Kobe Bryant Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Northwest Notes: Grant, Millsap, Anthony, Conley, Napier

January 31st, 2020 at 5:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

What the Nuggets decide to do with Jerami Grant and Paul Millsap provides an intriguing subplot to the offseason, Mike Singer of the Denver Post writes. Millsap will be an unrestricted free agent and Grant can join him on the market by declining his $9.35MM option. Grant is undersized at the power forward spot but brings more agility and shot blocking to the four spot. The Nuggets will probably try to re-sign Grant but could also bring back Millsap if he’s willing to meet their price, Singer adds.

We have more from the Northwest Division:

Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony is still too distraught over Kobe Bryant’s passing to take the court, especially at the Staples Center. Anthony will sit out the Portland-Los Angeles Lakers game on Friday, Stadium’s Shams Charania tweets, as he continues to grieve over the loss of his close friend.
The Jazz are close to returning point guard Mike Conley to the starting lineup, according to Charania. Conley has come off the bench in six games since he recovered from an aggravated hamstring strain. Utah wants Conley to reestablish chemistry with the other starters, most notably backcourt partner Donovan Mitchell and center Rudy Gobert, Charania adds.
The lack of a good plan regarding their point guard rotation has been the Timberwolves’ biggest issue, Michael Rand of the Minneapolis Star Tribune opines. Jeff Teague wasn’t a good fit prior to being traded to Atlanta because Minnesota needed a floor leader adept at pushing the tempo. Shabazz Napier has been a good pickup but he’s probably best suited for a 15-20 minute backup role while Jordan McLaughlin is more of an emergency backup than a second-unit player, Rand adds.

All-Star Teams To Wear Nos. 2, 24 In Honor Of Gianna, Kobe Bryant

January 31st, 2020 at 2:15pm CST by Luke Adams

The 2020 All-Star Game will feature Team LeBron (James) wearing No. 2 jerseys and Team Giannis (Antetokounmpo) wearing No. 24 jerseys, according to a press release issued by the NBA in partnership with the players’ union and Nike. No. 2 was the number worn by Kobe Bryant‘s daughter Gianna, while No. 24 was, of course, worn by Kobe during the second half of his career.

Kobe and Gianna were two of the nine people who died in a helicopter crash in California on Sunday. According to the league’s announcement, both All-Star teams will also wear jersey patches which display nine stars, representing those nine people who lost their lives in the crash.

For Friday’s Rising Stars game and Saturday night’s events – including the dunk contest – the participants will wear jersey patches featuring the Nos. 2 and 24 in the center, surrounded by nine stars.

The uniform changes are one of multiple tributes planned to the late NBA superstar for the 2020 All-Star weekend in Chicago. The league announced on Thursday that it’s tweaking the All-Star format to add a target score in the fourth quarter. That target score will be determined by adding 24 to the total number of points scored through three quarters by the leading team.

And-Ones: China, Kobe, Noah, Trade Deadline

January 30th, 2020 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

As the World Health Organization declares the coronavirus outbreak a “global health emergency,” ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Twitter thread) took the opportunity to explore the impact it has had on the basketball community in China.

According to Givony, the Chinese Basketball Association has postponed games indefinitely, with some CBA teams sending American players home while others prefer to have those players stick around. Although no CBA team plays within 350 miles of the Hubei province (the coronavirus epicenter), there’s talk that the season may not resume until March, if it resumes at all.

As Givony explains, CBA contracts often don’t include the same player-friendly protections that other international contracts do, so some players are nervous about how the league will handle those deals. Late payments or possible voided contracts are among their concerns, Givony adds.

According to Givony (Twitter link), teams in Europe, the G League, and even the NBA are likely keeping an eye on the situation. Many former NBA players are under contract in the CBA and could become free agents if the season is cancelled or their deals are voided.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Despite the idea receiving support from some NBA players and a petition that has received nearly three million signatures, the league doesn’t plan on changing its logo to Kobe Bryant or any other individual player, preferring a “generic” design, says Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports. As Dan Feldman of NBC Sports explains, it’s widely known that the current logo uses Jerry West‘s silhouette, but the NBA has never formally acknowledged that.
Veteran center Joakim Noah published an Instagram video of him running, suggesting in the caption that he’d like to return to the NBA. “Four months post-Achilles surgery and I’m back on the track,” Noah wrote. “My goal is to get back out there and compete. I’ve had many surgeries but coming back from this would be very rewarding.” Noah’s health status is a little unclear — if the surgery he referred to was for a torn Achilles, he presumably won’t be ready to play anytime soon, but we don’t know the exact details.
A handful of ESPN analysts made their predictions for the trade deadline, identifying which contenders and rebuilding teams most need to make a move. Bobby Marks and Tim Bontemps are among those who expect it to be a quiet deadline.

