankara. What happened next was something far more deliberate and far more secretive than most people knew at the time. According to a report, Trump was quietly moved from the older Air Force One he appeared to board in front of cameras and transferred via an airport catering truck to a smaller military jet, an Air Force C-32A. The switch was not a logistical quirk. It was a calculated security move triggered by a credible Iranian assassination threat. The maneuver…

Daniel Kinahan, the alleged leader of one of Ireland’s most significant organized crime networks and a former boxing promoter, was extradited from Dubai to Ireland on Sunday after courts there refused to block the transfer, arriving at a Dublin airport in the evening aboard an Irish Air Corps plane. He was taken directly to the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, where he was charged with directing the activities of a criminal organization. A judge ordered him remanded to Portlaoise Prison, a high-security facility approximately 90 miles southwest of the capital. His extradition follows years of pursuit by law enforcement agencies…