L.A. Notes: Bryant, Kupchak, George, West

January 29th, 2020 at 6:38pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Lakers returned to practice today for the first time since Kobe Bryant‘s death on Sunday, writes Greg Beacham of The Associated Press. The mood was reserved as players tried to move beyond the tragedy and focus on basketball. Some of them, including Anthony Davis, spent time looking at Bryant’s two retired numbers hanging in the rafters before practice began.

“We want to represent what Kobe was about, more than anything,” said coach Frank Vogel, who was the only person to address the media after the workout. “We’ve always wanted to make him proud, and that’s not going to be any different now.”

The Lakers’ game against the Clippers last night was postponed to give the organization more time to deal with the tragedy. Instead, the team held an afternoon gathering where players and coaches shared stories and memories of Bryant. The meeting was “therapeutic and beneficial,” according to Vogel.

“It’s been something that has touched my family, being the father of daughters, and it’s been very emotional,” he said. “It’s something that brings us together. I’m around the people who were closest to Kobe throughout his time here, and it’s been just a deeply saddening time for all of us.”

There’s more from Los Angeles:

The franchise-altering trade that brought Bryant to the Lakers in 1996 nearly didn’t happen, Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak tells Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. Kupchak, who served as assistant GM for the Lakers at the time, said Charlotte had second thoughts about going through with the deal. “I think we always felt that we’d get the deal done,” Kupchak said. “Certainly, history would have been a lot different, at least from a Lakers point-of-view. Kobe would have been great no matter where he was.”
Clippers stars Paul George and Kawhi Leonard both spent time working out with Bryant at his Mamba Sports Academy and both credit him with helping to mold their careers, relays Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. “He was my Michael Jordan growing up as a SoCal kid,” George said after today’s practice. “He was what every kid wanted to be here. I started playing basketball because of Kobe.”
Current Clippers consultant Jerry West said when Bryant was thinking of leaving the Lakers as a free agent in 2004, he warned him not to go across town and play for former owner Donald Sterling (video link from TNT).

Wizards Notes: Grant, Trades, Hachimura

January 28th, 2020 at 8:16pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Wizards are in position to make some moves at the deadline, and if that happens the team could call up a few of its G League players. Shane Connuck of Wizards Xtra breaks down which players could get an opportunity with Washington, including Jerian Grant, who has been with the Go-Go for most of the season.

Here’s more from Washington:

The Wizards have made a trade leading up to trade deadline in each of the past 10 seasons, NBC Sports Washington’s Chase Hughes writes. The team dealt Markieff Morris and Otto Porter Jr. in separate trades a year ago. This is Tommy Sheppard‘s first year as the team’s new head of basketball operations, so it’ll be interesting to see if he’s as active at the deadline as Ernie Grunfeld was.
Rui Hachimura is getting close to returning to the court, as Hughes relays in another piece. The rookie went through a full practice without any limitations over the weekend.
Hachimura spoke about Kobe Bryant‘s impact on him, telling the media that Bryant was his hero (via Mike DePrisco of NBC Sports). “Three years ago, during [the] Final Four, [Bryant gave] a special pair of shoes as a surprise to the team. Not only that, he talked about what Mamba Mentality is and what people should be before basketball players,” Hachimura said. “He was more than just a basketball player.”

And-Ones: Dinwiddie, Ross, Rising Stars, Zion

January 28th, 2020 at 2:55pm CST by Luke Adams

There hasn’t yet been a league-wide push to retire Kobe Bryant‘s No. 8 or No. 24, but some players around the NBA have begun informally retiring those numbers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. As Charania tweets, the first of those players is Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who had worn No. 8 and will be switching to No. 26. Magic sharpshooter Terrence Ross is changing from No. 8 back to his old No. 31, Charania adds (via Twitter).

It’s not yet clear which other players will follow suit and make changes of their own. The NBA generally doesn’t allow players to change jersey numbers during the season, but Dinwiddie and Ross were granted permission, a source tells Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link). Given the special circumstances, it seems safe to assume the league would approve similar requests from others. However, Stein hears that they’ll be reviewed on a case-to-case basis (Twitter link).

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

The NBA’s announcement of the rosters for this year’s Rising Stars game has been pushed back to this Friday at noon eastern, the league announced today in a press release. A source tells Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter link) that Pelicans forward Zion Williamson would be interested in participating now that he’s healthy, which would certainly add some extra excitement to the All-Star event.
Former Trail Blazers and Rockets guard Tim Quarterman has signed a G League contract and has been acquired off waivers by the Sioux Falls Skyforce, per the NBAGL’s transactions log. Quarterman, who appeared in 19 total games for Portland and Houston from 2016-18, spent last season playing in Israel and New Zealand.
A pair of former NBA guards have reached deals with international teams, according to reports from Sportando. Emiliano Carchia relays word of ex-Thunder guard Semaj Christon signing with Spanish team Baskonia, while Nicola Lupo has the details on former Pelicans guard Charles Cooke agreeing to sign with Atleticos de San German in Puerto Rico.

Community Shootaround: Honoring Kobe Bryant

January 28th, 2020 at 12:25pm CST by Luke Adams

A Change.org petition asking the NBA to make Kobe Bryant the league’s new logo has surpassed two million signatures, and that idea has some support among players too. Hornets center Bismack Biyombo, the vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, tells Roderick Boone of The Athletic that he’d be on board with the idea of having Bryant’s silhouette replace Jerry West‘s on the league’s logo.

“We are hoping,” Biyombo said. “The NBA is going to do something. As a player, I think you want to see that. You just want to see that because of what the guy has meant to the game, to be honest. For me, I think as a player, I would really like to embrace that because you’ve seen the change, and you’ve seen it over the course of the years. Kobe, he wants to teach. As we see now, he opened the academy, and everybody was going to his academy, and the guy was present there early in the morning early to teach. There’s not many people who are doing that.

“(Making him the logo), it’s an appreciation of what the guy has done for the game of basketball, and that’s what I think we all should be thinking about.”

Biyombo is right that the NBA will certainly find a way to honor the memory of Bryant, who died on Sunday in a tragic helicopter crash near Los Angeles. However, the idea of changing the NBA’s logo isn’t the only one that has been floated this week.

ESPN’s Mike Greenberg (video link) suggested on Get Up this morning that the NBA should name an award after Bryant, in the same way that Bill Russell is the namesake for the league’s NBA Finals MVP award. Pointing to Bryant’s longtime presence and popularity in Europe and Asia, Greenberg proposed that the award named after Kobe could be given annually to the player who does the most to grow the game internationally.

Other suggestions for ways to honor Bryant have involved his jersey numbers. Chris Mannix of SI.com (Twitter link) wondered if the NBA might have this year’s two All-Star teams wear No. 8 (for Team LeBron) and No. 24 (for Team Giannis) uniforms.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban announced this week that his team will retire No. 24 in honor of Bryant. There has been speculation that other teams could follow suit. The Lakers, of course, have already retired both No. 8 and No. 24.

We want to know what you think. What would be an appropriate tribute by the NBA to honor Bryant’s memory?

Head to the comment section below to share your thoughts.

LeBron James, Others React To Kobe Bryant’s Death

January 27th, 2020 at 9:14pm CST by Dana Gauruder

LeBron James issued his first comments since the tragic death of Kobe Bryant, which were posted on the Yahoo Sports Twitter feed and by other news organizations. James spoke with Bryant – who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday morning – on Saturday evening after passing him on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

“Didn’t think for one bit in a million years that would be the last conversation we’d have,” James wrote. James also vowed to carry on Bryant’s legacy. “It’s my responsibility to put this (bleep) on my back and keep it going!! Please give me the strength from the heavens above and watch over me!”

We have more reaction from around the league on the loss of the Lakers legend:

The Lakers brought in grief counselors to the team’s offices on Monday to help not only players and staff members cope with Bryant’s tragic death but also employees throughout the organization, Dave McMenamin of ESPN tweets. Bryant had many relationships with other Laker employees during his 20-year playing career, McMenamin notes. The counselors provided comfort and guidance in both group and one-on-one sessions, McMenamin adds. The league decided on Monday afternoon to postpone the team’s scheduled game with the Clippers on Tuesday out of respect for the Lakers organization.
The organization thanked fans and well-wishers from around the world for the overwhelming support it has received since the tragedy. It issued a statement via the team’s PR department (Twitter link) which read, “The Los Angeles Lakers would like to thank all of you for the tremendous outpouring of support and condolences. This is a very difficult time for all of us. We continue to support the Bryant family and will share more information as it is available.”
Kings coach and ex-teammate Luke Walton said the loss has not only deeply affected him but everyone around his team, as he told Chad Graff of The Athletic and other media members. “We talked about it. Life is hard. There are moments that challenge us,” Walton said. “What I’ve found is together we can get through that easier and more efficiently than we can alone. Guys here are hurting whether you knew him or not. He was that type of guy, and he had that type of impact on the NBA world that everybody is hurting.”
Pop music icon Michael Jackson fueled Bryant’s passion for excellence, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski recalls in a November 2010 interview he did with Bryant. “He would teach me what he did: how to make a ‘Thriller’ album, a ‘Bad’ album, all the details that went into it,” Bryant told Wojnarowski. “It was all the validation that I needed — to know that I had to focus on my craft and never waver. Because what he did — and how he did it — was psychotic. He helped me get to a level where I was able to win three titles playing with Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) because of my preparation, my study. And it’s only all grown.”
The fact that three teenagers, including Bryant’s daughter Gianna, perished in the helicopter crash was especially heartbreaking for Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, as Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel relays. “Obviously this has been a horrible 24 hours,” he said. “And, as a parent, it absolutely crushes your heart to think about this. When something like this happens it can be so wrong and so arbitrary.”
Bryant played the game with ferocity but he wasn’t fearless, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN writes. However, Bryant’s determination allowed him to overcome his fears. “To a certain extent, every day I was vulnerable,” he told Shelburne. “You’re always dealing with fear, with something in your imagination. Something that you think can happen. But you just say, ‘I don’t know if I can do that. But I’ll give it a try.'”

Lakers-Clippers Game Postponed

January 27th, 2020 at 4:45pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The scheduled game between the Lakers and Clippers at the Staples Center on Tuesday has been postponed as the Los Angeles community continues to mourn the death of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, according to an NBA press release (hat tip to The Athletic’s Blake Murphy).

The decision was made out of respect for the Lakers organization, which has been devastated by the loss of Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people in a helicopter crash on Sunday. The game will be rescheduled at a later date.

While the NBA did not postpone any games on Sunday and Monday in the aftermath of the news, the decision to move the Lakers-Clippers game to a later date didn’t come as a surprise. As a source told The Athletic’s Shams Charania, “These guys are not ready to play basketball right now.”

There had been ongoing discussions between the league and the Lakers since the tragedy and it was ultimately decided that an organization that spent the day meeting with grief counselors wasn’t ready to put on an NBA game, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN tweets.

The Lakers’ next game is a home date against the Trail Blazers on Friday.

Kobe Bryant On Track To Headline 2020 Hall Of Fame Class

January 27th, 2020 at 1:54pm CST by Luke Adams

Late Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant is on track for a first-ballot enshrinement into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this year, as Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

Bryant, who was among the eligible candidates announced last month, will be part of the Hall’s standard screening process this week, then is expected to be named a finalist in February and an inductee in April, per Charania (Twitter link).

In addition to featuring Bryant, the Hall of Fame’s class of 2020 is expected to include Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, who are eligible for the first time this year. Players like Chris Bosh, Shawn Marion, and Michael Finley are also first-time nominees and Hall-of-Fame hopefuls. The list of inductees will be announced during the NCAA’s Final Four in Atlanta this spring.

“(The class of 2020 is) expected to be arguably the most epic class ever with Kobe, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett,” Hall of Fame chairman Jerry Colangelo said, according to Charania. “Kobe will be honored the way he should be.”

The enshrinement ceremony for the class of 2020 will take place on August 29 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Given the circumstances surrounding Bryant’s induction, it figures to be an emotional event.